About five o'clock the gathering crowd in the station was immensely
excited by the opening of the line of communication, which is almost
invariably closed, between the South-Eastern and the South-Western
stations, and the passage of carriage trucks bearing huge guns and
carriages crammed with soldiers.  These were the guns that were
brought up from Woolwich and Chatham to cover Kingston.  There was
an exchange of pleasantries: "You'll get eaten!"  "We're the
beast-tamers!" and so forth.  A little while after that a squad of
police came into the station and began to clear the public off the
platforms, and my brother went out into the street again.