CHAPTER XXIV

ONE YEAR LATER: THE WORLD IN THE NET

“_Our fathers understood not thy wonders...._”--PSALM cvi.

“_Our fathers have trespassed ... our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this._”--2 CHRON. xxix.

“_We have sinned with our fathers...._”--PSALM cvi.

Under the hot sun of an early August day in 1914 John walked from Parliament Square towards Whitehall. More than a fortnight earlier he had gone to the Admiralty and offered his services for the war. His name had been added to a long list of applicants for whom employment could not immediately be found. The same morning he had offered himself as an infantryman to a corps which was awaiting permission to form new battalions, and his name had been taken again. Now an official telegram had brought him to London.

In the forecourt of the Admiralty he met Tintern, who had entered at the corner nearer to Trafalgar Square.

“You, Lynwood--I thought you were at Oxford.”

“Not yet. I’ve done the exams. I was waiting for the term to begin in October.”

“What are you doing now? Volunteering?”

“Yes.”

“I nearly chucked the Service myself a few months back. Glad I didn’t now. War breaks the monotony of routine. It’s what we, who stayed in the Service, have been preparing for. And even you, who made up your mind to break clear away--you have been roped in again. It comes to the same thing in the end.... They’ve emptied the college at Dartmouth, you know--all the cadets going to sea.”

Together they went up the steps into the great building, through the many passages of which, after enquiries made of a messenger, they began uncertainly to thread their way.

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Transcriber's Note

A half-title page has been removed from the text.

The following apparent errors have been corrected:

p. 33 "class" changed to "class."

p. 39 "running" changed to "running,"

p. 40 "heart," changed to "heart"

p. 166 "brillance" changed to "brilliance"

p. 168 "written?" changed to "written?”"

p. 189 "‘Yes," changed to "“Yes,"

p. 193 "snotties" changed to "snotties’"

p. 322 "come----’" changed to "come----”"

p. 322 "old.’" changed to "old.”"

p. 322 "Christ?’" changed to "Christ?”"

p. 323 "afraid." changed to "afraid?"

p. 337 "went on" changed to "went on,"

p. 341 "him?’" changed to "him?”"

The following are used inconsistently in the text:

ashtray and ash-tray

forebridge and fore-bridge

sideboy and side-boy

watchkeeping and watch-keeping

End of Project Gutenberg's The Gunroom, by Charles Langbridge Morgan