eckon that
means that a nootral can have a share in a scrap as well as a
belligerent.'

'That's the best kind of neutrality I've ever heard of,' I said.

'It's the right kind,' he replied solemnly. 'Say, Major, what are your
lot fighting for? For your own skins and your Empire and the peace of
Europe. Waal, those ideals don't concern us one cent. We're not
Europeans, and there aren't any German trenches on Long Island yet.
You've made the ring in Europe, and if we came butting in it wouldn't
be the rules of the game. You wouldn't welcome us, and I guess you'd
be right. We're that delicate-minded we can't interfere and that was
what my friend, President Wilson, meant when he opined that America was
too proud to fight. So we're nootrals. But likewise we're benevolent
nootrals. As I follow events, there's a skunk been let loose in the
world, and the odour of it is going to make life none too sweet till it
is cleared away. It wasn't us that stirred up that skunk, but we've
got to take a hand in disinfecting the planet. See? We can't fight,
but, by God! some of us are going to sweat blood to sweep the mess up.
Officially we do nothing except give off Notes like a leaky boiler
gives off steam. But as individooal citizens we're in it up to the
neck. So, in the spirit of Jefferson Davis and Woodrow Wilson, I'm
going to be the nootralist kind of nootral till Kaiser will be sorry he
didn't declare war on America at the beginning.'

I was completely recovering my temper. This fellow was a perfect
jewel, and his spirit put purpose into me.

'I guess you British were the same kind of nootral when your Admiral
warned off the German fleet from interfering with Dewey in Manila Bay
in '98.' Mr Blenkiron drank up the last drop of his boiled milk and
lit a thin black cigar.

I leaned forward. 'Have you talked to Sir Walter?' I asked.

'I have talked to him, and he has given me to understand that there's a
deal ahead which you're going to boss. There are no flies on that big
man, and if he says it's good business then you can count me in.'

'You know that it's uncommonly dangerous?'

'I judged so. But it don't do to begin counting risks. I believe in
an all-wise and beneficent Providence, but you have got to trust Him
and give Him a chance. What's life anyhow? For me, it's living on a
strict diet and having frequent pains in my stomach. It isn't such an
almighty lot to give up, provided you get a good price in