HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1918
To the companion who failed
through no fault of his and
no lack of courage
TOM BROMLEY
loyal friend and best of com-
rades, this book is dedicated.
Frontispiece: Private Simmons
PREFACE
When a young man whom I had not seen until that day came to see me in Edmonton, and told me he had a story which he thought was worth writing, and which he wanted me to write for him, I told him I could not undertake to do it for I was writing a story of my own, but that I could no doubt find some one who would do it for him.
Then he mentioned that he was a returned soldier, and had been for sixteen months a prisoner in Germany, and had made his escape—
That changed everything!