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