t him straight on to Contay. Your officers have suffered
quite severely."

"Have you heard what the casualties are, sir?"

"Not exactly," replied the General. "We shall not know until evening,
but we must be prepared for a heavy loss. By the way, can you be spared
from the casualty clearing station? I hear you are doing fine work
there. If you can run up, I can send my car for you."

"I'm afraid not, sir, just now. Perhaps later on in the afternoon."

"Let me speak to Colonel James," said the general.

The O. C. came to the phone.

"Yes, sir," he said.--"Well, we are short handed just now.--He is really
necessary at the present moment.--Yes, later on we'll send him up.--Very
well, sir.--We are doing our best."

The calm and confident bearing of his superior officer, made Barry
ashamed of the unnerving emotion from which he had been suffering all
morning. He returned to his work resolved to put aside all personal
considerations. The thing in which they were engaged was vastly more
important than the fate of any individual or of any battalion. Victory
was necessary, was guaranteed, and was demanding its price. That price
was being paid, and to that price every man must make his contribution.

Toward night the stream of wounded gradually grew less, and the O. C.
sent Barry, in a returning ambulance, up to the Divisional Headquarters.
The serenity with which the general received him did much to restore
Barry's poise, which had been severely shaken by the strain of the night
and day with the wounded in the casualty clearing station and by the
heartracking agony he had suffered over the loss of his comrades.

"Come in, Dunbar," said the general kindly. "Take a seat for a few
minutes. Have a cigar. These you will find are good, I think."

"Thank you, sir. I will take a cigarette, if I may," said Barry, helping
himself from a box on the table.

He had not been many minutes in the dug-out until he began to catch
the reactions of the place. The spirit was one of controlled but
concentrated energy. It was the spirit of the divisional commander,
and it passed from him to the humblest orderly in the room. There
was swiftness of action, alertness of mind, and with these a complete
absence of hurry or confusion. Runners were continually arriving with
urgent messages, phones insisting upon immediate answer, officers coming
in with business of vast importance, but with no sign of flurry, the
work of the Divisional Headquarte