“Until then.”
The sun rises above the horizon in a blaze of glory. The broad sea sings her everlasting song. The cliff head is empty.
After a while, when the sky is blue and the morning sunlight is dancing on the waters, a steamer, decked with flags from stem to stern, comes round the headland on the south. It is crowded with soldiers, who are crushing to starboard to catch their first sight of the town which lies behind the headland to the north.
There is the sharp crack of a rocket from the lifeboat house at Peel, and then a band on the steamer begins to play, and the soldiers to sing in rapturous chorus:
“Keep the home-fires burning...
Till the boys come home....”
A little later the church bells begin to ring. They ring louder and louder and faster and faster every moment, as if pealing their joyous message up to the cloudless sky:
“Peace! Peace! Peace!”