She had not been long gone before a burly stranger entered unceremoniously by the study window. "'Scuse me, guv'nor," he said, "but ain't you the party whose name I read in the paper--'im what swore 'e wouldn' lift 'is finger not to save 'is own mother from a 'Un?" "I am," replied Mr. Plapp complacently. "I disbelieve in meeting violence _by_ violence." "Ah, if there was more blokes like _you_, Guv'nor, this world 'ud be a better plice, for some on us. Blagg, _my_ name is. Us perfeshnals ain't bin very busy doorin' this War, feelin' it wasn't the square thing, like, to break into 'omes as might 'ave members away fightin' fer our rights and property. But I reckon I ain't doin' nothink unpatriotic in comin' _'ere_. So jest you show me where you keeps yer silver." "The little we possess," said Mr. Plapp, rising, "is on the sideboard in the dining-room. If you will excuse me for a moment I'll go in and get it for you." "And lock me in 'ere while you ring up the slops!" retorted Mr. Blagg. "You don't go in not without _me_, you don't; and, unless you want a bullet through yer 'ed, you'd better make no noise neither!" No one could possibly have made less noise than Mr. Theodore Plapp, as, with the muzzle of his visitor's revolver pressed between his shoulder-blades, he hospitably led the way to the dining-room. There Mr. Blagg, with his back to the open door, superintended the packing of the plate in a bag he had brought for the purpose. "And now," said Mr. Plapp, as he put in the final fork, "there is nothing to detain you here any longer, unless I may offer you a glass of barley-water and a plasmon biscuit before you go?" Mr. Blagg consigned these refreshments to a region where the former at least might be more appreciated. "You kerry that bag inter the drorin'-room, will yer?" he said. "There may be one or two articles in there to take my fancy. 'Ere! 'Old 'ard!" he broke off suddenly, "What the blankety blank are you a-doin' of?" This apostrophe was addressed, however, not to his host, who was doing nothing whatever, but to the unseen owner of a pair of khaki-clad arms which had just pinioned him from behind. During the rough-and-tumble conflict that followed Mr. Plapp discreetly left the room, returning after a brief absence to find the soldier kneeling on Mr. Blagg's chest. "Good!" he said encouragingly; "you won't have to keep him down long. Help is at hand." "Why don't you _give_ it me, then?" said the soldier, on whom the strain was evidently beginning to tell. "Because, my friend," explained Mr. Plapp, "if I did I should be acting against my conscience." "You _'ear_ 'im, matey?" panted Mr. Blagg. "'E's _agin_ you, 'e is. Agin all military-ism. So why the blinkin' blazes do _you_ come buttin' in to defend them as don't approve o' bein' defended?"