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activity. A squadron of nine machines passed above their heads, flying at a low altitude.
    The builder glanced up at them. ‘Aye,’ he said without rancour. ‘There’s plenty of them now. But I’d like to know where them chaps were last night.’
    With the evening the clouds were rolling away. In the deep blue of the sky the few stars were showing; it was clearing every minute. They stood together in the garden looking up.
    ‘Going to be a clear night,’ said Corbett.
    Mr. Littlejohn nodded soberly. ‘That’s bad,’ he said. ‘Clear nights is what they like. Remember how they used to come over, moonlight nights, in the last war?’
    Corbett nodded. ‘But it wasn’t clear last night,’ he said.
    They moved towards the house. ‘That’s right,’ said the builder. ‘Raining cats and dogs, it was-all night.’ He paused. ‘Did you get to hear anything about the raid -I mean to say, how they done it? I didn’t hear any aeroplanes at all, last night. And how did they know what they was bombing at?’
    Corbett shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I’ve not met anyone who does.’
    ‘Well,’ said Mr. Littlejohn, ‘if they did that to us last night when they couldn’t see nothing, we’ll cop it properly tonight when they can see what they’re doing.’
    He sighed: ‘I ought to try and get a bit deeper with my hole, I suppose.’
    They went into the house, and sat down in the florid sitting-room; he produced cigarettes and Guinness. A copy of the paper lay spread out upon the table. The builder laid his hand on it.
    ‘All this is to say about enlisting,’ he said slowly. ‘Are
    you going to do anything?’
    Corbett was silent for a minute. ‘I don’t see how I can, just yet,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what would happen to my family. Joan couldn’t get on by herself, with three kids to look after, and all this going on. I don’t know what she’d do, if-1 wasn’t here.’ He raised his head. ‘It isn’t that I’ve got the wind up. But one’s got to see one’s wife and kids right, first of all.’
    The builder nodded. ‘You don’t want to think of it,’ he said. ‘It wouldn’t be proper for you to go away and leave Mrs. Corbett to struggle along on her own. You don’t want to think of enlisting till you’ve seen them right.’ He took a drink of stout. ‘I been feeling the same,’ he said. There’s only the two of us, Mr. Corbett-just me and the missus. And last time I enlisted right at the beginning, August the 7th it was, and went right through. Wounded twice, I was. In the fat part of the leg-that wasn’t nothing-and one right through here.’ He tapped his left shoulder. ‘And I’m not that old I couldn’t go again. I’m forty-eight.’
    He paused. ‘I been thinking about it all the afternoon,’ he said. ‘And I made up my mind, Mr. Corbett. I’m not going-not till I can see my way a bit better. It wouldn’t be fair on the missus leaving her alone, with raids like that we had likely to happen any night. We’ve been together all these years, and I’m not going to leave her at a time like this. It wouldn’t be right. Of course,’ he said, ‘if I could get to see her settled and comfy in a little house somewhere where it’s safe, then it’ld be another matter.’ Corbett laughed shortly. ‘Somewhere safe and comfy,’ he repeated. ‘It seems to me that’s going to take a bit of finding.’
    The builder stuck his chin out. ‘That may be. But till I’ve got the missus properly fixed up they’re not going to get me to go soldiering again.’
    Corbett finished his glass, and got up. ‘I’ve got to go on,’ he said. ‘Let me know if I can do anything to help in the night. And thanks for the drink.’
    Mr. Littlejohn came with him to the door. ‘You been out this afternoon? I took a walk round. They’ve been getting on fine with all these holes in the roads. I reckon the Corporation have done champion. Another two or three days will see it all cleaned up, the rate