sophy of the
German position. I have studied the resources of our country; I have
tried to realize what we stand for. I fancy I must have been a fairly
intelligent man before I lost my memory. Perhaps I was tolerably well
educated, too. Anyhow, I think I have got a grasp of the whole
position.'

I did not speak, but waited for him to proceed.

'I am saying this, sir, that you may see that I am not talking wildly,
and my conviction is that Germany ought to have been beaten before now;
but it's nowhere like beaten, the devil stalks about undaunted.'

'You forget that Germany is a great country,' I answered, 'and that she
is supported by Austria, and Turkey, and Bulgaria. You forget, too,
that she had all the advantages at the start, and that she had been
preparing for this for forty years. You forget that she had the finest
trained fighting machine in the world, the biggest and best-equipped
army ever known. You forget, too, that she took the world practically
unawares, and that all her successes, especially in the West, were
gained at the beginning.'

'No, I do not forget,' he replied, and there was passion in his voice;
'I have gone through all that; I made allowance for it. All the same,
they ought to have been beaten before now. Anyhow, their backs ought
to have been broken, and we ought to be within sight of the end.'

'I am afraid I don't understand. The whole resources of the country
have been strained to the utmost. Besides, see what we have done; see
the army we have made; think of all the preparations in big guns and
munitions!'

'Yes, yes,' he cried, 'but man-power is the final court of appeal, and
we have been wasting our man-power, wasting it,--wasting it!'

'What do you mean by that? A finer lot of men never put on uniform
than we had.'

'In a way you are right. No one could admire the heroism of our
fellows more than I do. You have to get farther back.'

'How can we get farther back?'

'You have to get back to the Government. Look here, Luscombe,' and
evidently he had forgotten the difference in our ranks, 'let me put the
case into a nutshell. I was sent over here, to France, in a hurry.
Never mind how I found out what I am going to tell you,--it is a fact.
Two battalions of ours were urgently ordered here; our men here were
hardly pressed, the Germans outnumbered us. Our chaps hadn't enough
rest, and the slaughter was ghastly. So we were ordered over to
relieve them, and the