"Look," said Pringle, "there's been a fire here. It looks as though they had a meal. Here's an empty wine bottle, and a crust 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:
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!
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.
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.
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.