see.”

“You tested the torpedoes?”

“Well, I was going to, but — ”

“But what?

Why, it’s an immense oversight not to apply a — ”

“Test? Yes, I know; but they’re all right; I laid a few in the public road beyond our lines and they’ve been tested.”

“Oh, that alters the case. Who did it?”

“A Church committee.”

“How kind!”

“Yes. They came to command us to make submission. You see they didn’t really come to test the torpedoes; that was merely an incident.”