ty. Night and day he gave himself to his
training with his concentrated powers of body, mind and soul, till he
stood head and shoulders above the members of the Officers' Training
Corps at Calgary.

After six weeks of strenuous grind Larry was ordered to report to
his battalion at Wolf Willow. A new world awaited him there, a world
recreated by the mysterious alchemy of war, a world in which men and
women moved amid high ideals and lofty purposes, a world where the
dominant note was sacrifice and the regnant motive duty.

Nora met him at the station in her own car, which, in view of her
activity in connection with the mine where her father was now manager,
the directors had placed at her disposal.

"How big and fine you look, Larry! You must be pounds heavier," she
cried, viewing him from afar.

"Twenty pounds, and hard as hickory. Never so fit in my life," replied
her brother, who was indeed a picture of splendid and vigorous health.

"You are perfectly astonishing. But everything is astonishing these
days. Why, even father, till he broke his leg--"

"Broke his leg?"

"There was no use worrying you about it. A week ago, while he was
pottering about the mine, he slipped down a ladder and broke his leg. He
will probably stay where he belongs now--in the office. But father is
as splendid as any one could well be. He has gripped that mine business
hard, and even Switzer in his palmiest days could not get better
results. He has quite an extraordinary way with the men, and that is
something these days, when men are almost impossible to get."

"And mother?" enquired Larry.

"Mother is equally surprising. But you will see for yourself. And dear
old Kathleen. She is at it day and night. They made her President of the
Women's War Association, and she is--Well, it is quite beyond words.
I can't talk about it, that's all." Nora's voice grew unsteady and she
took refuge in silence. After a few moments she went on: "And she has
had the most beautiful letter from Jack's colonel. It was on the Big
Retreat from Mons that he was killed at the great fight at Landrecies.
You know about that, Larry?"

"No, never heard anything; I know really nothing of that retreat," said
Larry.

"Well, we have had letters about it. It must have been great. Oh,
it will be a glorious tale some day. They began the fight, only
seventy-five thousand of the British--think of it! with two hundred guns
against four hundred thousand Germans with six