(this was the style of the thing), "why was armour
abandoned, eh? What! I'll tell you why. It was because the weight of
metal that would protect a man who was standing up was more than he
could carry. But battles are not fought now-a-days by men who are
standing up. Your infantry are all lying on their stomachs, and it would
take very little to protect them. And steel has improved, Munro! Chilled
steel! Bessemer! Bessemer! Very good. How much to cover a man? Fourteen
inches by twelve, meeting at an angle so that the bullet will glance.
A notch at one side for the rifle. There you have it, laddie--the
Cullingworth patent portable bullet-proof shield! Weight? Oh, the weight
would be sixteen pounds. I worked it out. Each company carries its
shields in go-carts, and they are served out on going into action. Give
me twenty thousand good shots, and I'll go in at Calais and come out at
Pekin. Think of it, my boy! the moral effect. One side gets home every
time and the other plasters its bullets up against steel plates. No
troops would stand it. The nation that gets it first will pitchfork the
rest of Europe over the edge. They're bound to have it--all of them.
Let's reckon it out. There's about eight million of them on a war
footing. Let us suppose that only half of them have it. I say only half,
because I don't want to be too sanguine. That's four million, and I
should take a royalty of four shillings on wholesale orders. What's
that, Munro? About three-quarters of a million sterling, eh? How's that,
laddie, eh? What?"

Really, that is not unlike his style of talk, now that I come to read it
over, only you miss the queer stops, the sudden confidential whispers,
the roar with which he triumphantly answered his own questions, the
shrugs and slaps, and gesticulations. But not a word all the time as to
what it was that made him send me that urgent wire which brought me to
Avonmouth.

I had, of course, been puzzling in my mind as to whether he had
succeeded or not, though from his cheerful appearance and buoyant talk,
it was tolerably clear to me that all was well with him. I was, however,
surprised when, as we walked along a quiet, curving avenue, with great
houses standing in their own grounds upon either side, he stopped and
turned in through the iron gate which led up to one of the finest of
them. The moon had broken out and shone upon the high-peaked roof,
and upon the gables at each corner. When he knocked it was opened by