t the
battalion had been "standing to" all afternoon, but that the general
feeling was that there would be no advance until late at night.

Glad of the opportunity to catch up with his correspondence, Barry paid
little heed to the passing of time. His last letter was to the V. A. D.,
in which he poured out the bitterness of his disappointment that he was
not even now on his way to Boulogne and to her, and expressing the hope
that after this "show" was over, he would be granted leave, upon
which happy event he would with all speed proceed to her. She had been
speaking of a trip to England. Would it not be a very wise and proper
proceeding that she should make her leave to synchronise with his? Now
he must be off, and so with love to her, and with the hope that they
might see London together--

Just then Monroe came with the startling news that the battalion had
"moved up" hours ago.

"Which road?" enquired Barry, springing to his feet.

"Don't know, sir," replied Monroe, who had evidently his own opinion
about matters. "But I met a padre," he continued, "who told me that
there was a stream of wounded passing through the Brandhoek Clearing
Station. He said they were very short-handed there, sir," and Monroe
regarded his officer with anxious eyes.

"I hate to take you up there, Monroe," said Barry with a smile.

"Oh, that's all right, sir," said Monroe, hastily, "but I guess we'll
have to hurry."

"I remember, Monroe, that your major and you would have sent me out
of this, but you know well enough that there's only one place for me
to-night, and the question is, where is the battalion--Ypres Barracks,
Chateau Beige, Zillebeck, or where?"

"I enquired at the transports, sir," said Monroe, "and no one appeared
to know. They moved out quietly and left no word behind."

"All right, we'll go up to Chateau Belge, and if they are not there,
we'll make a shot at Zillebeck," said Barry. "We'll go right away. We
don't need a lot of truck this trip."

It was a long and tiresome march, but Barry found himself remarkably
fit, and already under the exhilaration of what was before him. At
the Chateau Belge they found no word of their battalion, but they were
informed that the shelling on the Kruisstraat road had been bad all
afternoon, and was still going on. The Boches were paying particular
attention indeed to the crossroads.

"All right," said Barry. "We'll go up and have a look at it, anyway."

A hundred yards further