But that may have been just the straining of the eyes....

All sorts of talk had come to Mr. Britling’s ears about the navies of England and France and Germany; there had been public disputes of experts, much whispering and discussion in private.  We had the heavier vessels, the bigger guns, but it was not certain that we had the preeminence in science and invention.  Were they relying as we were relying on Dreadnoughts, or had they their secrets and surprises for us?  To-night, perhaps, the great ships were steaming to conflict....

To-night all over the world ships must be in flight and ships pursuing; ten thousand towns must be ringing with the immediate excitement of war....

Only a year ago Mr. Britling had been lunching on a battleship and looking over its intricate machinery.  It had seemed to him then that there could be no better human stuff in the world than the quiet, sunburnt, disciplined men and officers he had met....  And our little army, too, must be gathering to-night, the little army that had been chastened and reborn in South Africa, that he was convinced was individually more gallant and self-reliant and capable than any other army in the world.  He would have sneered or protested if he had heard another Englishman say that, but in his heart he held the dear belief....

And what other aviators in the world could fly as the Frenchmen and Englishmen he had met once or twice at Eastchurch and Salisbury could fly?  These are things of race and national quality.  Let the German cling to his gasbags.  “We shall beat them in the air,” he whispered.  “We shall beat them on the seas.  Surely we shall beat them on the seas.  If we have men enough and guns enough we shall beat them on land....  Yet—­For years they have been preparing....”

There was little room in the heart of Mr. Britling that night for any love but the love of England.  He loved England now as a nation of men.  There could be no easy victory.  Good for us with our too easy natures that there could be no easy victory.  But victory we must have now—­or perish....

He roused himself with a sigh, restarted his engine, and went on to find some turning place.  He still had a colourless impression that the journey’s end was Pyecrafts.

“We must all do the thing we can,” he thought, and for a time the course of his automobile along a winding down-hill road held his attention so that he could not get beyond it.  He turned about and ran up over the hill again and down long slopes inland, running very softly and smoothly with his lights devouring the road ahead and sweeping the banks and hedges beside him, and as he came down a little hill through a village he heard a confused clatter and jingle of traffic ahead, and saw the danger triangle that warns of cross-roads.  He slowed down and then pulled up abruptly.