Walter looked at her and had one of his odd visitations of prophecy . `` Before this war is over , '' he said -- or something said through his lips -- `` every man and woman and child in Canada will feel it -- you , Mary , will feel it -- feel it to your heart 's core . You will weep tears of blood over it . The Piper has come -- and he will pipe until every corner of the world has heard his awful and irresistible music . It will be years before the dance of death is over -- years , Mary . And in those years millions of hearts will break . '' `` Fancy now ! '' said Mary who always said that when she could n't think of anything else to say . She did n't know what Walter meant but she felt uncomfortable . Walter Blythe was always saying odd things . That old Piper of his -- she had n't heard anything about him since their playdays in Rainbow Valley -- and now here he was bobbing up again . She did n't like it , and that was the long and short of it . `` Are n't you painting it rather strong , Walter ? '' asked Harvey Crawford , coming up just then . `` This war wo n't last for years -- it 'll be over in a month or two . England will just wipe Germany off the map in no time . '' `` Do you think a war for which Germany has been preparing for twenty years will be over in a few weeks ? '' said Walter passionately . `` This is n't a paltry struggle in a Balkan corner , Harvey . It is a death grapple .
Germany comes to conquer or XXXXX die .
about at in like of off since through to until