Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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