em, too," and he held up a
bandaged right arm for my inspection.

And, far down the trench, I heard him encouraging his prisoners with
threats that would delight a pirate or a Chinaman.

How he, single-handed, captured six of the enemy I do not know, but he
was the first man to reach the German wire, they tell me, and he brought
in two wounded men from No Man's Land.

Personally, then, it hardly seems to me that six Germans are enough to
pay for the little finger of Holy John, erstwhile Conscientious
Objector.

XIV

DAVID AND JONATHAN

I

Strangely different though they were, they had been friends ever since
they first met at school, eleven years before. Jonathan--for what other
names are necessary than the obvious David and Jonathan?--was then a
fat, sandy-haired boy, with a deep love of the country, and hands that,
however often he washed them, always seemed to be stained with ink. He
had a deep admiration, an adoration almost, for his dark-haired,
dark-eyed David, wild and musical.

The love of the country it was that first made them friends, and David
became, so to speak, Jonathan's means of expression, for David could put
into words, and, later on, into music, what Jonathan could only feel
dimly and vaguely. Jonathan was the typical British public-schoolboy
with a twist of artistic sense hidden away in him, while David was
possessed of a soul, and knew it. A soul is an awkward thing to possess
at school in England, for it brings much "ragging" and no little
contempt on its owner, and Jonathan fought many battles in defence of
his less-understood friend.

Eleven years had wrought but little material change in them. Jonathan,
after a few minor rebellions, had settled down in his father's office
and was learning to forget the call of the open road and the half-formed
dreams of his youth. David, on the other hand, was wandering over the
Continent nominally studying languages for the Consular Service, really
picking up a smattering of poetry, a number of friends, and a deep
knowledge of music. From Jonathan, he had learned to hide his sentiments
in the presence of those who would not understand, and to make his
reason conquer the wilder of the whims that ran through his brain.
Jonathan, in turn, had gained a power, which he scarcely realised, of
appreciating music and scenery, and which no amount of office life would
ever diminish.

Then the war broke out, and brought them together again.

At the