The power, the earnestness, even the savagery he displayed, amazed the other. Here was a reality, an elemental force of which he had scarcely been aware. This was Democracy incarnate. And whatever else he might think he could not but admire the sincerity and strength of it. But he always brought his opponent back to what was for him the only issue.
"Germany!" he said.
"That's blooff!" replied the other. "They'll get the machine-guns for use against Germany, and when they've got em they'll use them against us. That's the capitalists' game.—Then there's the officers."
"What about em?" said the Colonel cheerfully. "They're harmless enough, poor devils."
"Tories to a man. Coom from the capitalist class."
"What if they do?"
"The Army does what the capitalist officer tells it. And he knows where his interest lies aw reet."
"Well, of course you know the British officer better than I do, Burt," replied the Colonel, nettled for once.
His opponent was grimly pleased to have drawn blood.
"In the next few years if things go as they look like goin we shall see," was his comment. "Wait till we get a Labour Government in power!"