Only a few weeks or days could now divide us from the German rush on Paris and the coast.

Behind the German lines all was movement and vast preparation.

Any day England might rise to find the last fight begun.
Yet morning after morning all the news that came was of raids, endless raids, on both sides--a perpetual mosquito fight, buzzing now here, now there, as information was wanted by the different Commands.

Many lives were lost day by day, many deeds of battle done.

But it all seemed as nothing--less than nothing--to those whose minds were fixed on the clash to come.
Then one evening, early in the second week in March, a telegram reached Aubrey Mannering at Aldershot.