That's why I enlisted." "Ah!" He tried to throw light on his words.

"You understand, I'm against all wars." "All wars! But there's times when war's good.

There's defensive war." "No," said Termite again, "there's only offensive war; because if there wasn't the offensive there wouldn't be the defensive." "Ah!" we replied.
We went on chatting, dispassionately and for the sake of talking, strolling in the dubious security of the streets which were sometimes darkened by falls of wreckage, under a sky of formidable surprises.
"All the same, isn't it chaps like you that prevented France from being prepared ?" "There's not enough chaps like me to prevent anything; and if there'd been more, there wouldn't have been any war." "It's not to us, it's to the Boches and the others that you must say that." "It's to all the world," said Termite; "that's why I'm an internationalist." While Termite was slipping away somewhere else his questioner indicated by a gesture that he did not understand.

"Never mind," he said to us, "that chap's better than us." Gradually it came about that we of the squad used to consult Termite on any sort of subject, with a simplicity which made me smile--and sometimes even irritated me.

That week, for instance, some one asked him, "All this firing--is it an attack they're getting ready ?" But he knew no more than the rest..