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Driving home, she found her husband seated, crushed, in his library. "John," she said, falling on her knees and taking her husband's hands in hers, "is this true? Is this the dreadful truth?" "I see you have divined it, Caroline," said the statesman sadly. "It is the truth. We don't know where Wazuchistan is." For a moment there was silence. "But, John, how could it have happened?"

"Exactly. And so you got to Wazuchistan. Where is it and what is it?" "My lord," said Powers, drawing himself up and speaking with emphasis, "I got to where it was thought to be. There is no such place!" The whole Cabinet gave a start of astonishment. "No such place!" they repeated. "What about El Boob?" asked the Chancellor. "There is no such person." "And the Shriek-el-Foozlum?"

Those who know the House of Commons know that it has its moods. At times it is grave, earnest, thoughtful. At other times it is swept with emotion which comes at it in waves. Or at times, again, it just seems to sit there as if it were stuffed. But all agreed that they had never seen the House so hushed as when Sir John Elphinspoon presented his Bill for the Annexation of Wazuchistan.

If they were taken in flat boats, carried over the mountains on mules, and lifted across the rivers in slings, they could then be carried over the desert on jackasses. They could reach Wazuchistan in two years. Other papers counselled moderation. The Manchester Guardian recalled the fact that the Wazoos were a Christian people.

The baronet paused and shook his head in deep gloom. "John," said his wife, "I feel that there is something more. Did anything happen at the House?" Sir John nodded. "A bad business," he said. "The Wazuchistan Boundary Bill was read this afternoon for the third time." No woman in England, so it was generally said, had a keener political insight than Lady Elphinspoon.

"Yes?" queried Lady Elphinspoon. "He asked the Colonial Secretary" Sir John shuddered "to tell him where Wazuchistan is. Worse than that, my dear," added Sir John, "he defied him to tell him where it is." "What did you do? Surely he has no right to information of that sort?" "It was a close shave. Luckily the Whips saved us.

Ministers, he said, had been asked where Wazuchistan was. They were not prepared, at the present delicate stage of negotiations, to say. More hung upon the answer than Ministers were entitled to divulge. They could only appeal to the patriotism of the nation.

An Afghan bernous was thrown back from his head and shoulders, while his commanding figure was draped in a long chibuok. A pair of pistols and a curved yasmak were in his belt. "So you got to Wazuchistan all right," said the Premier quietly. "I went in by way of the Barooda," said Powers. "For many days I was unable to cross it. The waters of the river were wild and swollen with rains.

This Side Up With Care." "Miss Elphinspoon," he said, and there was a new note in his voice, "Angela, I leave England to-night " "To-night!" gasped Angela. "On a confidential mission." "To Wazuchistan!" exclaimed the girl. Powers paused a moment. "To Wazuchistan," he said, "yes. But it must not be known. I shall return in a month or never.

"Oh, John, we must go forward. Take another egg." "We cannot," groaned the Foreign Secretary. "There are reasons which I cannot explain even to you, Caroline, reasons of State, which absolutely prevent us from advancing into Wazuchistan. Our hands are tied. Meantime if the Wazoos rise, it is all over with us. It will split the Cabinet." "Split the Cabinet!" repeated Lady Elphinspoon in alarm.