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SIX
TtlElflSTSHOT
iisip>setwr/s^ tyoMotoaw FREDERICK PALMER
hi tMa atory Mr. Palmar, the
noted waroovreepondent, ha* paint
ed war a* ha has aaan It on many
barite Halite, and between many na
tions. HI a Intimate knowledge of
erralee end-arm amenta baa enabled
Mm to producer graphic picture of
the greatest of all wars, and HI a
knowledge at condlttona haa led
Mm to propteaay an and of armed
conflict*. No man te better quali
fied to write the atory of the final
world war theta Mr. Palmer, and
he haa hand led-Me eubjeot wMh a
master hand.
(Oontlmud from Yasterday.)
A brigade coiranandar and some of
Ills staff-officers near by formed a
Eoap with face# Intent around an op
ator who was Attaching bis Instru
ment to a field-wire that Jind just been
reeled over the hedge. Marta moved
(toward them, but paused on hearing an
ontburst of Jubilant exclamations:
“A hundred Ihoumnd prlaoners!"
"And five hundrad guns!”
"We're coming ln-on their frontier
all along the line!"
“It's Incredible!”
'■Hut the word Is official— lt's right!"
Prom mouth to mouth —a hundred
thousand prisoners, five hundred guns
—the news was i«.s«ed in the garden.
Kyes dull with fatigue began dashing
as the soldiers bniktr into a cheer that
■was not led. a cheer unlike any Marta
had heard before. It had the high
notes of men w ho were- weary, of a ter
rible exultation, of spirit stronger than
tired logs and as yet unnut I shed. Other
exclamations from both officers and
men expressed a hunger whet tad by
the taste of one day's’victory.
"We’ll go on!"
"We'll make peace In their capital!”
"And with an Indemnity that wUI
•tagger the world!"
"Nothing is Impossible with J-an
■tron. How he has worked It out —
'batted them to their own destructions“
"A frontier of our own choosing!"
“On the next range Wa will keep
•11 that stretch of plain there!"
"And the river, too!"
"They shall psy—pay for attacking
us!"
Pay. pay for the drudgery, the sleep
less nights, the dead and the wonnded
—for our dead and wounded! No mat
ter about (hairs! The officers were too
Intent in their elation to observe a
young woman, standing quite still, her
lips a thin line nod a deep blase In
her eyes as she looked this way and
that at the field of faoes, seeking some
dissentient, some partisan of the right.
Fbe was seeing the truth now; the
cold truth, the old truth to which ehe
had been untrue when she took Pel
•You Hava >ufi Hurt,* Ha Ea
ds I med.
her* place. Thera could be no choice
of sides In war unless you behaasd tn
■war. One who fought for peace moat
take up arm* against ail armiea Her
ipart aa a spy appeared to her dad tn
B new kind of shame; the desertion of
her principle*
Nor did the officers obarrve a men of
•hlrljMlve. wearln* the oorda of tha
■teff and a * mend's star*, coming
mroend the oorner of tha houae. Mar
ta "a torrerteh. roving glance had noted
him directly he wae In eight. Hia fa* e
Beamed to be In keeping with the
other faces in the ardor of a horn un
tlnu>be*l; hand In bicuae pocket, hia
hearing a utile too easy to be oonven
poußy military- the same Lenny.
She was dimly conscious of surprise
pot to And him changed, perhaps be
cause he was unaoooni panted by a re
el mie or any other symbol of hit power,
tie might haw# been ccantng to cell on
a Sunday afternoon hi that first
film pee ft was difficult to thick of
him aa the commander of an army. Bat
gh*i he was, aha mast not forget. She
"dee iha*«“ eod trsmbiti'K sod a
mist rose before her, so that she did
not see him clearly when, with a ges
ture of relief, he saw her.
"t-anstron!" exclaimed an officer in
the first explosive breath of amaze
ment on recognizing him; then added:
"His Excellency, the chief of staff!"
But the one word, i-anstron, had
been enough to thrill all the officers
Into silence and ramrod salutes. Marta
noted the deference of their glances as
they covertly looked him over.
"I wanted a glimpse of the front as
well as the rear," l-anstron remarked
In explanation of his presence to the
general of brigade as he passed on
toward Marta, who was thinking that
she, at least, was not In awe of him;
she, at least, saw clearly and truly hia
part.
"Marta! Marta!"
Lanstron’s voice was tremulous, as
If he were In awe of her, while he
drank In the fact that she was there
before him at arms’ length, case, alive.
She did not offer her band In greeting.
She was Incapable of any movement,
such whs her emotion; and ha, too,
was held In a spell, as the reality of
bar, after ail that had passed, filled
bis ayes. He waited for her to speak,
but she was silent.
"Marta —that blindaget You bava
been hurt!” he exclaimed.
"It’s the fashion to be wounded,” she
said, eyebrows lifted and lashes low
ered, with a nervous smite. ”1 played
Florence Night liigalty. the natural wom
an’s part, I believe. We should never
protest; only uurse the victims at war.
After helping to send men to death l
went under fire my self, and—and that
helped."
"Yes, that wouM help,” he agreed,
wincing as from a knife throat.
Her old taunt; sending men to death
and taking no risk himself! Hhe saw
that he winced; Hhe realised that she
had stayed words that were about to
come In a flood. She was marshaling
her thoughts to begin when the brittle
silence was broken by a rambling at
voices, a ethTiug of feet, and a cheer.
”I.ansi run! Lanstron! Hurrah far
Eanstron!”
The soldiers In the garden did not
bother with any "Toor Excellency, the
chief of staff" formula when word had
been passed of bis presence. Marta
looked around to see their tempestu
ous enthusiasm as they tossed theta
caps In the air and sent np their spon
taneous tribute from the depths of
thetr lungs Conqueror and hero to
the tiring, but the dead could not
speak, whispered some fiend in her
heart.
lanstron uncovered to the demon
stration Impulsively, when the conven
tional military acknowledgment woofcd
have been a solute. He always looked
more like the real Latmy to heir vrtth
his forehead bare, ft completed the
ensemble of his sensitise features. Hhe
saw lhat he was blinking almost boy
ishly at the compliment and noted the
little deprecatory shake of hla bead,
aa much as to say that they wars
making a mistake
"Thank you?” he called, and the
ebaeriness of hia voice, she thought,
expressed his real seifj the delight of
victory and the glowing anticipotion
of further victories
'"Thank you!” called the private wrKh
a big voice.
"Yes. thank you!" repeated some of
the officers In quick appreciation of a
compliment as real as human courage.
lie stood smiling for a moment In
reply to their smiles; then, sttn smil
ing, but tn a different way, he said to
Marta:
"As you say. that-helps!" with a.nod
toward the bandage on her forearm,
and hurriedly turned away.
She saw him Involuntarily dutch tte
wrlsl above tha pocket of hla blouse to
still tha twitching: but beyond that
there was no further sign of etnutkai
ss ha went to tha telephone Instantly
ha waa through ha started toward the
pass road, not by tha path to tha steps,
hut by leaping from terrene to terrace
and waving Ms hand gayty to the sol
diers aa he went. Tha officers stared
at the sight of s ohtaf of atsff break
ing away from Ms notnmuntoatlons to
this uoceremofrtoaa fashion. They
saw him secure a boras from a group
of cavalry officers on tha road end gal
lop away.
Maria having bean the object of
lsuistron’s attention now became the
object of theirs. It waa good to eee a
woman, a woman of tha Browns, after
their period of separation from femi
nine society. She foand herself hold
ing sn impromptu reception. She
beard some other self answering
tbetr polite questions; while a fear,
a new kind of fear, was taking hold of
her real self, s fear inexplicable. In
sidiously growing. Lanstron was sttn
tn the officers’ minds after trie strange
appearance and stranger departure.
They began to talk of him. and Marts
listened
“Ha said something about being a
free man now!”
“Yea, be looked aa eager aa a ter
rier after rata"
“He knows what ha is doing. Ha
sees so far ahead of what wa are
thinking that it's useless to gweas hla
object. We*n understand whan Kk
done."
“How Ift tie side he baa! Bo pee
4*517 ktotijy. Ha hardly aaama tq
realize the immensity of his success.
In fact, none of us realizes It; It’s too
enormous, overwhelming, Sudden!"
“And no nerves!"
Of course, they guessed nothing of
Marta’B part In his success. The very
tblngs they were saying about him
built up a figure of the type whose
character she had keenly resented a
few minutes before.
"But, Miss Galland, you seem to
know him far better than we. This te
Dot news to you," remarked the bri
gade commander.
"Yes, I saw the accident of his first
flight when Ms hand was injured," she
said, and winced with horror. Never
had the picture of bim as he rose from
the wreck appeared so distinct. She
could see every detail of hla looks;
feel his twinges of pain wtrile he
smiled. Was the revelation the more
vivid because It had once occurred
to her since the war began? It shut
out the presence of the officers; she
no longer heard what, they were say
ing. Black fear was enveloping her.
Vaguely she understood that they
were looking away at something. She
heard the roar of artillery not far dis
tant and following their gaze toward
the knoll where Deliarme’s men bad
received their baptism of fire, now bin
der a canopy of shrapnel smoke.
"That’s about their last stand tn the
tangent, their last snail on our sail."
remarked the brigade commander.
"And we're raining shells on it!"
said his aide. "With our glasses we’ll
be able to watch the infantry go in."
"Yes, very well."
"We’re all used to how It fates, now
we’ll see how It looks at a distance,"
piped one of the soldiers.
Not until he had shouted to them
did they nottce a division staff-officer
who had come up from the road. He
had a piece of astounding newe to Im
part before he mentioned official busi
ness.
“What do you think of this?" he
cried. “Nothing could stop him I Un
stron —yes. Eanstron has gone into
that charge with the African BraveaC*
“Why?" Marta heard the officers
around her asking after their excla
mations of amazement at the news
that l.anatron was going In the
charge. "Why should the chief of staff
risk his life in this fashion?”
Marta knew. All her taunts about
sending otters to death from hie office
chair, uttered as the fugitive sarcasm
of a mood, recurred In the merciless
hammerbnat of recollection. For a
moment she was aghast, speechkwa.
Then the officers, occupied with the
startling news, beard a voice,
wrenched from a dry throat In an
guish. saying:
"The telephone! Try to reach him!
Tell him he must not!"
"We can hardly say ‘must not* to a
chief of staff,” said the general auto
matically.
"Tell him I ask him not to! Try
to reach him—try—you can Cryi “
“Yea. yes? OnrtatnflyT exdshned
the general, turning to tbs telephone
operator.
Ha had aeen now what the younger
men had aeen at a glance. They ware
mcattlng Lanstron Vi relief at seeing
bar; how be hud passed them by to
npeak to best the Intensity at the two
In their almost wordless meeting
Her bloodless lips, the Imploring pas
sion In her eye#, her quivering imps
times told the rest
"Ptvtalou headquarters**’ catted the
operator ’They’re getting brigade
headquarters," ha added while he
wwlted tn silence. ‘ Brigade headquar
ters ears the Braves lures no wire. It'a
too hits. The charge Is starring."
"So It te!” cried one at the sUbal
teme. Took! Look!"
Marta looked toward tha rising
ground this side of tha knoll In time
to joe bayonets flash In the wasting
afternoon Hanltgbt and disappear as
they descended the Slope
These' They’re up on tte other
slope without stopping!" exclaimed
the general “Quite! Don’t you want
to sae?" Ha offared his rfaaaaa to
Maria.
"No, I can see wen enough," she
murmured, though tha landscape was
moving before her eyea tn giddy
waves
“The madness at It! The whole
Mope la peppered with the falteof"
"What a cost! Magnificent, but not
war. Carrying their flag tn tha good
old way, right at the front!"
’’Heavens' 1 hope they do tt!"
“The flag's down!"
“Another man haa it—Ufls up!"
"Now now —splendid' ThspYa tnf“
“So they are' And the flag, foot"
“Yea, -'-hat’s left are In!"
“And lanstron was there—ln that!"
•What |f-“
'Tea the chief of staff, tha bead of
the army, in an affair like that!’
“The mind of the army- the mind
that waa to direct our advance!*
“When aO tha honors of the world
are hie!"
Their words ware arid ripped nee
dies knitting bate and forth through
Maria’s brain Waa lanny one of
those Mate spates that peppered the
slope' Was bet Waa he?
“Tulephone and—and see If Lanny
te—te kitted!’ she begged
- ill. «o —ITI go oat Ureas where Jri
THE AUGUSTA HERALD, AUGUSTA, GA.
Is!" she said incoherently, still look
ing toward the knoll with glazed eyes
She thought she was walking fast as
she started for the garden gate, but
really she was going slowly, stum
bllngly.
“I think you had better stop her if
you can,” said the general to his aide.
The aide overtook her at the gate.
“We shall know about his excellency
before you can find out for yourself,"
he said; and, young himself, he could
put the sympathy of youth with ro
mance Into hla tone. "You might miss
the road, even miss him, when he was
without a scratch, and be for hours In
ignorance.” he explained. "In a few
minutes we ought to have word.”
Marta sank down weakly on the
tongue of a wagon, overturned against
the garden wall In the melee of the re
treat, and leaned her shoulder on the
wheel for support.
"If the women of the Grays waited
four weeks,” she said with an effort at
stoicism, "then I ought to be able to
wait a few minutes.”
"Depend on me. I’ll bring news as
soon bb there is any," the aid con
cluded, and, seeing that she wished to
be alone, he left her.
Fbr the first time she had real ob
Avion from the memory of her deceit
Marta Sank Down Weakly.
of Westerling, the oblivion of drear,
heart-pulling suspense. All the good
times, the sweetly companionable
times, she and Lanny had had to
gether; all his flashes of ooortshlp,
his outburst In their last Interview In
the arbor, when she had told him that
If she found that she wanted to come
to him she would come In a flame,
panned In review under the hard light
of her petty ironies and sarcasms,
which had the false ring of coquetry
to her now, genuine aa they had beea
at the time. Through her varying
moods she had really lovtd him, and
the thing that had slumbered tn her
became the drier fuel tor the flame—
perhaps too late.
Without him —what then? ft seemed
that the fatality that had let him es
cape miraculously from the aeroplane
accident, made him chief of staff, and
brought him victory, might well
choose to ring down the curtain of
destiny for him in the charge that
drova the last foot of the Invader off
the soil of the Brown# ... A voice
wae calling. . . . She heard tt haz
ily. with a sudden access of giddy
fear, before ft became a cheerful, char
ton cry that seemed to be repeating
a message that had already been spo
ken without her understanding It.
“He’s safe, safe, safe. Miss Galland!
He waa not hit! He la on his way
bark and ought to be here very soon!"
She heard hermit Baying "Thank
you!” But that was not for some time.
The aide was already gone. He had
hau hla thanks In tha effect of tha
news, which made him think that a
chief of staff should not reoteve con
gratulations for victory akme.
lanny would return through tha
garden. She remained leaning against
the wagon body, still faint from hap
pfcteee. waiting tor him. She waa
drawing deeper and longer breaths
that were velvety wtth the glow of
sunshine. A flame, the flame that
Lanny had deetrad. at many gentte ye*
passionate leaping hitter and
thither tn glad freedom, waa tn pos
session of her being When hla figure
appeared out of tte darkness the
flame swept her to ter feet and to
ward him Though he might reject
her he should know that the loved
him; tMa glad thing, after all the
shame ate had endured, the could
confess triumphantly
But aba stopped abort under tha
whip of conscience Where waa ter
courage? Where her sense of duty?
Wbat right had she. who had played
such a ’ crihle part, to think of stef?
There were other sweethearts with
lovers ahv* who might be dead on the
morrow if war oantlnued. The flame
sank to a ve coni tn her secret tear*.
Another paaeton poaaeared her as tte
seised I-matron 1 * hand In both her
own.
’’Laony. listen! Not the sound of
a shot—for tha first time since tha
war began! Oh. the bleaaed alienee!
It's peace, peace Isn't It to te
peace?" Aa they ascended the steps
she was poo ring not a flood of bro
ken. feverish sentence* which per
mitted of no interruption. “Too kept
on fighting today, hot you won’t to
morrow, will jpu! It Isn’t J who plead
-—lt’s the women, more women than
there are men in the army, who want
you to stop now! Can’t you hear
them? Can’t you see them?”
In the fervor of appeal, before she
realized his purpose, they were on
the veranda and at the door of the
dining-room, where the Brown staff
was gathered around the table.
"I still rely on you to help me, Mar
ta!” he whispered as he stood to one
side for her to enter.
CHAPTER XXII.
The Last Shot.
"Miss Galland!”
Blinking as she came out of the
darkness Into the bright light, with
a lock of her dew-sprinkled dark hair
free and brushing her flushed cheek,
Marta saw the division chiefs of the
Browns, after their start when Lan
stron spoke her name, all stand at
the salute, looking at her rather than
at him. The reality in the flesh of
the woman who had been a comrade
In service, sacrificing her sensibilities
for their cause, appealed to them as
a true likeness of their conceptions of
her. In their eyes she might read the
finest, thing that can pass from man’s
to woman’s or from man’s to man’s.
These were the strong men of her peo
ple who had driven the burglar from
her bouse with the sword of Justice.
Their tribute had the steadfast loyalty
of soldiers who were craving to do
anything in the world that she might
ask, whether to go on their knees to
her or to kill dragons for her.
"I may come In?*’ she asked.
“Who if not you is entitled to the
privilege of the staff council?” ex
claimed the vice-chief.
The others did not propose to let
him do all the honors. Each mur
mured words of welcome on his own
account.
“We are here, thanks to yonl”
“And, thanks to you, our flag will
float over the Gray range!”
She must be tired, was their next
thought. Four or five of them hurried
to place a chair for her, the vloe-chlef
winning over his rivals, more through
the exercise of the rights of rank than
by any superior alacrity.
"You are appointed actual chief of
staff and a field marshal!" said the
vice-chief to Lanstron. ‘The premier
says that every honor the nation can
bestow Is yours. The capital is mad.
The crowds are crying: ‘On to the
Gray capital!’ Tomorrow is to be a
public holiday and they are calling it
T.anstron Day. The thing was so
sudden that the speculators who de
pressed our securities in the world’s
markets have got their due —ruin!
And we ought to get an indemnity
that will pay the cost of the war.”
Seated at one side, Marta could
watch all that passed, herself unob
served. She noted a touch of color
come to Lanstron’s cheeks as he made
a little shrug of protest.
Then she saw their faces grow busi
nesslike apd keen, as they gathered
around the table, with Lanstron at the
head. They were oblivious of her
presence, immured in a man’s world
of war.
“Your orders were obeyed. We
have not passed a single white poet
yet!" said the vice-chief impatiently
“As the Greys never expected to take
the defensive, thetr fortresses are In
ferior. Every hour we wait means
more time for them to fortify, mare
time to recover from their demorali
zation. Our dirigibles having com
mand of the air—we had a wireless
from one reporting all clear half-way
to the Gray capital—why, we shell
know their concentrations while they
are Ignorant of ours. It’s the nation's
great opportunity to gain enough
provinces to even the balance of popu
lation with the Greys. With the unre
mitting offensive, blow on blow, using
the spirit of our men to drive In mass
attacks at the right points, the Grey
range is ours!"
Marta scanned the faces of the staff
for some sign of dissent only to find
nothing but the ardor of victory call
ing for more victory, which reflected
the feeling of the coursing crowds in
the c&pit&L Though Lanny wished to
stop the war, he was only a chip on
the crest of a wave. Public opinion,
which had made Mm an Idol, would
discard him as soon as he ceased to be
a hero In the likeness of its desires.
She saw him aloof as the others, In
preoccupation, bent over the map out
lining the plan of attack that they
had Storked out while awaiting their
chdefa return from the charge. He
was taking a paper from hla pocket
and looking from one to another of hlB
colleagues studiously; and she was
conscious of that determination in his
smile which she had first seen when
he rose from the wreck at his plane.
“This la from Partow: a messag*
for you and the nation!” be an
nounced, as he spread a few thin, type
written pages out on the table. “I
was under promise never to reveal Us
contents unless our army drove the!
Grays back across the frontier. The
original Is in the staff vaults. I have
carried this copy with me.”
At the mention In an arresting tone
of that name of the dead chief, to j
which the day’s events had given the
prestige at one of the heroes of old.
there wns grave attention.
”1 think we have practically agreed |
that the two Individuals who were In
valuable to our cause were Partow and
Miss Galland,” lanstron remarked ten- 1
tattvely. He waited for a reply. It ‘
was apparent that he was laying a
foundation before he went any fur
they
"Certainly!" said the vtce-ehief.
"And you!" pot In another officer,
which brought a chorus of assent.
"No, not I —only these two!" Lan
stron replied “Or, I, too, if you pre
fer. It little matters. The thing te
that I am under a promise to both, j
W M C J*-1 shall respect,. He organised j
and labored for the same -purpose that
she played the spy. When we sent
the troops forward in a counter-attack
and pursuit to clear our soil of the
Grays; when I stopped them at the
frontier —both were according to Par
tow’s plan. He had a plan and a
dream, this wonderful old man who
made ue all seem primary pupils in
the art of war.”
Could It be that terrible Partow, a
stroke of whose pencil had made the
Galland house an inferno? Marta
wondered as Lanstron read his mes
sage—the message out of the real
heart of the man, throbbing with the
power of his great brain. His plan
was to hold the Grays to stalemate;
to force them to desist after they had
battered their battalions to pieces
against the Brown fortifications. His
dream was the thing that had hap
pened—that an opportunity would
come to pursue a broken machine in
a bold stroke of the offensive.
"I would want to be a hero of our
people for only one aim, to be able
to stop our army at the frontier,” he
had written. “Then they might drive
me forth heaped with obloquy, if they
chose. I should like to see the Grays
demoralized, beaten, ready to sue for
peace, the better to prove my point
that we should ask only for what is
ours and that our strength was only
for the purpose of holding what Is
oure. Then we should lay up no leg
acy of revenge m their hearts. They
could never have cause to attack
again. Civilization would have ad
vanced another step.”
Lanstron continued to read to the
amazed staff, for Partow’s message
had looked far into the future. Then
there was a P. S., written after the
war had begun, on the evening of the
day that Marta had gone from tea on
the veranda with Westerling to the
telephone, in the impulse of her new
purpose.
T begin to believe In that dream,"
he wrote. “I begin to believe that the
chance for the offensive will come,
now that my colleague. Miss Galland,
In the name of peace has turned prac
tical. There is nothing like mixing a
little practice in .your dreams white
the world te still well this side of
Utopia, as the head on my old behe
moth of a body well knows. She had
the right idea wtth her school. The
oath so completely expressed my
ideas —the result of all my thinking—
that I had a twinge of literary Jeal
ousy. My boy, If you do reach the
frontier, in pursuit of a broken army,
and you do not keep faith with my
dream and with her ideals, then you
wifi get a lesson that will last you for
ever at the foot of the Gray range.
But I do not think so badly as that of
you or of my judgment of men."
“Lanny! Lanny! ’’
The dignity of a staff council could
not restrain Marta. Her emotion must
have action. She sprang to his side
and seized his hand, her exultation
mixed with penitence over the way
she had wronged him and Partow.
Their self-contained purpose had been
the same as hers and they had worked
with a soldier’s fortitude, while she
had worked with whims and impulses.
She bent over him with gratitude and
praise and a plea for forgiveness in
her eyes, submerging the thing which
he sought In them. He flushed boy
ishly In happy embarrassment, inca
pable of words for an instant; and
Silently the staff looked on.
"And I agree with Partow,” Lanstron
went on, “that we cannot take the
range. The Grays still have numbers
equal to ours. It Is they, now, who
will be singing ‘God with us!’ with
their backs against the wall. With
Partow*s goes my own appeal to the
army and the nation; and I shall keep
faith with Partow, wtth Miss Galland,
and with my own ideas. If the govern
ment orders the army to advance, by
resigning as chief of staff —my work
flntatiod.”
Westerling and his aide and valet,
inquiring their way as strangers, found
the new staff headquarters of the
Grays established in an army building,
where Bouchard had been assigned to
trivial duties, back of the Gray range.
As their former chief entered a room
In the disorder of maps and packing
cases. the staff-officers rose from their
work to stand at salute like stone im
ages, in respect to a field-marshalls
rank. There was no word of greeting
but a telling silence before Turcaa
"We’ve Come for WestarUng.’
spoke. His voice had lost It* parch
ment crinkle and become natural. The
blue veins on his bulging temples were
a little more pronounced, his thin fea
tures a little more pinched, but other
wise he waa unchanged and he seemed
equal to another strain as heavy as
tha eae he had undergone.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2C
~ “We have a new government, a new
premier,” he said. "The old premier
was killed by a shot from a crowd that
he was addressing from the balcony of
the palace. After this, the capital be
came quieter. As we get in touch with
the divisions, we find the army in bet
ter shape than we had feared it would
be. There is a recovery of spirit,
owing to our being on our own soil.’ 1
“Yes,” replied Westerling, drowning
in. their stares and grasping at a straw.
“Only a panic, as I said. If— '’ his
voice rising hoarsely and catching in
rage.
“We have a new government, a new
premier!” Turcas repeated, with firm,
methodical politeness. Westerling
looking from one fact to another with
n!my eyes, lowered them before Bou
chard. "There’s a room ready for
Your Excellency upstairs,” Turcas con
tinued. "The orderly will show you
the way.”
Now Westerling grasped the fact
that he was no longer chief of staff,
lie d-rew himself up in a desperate
attempt at dignity; the staff saluted
again, and, uncertainly, he followed
ihe orderly, with the aide and valet
still in loyal attendance.
Two figures were in the doorway*;!
a heavy-set market woman with a
fringe of down on her lip and a cadav
erous, tidily dressed old man, wha
might have been a superannuated
schoolmaster, with a bronze cross wou
In the war of forty years ago on his
breast and his eyes burning with thr,
youthful Are of Grandfather Fraginifg.
“They got the premier in the capi
tal. We’ve come for Westerlingl We
want to know what he did with our
sons! We want to know why he was
beaten!” cried the market wv-man.
“Yes,” said the veteran. ‘"We want
liftn to explain his lies. W/fay did he
keep the truth from us? We were
ready to fight, but not to be treated
like babies. This is *the twentieth
century!”
“We want Westerling! Tell Wes
terling to come out!" rose Impatient
shouts behind the two figures In the
doorway.
“You are sure that he has one?”
whispered Turoas to Westerttng’s aide.
“Yes,” was the choking answer—
“yes. It is better than that”—with a
glance toward the mob. "I left my
own on the table.”
“We can’t save him! We shall have
to let them —”
Turcas’s voice was drowned by a
great roar of cries, with no word ex
cept “Westerling” distinguishable,
that pierced every crack of the house.
A wave of movement starting from
the rear drove the veteran and the
market woman and a dozen others
through the doorway toward the
stairs. Then the sound of a shot was
heard overhead. f l
"The man you seekrta deads' said
Turcas, stepping in front of the crowd,
his features unrelenting in authority.
“Now, go back to your work and leave
us to ours.”
“I understand, sir,” said the veteran.
“We’ve no argument with you.”
“Yes!” agreed the market woman.
“But If you ever leave this range alive
we shall have one. So, you stay!"
Looking at the bronze cross on the
veteran’s faded coat, the staff saluted;
for the cross, though It were hung on
rags, wherever it went was entitled
by custom to the salute of officers and
“present arms" by sentries.
* • • * a
After Lanstron’s announcement to
the Brown staff of his decision not to
cross the frontier, there was a rest
less movement In the chairs around
the table, and the grimaces on most
of the faces were those with which a
practical man Regards a Utopian pro
posal. The vice-chief was drumming
on the table edge and looking steadily
at a point In front of his fingers. If
Lanstron resigned he became chief.
“Partow might have this dream be
fore he won, but would he now?"
asked the vice-chief. “No. He would
go on!”
“Yes," said another officer. “The
world will ridicule the suggestion; our
people will overwhelm us with their
anger. The Grays will take It tor a
sign of weakness.”
“Not If we put the situation rightly
to them,” answered Lanstron, "Not
If we go to them as brave adversary
to brave adversary, in a fair spirit.”
“We can—we shall take the range!"
the vice-chief went on In a burst off
rigid conviction when he saw that
opinion was with him. "Nothing can
stop this army now!” He struck the
table edge with his fist, his shoulders
stiffening.
"Please —please, don’t!" Implored
Marta softly. "It sounds so like Wes
terling! ’’
The vloe-chlef started as if he had
received a sharp pin-prick. His shoul
ders unconsciously relaxed. He began
a fresh study of a certain point on the
table top. Lanstron, looking flret at
one and then at another, spoke again,
his words as measured as they ever
had been in military discussion and
eloquent. He began outlining his own
message which would go with Partow’s
to the premier, to the nation, to every
regiment of the Browns, to the Grays,
to the world. He set forth why the
Browns, after tasting the courage of
the Grays, should realize that they
could not take their range. Partow
had not taught him to put himself in
other men’s places in vain. The boy
who had kept up his friendship with
engine drivers after he was an officer
know how to sink the plummet Into
human emotions. He reminded tha
Brown soldiers that there had been a|
providential answer to the call of 1
“God with us!” he reminded the 'peo
ple of the lives that would be lost to
no end but to engender hatred; be
begged the army and the people not
to break faith with that principle at
“Not for theirs, but for oura," which
had been their strength.
To be continued tomorrow