I’m all alone, and if you’ll stop a day or two I’ll show you some very decent

fishing.”

 

We had a hot supper—and I wanted it pretty badly—and then drank grog in a big

cheery smoking-room with a crackling wood fire. I thought the time had come for

me to put my cards on the table. I saw by this man’s eye that he was the kind

you can trust.

 

“Listen, Sir Harry,” I said. “I’ve something pretty important to say to you.

You’re a good fellow, and I’m going to be frank. Where on earth did you get that

poisonous rubbish you talked tonight?”

 

His face fell. “Was it as bad as that?” he asked ruefully. “It did sound rather

thin. I got most of it out of the _Progressive Magazine_ and pamphlets that

agent chap of mine keeps sending me. But you surely don’t think Germany would

ever go to war with us?”

 

“Ask that question in six weeks and it won’t need an answer,” I said. “If you’ll

give me your attention for half an hour I am going to tell you a story.”

 

I can see yet that bright room with the deers’ heads and the old prints on the

walls, Sir Harry standing restlessly on the stone curb of the hearth, and myself

lying back in an armchair, speaking. I seemed to be another person, standing

aside and listening to my own voice, and judging carefully the reliability of my

tale. It was the first time I had ever told anyone the exact truth, so far as I