the front. Where the knife gives better results, they
go in behind the hand-grenades with the naked twelve-inch
knife. Each race is supposed to fight in its own way, but
this war has passed beyond all the known ways. They say that
the Belgians in the north settle accounts with a certain dry
passion which has varied very little since their agony began.
Some sections of the English line have produced a soft-voiced,
rather reserved type, which does its work with its mouth shut.
The French carry an edge to their fighting, a precision, and a
dreadful knowledge coupled with an insensibility to shock,
unlike anything one has imagined of mankind. To be sure,
there has never been like provocation, for never since the
Aesir went about to bind the Fenris Wolf has all the world
united to bind the Beast.

The last I saw of the front was Alan Breck speeding back to
his gun-positions among the mountains; and I wondered what
delight of what household the lad must have been in the old
days.

SUPPORTS AND RESERVES

Then we had to work our way, department by department, against
the tides of men behind the line--supports and their supports,
reserves and reserves of reserves, as well as the masses in
training. They flooded towns and villages, and when we tried
short-cuts we found them in every by-lane. Have you seen
mounted men reading their home letters with the reins thrown
on the horses' necks, moving in absorbed silence through a
street which almost said "Hush!" to its dogs; or met, in a
forest, a procession of perfectly new big guns, apparently
taking themselves from the foundry to the front?

In spite of their love of drama, there is not much
"window-dressing" in the French character. The Boche, who is
the priest of the Higher Counter-jumpery, would have had half
the neutral Press out in cars to advertise these vast spectacles
of men and material. But the same instinct as makes their rich
farmers keep to their smocks makes the French keep quiet.

"This is our affair," they argue. "Everybody concerned is
taking part in it. Like the review you saw the other day,
there are no spectators."

"But it might be of advantage if the world knew."

Mine was a foolish remark. There is only one world to-day,
the world of the Allies. Each of them knows what the others
are doing and--the rest doesn't matter. This is a curious but
delightful fact to realize at first hand. And think what it
will be later, when we shall all c