taring at the ceiling. "Gilbert and I could go together!..."

But what would be the good of that? The war would be over quite soon.
Even Roger thought it would be over in a couple of months, and if that
were so, there would be no need for him to throw up his work and take to
soldiering. "It'll be over before Gilbert's got through his training.
Long before!..."

"Anyhow, I can wait until the rush is over. I might as well go on
working as stand outside Scotland Yard all day, waiting to be taken
on.... Or I could apply for a commission!..."

He lay very still, hoping that he would fall asleep soon, but sleep
would not come to him. He sat up in bed, and glanced about the room.

"I suppose," he said aloud, "they're fighting now!"

He lay down again quickly, thrusting himself well under the bedclothes
and shut his eyes tightly. "Oh, my God, isn't it horrible!" he groaned.

He saw again that crowd of hurried soldiers detraining at Holyhead,
thinking that perhaps they were going to Ireland, but not quite sure ...
and he could see them stumbling up the gangways of the transport, each
man heavily accoutred; and sometimes a man would laugh, and sometimes a
man would swear ... and then the ship sailed out of the harbour,
rounding the pier and the breakwater, churning the sea into a long white
trail of foam as she set her course past the South Stack.... They could
see the lights on her masthead diminishing as she went further away, and
then, as the cold sea wind blew about them, they shivered and went
home.... Now, lying here in this stillness, warm and snug, Henry could
see those soldiers, huddled together on the ship. He could imagine them,
murmuring to one another, "I say, d'ye think we _are_ goin' to Ireland?"
and hear one answering, "You'll know in three hours. We'll be there
_then_, if we are!" and slowly there would come to each man the
knowledge that their journey was not to Ireland, but to France, and
there would be a tightening of the lips, an involuntary movement here
and there and then.... "Well, o' course, we're goin' to France! 'Oo the
'ell thought we was goin' anywhere else?" The ship would carry them
swiftly down the Irish Sea and across the English Channel ... and after
that!...

"Some of them may be dead already," he murmured to himself.

Torn up suddenly from their accustomed life, hurried through the
darkness along the length of England, and then, after long, cold nights
on the sea, landed in France and s