er," Jim muttered.

"The bigger the difference, the more honour on our side," said the
little priest. "And things pass. Long after you and I and all these
poor lads are forgotten it will be remembered that we came out of this
war with our heads up. But they----!" Suddenly fierce scorn filled
his quiet eyes. "They will be the outcasts of the world!"

Wherefore Jim worked on, and tried to take comfort by the _cure's_
philosophy; although there were many times when he found it hard to
digest. It was all very well to be cheerful about the verdict of the
future, but difficult to forget the insistent present, with the heel
of the Hun on his neck. It was sometimes easier to be philosophic by
dreaming of days when the positions should be reversed.

He was able to walk a little when the order came to move. The guards
became suddenly busy; officers whom the prisoners had not seen before
came in and out, and one evening the helpless were put roughly into
farm carts and taken to the station, while those able to move by
themselves were marched after them--marched quickly, with bayonet
points ready behind them to prod stragglers. It was nearly dark when
they were thrust roughly into closed trucks, looking back for the last
time on the little _cure_, who had marched beside them, with an arm
for two sick men, and now stood on the platform, looking wistfully at
them. He put up his hand solemnly.

"God keep you, my sons!"

A German soldier elbowed him roughly aside. The doors of the trucks
were clashed together, leaving them in darkness; and presently, with
straining and rattling and clanging, the train moved out of the
station.

"Next stop, Germany!" said Denny Callaghan from the corner where he
had been put down. "And not a ticket between the lot of us!"

CHAPTER XVI

THROUGH THE DARKNESS

"I think that's the last load," Jim Linton said.

He had wriggled backwards out of a black hole in the side of a black
cupboard; and now sat back on his heels, gasping. His only article of
attire was a pair of short trousers. From his hair to his heels he
was caked with dirt.

"Well, praise the pigs for that," said a voice from the blackness of
the cupboard.

Some one switched on a tiny electric light. Then it could be seen,
dimly, that the cupboard was just large enough to hold four men,
crouching so closely that they almost touched each other. All were
dressed--or undressed--as Jim was; all were equally dirty