"Yes, young ass," replied the Colonel cheerfully. "Now if you'd come on the Committee as I asked you, you'd be there to keep him in his place. You play into the hands of your enemy!" Then Bobby Chislehurst stopped for a word with Ruth and Ernie and their friend. "Coom, Mr. Chislehurst!" chaffed the engineer. "A'm surprised to see _you_ here. A thought you was a Pacifist." "So I am," replied the other cheerily. "That's why I've come. I want to hear both sides." Joe shook his bullet-head gravely. "There's nobbut two sides in life," he said. "Right and Wrong. Which side is the Church on?" Then the little Field-Marshal came on to the platform with the swift and resolute walk of the old Horse-gunner. He was nearly eighty now, but his figure was that of a youth, neat, slight, alert. Ruth remarked with interest that the hero was bow-legged, which she did not intend her children to be. For the rest, his kindly face of a Roman-nosed thoroughbred in training, his deep wrinkles, and close-cropped white hair, delighted her. The great soldier proved no orator; but his earnestness more than compensated for his lack of eloquence. After the meeting he came down into the body of the hall and held an informal reception. The Colonel introduced Mr. Geddes, and left the two together while he edged his way down to Joe Burt. "Well, what d'you think of him?" he asked. The engineer, his hands glued to the wall behind him, rocked to and fro. "A like him better than his opinions," he grinned. "You come along and have a word with him," urged the Colonel. Joe shook a wary head. "He's busy with Church and State," he said, nodding down the hall. "He don't need Labour." Then Ruth chimed in almost shrilly for once. "There's young Alf shook hands with him!" "Always shovin of issalf!" muttered Ernie sourly. "He and Reverend Spink." The old Field-Marshal was now coming slowly down the hall with a word here and a handshake there. Church and State, as Joe had truly said, were pressing him. Mrs. Trupp, indeed, and Mrs. Lewknor were fighting a heavy rearguard action against the Archdeacon and Stanley Bessemere and his cohorts, to cover the old soldier's retirement. As the column drifted past Ernie and Ruth the Colonel stopped. "An old Hammer-man, sir," he said. "And the mother of future Hammer-men." Lord Roberts shook hands with Ruth, and turned to Ernie. "What battalion?" he asked in his high-pitched voice. "First, sir," answered Ernie, rigid at attention, in a voice Ruth had never heard before. "Ah," said the old Field-Marshal. "They were with me in the march to Kandahar. Never shall I forget them!" He ran his eye shrewdly over the other. "Are you keeping fit?" "Pretty fair, considering, sir," answered Ernie, relaxing suddenly as he had braced.