"Young man," he said, "are you aware that Labour's watching you? Labour's learning from you?"
"Labour be damned!" retorted the other with jovial brutality. "We'll deal with Labour all right when we've got this lot of traitors out of office."
"Traitors!" called Mr. Trupp, harshly from his chair. "You talk of traitors!—you Tories!—I voted for you at the last General Election for the first time in my life on the sole ground of national defence. D'you think I or any self-respecting man would have done so if we'd known the jackanape tricks you'd be up to?"
The two elderly men retired in dudgeon to the card-room.
"There's only one thing the matter with Ireland," grumbled the old surgeon. "And its always been the same thing."
"What's that?" asked the Colonel.
"The English politician," replied the other—"Ireland's curse."
Hard on the heels of the Curragh affair came the landing of arms from Krupp's, with the connivance, if not with the secret co-operation of the German Government, at Larne under the cover of the rebel Army, mobilised for the purpose. The Government wept a few patient tears over the outrage and did nothing.
The Colonel was irritated; Mr. Trupp almost vituperative.
"Geddes may say what he likes," remarked the former. "But I can't acquit the Government. They're encouraging the beggars to play it up."