of bread."

"Yes, and here's a pipe half full of tobacco. It might have been
thrown down in a hurry, as though some chap were having a quiet smoke,
and was suddenly called to duty. Look, it's an English-made pipe. It
must have belonged to one of our men. I wonder where he is now. I'll
take it as a souvenir."

As they drew near to the siding they heard the soldiers singing lustily:

"It's a long way to Tipperary."

Both of them were strangely silent as the train crawled slowly towards
its destination. Their visit to one little corner of the stricken
field had made them realise the meaning of war as they had never
realised it before. Before the afternoon was over their eyes were
still more widely opened by a passing train to the meaning of the work
that lay before them.

It was going slowly, more slowly than their own, and Bob saw that it
was full of wounded soldiers. How many there were he could not
estimate, but it seemed to him that there must be hundreds. Some were
laughing and talking cheerfully, while others lay with their eyes
closed. More than one brave fellow held a wounded comrade's head on
his knees.

It was only a minute, and the train had passed them. One trainload
going to the front full of strong, stalwart men, hale and hearty,
another returning full of the wounded. And this was war!

And why?

It was all because a war devil reigned in Germany, which the military
caste worshipped as a kind of Deity.

Presently the train stopped. They had reached their destination. They
were close to the front.

"Listen," said some one, and all the men were strangely silent.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

It was the great iron-mouthed messengers of death which sent molten
lead into great masses of flesh and blood. It was the voice of the
great guns--the contributions of science to the ghastly crime of war.

CHAPTER XV

Captain Trevanion did not go to the front as soon as he had expected.
That was why, although few people in St. Ia knew anything about it, he
again found himself at Penwennack. As chance would have it, he found
Nancy at home. The Admiral had been called to London on Admiralty
business, and so the girl, who had not yet undertaken the duties for
which she had offered herself, was alone when the Captain arrived.

"Nancy," said Trevanion, who had been a friend of the family for years,
"forgive me, but I could not help coming. The date of our starting has
been put off for a day