_Inventor._ It hurts me, it's going to burst. It may knock against the walls--bang! I can't get my hands round it. I can scarcely carry it. Look out, do you hear? Whew, whew!
_Inventor._ A machine--a new machine in my head. Oh, oh, a huge machine. Out of the way, out of the way, I'm carrying a machine.
_Chief Engineer._ What sort of a machine?
_Inventor._ A war machine. A vast machine, a huge one. The swiftest, most effective crusher of lives. The forefront of progress, the acme of science. Whew, whew, do you hear it? Ten thousand, a hundred thousand dead! Whew, whew, it keeps on working. Two hundred thousand dead--whew, whew, whew, whew!
_Chief Engineer._ (_To_ TRAMP) A genius, eh?
_Inventor._ Oh, oh, what pain, my head's splitting--out of the way, out of the way, don't knock against me--whew, whew, whew! [_Exit._
_Chief Engineer._ A vast intellect. The greatest of Scientists.
_2nd Engineer._ Nothing serves the State so much as Science.
_Chief Engineer._ Great is Science, and it will prevail--there will be war.
_Chief Engineer._ Because we shall have a new war machine.
_2nd Engineer._ Because we still need a bit of the world.
_Chief Engineer._ A bit of the world from the Birch tree to the Pine tree.
_2nd Engineer._ The road between the two blades of grass--
_Chief Engineer._ The only open road to the South--
_2nd Engineer._ The rights of nationality.
_2nd Engineer._ Never was war more honourable or urgent--
_Chief Engineer._ Than the war we must fight.
_Chief Engineer._ We have only to find a _casus belli_.
_Blind Ant._ Blank, two, three, four-- [_A gong._
_Voice._ (_Outside_) A messenger! A messenger!
_Messenger._ I beg to announce myself. From the G.H.Q. Southern Army.
_Messenger._ In accordance with our instructions, we crossed the frontier of the Yellows--
_Messenger._ The Yellows captured me and took me to their Commander-in-Chief--
_Chief Engineer._ Show it me. 'The Government of the Yellow Ants calls upon the Ant Realm within three months to withdraw their Army lying between the Birch Tree and the Pine Tree between the two blades of grass.'
_Chief Engineer._ 'This territory comprises the historical, vital, industrial, general, and military interests of our state, so that it rightly belongs to us.'