Edgecumbe's first
letter after he had returned to the front.

'It's miserably cold, miserably wet, and frightfully unpleasant out
here,' he wrote; 'still, it is better for me than it is for many others.
Would you believe it, Luscombe, but Colonel ---- has said so many kind
things about me that I find myself a marked man. I have already got my
full lieutenancy, and am down for my captaincy. Not long after I came
here, I was brought before a very "big pot," whose name I dare not
mention, but who is supposed to be the greatest artillery officer in the
British Army. He put me through the severest examination I have ever
had, and I scarcely knew whether I was standing on my head or my heels.
He was very kind, however, and by and by we got talking freely, and I
suppose I must have interested him in certain theories I had formed about
artillery work. Anyhow, I am to be given my captaincy, and all sorts of
important work is being put in my hands. There are big movements on
foot, my friend,--what they are, I dare not tell you, but if they are
successful they will, from a military standpoint, form an epoch in the
history of this war.

'With regard to our prospects out here, I am exceedingly optimistic. The
men are splendid, and although the conditions are hard, our health sheet
is exceedingly good. From the standpoint of military preparedness,
things look very rosy; but concerning the other things about which you
and I did not agree I am not at all happy. I am a soldier, and I am
inclined to think that as a boy I was trained for a soldier. I judge,
too, that I have some aptitude in that direction. I believe, too, that
the Almighty is using our military powers for a purpose, but I am sure
that if England believes that this tremendous upheaval is going to be
settled by big guns,--much as I realize the power of big guns, England
will be mistaken. Unless we recognize the moral forces which are always
at work, we shall not be ready in the hour of crisis.'

When I replied to this letter, I took no notice whatever of these
reflections; indeed, I scarcely saw what he meant. I congratulated him
most heartily on his phenomenally rapid promotion, and told him that he
would soon be colonel, and that this was only a step to higher things.

As all the world knows, the events of the 1917 have followed each other
with startling and almost bewildering rapidity. Indeed, from the time
when Edgecumbe returned to the front, it is alm