"She'll climb down all right," Mayhew assured me. "You remember the 'Shining Armour' speech? It's no joke taking on Austria and Germany, especially if you can't mobilize under about two months. It might be different if France came in, but she's unprepared. They've been having quite a pretty dust-up in the Senate the last few days over army equipment."
Summertown scrambled down from his suit-case and strutted importantly across to us.
"I don't mind telling you fellows there's been a run on the Bank to-day," he said. "I don't know what a run on the Bank is, but there's been one. So now you know."
"There'll be a run on a number of banks if Austria declares war," Mayhew predicted. "And such a financial smash as the world has never seen. Our system of credit, you know.... I put it to a big banker last night, and he said, 'My dear Mayhew, I entirely agree with you——'"
"All big bankers talk to Mayhew like that," Summertown interrupted.
Mayhew sighed resignedly.
"Thank the Lord, here's the train," he said. "I'm wasted on Guardee subalterns. Come be useful with the luggage, Raney."
O'Rane had not spoken a word since we shook hands an hour before; the sound of his name roused him, however, and he jumped up with the words:
"If you're thanking the Lord about anything, you might thank Him that we're an island."
"Have you got anything up your sleeve, Raney?" I asked.