I was dining at my club with two friends, one of them a young Dutch attache, the other a barrister of my Inn. We did ourselves pretty well, and took our cigars into the smoking-room, which was crowded. Some men in a corner were playing chess; the club bore, decent enough in peace but positively lethal in war, was demonstrating to a group of impatient listeners that the Staff work at G.H.Q. was all wrong, when, catching sight of me, he came up and said, "Hullo, old man, back from the Front?
When will the war end?" I returned the same answer as a certain D.A.A.G.
used to provide for similar otiose questions: "Never!"
"Never! Hullo, what"s that?"
Every one in the room suddenly rose to their feet, the chess players rising so suddenly that they overturned the board. "d.a.m.n it, and it was my move, I could have taken your queen," said one of them. Outside there was a noise like the roaring of the lion-house at the Zoo; your anti-aircraft gun has a growl of its own. "They"re here," said some one, and we all made for the terrace.
I looked up and saw in the dim alt.i.tudes a long silvery object among the stars. As the searchlights played upon it, it seemed almost diaphanous, and the body appeared to undulate like a trout seen in a clear stream.
Jupiter shone hard and bright in the southern hemisphere, and suddenly a number of new planets appeared in the firmament as though certain stars shot madly from their spheres. Round and about the monster came and went these exploding satellites. Then another appeared close under her, and like a frightened fish she swerved sharply and was lost to view among the Pleiades.
"Let"s go and see what"s happened," said one of my friends. "I hear she"s dropped a lot of bombs down----."
As we went down the street I saw that for about two hundred yards ahead it was sparkling as with h.o.a.r-frost. Suddenly the soles of our boots "scrunched" something underfoot. I looked down. The ground was covered with splinters of gla.s.s. As we drew nearer we caught sight of a cordon of police, and behind them a great fire springing infernally from the earth, and behind the fire a group of soldiers, whose figures were silhouetted against the background. Our way was impeded by curious crowds, among whom one heard the familiar chant of "Pa.s.s along, please!"
We stopped. Close to us two men were stooping with heads almost knocking together and searching the ground, while one of them husbanded a lighted match against the wind.
"Blimey, Bill," said one to the other, "I"ve found "un!"
"What have you found?" we asked of him.
"A souvenir, sir!"
Truly, they know not the stomach of this people.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] See Chapter XXV.
[31] See Chapter XI.
[32] _Ibid._
THE END