"I should like to ask Mr. Thane if he thinks the Germans are preparing for another war. We have heard rumours to that effect. Many of our keenest observers have declared that it is only a matter of a few years before the Germans will be in a position to make war again, and that they will make it with even greater ferocity than before. We all know of the conflict now raging in Russia, and the amazing rebellion of De Annunzio in Fiume, and the--er--as I was saying, the possibility of the Kaiser seizing his bloody throne and calling upon his minions to--ah--er--renew the gigantic struggle. The history of the world records no such stupendous sacrifice of life on the cruel altars of greed and avarice and--er--ambition. We may turn back to the vast campaigns of Hannibal and Hamilcar and Julius Caesar and find no--er--no war comparable to the one we have so gloriously concluded. Our own Civil War, with all its,--but I must not keep you standing, Mr. Thane. Do you, from your experience and observation, regard another war as inevitable?" "I do," was Courtney's succinct reply. There was a distinctly audible flutter throughout the room. Here, at last, was something definite to support the general contention that "we aren't through with the Germans yet." A lady up in front leaned across the aisle and whispered piercingly to her husband: "There! What did I tell you?" Another lady arose halfway from her seat and anxiously inquired: "How soon do you think it will come, Mr. Thane?" She had a son just turning seventeen. "That is a question I am afraid you will have to put to God or the German Emperor," said Courtney, with a smile. "When David Strong was home this spring I asked him what he thought about it," said Editor Pollock. "I published the interview in the Sun. He was of the opinion that the Germans had had all they wanted of war. I tried to convince him that he was all wrong, but all I could get him to say was that if they ever did make war again it would be long after the most of us were dead." "David Strong didn't see anything of the war except what he saw in the hospitals," said a woman contemptuously. "Permit me to correct you, Mrs. Primmer," said Alix Crown, without arising. "David Strong was under fire most of the time. He was not in a base hospital. He was attached to a field hospital,--first with the French, then with the British, and afterwards with the Americans."