The second significant incident of this time, which occurred during a lull before the final flare-up of the long-drawn Agadir crisis, had less happy results from the point of view of the old soldier. In August, suddenly and without warning, the railway-men came out. The Colonel had been up to London for the night on the business of the League, and next morning had walked into Victoria Street Station to find it in possession of the soldiers: men in khaki in full marching order, rifle, bayonet, and bandolier; sentries everywhere; and on the platform a Union official in a blue badge urging the guard to come out. The guard, a heavy-shouldered middle-aged fellow, was stubbornly lumping along the platform on flat feet, swinging his lantern. "I've got a heart," he kept on reiterating. "I've got a wife and children to think of." "So've I," replied the official, dogging him. "It's because I am thinking of them that I'm out." "Silly 'aound!" said a bystander "No, he ain't then!" retorted a second. "Yes, he is!" chipped in a third. "Makin trouble for isself and everybody else all round. Calls isself the workers' friend!--Hadgitator, I call him!" All the way down to Beachbourne in the train the Colonel marked pickets guarding bridges; a cavalry patrol with lances flashing from the green covert of a country lane; a battery on the march; armies on the move. Joe Burt's right, he reflected, it's war. "I never thought to see the like of that in England," said a fellow-traveller, eyes glued to the window. "Makes you think," the Colonel admitted. Arrived home he found there was a call for special constables. That evening he went to the police station to sign on, and found many of the leading citizens of Beachbourne there on like errand. Bobby Chislehurst, his open young face clouded for once, and disturbed, was pressing the point of view of the railway-men on Stanley Bessemere, who was listening with the amused indifference of the man who knows. "I'm afraid there is no doubt about it," the politician was saying, shaking the sagacious head of the embryo statesmen. "They're taking advantage of the international situation to try to better themselves." "But they say it's the Government and the directors who are taking advantage of it to try and put them off--as they've been doing for years!" cried Bobby, finely indignant. "I believe I know what I am talking about," replied the other, unmoved from the rock of his superiority. "I don't mind telling you that the European situation is still most precarious. The men know that, and they're trying to squeeze the Government. I should like to think it wasn't so." Then the Archdeacon's voice loudly uplifted overwhelmed all others.