The Experiment of Mr. Buck
him. That is all. It is out of all immediate probability that one of them could fight four of us. So what I say is this. Run no risks. Finish it at once. Send in eight hundred men and smash him—smash him almost without seeing him. And go on with the improvements."
And Mr. Buck pulled out a bandanna and blew his nose.
"Do you know, Mr. Buck," said the King, staring gloomily at the table, "the admirable clearness of your reason produces in my mind a sentiment which I trust I shall not offend you by describing as an aspiration to punch your head. You irritate me sublimely. What can it be in me? Is it the relic of a moral sense?"
"But your Majesty," said Barker, eagerly and suavely, "does not refuse our proposals?"
"My dear Barker, your proposals are as damnable as your manners. I want to have nothing to do with them. Suppose I stopped them altogether. What would happen?"
Barker answered in a very low voice—
"Revolution."
The King glanced quickly at the men around the table. They were all looking down silently: their brows were red.
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