"And they'd smash the machine too. It would be an easy target most of the time. I'm afraid it's no go."
They smoked on in silence, gloomily watching the rings and clouds eddying out into the dark through the open window.
"Look here!" exclaimed Bob suddenly.
"I say!" cried Lawrence at the same moment.
"I'm going to try it," Bob continued.
"That's what I was going to say."
"But----"
"Hold hard! Just listen while I put the case with my usual sweet reasonableness. You're about fed up with patrolling the valley, I should think."
"But----"
"Let me have my say out: your turn by and by. You're a soldier; I'm not. You're the chap to defend this place, and, as you said, we've got to defend it now. You've a head for strategy and all that sort of thing: I'm a fool at it. If one of us has got to go, I can be best spared."