The preliminaries of Grant’s mission to London seemed to him, eager to get into touch with the vital things, monotonous and a little wearisome. He paid his respects to his own Ambassador and received the entree to the Embassy. Afterwards he made a formal application for an appointment with Lord Yeovil, and, after a brief delay, was accorded an interview in Downing Street at six o’clock that evening. The interval he filled up by calling with the Naval Attache of his Embassy upon the Admiralty, and with the Military Attache upon the War Office. At six o’clock precisely he was received in Downing Street by Arthur Lymane, who welcomed him with a certain amount of surprise.

“Glad to see you and all that, Slattery,” he said, “but I never thought of you as being on the official side of anything. I thought you’d absolutely chucked the service some years ago.”

“I’m on a special mission,” Grant explained. “They’ve sent me over to see one or two people here and especially Lord Yeovil. I’m going back on Saturday.”

“We shall all be fellow passengers then,” Lymane observed. “Do you think America will be able to stand the troupe of us? Because we’re all coming—even bringing our own little typists this time.”

“Is Lady Susan—” Grant began hesitatingly.

“Yes, Lady Susan’s coming along.”

“She’s all right, I suppose,” Grant enquired. “I don’t seem to have heard anything of her for some time.”

“In the pink. She’s been doing the honours for her father this season and doing them wonderfully, too.”

“Engaged yet?” Grant ventured with a ridiculous affectation of carelessness.

“Nothing announced,” was the cautious reply. “There are three or four of them running neck and neck. Bobby Lancaster’s fallen behind a bit, although he’s as keen as ever. Lord Glentarne’s chief favourite for the moment, and there are a lot of rumours going about that Buckingham Palace has its eye on her. No matrimonial news about you, I suppose, Slattery?”

“None.”

A little bell rang, and Grant was ushered into the presence of the man who, a few months ago, notwithstanding the difference in their ages, had been his most intimate friend. From the moment of his entrance, however, he understood that those days were past. Lord Yeovil was courteous, even friendly. Nevertheless the change in his demeanour would have been apparent to a man of fewer perceptions than Grant.

“Very glad to see you again, Slattery,” the Prime Minister said, motioning him to a seat. “It seems a long time since we used to sit cudgelling our brains about those bridge problems.”

“History is giving us something much more serious with which to occupy ourselves, sir,” Grant replied. “All the things which you and I used to speak about in those days are coming to pass.”

Lord Yeovil nodded.

“This time, I gather, you come to me officially.”

“That is true, sir. I am the bearer of a message and representations from my Government to yours. May I beg for your serious attention?”

“By all means,” the Prime Minister acquiesced. “My car is ordered for seven o’clock. Till then I am at your service. I will just give Arthur a few messages and leave word that we are not to be disturbed.”

Until a quarter to seven Lord Yeovil was an attentive listener. When his visitor had at last finished, he was looking very grave.

“I have always felt a premonition of something of this sort,” he confided. “My invitation to the States was practically founded upon it. But I must confess I had no idea that things were so imminent. Nor even at the present moment is it quite clear to me how Germany and Japan propose to work this thing.”

“There is a great deal that we have to discover yet, sir,” Grant declared. “We’re reconstructing the scheme more thoroughly, day by day, but, from the facts we have, it seems as though the central idea is that the Japanese fleet, which we have reason to believe is much larger than it should be, will approach the west coast of America at exactly the same time that the German fleet approaches the east coast,—the German fleet, by the way, augmented, without a doubt, by the Russian. We in America, as you know, sir, being the instigators of the Limitation of Armaments, have been most scrupulous in k............