“I wish I was as sure of every one as I am of Ginty,” said McMunn. “I’m no saying that your lordship’s not sound. The speech you made last night at Ballymena was good enough, and I’m with you in every word of it; but----” “Oh, speeches!” said Lord Dunseverick. He was uneasily conscious that he had allowed himself to be carried away by the excitement of the occasion when speaking at Ballymena. It was right and proper to threaten armed resistance to Home Rule. It was another thing to offer a warm welcome to the German Emperor if he chose to land in Ulster. The cold emphasis with which McMunn expressed agreement with every word of the speech made Lord Dunseverick vaguely uneasy. “Ay,” said McMunn; “your speeches are well enough, and I don’t say, mind you, that you’re not a sound man; but I’d be better pleased if you were more serious. You’re too fond of joking, in my opinion.” “Good heavens!” said Lord Dunseverick. “I haven’t ventured on the ghost of a joke since I came into your office!” He looked round him as he spoke, and fixed his eyes at last on the fireproof safe. “Nobody could.” “It’s no what you’ve said, it’s your lordship’s appearance. But it’s too late to alter that, I’m thinking.” “Not at all,” said Lord Dunseverick. “I’ll join you this evening in a suit of yellow oilskins, the stickiest kind, and a blue fisherman’s jersey, and a pair of sea-boots. I’ll have----” “You will,” said McMunn, “and you’ll look like a play actor. It’s just what I’m complaining of.” II _The McMunn Brothers_ lay, with steam up, at a single anchor a mile below the Hamburg quays. The yellow, turbid waters of the Elbe swept past her sides. Below her stretched the long waterway which leads to the North Sea. The lights of the buoys which marked the channel twinkled dimly in the gloom of the summer evening. Shafts of brighter light swept across and across the water from occulting beacons set at long intervals among buoys. Above the steamer lay a large Norwegian barque waiting for her pilot to take her down on the ebb tide. Below _The McMunn Brothers_ was an ocean-going tramp steamer. One of her crew sat on the forecastle playing the “Swanee River” on a melodeon. McMunn, Ginty, and Lord Dunseverick were together in the cabin of _The McMunn Brothers_. McMunn, dressed precisely as he always dressed in his office, sat bolt upright on the cabin sofa. In front of him on the table were some papers, which he turned over and looked at from time to time. Beside him was Ginty, in his shirt sleeves, with his peaked cap pushed far back on his head. He sat with his elbows on the table. His chin, thrust forward, rested on his knuckles. He stared fixedly at the panelling on the opposite wall of the cabin. Lord Dunseverick, who had a side of the table to himself, leaned far back. His legs were stretched out straight in front of him. His hands were in his pockets. He gazed wearily at the small lamp which swung from the cabin roof.