He clambered out of the Alert's cockpit to the float.
"Tell Mr. Ashe I changed my mind about going over with him," he said
abruptly, and walked off the float, up the sloping bank to the street,
got in his car and drove away.
As he drove he felt that he had failed to keep faith with something or
other. He felt bewildered. Those little children, shorn of their
hands--so that they could never lift a sword against Germany--cried
aloud to him. They held up their bloody stumps for him to see.