And it won't be a noisy story. All the long guns in it will be dumb--as
dumb as so many telescopes."

"Ah, there are guns in it, then! And may I ask--where?"

"Afloat. You remember that the world of which we speak had its seas. A
war was going on in it. It was a funny work! and terribly in earnest.
Its war was being carried on over the land, over the water, under the
water, up in the air, and even under the ground. And many young men
in it, mostly in wardrooms and mess-rooms, used to say to each
other--pardon the unparliamentary word--they used to say, 'It's a damned
bad war, but it's better than no war at all.' Sounds flippant, doesn't
it."

He heard a nervous, impatient sigh in the depths of the couch while he
went on without a pause.

"And yet there is more in it than meets the eye. I mean more wisdom.
Flippancy, like comedy, is but a matter of visual first impression. That
world was not very wise. But there was in it a certain amount of common
working sagacity. That, however, was mostly worked by the neutrals in
diverse ways, public and private, which had to be watched; watched by
acute minds and also by actual sharp eyes. They had to be very sharp
indeed, too, I assure you."

"I can imagine," she murmured, appreciatively.

"What is there that you can't imagine?" he pronounced, soberly. "You
have the world in you. But let us go back to our commanding officer,
who, of course, commanded a ship of a sort. My tales if often