"Napoleon was right," he continued. "Or was it Hannibal? Said he would sooner fight two first-class generals collaborating than one single-handed second-rater. It works out this way. Tweedledum says to Tweedledee: ’You must take over more Front.’ Tweedledee says to Tweedledum: ’It can’t be done! Look at my casualty list for the last three months!’ Tweedledum replies: ’But you are only holding about half as much line as I am.’ Thereupon Tweedledee produces statistics to show that although he holds the shorter line he has sixty-seven and a half per cent. of the enemy massed against him. And so it goes on. The old game! I believe that in Bohemian circles it is known as ’Passing the Buck.’ A colloquial but apposite expression! I picked it up from an American _attaché_ in Paris. In due course we shall come to the only solution—a Supreme Commander, responsible for the safety of the whole line. But, as usual, we shall pay in advance—through the nose!" The import of the old gentleman’s ruminations was now tolerably apparent to all; that is, to all but our hostess. "Eh, what? What’s he talking about?" she inquired sharply of me. (Of late, Lady Christina’s hearing has deteriorated a little.) "What’s he talking about? Tell me; he mumbles so! What’s all this nonsense about Tweedledee and Tweedledum? Who are Tweedledee and Tweedledum? They sound like people out of Punch—two of those wretches in the Government. In German pay, every man-jack of them! Do you know what Bessie Brickshire told me last week? She went to Downing Street—" "Your leddyship’s coffee is up the stair," announced the deep voice of the prison wardress; and a libellous and irrelevant anecdote was nipped in the bud. Lady Christina rose, informed us that she proposed to take her coffee in her own room, and, with a passing admonition to her son to be sparing of the saccharine, left us to ours. We lit cigars and stretched ourselves, like schoolboys relieved of the pedagogue’s presence. "How do they feel about things in general up at the top, Eskerley?" asked John Wickersham. "We never hear any news in our job. Are they all quite happy and comfortable?" "Not at all!" replied his lordship brusquely. "What’s the trouble?" "Not enough troops." "How? The number of Divisions on the Western Front hasn’t been reduced, has it?"