cost of their lives in Flanders, in the face of
incredulous enemies and criticizing neutrals, painstakingly, without
science, doggedly out of their own wills. They held Ypres by a thread,
and when it seemed that nothing could keep it, one cold and dreadful day
along the Menin road came up their reinforcements.

First one group and then another of tall, dark people, silent footed as
falling leaves, turbaned black faces, eyes of appalling and unearthly
gravity, hearts half like a rock and half like a child, alien captive
people of another blood, took their place silently, regiment by regiment
blocking up the dreadful gaps with their guns, their rifles, and the
free gift of their lives.

"Lionel has come," Winn wrote, "and all my men. I never was so glad of
anything, but you. Send me all the warm things you can. The winter will
be quite jolly now when the men get used to the trenches. It's a funny
thing, but they've given me command of the regiment. I hadn't expected
it, but I've always liked handling Sikhs. Whatever happens, you'll
remember that I've been an awfully lucky chap, won't you?"

CHAPTER XXXI

Lionel and Winn talked of the regiment and the war; these two things
filled the exacting hours. In a world a very long way off and in the
depths of their hearts were England and Claire.

They spent three weeks in the trenches, blackened and water clogged and
weary.

It was the darkest time of a dark December, the water was up to their
waists, there was no draining the treacherous clay surfaces. The men
suffered to the limit of their vitality and sometimes passed it; they
needed constant care and watching. It had to be explained to them that
they were not required to give up their lives to spirits, in a land that
worshiped idols. Behind the strange lights and noises heralding death
there were solid people who ate sausages, and could be killed.

One or two small parties led in night attacks overcame the worst of
their fears.

Later on when the mud dried they could kill more; in the end all would
be killed, and they would return with much honor to their land of
sunshine.

To the officers who moved among them, absorbed in the questions of their
care, there was never any silence or peace, and yet there was a strange
content in the huddled, altered life of their wet ditch.

Every power of the will, every nerve of the body, was being definitely
used. Winn and Lionel felt a strange mood of exultation. They pus