“Look, look, Jack, there’s a regiment of Highlanders in their bare legs, tartans and kilts!” exclaimed Amos. “How fierce they look, Jack! I don’t wonder that they nearly always carry everything before them. I’d want to turn tail and run if I saw those boys heading for me. But what is the matter with them all that we don’t hear the bagpipes; and, Jack, where are those English cheers we’ve heard so much about?” “Just give them time,” he was told; “they need all their wind right now for running. When they strike the line of the Kaiser’s men they’ll do their shouting.” “Still they come along, thousands and thousands of them, as if there was no end to the reserves. What a splendid lot of men they are. It’s terrible to think of the homes that will never see many of them again.” “Look closer, Amos, for I really believe those strapping fellows are Canadians!” “Yes, I can see the maple leaf on that flag, Jack. And they look as if they could hardly be kept from whooping it up right now.” Both boys displayed additional excitement. It almost seemed as though they might be looking upon fellow Americans, such is the bond existing between the two neighboring countries that for more than a hundred years have lived in amity, with not even a fort or blockhouse along the three thousand miles of boundary line. “I warrant you, Amos, a lot of those fellows have come from the ranches in the Northwest Territory. Yes, some of them run as though they might be more at home on the back of a horse than afoot. Perhaps I know a number of the boys, for I spent a time on a Saskatchewan cattle ranch.” The thought caused Jack to follow the passage of the hurrying Canadian regiment with intense interest. They were, however, too far away for him to have recognized any familiar faces. Besides, in the trappings of a soldier a man would look quite different from the cowboy in sheepskins or leather “chaps” as Jack had known him. Finally the rear guard turned up. Long before the last of the artillery train had passed by the boys had seen that some of the batteries left the road a little further on, making for certain advantageous points where they could commence to hurl their death-dealing projectiles with profit. “Shall we go on again?” asked Amos. “Yes, because where we happen to be just now the land is low and flat, and we can see absolutely nothing,” replied Jack. “I really believe you’re still hankering to glimpse the fighting,” Amos ventured to say. “I think I know of a good chance,” the other told him, “and to begin with we’ll leave the road right here. Follow me, Amos.” Of course Amos did, for he placed the greatest confidence in his chum’s judgment. “Things seem to be going on hotter than ever all along the line,” he was saying as he kept alongside the other. “It’s going to be a terrible day, and the surgeons of the Red Cross will be kept busy every minute of the time,” Jack remarked, as they hurried along.