Do not
keep us in suspense any longer than you can help. Tell us where
to find this letter?"
Julian passed his hand over his forehead a little wearily.
"I am confused," he admitted. "I must think. After all, you are
engaged in a conspiracy. Stenson's Cabinet may not be the
strongest on earth, or the most capable, but Stenson himself has
carried the burden of this war bravely."
"If the terms offered," the Bishop pointed out, "are anything like
what we expect, they are better than any which the politicians
could ever have mooted, even after years more of bloodshed. It is
my opinion that Stenson will welcome them, and that the country,
generally speaking, will be entirely in favour of their
acceptance."
"Supposing," Julian asked, "that you think them reasonable, that
you make your demand to the Prime Minister, and he refuses. What
then?"
"That," Fenn intervened, with the officious air of one who has
been left out of the conversation far too long, "is where we come
in. At our word, every coal pit in England would cease work,
every furnace fire would go out, every factory would stand empty.
The trains would remain on their sidings, or wherever they might
chance to be when the edict was pronounced. The same with the
'buses and cabs, the same with the Underground. Not a ship would
leave any port in the United Kingdom, not a ship would be docked.
Forty-eight hours of this would do more harm than a year's civil
war. Forty-eight hours must procure from the Prime Minister
absolute submission to our demands.
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