"Spreading it round that Haldane's holding up the Expeditionary Force."
The Colonel struck the ground.
"My God!" he cried. "Party politics even at this hour!"
The other shrugged.
"They've got to find a scape goat or take it in the neck themselves," he said.
The Colonel walked home in the twilight along the deserted brick-walk, under the tamarisk bank stirring gracefully in the evening breeze. At the extreme end of the bricks where a path climbs up a chalk-pit to Holywell he came on a tall dark solitary figure looking out over the sea.
It was Mr. Geddes.
The old soldier approached him quietly and touched his arm.
"Well, Mr. Geddes," he said gently. "What you thinking of?"
The tall man turned his fine face.