The Man who Missed the War Read Online Free

finesse—which, after all, is a common failing in the young. And as a fighting man he will appreciate the courage which is required to make such a stand for one’s beliefs.’
    ‘Oh—er—quite!’ the Admiral muttered, somewhat at a lossnow that the Canon had so urbanely excused Philip’s extreme rudeness.
    ‘That’s all very well, Canon,’ growled Captain Vaudell. ‘But the boy was downright insolent, and he’ll hear more of this from me before he’s much older!’
    ‘No, no!’ the Admiral protested. ‘Please, Ralph. Of course, the boy doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but, as the Canon says, we must give it to him he has the courage of his convictions. So I’ll take it as a personal favour if you’ll let the matter be.’
    ‘Well, if you really wish it,’ the outraged parent agreed somewhat reluctantly. ‘Anyhow, I apologise on his behalf, sir. Er—now, what about a whisky-and-soda?’
    ‘I accept both with alacrity,’ declared the Admiral, rubbing his hands.
    When his host had mixed the drinks and Ellen had carried them round, the little party settled down again; but not for long. None of them could readily forget the charges of incompetence against the War Office and Admiralty that Philip had made with such bitterness, and half an hour after he had left the room the Admiral and the Canon announced almost simultaneously that they must be getting home.
    On going out into the hall they found Philip standing near the stairs, wearing a rather sheepish look. He pulled himself together, and approached the Admiral.
    ‘I’m afraid I was very rude, sir. I—er—feel rather strongly about these things, but I should never have spoken to you as I did while you were a guest in my father’s house.’
    The Admiral’s blue eyes twinkled. ‘Does that mean you would have outside it?’
    ‘Well—yes, sir. To be honest, I think I would.’
    ‘Good for you!’ the Admiral gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. ‘But if you really feel so strongly about the menace to our Atlantic life-line in a future war, why don’t
you
do something about it?’
    ‘Hang it all, sir!’ Philip smiled. ‘What can I do?’
    ‘If the menace is as grave as you may think, a new weapon or an entirely revolutionary procedure may be the only answer to it. At the Admiralty we may have little originality in our strategic concepts, but we’re always open to new ideas. You are trainingas an engineer and you are going into an armaments firm. If you think about the problem long enough and hard enough, we may owe to
you
the measures which will keep our life-line open, and so save Britain in her darkest hour. Why not see what you can do?’

2
The Great Idea
    Three days later, somewhat to Philip’s surprise, he received an invitation to dine with Canon Beal-Brookman. As he knew the Canon only as a distant relative and had never even been to his house, he could only imagine that the dynamic little priest was either giving a party for young people or, with their last meeting in mind, wished to talk further about rearmament questions.
    Neither proved to be the case. When Philip arrived at the big, rambling Rectory, which resembled one vast library, as it had books even in the passages and on the stairs, he found the Canon alone; and during the evening the word ‘war’ was not so much as mentioned; yet, when Philip looked back afterwards, he was amazed at the number of subjects on which they had touched.
    Wine was the first, when Philip said on being offered a glass of Amontillado, ‘D’you mind if I don’t: I’m more or less a teetotaller.’
    ‘Well,’ said his host, ‘if you keep it up you’ll save yourself a lot of money; on the other hand, you’ll be depriving yourself of a lot of pleasure. Books’—he waved a hand at the packed shelves that lined the walls of his principal living-room—‘and wine are the two greatest civilising influences in the world. If I had my time over again I think I’d be a