or squalls, that made me a bit prepared when I left you.
Would you mind telling me the grounds you had for your suspicions?'

'Go on with your story first. What happened after that?'

'What happened after that!' he cried, 'everything--everything! What
happened after that has made a new man of me; life has become new, the
world has become new!'

'You are talking riddles. Explain.'

'It's no riddle, sir,--it's a solution of all the riddles. I will tell
you. While I was convalescing, I went to a Y.M.C.A. camp. I had never
been to one of these places before; I don't know why I went then,
except that the time hung a bit heavy on my hands. You see, every man
was up to his neck in work, and there was great excitement in making
preparations for the push, and I couldn't do anything. Not but what I
had always respected the Y.M.C.A.,--what the British Army would have
done without it I don't know. In my opinion, that body is doing as
much to win the war as the War Office is--perhaps a bit more. They
have kept thousands upon thousands of our chaps steady and straight.
They have done more to fight the devil than--but there, I'll come to
that presently.

'Well, one night I made my way into the Y.M.C.A. hut. At first I did
nothing but read the papers, but presently I realized that a service
was going on. The hall wasn't full by any means. Before this push it
was full every night; but you see the boys were busy. Presently I
caught sight of the man who was speaking, and I liked his face. I
quickly found out that he was an intelligent man, too, and I went up
nearer the platform to hear what he had to say. He was not a chaplain
or anything of that sort, he was just one of the Y.M.C.A. workers. Who
he was I didn't know then,--I don't now, although I have an idea I
shall meet him some day, and I shall thank him as a man was never
thanked yet.'

'Why?' I asked.

'He made me know the greatest fact in the world,' and he spoke very
earnestly. 'He made me realize that there was a God. That fact hadn't
come within the realm of my vision,--I hadn't thought anything about
it. You see,' and I could see he had forgotten all about military
etiquette and the difference in our ranks, 'as I have said to you
before, I have been like a man beginning to write the story of his life
at the middle. Having no memory, I have had no preconceived notions,
and very few prejudices. I suppose if some one had asked me if I
believed that t