t McConkey himself was quite fresh. Enthusiasm
for the weapon on which he had spent the savings of a lifetime kept
him from fatigue.

The experience was immensely interesting; but I began to get tired
after a time. The necessity for explaining what we were--or rather
what we were not--at the end of every fifty yards, began to make me
nervous. Bland's spirits kept up, but Bland is a war correspondent and
accustomed to being harried by military authorities. I am not. It was
a comfort to me when we ran into Bob Power's regiment outside the
Ulster Hall.

"Bob," I said, "I want to get back to my hotel. I wish you'd see me
safe, chaperone me, convoy me, or whatever you call the thing I want
you to do."

Bland tugged at my sleeve.

"Get him to take me to the post-office," he said. "I'll have another
go at getting a telegram through."

"Bob," I said, "this is my friend Mr. Bland. He's a war correspondent
and he wants to get to the post-office."

My return to the hotel was simple enough. The police kept out of the
way of Bob's men. The other soldiers let him and his regiment pass
without challenge. Bland, faithful to his professional duties, poured
out questions as we went along.

"How's it managed?" he said. "Why aren't you at each other's throats?"

"So far as we're concerned," said Bob, "there's nothing to fight
about. We don't object to the soldiers or the police. We're loyal
men."

"Oh, are you?" said Bland.

"Quite."

"Unless our meeting's interrupted to-morrow," I said.

"Of course," said Bob.

"That explains your position all right," said Bland. "But I don't
quite understand the others. I should have thought--"

"The soldiers," said Bob, "have strict orders not to provoke a
conflict. I met Henderson just now and he told me so. You remember
Henderson, Lord Kilmore? The man I was talking to at the railway
station. He'd only had two water biscuits to eat all day yesterday.
When I met him just now he told me he'd had nothing since breakfast
to-day but one bit of butterscotch. He said he wished we'd fight at
once if we were going to fight and get it over."

"But the police--" said Bland, still trying to get information. "I
should have thought the police--"

"They tried to arrest us," I said. "In fact they did arrest us but
they let us go again."

"I dare say they'd like to arrest us," said Bob, "but you see we've
all got guns."

"Ah," said Bland, "and the ordinary inhabitants of the city--?"

"They