I hardly needed George Stairs's friendly clap on the shoulder, nor the assurance of his:
"You are right, Dick. You have shown me my way in three words."
"Good," said Reynolds. "Well, now I don't mind saying what I wouldn't have said before, that among the notes we drew up nearly three years ago——"
"You drew up, my friend," said Stairs.
"Among the notes we drew up, I say, on this question of neglected duty, were details as to the citizen's obligations regarding the defence of his home and native land, with special reference to the callous neglect of Lord Roberts's campaign of warning and exhortation. Now, Stairs, you know as well as I do, you wrote with your own hand the passage about the Englishman's sphere of duty being as much wider than his country as Greater Britain was wider than Great Britain. You know you did."
"Oh, you can count me in, all right, Reynolds; you know I'm not one for half-measures."
"Well, now, my friends, I believe I see daylight. By joining hands I really believe we are going to accomplish something for England." Crondall looked round the table at the faces of his friends. "We are all agreed, I know, that the present danger is the danger Kipling tried to warn us about years and years ago."
"'Lest we forget!'" quoted Sir Herbert quietly.
"Exactly. There are so many in England who have neither seen nor felt anything of the blow we have had."
And here I told them something of what I had seen and heard in Dorset; how remote and unreal the whole thing was to folk there.