outs were employed by night only for coast-watching. By day the
pilots with their telescopes habitually commanded this whole stretch
of coast, nor could the periscope of a submarine push itself above
the inshore water and not be detected.

At the corner of the Warren, where the cliff turns eastwardly with a
sharp bend, Nicky-Nan almost ran into Policeman Rat-it-all, who
pulled himself up for a chat as usual.

"I don't know what _you_ think," observed the Policeman, "but to my
mind this here War gives us a great sense o' brotherhood. I read
that on the newspaper this mornin', and it struck me as one o' the
aptest things I'd seen for a long while."

"You said something o' the sort last time we met," answered
Nicky-Nan.

"You're wrong there." Rat-it-all seemed to be slightly hurt in his
feelings; "because I read it on the paper only this morning.
'Against War in the abstrac' much may be urged,' it said. 'But 'oo
will deny as it begets a sense o' Brotherhood if it does nothin'
else?' That was the expression."

"I don't take much truck in this War, for my part," said Nicky-Nan,
quartering on the narrow footpath to let Rat-it-all pass: "but it'll
do a dam sight else afore we're through with it, if you want my
opinion."

"To a man in the Force," said Rat-it-all pensively, "an expression
like that, mixed up with photographs in the 'Daily Mirror,' strikes
HOME. A man in the Force, as I'll put it, is in some ways unlike
other men." He paused to let this sink in.

"Take your time," said Nicky-Nan. "But I'm not contradictin' 'ee."

"If they're a species, he's a specie--a man set apart, like a parson.
A parson tells you how you ought to behave, and I take you in charge
if you don't."

"Like Satan," Nicky-Nan suggested.

"Rat it all! Not a bit like Satan!" said the Constable angrily.
"You've not been followin'. I never heard so foolish an interruption
in all my born days. . . . What be you carryin' in that there bundle,
makin' so bold?"

Nicky-Nan felt his heart stand still. "Just my waskit an' a few odds
an' ends," he answered with affected nonchalance. Forcing himself to
meet Rat-it-all's gaze, and perceiving it to be dreamy rather than
suspicious, he added, "What makes 'ee ask?"

"Nothin', . . . nothin'. . . . Only you reminded me of a song I used
to sing, back in the old days. It was called 'Off to Philadelphia in
the mornin'.' A beautiful voice I used to have: tenor. I shouldn'
wonder if I had it