get a dozen or so of these
aerial submarines as you might call them, in front of the invading
forces, I can't see what's going to stop a march on London, and right
round it. Your men are just as brave as any on earth, and a bit more
than some, if their officers are a bit more gentlemen and sportsmen than
soldiers; but no man can fight a thing he can't hit back at, and so I
reckon the next thing we shall hear of will be the siege of London. What
do you think, Lennard?"

Lennard, who had hardly spoken a word during the meal, looked up, and
said in a voice which Lady Madge thought curiously unsympathetic:

"I shouldn't think it would take more than a fortnight at the outside,
even leaving these airships out of the question. We haven't three
hundred thousand men of all sorts to put into the field, who know one
end of a gun from another, or who can sit a horse; and now that the
sea's clear the enemy can land two or three millions in a fortnight."

"All our merchant shipping will be absolutely at their mercy, and they
will simply have to take them over to France and Germany and load them
up with men and horses, and bring them over as if they were coming to a
picnic. But, of course, with the airships to help them the thing's a
foregone conclusion, and to a great extent it is our own fault. I
thoroughly agree with what Lady Margaret says about conscription. If we
had had it only five years ago, we should now have three million men,
instead of three hundred thousand, trained and ready to take the field.
Though, after all--"

"After all--what?" said Lady Margaret, looking sharply round at him.

"Oh, nothing of any importance," he said. "At least, not just at
present. I daresay Lord Westerham will be able to explain what I might
have said better than I could. There's not time for it just now, I've
got to get a train to Bolton in an hour's time."

"And I'll have to be in Glasgow to-night," said Mr Parmenter, rising. "I
hope you won't think it very inhospitable of us, Lady Margaret: but
business is business, you know, and more so than usual in times like
these.

"Now, I had better say good-bye. I have a few things to see to before Mr
Lennard and I go down to Settle, but I've no doubt Auriole will find
some way of entertaining you till you want to start for York."

At half-past two the motor was at the door to take Mr Parmenter and
Lennard to Settle. That evening, in Glasgow, Mr Parmenter bought the
_Minnehaha_, a steel tur