to me, John. Man to man, as you said before, I NEED TO
KNOW WHAT HE'S AFTER."

Witherspoon felt a spark of hope.

"I honestly don't know, Governor. I suspect it has more to do with
hurting the French than helping you. Blackwood is, in fact, a
throwback of sorts: an adventurer, an aggressive doer. But whatever
his reasons, you have to believe me: I wouldn't be here, speaking to
you like this, if I thought they were to your detriment. And it is
help unlooked-for in an hour of need. Won't you take it?"

This did not satisfy the Irishman, and as if to further voice his
doubts, or play them once more through his mind, he returned to an
earlier, seemingly irrelevant point.

"You said yesterday that England under the Blitz was similar to our
plight now, and that if you hadn't swallowed your pride long enough to
take help from the Yanks you'd have gone under, and we'd all be
speaking German."

"You read more than I in---"

"No, John. I read WHAT you intend. Forget your English arrogance, and
give me credit for half a brain at least." The consul nodded. "That,
as I'm telling you, was an entirely different matter. The Brits had
their empire then, their corruption, and oppression of peoples they
thought less of than themselves." His eyes glinted. "Imperial
Destiny, and a lot of other high-sounding rot. Well. You were only
paying your dues for taking more than was given you, and reaping your
own bitter harvest."

"If you'll forgive my frankness, Governor, that's a lot of stuff and
your know it. Whether our leaders did right or wrong in ruling the
Empire, the PEOPLE of Britain were hardly to blame. As if cause and
effect, or God's justice, had anything to do with it." He spoke now
with a passion that was strange for the Irishman to see.

"We were buckled to our knees, with all we thought strong and
everlasting crumbling around us. V-2 missiles, wave after wave of the
Luftwaffe, propeller bombs falling silently and unexpectedly. . .our
fleets and supply convoys decimated by U-boats, bad news, and the word
of loved ones lost coming in every day.

"And if we fell, Governor, who would have guarded the rest of Europe?
or even the thick-headed Irish, that the Germans were so fond of? The
Americans? It took the loss of half their Pacific fleet at Pearl
Harbor before most of them even knew there was a war on. Churchill
wept the day it happened, because he knew that they had finally been
roused. You're