panacea for all evils--hot tea.

It was only a short walk to Brigade Headquarters, a couple of cottages
by the roadside under the lee of a rising bank which had so far
preserved them from the German shells. One red lamp burned there, and a
sentinel stood by the doorway, leaning on his rifle.

"I'm sorry you have got that confounded cigarette habit so soon," said
Dashwood senior with a dry smile. "But you will find a box on that
table, and you can amuse yourself while we get out a report."

Dennis looked round the bare little room, contrasting it with their
luxurious home in London. A flagged map was pinned on one wall, some
British warms and mackintoshes hung on pegs, a couple of field
bedsteads, whose disarranged blankets showed that they had been hastily
left when the alarm was given, occupied one end, everything else was
bare and comfortless.

Standing in the doorway, Dennis heard the click of a typewriter, and
could not help catching some of the report as his father paced backwards
and forwards, filling a pipe with his favourite mixture as he dictated.

"Three Saxon battalions delivered a surprise attack at 10.35 to-night,
and one of them succeeded in penetrating my first line trench, No. ----,
through the failure of a machine-gun, which was put out of action by an
H.E.," began the brigadier. "The 2/12th Royal Reedshire Battalion,
Platoons 1 and 2, behaved with great gallantry, and scarcely a man of
the enemy was left alive. The bodies were lying six deep when I visited
the position. Some confusion was caused by a German in British staff
uniform making his way along the trench shouting 'Retire!' but I have
the honour to report that through the initiative of Second-Lieutenant
Dashwood, of the battalion, and Corporal Daniel Dunn, of the
Australians, gallantly supported by two privates, whose names I shall
forward later on, and who successfully bombed the enemy, the attack
completely broke down, and was not supported by the Brandenburg
Division, which, I am informed by a prisoner, was waiting in reserve."

When Dennis heard his own name mentioned he stepped out into the
darkness with a strange tingling all over him. It seemed like
eavesdropping to listen any more, but he knew that proud thrill in his
father's voice, and the boy's heart beat high with a great happiness.

Some horses, picketed under the lee of the bank, fidgeted at their
shackles, and over everything was the thunder of that incessant
bombardment