g at the recruiting offices.
In the Dominions of the Empire overseas it was the same. In Canada
a hundred thousand men were demanding a place in the first Canadian
contingent of thirty-five thousand, now almost ready to sail. General
Sam at Ottawa was being snowed under by entreating, insistent, cajoling,
threatening telegrams. Already northern Alberta had sent two thousand
men. The rumour in Edmonton ran that there were only a few places left
to be filled in the north Alberta quota. For these few places hundreds
of men were fighting in the streets.

Alighting from their train, Duff and his men stood amazed, aghast,
gazing upon the scene before them. Duff climbed a wagon wheel and
surveyed the crowd packing the street in front of the bulletin boards.

"No use, this way, boys. We'll have to go around. Come on."

They went on. Up side streets and lanes, through back yards and shops
they went until at length they emerged within a hundred yards of the
recruiting office.

Duff called his men about him.

"Boys, we'll have to bluff them," he said. "You're a party of recruits
that Col. Kavanagh expects. You've been sent for. I'm bringing you in
under orders. Look as much like soldiers as you can, and bore in like
hell. Come on!"

They began to bore. At once there was an uproar, punctuated with
vociferous and varied profanity.

Duff proved himself an effective leader.

"Here, let me pass," he shouted into the backs of men's heads. "I'm on
duty here. I must get through to Colonel Kavanagh. Keep up there, men;
keep your line! Stand back, please! Make way!"

His huge bulk, distorted face and his loud and authoritative voice
startled men into temporary submission, and before they could recover
themselves he and his little company of hard-boring men were through.

Twenty-five yards from the recruiting office a side rush of the crowd
caught them.

"They've smashed the barricades," a boy from a telegraph pole called
out.

Duff and his men fought to hold their places, but they became conscious
of a steady pressure backwards.

"What's doing now, boy?" shouted Duff to the urchin clinging to the
telegraph pole.

"The fusileers--they are sticking their bayonets into them."

Before the line of bayonets the crowd retreated slowly, but Duff and his
company held their ground, allowing the crowd to ebb past them, until
they found themselves against the line of bayonets.

"Let me through here, sergeant, with my party," said D