For Home and Country

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Lieutenant Ashby, of the Flying Corps, is at home in Belcroft village. He is in love with Ruth Pendleton, the Vicar's daughter. On the day that he receives orders to report at Framborough for maneuvers comes word that the home army and fleet, which are at war in the Orient, have had a serious reverse, and that there is little likelihood of the fleet returning for some time. Before going off to duty, Ashby proposes to Ruth, and the two go together to obtain her father's consent. Although the Vicar likes Ashby, he is opposed to him as a son-in-law for the simple reason that he does not believe that war is right, and Ashby's calling is warlike. And so Pendleton vetoes the engagement, and with a tender farewell to Ruth, Ashby goes off to obey the summons to arms. During domestic difficulties a foreign power sees a chance for invading the home country. The foreign war office is informed by its Secret Service that the only spot on the coast where a good landing can be secured for horses and troops is at Belcroft. All the plans are secretly completed, and the invading fleet sets off. On the home shores, the spies of the foreign power attack the coast guard and on the east coast shoot the guards, and destroy the wireless apparatus. After signaling to the oncoming fleet that the way is clear, they depart. One of the guards revives sufficiently to send a broken message of warning to the Postmaster at Belcroft by the undamaged telegraph instrument which has been overlooked by the spies. Lieutenant Ashby gets the unfinished news and promptly telephones to the war office, where preparations are at once made for calling out the whole of the militia army and the volunteers. Captain Forrest, the leader of the local militia company hastily assembles his men, and they set off to repulse the invaders. The enemy land and the Vicarage at Belcroft Is chosen for headquarters. A detachment arrives, and Pendleton and Ruth are rudely disturbed. Insulting behavior on the part of the foreigners towards Ruth goads Pendleton to snatch a revolver from the holster of one of the foreign officers and make a fight for it. In the midst of a desperate melee, Pendleton, holding the landing at the top of the Vicarage staircase against the enemy, the local militia company comes upon the scene, and the attacking enemy find themselves quickly overpowered. With the local militia company comes Ashby, who is told off to take Pendleton and Ruth to a place of safety. In the meantime, the foreigners commence savage tactics in Belcroft village, leaving a trial of corpses and blazing ruins behind them, and Pendleton, righteously angry, declares that if this is the sort of enemy England has to fight, he wants to fight also. Arrived at Chesterton he enlists for active service, Ruth also offering her services as a nurse. At the headquarters at Chesterton Lieutenant Ashby secures valuable information from his aeroplane. In the subsequent war council held in General Neville's tent the shadow of a listening spy is cast on the tent walls by the campfire outside. The spy is shot, and the papers found on him enable the General to checkmate the enemy's contemplated moves. On the second day of the battle, while Pendleton is tending to a dying man. He is badly wounded in the arm by a stray bullet. Finally, after hot fighting, the invaders are routed, and are compelled to retreat in disorder to the coast. In the end of the story we see Ashby, the Rev. John Pendleton and his daughter, Ruth, meeting once more at the Vicarage after the war. This time the Vicar has no objections to the marriage between Ruth and Ashby, for he has discovered a new significance in the Biblical assertion that "The Lord is a Man of War."