Free The Iron Stallions by Max Hennessy Page B

rifle bucket, the quality of a picketing rope. While all the time, the Government, influenced by the depression that had the whole world by the throat, seemed to think only of cutting. Establishments were closed down, officers were retired early, regiments diminished in size, despite the fact that there were thousands of unemployed who would have been more than willing to exchange the dole queues for a uniform and three good meals a day.
    Josh’s attachment to Ailsa Reeves seemed to have become permanent. He often wondered if he were wise to allow himself to he swept along, but she was determined and he found he hadn’t the heart to repulse her. There was no engagement – there couldn’t be until Josh reached the rank of major, and, with promotion as it was, that seemed aeons away. The only alternative seemed to be to await the magic age of thirty, when the authorities were inclined to look more kindly on marriage. Somehow, though, it rang no bells for Josh. He was fond of Ailsa but he often wondered if he could live with her for the rest of his life? Did he, in fact, know what love was? Or was he actually in love with her and unaware of it?
    The marriage of his cousin, Elena von Hartmann, to a German industrialist set him thinking again. Because his grandmother considered herself too old to make the long journey across Europe, the family went without her and found the Hartmanns torn with dissension. Elena’s sister, Carlota, was barely on speaking terms with her, because she said her husband-to-be was supporting the National Socialists. Her younger brother, Karl-August, however, quite clearly supported Elena, while Konstantin seemed completely baffled.
    He was less concerned with the dislike or otherwise for Elena’s fiancé than with the condition of his country. Because of the state of the deutschmark, it was impossible to do business and barter had replaced ordinary monetary payments. There were food riots and despair and for many fortunes and savings accumulated during a lifetime had vanished in a night.
    ‘And because my grandfather placed most of our funds in Switzerland,’ Konstantin said, ‘we’re being accused by the National Socialists of being unpatriotic.’
    ‘That’s rubbish,’ Josh exploded. ‘Hitler’s nothing but a demagogue.’
    ‘He’s head of a growing party,’ Konstantin pointed out. ‘And he’s pledged to put Germany back on her feet.’
    By contrast, England appeared remarkably stable. There were well over a million unemployed and trade seemed to have come to a standstill, while the general strike, which had paralysed the country, had done no good for anybody. The 19th had been moved to Ripon, which was close to Josh’s home but was also in the middle of the depressed areas of the North, and squads had to be sent out to guard against sabotage. Reeves Minor, now fully qualified as a pilot, had been occupied in flying the government newspaper – the only one printed – about the country, while his brother, Toby Reeves of the 19th, on leave, in mufti, and his own master, had learned to drive an engine for a lark and had arrived in London with the remains of a set of crossing gates hanging on the front buffers. After the seething dissension of Germany, however, even the unemployed seemed well behaved and played football with the police who were on hand in case of trouble.
    While Josh was on leave, his Uncle Robert appeared, immaculately dressed in a careless country way. He tried hard to live up to his title but it was really nothing but a sham. In exchange for contributions to his election campaign fund, Lloyd George had distributed titles to undischarged bankrupts, and a variety of newspaper proprietors and editors who had backed him. There had been so many Welsh honours, Cardiff had been named the City of Dreadful Knights, and the OBE had been handed out to so many shady characters it had become known as the Order of the Bad Egg. Though Robert had never been involved with the law,