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diff --git a/old/13738.txt b/old/13738.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9824469 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13738.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18962 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Last Shot, by Frederick Palmer + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Last Shot + +Author: Frederick Palmer + +Release Date: October 13, 2004 [eBook #13738] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST SHOT*** + + +E-text prepared by Stephen Schulze and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE LAST SHOT + +by + +FREDERICK PALMER + +Author of _Over the Pass_, etc. + +1914 + + + + + + + +TO THE READER + +This story of war grew out of my experience in many wars. I have been +under fire without fighting; known the comradeship of arms without +bearing arms, and the hardships and the humors of the march with only an +observer's incentive. A singular career, begun by chance, was pursued to +the ends of the earth in the study of the greatest drama which the earth +stages. Whether watching a small force of white regulars disciplining a +primitive people, or the complex tactics of huge army against huge army; +whether watching war in the large or in the small, I have found the same +basic human qualities in the white heat of conflict working out the same +illusions, heroisms, tragedies, and comedies. + +The fellowship of campaigning made the cause of the force that I +accompanied mine for the time being. Thus, one who settles in the town +of A absorbs its local feeling of rivalry against the town of B in +athletic games or character of citizenship. To A, B is never quite +sportsmanlike; B is provincial and bigoted and generally inferior. But +settle in B and your prejudices reverse their favor from A to B. + +Yet in the midst of battle, with the detachment of a non-combatant +marvelling at the irony of two lines of men engaged in an effort at +mutual extermination, I have caught myself thinking with the other side. +I knew why my side was busy at killing. Why was the other? For the same +reasons as ours. + +I was seeing humanity against humanity. A man killed was a man killed, +courage was courage, sacrifice was sacrifice, romance was romance, a +heart-broken mother was a heart-broken mother, a village burned was a +village burned, regardless of race or nation. Every war became a story +in a certain set form: the rise of the war passion; the conflict; +victory and defeat; and then peace, in joyous relief, which the nations +enjoyed before they took the trouble to fight for it. + +But such thoughts have been a familiar theme to the poet, the novelist, +the dramatist, the satirist, the dreamer, and the peace propagandist, +while the world goes on arming. In want of their talent, I offer +experience of the monstrous object of their gibes and imagination. To +me, the old war novels have the atmosphere of smoke powder and +antiquated tactics which still survived when I went on my first campaign +sixteen years ago. These classic masterpieces endure through their +genius; the excuse of any plodder who chooses their theme to-day is that +he deals with the material of to-day. + +Methods of light and of motive power have not changed more rapidly in +the forty-odd years since the last great European war than the soldier's +weapons and his work. With all the symbols of economic improvement the +public is familiar, while usually it thinks of war in the old symbols +for want of familiarity with the new. My aim is to express not only war +as fought to-day, soldiers of to-day under the fire of arms of to-day, +but also the effects of war in the _n_th degree of modern organization +and methods on a group of men and women, free in its realism from the +wild improbabilities of some latter-day novelists who have given us +wars in the air or regaled us with the decimation of armies by +explosives dropped from dirigibles or their asphyxiation by noxious +gases compounded by the hero of the tale. + +The Russo-Japanese and the Balkan campaigns, particular in their nature, +gave me useful impressions, but not the scene for my purpose. The world +must think of those wars comparatively as second-rate and only partially +illustrative, when its fearful curiosity and more fearful apprehension +centre on the possibility of the clash of arms between the enormous +forces of two first-class European land-powers, with their supreme +training and precision in arms. What would such a war mean in reality to +the soldiers engaged? What the play of human elements? What form the new +symbols? Therefore have I laid my scene in a small section of a European +frontier, and the time the present. + +Identify your combatants, some friends insist. Make the Italians fight +the Austrians or the French fight the Germans. As a spectator of wars, +under the spell of the growing cosmopolitanism that makes mankind more +and more akin, I could not see it in that way and be true to my +experience. My soldiers exist for my purpose only as human beings. Race +prejudices they have. Race prejudice is one of the factors of war. But +make the prejudice English, Italian, German, Russian, or French and +there is the temptation for reader and author to forget the story of men +as men and war as war. Even as in the long campaign in Manchuria I would +see a battle simply as an argument to the death between little fellows +in short khaki blouses and big fellows in long gray coats, so I see the +Browns and the Grays in "The Last Shot" take the field. + +But, though the scene is imaginary, the characters are from life. Their +actions and their sayings are those of men whom I have studied under the +stress of danger and sudden emergency. The delightful, boyish confidence +of Eugene Aronson has been at my elbow in a charge; Feller I knew in the +tropics as an outcast who shared my rations; Dellarme's last words I +heard from a dying captain; the philosophy of Hugo Mallin is no less +familiar than the bragging of Pilzer or the transformation of Stransky, +who whistled a wedding-march as he pumped bullets at the enemy. In +Lanstron we have a type of the modern officer; in the elder Fragini a +type of the soldier of another day. Each marches in his place and plays +his part in the sort of spectacle that I have often watched. If there be +no particular hero, then I can only say, in confidence behind the +scenes, that I have found no one man, however heroic in the martial +imagination of his country, to be a particular hero in fact. Take, for +example, our trembling little Peterkin, who won the bronze cross for +courage. + +As for Marta and Minna, they speak for another element--for a good half +of the world's population that does not bear arms. In a siege once I had +glimpses of women under fire and I learned that bravery is not an +exclusively masculine trait. The game of solitaire? Well, it occurred in +a house in the midst of bursting shells. But the part that Marta plays? +Is it extravaganza? Not in war. The author sees it as something very +real. + +FREDERICK PALMER. + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. A SPECK IN THE SKY + II. TEN YEARS LATER + III. OURS AND THEIRS + IV. THE DIVIDENDS OF POWER + V. OFF TO THE FRONTIER + VI. THE SECOND PROPHECY + VII. TIMES HAVE CHANGED + VIII. THANKS TO A BUMBLEBEE + IX. A SUNDAY MORNING CALL + X. A LUNCHEON AT THE GALLANDS' + XI. MARTA HEARS FELLER'S STORY + XII. A CRISIS WITHIN A CRISIS + XIII. BREAKING A PAPER-KNIFE + XIV. IN PARTOW'S OFFICE + XV. CLOSE TO THE WHITE POSTS + XVI. DELLARME'S MEN GET A MASCOT + XVII. A SUNDAY MORNING IN TOWN + XVIII. THE BAPTISM OF FIRE + XIX. RECEIVING THE CHARGE + XX. MARTA'S FIRST GLIMPSE OF WAR + XXI. SHE CHANGES HER MIND + XXII. FLOWERS FOR THE WOUNDED + XIII. STRANSKY FIGHTS ALONE + XXIV. THE MAKING OF A HERO + XXV. THE TERRIBLE NIGHT + XXVI. FELLER IS TEMPTED + XXVII. HAND TO HAND + XXVIII. AN APPEAL TO PARTOW + XXIX. THROUGH THE VENEER + XXX. MARTA MEETS HUGO + XXXI. UNTO CAESAR + XXXII. TEA ON THE VERANDA AGAIN + XXXIII. IN FELLER'S PLACE + XXXIV. THREE VOICES + XXXV. MRS. GALLAND INSISTS + XXXVI. MARKING TIME + XXXVII. THUMBS DOWN FOR BOUCHARD + XXXVIII. HUNTING GHOSTS + XXXIX. A CHANGE OF PLAN + XL. WITH FRACASSE'S MEN + XLI. WITH FELLER AND STRANSKY + XLII. THE RAM + XLIII. JOVE'S ISOLATION + XLIV. TURNING THE TABLES + XLV. THE RETREAT + XLVI. THE LAST SHOT + XLVII. THE PEACE OF WISDOM + + + + + + +THE LAST SHOT + + + + +I + +A SPECK IN THE SKY + + +It was Marta who first saw the speck in the sky. Her outcry and her +bound from her seat at the tea-table brought her mother and Colonel +Westerling after her onto the lawn, where they became motionless +figures, screening their eyes with their hands. The newest and most +wonderful thing in the world at the time was this speck appearing above +the irregular horizon of the Brown range, in view of a landscape that +centuries of civilization had fertilized and cultivated and formed. + +At the base of the range ran a line of white stone posts, placed by +international commissions of surveyors to the nicety of an inch's +variation. In the very direction of the speck's flight a spur of +foot-hills extended into the plain that stretched away to the Gray +range, distinct at the distance of thirty miles in the bright afternoon +light. Faithful to their part in refusing to climb, the white posts +circled around the spur, hugging the levels. + +In the lap of the spur was La Tir, the old town, and on the other side +of the boundary lay South La Tir, the new town. Through both ran the +dusty ribbon of a road, drawn straight across the plain and over the +glistening thread of a river. On its way to the pass of the Brown range +it skirted the garden of the Gallands, which rose in terraces to a +seventeenth-century house overlooking the old town from its outskirts. +They were such a town, such a road, such a landscape as you may see on +many European frontiers. The Christian people who lived in the region +were like the Christian people you know if you look for the realities of +human nature under the surface differences of language and habits. + +Beyond the house rose the ruins of a castle, its tower still intact. +Marta always referred to the castle as the baron; for in her girlhood +she had a way of personifying all inanimate things. If the castle walls +were covered with hoar frost, she said that the baron was shivering; if +the wind tore around the tower, she said that the baron was groaning +over the democratic tendencies of the time. On such a summer afternoon +as this, the baron was growing old gracefully, at peace with his +enemies. + +Centuries older than the speck in the sky was the baron; but the pass +road was many more, countless more, centuries older than he. It had been +a trail for tribes long before Roman legions won a victory in the pass, +which was acclaimed an imperial triumph. To hold the pass was to hold +the range. All the blood shed there would make a red river, inundating +the plain. Marta, a maker of pictures, saw how the legions, brown, +sinewy, lean aliens, looked in their close ranks. They were no less real +to her imagination than the infantry of the last war thirty years ago, +or the Crusaders who came that way, or the baron in person and his +shaggy-bearded, uncouth, ignorant ruffians who were their own moral law, +leaving their stronghold to plunder the people of the fertile plain of +the fruits of their toil. + +Stone axe, spear and bow, javelin and broadsword, blunderbuss and +creaking cannon--all the weapons of all stages in the art of war--had +gone trooping past. Now had come the speck in the sky, straight on, like +some projectile born of the ether. + +"Beside the old baron, we are parvenus," Marta would say. "And what a +parvenu the baron would have been to the Roman aristocrat!" + +"Our family is old enough--none older in the province!" Mrs. Galland +would reply. "Marta, how your mind does wander! I'd get a headache just +contemplating the things you are able to think of in five minutes." + +The first Galland had built a house on the land that his king had given +him for one of the most brilliant feats of arms in the history of the +pass. He had the advantage of the baron in that he could read and write, +though with difficulty. Marta had an idea that he was not presentable at +a tea-table; however, he must have been more so than the baron, who, she +guessed, would have grabbed all the cakes on the plate as a sheer matter +of habit in taking what he wanted unless a stronger than he interfered. + +Even the tower, raised to the glory of an older family whose +descendants, if any survived, were unaware of their lineage, had become +known as the Galland tower. The Gallands were rooted in the soil of the +frontier; they were used to having war's hot breath blow past their +door; they were at home in the language and customs of two peoples; +theirs was a peculiar tradition, which Marta had absorbed with her first +breath. Every detail of her circumscribed existence reminded her that +she was a Galland. + +Town and plain and range were the first vista of landscape that she had +seen; doubtless they would be the last. Meanwhile, there was the +horizon. She was particularly fond of looking at it. If you are +seventeen, with a fanciful mind, you can find much information not in +histories or encyclopaedias or the curricula of schools in the horizon. + +There she had learned that the Roman aristocrat had turned his thumb +down to a lot of barbarian captives because he had a fit of indigestion, +and the next day, when his digestion was better, he had scattered coins +among barbarian children; that Napoleon, who had also gone over the pass +road, was a pompous, fat little man, who did not always wipe his upper +lip clean of snuff when he was on a campaign; that the baron's youngest +daughter had lost her eyesight from a bodkin thrust for telling her +sister, who had her father's temper, that she was developing a double +chin. + +For the people of Maria's visions were humanly real to her, and as such +she liked and understood them. If the first Galland were half a robber, +to disguise the fact because he was her ancestor was not playing fair. +It made him only a lay figure of romance. + +One or two afternoons a week Colonel Hedworth Westerling, commander of +the regimental post of the Grays on the other side of the white posts, +stretched his privilege of crossing the frontier and appeared for tea at +the Gallands'. It meant a pleasant half-hour breaking a long walk, a +relief from garrison surroundings. Favored in mind and person, favored +in high places, he had become a colonel at thirty-two. People with fixed +ideas as to the appearance of a soldier said that he looked every inch +the commander. He was tall, strong-built, his deep, broad chest +suggesting powerful energy. Conscious of his abilities, it was not +without reason that he thought well of himself, in view of the order, +received that morning, which was to make this a farewell call. + +He had found Mrs. Galland an agreeable reflection of an aristocratic +past. The daughter had what he defined vaguely as girlish piquancy. He +found it amusing to try to answer her unusual questions; he liked the +variety of her inventive mind, with its flashes of downright +matter-of-factness. + +Ascending the steps with his firm, regular tread, he suggested poise and +confidence and, perhaps, vanity also in his fastidious dress. As Marta's +slight, immature figure came to the edge of the veranda, he wondered +what she would be like five years later, when she would be twenty-two +and a woman. It was unlikely that he would ever know, or that in a month +he would care to know. He would pass on; his rank would keep him from +returning to South La Tir, which was a colonel's billet except in time +of war. + +Not until tea was served did he mention his new assignment; he was +going to the general staff at the capital. Mrs. Galland murmured her +congratulations in conventional fashion. + +"Into the very holy of holies of the great war machine, isn't it?" Marta +asked. + +"Yes--yes, exactly!" he replied. + +Her chair was drawn back from the table. She leaned forward in a +favorite position of hers when she was intensely interested, with hands +clasped over her knee, which her mother always found aggravatingly +tomboyish. She had a mass of lustrous black hair and a mouth rather +large in repose, but capable of changing curves of emotion. Her large, +dark eyes, luminously deep under long lashes, if not the rest of her +face, had beauty. Her head was bent, the lashes forming a line with her +brow now, and her eyes had the still flame of wonder that they had when +she was looking all around a thing and through it to find what it meant. +Westerling knew by the signs that she was going to break out with one of +her visions, rather than one of her whimsical ideas. She was seeing the +Roman general, the baron, the first Galland, and the fat, pompous little +man, no less in the life than Hedworth Westerling. She had fused them +into one. + +"Some day you will be chief of staff, the head of the Gray army!" she +suddenly exclaimed. + +Westerling started as if he had been surprised in a secret. Then he +flushed slightly. + +"Why?" he asked with forced carelessness. "Your reasons? They're more +interesting than your prophecy." + +"Because you have the will to be," she said without emphasis, in the +impersonal revelations of thought. "You want power. You have ambition." + +He looked the picture of it, with his square jaw, his well-moulded head +set close to the shoulders on a sturdy neck, his even teeth showing as +his lips parted in an unconscious smile. + +"Marta, Marta! She is--is so explosive," Mrs. Galland remarked +apologetically to the colonel. + +"I asked for her reasons. I brought it on myself--and it is not a bad +compliment," he replied. Indeed, he had never received one so thrilling. + +His smile, a smile well pleased with itself, remained as Mrs. Galland +began to talk of other things, and its lingering satisfaction +disappeared only with Marta's cry at sight of the speck in the sky over +the Brown range. She was out on the lawn before the others had risen +from their seats. + +"An aeroplane! Hurry!" she called. + +This was a summons that aroused even Mrs. Galland's serenity to haste. +For the first time they were seeing the new wonder in all the +fascination of novelty to us moderns, who soon make our new wonders +commonplace and clamor impatiently for others. + +"He flies! A man flies!" Marta exclaimed. "Look at that--coming straight +for your tower, baron! You'd better pull up the drawbridge and go on +your knees in the chapel, for devils are abroad!" + +How fast the speck grew! How it spread to the entranced vision! It +became a thing of still, soaring wings with a human atom in its centre, +Captain Arthur Lanstron, already called a fool for his rashness by a +group of Brown officers on the aviation grounds beyond the Brown range. + +Naturally, the business of war, watching for every invention that might +serve its ends, was the first patron of flight. Lanstron, pupil of a +pioneer aviator, had been warned by him and by the chief of staff of the +Browns, who was looking on, to keep in a circle close to the ground. But +he was doing so well that he thought he would try rising a little +higher. When the levers responded with the ease of a bird's wings, +temptation became inspiration and inspiration urged on temptation. He +had gone mad with the ecstasy of his sensation, there between heaven and +earth. Five seconds of this was worth five thousand years of any other +form of life. + +The summits of the range shot under him, unfolding a variegated rug of +landscape. He dipped the planes slightly, intending to follow the +range's descent and again they answered to his desire. He saw himself +the eyes of an army, the scout of the empyrean. If a body of troops were +to march along the pass road they would be as visible as a cloud in the +sky. Yes, here was revolution in detecting the enemy's plans! He had +become momentarily unconscious of the swiftness of his progress, thanks +to its hypnotic facility. He was in the danger which too active a brain +may bring to a critical and delicate mechanical task. The tower loomed +before him as suddenly as if it had been shot up out of the earth. He +must turn, and quickly, to avoid disaster; he must turn, or he would be +across the white posts in the enemy's country. + +"Oh, glorious magic!" cried Marta. + +"A dozen good shots could readily bring it down," remarked Westerling +critically. "It makes a steady target at that angle of approach. He's +going to turn--but take care, there!" + +"Oh!" groaned Marta and Mrs. Galland together. + +In an agony of suspense they saw the fragile creation of cloth and +bamboo and metal, which had seemed as secure as an albatross riding on +the lap of a steady wind, dip far over, careen back in the other +direction, and then the whirring noise that had grown with its flight +ceased. It was no longer a thing of winged life, defying the law of +gravity, but a thing dead, falling under the burden of a living weight. + +"The engine has stopped!" exclaimed Westerling, any trace of emotion in +his observant imperturbability that of satisfaction that the machine was +the enemy's. He was thinking of the exhibition, not of the man in the +machine. + +Marta was thinking of the man who was about to die, a silhouette against +the soft blue holding its own balance resolutely in the face of peril. +She could not watch any longer; she could not wait on the catastrophe. +She was living the part of the aviator more vividly than he, with his +hand and mind occupied. She rushed down the terrace steps wildly, as if +her going and her agonized prayer could avert the inevitable. The plane, +descending, skimmed the garden wall and passed out of sight. She heard a +thud, a crackling of braces, a ripping of cloth, but no cry. + +Westerling had started after her, exclaiming, "This is a case for first +aid!" while Mrs. Galland, taking the steps as fast as she could, brought +up the rear. Through the gateway in the garden wall could be seen the +shoulders of a young officer, a streak of red coursing down his cheek, +rising from the wreck. An inarticulate sob of relief broke from Marta's +throat, followed by quick gasps of breath. Captain Arthur Lanstron was +looking into the startled eyes of a young girl that seemed to reflect +his own emotions of the moment after having shared those he had in the +air. + +"I flew! I flew clear over the range, at any rate!" he said. "And I'm +alive. I managed to hold her so she missed the wall and made an easy +bump." + +Marta smiled in the reaction from terror at his idea of an easy bump, +while he was examining the damage to his person. He got one foot free of +the wreck and that leg was all right. She shared his elation. Then he +found that the other was uninjured, just as she cried in distress: + +"But your hand--oh, your hand!" + +His left hand hung limp from the wrist, cut, mashed, and bleeding. Its +nerves numbed, he had not as yet felt any pain from the injury. Now he +regarded it in a kind of awakening stare of realization of a deformity +to come. + +"Wool-gathering again!" he muttered to himself crossly. + +Then, seeing that she had turned white, he thrust the disgusting thing +behind his back and twinged with the movement. The pain was arriving. + +"It must be bandaged! I have a handkerchief!" she begged. "I'm not +going to faint or anything like that!" + +"Only bruised--and it's the left. I am glad it was not the right," he +replied. Westerling arrived and joined Marta in offers of assistance +just as they heard the prolonged honk of an automobile demanding the +right of way at top speed in the direction of the pass. + +"Thank you, but they're coming for me," said Lanstron to Westerling as +he glanced up the road. + +Westerling was looking at the wreck. Lanstron, who recognized him as an +officer, though in mufti, kicked a bit of the torn cloth over some +apparatus to hide it. At this Westerling smiled faintly. Then Lanstron +saluted as officer to officer might salute across the white posts, +giving his name and receiving in return Westeling's. + +They made a contrast, these two men, the colonel of the Grays, swart and +sturdy, his physical vitality so evident, and the captain of the Browns, +some seven or eight years the junior, bareheaded, in dishevelled fatigue +uniform, his lips twitching, his slender body quivering with the pain +that he could not control, while his rather bold forehead and delicate, +sensitive features suggested a man of nerve and nerves who might have +left experiments in a laboratory for an adventure in the air. There was +a kind of challenge in their glances; the challenge of an ancient feud +of their peoples; of the professional rivalry of polite duellists. +Lanstron's slight figure seemed to express the weaker number of the +three million soldiers of the Browns; Westerling's bulkier one, the four +million five hundred thousand of the Grays. + +"You had a narrow squeak and you made a very snappy recovery at the last +second," said Westerling, passing a compliment across the white posts. +Marta could literally see a white post there between the two. + +"That's in the line of duty for you and me, isn't it?" Lanstron +replied, his voice thick with pain as he forced a smile. + +There was no pose in his fortitude. He was evidently disgusted with +himself over the whole business, and he turned to the group of three +officers and a civilian who alighted from a big Brown army automobile as +if he were prepared to have them say their worst. They seemed between +the impulse of reprimanding and embracing him. + +"I hope that you are not surprised at the result," said the oldest of +the officers, a man of late middle age, rather affectionately and +teasingly. He wore a single order on his breast, a plain iron cross, and +the insignia of his rank was that of a field-marshal. + +"Not now. I should be again, sir," said Lanstron, looking full at the +field-marshal in the appeal of one asking for another chance. "I was +wool-gathering. My mind was off duty for a second and I got a lesson in +self-control at the expense of the machine. I treated it worse than it +deserved, and it treated me better than I deserved. But I shall not +wool-gather next time. I've got a reminder more urgent than a string +tied around my finger." + +"Yes, that hand needs immediate attention," said the doctor. He and +another officer began helping Lanstron into the automobile. + +"The first flight ever made over a range--even a low one! Thirty miles +straightaway!" remarked the civilian, making a cursory examination of +the wreck of the machine which was a pattern known by his name. + +"Very educational for our young man," said the field-marshal, and at +sight of Mrs. Galland paused while they exchanged the greetings of old +friends. + +"Your Excellency, may we send back for you, sir?" called the doctor. He +was not one to let rank awe him when duty pressed. "This hand ought to +be at the hospital at once." + +"I'm coming along. I've a train to catch," replied His Excellency, +springing into the car. "No more wool-gathering, eh?" he said, giving +Lanstron a pat on the shoulder. To Lanstron this pat meant another +chance. + +"Good-by!" he called to the young girl, who was still watching him with +big, sympathetic eyes. "I am coming back soon and land in the field, +there, and when I do. I'll claim a bunch of flowers." + +"Do! What fun!" she cried, as the car started. + +"The field-marshal was Partow, their chief of staff?" Westerling asked. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Galland. "I remember when he was a young infantry +officer before the last war, before he had won the iron cross and become +so great. He was not of an army family--a doctor's son, but very clever +and skilful." + +"Getting a little old for his work!" remarked Westerling. "But +apparently he is keen enough to take a personal interest in anything +new." + +"Wasn't it thrilling and--and terrible!" Marta exclaimed. + +"Yes, like war at our own door again," replied Mrs. Galland, who knew +war. She had seen war raging on the pass road. "Lanstron, the young man +said his name was," she resumed after a pause. "No doubt the Lanstrons +of Thorbourg. An old family and many of them in the army." + +"The way he refused to give in--that was fine!" said Marta. + +Westerling, who had been engrossed in his own thoughts, looked up. + +"Courage is the cheapest thing an army has! You can get hundreds of +young officers who are glad to take a risk of that kind. The thing is," +and his fingers pressed in on the palm of his hand in a pounding gesture +of the forearm, "to direct and command--head work--organization!" + +"If war should come again--" Marta began. Mrs. Galland nudged her. A +Brown never mentioned war to an officer of the Grays; it was not at all +in the accepted proprieties. But Marta rushed on: "So many would be +engaged that it would be more horrible than ever." + +"You cannot make omelets without breaking eggs," Westerling answered +with suave finality. + +"I wonder if the baron ever said that!" Marta recollected that it was a +favorite expression of the fat, pompous little man. "It sounds like the +baron, at all events." + +Westerling did not mind being likened to the baron. It was a +corroboration of her prophecy. The baron must have been a great leader +of men in his time. + +"The aeroplane will take its place as an auxiliary," he went on, his +mind still running on the theme of her prophecy, which the meeting with +Lanstron had quickened. "But war will, as ever, be won by the bayonet +that takes and holds a position. We shall have no miracle victories, +no--" + +There he broke off. He did not accompany Mrs. Galland and Marta back to +the house, but made his adieus at the garden-gate. + +"I'm sure that I shall never marry a soldier!" Marta burst out as she +and her mother were ascending the steps. + +"No?" exclaimed Mrs. Galland with the rising inflection of a placid +scepticism that would not be drawn into an argument. Another of Marta's +explosions! It was not yet time to think of marriage for her. If it had +been Mrs. Galland would not have been so hospitable to Colonel +Westerling. She would hardly have been, even if the colonel had been +younger, say, of Captain Lanstron's age. Though an officer was an +officer, whether of the Browns or the Grays, and, perforce, a gentleman +to be received with the politeness of a common caste, every beat of her +heart was loyal to her race. Her daughter's hand was not for any Gray. +Young Lanstron certainly must be of the Thorbourg Lanstrons, she mused. +A most excellent family! Of course, Marta would marry an officer. It +was the natural destiny of a Galland woman. Yet she was sometimes +worried about Marta's whimsies. She, too, could wonder what Marta would +be like in five years. + + + + +II + +TEN YEARS LATER + + +Does any man of power know whither the tendencies of his time are +leading him, or the people whom he leads whither they are being led? Had +any one of these four heroes of the Grays in their heavy gilt frames +divined what kind of a to-morrow his day was preparing? All knew the +pass of La Tir well, and if all had not won decisive battles they would +have been hung in the outer office or even in the corridors, where a +line of half-forgotten or forgotten generals crooked down the stairways +into the oblivion of the basement. That unfortunate one whom the first +Galland had driven through the pass was quite obscured in darkness. He +would soon be crowded out to an antique shop for sale as an example of +the portrait art of his period. + +The privileged quartet on that Valhalla of victories, the walls of the +chief of staff's room, personified the military inheritance of a great +nation; their names shone in luminous letters out of the thickening +shadows of the past, where those of lesser men grew dimmer as their +generations receded into history. He in the steel corselet, with high +cheek-bones, ferret, cold eyes, and high, thin nose, its nostrils drawn +back in an aristocratic sniff--camps were evil-smelling in those +days--his casquette resting on his arm, was the progenitor of him with +the Louis XIV. curls; he of the early nineteenth century, with a face +like Marshal Ney's, was the progenitor of him with the mustache and +imperial of the sixties. + +It was whispered that the aristocratic sniff had taken to fierce, +no-quarter campaigns in the bitterness of a broken heart. Did the +Grays, then, really owe two of their fairest provinces to the lady who +had jilted him? Had they to thank the clever wife of him of the Louis +XIV. curls, whose intrigues won for her husband command of the army, for +another province? It was whispered, too, that the military glory of him +of the Marshal Ney physiognomy was due to the good fortune of a senile +field-marshal for an opponent. But no matter. These gentlemen had seen +the enemy fly. They had won. Therefore, they were the supermen of sagas +who incarnate a people's valor. + +The Browns gratified their own sense of superiority, in turn, by +admiration of the supermen who had vanquished the Gray generals +consigned to the oblivion of the basement. In their staff building, the +first Galland occupied a prominent position in the main hall; while in +the days of Marta's old baron heroes did not have their portraits +painted for want of painters, and the present nations had consisted only +of warring baronies and principalities. + +They must have been rather lonely, these immortals in the Gray Valhalla, +as His Excellency the chief of staff was seldom in his office. His +Excellency had years, rank, prestige. The breast of his uniform sagged +with the weight of his decorations. He appeared for the army at great +functions, his picture was in the shop-windows. Hedworth Westerling, the +new vice-chief of staff, was content with this arrangement. His years +would not permit him the supreme honor. This was for a figurehead, while +he had the power. + +His appointment to the staff ten years ago had given him the fields he +wanted, the capital itself, for the play of his abilities. His vital +energy, his impressive personality, his gift for courting the influences +that counted, whether man's or woman's, his astute readiness in stooping +to some measures that were in keeping with the times but not with army +precedent, had won for him the goal of his ambition. He had passed over +the heads of older men, whom many thought his betters, rather +ruthlessly. Those who would serve loyally he drew around him; those who +were bitter he crowded out of his way. + +The immortals would have been still more lonely, or at least confused, +in the adjoining room occupied by Westerling. There the walls were hung +with the silhouettes of infantrymen, such as you see at manoeuvres, in +different positions of firing, crouching in shallow trenches, standing +in deep trenches, or lying flat on the stomach on level earth. Another +silhouette, that of an infantryman running, was peppered with white +points in arms and legs and parts of the body that were not vital, to +show in how many places a man may be hit with a small-calibre bullet and +still survive. + +The immortals had small armies. Even the mustache and imperial had only +three hundred thousand in the great battle of the last war. In this day +of universal European conscription, if Westerling were to win it would +be with five millions--five hundred thousand more than when he faced a +young Brown officer over the wreck of an aeroplane--including the +reserves; each man running, firing, crouching, as was the figure on the +wall, and trying to give more of the white points that peppered the +silhouette than he received. + +Now Turcas, the assistant vice-chief of staff, and Bouchard, chief of +the division of intelligence, standing on either side of Westerling's +desk, awaited his decisions on certain matters which they had brought to +his attention. Both were older than Westerling, Turcas by ten and +Bouchard by fifteen years. + +Turcas had been strongly urged in inner army circles for the place that +Westerling had won, but his manner and his inability to court influence +were against him A lath of a man and stiff as a lath, pale, with thin, +tightly-drawn lips, quiet, steel-gray eyes, a tracery of blue veins +showing on his full temples, he suggested the ascetic no less than the +soldier, while his incisive brevity of speech, flavored now and then +with pungent humor, without any inflection in his dry voice, was in +keeping with his appearance. He arrived with the clerks in the morning +and frequently remained after they were gone. His life was an affair of +calculated units of time; his habits of diet and exercise all regulated +for the end of service. His subordinates, whose respect he held by the +power of his intellect, said that his brain never tired and he had not +enough body to tire. He was one of the wheels of the great army machine +and loved the work for its own sake too well to be embittered at being +overshadowed by a younger man. As a master of detail Westerling regarded +him as an invaluable assistant, with certain limitations, which were +those of the pigeonhole and the treadmill. + +As for Bouchard, nature had meant him to be a wheel-horse. He had never +had any hope of being chief of staff. Hawk-eyed, with a great beak nose +and iron-gray hair, intensely and solemnly serious, lacking a sense of +humor, he would have looked at home with his big, bony hands gripping a +broadsword hilt and his lank body clothed in chain armor. He had a +mastiff's devotion to its master for his chief. + +"Since Lanstron became chief of intelligence of the Browns information +seems to have stopped," said Westerling, but not complainingly. He +appreciated Bouchard's loyalty. + +"Yes, they say he even burns his laundry bills, he is so careful," +Bouchard replied. + +"But that we ought to know," Westerling proceeded, referring very +insistently to a secret of the Browns which had baffled Bouchard. "Try a +woman," he went on with that terse, hard directness which reflected one +of his sides. "There is nobody like a woman for that sort of thing. +Spend enough to get the right woman." + +Turcas and Bouchard exchanged a glance, which rose suggestively from the +top of the head of the seated vice-chief of staff. Turcas smiled +slightly, while Bouchard was graven as usual. + +"You could hardly reach Lanstron though you spent a queen's ransom," +said Bouchard in his literal fashion. + +"I should say not!" Westerling exclaimed. "No doubt about Lanstron's +being all there! I saw him ten years ago after his first aeroplane +flight under conditions that proved it. However, he must have +susceptible subordinates." + +"We'll set all the machinery we have to work to find one, sir," Bouchard +replied. + +"Another thing, we may dismiss any idea that they are concealing either +artillery or dirigibles or planes that we do not know of," continued +Westerling. "That is a figment of our apprehensions. The fact that we +find no truth in the rumors proves that there is none. Such things are +too important to be concealed by one army from another." + +"Lanstron certainly cannot carry them in his pockets," remarked Turcas. +"Still, we must be sure," he added thoughtfully, more to himself than to +Westerling, who had already turned his attention to a document which +Turcas had laid on the desk. + +"A recommendation by the surgeon-in-chief," said Turcas, "for a new +method of prompt segregation of ghastly cases among the wounded. I have +put it in the form of an order. If reserves coming into action see men +badly lacerated by shell fire it is bound to make them self-conscious +and affect morale." + +"Yes," Westerling agreed. "If moving pictures of the horrors of Port +Arthur were to be shown in our barracks before a war, it would hardly +encourage martial enthusiasm. I shall look this over and then have it +issued. It will not be necessary to wait on action of the staff in +council." + +Turcas and Bouchard exchanged another glance. They had fresh evidence of +Westerling's tendency to concentrate authority in himself. + +"The 128th Regiment has been ordered to South La Tir, but no order yet +given for the 132d, whose place it takes," Turcas went on. + +"Let it remain for the present!" Westerling replied. + +After they had withdrawn, the look that passed between Turcas and +Bouchard was a pointed question. The 132d to remain at South La Tir! Was +there something more than "newspaper talk" in this latest diplomatic +crisis between the Grays and the Browns? Westerling alone was in the +confidence of the premier of late. Any exchange of ideas between the two +subordinates would be fruitless surmise and against the very instinct of +staff secrecy, where every man knew only his work and asked about no one +else's. + +Westerling ran through the papers that Turcas had prepared for him. If +Turcas had written the order for the wounded, Westerling knew that it +was properly done. Having cleared his desk into the hands of his +executive clerk, he looked at the clock. It had barely turned four. He +picked up the final staff report of observations on the late Balkan +campaign, just printed in book form, glanced at it and laid it aside. +Already he knew the few lessons afforded by this war "done on the +cheap," with limited equipment and over bad roads. No dirigibles had +been used and few planes. It was no criterion, except in the effect of +the fire of the new pattern guns, for the conflict of vast masses of +highly trained men against vast masses of highly trained men, with rapid +transportation over good roads, complete equipment, thorough +organization, backed by generous resources, in the cataclysm of two +great European powers. + +Rather idly, now, he drew a pad toward him and, taking up a pencil, made +the figures seventeen and twenty-seven. Then he made the figures +thirty-two and forty-two. He blackened them with repeated tracings as he +mused. This done, he put seventeen under twenty-seven and thirty-two +under forty-two. He made the subtraction and studied the two tens. + +A swing door opened softly and his executive clerk reappeared with a +soft tread, unheard by Westerling engaged in mechanically blackening the +tens. The clerk, pausing as he waited for a signal of recognition, +observed the process wonderingly. To be absently making figures on a pad +was not characteristic of the vice-chief of staff. When he was absorbed +his habit was to tap the desk edge with the blunt end of his pencil. + +"Some papers for your signature, sir," said the clerk as he slipped them +on the blotter in front of Westerling. "And the 132d--no order about +that, sir?" he asked. + +"None. It remains!" Westerling replied. + +The clerk went out impressed. His chief taking to sums of subtraction +and totally preoccupied! The 132d to remain! He, too, had a +question-mark in his secret mind. + +Westerling proceeded with his mathematics. Having heavily shaded the +tens, he essayed a sum in division. He found that ten went into seventy +just seven times. + +"One-seventh the allotted span of life!" he mused. "Take off fifteen +years for youth and fifteen after fifty-five--nobody counts after that, +though I mean to--and you have ten into forty, which is one fourth. That +is a good deal. But it's more to a woman than to a man--yes, a lot more +to a woman than to a man!" + +The clerk was right in thinking Westerling preoccupied; but it was not +with the international crisis. He had dismissed that for the present +from his thoughts by sending the 128th Regiment to South La Tir. He +might move some other regiments in the morning if advices from the +premier warranted. At all events, the army was ready, always ready for +any emergency. He was used to international crises. Probably a dozen had +occurred in the ten years since he had spoken his adieu to a young girl +at a garden-gate. Over his coffee the name of Miss Marta Galland, in a +list of arrivals at a hotel, had caught his eye in the morning paper. A +note to her had brought an answer, saying that her time was limited, +but she would be glad to have him call at five that afternoon. + +Rather impatiently he watched the slow minute-hand on the clock. He had +risen from his desk at four-thirty, when his personal aide, a handsome, +boyish, rosy-cheeked young officer, who seemed to be moulded into his +uniform, appeared. + +"Your car is waiting, sir," he said. His military correctness could not +hide the admiration and devotion in his eyes. He thought himself the +most fortunate lieutenant in the army. To him Westerling was, indeed, +great. Westerling realized this. + +"This is a personal call," Westerling explained; "so you are at liberty +to make one yourself, if you like," he added, with that magnetic smile +of a genial power which he used to draw men to him and hold them. + + + + +III + +OURS AND THEIRS + + +On the second terrace, Feller, the Gallands' gardener, a patch of blue +blouse and a patch of broad-brimmed straw hat over a fringe of white +hair, was planting bulbs. Mrs. Galland came down the path from the +veranda loiteringly, pausing to look at the flowers and again at the +sweep of hills and plain. The air was singularly still, so still that +she heard the cries of the children at play in the yards of the +factory-workers' houses which had been steadily creeping up the hill +from the town. She breathed in the peace and beauty of the surroundings +with that deliberate appreciation of age which holds to the happiness in +hand. To-morrow it might rain; to-day it is pleasant. She was getting +old. Serenely she made the most of to-day. + +The gardener did not look up when she reached his side. She watched his +fingers firmly pressing the moist earth around the bulbs that he had +sunk in their new beds. There were only three more to set out, and her +inclination, in keeping with her leisureliness, was to wait on the +completion of his task before speaking. Again she let her glance wander +away to the distances. It was arrested and held this time by two groups +of far-away points in the sky along the frontier, in the same bright +light of that other afternoon when Captain Arthur Lanstron had made his +first night over the range. + +"Look!" she cried. "Look, look!" she repeated, a girlish excitement +rippling her placidity. + +Aeroplanes and dirigibles had become a familiar sight. They were always +going and coming and manoeuvring, the Browns over their territory and +the Grays over theirs. But here was something new: two squadrons of +dirigibles and planes in company, one on either side of the white posts. +For the fraction of a second the dirigibles seemed prisms and the planes +still-winged dragon-flies hung on a blue wall. With the next fraction +the prisms were seen to be growing and the stretch of the plane wings +broadening. + +"They are racing--ours against theirs!" exclaimed Mrs. Galland. "Look, +look!" + +Still the gardener bent to his work, unconcerned. + +"I forgot! I always forget that you are deaf!" she murmured. + +She touched his shoulder. The effect was magical on the stoop-shouldered +figure, which rose with the spring of muscles that are elastic and +joints that are limber. His hat was removed with prompt and rather +graceful deference, revealing eyebrows that were still dark in contrast +to the white hair. For only an instant did he remain erect, but long +enough to suggest how supple and well-formed he must have been in youth. +Then he made a grimace and dropped his hand demonstratively over his +knee. + +"Pardon, Mrs. Galland, I have old bones. They always remind me if I try +to play any youthful tricks on them. Pardon! I did not see that you were +here. I," he said, in the monotonous voice of the deaf, which, however, +had a certain attractive wistfulness--"I--" and from the same throat as +he saw the object of her gaze came a vibration of passionate interest. +"Yes, neck and neck! Coming right for the baron's tower, neck and neck!" +he cried, in the zest of a contest understood and enjoyed. + +His hand rose in a vigorous, pulsating gesture; his eyes were snapping; +his lips parted in an ecstasy that made him seem twenty years younger; +his shoulders broadened and his chest expanded with the indrawing of a +deep breath. This let go, the stoop returned in a sudden reaction, the +briefly kindled flame died out of his eyes, his lips took on the droop +of age, and he thrust his hat back on his head, pulling the brim low +over his brow. + +"Wonderful, but terrible--terrible!" said Mrs. Galland. "Another horror +is added to war, as if there were not already enough. Oh, I know what +war is! I've seen this garden all spattered with blood and dead bodies +in a row here at our feet, and heard the groans and the cheers--the +groans of the wounded here in the garden and the cheers of the men who +had taken the castle hill!" + +Feller, with the lids of shaded eyes half closed, watched the oncoming +squadrons in a staring mesmerism. His only movement was a tattoo of the +fingers on his trousers' legs. + +"War!" he exclaimed with motionless lips. "War!" he repeated softly, +coaxingly. One would easily have mistaken the thought of war as +something delightful to him if he had not appeared so gentle and +detached. It seemed doubtful if he realized what he was saying or even +that he was speaking aloud. + +As the Gray squadron started to turn in order to keep on their side of +the white posts which circled around the spur of La Tir, one of the +dirigibles failed to respond to its rudder and lost speed; that in the +rear, responding too readily, had its leader on the thwart. An +aeroplane, sheering too abruptly to make room, tipped at a dangerous +angle and a tragedy seemed due within another wink of the eye. + +"Huh-huh-huh!" came from Feller in quick breaths, like the panting of a +dog on a hot day. + +"Oh!" gasped Mrs. Galland in one long breath of suspense. + +The envelope of the second dirigible grazed the envelope of its leader; +the groggy plane righted itself and volplaned underneath a dirigible; +and, though scattered, the Gray squadron drew away safely from the +Brown, which, slowing down, came on as straight as an arrow in +unchanged formation in a line over the castle tower. From the forward +Brown aeroplane, as its shadow shot over the garden, pursued by the +great, oblong shadows of the dirigibles, a white ball was dropped. It +made a plummet streak until about fifty feet above the earth, when it +exploded into a fine shower of powder, leaving intact a pirouetting bit +of white. + +"I think that was Colonel Lanstron leading when he ought to leave such +work to his assistants," said Mrs. Galland. "You remember him--why, it +was the colonel who recommended you! There, now, I've forgotten again +that you are deaf!" + +The slip of paper glided back and forth on slight currents of air and +finally fell among the rose-bushes a few yards from where the two were +standing. Feller brought it to Mrs. Galland. + +"Yes, it was Colonel Lanstron," she said, after reading the message. +"The message says: 'Hello, Marta!' Any other officer would have said: +'How do you do, Miss Galland!' He could not have known that she was +away. I've just had a telegram from her that she will be home in the +morning, and that takes me back to my idea that I came to speak about to +you," she babbled on, while Feller regarded her with a gentle, +uncomprehending smile. "You know how she likes chrysanthemums and they +are in full bloom. We'll cut them and fill all the vases in the +living-room and her room and--oh, how I do forget! You're not hearing a +word!" she exclaimed as she noted the helpless eagerness of his eyes. + +"It is a great nuisance, deafness in a gardener. But I love my work. I +try to do it well," he said in his monotone. + +"You do wonderfully, wonderfully!" she assented; "and you deserve great +credit. Many deaf people are irritable--and you are so cheerful!" + +He smiled as pleasantly as if he had heard the compliment and passed her +a small pad from his blouse pocket. With the pencil attached to it by a +string she wrote her instructions slowly, in an old-fashioned hand, +dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. + +"Pardon me, madam, but Miss Galland"--he paused, dwelling with a slight +inflection on his mention of the daughter as the talisman that warranted +his presuming to disagree with the mother--"Miss Galland, when she took +her last look around before going, said: 'Please don't cut any yet. I +want to see them all abloom in their beds first.'" + +"She has taken such an interest in them, and my idea was to please her. +Of course, leave them," said Mrs. Galland. She made repeated vigorous +nods of assent to save herself the trouble of writing. Starting back up +the steps, she murmured: "I suppose cut flowers are out of fashion--I +know I am--and deaf gardeners are in." She sighed. "And you are +twenty-seven, Marta, twenty-seven!" She drew another, a very long sigh, +and then her serenity returned. + +"Ours did not pass theirs," observed the gardener, with a musing smile +when he was alone; "but theirs nearly had a jolly spill there at the +turn!" + +As he bent once more to his work a bumblebee approached on its glad, +piratical errand from flower to flower in the rapt stillness, and Feller +looked around with a slight courtesy of his hat brim. + +"You and your fussily thunderous wings!" he said, half aloud. "I wonder +if you think you're an aeroplane. Surely, they'd never train you to +evolute in squadrons. You are an anarchist, you are, and an epicurean +into the bargain!" + +He went with his barrow for more bulbs. Meanwhile, the sun sank behind +the range. The plain lay bathed in soft, golden light; the ravines were +tongues of black shadow. As the evening gun boomed out from a fortress +on the Brown side of the frontier, Feller glanced around to see if any +one were watching. Assured that he was alone, he removed his hat, and, +though he wiped the brim and wiped his brow, in his attitude was the +suggestion of the military stance of attention at colors. A minute +later, when the evening gun of the Grays across the white posts +reverberated over the plain, he jammed his hat back on his head rather +abruptly and started to the tool house with his barrow. + +"War! war!" he repeated softly. "Yes, war!" he added in eager desire. + + + + +IV + +THE DIVIDENDS OF POWER + + +Westerling realized that the question of marriage as a social +requirement might arise when he should become officially chief of staff +with the retirement of His Excellency the field-marshal. For the present +he enjoyed his position as a bachelor who was the most favored man in +the army too much to think of marriage. This did not imply an absence of +fondness for women; rather the contrary. He liked sitting next to a +beautiful neck and shoulders and having a pair of feminine eyes sparkle +into his at dinner; though, with rare exceptions, not the same neck and +shoulders on succeeding nights. His natural sense of organization +divided women into two classes: those of family and wealth, whom he met +at great houses, and those purring kittens who live in small flats. Both +afforded him diversion. A woman had been the most telling influence in +making him vice-chief of staff; an affair to which gossip gave the +breath of scandal had been an argument against him. + +It was a little surprising that the bell that the girl of seventeen had +rung in his secret mind when he was on one of the first rounds of the +ladder, now lost in the mists of a lower stratum of existence, should +ever tinkle again.... Yet he had heard its note in the tone of her +prophecy with each step in his promotion; and while the other people +whom he had known at La Tir were the vaguest shadows of personalities, +her picture was as definite in detail as when she said: "You have the +will! You have the ambition!" She had recognized in him the power that +he felt; foreseen his ascent to the very apex of the pyramid. She was +still unmarried, which was strange; for she had not been bad-looking and +she was of a fine old family. What was she like now? Commonplace and +provincial, most likely. Many of the people he had known in his early +days appeared so when he met them again. But, at the worst, he looked +for an interesting half-hour. + +The throbbing activity of the streets of the capital, as his car +proceeded on the way to her hotel, formed an energetic accompaniment to +his gratifying backward survey of how all his plans had worked out from +the very day of the prophecy. Had he heard the remark of a great +manufacturer to the banker at his side in a passing limousine, "There +goes the greatest captain of industry of us all!" Westerling would only +have thought: "Certainly. I am chief of staff. I am at the head of all +your workmen at one time or another!" Had he heard the banker's answer, +"But pretty poor pay, pretty small dividends!" he would have thought: +"Splendid dividends--the dividends of power!" + +He had a caste contempt for the men of commerce, with their mercenary +talk about credit and market prices; and also for the scientists, +doctors, engineers, and men of other professions, who spoke of things in +books which he did not understand. Reading books was one of the faults +of Turcas, his assistant. No bookish soldier, he knew, had ever been a +great general. He resented the growing power of these leaders of the +civil world, taking distinction away from the military, even when, as a +man of parts, he had to court their influence. His was the profession +that was and ever should be the elect. A penniless subaltern was a +gentleman, while he could never think of a man hi business as one. + +All the faces in the street belonged to a strange, busy world outside +his interest and thoughts. They formed what was known as the public, +often making a clatter About things which they did not understand, when +they Should obey the orders of their superiors. Of late, their clatter +had been about the extra taxes for the recent increase of the standing +forces by another corps. The public was bovine with a parrot's head. Yet +it did not admire the toiling ox, but the eagle and the lion. + +As his car came to the park his eyes lighted at sight of one of the +dividends--one feature of urban life that ever gave him a thrill. A +battalion of the 128th, which he had ordered that afternoon to the very +garrison at South La Tir that he had once commanded, was marching +through the main avenue. Youths all, of twenty-one or two, they were in +a muddy-grayish uniform which was the color of the plain as seen from +the veranda of the Galland house. + +Around them, in a mighty, pervasive monotone, was the roar of city +traffic, broken by the nearer sounds of the cries of children playing in +the sand piles, the bark of motor horns, the screech of small boys' +velocipedes on the paths of the park; while they themselves were silent, +except for the rhythmic tramp of the military shoes of identical +pattern, as was every article of their clothing and equipment from head +to foot, whose character had been the subject of the weightiest +deliberation of the staff. + +How much can a soldier carry and how best carry it easily? What shoes +are the most serviceable for marching and yet cheap? Nothing was so +precise in all their surroundings, nothing seemed so resolutely +dependable as this column of soldiers. They were the last word in +filling human tissue into a mould for a set task. Where these came from +were other boys growing up to take their places. The mothers of the +nation were doing their duty. All the land was a breeding-ground for the +dividends of Hedworth Westerling. + +At the far side of the park he saw another kind of dividend--another +group of marching men. These were not in uniform. They were the +unemployed. Many were middle-aged, with worn, tired faces. Beside the +flag of the country at the head of the procession was that of universal +radicalism. And his car had to stop to let them pass. For an instant the +indignation of military autocracy rose strong within him at sight of the +national colors in such company. But he noted how naturally the men kept +step; the solidarity of their movement. The stamp of their army service +in youth could not be easily removed. He realized the advantage of +heading an army in which defence was not dependent on a mixture of +regulars and volunteers, but on universal conscription that brought +every able-bodied man under discipline. + +These reservists, in the event of war, would hear the call of race and +they would fight for the one flag that then had any significance. Yes, +the old human impulses would predominate and the only enemy would be on +the other side of the frontier. They would be pawns of his will--the +will that Marta Galland had said would make him chief of staff. + +Wasn't war the real cure for the general unrest? Wasn't the nation +growing stale from the long peace? He was ready for war now that he had +become vice-chief, when the retirement of His Excellency, unable to bear +the weight of his years and decorations in the field, would make him the +supreme commander. One ambition gained, he heard the appeal of another: +to live to see the guns and rifles that had fired only blank cartridges +in practice pouring out shells and bullets, and all the battalions that +had played at sham war in manoeuvres engaged in real war, under his +direction. He saw his columns sweeping up the slopes of the Brown range. +Victory was certain. He would be the first to lead a great modern army +against a great modern army; his place as the master of modern tactics +secure in the minds of all the soldiers of the world. The public would +forget its unrest in the thrill of battles won and provinces conquered, +and its clatter would be that of acclaim for a new idol of its old +faith. + + + + +V + +OFF TO THE FRONTIER + + +Ranks broken in the barracks yard, backs free of packs, shoulders free +of rifles, the men of the first battalion of the 28th, which Westerling +had seen marching through the park, had no thought except the prospect +of the joyous lassitude of resting muscles and of loosening tongues that +had been silent on the march. They were simply tired human beings in the +democracy of a common life and service. + +The 128th had been recruited from a province in the high country distant +from the capital. In the days of Maria's old baron, a baron of the same +type had plundered their ancestors, and in the days of the first Galland +they formed a principality frequently at war with their neighbors of the +same blood and language. At length they had united with their neighbors +who had in turn united with other neighbors, forming the present nation +of the Grays, which vented its fighting spirit against other nations. +Each generation must send forth its valorous and adventurous youth to +the proof of its manhood in battle, while those who survived wounds and +disease became the heroes of their reminiscences, inciting the younger +generation to emulation. With each step in the evolution learning had +spread and civilization developed. + +Since the last war universal conscription had gone hand in hand with +popular education and the telegraphic click of the news of the world to +all breakfast tables and cheap travel and better living. Every private +of the five millions was a scholar compared to the old baron; he had a +broader horizon than the first Galland. In the name of defence, to hold +their borders secure, the great powers were straining their resources to +strengthen the forces that kept an armed peace. Evolution never ceases. +What next? + +In a group of the members of Company B, who dropped on a bench in the +barrack room, were the sons of a farmer, a barber, a butcher, an army +officer, a day-laborer, a judge, a blacksmith, a rich man's valet, a +banker, a doctor, a manufacturer, and a small shopkeeper. + +"Six months more and my tour is up!" cried the judge's son. + +"Six months more for me!" + +"Now you're counting!" + +"And for me--one, two, three, four, five, six!" + +"Oh, don't rub it in," the manufacturer's son shouted above the chorus, +"you old fellows! I've a year and six months more." + +"Here, too!" chimed in the banker's son. "A year and six months more of +iron spoons and tin cups and army shoes and army fare and early rising. +Hep-hep-hep, drill-drill-drill, and drudgery!" + +"Oh, I don't know!" said the day-laborer's son. "I don't have to get up +any earlier than I do at home, and I don't have to work as hard as I'll +have to when I leave." + +"Nor I!" agreed the blacksmith's son. "It's a kind of holiday for me." + +"Holiday!" the banker's son gasped. "That's so," he added thoughtfully, +and smiled gratefully over a fate that had been indulgent to him in a +matter of fathers and limousines. + +"Look at the newspapers! Maybe we shall be going to war," said the +manufacturer's son. + +"Stuff! Nonsense!" said the judge's son. "We are always having scares. +They sell papers and give the fellows at the Foreign Office a chance to +look unconcerned. But let's have the opinion of an international expert, +of the great and only philosopher, guide, companion, and friend. What +do you think of the crisis, eh, Hugo? Soberly, now. The fate of nations +may hang on your words. If not, at least the price of a ginger soda!" + +It was around Hugo Mallin that the group had formed. Groups were always +forming around Hugo. He could spring the unexpected and incongruous and +make people laugh. Slight but wiry of physique, he had light hair, a +freckled and rather nondescript nose, large brown eyes, and a broad, +sensitive mouth. Nature had not attempted any regularity of features in +his case. She had been content with making each one a mobile servant of +his mind. In repose his face was homely, and it was a mask. + +"Come on, Hugo! Out with it!" + +Hugo's brow contracted; the lines of the mask were drawn in deliberate +seriousness. + +"I never hear war mentioned that I don't have a shiver right down my +spine, as I did when I was a little boy and went into the cellar without +a light," he replied. + +"Fear?" exclaimed Eugene Aronson, the farmer's son, whose big, plain +face expressed dumb incomprehension. He alone was standing. Being the +giant and the athlete of the company, the march had not tired him. + +"Fear?" some of the others repeated. The sentiment was astounding, and +Hugo was as manifestly in earnest as if he were a minister addressing a +parliamentary chamber. + +"Yes, don't you?" asked Hugo, in bland surprise. + +"I should say not!" declared Eugene. + +"Do you want to be killed?" asked Hugo, with profound interest. + +"The bullet isn't made that will get me!" answered Eugene, throwing back +his broad shoulders. + +"I don't know," mused Hugo, eying the giant up and down. "You're pretty +big, Gene, and a bullet that only nicked one of us in the bark might get +you in the wood. However, if you are sure that you are in no danger, +why, you don't count. But let's take a census while we are about it and +see who wants to be killed. First, you, Armand; do you?" he asked the +doctor's son, Armand Daution. + +Armand grinned. The others grinned, not at him, but at the quizzical +solemnity of Hugo's manner. + +"If so, state whether you prefer bullets or shrapnel, early in the +campaign or late, a la carte or table d'hote, morning or--" Hugo went +on. + +But laughter drowned the sentence, though Hugo's face was without a +smile. + +"You ought to go on the stage!" some one exclaimed. + +"If it were as easy to amuse a pay audience as you fellows, I might," +Hugo replied. "But I've another question," he pursued. "Do you think +that the fellows on the other side of the frontier want to be killed?" + +"No danger! They'll give in. They always do," said Eugene. + +"I confess that it hardly seems reasonable to make war over the Bodlapoo +affair!" This from the judge's son. + +"Over some hot weather, some swamp, and some black policemen in Africa," +said Hugo. + +"But they hauled down our flag!" exclaimed the army officer's son. + +"On their territory, they say. We were the aggressors," Hugo interposed. + +"It was _our_ flag!" said Eugene. + +"But we wouldn't want them to put up their flag on our territory, would +we?" Hugo asked. + +"Let them try it!" thundered Eugene, with a full breath from the big +bellows in his broad chest. "Hugo, I don't like to hear you talk that +way," he added, shaking his head sadly. Such views from a friend really +hurt him; indeed, he was almost lugubrious. This brought another laugh. + +"Don't you see he's getting you, Gene?" + +"He's acting!" + +"He always gets you, you old simpleton!" The judge's son gave Eugene an +affectionate dig in the ribs. + +Eugene was well liked and in the way that a big Saint Bernard dog is +liked. At the latest manoeuvres, on the night that their division had +made a rapid flank movement, without any apparent sense that his own +load was the heavier for it, he had carried the rifle and pack of Peter +Kinderling, a valet's pasty-faced little son "Peterkin," as he was +called, was the stupid of Company B. Being generally inoffensive, the +butt of the drill sergeant, who thought that he would never learn even +the manual of arms, and rounding out the variety of characters which +makes for fellowship, he was regarded with a sympathetic kindliness by +his comrades. + +"But I don't think you ought to joke about the flag That's sacred!" +declared Eugene. + +"Now you're talking!" said Jacob Pilzer, the butcher's son, who sat on +the other side of the bench from Eugene. He was heavily built, with an +undershot jaw and a patch of liverish birthmark on his cheek. + +"Yes," piped Peterkin, who had an opinion when the two strong men of the +company agreed on any subject. But he spoke tentatively, nevertheless. +He was taking no risks. + +"Oh, if we went to war the Bodlapoo affair would be only an excuse," +said the manufacturer's son. "We shall go to war as a matter of broad +national policy." + +"Right you are!" agreed the banker's son. "No emotion about it. Emotion +as an international quantity is dead. Everything is business now in this +business age." + +"Killing people as a broad international policy!" mused Hugo _sotto +voce_, as if this were a matter of his own thoughts. + +The others scarcely heard him as the manufacturer's son struck his fist +in the palm of his hand resoundingly to demand attention. + +"We need room in which to expand. We have eighty million people to +their fifty, while our territory is only a little larger than theirs. +Our population grows; the Browns' does not!" he announced. + +"But there is a remedy for that," Hugo interjected loftly, so softly +that everybody looked at him. "Why, all the conscripts of the army for +two years could take a vow not to marry," he said. "We could reduce the +output, as your father's factory does when the market is dull. We should +not have so many babies. This would be cheaper than rearing them to be +slaughtered in their young manhood." + +"Hear ye! Hear ye!" shouted the doctor's son, in the midst of the +hilarity that ensued. "Hugo Mallin solves the whole problem of eugenics +by destroying the field for eugenics!" + +"The levity of a lot of mere unthinking privates who mistake themselves +for sociological experts shall not deter me from finishing my speech," +pursued the manufacturer's son. + +"Speak on!" + +"Listen to the fount of wisdom play!" + +"A beer if you produce an idea!" + +"War must come some day. It must come if for no other reason than to +stop the strikes, arouse patriotism, and give an impetus to industry. An +army of five millions on our side against the Browns' three millions! Of +course, they won't start it! We shall have to take the aggressive; +naturally, they'll not." + +"And they'll run, they'll run, just as they always have" Eugene cried +enthusiastically. + +"You bet they will, or they'll be mush for our bayonets!" said Pilzer, +the butcher's son. + +"Will they? Do you really think they will?" asked Hugo, drawing down the +corners of his mouth in profound contemplation that was actually +mournful. "I wonder, now, I wonder if they can run any faster than I +can?" + +Everybody was laughing except him. If he had laughed too, he would not +have been funny. His faint, look of surprise over their outburst only +served to prolong it. + +"Hugo, you're immense!" + +"You're a scream!" + +"But I am considering," Hugo resumed, when there was silence. "If both +sides ran as fast as they could when the war began, it would be +interesting to see which army reached home first. Some of us might get +out of breath, but nobody would be killed." He had to wait on another +laugh before he could continue. It takes little to amuse men in garrison +if one knows how. "I don't want to be killed, and why should I want to +kill strangers on the other side of the frontier?" He paused on the +rising inflection of his question, a calm, earnest challenge in his +eyes. "I don't know them. I haven't the slightest grudge against them." + +No grudge against the Browns--against the ancient enemy! The faces +around were frowning, as if in doubt how to take him. + +"What did you come into the army for, then?" called Pilzer, the +butcher's son. "You didn't have to, being an only son. Talk that stuff +to your officers! They will let you out. They don't want any cowards +like you!" + +"Cowards! Hold on, there!" said Eugene, who was very fond of Hugo. He +spoke in the even voice of his vast good nature, but he looked meaningly +at the butcher's son. + +"Coward? Is that the word, Jake?" Hugo inquired amiably. "Now, maybe I +am. I don't know. But it wouldn't prove that I wasn't if I fought you +any more than if I fought the strangers on the other side of the +frontier." + +"Well, if you don't want to fight, what are you in the army for? That's +a fair question, isn't it?" growled Pilzer, in an appeal to public +opinion. + +"Yes, you can carry a joke too far," said the army officer's son. "Yes, +why?" + +The others nodded. An atmosphere of hostility was gathering around Hugo. +In face of it a smile began playing about the corners of his lips. The +smile spread. For the first time he was laughing, while all the others +were serious. Suddenly he threw his arms around the necks of the men +next to him. + +"Why, to be with all you good fellows, of course!" he said, "and to +complete my education. If I hadn't taken my period in the army, you +might have shaved me, Eduardo; you might have fixed a horseshoe for me, +Henry; you might have sold me turnips, Eugene, but I shouldn't have +known you. Now we all know one another by eating the same food, wearing +the same clothes, marching side by side, and submitting to another kind +of discipline than that of our officers--the discipline of close +association in a community of service. There's hope for humanity in +that--for humanity trying to free itself of its fetters. We have mixed +with the people of the capital. They have found us and we have found +them to be of the same human family." + +"That's so! This business of moving regiments about from one garrison to +another is a good cure for provincialism," said the doctor's son. + +"Judge's son or banker's son or blacksmith's son, whenever we meet in +after-life there will be a thought of fellowship exchanged in our +glances," Hugo continued. "Haven't we got something that we couldn't get +otherwise? Doesn't it thrill you now when we're all tired from the march +except leviathan Gene--thrill you with a warm glow from the flow of +good, rich, healthy red blood?" + +"Yes, yes, yes!" + +There was a chorus of assent. Banker's son clapped valet's son on the +shoulder; laborer's son and doctor's son locked arms and teetered on the +edge of the cot together. + +"And I've another idea," proceeded Hugo very seriously as the vows of +eternal friendship subsided. "It is one to spread education and the +spirit of comradeship still further. Instead of two sets of autumn +manoeuvres, one on either side of the frontier, I'd have our army and +the Browns hold a manoeuvre together--this year on their side and next +year on ours." + +The biggest roar yet rose from throats that had been venting a tender +tone. Only the slow Eugene Aronson was blank and puzzled. But directly +he, too, broke into laughter, louder and more prolonged than the others. + +"You can be so solemn that it takes a minute to see your joke," he said. + +"And humorous when we expect him to be solemn--and, presto, there he +goes!" added the judge's son. + +Hugo's lips were twitching peculiarly. + +"Look at him!" exclaimed the manufacturer's son. "Oh, you've had us all +going this afternoon, you old farceur, you, Hugo!" + +In the silence that waited on another extravagance from the entertainer +the sergeant entered the room. + +"We shall entrain to-morrow morning!" he announced. "We are going to +South La Tir on the frontier." + +Oh, joy! Oh, lucky 128th! It was to see still more of the world! The +sergeant stood by listening to the uproar and cautioning the men not to +overturn the tables and benches. Even the banker's and the +manufacturer's sons, who had toured the country from frontier to +frontier in paternal automobiles, were as happy as the laborer's son. + +"What fun it would be if we could visit back and forth with the fellows +on the other side of the frontier!" said Hugo. + +"What the--eh!" exclaimed the sergeant. "Will you never stop your +joking, you, Hugo Mallin?" + +"Never, sir," replied Hugo dryly. "It comes natural to me!" + + + + +VI + +THE SECOND PROPHECY + + +In the reception-room, where he awaited the despatch of his card, +Hedworth Westerling caught a glimpse of his person in a panel glass so +convenient as to suggest that an adroit hotel manager might have placed +it there for the delectation of well-preserved men of forty-two. He saw +a face of health that was little lined; brown hair that did not reveal +its sprinkle of gray at that distance; shoulders, bearing the gracefully +draped gold cords of the staff, squarely set on a rigid spine in his +natural attitude. Yes, he had taken good care of himself, enjoying his +pleasures with discreet, epicurean relish as he would this meeting with +a woman whom he had not seen for ten years. + +On her part, Marta, when she had received the note, had been in doubt as +to her answer. Her curiosity to see him again was not of itself +compelling. The actual making of the prophecy was rather dim to her mind +until he recalled it. She had heard of his rise and she had heard, too, +things about him which a girl of twenty-seven can better understand than +a girl of seventeen. His reason for wanting to see her he had said was +to "renew an old acquaintance." He could have little interest in her, +and her interest in him was that he was head of the Gray army. His work +had intimate relation to that which the Marta of twenty-seven, a Marta +with a mission, had set for herself. + +A page came to tell Westerling that Miss Galland should be down +directly. But before she came a waiter entered with a tea-tray. + +"By the lady's direction, sir," he explained as he set the tray on a +table opposite Westerling. + +Across a tea-table the prophecy had been made and across a tea-table +they had held most of their talks. Having a picture in memory for +comparison, he was seeing the doorway as the frame for a second picture. +When she appeared the picture seemed the same as of old. There was an +undeniable delight in this first impression of externals. There had been +no promise that she would be beautiful, and she was not. There had been +promise of distinction, and she seemed to have fulfilled it. For a +second she paused on the threshold rather diffidently. Then she smiled +as she had when she greeted him from the veranda as he came up the +terrace steps. She crossed the room with a flowing, spontaneous vitality +that appealed to him as something familiar. + +"Ten years, isn't it?" she exclaimed, putting a genuine quality of +personal interest into the words as she gave his hand a quick, firm +shake. Then, with the informality of old acquaintances who had parted +only yesterday, she indicated a place on the sofa for him, while she +seated herself on the other side of the tea-table. "The terrace there in +the foreground," she said with conforming gestures of location, "the +church steeple over the town, the upward sweep of the mountains, and +there the plain melting into the horizon. And, let me see, you took two +lumps, if I remember?" + +He would have known the hand that poised over the sugar bowl though he +had not seen the face; a brownish hand, not long-fingered, not narrow +for its length--a compact, deft, firm little hand. + +"None now," he said. + +"Do you find it fattening?" she asked. + +He recognized the mischievous sparkle of the eyes, the quizzical turn of +the lips, which was her asset in keeping any question from being +personal. Nevertheless, he flushed slightly. + +"A change of taste," he averred. + +"Since you've become such a great man?" she hazarded. "Is that too +strong?" This referred to the tea. + +"No, just right!" he nodded. + +He was studying her with the polite, veiled scrutiny of a man of the +world. A materialist, he would look a woman over as he would a soldier +when he had been a major-general making an inspection. She was slim, +supple; he liked slim, supple women. Her eyes, though none the less +luminous, and her lips, though none the less flexible, did not seem +quite as out of proportion with the rest of her face as formerly, now +that it had taken on the contour of maturity, which was noticeable also +in the lines of her figure. Yes, she was twenty-seven, with the vivacity +of seventeen retained, though she were on the edge of being an old maid +according to the conventional notions. Necks and shoulders that happened +to be at his side at dinner, he had found, when they were really +beautiful, were not averse to his glance of appreciative and +discriminating admiration of physical charm. But he saw her shrug +slightly and caught a spark from her eyes that made him vaguely +conscious of an offence to her sensibilities, and he was wholly +conscious that the suggestion, bringing his faculties up sharply, had +the pleasure of a novel sensation. + +"How fast you have gone ahead!" she said. "That little prophecy of mine +did come true. You are chief of Staff!" + +After a smile of satisfaction he corrected her. + +"Not quite; vice-chief--the right-hand man of His Excellency. I am a +buffer between him and the heads of divisions. This has led to the +erroneous assumption which I cannot too forcibly deny--" + +He was proceeding with the phraseology habitual whenever men or women, +to flatter him, had intimated that they realized that he was the actual +head of the army. His Excellency, with the prestige of a career, must be +kept soporifically enjoying the forms of authority. To arouse his +jealousy might curtail Westerling's actual power. + +"Yes, yes!" breathed Marta softly, arching her eyebrows a trifle as she +would when looking all around and through a thing or when she found any +one beating about the bush. The little frown disappeared and she smiled +understandingly. "You know I'm not a perfect goose!" she added. "Had you +been made chief of staff in name, too, all the old generals would have +been in the sulks and the young generals jealous," she continued. "The +one way that you might have the power to exercise was by proxy." + +This downright frankness was another reflection of the old days before +he was at the apex of the pyramid. Now it was so unusual in his +experience as to be almost a shock. On the point of arguing, he caught a +mischievous, delightful "Isn't that so?" in her eyes, and replied: + +"Yes, I shouldn't wonder if it were!" + +Why shouldn't he admit the truth to the one who had rung the bell of his +secret ambition long ago by recognizing in him the ability to reach his +goal? He marvelled at her grasp of the situation. + +"It wasn't so very hard to say, was it?" she asked happily, in response +to his smile. Then, her gift of putting herself in another's place, +while she strove to look at things with his purpose and vision, in full +play, she went on in a different tone, as much to herself as to him: +"You have labored to make yourself master of a mighty organization. You +did not care for the non-essentials. You wanted the reality of shaping +results." + +"Yes, the results, the power!" he exclaimed. + +"Fifteen hundred regiments!" she continued thoughtfully, looking at a +given point rather than at him. "Every regiment a blade which you would +bring to an even sharpness! Every regiment a unit of a harmonious whole, +knowing how to screen itself from fire and give fire as long as bidden, +in answer to your will if war comes! That is what you live and plan for, +isn't it?" + +"Yes, exactly! Yes, you have it!" he said. His shoulders stiffened as he +thrilled at seeing a picture of himself, as he wanted to see himself, +done in bold strokes. It assured him that not only had his own mind +grown beyond what were to him the narrow associations of his old La Tir +days, but that hers had grown, too. "And you--what have you been doing +all these years?" he asked. + +"Living the life of a woman on a country estate," she replied. "Since +you made a rule that no Gray officers Should cross the frontier we have +been a little lonelier, having only the Brown officers to tea. Did you +really find it so bad for discipline in your own case?" she concluded +with playful solemnity. + +"One cannot consider individual cases in a general order," he explained. +"And, remember, the Browns made the ruling first. You see, every year +means a tightening--yes, a tightening, as arms and armies grow more +complicated and the maintaining of staff secrets more important. And you +have been all the time at La Tir, truly?" he asked, changing the +subject. He was convinced that she had acquired something that could not +be gained on the outskirts of a provincial town. + +"No. I have travelled. I have been quite around the world." + +"You have!" This explained much. "How I envy you! That is a privilege I +shall not know until I am superannuated." While he should remain chief +of staff he must be literally a prisoner in his own country. + +"Yes, I should say it was splendid! Splendid--yes, indeed!" Snappy +little nods of the head being unequal to expressing the joy of the +memories that her exclamation evoked, she clasped her hands over her +knees and swung back and forth in the ecstasy of seventeen. + +"Splendid! I should say so!" She nestled the curling tip of her tongue +against her teeth, as if the recollection must also be tasted. +"Splendid, enchanting, enlightening, stupendous, and wickedly expensive! +Another girl and I did it all on our own." + +"O-oh!" he exclaimed. + +"Oh, oh, oh!" she repeated after him. "Oh, what, please?" + +"Oh, nothing!" he said. It was quite comprehensible to him how well +equipped she was to take care of herself on such an adventure. + +"Precisely, when you come to think it over!" she concluded. + +"What interested you most? What was the big lesson of all your +journeying?" he asked, ready to play the listener. + +"Being born and bred on a frontier, of an ancestry that was born and +bred on a frontier, why, frontiers interested me most," she said. "I +collected impressions of frontiers as some people collect pictures. I +found them all alike--stupid, just stupid! Oh, so stupid!" Her frown +grew with the repetition of the word; her fingers closed in on her palm +in vexation. He recollected that he had seen her like this two or three +times at La Tir, when he had found the outbursts most entertaining. He +imagined that the small fist pressed against the table edge could +deliver a stinging blow. "As stupid as it is for neighbors to quarrel! +It put me at war with all frontiers." + +"Apparently," he said. + +She withdrew her fist from the table, dropped the opened hand over the +other on her knee, her body relaxing, her wrath passing into a kind of +shamefacedness and then into a soft, prolonged laugh. + +"I laugh at myself, at my own inconsistency," she said. "I was warlike +against war. At all events, if there is anything to make a teacher of +peace lose her temper it is the folly of frontiers." + +"Yes?" he exclaimed. "Yes? Go on!" And he thought: "I'm really having a +very good time." + +"You see, I came home from my tour with an idea--an idea for a life +occupation just as engrossing as yours," she went on, "and opposed to +yours. I saw there was no use of working with the grown-up folks. They +must be left to The Hague conferences and the peace societies. But +children are quite alike the world over. You can plant thoughts in the +young that will take root and grow as they grow." + +"Patriotism, for instance," he observed narrowly. + +"No, the follies of martial patriotism! The wickedness of war, which is +the product of martial patriotism!" + +The follies of patriotism! This was the red flag of anarchy to him. He +started to speak, flushing angrily, but held his tongue and only emitted +a "whew!" in good-humored wonder. + +"I see you are not very frightened by my opposition," she rejoined in a +flash of amusement not wholly untempered by exasperation. + +"We got the appropriation for an additional army corps this year," he +explained contentedly, his repose completely regained. + +"Thus increasing the odds against us. But perhaps not; for we are +dealing with the children not with recruits, as I said. We call +ourselves the teachers of peace. I organized the first class in La Tir. +I have the children come together every Sunday morning and I tell them +about the children that live in other countries. I tell them that a +child a thousand miles away is just as much a neighbor as the one across +the street. At first I feared that they would find it uninteresting. But +if you know how to talk to them they don't." + +"Naturally they don't, when you talk to them," he interrupted. + +She was so intent that she passed over the compliment with a gesture +like that of brushing away a cobweb. Her eyes were like deep, clear +wells of faith and repose. + +"I try to make the children of other countries so interesting that our +children will like them too well ever to want to kill them when they +grow up. We have a little peace prayer--they have even come to like to +recite it--a prayer and an oath. But I'll not bother you with it. Other +women have taken up the idea. I have found a girl who is going to start +a class on your side in South La Tir, and I came here to meet some women +who want to inaugurate the movement in your capital." + +"I'll have to see about that!" he rejoined, half-banteringly, +half-threateningly. + +"There is something else to come, even more irritating," she said, less +intently and smiling. "So please be prepared to hold your temper." + +"I shall not beat my fist on the table defending war as you did +defending peace!" he retaliated with significant enjoyment. + +But she used his retort for an opening. + +"Oh, I'd rather you would do that than jest! It's human. It's going to +war because one is angry. You would go to war as a matter of cold +reason." + +"If otherwise, I should lose," he replied. + +"Exactly. You make it easy for me to approach my point. I want to +prevent you from losing!" she announced cheerfully yet very seriously. + +"Yes? Proceed. I brace myself against an explosion of indignation!" + +"It is the duty of a teacher of peace to use all her influence with the +people she knows," she went on. "So I am going to ask you not to let +your country ever go to war against mine while you are chief of staff." + +"Mine against yours?" he equivocated. "Why, you live almost within +gunshot of the line! Your people have as much Gray as Brown blood in +their veins, _Your_ country! _My_ country! Isn't that patriotism?" + +"Patriotism, but not martial patriotism," she corrected him. "My thought +is to stop war for both countries as war, regardless of sides. Promise +me that you will not permit it!" + +"I not permit it!" He smiled with the kindly patronage of a great man +who sees a charming woman floundering in an attempt at logic. "It is for +the premier to say. I merely make the machine ready. The government says +the word that makes it move. I able to stop war! Come, come!" + +"But you can--yes, you can with a word!" she declared positively. + +"How?" he asked, amazed. "How?" he repeated blandly. + +Was she teasing him? he wondered. What new resources of confusion had +ten years and a tour around the world developed in her? Was it possible +that the Whole idea of the teachers of peace was an invention to make +conversation at his expense? If so, she carried it off with a sincerity +that suggested other depths yet unsounded. + +"Very easily," she answered. "You can tell the premier that you cannot +win. Tell him that you will break your army to pieces against the +Browns' fortifications!" + +He gasped. Then an inner voice prompted him that the cue was comedy. + +"Excellent fooling--excellent!" he said with a laugh. "Tell the premier +that I should lose when I have five million men to their three million! +What a harlequin chief of staff I should be! Excellent fooling! You +almost had me!" + +Again he laughed, though in the fashion of one who had hardly unbent his +spine, while he was wishing for the old days when he might take tea with +her one or two afternoons a week. It would be a fine tonic after his +isolation at the apex of the pyramid surveying the deference of the +lower levels. Then he saw that her eyes, shimmering with wonder, grew +dull and her lips parted in a rigid, pale line as if she were hurt. + +"You think I am joking?" she asked. + +"Why, yes!" + +"But I am not! No, no, not about such a ghastly subject as a war +to-day!" She was leaning toward him, hands on knee and eyes burning like +coals without a spark. "I"--she paused as she had before she broke out +with the first prophecy--"I will quote part of our children's oath: 'I +will not be a coward. It is a coward who strikes first. A brave man even +after he receives a blow tries to reason with his assailant, and does +not strike back until he receives a second blow. I shall not let a +burglar drive me from my house. If an enemy tries to take my land I +shall appeal to his sense of justice and reason with him, but if he then +persists I shall fight for my home. If I am victorious I shall not try +to take his land but to make the most of my own. I shall never cross a +frontier to kill my fellowmen.'" + +Very impressive she made the oath. Her deliberate recital of it had the +quality which justifies every word with an urgent faith. + +"You see, with that teaching there can be no war," she proceeded, "and +those who strike will be weak; those who defend will be strong." + +"Perhaps," he said. + +"You would not like to see thousands, hundreds of thousands, of men +killed and maimed, would you?" she demanded, and her eyes held the +horror of the sight in reality. "You can prevent it--you _can_!" Her +heart was in the appeal. + +"The old argument! No, I should not like to see that," he replied. "I +only do my duty as a soldier to my country." + +"The old answer! The more reason why you should tell the premier you +can't! But there is still another reason for telling him," she urged +gently. + +Now he saw her not at twenty-seven but at seventeen, girlish, the +subject of no processes of reason but in the spell of an intuition, and +he knew that something out of the blue in a flash was coming. + +"For you will not win!" she declared. + +This struck fire. Square jaw and sturdy body, in masculine energy, +resolute and trained, were set indomitably against feminine vitality. + +"Yes, we shall win! We shall win!" he said without even the physical +demonstration of a gesture and in a hard, even voice which was like that +of the machinery of modern war itself, a voice which the aristocratic +sniff, the Louis XVI. curls, or any of the old gallery-display heroes +would have thought utterly lacking in histrionics suitable to the +occasion. He remained rigid after he had spoken, handsome, +self-possessed. + +There was no use of beating feminine fists against such a stone wall. +The force of the male was supreme. She smiled with a strange, quivering +loosening of the lips. She spread out her hands with fingers apart, as +if to let something run free from them into the air, and the flame of +appeal that had been in her eyes broke into many lights that seemed to +scatter into space, yet ready to return at her command. She glanced at +the clock and rose, almost abruptly. + +"I was very strenuous riding my hobby against yours, wasn't I?" she +exclaimed in a flutter of distraction that made it easy for him to +descend from his own steed. "I stated a feeling. I made a guess, a +threat about your winning--and all in the air. That's a woman's +privilege; one men grant, isn't it?" + +"We enjoy doing so," he replied, all urbanity. + +"Thank you!" she said simply. "I must be at home in time for the +children's lesson on Sunday. My sleeper is engaged, and if I am not to +miss the train I must go immediately." + +With an undeniable shock of regret he realized that the interview was +over. Really, he had had a very good time; not only that, but--. + +"Will it be ten years before we meet again?" he asked. + +"Perhaps, unless you change the rules about officers dossing the +frontier to take tea," she replied. + +"Even if I did, the vice-chief of staff might hardly go." + +"Then perhaps you must wait," she warned him, "until the teachers of +peace have done away with all frontiers." + +"Or, if there were war, I should come!" he answered in kind. He half +wished that this might start another argument and she would miss her +train. But she made no reply. "And you may come to the Gray capital +again. You are not through travelling!" he added. + +This aroused her afresh; the flame was back in her eyes. + +"Yes. I have all the memories of my journeys to enjoy, all their lessons +to study," she said. "There is the big world, and you want to have had +the breath of all its climates in your lungs, the visions of all its +peoples yours. Then the other thing is three acres and a cow. If you +could only have the solidarity of the Japanese, their public spirit, +with the old Chinese love of family and peace, and a cathedral near-by +on a hill! Patriotism? Why, it is in the soil of your three acres. I +love to feel the warm, rich earth of our own garden in my hands! +Hereafter I shall be a stay-at-home; and if my children win," she held +out her hand in parting with the same frank, earnest grip of her +greeting, "why, you will find that tea is, as usual, at four-thirty." + +He had found the women of his high official world--a narrower world than +he realized--much alike. Striking certain keys, certain chords +responded. He could probe the depths of their minds, he thought, in a +single evening. Then he passed on, unless it was in the interest of +pleasure or of his career to linger. This meeting had left his curiosity +baffled. He understood how Marta's vitality demanded action, which +exerted itself in a feminine way for a feminine cause. The cure for such +a fad was most clear to his masculine-perception. What if all the power +she had shown in her appeal for peace could be made to serve another +ambition? He knew that he was a great man. More than once he had +wondered what would happen if he were to meet a great woman. And he +should not see Marta Galland again unless war came. + + + + +VII + +TIMES HAVE CHANGED + + +A prodigious brown worm, its body turning and rising and falling with +the grade and throbbing with the march of its centipede feet, wound its +way along a rising mountain road. In the strong, youthful figures set in +the universal type of military mould it might have been a regiment of +any one of many nations' but the tint of its uniform was the brown of +the nine hundred regiments that prepared for war against the gray of the +fifteen hundred under Hedworth Westerling. + +The 53d of the Browns had started for La Tir on the same day that the +128th of the Grays had started for South La Tir. While the 128th was +going to new scenes, the 53d was returning to familiar ground. It had +detrained in the capital of the province from which its ranks had been +recruited. After a steep incline, there was a welcome bugle note and +with shouts of delight the centipede's legs broke apart! Bankers', +laborers', doctors', valets', butchers', manufacturers', and judges' +sons threw themselves down on the greensward of the embankment to rest. +With their talk of home, of relatives whom they had met at the station, +and of the changes in the town was mingled talk of the crisis. + +Meanwhile, an aged man was approaching. At times he would break into a +kind of trot that ended, after a few steps, in shortness of breath. He +was quite withered, his bright eyes twinkling out of an area of moth +patches, and he wore a frayed uniform coat with a medal on the breast. + +"Is this the 53d?" he quavered to the nearest soldier + +"It certainly is!" some one answered. "Come and join us, veteran!" + +"Is Tom--Tom Fragini here?" + +The answer came from a big soldier, who sprang to his feet and leaped +toward the old man. + +"It's grandfather, as I live!" he called out, kissing the veteran on +both cheeks. "I saw sister in town, and she said you'd be at the gate as +we marched by." + +"Didn't wait at no gate! Marched right up to you!" said grandfather. +"Marched up with my uniform and medal on! Stand off there, Tom, so I can +see you. My word! You're bigger'n your father, but not bigger'n I was! +No, sir, not bigger'n I was in my day before that wound sort o' bent me +over. They say it's the lead in the blood. I've still got the bullet!" + +The old man's trousers were threadbare but well darned, and the holes in +the uppers of his shoes were carefully patched. He had a merry air of +optimism, which his grandson had inherited. + +"Well, Tom, how much longer you got to serve?" asked grandfather. + +"Six months," answered Tom. + +"One, two, three, four--" grandfather counted the numbers off on his +fingers. "That's good. You'll be in time for the spring ploughing. My, +how you have filled out! But, somehow, I can't get used to this kind of +uniform. Why, I don't see how a girl'd be attracted to you fellows, at +all!" + +"They have to, for we're the only kind of soldiers there are nowadays. +Not as gay as in your day, that's sure, when you were in the Hussars, +eh?" + +"Yes, I was in the Hussars--in the Hussars! I tell you, with our sabres +a-gleaming, our horses' bits a-jingling, our pennons a-flying, and all +the color of our uniform--I tell you, the girls used to open their eyes +at us. And we went into the charge like that--yes, sir, just that gay +and grand, Colonel Galland leading!" + +Military history said that it had been a rather foolish charge, a fine +example of the vainglory of unreasoning bravery that accomplishes +nothing, but no one would suggest such scepticism of an immortal event +in popular imagination in hearing of the old man as he lived over that +intoxicated rush of horses and men into a battery of the Grays. + +"Well, didn't you find what I said was true about the lowlanders?" asked +grandfather after he had finished the charge, referring to the people of +the southern frontier of the Browns, where the 53d had just been +garrisoned. + +"No, I kind of liked them. I made a lot of friends," admitted Tom. +"They're very progressive." + +"Eh? eh? You're joking!" To like the people of the southern frontier was +only less conceivable than liking the people of the Grays. "That's +because you didn't see deep under them. They're all on the outside--a +flighty lot! Why, if they'd done their part in that last war we'd have +licked the Grays until they cried for mercy! If their army corps had +stood its ground at Volmer--" + +"So you've always said," interrupted Tom. + +"And the way they cook tripe! I couldn't stomach it, could you? And if +there's anything I am partial to it's a good dish of tripe! And their +light beer--like drinking froth! And their bread--why, it ain't bread! +It's chips! 'Taint fit for civilized folks!" + +"But I sort of got used to their ways," said Tom. + +"Eh? eh?" Grandfather looked at grandson quizzically, seeking the cause +of such heterodoxy in a northern man. "Say, you ain't been falling in +love?" he hazarded. "You--you ain't going to bring one of them southern +girls home?" + +"No!" said Tom laughing. + +"Well, I'm glad you ain't, for they're naturally light-minded. I +remember 'em well." He wandered on with his questions and comments. "Is +it a fact, Tom, or was you just joking when you wrote home that the +soldiers took so many baths?" + +"Yes, they do." + +"Well, that beats me! It's a wonder you didn't all die of pneumonia!" He +paused to absorb the phenomenon. Then his half-childish mind, prompted +by a random recollection, flitted to another subject which set him to +giggling. "And the little crawlers--did they bother you much, the little +crawlers?" + +"The little crawlers?" repeated Tom, mystified. + +"Yes. Everybody used to get 'em just from living close together. Had to +comb 'em out and pick 'em out of your clothes. The chase we used to call +it." + +"No, grandfather, crawlers have gone out of fashion. And no more +epidemics of typhoid and dysentery either," said Tom. + +"Times have certainly changed!" grumbled Grandfather Fragini. + +Interested in their own reunion, they had paid no attention to a group +of Tom's comrades near-by, sprawled around a newspaper containing the +latest despatches from both capitals. It was a group as typical as that +of the Grays around Hugo Mallin's cot; only the common voice was that of +defence. + +"Five million soldiers to our three million!" + +"Eighty million people to our fifty million!" + +"Because of the odds, they think we are bound to yield, no matter if we +are in the right!" + +"Let them come!" said the butcher's son. "If we have to go, it will be +on a wave of blood." + +"And they will come some time," said the judge's son. "They want our +land." + +"We gain nothing if we beat them back. War will be the ruin of +business,"-said the banker's son. + +"Yes, we are prosperous now. Let well enough alone!" said the +manufacturer's son. + +"Some say it makes wages higher," said the laborer's son, "but I am +thinking it's a poor way of raising your pay." + +"There won't be any war," said the banker's son "There can't be without +credit. The banking interests will lot permit it." + +"There can always be war," said the judge's son, "always when one people +determines to strike at another people--even if it brings bankruptcy." + +"It would be a war that would make all others in history a mere exchange +of skirmishes. Every able-bodied man in line--automatics a hundred shots +a minute--guns a dozen shots a minute--and aeroplanes and dirigibles!" +said the manufacturer's son. + +"To the death, too!" + +"And not for glory! We of the 53d who live on the frontier will be +fighting for our homes." + +"If we lose them we'll never get them back. Better die than be beaten!" + +There was no humorist Hugo Mallin in this group; no nimble fancy to send +heresy skating over thin ice; but there was Herbert Stransky, with +deep-set eyes, slightly squinting inward, and a heavy jaw, an enormous +man who was the best shot in the company when he cared to be. He had +listened in silence to the others, his rather thick but expressive lips +curving with cynicism. His only speech all the morning had been in the +midst of the reception in the public square of the town when he said: + +"This home-coming doesn't mean much to me. Home? Hell! The hedgerows of +the world are my home!" + +He appeared older than his years, and hard and bitter, except when his +eyes would light with a feverish sort of fire which shone now as he +broke into a lull in the talk. + +"Comrades," he began. + +"Let us hear from the socialist!" a Tory exclaimed. + +"No, the anarchist!" shouted a socialist. + +"There won't be any war!" said Stransky, his voice gradually rising to +the pitch of an agitator relishing the sensation of his own words. +"Patriotism is the played-out trick of the ruling classes to keep down +the proletariat. There won't be any war! Why? Because there are too +many enlightened men on both sides who do the world's work. We of the +53d are a provincial lot, but throughout our army there are thousands +upon thousands like me. They march, they drill, but when battle comes +they will refuse to fight--my comrades in heart, to whom the flag of +this country means no more than that of any other country!" + +"Hold on! The flag is sacred!" cried the banker's son. + +"Yes, that will do!" + +"Shut up!" + +Other voices formed a chorus of angry protest. + +"I knew you thought it; now I've caught you!" This from the sergeant, +who had seen hard fighting against a savage foe in Africa and therefore +was particularly bitter about the Bodlapoo affair. The welt of a scar on +his gaunt, fever-yellowed cheek turned a deeper red as he seized +Stransky by the collar of the blouse. + +Stransky raised his free hand as if to strike, but paused as he faced +the company's boyish captain, slender of figure, aristocratic of +feature. His indignation was as evident as the sergeant's, but he was +biting his lips to keep it under control. + +"You heard what he said, sir?" + +"The latter part--enough!" + +"It's incitation to mutiny! An example!" + +"Yes, put him under arrest." + +The sergeant still held fast to the collar of Stransky's blouse. +Stransky could have shaken himself free, as a mastiff frees himself from +a puppy, but this was resistance to arrest and he had not yet made up +his mind to go that far. His muscles were weaving under the sergeant's +grip, his eyes glowing as with volcanic fire waiting on the madness of +impulse for eruption. + +"I wonder if it is really worth while to put him under arrest?" said +some one at the edge of the group in amiable inquiry. + +The voice came from an officer of about thirty-five, who apparently had +strolled over from a near-by aeroplane station to look at the regiment. +From his shoulder hung the gold cords of the staff. His left hand thrust +in the pocket of his blouse heightened the ease of his carriage, which +was free of conventional military stiffness, while his eyes had the +peculiar eagerness of a man who seems to find everything that comes +under his observation interesting and significant. + +It was Colonel Arthur Lanstron, whose plane had skimmed the Gallands' +garden wall for the "easy bump" ten years ago. There was something +more than mere titular respect in the way the young captain +saluted---admiration and the diffident, boyish glance of recognition +which does not presume to take the lead in recalling a slight +acquaintance with a man of distinction. + +"Dellarme! It's all of two years since we met at Miss Galland's, isn't +it?" Lanstron said, shaking hands with the captain. + +"Yes, just before we were ordered south," said Dellarme, obviously +pleased to be remembered. + +"I overheard your speech," Lanstron continued, nodding toward Stransky. +"It was very informing." + +A crowd of soldiers was now pressing around Stransky, and in the front +rank was Grandfather Fragini. + +"Said our flag was no better'n any other flag, did he?" piped the old +man. "Beat him to a pulp! That's what the Hussars would have done." + +"If you don't mind telling it in public, Stransky, I should like to know +your origin," said Lanstron, prepared to be as considerate of an +anarchist's private feelings as of anybody's. + +Stransky squinted his eyes down the bony bridge of his nose and grinned +sardonically. + +"That won't take long," he answered. "My father, so far as I could +identify him, died in jail and my mother of drink." + +"That was hardly to the purple!" observed Lanstron thoughtfully. + +"No, to the red!" answered Stransky savagely. + +"I mean that it was hardly inclined to make you take ft roseate view of +life as a beautiful thing in a well-ordered world where favors of +fortune are evenly distributed," continued Lanstron. + +"Rather to make me rejoice in the hope of a new order of things--the +re-creation of society!" Stransky uttered the sentiment with the +triumphant pride of a pupil who knows his text-book thoroughly. + +By this time the colonel commanding the regiment, who had noticed the +excitement from a distance, appeared, forcing a gap for his passage +through the crowd with sharp words. He, too, recognized Lanstron. After +they had shaken hands, the colonel scowled as he heard the situation +explained, with the old sergeant, still holding fast to Stransky's +collar, a capable and insistent witness for the prosecution; while +Stransky, the fire in his eyes dying to coals, stared straight ahead. + +"It is only a suggestion, of course," said Lanstron, speaking quite as a +spectator to avoid the least indication of interference with the +colonel's authority, "but it seems possible that Stransky has clothed +his wrongs in a garb that could never set well on his nature if he tried +to wear it in practice. He is really an individualist. Enraged, he would +fight well. I should like nothing better than a force of Stranskys if I +had to defend a redoubt in a last stand." + +"Yes, he might fight." The colonel looked hard at Stransky's rigid +profile, with its tight lips and chin as firm as if cut out of stone. +"You never know who will fight in the pinch, they say. But that's +speculation. It's the example that I have to deal with." + +"He is not of the insidious, plotting type. He spoke his mind openly," +suggested Lanstron. "If you give him the limit of the law, why, he +becomes a martyr to persecution. I should say that his remarks might +pass for barrack-room gassing." + +"Very well," said the colonel, taking the shortest way out of the +difficulty. "We will excuse the first offence." + +"Yes, sir!" said the sergeant mechanically as he released his grip of +the offender. "We had two anarchists in my company in Africa," he +observed in loyal agreement with orders. "They fought like devils. The +only trouble was to keep them from shooting innocent natives for sport." + +Stransky's collar was still crumpled on the nape of his neck. He +remained stock-still, staring down the bridge of his nose. For a full +minute he did not vouchsafe so much as a glance upward over the change +in his fortunes. Then he looked around at Lanstron gloweringly. + +"I know who you are!" he said. "You were born to the purple. You have +had education, opportunity, position--everything that you and your kind +want to keep for your kind. You are smarter than the others. You would +hang a man with spider-webs instead of hemp. But I won't fight for you! +No, I won't!" + +He threw back his head with a determination in his defiance so intense +that it had a certain kind of dignity that freed it of theatrical +affectation. + +"Yes, I was fortunate; but perhaps nature was not altogether unkind to +you," said Lanstron. "In Napoleonic times, Stransky, I think you might +even have carried a marshal's baton in your knapsack." + +"You--what rot!" A sort of triumph played around Stransky's full lips +and his jaw shot out challengingly. "No, never against my comrades on +the other side of the border!" he concluded, his dogged stare returning. + +Now the colonel gave the order to fall in; the bugle sounded and the +centipede's legs began to assemble on the road. But Stransky remained a +statue, his rifle untouched on the sward. He seemed of a mind to let the +regiment go on without him. + +"Stransky, fall in!" called the sergeant. + +Still Stransky did not move. A comrade picked up the rifle and fairly +thrust it into his hands. + +"Come on, Bert, and knead dough with the rest of us!" he whispered. +"Come on! Cheer up!" Evidently his comrades liked Stransky. + +"No!" roared Stransky, bringing the rifle down on the ground with a +heavy blow. + +Then impulse broke through the restraint that seemed to characterize the +Lanstron of thirty-five. The Lanstron of twenty-five, who had met +catastrophe because he was "wool-gathering," asserted himself. He put +his hand on Stransky's shoulder. It was a strong though slim hand that +looked as if it had been trained to do the work of two hands in the +process of its owner's own transformation. Thus the old sergeant had +seen a general remonstrate with a brave veteran who had been guilty of +bad conduct in Africa. The old colonel gasped at such a subversion of +the dignity of rank. He saw the army going to the devil. But young +Dellarme, watching with eager curiosity, was sensible of no familiarity +in the act. It all depended on how such a thing was done, he was +thinking. + +"We all have minutes when we are more or less anarchists," said Lanstron +in the human appeal of one man to another. "But we don't want to be +judged by one of those minutes. I got a hand mashed up for a mistake +that took only a second. Think this over to-night before you act. Then, +if you are of the same opinion, go to the colonel and tell him so. Come, +why not?" + +"All right, sir, you're so decent about it!" grumbled Stransky, taking +his place in the ranks. + +Hep-hep-hep! the regiment started on its way, with Grandfather Fragini +keeping at his grandson's side. + +"Makes me feel young again, but it's darned solemn beside the Hussars, +with their horses' bits a-jingling. Times have certainly +changed--officers' hands in their pockets, saying 'if you don't mind' to +a man that's insulted the flag! Kicking ain't good enough for that +traitor! Ought to hang him--yes, sir, hang and draw him!" + +Lanstron watched the marching column for a time. + +"Hep-hep-hep! It's the brown of the infantry that counts in the end," he +mused. "I liked that wall-eyed giant. He's all man!" + +Then his livening glance swept the heavens inquiringly. A speck in the +blue, far away in the realms of atmospheric infinity, kept growing in +size until it took the form of the wings with which man flies. The plane +volplaned down with steady swiftness, till its racing shadow lay large +over the landscape for a few seconds before it rose again with beautiful +ease and precision. + +"Bully for you, Etzel!" Lanstron thought, as he started back to the +aeroplane station. "You belong in the corps. We shall not let you return +to your regiment for a while. You've a cool head and you'd charge a +church tower if that were the orders." + + + + +VIII + +THANKS TO A BUMBLEBEE + + +"Has he changed much?" Mrs. Galland asked, when she learned that Marta +had seen Westerling. + +"Jove has reached his own--the very top of Olympus, and he likes the +prospect," Marta replied. + +The only home news of importance that her mother had to impart related +to a tiny strip of paper with the greeting, "Hello, Marta!" that had +been dropped from the pilot aeroplane as the Brown aerial squadron flew +over the garden after its race with the Gray. She noted Marta's +customary quickening interest at mention of Lanstron's name. It had +become the talisman of a hope whose fulfilment was always being +deferred. + +"How different Lanny and Westerling are!" Marta exclaimed, the picture +of the two men rising before her vision. "Lanny trying so hard under the +pressure of his responsibility not to be human and unable to forget +himself, and Westerling trying, really trying, to be human at times, but +unable to forget that he is Jove! Did you wave your acknowledgments to +Lanny,'?" + +"Why, no! How could I?" asked Mrs. Galland. "He went over so fast I +didn't know it was he--a little figure so far overhead." + +"It's odd, but I think I'd know Lanny a mile away by a sort of +instinct," said Marta. "You know I'd like a gun that would fire a bomb +and drop a message of 'Hello, yourself!' right on his knee. Wouldn't +that give him a surprise?" + +"You and he are so full of nonsense that you--" But Mrs. Galland +desisted. What was the use? + +Sometimes she wished that Colonel Lanstron would stay away altogether +and leave a free field for a newcomer. Yet if two or three weeks passed +without a call from him she was apprehensive. Besides being one of the +Thorbourg Lanstrons, he was a most charming, capable man, who had risen +very rapidly in his profession. It had been only six months after he had +bolted up from the wreck of his plane by way of self-introduction to +Marta before he alighted in the field across the road from the garden to +report a promise kept. + +Once she knew that he was a Lanstron of Thorbourg, a fact of hardly +passing interest to Marta, Mrs. Galland made him intimately welcome. By +the time he had paid his third call he was Lanny to Marta and she was +Marta to him, quite as if they had known each other from childhood. She +had a gift for unaffected comradeship. He was the kind of man with whom +she could be a comrade. There was always something to say the moment +they met and they were never through talking when he had to go. They +disagreed so often that Mrs. Galland thought they made a business of it. +She wondered how real friendship could exist between two such +controversialists. They could be seriously disputatious to the point of +quarrelling; they could be light-heartedly disputatious to the bantering +point, where either was uncertain which side of the argument he had +originally espoused. + +"The gardener did not cut the chrysanthemums," Mrs. Galland said. "That +is why we had asters in the bowl at luncheon. His deafness is really a +cross, I never realized before what a companion one naturally makes of a +gardener." + +"No, there's no purpose in having a deaf gardener," said Marta. "Nature +distributes her defects unintelligently. Now, if we had dumb demagogues, +deaf gossips, and steel that when it was being formed into a sword-blade +or a gun would turn to putty, we should be much better off. But we +couldn't let Feller go, could we? He's already made himself a fixture. +So few people would put up with his deafness! He's so desirous of +pleasing and he loves flowers." + +"And Colonel Lanstron recommended him. Except for his deafness he is a +perfect gardener. Of course he had to have some drawback, for complete +perfection is impossible," Mrs. Galland agreed. + +The old straw hat that shaded the fringe of white hair had been hovering +within easy approaching distance of the chrysanthemum bed ever since the +whistle of the train that brought Marta home had been heard from the +station. Feller was watching Marta when she paused for a moment on the +second terrace steps, enjoying the sweep of landscape anew with the +freshness of a first glimpse and the intimacy of every familiar detail +cut in the memory. It was her landscape, famed in history, where history +might yet be made. + +His greeting was picturesque and effective. With white head bared, he +looked up from the chrysanthemums to her and back at them and up at her +again, with a sort of covert comradeship in his eyes which were young, +very young for such white hair, and held out his little pad and pencil. +She smiled approval and slowly worked out a "perfect" in the +deaf-and-dumb alphabet before she took the proffered pencil and wrote: + +"I practised the deaf-and-dumb alphabet on the train. I'm learning fast. +We've never had such chrysanthemums before. Next year we shall have some +irises--just a few--as fine as they have in Japan. How's your +rheumatism?" + +He had replaced the broad-brimmed hat over his brow and his lips were +visible in a lingering smile as he read the message. + +"Thank you, Miss Galland," he said in his even monotone. "You are very +kind and I am very fortunate to find a place like this. I already knew +something about irises and I've been reading up on the subject. We'll +try to hold our own with those little Japanese. As for the rheumatism, +since you are good enough to inquire, Miss Galland, it's about the same. +My legs are getting old. There are bound to be some kinks in them." + +"You select those to cut--a great armful!" she slowly spelled out on her +fingers, clapping her hands with a triumphant cry of "How's that?" at +the finish. + +"Your time has come! To the sacrifice!" he exclaimed to the flowers. + +Very tenderly, as if he were an executioner considerate of the victims +of an inexorable law, he was snipping the stems, his head bent close to +the blooms, when a bumblebee appeared among the salvias a few feet away. +Perhaps army staffs who neglect no detail have made a mistake in +overlooking the whirring of bumblebees' wings in affecting the fate of +nations. These plunderers are not dangerous from their size, but they +have not yet been organized to the hep-hep-hep of partisanship. They +would as soon live in a Gray as a Brown garden, as soon probe for an +atom of honey on one side of the white posts as the other. This one as +it drew nearer was well to one side over Feller's shoulders. With eyes +and mind intent on his work, Feller turned his head absently, as one +will at an interruption. + +"There you are again, my dear!" he said. "You must think you're a +battery of automatics." + +He went on cutting chrysanthemums, apparently unconscious that he had +spoken. + +"Bring them up on the veranda, please," Marta wrote on the pad, her +fingers moving with unusual nervous rapidity, the only sign of her +inward excitement. + +Coming to the head of the steps of the terrace above, she looked back. +Feller's face was quite hidden under his hat and suddenly she seemed to +stub her toe and fall, while she uttered a low cry of pain. The hat rose +like a jack-in-the-box with the cover released. Feller bounded toward +her, taking two of steps at a time. She scrambled to her feet hastily, +laughed, and gestured to show that she was not hurt. He drew his +shoulders together and bent over spasmodically, gripping his knee. + +"I can run off if something starts me just as spry as if I were twenty," +he said. "But after I've done it and the kinks come, I realize I've got +old legs." + +"Now I know he's not deaf!" Marta murmured, as he returned to his work. +She frowned. She was angry. "Lanny, you have something to explain," she +thought. + +But when Feller brought his armful of chrysanthemums to her on the +veranda, there was no trace in her expression of the discovery she had +made, and she wrote a direction on his pad in the usual fashion. + + + + +IX + +A SUNDAY MORNING CALL + + +As a boy, Arthur Lanstron had persisted in being an exception to the +influences of both heredity and environment. Though his father and both +grandfathers were officers who believed theirs to be the true +gentleman's profession, he had preferred any kind of mechanical toy to +arranging the most gayly painted tin soldiers in formation on the +nursery floor; and he would rather read about the wonders of natural +history and electricity than the campaigns of Napoleon and Frederick the +Great and my lord Nelson. Left to his own choice, he would miss the +parade of the garrison for inspection by an excellency in order to ask +questions of a man wiping the oil off his hands with cotton-waste, who +was far more entertaining to him than the most spick-and-span ramrod of +a sergeant. + +The first time he saw a dynamo in motion he was spellbound. This was +even more fascinating than the drill that the family dentist worked with +his foot. His tutor found him inclined to estimate a Caesar, +self-characterized in his commentaries, as less humanly appealing than +his first love, the engine-driver, with whom he kept up a correspondence +after his father had been transferred to another post. He was given to +magic lanterns, private telegraph and telephone lines, trying to walk a +tight rope, and parachute acts and experiments in chemistry. When the +family were not worried lest he should break his neck or blow his head +off investigating, they were irritated by a certain plebeian strain in +him which kept all kinds of company. His mother disapproved of his +picking an acquaintance with a group of acrobats in order to improve his +skill on the trapeze. His excuse for his supple friends was that they +were all "experts" in something, just as his tutor was in Greek verbs. + +Very light-hearted he was, busy, vital, reckless, with an earnest smile +that could win the post telegrapher to teach him the code alphabet or +persuade his father not to destroy his laboratory after he had singed +off his eyebrows. This may explain why he had to cram hard in the dead +languages at times, with a towel tied around his head. He complained +that they were out of date; and he wanted to hear the Gauls' story, too, +before he fully made up his mind about Caesar. But for the living +languages he had a natural gift which his father's service abroad as +military attache for a while enabled him to cultivate. + +Upon being told one day that he was to go to the military school the +following autumn, he broke out in open rebellion. He had just decided, +after having passed through the stages of engine-driver, telegraph +operator, railroad-signal watchman, automobile manufacturer, and +superintendent of the city's waterworks, to build bridges over tropical +torrents that always rose in floods to try all his skill in saving his +construction work. + +"I don't want to go into the army!" he said. + +"Why?" asked his father, thinking that when the boy had to give his +reasons he would soon be argued out of the heresy. + +"It's drilling a few hours a day, then nothing to do," Arthur replied. +"All your work waits on war and you don't know that there will ever be +any war. It waits on something nobody wants to happen. Now, if you +manufacture something, why, you see wool come out cloth, steel come out +an automobile. If you build a bridge you see it rising little by little. +You're getting your results every day; you see your mistakes and your +successes. You're making something, creating something; there's +something going on all the while that isn't guesswork. I think that's +what I want to say. You won't order me to be a soldier will you?" + +The father, loath to do this, called in the assistance of an able +pleader then, Eugene Partow, lately become chief of staff of the Browns, +who was an old friend of the Lanstron family. It was not in Partow's +mind to lose such a recruit in a time when the heads of the army were +trying, in answer to the demands of a new age, to counteract the old +idea that made an officer's the conventional avocation of a gentleman of +leisurely habits. + +"No army that ever worked as hard in peace as the average manufacturer +or bridge-builder was ever beaten in battle if it fought anything like +equal numbers," he said. "The officer who works hard in the army +deserves more credit than he would in any other profession because the +incentive for results seems remote. But what a terrible test of results +may be made in a single hour's action. There is nothing you have learned +or ever will learn that may not be of service to you. There is no +invention, no form of industrial organization that must not be included +in the greatest organization of all, whose plant and methods must be up +to date in every particular. To be backward in a single particular may +mean disaster--may mean that the loss of thousands of lives is due to +you. You must have self-control, courage, dash, judgment If you have not +kept up, if you are not equal to the test, your inefficiency will mean +your shame and your country's suffering; while efficiency means a clear +conscience and your country's security." + +Thus Partow turned the balance on the side of filial affection. He kept +watch of the boy, but without favoring him with influence. Young +Lanstron, who wanted to see results, had to earn them. He realized in +practice the truth of Partow's saying that there was nothing he had ever +learned but what could be of service to him as an officer. What the +acrobats had taught him probably saved his life on the occasion of his +first flight across the range. The friendships with all sorts of people +in his youth were the forerunner of his sympathy with the giant, +wall-eyed Stransky who had mutinied on the march. + +"Finding enough work to do?" Par tow would ask with a chuckle when they +met in these days, for he had made Lanstron both chief of intelligence +and chief aerostatic officer. Young Colonel Lanstron's was the duty of +gaining the secrets of the Gray staff and keeping those of the Brown and +organizing up-to-the-moment efficiency in the new forces of the air. + +He had remarked truly enough that the injury to his left hand served as +a better reminder against the folly of wool-gathering than a string, +even a large red string, tied around his finger. Thanks to skilful +surgery working ingeniously with splintered bone and pulpy flesh, there +was nothing unpleasant to the eye in a stiffened wrist and scarred +knuckles slightly misshapen. The fingers, incapable of spreading much, +were yet serviceable and had a firm grip of the wheel as he rose from +the aeroplane station on the Sunday morning after Marta's return home +for a flight to La Tir. + +He knew the pattern weaving under his feet as one knows that of his own +garden from an overlooking window. Every detail of the staff map, +ravines, roads, buildings, battery positions, was stitched together in +the flowing reality of actual vision. No white posts were necessary to +tell him where the boundary between the two nations lay. The line was +drawn in his brain. + +Nature was in a gracious humor, the very tree tops motionless. The rich +landscape in Sunday quiet appealed to his affections. He loved his +country and he loved Marta. It had been on such a day as this when there +would be no danger, that he had taken her for her first flight. The +glimpses, as they flew, of her profile, so alive and tense, were fresh +to his eye. How serious she had been! How vivid her impressions! How +tempestuous her ideas! He recalled their talk upon their return; all his +questions and her answers. + + * * * * * + +"Sublime and ridiculous!" she had begun in a summing up. "It is like +seeing the life of a family through a glass roof--the big, universal +family! Valleys seemed no larger than sauce-dishes on a table." + +"What was the sublime thing?" + +"Man's toil! The cumulative result of it, on every hand, in the common +aim for food, comfort, happiness, and progress! Little details of +difference disappeared. Towns, villages, houses were simply towns, +villages, houses of any country." + +"And the supremely ridiculous thing?" + +"A regiment of cavalry of the Grays and one of the Browns on the same +road! They appeared so self-important, as if the sky would fall or the +earth heave up to meet the sky if they got out of formation. I imagined +each man a metal figure that fitted astride a metal horse of the kind +that comes to children at Christmas time. They might better be engaged +in brass-ring-snatching contests at the merry-go-rounds of public fairs. +I wanted to brush them all over with a wave of the hand as you might the +battalions of the nursery floor. Just drilling and drilling in order to +slash at one another some day. Flight! flight! It makes one's mind as +big and broad as the world. Oh, what a wonderful talk I'll have for my +kids next Sunday!" + + * * * * * + +Now that Lanstron was the organizer of the aviation corps his own +flights were rare. Mostly they were made to La Tir. His visits to Marta +were his holidays? All the time that she was absent on her journey +around the world they had corresponded. Her letters, so revealing of +herself and her peculiar angles of observation, formed a bundle sacredly +preserved. Her mother's joking reference about her girlish resolution +not to marry a soldier often recurred to him. There, he sometimes +thought, was the real obstacle to his great desire. + +He wished, this morning, that he were not Colonel Lanstron, but the +bridge-builder returning from his triumph after he had at last spanned +the chasm and controlled the floods. Ah, there was something like +romance and real accomplishment in that! What an easy time a +bridge-builder had, comparatively, too! What an easy master capital must +be compared to Eugene Partow! But no! If Marta loved it would not matter +whether he were bridge builder or army builder. Yes, she was like that. +And what right had he to think of marriage? He could not have any home. +He was now in the capital; again, along the frontier--a vagabond of duty +and Partow's orders. + + * * * * * + +When he alighted from the plane he thrust his left hand into his blouse +pocket. He always carried it there, as if it were literally sewn in +place. In moments of emotion the scarred nerves would twitch as the +telltale of his sensitiveness; and this was something he would conceal +from others no matter how conscious he was of it himself. He found the +Galland veranda deserted. In response to his ring a maid came to the +open door. Her face was sad, with a beauty that had prematurely faded. +But it lighted pleasurably in recognition. Her hair was thick and tawny, +lying low over the brow; her eyes were a softly luminous brown and her +full lips sensitive and yielding. Lanstron, an intimate of the Galland +household, knew her story well and the part that Marta had played in it. + +Some four years previously, when a baby was in prospect for Minna, who +wore no wedding-ring, Mrs. Galland had been inclined to send the maid to +an institution, "where they will take good care of her, my dear. That's +what such institutions are for. It is quite scandalous for her and for +us--never happened in our family before!" + +Marta arched her eyebrows. + +"We don't know!" she exclaimed softly. + +"How can you think such a thing, let alone saying it--you, a Galland!" +her mother gasped in indignation. + +"That is, if we go far back," said Marta. "At all events, we have no +precedent, so let's establish one by keeping her." + +"But for her own sake! She will have to live with her shame!" Mrs. +Galland objected. "Let her begin afresh in the city. We shall give her a +good recommendation, for she is really an excellent servant. Yes, she +will readily find a place among strangers." + +"Still, she doesn't want to go, and it would be cruel to send her away." + +"Cruel! Why, Marta, do you think I would be cruel? Oh, very well, then +we will let her stay!" + + * * * * * + +"Both are away at church. Mrs. Galland ought to be here any minute, but +Miss Galland will be later because of her children's class," said Minna. +"Will you wait on the veranda?" + +He was saying that he would stroll in the garden when childish footsteps +were heard in the hall, and after a curly head had nestled against the +mother's skirts its owner, reminded of the importance of manners in the +world where the stork had left her, made a curtsey. Lanstron shook a +small hand which must have lately been on intimate terms with sugar or +jam. + +"How do you do, flying soldier man?" chirruped Clarissa Eileen. It was +evident that she held Lanstron in high favor. + +"Let me hear you say your name," said Lanstron. + +Clarissa Eileen was triumphant. She had been waiting for days with the +revelation when he should make that old request. Now she enunciated it +with every vowel and consonant correctly and primly uttered; indeed, she +repeated it four or five times in proof of complete mastery. + +"A pretty name. I've often wondered how you came to give it to her," +said Lanstron to Minna. + +"You do like it!" exclaimed Minna with girlish eagerness. "I gave her +the most beautiful name I could think of because"--she laid her hand +caressingly on the child's head and a madonna-like radiance stole into +her face--"because she might at least have a beautiful name when"--the +dull blaze of a recollection now burning in her eyes--"when there wasn't +much prospect of many beautiful things coming into her life; though I +know, of course, that the world thinks she ought to be called Maggie." + + * * * * * + +Proceeding leisurely along the main path of the first terrace, Lanstron +followed it past the rear of the house to the old tower. Long ago the +moat that surrounded the castle had been filled in. The green of rows of +grape-vines lay against the background of a mat of ivy on the ancient +stone walls, which had been cut away from the loopholes set with +window-glass. The door was open, showing a room that had been closed in +by a ceiling of boards from the walls to the circular stairway that ran +aloft from the dungeons. On the floor of flags were cheap rugs. A number +of seed and nursery catalogues were piled on a round table covered with +a brown cloth. + +"Hello!" Lanstron called softly. "Hello!" he called louder and yet +louder. + +Receiving no answer, he retraced his steps and seated himself on the +second terrace in a secluded spot in the shadow of the first terrace +wall, where he could see any one coming up the main flight of steps from +the road. When Marta walked she usually came from town by that way. At +length the sound of a slow step from another direction broke on his car. +Some one was approaching along the path that ran at his feet. Around the +corner of the wall, in his workman's Sunday clothes of black, but still +wearing his old straw hat, appeared Feller, the gardener. He paused to +examine a rose-bush and Lanstron regarded him thoughtfully and sadly: +his white hair, his stoop, his graceful hands, their narrow finger-tips +turning over the leaves. + +As he turned away he looked up, and a glance of definite and unfaltering +recognition was exchanged between the two men. Feller's hat was promptly +lowered enough to form a barrier between their eyes. His face was +singularly expressionless. It seemed withered, clayish, like the walls +of a furnace in which the fire has died out. After a few steps he paused +before another rose-bush. Meanwhile, both had swept the surroundings in +a sharp, covert survey. They had the garden to themselves. + +"Gustave!" Lanstron exclaimed under his breath. + +"Lanny!" exclaimed the gardener, turning over a branch of the rose-bush. +He seemed unwilling to risk talking openly with Lanstron. + +"You look the good workman in his Sunday best to a T!" said Lanstron. + +"Being stone-deaf," returned Feller, with a trace of drollery in his +voice, "I hear very well--at times. Tell me"--his whisper was quivering +with eagerness--"shall we fight? Shall we fight?" + +"We are nearer to it than we have ever been in our time," Lanstron +replied. + +The hat still shaded Feller's face, his stoop was unchanged, but the +branch in his hand shook. + +"Honest?" he exclaimed. "Oh, the chance of it! the chance of it!" + +"Gustave!" Lanstron's voice, still low, came in a gust of sympathy, and +the pocket which concealed his hand gave a nervous twitch as if it held +something alive and distinct from his own being. "The trial wears on +you! You feel you must break out?" + +"No, I'm game--game, I tell you!" Still Feller spoke to the branch, +which was steady now in a firm hand. "No, I don't grow weary of the +garden and the isolation as long as there is hope. But being deaf, +always deaf, and yet hearing everything! Always stooped, even when the +bugles are sounding to the artillery garrison--that is somewhat +tiresome!" + +"The idea of being deaf was yours, you know, Gustave," said Lanstron. + +"Yes, and the right plan. It was fun at first going through the streets +and hearing people say, 'He's deaf as a stone!' and having everybody +work their lips at me while I pretended to study them in a dumb effort +to understand. Actors have two hours of it an evening, and an occasional +change of parts, but I act one part all the time. I get as taciturn as a +clam. If war doesn't come pretty soon I shall be ready for a monastery +of perpetual silence." + +"Confound it, Gustave!" exclaimed Lanstron. "It's inhuman, old boy! You +shan't stay another day!" Discretion to the winds, he sprang to his +feet. + +An impulse of the same sort overwhelmed Feller. His hand let go of the +branch. The brim of the hat shot up, revealing a face that was not old, +but in mercurial quickness of expressive, uncontrollable emotion was +young, handsomely and attractively young in its frame of prematurely +white hair. The stoop was wholly gone. He was tall now, his eyes +sparkling with wild, happy lights and the soles of the heavy workman's +shoes unconsciously drawn together in a military stance. Lanstron's +twitching hand flew from his pocket and with the other found Feller's +hand in a strong, warm, double grip. For a second's silence they +remained thus. Feller was the first to recover himself and utter a +warning. + +"Miss Galland--Minna--some one might be looking." + +He drew away abruptly, his face becoming suddenly old, his stoop +returning, and began to study the branch as before. Lanstron dropped +back to his seat and gazed at the brown roofs of the town. Thus they +might continue their conversation as guest and gardener. + +"I didn't think you'd stick it out, but you wanted to try--you chose," +said Lanstron. "Come--this afternoon--now!" + +"This is best for me--this to the end of the chapter!" Feller replied +doggedly. "Because you say you didn't think I'd stick it out--ah, how +well you know me. Lanny!--is the one reason that I should." + +"True!" Lanstron agreed. "A victory over yourself!" + +"How often I have heard in imagination the outbreak of rifle-fire down +there by the white posts! How often I have longed for that day--for war! +I live for war!" + +"It may never come," Lanstron said in frank protest. "And, for God's +sake, don't pray for it in that way!" + +"Then I shall be patient--patient under all irritations. The worst is," +and Feller raised his head heavily, in a way that seemed to emphasize +both his stoop and his age, "the worst is Miss Galland." + +"Miss Galland! How?" + +"She is learning the deaf-and-dumb alphabet in order the better to +communicate with me. She likes to talk of the flowers--gardening is a +passion with her, too--and all the while, in face of the honesty of +those big eyes of hers and of her gentle old mother's confidence, I am +living a lie! Oh, the satire of it! And I have not been used to lying. +That is my only virtue; at any rate, I was never a liar!" + +"Then, why stay, Gustave? I will find something else for you." + +"No!" Feller shot back irritably. "No!" he repeated resolutely. "I don't +want to go! I mean to be game--I--" He shifted his gaze dismally from +the bush which he still pretended to examine and suddenly broke off +with: "Miss Galland is coming!" + +He started to move away with a gardener's shuffling steps, looking from +right to left for weeds. Then pausing, he glanced back, his face in +another transformation--that of a comedian. + +"La, la, la!" he clucked, tossing his head gayly. "Depend on me, Lanny! +They'll never know I'm not deaf. I get my blue fits only on Sundays! And +deafness has its compensations. Think if I had to listen to all the +stories of my table companion, Peter, the coachman! La, la, la!" he +clucked again, before disappearing around a bend in the path. "La, la, +la! I'm the man for this part!" + +Lanstron started toward the steps that Marta was ascending. She moved +leisurely, yet with a certain springy energy that suggested that she +might have come on the run without being out of breath or seeming to +have made an effort. Without seeing him, she paused before one of the +urns of hydrangeas in full bloom that flanked the third terrace wall, +and, as if she would encompass and plunge her spirit into their abundant +beauty, she spread out her arms and drew the blossoms together in a mass +in which she half buried her face. The act was delightful in its grace +and spontaneity. It was like having a page out of her secret self. It +brought the glow of his great desire into Lanstron's eyes. + +"Hello, stranger!" she called as she saw him, and quickened her pace. + +"Hello, pedagogue!" he responded. + +As they shook hands they swung their arms back and forth like a pair of +romping children for a moment. + +"We had a grand session of the school this morning, the largest class +ever!" she said. "And the points we scored off you soldiers! You'll find +disarmament already in progress when you return to headquarters. We're +irresistible, or at least," she added, with a flash of intensity, "we're +going to be some day." + +"So you put on your war-paint!" + +"It must be the pollen from the hydrangeas!" She flicked her +handkerchief from her belt and passed it to him. "Show that you know how +to be useful!" + +He performed the task with deliberate care. + +"Heavens! You even have some on your ear and some on your hair; but +I'll leave it on your hair; it's rather becoming. There you are!" he +concluded. + +"Off my hair, too!" + +"Very well. I always obey orders." + +"I oughtn't to have asked you to do it at all!" she exclaimed with a +sudden change of manner as they started up to the house. "But a habit of +friendship, a habit of liking to believe in one's friends, was +uppermost. I forgot. I oughtn't even to have shaken hands with you!" + +"Marta! What now, Marta?" he asked. + +He had known her in reproach, in anger, in laughing mockery, in militant +seriousness, but never before like this. The pain and indignation in her +eyes came not from the sheer hurt of a wound but from the hurt of its +source. It was as if he had learned by the signal of its loss that he +had a deeper hold on her than he had realized. + +"Yes, I have a bone to pick with you," she said, recovering a grim sort +of fellowship. "A big bone! If you're half a friend you'll give me the +very marrow of it." + +"I am ready!" he answered more pathetically than philosophically. + +"There's not time now; after luncheon, when mother is taking her nap," +she concluded as they came to the last step and saw Mrs. Galland on the +veranda. + + + + +X + +A LUNCHEON AT THE GALLANDS' + + +Seated at the head of the table at luncheon, Mrs. Galland, with her +round cheeks, her rather becoming double chin, and her nicely dressed +hair, almost snow-white now, suggested a girlhood in the Bulwer Lytton +and Octave Feuillet age, when darkened rooms were favored for the +complexion and it was the fashion for gentlewomen to faint on occasion. +She lived in the past; the present interested her only when it aroused +some memory. To-day all her memories were of the war of forty years ago. + +"I remember how Mrs. Karly collapsed when they brought word of the death +of her son, and never recovered her mind. And I remember Eunice Steiner +when they brought Charles home looking so white--and it was the very day +set for their wedding! And I remember all the wounded gathered at the +foot of the terrace and being carried in here, while the guns were +roaring out on the plain--and now it's all coming again!" + +"Why, mother, you're very blue to-day!" said Marta. + +"We have had these crises before. We--" Lanstron began, rallying her. + +"Oh, yes, you have reason and argument," she parried gently. "I have +only my feelings. But it's in the air--yes, war is in the air, as it was +that other time. And I remember that young private, only a boy, who lay +crumpled up on the steps where he fell. I bandaged him myself and helped +to make his position easier. Yes, I almost lifted him in my arms" She +was looking at the flowers on the table but not seeing them. She was +seeing the face of the young private forty years ago. + +"He asked me to bring him a rose. He said the smell of roses was so +sweet and he felt so faint. I brought him the rose--and he was dead!" + +"Yes, yes!" Marta breathed. She, too, in her quick imagination, was +seeing the young private and spatters of blood on the terrace. Lanstron +feasted his eyes on her face, which mirrored her emotion. + +"Oh, the groans of the dying in the night and the cheering when the news +of victory came in!" Mrs. Galland continued. "I could not cheer. But +that was, long, long ago--long ago, and yet only yesterday! And now we +are to have it all over again. The young men must have their turn. They +will not be satisfied by the experience of their fathers. Yes, all over +again; still more horrible--and it was horrible enough then! I used to +get giddy easily. I do yet. But I didn't faint--no, not once through the +days of nursing, the weeks of suspense. I wondered afterward how I could +have endured so much." + +"Are we of the septicized-serum age equal to it?" Marta exclaimed. + +"Yes, we of the matter-of-fact, automatic gun-recoil age!" put in +Lanstron. + +"Oh, mother," Marta went on, "I wish you would go with me to the class +some morning, you who have seen and felt war, and tell it all as you saw +it to the children!" + +"But," remonstrated Mrs. Galland, "I'm an old-fashioned woman; and, +Marta, your father was an officer, as your grandfather was, too. I am +sure he would not approve of your school, and I could do nothing against +his wishes." + +She looked up with moistening eyes to a portrait on the opposite wall +over the seat which her husband had occupied at table. Lanstron saw +there a florid, jaunty gentleman in riding-habit, gloves on knee, crop +in hand. The spirit of the first Galland or of the stern grandfather on +the side wall--with Bluecher tufts in front of his ears sturdy defiance +of that parvenu Bonaparte and of his own younger brother who had fallen +fighting for Bonaparte--would have frowned on the descendant who had +filled the house with many guests and paid the bills with mortgages in +the ebbing tide of the family fortunes. But Mrs. Galland saw only a +hero. She shared his prejudices against the manufacturers of the town; +she saw the sale of land to be cut up into dwelling sites, which had +saved the Gallands from bankruptcy, as the working of the adverse fate +of modern tendencies. Even as she had left all details of business to +her husband, so she had of late left them to Marta's managing. + +"Edward and I were just engaged before the outbreak of the war," she +proceeded. "How handsome he was in his Hussars' uniform! How frightened +I was and hew proud of his fine bravado when I heard him and a number of +fellow officers drinking here in this room to quick death and speedy +promotion! Do they still have that toast, Colonel?" + +"Yes, in some regiments," Lanstron answered. He would not say that what +was good form in the days of the _beau sabreur_ was considered a little +theatrical in the days of the automatic gun-recoil. + +"And when he came--oh, when you came home," breathed Mrs. Galland to the +portrait, "with the scar on your cheek, how tanned and strong your hands +were and how white mine as you held them so fast! And then"--she smiled +in peaceful content--"then I did faint. I am not ashamed of it--I did!" + +"Without any danger of falling far!" said Lanstron happily. + +"Or with much of a jar!" added Marta. + +"You prattling children!" gasped Mrs. Galland, her cheeks flushing. "Do +you think that I fainted purposely? I would have been ashamed to my +dying day if I had feigned it!" + +"And you did not faint in the presence of the dead and dying!" said +Marta thoughtfully, wonderingly, leaning nearer to her mother, her eyes +athirst and drinking. + +"But I believe it is only a wispy-waspy sort of girl that faints at all +these days. They're all so businesslike," said Mrs. Galland--"so +businesslike that they are ceasing to marry." + +How many girls she had known to wait a little too long! If anything +could awaken Marta to action it ought to be war, which was a great +match-maker forty years ago. The thought of a lover in danger had +precipitated wavering hearts into engagements. Marta's mood was such +that she received the hint openly and playfully to-day. + +"Oh, I don't despair!" she exclaimed, straightening her shoulders and +drawing in her chin with a mock display of bravery. "I believe it was in +an English novel that I read that any woman without a hump can get any +man she sets out for. It is a matter of determination and concentration +and a wise choice of vulnerable objects." + +"Marta, Marta!" gasped Mrs. Galland. In her tone was a volume of +lamentation. + +"Now that I'm twenty-seven mother is ready to take any risk on my +behalf, if it is masculine. By the time I'm thirty she will be ready to +give me to a peddler with a harelip!" she said mischievously. + +"A peddler with a harelip! Marta, will you never be serious?" + +"Some day, mother," Marta went on, "when we find the right man, you hold +him while I propose, and together we'll surely--" + +Mrs. Galland could not resist laughing, which was one way to stop +further absurdities--absurdities concealing a nervous strain they +happened to be this time--while Colonel Lanstron was a little flushed +and ill at ease. She had a truly silvery laugh--the kind no longer in +fashion among the gentry since golden laughs came in,--that went well +with the dimples dipping into her pink cheeks. + +Contrary to custom, she did not excuse herself immediately after +luncheon for her afternoon nap, but kept battling with her nods until +nature was victorious and the fell fast asleep. Marta, grown restless +with impatience, suggested to Lanstron that they stroll in the garden, +and they took the path past the house toward the castle tower, stopping +in an arbor with high hedges on either side around a statue of Mercury. + +"Now!" exclaimed Marta narrowly. "It was you, Lanny, who recommended +Feller to us as a gardener, competent though deaf!" With literal brevity +she told how she had proved him to be a man of most sensitive hearing. +"I didn't let him know that he was discovered. I felt too much pity for +him to do that. You brought him here--you, Lanny, you are the one to +explain." + +"True, he is not deaf!" Lanstron replied. + +"You knew he was not deaf, while we wrote our messages to him and I have +been learning the deaf-and-dumb alphabet! It was pretty fun, wasn't it?" + +"Not fun--no, Marta!" he parried. + +"He is a spy?" she asked. + +"Yes, a spy. You can put things in a bright light, Marta!" He found +words coming with difficulty in face of the pain and disillusion of her +set look. + +"Using some broken man as a pawn; setting him as a spy in the garden +where you have been the welcome friend!" she exclaimed. "A spy on +what--on my mother, on Minna, on me, on the flowers, as a part of this +monstrous game of trickery and lies that you are playing?" + +There was no trace of anger in her tone. It was that of one mortally +hurt. Anger would have been easier to bear than the measuring, +penetrating wonder that found him guilty of such a horrible part. Those +eyes would have confused Partow himself with the steady, welling +intensity of their gaze. She did not see how his left hand was twitching +and how he stilled its movement by pressing it against the bench. + +"You will take Feller with you when you go!" she said, rising. + +Lanstron dropped his head in a kind of shaking throb of his whole body +and raised a face white with appeal. + +"Marta!" He was speaking to a profile, very sensitive and yet like +ivory. "I've no excuse for such an abuse of hospitality except the +obesssion of a loathsome work that some man must do and I was set to do. +My God, Marta! I cease to be natural and human. I am a machine. I keep +thinking, what if war comes and some error of mine let the enemy know +where to strike the blow of victory; or if there were information I +might have gained and failed to gain that would have given us the +victory--if, because I had not done my part, thousands of lives of our +soldiers were sacrificed needlessly!" + +At that she turned on him quickly, her face softening. + +"You do think of that--the lives?" + +"Yes, why shouldn't I?" + +"Of those on your side!" she exclaimed, turning away. + +"Yes, of those first," he replied. "And, Marta, I did not tell you why +Feller was here because he did not want me to, and I was curious to see +if he had sustained power enough to keep you from discovering his +simulation. I did not think he would remain. I thought that in a week he +would tire of the part. But now you must have the whole story. You will +listen?" + +"I should not be fair if I did not, should I?" she replied, with a weary +shadow of a smile. + + + + +XI + +MARTA HEARS FELLER'S STORY + + +To tell the story as Lanstron told it is to have it from the partisan +lips of a man speaking for a man out of the depths of a friendship grown +into the fibre of youth. It is better written by the detached narrator. + +Gustave Feller's father had died when Gustave was twelve and his mother +found it easy to spoil an only son who was handsome and popular. He +suffered the misfortune of a mental brilliancy that learns too readily +and of a personal charm that wins its way too easily. He danced well; he +was facile at the piano; and he had so pronounced a gift as an amateur +actor that a celebrated professional had advised him to go on the stage. + +The two entering the cadet officers' school at the same time, chance +made them roommates and choice soon made them chums. They had in common +cleverness and the abundant energy that must continually express itself +in action, and a mutual attraction in the very complexity of dissimilar +traits that wove well in companionship. + +While they were together Lanstron was a brake on his friend's impulses +of frivolity which carried him to extremes; but they separated after +receiving their commissions, Feller being assigned to the +horse-artillery and Lanstron to the infantry and later to the staff. In +charge of a field-battery at manoeuvres Feller was at his best. But in +the comparative idleness of his profession he had much spare time for +amusement, which led to gambling. Soon many debts hung over his head, +awaiting liquidation at high rates of interest when he should come into +the family property. + +To the last his mother, having ever in mind a picture of him as a fine +figure riding at the head of his guns, was kept in ignorance of this +side of his life. With her death, when he had just turned thirty, a +fortune was at his disposal. He made an oath of his resolution to pay +his debts, marry and settle down and maintain his inheritance +unimpaired. This endured for a year before it began to waver; and the +wavering was soon followed by headlong obsession which fed on itself. As +his passion for gambling grew it seemed to consume the better elements +of his nature. Lanstron reasoned with him, then implored, then stormed; +and Feller, regularly promising to reform, regularly fell each time into +greater excesses. Twice Lanstron saved him from court-martial, but the +third time no intercession or influence would induce his superiors to +overlook the offence. Feller was permitted to resign to avoid a scandal, +and at thirty-three, penniless, disgraced, he faced the world and sought +the new land which has been the refuge for numbers of his kind. Only one +friend bade him farewell as he boarded a steamer for New York, and this +was Lanstron. + +"Keep away from cities! Seek the open country! And write me, +Gustave--don't fail!" said Lanstron. + +Letters full of hope came from a Wyoming ranch; letters that told how +Feller had learned to rope a steer and had won favor with his fellows +and the ranch boss; of a one-time gourmet's healthy appetite for the +fare of the chuck wagon. Lanstron, reading more between the lines than +in them, understood that as muscles hardened with the new life the old +passion was dying and in its place was coming something equally +dangerous as a possible force in driving his ardent nature to some +excess for the sake of oblivion. Finally, Feller broke out with the +truth. + +"My hair is white now, Lanny," he wrote. "I have aged ten years in these +two. With every month of this new life the horror of my career has +become clear to me. I lie awake thinking of it. I feel unworthy to +associate with my simple, outspoken, free-riding companions. Remorse is +literally burning up my brain. It is better to have my mind diseased, my +moral faculties blurred, my body unsound; for to be normal, healthy, +industrious is to remember the whole ghastly business of my dishonor. + +"'Pay back! Pay back in some way!' a voice keeps saying. 'Pay back! Have +an object in mind. Get to work on something that will help you to pay +back or you will soon take a plunge to lower depths than you have yet +sounded.' + +"It is not the gambling, not the drinking--no! The thing that I cannot +forget, that grows more horrible the more keenly awake clean living +makes me to the past, is that I am inwardly foul--as foul as a priest +who has broken his vows. I have disgraced the uniform--my country's +uniform. I may never wear that uniform again; never look the meanest +private in a battery in the face without feeling my cheeks hot with +shame. While I cannot right myself before the service, I should like to +do something to right myself with my conscience. I should like to see a +battery march past and look at the flag and into the faces of the +soldiers of my country feeling that I had atoned--feeling so for my own +peace of mind--atoned by some real deed of service. + +"I have been reading how Japanese volunteers made a bridge of their +bodies for their comrades into a Russian trench, and when everybody else +felt a horrible, uncanny admiration for such madness I have envied them +the glorious exhilaration of the moment before the charge. That was a +sufficient reward in life for death. So I come again to you for help. +Now that you are chief of intelligence you must have many secret agents +within the inner circle of the army's activities. In the midst of peace +and the commonplaces of drill and manoeuvres there must be dangerous +and trying work where the only distinction is service for the cause--our +cause of three million against five. Find a task for me, no matter how +mean, thankless, or dangerous, Lanny. The more exacting it is the more +welcome, for the better will be my chance to get right with myself." + +"Come!" was Lanstron's cable in answer. + +At the time he had not chosen any employment for Feller. He was thinking +only that something must be found. When he heard of the death of the +Gallands' gardener he recollected that before the passion for gambling +overtook Feller he had still another passion besides his guns. The +garden of the Feller estate had been famous in its neighborhood. Young +Lanstron had not been more fond of the society of an engine-driver than +young Feller of a gardener's. On a holiday in the capital with his +fellow cadets he would separate from them to spend hours in the +botanical gardens. Once, after his downfall began, at a riotous dinner +party he had broken into a temper with a man who had torn a rose to +pieces in order to toss the petals over the table. + +"Flowers have souls!" he had cried in one of his tumultuous, abandoned +reversions to his better self which his companions found eccentric and +diverting. "That rose is the only thing in the room that is not foul +--and I am the foulest of all!" + +The next minute, perhaps after another glass of champagne, he would be +winning a burst of laughter by his mimicry of a gouty old colonel +reprimanding him for his erring career. + +Naturally, in the instinct of friendship, Lanstron's own account left +out the unpleasant and dwelt on the pleasant facts of Feller's career. + +"His colonel did not understand him," he said. "But I knew the depths of +his fine spirit and generous heart. I knew his talent. I knew that he +was a victim of unsympathetic surroundings, of wealth, of love of +excitement, and his own talent. Where he was, something must happen. He +bubbled with energy. The routine of drill, the same old chaff of the +mess, the garrison gossip, the long hours of idleness while the busy +world throbs outside, which form a privileged life to most officers, +were stifling to him. 'Let's set things going!' he would say in the old +days, and we'd set them. Most of our demerits were for some kind of +deviltry. And how he loved the guns! I can see the sparkle of his men's +eyes at sight of him. Nobody could get out of them what he could. If he +had not been put in the army as a matter of family custom, if he had +been an actor, or if he and I had gone to build bridges, then he might +have a line of capital letters and periods after his name, and he would +not be a spy or I an employer of spies, doing the work of a detective +agency in an officer's uniform because nobody but an officer may do it." + +At first Marta listened rigidly, but as the narrative proceeded her +interest grew. When Lanstron quoted Feller's appeal for any task, +however mean and thankless, she nodded sympathetically and +understandingly; when he related the incident of the rose, its appeal +was irresistible. She gave a start of delight and broke silence. + +"Yes. I recall just how he looked as he stood on the porch, his head +bent, his shoulders stooped, twirling his hat in his hands, while mother +and I examined him as to his qualifications," she said. "I remember his +words. He said that he knew flowers and that, like him, flowers could +not hear; but perhaps he would be all the better gardener because he +could not hear. He was so ingratiating; yet his deafness seemed such a +drawback that I hesitated." + +Following the path to the tower leisurely, they had reached the tower. +Feller's door was open. Marta looked into the room, finding in the neat +arrangement of its furniture a new significance. He was absent, for it +was the dinner hour. + +"And on my recommendation you took him," Lanstron continued. + +"Yes, on yours, Lanny, on a friend's! You"--she put a cold emphasis on +the word--"you wanted him here for your plans! And why? You haven't +answered that yet. What purpose of the war game does he serve in our +garden?" + +His look pleaded for patience, while he tried to smile, which was rather +difficult in face of her attitude. + +"Not altogether in the garden; partly in the tower," he replied. "You +are to be in the whole secret and in such a way as to make my temptation +clear, I hope. First, I think you ought to see the setting. Let us go +in" + +Impelled by the fascination of Feller's romantic story and by a +curiosity that Lanstron's manner accentuated, she entered the room. +Apparently Lanstron was familiar with the premises. Passing through the +sitting-room into the room adjoining, where Feller stored his tools, he +opened a door that gave onto the circular stone steps leading down into +the dungeon tunnel. + +"I think we had better have a light," he said, and when he had fetched +one from the bedchamber he descended the steps, asking her to follow. + +They were in a passage six feet in height and about three feet broad, +which seemed to lead on indefinitely into clammy darkness. The dewy +stone walls sparkled in fantastic and ghostly iridescence under the rays +from the lantern. The dank air lay moist against their faces. + +"It's a long time since I've been here," said Marta, glad to break the +uncanny sound of their footsteps in the weird silence with her voice. +"Not since I was a youngster. Then I came on a dare to see if there were +goblins. There weren't any; at least, none that cared to manifest +himself to me." + +"We have a goblin here now that we are nursing for the Grays--an +up-to-date one that is quite visible," said Lanstron. "This is far +enough." He paused and raised the lantern. With its light full in her +face, she blinked. "There, at the height of your chin!" + +She noted a metal button painted gray, set at the side of one of the +stones of the wall, which looked unreal. She struck the stone with her +knuckles and it gave out the sound of hollow wood, which was followed, +as an echo, by a little laugh from Lanstron. Pressing the button, a +panel door flew open, revealing a telephone mouthpiece and receiver set +in the recess. Without giving him time to refuse permission, her thought +all submissive to the prompting spirit of adventure, she took down the +receiver and called: "Hello!" + +"The wire isn't connected," explained Lanstron. + +Marta hung up the receiver and closed the door abruptly in a spasm of +reaction. + +"Like a detective play!" were the first words that sprang to her lips. +"Well?" As she faced around her eyes glittered in the lantern's rays. +"Well, have you any other little tricks to show me? Are you a +sleight-of-hand artist, too, Lanny? Are you going to take a machine gun +out of your hat?" + +"That is the whole bag," he answered. "I thought you'd rather see it +than have it described to you." + +"Having seen it, let us go!" she said, in a manner that implied further +reckoning to come. + +"If out of a thousand possible sources one source succeeds, then the +cost and pains of the other nine hundred and ninety-nine are more than +repaid," he was saying urgently, the soldier uppermost in him. "Some of +the best service we have had has been absurd in its simplicity and its +audacity. In time of war more than one battle has been decided by a +thing that was a trifle in itself. No matter what your preparation, you +can never remove the element of chance. An hour gained in information +about your enemy's plans may turn the tide in your favor. A Chinese +peasant spy, because he happened to be intoxicated, was able to give the +Japanese warning in time for Kuroki to make full dispositions for +receiving the Russian attack in force at the Sha-ho. There are many +other incidents of like nature in history. So it is my duty to neglect +no possible method, however absurd." + +By this time he was at the head of the steps. Standing to one side, he +offered his hand to assist Marta. But she seemed not to see it. Her +aspect was that of downright antagonism. + +"However absurd! yes, it is absurd to think that you can make me a party +to any of your plans, for--" She broke off abruptly with starting eyes, +as if she had seen an apparition. + +Lanstron turned and through the door of the tool-room saw Feller +entering the sitting-room. He was not the bent, deferential old +gardener, nor was he the Feller changed to youth as he thought of +himself at the head of a battery. His features were hard-set, a fighting +rage burning in his eyes, his sinews taut as if about to spring upon an +adversary. When he recognized the intruders he turned limp, his head +dropped, hiding his face with his hat brim, and he steadied himself by +resting a hand on the table edge. + +"Oh, it's you, Lanny--Colonel Lanstron!" he exclaimed thickly. "I saw +that some one had come in here and naturally I was alarmed, as nobody +but myself ever enters. And Miss Galland!" He removed his hat +deferentially and bowed; his stoop returned and the lines of his face +drooped. "I was so stupid; it did not occur to me that you might be +showing the tower to Colonel Lanstron." + +"We are sorry to have given you a fright!" said Marta very gently. + +"Eh? eh?" queried Feller, again deaf. "Fright? Oh, no, no fright. It +might have been some boys from the town marauding." + +He was about to withdraw, in keeping with his circumspect adherence to +his part, which he played with a sincerity that half-convinced even +himself at times that he was really deaf, when the fire flickered back +suddenly to his eyes and he glanced from Lanstron to the stairway in +desperate inquiry. + +"Wait, Feller! Three of us share the secret now. These are Miss +Galland's premises. I thought best that she should know everything," +said Lanstron. + +"Everything!" exclaimed Feller. "Everything--" the word caught in his +throat. "You mean my story, too?" He was neither young nor old now. He +seemed nondescript and miserable. "She knows who I am?" he asked. + +"Yes!" Lanstron answered. + +"Lanny!" This almost reproachfully, as if the ethics of friendship had +been abused. + +"Yes. I'm sorry, Gustave. I--" Lanstron began miserably. + +"But why not?" said Feller, with a wan attempt at a smile. "You see--I +mean--it does not matter!" he concluded in a hopeless effort at +philosophy. + +"My thoughtlessness, my callousness, my obsession with my work! I should +not have told your story," said Lanstron. + +"His story!" exclaimed Marta, with a puzzled look to Lanstron before she +turned to Feller with a look of warm sympathy. "Why, there is no story! +You came with excellent recommendations. You are our very efficient +gardener. That is all we need to know. Isn't that the way you wish it, +Mr. Feller?" + +"Yes, just that!" he said softly, raising his eyes to her in gratitude. +"Thank you, Miss Galland!" + +He was going after another "Thank you!" and a bow; going with the slow +step and stoop of his part, when Lanstron, with a masculine roughness of +impulse which may be a sublime gentleness, swung him around and seized +his hands in a firm caress. + +"Forgive me, Gustave!" he begged. "Forgive the most brutal of all +injuries--that which wounds a friend's sensibilities." + +"Why, there is nothing I could ever have to forgive you, Lanny," he +said, returning Lanstron's pressure while for an instant his quickening +muscles gave him a soldierly erectness. Then his attitude changed to one +of doubt and inquiry. "And you found out that I was not deaf when you +had that fall on the terrace?" he asked, turning to Marta. "That is how +you happened to get the whole story? Tell me, honestly!" + +"Yes" + +"Had you suspected me before that?" + +"Yes, if you must know. I observed you speak to a bumblebee you could +not see," she said frankly, though she knew that her answer hurt him. +There was no parleying with the insistence of his pale, drawn face and +his fingers playing in nervous tension on the table edge. Suddenly he +smiled as he had at the bumblebee. + +"There you are again, confound you!" he exclaimed, shaking his finger at +the imaginary intruder on the silence of the garden. "Did anyone else +suspect?" he asked in fierce intensity. + +"No, I don't think so." + +He drew back with a long breath of relief, while his fingers now beat a +merry tattoo. + +"You saw so much more of me than the others, Miss Galland," he said with +a charming bow, "and you are so quick to observe that you are hardly a +fair test. That little thunderer will not get me again. I'll fool the +ones I want to fool. And I'm learning, Lanny, learning all the +time--getting a little deafer all the time. Miss Galland," he added, +struck in visible contrition by a new thought, "I am sorry"--he paused +with head down for an instant--"very sorry to have deceived you." + +"But you are still a deaf gardener to me," said Marta, finding +consolation in pleasing him. + +"Eh? eh?" He put his hand to his ear as he resumed his stoop. "Yes, +yes," he added, as a deaf man will when understanding of a remark which +he failed at first to catch comes to him in an echo. "Yes, the gardener +has no past," he declared in the gentle old gardener's voice, "when all +the flowers die every year and he thinks only of next year's +blossoms--of the future!" + +Now the air of the room seemed to be stifling him, that of the roofless +world of the garden calling him. His face spoke pitifully a desire for +escape as he withdrew. The bent figure disappeared around a turn in the +path and they listened without moving until the sound of his slow, +dragging footfalls had died away. + +"When he is serving those of his own social station I can see how it +would be easier for him not to have me know," said Marta. "Sensitive, +proud, and intense--" and a look of horror appeared in her eyes. "As he +came across the room his face was transformed. I imagine it was like +that of a man giving no quarter in a bayonet charge!" + +"His secret was at stake!" Lanstron said in ready championship. + +She put up her hand as if to shut out a picture. + +"Don't let us think of it!" she exclaimed with a shudder. "He did not +know what he was doing. His is one of the natures that have moments when +an impulse throws them off their balance and ruins the work of years. +No, we must think only of his sacrifice, his enforced humiliation, in +order to try to make amends for the past according to his light. No one +could refuse him sympathy and respect." + +Feller had won the day for himself where a friend's pleas might have +failed. This was as it should be, Lanstron thought; and he smiled +happily over the rare thing in Marta that felt the appeal which Feller +had for him. + +"The right view--the view that you were bound to take!" he said. + +"And yet, I don't know your plans for him, Lanny. Pity is one thing; +there is another thing to consider," she replied, with an abrupt change +of tone. "But first let us leave Feller's quarters. We are intruders +here." + + + + +XII + +A CRISIS WITHIN A CRISIS + + +"A broken-hearted man playing deaf; a secret telephone installed on our +premises without our consent--this is all I know so far," said Marta, +who was opposite Lanstron at one end of the circular seat in the arbor +of Mercury, leaning back, with her weight partly resting on her hand +spread out on the edge of the bench, head down, lashes lowered so that +they formed a curtain for her glance. "I listen!" she added. + +"Of course, with our three millions against their five, the Grays will +take the offensive," he said. "For us, the defensive. La Tir is in an +angle. It does not belong in the permanent tactical line of our +defences. Nevertheless, there will be hard fighting here. The Browns +will fall back step by step, and we mean, with relatively small cost to +ourselves, to make the Grays pay a heavy price for each step--just as +heavy as we can!" + +They had often argued before with all the weapons known to controversy; +but now the realization that his soldierly precision was bringing the +forces of war into their personal relations struck her cold, with a +logic as cold as his own seemed to her. + +"You need not use euphonious terms," she said without lifting her lashes +or any movement except a quick, nervous gesture of her free hand that +fell back into place on her lap. "What you mean is that you will kill as +many as possible of the Grays, isn't it? And if you could kill five for +every man you lost, that would be splendid, wouldn't it?" + +"I don't think of it as splendid. There is nothing splendid about war," +he objected; "not to me, Marta." + +"Still you would like to kill five to one, even ten to one, wouldn't +you?" she persisted. + +"Marta, you are merciless!" + +"So is war. It should be treated mercilessly." + +"Yes, twenty to one if they try to take our land!" he declared. "If we +could keep up that ratio the war would not last more than a week. It +would mean a great saving of lives in the end. We should win." + +"Exactly. Thank you. Westerling could not have said it better as a +reason for another army-corps. For the love of humanity--the humanity of +our side--please give us more weapons for murder! And after you have +made them pay five to one or ten to one in human lives for the tangent, +what then? Go on! I want to look at war face to face, free of the +will-o'-the-wisp glamour that draws on soldiers!" + +"We fall back to our first line of defence, fighting all the time. The +Grays occupy La Tir, which will be out of the reach of our guns. Your +house will no longer be in danger, and we happen to know that Westerling +means to make it his headquarters." + +"Our house Westerling's headquarters!" she repeated. With a start that +brought her up erect, alert, challenging, her lashes flickering, she +recalled that Westerling had said at parting that he should see her if +war came. This corroborated Lanstron's information. One side wanted a +spy in the garden; the other a general in the house. Was she expected to +make a choice? He had ceased to be Lanny. He personified war. Westerling +personified war. "I suppose you have spies under his very nose--in his +very staff offices?" she asked. + +"And probably he has in ours," said Lanstron, "though we do our best to +prevent it." + +"What a pretty example of trust among civilized nations!" she exclaimed. +"And you say that Westerling, who commands the killing on his side, will +be in no danger?" + +"Naturally not. As you know, a chief of staff must be at the wire head +where all information centres, free of interruption or confusion or any +possibility of broken lines of communication with his corps and +divisions." + +"Then Partow will not be in any danger?" + +"For the same reasons, no." + +"How comfortable! In perfect safety themselves, they will order other +men to death!" + +"Marta, you are unjust!" exclaimed Lanstron, for he revered Partow as +disciple reveres master. "Partow has the iron cross!"--the prized iron +cross given to both officers and men of the Browns for exceptional +courage in action and for that alone. "He won it leading a second charge +with a bullet in his arm, after he had lost thirty per cent, of his +regiment. The second charge succeeded." + +"Yes, I understand," she went on a little wildly. "And perhaps the +colonel on the other side, who fought just as bravely and had even +heavier losses, did not get the bronze cross of the Grays because he +failed. Yes, I understand that bravery is a requisite of the military +cult. You must take some risk or you will not cause enough slaughter to +win either iron or bronze crosses. And, Lanny, are you a person of such +distinction in the business of killing that you also will be out of +danger?" + +She had forgotten about the telephone; she had forgotten the picture of +dare-devil nerve he made when he rose from the wreck of his plane. If +his work were to make war, her work was against war--the mission of her +life as she saw it in the intense, passionate moments when some new +absurdity of its processes appeared to her. She was ready to seize any +argument his talk offered to combat the things for which he stood. She +did not see, as her eyes poured her hot indignation into his, that his +maimed hand was twitching or how he bit his lips and flushed before he +replied: + +"Each one goes where he is sent, link by link, down from the chief of +staff. Only in this way can you have that solidarity, that harmonious +efficiency which means victory." + +"An autocracy, a tyranny over the lives of all the adult males in +countries that boast of the ballot and self-governing institutions!" she +put in. + +"But I hope," he went on, with the quickening pulse and eager smile that +used to greet a call from Feller to "set things going" in their cadet +days, "that I may take out a squadron of dirigibles. After all this spy +business, that would be to my taste." + +"And if you caught a regiment in close formation with a shower of bombs, +that would be positively heavenly, wouldn't it?" She bent nearer to him, +her eyes flaming demand and satire. + +"No! War--necessary, horrible, hellish!" he replied. Something in her +seemed to draw out the brutal truth she had asked for in place of +euphonious terms. + +"You apparently know where your profession ought to feel perfectly at +home--but what is the use? What?" She put her hands over her face and +shuddered. "I grow savage; but it is because I have known you so well +and because everything you say brings up its answer irresistibly to my +mind. I keep thinking of what mother said at luncheon--of her certainty +that war is coming. I see the garden spattered with blood, the wounded +and the dying--an eddy in the conflict! And I am in a controversial eddy +whirling round and round away from the main current of what you were to +tell me." She let her hands drop, but her eyes still held their lights +of hostility. "Go on. I listen!" + +"When I became chief of intelligence I found that an underground wire +had been laid to the castle from the Eighth Division headquarters, which +will be our general staff headquarters in time of war," he said. "The +purpose was the same as now, but abandoned as chimerical. All that was +necessary was to install the instrument, which Feller did. I, too, saw +the plan as chimerical, yet it was a chance--the one out of a thousand. +If it should happen to succeed we should play with our cards concealed +and theirs on the table." + +"The noble art of war, so sportsmanlike!" she exclaimed. "So like the +rules and ideals of the Olympic games! But the games will not serve to +keep nations virile. They must shed blood!" + +"Sportsmanlike? Not in the least!" he said. "The sport and glamour of +war are past. The army becomes a business, a trade that ought to be +uniformed in blue jumpers rather than gold lace. We are in an era of +enormous forces, untried tactics, and rapidly changing conditions. This +is why the big nations hesitate to make war; why they prepare well; why +the stake is so great that the smallest detail must not be overlooked." + +She could not hold back her arguments, reason was so unquestionably on +her side. + +"Yes, the cunning of the fox, the brutality of Cain, using modern +science and invention! Feint and draw your enemy into a cul-de-sac; +screen your flank attacks; mask your batteries and hold their fire till +the infantry charge is ripe for decimation! Oh, I have been brought up +among soldiers! I know!" + +"The rest of Feller's part you have guessed already," he concluded. "You +can see how a deaf, inoffensive old gardener would hardly seem to know a +Gray soldier from a Brown; how it might no more occur to Westerling to +send him away than the family dog or cat; how he might retain his +quarters in the tower; how he could judge the atmosphere of the staff, +whether elated or depressed, pick up scraps of conversation, and, as a +trained officer, know the value of what he heard and report it over the +'phone to Partow's headquarters." + +"But what about the aeroplanes?" she asked. "I thought you were to +depend on them for scouting." + +"We shall use them, but they are the least tried of all the new +resources," he said. "A Gray aeroplane may cut a Brown aeroplane down +before it returns with the news we want. At most, when the aviator may +descend low enough for accurate observation he can see only what is +actually being done. Feller would know Westerling's plans before they +were even in the first steps of execution. This"--playing the thought +happily--"this would be the ideal arrangement, while our planes and +dirigibles were kept over our lines to strike down theirs. And, Marta, +that is all," he concluded. "I've tried to make everything clear." + +"You have, quite!" Marta replied decisively. "Now it is my turn to +talk." + +"You have been talking a little already!" he intimated good-naturedly. + +"Only interruptions. That's not really talking," she answered, and broke +into a sharp little laugh. A laugh was helpful to both after such a taut +colloquy, but it seemed only to renew her energies for conflict. "If +there is war, the moment that Feller's ruse is discovered he will be +shot as a spy?" she asked. + +"I warned him of that," said Lanstron. "I made the situation plain. He +refused the assignments I first suggested to him. He objected that they +did not offer any real expiation; they were not difficult or hazardous +enough. I saw that I could not trick his conscience--what a conscience +old Gustave has!--by any nominal task. When I mentioned this one he was +instantly keen. The deafness was his idea of a ruse for his purpose. He +wanted his secret kept. Thinking that his weakness for change would not +let him bear the monotony of a gardener's life as he saw himself bearing +it in imagination, I recommended him to you. And there was the +chance--the thousandth chance, Marta! He is a soldier, with a soldier's +fatalism. He sees no more danger in this than in commanding a battery in +a crisis." + +"Naturally, as he is all impulse and fire. But you are the tempered +steel of self-control. You should save him from his impulses, not make +use of them." + +"You put it bluntly, Marta. You--" + +"My turn to talk!" she reminded him. "Did you of all her views of +Feller from his entrance to his quarters till he had gone. Her lips, +which had kept so firm in argument, were parted and trembling in +sympathy. + +"I can see how he would take it!" she exclaimed. "I see his white hair, +his eyes, his fingers trembling on the edge of the table, his utter +dejection--and then impulse, headlong, irresponsible, craving the +devil's company!" + +"Yes, nothing could hold him," Lanstron agreed. "What makes it worse is +that with regular living, the pleasure of the garden, and a settled +purpose I have noticed his improvement already!" + +"There is something so fine about him, something that deserves to win +out against his weaknesses," she said reflectively. + +"If there is no war, I hope--after a year or so, I hope and believe that +I may have him rewarded in some way that would make him feel that he had +atoned." + +"And we have been talking as if war were due to-morrow!" she exclaimed. +The breaking light of a discovery, followed by a wave of happy relief, +swept over her responsive features, from relaxing brows to chin, which +gave a toss on its own account. "Why, of course, Lanny! Till war does +come he is only a gardener with an illusion that is giving mental +strength. Why didn't you put it that way before?" she asked in surprise +at so easy a solution having escaped them. "Let him stay, at least until +war comes." + +"And then?" + +"Lanny, you yourself, with all your information, you don't think--" + +"No; though we are nearer it than ever before, it seems to me," he said, +choosing his words carefully. "But it is likely that diplomacy will find +its way out of this crisis as it has out of many others." + +"Then we'll leave that question till the evil day," she replied. "We +have had a terrific argument, Lanny, haven't we? And you have won!" + +Her fingers flew out to his arm and rested lightly there after an +instant's firm pressure, as was her wont after an argument and they +sheathed their blades. Their comradeship seemed to be restored in all +its old glory of freedom from petty restraint. He was sure of one thing: +that she would let her fingers remain on no other man's sleeve in this +fashion; and he hoped that she would let them remain there a long time. +Very foolish he was about her, very foolish for a piece of human +machinery driven by the dynamo of a human will. + +"I have an impression that your goodness of heart has won," he suggested +gently. + +"Or rather let us say that Feller has won." + +"Better still, yes, Feller has won!" he agreed. "Oh, it is good, good, +good to be here with you, Marta, away from the grind for a little +while," he was saying, in the fulness of his anticipation of the hours +they should have together before he had to go, when they heard the sound +of steps. He looked around to see an orderly from the nearest military +wireless station. + +"I was told it was urgent, sir," said the orderly, in excuse for his +intrusion, as he passed a telegram to Lanstron. + +Immediately Lanstron felt the touch of the paper his features seemed to +take on a mask that concealed his thought as he read: + +"Take night express. Come direct from station to me. Partow." + +This meant that he would be expected at Partow's office at eight the +next morning. He wrote his answer; the orderly saluted and departed at a +rapid pace; and then, as a matter of habit of the same kind that makes +some men wipe their pens when laying them down, he struck a match and +set fire to one corner of the paper, which burned to his fingers' ends +before he tossed the charred remains away. Marta imagined what he would +be like with the havoc of war raging around him--all self-possession and +mastery; but actually he was trying to reassure himself that he ought +not to feel petulant over a holiday cut short. + +"I shall have to go at once," he said. "Marta, if there were to be war +very soon--within a week or two weeks--what would be your attitude about +Feller's remaining?" + +"To carry out his plan, you mean?" + +"Yes." + +There was a perceptible pause on her part. + +"Let him stay," she answered. "I shall have time to decide even after +war begins." + +"But instantly war begins you must go!" he declared urgently. + +"You forget a precedent," she reminded him. "The Galland women have +never deserted the Galland house!" + +"I know the precedent. But this time the house will be in the thick of +the fighting." + +"It has been in the thick of the fighting before," she said, with a +gesture of impatience. + +"Not this kind of fighting, Marta," he proceeded very soberly. "Other +wars are no criterion for this. I know about the defences of the tangent +because I helped to plan them. In order to keep the enemy in ignorance +we have made no permanent fortifications. But the engineers and the +material will be ready, instantly the frontier is closed to +intelligence, to construct defences suited to a delaying and punishing +action. Every human being will be subject to martial law; every resource +at military command. Every hill, house, ditch, and tree will be used as +cover or protection and will be subject to attack." + +Not argument this, but the marshalling of facts of the kind in which he +dealt as unanswerable evidence, while she listened with a still face and +dilating eyes that did not look at him until he had finished. Then a +smile came, a faint, drawn smile of irony, and her eyes staring into his +were chilling and greenish-black in their anger. + +"And the house of a friend meant nothing! It was only fuel for the hell +you devise!" she said, making each word count like shot singing over +glare ice. + +"It is only fair to myself to say that when I laid the sheets of my map +before Partow I had excluded your house and grounds," he pleaded in +defence. "His thumb pounced on that telltale blank space. 'A key-point! +So this is your tendon of Achilles, eh?' he said in his blunt fashion." + +"The blunt fashion is admired by soldiers," she replied without +softening. "Yes, he could play chess with heaps of bodies! He is worse +than Westerling!" + +"No, he would use his own premises, his brother's, his father's if it +would help. Well, then he took a pen and filled in the blank space with +the detail which is to make your house and garden the centre of an +inferno." + +"How Christian!" breathed Marta. "I suppose he loves his grandchildren +and that they are taught the Lord's prayer!" + +"I believe his only pastime is playing with them," admitted Lanstron, +stumbling on, trying to be loyal to Partow, to duty, to country, no +longer calm or dispassionate, but demoralized under the lash. "He tells +them that when they are grown he hopes there will be an end of war." + +"Worse yet--a hypocrite!" + +"But, Marta, I never knew a man more sincere. He is working to the same +end as you--peace. If the Grays would play with fire he would give them +such a burning that they will never try again. He would make war too +horrible for practice; fix the frontier forever where by, right it +belongs; make conquest by one civilized nation of another impossible +hereafter. Yes, when it is stalemate, when it is proved that the science +of modern defence has made the weak so strong that superior numbers +cannot play the bully, then shall we have peace in practice!" + +"My children's prayer and Partow in the same gallery!" she laughed +stonily. "The peace of armament, not of man's superiority to the tiger +and the tarantula! And you say it all so calmly. You picture the hell of +your manufacture as coolly as if it were some fairies' dance!" + +"Should I be enthusiastic? Should I view the prospect with an +old-fashioned Hussar's hurrah?" he asked. "The right way is without +illusions. Let us lose our heads, cry out for glory--and then chaos!" + +"The heedless barbarism of ignorance intoxicated with primitive passion +versus calculating, refined, intellectual, comprehending barbarism! I +see no choice," she concluded, rising slowly in the utter weariness of +spirit that calls for the end of an interview. + +"Marta, you will promise not to remain at the house?" he urged. + +"Isn't that my affair?" she asked. "Aren't you willing to leave even +that to me after all you have been telling how you are to make a redoubt +of our lawn, inviting the shells of the enemy into our drawing-room?" + +What could he say in face of a hostility so resolute and armed with the +conviction of its logic? Only call up from the depths the two passions +of his life in an outburst, with all the force of his nature in play. + +"I love this soil, my country's soil, ours by right---and I love you! I +would be true to both!" + +"Love! What mockery to mention that now!" she cried chokingly. "It's +monstrous!" + +"I--I--" He was making an effort to keep his nerves under control. + +This time the stiffening elbow failed. With a lurching abruptness he +swung his right hand around and seized the wrist of that trembling, +injured hand that would not be still. She could not fail to notice the +movement, and the sight was a magic that struck anger out of her. + +"Lanny, I am hurting you!" she cried miserably. + +"A little," he said, will finally dominant over its servant, and he was +smiling as when, half stunned and in agony--and ashamed of the fact--he +had risen from the debris of cloth and twisted braces. "It's all +right," he concluded. + +She threw back her arms, her head raised, with a certain abandon as if +she would bare her heart. + +"Lanny, there have been moments when I would have liked to fly to your +arms. There have been moments when I have had the call that comes to +every woman in answer to a desire. Yet I was not ready. When I really go +it must be in a flame, in answer to your flame!" + +"You mean--I--." + +But if the flame were about to burst forth she smothered it in the +spark. + +"And all this has upset me," she went on incoherently. "We've both been +cruel without meaning to be, and we're in the shadow of a nightmare; and +next time you come perhaps all the war talk will be over and--oh, this +is enough for to-day!" + +She turned quickly in veritable flight and hurried toward the house. At +the bend of the path she wheeled and stood facing him, a hand tossed up +and opening and closing as if she had caught a shaft of sunshine and let +it go again. Thus she would wave to him from the veranda as he came up +the terrace steps. Indelible to him this picture, radiant of a +versatile, impressionable vitality, of capacities yet unsounded, of a +downright sincerity of impulses, faiths, and ideals which might buffet +her this way and that over a strange course. A woman unafraid of +destiny; a woman too objective yet to know herself! + +"If it ever comes," she called, "I'll let you know! I'll fly to you in a +chariot of fire bearing my flame--I am that bold, that brazen, that +reckless! For I am not an old maid yet. They've moved the age limit up +to thirty. But you can't drill love into me as you drill discipline into +armies--no, no more than I can argue peace into armies!" + +For a while, motionless, Lanstron watched the point where she had +disappeared. + +"If I had only been a bridge-builder or an engine-driver," he thought; +"anything except this beastly--" + +But he was wool-gathering again. He pulled himself together and started +at a rapid pace for the tower, where he found Feller sitting by the +table, one leg over the other easily, engaged in the prosaic business of +sewing a button on his blouse. Lanstron rapped; no answer. He beat a +tattoo on the casing; no answer. + +"Gustave!" he called; no answer. + +Now he entered and touched Feller's shoulder. + +"Hello, Lanny!" exclaimed Feller, rising and setting a chair and +breaking into a stream of talk. "That's the way they all have to do when +they want to attract my attention. I heard your voice and Miss +Galland's--having an argument in the garden, I should say. Then I heard +your step. Since I became deaf my sense of hearing has really grown +keener, just as the blind develop a keener sense of feeling. Eh? eh?" He +cupped his hand over his ear in the unctuous enjoyment of his gift of +acting. "Yes, Colonel Lanstron, would you like to know what a perfect +triumph we're going to pull off in irises next season--but, Lanny, you +seem in a hurry!" + +"Gustave, I am ordered to headquarters by the night express and I came +to tell you that I think it means war." + +"War! war!" Feller shouted. "Ye gods and little fishes!" In riotous glee +he seized a chair and flung it across the room. "Ye salty, whiskery gods +and ye shiny-eyed little fishes! War, do you hear that, you plebeian +trousers of the deaf gardener? War!" Flinging the trousers after the +chair, he executed a few steps. When he had thus tempered his elation, +he grasped Lanstron's arm and, looking into his eyes with feverish +resolution and hope, said: "Oh, don't fear! I'll pull it off. And then I +shall have paid back--yes, paid back! I shall be a man who can look men +in the face again. I need not slink to the other side of the street when +I see an old friend coming for fear that he will recognize me. Yes, I +could even dare to love a woman of my own world! And--and perhaps the +uniform and the guns once more!" + +"You may be sure of that. Partow cannot refuse," said Lanstron, deeply +affected. After a pause he added: "But I must tell you, Gustave, that +Miss Galland, though she is willing that you remain as a gardener, has +not yet consented to our plan. She will make no decision until war +comes. Perhaps she will refuse. It is only fair that you should know +this." + +For an instant Feller was downcast; then confidence returned at high +pitch. + +"Trust me!" he said. "I shall persuade her!" + +"I hope you can. It is a chance that might turn the scales of victory--a +chance that hangs in my mind stubbornly, as if there were some fate in +it. Luck, old boy!" + +"Luck to you, Lanny! Luck and promotion!" + +They threw their arms about each other in a vigorous embrace. + +"And you will keep watch that Mrs. Galland and Marta are in no danger?" + +"Trust me for that, too!" + +"Then, good-by till I hear from you over the 'phone or I return to see +you after the crisis is over!" concluded Lanstron as he hurried away. + + + + +XIII + +BREAKING A PAPER-KNIFE + + +Hedworth Westerling would have said twenty to one if he had been asked +the odds against war when he was parting from Marta Galland in the hotel +reception-room. Before he reached home he would have changed them to ten +to one. A scare bulletin about the Bodlapoo affair compelling attention +as his car halted to let the traffic of a cross street pass, he bought a +newspaper thrust in at the car window that contained the answer of the +government of the Browns to a despatch of the Grays about the dispute +that had arisen in the distant African jungle. This he had already read +two days previously, by courtesy of the premier. It was moderate in +tone, as became a power that had three million soldiers against its +opponent's five; nevertheless, it firmly pointed out that the territory +of the Browns had been overtly invaded, on the pretext of securing a +deserter who had escaped across the line, by Gray colonial troops who +had raised the Gray flag in place of the Brown flag and remained +defiantly in occupation of the outpost they had taken. + +As yet, the Browns had not attempted to repel the aggressor by arms for +fear of complications, but were relying on the Gray government to order +a withdrawal of the Gray force and the repudiation of a commander who +had been guilty of so grave an international affront. The surprising and +illuminating thing to Westerling was the inspired statement to the press +from the Gray Foreign Office, adroitly appealing to Gray chauvinism and +justifying the "intrepidity" of the Gray commander in response to +so-called "pin-pricking" exasperations. + +At the door of his apartment, Francois, his valet and factotum, gave +Westerling a letter. + +"Important, sir," said Francois. + +Westerling knew by a glance that it was, for it was addressed and marked +"Personal" in the premier's own handwriting. A conference for ten that +evening was requested in a manner that left no doubt of its urgency. + +"Let me see, do I dine at the Countess Zalinski's to-night?" asked +Westerling. Both Francois and his personal aide kept a list of his +appointments. + +"Not to-night, sir. To-night you--" said Francois. + +"Good!" thought Westerling. "No excuses will be necessary to Marie in +order to be at the premier's by ten." + +Curiosity made him a little ahead of time, but he found the premier +awaiting him in his study, free from interruption or eavesdropping. + +In the shadow of the table lamp the old premier looked his years. His +definite features were easy material for the caricaturist, who does not +deal in halftones. A near view of them was not attractive. They had the +largeness which impresses the gallery from the floor of a parliamentary +chamber, where delicate lines of sensibility and character lack the +quality which the actor supplies with his make-up. As is often the case +with elderly statesmen, his face seemed like that of the crowd done +boldly as a single face, while his shrewd eyes in a bed of crow's-feet, +when they lighted to their purpose in confidence, expressed his +understanding of the crowd and its thoughts and how it may be led. + +From youth he had been in politics, ever a bold figure and a daring +player, but now beginning to feel the pressure of younger men's elbows. +Fonder even of power, which had become a habit, than in his twenties, he +saw it slipping from his grasp at an age when the 'downfall of his +government meant that he should never hold the reins again. He had been +called an ambitious demagogue and a makeshift opportunist by his +enemies, but the crowd liked him for his ready strategy, his genius for +appealing phrases, and for the gambler's virtue which hitherto had made +him a good loser. + +"You saw our _communique_ to-night that went with the publication of the +Browns' despatch?" he remarked. + +"Yes, and I was glad that I had been careful to send a spirited +commander to that region," Westerling replied. + +"So you guess my intention, I see." The premier smiled. He picked up a +long, thin ivory paper-knife and softly patted the palm of his hand with +it. "We have had many discussions, you and I, Westerling," he said. "But +to-night I'm going to ask categorical questions. They may take us over +old ground, but they are the questions of the nation to the army." + +"Certainly!" Westerling replied in his ready, confident manner. + +"We hear a great deal about the precision and power of modern arms as +favoring the defensive," said the premier. "I have read somewhere that +it will enable the Browns to hold us back, despite our advantage of +numbers. Also, that they can completely man every part of their frontier +and that their ability to move their reserves rapidly, thanks to modern +facilities, makes a powerful flanking attack in surprise out of the +question." + +"Some half-truths in that," answered Westerling. "One axiom, that must +hold good through all time, is that the aggressive which keeps at it +always wins. We take the aggressive. In the space where Napoleon +deployed a division, we deploy a battalion to-day. The precision and +power of modern arms require this. With such immense forces and +present-day tactics, the line of battle will practically cover the +length of the frontier. Along their range the Browns have a series of +fortresses commanding natural openings for our attack. These are almost +impregnable. But there are pregnable points between them. Here, our +method will be the same that the Japanese followed and that they learned +from European armies. We shall concentrate in masses and throw in wave +after wave of attack until we have gained the positions we desire. Once +we have a tenable foothold on the crest of the range the Brown army must +fall back and the rest will be a matter of skilful pursuit." + +The premier, as he listened, rolled the paper-knife over and over, +regarding its polished sides, which were like Westerling's manner of +facile statement of a programme certain of fulfilment. + +"We can win, then? We can go to their capital, or far enough to force a +great indemnity, the annexation of one of their provinces, perhaps, and +the taking over of their African colonies, which we can develop so much +better than they?" + +Westerling took care to show none of the eagerness which had set his +pulses humming. + +"To their capital!" he declared decisively. "Nothing less. For that I +have planned." + +"And the cost in lives?" + +"Five or six hundred thousand casualties, which means about a hundred +thousand killed." + +"Ghastly! The population of a good-sized city!" exclaimed the premier. + +"A small percentage out of five million soldiers; a smaller out of +eighty million population," Westerling returned. + +"And how long do you think the war would last? How long the strain on +our finances, the suspense to the markets?" + +"About a month. We shall go swiftly. The completeness of modern +preparation must make a war of to-day brief between two great powers. We +must win with a rush, giving the defenders no breathing spell, pouring +masses after masses upon the critical positions." + +"How long will it take to mobilize?" + +"Less than a week after the railroads are put entirely at our service, +with three preceding days of scattered movements," answered Westerling. +"Deliberate mobilizations are all right for a diplomatic threat that +creates a furore in the newspapers and a depression in the stock-market, +but which is not to be carried out. When you mean war, all speed and the +war fever at white heat." + +"Therefore, there would be little time for the public to hoard money or +to provoke a panic. The government, knowing precisely what was before +it, could take severe preventive measures." + +"But I may say that we should strike before mobilization is complete. A +day will be required to take the La Tir tangent and other outlying +positions. The 128th and other regiments who will do this work are +already at the front. They were chosen because they came from distant +provinces and we can count on their patriotic fervor for brilliant and +speedy action, with resulting general enthusiasm for the whole army, +which will be up in time for the assault on the Browns' permanent +defences." + +"You would have made a good politician, Westerling," the premier +remarked, with a twitching uplift of the brows and a knowing gleam in +his shrewd old eyes. + +"Thank you," replied Westerling, appearing flattered, though secretly +annoyed that any one should think that a chief of staff could care to +change places with any man in the world. Governments might come and go, +but the army was the rock in the midst of the play of minor forces, the +ultimate head of order and power. "A man who is able to lead in anything +must be something of a politician," he said suavely. + +"Very true, indeed. Perhaps I had that partly in mind in making you +vice-chief of staff," responded the premier enjoyably. "You spoke of the +war fever at white heat," he went on, returning to his muttons, "and of +the army's enthusiasm for its work. There we come to the kernel in the +nut, eh?" he asked, as he prodded the paper-knife into the palm of his +hand. + +"Drill, organization, discipline, and centralized authority and a +high-spirited aristocracy of officers are most important," said +Westerling. "But after that come morale and the psychology of the +soldier." There he shrugged slightly, in indication of a resentment at +the handicap of human nature in his work. "The business of a soldier is +to risk death in the way he is told. The keener he is for his cause the +better. An ideal soldier is he who does not think for himself, but +observes every detail of training and will not stop until halted by +orders or a bullet. Therefore we want the army hot with desire. The +officers of a company cannot force their men forward. Without +insubordination or mutiny the men may stop from lack of interest after +only a very small percentage of loss." + +"Lack of interest!" mused the premier. But Westerling, preoccupied with +the literal exposition of his subject, did not catch the flash of +passing satire before the premier, his features growing hard and +challenging, spoke in another strain: "Then it all goes back to the +public--to that enormous body of humanity out there!" He swung the +paper-knife around with outstretched arm toward the walls of the room. +"To public opinion--as does everything else in this age--to the people! +I have seen them pressing close, about to remove me from power, and I +have started a diversion which made them forget the object of their +displeasure. I have thought them won one day, and the next I realized +that they were going against me. Thank Heaven for the brevity of their +memory, or we leaders would be hung high by our own inconsistencies! He +who leads sees which way they will go, rushes to the head of the +procession, discovers them to themselves and turns a corner and they +follow, thinking that they are going straight to the point. But always +they are there, never older, never younger, never tiring--there, smiling +or scowling or forgetting all about you, only to have a sudden fierce +reminder overnight to surprise you--and our masters, yours and mine! For +no man can stand against them when they say no or yes." + +"You know the keys to play on, though," remarked Westerling with a +complimentary smile. "No one knows quite so well." + +"I ought to," replied the premier. "That was the purpose of the +semi-official _communique_ about Bodlapoo, which, of course, we can +repudiate later, if need be. I saw that the brilliant forced march of +our commander had excited popular enthusiasm. It does not matter if he +were in the wrong. Will race feeling rise to the pitch of war from this +touchstone with the proper urging? Of course, the impulse must come from +the people themselves. We must seem to resist it, the better to arouse +it." He bent the paper-knife into a bow with fingers that were rigid. +"Times are hard, factions are bitter, our cabinet is in danger, with +economic and political chaos from overpopulation in sight," he +continued. "We hunger for land, for fresh opportunities for development. +An outburst of patriotism, concentrating every thought of the nation on +war!--is that the way out?" + +Westerling had only answered questions so far. Here was his cue for +argument. + +"We were never so ready," he said. "War must come some time. We should +choose the moment, not leave it to chance. The nation needs war as a +stimulant, as a corrective, as a physician. We grow stale; we think of +our domestic troubles. The old racial passions are weakening and with +them our virility. Victory will make room for millions in the place of +the thousands who fall. The indemnity will bring prosperity. Because we +have had no war, because the long peace has been abnormal, is the reason +you have all this agitation and all these strikes. They will be at an +end. Those who are fit to rule will be in power." + +"And you are sure--sure we can win?" the premier asked with a long, +tense look at Westerling, who was steady under the scrutiny. + +"Absolutely!" he answered. "Five millions against three! It's +mathematics, or our courage and skill are not equal to theirs +Absolutely! We have the power, why not use it? We do not live in a dream +age!" + +The premier sank deeper in his chair. He was silent, thinking. He who +had carried off so many great coups with rare ease was on the threshold +of one that made them all seem petty. He had heard random talk that some +of the officers of the staff considered Westerling to be lath painted to +look like steel. There was a reported remark by Turcas, his assistant, +implying that the ability to achieve a position did not mean the ability +to fill it. Jealousy, no doubt; the jealousy of rivals! The premier +himself was used to having members of his own cabinet ever on the watch +for the vulnerable spot in his back, which he had never allowed them to +find. Yet, there was the case of Louis Napoleon. He had the ability to +achieve a position; he had been the lath painted to look like steel. He +had all the externals which the layman associates with victory until he +went to the supreme test, which ripped him into slivers of rotten wood. +The little Napoleon had been one of the premier's favorite bugaboo +examples of stage realism tried out in real life. But it was ridiculous +to compare him with the stalwart figure sitting across the table, who +had spoken the language of materialism without illusion. + +Westerling's ambition on edge communicated itself to the premier, whose +soft hands, long since divorced from any labor except official +hand-shaking and the exercise of authority, were bending the paper-knife +with unconscious vigor. + +"All the achievements of power form only a dull background for victory +in war to a people's imagination!" he exclaimed. "Your name and mine to +symbolize an age! What power for us! What power for the nation!" + +From a sudden, unwitting exertion of his strength the knife which had +been the recipient of his emotions snapped in two. Rather carefully he +laid the pieces on the table before he rose and turned to Westerling, +his decision made. + +"If the people respond with the war fever, then it is war!" he said. "I +take you at your word that you will win!" + +Westerling's chair creaked with the tense drawing of his muscles in the +impulse of delight. He had gained the great purpose; but there was +another and vital one on his programme. + +"A condition!" he announced. "From the moment war begins the army is +master of all intelligence, all communication, all resources. Everything +we require goes into the crucible!" + +"And the press--the mischievous, greedy, but very useful press?" asked +the premier. + +"It also shall serve; also obey. No lists of killed and wounded shall be +given out until I am ready. The public must know nothing except what I +choose to tell. I act for the people and the nation." + +"That is agreed," said the premier. "For these terrible weeks every +nerve and muscle of the nation is at your service to win for the nation. +In three or four days I shall know if the public rises to the call. If +not--" He shook his head. + +"While all the information given out is provocative to our people, you +will declare your hope that war may be averted," Westerling continued. +"This will screen our purpose. Finally, on top of public enthusiasm will +come the word that the Browns have fired the first shot--as they must +when we cross the frontier--that they have been killing our soldiers. +This will make the racial spirit of every man respond. Having decided +for war, every plan is worthy that helps to victory." + +"It seems fiendish!" exclaimed the premier in answer to a thought +eddying in the powerful current of his brain. "Fiendish with +calculation, but merciful, as you say." + +"A fast, terrific campaign! A ready machine taking the road!" +Westerling declared. "Less suffering than if we went to war carelessly +for a long campaign--than if we allowed sentiment to interfere with +intellect." + +"I like your energy, your will!" said the premier admiringly. "And about +the declaration of war? We shall time that to your purpose." + +"Declarations of war before striking, by nations taking the aggressive, +are a disadvantage," Westerling explained. "They are going out of +practice. Witness the examples of Japan against Russia and the Balkan +allies against Turkey. In these days declarations are not necessary as a +warning of what is going to happen. They belong to the etiquette of +fencers." + +"Yes, exactly. The declaration of war and the ambassador's passports +will be prepared and the wire that fighting has begun will release +them," agreed the premier. "Another thing," he added, "there is the +question of the opinion of the world as represented by The Hague and the +peace societies. This government has always expressed sympathy with +their ideas." + +"Naturally," Westerling put in. "We shall use hand-grenades, explosives +from dirigibles, every known power of destruction. So will the Browns, +you may be sure. In such a cataclysm we shall have no time for niceties. +The peace societies will have hardly formulated their protests to The +Hague before the war is over. Our answer will be our victory--the power +that goes with the prestige of unconquerable force. Victory, nothing but +victory counts!" + +Westerling was speaking by the book, expressing the ideas that he had +again and again rehearsed as a part of the preparation, the eternal +preparation for the sudden emergency of war, which is the duty of the +staff. So letter-perfect was he in his lines that a layman might have +scouted his realization of the enormousness of his responsibility. + +"Yet if we did lose! If when I had given you all you ask your plans +went wrong! If our army were broken to pieces on the frontier and then +the nation, kept in ignorance of events, learned the truth"--the premier +enunciated slowly and pointedly while he locked glances with +Westerling--"that is the end for us both. You would hardly want to +return to the capital to face public wrath!" + +"We must win though we lose a million men!" he answered. "I stake my +life!" he cried hoarsely, striking his fist on the table. + +"You stake your life!" repeated the premier with slow emphasis. + +"Bravado hardly becomes a chief of staff. His place is not under fire," +Westerling explained. "However, I mean to make my headquarters at La +Tir, immediately we have taken it, for the effect of having the leader +of the army promptly established on conquered territory." + +"I understand that," replied the premier. "But still you stake your +life? That is the greatest thing a man has to stake. You stake your life +on victory?" he demanded fiercely. + +"I do!" said Westerling. "Yes, my life. We cannot fail!" + +"Then it will be war, if the people want it!" said the premier. "I shall +not resist their desire!" he added in his official manner, at peace with +his conscience. + + + + +XIV + +IN PARTOW'S OFFICE + + +Partow was a great brain set on an enormous body. Partow's eyes had the +fire of youth at sixty-five, but the pendulous flesh of his cheeks was +pasty. Partow was picturesque; he was a personality with a dome forehead +sweeping back nobly to scattered and contentious, short gray hairs. +Jealousy and faction had endeavored for years to remove him from his +position at the head of the army on account of age. New governments +decided as they came in that he must go, and they went out with him +still in the saddle. He worked fourteen hours a day, took no holidays +and little exercise, violated the rules of health, and never appeared at +gold-braid functions. The business of official display, as he said +pungently, he delegated to that specialist, his handsome vice-chief of +staff. + +He had set up no silhouette of a charging soldier peppered with bullet +marks on the wall of his office, for this was a picture that he carried +in his mind. Pertinent to his own taste, under the glance of the +portraits of the old heroes, was a little statuette of a harvester +called Toil on his desk. + +"That's the fellow we're defending," he would say, becoming almost +rhapsodical. "I like to think back to him. He's the infantry before you +put him in uniform." + +Let officers apply themselves with conspicuous energy and they heard +from a genial Partow; let officers only keep step and free of courts +martial, and they heard from a merciless taskmaster. Resign, please, if +you like a leisurely life, he told the idlers; and he had a way of +making them so uncomfortable that they would take the advice. Among the +sons of rest who had retired to mourn over the world going to the devil +he was referred to as not being a gentleman, which amused him; some said +that he was crazy, which amused him even more. + +Peculiarly human, peculiarly dictatorial, dynamic, and inscrutable was +Partow, who never asked any one under him to work harder than himself. + +Lanstron appeared in the presence of Jove shortly after eight o'clock +the next morning after he left La Tir. Jove rolled his big head on his +short neck in a nod and said: + +"Late!" + +"The train was late, sir!" + +"And you have disobeyed orders!" grumbled Partow. + +"Disobeyed orders? How, sir?" + +"And you look me in the eye as you always do! You think that excuses +you, perhaps?" + +"No, sir. But I am bound to ask what orders?" + +"Well, not orders, but my instructions; at least, my desire. Flying +yourself--directing a manoeuvre--racing the Grays!" + +"You heard about it?" + +"I hear about everything! I have told you not to risk your life. Lives +are assets of various kinds in an army. It is my business to determine +the relative value of those of my subordinates. You are not to sacrifice +yours." + +"I haven't yet, sir. I have it with me this morning," Lanstron replied, +"and I have some news about our thousandth chance." + +"Hm-m! What is it?" asked Partow. When Lanstron had told the story, +Partow worked his lips in a way he had if he were struck by a passing +reflection which might or might not have a connection with the subject +in hand. "Strange about her when you consider who her parents were!" he +said. "But you never know. His son," nodding to Toil, "might be a great +painter or a snob. Miss Galland has an idea--that's something--and +character and a brain making arrows so fast that she shoots them into +the blue just for mental relief. She's quite a woman. If I were thirty, +and single, I believe I'd fall in love with her. But don't you dare tell +Mrs. Partow. I want the fun of telling her myself. Hm-m! Why don't you +sit down, young man?" + +Partow turned his thick, white palm toward a chair, and his smile, now +clearly showing that he was not deeply offended with Lanstron's +insubordination, had a singular charm. The smile vanished as Lanstron +seated himself and in its place came such a look as friend Toil had seen +on very rare occasions. + +"The way that the Grays gave out our despatch convinces me of their +intentions," Partow said. "Their people are rising to it and ours are +rising in answer. The Grays have been transferring regiments from +distant provinces to their frontier because they will fight better in an +invasion. We are transferring home regiments to our frontier because +they will fight for their own property. By Thursday you will find that +open mobilization on both sides has begun." + +"My department is ready," said Lanstron, "all except your decision about +press censorship." + +"A troublesome point," responded Partow. "I have procrastinated because +two definite plans were fully worked out. It is a matter of choice +between them: either publicity or complete secrecy. You know I am no +believer in riding two horses at once. My mind is about made up; but let +me hear your side again. Sometimes I get conviction by probing another +mans." + +Lanstron was at his best, for his own conviction was intense. + +"Of course they will go in for secrecy; but our case is different," he +began. + +Partow settled himself to listen with the gift of the organizer who +draws from his informant the brevity of essentials. + +"I should take the people into our confidence," Lanstron proceeded. "I +should make them feel that we were one family fighting for all we hold +dear against the invader. If our losses are heavy, if we have a setback, +then the inspiration of the heroism of those who have fallen and the +danger of their own homes feeling the foot of the invader next will +impel the living to greater sacrifices. For the Grays are in the wrong. +The moral and the legal right is with us." + +"And the duty of men like you and me, chosen for the purpose," said +Partow, "is worthily to direct the courage that goes with moral right. +The overt act of war must come from them by violating our frontier, not +in the African jungle but here. Even when the burglar fingers the +window-sash we shall not fire--no, not until he enters our house. When +he does, you would have a message go out to our people that will set +them quivering with indignation?" + +"Yes, and I would let the names of our soldiers who fall first be known +and how they fell, their backs to their frontier homes and their faces +to the foe." + +"Our very liberality in giving news will help us to cover the military +secrets which we desire to preserve," Partow said, with slow emphasis. +"We shall hold back what we please, confident of the people's trust. +Good policy that, yes! But enough! Your orders are ready, in detail, I +believe. You have nothing to add?" + +"No, sir, nothing; at least, not until war begins." + +"Very well. We shall have the orders issued at the proper moment," +concluded Partow. "And Westerling is going to find," he proceeded after +a thoughtful pause, "that a man is readier to die fighting to hold his +own threshold than fighting to take another man's. War is not yet solely +an affair of machinery and numbers. The human element is still +uppermost. I know something, perhaps, that Westerling does not know. I +have had an experience that he has not had and that few active officers +of either army have had--I have been under fire." + +His eyes flashed with the memory of his charge, and visions of the day +when Grandfather Fragini was a _beau sabreur_ and Marta Galland's father +toasted quick death and speedy promotion seemed to cluster around him. + +"Experience plus an old man's honest effort for a mind open to all +suggestion and improvements!" he exclaimed. "An open mind that let you +have your way in equipping more dirigibles and planes than Westerling +guesses we have, eh? And, perhaps, a few more guns! And you, too, have +been under fire," he added. "Give me your hand--no, not that one, not +the one you shake hands with--the one wounded in action!" + +Partow enclosed the stiffened fingers in his own with something of the +caress which an old bear that is in very good humor might give to a +promising cub. + +"I have planned, planned, planned for this time," he said. "I have +played politics with statesmen to hold my place in the belief that I was +the man for the work which I have done. The world shall soon know, as +the elements of it go into the crucible test, whether it is well done or +not. I want to live to see the day when the last charge made against our +trenches is beaten back. Then they may throw this old body onto the +rubbish heap as soon as they please--it is a fat, unwieldy behemoth of +an old body!" + +"No, no, it isn't!" Lanstron objected hotly. He was seeing only what +most people saw after talking with Partow for a few minutes, his fine, +intelligent eyes and beautiful forehead. + +"All that I wanted of the body was to feed my brain," Partow continued, +heedless of the interruption. "I have watched my mind as a navigator +watches a barometer. I have been ready at the first sign that it was +losing its grip to give up. Yet I have felt that my body would go on +feeding my brain and that to the last moment of consciousness, when +suddenly the body collapses, I should have self-possession and energy of +mind. Under the coming strain the shock may come, as a cord snaps. At +that instant my successor will take up my work where I leave it off." + +"Goerwitz, you mean." Lanstron referred in unmistakable apprehension to +the vice-chief of staff, whom all the army knew had no real ability or +decision underneath his pleasing, confident exterior. + +"No, not Goerwitz," said Partow, with a shrug. "Some one who will go on +with the weaving, not by knotting threads but with the same threads in a +smooth fabric." Lanstron felt an increased pressure of the hand, a +communicated tingling to his nerves. "I have chosen him. The old fogy +who has aimed to join experience to youth chooses youth. You took your +medicine without grumbling in the disagreeable but vitally important +position of chief of intelligence. Now you--there, don't tremble with +stage fright!" For Lanstron's hand was quivering in Partow's grasp, +while his face was that of a man stunned. + +"But Goerwitz--what will he say?" he gasped. + +"Goerwitz goes to a division in reserve." + +"And the army! The government! What will they say at such--such a jump +for a colonel?" + +"The government leaves all to me from the day war begins. I shall +transfer others than Goerwitz--others who have had influence with the +premier which it was not wise to deny in time of peace." + +"Very well, sir," answered Lanstron, with a subordinate's automatic +consent to a superior's orders. His words sounded ridiculous in view of +his feelings, yet they were more expressive than any florid speech. + +"You are to be at the right hand of this old body," continued Partow. +"You are to go with me to the front; to sleep in the room next to mine; +to be always at my side, and, finally, you are to promise that if ever +the old body fails in its duty to the mind, if ever you see that I am +not standing up to the strain, you are to say so to me and I give you my +word that I shall let you take charge." + +Lanstron was too stunned to speak for a moment. The arrangement seemed a +hideous joke: a refinement of cruelty inconceivable. It was expecting +him to tell Atlas that he was old and to take the weight of the world +off the giant's shoulders. + +"Have you lost your patriotism?" demanded Partow. "Are you afraid? +Afraid to tell me the truth? Afraid of duty? Afraid in your youth of the +burden that I bear in age?" + +His fingers closed in on Lanstron's with such force that the grip was +painful. + +"Promise!" he commanded. + +"I promise!" Lanstron said with a throb. + +"That's it' That's the way! That's the kind of soldier I like," Partow +declared with change of tone, and he rose from his chair with a spring +that was a delight to Lanstron in its proof of the physical vigor so +stoutly denied. "We have a lot to say to each other to-day," he added; +"but first I am going to show you the whole bag of tricks." + +His arm crooked in Lanstron's, they went along the main corridor of the +staff office hung with portraits of generals who had beaten or held +their own with the Grays. Passing through a door for which Partow held +the key, they were in a dim, narrow passage with bare walls, lighted by +two small gas flames. At the end was another, a heavy steel door, of the +sort associated with the protection of bonds and securities, but in this +case for the security of a nation's defence. Partow turned the knob of +the combination back and forth and with the smooth swing of a great +weight on noiseless hinges the door opened and they entered a vault +having a single chair and a small table in the centre and lined by +sections of numbered pigeonholes, each with a combination lock At the +base of one section was a small safe. It was not the first time that +Lanstron had been in this vault. He had the combination of two of the +sections of pigeonholes, aerostatics and intelligence. The rest belonged +to other divisions. + +"The safe is my own, as you know. No one opens it; no one knows what is +in it but me," said Partow, taking from it an envelope and a manuscript, +which he laid on the table. "There you have all that, is in my +brain--the whole plan. The envelope contains the combinations of all the +pigeonholes, if you wish to look up any details." + +"Thank you!" Lanstron half whispered. It was all he could think of to +say. + +"And you will find that there is more than you thought, perhaps: the +reason why I have fought hard to remain chief of staff; why--" Partow +continued in a voice that had the sepulchral uncanniness of a threat +long nursed now breaking free of the bondage of years within the +sound-proof walls. "But--" he broke off suddenly as if he distrusted +even the security of the vault. "Yes, it is all there--my life's work, +my dream, my ambition, my plan!" + +Lanstron heard the lock slide in the door as Partow went out and he was +alone with the army's secrets. As he read Partow's firm handwriting, +many parts fell together, many moves on a chess-board grew clear. His +breath came faster, he bent closer over the table, he turned back pages +to go over them again. Every sentence dropped home in his mind like a +bolt in a socket. + +When he had finished the manuscript the trance of his thoughts held him +in the same attitude. "Five millions to our three!" a voice kept +repeating to him. "In face of that this dream!" another voice was +saying. Had it been right to intrust such responsibility to one man of +Partow's age and right to transfer that responsibility to himself in an +emergency? Yet how clear the plan in the confidence of its wisdom! +Unconscious of the passage of time, he did not hear the door open or +realize Partow's presence until he felt Partow's hand on his shoulder. + +"I see that you didn't look into any of the pigeonholes," the chief of +staff observed. + +Lanstron pressed his finger-tips on the manuscript significantly. + +"No. It is all there!" + +"The thing being to carry it out!" said Partow. "God with us!" he added +devoutly. + + + + +XV + +CLOSE TO THE WHITE POSTS + + +Have you forgotten Hugo Mallin, humorist of Company B of the 128th +Regiment of the Grays, whom we left in their barracks under orders for +South La Tir on the afternoon that Westerling called on Marta Galland? +Have you forgotten Eugene Aronson, the farmer's son, and Jacob Pilzer, +the butcher's son, and pasty-faced little Peterkin, the valet's son, and +the judge's son, and the other privates of the group that surrounded +Hugo Mallin as he aired heresies that set them laughing? + +Through the press, an unconscious instrument of his purpose, the astute +premier has inoculated them with the virus of militant patriotism. Day +by day the crisis has become more acute; day by day the war fever has +risen in their veins. Big Eugene Aronson believes everything he reads; +his country can do no wrong. Jacob Pilzer is most bellicose; he chafes +at inaction, while they all suffer the discomforts of an empty factory +building in the rear of South La Tir which has become a temporary +barracks. + +On Tuesday they hear of crowds around the Foreign Office demanding war, +on Wednesday of panics on the stock exchanges, on Thursday of +mobilization actually begun and a rigid press censorship established, +and on Friday other regiments and guns and horses are detraining and +departing right and left. Hurrying officers know nothing except what +they have been told to do. + +"When do we start? What are we waiting for?" demanded Pilzer. "I want to +be in the thick of the fighting and not trailing along with the +reserves!" If any one in the 128th wins the bronze cross he means that +it shall be he and not Eugene Aronson. + +"Never mind, you'll have a chance. There'll be war enough to go around, +I am sure!" said Hugo Mallin. + +"More than you'll want!" Pilzer shot back, thrusting out his jaw. + +"I'm sure of that!" answered Hugo, the mask of his face drawn in +quizzical solemnity. "I don't want any at all." + +This brought a tremendous laugh. All the laughs had been tremendous +since mobilization had begun in earnest, and the atmosphere was like the +suspense before a thunder-storm breaks. + +On Saturday evening the 128th was mustered in field accoutrements and a +full supply of cartridges. In the darkness the first battalion marched +out at right angles to the main road that ran through La Tir and South +La Tir. At length Company B, deployed in line of skirmishers, lay down +to sleep on its arms. + +"We wait here for the word," Fracasse, the captain, whispered to his +senior lieutenant. "If it comes, our objective is the house and the old +castle on the hill above the town." + +The tower of the church showed dimly when a pale moon broke through a +cloud. By its light Hugo saw on his right Eugene's big features and +massive shoulders and on his left the pinched and characterless features +of Peterkin. A few yards ahead was a white stone post. + +"That's their side over there!" whispered the banker's son, who was next +to Peterkin. + +"When we cross war begins," said the manufacturer's son. + +"I wonder if they are expecting us!" said the judge's son a trifle +huskily, in an attempt at humor, though he was not given to humor. + +"Just waiting to throw bouquets!" whispered the laborer's son. He, too, +was not given to humor and he, too, spoke a trifle huskily. + +"And we'll fix bayonets when we start and they will run at the sight of +our steel!" said Eugene Aronson. He and Hugo alone, not excepting +Pilzer, the butcher's son, spoke in their natural voices. The others +were trying to make their voices sound natural, while Pilzer's voice had +developed a certain ferocity, and the liver patch on his cheek twitched +more frequently. "Why, Company B is in front! We have the post of honor, +and maybe our company will win the most glory of any in the regiment!" +Eugene added. "Oh, we'll beat them! The bullet is not made that will get +me!" + +"Your service will be over in time for you to help with the spring +planting, Eugene," whispered Hugo, who was apparently preoccupied with +many detached thoughts. + +"And you to be at home sucking lollipops!" Pilzer growled to Hugo. + +"That would be better than murdering my fellowman to get his property," +Hugo answered, so soberly that it did not seem to his comrades that he +was joking this time. Pilzer's snarling exclamation of "White feather!" +came in the midst of a chorus of indignation. + +Captain Fracasse, who had heard only the disturbance without knowing the +cause, interfered in a low, sharp tone: + +"Silence! As I have told you before, silence! We don't want them to know +that we are here. Go to sleep! You may get no rest to-morrow night!" + +But little Peterkin, the question in his mind breaking free of his lips, +unwittingly asked: + +"Shall--shall we fight in the morning?" + +"I don't know. Nobody knows!" answered Fracasse. "We wait on orders, +ready to do our duty. There may be no war. Don't let me hear another +peep from you!" + +Now all closed their eyes. In front of them was vast silence which +seemed to stretch from end to end of the frontier, while to the rear was +the rumble of switching railway trains and the rumble of provision +trains and artillery on the roads, and in the distance on the plain the +headlight of a locomotive cut a swath in the black night. But the +breathing of most of the men was not that of slumber, though Eugene and +Pilzer slept soundly. Hours passed. Occasional restless movements told +of efforts to force sleep by changing position. + +"It's the waiting that's sickening!" exploded the manufacturer's son +under his breath, desperately. + +"So I say. I'd like to be at it and done with the suspense!" said the +doctor's son. + +"They say if you are shot through the head you don't know what killed +you, it's so quick. Think of that!" exclaimed Peterkin, huddling closer +to Hugo and shivering. + +"Yes, very merciful," Hugo whispered, patting Peterkin's arm. + +"Sh-h-h! Silence, I tell you!" commanded Fracasse crossly. He was +falling into a half doze at last. + + + + +XVI + +DELLARME'S MEN GET A MASCOT + + +And have you forgotten gigantic Private Stransky, born to the red, with +the hedgerows of the world his home? Have you forgotten Tom Fragini and +the sergeant and the others of Captain Dellarme's men of the 53d of the +Browns, whom we left marching along the road to La Tir, with old +Grandfather Fragini, veteran of the Hussars, in his faded uniform coat +with his medal on his breast, keeping step, hep-hep-hep? + +Grandfather Fragini has attached himself to the regiment while it rests +in barracks a few hours' march from the frontier. He is accepted as the +mascot of the company in which both his grandson and Stransky are +serving. But he never speaks to Stransky and refers to him in the third +person as "that traitor," which makes Stransky grin sardonically. Each +day's developments bring more color to his cheeks; his rheumatic old +legs are limbering with the elixir of rising patriotism, though Tom and +his comrades are singularly without enthusiasm, according to +grandfather's idea. They lead the newspapers gluttonously and they +welcome each item that promises a peaceful solution of the crisis. + +Inwardly, Grandfather Fragini is worried about the state of the army. Is +his race becoming decadent? Or, as he puts it, are the younger +generation without sand in their craws? When he came into the barracks +yard swinging his cap aloft and shouting the news that mobilization had +begun there was not even a cheer. + +"I suppose it means war," said Tom Fragini with a soberness that was in +keeping with the grave faces of his fellows. Stransky sitting at one +side by himself smiled. + +"Well, you'd think it was a funeral!" grandfather exclaimed in disgust. + +"There will be lots of funerals!" said Tom. + +"I s'pose there will be; but if you get that in your mind how can you +fight?" grandfather demanded. "Why, if any Hussar had spoken of funerals +we'd called him white-livered, that's what we would! We cheered till we +was hoarse; we danced and hugged one another; we rattled our sabres in +our scabbards; we sang rip-roaring death-or-glory songs. When you're +going to war you want to sing and shout. That's the way to keep your +spirits up." + +"Let's sing 'Ring-around-the-rosy' to please the old gentleman. Come +on!" suggested Stransky. + +"I don't see that we are after either death or glory," said Tom. "We are +going to do our duty." + +The impulse of enthusiasm seemed equally lacking in the others. Stransky +grinned and his deep-set eyes turned inward with a squint of knowing +satisfaction at the bony bridge of his nose. + +"I'm not wanting any traitor to start any songs for me!" declared +grandfather. + +"Never mind. The fellows on the other side aren't any more enthusiastic +than we are, grandfather," Stransky said soothingly, in his mocking way. +"The fact is, we don't want to kill our brothers across the frontier and +they don't want to kill us or be killed. It's only the ruling classes +that want the proletariat to--" + +"Fire away, Stransky! It's hours since you made a speech!" chirruped a +voice. + +"Look out, Bert, the sergeant's coming!" another voice warned the +orator. + +The state of mind of the 53d was that of all the regiments of the Browns +with their faces toward the white posts, quiet, thoughtful, and grave; +for they had not to arouse ardor for the aggressive. As they were to +receive rather than give blows they might be more honest with themselves +than the men of the Grays. + +In marching order, with cartridge-boxes full, on Saturday night the 53d +marched out to the main pass road. When Grandfather Fragini found that +he had been ordered to remain behind he sought the colonel. + +"I've got reasons! Let me come!" he pleaded. + +"No. It is no place for you." + +"I can keep up! I can keep up! I feel like a boy!" + +"But it is different these days, and this is the infantry. The bullets +carry far. You will not know how to take cover," the colonel explained. + +"Well, if I am killed I won't be losing much time on this earth," +grandfather observed with cool logic. "But that ain't it. I'm worried +about Tom. I'm afraid he ain't going to fight! I--I want to stiffen him +up!" + +"He will fight, all right. Sorry, but it is out of the question," said +the colonel, turning away. + +Grandfather buried his face in his hands and shook with the sobs of +second childhood until an idea occurred to him. Wasn't he a free man? +Hadn't he as much right as anybody to use the public highway? Drying his +eyes, he set out along the road in the wake of the regiment. + +One company after another left the road at a given point, bound for the +position mapped in its instructions Dellarme's, however, went on until +it was opposite the Galland house. + +"We are depending on you," the colonel said to Dellarme, giving his hand +a grip. "You are not to draw off till you get the flag." + +"No, sir," Dellarme replied. + +"Mind the signal to the batteries--keep the men screened--warn them not +to let their first baptism of shell fire shake their nerves!" the +colonel added in a final repetition of instructions already indelibly +impressed on the captain's mind. + +Moving cautiously through a cut, Dellarme's company came, about +midnight, to a halt among the stubble of a wheat-field behind a knoll. +After he had bidden the men to break ranks, he crept up the incline. + +"Yes, it's there!" he whispered when he returned. "On the crest of the +knoll a cord is stretched from stake to stake," he said, explaining the +reason for what was to be done, as was his custom. "The engineers placed +it there after dusk and the frontier was closed, so that you would know +just where to use your spades in the dark. Quietly as possible! No +talking!" he kept cautioning as the men turned the soft earth, "and not +higher than the cord, and lay the stubble side of the sods on the +reverse so as to cover the fresh earth on the sky-line." + +When the work was done all returned behind the knoll except the sentries +posted at intervals on the crest to watch. With the aid of a small +electric flash, screened by his hands, Dellarme again examined a section +of the staff map that outlined the contour of the knoll in relation to +the other positions. After this he wrote in his diary the simple facts +of the day's events, concluding with a sentiment of gratitude for the +honor shown to his company and a prayer that he might keep a clear head +and do his duty if war came on the morrow. + +"Now, every one get all the sleep he can!" he advised the men. + +Stransky slept, with his head on his arm, as soundly as Eugene Aronson, +his antithesis in character; the others slept no better than the men of +the 128th. The night passed without any alarm except that of their own +thoughts, and they welcomed dawn as a relief from suspense. There was no +hot coffee this morning, and they washed down their rations with water +from their canteens. The old sergeant was lying beside Captain Dellarme +on the crest, the sunrise in their faces. As the mist cleared from the +plain it revealed the white dots of the frontier posts in the meadow and +behind them many gray figures in skirmish order, scarcely visible +except through the glasses. + +"It looks like business!" declared the old sergeant. + +"Yes, it begins the minute they cross the line!" said Dellarme. + +His glance sweeping to the rear to scan the landscape under the light of +day, he recognized, with a sense of pride and awe, the tactical +importance of his company's position in relation to that of the other +companies. Easily he made out the regimental line by streaks of +concealed trenches and groups of brown uniforms; and here and there were +the oblong, cloth stretches of waiting hospital litters. On the reverse +slope of another knoll was the farmhouse, marked X on his map as the +regimental headquarters, where he was to watch for the signal to fall +back from his first stand in delaying the enemy's advance. Directly to +the rear was the cut through which the company had come from the main +pass road, and beyond that the Galland house, which was to be the second +stand. + +"Can you see them from up here?" chirped a voice in a jubilant, cackling +laugh that drew Dellarme's attention to his immediate surroundings, and +he saw Grandfather Fragini coming up to join him on the crest. He slid +back on his stomach below the sky-line and held up an arresting hand. + +"Kept along after you," piped the old man; "and it's just as I +thought--the glummest lot of funeral faces I ever seen!" + +"You must not remain! Follow that cut there and it will take you out to +the road!" Dellarme told grandfather sharply. + +"Just got to stay. Too tired to take another step," and grandfather +dropped in utter exhaustion. "Have to carry me if you want me to go." + +"That means two men out of the line," thought Dellarme. + +"You're an archaic old fire-eater!" Stransky remarked in cynical +amusement to grandfather Fragini. + +"And you're a traitor!" answered grandfather with all the energy he +could command. + +Now Dellarme disposed his men in line back of the ridge of fresh earth +that they had dug in the night, ready to rush to their places when he +blew the whistle that hung from his neck, but he did not allow them a +glimpse over the crest. + +"I know you are curious, but powerful glasses are watching for you to +show yourselves; and if a battery turned loose on us you'd understand," +he explained. + +The men wanted to talk but did not know what to talk about, so they +examined their rifles critically as if they were unfamiliar gifts which +they had found in their stockings on Christmas morning. Some began to +empty their magazines of cartridges for the pleasure or occupation of +refilling them; but one of the lieutenants stopped this. It might mean +delay when the whistle blew. Thus the hours wore on, and the church +clock struck nine and ten. + +"Never a movement down there!" called the sergeant from the crest to +Dellarme. "Maybe this is just their final bluff before they come to +terms about Bodlapoo"--that stretch of African jungle that seemed very +far away to them all. + +"Let us hope so!" said Dellarme seriously. + +"Hope there won't be any war! Just listen to that from an army officer, +with the enemy right in front of him!" gasped grandfather. + + + + +XVII + +A SUNDAY MORNING IN TOWN + + +"You ought not to leave the house--not this morning," protested Mrs. +Galland when Marta was putting on her hat to start for the regular +Sunday service of her school. + +"The children expect me," Marta explained. + +"Hardly, hardly this morning. They will take it for granted that you +will not come." + +But Marta thrust her hatpin home decisively. + +"Jacky Werther will certainly be there. Though he were the only one to +come, I would not disappoint him!" she said. "Heaven knows, mother, if +there were ever a time for teaching peace it is to-day! And I can't +remain inactive. Just to sit still and wait in a time like this--that is +too terrible!" + +"As you will!" Mrs. Galland responded with gentle resignation. + +Garden and veranda were as peaceful as on any other Sunday morning, but +it was a different kind of peace--a peace mocked by sounds beyond its +boundaries which were to her like the rattling of the steel scales of a +demon licking its jaws with its red tongue in voracious anticipation of +a gorge and stretching out great steel claws in readiness to sink them +into the flesh of its victims when Partow and Westerling gave the word. +As Lanstron had said, this demon would feed on every resource and energy +of the nation. It had no voice and no thought except kill, kill, kill! +And man called this demon patriotism and love of country. Those who +risked death in the demon's honor got iron crosses and bronze crosses, +but any one who dared to call it by its true name, if a man, received +the decoration of the white feather; if a woman, was regarded as a +sentimentalist and merely a woman, and told that she did not understand +practical human nature. + +Choosing to go to town by the castle road rather than down the terrace +to the main pass road, Marta, as she emerged from the grounds, saw +Feller, garden-shears in hand and in his workman's clothes instead of +his Sunday black, a figure of stone watching the approach of some +field-batteries. In the week of distracting and cumulative suspense that +had elapsed since his secret had been revealed to her, their relations +had continued as before. She studiously kept up the fiction of his +deafness by writing her orders. The question of allowing him to +undertake his part as a spy had drifted into the background of her mind +under the distressing and ever-present pressure of the crisis. He was to +remain until there was war, and thought about anything that implied that +war was coming was the more hideous to her the nearer war approached. + +"It will be averted! It cannot be!" she was thinking. Her glimpse of him +had no more interest for her at this moment of preoccupation than any +other familiar object of the landscape. + +"The guns! The guns! How I love the guns!" he was thinking. + +She was almost past him before he realized her presence, which he +acknowledged by a startled movement and a step forward as he took off +his hat. She paused. His eyes were glowing like coals under a blower as +he looked at her and again at the batteries, seeming to include her with +the guns in the spell of his fervid abstraction. He was unconscious that +he had ever been anything but a soldier. His throat was athirst for +words and his words craved a listening ear for all the pictures of the +machinery of war in motion that crowded his imagination. To him the +demon was a fair, beckoning god in cloth of gold--a god of hope and +fortune. + +"Frontier closed last night to prevent intelligence about our +preparations leaking out--Lanny's plan all alive--the guns coming," he +went on, his shoulders stiffening, his chin drawing in, his features +resolute and beaming with the ardor of youth in action--"troops moving +here and there to their places--engineers preparing the +defences--automatics at critical points with the infantry--field-wires +laid--field-telephones set up--the wireless spitting--the caissons +full--planes and dirigibles ready--search-lights in position" + +There the torrent of his broken sentences was checked A shadow passed in +front of him. He came out of his trance of imageries of activities, so +vividly clear to his military mind, to realize that Marta was abruptly +leaving. + +"Miss Galland!" he called urgently. "Firing may commence at any minute. +You must not go into town!" + +"But I must!" she declared, speaking over her shoulder while she paused. +It was clear that no warning would prevail against her determined mood. + +"Then I shall go with you!" he said, starting toward her with a light +step, in keeping with the gallantry of a man even younger than his +years. He spoke in a tone of protective masculine authority, as an +officer might to a woman of whom he was fond when he saw her exposing +herself to danger. He would escort her; he would see that no harm befell +her. The impulse was spontaneous in an illusion free of the gardener's +part. But he saw her lips tighten and a frown gather. + +"It is not necessary, thank you!" she answered, more coldly than she had +ever spoken to him. This had a magically quick effect on his attitude. + +"I beg pardon! I forgot!" he explained in his old man's voice, his head +sinking, his shoulders drooping in the humility of a servant who +recognizes that he has been properly rebuked for presumption. "Not a +gunner any more--I'm a spy!" he thought, as he shuffled off without +looking toward the batteries again, though the music of wheels and hoofs +was now close by. "I must turn my back on the guns, for they tempt me. +And I must win her consent before I shall have even the dignity of a +spy--and I will win it!" he added, brightening. "La, la, la! Trust me!" + +Marta had a glimpse, as she turned away, of an appealingly pathetic +figure bent as under a wound to his spirits, which gave her a sense of +personal cruelty in the midst of a wave of pity and regret. + +"He is what he is because of the army; a victim of a cult, a habit," she +was thinking. "Had he been in any other calling his fine qualities might +have been of service to the world and he would have been happy." + +Then her sympathy was drawn to another object of war's injustice--a man +approaching under the guard of two soldiers. Suddenly the man planted +his feet and refused to budge. + +"I tell you, it isn't fair!" he cried in rage and appeal. "I tell you, I +was only visiting on this side and got caught! I'm a reservist of the +first line. If I don't answer the call I'll be branded a shirker in my +village, and I've got to live in that village all my life. You better +kill me and have done with it!" + +"Sorry," said one of the soldiers, "but you were caught trying to sneak. +We're acting under orders. No use of balking." + +"Who wouldn't sneak?" demanded the prisoner desperately. "Oh, say, be a +little human! The worst of it is that I came over here to see my girl to +say good-by to her. I'm going to marry her," he pleaded, "though my +folks are against it because she's a Brown. It makes me so cheap--it--" + +"We were told to take you to the general. He'll let you off if there +isn't any war, and he may, anyway. But he sure won't if you resist +arrest." The soldiers seized his arms firmly. "Come along!" they said, +and he went. Any one must go when a steel claw of the demon enforces +the order. + +A company of infantry resting among their stacked rifles changed the +color of the square in the distance from the gray of pavement to the +brown of a mass of uniforms. In the middle of the main street a major of +the brigade staff, with a number of junior officers and orderlies, was +evidently waiting on some signal. Sentries were posted at regular +intervals along the curb. The people in the houses and shops from time +to time stopped packing up their effects long enough to go to the doors +and look up and down apprehensively, asking bootless, nervous questions. + +"Are they coming yet?" + +"Do you think they will come?" + +"Are you sure it's going to be war?" + +"Will they shell the town?" + +"There'll be time enough for you to get away!" shouted the major. "All +we know is what is written in our instructions, and we shall act on them +when the thing starts. Then we are in command. Meanwhile, get ready!" + +A lieutenant of a detachment of engineers coming at the double from a +cross street stopped to inquire: + +"This way to the knitting mills?" + +"Straight ahead! Can't go wrong!" the major answered. + +"We are going to loophole their walls for the infantry," explained the +lieutenant as he hurried on. + +"Then they're going to fight in the town!" + +"Blow our homes to pieces!" + +"Destroy our property!" + +After this fusillade from the people the major glared at the retreating +back of the lieutenant as much as to say that some men would never learn +to hold their tongues. Naturally, the duty of looking after refugees was +not to his soldierly taste. + +"We are doing it all for you, for the country," he explained. "We are +going to make them pay for every foot they take--the invaders!" + +"Yes, make them pay!" called a voice from the houses. + +"Make them pay!" other voices joined in. + +"It isn't the fellows just across the border that want to take our +property," said an elderly man. "They're good friends enough. It's the +Grays' politicians and the fire-eaters in the other provinces." + +"The robbers!" piped a woman's high-pitched note. "I've got a son in the +army, and if ever he leaves that mountain range and goes down the other +side with the Grays chasing him, he'll get worse from me than the Grays +could give him!" + +"That's right! That's the way to talk!" came a chorus. + +Then the major became aware of a young woman who was going in the wrong +direction. Her cheeks were flushed from her rapid walk, her lips were +parted, showing firm, white teeth, and her black eyes were regarding him +in a blaze of satire or amusement; an emotion, whatever it was, that +thoroughly centred his attention. + +"Yes," she said, anger getting the better of her, "make them pay--and +they make you pay--and you make them pay--and so on!" + +The major smiled. It seemed the safe thing to do. He did not know but +the young woman might charge. + +"Mademoiselle, I am sorry, but unless you live in this direction," he +said very politely, "you may not go any farther. Until we have other +orders or they attack, every one is supposed to remain in his house or +his place of business." + +"This is my place of business!" Marta answered, for she was already +opposite a small, disused chapel which was her schoolroom, where a half +dozen of the faithful children were gathered around the masculine +importance of Jacky Werther, one of the older boys. + +"Then you are Miss Galland!" said the major, enlightened. His smile had +an appreciation of the irony of her occupation at that moment. "Your +children are very loyal. They would not tell me where they lived, so we +had to let them stay there." + +"Those who have homes," she said, identifying each one of the faithful +with a glance, "have so many brothers and sisters that they will hardly +be missed from the flock. Others have no homes--at least, not much of a +one"--here her temper rose again--"taxes being so high in order that you +may organize murder and the destruction of property." + +"I--" gasped the major under the fire of those black eyes. + +But their flashes suddenly splintered into less threatening lights as +she realized the fatuity of this personal allusion. + +"Oh, I'm not the town scold!" she explained with a nervous little laugh +that helped her to recover poise. + +With the black eyes in this mood, the major was conscious only of a +desire to please which conflicted with duty. + +"Now, really, Miss Galland," he began solicitously, "I have been +assigned to move the civil population in case of attack. Your children +ought--" + +"After school! You have your duty this morning and I have mine!" Marta +interrupted pleasantly, and turned toward the chapel. + +"They are putting sharpshooters in the church tower to get the +aeroplanes, and there are lots of the little guns that fire bullets so +fast you can't count 'em--and little spring wagons with dynamite to blow +things up--and--" Jacky Werther ran on in a series of vocal explosions +as Marta opened the door to let the children go in. + +"Yet you came!" said Marta with a hand caressingly on his shoulder. + +"It looks pretty bad for peace, but we came," answered Jacky, +round-eyed, in loyalty. "We'd come right through the bullets 'cause we +said we would if we wasn't sick, and we wasn't sick." + +"My seven disciples--seven!" exclaimed Marta as she counted them. "And +you need not sit on the regular seats, but around me on the platform. It +will be more intimate." + +"That's grand!" came in chorus. They did not bother, about chairs, but +seated themselves on the floor around Marta's skirts. + +"My, Miss Galland, but your eyes are bright!" + +"And your cheeks are all red!" + +"With little spots in the centre!" + +"You're very wonderful, Miss Galland!" + +The church clock boomed out its deliberate strokes through ten, the hour +set for the lesson, and all counted them--one--two--three. Marta was +thinking what a dismal little effort theirs was, and yet she was very +happy, tremblingly happy in her distraction and excitement, that they +had not waited for her at the door of the chapel in vain. + +She announced that there would be no talk this morning; they would only +say their oath. Repeating in concert the pledge to the boys and girls of +other lands, the childish voices peculiarly sweet and harmonious in +contrast to the raucous and uneven sounds of foreboding from the street, +they came in due course to the words of the concession that the oath +made to militancy. + +"If an enemy tries to take my land--" + +"Children--I--" Marta interrupted with a sense of wonder and shock. They +paused and looked at her questioningly. "I had almost forgotten that +part!" she breathed confusedly. + +"That's the part that makes all we're doing against the Grays right!" +put in Jacky Werther promptly. + +"As I wrote it for you! 'I shall appeal to his sense of justice and +reason with him--'" + +Jaws dropped and eyes bulged, for above the sounds of the street rose +from the distance the unmistakable crackling of rifle-fire which, as +they listened, spread and increased in volume. + +"Go on--on to the end of the oath! It will take only a moment," said +Marta resolutely. "It isn't much, but it's the best we can do!" + + + + +XVIII + +THE BAPTISM OF FIRE + + +After the morning sun commenced to tickle the back of his neck, Eugene +Aronson, the giant of the 128th of the Grays, stretched his limbs as +healthily as a cub bear. + +"No war yet!" he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes. + +"Oh, we'd have called you if there were!" said the manufacturer's son, +trying to make a joke, which was hard work with his clothes dew-soaked +after a sleepless night in the open. + +"Wouldn't want you to miss it after coming so far," added the laborer's +son, aiming to show that he, too, was in a light-hearted mood. + +"And how did you sleep?" asked Eugene, cheerily, of his neighbors. + +"Fine!" + +"First rate!" + +"Like a stone!" + +Every man was too intent in forcing his own spontaneity to notice that +that of the others was also forced. + +"Like a top!" chimed in pasty-faced Peterkin, the valet's son, to be in +fashion. + +"I didn't sleep much myself; in fact, not at all," said Hugo Mallin. + +"Oh, ho!" groaned Pilzer, the butcher's son, with a broad grin that made +a crease in the liver patch on his cheek. + +"You see, it's a new experience for me," Hugo explained in a drawl, his +face drawn as a mask. "I'm not so used to war as you other fellows are. +I'm not so brave!" + +There was a forced laugh because Hugo appeared droll, and when he +appeared droll it was the proper thing to laugh. Besides, in the best +humor there is a grain of truth, whether you see it or not. This time a +number saw it quite clearly. + +"I was thinking how ridiculous we all are," Hugo went on without change +of tone or expression, "grovelling here on our stomachs and pretending +that we slept when we didn't and that we want to be killed when we +don't!" + +"White feather again!" Pilzer exclaimed. + +"Oh, shut up!" snapped the doctor's son irritably. "Let Hugo talk. He's +only gassing. It's so monotonous lying here that any kind of nonsense is +better than growling." + +"Yes, yes!" the others agreed. + +Hugo's outburst of the previous evening was forgotten. They welcomed +anything that broke the suspense. Let the regimental wag make a little +fun any way that he could. As the officers had withdrawn somewhat to the +rear for breakfast, there was no constraint. + +"I was thinking how I'd like to go out and shake hands with the Browns," +said Hugo. "That's the way fencers and pugilists do before they set to. +It seems polite and sportsmanlike, indicating that there's no +prejudice." + +There was a ripple of half-hearted merriment punctuated by exclamations. + +"What a fool idea!" + +"How do all your notions get into your head, Hugo?" + +"Sometimes by squinting at the moonlight and counting odd numbers; +sometimes by knowing that anything that's different is ridiculous; and +sometimes by looking for tangent truths out of professorial ruts," Hugo +observed with a sort of erudite discursiveness which was the rank +dissimulation of a hypocrite to Pilzer and wholly confusing to Peterkin, +not to say a draught on mental effort for many of the others. "For +instance, I got a good one from two fellows of the Browns whom I met on +the road the first day we arrived. They were reservists. We were soon +talking together and so peaceably that I was sceptical if they were +Browns at all. So I determined on a test. I told them I was from a +distant province and hadn't travelled much and wouldn't they please take +off their hats. They consented very good-naturedly." + +"Oh, good old Hugo! He got one on the Browns!" + +"I'd like to have been there to see it!" + +"And when they took off their hats, what then?" + +"Why, I said: 'This isn't convincing at all.'" Hugo's drawl paused for a +second while interest developed. "'You haven't any horns! Haven't you +any forked tails, either? Or are they curled up nicely inside your +trousers' legs?'" + +"Whew! But they must have felt cheap to have been got in that way!" + +"And old Hugo looking so solemn!" + +"Just like he does now!" + +But the judge's son said under his breath, "Very pretty!" and the +doctor's son, who was next him in the ranks, nodded understandingly. + +"It seems they had checked their horns and tails at the frontier," Hugo +continued, "and, as I had left mine hanging in the rifle racks at the +barracks, we got on together like real human beings. I found they could +speak my language better than my lesson-book try at theirs--yes, as well +as I can speak it myself--and that made it all the easier. After a while +I mentioned the war. They were very amiable and they didn't begin to +call me a swill-eating land-shark or any other of the pretty names I've +heard they are so fond of using. 'We want to keep what is ours,' they +said. 'Your side will have to start the fight by crossing the line. We +shall not!"' + +"Because they know they'll be licked!" put in Pilzer hotly. + +"No, we may beat them in fighting," agreed Hugo, "but these two fellows +had me beaten on the argument!" + +"They hauled down our flag! They insulted us in their despatches! They +quibble! They're the perfidious Browns!" cried big Eugene Aronson, +speaking the lesson taught him by the newspapers, which had it from the +premier. + +"There, he's got you again, Gene!" + +"Yes, you funny old simpleton! You are almost too easy!" + +There was something of the vivacity of the barrack-room banter in the +exclamations at Eugene's expense. Yet they were not the same. The look +on no man's face was the same. The humorist was silent. + +"What next, Hugo?" + +He half stared at them, and his mask was not solemn but tragic. + +"I was thinking how men work their courage up, as if patriotism were a +Moloch of which they were afraid," he said. "How in order to get killed +we go out to kill others, when right is on their side! How you, Armand, +or you, Eugene, might be dead before to-morrow! How--." + +"The bullet is not made that will get me!" exclaimed Eugene, with a +swelling breath from his bellows-like lungs. + +"Take him home to mother!" groaned Pilzer. + +"That will do for you, Hugo Mallin!" came another interruption, a sharp +one from Captain Fracasse, who had returned unobserved from the rear in +time to overhear Hugo's remarks. "And that's the way to talk, Aronson +and Pilzer. As for you, Mallin, I've a mind to put you under arrest and +send you back for a coward! A coward--do you hear?" + +"Ah-h!" breathed Pilzer in a guttural of satisfaction. + +Hugo crimsoned at first in confusion, then he looked frankly and +unflinchingly at the captain. + +"Very well, sir!" he said with a certain dignity which Fracasse, who +was a good deal of a martinet, found very irritating. + +"No, that would suit you too well!" Fracasse declared. "You shall stay! +You shall do the duty for which your country trained you and take your +share of the chances." + +"Yes, sir!" answered Hugo. "But won't you," he asked persuasively and +with the wondering inquiry of the suggestion that had sprung into his +heretic brain, "won't you ask the men if there are not some here who +really, in their hearts, the logic of their hearts--which is often +better than brain logic--do not believe just as I do?" + +"Have you gone insane? There are none!" In the impulse of anger that +swept his cheeks with a red wave Fracasse half drew his sword as if he +would strike Hugo. "And, Mallin, you are a marked man. I shall watch +you! I'll have the lieutenants and sergeants watch you. At the first +sign of flunking I'll make an example of you!" + +"Yes, sir," answered Hugo, with the automatic deference of private to +officer but with a reserved and studious inquiry that made the captain +bite his lip. + +"I'll have Aronson and Pilzer watch you, too!" Fracasse added. + +"Yes, sir!" said Pilzer promptly. + +Then, under the restraint of the captain's presence, there was a silence +that endured. The men were left to the sole resource of their thoughts +and observation of their surroundings. They were lying in a pasture +facing the line of white posts whose tops ran in an even row over level +ground. On the other side of the boundary was a wheat-field. Here a +farmer had commenced his fall ploughing. His plough was in the furrow +where he had left it when he unhitched his team for the day, before an +orderly had come to tell him that he must move out of his house +overnight. The wheat stubble swept on up to a knoll in the distance. + +All the landscape in front of Fracasse's company seemed to have been +deserted; no moving figures were anywhere in sight; no sign of the +enemy's infantry. No trains came or went along the lines of steel into +the mountain tunnel, which had been mined at a dozen points by the +Browns. No vehicles and no foot-passengers dotted the highway into the +town. Over the mountains and over the plain, planes and dirigibles moved +in wide circles restively, watching for a signal as hawks watch for +prey. Suspense this--suspense of such a swift vibration that it was like +a taut G string of a violin under the bow! + +Faintly the town clock was heard striking the hour. From eight to nine +and nine to ten Fracasse's men waited; waited until the machine was +ready and Westerling should throw in the clutch; waited until the troops +were in place for the first move before he hurled his battalions +forward. Every pawn of flesh facing the white posts had a thousand +thoughts whirling in such a medley that he could be said to have no +thought at all, only an impression juggled by destiny. No one would have +confessed what he felt, while physical inactivity gave free rein to +mental activity. That thing of a nation's nightmare; that thing for +which generations had drilled without its materializing; that thing of +speculation, of hazard, of horror; that thing of quick action and +long-enduring consequences was coming. + +They did not know how the captain at their back received his orders; +they only heard the note of the whistle, with a command familiar to a +trained instinct on the edge of anticipation. It released a spring in +their nerve-centres. They responded as the wheels respond when the +throttle is opened. Jumping to their feet they broke into a run, bodies +bent, heads down, like the peppered silhouette that faced Westerling's +desk. What they had done repeatedly in drills and manoeuvres they were +now doing in war, mechanically as marionettes. + +"Come on! The bullet is not made that can get me! Come on!" cried the +giant Eugene Aronson. + +He leaped over a white post and then over the plough, which was also in +his path. Little Peterkin felt his legs trembling. They seemed to be +detached from his will, and the company's and the captain's will, and +churning in pantomime or not moving at all. If Hugo Mallin had been +called a coward, what of himself? What of the stupid of the company, who +would never learn even the manual of arms correctly, as the +drill-sergeant often said? A new fear made him glance around. He would +not have been surprised to find that he was already in the rear. But +instead he found that he was keeping up, which was all that was +necessary, as more than one other man assured his legs. After thirty or +forty yards most of the legs, if not Peterkin's, had worked out their +shiver and nearly all felt the exhilaration of movement in company. Then +came the sound that generations had drilled for without hearing; the +sound that summons the imagination of man in the thought of how he will +feel and act when he hears it; the sound that is everywhere like the +song snatches of bees driven whizzing through the air. + +"That's it! We're under fire! We're under fire!" flashed as crooked +lightning recognition of the sound through every brain. + +There was no sign of any enemy; no telling where the bullets came from. + +"Such a lot of them, one must surely get me!" Peterkin thought. + +Whish-whish! Th-ipp-whing! The refrain gripped his imagination with an +unseen hand. He seemed to be suffocating. He wanted to throw himself +down and hold his hands in front of his head. While Pilzer and Aronson +were not thinking, only running, Peterkin was thinking with the rapidity +of a man falling from a high building. Worse! He did not know how far he +had to go. He was certain only that he was bound to strike ground. + +"An inch is as good as a mile!" He recollected the captain's teaching. +"Only one of a thousand bullets fired in war ever kills a man"--but he +was certain that he had heard a million already. Then one passed very +close, its swift breath brushing his cheek with a whistle like a s-s-st +through the teeth. He dodged so hard that he might have dislocated his +neck; he gasped and half stumbled, but realized that he had not been +hit. And he must keep right on going, driven by one fear against +another, in face of those ghastly whispers which the others, for the +most part, in the excitement of a charge, had ceased to hear. + +Again he would be sure that his legs, which he was urging so frantically +to their duty, were not playing pantomime. He looked around to find that +he was still keeping up with Eugene and felt the thrill of the bravery +of fellowship at sight of the giant's flushed, confident face revelling +in the spirit of a charge. And then, just then, Eugene convulsively +threw up his arms, dropped his rifle, and whirled on his heel. As he +went down his hand clutched at his left breast and came away red and +dripping. After one wild, backward glance, Peterkin plunged ahead. + +"Eugene!" Hugo Mallin had stopped and bent over Eugene in the supreme +instinct of that terrible second, supporting his comrade's head. + +"The bullet is not--made--." Eugene whispered, the ruling passion strong +to the last. A flicker of the eyelids, a gurgle in the throat, and he +was dead. + +Fracasse had been right behind them. The sight of a man falling was +something for which he was prepared; something inevitably a part of the +game. A man down was a man out of the fight, service finished. A man up +with a rifle in his hand was a man who ought to be in action. + +"Here, you are not going to get out this way!" he said in the irritation +of haste, slapping Hugo with his sword. "Go on! That's hospital-corps +work." + +Hugo had a glimpse of the captain's rigid features and a last one of +Eugene's, white and still and yet as if he were about to speak his +favorite boast; then he hurried on, his side glance showing other +prostrate forms. One form a few yards away half rose to call "Hospital!" +and fell back, struck mortally by a second bullet. + +"That's what you get if you forget instructions," said Fracasse with no +sense of brutality, only professional exasperation, "Keep down, you +wounded men!" he shouted at the top of his voice. + +The colonel of the 128th had not looked for immediate resistance. He had +told Fracasse's men to occupy the knoll expeditiously. But by the common +impulse of military training, no less than in answer to the whistle's +call, in face of the withering fire they dropped to earth at the base of +the knoll, where Hugo threw himself down at full length in his place in +line next to Peterkin. + +"Fire pointblank at the crest in front of you! I saw a couple of men +standing up there!" called Fracasse. "Fire fast! That's the way to keep +down their fire--pointblank, I tell you! You're firing into the sky! I +want to see more dust kicked up. Fire fast! We'll have them out of there +soon! They're only an outpost." + +Hugo was firing vaguely, like a man in a dream, and thinking that maybe +up there on the knoll were the two Browns he had met on the road and +perhaps their comrades were as fond of them as he was of Eugene. It is a +mistake for a soldier to think much, as Westerling had repeatedly said. + +Pilzer was shooting to kill. His eye had the steely gleam of his rifle +sight and the liver patch on his cheek was a deeper hue as he sought to +avenge Eugene's death. Drowned by the racket of their own fire, not even +Peterkin was hearing the whish-whish of the bullets from Dellarme's +company now. He did not know that the blacksmith's son, who was the +fourth man from him, lay with his chin on his rifle stock and a tiny +trickle of blood from a hole in his forehead running down the bridge of +his nose. + +Fracasse, glancing along from rifle to rifle, as a weaver watches the +threads of a machine loom, saw that Hugo was firing at too high an +angle. + +"Mallin!" he called. Hugo did not hear because of the noise, and +Fracasse had to creep nearer, which was anything but cooling to his +temper. "You fool! You are shooting fifty feet above the top of the +knoll! Look along your sight!" he yelled. + +Fracasse observed, with some surprise, that Hugo's hand was steady as he +carefully drew a bead. Hugo saw a spurt of dust at the point slightly +below the crest where he aimed; for he was the best shot in the company +at target practice. + +"I'm not killing anybody!" he thought happily. + + + + +XIX + +RECEIVING THE CHARGE + + +What about Stransky of the Reds, who would not fight to please the +ruling classes? What about Grandfather Fragini, who would fight on +principle whenever a Gray was in sight? Now we leave the story of +Fracasse's men at the foot of the knoll for that of the Browns on the +crest. + +Young Dellarme, new to his captain's rank, with lips pressed tightly +together, his delicately moulded, boyish features reflecting the +confidence which it was his duty to inspire in his company, watching the +plain through his glasses, saw the movement of mounted officers to the +rear of the 128th as a reason for summoning his men. + +"Creep up! Don't show yourselves! Creep up--carefully--carefully!" he +kept repeating as they crawled forward on their stomachs. "And no one is +to fire until the command comes." + +Hugging the cover of the ridge of fresh earth which they had thrown up +the previous night, they watched the white posts. Stransky, who had been +ruminatively silent all the morning, was in his place, but he was not +looking at the enemy. Cautiously, to avoid a reprimand, he raised his +head to enable him to glance along the line. All the faces seemed drawn +and clayish. + +"They don't want to fight! They're just here because they're ordered +here and haven't the character to defy authority," he thought. "The +leaven is working! My time is coming!" + +But Grandfather Fragini's cheeks had a hectic flush; his heart was +beating with the exhilaration of an old war-horse. Looking over Tom's +shoulder, he squinted into the distance, his underlip quivering against +his toothless gums. + +"My eyesight's kind of uncertain," he said. "Can you see 'em?" + +"There by the white posts--those lying figures!" said Tom. "They're +almost the color of the stubble." + +"So I do, the land-sharks! Down on their bellies, too! No flag, either! +But that ain't no reason why we shouldn't have a flag. It ought to be +waving at 'em in defiance right over our heads!" + +"Flags draw fire. They let the enemy know where you are,' Tom explained. + +"The Hussars didn't bother about that. We let out a yell and went after +'em!" growled grandfather. "Appears to me the fighting these days is +grovelling in the dirt and taking care nobody don't get hurt!" + +"Oh, there'll be enough hurt--don't you worry about that!" said a voice +from the line. + +"Good thing an old fellow who's been under fire is along to stiffen you +rookies!" replied grandfather tartly. "You'll be all right once you get +going. You'll settle down to be real soldiers yet. And I'd like to hear +a little more cussing. How the Hussars used to cuss! Too much reading +and writing nowadays. It makes men too ladylike." + +By this time he had once more attracted the captain's attention. + +"Grandfather Fragini, you must drop back--you must! If you don't, I'll +have you carried back!" called Dellarme, sparing the old man only a +glance from his concentrated observation on the front. + +When he looked again at the enemy any thought of carrying out his threat +vanished, for the minute had come when all his training was to be put to +a test. The figures on the other side of the white posts were rising. He +was to prove by the way he directed a company of infantry in action +whether or not he was worthy of his captain's rank. He breathed one of +those unspoken prayers that are made to the god of one's own efficient, +conscientious responsibility to duty. The words of it were: "May I keep +my head as if I were at drill!" Then he smiled cheerily. In order that +he might watch how each man used his rifle, he drew back of the line, +his slim body erect as he rested on one knee, his head level with the +other heads while he fingered his whistle. His lieutenants followed his +example even to the detail of his cheery smile. There was a slight +stirring of heads and arms as eyes drew beads on human targets. The +instant that Eugene Aronson sprang over the white post a blast from +Dellarme's whistle began the war. + +It was a signal, too, for Stransky to play the part he had planned; to +make the speech of his life. His six feet of stature shot to its feet +with a Jack-in-the-box abruptness, under the impulse of a mighty and +reckless passion. + +"Men, stop firing!" he cried thunderously. "Stop firing on your +brothers! Like you, they are only the pawns of the ruling class, who +keep us all pawns in order that they may have champagne and caviare. +Comrades, I'll lead you! Comrades, we'll take a white flag and go down +to meet our comrades and we'll find that they think as we do! I'll lead +you!" + +Grandfather Fragini, impelled by the hysterical call of the Hussar +spirit, also sprang up, waving his hat and trembling and swaying with +the emotion that racked his old body. + +"Give it to 'em! Aim low! Give it to 'em--give it to 'em, horns and +hoofs, sabre and carbine!" he shouted in a high, jumpy voice. "Give it +to 'em! Make 'em weep! Make 'em whine! Make 'em bellow!" + +Both appeals were drowned in the cracking of the rifles working as +regularly as punching-machines in a factory. Every soldier was seeing +only his sight and the running figures under it. Mechanically and +automatically, training had been projected into action, anticipation +into realization. A spectator might as well have called to a man in a +hundred-yard dash to stop running, to an oarsman in a race to jump out +of his shell. + +So centred was Dellarme in watching his men and the effect of their fire +that he did not notice the two silhouettes on the sky-line, making +ridicule of all his care about keeping his company under cover, until +the doctor, who alone had nothing to do as yet, touched him on the arm. +At the moment he looked around, and before he could speak a command, a +hospital-corps man who was near Grandfather Fragini threw himself in a +low tackle and brought the old man to earth, while the company sergeant +sprang for Stransky with an oath. But Stransky was in no mood to submit. +He felled the sergeant with a blow and, recklessly defiant, stared at +Dellarme, while the men, steadily firing, were still oblivious of the +scene. The sergeant, stunned, rose to his knees and reached for his +revolver. Dellarme, bent over to keep his head below the crest, had +already drawn his as he hastened toward them. + +"Stransky," said Dellarme, "you have struck an officer under fire! You +have refused to fight! Within the law I am warranted in shooting you +dead!" + +"Well!" answered Stransky, throwing back his head, his face seeming all +big, bony nose and heavy jaw and burning eyes. + +"Will you get down? Will you take your place with your rifle?" demanded +Dellarme. + +Stransky laughed thunderously in scorn. He was handsome, titanic, and +barbaric, with his huge shoulders stretching his blouse, which fell +loosely around his narrow hips, while the fist that had felled the +sergeant was still clenched. + +"No!" said Stransky. "You won't kill much if you kill me and you'd kill +less if you shot yourself! God Almighty! Do you think I'm afraid? +Me--afraid?" + +His eyes in a bloodshot glare, as uncompromising as those of a bull in +an arena watching the next move of the red cape of the matador, regarded +Dellarme, who hesitated in the revulsion of the horror of killing and in +admiration of the picture of human force before him. But the old +sergeant, smarting under the insult of the blow, his sandstone features +mottled with red patches, had no compunctions of this order. He was +ready to act as executioner. + +"If you don't want to shoot, I can! An example--the law! There's no +other way of dealing with him! Give the word!" he said to Dellarme. + +Stransky laughed, now in strident cynicism. It was the laugh of the red, +of bastardy, of blanketless nights in the hedgerows, and boot soles worn +through to the macadam, with the dust of speeding automobiles blown in +the gaunt face of hunger. Dellarme still hesitated, recollecting +Lanstron's remark. He pictured Stransky in a last stand in a redoubt, +and every soldier was as precious to him as a piece of gold to a miser. + +"One ought to be enough to kill me if you're going to do it to slow +music," said Stransky. "You might as well kill me as the poor fools that +your poor fools are trying to--" + +Another breath finished the speech; a breath released from a ball that +seemed to have come straight from hell. The fire-control officer of a +regiment of Gray artillery on the plain, scanning the landscape for the +origin of the rifle-fire which was leaving many fallen in the wake of +the charge of the Gray infantry, had seen two figures on the knoll. "How +kind! Thank you!" his thought spoke faster than words. No need of +range-finding! The range to every possible battery or infantry position +around La Tir was already marked on his map. He passed the word to his +guns. + +The burst of their first shrapnel-shell blinded all three actors in the +scene on the crest of the knoll with its ear-splitting crack and the +force of its concussion threw Stransky down beside the sergeant. +Dellarme, as his vision cleared, had just time to see Stransky jerk his +hand up to his temple, where there was a red spot, before another shell +burst, a little to the rear. This was harmless, as a shrapnel's shower +of fragments and bullets carry forward from the point of explosion. But +the next burst in front of the line. The doctor's period of idleness was +over. One man's rifle shot up as his spine was broken by a jagged piece +of shrapnel jacket. Now there were too many shells to watch them +individually. + +"It's all right--all right, men!" Dellarme called again, assuming his +cheery smile. "It takes a lot of shrapnel to kill anybody. Our batteries +will soon answer!" + +His voice was unheard, yet its spirit was felt. The men knew through +their training that there was no use of dodging and that their best +protection was an accurate fire of their own. + +"Shelling us, the ---- ----!" gasped Grandfather Fragini, who had +experience, if he were weak in reading and writing. "All noise and +smoke!"--as it was to a larger degree in his day. + +Stransky had half risen, a new kind of savagery dawning on his features +as he regained his wits. With inverted eyes he regarded the red ends of +his fingers, held in line with the bridge of his nose. He felt of the +wound again, now that he was less dizzy. It was only a scratch and he +had been knocked down like a beef in an abattoir by an unseen enemy, on +whom he could not lay hands! He glared around as if in search of the +hidden antagonist. The sergeant had crept forward to be a steadying +influence to the men in their first trial, if need be, and the doctor +and a hospital-corps man were dragging a wounded man out of fine without +exposing their own shoulders above the crest. Stransky rolled his eyes +in and out; the tendons of his neck swelled; his jaw worked as if +crunching pebbles. Deafeningly, the shrapnel jackets continued to crack +with "ukung-s-sh--ukung-s-sh" as the swift breath of the shrapnel +missiles spread. + +"Give it to 'em! Give it to 'em!" Grandfather Fragini cried, his old +voice a quavering bird note in the pandemonium. "My, but they do come +fast!" he gasped. + +Yes, a trifle faster than in your day, grandfather, when a gun of the +horse-artillery had to be relaid after the recoil, which is now taken up +by an oil chamber, while the gunner on his seat behind the breech keeps +the sight steady on the target. The guns of one battery of that Gray +regiment of artillery, each firing six fourteen-pound shells a minute +methodically, every shell loaded with nearly two hundred projectiles, +were giving their undivided attention to the knoll. + +How long could his company endure this? Dellarme might well ask. He knew +that he would not be expected to withdraw yet. With a sense of relief he +saw Fracasse's men drop for cover at the base of the knoll and then, +expectation fulfilled, he realized that rifle-fire now reinforced the +enemy's shell fire. His duty was to remain while he could hold his men, +and a feeling toward them such as he had never felt before, which was +love, sprang full-fledged into his heart as he saw how steadily they +kept up their fusillade. + +The sergeant, who now had time to think of Stransky, was seized with a +spasm of retributive rage. He drew his revolver determinedly. + +"You brought this on! I'll do for you!" he cried, turning toward the +spot where he had left Stransky, only to lower his revolver in amazement +as he saw Stransky, eager in response to a new passion, spring forward +into place and pick up his rifle. + +"If you will not have it my way, take it yours!" said the best shot in +the company, as he began firing with resolute coolness. + +"They have a lot of men down," said Dellarme, his glasses showing the +many prostrate figures on the wheat stubble. "Steady! steady! We have +plenty of batteries back in the hills. One will be in action soon." + +But would one? He understood that with their smokeless powder the +Gray guns could be located only by their flashes, which would not +be visible unless the refraction of light were favorable. Then +"thur-eesh--thur-eesh" above every other sound in a long wail! No man +ever forgets the first crack of a shrapnel at close quarters, the first +bullet breath on his cheek, or the first supporting shell from his side +in flight that passes above him. + +"That is ours!" called Dellarme. + +"Ours!" shouted the sergeant. + +"Ours!" sang the thought of every one of the men. + +Over the Gray batteries on the plain an explosive ball of smoke hung in +the still air; then another beside it. + +"Thur-eesh--thur-eesh--thur-eesh," the screaming overhead became +a gale that built a cloud of blue smoke over the offending Gray +batteries--beautiful, soft blue smoke from which a spray of steel +descended. There was no spotting the flashes of the Browns' guns in +order to reply to them, for they were under the cover of a hill, using +indirect aim as nicely and accurately as In firing pointblank. The +gunners of the Gray batteries could not go on with their work under such +a hail-storm, they were checkmated. They stopped firing and began moving +to a new position, where their commander hoped to remain undiscovered +long enough to support the 128th by loosing his lightnings against the +defenders at the critical moment of the next charge, which would be made +as soon as Fracasse's men had been reinforced. + +There was an end to the concussions and the thrashing of the air around +Dellarme's men, and they had the relief of a breaking abscess in the +ear. But they became more conscious of the spits of dust in front of +their faces and the passing whistles of bullets. In return, they made +the sections of Gray infantry in reserve rushing across the levels, +leave many gray lumps behind. But Fracasse's men at the foot of the +slope poured in a heavier and still heavier fire. + +"Down there's where we need the shells now!" spoke the thought of +Dellarme's men, which he had anticipated by a word to the signal +corporal, who waved his flag one--two--three--four--five times. Come on, +now, with more of your special brand of death, fire-control officer! +Your own head is above the sky-line, though your guns are hidden. Five +hundred yards beyond the knoll is the range! Come on! + +He came with a burst of screams so low in flight that they seemed to +brush the back of the men's necks with a hair broom at the rate of a +thousand feet a second. Having watched the result, Dellarme turned with +a confirmatory gesture, which the corporal translated into the wigwag of +"Correct!" The shrapnel smoke hanging over Fracasse's men appeared a +heavenly blue to Dellarme's men. + +"They are going to start for us soon! Oh, but we'll get a lot of them!" +whispered Stransky gleefully to his rifle. + +Dellarme glanced again toward the colonel's station. No sign of the +retiring flag. He was glad of that. He did not want to fall back in face +of a charge; to have his men silhouetted in the valley as they +retreated. And the Grays would not endure this shower-bath long without +going one way or the other. He gave the order to fix bayonets, and +hardly was it obeyed when he saw flashes of steel through the shrapnel +smoke as the Grays fixed theirs. The Grays had five hundred yards to go; +the Browns had the time that it takes running men to cover the distance +in which to stop the Grays. + +"We'll spear any of them who has the luck to get this far!" whispered +Stransky to his rifle. The sentence was spoken in the midst of a salvo +of shrapnel cracks, which he did not hear. He heard nothing, thought +nothing, except to kill. + +The Gray batteries on the plain, having taken up a new position and +being reinforced, played on the crest at top speed instantly the Gray +line rose and started up the slope at the run. With the purpose of +confusing no less than killing, they used percussion, which burst on +striking the ground, as well as shrapnel, which burst by a time-fuse in +the air. Fountains of sod and dirt shot upward to meet descending sprays +of bullets. The concussions of the earth shook the aim of Dellarme's +men, blinded by smoke and dust, as they fired through a fog at bent +figures whose legs were pumping fast in dim pantomime. + +But the guns of the Browns, also, have word that the charge has begun. +The signal corporal is waiting for the gesture from Dellarme agreed upon +as an announcement. The Brown artillery commander cuts his fuses two +hundred and fifty yards shorter. He, too, uses percussion for moral +effect. + +Half of the distance from the foot to the crest of the knoll Fracasse's +men have gone in face of the hot, sizzling tornado of bullets, when +there is a blast of explosions in their faces with all the chaotic and +irresistible force of a volcanic eruption. Not only are they in the +midst of the first lot of the Browns' shells at the shorter range, but +one Gray battery has either made a mistake in cutting its fuses or +struck a streak of powder below standard, and its shells burst among +those whom it is aiming to assist. + +The ground seems rising under the feet of Fracasse's company; the air is +split and racked and wrenched and torn with hideous screams of invisible +demons. The men stop; they act on the uncontrollable instinct of +self-preservation against an overwhelming force of nature. A few without +the power of locomotion drop, faces pressed to the ground. The rest flee +toward a shoulder of the slope through the instinct that leads a hunted +man in a street into an alley. In a confusion of arms and legs, pressing +one on the other, no longer soldiers, only a mob, they throw themselves +behind the first protection that offers itself. Fracasse also runs. He +runs from the flame of a furnace door suddenly thrown open. + +The Gray batteries have ceased firing; certain gunners' ears burn under +the words of inquiry as to the cause of the mistake from an artillery +commander. Dellarme's men are hugging the earth too close to cheer. A +desire to spring up and yell may be in their hearts, but they know the +danger of showing a single unnecessary inch of their craniums above the +sky-line. The sounds that escape their throats are those of a winning +team at a tug of war as diaphragms relax. + +With the smoke clearing, they see twenty or thirty Grays plastered on +the slope at the point where the charge was checked. Every one of those +prostrate forms is within fatal range. Not one moves a finger; even the +living are feigning death in the hope of surviving. Among them is little +Peterkin, so faithful in forcing his refractory legs to keep pace with +his comrades. If he is always up with them they will never know what is +in his heart and call him a coward. As he has been knocked unconscious, +he has not been in the pell-mell retreat. + +His first stabbing thought on coming to was that he must be dead; but, +no; he was opening his eyes sticky with dust. At least, he must be +wounded! He had not power yet to move his hands in order to feel where, +and when they grew alive enough to move, what he saw in front of him +held them frigidly still. His nerves went searching from his head to his +feet and--miracle of Heaven!--found no point of pain or spot soppy with +blood. If he were really hit there was bound to be one or the other, he +knew from reading. + +Between him and the faces of the Browns--yes, the actual, living, +terrible Browns--above the glint of their rifle barrels, was no obstacle +that could stop a bullet, though not more than three feet away was a +crater made by a shell burst. The black circle of every muzzle on the +crest seemed to be pointing at him. When were they going to shoot? When +was he to be executed? Would he be shot in many places and die thus? Or +would the very first bullet go through his head? Why didn't they fire? +What were they waiting for? The suspense was unbearable. The desperation +of overwhelming fear driving him in irresponsible impulse, he doubled up +his legs and with a cat's leap sprang for the crater. + +A blood-curdling burst of whistles passed over his head as a dozen +rifles cracked. This time he was surely killed! He was in some other +world! Which was it, the good or the bad? The good, for he had a glimpse +of blue sky. No, that could not be, for he had been alive when he leaped +for the crater, and there he was pressed against the soft earth of its +bottom. He burrowed deeper blissfully. He was the nearest to the enemy +of any man of the 128th, and he certainly had passed through a gamut of +emotions in the half-hour since Eugene Aronson had leaped over a white +post. + + * * * * * + +"Confound it! If we'd kept on we'd have got them! Now we have to do it +all over again!" growled Fracasse distractedly as he looked around at +the faces hugging the cover of the shoulder--faces asking, What next? +each in its own way; faces blank and white; faces with lips working and +eyes blinking; faces with the blood rushing back to cheeks in baffled +anger. One, however, was half smiling--Hugo Mallin's. + +"You did your share of the running, I'll warrant, Mallin!" said Fracasse +excitedly, venting his disgust on a particular object. + +"Yes, sir," answered Hugo. "It was very hard to maintain a semblance of +dignity. Yes, sir, I kept near you all the time so you could watch me. +Wasn't that what you wanted me to do, sir?" + +"Good old Hugo! The same old Hugo!" breathed the spirit of the company. +Three or four men burst into a hysterical laugh as if something had +broken in their throats. Everybody felt better for this touch of +drollery except the captain. Yet, possibly, it may have helped him in +recovering his poise. Sometimes even a pin-prick will have this effect. + +"Silence!" he said in his old manner. "I will give you something to joke +about other than a little setback like this! Get up there with your +rifles!" + +He formed the nucleus of a firing-line under cover of the shoulder, and +then set the remainder of his company to work with their spades making a +trench. The second battalion of the 128th, which faced the knoll, was +also digging at the base of the slope, and another regiment in reserve +was deploying on the plain. After the failure to rush the knoll the Gray +commander had settled down to the business of a systematic approach. + +And what of those of Fracasse's men who had not run but had dropped in +their tracks when the charge halted? They were between two lines of +fire. There was no escape. Some of the wounded had a mercifully quick +end, others suffered the consciousness of being hit again and again; the +dead were bored through with bullet holes. In torture, the survivors +prayed for death; for all had to die except Peterkin, the pasty-faced +little valet's son. + +Peterkin was quite safe, hugging the bottom of the shell crater under a +swarm of hornets. In a surprisingly short time he became accustomed to +the situation and found himself ravenously hungry, for the strain of the +last twelve hours had burned up tissue. He took a biscuit out of his +knapsack and began nibbling it, as became a true rodent. + + + + +XX + +MARTA'S FIRST GLIMPSE OF WAR + + +As Marta and the children came to the door of the chapel after the +recitation of the oath, she saw the civil population moving along the +street in the direction of the range. Suddenly they paused in a common +impulse and their heads turned as one head on the fulcrum of their +necks, and their faces as one face in a set stare looked skyward. + +"Keep on moving! No danger!" called the major of the brigade staff. +"Pass the word--no danger! It's not going to drop any bombs; it's only a +scout plane trying to locate the positions of the defences we've thrown +up overnight. No danger--keep moving!" + +He might as well have tried to distract the attention of the grand stand +from the finish of a horse-race. More than the wizard's spell, years +before, at the first sight of man in flight held them in suspense as +they watched a plane approaching with the speed of an albatross down the +wind straight on a line with the church tower where the sharpshooters +were posted. The spread of the wings grew broader; the motor was making +a circle of light as large as a man's hat-box, and the aviator was the +size of some enormous insect when three or four sharp reports were +audible from the church tower. + +Still the plane came on intact over the spire. The sharpshooters had +only rimmed the target, without injury to braces or engine. But they had +another chance from the windows on the nearer side of the tower; and the +crowd saw there the glint of rifle barrels. This time they got the +bull's-eye. The aviator reeled and dropped sidewise, a dead weight +caught by the braces, with his arm dangling. A teetering dip of the +plane and his body was shaken free. His face, as he neared the earth in +his descent, bore the surprised look of a man thumped on the back +unexpectedly. + +Marta pressed her fingers to her ears, but not soon enough to keep out +the sound of a thud on the roof of the building across the street from +the chapel. + +"I was a coward to do that! I shall see worse things!" she thought, and +went to the major, who had turned to the affairs of the living directly +he saw that neither the corpse of the aviator nor the wreck of the plane +was to strike in the street. "I will look after these children," she +said, "and we will care for as many of the old and sick as we can in our +house." + +"The children will find their relatives or guardians in the procession +there," he answered methodically. "If they do not, the government will +look after them. It will not do for you to take them to your house. That +would only complicate the matter of their safety." Here he was +interrupted by a precipitate question from one of his lieutenants, who +had come running up. "No! No matter what the excuse, no one can remain!" +he answered. "The nation is not going to take the risk of letting spies +get information to the enemy for the sake of gratifying individual +interests. Every one must go!" Then he called to an able-bodied citizen +of thirty years or so in the procession: "Here, you, if you're not in +the reserve I have work for you!" + +"But I was excused from army service on account of heart trouble!" +explained the able-bodied citizen. + +"We all have heart trouble to-day," remarked the major pithily. "Men are +giving up their lives in defence of you and your property. Every man of +your age must do his share when required. Go with this orderly!" was the +final and tart conclusion of the argument. "And see that he is made +useful," he added to the orderly. + +An explosion in the factory district made windows rattle and brought an +hysterical outcry from some of the women. + +"It's nothing!" the major called, in the assurance of a shepherd to his +sheep. "Blowing up some building that furnish cover for the enemy's +approach in front of our infantry positions! You will hear more of it. +Don't worry! Do as you're told! Keep moving! Keep moving!" + +Now he had time to conclude what he had to say to Marta. + +"As your house will soon be under fire, it will be not refuge for the +children; and, in any event, we should net want to leave them to the +care of the Grays with the parents on our side," he explained in a +manner none the less final because of its politeness. "Every detail has +been systematically arranged under government supervision. Private +efforts will only bring confusion and hardship where we would have order +and all possible mercy. As for the old, the sick, and the infirm--those +who cannot bear being carried far are being moved to the hospital and +barracks outside the town." + +In proof of his words, ambulances and requisitioned carriages filled +with the sick and infirm were already proceeding up one of the side +streets. + +"It's not human, though!" Marta exclaimed in the desperation of +helplessness. + +"No, it is war, which has a habit of being inhuman," replied the major, +turning to call to a woman: "Now, madame, if you leave that pillow +behind you will not be dropping your other things and having to stop all +the time to pick them up!" + +"But it's the finest goose feathers and last year's crop!" said the +woman; and then gasped: "Oh, Lord! I left my silver jug on the mantel!" + +"As I've told you before--as the printed slips we distributed when we +woke you at dawn told you," said the major with some asperity, "you were +to take only light things easily portable, and after you had gone, +wagons would get what you had packed and left ready at the door of your +houses, with your names clearly marked, up to two hundred pounds. The +rest we trust to the mercy of the Grays." + +There was nothing for Marta to do but start homeward. The thought that +her mother was alone made her hasten at a pace much more rapid than the +procession of people, whose talk and exclamations formed a monotone +audible in its nearness, despite the continuous rifle-fire, now broken +by the pounding of the guns. + +"I wish I had brought the clock--it was my great-grandfather's." + +"Johnny, you keep close to me!" + +"And they've taken my wife off to the hospital--separated us!" + +Some were excruciatingly alive to the situation; others were in a daze. +But one cry always roused them from their complaints; always brought a +flash to the dullest eye: Retribution! retribution! Taken from their +peaceful pursuits arbitrarily by the final authority of physical force, +which they could not dispute, their minds turned in primitive passion to +revenge through physical force. + +"I hope our army makes them pay!" + +"Yes, make them pay! Make them pay!" + +"It's all done to beat the Grays, isn't it, Miss Galland? They are +trying to take our land," said Jacky Werther as Marta parted from him. + +"Yes, it is done to beat the Grays," she answered. "Good luck, Jacky!" + +Yes, yes, to beat the Grays! The same, idea--the fighting nature, the +brute nature of man--animated both sides. Had the Browns really tried +for peace? Had they, in the spirit of her oath, appealed to justice and +reason? Why hadn't their premier before all the world said to the +premier of the Grays, as one honest, friendly neighbor to another over a +matter of dispute: + +"We do not want war. We know you outnumber us, but we know you would +not take advantage of that. If we are wrong we will make amends; if you +are wrong we know that you will. Let us not play tricks in secret to +gain points, we civilized nations, but be frank with each other. Let us +not try to irritate each other or to influence our people, but to +realize how much we have in common and that our only purpose is common +progress and happiness." + +But no. This was against the precedent of Cain, who probably got Abel +into a cul-de-sac, handed down to the keeping of the Roman aristocrat, +the baron, the first Galland, and the fat, pompous little man. It would +deprive armies of an occupation. It would make statesmanship too simple +and naive to have the distinction of craft, which gave one man the right +to lead another. Both sides had to act in the old fashion of mutual +suspicion and chicanery. + +She was overwrought in the fervor of her principles; she was in an +anguish of protest. Her spirit, in arms against an overwhelming fact +that was wrong, sinful, ridiculous, demanded some expression in action. +Now she was half running, both running away from horror and toward +horror; in a shuttle of resolutions and emotions: a being at war with +war. Passing the head of the procession, she soon had the castle road to +herself, except for orderlies on motor-cycles and horseback, until a +train of automobile wagons loaded with household goods roared by. The +full orchestra of war was playing right and left: crashing, high-pitched +gun-booms near at hand; low-pitched, reverberating gun-booms in the +distance. At the turn of the road in front of the castle she saw the +gunners of the batteries that Feller had watched approaching making an +emplacement for their guns in a field of carrots that had not yet been +harvested. The roots of golden yellow were mixed with the tossing +spadefuls of earth. + +A shadow like a great cloud in mad flight shot over the earth, and with +the gunners she looked up to see a Gray dirigible. Already it was +turning homeward; already it had gained its object as a scout. On the +fragile platform of the gondola was a man, seemingly a human mite aiming +a tiny toy gun. His target was one of the Brown aeroplanes. + +"They're in danger of cutting their own envelope! They can't get the +angle! The plane is too high!" exclaimed the artillery commander. Both +he and his men forgot their work in watching the spectacle of aerial +David against aerial Goliath. "If our man lands with his little bomb, +oh, my!" he grinned. "That's why he is so high. He's been waiting up +there." + +"Pray God he will!" exclaimed one of the gunners. + +"Look at him volplane--motor at full speed, too!" + +The pilot was young Etzel, who, as Lanstron had observed, would charge a +church tower if he were bidden. He was taking no risks in missing. His +ego had no cosmos except that huge, oblong gas-bag. He drove for it as a +hawk goes for its prey. One life for a number of lives--the sacrifice of +a single aeroplane for a costly dirigible--that was an exchange in favor +of the Browns. And Etzel had taken an oath in his heart--not standing on +a cafe table--that he would never let any dirigible that he attacked +escape. + +"Into it! Making sure! Oh, splen--O!" cried the artillery commander. + +A ball of lightning shot forth sheets of flame. Dirigible and plane were +hidden in an ugly swirl of yellowish smoke, rolling out into a purple +cloud that spread into prismatic mist over the descent of cavorting +human bodies and broken machinery and twisted braces, flying pieces of +tattered or burning cloth. David has taken Goliath down with him in a +death grip. + +An aeroplane following the dirigible as a screen, hoping to get home +with information if the dirigible were lost, had escaped the +sharpshooters in the church tower by flying around the town. However, it +ran within range of the automatic and the sharpshooters on top of the +castle tower. They failed of the bull's-eye, but their bullets, rimming +the target, crippling the motor, and cutting braces, brought the +crumpling wings about the helpless pilot. The watching gunners uttered +"Ahs!" of horror and triumph as they saw him fall, gliding this way and +that, in the agony of slow descent. + +"Come, now!" called the artillery commander. "We are wasting precious +time." + +Entering the grounds of the Galland house, Marta had to pass to one side +of the path, now blocked by army wagons and engineers' materials and +tools. Soldiers carrying sand-bags were taking the shortest cut, +trampling the flowers on their way. + +"Do you know whose property this is?" she demanded in a burst of anger. + +"Ours--the nation's!" answered one, perspiring freely at his work. +"Sorry!" he added on second thought. + +Already parts of the first terrace were shoulder-high with sand-bags and +one automatic had been set in place, Marta observed as she turned to the +veranda. There her mother sat in her favorite chair, hands relaxed as +they rested on its arms, while she looked out over the valley in the +supertranquillity that comes to some women under a strain--as soldiers +who have been on sieges can tell you--that some psychologists interpret +one way and some another, none knowing even their own wives. + +"Marta, did any of the children come?" Mrs. Galland asked in her usual +pleasant tone. So far as she was concerned, the activity on the terrace +did not exist. She seemed oblivious of the fact of war. + +"Yes, seven." + +"And did you hold your session?" + +"Yes." + +Marta's monosyllables absently answering the questions were expressive +of her wonder at her mother. Most girls do not know their mothers much +better than psychologists know their wives. + +"I am glad of that, Marta. I am glad you went and sorry that I opposed +your going, because, Marta, whatever happens one should go regularly +about what he considers his duty," said Mrs. Galland. "They have been as +considerate as they could, evidently by Colonel Lanstron's orders," she +proceeded, nodding toward the industrious engineers. "And they've packed +all the paintings and works of art and put them in the cellar, where +they will be safe." + +The captain of engineers in command, seeing Marta, hurried toward her. + +"Miss Galland, isn't it?" he asked. "I have been waiting for you. +I--I--well, I found that I could not make the situation clear to your +mother." + +"He thinks me in my second childhood or out of my head," Mrs. Galland +explained with a shade of tartness. "And he has been so polite in trying +to conceal his opinion, too," she added with a comprehending smile. + +The captain flushed in embarrassment. + +"I--I can't speak too strongly," he declared when he had regained his +composure. "Though everything seems safe here now, it may not be in an +hour. You must go, all of you. This house will be in an inferno as soon +as the 53d falls back, and I can't possibly get your mother to +appreciate the fact, Miss Galland." + +"But I said that I did appreciate it and that the Gallands have been in +infernos before--perhaps not as bad as the one that is coming--but, +then, the Gallands must keep abreast of the times," replied Mrs. +Galland. "I have asked Minna and she prefers to remain. I am glad of +that. I am glad now that we kept her, Marta. She is as loyal as my old +maid and the butler and the cook were to your grandmother in the last +war. Ah, the Gallands had many servants then!" + +"This isn't like the old war. This place will be shelled, enfiladed! And +you two--" the captain protested desperately. + +"I became a Galland when I married," said Mrs. Galland, "and the +Galland women have always remained with their property in time of war. +Naturally, I shall remain!" + +"Miss Galland, it was you--your influence I was counting on to--" The +captain turned to Marta in a final appeal. + +Mrs. Galland was watching her daughter's face intently. + +"We stay!" replied Marta, and the captain saw in the depths of her eyes, +a cold blue-black, that further argument was useless. + +With a shrug of his shoulders he was turning to go when his lieutenant, +hurrying up and pointing to the row of lindens at the edge of the +estate, exclaimed: + +"If we only had those trees out of the way! They cut the line of our +fire! They form cover and protection for the enemy." + +"The orders are against it," replied the captain. + +"Lanstron may be a great soldier, but--" declared the lieutenant +petulantly. + +"Cut the lindens if it will help the Browns!" called Mrs. Galland. + +"Cut the lindens, mother! Is everything to be destroyed--everything to +satisfy the appetite of savagery?" exclaimed Marta. Then, in an abrupt +change of mood, inexplicable to the captain and even to herself, she +added: "My mother says to cut the lindens. And you will tell us when to +go into the house?" Marta asked the captain. + +"Yes. There is no danger yet--none until we see the 53d falling back." + +What mockery, what uncanny staginess for either her mother or herself to +be so calm! Yet, what else were they to do? Were they to scream? Or fall +into each other's arms and sob? Marta found a strange pleasure in +looking at her garden before it was spattered with blood, as it had been +in the last war. It had never seemed more beautiful. There was a +sublimity in nature's obliviousness to the thrashing of the air with +shells in a gentle breeze that fluttered the petals of the hydrangeas. + +The sight of Feller coming along the path of the second terrace brought +in sudden vividness to her mind that question which must soon be +decided: whether or not she would allow him to remain to carry out his +plan. He still had the garden-shears in hand. He was walking with the +slow and soft step which was in keeping with the serenity of his +occupation. Pausing before the chrysanthemum bed, he touched his hat, +and as he awaited her approach he lifted one of the largest blooms that +was drooping from its weight on the slender stem. + +"They look well, don't you think?" he asked cautiously; and he was very +cool, while his eyes had a singular limpidity, speaking better than any +words the sadness of his story and the dependence of his hope of +regeneration upon her. + +"Yes, quite the best they ever have," she replied, inclined to look away +from him, conscious of her sensitiveness to his appeal, and yet still +looking at him, while she marvelled at him, at herself, at everything. + +"Thank you," he said. "You don't know how much that means, how pleased I +am." + +Now came the sweep of a rising roar from the sky with the command to +attention of the rush of a fast express-train past a country railway +station. Two Gray dirigibles with their escort of aeroplanes--in +formation like that which Mrs. Galland and Feller had seen race along +the frontier--were bearing toward the pass over the pass road. One +glimpse of the squadron was as a match to Feller's military passion. He +swept off his old straw hat and with it all of the gardener's chrysalis. +Feller the artillerist gazed aloft in feverish excitement. + +"Lanny has them guessing! They're bound to know his plans if it takes +all the air craft in the shop!" he exclaimed. "And what are we doing? +Yes, what are we doing?" he cried in alarm as his glance swept the sky +in front of the squadron, already even with the terrace in its terrific +speed. + +The automatic and the riflemen in the tower banged away to no purpose, +for the aerostatic officers of the Grays had been apprised of the danger +in that direction. + +"Minutes, seconds count! Where are our high-angle guns?" Feller went on. +He was unconsciously gesticulating with all the fervor of hurrying a +battery into place to cover an infantry retreat in a crisis. "And +they're turning! What's the matter? What are high-angle guns for, +anyway, with such targets naked over our lines? Ah-h! Beautiful!" + +The central sections of the envelope of the rear dirigible had been torn +in shreds; it was buckling. Clouds of blue shrapnel smoke broke around +its gondola. A number of field-guns joined forces with a battery of +high-angle guns in a havoc that left a drifting derelict that had ceased +to exist to Feller's mind immediately it was out of action; for he saw +that the remainder of the squadron had completed its loop and was +pointing toward the plain. + +"And they were low enough to see all they want to know and rising +now--evidently already out of reach of our guns--and nothing against +them!" he groaned as he saw a clear sky ahead of the big disk and its +attending wings, while clenched fists pumping up and down with the +movement of his forearms shook his whole body in a palpitation of angry +disgust. "Lanny, what's the matter! Lanny, they've beaten you! Eh? What? +What--" A long whistle broke from his lips. His body still, transfixed, +he cupped his hands over his eyes. "So, that is it! That is your plan, +Lanny, old boy!" he shouted. "But if one of their confounded little +aviators gets back, he has the story!" + +From a great altitude, literally out of the blue of heaven, high over +the Gray lines, Marta made out a Brown squadron of dirigibles and planes +descending across the track of the Grays. + +"Catch them as they come back! Between them and home--between the +badger and his hole!" Feller went on explosively; and then, while the +two squadrons were approaching at countering angles, he breathed the +thoughts that the spectacle aroused in his quick brain: "This is +war--war! Talk about your old-fashioned, take-snuff-my-card-sir courage, +pray-and-swear courage--what about this? What about old Lanny's chosen +men of the air, without boasts or oaths, offering their lives in no wild +charge, but coolly, hand on lever, concentratedly, scientifically, in +sane, twentieth-century fashion, just to keep our positions secret! +Now--now for it!" + +The Gray dirigibles, stern on, were little larger than umbrellas and the +planes than swallows; the Brown dirigibles, side on, were big sausages +and their planes specks. To the eye, this meeting was like that of two +small flocks of soaring birds apparently unable to change their course. +But imagination could picture the fearful crash of forces, whose wounded +would find the succor of no hospital except impact on the earth below. + +Marta put her hands over her eyes for only a second, she thought, before +she withdrew them in vexation--hadn't she promised herself not to be +cowardly?--to see one Brown dirigible and two Brown aeroplanes ascending +at a sharp angle above a cloud of smoke to escape the high-angle guns of +the Grays. + +"We've got them all! No lips survive to tell what the eye saw!" +exclaimed Feller, his words bubbling with the joy of water in the +sunlight. "As I thought," he continued in professional enthusiasm and +discrimination. "We are getting the theory of one feature of the new +warfare in practice. It isn't like the popular dream of wiping out +armies by dropping bombs as you sail overhead. The force of gravity is +against the fliers. You have only to bring them to earth to put them out +of action. Plane driven into plane dirigible into dirigible, and an end +of bomb-dropping and scouting! War will still be won by the infantry +and the guns. Yes, the guns--the new guns! They--" + +Feller recalled with a nervous shock flashing through his system that he +was a gardener, a gentle old gardener. He put his hat back on a head +already bent, while the shoulders, after a pathetic shrug, drew together +in the accustomed stoop. His slim fingers slipped under the largest +chrysanthemum blossom, his attitude the same as when he had held it up +for Marta's inspection before they heard the roar of the Gray squadron's +motors. + +"I think that we might cut them all now and fill the vases," he +suggested, a musical, ingratiating note in his voice. "To-morrow we may +not have a chance." + +"Yes," she agreed mechanically, her thoughts still dwelling on the +collision of the squadrons. + +"And some of the finest ones for you to take now," he added, plying the +shears as he made his selections. "I'll bring the rest," he concluded +when he had gathered a dozen choice blossoms. + +His fingers touched hers as the stems changed hands. In his eyes, +showing just below the rim of his hat, was the light which she had seen +first during the dramatic scene in his sitting-room and the appeal of +deference, of suffering, and of the boyish hope of a cadet. + + + + +XXI + +SHE CHANGES HER MIND + + +The indefatigable captain of engineers had turned spectator. With +high-power binoculars glued to his eyes, he was watching to see if the +faint brown line of Dellarme's men were going to hold or break. If it +held, he might have hours in which to complete his task; if it broke, he +had only minutes. + +Marta came up the terrace path from the chrysanthemum bed in time to +watch the shroud of shrapnel smoke billowing over the knoll, to +visualise another scene in place of the collision of the squadrons, and +to note the captain's exultation over Fracasse's repulse. + +"How we must have punished them!" he exclaimed to his lieutenant. "How +we must have mowed them down! Lanstron certainly knew what he was +doing." + +"You mean that he knew how we should mow them down?" asked Marta. + +Not until she spoke did he realize that she was standing near him. + +"Why, naturally! If we hadn't mowed them down his plan would have +failed. Mowing them down was the only way to hold them back," he said; +and seeing her horror made haste to add: "Miss Galland, now you know +what a ghastly business war is. It will be worse here than there." + +"Yes," she said blankly. Her colorless cheeks, her drooping underlip +convinced him that now, with a little show of masculine authority, he +would gain his point. + +"You and your mother must go!" he said firmly. + +This was the very thing to whip her thoughts back from the knoll. He +was thunderstruck at the transformation: hot color in her cheeks, eyes +aflame, lips curving around a whirlwind of words. + +"You name the very reason why I wish to stay. Why do you want to save +the women? Why shouldn't they bear their share? Why don't you want them +to see men mowed down? Is it because you are ashamed of your profession? +Why, I ask?" + +The problem of dealing with an angry woman breaking a shell fire of +questions over his head had not been ready-solved in the captain's +curriculum like other professional problems, nor was it mentioned in the +official instructions about the defences of the Galland house. He aimed +to smile soothingly in the helplessness of man in presence of feminine +fury. + +"It is an old custom," he was saying, but she had turned away. + +"Picking flowers! What mockery! Lanny's plan--mow them down! mow them +down! mow them down!" she went on, more to herself than to him, as she +dropped the chrysanthemums on the veranda table. + +In a fire of resolution she hastened back down the terrace steps. The +Grays and the Browns were fighting in their way for their causes; she +must fight in her way for hers. Stopping before Feller, she seemed +taller than her usual self and quivering with impatience. + +"Have you connected the wire to the telephone yet?" she asked abruptly. + +"No, not yet," he answered. + +"Then please come with me to the tower!" + +Whatever his fears, he held them within the serene bounds of the +gardener's personality, while his covert glimpse of her warned him +against the mistake of trying to dam the current of a passion running so +strong. + +"Certainly, Miss Galland," he said agreeably, quite as if there were +nothing unusual in her attitude. No word passed between them as he kept +pace with her rapid gait along the path, but out of the corner of his +eye he surveyed in measuring admiration and curiosity the straight line +of nose and forehead under its heavy crown of hair, with a few detached +and riotous tendrils. + +"Bring a lantern!" she said, as they entered his sitting-room, in a way +that left no excuse for refusal. + +When he had brought the lantern she took it from his hand and led the +way into the tunnel. + +"Please make the connection so that I can speak to Lanny!" she +instructed him after she had pressed the button and the panel door of +the telephone recess flew open. + +For an instant he hesitated; then curiosity and the unremitting +authority of her tone had their way. He dropped to his knees, ran his +fingers into an aperture between two stones and made a jointure of two +wire ends. + +"All ready!" he said, and eagerly. What a delightfully spirited rage she +was in! And what the devil was she going to do, anyway? + +As she took the receiver from the hook she heard an electric bell at the +other end of the line, but no "Hello!" + +"The bell means that Lanny will be called if he is there. No one except +him is to talk over this telephone," Feller explained softly. + +Marta waited for some time before she heard a familiar, calm voice, with +a faint echo of irritation over being interrupted in the midst of +pressing duties. + +"Well, Gustave, old boy, it can't be that you are in touch with +Westerling yet?" + +"It is I--Marta!" and she came abruptly to the flaming interrogation +that had brought her there. "I want to ask a question. I want a clear +answer--I want everything clear! If Feller's plan succeeds it means that +you will know where the Grays are going to attack?" + +"Yes; why, yes, Marta!" + +"So that you can mow them down?" + +"That is one way of putting it--yes." + +"If I keep your secret--if I let the telephone remain, I am an +accomplice! I shall not be that--not to any kind of murder! I shall not +let the telephone remain!" + +"As you will, Marta," he replied. "But anything that leads to victory +means less slaughter in the end. For we have tested our army well enough +to know that only when it is decimated will it ever retreat from its +main line of defence." + +"The old argument!" she answered bitterly. + +"As you will, Marta! Only, Marta--I plead with you--please, please leave +the house!" he begged passionately. + +Again that request, which was acid to the raw spot of her anger! Again +that assumption that she must desert her own home because uninvited +guests would make it the theatre of their quarrel! How clear and +unassailable her reply in the purview of her distraught logic! + +"Why particularly care for one life when you deal in lives by the +wholesale?" she demanded. "Why think of my life when you are taking +other lives every minute?" + +"Because I am human, not just a machine! Because yours is the one life +of all to me--because I love you!" Feller, getting only one side of the +talk, cautiously watching her as he held up the lantern to throw her +face more clearly in relief, saw her start and caught the sound of a +quick indrawing of breath between her lips, while something electric +quivered through her frame. Then, as one who has twinged from a +pin-prick of distraction which she will not permit to waive her from a +white-heat purpose, she exclaimed, in rapid, stabbing, desperate +sentences: + +"That! That now! After what I said to you a week ago! That in the midst +of your mowing! No, no, no!" She drove the receiver down on the hook and +blazed out to Feller: "Now you will tear out the 'phone'" + +He steadied himself against the wall, covering his face with his hands, +and for the first time in her life she heard a man sob. + +"My one chance--my last chance--gone!" he said brokenly. "The chance +for me to redeem myself, so that I might again look at the flag without +shame, taken from me in the name of mercy, when, by helping to bring +victory and shorten the war, I might have saved thousands of lives!" he +proceeded dismally. + +"The old argument! Lanny has just used it!" said Marta. But coming from +a man sobbing it sounded differently. His hands fell away from his face +as if they were a dead weight. She saw him a wreck of a human being with +only his eyes alive, regarding her in harrowing wonder and reproach. + +"When I was a gardener eating at the kitchen table, playing the part of +a spy--I who was honor man at the military school--I who had a +conscience that sent me back from the free life on the plains to try to +atone--when I hoped to do this thing in order to prove that I was fit to +die if not to live----" + +He was as a man pitting his last grain of strength against overwhelming +odds. There were long, poignant pauses between his sentences as he +seemed to strive for coherence. + +"--in order to prove it for my country, for Lanny, and for you who have +been so kind to me!" he concluded, another dry sob shaking him. + +His chin dropped to his breast. Even the spark in his eyes flickered +out. In the feeble lantern light that deepened the shadows of his face +he was indescribably pitiful. She could not look away from him. There +was something infectious about his misery that compelled her to feel +with his nerves. + +"Please," he pleaded faintly--"please leave me to myself. I will tear +out the telephone--trust me--only I wish to be alone. I am uncertain--I +see only dark!" + +He sank lower against the wall, his head fell forward, though not so far +but he could see her from under his eyebrows. She started as she had at +the telephone, her breath came in the same sweep between her lips, and +he looked for a passionate refusal; but it did not come. She seemed in +some spell of recollection or projection of thought. A lustrous veil was +over her eyes. She was not looking at him or at anything in the range of +her vision. She shuddered and abruptly seized her left wrist with her +right hand, as Lanstron had in the arbor, which had brought her cry of +"I'm hurting you!" In this inscrutable attitude she was silent for a +time. + +"Let it remain--it means so much to you!" she said wildly, and hurried +past him still clasping her wrist. + +He stared into the darkness that closed around her. With the last sound +of her footsteps he became another Gustave Feller, who, all mercurial +vivacity, clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth with a "La, +la, la!" as his hand shot out for the receiver. There it paused, and +still another idea animated still another Gustave Feller. + +"Why not tear out the telephone--why not?" he mused. "Why didn't I agree +to her plan? Why can't I ever carry more than one thing in mind at once? +I forgot that we were at war. I forget that I am already at the front. I +have skill! God knows, I ought to have courage! Volunteers who have both +are always welcome in war. Any number of gunners will be killed! When an +artillery colonel saw what I could do he would take me on without +further questioning. Then I should not be a spy, shuffling and whining, +but bang-bang-bang on the target!" + +In imagination he now had a gun. His hand made a movement of +manipulation, head bent, eye sighting. + +"How do you like that? You will like this one less! And here's +another--but, no, no!" He dropped against the wall again; he drove his +nails into his palms in a sort of castigation. "I am the same as a +soldier now--a soldier assigned to a definite duty for my flag. I should +break my word of honor--a soldier's word of honor! No, not that again!" + +He snatched down the receiver to make sure that temptation did not +reappear in too luring a guise, and still another Gustave Feller was in +the ascendant. + +"Didn't I say to trust it to me, Lanny?" he called merrily. "Miss +Galland consents!" + +"She does? Good! Good for you, Gustave!" + +"Her second thought," Feller rejoined. "And, Lanny," he proceeded in +boyish enthusiasm, using a slang word of military school days, "it was +bulludgeous the way we brought down their planes and dirigibles! How I +ache to be in it when the guns are so busy! With batteries back of the +house and an automatic in the yard, things seem very homelike. I--" + +"Gustave," interrupted Lanstron, "we all have our weaknesses, and +perhaps yours is to play a part. So keep away from the fight and don't +think of the guns!" + +"I will, I swear!" Feller answered fervently. "One thought, one duty! +I'll 'phone you when the house is taken, and if you don't hear from me +again, why, you'll know the plan has failed and I'm a prisoner. But, +trust me, Lanny! Trust me--for my flag and my country against the +invader!" + +"Against the invader--that justifies all! And get Miss Galland out of +it. You seem to have influence with her. Get her out of it!" + +"Trust me!" + +"Bless you, and God with you!" + +"One thought, one duty!" repeated Feller with the devoutness of a monk +trying to forget everything except his aves as he started toward the +stairway. "I wonder if we still hold the knoll!" he mused, extinguishing +the lantern. "We do! we do!" he cried when he was in the doorway. "Oh, +this is life!" he added after a deep-drawn breath, watching the little +clouds of shrapnel smoke here and there along the base of the range. + + + + +XXII + +FLOWERS FOR THE WOUNDED + + +Was there nothing for Marta to do? Could she only look on in a fever of +restlessness while action roared around her? On the way from the tower +to the house the sight of several automobile ambulances in the road at +the foot of the garden stilled the throbs of distraction in her temples +with an answer. The wounded! They were already coming in from the field. +She hurried down the terrace steps. The major surgeon in charge, +surprised to find any woman in the vicinity, was about to tell her so +automatically; then, in view of her intensity, he waited for her to +speak. + +"You will let us do something for them?" Marta asked. "We will make them +some hot soup." + +He was immediately businesslike. No less than Dellarme or Fracasse or +Lanstron or Westerling, he had been preparing throughout his +professional career for this hour. The detail of caring for the men who +were down had been worked out no less systematically than that of +wounding them. + +"Thank you, no! We don't want to waste time," he replied. "We must get +them away with all speed so that the ambulances may return promptly. +It's only a fifteen-minute run to the hospital, where every comfort and +appliance are ready and where they will be given the right things to +eat." + +"Then we will give them some wine!" Marta persisted. + +"Not if we can prevent it! Not to start hemorrhages! The field doctors +have brandy for use when advisable, and there is brandy with all the +ambulances." + +Clearly, volunteer service was not wanted. There was no room at the +immediate front for Florence Nightingales in the modern machine of war. + +"Then water?" + +The major surgeon aimed to be patient to an earnest, attractive young +woman. + +"We have sterilized water--we have everything," he explained. "If we +hadn't at this early stage I ought to be serving an apprenticeship in a +village apothecary shop. Anything that means confusion, delay, +unnecessary excitement is bad and unmerciful." + +Marta was not yet at the end of her resources. The recollection of the +dying private who had asked her mother for a rose in the last war +flashed into mind. + +"You haven't flowers! They won't do any harm, even if they aren't +sterilized. The wounded like flowers, don't they? Don't you like +flowers? Look! We've millions!" + +"Yes, I do. They do. A good idea. Bring all the flowers you want to." + +The major surgeon's smile to Marta was not altogether on account of her +suggestion. "It ought to help anybody who was ever wounded anywhere in +the world to have you give him a flower!" he was thinking. + +She ran for an armful of blossoms and was back before the arrival of the +first wounded man who preceded the stretchers on foot. He was holding up +a hand bound in a white first-aid bandage which had a red spot in the +centre. Those hit in hand or arm, if the surgeon's glance justified it, +were sent on up the road to a point a mile distant, where transportation +in requisitioned vehicles was provided. These men were triumphant in +their cheerfulness. They were alive; they had done their duty, and they +had the proof of it in the coming souvenirs of scars. + +Some of the forms on stretchers had peaceful faces in unconsciousness +of their condition. Others had a look of wonder, of pain, of +apprehension in their consciousness that death might be near. The single +word "Shrapnel!" by a hospital-corps corporal told the story of crushed +or lacerated features, in explanation of a white cloth covering a head +with body uninjured. + +Feller, strolling out into the garden under the spell of watching shell +bursts, saw what Marta was doing. With the same feeling of relief at +opportunity for action that she had felt, he hastened to assist her, +bringing flowers by the basketful and pausing to watch her distribute +them--watching her rather than the wounded and enjoying incidental +thrills at examples of the efficiency of artillery fire. + +"The guns--the guns are going to play a great part!" he thought. "These +rapid-firers will recover all the artillery's prestige of Napoleon's +time!" + +Many of the wounded themselves looked at Marta even more than at the +flowers. It was good to see the face of a woman, her eyes limpid with +sympathy, and it was not what she said but the way she spoke that +brought smiles in response to hers. For she was no solemn ministering +angel, but high-spirited, cheery, of the sort that the major surgeon +would have chosen to distribute flowers to the men. Every remark of the +victims of war made its distinct and indelible impression on the +gelatine of her mind. + +"I like my blue aster better than that yellow weed of yours, Tom!" + +"You didn't know Ed Schmidt got it? Yes, he was right next me in the +line." + +"Say, did you notice Dellarme's smile? It was wonderful." + +"And old Bert Stransky! I heard him whistling the wedding march as he +fired." + +"Miss, I'll keep this flower forever!" + +"They say Billy Lister will live--his cheek was shot away!" + +"Once we got going I didn't mind. It seemed as if I'd been fighting for +years!" + +"Hole no bigger than a lead-pencil. I'll be back in a week!" + +"Yes; don't these little bullets make neat little holes?" + +"We certainly gave them a surprise when they came up the hill! I wonder +if we missed the fellow that jumped into the shell crater!" + +"Our company got it worst!" + +"Not any worse than ours, I'll wager!" + +"Oh--oh--can't you go easier? Oh-h-h--" the groan ending in a clenching +of the teeth. + +"Hello, Jake! You here, too, and going in my automobile? And we've both +got lower berths!" + +"Sh-h! That poor chap's dying!" + +Worst of all to Marta was the case of a shrapnel fracture of the +cranium, with the resulting delirium, in which the sufferer's +incoherence included memories of childhood scenes, moments on the +firing-line, calls for his mother, and prayers to be put out of misery. +A prod of the hypodermic from the major surgeon, and "On the +operating-table in fifteen minutes" was the answer to Marta's question +if the poor fellow would live. + +Until dark, in groups, at intervals, and again singly, the wounded were +coming in from a brigade front in the region where the rifles were +crackling and the shrapnel clouds were hanging prettily over the hills; +and stretchers were being slipped into place in the ambulances, while +Marta kept at her post. + +"We shan't have much more to do at this station," said the major surgeon +when a plodding section of infantry in retreat arrived. + + + + +XXIII + +STRANSKY FIGHTS ALONE + + +Every unit engrossed in his own work! Every man taught how a weak link +may break a chain and realizing himself as a link and only a link! The +captain of engineers forgot Marta's existence as an error of his +subordinates caught his eye, and he went to caution the axemen to cut +closer to the ground, as stumps gave cover for riflemen. For the time +being he had no more interest in the knoll than in the wreckage of +dirigibles which were down and out of the fight. + +After all, the knoll was only a single point on the vast staff map--only +one of many points of a struggle whose progress was bulletined through +the siftings of regimental, brigade, division, and corps headquarters in +net results to the staff. Partow and Lanstron overlooked all. Their +knowledge made the vast map live under their eyes. But our concern is +with the story of two regiments, and particularly of two companies, and +that is story enough. If you would grasp the whole, multiply the +conflict on the knoll by ten thousand. + +There had been the engrossment of transcendent emotion in repelling the +charge. What followed was like some grim and passionless trance with +triggers ticking off the slow-passing minutes. Dellarme aimed to keep +down the fusillade from Fracasse's trench and yet not to neglect the +fair targets of the reserves advancing by rushes to the support of the +128th. Reinforced, the gray streak at the bottom of the slope poured in +a heavier fire. Above the steady crackle of bullets sent and the whistle +of bullets received rose the cry of "Doctor! Doctor!" which meant each +time that another Brown rifle had been silenced. The litter bearers, +hard pressed to remove the wounded, left the dead. Already death was a +familiar sight--an article of exchange in which Dellarme's men dealt +freely. The man at Stransky's side had been killed outright. He lay face +down on his rifle stock. His cap had fallen off. Stransky put it back on +the man's head, and the example was followed in other cases. It was a +good idea to keep up a show of a full line of caps to the enemy. + +Suddenly, as by command, the fire from the base of the knoll ceased +altogether. Dellarme understood at once what this meant--the next step +in the course of a systematic, irresistible approach by superior +numbers. It was to allow the ground scouts to advance. Individual gray +spots detaching themselves from the gray streak began to crawl upward in +search of dead spaces where the contour of the ground would furnish some +protection from the blaze of bullets from the crest. + +"Over their heads! Don't try to hit them!" Dellarme passed the word. + +"That's it! Spare one to get a dozen!" said Stransky, grinning in ready +comprehension. He seemed to be grinning every time that Dellarme looked +in that direction. He was plainly enjoying himself. His restless nature +had found sport to its taste. + +The creeping scouts must have signalled back good news, for groups began +crawling slowly after them. + +"Over their heads! Encourage them!" Dellarme commanded. + +After they had advanced two or three hundred yards they stopped, +shoulders and hands exposed in silhouette, and began to work feverishly +with their spades. + +"Now let them have it!" + +"Oh, beautiful!" cried Stransky. "That baby captain of ours has some +brains, after all! We'll get them now and we'll get them when they run!" + +But they did not run. Unfalteringly they took their punishment while +they turned over the protecting sod in the midst of their own dead and +wounded. In a few minutes they had dropped spades for rifles, and other +sections either crawled or ran forward precipitately and fell to the +task of joining the isolated beginnings into a single trench. + +Again Dellarme looked toward regimental headquarters, his fixed, cheery +smile not wholly masking the appeal in his eyes. The Grays had only two +or three hundred yards to go when they should make their next charge in +order to reach the crest. But his men had fifteen hundred to go in the +valley before they were out of range. After their brave resistance +facing the enemy they would receive a hail of bullets in their backs. +This was the time to withdraw if there were to be assurance of a safe +retreat. But there was no signal. Until there was, he must remain. + +The trench grew; the day wore on. Two rifles to one were now playing +against his devoted company, which had had neither food nor drink since +early morning. As he scanned his thinning line he saw a look of +bloodlessness and hopelessness gathering on the set faces of which he +had grown so fond during this ordeal. Some of the men were crouching too +much for effective aim. + +"See that you fire low! Keep your heads up!" he called. "For your homes, +your country, and your God! Pass the word along!" + +Parched throat after parched throat repeated the message hoarsely and +leaden shoulders raised a trifle and dust-matted eyelashes narrowed +sharply on the sights. + +"For the man in us!" growled Stransky. "For the favor of nature at birth +that gave us the right to wear trousers instead of skirts! For the joy +of hell, give them hell!" + +"For our homes! For the man in us!" they repeated, swallowing the words +as if they had the taste of a stimulant. But Dellarme knew that it +would not take much to precipitate a break. He himself felt that he had +been on that knoll half a lifetime. He looked at his watch and it was +five o'clock. For seven hours they had held on. The Grays' trench was +complete the breadth of the slope; more reserves were coming up. The +brigade commander of the Grays was going to make sure that the next +charge succeeded. + +At last Dellarme's glance toward regimental headquarters showed the flag +that was the signal for withdrawal. Could he accomplish it? The first +lieutenant, with a shattered arm, had gone on a litter. The old sergeant +was dead, a victim of the colonial wars. Used to fighting savage +enemies, he had been too eager in exposing himself to a civilized foe. +He had been shot through the throat. + +"Men of the first section," Dellarme called, "you will slip out of line +with the greatest care not to let the enemy know that you are going!" + +"Going--going! Careful! Men of the first section going!" the parched +throats repeated in a thrilling whisper. + +"Those who remain keep increasing their fire!" called Dellarme again. +"Cover the whole breadth of the trench!" + +Every fourth man wormed himself backward on his stomach until he was +below the sky-line, when his stiffened limbs brought him to his feet and +he started on a dead run down into the valley and toward a cut behind +another knoll across the road from the Galland house. + +"Tom Fragini, with your corporal dead I put you in charge of the first +section! What are you waiting for, Corporal Fragini?" + +Tom was bending over Grandfather Fragini, who had been forgotten by +everybody in the ordeal. The old man was lying where he had fallen after +the first burst of shrapnel. + +"Can't go! Got a game leg!" said grandfather, pointing to a swollen +ankle that had been bruised by a piece of shrapnel jacket that had lost +most of its velocity before striking him. "You do your duty and leave me +alone. I ain't a fighting man any more. I done my work when I steadied +you young fellows." + +"Yes, go on, Fragini," said Dellarme. "Attend to your men. Everybody in +his place. We'll get the old man away on a litter." + +"Yes, you go or you ain't any grandson of mine!" shouted the old man in +a high-pitched voice. "Just been promoted, too! You'll be up for +insubordination in a minute, you young whelp!" + +Dellarme meant to look after grandfather, but his attention was +engrossed in seeing that his men withdrew cautiously, for every minute +that he was able to delay the enemy's charge was vital. He himself +picked up a rifle in order to increase the volume of fire when the third +section was starting. As the fourth and last section drew off he uttered +his first cry of triumph of the day as his final look revealed the Grays +still in place. But they would not wait long once all fire from the +knoll had ceased. Stransky, who was in the fourth section, remained to +give a parting shot. + +"Good-by, d---- you!" he called to the Grays. "You'll hear more from me +later!" + +Then Dellarme saw that grandfather had not yet been carried away and no +litters remained. What was to be done? Grandfather was prompt with his +own view. + +"Just leave me behind. I've done my work, I tell you!" he declared. + +"Can't lose you, grandpop!" said Stransky. + +Quickly shifting his pack to the ground, he squatted with his back to +the old man. + +"I ain't going to--and you're a traitor, anyway; that's what you are!" + +"No back talk! No politics in this!" Stransky replied. "Get up! You +carry your skin and I'll carry your bones. Get up quick!" + +With Dellarme's authoritative assistance grandfather mounted. Then +Dellarme put Stransky's pack on his own back. + +"Let me carry your rifle, too," he said to Stransky as they started. + +"Not much!" answered Stransky. "I was just married to that rifle this +morning. We're on our honeymoon trip and getting fairly well acquainted, +and expect shortly to settle down to a busy domestic life." + +He set off at a lope and gained the rear of the section in his first +burst of speed. As the other men got their second wind, however, +Stransky began to puff and they soon drew away from him. + +"Put me down! I ain't going to depend on any traitor that insulted the +flag!" protested grandfather. + +"That's the way! Call out to me now and then so I'll know you're there," +said Stransky. "You're so light I mightn't know it if you fell off." + +Dellarme did not think it right to expose the last section by asking it +to delay. Shepherd of his flock and miser of his pieces of gold, now +that their work was done the one thing he wanted in the world was that +they should escape without further punishment. Already the van of the +first section was disappearing into the cut in safety. But the fourth +section, which had held to the last, had yet a thousand yards to go over +a path bare of cover except a single small bush. At any moment he +expected to hear a cheer from the knoll, and what would follow the cheer +he knew only too well. Yet he tarried with Stransky out of one man's +impulse not to desert another in danger. At the same time he was wroth +with the old man for having made such a nuisance of himself. + +"What are you waiting for?" Stransky demanded of Dellarme. + +"I like good company," answered Dellarme cheerfully. + +"Compliment for you, grandfather!" said Stransky. + +"Put me down!" screamed grandfather. + +"Still there, eh? Thanks, grandpop!" said Stransky, turning on +Dellarme. "Can't you run any faster than that, captain? Your place is +with your men, sir. If you got wounded I'd have to carry you, too. Your +company's gaining on you every minute. Hurry up!" + +From the peremptory way that he spoke, Dellarme might have been the +private and Stransky the officer. + +"Right!" said Dellarme in face of such unanswerable military logic, and +broke into a run. + +Stransky adapted himself to a pace which he thought he could maintain, +and plodded on, eyes on the bush as a half-way point. After a while he +heard a mighty hurrah, which was cut short abruptly; then spits of dust +about their feet hastened the steps of the last section, which was near +the cut. He saw men drop out of line to make a cradle of their arms for +comrades who had been hit; and these finally passed out of danger with +their burdens. + +"No flock in sight! It's the turn of the individual birds!" thought +Stransky, and heard a familiar sound about his ears. + +"Bullets!" exclaimed grandfather. "Don't whistle like they used to. They +kind of crack and sizzle now. Maybe if they hit me I'll stop 'em, and +that'll save you." + +"That's so," replied Stransky glumly, realizing that he was running with +a human shield on his back. "But they'll go right through him he's so +thin," he thought in relief. The worst of it was that he had to receive +without sending, which made him boil with rage. He wished that the bush +had legs so it could run toward him; he half believed that it had and +was retreating. "They're shooting right at us, and that's in our favor. +It's hard to get the bull's-eye at that range," he assured grandfather. + +Whish-whish-whish! Enough pellets were singing by to have torn away the +rim of the target, yet none got the centre before Stransky dropped +behind the bush. Blessed bush! Back of it was a bowlder. Thrice-blessed +bowlder! It protected grandfather as securely as the armor of a +battleship. + +"We are having a noisy time," remarked Stransky as two or three of the +leaves fell. "Intelligent thieves! How did you guess we were here?" and +he put his big thumb to his big nose. + +"But they didn't know about the bowlder!" said the old man with a senile +giggle. "Say, I didn't mean it when I called you a traitor--not after +the fight! I just said that to make you mad so you'd put me down and we +shouldn't lose a good fighting man trying to save an old bag of bones +like me. You ain't no traitor! You're a patriot!" + +"More politics, when I'm simply full of cussedness!" grumbled Stransky. +"Not having any home, I'm fighting to save the other fellows' homes, +principally because I was married this morning by a shrapnel-shell to a +lady that understands me perfectly. Say, shall we give them a few?" he +asked with a squint down the bridge of his nose as he took up his rifle. + +"Yes, give 'em a few!" grandfather urged when they ought to have +remained quiet, as the firing was dying down. It was not worth while to +shoot at a bush, and after all the torrent of lead that they had poured +into the bush the Grays had concluded that nothing behind it could +remain alive. + +Stransky aimed at a head and shoulder on the sky-line, which he took for +those of an officer, and was accurate enough to make the head and +shoulders duck and to get a swarm of bullets in return. + +"Children, why will you waste your country's ammunition?" said Stransky, +firing again. + +"That's the way to talk!" said grandfather approvingly. "Nothing like a +little gayety and ginger in war." + +Now a Brown battery whose fire could be spared from other work dropped a +few shells on the knoll and so occupied the attention of the 128th that +it had no time to attend to occasional bullets from snipers. + +"Think we're no account! Shall we charge them now we've got the support +of the guns?" chuckled Stransky. + +"You Hussar, you!" Grandfather gave Stransky a slap on the back. "With a +thousand like you we could charge me whole army, if the general would +let us!" + +"But he wouldn't let us," replied Stransky. "I could even tell you why." + +With the shadows gathering he slipped back to grandfather's side, and +after it was quite dark he said that it was time for the old Hussar to +mount his fiery steed. Grandfather's hands slipped from around +Stransky's neck at the first trial; with the next, Stransky took the +bony fingers in his grip and held them clasped on his chest with one +hand, proceeding as quietly as he could, for he had an idea that the +Grays were already moving down from the knoll under cover of night. + +"Yes, sir, I'm glad I came!" said grandfather faintly and meanderingly. +"I wasn't sure about Tom--all this new-fangled education and these +uniforms without any color in 'em. But I saw him firing away steady as a +rock; yes, sir! I was in it, too, under fire! It made my heart +thump-thump like the old days. And we're going to hold 'em--we're going +to teach the land-sharks--I'm very happy--made my heart thump so--kind +of tired me--" + +The old man's voice died away into silence. His knees weakened their +grip and his legs swung pendulum-like with Stransky's steps. + +"What about me for a sleeping-car!" thought Stransky. "But he's +certainly harder to carry." + +Yet it pleased Stransky not to waken his passenger until they reached +the station his ticket called for. Entering the cut, he was halted by +the challenging cry of "Who goes there?" in his own tongue. + +"Stransky of the Reds!" he roared back. "Stransky, private of the +53d--Stransky and his bride and grandfather!" + +"All right, Bert!" was the answer. "Hurrah for you! I'd know your old +bull voice out of a thousand." + +Even this did not arouse grandfather. Stransky trudged on past the +sentry, across a road and up three series of steps of a garden terrace, +through a breach in a breastwork of sand-bags, and was again at +home--the only home he knew--among the comrades of his company. Most of +them had fallen asleep on the ground after finishing their rations, logs +of men in animal exhaustion. Some of those awake were too weary to give +more than a nod and smile and an exclamation of delight. They had +witnessed too much horror that day to be excited over a soldier with an +old man on his back. A few of the others, including Tom Fragini, +gathered around the pair. + +"We've arrived, grandfather!" said Stransky, squatting. There was no +answer. "He certainly sleeps sound. I wonder if--." + +"Yes," said Dellarme, who with Tom eased the fall of the limp body. + +The thumping of an old man's heart with the youth of a Hussar had been +too much for it. + +"He was game!" said Stransky. "There isn't much in this world except to +be game, I've concluded; and you can't be so old or so poor or so +big-nosed and wall-eyed that you can't be game." + +Marta, coming out on the veranda, had not heard his remark, but she had +seen a leonine sort of private bearing an old man on his back and had +guessed that he had remained behind to save a life when every man in +uniform had been engaged in taking life. + +"You are tired! You are hungry!" she said with urgent gentleness. "Come +in!" + +He followed her into the house and dropped on a leather chair before a +shining table in a room panelled with oak, wondering at her and at +himself. No woman of Marta's world had ever spoken in that way to him. +But it was good to sit down. Then a maid with a sad, winsome face and +tender eyes brought him wine and bread and cold meat and jam. He gulped +down a glassful of the wine; he ate with great mouthfuls in the ravenous +call of healthy, exhausted tissues, while the maid stood by to cut more +bread. + +"When it comes to eating after fighting--" + +He looked up when the first pangs of hunger were assuaged. Enormous, +broad-shouldered, physical, his cheeks flushed with the wine, his eyes +opened wide and brilliant with the fire that was in his nature--eyes +that spoke the red business of anarchy and war. + +"Say, but you're pretty!" + +Springing up, he caught her hand and made to kiss her in the brashness +of impulse. Minna struck him a stinging blow in the face. He received it +as a mastiff would receive a bite from a pup, and she stood her ground, +her eyes challenging his fearlessly. + +"So you are like that!" he said thoughtfully. "It was a good one, and +you meant it, too." + +"Decidedly!" she answered. "There's more where that came from!" + +"As I was telling the Grays this afternoon! Good for you!" He sat down +again composedly, while she glared at him. "I'm still hungry. I've had +wine enough; but would you cut me another slice of bread?" + +She cut another slice and he covered it generously with jam. Then little +Clarissa Eileen entered and pressed against her mother's skirts, +subjecting Stransky to childhood's scrutiny. He waved a finger at her +and grinned and drew his eyes together in a squint at the bridge of his +nose, making a funny face that brought a laugh. + +"Your child?" Stransky asked Minna. + +"Yes." + +"Where's her father? Away fighting?" + +"I don't know where he is!" + +"Oh!" he mused. "Was that blow for him at the same time as for me?" he +pursued thoughtfully. + +"Yes, for all of your kind." + +"M-m-m!" came from between his lips as he rose. "Would you mind holding +out your hand?" he asked with a gentleness singularly out of keeping +with his rough aspect. + +"Why?" she demanded. + +"I've never studied any books of etiquette of polite society, and I am a +poor sort at making speeches, anyhow. But I want to kiss a good woman's +hand by way of apology. I never kissed one in my life, but I'm getting a +lot of new experiences to-day. Will you?" + +She held out her hand at arm's length and flushed slightly as he pressed +his lips to it. + +"You certainly do cut thick slices of bread," he said, smiling. "And you +certainly are pretty," he added, passing out of the door as jauntily as +if he were ready for another fight and just in time to see the colonel +of the regiment come around the house. He stood at the salute, half +proudly, half defiantly, but in nowise humbly. + +"Well, Major Dellarme!" was the colonel's greeting of the company +commander. + +"Major?" exclaimed Dellarme. + +"Yes. Partow has the power. Four of the aviators have iron crosses +already and promotion, too; and you are a major. Company G got into a +mess and the whole regiment would have been in one unless you held on. +So I let you stay. It all came out right, as Lanstron planned--right so +far. But your losses have been heavy and here you are in the thick of it +again. Your company may change places with Company E, which has had a +relatively easy time." + +"No, sir; we would prefer to stay," Dellarme answered quietly. + +"Good! Then you will take this battalion and I'll transfer Groller to +Alvery's Bad loss, Alvery--shrapnel. The artillery has been doing ugly +work, but that is all in favor of the defensive. If we can hold them on +this line till to-morrow noon, it's all we want for the present," he +concluded. + +"We'll hold them! Don't worry!" put in Stransky. + +If a private had spoken to a colonel in this fashion at drill, without +being spoken to, it would have been a glaring breach of military +etiquette. Now that they were at war it was different. Real comradeship +between officer and man begins with war. + +"We shall, eh?" chuckled the colonel. "You look big enough to hold +anything, young man! Here! Isn't this the fellow that Lanstron got off?" + +"Yes, sir," answered Dellarme. + +"Well, was Lanstron right?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Wonderful man, Lanstron!" + +"He knows just' a little too much!" Stransky half growled. + + + + +XXIV + +THE MAKING OF A HERO + + +A digression, this, about pale, little Peterkin, the valet's son, whom +we left nibbling a biscuit in perfect security after his leap in mortal +terror. When Fracasse's men rose from their trench for the final charge +and found that the enemy had gone, Peterkin, hearing their cheer and the +thunderous tread of their feet, dared to look above the edge of the +shell crater. Here was his company coming and he not in the ranks where +he belonged. Of course he ought to have gone back with them when they +went; whatever they did he ought to do. This was the only safe way for +one of his incurable stupidity, as the drill sergeant had told him +repeatedly. + +He recognized the stocky butcher's son and other familiar figures among +his comrades. Their legs, unlike his, had not been paralyzed with +fright; they had been able to run. He was in an absolute minority of +one, which he knew, from the experience of his twenty years of life and +his inheritance as a valet's son, meant that he was utterly in the +wrong. In a minute they would be sweeping down on him. They would be +jeering him and calling him a rabbit or something worse for hiding in +the ground. + +Fright prompted him to a fresh impulse. Picking up his rifle, which he +had not touched since his leap, he faced toward the now unoccupied crest +of the knoll and commenced firing. Meanwhile, Fracasse's men had reached +the point where their first charge had broken, marked by a line of +bodies, including that of the manufacturer's son, who had thought that +war would be beneficial as a deterrent to strikes and an impetus to +industry, lying with his head on his arm, his neck twisted, and the +whites of his eyes idled skyward. In a spasm of sickening realization of +how impossible it was for those who had not run back to survive between +two lines of fire, they heard a shot from the ground at their feet and +beheld the runt of the company in the act of making war single-handed. +It was a miracle! It was like the dead coming to life! + +"Peterkin?" + +"Yes, Peterkin!" + +"With a whole skin!" + +Probably it was a great mistake for him to have a whole skin, thought +Peterkin. He scrambled to his feet and kept pace with the others, hoping +that he would be overlooked in the ranks. + +"I'm so glad! Dear little Peterkin!" said Hugo Mallin, who was at +Peterkin's side. + +His knowledge of Hugo's gentle nature convinced Peterkin that Hugo was +trying to soften the forthcoming reprimand. + +When their feet at last actually stood on the knoll which had dealt +death to their ranks and they saw the brown figures of the enemy that +had driven them back in full flight, the men of the 128th felt the +thrill of triumph won in the face of bullets. This is a thrill by +itself, primitive and masculine, that calls the imagination of men to +war for war's sake. Pilzer, the butcher's son, wanted to kill for the +sheer joy and revenge of killing. He rejoiced in the dead and the blood +spots that, as clearly as the trench itself, marked the line that +Dellarme's men had occupied along the crest of the knoll. It pleased him +to use one of the bodies as a rest for his rifle, while he laid his +sight in ecstasy on the large target of two men of the last section who +were bringing off one of the wounded, and he swore when they got away. + +"But there's another out there all alone!" he cried. "Better say your +prayers, for I'm going to get you," he whispered; though, as we know, +Stransky was not hit. + +Peterkin had been doing his best to make amends for past errors by +present enthusiasm of application. He fired no less earnestly than the +butcher's son. Now that Eugene Aronson was dead, Pilzer had become +Peterkin's chief patron and guide. He would be doing right if he did +what that brave Pilzer did, he was thinking, while he was conscious of +Fracasse's eyes boring into his back. With the others, but no more +expeditiously, however frightened, he fell back to cover from the burst +of shell fire; and then, with the word to break ranks, he found himself +the centre of a group including not only his captain but the colonel of +the regiment. He could not quite make out the expressions on their +faces, but he surmised that they were wondering how any man born under +the flag of the Grays could be such a coward as he was. Probably he +would be shot at sunrise. + +"How did it happen?" Fracasse asked. + +His tone was very pleasant, but Peterkin felt that this was only the +calmness of a judge hearing the evidence of a culprit. Punishment would +be, accordingly, the more drastic. He was too scared to tell the truth. +He spoke softly, with the mealy tongue of a valet father who never +explained why the wine was low in the decanter by any reference to a +weakness of his own palate. + +"I didn't hear the whistle to fall back," he said, "so I stayed." + +"Didn't hear the whistle!" exclaimed the captain. He looked at the +colonel and the colonel looked at him. The colonel stroked his mustache +as if it were a nice mustache. "There wasn't any whistle," said Fracasse +with a wry grin. + +"Yes, my boy; and then?" asked the colonel, who had never before called +any private in his regiment "my boy." + +A bright light broke on Peterkin. Inherited instinct did not permit him +to show much emotion on his face, and he had, too, an inherited gift of +invention. He rubbed his rifle stock with his palm and bowed much in +the fashion of the parent washing his hands in gratitude for a +compliment. + +"And I didn't want to run," he continued. "I wanted to take that hill. +That was what we were told to do, wasn't it, sir?" + +"Yes, yes!" said the colonel. "Go on!" + +The light grew brighter, showing Peterkin's imagination the way to +higher flights. + +"I jumped quick into the crater, knowing that if I jumped quick I would +not be hit," he proceeded, his thin voice accentuating his deferential +modesty. "My! but the bullets were thick, going both ways! But I +remembered the lectures to recruits said that it took a thousand to kill +a man. I found that I had cover from the bullets from our side and some +cover from their side. I could not lie there doing nothing, I decided, +after I had munched biscuits for a while--" + +"Coolly munching biscuits!" exclaimed the colonel. + +"Yes, sir; so I began firing every time I had a chance and I picked off +a number, I think, sir." + +"My boy," said the colonel, putting his hand on Peterkin's shoulder, "I +am going to recommend you for the bronze cross." + +The bronze cross--desired of generals and privates--for Peterkin, when +Pilzer had been so confident that he should win the first that came to +the 128th now that Eugene Aronson was dead! + +"I--I--" stammered Peterkin. + +"And so modest about it!" added the colonel. "Remembered the lectures to +recruits and acted on them faithfully!" + +The old spirit of the nation was not dead. Here it was reappearing in a +valet's son, as it was bound to reappear in all classes! Yes, Peterkin +had supplied the one shining incident of the costly day to the colonel, +who found himself without his headquarters for the night at the Galland +house as planned, waiting for orders on this confounded little knoll. He +was wondering if his regiment would be out in reserve and given a rest +on the morrow, when an officer of the brigade staff brought +instructions: + +"The batteries are going to emplace here for your support in the +morning. You will move as soon as your men have eaten and occupy +positions B-31 to B-35. That gives you a narrow front for one battalion, +with two battalions in reserve to drive home your attack. The chief of +staff himself desires that we take the Galland house before noon. The +enemy must not have the encouragement of any successes." + +"So easy for Westerling to say," thought the colonel; while aloud he +acknowledged the message with proper spirit. + +Before the order to move was given the news of it passed from lip to lip +among the men in tired whispers. Since dawn they had lived through the +impressions of a whole war, and they had won. With victory they had not +thought of the future, only of their hunger. After the nightmare of the +charge, after hearing death whispering for hours intimately in their +ears, they were too weary and too far thrown out of the adjustments of +any natural habits of thought and feeling to realize the horror of +eating their dinners in the company of the dead. Now they were to go +through another hell, but many of them in their exhaustion were chiefly +concerned as to whether or not they should get any sleep that night. + +Peterkin could hear his heart thumping and feel chills running down his +spine. How should he ever live up to a bronze cross--the precious cross +given for valor alone, which marked him as heroic for life--when all he +wanted to do was to crawl away to some quiet, safe place and munch more +biscuits? He had once been a buttons who looked down on scullery boys, +but how gladly would he be a scullery boy forever if he could escape to +the rear where he would hear no more bullets! + +His conscience smote him; he wanted a confessor. He had an impulse to +tell the whole truth to Hugo Mallin, for Hugo was the one man in the +company who would sympathetically understand the situation. Yet he did +not find the words, because he was rather pleased with the reclame of +being a hero, which was an entirely new experience in a family that had +been for generations in service. + +Hugo Mallin had fired when the others fired; advanced when the others +advanced. He had done his mechanical part in a way that had not excited +Fracasse's further acute displeasure, and he had no sense of physical +fatigue, only of mental depression, of the elemental things that he had +seen and felt this day in a whirling pressure on his brain. + +It seemed to him that all his comrades had changed. They could never be +the same as before they had set out to kill another lot of men on the +crest of the knoll. He could not keep a comparison out of mind: One of +the dead Browns, lying in almost the same position, looked enough like +the manufacturer's son to be his brother. He pictured Eugene Aronson's +parents receiving the news of his death--the mother weeping, the father +staring stonily. And he saw many mothers weeping and many fathers +staring stonily. + + + + +XXV + +THE TERRIBLE NIGHT + + +The satire of war makes the valet's son a hero; the chance of war kills +the manufacturer's son and lets the day-laborer's son live; the sport of +war gives the latent forces of a Stransky full play; the mercy of war +grants Grandfather Fragini a happy death; the glory of war brings +Dellarme quick promotion; the glamour and the spectacular folly of war +turn the bolts of the lightnings which man has mastered against man. +Perhaps the savage who learned that he could start a flame by rubbing +two dry sticks together may have set fire to the virgin forest and wild +grass in order to destroy an enemy--and naturally with disastrous +results to himself if he mistook the direction of the wind. + +Marta Galland's thoughts at dusk when she returned up the steps to the +house were much the same as Hugo Mallin's after Fracasse had taken the +knoll. While he had felt the hot whirlwind of war in his face, she had +witnessed the wreckage that it left. She also was seeing fathers staring +and mothers weeping. Her experience with the wounded drawing deep on the +wells of sympathy, heightened her loathing of war and of all who planned +and ordered it and led its legions. A Stransky righting would have been +repulsive to her, but a Stransky trying to save a life was noble. + +Except for the few minutes when she had gone out on the veranda and had +seen Stransky bringing in the lifeless body of Grandfather Fragini, she +had been engaged since dark in completing the work of moving valuable +articles from the front to the rear rooms of the house, which had been +begun early in the day by Minna and the coachman. + +Shortly after Stransky had finished his meal Minna came to say that +Major Dellarme wished to speak to Miss Galland. Dellarme a major! This +was his reward for his part in filling the ambulances with groans! In +the days when he was at the La Tir garrison he had been a frequent +caller. Now, in the perversity of her reasoning, out of the chaos of the +tangent odds of her impressions since she had gone to hold the session +of her school that morning, she thought of him as peculiarly one who +gave to the profession of arms the attraction that had made it the +vocation of the aristocrat. Waiting for her in the dismantled +dining-room, despite all that he had passed through, his greeting had +the diffident, boyish manner of her recollection; and despite a night on +the ground his brown uniform was without creases, giving him a +well-groomed, even debonair, appearance. + +"I scarcely thought that we should ever meet under these conditions," he +said slightly constrained, a touch of color in his cheeks. + +She had no excuse for her reply unless, in truth, she were in training +for the town scold. But he typified an idea. He gave to war the aspect +of refinement. + +"If you did not expect it, why did you enter the army?" she asked. + +He saw that she was not quite herself. The strain of the day had +unnerved her. Yet he answered her bootless question with simple +directness. + +"I liked the idea of being a soldier. I was reared in the atmosphere of +the army, and I hoped that I might do my duty if war came." + +Perhaps this was point one for him. Marta shrugged her shoulders. + +"I might have guessed beforehand what you would say," she replied. "You +sent for me?" + +"Hardly that, please. I asked if I might see you. The captain of +engineers tells me that you insist on staying and I came to beg you to +keep in the back of the house. You will be safe there. Any shell that +may enter will explode in the front rooms and the fragments will not go +through the second wall." + +"Yes, we understand that. We have already removed our heirlooms," she +replied indifferently. + +The fatalism of her attitude and his alarm lest she had gone a little +out of her head aroused all the innate horror of a man at the thought of +a woman under fire. He broke out desperately: + +"Miss Galland, this is no place for you! You do not realize--" + +He had made the same mistake as the captain of engineers--touched a spot +of irritation as raw as it had been in the morning. + +"Why shouldn't I stay here? Why shouldn't every wife and mother be here +in the fire zone? You soldiers die--it is very easy to die--and leave us +to suffer. You destroy and leave us to build up. You go on a debauch of +killing and come home to the women to nurse you. Why make us suffer the +consequences without sharing the glory of the deed?" + +Such reasoning was not in the province of his training. He feared that +she was about to become hysterical. + +"Really, Miss Galland, I--women and children--I--" he was stammering. + +"Better kill the children young than go to the expense of bringing them +up before they are killed!" she went on, not hysterically, unless frozen +intensity is hysteria. "Children clinging to your knees might stop you, +but I suppose you would have a police force to tear the children away +rather than miss the masculine privilege of murder." + +"Miss Galland, you are overwrought. I--" + +She interrupted him with half-breathed laughter. + +"Don't I look it--hysterical?" she exclaimed. "How awkward for you if I +should fall on the floor and kick and scream!" + +With a peculiar uplifting of the brows which spoke a brittle humor, she +looked at the floor as if selecting a place for the performance. + +"That is not your way," he managed to say. He was quite adrift in +confusion at the recollection of quotations he had heard about woman's +subtleties and inconsistencies and her charm. Resorting to the last +weapon in his armory--which the captain of engineers had already +used--his attitude changed to a soldierly sternness. "Miss Galland, I +feel that it is my duty, as long as you are going to stay, to make sure +that--" + +She killed the sentence on his lips with a gleam of mockery from her +eyes. He understood that she had again anticipated what he was going to +say. + +"There are times when you must be firm with a woman, aren't there? And +the time has come for you to be firm!" The color in his cheeks deepened. +He knew what to do with his men on the knoll, but not what to do in the +present situation. "This is our home; our home is our country. Here we +remain; but, naturally, we don't propose to stick our heads out of the +windows in a shower of shrapnel bullets," she continued. "Even your +soldiers are not so zealous for death but they fight behind sand-bags. +They are not like Mohammedan fatalists who so love to die for their +illusions that they bare their breasts to bullets. We have already +arranged sleeping-quarters in the rear. Good night!" + +She held out her hand with a smile of conventional pleasantry. Had it +not been for the sound of firing, which still continued, and for the +walls denuded of pictures, they might have been parting at the head of +the stairs at a house-party. She stopped half-way up in an impulse to +call back happily: + +"You see, masculine firmness did calm feminine hysteria!" + +"Oh, Miss Galland!" he exclaimed. "Miss Galland, you are beyond me!" + +"What a pose! How foolish to break out in that way!" she thought +angrily, as she hastened up the rest of the flight and along the +corridor. "To him of all men! A pattern-plate of an officer, who never +has had anything but a military thought! But everything is pose! +Everything is abnormal! And sleep? Sleep is a pose, too. I feel as if my +eyes would remain open forever. Oh, I wish they would begin the fighting +and tear the house to pieces if they are going to! I wish--" + +She was at the door of her mother's room, which was like an antique +shop. Old plates lay on top of old tables, with vases on the floor under +the tables. Surrounded by her treasures, Mrs. Galland awaited the +attack; not as a soldier awaits it, but as that venerable Roman senator +of the story faced the barbarous Gauls--neither disputing the power of +their spears nor yielding the self-respect of his own mind and soul. She +had lain down in her wrapper for the night, and the light from a single +candle--she still favored candles--revealed her features calm and +philosophical among the pillows. Yet the magic of war, reaching deep +into hidden emotions, had her also under its spell. Her voice was at +once more tender and vital. + +"Marta, I see that you are all on wires!" + +"Yes; jangling wires, every one, jangling every second out of tune," +Marta acquiesced. + +"Marta, my father"--her father had been a premier of the Browns--"always +said that you may enjoy the luxury of fussing over little things, for +they don't count much one way or another; but about big things you must +never fuss or you will not be worthy of big things. Marta, you cannot +stop a railroad train with your hands. This is not the first war on +earth and we are not the first women who ever thought that war was +wrong. Each of us has his work to do and you will have yours. It does no +good to tire yourself out and fly to pieces, even if you do know so much +and have been around the world." + +She smiled as a woman of sixty, who has a secret heart-break that she +had never given her husband a son, may smile at a daughter who is both +son and daughter to her, and her plump hand, all curves like her plump +face and her plump body, spread open in appeal. + +Marta, who, in the breeding of her generation, felt sentiment as more or +less of a lure from logic, dropped beside the bed in a sudden burst of +sentiment and gathered the plump hand in hers and kissed it. + +"Mother, you are wonderful!" she said. "Mother, you are great!" + +"Tush, Marta!" said Mrs, Galland. "You shouldn't say that. Your +grandfather was great--a very great man. He never quite got his deserts; +no good man does in politics." + +"You are better than great," said Marta. "You soothe; you help; you +have--what shall I call it?--the wisdom of mothers! Minna has it, too." +She ran a tattoo of kisses along the velvety skin of Mrs. Galland's arm. + +Mrs. Galland was blushing, and out of the depths of her eyes bubbled a +little fountain of stars. + +"Marta, you have kissed me often before," she said, "but you have been a +little patronizing from your hilltop of youth and knowledge. Sometimes +you have looked to me lonely up there on your hilltop and I know that I +have been lonely sometimes in my valley of the years where knees are not +good at climbing hills." + +"It was not my intention," Marta said rather miserably. + +"No, it is a businesslike age," answered Mrs. Galland. + +"I--you mean I was too detached? I was not human?" + +"You are now. You make me very happy," her mother replied. "But you must +sleep," she insisted. + +After a time, her ear becoming as accustomed to the firing as a city +dweller's to the distant roar of city traffic Mrs. Galland slept. But +Marta could not follow her advice. If, transiently at least, she had +found something of the peace of the confessional, the vigor of youth was +in her arteries; and youth cannot help remaining awake under some +conditions. She tiptoed across the hall into her own room and seated +herself by the window, which had often spread the broadening vista of +landscape with its lessening detail before her eyes. + +On other nights she had looked out into opaqueness with the drum-beat of +rain on the roof; into the faint starlight when there was only the +vagueness of heights and levels; into the harvest moonlight with its +spectral unreality. Now the symbol of what the ear had heard the eye +saw: war, working in tones of the landscape by day with smokeless +powder; war, revealed by its tongues of flame at night. Ugly bursts of +fire from the higher hills spread to the heavens like an aurora borealis +and broke their messengers in sheets of flame over the lower hills--the +batteries of the Browns sprinkling death about the heads of the gunners +of the Grays emplacing their batteries. Staccato flashes from a single +point counted so many bullets from an automatic, which, directed by the +beams of the search-lights, found their targets in sections of advancing +infantry. Hill crests, set off with flashes running back and forth, +demarked infantry lines of the Browns assisting the automatics. + +There were lulls between the crashes of the small arms and the heavy, +throaty speech of the guns; lulls that seemed to say that both sides had +paused for a breathing spell; lulls that allowed the battle in the +distance to be heard in its pervasive undertone. In one Of them, when +even the undertone had ceased for a few seconds, Marta caught faintly +the groans of a wounded man--one of the crew of a Gray dirigible burned +by an explosion and brought in his agony softly to earth by a billowing +piece of envelope which acted as a parachute. + +Fighting proceeded in La Tir in stages of ferocity and blank silence. +The upper part of the town, which the Browns still held, was in +darkness; the lower part, where the Grays were, was illuminated. + +"Another one of Lanny's plans!" thought Marta. "He would have them work +in the light, while we fire out of obscurity!" + +Soon all the town was in darkness, for the Grays had cut the wire in the +main conduit shortly after she had heard the groans of the wounded man. +There the automatics broke out in a mad storm, voicing their feelings at +getting a company in close order in a street for the space of a minute, +before those who escaped could plaster themselves against doorways or +find cover in alleys. Then silence from the automatics and a cheer from +the Browns that rasped out its triumph like the rubbing together of +steel files. + +From the line of defence, that included the first terrace of the Galland +grounds as the angle of a redoubt, not a shot, not a sound; silence on +the part of officers and men as profound as Mrs. Galland's slumber, +while one of the Browns' search-lights, like some great witch's +slow-turning eye in a narrow radius, covered the lower terraces and the +road. + +Marta gave intermittent glances at the garden; the glances of a +guardian. She happened to be looking in that direction when figures +sprang across the road, crouching, running with the short, quick steps +of no body movement accompanying that of the legs. The search-light +caught them in merciless silhouette and the automatic and the rifles +from behind the sand-bags on the first terrace let go. Some of the +figures dropped and lay in the road and she knew that she had seen men +hit for the first time. Others, she thought, got safely to the cover of +the gutter on the garden side. Of those on the road, some were still and +some she saw were moving slowly back on their stomachs to safety. Now +the search-light laid its beam steadily on the road. Again silence. From +the upper terrace came a great voice, like that of the guns, from a +human throat: + +"Why didn't we level those terraces? They'll creep up from one to the +other!" It was Stransky. + +In answer was another voice--Dellarme's. + +"Perhaps there wasn't time to do everything. And if this position is +taken before we are ready to go, it will not be from that side, but from +the side of the town." + +"We're making them pay for seeing our garden, but, anyhow, we won't let +them pick any flowers," Stransky remarked pungently. + +"If they get as far as the first terrace--well, in case of a crisis, we +have hand-grenades," Dellarme added in explanation. "But, God knows, I +hope we shall not have to use them." + +After an interval, more figures made a rush across the road. They, too, +in Stransky's words, paid a price for seeing the garden. But the flashes +from the rifles and the automatic provided a target for a Gray battery. +The blue spark that flies from an overhead trolley or a third rail, +multiplied a hundredfold, broke in Marta's face. It was dazzling, +blinding as a bolt of lightning a few feet distant, with the thunder +crash at the same second, followed by the thrashing hum of bullets and +fragments against the side of the house. + +"I knew that this must come!" something within her said. If she had not +been prepared for it by the events of the last twelve hours she would +have jumped to her feet with an exclamation of natural shock and horror. +As it was, she felt a convulsive, nervous thrill without rising from her +seat. A pause. The next shell burst in line with the first, out by the +linden-trees; a third above the veranda. + +"We've got that range, all right!" thought the Gray battery commander, +who had judged the distance by the staff map. This was all he wanted to +know for the present. He would let loose at the proper time to support +the infantry attack, when there were enough driblets across the road to +make a charge. The driblets kept on coming, and, one by one, the number +of dead on the road was augmented. + +Marta was diverted from this process of killing by piecemeal by a more +theatric spectacle. A brigade commander of the Grays had ticked an order +over the wires and it had gone from battery to battery. Not only many +field-guns, which are the terriers of the artillery, but some guns of +siege calibre, the mastiffs, in a sudden outburst started a havoc of +tumbling walls and cornices in the upper part of the town. + +Then an explosion greater than any from the shells shot a hemisphere of +light heavenward, revealing a shadowy body flying overhead, and an +instant later the heavens were illuminated by a vast circle of flame as +the dirigible that had dropped the dynamite received its death-blow. But +already the Brown infantry was withdrawing from the town, destroying +buildings that would give cover for the attack in the morning as they +went. Two or three hours after midnight fell a silence which was to last +until dawn. The combatants rested on their arms, Browns saying to Grays, +"We shall be ready for the morrow!" and Grays replying: "So shall we!" + +Marta, at her window, her eyes following the movements of the display, +now here, now there, found herself thinking of many things, as in the +intermissions between the acts of a drama. She wondered if the groaning, +wounded man were crying for water or if he were wishing that some one at +home were near him. She thought of her talk with Lanstron over the +telephone and how mad and feminine and feeble it must have sounded to a +mind working in the inexorable processes of the clash of millions of +men. She saw his left hand twitching in his pocket, his right hand +gripping it to hold it still, on that afternoon when, for the first +time, she had understood his injury in the aeroplane accident as the +talisman of his feelings--his controlled feelings! Always his controlled +feelings! + +She saw Feller leaning against the moist wall of the dank tunnel, +suffering as it had never seemed to her that man could suffer, his agony +an irresistible plea. She saw Westerling, so conscious of his strength, +directing his chessmen in a death struggle against Partow. And he was +coming to this house as his headquarters when the final test of the +strength of the Titans was made. + +She hoped that her mother was still sleeping; and she had seconds when +she was startled by her own calmness. Again, the faces of the children +in her school were as clear as in life. She breathed her gratitude that +the procession in which they moved to the rear was hours ago out of the +theatre of danger. In the simplicity of big things, her duty was to +teach them, a future generation, no less than Feller's duty was to the +pursuing shadow of his conscience. She should see war, alive, naked, +bloody, and she would tell her children what she had seen as a warning. + +Silence, except an occasional rifle-shot--silence and the darkness +before dawn which would, she knew, concentrate the lightnings around the +house. She glanced into her mother's room and marvelled as at a miracle +to find her sleeping. Then she stole down-stairs and opened the outer +door of the dining-room. A step or two brought her to the edge of the +veranda. There she paused and leaned against one of the stone pillars. +Dellarme himself was in a half-reclining position, his back to a tree. +He seemed to be nodding. Except for a few on watch over the sand-bags, +his men were stretched on the earth, moving restlessly at intervals, +either in an effort to sleep or waking suddenly after a spell of +harassed unconsciousness. + + + + +XXVI + +FELLER IS TEMPTED + + +With the first sign of dawn there was a movement of shadowy forms taking +position in answer to low-spoken commands. The search-light yielded its +vigil to the wide-spread beam out of the east, and the detail of the +setting where Marta was to watch the play of one of man's passions, +which he dares not permit the tender flesh of woman to share, grew +distinct. Bayonets were fixed on the rifles that lay along the parapet +of sand-bags in front of the row of brown shoulders. Back of them in the +yard was a section of infantry in reserve, also with bayonets fixed, +ready to fill the place of any who fell out of line, a doctor and +stretchers to care for the wounded, and a detachment of engineers to +mend any breaches made in the breastwork by shell fire. + +The gunner of the automatic sighted his barrel, slightly adjusted its +elevation, and swung it back and forth to make sure that it worked +smoothly, while his assistant saw that the fresh belts of cartridges +which were to feed it were within easy reach. Dellarme, walking behind +his men, cautioning them not to expose their heads and at the same time +to fire low, had his cheery smile in excellent working order. + +"We expect great things of you!" this smile said as he bent over the +gunner with a pat on the shoulder. + +"I understand!" said the upward glance in reply. + +Marta could not deny that there was something fine about Dellarme's +smile no less than in his bearing and his delicately, chiselled +features. It had the assurance and self-possession of a surgeon about to +perform a critical operation, the difference being that, unlike the +surgeon, he shared in the risk, which was for the purpose of taking +vigorous young lives rather than saving lives enfeebled by disease. Was +it this that gave to war its halo--this offering of the most valuable +thing man possesses to sudden destruction that made war heroic? + +But where was the romance of the last war forty years ago? Where the +glad songs going into battle? The glitter of buttons and the pomp of +showy uniforms? The general's staff watching the course of the action by +the billows of black smoke? Gone where the railroad sent the +stage-coach, electricity sent the candle and horse-drawn street-cars, +serum sent diphtheria, the knife sent the appendix, and rifled cannon +and explosive shells sent the wooden walls of old ships of the line. + +It occurred to none of the actors, and to Marta alone, in the tight, +foreboding silence, to look aloft. There was a serene blue sky. The +birds were tuning up for their morning songs when she heard the dull +echo of distant guns, soon to be submerged in other thunders at nearer +points along the frontier. With every faculty an alert wire strung in +suspense, she was instantly aware of the appearance of a figure whose +lack of uniform made it conspicuous on that stage. + +In straw hat and blue blouse, shuffling with his old man's walk, Feller +came along the path from the gate. He was in retreat from the enticing +picture of the regiment of field-guns in front of the castle that was +ready for action. As the infantry had never interested him, he would be +safe from temptation in the yard. He stopped back of the engineers, his +glance roving down the line of brown shoulders until it rested on the +automatic. This also was a gun, though it fired only bullets. His +fingers began beating a tattoo on his trousers' seam; a hungry +brilliance shone in his eyes. He took four or five steps forward as if +drawn by an overpowering fascination. + +"This is no place for you!" said one of the engineers. + +"No, and don't waste any time, either, old man!" said another. "Back to +your bulbs!" + +Feller did not even hear them. For the moment he was actually deaf. + +"Fire!" said Dellarme's whistle. "Thur-r-r!" went the automatic in +soulless, mechanical repetition, its tape spinning through the cylinder, +while the rifles spoke with the human irregularity of steel-tipped +fingers pounding at random on a drumhead. All along the line facing La +Tir the volume of fire spread until it was like the concert of a mighty +loom. + +Marta could see nothing of the enemy, but she guessed that he was making +a rush from the second to the third terrace and from the outskirts of +the town. The engineer's repeated warning unheard above the din, he +touched Feller on the leg. Feller looked around with a frown of +querulous abstraction just as the breaking of a storm of shell fire +obscured Marta's vision with dust and smoke. She felt her head jerk as +if it would go free of her neck with each explosion, until she +reinforced her nerves with the memory of an old soldier's warning about +the folly of dodging missiles that were already past before you heard +them. She knew that she was perfectly safe behind the pillar. + +The Gray batteries having tried out their range by the flashes of the +automatic the previous evening were making the most of the occasion. +"Uk-ung-n-ng!" the breaking jackets whipped out their grists. A crash on +the roof brought a small avalanche of slate tumbling down. A concussion +in the dining-room was followed by the tinkling of falling window-glass. +The engineers had work immediately when two of the infantrymen and their +rifles and the sand-bags on which they leaned were hurled together in a +heap of sand and torn flesh. Other bags were placed in the breach; other +men sprang forward and began firing. The reserves, the hospital-corps +men and the engineers hugged the breastwork for cover. The leaves +clipped from the trees by bullets were blown aside with the hurricane +breaths of shrapnel bursts; bullets whistled so near Marta that she +heard their shrillness above every other sound. She was amazed that the +house still remained standing--that any one was alive. But she had a +glimpse of Dellarme maintaining his set smile and another of Feller, who +had crept up behind the automatic, making impatient "come-on! come-on! +what-is-the-matter-with-you?" gestures in the direction of the batteries +in front of the castle. + +"Thur-eesh--thur-eesh!" As the welcome note swept overhead he waved his +hands up and down in mad rapture and then peeped over the breastwork to +ascertain if the practice were good. The Brown batteries had been a +little slow in coming into action, but they had the range from the Gray +batteries' flashes the previous night and, undisturbed in the security +of their own flashes screened by the trees, soon broke the precision of +the opposing fire. + +Now shells coming infrequently fell short or went wide. The air cleared. +Marta could again see distinctly, and she marvelled that the brown +figures were proceeding with their knitting as if nothing had happened. +She could not resist a thrill of grim admiration for their steadiness or +an appreciative thrill as she saw Feller eagerly peering over the +automatic gunner's shoulder to watch the effect of his fire. Suddenly, +both the rifles and the automatic, which had been firing deliberately, +began to fire with desperate rapidity. It was as if a boxer, sparring +slowly, let out all his power in a rain of blows. She could see nothing +of the Grays, but she understood that they were making a rush. + +Then a chance shell, striking at the one point which the man who fired +it six thousand yards away would have chosen as his bull's-eye, obscured +Feller and the automatic and its gunners in the havoc of explosion. +Feller must have been killed. The dust settled; she saw Dellarme making +frantic gestures as he looked at his men. They were keeping up their +fusillade with unflinching rapidity. Through the breach left in the +breastwork she had glimpses, as the dust was finally dissipated, of gray +figures, bayonets fixed, pressing together as they came on fiercely +toward the opening. The Browns let go the full blast of their magazines. +Had that chance shell turned the scales? Would the Grays get into the +breastwork? + +All Marta's faculties and emotions were frozen in her stare of suspense +at the breach. Her heart seemed straining with the effort of the living, +who heard nothing, thought nothing, in the crux of their effort. War's +own mesmerism had made her forget Feller and everything except the +gamble, the turn of the card, while the gray figures kept stumbling on +over their fallen. Then her heart leaped, a cry in a gust of short +breaths broke from her lips as the Browns let go a rasping, explosive, +demoniacal cheer. The first attack had been checked! + +After triumph, terror, faintness, and a closing of her eyes, she opened +them to see Feller, with his old straw hat--brim torn and crownless +now--still on his head, rise from the debris and shake himself like a +dog coming ashore from a swim. While the engineers hastened to repair +the breach he assisted Stransky, who had also been knocked down by the +concussion, to lift the overturned automatic off the gunner. The doctor, +putting a hand on the gunner's heart, shook his head, and two +hospital-corps men removed the body to make room for the engineers. + +Dellarme could now spare attention from the charge of the Gray infantry +to observe the results of the shell fire. With the gunner dead, he +looked for the gunner's assistant, who lay several feet distant. As +Dellarme and the doctor hastened to him he raised himself to a sitting +posture and looked around in dazed inquiry. The doctor poured a cup of +brandy from his flask and held it to the assistant's lips, whereon he +blinked and nodded his head in personal confirmation of the fact that +he was still alive. But when he tried to raise his right arm the hand +would not join in the movement. His wrist was broken. + +For once Dellarme's cheery smile deserted him. There was no one left to +man the automatic, so vital in the defence, and even if somebody could +be found the gun was probably out of commission. As he started toward it +his smile, already summoned back, was shot with surprise at sight of the +gun in place and a stranger in blue blouse, white hair showing through a +crownless straw hat, trying out the mechanism with knowing fingers. +Dellarme stared. Feller, unconscious of everything but the gun, righted +the cartridge band, swung the barrel back and forth, and then fired a +shot. + +"You--you seem to know rapid-firers!" Dellarme exclaimed in blank +incomprehension. + +"Yes, sir!" Feller raised his finger, whether in salute as a soldier or +as a gardener touching his hat it was hard to say. + +"But how--where?" gasped Dellarme. + +This time the movement of the finger was undoubtedly in salute, in +perfect, swift, military salute, with head thrown back and shoulders +stiff. Feller the gardener was dead and buried without ceremony. + +"Lanstron's class, school for officers, sir. Stood one in ballistics, +prize medallist control of gun-fire. Yes, sir, I know something about +rapid-firers," Feller replied, and fired a few more shots. "A little +high, a little low--right, my lady, right!" + +Stransky was back in his place next to the automatic and firing whenever +a head appeared. He rolled his eyes in a characteristic squint of +scrutiny toward the new recruit. + +"Beats spraying rose-bushes for bugs, eh, old man?" he asked. + +"Yes, a lead solution is best for gray bugs!" Feller remarked pungently, +and their glances meeting, they saw in each other's eyes the joy of +hell. + +"A pair of anarchists!" exclaimed Stransky grinning, and tried a shot +for another head. + +As if in answer to prayer, a gunner had come out of the earth. +Sufficient to the need was the fact. It was not for Dellarme to ask +questions of a prize-medallist graduate of the school for officers in a +blue blouse and crownless straw hat. His expert survey assured him that +before another rush the enemy had certain preparations to make. He might +give his fighting smile a recess and permit himself a few minutes' +relaxation. Looking around to ascertain what damage had been done to the +house and grounds, he became aware of Marta's presence for the first +time. + +"Miss Galland, you--you weren't there during the fighting?" he cried as +he ran toward her. + +"Yes," she said rather faintly. + +"If I had known that I should have been scared to death!" + +"But I was safe behind the pillar," she explained. "Your company did its +work splendidly," she added, looking at him with eyes dull and +wondering. + +"Do you think so? They _are_ splendid, my men! They make one try to be +worthy of them. Thank you!" he said, blushing with pleasure. "But, Miss +Galland, please--there's no firing now, but any minute----." + +"Yes?" + +He did not attempt masculine firmness this time, only boyish pleading +and a sort of younger-brother camaraderie. + +"Miss Galland, you're such a good soldier--please--and I'm sure you have +not had your breakfast, and all good soldiers never neglect their +rations, not at the beginning of a war! Miss Galland, please--." Yes, as +he meant it, please be a good fellow. + +She could not resist smiling at the charming manner of his plea. She +felt weak and strange--a little dizzy. Besides, her mother's voice now +came from the doorway and then her mother's hand was pressing her arm. + +"Marta, if you remain out here, I shall!" announced Mrs. Galland. + +"I was just coming in," said Marta. + +Dellarme, his cap held before him in the jaunty fashion of officers, +bowed, his face beaming his happiness at her decision. + +As they entered the dining-room Marta saw that the shell which had +entered the window had burst just over the heavy mahogany table and a +fragment of the jacket had cut a long scar in the rich fibre. She +paused, her breath coming and going hotly. She felt the smarting pain of +a file drawn over the skin. The table was very old; for generations it +had been a family treasure. As a child she had loved its polished +surface and revered its massive solidity. + +"Oh! Oh! Somebody ought to be made to pay for such wickedness!" she +exclaimed wrathfully. + +"It will plane down and it is nothing we could help, Marta," said Mrs. +Galland. "Fortunately, all the portraits were out of the room." + +"Mother, you--you are just a little too philosophical!" complained +Marta. + +"Come!" Mrs. Galland slipped her hand into Marta's. "Two women can't +fight both armies. Come! I prescribe hot coffee It is waiting; and, do +you know, I find a meal in the kitchen very cosey." + +Being human and not a heroine fed on lotos blossoms, and being exhausted +and also hungry, when she was seated at table, with Minna adroitly +urging her, Marta ate with the relish of little Peterkin in the shell +crater munching biscuits from his haversack. + + + + +XXVII + +HAND TO HAND + + +With Mrs. Galland on guard, insistent that wherever her daughter went +she should go, Marta might not so easily expose herself again. For the +time being she seemed hardly of a mind to. She sat staring at the +kitchen clock on the wall in front of her, the only sign of any break in +the funereal march of her thoughts being an occasional deep-drawn +breath, or a shudder, or a clenching of the hands, or a bitter smile of +irony. + +An hour or more of intermittent firing passed in the suspense of +listening to a trickle of water undermining a dam. Then, with the roar +of waters carrying away the dam, a cataract of shell fire broke and +continued in far heavier volume than that of the first attack. + +"The last war was nothing like this!" murmured Mrs. Galland. + +At every concussion against the walls of the house, at every crash +within the house, Marta pressed her nails tighter into her palms. +Abruptly as the inferno of the guns had commenced, it ceased, and the +steady, passionate, desperate blasts of the rifles, now uninterrupted, +were more deadly and venomous if less shocking to the ear. + +The movement of the minute-hand on the clock-face became uncanny and +merciless to her eye in its deliberate regularity. Dellarme had been +told to hold on until noon, she knew. Was he still smiling? Was Feller +still happy in playing a stream of lead from the automatic? Was the +second charge of the Grays, which must have come to close quarters when +the guns went silent, going to succeed? + +The rifle-fire died down suddenly and she heard a cheer like that of +the morning, only wilder and fiercer and even less human. Could it be +from the Browns celebrating a repulse? Or from the Grays after taking +the position? What did it matter? If the Grays had won there was an end +to the agony so far as her mother and herself were concerned--an end to +murder on the lawn and devastation of their property. But, at length, +the rifle-fire beginning again in a slow, irregular pulse told her that +the Browns had held. + +Now another long intermission. The demon was wiping his brow and +recovering his breath, Marta thought; he was repairing damaged joints in +his armor and removing the flesh of victims from his claws. But he would +not rest long, for the war was young--exactly one day old--and many +battalions of victims remained unslain. + +How slowly the big hand of the clock kept hitching on from minute-mark +to minute-mark! Yet no more slowly than the hands of clocks in distant +provinces of the Browns or of the Grays, where this day was as quiet and +peaceful as any other day. + +Mrs. Galland had settled down conscientiously to play solitaire, a +favorite pastime of hers; but she failed to win, as she complained to +Marta, because of her stupid way this morning of missing the combination +cards. + +"I really believe I need new glasses," she declared. + +"Let me help you," said Marta. Welcome idea! Why hadn't she thought of +it before? It was something to do. + +"But, Marta--there you are, covering up the jack of spades, the very +card I need--though it will not help now. I've lost again!" exclaimed +Mrs. Galland at length. "Why, Marta, you miss worse than I do!" + +"Do I? Do I?" asked Marta in blank surprise and irritation. "Please let +me try once alone. I'll not miss this time. Correct me if I do." + +She played with the deliberation and accuracy of Feller should he have +to make a little ammunition for his automatic go a long way, and Mrs. +Galland did not observe a single error. + +"Hurrah! I won!" Marta cried triumphantly, with some of her old +vivacity. + +Then she drew away from the table wearily. The strain of concentrating +her mind had been worse than that of the battle; or, rather, it had +merely added another strain to a tortured brain after a sleepless night. +For her ears had been constantly alert. The demon had moved one of his +claws to fresh ground; the inferno on the La Tir side of the frontier +had shifted to a valley beyond the Galland estate, where the firing +appeared to come from the Brown side. Breaking from the leash of +silence, guns, automatics, rifles--each one straining for a speed +record--roared and crashed and rattled in greedy chorus, while the clock +ticked perhaps a hundred times. Thus famished savages might boll their +food in a time limit. Thereafter, for a while, the battle was desultory. + +Then came another outburst from Dellarme's men, which she interpreted as +the response to another rush by the Grays; and this yelping of the demon +was not that of the hound after the hare, as in the valley, but of the +hare with his back to the wall. When it was over there was no cheer. +What did this mean? Oh, that slow minute-hand, resting so calmly between +hitches of destiny, now pointing to a quarter after eleven! For half a +century, it seemed to her, Marta had endured watching its snail pace. +Now inaction was no longer bearable. Without warning to her mother she +bolted out of the kitchen. Mrs. Galland sprang up to follow, but Minna +barred the way. + +"One is enough!" she said firmly, and Mrs. Galland dropped back into her +chair. + +In the front rooms Marta found havoc beyond her imagination. A portion +of the ceiling had been blown out by a shell entering at an up-stairs +window; the hardwood floors were littered with plaster and window-glass +and ripped into splinters in places. + +"How can we ever afford repairs!" she thought. + +But she hurried on, impelled by she knew not what, through the +dining-room, and, coming to the veranda, stopped short, with dilating +eyes and a cry of grievous shock. Two of his men were carrying Dellarme +back from the breastwork where they had caught him in their arms as he +fell. They laid him gently on the sward with a knapsack under his head. +His face grew whiter with the flow of blood from the red hole in the +right breast of his blouse. Then he opened his lips and whispered to the +doctor: "How is it?" Something in his eyes, in the tone of that faint +question, required the grace of a soldier's truth in answer. + +"Bad!" said the doctor. + +"Then, good-by!" And his head fell to one side, his lips set in his +cheery smile. + +Had ever any martyr shown a finer spirit dying for any cause? Marta +wondered. She felt the sublimity of a great moment, an inexorable +sadness. She knew that she should never forget that cheery smile or that +white face. What was danger to anybody? What was death if you had seen +how he had died? + +His company was a company with his smile out of its heart and in its +place blank despair. Many of the men had stopped firing. Some had even +run back to look at him and stood, caps off, backs to the enemy, +miserable in their grief. Others leaned against the parapet, rifles out +of hand, staring and dazed. + +"They have killed our captain!" + +"They've killed our captain!"--still a captain to them. A general's +stars could not have raised him a cubit in their estimation. + +"And once we called him 'Baby Dellarme,' he was so young and bashful! +Him a baby? He was a king!" + +"Men, get to your places!" cried the surviving lieutenant rather +hopelessly, with no Dellarme to show him what to do; and Marta saw that +few paid any attention to him. + +In that minute of demoralization the Grays had their chance, but only +for a minute. A voice that seemed to speak some uncontrollable thought +of her own broke in, and it rang with the authority and leadership of a +mature officer's command, even though coming from a gardener in blue +blouse and crownless straw hat. + +"Your rifles, your rifles, quick!" called Feller. "We're only beginning +to fight!" + +And then another voice in a bull roar, Stransky's: + +"Avenge his death! They've got to kill the last man of us for killing +him! Revenge! revenge!" + +That cry brought back to the company all the fighting spirit of the +cheery smile and with it another spirit--for Dellarme's sake!--which he +had never taught them. + +"Make them pay!" + +"He was told to stay till noon!" + +"They'll find us here at noon, alive or dead!" + +Stransky picked up one of several cylindrical objects that were lying at +his feet. + +"He wouldn't use this--he was too soft-hearted--but I will!" he cried, +and flung a hand-grenade, and then a second, over the breastwork. The +explosions were followed by agonized groans from the Grays hugging the +lower side of the terrace. For this they had crawled across the road in +the night--to find themselves unable to move either way and directly +under the flashes of the Browns' rifles. + +Feller's and Stransky's shouts rose together in a peculiar unity of +direction and full of the fellowship they had found in their first +exchange of glances. + +"You engineers, make ready!" + +"Hand-grenades to the men under the tree! That's where they're going to +try for it--no wall to climb over there!" + +"You engineers, take your rifles--and bayonet into anything that wears +gray!" + +"Get back, you men by the tree, to avoid their hand-grenades! Form up +behind them, everybody!" + +"No matter if they do get in at first! Back, you men, from under the +tree!" + +There was not a single rifle-shot. In a silence like that before the +word to fire in a duel, all orders were heard and the more readily +obeyed because Dellarme's foresight had impressed their sense upon the +men in his quiet way. + +The sand-bags by the tree were blown up by the Grays. Then, before the +dust had hardly settled, came a half score of hand-grenades thrown by +the first men of a Gray wedge, scrambling as they were pushed through +the breach by the pressure of the mass behind. In that final struggle of +one set of men to gain and another to hold a position, guns or +automatics or long-range bullets played no part. It was the grapple of +cold steel with cold steel and muscle with muscle, in a billowing, +twisting mob of wrestlers, with no sound from throats but straining +breaths; with no quarter, no distinction of person, and bloodshot eyes +and faces hot with the effort of brute strength striving, in primitive +desperation, to kill in order not to be killed. The cloud of rocking, +writhing arms and shoulders was neither going forward nor backward. Its +movement was that of a vortex, while the gray stream kept on pouring +through the breach as if it were only the first flood from some gray +lake on the other side of the breastwork. + +Marta had come to the edge of the veranda, at once drawn and repelled, +feeling the fearful suspense of the combat, the savage horror of it, and +herself uttering sounds like the straining breaths of the men. What a +place for her to be! But she did not think of that. She was there. The +dreadful alchemy of war had made her a stranger to herself. She was mad; +they were mad; all the world was mad! + +One minute--two, perhaps--not three--and the thing was over. She saw +the Grays being crushed back and realized that the Browns had won, when +a last detail of the lessening tumult fixed her attention with its +gladiatorial simplicity. Here, indeed, it was a case of man to man with +the weapons nature gave them. + +Standing higher than the others on the edge of the breach was that giant +who had brought Grandfather Fragini in pickaback, looking a young god on +an escarpment of rock on Olympus. His great nose showed in silhouette at +intervals of wrestling lurches back and forth as he tugged at the rifle +of a thick-set soldier of the Grays with a liver patch on the cheek that +made his face hideous enough for an incarnation of war's savagery. At +last Jacob Pilzer tumbled backward over the breastwork. Unlucky Pilzer! +That bronze cross was further away than ever for him, while Stransky +shook the trophy of a captured rifle aloft, a torn sleeve revealing the +weaving muscles of his powerful arm. + +"I thought so!" cried Feller. "Attacks on frontal positions by daylight +are going out of fashion!" + +It was he who mercifully arrested the shower of hand-grenades that +followed the exit of the enemy. Two of the guns of the castle batteries, +having changed their position, were making havoc enough at pointblank +range, with a choice of targets between the Grays huddled on the other +side of the breastwork and those in retreat. + +"We'll have peace for a few hours now," said Stransky, squinting down +his nose. "And we'll have something to eat. I ought to have got that +fellow with the beauty-spot on his physiognomy, but, confound him, he +was an eel!" + +By this time the men had recovered their breath. It occurred to them by +common impulse that a cheer was due, and for the first time they broke +into a hurrah with wide-open throats. + +"Another--for Dellarme!" called Stransky, who seemed to think that he +and not the callow lieutenant was in command. + +This they gave, standing instinctively at attention, with heads bared, +for the leader whose spirit survived in them; a cheer with triumph in +its roar, but a different sort of triumph from the first cheer. + +Listening to it were the wounded among the Grays who had fallen within +the breastwork to be trampled by the Browns as they had pressed forward. +The doctor, but a moment ago a fiend himself with features of rage, now, +in the second nature of his calling, with a look of tender sympathy, was +ministering without distinction of friend or foe. One of the Grays, his +cheek bearing the mark of a boot heel, raised himself, and, in defiance +and the satisfaction of the thought to his bruises and humiliation, +pointing his finger at Feller, Marta heard him say: + +"You there, in your straw hat and blue blouse, they've seen you--a man +fighting and not in uniform! If they catch you it will be a drumhead and +a firing squad at dawn!" + +"That's so!" replied Feller gravely. "But they'll have to make a better +job of it than you fellows did if they're going to----" + +He turned away abruptly but did not move far. His shoulders relaxed into +the gardener's stoop, and he pulled his hat down over his eyes and +lowered his head as if to hide his face. He was thus standing, inert, +when a division staff-officer galloped into the grounds. + +"Splendid! Splendid! There's some iron crosses in this for you!" he was +shouting before he brought his horse to a standstill. "The way you held +on gained the day for Lanstron's plan. They tried to flank in the valley +after their second attack on your position failed We drew them on and +had them--a battalion in close order--under the guns for a couple of +minutes. It was ghastly! Our losses have been heavy enough, but nothing +to theirs--and how they are driving their men in! But where is Major +Dellarme?" + +When he saw Dellarme's still body he dismounted and in a tide of +feeling which, for the moment, submerged all thought of the machine, +stood, head bowed and cap off, looking down at Dellarme's face. + +"I was very fond of him! He was at the school when I was teaching there. +But a good death--a soldier's death!" he said. "I'll write to his mother +myself." Then the voice of the machine spoke. "Who is in command?" + +"I am, sir!" said the callow lieutenant, coming up. + +Feller's fingers moved in a restless beat on his trousers' seam, his +lips half parted as if he must speak, but the men of the company spoke +for him. + +"Bert Stransky!" they roared. + +It was not according to military etiquette, but military etiquette meant +nothing to them now. They were above it in veteran superiority. + +"And--" Stransky had started to point to Feller, whose name he did not +know, when a forbidding gleam under the hat brim arrested him. + +"Where's Stransky?" demanded the staff-officer. + +"You're looking at him!" replied Stransky with a benign grin. + +Seeing that Stransky was only a private, the officer frowned at the +anomaly when a lieutenant was present, then smiled in a way that +accorded the company parliamentary rights, which he thought that they +had fully earned. + +"Yes, and he gets one of those iron crosses!" put in Tom Fragini. + +"What for?" demanded Stransky in surprise. They were making a lot of +fuss about him when he had not done anything except to work out his +individual destiny. + +"Yes--the first cross for Bert of the Reds!" + +"And we'll let him make a dozen anarchist speeches a day!" + +"Yes, yes!" roared the company. + +"By all means--but not for this; for trying to save an old man's life!" +put in Marta. + +After his survey of that amazing company the officer was the more amazed +to hear a woman's voice in such surroundings. + +"The ays have it!" he announced cheerfully. He lifted his cap to Marta. +With tender regard and grave reverence for that company, he took extreme +care with his next remark lest a set of men of such dynamic spirit might +repulse him as an invader. "The lieutenant is in command for the +present, according to regulations," he proceeded. "You will retire +immediately to positions 48 to 49 A-J by the castle road. You have done +your part. To-night you sleep and to-morrow you rest." + +Sleep! Rest! Where had they heard those words before? Oh, yes, in a +distant day before they went to war! Sleep and rest! Better far than an +iron cross for every man in the company! They could go now with +something warmer in their hearts than consciousness of duty well done; +but this time they need not go until their dead as well as their wounded +were removed. + +"You're not coming with us?" Stransky whispered to Feller. + +"Eh? eh?" Feller put his hand to his ear. "Quite deaf!" he quavered. +"But I judge you ask if I am coming with you. No. I have to stay to look +after my garden. It has been sadly damaged, I fear." + +"That's right--of course you're deaf!" agreed Stransky, well knowing the +contrary. "I'll be lonely without you, pal. It was love at first sight +with me!" + +"And with me!" Feller whispered. "You and I, with a brigade of infantry +and guns--" he began, but remembering his part, as he often would in the +middle of a sentence since the distraction of war was in his mind, he +turned to go. + +"A cheer for the old gardener! We don't know who he is or was, and it's +none of our business. He saved the day!" called Stransky. + +Feller started; he paused and looked back as he heard that stentorian +chorus in his honor; and, irresistibly, he made a snappy officer's +salute before starting on. + +"That was very sweet to me," he was thinking, and then: "A mistake! a +mistake! One thought! One duty!" + +Making to pass around the corner of the house, he was confronted by +Marta, who had come to the end of the veranda. There, within hearing of +the soldiers, the dialogue that followed was low-toned, and it was swift +and palpitant with repressed emotion. + +"Mr. Feller, I saw you at the automatic. I heard what the wounded +private of the Grays said to you and realized how true it was." + +"He is a prisoner. He cannot tell." + +"Does he need to? You have been seen--the conspicuous figure of a man in +gardener's garb fighting on the very terrace of his own garden! The Gray +staff is bound to hear of such an extraordinary occurrence. It is one of +those stories that travel of themselves. And Westerling will find that +same gardener here when he comes! What hope have you for your ruse, +then?" + +"I--I--no matter! I forgot myself, when Lanny had warned me not to go +near the guns. My promise to him! My duty! I accept what I have prepared +for myself--that is a soldier's code." + +"But I shall not let you risk your life in this fashion." + +"You--" A searching look--a look of fire--from his eyes into hers, which +were bright with appeal. + +"I feel that I have no right to let you go to your death by a firing +squad," she interrupted hurriedly, "and I shall not! For I decide now +not to allow the telephone to remain!" + +"But my chance--my one chance to--" + +"You have it there--happiness in the work you like, the work for which +you seem to have been born--at least, a better work than spying and +deceit--the right that you have won this morning there with the gun!" + +"I"--he looked around at the automatic ravenously and fearsomely--"I--" + +"It is all simply arranged. There is time for me to use the telephone +before the Grays arrive. I shall tell Lanny why you took charge of the +gun and how you handled it, and I know he will want you to keep it." + +"And the uniform--the uniform again! Yes, the uniform--if only a gunner +private's uniform!" he exclaimed in short, pulsating breaths of ecstasy. + +"Yes, count on that, too! And good-by!" + +"Good-by! I--" But she had already turned away. "I've changed my mind! +Exit gardener! Enter gunner! I'm going with you! I'm going with you!" he +cried in a jubilant voice that arrested the attention of every one on +the grounds. They saw him throw his arms around Stransky and then rush +to the automatic. "One thought! One duty! Oh, that is easy now!" he +breathed, caressing the breech with a flutter of pats from both hands. + + + + +XXVIII + +AN APPEAL TO PARTOW + + +"You, Marta--you are still there!" Lanstron exclaimed in alarm when he +heard her voice over the tunnel telephone. "But safe!" he added in +relief. "Thank God for that! It's a mighty load off my mind. And your +mother?" + +"Safe, too." + +"And Minna and little Clarissa Eileen?" + +"All safe." + +"Well, you're through the worst of it. There won't be any more fighting +around the house, and certainly Westerling will be courteous. But where +is Gustave?" + +"Gone!" + +"Gone!" he repeated dismally. + +In a flash he had guessed another tragedy for poor Gustave, who must +have once more failed to stick to his purpose, thus shattering the last +hope that the thousandth chance would ever come to anything. + +"Wait until you hear how he went," Marta said. With all the vividness of +her impressions, a partisan for the moment of him and Dellarme, she +sketched Feller's part with the automatic. + +As he listened, Lanstron's spirit was twenty again, with the fever that +Feller's "let's set things going!" could start rollicking in his veins. +What did the thousandth chance matter? Only a wool-gatherer would ever +have had any faith in it. Victory for Gustave! Victory for the friend in +whom he believed when others had disbelieved! Victory for those gifts +that had broken a career against army routine in peace, once they had +full play in war! + +"I can see him," he said. "It was a full breath of fresh air to the +lungs of a suffocating man. I--" + +Marta was off in interruption in the full tide of an appeal. + +"You must--I promised--you must let him have the uniform again!" she +begged. "You must let him keep his automatic. To take it away would be +like separating mother and child; like separating Minna from Clarissa +Eileen." + +"Better than an automatic--a battery of guns!" replied Lanstron. "This +is where I will use any influence I have with Partow for all it is +worth. Now, let the red-tapists dare to point to his past when I ask +anything for him and I'll overwhelm them with the living present! Yes, +and he shall have the iron cross. It is for such deeds as his that the +iron cross was meant." + +"Thank you," she said. "It's worth something to make a man as happy as +you will make him. Yes, you are real flesh and blood to do this, Lanny." + +Her point won with surprising ease, when she had feared that military +form and law could not be circumvented, she leaned against the wall in +reaction. For twenty-four hours she had been without sleep. The interest +of her appeal for Feller had kept up her strength after the excitement +of the fight for the redoubt was over. Now there seemed nothing left to +do. + +"No doctor who ever examined me for promotion has yet found that I +wasn't flesh and blood," Lanstron remarked a little plaintively. + +"Then the doctor must have kept the truth from Partow," she told him +with a faint return of the teasing spirit that he knew well. "He wants +only men of steel, with nerves of copper wire run by an electric +battery, on his staff, I'm sure." + +Lanstron laughed very humanly for an automaton. + +"I'll suggest the battery to him. It might prove a labor saver," he +said. "Being a little old-fashioned, he has depended on clockwork, which +requires a special orderly to wind us when we fun down and nod at our +desks." Then he turned solicitous. "The Gray staff will certainly give +you an escort beyond the Gray lines, where you will find a place to +establish yourselves comfortably." + +The suggestion brought her energy back with the snap of a whip. + +"No!" she declared. "We stay in our home. It's ours! No one else has any +right there while our taxes are paid. Doesn't my children's oath say: +'I'll not let a burglar drive me out of my house'?" + +"Isn't that coming around to my view, Marta?" he asked. "Aren't we +refusing to leave the nation's house because a burglar is trying to +enter?" + +"Lanny, you, with all your intellect--when you know the oath as well as +I--you pettifog like that! The oath says to appeal to justice and reason +even after the first blow is struck. Why doesn't our premier appeal to +the people of the Grays?" + +"They garbled his last despatch, as it was, to suit their purpose." + +"Their government garbled it. I meant to appeal not to their premier but +to the people, as human beings to human beings. Over there they're human +beings just as much as we are. Why didn't Partow speak, too, as chief of +staff, if he is so fond of peace? He is the one--not the Fellers and the +Dellarmes and the Stranskys, who merely act up to their faith and +training as pawns--he in the security of his cabinet making war. Why +didn't he say: 'We do not want war. We will not mobilize our army. We +will do nothing to arouse the war passion?'" + +"Their government would only have been convinced of an easier conquest, +and by this time they would have been up to the main line of defence. +Marta, when the diplomatic history of the war is known it will be found +that the Gray government struck as a matter of cold, deliberate +intention. Bodlapoo was only an excuse to carry out a plan of conquest." + +"So Partow has taught the Browns," she answered stubbornly. "That is one +partisan view. What is theirs? What is Westerling teaching the Grays?" + +"Marta--really, I--" + +"What a smashing argument _really_ is! You see that you really are not +for peace, but for war. But won't you ask Partow to do one thing, if he +still insists that he is for peace? I wonder if he will chuckle or laugh +at my suggestion, or will he grin or roar? Though you know that he will +do them all, ask him to send out a flag of truce to the Grays and beg +them to stay their operations while his appeal--an appeal with a little +of the Christ spirit in it, from one Christian nation to another to stop +the murder--is read to the Gray soldiers and ours; to those who have to +suffer and die! Oh, I'd like to help write that appeal, telling the +women what I have seen! Do you think if it were given to the world that +the Grays would still come on? Ask him, Lanny, ask him to make that +simple human appeal, as brother to brother, to the court of all +humanity! Ask him, please, Lanny!" + +"I shall, Marta!" he replied seriously, in respect for her seriousness +throbbing with the abandoned play of her vitality, though he knew how +fruitless the request would be. He loved her the more for this outburst. +He loved her for her quick sympathies with any one in trouble, whether +Feller or Minna; for all of her inconsistencies which were so real to +her; for her dreams, her visions, her impulses, because she tried to put +them in action, and he envied Feller for having fought in defence of her +house. How could he expect her to interest herself exclusively in him as +one human being when all human beings interested her so profoundly? If +the world were peopled with Martas and their disciples then her proposal +would be practicable. + +"That's fine of you, Lanny!" she said. "You've taken it like a good +stoic, this loss of your thousandth chance. You really believed in it, +didn't you?" + +"Forgotten already, like the many other thousandth chances that have +failed," he replied cheerfully. "One of the virtues of Partow's steel +automatons is that, being tearless as well as passionless, they never +cry over spilt milk. And now," he went on soberly, "we must be saying +good-by." + +"Good-by, Lanny? Why, what do you mean?" She was startled. + +"Till the war is over," he said, "and longer than that, perhaps, if La +Tir remains in Gray territory." + +"You speak as if you thought you were going to lose!" + +"Not while many of our soldiers are alive, if they continue to show the +spirit that they have shown so far; not unless two men can crush one man +in the automatic-gun-recoil age. But La Tir is in a tangent and already +in the Grays' possession, while we act on the defensive. So I should +hardly be flying over your garden again." + +"But there's the telephone, Lanny, and here we are talking over it this +very minute!" she expostulated. + +"You must remove it," he said. "If the Grays should discover it they +might form a suspicion that would put you in an unpleasant position." + +The telephone had become almost a familiar institution in her thoughts. +Its secret had something of the fascination for her of magic. + +"Nonsense!" she exclaimed. "I am going to be very lonely. I want to +learn how Feller is doing--I want to chat with you. So I decide not to +let it be taken out. And, you see, I have the tactical situation, as you +soldiers call it, all in my favor. The work of removal must be done at +my end of the line. You're quite helpless to enforce your wishes. And, +Lanny, if I ring the bell you'll answer, won't you?" + +"I couldn't help it!" he replied. + +"Until then! You've been fine about everything to-day!" + +"Until then!" + +When Marta left the tower she knew only that she was weary with the +mind-weariness, the body-weariness, the nerve-weariness of a spectator +who has shared the emotion of every actor in a drama of death and finds +the excitement that has kept her tense no longer a sustaining force. + +As she went along the path, steps uncertain from sheer fatigue, her +sensibilities livened again at the sight of a picture. War, personal +war, in the form of the giant Stransky, was knocking at the kitchen +door. His two-days-old beard was matted with dust and there were dried +red spatters on his cheek. War's furnace flames seemed to have tanned +him; war seemed to be breathing from his deep chest; his big nose was +war's promontory. But the unexposed space of his forehead seemed +singularly white when he took off his cap as Minna came in answer to his +knock. Her yielding lips were parted, her eyes were bright with inquiry +and suspicion, her chin was firmly set. + +"I came to see if you would let me kiss your hand again," said Stransky, +squinting through his brows wistfully. + +"Would that do you any good?" Minna asked. + +"A lot--a big lot!" said Stransky. "But if it is easier for you, why, +you can give me another blow in the face. I deserve it. It would show +that you weren't quite indifferent; that you took some interest in me." + +"I see your nose has been broken once. You don't want it broken a second +time. I'm stronger than you think!" Minna retorted, and held out her +hand carelessly as if it pleased her to humor him. + +He was rather graceful, despite his size, as he touched his lips to her +fingers. Just as he raised his head a burst of cheering rose from the +yard. + +"So you've found that we have gone, you brilliant intellects!" he +shouted, and glared at the wall of the house in the direction of the +cheers. + +"Quick! You have no time to lose!" Minna warned him. + +"Quick! quick!" cried Marta. + +Stransky paid no attention to the urgings. He had something more to say +to Minna. + +"I'm going to keep thinking of you and seeing your face--the face of a +good woman--while I fight. And when the war is over, may I come to +call?" he asked. + +His feet were so resolutely planted on the flags that apparently the +only way to move them was to consent. + +"Yes, yes!" said Minna. "Now, hurry!" + +"Say, but you make me happy! Watch me poke it into the Grays for you!" +he cried and bolted. + +"It seems to me that he is the biggest, most ridiculous man I ever saw!" +said Minna, as she watched him out of sight. "I'm tired, just tired to +death, aren't you?" she added to Marta. + +"Exactly!" agreed Marta. "I feel as if I had worked my way through hell +to heaven and heaven was the chance to sleep." + +Within the kitchen Mrs. Galland was already slumbering soundly in her +chair. Overhead Marta heard the exclamations of male voices and the +tread of what was literally the heel of the conqueror--guests that had +come without asking! Intruders that had entered without any process of +law! Would they overrun the house, her mother's room, her own room? + +Indignation brought fresh strength as she started up the stairs. The +head of the flight gave on to a dark part of the hall. There she paused, +held by the scene that a score or more of Gray soldiers, who had +riotously crowded into the dining-room, were enacting. + + + + +XXIX + +THROUGH THE VENEER + + +These men in the dining-room were members of Fracasse's company of the +Grays whom Marta had seen from her window the night before rushing +across the road into the garden. It is time for their story--the story +of their attack on the redoubt. One of those who remained motionless on +the road was the doctor's son. If he had sprained his ankle at +manoeuvres, the whole company would have gossiped about the accident. +If he had died in the garrison hospital from pneumonia, the barracks +would have been blue for a week. If he had fallen in the charge across +the white posts, the day-laborer's son on his right and the judge's son +on his left would have felt a spasm of horror. + +This is death, they would have thought; death that barely missed us; +death that lays a man in the full tide of youth, as we are, silent and +still forever. + +Twelve hours after the war had begun, when the judge's son missed the +doctor's son from the ranks, he remarked: + +"Then they must have got him!" + +"Yes, I Saw him roll over on his side," said the laborer's son. + +There was no further comment. The lottery had drawn the doctor's son +this time; it would get some one else with the next rush. Existence had +resolved itself into a hazard; all perspective was merged into a +brimstone-gray background. The men did not think of home and parents, as +they had on the previous night while they waited for the war to begin, +or of patriotism. Relatives were still dear and country was still dear, +but the threads of these affections were no longer taut. They hung +loose. Fatalism had taken the place of suspense. There is no occurrence +that frequency will not make familiar, and they were already familiar +with death. + +A man might even get used to falling from a great height. At first, in +lightning rapidity of thought, all his life would pass in review before +him and all his hopes for the future would crowd thick. But what if he +were to go on descending for hours; yes, for days? Would not his +sensations finally wear themselves down to a raw, quivering brain and +the brain at length grow callous? Suppose, further, that a number of men +had been thrown over a precipice at the same time as he and that the +bottom of the abyss was the distance from star to star! Suppose that +they fell at the same rate of speed! The first to be dashed against a +shelf of rock would be a ghastly reminder to each man of his own +approaching end. But, proceeding on horror's journey, he would become +accustomed to such pictures. He would feel hunger and cold. Physical +discomfort would overwhelm mental agony. If a biscuit shot out from the +pocket of a corpse, wouldn't the living hand grab for it in brute +greediness? + +The thinner the veneer of civilized habit, the more easily the animal, +always waiting and craving war, breaks through. And the animal was +strong in Jacob Pilzer, the butcher's son. He had a bull's heart and +lacked the little tendrils of sensibility whose writhing would tire him. +Hugo Mallin had these tendrils by the thousand. He had so many that they +gave him a reserve physical endurance like a kind of intoxication. He +felt as if he had been drinking some noxious, foamy wine which made his +mind singularly keen to every impression. Therefore he and Pilzer alone +of Fracasse's company were not utterly fatigued. + +The savagery of Pilzer's bitterness at seeing another get the bronze +cross before he received one turned not on little Peterkin, the valet's +son, but on Hugo. As he and Hugo moved, elbow to elbow, picking their +way forward from the knoll, he eased his mind with rough sarcasm at +Hugo's expense. He christened Hugo "White Liver." When Hugo stumbled +over a stone he whispered: + +"White Liver, that comes from the shaking knees of a coward!" + +Hugo did not answer, nor did he after they had crossed the road and were +under the cover of the fourth terrace wall, and Pilzer whispered: + +"Still with us, little White Liver? Cowards are lucky. But your time +will come. You will die of fright." + +They worked their way ahead in the darkness to the third terrace and +then to the second, without drawing fire. There they were told to unslip +their packs "and sleep--sleep!" + +Fracasse passed the word, as if this were also an order which perforce +must be obeyed. They dropped down in a row, their heads against the cold +stone wall. So closely packed were their bodies that they could feel one +another's breaths and heart-beats. Where last night they had thought of +a multitude of things in vivid flashes, to-night nothing was vivid after +the last explosion in the town and there was an end of firing. Spaces of +consciousness and unconsciousness were woven together in a kind of +patchwork chaos of mind. For the raw brains were not yet quite +calloused; they quivered from the successive benumbing shocks of the +day. + +Hugo would not even cheat himself by trying to close his eyes. He lay +quite still looking at the quietly twinkling, kindly stars. Unlike his +comrades, he had not to go to hell in order to know what hell was like. +He had foreseen the nature of war's reality, so it had not come as a +surprise. Sufficient universal projection of this kind of imagination +might afford sufficient martial excitement without war. + +His mind was busy in the gestation of his impressions and observations +since he had crossed the frontier. Definitely he knew that he was not +afraid of bullets or shell fire, and in this fact he found no credit +whatever. The lion and the tiger and the little wild pigs of South +America who will charge a railroad train are brave. But it took some +courage to bear Pilzer's abuse in silence, he was thinking, while he was +conscious that out of all that he had seen and felt in the conflict of +multitudinous angles of view was coming something definite, which would +result in personal action, fearless of any consequences. + +The thing that held him back from a declaration of self was the pale +faces around him; his comrades of the barracks and manoeuvres. He +loved them; he thought, student fashion, that he understood them. He +liked being their humorist; he liked to win their glances of affection. +The fortitude to endure their contempt, their enmity, their ostracism +would not save those dear to him in his distant provincial home from +humiliation and heart-break. There was the rub: his father and mother +and his sweetheart. He was an only son. His sweetheart was a goddess to +his eyes. What purpose is there in the rebellion of a grain of sand on +the seashore, in the insubordination of one of five million soldiers? +Hadn't Westerling answered all doubts with the aphorism, "It is a +mistake for a soldier to think too much"? + +Thus pondering, in the company of the stars, Hugo, who had so many +thoughts of his own that he led a double life, awaited the dawn. When +the church spire became outlined in the rosy, breaking light of the +east, he thought how much it was like the church spire of his own town. +He saw that he was in what had been a beautiful, tenderly cared-for old +garden before soldiery had ruthlessly trampled its flowers. + +Raising his head to a level with the terrace wall--the second terrace +was low--he could see the piles of sand-bags on the first terrace only +twenty feet away and an old house that belonged to the garden. The +location appealed to him as his glance swept over plain and mountains +glistening with dew. It must be glorious to come down from the veranda +at daybreak or day's end to look at the flowers at your feet and the +horizon in the distance. + +"Could little White Liver sleep away from home and mamma? Did he long +for mamma to tuck him among the goose feathers, with a sweet biscuit in +his paddy?" inquired Pilzer awakening. + +Hugo looked around at Pilzer in his quizzical fashion. + +"Jake, you are unnecessarily uprooting an aster with the toe of your +boot," he said. + +Pilzer had a torrent of abuse ready to his tongue's end when Fracasse +interrupted with a hoarse, whispered warning: + +"Silence, Pilzer! You talk too much." + +Now the irascible Pilzer had a further grudge against Hugo for having +made him the object of a reprimand. + +"You!" he whispered, when the captain's back was turned, calling Hugo a +foul name. + +This cut through even Hugo's philosophy and the blood went in a hot rush +to his cheeks; but he slipped on his pack, as the others were doing, and +readjusted his cartridge-box. Word was passed to make ready for another +rush, and soon the men knew that yesterday was not part of the hideous +nightmare which had kept their legs quivering mechanically, as in the +charge, while they slept, but that the nightmare was a continuing +reality and the peace of morning a dream. + +Under cover of the rain of shell fire on Dellarme's position, already +described, they mounted the wall of the second terrace and ran to the +wall of the first terrace. They had expected to suffer terribly, but +passed safely underneath a sheet of bullets that caught other sections +of their regiment on the lower terraces. Over their heads were the +muzzles of the Browns' rifles, blazing toward the road, while in the +direction of the tower they saw the first charge of another regiment +melting like snow under sprays of flame. They could not fire at +Dellarme's men and Dellarme's men could not fire at them without leaning +over the parapet. They could not go ahead. There was no room to their +rear, for the reserves behind the third terrace had rushed up to the +second terrace; those behind the fourth to the third; and still others +across the road to the fourth, in successive waves. + +With a welter of slaughter around them, Fracasse's men were in something +of the position that little Peterkin had enjoyed in the shell crater. +They ate a breakfast of biscuits, washed down by water from their +canteens. Trickles of sand from bullet holes sprinkled their shoulders +and they had enough resiliency of spirit to grin when a stream of sand +from a bag torn by a shell burst ran down the back of Pilzer's neck. It +was rather amusing to hear Jake growling as he twisted in his blouse. + +Hugo caught the humor of it in another sense, for the same shell burst +threw a piece of brown sleeve matted in a piece of flesh among the +flowers. The next instant he saw a squad of Grays who sprang up to rush +toward the linden stumps go down under the hose stream from the +automatic with the precision of having been struck by an electric +current. Not occupied, as he had been yesterday, with the business of +keeping to his part as a physical cog in the machine, he was seeing war +as a spectator--as Marta saw it, as only a privileged few ever see it. +Society, he was thinking, took the trouble to bring boys through the +whooping-cough and measles, pay for clothing and doctors' bills, and, +while it complained about business losses and safe-guarded trees and +harvests and buildings, destroyed the most valuable product of all with +a spatter of bullets from a rapid-firer. + +The position of him and his comrades struck him as tragically ludicrous. +Were they grown men? Had they reasoning minds? Were they of the great +races that had given the world steam-power, electric power, anaesthesia, +and antiseptics? Had they the religion of Christ? Had they an +inheritance of great ages of art, literature, music, and philosophy? Did +they guard the treasures of their libraries and galleries? Would they +shudder in indignation if some one sent a bullet through the Sistine +Madonna, or throw a bomb at the Venus de Milo, or struck a rare Chinese +porcelain into fragments with an axe? + +Yes; oh, yes! + +Here were beings created in the likeness of their Maker, whose criterion +of superiority over other animals was in these symbols and not in that +of tooth, claw, or talon, disembowelling their fellow creatures. Here +were beings huddled together like a lot of puppies or cubs on an island +in the midst of carnage which was not a visitation of the Almighty, but +of their own making. And suicide and homicide were against the law in +the lands of both the Browns and the Grays! + +The whole business was monstrous, lunatic, inconceivable. Yet he himself +was one of the actors, without the character or the courage to break +free of the machine which was taking lives with the irresponsibility of +a baby hammering at the jewels of a watch. The fact that he knew better +made him far more culpable, he thought, than little Peterkin or any of +his comrades. Yes, he was despicable; he was a coward! + +All were lulled into a sense of security except Captain Fracasse, who +had a set frown of apprehension which came of a professional knowledge +not theirs. Little Peterkin, warmed by the autumn sunlight, began to +believe in his star. If there were to be a special dispensation +providing shell craters and the reverse walls of redoubts for him, he +might retain his reputation for heroism. + +The sand still working its way downward between Pilzer's bare skin and +his undershirt irritated him to unusual restlessness of ambition for +glory and bronze crosses. He was the strong man of his company, now +that Eugene Aronson was dead. He must prove his importance. An +inspiration made him leap to his feet. This brought his head within a +foot of the top of the parapet, with an enemy's rifle barrel in easy +reach. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he was the type who must precede +action with a boast; a bite with a growl. Let all see that he was about +to do a gallant, clever thing. + +"Watch me snatch that rifle!" he announced. + +"No, you don't! Get down!" snapped Fracasse. "We aren't inviting +hand-grenades. It's a wonder that we have escaped so far." + +"Hand-grenades!" gasped Peterkin, going white. + +But nobody observed his pallor. Every one else was gasping, +"Hand-grenades!" under his breath; or, if not, his thoughts were +shrieking, "Hand-grenades!" There was a restless movement, a wistful +look to the rear. + +"Keep quiet!" whispered Fracasse. "Let us hope it isn't known that we're +here." + +They became as still as men of stone. + +"Well, if they are going to throw grenades then they will throw them!" +exclaimed Peterkin with the bravery of fear. He must do or say something +worthy of a hero, he thought, in order to prove that he was not as +scared as he knew he had looked and still felt. + +"You have the right sort of _sang-froid_, Peter Kinderling!" whispered +Fracasse. "And you, Pilzer, showed a proper spirit, too, if wrongly +directed." + +Under cover of this favor, Peterkin drew a little out of line, making a +great pretence of stretching his legs and yawning--yawning with a +sincerely dropped jaw and a quivering lip. He pressed his chin against +the ground and this stopped the quivering. Also, he was in a position to +watch the parapet closely and to make a quick spring. + +Fatalism had become suspense--suspense without action to take their +minds off the prospect, the suspense of death lurking in a cloud which +might break in a lightning flash! They thought that they knew the full +gamut of horrors; but nothing that they had yet gone through was any +criterion for what they now had to endure. All understood the nature of +a hand-grenade, which bursts like a Nihilist's bomb. It was as easy, +they knew, to toss hand-grenades over the sand-bags into human flesh as +apples into a basket. They felt themselves bound and gagged, waiting for +an assassin to macerate them at his own sweet will. + +The second hour was worse than the first, the third worse than the +second. In lulls they heard the voices of Dellarme and his men, which +seemed more ominous than the crash of rifles or the scream and crack of +shells. Finally there was a lull which they knew meant the supreme +attempt to storm the position from the town side. They heard the +commotion that followed Dellarme's death; the sharp, rallying commands +of Feller and Stransky; and then, as Peterkin saw a black object fly +free of a hand over the parapet he made a catlike spring, followed by +another and another, and plunged face downward at the angle where the +face of the redoubt bent toward the town. + +He thought that he was dead, and found, as he had in the shell crater, +that he was not. After the two explosions he heard groans that chilled +his blood, and looked around to see living faces like chalk, with +glassy, beady, protruding eyes, and a dozen men killed and eviscerated +and mangled in bleeding confusion. + +But Hugo and Pilzer and those of Peterkin's immediate group were alive. +They were in their places, while he was alone and out of his place. He +had bolted, while they held their ground; now he would be revealed in +his true light. The bronze cross would be lost before it was pinned to +his breast. From where he lay, however, he could see the other face of +the redoubt and a wedge of men about to mount the sand-bags. His next +act was born of the inspired cunning of his fear of being exposed, +which was almost as compelling as his fear of death. He waved his hand +excitedly to the others to come on. + +"Charge! Charge! This is the way!" shrieked Peterkin. + +His voice had the terror of a man floating toward a falls and calling +for a rope, but not so to Fracasse, to whom it was the voice of a great +chance. Why hadn't he thought of this before? Of course, he should move +around under cover of the reverse wall of the redoubt to join in the +attack on the weak point! The valet's son had shown him the way. + +"Come, men, come! Follow me and Peterkin!" cried Fracasse. + +Did they follow? Westerling or any expert in the psychology of war could +understand how ripe was their mood. "It is the wait under right +conditions that will make men fiends unleashed when the word to storm is +given," an older authority had written. Under sentence of death for six +hours, they welcomed any opportunity to get at grips with those who had +held death suspended over their heads. + +You will use hand-grenades, will you? Snug behind sand-bags you will +tear the flesh of our comrades to pieces, will you? They saw red, the +red of raw fragments of flesh; the red of the gush from torn artery +walls--all except Hugo and Peterkin, who might well begin to believe +that there was a measure of art in heroism. Peterkin seemed to share +leadership at the captain's side, but he slipped and fell--he had weak +ankles, anyway--as Fracasse's men pressed the rear of the wedge forward +with the strength of mass, only to be borne back by men, riddled with +bullets, tumbling fairly into their faces. + +As we have seen, there was no getting through a breach under the +concentrated blasts of a hundred rifles, and Pilzer, who, by using human +shoulders for steps, had reached the parapet, turned a back somersault +with out his rifle. However, he seized one from a dead man's hand +before the captain had noticed the loss. Some of the company joined in +the flight of the attackers from the town into the open, but Hugo and +Pilzer and their friends remained under cover of the wall. They still +saw red, the red of a darker anger--that of repulse. + +When, finally, they burst into the redoubt after it was found that the +Browns had gone, all, even the judge's son, were the war demon's, own. +The veneer had been warped and twisted and burned off down to the raw +animal flesh. Their brains had the fever itch of callouses forming. Not +a sign of brown there in the yard; not a sign of any tribute after all +they had endured! They had not been able to lay hands on the murderous +throwers of hand-grenades. Far away now was the barrack-room geniality +of the forum around Hugo; in oblivion were the ethics of an inherited +civilization taught by mothers, teachers, and church. + +But here was a house--a house of the Browns; a big, fine house! They +would see what they had won--this was the privilege of baffled victory. +What they had won was theirs! To the victor the spoils! Pell-mell they +crowded into the dining-room, Hugo with the rest, feeling himself a +straw on the crest of a wave, and Pilzer, most bitter, most ugly of all, +his short, strong teeth and gums showing and his liver patch red, lumpy, +and trembling. In crossing the threshold of privacy they committed the +act that leaves the deepest wound of war's inheritance, to go on from +generation to generation in the history of families. + +"A swell dining-room! I like the chandeliers!" roared Pilzer. + +With his bayonet he smashed the only globe left intact by the shell +fire. There was a laugh as a shower of glass fell on the floor. Even the +judge's son, the son of the tribune of law, joined in. Pilzer then +ripped up the leather seat of a chair. This introductory havoc whetted +his appetite for other worlds of conquest, as the self-chosen leader of +the increasing crowd that poured through the doorway. + +"Maybe there's food!" he shouted. "Maybe there's wine!" + +"Food and wine!" + +"Yes, wine! We're thirsty!" + +"And maybe women! I'd like to kiss a pretty maid servant!" Pilzer added, +starting toward the hall. + +"Stop!" cried Hugo, forcing his way in front of Pilzer. + +He was like no one of the Hugos of the many parts that his comrades had +seen him play. His blue eyes had become an inflexible gray. He was +standing half on tiptoe, his quivering muscles in tune with the +quivering pitch of his voice: a Hugo in anger! This was a tremendous +joke. He was about to regain his reputation as a humorist by a brilliant +display in keeping with the new order of their existence. + +"We have no right in here! This is a private house!" + +But the fever of their savagery--the infectious savagery of the +mob--wanted no humor of this kind. + +"Out of the way, you white-livered little rat!" cried Pilzer, "or I'll +prick the tummy of mamma's darling!" + +What happened then was so sudden and unexpected in Hugo that all were +vague about details. They saw him in a catapultic lunge, mesmeric in its +swiftness, and they saw Pilzer go down, his leg twisted under him and +his head banging the floor. Hugo stood, half ashamed, half frightened, +yet ready for another encounter. + +Fracasse, entering at this moment, was too intent on his mission to +consider the rights of a personal difference between two of his company, +though he heard and noted Pilzer's growling complaint that he had been +struck an unfair blow. + +"There's work to do! Out of here, quick! We are losing valuable time!" +he announced, rounding his men toward the door with commanding +gestures. "We are going in pursuit!" + +Marta, who had observed the latter part of the scene from the shadows of +the hall, knew that she should never forget Hugo's face as he turned on +Pilzer, while his voice of protest struck a singing chord in her +jangling nerves. It was the voice of civilization, of one who could +think out of the orbit of a whirlpool of passionate barbarism. She could +see that he was about to spring and her prayer went with his leap. She +gloried in the impact that felled the great brute with the liver patch +on his cheek, which was like a birthmark of war. + +After the men were gone she regretted that she had not gone to Hugo and +expressed her gratitude. She vaguely wondered if she should see him +again and hoped that she might. The two faces, Hugo's and Pilzer's, in +the instant of Hugo's protest and Pilzer's contempt, were as clear as in +life before her eyes. + +Then a staff-officer appeared in the doorway. When he saw a woman enter +the room he frowned. He had ridden from the town, which was empty of +women, a fact that he regarded as a blessing. If she had been a maid +servant he would have kept on his cap. Seeing that she was not, he +removed it and found himself in want of words as their eyes met after +she had made a gesture to the broken glass on the floor and the +lacerated table top, which said too plainly: + +"Do you admire your work?" + +The fact that he was well groomed and freshly shaven did not in any wise +dissipate in her feminine mind his connection with this destruction. He +had never seen anything like the smile which went with the gesture. Her +eyes were two continuing and challenging flames. Her chin was held high +and steady, and the pallor of exhaustion, with the blackness of her +hair-and eyes, made her strangely commanding. He understood that she was +not waiting for him to speak, but to go. + +"I did not know that there was a woman here!" he said. + +"And I did not know that officers of the Grays were accustomed to enter +private houses without invitations!" she replied. + +"This is a little different," he began. + +She interrupted him. + +"But the law of the Grays is that homes should be left undisturbed, +isn't it? At least, it is the law of civilization. I believe you +profess, too, to protect property, do you not?" + +"Why, yes!" he agreed. He wished that he could get a little respite from +the steady fire of her eyes. It was embarrassing and as confusing as the +white light of an impracticable logic. + +"In that case, please place a guard around our house lest some more of +your soldiers get out of control," she went on. + +"I can do that, yes," he said. "But we are to make this a staff +headquarters and must start at once to put the house in readiness." + +"General Westerling's headquarters?" she inquired. + +He parried the question with a frown. Staff-officers never give +information. They receive information and transmit orders. + +"I know General Westerling. You will tell him that my mother, Mrs. +Galland, and our maid and myself are very tired from the entertainment +he has given us, unasked, and we need sleep to-night. So you will leave +us until morning and that door, sir, is the one out into the grounds." + +The staff-officer bowed and went out by that door, glad to get away from +Marta's eyes. His inspection of the premises with a view to plans for +staff accommodation could wait. Westerling would not be here for two +days at least. + +"Whew! What energy she has!" he thought. "I never had anybody make me +feel so contemptibly unlike a gentleman in my life." + +Yet Marta, returning to the hall, had to steady herself in a dizzy +moment against the wall. Complete reaction had come. She craved sleep as +if it were the one true, real thing in the world. She craved sleep for +the clarity of mind that comes with the morning light. In the haziness +of fleecy thought, as slumber drew its soft clouds around her, her last +conscious visions were the pleasant ones rising free of a background of +horror: of Feller's smile when he went back to his automatic for good; +of Dellarme's smile as he was dying; of Stransky's smile as Minna gave +him hope; and of Hugo's face as he uttered his flute-like cry of +protest. In her ears were the haunting calmness and contained force of +Lanstron's voice over the telephone. She was pleased to think that she +had not lost her temper in her talk with the staff-officer. No, she had +not flared once in indignation. It was as if she had absorbed some of +Lanny's own self-control. Lanny would approve of her in that scene with +an officer of the Grays. And she realized that a change had come over +her--a change inexplicable and telling--and she was tired--oh, so tired! +It had been exhausting work, indeed, for one woman, though she had been +around the world, making war on two armies. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, all too flushed with energy, the energy of movement, to think +of the feud between Hugo and Pilzer, Fracasse's men had sped along the +castle road. Little Peterkin easily kept pace. There was no danger in +pursuit. In him was the same zest of the chase which Animated his +comrades. They dropped down on a ledge without much regard to order. +Before them, at close range, was a company breaking out of close order +in a _sauve-qui-peut_ rout up a reverse slope. It was not Dellarme's +company, but some other that had mistaken its direction and retired too +late and by the wrong road. + +You will throw hand-grenades, will you? thought Fracasse's men. You will +mangle our fellows when they Can't strike back, will you? Now you'll +pay! Now it is our turn! We have seen our blood flow and now yours will +flow! + +The lust of the red slipped the cartridge clips into the magazines and +held a true aim in the mad delight of slaughter. No one minded, for no +one heard--not even little Peterkin--the scattering bullets in return. +They had reached the stage where the objective thought of revenge wholly +submerged the subjective thought of personal danger, which is the mood +of the hungry tiger in the hunt. They were the veritable finished +products of veteran experience in purpose and marksmanship. Hugo, too, +was firing, but far over the head of every target; firing like a man in +a trance who needs some deciding incident to bring him out of it into +the part he was to play. + +Only occasional figures who had not escaped over the ridge were to be +seen. The fewer the targets the greater the concentration. A whole +company was firing on a dozen straggling figures. But one--that one in +the pasture--seemed to have a charmed life. The ground around him was +peppered with dust spots. He had only a few yards more to go to safety; +yes his head--the exasperation of him!--was in line with the crest +before he fell. + +Where was there any more prey? With ferret quickness eyes swept the +range of vision. Out of an orchard into the stubble of a wheat-field +broke a panicky mass; a score or more of men who had lost their officer +and their heads presumably. They were the nail under the hammer, a brown +blot, a target. + +"Ah!" a chorus of excited exclamations in greeting of the game flushed +from cover ran along the line. Just the way you got our fellows with the +hand-grenades, we will get you! This was the thought, this the prayer +which they saw being fulfilled by the glad medley of their fire when +Hugo Mallin sprang up and threw down his rifle as if it were something +whose touch had become venomous. He threw it down with features +transformed in the uplifting thought and the relief of a final +resolution taken. + +"I am through!" he cried. "I will not murder my fellowman who has done +me no wrong! I cannot, I will not kill!" + +Fracasse, who was near by, heard enough to understand the purport of the +declaration, and his recollection of Hugo's heresy and all the prejudice +that he had formed against Hugo and the abhorrence of Hugo's offence to +the strict militarist brought a rush of anger to his brain as he leaped +up and drawing his sword, struck at Hugo with the flat of it. He aimed +for Hugo's back, but a bullet had hit Hugo in the calf of his leg and, +his knees giving under him, he received the blow on the head and fell +unconscious. + +When he came to it was with a twitch of pain in his ribs. He saw the +glowering faces of his comrades above him and realized that Pilzer had +given him a kick which expressed the general opinion. + +"Once ought to be enough of that," said the doctor, who was bandaging +the leg, speaking to Pilzer. + +Yet in the doctor's eyes Hugo saw no favor, only the humanity of his +occupation of mercy to criminal and king alike. But Hugo expected no +favor and he was glad of what he had done as he swooned again. When he +came to a second time, his head aching with throbs, it was with a sense +of falling. He found that he was on a litter that had just been set +down. Evidently this was by order of the colonel, who was standing over +Hugo in the company of some officers. All were regarding him as if he +were a species of reptile. + +"World anarchist ideas, which is another word for treason or white +liver," observed the colonel. "To think that it happened in my regiment! +But I'll not try to cover it for the regiment's good name. He will get +the full measure of the law!" + +"The placard is a good idea," suggested an officer. + +"Yes, put on by one of his comrades!" + +"The punishment of public opinion. It shows how sound the army is at +heart." + +Hugo, lowering his glance, was able to see a sheet of note-paper pinned +to his blouse. It was lettered, but he could not make out the words. +Then he heard the approach of a galloping horse, whose hoofs seemed to +strike his head, and heard the horse stop and an orderly saying +something about Company I having got too far forward into a mess and the +need of litters. + +"We can spare this one," said the colonel. + +Hugo was rolled roughly onto the ground by the roadside and left alone. +He managed to raise himself on his elbow and saw that the lettering of +the placard was "Coward!" Officers and soldiers and hospital-corps men +called attention to it as they passed. The sun was very hot and he was +growing feverish. Painfully he dragged himself to the shelter of a tree, +and then, looking around, saw that he was near the big house of the +terraced garden. + + + + +XXX + +MARTA MEETS HUGO + + +The general staff-officer of the Grays, who had tasted Marta's temper on +his first call, when he returned the next morning did not enter +unannounced. He rang the door-bell. + +"I have a message for you from General Westerling," he said to her. "The +general expresses his deep regret at the unavoidable damage to your +house and grounds and has directed that everything possible be done +immediately in the way of repairs." + +In proof of this the officer called attention to a group of +service-corps men who were removing the sand-bags from the first +terrace. Others were at work in the garden setting uprooted plants back +into the earth. + +"His Excellency says," continued the officer, "that, although the house +is so admirably suited for staff purposes, we will find another if you +desire." + +He was too polite and too considerate in his attitude for Marta not to +meet him in the same spirit. + +"That is what we should naturally prefer," and Marta bowed her head in +indecision. + +"We should have to begin installing the telegraph and telephone service +on the lower floor at once," he remarked. "In fact, all arrangements +must be made before the general's arrival." + +"He has been a guest here before," she said reminiscently and +detachedly. + +Her head dropped lower, in apparent disregard of his presence, as she +took counsel with herself. She was perfectly still, without even the +movement of an eyelash. Other considerations than any he might suggest, +he subtly understood, held her attention. They were the criterion by +which she would at length assent or dissent, and nothing could hurry the +Marta of to-day, who yesterday had been a creature of feverish impulse. + +It seemed a long time that he was watching that wonderful profile under +the very black hair, soft with the softness of flesh, yet firmly carved. +She lifted her head gradually, her eyes sweeping past the spot where +Dellarme had lain dying, where Feller had manned the automatic, where +Stransky had thrown Pilzer over the parapet. He saw the glance arrested +and focussed on the flag of the Grays, which was floating from a staff +on the outskirts of the town, and slowly, glowingly, the light rippling +on its folds was reflected in her face. + +"She is for us! She is a Gray!" he thought triumphantly. The woman and +the flag! The matter-of-fact staff-officer felt the thrill of sentiment. + +"I think we can arrange it," Marta announced with a rare smile of +assent. + +"Then I'll go back to town and set the signal-corps men to work," he +said. + +"And when you come you will find the house at your disposal," she +assured him. + +Except that he was raising his cap instead of saluting, he was conscious +of withdrawing with the deference due to a superior. + +In place of the smile, after he had gone, came a frown and a look in her +eyes as if at something revolting; then the smile returned, to be +succeeded by the frown, which was followed by an indeterminate shaking +of the head. + +The roar of battle kept up its steady refrain in the direction of the +range. Marta had heard it when she fell asleep and heard it when she +awakened. A battery of heavy guns of the Grays broke their flashes from +a knoll this side of the one where Dellarme's men had made their first +stand. At the foot of the garden, where yesterday she had distributed +flowers to the wounded Browns, a regiment of Gray infantry was marching +past a train of siege-guns. All the figures moving on the landscape, +which yesterday had been brown, had changed to gray. The Grays were +masters of the town and all the neighborhood. + +Marta stepped down from the veranda in response to the call of the open +air to physical vigor renewed after sweet sleep. Rather than return +directly to the kitchen, where breakfast was waiting, she would go +around the house. She stopped before a Japanese maple which had been +split by a shell striking in a crotch. Was there any hope of saving it? +No. She turned white about the lips, with red spots on her cheeks, and +at length nodded her head as if in answer to some inward question. + +Over the sward, cut by shell fragments, lay torn limbs and bits of bark, +and in the shade of a tree near the road she had a glimpse of the +shoulder of the gray uniform of a prostrate man. The rest of him was +hidden by the low-hanging branches of one of the Norway spruces which +bordered the estate at this point. Another step and she saw a circular +red spot on a white leg bandage; another, and a white square of paper +pinned to a blouse; another, and she identified the wounded man as her +hero of the scene in the dining-room. + +Hugo's eyes were closed, his breaths slow, in restless sleep. His face, +flushed with fever, was winningly boyish and frank. He who had had the +courage to speak alone against the opinion of his fellows, to voice a +belief that made every sympathetic chord in her own mind sing with +praise and understanding, the courage to say that invasion was wrong +even when made by his own people, had been labelled coward and left to +die! + +The exaltation of his features when he had been the champion of her +beliefs and her impulse against the barbarism of his comrades and the +charm of their resignation now, the pitifulness of his condition--all +had an appeal as she bent over him that called for an expression having +the touch of the sublimely feminine. She took his hand in hers and +pressed it gently. He awoke and brought himself jerkily to a sitting +posture. The effort made a crash in his head that sent his senses +swimming. She thought that he was going to swoon and slipped her arm +behind him in support and, the Marta of impulse, pressed her lips to his +brow. After the first racking throb of his temples he was able to steady +himself, and as she drew away she saw his blue eyes starting in wonder +at her act. + +"I--I had to do it to thank you for what you did in the dining-room!" +she stammered. + +"Oh! Oh! It was very beautiful of you, but I couldn't help being +surprised, for it was rather unusual--from a stranger." He smiled, and +Hugo had a gift in smiles, as we know: smiles for laughter, smiles for +reassurance, and smiles to cure embarrassment. "It was almost as +refreshing as a drink of water," he concluded impersonally. + +"You are thirsty?" + +"This--this is morning, isn't it?" Hugo went on quizzically. + +"Yes, yes!" + +"Then it must be the next day," he pursued, still quizzically. "You see, +I said I would not kill any more--and I will not--and I was shot and got +tagged without even being shipped as freight. I was thirsty last night, +very thirsty, and some one--I think it was Jake Pilzer--some one said to +go to the fountain of hell for a drink, but I--I don't think that a very +good place to get a drink, do you?" + +Weak and faint as he was, he put a touch of drollery into the question +which made her laugh, her eyes sparkling through a moist haze. + +"You're real, aren't you?" he inquired in sudden perplexity. "I'm not +dreaming?" + +"As real as the water I shall bring you." + +Soon Marta was back, holding a glass to his lips. + +"There's no doubt about it; you are real!" said Hugo. + +"I feel as if the chimney were still hot but that you had drenched the +fire in the grate." + +"Who put this on you?" she asked as she unpinned the placard. + +"I've a vague idea, from a vague overhearing of the colonel's remarks, +that it is public opinion," he replied, and seeing, that she was about +to tear it up, he arrested her action. "No, I think I'd like to save it +as a souvenir--the odds are so greatly against me--as a sort of souvenir +to keep up my courage." + +His tone, the way he drew the muscles of his face, ironed out her frown +of disgust at public opinion with a smile. For he made his kind of +courage no less light-hearted and free of pose than Dellarme had made +his. + +Directly the coachman, whom Marta had summoned when she went for the +water, appeared with an improvised litter, and the two bore in at the +kitchen door a guest for breakfast whose arrival gave Mrs. Galland a +distinctly visible surprise. His uniform was gray, and in her heart of +hearts she hated gray as the symbol of an enemy whom her husband had +fought. But when Marta told the story of the part he had played in +defence of the chandelier, personal partisanship abetted the motherly +impulse that was already breaking down prejudice. She was busy with a +dozen suggestions for his comfort, quite taking matters out of Marta's +hands. + +"I know more about the care of the sick than you do!" she insisted. "One +lump or two in your coffee, sir? There, there, you had better let me +hold the cup for you. You are sure you can sit up? Then we must have a +pillow." + +"I'll fetch one from the other room," put in Minna. + +"Two will be better!" Marta called after her. + +"It is delightful to have breakfast in your kitchen, madame," said Hugo +to Mrs. Galland in a way that ought to have justified her in thinking +herself the most charming and useful person in the world. + + + + +XXXI + +UNTO CAESAR + + +It was more irritating than ever for Mrs. Galland to keep pace with her +daughter's inconsistencies. There was a Marta listening in partisan +sympathy to Hugo's story of why he had refused to fight and telling the +story of her school in return. There was a Marta seizing Hugo's hand in +a quick, impulsive grasp as she exclaimed: "Your act personified what I +taught my children!" There was a Marta planning how he should be +secreted in the coachman's quarters over the stable, where he would be +reasonably free from discovery until his strength was regained. Then +here was another Marta, after Hugo had been carried away on the litter, +saying coolly to her mother: + +"'Unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's!' We have our property, our +home to protect. Perhaps the Grays have come to stay for good, so +graciousness is our only weapon. We cannot fight a whole army +single-handed." + +"You have found that out, Marta?" said Mrs. Galland. + +"We have four rooms in the baron's tower and a kitchen stove," Marta +proceeded. "With Minna we can make ourselves very comfortable and leave +the house to the staff." + +"The Gallands in their gardener's quarters! The staff of the Grays in +ours! Your father will turn in his grave!" Mrs. Galland exclaimed. + +"But, mother, it is not quite agreeable to think of three women living +in the same house with a score of strange men!" Marta persisted. + +"I had not thought of that, Marta. Of course, it would be abominable!" +agreed Mrs. Galland, promptly capitulating where a point of propriety +was involved. + +When Marta informed the officer--the same one who had rung the door-bell +on his second visit--of the family's decision he appeared shocked at the +idea of eviction that was implied. But, secretly pleased at the turn of +events, he hastened to apologize for war's brutal necessities, and +Marta's complaisance led him to consider himself something of a +diplomatist. Yes, more than ever he was convinced of the wisdom of an +invader ringing door-bells. + +Meanwhile, the service-corps men had continued their work until now +there was no vestige of war in the grounds that labor could obliterate; +and masons had come to repair the walls of the house itself and +plasterers to renew the broken ceilings. + +All this Marta regarded in a kind of charmed wonder that an invader +could be so considerate. Her manner with the officers in charge of +preparations had the simplicity and ease which a woman of twenty-seven, +who is not old-maidish because she is not afraid of a single future, may +employ as a serene hostess. She frequently asked if there were good +news. + +"Yes," was the uniform reply. An unexpected setback here or resistance +there, but progress, nevertheless. But she learned, too, that the first +two days' fighting along the frontier had cost the Grays fifty thousand +casualties. + +"In order to make an omelet you must break eggs!" she remarked. + +"Spoken like a true soldier--like a member of the staff!" was the reply. + +In her constraint and detachment they realized her conscious +appreciation of the fact that in earlier times her people had been for +the Browns; but in her flashes of interest in the progress of the war, +flashes from a woman's unmilitary mind, they judged that her heart was +with the Grays. And why not? Was it not natural that a woman with more +than her share of intellectual perception should be on the right side? +From her associations it was not to be expected that she would make an +outright declaration of apostasy. This would destroy the value and the +attractiveness of her conversion Reverence for the past, for a father +who had fought for the Browns, against her own convictions, made her +attitude appear singularly and delicately correct. + +Though everything was ready for them, the staff delayed coming owing to +the stubbornness of some heavy guns of the Browns, which, while they had +directed no shells against the house, had shown that they had the range +by unexpectedly playing havoc with infantry in close order on the pass +road at the foot of the garden and with transportation on the castle +road. But at last the battery was silenced and the mind of the army +might establish itself in its offices on the ground floor and its +quarters on the second floor without being in danger. + +The war was a week old--a week which had developed other tangents and +traps than La Tir--on the morning that the first instalment of junior +officers came to occupy the tables and desks. Where the family portraits +had hung in the dining-room were now big maps dotted with brown and gray +flags. Portable field cabinets with sectional maps on a large scale were +arranged around the walls of the drawing-room. In what had been the +lounging room of the old days of Galland prosperity, the refrain of half +a dozen telegraph instruments made medley with the clicking of +typewriters. Cooks and helpers were busy in the kitchen; for the staff +were to live like gentlemen; they were to have their morning baths, +their comfortable beds, and regular meals. No twinge of indigestion or +of rheumatism from exposure was to interfere with the working of their +precious intellectual processes. No detail of assistance would be +lacking to save any bureaucratic head time and labor The bedrooms were +apportioned according to rank--that of the master awaited the master; +the best servant's bedroom awaited Francois, his valet. + +When Bouchard, the chief of intelligence, who fought the battle of wits +and spies against Lanstron, came, two hours before Westerling was due, +the last of the staff except Westerling and his personal aide had +arrived Bouchard, with his iron-gray hair, bushy eyebrows, strong, +aquiline nose, and hawk-like eyes, his mouth hidden by a bristly +mustache, was lean and saturnine, and he was loyal. No jealous thought +entered his mind at having to serve a man younger than himself. He did +not serve a personality; he served a chief of staff and a profession. +The score of words which escaped him as he looked over the arrangements +were all of directing criticism and bitten off sharply, as if he +regretted that he had to waste breath in communicating even a thought. + +"I tell nothing, but you tell me everything!" said Bouchard's hawk eyes. +He was old-fashioned; he looked his part, which was one of the many +points of difference between him and Lanstron as a chief of +intelligence. + +After he had gone through the house he went for a flyspecking tour of +the grounds, where he came upon a private of the Grays on crutches. With +rest and good food the tiny hole in Hugo's leg from the merciful +small-calibre bullet had healed rapidly. Confinement was irksome on a +sunny day. He had grown strong enough in spirit to face his fate, +whatever it might be, and in the absence of the watchful coachman he had +risked the delight of a convalescent's adventure in the open, clad in +his uniform, the only clothes he had. Bouchard saw instantly that this +private did not wear the insignia of staff service. + +"What are you doing here?" he asked. + +"Getting well of a wound," answered Hugo, looking frankly into the hawk +eyes. + +"Evidently!" said Bouchard, who was always irritated when told what he +could see for himself. "Why aren't you at a hospital?" + +"I was not wanted there!" said Hugo. + +"What! what!" But Bouchard had wasted two words. "Your name and +regiment?" he asked. + +"Hugo Mallin, of the 128th," replied Hugo. + +"Uh-h!" Bouchard's pigeonhole memory had retained the name. +"Charge--mutiny under fire; anarchism!" he went on, chopping out the +words as if they were chips from a piece of granite. "Well, you have not +escaped trial by hiding." + +"I did not flatter myself that with one leg against a whole army I had +much chance, sir!" Hugo replied respectfully. + +"Uh-h!" The hawk eyes flashed their disapproval of such controversial +freedom of language from a private. Had he had his way he would have +hanged Hugo to the nearest tree; for Bouchard had truly a mediaeval soul. + +But Hugo's case was so extraordinary that it had reached Westerling's +ears, and Bouchard knew that Westerling wished to see Hugo when he was +apprehended. It was not for Bouchard to consider this desire of a chief +of staff to deal with the case of a private in person as singular. No +request of the chief of staff was singular to him. It became a matter of +natural law. He called to one of the staff guards who was pacing back +and forth near by. + +"Take this man in charge and watch him sharply until General Westerling +sends for him!" + +"And you will get justice from General Westerling!" It was Marta's +voice. In approaching she had unavoidably overheard part of the +conversation. "Justice is his first characteristic!" she added as the +hawk eyes turned their scrutiny into hers, which were calm and smiling. + +Hugo had not seen Marta since he had been carried to the coachman's +quarters. Minna had visited him frequently, bearing inquiries from her +mistress as well as custards. He had looked forward to a talk with Marta +as a kindred spirit, yet it was difficult for him to reconcile the +woman speaking now with the woman who had kissed him on the forehead. +But he said nothing as he was marched away. + +"Miss Galland!" exclaimed Bouchard in a way that said he knew her story. +"Yes, that little monkey can depend on more justice than he deserves. +The unanswerable evidence is on the chief of staff's desk awaiting his +arrival." + +Bouchard's hawk eyes probed hers for an instant longer and seemed to +find nothing to call further curiosity; then he lifted his cap and +proceeded with his tour of inspection. + +Marta smiled thoughtfully as she watched his receding figure, while her +eyelashes narrowed and she inclined her head with a nod before she moved +away in the direction of the tower. There was almost complete silence +along the front. Since yesterday's action, which had checked the guns +commanding the range of the house, there had been little firing. She +guessed that the lull was only a recess of preparation for the grand +attack on the first line of permanent defence, and that probably this +would follow Westerling's arrival. He was due at four o'clock and he +would be characteristically prompt to the minute. + +"It must not be! Hugo Mallin is too fine a spirit to be sacrificed. I'll +go on my knees, if need be, to Westerling," Marta was thinking as she +paced back and forth in her room. On her knees to him! She stopped +short, struck in revolt with a memory of the way he had looked at her +once as she sat across the tea-table from him in the hotel +reception-room. "No, I could not endure that except as a last resort. If +ever there were a time to use all my wits it is now--to save Hugo +Mallin, the one soldier who acted out the principles which I taught my +children!" + + + + +XXXII + +TEA ON THE VERANDA AGAIN + + +As it lacked one minute to four when Hedworth Westerling, chief of staff +in name as well as power now, alighted from the gray automobile that +turned in at the Galland drive, the chauffeur thought well enough of +himself to forget the crush of supplies and ambulances that had delayed +His Excellency's car for at least ninety seconds in the main street of +the town. Though His Excellency had not occupied his new headquarters as +soon as he expected, this could have no influence on results. If he had +lost fifty thousand men on the first two days and two hundred thousand +since the war had begun, should he allow this to disturb his well-being +of body or mind? His well-being of body and mind meant the ultimate +saving of lives. + +The Grays were winning; this alone counted in the present. They would +continue to win; this alone counted in the future. They had won by +crowding in reserves till the positions attacked yielded to superior +strength. Thus they would continue to win until the last positions had +yielded. + +Five million mothers' sons against three million mothers' sons! Five to +three pounds of flesh! Five to three ounces of blood! With equal skill, +superior strength must always tell. Westerling and his staff were +responsible for the skill. If their minds would work better for it, the +nation could well afford to feed them on nightingales' tongues. + +Confidence is the handmaiden of skill. Confidence is the edge on the +sword; confidence brings the final charge that wins the redoubt. +Confidence was reflected in Westerling's bearing and in his smile of +command as he passed through the staff rooms, Turcas and Bouchard in his +train, with tacit approval of the arrangements. Finally, Turcas, now +vice-chief of staff, and the other chiefs awaited his pleasure in the +library, which was to be his sanctum. On the massive seventeenth-century +desk lay a number of reports and suggestions. Westerling ran through +them with accustomed swiftness of sifting and then turned to his +personal aide. + +"Tell Francois that I will have tea on the veranda." + +From the fact that he took with him the papers that he had laid aside, +subordinate generals, with the gift of unspoken directions which is a +part of their profession, understood that he meant to go over the +subjects requiring special attention while he had tea. + +"Everything is going well--well!" he added in a way that said that +everything must be if he said so and that he knew how to make everything +go well. "And we shall be up pretty late to-night. Any one who feels the +need had better take a nap"--the implication being that he did not. + +"Well!" ran the unspoken communication of confidence through the staff. +So well that His Excellency was calmly taking tea on the veranda! For +the indefatigable Turcas the detail; for Westerling the front of Jove. + +"Well!" The thrill of the word was with him in a flight of sentiment as +he stood on that veranda where a certain prophecy had been made to a +young colonel. Sight of the rippling folds of the flag of his country on +the outskirts of the town prolonged the thrill. His eyes swept the pale +horizon of the distances of plain and Mountain and lowered to the +garden. Above the second terrace he saw a crown of woman's hair--hair of +a jet abundance, radiant in the sunlight and shading a face that brought +familiar completeness to the scene. + +He had told Marta only two weeks ago that he should see her again if +war came; and war had come. With the inviting prospect of a few holiday +moments in which to continue the interview that had been abruptly +concluded in a hotel reception-room, he started down the terrace steps. +Their glances met where the second terrace path ended at the second +terrace flight; hers shot with a beam of restrained and questioning good +humor that spoke at least a truce to the invader. + +"You called sooner than I expected," she said in a note of equivocal +pleasantry. + +"Or I," he rejoined with a shade of triumph, the politest of triumph. He +was a step above her, her head on a level with the pocket of his blouse. +His square shoulders, commanding height, and military erectness were +thus emphasized, as was her own feminine slightness. + +"I want to thank you," she said. "As becomes a soldier, your forethought +was expressed in action. It was the promptness of the men you sent to +look after the garden which saved the uprooted plants before they were +past recovery." + +"I wished it for your sake and somewhat for my own sake to be the same +that it was in the days when I used to call," he said graciously. "Tea +was from four to five, do you remember? Will you join me? I have just +ordered it." + +A generous, pleasant conqueror, this! No one knew better than Westerling +how to be one when he chose. He was something of an actor. Leaders of +men of his type usually are. + +"Why, yes. Very gladly!" she assented with no undue cordiality and no +undue constraint, quite as if there were no war. + +"It was the Browns who cut the lindens?" he suggested significantly. + +"They said that it was necessary as part of the defence," she replied. +"We shall plant new ones and have the pleasure of watching them grow." + +Neutrality could not be better impersonated he thought, than in the +even cleaving of her lips over the words. They seemed to say that a +storm had come and gone and a new set of masters had taken the place of +the old. As they approached the veranda Francois was placing the tea +things. + +"Quite the same! That was your chair, as I remember," said Westerling +after indicating to Francois that he might go, "and this was mine." + +But the teapot was not Mrs. Galland's--it belonged to the staff. + +"This is different," observed Marta, touching her finger-tip to the coat +of arms of the Grays on the side of a cup. + +"Yes, my own field kit," he answered, thinking that the novelty of tea +from a soldier's service had appealed to her; for she was smiling. + +"So, you being the host and I the guest now, why, you pour!" she said. +There was a touch of brittleness in her tone--of half-teasing, +half-serious brittleness. + +"Oh, no, no!" he protested laughingly, and found her glance flashing +through her brows holding him fast in an indefinable challenge. + +"I shall pour when you do us the honor to come to tea at the gardener's +quarters in the tower," she said. + +"No, no!" he objected. "The tea conditions are the same as before." + +He was earnest for his point. It would please his masculine fancy to +watch those firm, small fingers pausing over the cup before the plunge +of a lump of sugar stirred the miniature ocean in waves; to watch the +firm little hand in its grip of the handle of the pot. + +"Conditions the same as before?" She laughed softly. "How can they be in +my thoughts or yours?" she asked with a sudden show of seriousness. + +"We did turn you out of house and home--I understand!" he exclaimed +apologetically. "And that is the symbol of it to you!" He indicated the +coat of arms. + +"The symbol of the conqueror, isn't it?" he asked playfully, for in the +company of women it pleased him to be playful. + +"Conqueror? It's a big word!" she mused. "I hadn't thought of it in +connection with pouring tea"--which might be another way of saying that +she had just been thinking of it very hard and might be trying to find +whether it had a pleasant or an unpleasant side. Clearly, here was a +Marta different from any yet precipitated by the alchemy of war. + +The resourceful variety of her! Oh, it was like the old days! It made +him feel young, as young as when he had been a colonel commanding the +garrison on the other side of the white posts. She had intelligence, yet +was at the same time distinctly feminine, with the gift of as much talk +about who should pour tea as about how to storm a redoubt. She did not +carry her mental wares on her sleeve. She flashed them in a way that +prompted curiosity as to the next exhibit. He had sought primarily, +selfishly, to be entertained at tea, and he was being entertained. To +want to win was his nature. He understood, too, that she wanted to win. +He liked that quality in her the more because it heightened the valve of +victory for him. + +"Then, if you don't think of it in connection with pouring tea, let me +tell you what I think of when I sit on this veranda. I think of you as +hostess. You refuse to play the part!" he exclaimed with that +persistence, softened a little, perhaps, yet suggestive of the quality +characterized by the firm jaw and still eyes, which won his point at +staff councils. Again he was conscious of one of her sweeping glances of +appraisal, with just a glint of admiration and even approval tucked away +in the recesses of her smile. + +"Suppose we compromise," she suggested thoughtfully, with the gravity of +one making a great concession. "Suppose you do the heavy work, and pour, +and I drop the sugar in the cups." + +But Westerling always used a half concession as a lever to gain a full +concession. + +"I'd really better do it all--act out the host and the conqueror!" he +declared. "One can't compromise principles." + +"Oh! Why?" She was distinctly interested, leaning nearer to him and +playing a tattoo with one set of fingers on the back of the other hand. + +"Anything except your doing all the honors leaves me in the same +invidious position," he answered. "It compounds my felony. It shows that +you do think that we failed by our conduct to show respect for your +property. It leaves me feeling that you think that I do not regard this +as your veranda, your garden, your home, sacred by more than the laws of +war--by an old friendship!" + +He made his appeal finely, as he well knew how to do. A certain magnetic +eloquence that went well with his handsome face and sturdy bearing had +been his most successful asset in making him chief of staff. + +The tattoo of her fingers died down while she listened to his final, +serious reasons about a subject that became peculiarly significant; and +her brows lifted, her eyes opened in the surprise of one who gets a +sudden new angle of light. + +"You put it very well. In that case--" she said, and his glance and hers +dropped, his to the capable hand on the handle of the teapot, hers into +the cup. "With the honors of war and officers permitted to retain their +side-arms?" she asked. + +"Yes; oh, yes!" he answered happily. + +She smiled her acknowledgment with just that self-respect of +capitulation which flatters the victor with the thought that he has +overcome no mean opponent--the highest form of compliment known to the +guild of courtiers. + +He was susceptible to it and, in turn, to the curiosity about her that +had remained unsatisfied at the end of their talk in the hotel. Her own +veranda was the natural, familiar place to judge the work of time in +those character-forming years from seventeen to twenty-seven. She was +not like what she had been in the artificial surroundings of a fortnight +ago. She filled the eye and the mind now in the well-knit suppleness of +figure and the finished maturity of features which bore the mark of +inner growth of knowledge of life. She was not a species of intellectual +exotic, as he had feared, too baffling to allow the male intellect to +feel comfortable, but very much, as he noted discriminatingly, a woman +in all the physical freshness of a woman in her prime. + +"Just like the old days, isn't it?" he exclaimed with his first sip, +convinced that the officers' commissary supplied excellent tea in the +field. + +"Yes, for the moment--if we forget the war!" she replied, and looked +away, preoccupied, toward the landscape. + +If we forget the war! She bore on the words rather grimly. The change +that he had noted between the Marta of the hotel reception-room and the +Marta of the moment was not altogether the work of ten years. It had +developed since she was in the capital. In these three weeks war had +been brought to her door. She had been under heavy fire. Yet this +subject of the war was the one which he, as an invader, considered +himself bound to avoid. + +"We do forget it at tea, don't we?" he asked. + +"At least we need not speak of it!" she replied. + +Safely, then, at first, their conversation ran not on the present but on +an intimate past, free of any possible bumpers. The train of memories +once started, she herself gave it speed if it stopped at a way station; +cargo if it went empty. Prone to avoid recollections that made him feel +old--to feel old was to be out of date in his profession---he found +these livening with the youth of thirty-two and gratifying as youth's +dreams become reality. Feeling as young as a colonel, he had the +consciousness of being chief of staff. This was enough to make any +soldier enjoy the place and the company and to drink his tea slowly so +as to prolong the recess from duty. His second cup growing cold, he was +reminded of the value of time, and with a playfully reproachful look at +Marta he put a warning finger of conscience on the papers that lay +beside the bread plate. + +"There's work--always work for a chief!" he declared. "I--" + +Marta was quick to act on the hint. Her hands flew to the arms of her +chair as she spoke. + +"There's always the garden for me! But first--" Yes, first there was +poor Hugo. + +Westerling flushed guiltily that she should have taken his words as a +hint, which was only half of his emotion. The other half shot out his +hand in a restraining, companionable touch on her forearm, while his +eyes--his calculating gray eyes--glinted a youthful entreaty. + +"Please! I didn't finish my sentence!" he begged. "You remember that +often I used to wait after tea until the sunset--" + +"And reached your quarters late for dinner, I also remember!" she put +in. But she remained in the same position, his finger-tips on her arm, +her hands holding her body free of the chair. "That is, when you did not +stay to dinner!" she added. + +"I am staying to-night. I was going to ask if you wouldn't remain on the +veranda while I go over these papers. It--it would be very cosey and +pleasant." + +One of these papers, she knew, must be the evidence against Hugo Mallin. +She preferred not to make a direct appeal but to have Westerling bring +up the subject himself. His smile and the look with which he regarded +her spoke his appreciation of the picture she made and his fear of +losing it. Very cosey and pleasant, yes, the company of a prophetess, +with a ray of sunlight making her hair an aurora of flashing bronze +overtopping a brown face, the eyes holding answers to an increasing +number of unasked questions about the new forces that he had found in +her. + +"Why, yes," she agreed with evident pleasure, for she was thinking of +Hugo. + +Turcas now came, in answer to Westerling's ring. The orders and +suggestions on the table seemed to be the product of this lath of a man, +the vice-chief, but a lath of steel, not wood, who appeared a runner +trained for a race of intellects in the scratch class. One by one, +almost perfunctorily, Westerling gave his assent as he passed the papers +to Turcas; while Turcas's dry voice, coming from between a narrow +opening of the thin lips, gave his reasons with a rapid-firer's +precision in answer to his chief's inquiries. + +With each order somewhere along that frontier some unit of a great +organism would respond. The reserves from this position would be +transferred to that; such a position would be felt out before dark by a +reconnaissance in force, however costly; the rapid-firers of the 19th +Division would be transferred to the 20th; despite the 37th Brigade's +losses, it would still form the advance; General So-and-So would be +superseded after his failure of yesterday; Colonel So-and-So would take +his place as acting major-general; more care must be exercised in +recommendations for bronze crosses, lest their value so depreciate that +officers and men would lack incentive to win them. + +Marta was having a look behind the scenes at the fountainhead of great +events. Power! power! The absolute power of the soldier in the saddle, +with premier and government and all the institutions of peace only a dim +background for the processes of war! Opposite her was a man who could +make and unmake not only generals but even the destinies of peoples. By +every sign he enjoyed his power for its own sake. There must be a chief +of the five millions, which were as a moving forest of destruction, and +here was the chief, his strength reflected in the strong muscles of his +short neck as he turned his head to listen to Turcas. Marta recalled +the contrast between Westerling and Lanstron as they faced each other +after the wreck of the aeroplane ten years ago: the iron invincibility +of the elder's sturdy, mature figure and the alert, high-strung +invincibility of the slighter figure of the younger man. + +"The evidence you asked for in that Mallin mutiny case," said Turcas, +indicating the only remaining paper. + +"Yes, I want to go into that--it's a question of policy," said +Westerling. + +He had taken up the paper thoughtfully after Turcas withdrew, when he +looked up to Marta in answer to a movement in her chair. She had bent +forward in a pose that freed her figure from the chair-back in an +outline of suppleness and firmness; her lips were parted, showing a +faint line of the white of her teeth, and he caught her gazing at him in +a kind of wondering admiration. But she dropped her eyelids instantly +and said deliberately, less to him than to herself: + +"You have the gift!" + +No tea-table flattery that, he knew; only the reflection of a fact whose +existence had been borne in on her by observation. + +"The gift? How?" he inquired, speaking to the fringe of hair that half +hid her lowered face. + +She looked up, smiling brightly. + +"You don't know what gift! Not the pianist's! Not the poet's!" (Oh, to +save Hugo! The method she had chosen to save him, alien to all her +impulses, born of the war's stress on her mind, seemed the wise one in +view of her knowledge of the man before her) "Why, of course, the +supreme gift of command! The thing that made you chief of staff! And the +war goes well for you, doesn't it?" + +Delicious morsel, this, to a connoisseur in compliments! He tasted it +with the same self-satisfied smile that he had her first prophecy. To +her who had then voiced a secret he had shared with no one, as his chest +swelled with a full breath, he bared another in the delight of the +impression he had made on her. + +"Yes, as you foresaw--as I planned!" he said. "Yes, I planned all, step +by step, till I was chief of staff and ready. I convinced the premier +that it was time to strike and I chose the hour to strike; for Bodlapoo +was only a convenient excuse for the last of all the steps" + +The subjective enjoyment of the declaration kept him from any keen +notice of the effect of his words. Lanny was right. It had been a war of +deliberate conquest; a war to gratify personal ambition. All her life +Marta would be able to live over again the feelings of this moment. It +was as if she were frozen, all except brain and nerves, which were on +fire, while the rigidity of ice kept her from springing from her chair +in contempt and horror. She would always wonder how the bonds of her +purpose to save Hugo held her tongue But still another purpose came on +the wings of diabolical temptation which would pit the art of woman +against the power of a man who set millions against millions in +slaughter to gratify personal ambition. She was thankful that she was +looking down as she spoke, for she could not bring herself to another +compliment. Her throat was too chilled for that yet. + +"The one way to end the feud between the two nations was a war that +would mean permanent peace," he explained, seeing how quiet she was and +realizing, with a recollection of her children's oath, that he had gone +a little too far. He wanted to retain her admiration. It had become as +precious to him as a new delicacy to Lucullus. + +"Yes, I understand," she managed to murmur; then she was able to look +up. "It's all so immense!" she added. "And you have yet another paper +there?" she said with a little gesture that might have been taken as the +expression of a hope that she was not overstaying her welcome. + +"This is very interesting," he said, watching her narrowly now, "the +case of a private, one Hugo Mallin, who refused to fight because he was +against war on principle. Four charges: assault on a fellow soldier, +cowardice, treason, and insubordination under fire." + +"Enough, I should say!" said Marta in a low tone. + +"A question of which one to press--of an example," continued Westerling, +reading the full official statement for the first time. + +"What is the punishment?" she asked. + +"Why, of course, death!" he replied, somewhat absently, in +preoccupation. "Extraordinary! And they have located him, it seems He is +here at headquarters!" + +"Yes; certainly," Marta said. "We found him under a tree, deserted and +wounded, labelled coward, and we cared for him." + +"Indeed!" exclaimed Westerling. "He must have appealed strongly to your +sympathies." + +There was no sharpness in the words, but he had lapsed from the personal +to the official manner. + +"To my sense of humanity!" Her reply was made in much the same tone as +his remark, where he had expected emotion, even passion. More than ever +was he certain that she had undergone some revealing experience since he +had seen her in the capital. "Yes, to any one's sense of humanity--a +wounded, thirsty man in a fever!" There came, with a swift and mellowing +charm, the look of a fervent and exalted tenderness and the +pulse-arresting quiver of intensity that had swept over her at her first +sight of Hugo under the tree. "I know that he was not a coward in one +sense," she added, "for I saw him make the assault named in the first +charge." + +She proceeded with the story of what she had witnessed in the +dining-room. There was no appeal on Hugo's account. Appraising the +qualities of the Marta of the moment in contrast with the Marta of +seventeen and the Marta of three weeks ago, Westerling was significantly +conscious of her attitude of impartiality, free of any attempt at +feminine influence, and of her evident desire to help him with the facts +that she knew. + +"The charge of assault is only incidental," said Westerling. "But Mallin +was in the right about his comrades entering the house; right about the +destruction of property. It is our business to protect property, not +only as a principle but as a matter of policy. We do not desire to make +the population of the country we occupy unnecessarily hostile." + +"I judged that from your kindness in repairing the damage done to ours," +she assured him, and added happily: "Though I don't suppose that you go +so far in most cases as to set uprooted plants back in their beds." + +"No; that is a refinement, perhaps," he answered, laughing. She was not +only more agreeable but also more sane than at the hotel. He liked the +idea of continuing to despatch his work while retaining her company. "I +must have a talk with Mallin," he said. "I must settle his case so that +if similar cases arise subordinates will know what to do without +consulting me. Would you mind if I sent for him?" He reached for the +bell to call an orderly. + +"Yes, I should like to hear what he says to you and what you say to +him," she confessed with unfeigned interest, which brought a suggestion +that he was to be put on trial before her at the same time as Mallin was +on trial before Westerling. His fingers paused on the bell head without +pressure. "I told him that you were a just man," she remarked, "that any +one would be certain of justice from you." + +He rang the bell; and after he had sent for Mallin, warming under the +compliment of her last remark, he dared a reconnaissance along the line +of inquiry which he had wanted to undertake from the first. + +"Mallin's ideas about war seem to be a great deal like your own," he +hinted casually. + +"As I expressed them at the hotel, you mean!" she exclaimed. "That seems +ages ago--ages!" The perplexity and indecision that, in a space of +silence, brooded in the depths of her eyes came to the surface in +wavering lights. "Yes, ages! ages!" The wavering lights grew dim with a +kind of horror and she looked away fixedly at a given point. + +He was conscious of a thrill; the thrill that always presaged victory +for him. He realized her evident distress; he guessed that terrible +pictures were moving before her vision, and he changed the subject. + +"I know how revolting it must have been to have seen those soldiers +wantonly smashing your chandelier and gloating over their mischief," he +said. "Really, the Captain was to blame for letting his men get out of +hand. He seems not to have been a competent man. We can train and train +an officer, but when war comes--well, no amount of training will supply +a certain quality that must be inborn--the quality of command." + +"Such as Dellarme had!" she exclaimed absently, under her breath. + +She had forgotten her part and Westerling's presence. The given point of +her gaze was exactly where Dellarme lay when he died. She was +unconsciously smiling in the way that he had smiled. But to Westerling +it seemed that she was smiling at space. He was puzzled; his perception +piqued. + +"Who was Dellarme?" he was bound to ask. + +"The officer in command of the company of infantry posted behind the +sand-bags in the yard--he was killed!" she answered, turning her face +toward Westerling without the smile, singularly expressionless. + +"Yes, he must have had the quality from the defence he made," agreed +Westerling, in the hearty tribute of a taxable soldier to a capable +soldier. So very well had that one small position been held that every +detail was graven on the mind of a chief of staff who was supposed to +leave details to his brigade commanders. It was he himself who had +ordered the final charge after the brigade commander had advised +delaying another attack until the redoubt could be hammered to pieces +by heavy guns brought up from the rear. "But he had to go!" Westerling +exclaimed doggedly; for he could not resist this tribute, in turn, to +his own success in making an example for timid brigade commanders in the +future by driving in more reserves until the enemy yielded. + +"Yes!" she agreed without any change in the set face and moody eyes. + +"You saw something of the defence?" + +"Yes!" Marta replied in a way that aroused his imagination. + +This, he recalled, had always been her gift. The slow-drawn monosyllable +was pregnant with revelations which his knowing mind could readily +supply. She had been in the midst of the fury of the most tenacious +fighting within a small space that the war had yet to chronicle. She had +been an intimate of the splendid desperation of the Browns; known their +thoughts and feelings. What a multitude of impressions were stored in +her sensitive mind, impressions which, for the moment, seemed to benumb +her! How she could make them speak from her eyes and quiver from her +very finger-tips when she chose! He would yet hear her vivid account of +all that she had seen. It would be informatory--a reflection of the +spirit of the Browns. Her quietness itself was compelling in its latent +strength, and strength was the thing he most admired. More and more +questions winged themselves into his thoughts, while his next one served +the purpose of passing the time until Hugo came. + +"There was a man out of uniform, in a gardener's garb, in charge of the +automatic," he remarked. "It was so puzzling that I heard of it. You +see, there is no limit to what a chief of staff may know." + +"Yes, our gardener," she replied. + +"Your gardener! Why, how was that? Wasn't he in the reserves if he were +a Brown? Wasn't he called to the colors at the outbreak of the war?" + +In spite of himself the questions were somewhat sharp. They seemed to +take Marta by surprise, which, however, was evanescent. + +"I wonder!" she said, as interested as Westerling in the suggestion. +"Something a soldier would think of immediately and a woman wouldn't. I +know that we lost our gardener." + +That was all. She did not attempt any further explanation or enlarge on +the subject, but let it go as an inquiry unexplained in the course of +conversation. + +Had Westerling been inclined to pursue it further he would have been +interrupted by the arrival of a figure with a bandaged leg and head +which came hobbling cheerfully around the corner of the house on +crutches, escorted by an infantryman. The guard saluted and withdrew +into the background. Hugo saluted and removed his cap and looked at +Westerling with the faintest turn of a smile on his lips, which plainly +spoke his quizzical appreciation of the fact that he was in the presence +of dazzling heights for a private. + +Marta had a single glance from him--a glance of peculiar inquiry and +astonishment, sweeping over the tea things fairly into her eyes. Then it +was gone. He might have been the most dutiful and respectful soldier of +the five millions as he waited on the head of the five millions to +speak. + +Westerling read the four charges. Then he asked the stereotyped +question: + +"What have you to say to them?" + +When he looked up from the paper he saw a face that was a mask, a +gentle, pleasant mask, and blue eyes looking quite steadily into his own +with a sort of well-established and dreamy fatalism. + +"Nothing, sir," said Hugo respectfully. + +Westerling frowned. Though a confession of guilt simplified everything, +perhaps he frowned to find no embarrassment in his presence in the +private; perhaps he apprehended impertinence in the soft blue eyes. + +"You know what that means--the charges sustained?" + +"Yes, sir!" + +"And you have nothing to say?" Westerling's frown deepened. There was an +undercurrent of urgency in his tone. This mild culprit, waiting for the +wheels of justice to roll over him without a protest, gave him no light +as to a policy that should apply to other cases. He resented, too, any +suggestion of readiness for martyrdom No man of power who is anything of +a politician and not a fool likes to make martyrs. "Nothing?" he +repeated. "Nothing at all in your own behalf?" + +A faint expression appeared on the mask. So insistently could Hugo's +mask hold attention that Westerling noted even a slight, thoughtful +drawing down of the brow and one corner of the mouth. He could not +conceive that the laws of gravity could be upset or that a private would +undertake to have fun at the expense of a chief of staff. + +"Nothing, sir, unless I should make a long speech," he said. "Do you +want me to do that, sir?" + +Westerling held his irritation in control and looked around at Marta. He +saw only wonder in her eyes as she intently regarded Hugo, which was his +own feeling, he suddenly realized. + +"I have hardly time to listen to long speeches," he remarked. + +"I thought not, sir," replied Hugo, unmoved. "That is why I said I had +nothing to say. And in want of a long speech the best that I could do to +explain would be to ask you to read certain books." + +An explosion of his breath in astonishment saved Westerling from harsh +expletives. For one thing, he was piqued. Though he would not admit it +even to himself, he had, perhaps, fancied the idea of playing the gentle +and patient dispenser of justice before Marta A private on trial for the +greatest of military crimes seraphically advising a chief of staff to +read books! There were not enough words in the dictionary to rebuke the +insubordination of such conceit! The only way to look at the thing was +as a kind of grim jest. He retrieved his vexation with a laugh as he +turned to Marta. + +She was smiling irresistibly, in concert with his own mood, as she +continued to regard Hugo. Hugo's mask was entirely for Westerling. He +did not seem to see Marta now, and through his mask radiated the +considerate understanding of one who can put himself in another's +place--which was Hugo's besetting fault or virtue, as you choose. In +short, the chief of staff had a feeling that this private knew exactly +what he, the chief of staff, was thinking. + +"Yes, I was certain, sir," said Hugo, "that you were too busy either to +listen to speeches or to read books. You have months of hard work before +you, sir." + +His respectful "sirs" had the deference of youth to an elder; otherwise, +he was an equal in conversation with an equal. Westerling still kept his +temper, but the way that his under jaw closed indicated that he had made +up his mind. + +"One charge is enough," he said in a businesslike fashion. "On the +firing-line you threw down your rifle. You refused to fight any more. +You said: 'Damn patriotism! I'm through!' Is that so?" + +A slight flush shot into Hugo's cheeks; he twisted his shoulder on his +crutch as if he had a twinge of pain, but his face did not change its +expression. + +"No, sir. I did not say: 'Damn patriotism!' I'm afraid Captain Fracasse +was out of temper when he reported that. I didn't say, 'Damn +patriotism!' because I did not think that then and do not now. Would you +care to have my recollection of what I said?" + +"Yes!" breathed Marta with so intent an emphasis that Westerling turned +sharply, only to find her smiling at him. Her smile said that she +thought that Hugo's story would be interesting. + +"Yes; go ahead!" said Westerling. + +"I think that I can recall my words very accurately, sir," Hugo +proceeded. "They were important to me. I was the individual most +affected in the matter. I said: 'I am through. I will not murder my +fellowmen who have done me no wrong. I cannot, I will not kill!'" + +"That is all?" queried Westerling, again looking at Marta, this time +covertly, while he played with a teaspoon. + +Brooding uncertainty had flooded the sparkle out of her eyes. She was +statue-like in her stillness, her breaths impalpable in their softness. +But the points of her knuckles were ghostly, sharp spots on her tightly +clenched hands. All that Westerling could tell was that she was +thinking, and thinking hard. There was a space of silence broken only by +the movement of the teaspoon. Hugo was the first to speak. + +"I believe in patriotism, sir. That means love of country. I love my +country," he said slowly. + +A preachment of patriotism from this nonchalant private was a straw too +much for Westerling's patience. He made a nervous gesture--a distinctly +nervous one as he dropped the teaspoon. He would have an end of +nonsense. + +"You will answer questions!" he said. "First, you dropped your rifle?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"You refused to fight?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"You know the penalty for this?" + +Hugo inclined his head. He was silent. + +"Shot for treason--and immediately!" Westerling went on, irritated at +the man's complaisance. Then he bit his lip. This was harsh talk before +Marta. He expected to hear her utter some sort of protest against such +cruelty, and instead saw that her face remained calm and that there was +nothing but wonder in her eyes. She knew how to wait. + +"Then, sir," said Hugo, speaking, evidently, because he was expected to +say something, "I suppose, of course, that I shall be shot. But"--he was +smiling in the way that he would when he brought a "good one" to the +head in the barracks--"but it will not be necessary to do it more than +once, will it? To tell you the truth, I had not counted on being shot +more than once." + +Westerling was like a man who had lunged a blow at an object and struck +only air. + +"I said that he was not a coward," Marta remarked quietly. There was +nothing in her manner to imply that she was defending Hugo. She seemed +to be incidentally justifying a previous observation of her own. + +A smile in face of death! Westerling's prayer was for countless masses +of infantry who would smile in face of death and do his bidding. He +could not resist a soldier's admiration, which, however, he would not +permit to take the form of words. The form which it took was a sharp +thrust of his fist into the hollow of his hand. He had, too, a sense of +defeat which was uppermost as he spoke--a defeat that he was bound to +retrieve. + +"You have a home, a father, and a mother?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir." + +"And perhaps a sweetheart?" Westerling proceeded. + +Hugo unmistakably flushed. + +"I don't think sir, that official statistics require an answer to that +question. I"--and again that confounded smile, as Westerling was +beginning to regard it--"I trust, sir, that I shall not have to be shot +more than once if we do not bring any one not yet officially of my +family into the affair." + +"You do not seem to like life," Westerling observed. + +"I love life!" answered Hugo earnestly. "I try to get something out of +every minute of it; if nothing particular, at least the miracle of +living and breathing and thinking and seeing--seeing such beautiful +scenes as this." He looked away toward the glorious landscape. It was +the first time that he had lifted the steady gaze of those studious blue +eyes from Westerling, but directly they were back on duty. "It is +because I love life," he continued, "and think that everybody else must +love life, that I do not want to kill. Because I love my country I know +that others love their country, and I want them to keep their country." + +Marta's glance had followed Hugo's into the distance. It still rested +there intently. To Westerling she showed only a profile, with the shadow +of the porch between them and the golden light of receding day in the +background: a golden light on a silhouette of ivory, a silhouette that +you might find without meaning or so full of meaning as to hold an +observer in a quandary as to what she was thinking or whether or not she +was thinking at all. + +Westerling had the baffled consciousness of fencing with a culprit at +the bar who had turned adversary. It was the visionary's white logic of +the blue dome against the soldier's material logic of _x_ equals initial +velocity. Here was an incomprehensible mortal who loved life and yet was +ready to die for love of life. Here was love of country that refused to +serve country. + +All a pose, a clever bit of acting to play on his feelings through the +presence of a woman, Westerling concluded. And Marta was still looking +at the landscape. Her mind seemed withdrawn from the veranda. Only her +body remained. All the impulse of Westerling's military instinct and +training, rebelling at an abstract ethical controversy with a private +about book heresies that belonged under the censor's ban, called for the +word of authority from the apex of the pyramid to put an end to talk +with an atom at the base. But that profile--that serene ivory in the +golden light, so unlike the Marta of the hotel reception-room--was +compellingly present though her mind were absent. It suggested loss of +temper as the supreme weakness. He had permitted a controversy. He must +argue his man down; he must find his adversary's weak point. + +"Your province is one of the most patriotic," he said. "Its people are +of the purest blood of our race. They have always been loyal. They have +always fought determinedly. To no people would a traitor be so +abhorrent. Do you want the distinction of being a traitor--one lone +traitor in your loyal province?" + +Hugo was visibly affected. The twisted corner of his mouth quivered. + +"I had thought of that, too, sir," he said. + +"Suppose your father and mother knew that your comrades had labelled you +a coward before the whole army; that they had thought you worthy only of +kicks and to be left to die by the roadside. Suppose that your father +and mother knew that the story of Hugo Mallin, coward and traitor, who +threw down his rifle under fire is being told throughout the land--as I +shall have it told--until your name is a symbol for cowardice and +treason. How would your father and mother feel?" + +There was an unsteady movement of Hugo's body on his crutches. He +swallowed hard, moistening dry lips; and the mobility of feature that +could change the mask into the illumination of varied emotions spoke +horror and asked for pity. + +"I--I--as a matter of mercy, when I have admitted the charge, I ask you +not to bear on that, sir!" he stammered. Then the crutches creaked with +a stronger grip of his hands and a stiffening of his body as he mastered +his feelings. The mask recovered its own, even to the drawing down of +the corner of the mouth. "I have reasoned that all out, sir," he went +on. "It was the thing which kept me from throwing down my rifle before +we made our first charge. I have written a letter to my father and +mother." + +Marta had been so engrossed in the landscape that she seemed not to have +been listening. It was her voice, come out of the distance, that asked, +without any inflection except that of tense curiosity: + +"May we see the letter?" + +As she turned her eyes looked directly into Hugo's, their gaze locked, +as it were: hers that of a simple request, his that of puzzled, +unsatisfied scrutiny. + +"May we?" she repeated to Westerling, looking now frankly at him, +"though I don't know as it is in keeping with the situation or with your +wishes to grant the whim of a woman. But you see," she added smiling, +"that is what comes of having a woman present." + +If she had any double meaning Westerling could not find it in her eyes. + +"I am willing," said Hugo. "Indeed, I shall be very glad to have my side +heard." + +"Yes, let us see the letter," assented Westerling; for he, too, was +curious. + +When Hugo had given it to Westerling and he saw that it was not very +long, he began reading aloud: + +"'I've kept very well and cheerful and I'm cheerful now,'" the letter +began. "'Please always think of me as cheerful. Everybody in our company +has fought well; just as bravely as our forefathers did in the wars of +their day.'" + +"Which hardly agrees with your ideas," observed Westerling. + +"Exactly, sir. Men should be brave for their convictions," answered +Hugo. "And, as you said, the men of our province are loyal to the old +ideas. They believe they ought to fight the Browns." + +Then followed a brief, intimate, appealing story of how each of his dead +comrades had fallen. + +"'You can read these to their folks at home, if you want to. They might +like to know.'" + +Irresistibly there crept into Westerling's face at these recitals of +soldierly courage the satisfaction of the commander with the spirit of +his men. Here was proof of the valor of the units of his army. + +"'Now I have something to tell you which will hurt you very much,'" +Westerling read on, "'but you must recollect that I was always regarded +as a little queer. And I don't think people will hold you to blame on my +account. I hope they will sympathize with you for having such a son. You +will have heard the story from the men of the company, but I also want +to tell it to you....'" + +After it was told the letter proceeded: + +"'I feel that I was a coward up to the moment that everybody else was +calling me a coward. Then I felt free and happy, as if I had been true +to myself. I felt that I had been just as much in the wrong as if we +should break into our neighbor's house and take his property because we +were stronger than he. How would you feel if a neighbor entered your +house and made it his own? You would call in the police. But what if +there were no police? Would that make it right?'" + +Marta's own opinions! The spirit of her children's prayer! Head bent, +hands clasped, she was simply listening. + +"'Would it be cowardice if one of the neighbor's family said, "I will +not take any further part in this robbery!" when he saw you, mother, +weeping over you, father, as you lay dead after trying to defend your +house? When I was asked to fire at those running men it was like +standing on a neighbor's door-step and firing down the street at my +neighbors in flight. I could not do it. I could not do it though twenty +million men were doing the same thing. No, I could not do it any more +than you could commit murder, father. That is all. Perhaps when those +who survive from my company come home, after they have been beaten as +they will be--'" + +"What!" Westerling exploded. + +All the force of his being had to take umbrage at this. Beaten! Marta +saw the rigid, unyielding Westerling who had cried, "We shall win!" when +she made her second prophecy. But the comparison did not occur to him. +Nothing occurred to him but red anger, until the first dart of reason +warned him, a chief of staff, that a private had made him completely +lose his temper. He recovered his poise with a laugh and without even +glancing at Marta. + +"Well, we might as well hear the reasons for your expert opinion," he +said, his satire a trifle hoarse after the strain of his emotion. + +"Because the Browns fight for their homes!" answered Hugo "When the +great crisis comes they have a reserve strength that we have not: +conscience, the intelligent conscience of this age that cannot fool +itself with false enthusiasm continually. They are fighting as I should +pray that I might fight if the Browns invaded our country; as I might +fight against a murderous burglar. For I will fight, sir, I will fight +with my face to the white posts, but not with my back to them! The +Browns have no more right to cross our frontier than we have to cross +theirs!" + +There was a perceptible shudder on Marta's part, an abrupt, tossing +elevation of her head. She stared at the spot where Dellarme had lain in +the garden. Dellarme's smile was back on her lips; it seemed graven +there. Her eyes, which Westerling could not see, were leaping flames. + +"I'm afraid you will not have the chance," Westerling observed, as he +returned the letter to Hugo, its reading unfinished. "What if every man +held your views? What would become of the army and the nation?" he +demanded. + +"Why, I think I have made that plain," replied Hugo. He appeared no less +weary than Westerling over continual beating of the air to no purpose. +"We should retreat to our own soil, where we belong." + +"And you are ready to be shot for that principle?" + +The question was sharp and final. + +"Yes, if being shot for what I did is dying for it--though I prefer to +live for it!" said Hugo, still without any pose. He refused to play for +a chapter in the future book of martyrs to peace. This was the +irritating thing about him to a soldier, who deprecated all kinds of +personal bravado and show as against the efficiency of the modern +military machine, when men were supposed to respond to duty in the face +of death as automatically as in any business requiring team-work, with +an every-day smile like Hugo's on their lips. + +"Then," Westerling began, and broke off abruptly. His eyes sought Marta. + +The affair seemed to have worn on her nerves also. There was a +distinctly appreciable effort at self-control in the slow way that she +turned her head. The flame in her eyes was suddenly suffused in a liquid +glance which slowly brightened with a suggestion. + +"It is extraordinary!" she breathed. "Don't you think that the blow on +his head and the fever afterward has something to do with it?" + +Hugo answered for himself. + +"My views are the same as they were before the blow and the act that +brought the blow!" he said, with a slight cast of the eye toward Marta +which intimated that he wanted no help from the deserter of the +principles which she had professed to him previously. + +She shuddered as if hurt, but only momentarily. + +"Psychological, I suppose--psychological and irresponsible abnormality!" +she murmured, avoiding Hugo's look and bending her own on Westerling +persistently. + +"Long words!" said Hugo. "Insanity is shorter." + +But Westerling did not seem to hear. His thought was shaped by the +superb misery and sensitiveness in Marta's face. He had done wrong to +ask her to remain. Of course the scene had been painful to her. She +would not be herself if she wanted to see a man tried for his life. He +knew that views not unlike Hugo's were latent in many minds lacking +Hugo's initiative that would respond to the right impulse. A way out +occurred to him as inspiration, which pleased his sense of craft. The +press, which the premier reported was irritated by his censorship--the +press which must have sensation, the traffic of its trade--should have a +detailed account of how one of our indomitable regiments placarded a +private as coward, proving thereby that the army was a unit of +aggressive zeal. + +"You are alone--one man in a million in your ideas!" he declared, with +judicial gravity. "We shall postpone your trial and leave public opinion +to punish you. Your story will be given to the press in full; your name +will be a byword throughout the land, an example, and while you are +convalescing you will remain a prisoner. When you are well we shall have +another talk I may give you a chance, for the sake of your father and +mother and your sweetheart and the good opinion of your neighbors, to +redeem yourself." + +"I had to tell you what I felt, sir," said Hugo. "Thank you for letting +me live, after you knew." + +He saluted and turned away. Marta and Westerling watched him as he +hobbled around the corner of the house and in a heavy silence listened +to the crunch of his crutch tips on the gravel growing fainter. Her +lashes, those convenient curtains for hiding thought, dropped as +Westerling looked around; but he saw that her lips had reddened and that +she was drawing a long, deep, energizing breath. When the lashes lifted, +there was still wonder in her eyes--wonder which had become definite +tribute to him. The assurance he wanted was that he had borne himself +well, and he had it. + +"You kept your patience beautifully," she told him. "It seems to me that +you were both kind and wise." + +"How I was to be merciful against the facts puzzled me," he replied, +"until you saved the day with your suggestion of psychological +irresponsibility." + +"Then I helped? I really helped?" + +"You did, decidedly! You--" There he broke off, for he found himself +speaking to her profile. + +She had looked away in a sudden flight of abstraction, very far away, +where the lowering sun was stretching the shadows of the foot-hills +toward the white posts. Capes and pillars and promontories of shadow +there in the distance! Swinging, furry finger-points of shadow from the +tall hollyhocks in the garden swaying with the breeze! The dark shade of +the house's mass over the yard! + +It was time for him to be at his desk. But she seemed far from any +suggestion of going. She seemed to expect him to wait; otherwise he +might have concluded that she had forgotten his presence. Yet were he to +rustle a paper he knew that she would hear it. Though she did not change +her position in the chair, she appeared subtly active in every fibre. + +He found waiting easy, free as he was to watch the beauty of her profile +in the glory of the sunset. The superb thing about her was that she +always called for study. Her lips moved in sensitive turns; her breast +rose in soft billows with her breaths; the long, flickering eyelashes +ran outward from black to bronze and to feather tips of gold. In time +measured by the regular standard of clock ticks, which in the brain may +either race madly or drag mercilessly, she was not long silent. When she +spoke she' did not look entirely around at first; he had no glimpse into +her eyes. + +"It was another experience of war," she said moodily, returning to the +subject of Hugo. "Yes, something like the final chapter of experience, +the trial of this dreamer." Then a wave of restless impatience with her +abstraction swept over her. Speaking of dreamers, she herself would stop +dreaming. "For experience does make a great difference, doesn't it?" she +exclaimed with a sad, knowing smile. After a perceptible pause her eyes +suddenly glowed into his. All the commotion of her thought was +galvanized into purpose in the look. "I have had a heart full and a mind +full of experiences!" she said. "I have been close to war--closer than +you! I have looked on while others fought!" + +The thing was coming! He should hear the story of the change that war +had wrought in her. She appeared to regard him as the one listener whom +she had sought; as a confidant who alone could understand her. His gift +for listening was in full play as he relaxed and settled back in his +chair, shading his eyes with his hand lest he should seem to stare. For +in his eagerness he would not miss any one of her varied signals of +emotion. + +She was as vivid as he knew that she would be, her narration flashes of +impression in clear detail. Her being seemed transparent to its depths +and her moods through the last week to run past him in review. He +marvelled at times at her military knowledge; again at her impartiality. +She was neither for the Browns nor the Grays; she was simply telling +what she had seen. She passed by some horrors; on others she dwelt with +fearless emphasis. + +"Then the hand-grenades were thrown!" She put her hands over her eyes. +"As they fell"--she put her hands over her ears--"oh, the groans!" + +"It was the Browns who started it!" he interjected in defence. "I had +hoped that we should escape that kind of warfare." He was too intent to +recall what he had said to the premier about using every known method of +destruction. + +"And this is only the beginning, isn't it?" she asked piteously, +exhausted with her story. + +"Only the beginning!" he agreed. + +Again brooding wonder appeared in her eyes, while there was wonder in +his eyes--wonder at her. + +"And you remain with your property!" he exclaimed in a burst of +admiration. + +Once more she was looking away into the distance; once more he was +studying her profile. He knew that she had gone through her experience +without tears and without a scream. She had been subjected to his final +test of all merit--war. Courage she had, feminine courage. And he had +often asked himself what would happen if he, a great man, should ever +meet a great woman. He was baffled by the resources of a mind that was +held in detachment under her charm; baffled as to what she was thinking +at that moment, only to find her smiling at him, the wonder in her eyes +resolving itself into purpose. + +"You see, I have been very much stirred up," she said half +apologetically. "There are some questions I want to ask--quite +practical, selfish questions. You might call them questions of property +and mercy. The longer the war lasts the greater will be the loss of life +and the misery?" + +"Yes, for both sides; and the heavier the expense and the taxes." + +"If you win, then we shall be under your flag and pay taxes to you?" + +"Yes, naturally." + +"The Browns do not increase in population; the Grays do rapidly. They +are a great, powerful, civilized race. They stand for civilization!" + +"Yes, facts and the world's opinion agree," he replied. Puzzled he might +well be by this peculiar catechism. He could only continue to reply +until he should see where she was leading. + +"And your victory will mean a new frontier, a new order of international +relations and a long peace, you think? Peace--a long peace!" + +Was there ever a soldier who did not fight for peace? Was there ever a +call for more army-corps or guns that was not made in the name of peace? +He had his ready argument, spoken with the forcible conviction of an +expert. + +"This war was made for peace--the only kind of peace that there can be," +he said. "My ambition, if any glory comes to me out of this war, is to +have later generations say: 'He brought peace!'" + +Though the premier, could he have heard this, might have smiled, even +grinned, he would have understood Westerling's unconsciousness of +inconsistency. The chief of staff had set himself a task in victory +which had no military connection. Without knowing why, he wanted to win +ascendancy over her mind. + +"The man of action!" exclaimed Marta, her eyes opening very wide, as +they would to let in the light when she heard something new that pleased +her or gave food for thought. "The man of action, who thinks of an ideal +as a thing not of words but as the end of action!" + +"Exactly!" said Westerling, sensible of another of her gifts. She could +get the essence of a thing in a few words. "When we have won and set +another frontier, the power of our nation will be such in the world that +the Browns can never afford to attack us," he went on. "Indeed, no two +of the big nations of Europe can afford to make war without our consent. +We shall be the arbiters of international dissensions. We shall command +peace--yes, the peace of force, of fact! If it could be won in any other +way I should not be here on this veranda in command of an army of +invasion. That was my idea--for that I planned." He was making up for +having overshot himself in his confession that he had brought on the war +as a final step for his ambition. + +"You mean that you can gain peace by propaganda and education only when +human nature has so changed that we can have law and order and houses +are safe from burglary and pedestrians from pickpockets without +policemen? Is that it?" she asked. + +"Yes, yes! You have it! You have found the wheat in the chaff." + +"Perhaps because I have been seeing something of human nature--the human +nature of both the Browns and the Grays at war. I have seen the Browns +throwing hand-grenades and the Grays in wanton disorder in our +dining-room directly they were out of touch with their officers!" she +said sadly, as one who hates to accept disillusionment but must in the +face of logic. + +Westerling made no reply except to nod, for a movement on her part +preoccupied him. She leaned forward, as she had when she had told him he +would become chief of staff, her hands clasped over her knee, her eyes +burning with a question. It was the attitude of the prophecy. But with +the prophecy she had been a little mystical; the fire in her eyes had +precipitated an idea. Now it forged another question. + +"And you think that you will win?" she asked. "You think that you will +win?" she repeated with the slow emphasis which demands a careful +answer. + +The deliberateness of his reply was in keeping with her mood. He was +detached; he was a referee. + +"Yes, I know that we shall. Numbers make it so, though there be no +choice of skill between the two sides." + +His tone had the confidence of the flow of a mighty river in its +destination on its way to the sea. There was nothing in it of prayer, of +hope, of desperation, as there had been in Lanstron's "We shall win!" +spoken to her in the arbor at their last interview. She drew forward +slightly in her chair. Her eyes seemed much larger and nearer to him. +They were sweeping him up and down as if she were seeing the slim figure +of Lanstron in contrast to Westerling's sturdiness; as if she were +measuring the might of the five millions behind him and the three +millions behind Lanstron. She let go a half-whispered "Yes!" which +seemed to reflect the conclusion gained from the power of his presence. + +"Then my mother's and my own interests are with you--the interests of +peace are with you!" she declared. + +She did not appear to see the sudden, uncontrolled gleam of victory in +his eyes; for now she was looking fixedly at the point where Hugo had +stood. By this time it had become a habit for Westerling to wait +silently for her to come out of her abstractions. To disturb one might +make it unproductive. + +"Then if I want to help the cause of peace I should help the Grays!" + +The exclamation was more to herself than to him. He was silent. This +girl in a veranda chair desiring to aid him and his five million +bayonets and four thousand guns! Quixote and the windmills--but it was +amazing; it was fine! The golden glow of the sunset was running in his +veins in a paean of personal triumph. The profile turned ever so little. +Now it was looking at the point where Dellarme had lain dying. +Westerling noted the smile playing on the lips. It had the quality of a +smile over a task completed--Dellarme's smile. She started; she was +trembling all over in the resistance of some impulse--some impulse that +gradually gained headway and at last broke its bonds. + +"For I can help--I can help!" she cried out, turning to him in wild +indecision which seemed to plead for guidance. "It's so terrible--yet if +it would hasten peace--I--I know much of the Browns' plan of defence! I +know where they are strong in the first line and--and one place where +they are weak there--and a place where they are weak in the main line!" + +"You do!" Westerling exploded. The plans of the enemy! The plans that +neither Bouchard's saturnine cunning, nor bribes, nor spies could +ascertain! It was like the bugle-call to the hunter. But he controlled +himself. "Yes, yes!" He was thoughtful and guarded. + +"Do you think it is right to tell?" Marta gasped half inarticulately. + +"Right? Yes, to hasten the inevitable--to save lives!" declared +Westerling with deliberate assurance. + +"I--I want to see an end of the killing! I--" She sprang to her feet as +if about to break away tumultuously, but paused, swaying unsteadily, and +passed her hand across her eyes. + +"We intend a general attack on the first line of defence to-night!" he +exclaimed, his supreme thought leaping into words. + +"And you would want the information about the first line to-night if--if +it is to be of service?" + +"Yes, to-night!" + +Marta brought her hands together in a tight clasp. Her gaze fluttered +for a minute over the tea-table. When she looked up her eyes were calm. + +"It is a big thing, isn't it?" she said. "A thing not to be done in an +impulse. I try never to do big things in an impulse. When I see that I +am in danger of it I always say: 'Go by yourself and think for half an +hour!' So I must now. In a little while I will let you know my +decision." + +Without further formality she started across the lawn to the terrace +steps. Westerling watched her sharply, passing along the path of the +second terrace, pacing slowly, head bent, until she was out of sight. +Then he stood for a time getting a grip on his own emotions before he +went into the house. + + + + +XXXIII + +IN FELLER'S PLACE + + +What am I? What have I done? What am I about to do? shot as forked +shadows over the hot lava-flow of Malta's impulse. The vitality that +Westerling had felt by suggestion from a still profile rejoiced in a +quickening of pace directly she was out of sight of the veranda. All the +thinking she had done that afternoon had been in pictures; some saying, +some cry, some groan, or some smile went with every picture. + +Coming to the arbor she slowed down for a step or two, arrested by the +recollection of her last meeting with Lanstron. There it was that she +had scored him for making her an accomplice of trickery. She saw his +twitching hand, and the misery in his eyes and the cadence of his words +came as clearly as notes from a violin in a silent chamber to her ears. +She nodded in affirmation; she shook her head in negation; she frowned; +she laughed strangely, and hurried on. + +The sitting-room of the tower was empty to other eyes but not to hers. +In imagination she saw Feller standing by the table in the dejection of +his heart-break when he faced her and Lanstron, his secret disclosed; +and the appeal was more potent in memory than it had been at the time. +She went on into the bedroom, which had been formerly the tool-room. On +the threshold of the steps into the darkness she glanced back, to see +Feller's face transfixed as it had been when he discovered the presence +of interlopers--transfixed in fighting rage. + +The lantern was in the corner at hand. Only yesterday, in want of +occupation, as she thought, she had cleaned the chimney and trimmed the +wick. It seemed as if Lanny's fingers were lighting it now; as if he +were leading the way as he had on her first visit to the telephone. +After her hastening steps had carried her along the tunnel to the +telephone, she set down the lantern and pressed the spring that opened +the panel door. Another moment and she would be embarked on her great +adventure in the finality of action. That little ear-piece became a +spectre of conscience. She drew back convulsively and her hands flew to +her face; she was a rocking shadow in the thin, reddish light of the +lantern. + +Conscious mind had torn off the mask from subconscious mind, revealing +the true nature of the change that war had wrought in her. She who had +resented Feller's part--what a part she had been playing! Every word, +every shade of expression, every telling pause of abstraction after +Westerling confessed that he had made war for his own ends had been +subtly prompted by a purpose whose actuality terrified her. + +Her hypocrisy, she realized, was as black as the wall of darkness beyond +the lantern's gleam. All her pictures became a whirling involution of +extravaganza and all the speeches of the characters of the scenes a kind +of wail. Then this demoralization passed, as a nightmare passes, with +Westerling's boast again in her ears. She was seeing Hugo Mallin; +hearing him announce his principles in sight of the spot where Dellarme +had died: + +"I love my country.... But I know that other men love theirs.... Men +should be brave for their convictions.... The Browns are fighting for +their homes.... They are fighting, as I should want to fight, against +murder and burglary.... I will fight with my face to the white posts, +but not with my back to them." + +She was seeing the faces of her children; she was hearing them repeat: + +"But I shall not let a burglar drive me from my house. If an enemy tries +to take my land I shall appeal to his sense of justice and reason with +him; but if he then persists I shall fight for my home." + +When war's principles, enacted by men, were based on sinister trickery +called strategy and tactics, should not women, using such weapons as +they had, also fight for their homes? Marta's hands swept down from her +eyes; she was on fire with resolution. + +Forty miles away a bell in Lanstron's bedroom and at his desk rang +simultaneously. At the time he and Partow were seated facing each other +across a map on the table of the room where they worked together. No +persuasion of the young vice-chief, no edict of the doctors, could make +the old chief take exercise or shorten his hours. + +"I know. I know myself!" he said. "I know my duty. And you are learning, +my boy, learning!" + +Every day the flabby cheeks grew pastier and the pouches under the +eyebrows heavier. But there was no dimming of the eagle flashes of the +eyes, no weakening of the will. Last night Lanstron had turned as white +as chalk when Partow staggered on rising from the table, the veins on +his temples knotted blue whip-cords. Yet after a few hours' sleep he +reappeared with firm step, fresh for the fray. + +The paraphernalia around these two was the same as that around +Westerling. Only the atmosphere of the staff was different. It had a +quality of sober and buoyant alertness and fatality of determination +rather than rigid confidence. Otherwise, there was the same medley of +typewriters and telegraph instruments, the same types of busy officers +and clerks that occupied the Galland house. To them, at least, war had +brought no surprises. Its routine was as they had anticipated it there +in the big division headquarters building, dissociated from the actual +experience of the intimate emotions of the front. Each man was +performing the part set for him. No man knew much of any other man's +part. Partow alone knew all, and Lanstron was trying to grasp all and +praying that Partow's old body should still feed his mind with energy. +Lanstron was thinner and paler, a new and glittering intensity in his +eyes. + +A messenger had just brought in two despatches from the telegraph room. +One was from the taciturn press bureau of the Grays which flashed into +the Browns' headquarters from a neutral country at the same time that it +flashed around the world to illumine bulletin-boards in every language +of civilization. Day after day the Grays had announced the occupation of +fresh positions. This was the only news that they had permitted +egress--the news which read like the march of victory to the eager world +of the press, hastening to quick conclusions. To-day came the official +word that Westerling had established his headquarters on conquered +territory. Proof, this, that five could drive back three; that the weak +could not resist the strong! + +"Hm-m--indeed!" exclaimed Partow, lifting his brow into massive, +corrugated wrinkles. "It may affect the stock market, but not the +result." + +The other despatch was also out of the land of the Grays, but not by +Westerling's consent or knowledge. By devious ways it had broken through +the censorship of the frontier in cunning cipher. It told of artillery +concentrations three days old; it told only what the aeroplanes had +already seen; it told what the Grays had done but nothing of what they +intended to do. + +When word of Feller's defection came, Lanstron realized for the first +time by Partow's manner that the old chief of staff, with all his +deprecation of the telephone scheme as chimerical, had grounded a hope +on it. + +"There was the chance that we might know--so vital to the defence--what +they were going to do before and not after the attack," he said. + +Yet the story of how Feller yielded to the temptation of the automatic +had made the nostrils of the old war-horse quiver with a dramatic +breath, and instead of the command of a battery of guns, which Lanstron +had promised, the chief made it a battalion. He had drawn down his brows +when he heard that Marta had asked that the wire be left intact; he had +shot a shrewd, questioning glance at Lanstron and then beat a tattoo on +the table and half grinned as he grumbled under his breath: + +"She is afraid of being lonesome! No harm done!" A week had passed since +the Grays had taken the Galland house, and still no word from Marta. The +ring of the bell brought Lanstron to his feet with a startled, boyish +bound. + +"Very springy, that tendon of Achilles!" muttered Partow. "And, my boy, +take care, take care!" he called suddenly in his sonorous voice, as vast +and billowy as his body. "Take care! She might unwittingly repeat +something you said--and hold on!" He was amazingly light and vigorous on +his feet as he rose and hurried after Lanstron with the quick, short +steps of active adiposity. "She may have seen or heard something. +Ask--ask what is the spirit of the staff, of the soldiers who have +fought? What is the truth about their losses? What--" He broke off at +the door of Lanstron's bedroom. Lanstron had flung aside a bathrobe that +covered a panel door in the closet and already had the receiver in his +hand. "But you know what to ask!" concluded Partow. A flush of +embarrassment crept into the pasty cheeks and a sparkle into his fine +old eyes as he withdrew to acquit himself of being an eavesdropper. + +It was Marta's voice and yet not Marta's, this voice that beat in +nervous waves over the wire. + +"Lanny--yes, I, Lanny! You were right. Westerling planned to make war +deliberately to satisfy his ambition. He told me so. The first general +attack on the first line of defence is to-night. Westerling says so!" +She had to pause for breath. "And, Lanny, I want to know some position +of the Browns which is weak--not actually weak, maybe, but some position +where the Grays expect terrible resistance and will not find it--where +you will let them in!" + +"In the name of--Marta! Marta, what--" + +"I am going to fight for the Browns--for my home!" + +In the sheer satisfaction of explaining herself to herself, of voicing +her sentiments, she sent the pictures which had wrought the change +moving across the screen before Lanstron's amazed vision. There was no +room for interruption on his part, no question or need of one. The wire +seemed to quiver with the militant tension of her spirit. It was Marta +aflame who was talking at the other end; not aflame for him, but with a +purpose that revealed all the latent strength of her personality and +daring. + +"Yes, the only way is to fight for your home," she concluded. +"Otherwise, the world would be to the bully and the heads of saints and +philosophers and teachers would be egg-shells under his bludgeon." + +"It seems," said Lanstron, "that this is almost like my own view." + +He was sorry before the words were fairly out of his mouth that he had +taken that tack. It was asking her to back down abruptly from her old +principles, which only the weak proselyte will do readily; and she was +not a proselyte at all, to her conception. + +"No, no!" She etched her reply into his mind with acid, "My profession +is peace; it is not war. I am caught with my back to the wall. If the +Browns lose, the Gray flag floats over my home. As Westerling says, +everybody must take orders from the Grays then. Oh, the mockery of his +repairing the damage done to our house and grounds! Let him repair the +damage done to fathers and mothers by bringing their sons sacrificed to +the ambition for conquest back to life! Oh, I got the whole of him +reflected in the mirror of himself this afternoon when he was +comfortably taking tea, and in no danger, and sending men to death!" + +There Lanstron winced over a characterization that might apply to him. +He could think of only one thing that would ever heal the wound. Perhaps +the chance for it would come some day. + +"Yes," she went on, "sitting there so comfortably and serenely and +deciding that a man who was ready to die for his convictions must be +shot for cowardice! My views are like Hugo Mallin's and my back is +against the wall. But to the work, Lanny! I have a half-hour in which to +make up my mind"--she laughed curiously as she repeated the phrase--"in +which to make up my mind." Briefly she recounted what about: "I want to +give him positive information of a weak point that can be taken easily." + +"But, Marta--Marta--have you considered what a terrible risk--what--" he +protested, the chief of intelligence now submerged in the man. + +"No more than for Feller. I sent Feller away and I am taking his place. +How is he? Did he get his guns?" + +"Yes, not a battery, but a battalion--a major's command--and the iron +cross, too!" + +"Splendid! Oh, I'd like to see him in uniform directing their fire! How +happy he must be! But, are you going to do your part? Are you going to +give me the information?" + +"I shall have to ask Partow. It's a pretty big thing." + +"Yes--only that is not all my plan, my little plan. After they have +taken the first line of defence--and they will get it, won't they?" + +"Yes, we shall yield in the end, yield rather than suffer too great +losses there that will weaken the defence on the main line." + +"Then I want to know where it is that you want Westerling to attack on +the main line, so that we can get him to attack there. That--that will +help, won't it?" + +"Yes." + +"Of course, all the while I shall be getting news from him--when I have +proven my loyalty and have his complete confidence--and I'll telephone +it to you. I am sure I can get something worth while with you to direct +me; don't you think so, Lanny?" + +She put the question as simply as if she were asking if she might sew on +a button for him. It had the charm of an intimate fellowship of purpose. +It appeared free of the least realization of the magnitude of her +undertaking. Didn't Mrs. Galland believe that blood would tell? And +hadn't the old premier, her grandfather, said: "You can afford to be +fussed about little things but never about big things"? + +"I'll hold the wire, Lanny. Ask Partow!" she concluded. Of the two she +was the steadier. + +"Well?" said Partow, looking up at the sound of Lanstron's step. Then he +half raised himself from his chair at sight of a Lanstron with eyes in a +daze of brilliancy; a Lanstron with his maimed hand twitching in an +outstretched gesture; a Lanstron in the dilemma of being at the same +time lover and chief of intelligence. Should he let her make the +sacrifice of everything that he held to be sacred to a woman's delicacy? +Should he not return to the telephone and tell her that he would not +permit her to play such a part? Partow's voice cut in on his +demoralization with the sharpness of a blade. + +"Well, what, man, what?" he demanded. He feared that the girl might be +dead. Anything that could upset Lanstron in this fashion struck a chord +of sympathy and apprehension. + +Lanstron advanced to the table, pressed his hands on the edge, and, now +master of himself, began an account of Marta's offer. Partow's formless +arms lay inert on the table, his soft, pudgy fingers outspread on the +map and his bulk settled deep in the chair, while his eagle eyes were +seeing through Lanstron, through a mountain range, into the eyes of a +woman and a general on the veranda of an enemy's headquarters. The plan +meant giving, giving in the hope of receiving much in return. Would he +get the return? + +"A woman was the ideal one for the task we intrusted to Feller," he +mused, "a gentlewoman, big enough, adroit enough, with her soul in the +work as no paid woman's could be! There seemed no such one in the +world!" + +"But to let her do it!" gasped Lanstron. + +"It is her suggestion, not yours? She offers herself? She wants no +persuasion?" Partow asked sharply. + +"Entirely her suggestion," said Lanstron. "She offers herself for her +country--for the cause for which our soldiers will give their lives by +the thousands. It is a time of sacrifice." + +Partow raised his arms. They were not formless as he brought them down +with sledge-hammer force to the table. + +"Your tendon of Achilles? My boy, she is your sword-arm!" His sturdy +forefinger ran along the line of frontier under his eye with little +staccato leaps. "Eh?" he chuckled significantly, finger poised. + +"Let them up the Bordir road and on to redoubts 36 and 37, you mean?" +asked Lanstron. + +"You have it! The position looks important, but so well do we command it +that it is not really vital. Yes, the Bordir road is her bait for +Westerling!" Partow waved his hand as if the affair were settled. + +"But," interjected Lanstron, "we have also to decide on the point of the +main defence which she is to make Westerling think is weak." + +"Hm-m!" grumbled Partow. "That is not necessary to start with. We can +give that to her later over the telephone, can't we, eh?" + +"She asked for it now." + +"Why?" demanded Partow with one of his shrewd, piercing looks. + +"She did not say, but I can guess," explained Lanstron. "She must put +all her cards on the table; she must tell Westerling all she knows at +once. If she tells him piecemeal it might lead to the supposition that +she still had some means of communication with the Browns." + +"Of course, of course!" Partow spatted the flat of his hand resoundingly +on the map. "As I decided the first time I met her, she has a head, and +when a woman has a head for that sort of thing there is no beating her. +Well--" he was looking straight into Lanstron's eyes, "well, I think we +know the point where we could draw them in on the main line, eh?" + +"Up the apron of the approach from the Engadir valley. We yield the +advance redoubts on either side." + +"Meanwhile, we have massed heavily behind the redoubt. We retake the +advance redoubts in a counter-attack and--" Partow brought his fist into +his palm with a smack. + +"Yes, if we could do that! If we could get them to expend their attack +there!" put in Lanstron very excitedly for him. + +"We must! She shall help!" Partow was on his feet. He had reached across +the table and seized Lanstron's shoulders in a powerful if flesh-padded +grip. Then he turned Lanstron around toward the door of his bedroom and +gave him a mighty slap of affection. "My boy, the brightest hope of +victory we have is holding the wire for you. Tell her that a bearded old +behemoth, who can kneel as gracefully as a rheumatic rhinoceros, is on +both knees at her feet, kissing her hands and trying his best, in the +name of mercy, to keep from breaking into verse of his own composition." + +Back at the telephone, Lanstron, in the fervor of the cheer and the +enthusiasm that had transported his chief, gave Marta Partow's message. + +"You, Marta, are our brightest hope of victory!" + +"Yes?" The monosyllable was detached, dismal, labored. "A woman can be +that!" she exclaimed in an uncertain tone, which grew into the +distraction of clipped words and broken sentences. "A woman +play-acting--a woman acting the most revolting hypocrisy--influences +the issue between two nations! Her deceit deals in the lives of sons +precious to fathers and mothers, the fate of frontiers, of institutions! +Think of it! Think of machines costing countless millions--machines of +flesh and blood, with their destinies shaped by one little bit of lying +information! Think of the folly of any civilization that stakes its +triumphs on such a gamble! Am I not right? Isn't it true? Isn't it?" + +"Yes, yes, Marta! But--I--" If she were weakening it was not his place +to try to strengthen her purpose. + +"I was thinking, only thinking!" she murmured reflectively. "That's not +the thing now!" she added with sudden force. "Partow gave you the +positions?" + +He described the Bordir position. She repeated the description after him +with a stoical matter-of-factness to make sure that she had it +correctly. + +"I must actually know in order to be convincing," she said. "Now that of +the main line." + +He did not include in the description of Engadir any reference to the +Browns' plan of a crushing counter-attack. But as she was repeating +this, her calm tone broke into an outcry of horror, as the nature of +what he was inadvertently concealing flashed into her mind. She was +seeing another picture of imagination, with all the hideous detail of +realism drawn from her week's experiences. + +"That column of Grays will go forward cheering with victory, led on, +tricked on--and then they will find themselves in a shambles. No going +forward, no going back through the cross-fire! Is that it?" + +"Yes, something like that, though not exactly a cross-fire--not unless +the enemy has poorer generals than we think." + +"But that will be the object and the effect--wholesale slaughter?" + +"Yes!" assented Lanstron honestly. + +"And a woman whose greatest happiness and pride was in teaching the +righteousness and the beauty of peace to children--her lie will send +them to death!" she moaned. "I shall be a party to murder!" + +"No more than Westerling! No more than any general! No--" But he paused +in his argument. Conviction must come to her from within, not from +without. He stood graven and wordless, while she was tortured in the +hell of her mind's creation. + +She was hearing the cry in the night of the Gray soldier who had fallen +from the dirigible in the first day's fighting; the agonized groans of +the men under the wall of the terrace when the hand-grenades spattered +human flesh as if it were jelly. But there was Dellarme smiling; there +was Hugo Mallin saying that he would fight for his own home; there was +Stransky, who had thrown the hand-grenade, bringing in an exhausted old +man on his back from under fire; there was Feller as he rallied +Dellarme's men; and--and there was Lanny waiting at the other end of the +wire--and a burglar should not take her home. + +"Men must have the courage of their convictions!" Hugo had said. Hers +were all for peace. But there was not peace. There could not be peace +until the war demon had had his fill of killing and one side had to cry +for mercy. Which side should that be? That was the only question. + +"It will the sooner end fighting, won't it, Lanny?" she asked in a +small, tense voice. + +"Yes." + +"And the only real end that means real peace is to prove that the weak +can hold back the strong from their threshold?" + +"Yes." + +Even now Westerling might be on the veranda, perhaps waiting for news +that would enable him to crush the weak; to prove that the law of five +pounds of human flesh against three, and five bayonets against three, is +the law of civilization. + +"Yes, yes, yes!" The constriction was gone from her throat; there was a +drum-beat in her soul. "Depend on me, Lanny!" It was Feller's favorite +phrase spoken by the one who was to take his place. "Yes, I'm ready to +make any sacrifice now. For what am I? What is one woman compared to +such a purpose? I don't care what is said of me or what becomes of me if +we can win! Good-by, Lanny, till I call you up again! And God with us!" + +"God with us!" as Partow had said, over and over The saying had come to +be repeated by hard-headed, agnostic staff-officers, who believed that +the deity had no relation to the efficiency of gun-fire. The Brown +infantrymen even were beginning to mutter it in the midst of action. + + + + +XXXIV + +THREE VOICES + + +Waiting on the path of the second terrace for Westerling to come, Marta +realized the full meaning of her task. Day in and day out she was to +have suspense at her elbow and the horror of hypocrisy on her +conscience, the while keeping her wits nicely balanced. She must feel +her part and at the same time she must be sufficiently conscious that +she was placing a part not to let any impulse of aversion betray her. +The tea-table scene had been a rehearsal; coming was a _premiere_ before +the ghostly, still faces across the bent glare of the footlights. No +ready-made lines, hers She must create them. Every word must be the +right word and spoken in the right way, all for the deception of one +man. + +When she saw Westerling appear on the veranda and start over the lawn +she felt dizzy and uncertain of her capabilities. In the gathering dusk +he seemed of giant stature, too masterful to be outwitted by any +trickery she might devise. She wondered if she would be able to +articulate a word; if she would not turn and flee. + +"I have considered all that you said for my guidance and I have +decided," she began. + +Marta heard her own voice with the relief of a singer in a debut who, +with knees shaking, finds that her notes are true. She was looking +directly at Westerling in profound seriousness. Though knees shook, lips +and chin could aid eyes in revealing the painful fatigue of a battle +that had raged in the mind of a woman who went away for half an hour to +think for herself. + +"I have concluded," she went on, "that it is an occasion for the +sacrifice of private ethics to a great purpose, the sooner to end the +slaughter." + +"All true!" whispered an inner voice. Its tone was Lanny's, in the old +days of their comradeship. It gave her strength. All true! + +"Yes, an end--a speedy end!" said Westerling with a fine, inflexible +emphasis. "That is your prayer and mine and the prayer of all lovers of +humanity." + +"He is not thinking of humanity, but of individual victory!" whispered +another voice, which had the mellow tone of Hugo Mallin's deliberate +wisdom. + +"It is little that I know, but such as it is you shall have it," she +began, conscious of his guarded scrutiny. When she told him of Bordir, +the weak point in the first line of the Browns' defence, she noted no +change in his steady look; but with the mention of Engadir in the main +line she detected a gleam in his eyes that had the merciless delight of +a cutting edge of steel. "I have made my sacrifice to some purpose? The +information is worth something to you?" she asked wistfully. + +"Yes, yes! Yes, it promises that way," he replied thoughtfully. + +Quietly he began a considerate catechism. Soon she was subtly +understanding that her answers lacked the convincing details that he +sought. She longed to avert her eyes from his for an instant, but she +knew that this would be fatal. She felt the force of him directed in +professional channels, free of all personal relations, beating as a +strong light on her bare statements. How could a woman ever have learned +two such vital secrets? How could it happen that two such critical +points as Bordir and Engadir should go undefended? No tactician, no +engineer but would have realized their strategic importance. Did she +know what she was saying? How did she get her knowledge? These, she +understood, were the real questions that underlay Westerling's polite +indirection. + +"Invention! Quick, quick! How did you find out? Quick and naturally and +obviously--pure invention; no half-way business!" whispered still +another voice, the voice of that most facile of story-builders, Feller, +this time. + +"But I have not told you the sources of my information! Isn't that like +a woman!" she exclaimed. "You see, it did not concern me at all at the +time I heard it. I didn't even realize its importance and I didn't hear +much," she proceeded, her introduction giving time for improvisation. +"You see, Partow was inspecting the premises with Colonel Lanstron. My +mother had known Partow in her younger days when my grandfather was +premier. We had them both to luncheon." + +"Yes?" put in Westerling, betraying his eagerness. Partow and Lanstron! +Then her source was one of authority, not the gossip of subalterns! + +"And it occurs to me now that, even while he was our guest," she +interjected in sudden indignation--"that even while he was our guest +Partow was planning to make our grounds a redoubt!" + +"Bully! Very feminine and convincing!" whispered the voice of Feller. + +"After luncheon I remember Partow saying, 'We are going to have a look +at the crops,' and they went for a walk out to the knoll where the +fighting began." + +"Yes! When was this?" Westerling asked keenly. + +"Only about six weeks ago," answered Marta. + +"That's it! That's splendid! If you'd said a year ago there would have +been time enough in the meanwhile to fortify!" whispered the voice of +Feller encouragingly. "You're going fine! Keep it up!" + +"Later, I came upon them unexpectedly after they had returned," Marta +went on. "They were sitting there on that seat concealed by the +shrubbery. I was on the terrace steps unobserved and I couldn't help +overhearing them. Their voices grew louder with the interest of their +discussion. I caught something about appropriations and aeroplanes and +Bordir and Engadir, and saw that Lanstron was pleading with his chief. +He wanted a sum appropriated for fortifications to be applied to +building planes and dirigibles. Finally, Partow consented, and I recall +his exact words: 'They're shockingly archaically defended, especially +Engadir,' he said, 'but they can wait until we get further +appropriations in the fall.'" She was so far under the spell of her own +invention that she believed the reality of her words, reflected in her +wide-open eyes which seemed to have nothing to hide. + +"That is all," she exclaimed with a shudder--"all my eavesdropping, all +my breach of confidence! If--if it--" and her voice trembled with the +intensity of the one purpose that was shining with the light of truth +through the murk of her deception--"it will only help to end the +slaughter!" She held out her hand convulsively in parting as if she +would leave the rest with him. + +"I think it will," he said soberly. "I think it will prove that you have +done a great service," he repeated as he caught both her hands, which +were cold from her ordeal. His own were warm with the strong beating of +his heart stirred by the promise of what he had just heard. But he did +not prolong the grasp. He was as eager to be away to his work as she to +be alone. "I think it will. You will know in the morning," he added. + +His steps were sturdier than ever in the power of five against three as +he started back to the house. When he reached the veranda, Bouchard, the +saturnine chief of intelligence, appeared in the doorway of the +dining-room: or, rather, reappeared, for he had been standing there +throughout the interview of Westerling and Marta, whose heads were just +visible, above the terrace wall, to his hawk eyes. + +"A little promenade in the open and my mind made up," said Westerling, +clapping Bouchard on the shoulder. + +"Something about an attack to-night?" asked Bouchard. + +"You guess right. Call the others." + +Five minutes later he was seated at the head of the dining-room table +with his chiefs around him waiting for their chairman to speak. He asked +some categorical questions almost perfunctorily, and the answer to each +was, "Ready!" with, in some instances, a qualification--the +qualification made by regimental and brigade commanders that, though +they could take the position in front of them, the cost would be heavy. +Yes, all were willing and ready for the first general assault of the +war, but they wanted to state the costs as a matter of professional +self-defence. + +Westerling could pose when it served his purpose. Now he rose and, going +to one of the wall maps, indicated a point with his forefinger. + +"If we get that we have the most vital position, haven't we?" + +Some uttered a word of assent; some only nodded. A glance or two of +curiosity was exchanged. Why should the chief of staff ask so elementary +a question? Westerling was not unconscious of the glances or of their +meaning. They gave dramatic value to his next remark. + +"We are going to mass for our main attack in front at Bordir!" + +"But," exclaimed four or five officers at once, "that is the heart of +the position! That is--" + +"I believe it is weak--that it will fall, and to-night!" + +"You have information, then, information that I have not?" asked +Bouchard. + +"No more than you," replied Westerling. "Not as much if you have +anything new." + +"Nothing!" admitted Bouchard wryly. He lowered his head under +Westerling's penetrating look in the consciousness of failure. + +"I am going on a conviction--on putting two and two together!" +Westerling announced. "I am going on my experience as a soldier, as a +chief of staff. If I am wrong, I take the responsibility. If I am +right, Bordir will be ours before morning. It is settled!" + +"If you are right, then," exclaimed Turcas--"well, then it's genius +or--" He did not finish the sentence. He had been about to say +coincidence; while Westerling knew that if he were right all the rising +scepticism in certain quarters, owing to the delay in his programme, +would be silenced. His prestige would be unassailable. + + + + +XXXV + +MRS. GALLAND INSISTS + + +"You have been in the tunnel again!" said Mrs. Galland with an emphasis +on "again," when Marta came up the stairs, lantern in hand, after +telling Lanstron of her interview with Westerling. + +"Again--yes!" Marta replied mechanically. Her mind was empty, burned +out. She had thought herself through with deceit for the day. + +"What interests you so much down there?" Mrs. Galland pursued softly. + +Marta realized that she had to deal with a fresh dilemma. She could not +be making frequent visits to the telephone without her mother's +knowledge; and, as yet, Mrs. Galland knew nothing of the part originally +planned for Feller, let alone any inkling of her daughter's part. + +"I didn't know but it would be a good place to hide our plate and other +treasures," said Marta, offering rather methodically the first invention +that came to mind as she threw open-the reflector of the lantern and +turned down the wick. She was ashamed of the excuse. It warned her how +easy it was becoming for her to lie--yes, lie was the word. + +"Don't blow out the light, please," said Mrs. Galland. "I should like to +see for myself if the tunnel is a good hiding-place for the plate." + +"It's too damp for you down there--it's--" Marta blew out the flame with +a sudden gust of breath and bolted across the room and into her chamber, +closing the door and taking the lantern with her. In utter fatigue she +dropped on the bed. Then came a gentle, prolonged knocking on the door. + +"You forgot to leave the lantern," called Mrs. Galland. "I have come to +get it, if you please." + +Marta did not answer. Her head had sunk forward; her hands, bearing the +weight of her body, were resting on her knees. All she could think was +that one more lie would break the camel's back. + +"Marta, please mayn't I come in?" rose the gentle voice on the other +side of the door. "Marta, don't you hear me? I asked if I might come +in." + +"It's too childish and silly to remain silent any longer," thought +Marta. Tired nerves revived spasmodically under another call to action. +"Yes, certainly, mother--yes, do!" she said in a forced, metallic tone. + +Mrs. Galland entered to find her daughter before the mirror brushing her +hair with hectic vigor. She did not take up the lantern, which Marta had +left in the middle of the floor, but seated herself. Her nice +deliberation in smoothing out a wrinkle of her skirt over her knees +indicated that she meant to stay a while. She folded her plump, white +hands; a faint touch of color came into her round, pink cheeks; a trace +of a smile knitted itself into the corners of her mouth. She was as she +had been--_J'y suis! J'y reste_!--when the captain of engineers had +pleaded with her at the outset of the war to leave the house. In the +reflection of the mirror Marta's glance caught hers, which was without +reproach or complaint, but very resolute. + +"Do you like best to keep it all to yourself, Marta?" Mrs. Galland +inquired solicitously. + +"What? Keep what?" asked Marta crossly. + +"Even if you have been all the way around the world, it might be easier +if you allowed me to help you a little," pursued Mrs. Galland. + +"Help! Help about what?" said Marta. + +That reply, as Marta knew now as an expert in deceit, was a mistake. She +was hedging and petulant when she ought to have whirled around gayly and +kissed her mother on the cheek, while laughing at such solemnity over a +trip of exploration through the tunnel. Mrs. Galland had caught her +prevaricating. Not since Marta was a little girl of seven had she +"fibbed" to her mother; and on that memorable and ethically instructive +occasion her mother had regarded her in this same calm fashion. + +"At all events," said Mrs. Galland, "I could help you a little if you +would let me comb your hair. You are combing in a most unsystematic way, +I must say. Systematic, gentle combing is very good for headaches and--" + +There was a twinkle in Mrs. Galland's eye that was not exactly humor; a +persistent twinkle that seemed to shine out of every part of the mirror. +Her curiosity had come to stay; there was no escaping it. Marta brought +her brush down with a bang on the bureau, only to be disgusted with this +show of temper which the persistent twinkle had not missed. Her next +impulse, unanalyzed because it was one of the oldest and simplest of +impulses, made her spin round and drop on her knees at her mother's +feet, which was just what had happened when she had started to brave out +the last lie--the childhood lie. + +Her head buried in her mother's lap, she was sobbing. It was many years +since Mrs. Galland had known Marta to sob and she was glad that Marta +had not forgotten how. She believed in the value of the law of overflow. +When Marta looked up with eyes still moist, it was with the joyous +satisfaction that begins a confession. Not once during the recital did +the smile fade from Mrs. Galland's lips. She was too well fortified for +any kind of a shock to exhibit surprise. + +"You see, I could not tell you--I--" Marta concluded, still uncertain +what conclusion lay behind her mother's attitude. + +"Of course you could not," said Mrs. Galland. "As grandfather--my +father, the premier--said; a man action cannot stop to explain +everything he does. He must strike while the iron is hot. If you had +stopped to discuss every step you would not have gone far--Yes, I should +have argued and protested. It was best that I, being as I am--that I +should not have been told--not until now." + +"And I must go on!" added Marta. + +"Of course you must!" replied Mrs. Galland. "You must for the sake of +the Browns--the flag your father and grandfather served. They would not +have approved of petty deceit, but anything for the cause, any +sacrifices, any immolation of self and personal sensibilities. Yes, your +father would have been happy, though he had no son, to know that his +daughter might do such a service. And we must tell Minna," she added. + +"Minna! You think so? Every added link may mean weakness." + +"But Minna will see you going and coming from the tunnel, too. She is +for the Browns with all her heart. They are her people and, besides," +Mrs. Galland smiled rather broadly, "that giant Stransky is with the +Browns!" So Minna was told. + +"I'd like to kiss your skirt, Miss Galland!" exclaimed Minna in +admiration. + +"Better kiss me!" said Marta, throwing her arms around the girl. "We +must stand together and think together in any emergency." + +Soon after dark the attack began. Flashes of bursting shells and flashes +from gun mouths and glowing sheets of flame from rifles made ugly +revelry, while the beams of search-lights swept hither and thither. This +kept up till shortly after midnight, when it died down and, where hell's +concert had raged, silent darkness shrouded the hills. Marta knew that +Bordir was taken without having to ask Lanstron or wait for confirmation +from Westerling. + +She was seated in the recess of the arbor the next morning, when she +heard the approach of those regular, powerful steps whose character had +become as distinct to her as those of a member of her own family. Five +Against three! five against three! they were saying to her; while down +the pass road and the castle road ran the stream of wounded from last +night's slaughter. + +Posted in the drawing-room of the Galland house were the congratulations +of the premier to Westerling, who had come from the atmosphere of a +staff that accorded to him a military insight far above the analysis of +ordinary standards. But he was too clever a man to vaunt his triumph. He +knew how to carry his honors. He accepted success as his due, in a +matter-of-course manner that must inspire confidence in further success. + +"You were right," he said to Marta easily, pleasantly. "We did it--we +did it--we took Bordir with a loss of only twenty thousand men!" + +_Only_ twenty thousand! Her revulsion at the bald statement was relieved +by the memory of Lanny's word over the telephone after breakfast that +the Browns had lost only five thousand. Four to one was a wide ratio, +she was thinking. + +"Then the end--then peace is so much the nearer?" she asked. + +"Very much nearer!" he answered earnestly, as he dropped on the bench +beside her. + +He stretched his arms out on the back of the seat and the relaxed +attitude, unusual with him, brought into relief a new trait of which she +had been hitherto oblivious. The conqueror had become simply a +companionable man. Though he was not sitting close to her, yet, as his +eyes met hers, she had a desire to move away which she knew would be +unwise to gratify. She was conscious of a certain softening charm, a +magnetism that she had sometimes felt in the days when she first knew +him. She realized, too, that then the charm had not been mixed with the +indescribable, intimate quality that it held now. + +"In the midst of congratulations after the position was taken last +night," he declared, "I confess that I was thinking less of success +than of its source." He bent on her a look that was warm with gratitude. + +She lowered her lashes before it; before gratitude that made her part +appear in a fresh angle of misery. + +"There seems to be a kind of fatality about our relations," he went on. +"I lay awake pondering it last night." His tone held more than +gratitude. It had the elation of discovery. + +"Look out! Look out, now!" Not only the voices of Lanny and Feller and +Hugo warned her, but also those of her mother and Minna. + +"He is going to make it harder than I ever guessed!" echoed her own +thought, in a flutter of confusion. + +"Yes, it was strange our meeting on the frontier in peace and then in +war!" she exclaimed at random. The sound of the remark struck her as too +subdued; as expectant, when her purpose was one of careless deprecation. + +"I have met a great many women, as you may have imagined," he proceeded. +"They passed in review. They were simply women, witty and frail or dull +and beautiful, and one meant no more to me than another. Nothing meant +anything to me except my profession. But I never forgot you. You planted +something in mind: a memory of real companionship." + +"Yes, I made the prophecy that came true!" she put in. This ought to +bring him back to himself and his ambitions, she thought. + +"Yes!" he exclaimed, his body stiffening free of the back of the seat. +"You realized what was in me. You foresaw the power which was to be +mine. The fate that first brought us together made me look you up in the +capital. Now it brings us together here on this bench after all that has +passed in the last twenty-four hours." + +She realized that he had drawn perceptibly nearer. She wanted to rise +and cry out: "Don't do this! Be the chief of staff, the conqueror, +crushing the earth with the tread of five against three!" It was the +conqueror whom she wanted to trick, not a man whose earnestness was +painting her deceit blacker. Far from rising, she made no movement at +all; only looked at her hands and allowed him to go on, conscious of the +force of a personality that mastered men and armies now warm and +appealing in the full tide of another purpose. + +"The victory that I was thinking of last night was not the taking of +Bordir. It was finer than any victory in war. It was selfish--not for +army and country, but born of a human weakness triumphant; a human +weakness of which my career had robbed me," he continued. "It gave me a +joy that even the occupation of the Browns' capital could not give. I +had come as an invader and I had won your confidence." + +"In a cause!" she interrupted hurriedly, wildly, to stop him from going +further, only to find that her intonation was such that it was drawing +him on. + +"That fatality seemed to be working itself out to the soldier so much +older than yourself in renewed youth, in another form of ambition. I +hoped that there was more than the cause that led you to trust me. I +hoped--" + +Was he testing her? Was he playing a part of his own to make certain +that she was not playing one? She looked up swiftly for answer. There +was no gainsaying what she saw in his eyes. It was beating into hers +with the power of an overwhelming masculine passion and a maturity of +intellect as his egoism admitted a comrade to its throne. Such is ever +the way of the man in the forties when the clock strikes for him. But +who could know better the craft of courtship than one of Westerling's +experience? He was fighting for victory; to gratify a desire. + +"I did not expect this--I--" The words escaped tumultuously and +chokingly. + +She heard all the voices in chorus: "Look out! Look out!" And then the +voice of Feller alone, insinuating, with a sinister mischievousness: +"What more could you ask? Now that you have him, hold him! For God and +country--for our dear Brown land!" + +Hold a man who was making love to her by the tricks of the courtesan! +But what kind of love? He was bending so close to her that she felt his +breath on her cheek burning hot, and she was sickeningly conscious that +he was looking her over in that point-by-point manner which she had felt +across the tea-table at the hotel. This horrible thing in his glance she +had sometimes seen in strangers on her travels, and it had made her +think that she was wise to carry a little revolver. She wanted to strike +him. + +"Confess! Confess!" called all her own self-respect. "Make an end to +your abasement!" + +"Confession, after the Browns have given up Bordir! Confession that +makes Lanny, not Westerling, your dupe!" came the reply, which might +have been telegraphed into her mind from the high, white forehead of +Partow bending over his maps. "Confession, betraying the cause of the +right against the wrong; the three to the conquering five! No! You are +in the things. You may not retreat now." + +For a few seconds only the duel of argument thundered in her +temples--seconds in which her lips were parted and quivering and her +eyes dilated with an agitation which the man at her side could interpret +as he pleased. A prompting devil--a devil roused by that thing in his +eyes--urging a finesse in double-dealing which only devils understand, +made her lips hypnotically turn in a smile, her eyes soften, and sent +her hand out to Westerling in a trance-like gesture. For an instant it +rested on his arm with telling pressure, though she felt it burn with +shame at the point of contact. + +"We must not think of that now," she said. "We must think of nothing +personal; of nothing but your work until your work is done!" + +The prompting devil had not permitted a false note in her voice. Her +very pallor, in fixity of idea, served her purpose. Westerling drew a +deep breath that seemed to expand his whole being with greater +appreciation of her. Yet that harried hunger, the hunger of a beast, was +still in his glance. + +"This is like you--like what I want you to be!" he said. "You are +right." He caught her hand, enclosing it entirely in his grip, and she +was sensible, in a kind of dazed horror, of the thrill of his strength. +"Nothing can stop us! Numbers will win! Hard fighting in the mercy of a +quick end!" he declared with his old rigidity of five against three +which was welcome to her. "Then," he added--"and then--" + +"Then!" she repeated, averting her glance. "Then--" There the devil +ended the sentence and she withdrew her hand and felt the relief of one +escaping suffocation, to find that he had realized that anything further +during that interview would be banality and was rising to go. + +"I don't feel decent!" she thought. "Society turned on Minna for a human +weakness--but I--I'm not a human being! I am one of the pawns of the +machine of war!" + +Walking slowly with lowered head as she left the arbor, she almost ran +into Bouchard, who apologized with the single word "Pardon!" as he +lifted his cap in overdone courtesy, which his stolid brevity made the +more conspicuous. + +"Miss Galland, you seem lost in abstraction," he said in sudden +loquacity. "I am almost on the point of accusing you of being a poet." + +"Accusing!" she replied. "Then you must think that I would write bad +poetry." + +"On the contrary, I should say excellent--using the sonnet form," he +returned. + +"I might make a counter accusation, only that yours would be the epic +form," answered Marta. "For you, too, seem fond of rambling." + +There was a veiled challenge in the hawk eyes, which she met with +commonplace politeness in hers, before he again lifted his cap and +proceeded on his way. + + + + +XXXVI + +MARKING TIME + + +For the next two weeks Marta's role resolved itself into a kind of +routine. Their cramped quarters became spacious to the three women in +the intimacy of the common secret shared by them under the very nose of +the staff. With little Clarissa Eileen, they formed the only feminine +society in the neighborhood. On sunshiny days Mrs. Galland was usually +to be found in her favorite chair outside the tower door; and here Minna +set the urn on a table at four-thirty as in the old days. + +No member of the staff was more frequently present at Marta's teas than +Bouchard, who was developing his social instinct late in life by sitting +in the background and allowing others to do the talking while he watched +and listened. In his hearing, Marta's attitude toward the progress of +the war was sympathetic but never interrogatory, while she shared +attention with Clarissa Eileen, who was in danger of becoming spoiled by +officers who had children of their own at home. After the reports of +killed and wounded, which came with such appalling regularity, it was a +relief to hear of the day's casualties among Clarissa's dolls. The chief +of transportation and supply rode her on his shoulder; the chief of +tactics played hide-and-seek with her; the chief engineer built her a +doll house of stones with his own hands; and the chief medical officer +was as concerned when she caught a cold as if the health of the army +were at stake. + +"We mustn't get too set up over all this attention, Clarissa Eileen, my +rival," said Marta to the child. "You are the only little girl and I am +the only big girl within reach. If there were lots of others it would +be different." + +She had occasional glimpses of Hugo Mallin on his crutches, keeping in +the vicinity of the shrubbery that screened the stable from the house. +How Marta longed to talk with him! But he was always attended by a +soldier, and under the rigorous discipline that held all her impulses +subservient to her purpose she passed by him without a word lest she +compromise her position. + +Bouchard was losing flesh; his eyes were sinking deeper under a heavier +frown. His duty being to get information, he was gaining none. His duty +being to keep the Grays' secrets, there was a leak somewhere in his own +department. He quizzed subordinates; he made abrupt transfers, to no +avail. + +Meanwhile, the Grays were taking the approaches to the main line of +defence, which had been thought relatively immaterial but had been found +shrewdly placed and their vulnerability overestimated. The thunders of +batteries hammering them became a routine of existence, like the passing +of trains to one living near a railroad. The guns went on while tea was +being served; they ushered in dawn and darkness; they were going when +sleep came to those whom they later awakened with a start. Fights as +desperate as the one around the house became features of this period, +which was only a warming-up practice for the war demon before the orgy +of the impending assault on the main line. + +Marta began to realize the immensity of the chess-board and of the +forces engaged in more than the bare statement of numbers and distances. +If a first attack on a position failed, the wires from the Galland house +repeated their orders to concentrate more guns and attack again. In the +end the Browns always yielded, but grudgingly, calculatingly, never +being taken by surprise. The few of them who fell prisoners said, "God +with us! We shall win in the end!" and answered no questions. Gradually +the Gray army began to feel that it was battling with a mystery which +was fighting under cover, falling back under cover--a tenacious, +watchful mystery that sent sprays of death into every finger of flesh +that the Grays thrust forward in assault. + +"Another position taken. Our advance continues," was the only news that +Westerling gave to the army, his people, and the world, which forgot its +sports and murders and divorce cases in following the progress of the +first great European war for two generations. He made no mention of the +costs; his casualty lists were secret. The Gray hosts were sweeping +forward as a slow, irresistible tide; this by Partow's own admission. He +announced the loss of a position as promptly as the Grays its taking. He +published a daily list of casualties so meagre in contrast to their own +that the Grays thought it false; he made known the names of the killed +and wounded to their relatives. Yet the seeming candor of his press +bureau included no straw of information of military value to the enemy. + +Westerling never went to tea at the Gallands' with the other officers, +for it was part of his cultivation of greatness to keep aloof from his +subordinates. His meetings with Marta happened casually when he went out +into the garden. Only once had he made any reference to the "And then" +of their interview in the arbor. + +"I am winning battles for _you_!" he had exclaimed with that thing in +his eyes which she loathed. + +To her it was equivalent to saying that she had tricked him into sending +men to be killed in order to please her. She despised herself for the +way he confided in her; yet she had to go on keeping his confidence, +returning a tender glance with one that held out hope. She learned not +to shudder when he spoke of a loss of "only ten thousand." In order to +rally herself when she grew faint-hearted to her task, she learned to +picture the lines of his face hard-set with five-against-three +brutality, while in comfort he ordered multitudes to death, and, in +contrast, to recall the smile of Dellarme, who asked his soldiers to +undergo no risk that he would not share. And after every success he +would remark that he was so much nearer Engadir, that position of the +main line of defence whose weakness she had revealed. + +"Your Engadir!" he came to say. "Then we shall again profit by your +information; that is, unless they have fortified since you received it." + +"They haven't. They had already fortified!" she thought. She was always +seeing the mockery of his words in the light of her own knowledge and +her own part, which never quite escaped her consciousness. One chamber +of her mind was acting for him; a second chamber was perfectly aware +that the other was acting. + +"One position more--the Twin Boulder Redoubt, it is called," he +announced at last. "We shall not press hard in front. We shall drive in +masses on either side and storm the flanks." + +This she was telephoning to Lanstron a few minutes later and having, in +return, all the news of the Browns. The sheer fascination of knowing +what both sides were doing exerted its spell in keeping her to her part. + +"They've lost four hundred thousand men now, Lanny," she said. + +"And we only a hundred thousand. We're whittling them down," answered +Lanstron. + +"Whittling them down! What a ghastly expression!" she gasped. "You are +as bad as Westerling and I am worse than either of you! I--I announced +the four hundred thousand as if they were a score--a score in a game in +our favor. I am helping, Lanny? All my sacrifice isn't for nothing?" she +asked for the hundredth time. + +"Immeasurably. You have saved us many lives!" he replied. + +"And cost them many?" she asked. + +"Yes, Marta, no doubt," he admitted; "but no more than they would have +lost in the end. It is only the mounting up of their casualties that +can end the war. Thus the lesson must be taught." + +"And I can be of most help when the attack on the main defence is +begun?" + +"Yes." + +"And when Westerling finds that my information is false about +Engadir--then--" + +She had never put the question to him in this way before. What would +Westerling do if he found her out? + +"My God, Marta!" he exclaimed. "If I'd had any sense I would have +thought of that in the beginning and torn out the 'phone! I've been mad, +mad with the one thought of the nation--inhuman in my greedy patriotism. +I will not let you go any further!" + +It was a new thing for her to be rallying him; yet this she did as the +strange effect of his protest on the abnormal sensibilities that her +acting had developed. + +"Thinking of me--little me!" she called back. "Of one person's comfort +when hundreds of thousands of other women are in terror; when the +destiny of millions is at stake! Lanny, you are in a blue funk!" and she +was laughing forcedly and hectically. "I'm going on--going on like one +in a trance who can't stop if he would. It's all right, Lanny. I +undertook the task myself. I must see it through!" + +After she had hung up the receiver her buoyancy vanished. She leaned +against the wall of the tunnel weakly. Yes, what if she were found out? +She was thinking of the possibility seriously for the first time. Yet, +for only a moment did she dwell upon it before she dismissed it in +sudden reaction. + +"No matter what they do to me or what becomes of me!" she thought. "I'm +a lost soul, anyway. The thing is to serve as long as I can--and then I +don't care!" + + + + +XXXVII + +THUMBS DOWN FOR BOUCHARD + + +Haggard and at bay, Bouchard faced the circle of frowns around the +polished expanse of that precious heirloom, the dining-room table of the +Gallands. The dreaded reckoning of the apprehensions which kept him +restlessly awake at night had come at the next staff council after the +fall of the Twin Boulder Redoubt. With the last approach to the main +line of defence cleared, one chapter of the war was finished. But the +officers did not manifest the elation that the occasion called for, +which is not saying that they were discouraged. They had no doubt that +eventually the Grays would dictate peace in the Browns' capital. Exactly +stated, their mood was one of repressed professional irritation. Not +until the third attempt was Twin Boulder Redoubt taken. As far as +results were concerned, the nicely planned first assault might have been +a stroke of strategy by the Browns to drive the Grays into an impassable +fire zone. + +"The trouble is we are not informed!" exclaimed Turcas, opening his thin +lips even less than usual, but twisting them in a significant manner as +he gave his words a rasping emphasis. The others hastened to follow his +lead with equal candor. + +"Exactly. We have no reports of their artillery strength, which we had +greatly underestimated," said the chief of artillery. + +"Our maps of their forts could not be less correct if revealed to us for +purposes of deceit. Again and again we have thought that we had them +surprised, only to be surprised ourselves. In short, they know what we +are doing and we don't know what they are doing!" said the tactical +expert. + +There the chief of the aerostatic division took the defensive. + +"They certainly don't learn our plans with their planes and dirigibles!" +he declared energetically. + +"Hardly, when we never see them over our lines." + +"The Browns are acting on the defensive in the air as well as on the +earth!" + +"But our own planes and dirigibles bring little news," said Turcas. "I +mean, those that return," he added pungently. + +"And few do return. My men are not wanting in courage!" replied the +chief aerostatic officer. "Immediately we get over the Brown lines the +Browns, who keep cruising to and fro, are on us like hawks. They risk +anything to bring us down. When we descend low we strike the fire of +their high-angle guns, which are distributed the length of the frontier. +I believe both their aerial fleet and their high-angle artillery were +greatly underestimated. Finally, I cannot reduce my force too much in +scouting or they might rake the offensive." + +"Another case of not being informed!" concluded Turcas, returning grimly +to his point. + +He looked at Bouchard, and every one began looking at Bouchard. If the +Gray tacticians had been outplayed by their opponents, if their losses +for the ground gained exceeded calculations, then it was good to have a +scapegoat for their professional mistakes. Bouchard was Westerling's +choice for chief of intelligence. His blind loyalty was pleasing to his +superior, who, hitherto, had promptly silenced any suggestion of +criticism by repeating that the defensive always appeared to the +offensive to be better informed than itself. But this time Westerling +let the conversation run on without a word of excuse for his favorite. + +Each fresh reproach from the staff, whose opinion was the only god he +knew, was a dagger thrust to Bouchard. At night he had lain awake +worrying about the leak; by day he had sought to trace it, only to find +every clew leading back to the staff. Now he was as confused in his +shame as a sensitive schoolboy. Vaguely, in his distress, he heard +Westerling asking a question, while he saw all those eyes staring at +him. + +"What information have we about Engadir?" + +"I believe it to be strongly fortified!" stammered Bouchard. + +"You believe! You have no information?" pursued Westerling. + +"No, sir," replied Bouchard. "Nothing--nothing new!" + +"We do seem to get little information," said Westerling, looking hard +and long at Bouchard in silence--the combined silence of the whole +staff. + +This public reproof could have but one meaning. He should soon receive a +note which would thank him politely for his services, in the stereotyped +phrases always used for the purpose, before announcing his transfer to a +less responsible post. + +"Very little, sir!" Bouchard replied doggedly. + +"There is that we had from one of our aviators whose machine came down +in a smash just as he got over our infantry positions on his return," +said the chief aerostatic officer. "He was in a dying condition when we +picked him up, and, as he was speaking with the last breaths in his +body, naturally his account of what he had seen was somewhat incoherent. +It would be of use, however, if we had plans of the forts that would +enable us to check off his report intelligently." + +"Yet, what evidence have we that Partow or Lanstron has done more than +to make a fortunate guess or show military insight?" Westerling asked. +"There is the case of my own belief that Bordir was weak, which proved +correct." + +"Last night we got a written telegraphic staff message from the body of +a dead officer of the Browns found in the Twin Boulder Redoubt," said +the vice-chief, "which showed that in an hour after our plans were +transmitted to our own troops for the first attack they were known to +the enemy." + +"That looks like a leak!" exclaimed Westerling, "a leak, Bouchard, do +you hear?" He was frowning and his lips were drawn and his cheeks +mottled with red in a way not pleasant to see. + +Stiffening in his chair, a flash of desperation in his eye, Bouchard's +bony, long hand gripped the table edge. Every one felt that a sensation +was coming. + +"Yes, I have known that there was a leak!" he said with hoarse, painful +deliberation. "I have sent out every possible tracer. I have followed up +every sort of clew I have transferred a dozen men. I have left nothing +undone!" + +"With no result?" persisted Westerling impatiently + +"Yes, always the same result: That the leak is here in this house--here +in the grand headquarters of the army under our very noses. I know it is +not the telegraphers or the clerks. It is a member of the staff!" + +"Have you gone out of your head?" demanded Westerling. "What +staff-officer? How does he get the information to the enemy? Name the +persons you suspect here and now! Explain, if you want to be considered +sane!" + +Here was the blackest accusation that could be made against an officer! +The chosen men of the staff, tested through many grades before they +reached the inner circle of cabinet secrecy, lost the composure of a +council. All were leaning forward toward Bouchard breathless for his +answer. + +"There are three women on the grounds," said Bouchard. "I have been +against their staying from the first. I----." + +He got no further. His words were drowned by the outburst of one of the +younger members of the staff, who had either to laugh or choke at the +picture of this deep-eyed, spectral sort of man, known as a woman-hater, +in his revelation of the farcical source of his suspicions. + +"Why not include Clarissa Eileen?" some one asked, Starting a chorus of +satirical exclamations. + +"How do they get through the line?" + +"Yes, past a wall of bayonets?" + +"When not even a soldier in uniform is allowed to move away from his +command without a pass?" + +"By wireless?" + +"Perhaps by telepathy!" + +"Unless," said the chief of the aerostatic division, grinning, "Bouchard +lends them the use of our own wires through the capital and around by +the neutral countries across the Brown frontier!" + +"But the correct plans and location of their forts and the numbers of +their heavy guns and of their planes and dirigibles--your failure to +have this information is not the result of any leak from our staff since +the war began," said Turcas in his dry, penetrating voice, clearing the +air of the smoke of scattered explosions. + +All were staring at Bouchard again. What answer had he to this? He was +in the box, the evidence stated by the prosecutor. Let him speak! + +He was fairly beside himself in a paroxysm of rage and struck at the air +with his clenched fist. + +"---- ---- Lanstron!" he cried. + +"There's no purpose in that. He can't hear you!" said Turcas, dryly as +ever. + +"He might, through the leak," said the chief aerostatic officer, who +considered that many of his gallant subordinates had lost their lives +through Bouchard's inefficiency. "Perhaps Clarissa Eileen has already +telepathically wigwagged it to him." + +To lose your temper at a staff council is most unbecoming. Turcas would +have kept his if hit in the back by a fool automobilist. Westerling had +now recovered his. He was again the superman in command. + +"It is for you and not for us to locate the leak; yes, for you!" he +said. "That is all on the subject for the present," he added in a tone +of mixed pity and contempt, which left Bouchard freed from the stare of +his colleagues and in the miserable company of his humiliation. + +All on the subject for the present! When it was taken up again his +successor would be in charge. He, the indefatigable, the over-intense, +with his mediaeval partisan fervor, who loathed in secret machines like +Turcas, was the first man of the staff to go for incompetency. + +"And Engadir is the key-point," Westerling was saying. + +"Yes," agreed Turcas. + +"So we concentrate to break through there," Westerling continued, "while +we engage the whole line fiercely enough to make the enemy uncertain +where the crucial attack is to be made." + +"But, general, if there is any place that is naturally strong, that--" +Turcas began. + +"The one place where they are confident that we won't attack!" +Westerling interrupted. He resented the staff's professional respect for +Turcas. After a silence and a survey of the faces around, he added with +sententious effect: "And I was right about Bordir!" + +To this argument there could be no answer. The one stroke of generalship +by the Grays, who, otherwise, had succeeded alone through repeated mass +attacks, had been Westerling's hypothesis that had gained Bordir in a +single assault. + +"Engadir it is, then!" said Turcas with the loyalty of the subordinate +who makes a superior's conviction his own, the better to carry it out. + +Hazily, Bouchard had heard the talk, while he was looking at Westerling +and seeing him, not at the head of the council table, but in the arbor +in eager appeal to Marta. + +"I shall find out! I shall find out!" was drumming in his temples when +the council rose; and, without a word or a backward glance, he was the +first to leave the room. + + + + +XXXVIII + +HUNTING GHOSTS + + +In his search for the medium of the leak to the enemy Bouchard had +studied every detail of the Galland premises and also of the ruins of +the castle, with the exception of one feature mentioned in the regular +staff records, prepared before the war, in the course of their minute +description of the architecture of buildings which were accessible to +the spies of the Grays. The tunnel to the dungeons could be reached only +through the private quarters of the Gallands. + +When he came out onto the veranda from the staff council a glimpse of +Mrs. Galland walking in the garden told him that one of the guardians +who stood between him and the satisfaction of his desperate curiosity +was absent. He started for the tower and found the door open and the +sitting-room empty. In his impatience he had one foot across the +threshold before a prompting sense of respect for form made him pause. +After all, this was a private residence. There being no bell, he rapped, +and was glad that it was Minna and not Marta who appeared. He watched +her intently for the effect of his abrupt announcement as he exclaimed: + +"I want to go into the tunnel under the castle!" + +There was no mistaking her shock and alarm. Her lips remained parted in +a letter O as a sweep of breath escaped. Yet, in the very process of +recovering her scattered faculties, her feminine quickness noted a +triumphant gleam in his eye. She knew that her manner had given +conviction to his suspicions. She knew that she alone stood between him +and his finding Marta talking to Brown headquarters. As she was in a +state of astonishment, why, astonishment was her cue. She appeared +positively speechless from it except for the emission of another +horrified gasp. Time! time! She must hold him until Marta left the +telephone. + +"What an idea! That musty, horrible, damp tunnel!" she exclaimed, +shuddering. "I never think of it without thinking of ghosts!" + +"I am looking for ghosts," replied Bouchard with saturnine emphasis. + +"Oh, don't say that!" cried Minna distractedly. "Sometimes at night I +hear their chains clanking and their groans and cries for water," she +continued, playing the superstitious and stupid maid servant. "That is, +I think I do. Miss Galland says I don't." + +"Does she go into the tunnel?" asked Bouchard. + +"Yes, she's been in to show me that there were no ghosts," replied +Minna. "But not the whole way--not into the dungeons. I believe she got +frightened herself, though she wouldn't admit it. I know there are +ghosts! She needn't tell me! Don't you believe there are?" she asked +solemnly, with dropped jaw. + +"I'm going to find out!" he said, taking a step forward. + +But Minna, just inside the doorway, did not move to allow him to enter. + +"Oh, I'm so glad!" she exclaimed. "Then we'll know the truth. But no!" +and she turned wild with protest. "No, no! I know there are! It's +dangerous, sir! You'd never come out alive! Unseen hands would seize you +and draw you down and strangle you--those terrible spirits of the dark +ages!" + +Her hands uplifted, fingers stretched apart in terror, lace white with +fear, Minna's distress was real--very real, indeed!--while she listened +impatiently for Marta's step in the adjoining room. + +"Good heavens!" exclaimed Bouchard in disgust. "I didn't know such +superstition existed in this day." + +"I didn't, sir, until the groans and the clanking of the chains kept me +awake," replied Minna. + +"Have you a lantern?" asked Bouchard in exasperation. + +"A lantern?" repeated Minna blankly. Time! time! She must gain time! + +"Yes, you gawk, a lantern!" + +"Certainly; you'll need one," said Minna--"a big one! Go and fetch a big +army one--and some soldiers to fight the ghosts. But what are soldiers +against ghosts? Oh, sir, I don't like to think of you going at all. +Please, sir, don't, for the sake of your life!" + +There Bouchard frowned heavily and his hawk eyes flashed in command and +decision. + +"Enough of this farce! A lamp, a candle will do. Come, get me one +immediately!" + +Just as she was at her wits' end and it seemed as if there were nothing +left to do but to scream and fall in a faint in front of Bouchard, her +ear caught the welcome sound which told her that Marta had returned from +the tunnel. + +"Yes, sir. Won't you come in, sir? Of course, sir," she said, standing +aside. "Won't you be seated, sir?" + +"Good day, Colonel Bouchard!" called Marta, appearing in the doorway. + +"He wants to go into the dungeons to see the ghosts!" Minna exclaimed in +a return of horror before Bouchard had time to say a word, while she +screwed up the side of her face away from him suggestively to Marta. +"Those terrible ghosts! I'm afraid for him. Like a man, he may go right +into the dungeons, even if you didn't dare to, Miss Galland." + +"I wish he would!" Marta joined in eagerly. "That might cure you of your +silly imaginings, Minna. She actually thinks, Colonel Bouchard, that she +hears them groan and moan and even shriek. Didn't you say they shrieked +as well as groaned and moaned once about 3 A.M.?" she asked jocularly. + +"A ghost must be hard put to it when he shrieks," observed Bouchard, +glaring from one to the other. + +"It's all very well for you to make fun of me because you have the +advantage of an education," said Minna to Marta, "but you +yourself--you--" + +"Yes, I did hear what sounded like moaning voices," admitted Marta +rather sheepishly. "But of course it was imagination. Now we have a man +with nerve enough to go into the dungeons, we'll lay this ridiculous +psychological bugaboo at once; that is, if you have the nerve!" She +arched her brows in challenging scrutiny of Bouchard, while her eyes +twinkled at the prospect of adventure. "I thought I had, myself, but +before I got to the dungeons the clammy air wilted it and I was rubbing +my eyes to keep from seeing all kinds of apparitions." + +She puzzled Bouchard, she was so facile, so ready, so many-sided. But +the more she puzzled him the stronger became his conviction of her +guilt. He guessed that all this talk was only a prelude to some trick to +keep him out of the tunnel. Poor at speech at best, slightly fussed by +her candid good humor and teasing, he hesitated as to his next remark. +He was going to be short with her in stating that he would go into the +tunnel immediately, when she took the words out of his mouth. + +"This way, please. I'm all impatience. I only wish that you had +suggested it before." + +As they passed out of the room Minna leaned against the wall, exhausted +and wonder-struck. + +"Miss Galland is beyond me!" she thought. "Does she think those hawk +eyes will miss that little button of the panel door?" + +"We'll need a lantern," said Marta as she took up the one she had been +using from a corner of the tool room; while Bouchard, slowly turning his +head like some automaton, was examining every detail of floor and wall, +spades, hoes, and weeders, for a hidden significance. The lantern was +still hot, and Marta's finger smarted with a burn, but she did not +twitch. She was so keyed up that she felt capable of walking over +red-hot coals, while she joked about ghosts. "There!" she exclaimed, +after the lantern was lighted. "This is going to be great sport. Ghost +hunting--think of that! We might have made a ghost party Too bad we +didn't think of it in time. Yes, it's a pity to be so exclusive about +it. Even now we might send for General Westerling and some of the other +staff-officers." + +She paused and looked at Bouchard questioningly, perhaps challengingly; +at least, he thought challengingly. He had half a mind to concur. Could +anything be better than to have Westerling present if suspicions proved +correct? But no. She wanted Westerling and that was the best reason why +he should not be present. Yet there was no sign of chicane in the +brimming fun of her eyes that went with the suggestion. Bouchard's +search for the proper words of dissent left him rather confused and at a +disadvantage. With sympathetic quickness she seemed to guess his +thoughts, and in a way that he found all the more exasperating. + +"No, no! We're too impatient! We can't wait, can we?" she exclaimed. +"Let's go. Let's get the ghosts single-handed, you and I. If we win +we'll demand a specially large bronze cross to be struck for us." + +"Yes," he agreed with an affectation of humor that made him feel +ludicrous. He always felt ludicrous when he tried to be humorous. + +"Come on!" said Marta, going to the stairway. + +He extended his hand to take the lantern with an "If you please!" + +"No. When we approach the enemy I'll let you lead," she replied, +refusing the offer. "I'll be only too glad then; but these stairs are +very tricky if you don't know them. Keep watch!" she warned him as she +started to descend, picking her way slowly. + +Once in the tunnel she held the lantern a little back of her in her +right hand, which threw a shadow to the left on the side of the panel +door. She was walking very fast, too fast to please Bouchard. In the +swinging rays he could not fly-speck the surroundings with the care that +he desired. Yet how could he ask her to slacken her pace? This she did +of her own accord before they had gone far. + +"Isn't it damp and deathlike? Think of it!" she exclaimed. "No ray of +sunlight has been in here since the tunnel was dug--no, not even then; +for probably it was dug after the castle was built. Think of the stories +these walls could tell after the silence of centuries! Think of the +prisoners driven along at the point of the halberd to slow death in the +dungeons! You feel their spirits in the cold, clammy air." Her elocution +was excellent, as her voice sank to an awed whisper, impressing even +Bouchard with a certain uncanniness. Her steps became slow, as with +effort, while he was not missing a square inch of the top, bottom, or +sides of the tunnel. "But I'll not--I'll not this time, when I have a +soldier with me. For once I'll go to the end!" she cried with forced +courage, suddenly starting forward at a half run that sent the lantern's +rays lurching and dancing in a way that confused the hawk eyes. Then her +burst of strength seemed to give out in collapse and she dropped against +the wall for support, her back covering the panel door. + +"I can't! I'm just foolishly, weakly feminine!" she whispered brokenly. +"According to reason there aren't any ghosts, I know. But it gets on my +nerves too much-my imaginings!" She held out the lantern with a +trembling hand. "I will wait here. You go on in!" she begged. "Please do +and show me what a fool I am! Show that it is all a woman's +hysteria--for we are all hysterical, aren't we? Go into every dungeon, +please!" + +She did seem on the verge of hysteria, quivering as die was from head to +foot. But Bouchard, holding the lantern and staring at her, his eyes +unearthly lustrous in the yellow rays, hesitated to agree to the request +because it was hers. Marta was not so near hysteria that she did not +divine his thought. + +"Has it got on your nerves, too?" she inquired. "Are you, too, afraid?" + +"No, I'm not afraid!" replied Bouchard irritably. "But aren't you afraid +to be left alone in the dark? I'll take you back to the sitting-room and +you can wait there," he added with a show of gallantry, which she +improved on with a flattering if scared smile. + +"I'm not afraid with you between me and the dungeons," she said. "I'll +hold my ground. Don't think me altogether a craven." + +"Very well," was all that he could say. "I came to see the dungeons, and +I'll see them!" + +After the lantern flame grew fainter and finally disappeared around a +bend, Marta emitted a peculiar, squeaky little laugh. It sounded to her +as if her own ghost--the ghost of her former self--were laughing in +satire. There was a devilish, mischievous joy in battling to outwit +Bouchard more than in her deceit of Westerling. Satire, +yes--needle-pointed, acid-tipped! Melodrama done in burlesque, too. In +the name of the noble art of war, a bit of fooling about ghosts in a +tunnel might influence the fate of armies that were the last word in +modern equipment. And men played at killing with a grand front of +martial dignity, when such a little thing could turn the balance of +slaughter! The ghosts in the dungeons seemed about as real as anything, +except the childishness of adult humanity in organized mass. She laughed +again, this time very softly, as she moved away from the panel door a +few steps farther along the wall toward the entrance and again leaned +back for support. + +She had to wait a half-hour before she saw a yellow flame reappear and +heard the dully echoing steps of Bouchard approaching. That tiny +push-button on the panel, of the color of stone, was in the shadow of +her figure against the lantern's rays, which gave a glazed and haunted +effect to Bouchard's eyes, rolling as he studied the walls and ceiling +and floor of the tunnel in final baffled and desperate inquiry. + +"Did you see anything? Did you go into all the dungeons?" Marta called +to him. + +Bouchard did not answer. Perhaps he was too full of disgust for words. +Marta, however, had plenty of words in her impatience for knowledge. + +"If there were you must have caught them with a quick strangle-hold. Or, +did you see one and not dare to go on? Tell me! tell me!" she insisted +when he stopped before her, his expression a strange mixture of defiance +and dissatisfaction while he was searching the wall around her figure. +Before his eye had any inclination to look as far away from her as the +button she stepped free of the wall and laid her hand on Bouchard's arm. +"I can't wait! I've nearly perished of suspense!" she cried. "I'm just +dying to know what you found. Please tell me!" + +Meanwhile, she was looking into his eyes, which were eagerly devouring +the spot that her figure had hidden. He saw nothing but bare stone. +Marta slipped her hand behind her and began brushing her back. + +"My gown must be a sight!" she exclaimed. "But I do believe you saw a +ghost and that he struck you speechless!" + +"No!" exploded Bouchard. "No, I saw nothing!" + +"Nothing!" she repeated. She half turned to go. He passed by her with +the lantern, while she kept to the side of the wall which held the +button, covering it with her shadow successfully. "Nothing! No bones, no +skulls--not even any anklets fastened by chains to the clammy, wet +stones?" + +"Yes, just an ordinary set of Middle Age dungeons and some staples in +the walls!" he grumbled. + +This was no news to her as, with Minna for company, she had explored all +the underground passages. + +"Wonderful! I suppose a little courage will always lay ghosts!" She +even found it difficult to conceal a note of triumph in her tone, for +the button was now well behind them. "It's all right, Minna; there +aren't any ghosts!" she called as they entered the sitting-room. And +Minna, in the kitchen, covered her mouth lest she should scream for joy. + +"Thank you!" said Bouchard grudgingly as Marta saw him to the door. + +"On the contrary, thank you! It was such fun--if I hadn't been so +scared," replied Marta, and their gaze held each other fast in a +challenge, hers beaming good nature and his saturnine in its rebuff and +a hound-like tenacity of purpose, saying plainly that his suspicions +were not yet laid. + +When Bouchard returned to his desk he guessed the contents of the note +awaiting him, but he took a long time to read its stereotyped +expressions in transferring him to perfunctory duty well to the rear of +the army. Then he pulled himself together and, leaden-hearted, settled +down to arrange routine details for his departure, while the rest of the +staff was immersed in the activity of the preparations for the attack on +Engadir. He knew that he could not sleep if he lay down. So he spent the +night at work. In the morning his successor, a young man whom he himself +had chosen and trained, Colonel Bellini, appeared, and the fallen man +received the rising man with forced official courtesy. + +"In my own defence and for your aid," he said, "I show you a copy of +what I have just written to General Westerling." + +A brief note it was, in farewell, beginning with conventional thanks for +Westerling's confidence in the past. + +"I am punished for being right," it concluded. "It is my belief that +Miss Galland sends news to the enemy and that she draws it from you +without your consciousness of the fact. I tell you honestly. Do what you +will with me." + +It took more courage than any act of his life for the loyal Bouchard to +dare such candor to a superior. Seeing the patchy, yellow, bloodless +face drawn in stiff lines and the abysmal stare of the deep-set eyes in +their bony recesses, Bellini was swept with a wave of sympathy. + +"Thank you, Bouchard. You've been very fine!" said Bellini as he grasped +Bouchard's hand, which was icy cold. + +"My duty--my duty, in the hope that we shall kill two Browns for every +Gray who has fallen--that we shall yet see them starved and besieged and +crying for mercy in their capital," replied Bouchard. He saluted with a +dismal, urgent formality and stalked out of the room with the tread of +the ghost of Hamlet's father. + +The strange impression that this farewell left with Bellini still +lingered when, a few moments later, Westerling summoned him. Not alone +the diffidence of a new member of the staff going into the Presence +accounted for the stir in his temples, as he waited till some papers +were signed before he had Westerling's attention. Then Westerling picked +up Bouchard's note and shook his head sadly. + +"Poor Bouchard! You can see for yourself," and he handed the note to +Bellini. "I should have realized earlier that it was a case for the +doctor and not for reprimand. Mad! Poor Bouchard! He hadn't the ability +or the resiliency of mind for his task, as I hope you have, colonel." + +"I hope so, sir," replied Bellini. + +"I've no doubt you have," said Westerling. "You are my choice!" + + + + +XXXIX + +A CHANGE OF PLAN + + +That day and the next Westerling had no time fix strolling in the +garden. His only exercise was a few periods of pacing on the veranda. +Turcas, as tirelessly industrious as ever, developed an increasingly +quiet insistence to leave the responsibility of decisions about +everything of importance to a chief who was becoming increasingly +arbitrary. The attack on Engadir being the jewel of Westerling's own +planning, he was disinclined to risk success by delegating authority, +which also meant sharing the glory of victory. + +Bouchard's note, though officially dismissed as a matter of pathology, +would not accept dismissal privately. In flashes of distinctness it +recurred to him between reports of the progress of preparations and +directions as to dispositions. At dusk of the second day, when all the +guns and troops had their places for the final movement under cover of +darkness and he rose from his desk, the thing that had edged its way +into a crowded mind took possession of the premises that strategy and +tactics had vacated. It passed under the same analysis as his work. His +overweening pride, so sensitive to the suspicion of a conviction that he +had been fooled, put his relations with Marta in logical review. + +He had fallen in love in the midst of war. This fact was something that +his egoism must resent. Any woman who had struck such a response in him +as she had must have great depths. Had she depths that he had not +fathomed? He recalled her sudden change of attitude toward war, her +conversion to the cause of the Grays, and her charm in this as in all +their relations. + +Was it conceivable that the change was not due to a personal feeling for +him? Was her charm a charm with a purpose? Had he, the chief of staff, +been beguiled into making a woman his confidant in military secrets? +Just what had he told her? He could not recollect anything definite and +recollection was the more difficult because he could not call to mind a +single pertinent military question that she had ever asked him. Such +information as he might have imparted had been incidental to their +talks. + +He had enveloped her in glamour; his most preciously trained mental +qualities lapsed in her presence. It was time that she was regarded +impersonally, as a woman, by the critical eye of the chief of staff. A +cool and intense impatience possessed him to study her in the light Of +his new scepticism, when, turning the path of the first terrace, he saw +her watching the sunset over the crest of the range. + +She was standing quite still, a slim, soft shadow between him and the +light, which gilded her figure and quarter profile. Did she expect him? +he wondered. Was she posing at that instant for his benefit? And the +answer, could he have searched her secret brain, was, Yes--yes, if the +conscious and the subconscious mind are to be considered as one +responsible intelligence. He usually came at that hour. But he had not +come last night. They had not met since Bouchard's ghost hunt. + +There was no firing near by; only desultory artillery practice in the +distance. She heard the familiar crunch of five against three on the +gravel. She knew that he had stopped at the turn of the path, and she +was certain that he was looking at her! But she did not make the +slightest movement. The golden light continued to caress her profile. +Then, crunch, crunch, rather slowly, the five against three drew nearer. +The delay had been welcome; it had been to her a moment's respite to get +her breath before entering the lists. When she turned, her face in the +shadow, the glow of the sunset seemed to remain in her eyes, otherwise +without expression, yet able to detect something unusual under externals +as they exchanged commonplaces of greeting. + +"Well, there's a change in our official family. We have lost +Bouchard--transferred to another post!" said Westerling. + +Marta noted that, though he gave the news a casual turn, his scrutiny +sharpened. + +"Is that so? I can't say that my mother and I shall be sorry," she +remarked. "He was always glaring at us as if he wished us out of his +sight. Indeed, if he had his way, I think he would have made us +prisoners of war. Wasn't he a woman-hater?" she concluded, half in +irritation, half in amusement. + +"He had that reputation," said Westerling. "What do you think led to his +departure?" he continued. + +"I confess I cannot guess!" said Marta, with a look at the sunset glow +as if she resented the loss of a minute of it. + +"There has been a leak of information to the Browns!" he announced. + +"There has! And he was intelligence officer, wasn't he?" she asked, +turning to Westerling, her curiosity apparently roused as a matter of +courtesy to his own interest in the subject. + +"Who do you think he accused? Why, _you_," he added, with a peculiar +laugh. + +She noted the peculiarity of the laugh discriminatingly. + +"Oh!" Her eyes opened wide in wonder--only wonder, at first. Then, as +comprehension took the place of wonder, they grew sympathetic. "That +explains!" she exclaimed. "His hateful glances were those of delusion. +He was going mad, you mean?" + +"Yes," said Westerling, "that--that would explain it!" + +"I have been told that when people go mad they always ascribe every +injury done to them to the person who happens to have excited their +dislike," she mused. + +"Which seems to have been the case here," Westerling assented. He did +not know what else to say. + +"It was the strain of war, wasn't it?" Marta proceeded thoughtfully. "I +notice that all the staff-officers are showing it; that is," she added +on second thought, quite literally, as she regarded him for an instant +of silence, "all except you. You remain the same, calm and decisive." +There she looked away with a flutter of her lashes, as if she were +shamed at having allowed herself to be caught in open admiration of him. +"Look! The last effulgence of rose!" she went on hurriedly about the +sunset. "Why shouldn't we think of the sky as heaven, as Nirvana? What +better immortality than to be absorbed into that?" + +"None!" he agreed, but he was looking at her rather than at the sky. His +pride was recovering its natural confidence in the infallibility of his +judgment of human beings. He was seeing his suspicions as ridiculous +enough to convict him of a brain as disordered as Bouchard's. + +Marta was thinking that she had been skating on very thin ice and that +she must go on skating till she broke through. There was an exhilaration +about it that she could not resist: the exhilaration of risk and the +control of her faculties, prompted by a purpose hypnotically compelling. +Both were silent, she watching the sky, he in anticipation and suspense. +The rose went violet and the shadows over the range deepened. + +"The guns and the troops wait. With darkness the music begins!" he said +slowly, with a sort of stern fervor. + +"The music--the music! He calls it music!" ran through Marta's mind +mockingly, but she did not open her lips. + +"According to my plan--and your plan!" he added. + +"My plan--my plan!" she thought. Her plan that was to send men into a +shambles! + +"They wait, ready, every detail arranged," he continued proudly. + +The violet melted into an inky blue; silence, vast, heavy, +prevailed--silence where the millions lay on their arms. Even the guns +in the distance had ceased their echoing rumble. He felt the power of +her presence and of the moment. It was she who had given the information +that had enabled him to confound the scepticism of the staff by the easy +taking of Bordir. Through her he might repeat Bordir in a larger way at +Engadir, proving his theories of frontal attack. His courage of +initiative would shine out against the background of his staff's +scepticism as a light to the world's imagination. The first great man in +forty years; the genius of the new system of tactics to meet the demands +of a new age as Napoleon had met those of his, Grant of his, and Von +Moltke of his! Engadir taken, and his place on Valhalla would be secure. + +The very silence with its taut expectancy was of his planning. Alone +with her he waited for the thunders of his planning that were to break +it. The sky merged into the shadows of the landscape that spread and +thickened into blackness. Out of the drawn curtains of night broke an +ugly flash and farther up the slope spread the explosive circle of light +of a bursting shell. + +"The signal!" he exclaimed. + +Right and left the blasts spread along the Gray lines and right and +left, on the instant, the Browns sent their blasts in reply. Countless +tongues of flame seemed to burst from countless craters, and the range +to rock in a torment of crashes. In the intervening space between the +ugly, savage gusts from the Gray gun mouths, which sent their shells +from the midst of exploding Brown shells, swept the beams of the Brown +search-lights, their rays lost like sunlight in the vortex of an open +furnace door. + +"Splendid! splendid!" exclaimed Westerling, in a sweep of emotion at the +sight that had been born of his command. "Five thousand guns on our +side alone! The world has never seen the equal of this!" + +"Five thousand guns!" Marta was thinking. What wouldn't their cost have +bought in books, in gardens, and in playgrounds! Every shot the price of +a year's schooling for a child! + +"You see, we are pounding them along the whole frontier quite +impartially, so they shall not know where we are going to press home the +attack!" he continued. + +"But they do know! I've told them!" shot the burning arrow of mockery +through Marta's brain. + +"Their search-lights are watching for the infantry--and we shall press +the infantry forward, too," he added; "everywhere we make a show of +fight!" + +Then it occurred vividly to her, as a sudden discovery in the midst of +the blinding display, that this was not a kind of chaos like that of the +beginning of the world, not nature's own elemental debauch, but men +firing guns and men waiting for the charge under that spray of +death-dealing missiles. + +"Splendid! splendid!" he repeated. + +Marta looked away from the range to his face, very distinct in the +garish illumination. It was the face of a maestro of war seeing all his +rehearsals and all his labors come true in symphonic gratification to +the eye and ear; the face of a man of trained mind, the product of +civilization, with the elation of a party leader on the floor of a +parliament in a crisis. + +"Soon, now!" said Westerling, and looked at his watch. + +Shortly, in the direction of Engadir, to the rear of the steady flashes +broke forth line after line of flashes as the long-range batteries, +which so far had been silent, joined their mightier voices to the +chorus, making a continuous leaping burst of explosions over the Brown +positions, which were the real object of the attack. + +"The moment I've lived for!" exclaimed Westerling. "Our infantry is +starting up the apron of Engadir! We held back the fire of the heavy +guns concentrated for the purpose of supporting the men with an +outburst. Three hundred heavy guns pouring in their shells on a space of +two acres! We're tearing their redoubts to pieces! They can't see to +fire! They can't live under it! They're in the crater of a volcano! When +our infantry is on the edge of the wreckage the guns cease. Our infantry +crowd in--crowd into the house that Partow built. He'll find that +numbers count; that the power of modern gun-fire will open the way for +infantry in masses to take and hold vital tactical positions! +And--no--no, their fire in reply is not as strong as I expected." + +"Because they are letting you in! It will be strong enough in due +season!" thought Marta in the uncontrollable triumph of antagonism. Five +against three was in his tone and in every line of his features. + +"It's hard for a soldier to leave a sight like this, but the real news +will be awaiting me at my desk," he concluded, adding, as he turned +away: "It's fireworks worth seeing, and if you remain here I will return +to tell you the results." + +She had no thought of going. That arc of dreadful lightnings held her +with ghastly fascination. Suddenly all the guns ceased. Faintly in the +distance she heard a tumult of human voices in the high notes of a +savage cheer; the rattling din of rifles; the purring of automatics; and +then, except for the firefly flashes of scattered shots around Engadir, +silence and darkness. But she knew that chaos would soon be loosed +again--chaos and murder, which were the product of her own chicanery. +The Grays would find themselves in the trap of Partow's and Lanny's +planning. + +Turning her back to the range for the moment, she saw the twinkle of the +lights of the town and the threads of light of the wagon-trains and the +sweep of the lights of the railroad trains on the plain; while in the +foreground every window of the house was ablaze, like some factory on a +busy night shift. She could hear the click of the telegraph instruments +already reporting the details of the action as cheerfully as +Brobdingnagian crickets in their peaceful surroundings. Then out of the +shadows Westerling reappeared. + +"The apron of Engadir is ours!" he called. "Thanks to you!" he added +with pointed emphasis. Back in the house he had received congratulations +with a nod, as if success were a matter of course. Before her, +exultation unbent stiffness, and he was hoarsely triumphant and eager. +"It's plain sailing now," he went on. "A break in the main line! We have +only to drive home the wedge, and then--and then!" he concluded. + +She felt him close, his breath on her cheek. + +"Peace!" she hastened to say, drawing back instinctively. + +And then! The irony of the words in the light of her knowledge was +pointed by a terrific renewal of the thunders and the flashes far up on +the range, and she could not resist rejoicing in her heart. + +"That's the Browns!" exclaimed Westerling in surprise. + +The volume of fire increased. With the rest of the frontier in darkness, +the Engadir section was an isolated blaze. In its light she saw his +features, without alarm but hardening in dogged intensity. + +"They've awakened to what they have lost! They have been rushing up +reserves and are making a counter-attack. We must hold what we have +gained, no matter what the cost!" + +His last sentence was spoken over his shoulder as he started for the +house. + +Thus more fire called for more fire; more murder for more murder, she +thought. Her mind was projected into the thick of the battle. She saw a +panic of Grays caught in their triumph; of wounded men writhing and +crawling over their dead comrades, their position shown to the marksmen +by a search-light's glare. The dead grew thicker; their glassy eyes were +staring at her in reproach. She heard the hoarse and straining voices +of the Browns in their "God with us!" through the din of automatics. Men +snuggled for cover amidst torn flesh and red-tinged mud in the trenches, +and other men trampled them in fiendish risk of life to take more lives. + +Without changing her position, hardly turning her head, she watched +until the firing began to lessen rapidly. Then she breathed, "Engadir +must be ours again!" and realized that she was weak and faint. Suspense +had sapped her strength. She sought a seat in the arbor, where the +nervous force of other thoughts revived her. What would Westerling say +when he found that her information had led his men into a trap--when +staff scepticism was proven right and he a false prophet? + +From the house came the confused sound of voices in puzzling chorus. It +was not a cheer. It had the quality of a rapid fire of jubilant +exclamation as a piece of news was passed from lip to lip. Then she +heard that step which she knew so well. Sensitive ears noted that it +touched the gravel with unusual energy and quickness, which she thought +must be due to vexation over the repulse. She rose to face him, +summoning back the spirit of the actress. + +"This is better yet! I came to tell you that the counter-attack failed!" +he said as he saw her appear from the shelter of the arbor. + +She wondered if she were going to fall. But the post of the trellis was +within reach. She caught hold of it to steady herself. Failed! All her +acting had served only to make such a trap for the Browns as Lanny had +planned for the Grays! She was grateful for the darkness that hid her +face, which was incapable of any expression now but blank despair. +Westerling's figure loomed very large to her as she regained her +self-possession--large, dominant, unconquerable in the suggestion of +five against three. And felicitations were due! She drew away from the +post, swaying and trembling, nerves and body not yet under command of +mind. She could not force her tongue to so false a sentiment as +congratulation. + +"The killing--it must have been terrible!" her mind at last made her +exclaim to cover her tardiness of response to his mood. + +"You thought of that--as you should--as I do!" he said. + +He took her hands in his, pulsing warm with the flowing red of his +strength. She let them remain lifelessly, as if she had not the will to +take them away, the instinct of her part again dominant. To him this was +another victory, and it was discovery--the discovery of melting weakness +in her for the first time, which magnified his sense of masculine power. +He tightened his grip slightly and she shuddered. + +"You are tired!" he said, and it hurt her that he could be so +considerate. + +"The killing--to end that! It's that I want!" she breathed miserably. + +"And the end is near!" he said. "Yes, now, thanks to you!" + +Thanks to her! And she must listen and submit to his touch! + +"The engineers and material were ready to go in," he continued. "Before +morning, as I had planned, we shall be so well fortified in the position +that nothing can budge us. This success so strengthens my power with the +staff and the premier that I need not wait on Fabian tactics. I am +supreme. I shall make the most of the demoralization of this blow to the +enemy. I shall not wait on slow approaches in the hope of saving life. +To-morrow I shall attack and keep on attacking till all the main line is +ours." + +"Now you are playing your real part, the conqueror!" she thought gladly. +"Your kind of peace is the ruin of another people; the peace of a +helpless enemy. That is better"--better for her conscience. Unwittingly, +she allowed her hands to remain in his. In the paralysis of despair she +was unconscious that she had hands. She felt that she could endure +anything to retrieve the error into which she had been the means of +leading the Browns. And the killing--it would not stop, she knew. No, +the Browns would not yield until they were decimated. + +"We have the numbers to spare. Numbers shall press home--home to terms +in their capital!" Westerling's voice grew husky as he proceeded, harsh +as orders to soldiers who hesitated in face of fire. "After that--after +that"--the tone changed from harshness to desire, which was still the +desire of possession--"the fruits of peace, a triumph that I want you to +share!" He was drawing her toward him with an impulse of the force of +this desire, when she broke free with an abrupt, struggling pull. + +"Not that! Not that! Your work is not yet done!" she cried. + +He made a move as if to persist, then fell back with a gesture of +understanding. + +"Right! Hold me to it!" he exclaimed resolutely. "Hold me to the +bargain! So a woman worth while should hold a man worth while." + +"Yes!" she managed to say, and turned to go in a sudden impetus of +energy. His egoism might ascribe her precipitancy to a fear of +succumbing to the tenderness which he thought that she felt for him, +when her one wish was to be free of him; her one rallying and +tempestuous purpose of the moment to reach the telephone. + +Mrs. Galland and Minna saw her ghostlike as she passed through the +living-room, their startled questions unheeded. Could it be true that +she had betrayed every decent attribute of a woman in vain? Why had the +counter-attack failed? Because Westerling had been too strong, too +clever, for old Partow? Because God was still with the heaviest +battalions? Half running, half stumbling, the light of the lantern +bobbing and trembling weirdly, she hastened through the tunnel. Usually +the time from taking the receiver down till Lanny replied was only a +half minute. Now she waited what seemed many minutes without response. +Had the connection been broken? To make sure that her impatience was not +tricking her she began to count off the seconds. Then she heard +Lanstron's voice, broken and hoarse: + +"Marta, Marta, he is dead! Partow is dead!" + +Recovering himself, Lanstron told the story of Partow's going, which was +in keeping with his life and his prayers. As the doctor put it, the +light of his mind, turned on full voltage to the last, went out without +a flicker. Through the day he had attended to the dispositions for +receiving the Grays' attack, enlivening routine as usual with flashes of +humor and reflection ranging beyond the details in hand. An hour or so +before dark he had reached across the table and laid his big, soft palm +on the back of Lanstron's hand. He was thinking aloud, a habit of his, +in Lanstron's company, when an idea requiring gestation came to him. + +"My boy, it is not fatal if we lose the apron of Engadir. The defences +behind it are very strong." + +"No, not fatal," Lanstron agreed. "But it's very important." + +"And Westerling will think it fatal. Yes, I understand his character. +Yes--yes; and if our counter-attack should fail, then Miss Galland's +position would be secure. Hm-m-m--those whom the gods would +destroy--hm-m-m. Westerling will be convinced that repeated, +overwhelming attacks will gain our main line. Instead of using +engineering approaches, he will throw his battalions, masses upon +masses, against our works until his strength is spent. It would be +baiting the bull. A risk--a risk--but, my boy, I am going to--" + +Partow's head, which was bent in thought, dropped with a jerk. A +convulsion shook him and he fell forward onto the map, his brave old +heart in its last flutter, and Lanstron was alone in the silent room +with the dead and his responsibility. + +"The order that I knew he was about to speak, Marta, I gave for him," +Lanstron concluded. "It seemed to me an inspiration--his last +inspiration--to make the counter-attack a feint." + +"And you're acting chief of staff, Lanny? You against Westerling?" + +"Yes." + + + + +XL + +WITH FRACASSE'S MEN + + +We have heard nothing of Jacob Pilzer, the butcher's son, and Peterkin, +the valet's son, and others of Fracasse's company of the 128th of the +Grays since Hugo Mallin threw down his rifle when they were firing on +scattered Brown soldiers in retreat. + +It was in one of the minor actions of the step-by-step advance after the +taking of the Galland house that the judge's son received official +notice of a holiday in the form of a nickel pellet from the Browns which +made a clean, straight hole the size of a lead pencil through his flesh +and then went singing on its way without deflection, as if it liked to +give respites from travail to tired soldiers. + +"Grazed the ribs--no arteries!" remarked the examining surgeon. "You'll +be well in a month." + +"We'll hold the war for you!" called the banker's son cheerily after the +still figure on the stretcher. + +"And you'll get gruel and custards, maybe," said the barber's son. "I +like custards." + +Once the judge's son had thought that nothing could be so grand as to be +wounded fighting for one's country. He had in mind then, as the object +of his boyish admiration, a young officer returned from a little +campaign against the blacks in Africa, when, the casualties being few +and the scene distant and picturesque, all heroes with scars had an +aspect of romantic exclusiveness. But there was no more distinction now +in being wounded than in catching cold. Truly, colonial wars were the +only satisfactory kind. + +The judge's son found himself one of many men on cots in long rows in +the former barracks of the Browns near La Tir. Daily bulletins told the +patients the names of the positions taken and daily they heard of fresh +batches of wounded arriving, which were not mentioned on the +bulletin-board. + +"We continue to win," said the doctors and nurses invariably in answer +to all questions. "General Westerling announces that everything is going +as planned." + +"You must know that speech well!" observed the judge's son to the nurse +of his section. + +Her lips twitched in a kind of smile. + +"Letter-perfect!" she replied "It's official." + +In two weeks, so fast had the puncture from the aseptic little pellet of +civilized warfare healed under civilization's medical treatment, the +judge's son was up and about, though very weak. But the rules strictly +confined his promenades to the barracks yard. There might be news coming +down the traffic-gorged castle road out of the region where the guns +sounded that convalescents were not intended to hear. For news could +travel in other ways than by bulletin-boards; and the judge's son, +merely watching the faces of medical officers, guessed that it was +depressing. But after the first attack on Engadir their faces lighted. +The very thrill of victory seemed to be in the air. + +"It's in the main line of defence!" called the doctor on his morning +rounds of the cots. "They've made Westerling a field-marshal. He's +outwitted the Browns! In a few days now we'll have the range!" + +How staggering was the cost he was not to realize till later, when the +ambulance stewards kept repeating: + +"More to come!" + +A newcomer, who took the place of a man who had died on the cot next to +the judge's son, had been in the fight. He was still ether-sick and weak +from the amputation of his right arm, with a dazed, glassy, and far-away +look in his eyes, as if everything in the world was strange and +uncertain. + +"The fearful flashes--the explosions--the gusts of steel in the air!" +he whispered. + +The next night Westerling followed up his supposed advantage at Engadir +as he had planned, and there was no sleep for the thunders and the light +of the explosions through the barracks-room windows. + +"I can see what is happening and feel--and feel!" said the man who had +been at Engadir. + +In the morning the bulletin announced that more positions were taken, +with very heavy losses--to the enemy. But the news that travelled +unofficially from tongue to tongue down the castle road and spoke in the +faces of doctors and nurses said, "And to us!" plainly enough, even if +the judge's son had not heard a doctor remark: + +"It's awful--inconceivable! Not a hospital tent in this division is +unoccupied. Most of the houses in town are full, and we're preparing for +another grand attack!" + +Now for two days the guns kept up their roar. + +"Making ready for the infantry to go in," ran the talk around the +barracks yard. + +After the infantry had gone in and the result was known, the doctor on +his morning round said to the judge's son: + +"You're pretty pale yet, but you'll do. We must make room for a big +crowd that is coming and the orders are to get every man who is in any +condition to fight to the front." + +"And if I get another hole in me you'll patch me up again?" + +"Get any number and we'll patch you up if they're in the right place," +was the answer. "But be careful about that detail." + +Soon the judge's son was with a score of convalescents who were marched +down to the town, where they formed in column with other detachments. + +"Not with that cough!" exclaimed a doctor as they were about to start, +ordering a man out of line. "You'd never get to the front. You'd only +have to be brought back in an ambulance." + +An enlightening march this for the judge's son from hospital to +trenches, moving with a tide of loaded commissariat wagons and empty +ambulances and passing a tide of loaded ambulances and empty +commissariat wagons. A like scene was on every road to the front; a like +scene on every vista of landscape along any part of the frontier. All +trees and bushes and walls and buildings that would give cover to the +enemy the Browns had razed. On every point of rising ground were the +trenches and redoubts that the Browns had yielded after their purpose of +making the Grays earn their way by trenches of their own had been +served. The fields were trampled by the feet of infantry, cut by gun +wheels, ploughed by shells, and sown with the conical nickel pellets +from rifles and the round lead bullets of shrapnel. An escarpment of +rock, where the road-bed was slashed into a hillside in a sharp turn, +struck by the concentrated fire of automatics, appeared to have been +beaten by thousands of sharp-headed hammers, leaving a pile of chips and +dust. + +The traffic of the main roads spread into branch roads which ended in +the ganglia of supply depots, all kept in touch by the network of wires +focussing through different headquarters to Westerling. In this +conquered territory with its face of desolation there were no fighting +men except reserves or convalescents on their way to the front. All the +rest were wounded or dead or occupied in the routine of supply and +intelligence. The organization which had been drilled through two +generations of peace for this emergency exhibited the signs of pressure. + +Eyes that met when commands were given and received were dull from want +of sleep or hectically bright as a hypochondriac's. Voices spoke in a +grim, tired monotone, broken by sudden flashes of irritation or +eruptions of anger. Features were drawn like those of rowers against a +tide. The very proportions of the ghastly harvest after the last, the +heaviest of all, of the attacks brought spasms of nausea to men already +hardened to blood and death. If the officers of the staffs in their +official conspiracy of silence would not talk, the privates and the +wounded would. The judge's son, observing, listening, thinking, was +gathering a story to tell his comrades of Company B of the 128th. + +That night he and his comrade convalescents slept in the open. Their +bodies were huddled close together under their blankets for warmth, +while aching limbs twitched from the fatigue of the march. The morning +showed that others had coughs which should have kept them from the +front. + +"Four or five cases of pneumonia due in that lot!" a doctor remarked to +a hospital-corps sergeant. "Put them in empties right away." + +After this announcement other coughs developed. Amusing, these sudden, +purposeful efforts should one happen to think of them in that way. But +no one did. + +"No you don't, you malingerers!" said the doctor sharply. "I've been at +this business long enough to know a real cough." + +Now the judge's son and a dozen others were separated from the rest of +their companions and started over a hill. From the top they had a broad +view. Across a strip of valley lay the main rise to the heights of the +range. Along the summit nothing warlike was visible except the irregular +landscape against the horizon. There the enemy rested in his +fortifications. The slopes, as far as the judge's son could see on +either hand, were like the warrens of an overpopulated rabbit world in +hiding. Here was the army of the Grays in its redoubts and trenches A +thousand times as many men as were ever at work on the Panama Canal had +been digging their way forward--digging regardless of union hours; +digging to save their own lives and to take lives. And the nearer they +came to the top of the range the deeper they had to dig and the slower +their progress. + +As the little group of convalescents descended into a valley a bursting +shell from the Browns scattered its fragments over the earth near by. + +"They drop one occasionally, though they don't expect to get more than a +man or two by chance, which is hardly worth the cost of the charge," +some one explained. "You see that they must know just what our positions +are from their understanding of our army's organization, and the purpose +is to bother us about bringing up supplies and reserves. Start a +commissariat train or a company in close order across, and--whew! The +air screams!" + +Once on the other side of the valley, and the maze of zigzags and +parallels leading into the warrens was simplified by signs indicating +the location of regiments. At length the judge's son found himself in +the home cave of his own tribe. His comrades were resting at the +noon-hour, their backs against the wall of their shell-proof. In the +faint light their faces were as gray as the dust on the dirty uniforms +that hung on their gaunt bodies. Dust was caked in the seams around +their eyes; their cheeks were covered with dusty beards. Their greeting +of the returned absentee was that of men who had passed through a strain +that left existence untouched by the spring of average sensations. + +"Did you get the custards?" asked the barber's son in a squeaky voice. + +"No, but I got a jelly once--only once!" + +"Snob!" said the barber's son. + +"Jelly! I could eat a hogshead of jelly and still be empty! What I want +is fresh meat!" growled Pilzer, the butcher's son. + +"A hogshead of jelly might be good to bathe in!" said the banker's son. +"I haven't had a bath for a month." + +"I have. I turned my underclothes inside out!" said the barber's son. He +was aiming to take Hugo's place as humorist, in the confidence of one +sprung from a talkative family. + +Scanning the faces, the judge's son found many new ones--those of the +older reservists--while many of the faces of barrack days were missing. + +"Whom have we lost?" he asked. + +The answer, given with dull matter-of-factness, revealed that, of the +group that had talked so light-heartedly of war six weeks before, only +little Peterkin, the valet's son, and Pilzer, the butcher's son, and the +barber's and the banker's sons survived. They were sitting in a row, +from the instinct that makes old associates keep together even though +they continually quarrel. The striking thing was that Peterkin looked +the most cheerful and well-kept of the four. As the proud possessor of a +pair of scissors, he had trimmed a surprisingly heavy beard Van Dyck +fashion, which emphasized his peaked features and a certain +consciousness of superiority; while the barber's son sported only a few +scraggly hairs. The scant, reddish product of Pilzer's cheeks, leaving +bare the liver patch, only accentuated its repulsiveness and a savagery +in his voice and look which was no longer latent under the conventional +discipline of every-day existence. The company had not been in the first +Engadir assault, but, being near the Engadir position, had suffered +heavily in support. + +"You were in the big attack night before last?" asked the judge's son. + +"We started in," said Peterkin, "but Captain Fracasse brought us back," +he added in a way that implied that only orders had kept him from going +on. + +Peterkin, the trembling little Peterkin of the baptismal charge across +the line of white posts, had been the first out of the redoubt on to the +glacis in that abortive effort, living up to the bronze cross on his +breast. He was one of the half dozen out of the score that had started +to return alive. The psychology of war had transformed his gallantry; it +had passed from simulation to reality, thanks to his established +conviction that he led a charmed life. Little Peterkin, always pale but +never getting paler, was ready to lead any forlorn hope. A superstitious +nature, which, at the outset of the war, had convinced him that he must +be killed in the first charge, now, as the result of his survival, gave +him all the faith of Eugene Aronson that the bullet would never be made +that could kill him. + +"Was the attack general all along the front?" some one asked. "We +couldn't tell. All we knew was the hell around us." + +"Yes," answered the judge's son. + +"Did we accomplish anything?" + +"A few minor positions, I believe." + +"But we will win!" said Peterkin. "The colonel said so." + +"And the news--what is the news?" demanded the barber's son. "You +needn't be afraid," he added. "The officers are on the other side of the +redoubt. They get sick of the sight of us and we of them and this is +their recess and ours from the eternal digging." + +"Yes, the news from home!" + +"Yes, from home! We don't even get letters any more. They've shut off +all the mails." + +"I met a man from our town," said the judge's son. "He said that after +that story was published in the press about Hugo's damning patriotism +and hurrahing for the Browns--it was fearfully exaggerated--his old +father and mother shut themselves up in the house and would not show +their faces for shame. But his sweetheart, however much her parents +stormed, refused to renounce him. She held her head high and said that +the more they abused him the more she loved him, and she knew he could +do nothing wrong." + +"Hugo was not a patriot. It takes red blood to make a patriot!" said +Peterkin. In the pride of heroism and prestige, he was becoming an +oracular enunciator of commonplaces from the lips of his superiors. + +"The absence of any word from the front only increases the suspense of +the people. They do not know whether their sons and brothers and +husbands are living or dead," continued the judge's son. + +"Up to a week ago they let us write," said Pilzer, "though they wouldn't +let us say anything except that we were well." + +"That was because it might give information to the enemy," said +Peterkin. + +"As if I didn't know that!" grumbled Pilzer. "The enemy seems to be +always ready for us, anyway," he added. + +"The chief of staff stopped the letters because he said that mothers who +received none took it for granted that their sons were dead," explained +the judge's son. "Besides, he asserts that casualties are not heavy and +asks for patience in the name of patriotism." + +"The--!" exclaimed Pilzer, referring to Westerling. He who had set out +to be an officers' favorite had become bitter against all officers, high +and low. + +Peterkin was speechlessly aghast. The others said nothing. They were +used to Pilzer's oaths and obscenity, with a growing inclination to +profanity on their own part. Besides, they rather agreed with his view +of the chief of staff. + +"Did you see many dead and wounded?" asked a very tired voice, that of +one of the older reservists who was emaciated, with a complexion like +blue mould. + +"How can I tell you what I saw? Ought I to tell you?" + +"When you've had to wipe a piece of brains out of your eye, as I +have--it was warm and jelly-like," said Pilzer, "you ain't as squeamish +as Hugo Mallin. I wonder they don't give him a bronze cross!" + +"Bronze crosses are given for bravery in action," said Peterkin in his +new-fashioned parrot way since he had become great. "You should not do +anything to affect the spirit of corps." + +"The boy wonder from the butler's pantry! Our dear, natty little +buttons! Bullets glide off him!" snarled Pilzer, who had set out to win +a bronze cross, only to see it won by a pygmy. + +"Did you see many dead and wounded?" persisted the very tired voice of +the old reservist. + +"Yes, yes--and every kind of destruction!" answered the judge's son. +"And--I kept thinking of Hugo Mallin." + +"I'm glad they didn't shoot Hugo," said the very tired voice. "I'm sorry +for his old father and mother. I'm a father myself." + +"I certainly had a good farewell kick at him!" declared Pilzer. "Lean on +yourself!" he added, giving a shove to the old reservist who was next +him. + +"I saw men who had ceased to be human. That reminds me, Pilzer," the +judge's son went on, "I saw one wounded man, lying beside another, turn +and strike him, and he said: 'I had to hit somebody or something!' And I +heard a wounded man who was waiting in line before the surgeon's table +say: 'There's others hurt worse than me. I can wait.' I heard men +begging the doctors to put them out of their misery. I saw two dead men +with their hands clasped as they were when they died. Then there were +the men who went mad. One had to be held by force. He kept crying with +demoniacal laughs: 'I want to go back and kill--kill! Let's all kill, +kill, kill!' Another insisted on dancing, despite a bandaged leg. 'Look, +look at the little red spots!' he was saying. 'You must step on one +every time; if you don't, the automatic will get you!' Another declared +that he had been through hell and insisted that he would live forever +now. Another was an artist, a landscape-painter, who had lost his +eyesight. He was seeing beautiful landscapes, and the nurses had to +strap him to his cot to keep him from struggling to his feet and trying +to use an imaginary brush on imaginary canvases. He died seeing +beautiful landscapes. + +"A pretty dreary sight, too, was the field of the dead, as I called it. +As the bodies were brought in they were laid in long rows, until there +was no more room without moving a supply depot. So there was nothing to +do but begin to pile them two deep. A service-corps man took off each +man's metal identification tag and tossed it into an ammunition box. One +box was already full and a second half full. Chink-chink-chink--tags of +the rich man's son and the poor man's son, the doctor of philosophy and +the illiterate; chink-chink-chink--a life each time. They'll take the +tags to the staff office and tired clerks will find the names that go +with the numbers." + +"You cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs," said Peterkin, +quoting high authority. "Some have to be killed." + +"The last I heard from home my wife and one of the children were sick +and my employer had gone bankrupt," broke in the very tired voice rather +irrelevantly. + +"Yes, my father's last letter was pretty blue about business," said the +banker's son. He was looking at his dirty hands. The odor of clothes +unlaundered for weeks, in which the men had slept, tortured his +sensitive nostrils. "A millionaire and filthy as swine in a sty!" he +exclaimed. "Digging like a navvy in order to get admission to the +abattoir!" + +"Were there any reserves coming our way?" asked the barber's son. + +"Yes, masses." + +"Perhaps they will relieve us and we'll go into the reserves for a +while," suggested the very tired voice. + +"No fear!" growled Pilzer. + +"They have called out the old men, the fellows of forty-five to fifty, +who were supposed to be out of it for good," said the judge's son. +"Westerling says they are to guard prisoners and property when we cross +the range and start on the march to the Browns' capital. Then all the +other men can be on the firing-line and force the war to a mercifully +quick end with a minimum loss. I saw numbers of them just arriving at La +Tir, footsore and limping." + +"I know. Mine's been indoor work, making paints," said the very tired +voice. "When you've had long hours in the shop and had to sit up late +with sick babies, you aren't fit for marching. And I think I've got +lead-poisoning." + +"Whew!" The judge's son put his hand over his nose as a breeze sprang up +from the direction of the Brown lines. + +"I thought we got them all," said the barber's son. + +"Must have missed one that was buried by a shell and another shell must +have dug him up!" muttered Pilzer, glaring at the barber's son. "It's +not nice on people with ladylike nostrils. James, get the _eau de +cologne_ and draw his bath for our plutocrat!" + +"You see, something had to be done about the dead between the redoubts," +explained the barber's son, "though the officers on both sides were +against it." + +"Naturally. It afforded opportunities for observation," put in Peterkin, +repeating the colonel's words. + +"But finally it was agreed to let a dozen from either side go out +without arms," the barber's son concluded. + +"I heard there was great complaint from the women," went on the judge's +son. "Women aren't like what they were in the last war. They want to +know what has become of their men-folk. They have been gathering in +crowds and making trouble for the police. One of the old reservists was +telling me of talk of an army of women marching to the front to learn +the truth of the situation." + +"If you don't stop leaning on me I'll give you a punch you'll remember!" +exclaimed Pilzer as he rammed his elbow into the old reservist's ribs. + +"I beg pardon! It was because I am tired and sort of blank-minded," the +old reservist explained. + +"You brute!" snapped the banker's son to Pilzer. + +"Mallin thrashed you once and I've done it once. On my word, I've a +mind to again!" + +"No, you don't! No, you can't! And this time your boxing tricks will do +you no good. I'll finish you!" + +The two had sprung to their feet with hectic energy: Pilzer's liver +patch a mottled purple in the midst of his curly red beard, his head +lowered in front of his short, thick neck as before a spring, and the +banker's son, lighter and quicker, awaiting the attack. Some of the +others half rose, while the rest looked on in curiosity mixed with +indifference. + +"I'll call the captain!" piped Peterkin. + +The judge's son stopped Peterkin and put a hand on either of the +adversaries' shoulders. + +"Can't we get enough fighting from the Browns without fighting each +other?" he asked. + +The banker's son and Pilzer dropped back in their places, in the +reaction of men who had spent their strength in defiance. + +"The thick of it last night, I heard, was still at Engadir, where +Westerling is determined to break through," the judge's son proceeded. +"At one point they sent in a regiment with a regiment covering it from +the rear, and the fellows ahead were told that they wouldn't be allowed +to come back alive--just what occurred at Port Arthur, you know--so they +had better take the position." + +"What happened?" asked the very tired voice. + +"Those who reached the enemy's works alive were taken prisoner." + +Further talk was interrupted by a volume of voices singing, which seemed +to issue from a cellar not far away. It had the swell of a hymn of +resolute purpose. + +"The Browns' song--something new since you were with us," explained the +barber's son to the judge's son. + +"Yes, their whole line sung it in the silence of dawn following last +night's repulse," said the banker's son. "Notice the hammer beat to it +and then the earth rumble, like pounding nails in a coffin box and +rattling the earth on top of the box after it is lowered." + +"Yes, and I get the words," said the judge's son, who knew the language +of the Browns: "'God with us, not to take what is theirs, but to keep +what is ours! God with us!'" + +"They say some private--Stransky, I believe his name is--composed the +words from a saying of Partow, their chief of staff, and it spread," put +in the very tired voice. + +"As it would at a time of high pressure like this, when all humanity's +nerves form an electric circuit," said the judge's son. "'God with us!' +What a power they put into that!" + +"But God is with us, not with them!" put in Peterkin earnestly. "Let's +have our song to answer them," he added, striking up the tune. + +So they sung the song they had sung as they started off to the war--a +song about camping in the squares of the Browns' capital and dining in +the Browns' government palace; a hurrahing, marchy song, but without +exactly the snap in keeping with its character. + +"The trouble is that they lie at the mouths of their burrows and get us +naked to their fire," said the banker's son. "We have to take their +positions--they don't try to take ours." + +"But we must go on! We can't give up now!" said the barber's son. + +"Yes, we must go on!" agreed some of the others stubbornly. + +"Yes, yes," came faintly from the very tired voice. + +"We shall win! The aggressive always wins!" declared Peterkin. + +Then the redoubt shook with an explosion and their eyes were blinded +with dust. + +"I thought it was about time!" said the barber's son. + +"Yes, the--!" snarled Pilzer. + +The shell had struck some distance away from where they sat, and as the +dust settled they heard the news of the result: + +"One fellow had his arm broken and another had his head crushed." + +"It'll keep us from working on the mine while we mend the breach," said +the barber's son. + +While the judge's son was telling the news, the colonel of the 128th and +Captain Fracasse were eating their biscuits together and making +occasional remarks rather than holding a conversation. + +"Well, Westerling is a field-marshal," said the colonel. + +"Yes, he's got something out of it!" + +"The men seem to be losing their spirit--there's no doubt of it!" +exclaimed the colonel, more aloud to himself than to Fracasse, after a +while. + +"No wonder!" replied Fracasse. Martinet though he was, he spoke in +grumbling loyalty to his soldiers. "What kind of spirit is there in +doing the work of navvies? Spirit! No soldiers ever fought better--in +invasion, at least. Look at our losses! Spirit! Westerling drives us in. +He thinks we can climb Niagara Falls! He--" + +"Stop! You're talking like an anarchist!" snapped the colonel. "How can +the men have spirit when you feel that way?" + +"I shall continue to obey orders and do my duty, sir!" replied Fracasse. +"And they will, too, or I'll know the reason why." + +There was a silence, but at length the colonel exploded: + +"I suppose Westerling knows what he is doing!" + +"Still, we must go on! We must win!" + +"Yes, the offensive always wins in the end. We must go on!" + +"And once we have the range--yes, once we've won one vital +position--the men will recover their enthusiasm and be crying: 'On to +the capital!'" + +"Right! We were forgetting history. We were forgetting the volatility of +human nature." + + + + +XLI + +WITH FELLER AND STRANSKY + + +Far up on a peak among the birds and aeroplanes, in a roofed, +shell-proof chamber, with a telephone orderly at his side, a powerful +pair of field-glasses and range-finders at his elbow, and a telescope +before his eye, Gustave Feller, one-time gardener and now acting colonel +of artillery, watched the burst of shells over the enemy's lines. While +other men had grown lean on war, he had taken on enough flesh to fill +out the wrinkles around eyes that shone with an artist's enjoyment of +his work. Down under cover of the ridge were his guns, the keys of the +instrument that he played by calls over the wire. Their barking was a +symphony to his ears; errors of orchestration were errors in aim. He +talked as he watched, his lively features reflective of his impressions. + +"Oh, pretty! Right into their tummies! Right in the nose! La, la, la! +But that's off--and so's that! Tell Battery C they're fifty yards over. +Oh, beady-eyed gods and shiny little fishes--two smacks in the same +spot! Humph! Tell Battery C that the trouble with that gun is worn +rifling; that's why it's going short. Elevate it for another hundred +yards--but it ought not to wear out so soon. I'd like to kick the maker +or the inspector. The fellows in B 21 will accuse us of inattention. +It's time to drop a shell on them to show we're perfectly impartial in +our favors. La, la, la! Oh, what a pretty smack! Congratulations!" + +B 21 was the position of Fracasse's company and the pretty smack the +one that broke one man's arm and crushed another's head. + + * * * * * + +The "God with us!" song was singularly suited to the great, bull voice +of its composer, born to the red and become Captain Stransky in the red +business of war. It was he who led the thunder of its verses not far +from where Peterkin led the song of the Grays. + +"I certainly like that song," said Stransky. Well he might. It had made +him famous throughout the nation. "There's Jehovah and brimstone in it. +Now we'll have our own." + +"Our own" was also of Stransky's composition and about Dellarme; for +Stransky, child of the highways and byways, of dark, tragic alleys and +sunny fields, had music in him, the music of the people. The skin on his +high cheek-bones was drawn tighter than before, further exaggerating the +size of his nose, and the deeper set of his eyes gave their cross a more +marked character. He carried on the spirit of Dellarme in the company in +his own fashion. The survivors among his men were as lean and dirty as +Fracasse's, but, never having expected to reach the enemy's capital, war +had brought few illusions. They had known sleepless vigils, but not much +digging since they had fallen back on the main line into the +fortifications which, with all resources at command, the engineers had +built before the war. And the Browns still held the range! The principal +fortifications of Engadir and every other vital point of the main line +was theirs. All that the enemy had gained in his latest attack were a +few minor positions. + +"But we're always losing positions!" complained one of the men. "Little +by little they are getting possession." + +"They say the offensive always wins," said another. + +"Five against three! They count on numbers," said Lieutenant Tom +Fragini. + +"There you go, Tom! Any other pessimists or anarchists want to be +heard?" called out Stransky. "Just how long, at the present rate, will +it take them to get the whole range? There's a limit to the number of +even five millions." + +"Yes, but if they ever break through in one place and get their guns +up--" + +"As you've said before, Tom!" + +"As we want to keep saying--as we want to keep fighting our damnedest to +make sure they won't," Tom explained. + +"Yes, that's it!" declared a chorus. + +"That's it, no matter what we pay!" declared Stransky. "We're not going +back there except in hearses!" He swung his hand in a semicircle toward +the distant hills, gold and purple in their dying foliage under the +autumn sunlight. + +Then the telephone in the redoubt brought some news. The staff begged to +inform the army that the enemy's casualties in the last three days had +been two hundred thousand! Immediately everybody was talking at once in +Stransky's parliament, as he sometimes called that company of which he +was, in the final analysis, unlimited monarch. + +"How do they know?" + +"Do you think it's fake?" + +"That sums up to pretty near a million!" + +"My God! Think of it--a million!" + +"We're whittling them down!" + +"It doesn't make any difference whether Partow or Lanstron is chief of +staff!" + +"They're paying!" + +"Paying for our fellows that they've killed! Paying for being in the +wrong!" + +"Let's have the song again! Come on!" + +"Yes, the song! The song!" + +"No; hold on!" cried Tom. "Not because men are killed!" + +"That's right, that's right!" said Stransky. "After all, they're our +brothers." It was the first time since he had undergone the +transformation which the war had wrought in him that he had mentioned +any of his world-brotherhood ideas. "I still believe in that. We're +fighting for that!" he concluded. + +With the ready change of subject of soldiers who have been long in +company, they were soon talking about other things--things that +concerned the living. + +"Say, wouldn't I like a real bath--an altogether!" + +"And plenty of soap all over!" + +"A welter of lather from head to foot and blowing bubbles from between +my lips!" + +"And to shave off this beard!" + +"Think of the beards that are going when the war is over!" + +"Not if you can't grow any more than John!" + +"I'm not fighting out of ambush like you!" replied John. "I haven't got +a place for the birds to nest!" + +"I'm going to trim mine down gradually," said another; "first an +imperial and mustache with mutton choppers; then mow my cheeks; then a +great, sweeping mustache; then a dandy little mustache; then--" + +"Mow is the word! Don't inflict a barber!" + +"And, after the bath, clean underclothes, and, oh, me!--a home dinner!" + +"Stop with your home dinners! That's barred. Army biscuits!" + +"Yes, we all prefer army biscuits!" + +"We wouldn't touch a home dinner!" + +Stransky, his eyes drawing inward in their characteristic slant, was +well pleased with his company, and the scattered exclamatory badinage +kept on until it was interrupted by the arrival of the mail. Partow and +Lanstron, understanding their machine as human in its elements, had +chosen that the army should hear from home. + +"How's this!" exclaimed one man, reading from a newspaper. "They're +going to put up a statue of Partow in the capital! It's to show him as +he died, dropped forward on the map, and in front of his desk a field of +bayonets. On one face of the base will be his name. Two of the other +faces will have 'God with us!' and 'Not for theirs, but for ours!' The +legend on the fourth face the war is to decide." + +"Victory! Victory!" cried those who had listened to the announcement. + +"My mother says just what yours says, Tom. I needn't come home unless we +win." + +"The girl I'm going to marry said that, too!" + +"If we go back with the Gray army at our heels we shall strike a worse +fire than if we stick!" + +Stransky was thinking that they had to do more than hold the Grays. +Before he should see his girl they had to take back the lost territory. +He carried two pictures of Minna in his mind: one when she had struck +him in the face as he had tried to kiss her and the other as he said +good-by at the kitchen door. There was not much encouragement in either. + +"But when she gets better acquainted with me there's no telling!" he +kept thinking. "I was fighting out of cussedness at first. Now I'm +fighting for her and to keep what is ours!" + + + + +XLII + +THE RAM + + +"I've learned that the greatest, most desperate attack of all is +coming," Marta told Lanstron. "But I don't know at what point. I see +Westerling only when he comes into the garden, and he does not come so +frequently of late." + +Very sweet and very harrowing to him was the intimacy of their +conspiracy over that underground wire. With the prolongation of the +strain, he feared for her. He understood how she suffered. Sometimes he +felt that the Marta of their holiday comradeship was dead and it was the +impersonal spirit of a great purpose that brought him information and +inspiration. Her voice was taut, without inflection, as if in pain, +occasionally breaking into a dry sob, only to become even more taut +after a silence. + +"I don't--I can't urge you to any further sacrifice," Lanstron replied. +"You have endured enough." + +"But it will help? It will be of vital service?" + +"Yes, tremendously vital." + +"I will try to learn more when I see him," she continued. "But it cannot +be done by questioning. A single question might be fatal. The thing must +come in a burst of confidence. That's the horrible part of it, the--" +There was a dry sob over the wire as the voice broke and then went on +steadily: "But I'm game! I'm game!" + +In the closet off the Galland library, where the long-distance telephone +was installed, Westerling was talking with the premier in the Gray +capital. + +"Your total casualties are eight hundred thousand! That is terrific, +Westerling!" the premier was saying. + +"Only two hundred thousand of those are dead!" replied Westerling. "Many +with only slight wounds are already returning to the front. Terrific, do +you say? Two hundred thousand in five millions is one man out of every +twenty-five. That wouldn't have worried Frederick the Great or Napoleon +much. Eight hundred thousand is one out of six. The trouble is that such +vast armies have never been engaged before. You must consider the +percentages, not the totals." + +"Yet, eight hundred thousand! If the public knew!" exclaimed the +premier. + +"The public does not know!" said Westerling. + +"They guess. They realize that we stopped the soldiers' letters because +they told bad news. The situation is serious." + +"Why not give the public something else to think about?" Westerling +demanded. + +"I've tried. It doesn't work. The murmurs increase. I repeat, my fears +of a rising of the women are well grounded. There is mutiny in the air. +I feel it through the columns of the press, though they are censored. +I--" + +"Then, soon I'll give the public something to think about, myself!" +Westerling broke in. "The dead will be forgotten. The wounded will be +proud of their wounds and their fathers and mothers triumphant when our +army descends the other side of the range and starts on its march to the +Browns' capital." + +"But you have not yet taken a single fortress!" persisted the premier. +"And the Browns report that they have lost only three hundred thousand +men." + +"Lanstron is lying!" retorted Westerling hotly. "But no matter. We have +taken positions with every attack and kept crowding in closer. I ask +nothing better than that the Browns remain on the defensive, leaving +initiative to us. We have developed their weak points. The resolute +offensive always wins. I know where I am going to attack; they do not. I +shall not give them time to reinforce the defence at our chosen point. I +have still plenty of live soldiers left. I shall go in with men enough +this time to win and to hold." + +"The army is yours, Westerling," concluded the premier. "I admire your +stolidity of purpose. You have my confidence. I shall wait and hold the +situation at home the best I can. We go into the hall of fame or into +the gutter together, you and I!" + +For a while after he had hung up the receiver Westerling's head drooped, +his muscles relaxed, giving mind and body a release from tension. But +his spine was as stiff as ever as he left the closet, and he was even +smiling to give the impression that the news from the capital was +favorable. When the telegraphers' jaws had dropped as the reports of +casualties came in, when discouragement lengthened the faces around him +and whispered in the very breezes from the fields of the dead, he had +automatically maintained his confident mien. Any sign of weakening would +be ruinous in its effect on his subordinates. The citadel of his egoism +must remain unassailable. He must be the optimist, the front of Jove, +for all. + +When he called his chiefs of divisions it was hardly for a staff +council. Stunned by the losses and repulses, loyally industrious, their +opinions unasked, they listened to his whirlwind of orders without +comment--all except Turcas. + +"If they are apprised of our plan and are able to concentrate more +artillery than our guns can silence, the losses will be demoralizing," +he observed. + +Westerling threw up his head, frowning down the objection. + +"Suppose they amount to half the forces that we send in!" he exclaimed. +"Isn't the position, which means the pass and the range, worth it?" + +"Yes, if we both take and hold it; not if we fail," replied Turcas, +quite unaffected by Westerling's manner. + +"Failure is not in my lexicon!" Westerling shot back. "For great gains +there must be great risks." + +"We prepare for the movement, Your Excellency," answered Turcas. + +It was a steel harness of his own will that Westerling wore, without +admitting that it galled him, and he laid it off only in Marta's +presence. With her, his growing sense of isolation had the relief of +companionship. She became a kind of mirror of his egoism and ambitions. +He liked to have her think of him as a great man unruffled among weaker +men. In the quiet and seclusion of the garden, involuntarily as one who +has no confidant speaks to himself, reserving fortitude for his part +before the staff, while she, under the spell of her purpose, silently, +with serene and wistfully listening eyes, played hers, he outlined how +the final and telling blow was to be struck. + +"We must and we shall win!" he kept repeating. + + * * * * * + +Through a rubber disk held to his ear in the closet of his bedroom a +voice, tremulous with nervous fatigue, was giving Lanstron news that all +his aircraft and cavalry and spies could not have gained; news worth +more than a score of regiments; news fresh from the lips of the chief of +staff of the enemy. The attack was to be made at the right of Engadir, +its centre breaking from the redoubt manned by Fracasse's men. + +"Marta, you genius!" Lanstron cried. "You are the real general! You--" + +"Not that, please!" she broke in. "I'm as foul and depraved as a dealer +in subtle poisons in the Middle Ages! Oh, the shame of it, while I look +into his eyes and feign admiration, feign everything which will draw out +his plans! I can never forget the sight of him as he told me how two or +three or four hundred thousand men were to be crowded into a ram, as he +called it--a ram of human flesh!--and guns enough in support, he said, +to tear any redoubts to pieces; guns enough to make their shells as +thick as the bullets from an automatic!" + +"We'll meet ram with ram! We'll have some guns, too!" exclaimed +Lanstron. "We'll send as heavy a shell fire at their infantry as they +send into our redoubts." + +"Yes; oh, yes!" she replied. "Westerling couldn't say it any better! +What difference is there between you? Each at his desk is saying: 'This +regiment will die here; that regiment will die there!' I bring you word +of one human ram going to destruction in order that you may send another +to destroy and be destroyed! And I'm worse than you. I am the go-between +in the conspiracy of universal murder, sleeping in a good bed every +night, in no danger--when I can sleep; but I can't. I go mad from +thinking of my part, keying myself up deliriously to each fresh deceit!" + +With every sentence her voice broke and it seemed that she would not be +able to utter another. Yet she kept on in the alternation of taut, +pitiful monotone and dry, coughing sobs. + +"How have I ever been able to go as far as I have? How did I get through +this last scene? When it seems as if I were about to collapse, something +supports me. When the thing grows too horrible and I am about to cry out +to Westerling that I am false, I hear his boast that he made the war as +a last step in his ambition. And there is Dellarme's smile rising before +me. He died so finely in defence of our garden! When my brain goes numb +and I can't think what to say, can't act, Feller appears, prompting with +ready word and facile change of expression, and I have my wits again. I +go on! I go on!" + +A racking sob, now, and silence; then, in the sudden effort of one who +must change the subject to hold his sanity, she asked: + +"How is Feller? Is he doing well?" + +"Yes." + +"At least I have brought him happiness. Sometimes I think that is about +all the good I have accomplished--I, his successor in carrying out your +plans! Oh, I'm burned out, Lanny! I'm ashes. It doesn't seem that I can +ever be sane or clean and human again. In order to forget I should have +to find a new life, like Feller. Each morning when I look in the mirror +I expect to see my hair turned white, like his." + +Lanstron felt her suffering as if it were his own. He had let his +patriotic passion overwhelm every other consideration. He had allowed +her to be a spy; he had sacrificed her sensibilities along with the +battalions he had sent into battle. She was right: he was only the +inhuman head of a machine. And she and Feller--they were human. Destiny +playing in the crux of war's inconsistencies had formed a bond between +them. + +"But, go on, Lanny. Play your part as you see it--as Westerling sees his +and Feller his and I mine," she said. "That is the only logic clear to +me; only I can't play any more. I haven't the strength." + +"Yes, I shall go on, Marta," he replied, "but you must not. Your work is +over, and perhaps this last service may bring a quick end and save +countless lives." + +"Don't. It's too like Westerling! It has become too trite!" she +protested. "The end! If I really were helping toward that and to save +lives and our country to its people, what would my private feelings +matter' My honor, my soul--what would anything matter? For that, any +sacrifice. I'm only one human being--a weak, lunatic sort of one, just +now!" + +"Marta, don't suffer so! You are overwrought. You--" + +"I can say all that for you, Lanny," she interrupted with the faintest +laugh. "I've said it so many times to myself. Perhaps when I call you up +again I shall not be so hysterical. Tell Feller how I have played his +part, and, in the midst of all your responsibilities, remember to give +him a chance." + +Lanstron was not thinking of war or war's combination when he hung up +the receiver. + +"Yes, it is Gustave!" he thought. "I understand!" It was some moments +before he returned to the staff room, and then he had mastered his +emotion. He was the soldier again. + + * * * * * + +"They are clearing the wires for the chief of staff to speak to you, +sir," announced the telephone aide in Feller's eyrie artillery lookout. + +Feller received the word with his clucking "La, la, la!" and hummed a +tune while the connection was being made. He had not spoken with Lanny +since his own promotion to a colonelcy and Partow's death. + +"My ear-drums split for joy at hearing your voice again!" Feller cried. +"A regiment of guns for yours truly! You've made me the happiest man in +the world. And haven't I smacked the Grays in the tummy, not to mention +in the nose and on the shins! Well, I should say so! La, la, la!" + +"You certainly have, you bully old boy!" said Lanstron. "Miss Galland +sends her congratulations and regards." + +"Eh, what? Her regards to me! The telephone still continues to work? Our +own original trunk-tunnel private line? Eh? Tell me; tell me, quick!" + +"Yes, she has performed the greatest service of the war--better than you +could have done it, Gustave!" + +"Whee-ee! Why not? Of course! I'm not surprised. She's the greatest +woman in the world, I tell you, and I know! And she sends her regards to +her old gardener? Think of that! If trouble never comes singly, why +shouldn't joys come in a pour? Oh, it she could see me now, so cosey up +here among the birds, chucking shells about as cheerily as if I were +tossing roses to the ladies in a ballroom!" + +"She wants you to have every chance," said Lanstron. + +"She asks that for me!" + +The peculiar intimate fervor of the exclamation sprang from a Feller in +an officer's uniform who could now move in Marta's world. Lanstron +hurried on to explain the nature of the next attack. + +"If we repulse them we are going to throw in a ram of our own," he said. +"We're going to take the aggressive for the moment. It is the only sure +policy for successful defence." + +"Right! Now you're talking. We learned that principle at school, didn't +we?" + +"And that means a bigger chance for you, Gustave. We are bringing up +reserve artillery and making new dispositions. I am going to give you +charge of the field-guns. But the chief of artillery will tell you about +your work." + +"This is heaven, Lanny! How am I ever going to--" + +"There, no thanks, Gustave. You are the man. It is a time when only +efficiency must be considered." + +"Then I have made good! Then I've been worthy of my opportunity! I'd +rather be a good gunner than a king. I'll eat this new work and smack my +lips for more. Tell Miss Galland that every shell that hits the mark is +a thought from the old gardener for her. Six weeks ago trimming +rose-bushes and now--this is life! La, la, la! There's been romance and +destiny in the whole business for us both, Lanny. And you--you are +acting chief of staff! I forgot to congratulate you, Your Excellency. +Your Excellency! Think of that! But it's no surprise to me. Didn't we go +to school together? How could any one ever go to school with me and not +be a great man? And I'm wearing a flower in my buttonhole! La, la, la!" + +All that night and day before the night set for the attack, while the +guns were being emplaced and the infantry formed in a gray carpet +behind the slopes, a chill, misty rain fell, which the devout of the +Grays might say proved that God was with them rather than with the +Browns; for it screened their movements from the Brown lookouts. The +judge's son and Peterkin and others of Fracasse's company had finished +their mine; the fuses were laid. There was no dry place for a seat in +their flooded redoubt and they had to stand, eating cold rations and +shivering in their filthy, wet clothes. The whole army was drenched; the +whole army shivered. + +If only the air did not clear when darkness fell! The last thing the +staff of the Grays wanted was to see a star in the sky. Had they +believed in prayer they would have gone on their knees for a black fog, +unaware that all that they would hide had been made known to the Browns +through Marta almost from the hour that the preparations for the attack +were begun. + +With darkness, the rain ceased; but the mist remained a thick mantle +over the landscape, impenetrable to the watchful search-lights of the +Browns, which never stopped playing from sunset to dawn. The gray carpet +of the reserves that were to form Westerling's ram moved over the +slopes, dipping and rising with the convolutions of the earth, with no +word spoken except the repeated whispered warnings of silence from the +officers. Sweeping on up toward the redoubts, it found that parallels +and trenches had been filled to give footing for the swifter impulse of +the tide, once it was started for the heights. + +A flash from Fracasse's pocket lamp showed faces pasty white and eyes of +staring glassiness. Fracasse's face and the colonel's were also +white--white with the rigidity of carved marble, carved with a set frown +of determination. Fracasse was going in with his company and the colonel +with his regiment. It was their duty. Both realized the nature of the +risk; and, worse, each knew that the men realized it. In another age, +when education was not so common and unthinking, unforeseeing passion +could be aroused in ignorant minds, a stimulant on an empty stomach +might have made them animals, oblivious to danger. They were about to +offer their lives to pave the way for others to reach the works that +none of them, probably, would ever reach. For the like of this, in +gathering the enemy's spears to his breast, a saga had risen around one +national hero. But Fracasse's veterans were only the shivering units of +the millions; the part of the machine that happened to be the first to +strike another machine in collision. Such was the end of all the +training, the marching, the drilling in the gallant business of arms, +with no more romance or glory than beeves going to the slaughter. + +"You'll be the first out into the glacis, the first into the enemy's +redoubt," said the colonel, forcing a tone of good, old-fashioned +"up-guards-and-at-'em" vigor, as he touched the bronze cross on +Peterkin's breast with his forefinger. + +Little Peterkin, always pale but not so pale now as his comrades, +flushed at the distinction. + +"Yes, sir!" and he saluted. + +In his eyes was the exaltation of his simple-minded faith. He did not +think too much. What more could kings and conquerors ask than such a +soldier as the valet's son, secure in the belief that his charmed life +would bring him through the assault unharmed? + +"My God! I can't!" exclaimed the banker's son. "I've suffered enough. +There's life and wealth and all that it gives waiting for me at home! +I'm young--I can't!" + +There was a rustle of bodies in a restless movement of drawn breaths at +common thought taking form, desperately fraught with alarm to Fracasse. + +"You will!" Fracasse said, thrusting his revolver muzzle against the +ribs of the banker's son. "If you don't, I'll shoot you dead, or you'll +be trampled to death by the rush from the rear!" + +The wedge point may not strike back at the hammer that drives it. Close +packed behind Fracasse's company was a seemingly limitless mass of +soldiery, palpitant with their short breaths, a steamy, sickening odor +rising from their water-soaked clothes. Here were men so wet, so tired, +so nerve-worn that they did not care when death came; men who wanted to +curse and strike out against their fate; men who wanted to turn in +flight, their natural impulse held down by the bonds of discipline and +that pride of fellowship which is shamed to confess to a shiver along +the spine. Some saw pictures of home, of sweethearts; some saw nothing. +Some were in a coma of merciless suspense that grew more and more +unendurable, until it seemed that anything to break it would be welcome. + +Occasionally came a sob from a man gone hysterical under the strain, a +moan of mental misery; and once a laugh, a strange, hiccoughy, delirious +laugh, a strident attempt at the wit that keeps up courage; and from +Pilzer, the butcher's son, a string of oaths mixed with brimstone and +obscenity. After each outbreak an automatic, irritable whisper for +silence came from an officer. Legs and arms, bodies and souls and brains +in a nauseating press! Humanity reckoned by the pound, high-priced from +breeding and rearing and training; yet very cheap. + +Hearts thumped and watches ticked off the time, until suddenly the +heavens were racked by the prologue of the guns. Child's play that +baptism of shell fire in the first charge of the war beside later +thunders; and these, in turn, mild beside this terrific outburst, with +all the artillery concentrated to support the ram in a sudden blast. The +passing projectiles formed the continuous scream and roar of some +many-toned siren that penetrated the flesh as well as the ears with its +sound. Orders could not have been heard if given. There was no need for +orders. Fracasse, counting off the minutes between him and eternity on +his watch face by his flash-light, saw that ten had passed. Then his +finger that pressed a button, his brain that spoke to his hand, were +those of an automaton acting by time release. He exploded the mine. This +was the signal for the charge; for all the legs of the ram to move. + + + + +XLIII + +JOVE'S ISOLATION + + +An hour or so before the attack the telegraph instruments in the Galland +house had become pregnantly silent. There were no more orders to give; +no more reports to come from the troops in position until the assault +was made. Officers of supply ceased to transmit routine matters over the +wire, while they strained their eyes toward the range. Officers of the +staff moved about restlessly, glancing at their watches and going to the +windows frequently to see if the mist still held. + +No one entered the library where Westerling was seated alone with +nothing to do. His suspense was that of the mothers who longed for news +of their sons at the front; his helplessness that of a man in a hospital +lobby waiting on the result of an operation whose success or failure +will save or wreck his career. The physical desire of movement, the +conflict with something in his own mind, drove him out of doors. + +"I want to blow my lungs in the fresh air! Call me if I am needed. I +shall be in the garden," he told his aide; and he thought that his voice +sounded calm and natural, as became Jove in a crisis that unnerved +lesser men. "Though I fancy it is the other chief of staff who will have +the work to do this evening, eh?" he added, forcing one of the smiles +which had been the magnetic servant of his personal force in his rise to +power. + +"Yes, Your Excellency," said the aide. + +Westerling was rather pleased with the fact that he could still smile; +pleased with the loyalty of this young officer when, day by day, the +rest of the staff had grown colder and more mechanical in the attitude +that completed his isolation. Walking vigorously along the path toward +the tower, the exercise of his muscles, the feel of the cool, moist air +on his face, brought back some of the buoyancy of spirit that he craved. +A woman's figure, with a cape thrown over the shoulders and the head +bare, loomed out of the mist. + +"I couldn't stay in--not to-night," Marta said, as Westerling drew near. +"I had to see. It's only a quarter of an hour now, isn't it?" + +"The Browns may sing 'God with us,' but He seems to have been with the +Grays," Westerling answered. "Our whole movement was perfectly screened +by the heavy weather." + +"But they know--they know every detail that you have told me!" ran her +mocking, scarifying thought. "And this will be the most terrible attack +of all?" she asked faintly. + +"Yes, such a concentration of men and guns as never were driven against +any position--an irresistible force," he said. "Irresistible!" he +repeated with a heavy emphasis. + +"But if the Browns did know where you were going to attack?" she asked +absently and still more faintly. "The sacrifice of lives then would be +all the greater?" + +"Yes, we should have to pay a higher price, but still we should be +irresistible--irresistible!" he answered. + +Ghastly faces were staring at her, their lips moving in death to +excoriate her. It was not too late to tell him the truth; not too late +to stop the attack. Her head had sunk; she trembled and swayed and a +kind of moan escaped her. She seemed utterly frail and so distraught +that Westerling, in an impulse of protection, laid his hands on her +relaxed shoulders. She could feel the pressure of each finger growing +firmer in its power, while a certain eloquence possessed him in defiance +of his apprehensions. + +"Our cause is at stake to-night," he declared, "yours and mine! We must +win, you and I! It is our destiny!" + +"You and I!" repeated Marta. "Why you and I?" + +It seemed very strange to be thinking of any two persons when hundreds +of thousands were awaiting the signal for the death prepared by him. He +mistook the character of her thought in the obsession of his egoism. + +"What do lives mean?" he cried with a sudden desperation, his grip of +her shoulders tightening. "It is the law of nature for man to fight. +Unless he fights he goes to seed. One trouble with our army is that it +was soft from the want of war. It is the law of nature for the fittest +to survive! Other sons will be born to take the place of those who die +to-night. There will be all the more room for those who live. Victory +will create new opportunities. What is a million out of the billions on +the face of the earth? Those who lead alone count--those who dwell in +the atmosphere of the peaks, as we do!" The pressure of his strong hands +in the unconscious emphasis of his passion became painful; but she did +not protest or try to draw away, thinking of his hold in no personal +sense but as a part of his self-revelation. "All--all is at stake +there!" he continued, staring toward the range. "It's the Rubicon! I +have put my career on to-night's cast! Victory means that the world will +be at our feet--honor, position, power greater than that of any other +two human beings! Do you realize what that means--the honor and the +power that will be ours? I shall have directed the greatest army the +world has ever known to victory!" + +"And defeat means--what does defeat mean?" she asked narrowly, calmly; +and the pointed question released her shoulders from the vise. + +What had been a shadow in his thoughts became a live monster, striking +him with the force of a blow. He forgot Marta. Yes, what would defeat +mean to _him_? Sheer human nature broke through the bonds of mental +discipline weakened by sleepless nights. Convulsively his head dropped +as he covered his face. + +"Defeat! Fail! That I should fail!" he moaned. + +Then it was that she saw him in the reality of his littleness, which +she had divined; this would-be conqueror. She saw him as his intimates +often see the great man without his front of Jove. Don't we know that +Napoleon had moments of privacy when he whined and threatened suicide? +She wondered if Lanny, too, were like that--if it were not the nature of +all conquerors who could not have their way. It seemed to her that +Westerling was beneath the humblest private in his army--beneath even +that fellow with the liver patch on his cheek who had broken the +chandelier in the sport of brutal passion. All sense of her own part was +submerged in the sight of a chief of staff exhibiting no more stoicism +than a petulant, spoiled schoolboy. + +While his head was still bent the artillery began its crashing thunders +and the sky became light with flashes. His hands stretched out toward +the range, clenched and pulsing with defiance and command. + +"Go in! Go in, as I told you!" he cried. "Stay in, alive or dead! Stay +till I tell you to come out! Stay! I can't do any more! You must do it +now!" + +"Then this may be truly the end," thought Marta, "if the assault fails." + +And silently she prayed that it would fail; while the flashes lighted +Westerling's set features, imploring success. + +No commander was a more prodigal employer of spies than Napoleon. Did he +or any other conqueror ever acknowledge a success due to the despised +outcasts who brought him information? No. The brilliance of +combinations, the stroke of genius of the swift march and the decisive +blow in flank, the splendid charges--these always win in the historian's +narrative and public imagination. Think of any place in the frieze of +the statue of the great leader for that hypocrite, that poor devil in +disguise, whose news made the victory possible! + +"Good generalship is easy if you know what the enemy is going to do," +Lanstron remarked to a member of the staff council who said something +complimentary to him. Compliments from subordinates to superiors had not +received Partow's favor and, therefore, not Lanstron's. Eccentric old +Partow had once disparaged the Napoleonic idea as a fetich which had +nothing to do with modern military efficiency, and he had added that if +Napoleon were alive to-day nobody would be so prompt to see it as +Napoleon himself. If he did not, and tried to incarnate the idea of the +time by making himself the supreme genius of war, he would fail, because +ability was too nearly universal and the age too big for another +Colossus. + +Through Marta's information every detail of Westerling's plan outlined +itself to the trained minds of the Brown staff. Amazement at their +dependence on an underground wire and a woman's word for shaping vast +affairs was not reflected in any scepticism or hesitation as to the +method of meeting the assault. + +The fortifications that had sheltered the Brown infantry, including +Stransky's men of the 53d, would be the object of the artillery fire +which was to support the Gray charge. Well Lanstron knew that no +fortifications could withstand the gusts of shells to be concentrated on +such a small target. The defenders could not see to fire for the dust. +Their rifles would be knocked out of their hands by the concussions. +They must be crushed or imprisoned by the destruction of the very walls +that had been their protection. So they were withdrawn to other redoubts +in the rear, where a line of automatics placed under their rifles were +in pointblank range of their old position which the Grays' shells would +tear to pieces. + +Back of them was a brown carpet of waiting soldiery of as close a pile +as Westerling's carpet of gray. The rain-drenched Brown engineers dug as +fast as the enemy's. Lanstron massed artillery against massed +artillery. For every Gray gun he had more than one Brown gun. The Grays +might excel by ratio of five to three in human avoirdupois, but a +willing Brown government had been generous with funds. Money will buy +guns and skill will man them. Battery back of battery in literal tiers, +small calibres in front and heavy calibres in the rear, with ranges +fixed to given points--more guns than ever fired on a single position +before--were to pour their exploding projectiles not into redoubts but +into the human wedge. + +In the Browns' headquarters, as in the Grays', telegraph instruments +were silent after the preparations were over. Here, also, officers +walked about restlessly, glancing at their watches. They, too, were glad +that the mist continued. It meant no wind. When the telegraph did speak +it was with another message from some aerostatic officer, saying, "Still +favorable," which was taken at once to Lanstron, who was with the staff +chiefs around the big table. They nodded at the news and smiled to one +another; and some who had been pacing sat down and others rose to begin +pacing afresh. + +"We could have emplaced two lines of automatics, one above the other!" +exclaimed the chief of artillery. + +"But that would have given too much of a climb for the infantry in going +in--delayed the rush," said Lanstron. + +"If they should stick--if we couldn't drive them back!" exclaimed the +vice-chief of staff. + +"I don't think they will!" said Lanstron. + +To the others he seemed as cool as ever, even when his maimed hand was +twitching in his pocket. But now, suddenly, his eyes starting as at a +horror, he trembled passionately, his head dropping forward, as if he +would collapse. + +"Oh, the murder of it--the murder!" he breathed. + +"But they brought it on! Not for theirs, but for ours!" said the +vice-chief of staff, laying his hand on Lanstron's shoulder. + +"And we sit here while they go in!" Lanstron added. "There's a kind of +injustice about that which I can't get over. Not one of us here has been +under fire!" + +Even the minute of the attack they knew; and just before midnight they +were standing at the window looking out into the night, while the +vice-chief held his watch in hand. In the hush the faint sound of a +dirigible's propeller high up in the heavens, muffled by the fog, was +drowned by the Gray guns opening fire. + + * * * * * + +Before the mine exploded, by the light of the shell bursts breaking +their vast prisms from central spheres of flame for miles, with the +quick sequence of a moving-picture flicker, Fracasse's men could see one +another's faces, spectral and stiff and pasty white, with teeth gleaming +where jaws had dropped, some eyes half closed by the blinding flashes +and some opened wide as if the lids were paralyzed. Faces and faces! A +sea of faces stretching away down the slope--faces in a trance. + +Up over the breastworks, over rocks and splintered timbers, Peterkin and +the judge's son and their comrades clambered. When they moved they were +as a myriad-legged creature, brain numbed, without any sensation except +that of rapids going over a fall. Those in front could not falter, being +pushed on by the pressure of those in the rear. For a few steps they +were under no fire. The scream of their own shells breaking in infernal +pandemonium in front seemed to be a power as irresistible as the rear of +the wedge in driving them on. + +Then sounds more hideous than the flight of projectiles broke about them +with the abruptness of lightnings held in the hollow of the Almighty's +hand and suddenly released. The Browns' guns had opened fire. Explosions +were even swifter in sequence than the flashes that revealed the stark +faces. Dust and stones and flying fragments of flesh filled the air. Men +went down in positive paralysis of faculties by the terrific crashes. +Sections of the ram were blown to pieces by the burst of a shrapnel +shoulder high; other sections were lifted heavenward by a shell burst in +the earth. + +Peterkin fell with a piece of jagged steel embedded in his brain. He had +gone from the quick to the dead so swiftly that he never knew that his +charm had failed. The same explosion got Fracasse, sword in hand, and +another buried him where he lay. The banker's son went a little farther; +the barber's son still farther. Men who were alive hardly realized life, +so mixed were life and death. Infernal imagination goes faint; its +wildest similes grow feeble and banal before such a consummation of +hell. + +But the tide keeps on; the torn gaps of the ram are filled by the +rushing legs from the rear. Officers urge and lead. Such are the orders; +such is the duty prescribed; such is human bravery even in these days +when life is sweeter to more men in the joys of mind and body than ever +before. Precision, organization, solidarity in this charge such as the +days of the "death-or-glory" boys never knew! Over the bodies of +Peterkin and the barber's and the banker's sons, plunging through shell +craters, stumbling, staggering, cut by swaths and torn by eddies of red +destruction in their ranks, the tide proceeded, until its hosts were +oftener treading on flesh than on soil. And all they knew was to keep +on--keep on, bayonet in hand, till they reached the redoubt, and there +they were to stay, alive or dead. + +In that pulsating, fierce light, while the ground under their feet +trembled with the concussions, Westerling's face was as clear to Marta +as if he were staring in at a furnace door. The lines of breeding and of +restrained authority which gave it distinction had faded. It had the +eager ferocity of the hunt. His short, tense exclamations explained the +stages of progress of the attack as revealed to his sight. + +"It cannot fail! No! Impossible! Look at the speed of our gun-fire! But +I judge that we have not been able to silence as many of their guns as +we ought to--they're using shell into our close order. But all the guns +in creation shall not stop us! I have men enough this time--enough, +enough, enough! There! Our shorter-range guns have ceased firing! That +shows we are in the redoubts. The longer-range guns continue. They are +firing beyond the redoubt against any counter-attack, if the Browns try +to recover what they have lost. But every minute brings another +battalion into place. Engineers and guns will follow. The war is as good +as won!" + +He caught at Marta's hand, but she drew away; and her start of revulsion +at his touch was almost coincident with a start on his part for another +reason. A huge shadow shot at railway-train speed over their heads. +Something very like fear flashed into his expression. + +"One of our dirigibles!" he exclaimed. "I confess it came so near that +it gave me a sort of shock, too." + +"Only a shadow with no death in it," she said. "And there is death in +every flash there on the range. General Westerling, have you ever been +under fire?" she asked suddenly. + +He had scarcely heard the question. He took a step forward, with head +raised and shading his eyes. + +"Not ours! One of theirs!" he exclaimed. "Theirs--and any number of +theirs!" + +Driving toward the volcano's centre were many Brown dirigibles, slowing +down as they approached. Greater eruptions than any from shells rose +from the earth as they passed. + +"So that's what they've had their dirigibles in reserve for--for the +last desperate defence!" he said. "The defence that can never win! Not +their dirigibles--not any power known to man can stop my men. I have +sent in so many that enough must survive. But where are _our_ +dirigibles? A few are up--why don't they close in? And our guns--why +don't they fire at a target before their eyes as big as a house? There +they go, and they got one!"--as a circle of flame brighter than the +illumination of other explosions broke in the sky. "And one of ours is +closing in! Look, both have blown up as they collided! That shows that +two can play at the game! But what a swarm they have--more than we knew! +Bouchard's intelligence at fault again! However, if they try to stop our +fortifying the redoubt our guns will care for them. That clever trick of +Lanstron's may have cost us a few extra casualties, but it will not +change the result. It's time we had details over the wire," he +concluded, turning back to the house rather precipitately. "Then there +may be work for me." + + * * * * * + +"After hell, more hell, and then still more hell!" was the way that +Stransky expressed his thought when the engineers had taken the place of +the 53d of the Browns in the redoubt. They put their mines and +connections deep enough not to be disturbed by shell fire. After the +survivors in the van of the Grays' charge, spent of breath, reached +their goal and threw themselves down, the earth under them, as the mine +exploded, split and heaved heavenward. But those in the rear, slapped in +the face by the concussion, kept on, driven by the pressure of the mass +at their backs, and, in turn, plunged forward on their stomachs in the +seams and furrows of the mine's havoc. The mass thickened as the flood +of bodies and legs banked up, in keeping with Westerling's plan to have +"enough to hold." + +Now the automatics and the rifles from the redoubt to which the Browns +had fallen back opened fire. So close together were these +bullet-machines that the orbit of each one's swing made a spray of only +a few yards' breadth over the old redoubt, where the Browns' gun-fire +had not for a moment ceased its persistent shelling, with increasingly +large and solid targets of flesh for their practice. The thing for these +targets to do, they knew, was to intrench and begin to return the +infantry and automatics' fire. Desperately, with the last effort of +courage, they rose in the attempt--rose into playing hose streams of +bullets whose close hiss was a steady undertone between shell bursts. In +the garish, jumping light brave officers impulsively stood up to hearten +their commands in their work, and dropped with half-uttered urgings, +threats, and oaths on their lips. + +The bullets from the automatics missing one mark were certain to find +another, perhaps four or five in a row, such was their velocity and +power of penetration. Where shells made gaps and tore holes in the human +mass, the automatics cut with the regularity of the driven teeth of a +comb. The men who escaped all the forms of slaughter and staggered on to +the ruins of the redoubt, pressed their weight on top of those in the +craters or hugged behind the pyramids of debris, and even made +breastworks from the bodies of the dead. The more that banked up, the +more fruitless the efforts of the officers to restore order in the +frantic medley of shell screams and explosions at a time when a minute +seemed an age. + +Meanwhile, between them--this banked-up force at the charge's end--and +the Brown redoubt with its automatics, the Gray gunners were making a +zone of shell bursts in order to give the soldiers time to make their +hold of the ground they had gained secure. Through this zone Stransky +and his men were to lead the Browns in a counter-attack. + +At the very height of the Gray charge, when all the reserves were in, +dark objects fell out of the heavens, and where they dropped earth and +flesh were mingled in the maceration. Like some giant reptile with its +vertebrae breaking, gouged and torn and pinioned, the charge stopped, in +writhing, throbbing confusion. Those on the outer circle of explosions +were thrown against their fellows, who surged back in another direction +from an explosion in the opposite quarter. From the rear the pressure +weakened; the human hammer was no longer driving the ram. Blinded by the +lightnings and dust, dizzy from concussions and noise, too blank of +mind to be sane or insane, the atoms of the bulk of the charge in +natural instinct turned from their goal and toward the place whence they +had come, with death from all sides still buffeting them. Staggeringly, +at first, they went, for want of initiative in their paralysis; then +rapidly, as the law of self-preservation asserted itself in wild +impulse. + +As sheep driven over a precipice they had advanced; as men they fled. +There was no longer any command, no longer any cohesion, except of legs +struggling in and out over the uneven footing of dead and wounded, while +they felt another pressure, that of the mass of the Browns in pursuit. +Of all those of Fracasse's company whom we know, only the judge's son +and Jacob Pilzer were alive. Stained with blood and dust, his teeth +showing in a grimace of mocking hate of all humankind, Pilzer's savagery +ran free of the restraint of discipline and civilized convention. +Striking right and left, he forced his way out of the region of shell +fire and still kept on. Clubbing his rifle, he struck down one officer +who tried to detain him; but another officer, quicker than he, put a +revolver bullet through his head. + + * * * * * + +Westerling, who had buried his face in his hands in Marta's presence at +the thought of failure, must keep the pose of his position before the +staff. With chin drawn in and shoulders squared in a sort of petrified +military habit, he received the feverish news that grew worse with each +brief bulletin. He, the chief of staff; he, Hedworth Westerling, the +superman, must be a rock in the flood of alarm. When he heard that his +human ram was in recoil he declared that the repulse had been +exaggerated--repulses always were. With word that a heavy counter-attack +was turning the retreat into an ungovernable rout, he broke into a +storm. He was not beaten; he could not be beaten. + +"Let our guns cut a few swaths in the mob!" he cried. "That will stop +them from running and bring them back to a sense of duty to their +country." + +The irritating titter of the bell in the closet off the library only +increased his defiance of facts beyond control. He went to the long +distance with a reply to the premier's inquiry ready to his lips. + +"We got into the enemy's works but had to fall back temporarily," he +said. + +"Temporarily! What do you mean?" demanded the premier. + +"I mean that we have only begun to attack!" declared Westerling. He +liked that sentence. It sounded like the shibboleth of a great leader in +a crisis. "I shall assault again to-morrow night." + +"Then your losses were not heavy?" + +"No, not relatively. To-morrow night we press home the advantage we +gained to-night." + +"But you have been so confident each time. You still think that--" + +"That I mean to win! There is no stopping half-way." + +"Well, I'll still try to hold the situation here," replied the premier. +"But keep me informed." + +Drugged by his desperate stubbornness, Westerling was believing in his +star again when he returned to the library. All the greater his success +for being won against scepticism and fears! He summoned his chiefs of +divisions, who came with the news that the Browns had taken the very +redoubt from which the head of the Gray charge had started; but there +they had stopped. + +"Of course! Of course they stopped!" exclaimed Westerling. "They are not +mad. A few are not going to throw themselves against superior +numbers--our superior numbers beaten by our own panic! Lanstron is not a +fool. You'll find the Browns back in their old position, working like +beavers to make new defences in the morning. Meanwhile, we'll get that +mob of ours into shape and find out what made them lose their nerve. +To-morrow night we shall have as many more behind them. We are going to +attack again!" + +The staff exchanged glances of amazement, and Turcas, his dry voice +crackling like parchment, exclaimed: + +"Attack again? At the same point?" + +"Yes--the one place to attack!" said Westerling. "The rest of our line +has abundant reserves; a needless number for anything but the offensive. +We'll leave enough to hold and draw off the rest to Engadir at once." + +"But their dirigibles! A surprising number of them are over our lines," +Bellini, the chief of intelligence, had the temerity to say. + +"You will send our planes and dirigibles to bring down theirs!" +Westerling commanded. + +"I have--every last one; but they outnumber us!" persisted Bellini. +"Even in retreat they can see. The air has cleared so that considerable +bodies of troops in motion will be readily discernible from high +altitudes. The reason for our failure last night was that they knew our +plan of attack." + +"They knew! They knew, after all our precautions! There is still a leak! +You--" + +Westerling raised his clenched hand threateningly at the chief of +intelligence, his cheeks purple with rage, his eyes bloodshot. But +Bellini, with his boyish, small face and round head set close to his +shoulders, remained undisturbedly exact. + +"Yes, there is a leak, and from the staff," he answered. "Until I have +found it this army ought to suspend any aggressive--" + +"I was not asking advice!" interrupted Westerling. + +"But, I repeat, the leak is not necessary to disclose this new movement +that you plan. Their air craft will disclose it," Bellini concluded. He +had done his duty and had nothing more to say. + +"Dirigibles do not win battles!" Westerling announced. "They are won by +getting infantry in possession of positions and holding them. No matter +if we don't surprise the enemy. Haven't the Browns held their line with +inferior numbers? If they have, we can hold the rest of ours. That gives +us overwhelming forces at Engadir." + +"You take all responsibility?" asked Turcas. + +"I do!" said Westerling firmly. "And we will waste no more time. The +premier supports me. I have decided. We will set the troops in motion." + +With fierce energy he set to work detaching units of artillery and +infantry from every part of the line and starting them toward Engadir. + +"This means an improvised organization; it breaks up the machine," said +the tactical expert to Turcas when they were alone. + +"Yes," replied Turcas. "He wanted no advice from us when he was taking +counsel of desperation. If he succeeds, success will retrieve all the +rest of his errors. We may have a stroke of luck in our favor." + + * * * * * + +In the headquarters of the Browns, junior officers and clerks reported +the words of each bulletin with the relief of men who breathed freely +again. The chiefs of divisions who were with Lanstron alternately sat +down and paced the floor, their restlessness now that of a happiness too +deeply thrilling to be expressed by hilarity. Each fresh detail only +confirmed the completeness of the repulse as that memorable night in the +affairs of the two nations slowly wore on. Shortly before three, when +the firing had died down after the Brown pursuit had stopped, a wireless +from a dirigible flying over the frontier came, telling of bodies of +Gray troops and guns on the march. Soon planes and other dirigibles +flying over other positions were sending in word of the same tenor. The +chiefs drew around the table and looked into one another's eyes in the +significance of a common thought. + +"It cannot be a retreat!" said the vice-chief. + +"Hardly. That is inconceivable of Westerling at this time," Lanstron +replied. "The bull charges when wounded. It is clear that he means to +make another attack. These troops on the march across country are +isolated from any immediate service." + +It was Lanstron's way to be suggestive; to let ideas develop in council +and orders follow as out of council. + +"The chance!" exclaimed some one. + +"The chance!" others said in the same breath. "The God-given chance for +a quick blow! The chance! We attack! We attack!" + +It was the most natural conception to a military tactician, though any +man who made it his own might have builded a reputation on it if he knew +how to get the ear of the press. Their faces were close to Lanstron as +they leaned toward him eagerly. He seemed not to see them but to be +looking at Partow's chair. In imagination Partow was there in the +life--Partow with the dome forehead, the pendulous cheeks, the shrewd, +kindly eyes. A daring risk, this! What would Partow say? Lanstron always +asked himself this in a crisis: What would Partow say? + +"Well, my boy, why are you hesitating?" Partow demanded. "I don't know +that I'd have taken my long holiday and left you in charge if I'd +thought you'd be losing your nerve as you are this minute. Wasn't it +part of my plan--my dream--that plan I gave you to read in the vaults, +to strike if a chance, this very chance, were to come? Hurry up! Seconds +count!" + +"Yes, a chance to end the killing for good and all!" said Lanstron, +coming abruptly out of his silence. "We'll take it and strike hard." + +The staff bent over the map, Lanstron's finger flying from point to +point, while ready expert answers to his questions were at his elbow and +the wires sang out directions that made a drenched and shivering +soldiery Who had been yielding and holding and never advancing grow warm +with the thought of springing from the mire of trenches to charge the +enemy. And one, Gustave Feller, in command of a brigade of +field-guns--the mobile guns that could go forward rumbling to the +horses' trot--saw his dearly beloved batteries swing into a road in the +moonlight. + +"La, la, la! The worm will turn!" he clucked. "It's a merry, gambling +old world and I'm right fond of it--so full of the unexpected for the +Grays! That lead horse is a little lame, but he'll last the night +through. Lots of lame things will! Who knows? Maybe we'll be cleaning +the mud off our boots on the white posts of the frontier to-morrow! A +whole brigade mine! I live! You old brick, Lanny! This time we are going +to spank the enemy on the part of his anatomy where spanks are +conventionally given. La, la, la!" + + * * * * * + +If not his own pain, the moans, the gasps, the appeals for water, the +convulsive shivers from cold, and the demoniacal giggles from a soldier +gone insane in medley around him would have kept the judge's son awake. +After he had fallen, struck by he knew not what, and consciousness had +returned, came the surging charge of the Browns in the counter-attack, +with throaty cries and threshing tread. He was able to turn over on his +face and cover the back of his head with his hands, as a slight +protection from steps that found footing on his body instead of on the +earth. After that he had understood vaguely that a newcomer on the field +of the fallen needed help with a first aid, and he had found his knife +and slit a sleeve and applied a bandage to check the bleeding of an +artery. Before dawn broke the sky was all alight again with a +far-reaching gun-fire--that of the Brown advance--throwing the scene of +slaughter into spectral relief, which became more real and terrible in +the undramatic light of day. + +Thick, ghastly thick, the dead and wounded; and the faces--faces half +buried, faces black with congealed blood, faces staring straight up at +the sky, faces with eyes popping where necks had been twisted! Near by +was the distorted metal work of a dirigible, with the bodies of its +crew burned beyond recognition, and farther away were other dirigible +wrecks. A wounded Gray, who had not the strength to do it himself, +begged some one to lift a corpse off his body. A Gray and a Brown were +locked in a wrestling embrace in which a shrapnel burst had surprised +them. Piles of dead and wounded had been scattered and torn by a shell +which found only dead and wounded for destruction at the point of its +explosion. The living were crawling out from under the shields they had +made of corpses in shell craters, and searching for water in the +canteens and biscuits in the haversacks of the dead. One Gray who was +completely entombed except his head remarked that he was all right if +some one would dig him out. At his side showed the legs of a man who had +been buried face downward. Ribs of the wounded broken in; features of +the dead mashed by the heels of the Brown countercharge! With every turn +of his glance his surroundings grew more intimate in details of horror +to the judge's son. On the earth, saturated with rivulets and little +lakes of blood, gleamed the lead shrapnel bullets and the brighter, +nickelled rifle-bullets and the barrels of rifles dropped from the hands +of the fallen. + +"I'd have bled to death if you hadn't put on that bandage. You saved my +life!" whispered the man next to the judge's son, who was Tom Fragini. + +"Did I? Did I?" exclaimed the judge's son. "Well, that's something." + +"It certainly is to me," replied Tom, holding out his hand, and thus +they shook hands, this Gray and this Brown. "Maybe some time, when the +war's over, I can thank you in more than words." + +"More than words! Perhaps you can do that now. You--you haven't a +cigarette, old fellow?" asked the judge's son. "I haven't smoked for +three days." + +"Yes, only I roll mine," said Tom. + +"So do I mine," said the judge's son. + +"But with a game hand I--" + +"Oh, I've the hands. It's my leg that's been mashed up," said the +judge's son. "Labor and capital!" he added cheerily as he dropped the +cosmopolitan tobacco on the cosmopolitan wafer of rice-paper. + +They smoked and smiled at each other in the glow of that better passion +when wounds have let out the poison of conflict, while the doctors and +the hospital-corps men began their attention to the critical cases and +on down the slopes the mills of war were grinding out more dead and +wounded. + +"At the hospital where I was interne before the war we were trying to +save a crippled boy the use of his leg," remarked a reserve surgeon. +"Half a dozen surgeons held consultations over that boy--yes, just for +one leg. And now look at this!" + + + + +XLIV + +TURNING THE TABLES + + +"I shall take a little nap. There will be plenty to do later," said +Westerling, after the last telegram detaching the reserves for +concentration had gone. + +Yes, he would rest while the troops were in motion. The staff should see +that he was still the same self-contained commander whose every faculty +was the trained servant of his will. His efforts at sleep resulted in a +numbing brain torture, which so desensitized it to outward impressions +that his faithful personal aide entering the room at dawn had to touch +him on the shoulder to arouse attention. + +"There's nothing like being able to order yourself to sleep, whatever +the crisis," he said. But suddenly he winced as if a blast of bullets +had crashed through a window-pane and buried themselves in the wall +beside his bed. "What is that?" he gasped "What?" With appalling +distinctness he heard a cannonade that seemed as wide-spread as the +horizon. + +"I was to tell you that the enemy has been attacking along the whole +front," the aide explained. + +"Attacking! The Browns attacking!" Westerling exclaimed as he gathered +his wits. "Well, so much the worse for them. I rather expected they +would," he added. + +Then through the door which the aide had left open the division chiefs, +led by Turcas, filed in. To Westerling they seemed like a procession of +ghosts. The features of one were the features of all, graven with the +weariness of the machine's treadmill. Their harness held them up. A +moving platform under their feet kept their legs moving. They grouped +around the great man's desk silently, Turcas, his lips a half-opened +seam, his voice that of crinkling parchment, acting as spokesman. + +"The enemy seized his advantage," he said, "when he found that our +reserves were on the march, out of touch with the wire to headquarters." + +Westerling forced a smile which he wanted to be a knowing smile. + +"Exactly! Of course their guns are making a lot of noise," he said. "It +seems strange to you, no doubt, that they and not we should be +attacking. Excellent! Let them have a turn at paying the costs of the +offensive. Let them thrash their battalions to pieces. We want them +exhausted when we go in to-night." + +"However, we had not prepared our positions for the defensive," +continued that very literal parchment voice. "They began an assault on +our left flank first and we've just had word that they have turned it." + +"Probably a false report. Probably they have taken an outpost. Order a +counter-attack!" exclaimed Westerling. + +"Nor is that the worst of it," said the vice-chief. "They are pressing +at other well-chosen points. They threaten to pierce our centre." + +"Our centre!" gibed Westerling. "You do need rest. Our centre, where we +have the column of last night's attack still concentrated! If anything +would convince me that I have to fight this war-alone--I--" Westerling +choked in irritation. + +"Yes. The ground is such that it is a tactically safe and advantageous +move for Lanstron to make. He strikes at the vitals of our machine." + +"But what about the remainder of the force that made the charge? What +about all our guns concentrated in front of Engadir?" + +"I was coming to that. The rout of the assaulting column was much worse +than we had supposed. Those who are strong enough cannot be got to +reform. Many were so exhausted that they dropped in their tracks. Our +guns are at this moment in retreat--or being captured by the rush of the +Browns' infantry. Your Excellency, the crisis is sudden, incredible." + +"Our wire service has broken down. We cannot communicate with many of +our division commanders," put in Bellini, the chief of intelligence. + +"Yes, our organization, so dependent on communication, is in danger of +disruption," concluded Turcas. "To avoid disorder, we think it best to +retreat across the plain to our own range." + +At the word "retreat" Westerling sprang to his feet, his cheeks purple, +the veins of his neck and temples sculptured as he took a threatening +step toward the group, which fell back before the physical rage of the +man, all except the vice-chief, his mouth a thin, ashy line, who held +his own. + +"You cowards!" Westerling thundered. "Retreat when we have five millions +to their three!" + +"We have not that odds now," replied the parchment voice. "All their men +are engaged. They have caught us at a disadvantage, unable to use our +numbers except in detail in trying to hold on in face of--" + +"I tell you we cannot retreat!" Westerling interrupted. "That is the +end. I know what you do not know. I am in touch with the government. +Yes, I know--" + +This brought fresh alarm into faces which had become set in grim +stoicism by many alarms. If the people were in ignorance of the losses +and the army in ignorance of the nation's feeling, the officers of the +staff were no less in ignorance of what passed over the long-distance +wire between the chief of staff and the premier. + +"I know what is best--I alone!" Westerling continued, driving home his +point. "Tell our commanders to hold. Neither general nor man is to +budge. They are to stick to the death. Any one who does not I shall +hold up to public shame as a poltroon. Who knows but Lanstron's attack +may be a council of desperation? The Browns may be worse off than we +are. Hold, hold! If are are tired, they are tired. Frequently it takes +only an ounce more of resolution to turn the tide of battle. Hold, hold! +To-morrow will tell a different story! We are going to win yet! Yes, we +are going to win!" + +"It is for you to decide, Your Excellency," said Turcas, slowly and +precisely. "You take the responsibility." + +"I take the responsibility. I am in command!" replied Westerling in +unflinching pose. + +"Yes, Your Excellency." + +And they filed out of the room, leaving him to his isolation. + +A little later, when Francois came in unannounced, bringing coffee, he +found his master with face buried in hands. Westerling was on the point +of striking the valet in anger at the discovery, but instead attempted a +yawn to deceive him. + +"I fell asleep; there's so little to worry about, Francois," he +explained. + +"Yes, Your Excellency. There is no need of worrying as long as you are +in command," said Francois; and Westerling gulped at the coffee and +chewed at a piece of roll, which was so dry in his mouth and so hard to +swallow that he gave up the attempt. + +After Marta had learned, over the telephone, from Lanstron of the +certain repulse of the Gray assault, fatigue--sheer physical fatigue +such as made soldiers drop dead in slumber on the earth, their packs +still on their backs--overcame her. Her work was done. The demands of +nature overwhelmed her faculties. She slept with a nervous twitching of +her muscles, a restless tossing of her lithe body, until hammers began +beating on her temples, beating, beating with the sound of shell +bursts, as if to warn her that punishment for her share in the killing +was to be the eternal concussion of battle in her ears. At length she +realized that the cannonading was real. + +Hastening out-of-doors, as her glance swept toward the range she saw +bursts of shrapnel smoke from the guns of the Browns nearer than since +the fighting had begun on the main line, and these were directed at +bodies of infantry that were in confused retreat down the slopes, while +all traffic on the pass road was moving toward the rear. Impelled by a +new apprehension she hurried to the tunnel. Lanstron answered her +promptly in a voice that had a ring of relief and joy in place of the +tension that had characterized it since the outbreak of the war. + +"Thanks to you, Marta!" he cried. "Everything goes back to you--thanks +to you came this chance to attack, and we are succeeding at every point! +You are the general, you the maker of victories!" + +"Yes, the general of still more killing!" she cried in indignation. "Why +have you gone on with the slaughter? I did not help you for this. Why?" + +No reply came. She poured out more questions, and still no reply. She +pressed the button and tried again, but she might as well have been +talking over a dead wire. + + * * * * * + +Though the morning was chill, Mrs. Galland, in a heavy coat, was seated +outside the tower door, beatifically calm and smiling; for she would +miss rejoicing over no detail of the spectacle. The battle's sounds were +sweet music--symphony of retribution. Oh, if her husband and her father +could only be with her to see the ancient enemy in flight! Her cheeks +were rosy with the happy thrumming of her heart; a delirious beat was in +her temples. She wanted to sing and cheer and give thanks to the +Almighty. The advancing bursts of billowy shrapnel down the slopes were +a heavenly nimbus to her eyes. She breathed a silent blessing on a +manoeuvring Brown dirigible. They were coming! The soldiers of her +people were coming to take back their own from the robber hosts and +restore her hearth to her. Soon she would be seated on the veranda +watching the folds of her flag floating over La Tir. + +"Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it like some good story?" she said to Marta. +"Yes, like a miracle--and there has been a Galland in every war of the +Browns and you were in this!" + +Having no son, she had given her daughter in sacrifice on the altar of +her country's gods, who had answered with victory. Her old-fashioned +patriotism, true to the "all-is-fair-in-war" precept, delighted in the +hour of success in every trick of Marta's double-dealing, though in +private life she could have been guilty of no deceit. + +"Marta, Marta, I shall never tease you again about your advanced ideas +or about journeying all the way around the world without a chaperon. +Your father and my father would have approved!" She squeezed Marta's +hands and pressed them to her cheek. Marta smiled absently. + +"Yes, mother," she said, but in such a fashion that Mrs. Galland was +reminded again that Marta had always been peculiar. Probably it was +because she was peculiar that she had been able to outwit the head of an +army. + +"Oh, that mighty Westerling who was going to conquer the whole world! +How does he feel now?" mused Mrs. Galland "Westerling and his boasted +power of five against three!" + +For the Grays were barbarians to her and the Browns a people of a +superior civilization, a superior aristocracy, a superior professional +and farming and laboring class. There was nothing about the Browns to +Mrs. Galland that was not superior. War, that ancient popular test of +superiority in art, civilization, morals, scholarship, the grace of +woman and the manliness of man, had proved her point in the high court, +permitting of no appeal. + +One man alone against the tide--rather, the man who has seen a tide +rise at his orders now finding all its sweep against him--Westerling, +accustomed to have millions of men move at his command, found himself, +one man out of the millions, still and helpless while they moved of +their own impulses. + +As news of positions lost came in, he could only grimly repeat, "Hold! +Tell them to hold!" fruitlessly, like adjurations to the wind to cease +blowing. The bell of the long distance kept ringing unheeded, until at +last his aide came to say that the premier must speak either to him or +to the vice-chief. Westerling staggered to his feet and with lurching +steps went into the closet. There he sank down on the chair in a heap, +staring at the telephone mouthpiece. Again the bell rang. Clenching his +hands in a rocking effort, he was able to stiffen his spine once more as +he took down the receiver. To admit defeat to the premier--no, he was +not ready for that yet. + +"The truth is out!" said the premier without any break in his voice and +with the fatalism of one who never allows himself to blink a fact. +"Telegraphers at the front who got out of touch with the staff were +still in touch with the capital. Once the reports began to come, they +poured in--decimation of the attacking column, panic and retreat in +other portions of the line--chaos!" + +"It's a lie!" Westerling declared vehemently. + +"The news has reached the press," the premier proceeded. "Editions are +already in the streets." + +"What! Where is your censorship?" gasped Westerling. + +"It is helpless, a straw protesting against a current," the premier +replied. "A censorship goes back to physical force, as every law does in +the end--to the police and the army; and all, these days, finally to +public opinion. After weeks of secrecy, of reported successes, when +nobody really knew what was happening, this sudden disillusioning +announcement of the truth has sent the public mad." + +"It is your business to control the public!" complained Westerling. + +"With what, now? With a speech or a lullaby? As well could you stop the +retreat with your naked hands. My business to control the public, yes, +but not unless you win victories. I gave you the soldiers. We have +nothing but police here, and I tell you that the public is in a mob +rage--the whole public, bankers and business and professional men +included. I have just ordered the stock exchange and all banks closed." + +"There's a cure for mobs!" cried Westerling. "Let the police fire a few +volleys and they'll behave." + +"Would that stop the retreat of the army? We must sue for peace." + +"Sue for peace! Sue for peace when we have five millions against their +three!" + +"It seems so, as the three millions are winning!" said the premier. + +"Sue for peace because women go hysterical? Do you suppose that the +Browns will listen now when they think they have the advantage? Leave +peace to me! Give me forty-eight hours more! I have told our troops to +hold and they will hold. I don't mistake cowardly telegraphers' rumors +for facts--" + +"Pardon me a moment," the premier interrupted. "I must answer a local +call." So astute a man of affairs as he knew that Westerling's voice, +storming, breaking, tightening with effort at control, confirmed all +reports of disaster. "In fact, the crockery is broken--for you and for +me!" said the premier when he spoke again. His life had been a gamble +and the gamble had turned against him in playing for a great prize. +There was an admirable stoicism in the way he announced the news he had +received from the local call: "The chief of police calls me up to say +that the uprising is too vast for him to hold. There isn't any mutiny, +but his men simply have become a part of public opinion. A mob of women +and children is starting for the palace to ask me what I have done with +their husbands, brothers, sons, and fathers. They won't have to break in +to find me. I'm very tired. I'm ready. I shall face them from the +balcony. Yes, Westerling, you and I have achieved a place in history, +and they're far more bitter toward you than me. However, you don't have +to come back." + +"No, I don't have to go back! No, I was not to go back if I failed!" +said Westerling dizzily. + +Again defiance rose strong as the one tangible thought, born of his +ruling passion. It was inconceivable that so vast an ambition should +fail. Failure! He defied it! He burst into the main staff room, where +the tired officers regarded him with a glare, or momentary, weary +wonder, and continued packing up their papers for departure. He went on +into the telegraphers' room. Some of the operators were packing their +instruments. + +"The news? What is the news?" Westerling asked hoarsely. + +An operator who was still at the key, without even half rising let alone +saluting, glanced up from the cavernous sockets of eyes unawed by the +chief of staff's presence. + +"All that comes in is bad," he said. "Where we get none because the +wires are down we know it's worse. We've been licked." + +He went on sending a message, wholly oblivious of Westerling, who +stumbled back into the staff room and paused inarticulate before Turcas. + +"The army is going--resisting by units, but going. It has made its own +orders!" Turcas said. The other division chiefs nodded in agreement. +"Your Excellency, we are doing our best," added the vice-chief, holding +the door for Westerling to return to his own office. "The nation is not +beaten. Given breathing time for reorganization, the army will settle +down to the defensive on our own range. There the enemy may try our +costly tactics against the precision and power of modern arms, if they +choose. No, the nation is not beaten." + +The nation! Westerling was not thinking of the nation. + +"You--" he began, looking around from face to face. + +Not one showed any sign of softening or deference, and, his mind a +blank, he withdrew, driven back to his isolation by an inflexible +ostracism. The world had come to an end. Public opinion was +master--master of his own staff. He sank down before his desk, staring, +just staring; hearing the roar of battle which was drawing nearer; +staring at the staff orderlies, who came in to take down the wall maps, +and at his aide packing up the papers and leaving him in a room bare of +all the appurtenances of his position, with little idea in his coma of +despair of the hour or even that time was passing. Finally, some one +touched him on the shoulder. He looked up to see his aide at his elbow +saluting and Francois, his valet, standing by with an overcoat. + +"We must go, Your Excellency," said the aide. + +"Go?" asked Westerling dazedly. + +"Yes, the staff has already gone to a new headquarters." + +The announcement was the needle prick that once more aroused him to a +sense of his situation. He rose and struck his fist on the desk in a +pulsing outbreak of energy and stubbornness. + +"But I stay! I stay!" he cried. "The enemy is not near. He can't be!" + +"Very near, general. You can see for yourself, said the aide. + +"I will!" Westerling replied. "I will see how the conspiracy of the +staff has made ruin of my plans!" + +Again something of his old manner returned; something of the stoic's +fatalism flashed in his eye. He shook his head to Francois, refusing to +slip his arms into the sleeves of the coat which Francois dropped on to +his shoulders. + +"Yes, I will see for myself!" he repeated, as he led the way out to the +veranda. "I'll see what goblin scared my pusillanimous staff and robbed +me of victory!" + + * * * * * + +Every cry of triumph in war is paid for by a cry of pain. On one side, +anguish of heart; on the other, inexpressible ecstasy. The Gray staff +were oblivious of fatigue in the glum, overpowering necessity of +restoring the organization of the Gray army for a second stand. The +Brown staff were oblivious of fatigue in the exhilaration of victory. + +Had a picture of the sight which the judge's son had witnessed at dawn +in the path of the attack and the counter-attack been thrown on the wall +of the big lobby room of the Brown headquarters, there might have been +less exultation on the part of the junior officers of the staff gathered +there. They were not seeing or thinking of the dead. They were seeing +only brown-headed pins pushing gray-headed pins out of the way on the +map, as the symbol of an attack become a pursuit and of better than +their dreams come true--the symbol of security for altar fires and race +and nation. They were of the living, in the mightiest thrill that a +soldier may know. + +No doubt now! No more suspense! Labor and sacrifice rewarded! Fervent +thanks to the Almighty were mingled with whistled snatches of wedding +marches and popular songs. An aide taking a message to the wire +preferred leaping over a chair to going around it. A subaltern and a +colonel danced together. Victory, victory, victory out of the burr of +automatics, the pounding of artillery, the popping roar of rifles! +Victory out of the mire of trenches after brain-aching strain! Victory +for you and for me and for sweethearts and wives and children! Aren't we +all Browns, orderly and captain, boyish lieutenant and gray-haired +general? A taciturn martinet of a major hugged a telegrapher to whom he +had never spoken a single unofficial word. Hadn't the telegraphers, +those silent men who were the tongue of the army, received the good +news and passed it on? Some officers who could be spared from duty went +to their quarters, where they dropped like falling logs on their beds. +To them, after their spell of rejoicing, victory meant sleep for the +first time in weeks without forked lightnings of apprehension stabbing +their sub-consciousness. + +Fellowship was in the victory, the fellowship which, developed under +Partow, who believed that Napoleons and Colossi and gods in the car and +all such gentlemen belonged to an archaic farce-comedy, had grown under +Lanstron. "The staff reports," began the messages that awakened a world, +retiring with the idea that the Browns were grimly holding the +defensive, to the news that three millions had outgeneralled and +defeated five. + +In the inner room, whose opening door gave glimpses of Lanstron and the +division chiefs, a magic of secret council which the juniors could not +quite understand had wrought the wonder. Lanstron had not forgotten the +dead. He could see them; he could see everything that happened. Had not +Partow said to him: "Don't just read reports. Visualize men and events. +Be the artillery, be the infantry, be the wounded--live and think in +their places. In this way only can you really know your work!" + +His elation when he saw his plans going right was that of the instrument +of Partow's training and Marta's service. He pressed the hands of the +men around him; his voice caught in his gratitude and his breaths were +very short at times, like those of a spent, happy runner at the goal. +Feeding on victory and growing greedy of more, his division chiefs were +discussing how to press the war till the Grays sued for peace; and he +was silent in the midst of their talk, which was interrupted by the +ringing of the tunnel telephone. When he came out of his bedroom, +Lanstron's distress was so evident that those who were seated arose and +the others drew near in inquiry and sympathy. It seemed to them that the +chief of staff, the head of the machine, who had left the room had +returned an individual. + +"The connection was broken while we were speaking!" he said blankly. +"That means it must have been cut by the enemy--that the enemy knows of +its existence!" + +"Perhaps not. Perhaps an accident--a chance shot," said the vice-chief. + +"No, I'm sure not," Lanstron replied. "I am sure that it was cut +deliberately and not by her." + +"The 53d Regiment is going forward in that direction--the same regiment +that defended the house--and it can't go any faster than it is going," +the vice-chief continued, rather incoherently. He and the others no less +felt the news as a personal blow. Though absent in person, Marta had +become in spirit an intimate of their hopes and councils. + +"She is helpless--in their power!" Lanstron said. "There is no telling +what they might do to her in the rage of their discovery. I must go to +her! I am going to the front!" + +The announcement started a storm of protest. + +"But you are the chief of staff! You cannot leave the staff!" + +"You've no right to expose yourself!" + +"A chance shell or bullet--" + +"You do not seem to realize what this victory means to you. You might be +killed at the very moment of triumph." + +"I haven't had any triumph. But if I had, could there be a better time?" +Lanstron asked with a half-bantering smile. + +"You couldn't reach there before the 53d Regiment anyway!" declared the +vice-chief, having in mind the fact that the staff was fifteen miles to +the rear, where it could be at the wire focus. "You will find the roads +blocked with the advance. You'll have to ride, you can't go all the way +in a car." + +"Terrible hardship!" replied Lanstron. "Still, I'm going. Things are +well in hand. I can keep in touch by the wire as I proceed. If I get out +of touch then you," with a nod to the vice-chief, "know as well as I how +to meet any sudden emergency. Yes, you all know how to act--we're so +used to working together. The staff will follow as soon as the Galland +house is taken. We shall make our headquarters there. I'm free now. I +can be my own man for a little while--I can be human!" + +A certain awe of him and of his position, born of the prestige of +victory, hushed further protest. Who if not he had the right to go where +he pleased in the Brown lines now? They noted the eagerness in his eyes, +the eagerness of one off the leash, shot with a suspense which was not +for the fate of the army, as he left headquarters. + + * * * * * + +A young officer of the Grays who was with a signal-corps section, trying +to keep a brigade headquarters in touch with the staff during the +retreat, two or three miles from the Galland house, had seen what looked +like an insulated telephone wire at the bottom of a crater in the earth +made by the explosion of a heavy shell. The instructions to all +subordinates from the chief of intelligence to look for the source of +the leak in information to the Browns made him quick to see a clew in +anything unusual. He jumped down into the crater and not only found his +pains rewarded, but that the wire was intact and ran underground in +either direction. Who had laid it? Not the Grays. Why was it there? He +called for one of his men to bring a buzzer, and it was the work of +little more than a minute to cut the wire and make an attachment. Then +he heard a woman's voice talking to "Lanny." Who was Lanny? He waited +till he had heard enough to know that it was none other than Lanstron, +the chief of staff of the Browns, and the woman must be a spy. An +orderly despatched to the chief of intelligence with the news returned +with the order: + +"Drop everything and report to me in person at once." + +"For this I have made my sacrifice!" Marta thought. "The killing goes on +by Lanny's orders, not by Westerling's, this time." + +Leaving her mother to enjoy the prospect, a slow-moving figure, +trance-like, she went along the first terrace path to a point near the +veranda where the whole sweep of landscape with its panorama of retreat +magnetized her senses. Like the gray of lava, the Gray soldiery was +erupting from the range; in columns, still under the control of +officers, keeping to the defiles; in swarms and batches, under the +control of nothing but their own emotions. Mostly they were hugging +cover, from instinct if not from direction, but some relied on straight +lines of flight and speed of foot for escape. Coursing aeroplanes were +playing a new part. Their wireless was informing the Brown gunners where +the masses were thickest. This way and that the Brown artillery fire +drove retreating bodies, prodding them in the back with the fearful +shepherdry of their shells. Officers' swords flashed in the faces of the +bolters or in holding rear-guards to their work. Officers and orderlies +were galloping hither and thither with messages, in want of wires. +Commanders had been told to hold, but how and where to hold? They saw +neighboring regiments and brigades going and they had to go. The +machine, the complicated modern war machine, was broken; the machine, +with its nerves of intelligence cut, became a thing of disconnected +parts, each part working out its own salvation. Authority ceased to be +that of the bureau and army lists. It was that of units racked by +hardship, acting on the hour's demand. + +Gorged was the pass road, overflowing with the struggling tumult of men +and vehicles. Self-preservation breaking the bonds of discipline was in +the ascendant, and it sought the highway, even as water keeps to the +river bed. Like specks on the laboring tide was the white of bandages. +An ambulance trying to cut out to one side was overturned. The frantic +chauffeur and hospital-corps orderly were working to extricate the +wounded from their painful position. A gun was overturned against the +ambulance. A melee of horses and men was forming at the foot of the +garden gate in front of the narrowing bounds of the road into the town, +as a stream banks up before a jam of driftwood. The struggle for right +of way became increasingly wild; the dam of men, horses, and wagons +grew. A Brown dirigible was descending toward the great target; but on +closer view its commander forbore, the humane impulse outweighing the +desire for retribution for colleagues in camp and mess who had gone down +in a holocaust in the aerial battles of the night. + +Thus far the flight had seemed in the face of an unseen pursuer, like +that of an army fleeing from some power visible to itself but not to +Marta. Now she began to observe the flashes of rifles from the crests +that the rear-guards of the Grays were deserting; then the rush of the +Brown skirmish line to close quarters. Her glance pausing long on no +detail, so active the landscape with its swarms and tumult, returned to +the scene in front of the house. A Gray field-battery, cutting out to +one side of the road, knocking over flimsier vehicles and wounded who +got in the way, careening, its drivers cursing and officers shouting, +galloped out in the open field and unlimbered to support a regiment of +infantry that was hastily intrenching as a point to steady the +retreating masses on its front and protect them in their flight when +they had passed. + +Marta saw how desperately the gunners worked; she could feel their +fatigue. Nature had sunk in her heart a partisanship for the under dog. +She who had stood for the three against five, now stood for the shaken, +bewildered five in the cockpit under the fire of the three. Her +sympathies went out to every beaten, weary Gray soldier. What was the +difference between a Gray and a Brown? Weren't they both made of flesh +and bone and blood and nerves? + +Under the awful spell of the panorama, she did not see Westerling, who +had stopped only a few feet distant with his aide and his valet, nor did +he notice her as the tumult glazed his eyes. He was as an artist who +looks on the ribbons of the canvas of his painting, or the sculptor on +the fragments of his statue. Worse still, with no faith to give him +fortitude except the materialistic, he saw the altar of his god of +military efficiency in ruins. He who had not allowed the word retreat to +enter his lexicon now saw a rout. He had laughed at reserve armies in +last night's feverish defiance, at Turcas's advocacy of a slower and +surer method of attack. In those hours of smiting at a wall with his +fists and forehead, in denial of all the truth so clear to average +military logic, if he had only given a few conventional directions all +this disorder would have been avoided. His army could have fallen back +in orderly fashion to their own range. The machine out of order, he had +attempted no repair; he had allowed it to thrash itself to pieces. + +The splinters of its debris--steel splinters--were lacerating his brain. +He had a sense that madness was coming and some instinct of +self-preservation made the whole scene grow misty, as he tried to +resolve it out of existence in the desire for some one object which was +not his guns and his men in demoralization. A bit of pink caught his +eye--the pink of a dress, a little girl's dress, down there at the edge +of the garden by the road, at the same moment that some guns of the +Browns, in a new position, opened on an inviting target. Over her head +was a crack and a blue tongue of smoke whipped out of nothing; while a +shower of shrapnel bullets made spurts of dust around her. She started +to run toward the terrace steps and another burst made her run in the +opposite direction, while she looked about in a paralysis of fear and +then threw herself on her face. + +"My God! That little girl--there--there!" Westerling exclaimed +distractedly. + +"Clarissa! Clarissa!" cried Marta, seeing the child for the first time. + +She started precipitately to the rescue, but a hand on her arm arrested +her and she turned to see Hugo Mallin bound past her down the slope. +Still remaining on the premises under guard while Westerling had +neglected to dispose of the case, he had the run of the grounds that +morning while the staff was feverishly preparing for departure. + +Marta watched him leaping from terrace to terrace. Before he had reached +Clarissa worse than shrapnel bursts happened. The spatter of the +fragments and bullets falling on either side of the road whipped the +edges of the struggling human jam inward. In the midst of this a +percussion shell struck, bursting on contact with the road and spreading +its own grist of death and the stones of the road in a fan-shaped, +mowing swath. Legs and bodies were thrown out as if driven centrifugally +by a powerful breath, with Hugo lost in the smoke and dust of the +weaving mass. He came out of it bearing Clarissa in his arms, up the +terrace steps. To Marta, this was an isolated deed of saving life, of +mercy in the midst of merciless slaughter; a parallel to that of +Stransky bringing in Grandfather Fragini pickaback. + +"Big fireworks!" said Clarissa Eileen as Hugo set her down in front of +Marta, whose heart was in her eyes speaking its gratitude. + +The artillery's maceration of the human jam suddenly ceased; perhaps +because the gunners had seen the Red Cross flag which a doctor had the +presence of mind to wave. Westerling turned from a sight worse to him +than the killing--that of the flowing retreat along the road pressing +frantically over the dead and wounded in growing disorder for the cover +of the town, and found himself face to face with the mask-like features +of that malingerer who had told him on the veranda that the Grays could +not win. Gall flooded his brain. In Hugo he recognized something kindred +to the spirit that had set his army at flight, something tangible and +personified; and through a mist of rage he saw Hugo smiling--smiling as +he had at times at the veranda court--and saluting him as a superior +officer. + +"Now I am going to fight," said Hugo, "if they try to cross the white +posts; to fight with all the skill and courage I can command. But not +till then. They are still in their own country and we are not in ours. +Then they, in the wrong, will attack and we, in the right, will +defend--and, God with us, we shall win." + +Thus a second time he had given to the prayer of Marta's children the +life of action. She could imagine how steadfastly and exaltedly he would +face the invader. + +"Thank you, Miss Galland," he said. "And say good-by to your mother and +Minna for me." + +He was gone, without waiting for any reply, this stranger whom her part +had not permitted to know well. A thousand words striving for utterance +choked her as she watched him pass out of sight. Westerling was +regarding her with a stare which fixed itself first on one thing and +then on another in dull misery. Near by were Bellini, the chief of +intelligence, and a subaltern who had arrived only a minute before. The +subaltern was dust-covered. He seemed to have come in from a hard ride. +Both were watching Marta, as if waiting for her to speak. She met +Westerling's look steadily, her eyes dark and still and in his the +reflection of the vague realization of more than he had guessed in her +relations with Hugo. + +"Well," she breathed to Westerling, "the war goes on!" + +"That's it! That's the voice!" exclaimed the subaltern in an explosion +of recognition. + +A short, sharp laugh of irony broke from Bellini; the laugh of one +whose suspicions are confirmed in the mixture of the sublime and the +ridiculous. Marta looked around at the interruption, alert, on guard. + +"You seem amused," she remarked curiously. + +"No, but you must have been," replied Bellini hoarsely. "Early this +morning, not far from the castle, this young officer found in the crater +made by a ten-inch shell a wire that ran in a conduit underground. The +wire was intact. He tapped it. He heard a voice thanking some one for +her part in the victory, and it seems that the woman's voice that +answered is yours, Miss Galland. So, General Westerling, the leak in +information was over this wire from our staff into the Browns' +headquarters, as Bouchard believed and as I came to believe." + +So long had Marta expected this moment of exposure that it brought no +shock. Her spirit had undergone many subtle rehearsals for the occasion. + +"Yes, that is true," she heard herself saying, a little distantly, but +very quietly and naturally. + +Westerling fell back as from a blow in the face. His breath came hard at +first, like one being strangled. Then it sank deep in his chest and his +eyes were bloodshot, as a bull's in his final effort against the +matador. He raised a quivering, clenched fist and took a step nearer +her. + +But far from flinching, Marta seemed to be greeting the blow, as if she +admitted his right to strike. She was without any sign of triumph and +with every sign of relief. Lying was at an end. She could be truthful. + +"Do you recall what I said in the reception-room at the hotel?" she +asked. + +The question sent a flash into a hidden chamber of his mind. Now the +only thing he could remember of that interview was the one remark which +hitherto he had never included in his recollection of it. + +"You said I could not win." He drew out the words painfully. + +"And I pleaded with your selfishness--the only appeal to be made to +you," she continued, "to prevent war, which you could have done. When +you said that you brought on this war to gratify your ambition, I chose +to be one of the weapons of war; I chose, when driven to the wall, to be +true to that part of my children's oath that made an exception of the +burglar, the highwayman, and the invader. In war you use deceit and +treachery, under the pleasanter names of tactics and strategy, to draw +men to their death in traps, in order to increase the amount of your +killing. It was strategy, tactics, manoeuvres--give it any fine word +you please--that hideous and shameless part which I played. With fire I +fought fire. I fought for civilization, for my home, with the only means +I had against the wickedness of a victory of conquest--the precedent of +it in this age--a victory which should glorify such trickery as you +practised on your people." + +"I should like to shoot you dead!" cried Bellini. + +"No doubt. I like your honesty in saying so," said Marta. "Why not? The +business of war is murder; and as I have engaged in it I can claim no +exception. And why shouldn't women engage in it? Why should they be +excepted from the sport when they pay so many of the costs? It's easy to +die and easy to kill. The part you force on women is much harder. By +killing me you admit me to full equality." + +"You--you--" But Bellini had no adequate word for her, and his anger +softened into a kind of admiration of her, of envy, perhaps, that he had +had no such adjutant. It hardened again as he looked Westerling up and +down, before turning to leave without a salute or even a direct word. + +"And you let me make love to you!" Westerling said in a dazed, groping +monotone to Marta. + +Such a wreck was he of his former self that she found it amazing that +she could not pity him. Yet she might have pitied him had he plunged +into the fight; had he tried to rally one of the broken regiments; had +he been able to forget himself. + +"Rather, you made love to yourself through me," she answered, not +harshly, not even emphatically, but merely as a statement of passionless +fact. "If you dared to endure what you ordered others to endure for the +sake of your ambition; if--" + +She was interrupted by a sharp zip in the air. Westerling dodged and +looked about wildly. + +"What is that?" he asked. "What?" + +Five or six zips followed like a charge of wasps flying at a speed that +made them invisible. Marta felt a brush of air past her cheek and +Westerling went chalky white. It was the first time he had been under +fire. But these bullets were only strays. No more came. + +"Come, general, let us be going!" urged the aide, touching his chief on +the arm. + +"Yes, yes!" said Westerling hurriedly. + +Francois, who had picked up the coat that had fallen from Westerling's +shoulders with his start at the buzzing, held it while his master thrust +his hands through the sleeves. + +"And this is wiser," said the aide, unfastening the detachable insignia +of rank from the shoulders of the greatcoat. "It's wiser, too, that we +walk," he added. + +"Walk? But my car!" exclaimed Westerling petulantly. + +"I'm afraid that the car could not get through the press in the town," +was the reply. "Walking is safer." + +The absence in him of that quality which is the soldier's real glory, +the picture of this deserted leader, this god of a machine who had been +crushed by his machine, his very lack of stoicism or courage--all this +suddenly appealed to Marta's quick sympathies. They had once drunk tea +together. + +"Oh, it was not personal! I did not think of myself as a person or of +you as one--only of principles and of thousands of others--to end the +killing--to save our country to its people! Oh, I'm sorry and, +personally, I'm horrible--horrible!" she called after him in a broken, +quavering gust of words which he heard confusedly in tragic mockery. + +He made no answer; he did not even look around. Head bowed and hardly +seeing the path, he permitted the aide to choose the way, which lay +across the boundary of the Galland estate. + +They had passed the stumps of the linden-trees and were in the vacant +lot on the other side, when something white fluttered toward him, +rustled by the breeze that carried it, and lay still almost at his feet. +He saw his own picture on the front page of a newspaper, with the +caption, "His Excellency, Field-Marshal Hedworth Westerling, Chief of +Staff of Our Victorious Army." He stared at the picture and the picture +stared at him as if they knew not each other. A racking shudder swept +through him. He turned his face with a kind of resolution, appealing in +its starkness, toward the battle and his glance rested on the battery +and the shattered regiment of infantry in the fields opposite the +Galland gate, under a canopy of shrapnel smoke, bravely holding their +ground. + +"I should be there. That is the place for me!" he exclaimed with a trace +of his old forcefulness. + +The aide's lips parted as if to speak in protest, but they closed in +silence, while a glance of deep human understanding, dissolving the +barriers of caste, passed between him and the valet, eloquent of their +approval and their loyal readiness to share the fate of their fallen +chief. + +The canopy of shrapnel smoke grew thicker; the infantry began to break. + +"But, no!" said Westerling. "The place for a chief of staff is at his +headquarters." + + + + +XLV + +THE RETREAT + + +Marta remained where Westerling had left her, rooted to the ground by +the monstrous spell of the developing panorama of seemingly limitless +movement. With each passing minute there must be a hundred acts of +heroism which, if isolated in the glare of a day's news, would make the +public thrill. At the outset of the war she had seen the Browns, as part +of a preconceived plan, in cohesive rear-guard resistance, with every +detail of personal bravery a utilized factor of organized purpose. Now +she saw defence, inchoate and fragmentary, each part acting for itself, +all deeds of personal bravery lost in a swirl of disorganization. That +was the pity of it, the helplessness of engineers and of levers when the +machine was broken; the warning of it to those who undertake war +lightly. + +The Browns' rifle flashes kept on steadily weaving their way down the +slopes, their reserves pressing close on the heels of the skirmishers in +greedy swarms. A heavy column of Brown infantry was swinging in toward +the myriad-legged, writhing gray caterpillar on the pass road and many +field-batteries were trotting along a parallel road. Their plan +developed suddenly when a swath of gun-fire was laid across the pass +road at the mouth of the defile, as much as to say: "Here we make a gate +of death!" At the same time the head of the Brown infantry column +flashed its bayonets over the crest of a hill toward the point where the +shells were bursting. These men minded not the desperate, scattered +rifle-fire into their ranks. Before their eyes was the prize of a panic +that grew with their approach. Kinks were out of legs stiffened by long +watches. The hot breath of pursuit was in their nostrils, the fever of +victory in their blood. + +In the defile, the impulse of one Gray straggler, who shook a +handkerchief aloft in fatalistic submission to the inevitable, became +the impulse of all. Soon a thousand white signals of surrender were +blossoming. As the firing abruptly ceased, Marta heard the faint roar of +the mighty huzzas of the hunters over the size of their bag. + +In the area visible to Marta was the strife of forces larger than the +largest that Napoleon ever led in battle; as large as fought the +decisive battle in the last war of the Grays. But here was only a +section of the raging whole from frontier end to frontier end. The +immensity of it! All the young manhood of a nation employed! Marta +ceased to see any particular incident of the scene. All was confused in +a red mist--red as blood. She, the one being in that landscape who was a +detached observer, felt herself condemned to watch the war go on +forever. + +An edge of the curtain of mist lifted. Sight and mind and soul +concentrated on the nearest horror. She saw the whirlpool at the foot of +the garden, horses and men in a straggle among dead and wounded, which +had grown fiercer now that the portion of the retreat that had not been +cut off in the defile pressed forward the more madly. She had thought of +herself as ashes; as an immovable creature of flayed nerves, incapable +of raising her hand to change the march of events. But the misery that +she saw intimately, almost within stone's throw of her door, broke the +spell with its appeal. The hectic energy of battle speeded her steps in +the blessed oblivion of action. + +Some doctors of different regiments thrown together in the havoc of +remnants of many organizations, with the help of hospital-corps men, +were trying to extricate the wounded from among the dead. They heard a +woman's voice and saw a woman's face. They did not wonder at her +presence, for there was nothing left in the world for them to wonder at. +Had an imp from hell or an angel from heaven appeared, or a shower of +diamonds fallen from the sky, they would not have been surprised. Their +duty was clear; there was work of their kind to do, endless work. Units +of the broken machine, in the instinct of their calling they struggled +with the duty nearest at hand. + +"What do you need? What can I do?" Marta asked. + +"Rest, shelter, safety for these poor fellows," answered one of the +doctors. + +"There is the house--our house!" said Marta. + +"My God! Aren't you men?" bellowed an officer. "Get away from the road! +Come out here! Form line! You--you; I mean you!" + +"You who can walk--you who aren't hurt, you cowards, give us a hand with +the wounded!" shouted another doctor. + +The soldiers were deaf to commands, but they heard a feminine voice +above the oaths and groans and heavy breathing and rustle of pressing +bodies and thrusting arms; a feminine voice, clear and steadying in that +orgy of male ferocity. It was like a chemical precipitate clearing muddy +water. Their wild glances saw a woman's features in exaltation and in +her eyes something as definite as the fire of command. She was shaming +them for their unmanliness; shaming their panic--the foolish panic at a +theatre exit--and giving orders as if that were her part and theirs was +to obey; a woman to soldiers, the weak sex to the strong. They did obey, +under the spell of the amazing fact of her presence, in the relief of +having some simple human purpose to cling to. + +After the work was begun they needed no urging to carry the wounded up +the terrace steps; and men who had knocked down and trampled on the +wounded were gentle with them now, under the guidance of better +impulses. How could they falter directed by a woman unmindful of +occasional shells and bullet whistles? They begged her to go back to +the house; this was no place for her. + +But Marta did not want safety. Danger was sweet; it was expiation. She +was helping, actually helping; that was enough. She envied the peaceful +dead--they had no nightmares--as she aided the doctors in separating the +bodies that were still breathing from those that were not; and she +steeled herself against every ghastly sight save one, that of a man +lying with his legs pinned under a wagon body. His jaw had been shot +away. Slowly he was bleeding to death, but he did not realize it. He +realized nothing in his delirium except the nature of his wound. He was +dipping his finger in the cavity and, dab by dab, writing "Kill me!" on +the wagon body. It sent reeling waves of red before her eyes. Then a +shell burst near her and a doctor cried out: + +"She's hit!" + +But Marta did not hear him. She heard only the dreadful crack of the +splitting shrapnel jacket. She had a sense of falling, and that was all. + +The next that she knew she was in a long chair on the veranda and the +vague shadows bending over her gradually identified themselves as her +mother and Minna. + +"I remember when you were telling of the last war that you didn't swoon +at the sight of the wounded, mother," Marta whispered. + +"But I was not wounded," replied Mrs Galland. + +Marta ceased to be only a consciousness swimming in a haze. With the +return of her faculties, she noticed that both her mother and Minna were +looking significantly at her forearm; so she looked at it, too. It was +bandaged. + +"A cut from a shrapnel fragment," said a doctor. "Not deep," he added. + +"Do I get an iron cross?" she asked, smiling faintly. It was rather +pleasant to be alive. + +"All the crosses--iron and bronze and silver and gold!" he replied. + +"You forgot platinum," she said almost playfully, as she found nerves, +muscles, and bones intact after that drop over a precipice into a black +chasm. It was like the Marta of the days before she had undertaken to +reform all creation, her mother was thinking. "Did I help any?" she +asked seriously. + +"Well, I should say so!" declared the doctor. "I should say so!" he +repeated. "You did the whole business down there by the gate." + +"Yes, the whole business! I brought it all on--all! I--" She flung a +wild gesture at the landscape and then buried her face in her hands. +"Yes, I did the whole business I--I played, smiled, lied! That awful +sight--and he might not have been writing 'kill me' if I--" + +The doctor grasped her shoulders to keep her from rising. He spoke the +first soothing words that came to mind. There was another shudder, an +effort at control, and her hands dropped and she was looking up with a +dull steadiness. + +"I'm not going mad!" she exclaimed. "What happened to--to that man who +was pleading for death? Did any one who had been engaged in killing men +who wanted to live kill the one who wanted to die?" + +"The shell burst that wounded you finished him," said the doctor. + +"Which, of course, was quite according to the tenets of civilization, +which wouldn't have allowed it to be done as an open act of mercy!" said +Marta. "But that is only satire. It is of no service," she added, rising +to a sitting posture to look around. + +The struggle by the gate was over. All the uninjured had made good their +escape. A Red Cross flag floated above the wounded and the debris of +overturned wagons. Brown skirmishers were descending the near-by slopes +and crossing the path of the cavalry charge. Signal-corps men were +spinning out their wires. A regiment of guns were being emplaced behind +a foot-hill. A returning Brown dirigible swept over the town. All +firing except occasional scattered shots had ceased in the immediate +vicinity, though in the distance could be heard the snarl of the firmer +resistance that the Grays were making at some other point. The Galland +house, for the time being, was isolated--in possession of neither side. + +"Isn't there something else I can do to help with the wounded?" Marta +asked. She longed for action in order to escape her thoughts. + +"You've had a terrible shock--when you are stronger," said the doctor. + +"When you have had something to eat and drink," observed the practical +Minna authoritatively. + +Marta would not have the food brought to her. She insisted that she was +strong enough to accompany Minna to the tower. While Minna urged +mouthfuls down Marta's dry throat as she sat outside the door of the +sitting-room with her mother a number of weary, dust-streaked faces, +with feverish energy in their eyes, peered over the hedge that bounded +the garden on the side toward the pass. These scout skirmishers of +Stransky's men of the 53d Regiment of the Browns made beckoning gestures +as to a crowd, before they sprang over the hedge and ran swiftly, +watchfully, toward the linden stumps, closely followed by their +comrades. Soon the whole garden was overrun by the lean, businesslike +fellows, their glances all ferret-like to the front. + +"Look, Minna!" exclaimed Marta. "The giant who carried the old man in +pickaback the first night of the war!" + +"Yes, the bold impudence of him!" said Minna. "As if there was nothing +that could stand in his way and what he wanted he would have!" + +But Minna was flushing as she spoke. The flush dissipated and she drew +up her chin when Stransky, looking around, recognized her with a merry, +confident wave of his hand. + +"See, he's a captain and he wears an iron cross!" said Marta as +Stransky hastened toward them. + +"He acts like it!" assented Minna grudgingly. + +Eager, leviathan, his cap doffed with a sweeping gesture as he made a +low bow, Stransky was the very spirit of retributive victory returning +to claim the ground that he had lost. + +"Well, this is like getting home again!" he cried. + +"So I see!" said Minna equivocally. + +Stransky drew his eyes together, sighting them on the bridge of his nose +thoughtfully at this dubious reception. + +"I came back for the chance to kiss a good woman's hand," he observed +with a profound awkwardness and looking at Minna's hand. "Your hand!" he +added, the cast in his eyes straightening as he looked directly at her +appealingly. + +She extended her finger-tips and he pressed his lips to them. Then she +drew back a step, a trifle pale, her eyes sad and questioning, more than +ever Madonna-like, and curled her arm around little Clarissa Eileen, who +had stolen to her mother's side. + +"What is that?" asked Clarissa Eileen, pointing to the cross on +Stransky's breast. + +"That," observed Stransky deliberately, "is a little piece of metal that +I got for an inspiration of manhood. It doesn't cost the price of a +day's rations, but it's one of the things which money can't buy--not +yet--in this commercial age. One of those institutions of barbarism that +we anarchists call government gave it to me, and I'll never part with +it!" + +"Because he was a brave soldier, Clarissa," explained Marta in simpler +terms. "Because he was ready to die for his country." + +"And for your mother!" put in Stransky, seizing Clarissa in his great +hands and lifting her lightly to the level of his face. "Oh, I've got +stories," he said to her, "a soldier-man's stories, to tell you, young +lady, one of these days--and such stories!" + +He crossed his eyes over his big nose in a fashion that made Clarissa +clap her hands and burst into a peal of laughter. + +"You're an awfully funny man!" she declared as Stransky set her down. + +"So your mother thinks," said Stransky, blinking at Minna, who had +indulged in a smile which his remark promptly ironed out. + +This irrepressible soldier, given so much as an inch, would be demanding +a province. But erasing a smile is not destroying the fact of it. +Stransky took heart for the charge on seeing a breach in the enemy's +lines. + +"Yes, I was fighting for you!" he burst out to Minna. "When the other +fellows were reading letters from their sweethearts I was imagining +letters from you. I even wrote out some and posted them from one pocket +to another, in place of the regular mails." + +"What did you say in those letters?" asked Marta. + +"Why, you're big and awkward and cross-eyed, Stransky, but you've a way +with you, and maybe--" + +"Humph!" sniffed Minna. + +"I kept seeing the way you looked when you belted me one in the face," +he went on unabashed to Minna, "and knocked any anarchism out of me that +was left after the shell burst. I kept seeing your face in my last +glimpse when the Grays made me run for it from your kitchen door before +I had half a chance for the oration crying for voice. You were in my +dreams! You were in battle with me!" + +"This sounds like a disordered mind," observed Minna. "I've heard men +talk that way before." + +"Oh, I have talked that way to other women myself!" said Stransky. + +"Yes," said Minna bitterly. His candor was rather unexpected. + +"I have talked to others in passing on the high road," he continued. +"But never after a woman had struck me in the face. That blow sank +deep--deep--deep as what Lanstron said when I revolted on the march. I +say it to you with this"--he touched the cross--"on my breast. And I'm +not going to give you up. It's a big world. There's room in it for a +place for you after the war is over and I'm going to make the place. +Yes, I've found myself. I've found how to lead men. My home isn't to be +in the hedgerows any more. It's to be where you are. You and I, whom +society gave a kick, will make society give us a place!" He was eloquent +in his strength; eloquent in the fire of resolution blazing from his +eyes. "And I'll be back again," he concluded. "You can't shake me. I'll +camp on your door-step. But now I've got to look after my company. +Good-by till I'm back--back to stay! Good-by, little daughter!" he added +with a wave of his hand to Clarissa as he turned to go. "Maybe we shall +have our own automobile some day. It's no stranger than what's been +happening to me since the war began." + +"If you don't marry him, Minna, I'll--I'll--" Mrs. Galland could not +find words for the fearful thing that she would do. + +"Marry him! I have only met him three times for about three minutes each +time!" protested Minna. She was as rosy as a girl and in her confusion +she busied herself retying the ribbon on Clarissa Eileen's hair. "He +called you little daughter!" she said softly to the child as she +withdrew into the tower. + +"I am glad we didn't send Minna away when misfortune befell her," said +Mrs. Galland. "You were right about that, Marta, with your new ideas. +What a treasure she has been!" + +Marta was scarcely hearing her mother; certainly not finding any credit +for herself in the remark. She was thinking what a simple, what a +glorious thing was a love such as Stransky's and Minna's: the mating of +a man and a woman whose brains were not oversensitized by too +complicated mentality; of a man and a woman direct and sincere, +primarily and clearly a man and a woman. Such happiness could never be +for her now; for her who had let a man make love to her for his own +undoing. + +The skirmishers having halted beyond the linden stumps, the reserves +were stacking their rifles and dropping to rest in the garden. The sight +of the uniforms of the deliverers, of her own people, stirred Mrs. +Galland to unwonted activity. She moved here and there among them with +smiles of mothering pride. She told them how brave they were; how her +husband had been a colonel of Hussars in the last war. They must be +tired and hungry. She hurried in to Minna, and together they emptied the +larder of everything, even to the lumps of sugar, which were impartially +bestowed. + +But Marta remained in the chair by the doorway of the tower, weak and +listless. She was weary of the sight of uniforms and bayonets. In the +dreary opaqueness of her mind flickered one tiny, bright light as +through a blanket; that she herself had been in danger. She had been +under fire. She had not merely sent men to death; she had been in +death's company. + +Now her lashes were closed; again they opened slightly as her gaze roved +the semicircle of the horizon. A mounted officer and his orderly +galloping across the fields to the pass road caught her desultory +attention and held it, for they formed the most impetuous object on the +landscape. When the officer alighted at the foot of the garden and +tossed his reins to the orderly, she detected something familiar about +him. He leaped the garden wall at a bound and, half running, came toward +the tower. Not until he lifted his cap and waved it did she associate +this lithe, dapper artillerist with a stooped old gardener in blue +blouse and torn straw hat who had once shuffled among the flowers at her +service. + +"Hello! Hello!" he shouted in clarion greeting at sight of her. "Hello, +my successor!" + +Only in the whiteness of his hair was he like the old Feller. His tone, +the boyish sparkle of his black eyes, those full, expressive lips +playing over the brilliant teeth, his easy grace, his quick and telling +gestures--they were of the Feller of cadet days. Something in his look +as he stopped in front of her startled Marta. Suddenly he bent over and +drew down his face, with dropping underlip. + +"I'm deaf--stone deaf, if you please!" he wheezed in senile fashion. + +She had to laugh and he laughed, too, with the ringing tone of youth +that made him seem younger than his years. + +"Not a gardener--a colonel of artillery, in the uniform, under the flag +again, thanks to you!" he cried. "An officer once more!" + +"I'm glad!" she exclaimed. Here was one thing more to the credit of war. + +"Thanks to you, instead of being shot as a spy--thanks to you!" More +than the emotion of the brimming gratitude of his heart shone through +his mobile features. + +"It was your choice; you improved it. You fulfilled a faith that I had +in you," she said. + +"Faith in me! That is the finest tribute of all--better than this, +better than this!" He touched the iron cross on his coat as Stransky had +to Minna. + +"And I took your place," said Marta with a dull, slow emphasis. + +Yes, he did owe much to her, she was thinking. In his place she had +lied; his part she had played in shame and no future act, she felt, +could ever expiate it. The teacher of peace, she had become the partisan +of war in wicked cunning. + +He guessed nothing of what lay behind her words. He had forgotten her +children's school. + +"And did my work better than I could! You are wonderful, wonderful!" He +was aglow with admiration, with awe, with adoration. + +She smiled faintly, bitterly, while he burst into a flood of talk. + +"I was back with the guns you had given me when I heard that you were +taking my place. Then I thought, can I be worthy of this--of what you +have done for me, giving me back my own world, your world? I vowed I +would be worthy--worthy of you. Heavens! How I made the guns +play--bang-bang-bang!" He cupped his bands over his eyes as an imaginary +range-finder, sweeping the field. "Oh, they are beautiful guns, these +new models! With a battalion I won a regiment. I asked Lanny to tell +you; did he?" + +"Yes, and also of the iron cross." + +"A fine bit of metal, the cross, and they have not been giving them too +promiscuously, either," said Feller. "But they're not gun-metal! That is +the real metal. It was my guns that closed the gate to the pass," he +went on, swept by the flood of enthusiasm. "I didn't open fire till I +could concentrate so as to make a solidly locked gate. I tell you, the +guns are the thing! You ought to have seen that retreat curl up on +itself. And where the shells struck on the hard road--phew! They lifted +the Grays upward to meet shrapnel pounding them from the sky! We could +have torn the whole Column to pieces if they hadn't surrendered. What a +bag of rifles and guns and stores is going to our capital! Oh, our +friends the Grays were a little too fast! They didn't know what the guns +meant in defence. The guns--they are back to their old place of glory! +They rule!" + +"Was it your guns that fired into the melee there by the gate?" Marta +asked. + +"Yes. I saw that soft target early. They put up a Red Cross flag at +first, but I soon realized that it wasn't any dressing station; only +stragglers; only the kind that run away without orders. So I let them +have it, for that's the law of war, and the way they would give it to us +and did, more than once. But I took care that no shots were fired at the +house, though if it had not been your house I'd have sent a shell or two +on the chance that some of the Gray staff might still be there. Then, +after the surrender, I kept spanking that lot with intermittent shells +till I was sure the Red Cross flag was justified." + +"The fire was very accurate, as I happen to know, for it wounded me," +said Marta. + +So intent had he been in talking to his audience, to her eyes, that now +for the first time he noticed the bandage on her forearm. His +impressionable features were as struck with alarm and horror at sight of +the tiny red spot as if she had been in danger of immediate death. + +"You--you were down by the road?" he gasped. "My guns were firing at +you? Why--how?" + +"Helping with the wounded." + +"The Gray wounded?" + +"Yes." + +"Of course, you would--with any wounded!" he cried. "Splendid! Like you! +It is not bad? It does not pain you?" + +He bent over the red spot, his lips very near it and twitching, all his +volatile force melting into solicitude and his voice taut, as if he +himself were suffering the anguish of a dozen wounds. + +"Only a scratch. Don't worry about it!" she assured him soothingly, with +a peculiar smile. + +Now he made a gesture of amazement, catching at another thought that +darted as a shooting star across his mind. + +"Wonderful--wounded! Wonderful! Was there ever such a woman?" he cried. +"No, I knew from the first there never was. The minute the way was clear +and I could be spared from my guns I came to you--to you! This time I +come not as a deaf, cringing, watery-eyed old gardener"--for an instant +he was the gardener--"but as one of your world, to which I was bred," +and his shoulders, rising, filled out his uniform in the grace of the +commander of men in action. "Destiny has played with us. It sent a spy +to your garden. It put you in my place. A strange service, ours--yes, +destiny is in it!" + +"Yes," she breathed painfully, his suggestion striking deep. + +She was staring at the ground, her face very still. Yes, it was he who +had started the train of circumstances that had left her with a memory +more tragic than the one that had whitened his hair. His memory was +already erased. What could ever erase hers? He had begun anew. How could +she ever begin anew? The fact of this man talking of everything as +destiny--of the slaughter, the misery, as destiny--was the worst mockery +of all. Yet he was true to himself. His enjoyed facility of fervid +expression, his boyishness, his gift of making the lived moment the +greatest of his life, was the very gift she had craved to make her +forget her yesterdays. Only faintly did she hear his next outburst, +until he came to the end. + +"I come with the question which I had sealed in my lonely heart," he was +saying, "while I lived a lie and trimmed rose-bushes and hung on your +words. You saved me. I fought for you. You were in my eyes, in my +angers, in my brain as I directed the fire of my guns. 'She will be +pleased to hear that I am a colonel!' I kept thinking. I love you! I +love you!" + +Marta started up from her chair, her eyes moist and open wide, amazed, +but growing kind and troubled. Had she been guilty of giving him hope? +Was there something in her that had led him on, a shame that came +natural to her since she had let Westerling proceed with his love? Her +guilt in Feller's case was worse than in Westerling's. A thousand +Westerlings were not worth one Feller. And he had been near her, near as +a comrade, in imagination, with his ready suggestions of how to play her +part in its most exacting moments! While he stood, the picture of the +eager, impatient lover trembling for an answer that seemed to mean +heaven or perdition for him, the kindness that went with the trouble in +her eyes warmed to fondness, as she laid her fingers on his shoulder. + +"You would want me to love you, wouldn't you?" she asked gently. "And if +I cannot? Yes, if I can neither act nor play at love, so real must love +be to me?" + +He turned miserable, with eyes seeming to sink into his head, and body +to wilt in the dejection of that pitiful, hopeless attitude when his +secret had been discovered in the tower sitting-room. + +"Act! Act!" he murmured. + +"Yes." Her fingers exercised the faintest pressure on his shoulder. +"Your true love, your one enduring love, is the guns. All other loves +come and go. To-morrow, if not, next day, in this big, throbbing world, +with your future assured, as you lived other great moments you would +look back on this moment as another part that you had acted--and so +beautifully acted." + +"Act! Act!" he repeated, like one who is coming to grip with facts. + +For a period he stared at the ground before he reached for the hand on +his shoulder, which he pressed in both of his, looking soberly into her +eyes. He smiled; smiled apparently at a memory, let her hand drop, and +raised his own hands, palms out, in a gesture of good-humored +comprehension. + +"You know me!" he exclaimed. "But I did it well, didn't I?" he asked, +after a pause. + +"Beautifully. I repeat, it was convincingly real," she replied, laughing +in relief. + +"If I hadn't, it would have been most disappointing after all my +rehearsals," he went on. "Yes, you know me! Why, I might have been +wanting to break the engagement in a week because I was beginning other +rehearsals!" He laughed, too, as if relishing the prospect. "Yes, I +act--act always, except with the guns. They alone are real!" he burst +out in joyous fury. "We are going on, I and my guns, on to the best +yet--on in the pursuit! Nothing can stop us! We shall hit the Grays so +fast and hard that they can never get their machine in order again. God +bless you! Everything that is fine in me will always think finely of +you! You and Lanny--two fixed stars for me!" + +"Truly!" She was radiant. "Truly?" she asked wistfully. + +"Yes, yes--a yes as real as the guns!" + +"Then it helps! Oh, how it helps!" she murmured almost inaudibly. + +"Good-by! God bless you!" he cried as he started to go, adding over his +shoulder merrily: "I'll send you a picture post-card from the Grays' +capital of my guns parked in the palace square." + +She watched him leap the garden wall as lightly as he had come and +gallop away, an impersonation of the gay, adventurous spirit of war, +counting death and wounds and hardship as the delights of the gamble. +Yes, he would follow the Grays, throwing shells in the irresponsible joy +of tossing confetti in a carnival. Pursuit! Was Feller's the sentiment +of the army? Were the Browns not to stop at the frontier? Were they to +change their song to, "Now we have ours we shall take some of theirs"? +The thought was fresh fuel to the live coals that still remained under +the ashes. + +A brigade commander and some of his staff-officers near by formed a +group with faces intent around an operator who was attaching his +instrument to a field-wire that had just been reeled over the hedge. +Marta moved toward them, but paused on hearing an outburst of jubilant +exclamations: + +"A hundred thousand prisoners!" + +"And five hundred guns!" + +"We're closing in on their frontier all along the line!" + +"It's incredible!" + +"But the word is official--it's right!" + +From mouth to mouth--a hundred thousand prisoners, five hundred +guns--the news was passed in the garden. Eyes dull with fatigue began +flashing as the soldiers broke into a cheer that was not led, a cheer +unlike any Marta had heard before. It had the high notes of men who were +weary, of a terrible exultation, of spirit stronger than tired legs and +as yet unsatisfied. Other exclamations from both officers and men +expressed a hunger whetted by the taste of one day's victory. + +"We'll go on!" + +"We'll make peace in their capital!" + +"And with an indemnity that will stagger the world!" + +"Nothing is impossible with Lanstron. How he has worked it out--baited +them to their own destruction!" + +"A frontier of our own choosing!" + +"On the next range. We will keep all that stretch of plain there!" + +"And the river, too!" + +"They shall pay--pay for attacking us!" + +Pay, pay for the drudgery, the sleepless nights, the dead and the +wounded--for our dead and wounded! No matter about theirs! The officers +were too intent in their elation to observe a young woman, standing +quite still, her lips a thin line and a deep blaze in her eyes as she +looked this way and that at the field of faces, seeking some +dissentient, some partisan of the right. She was seeing the truth now; +the cold truth, the old truth to which she had been untrue when she took +Feller's place. There could be no choice of sides in war unless you +believed in war. One who fought for peace must take up arms against all +armies. Her part as a spy appeared to her clad in a new kind of shame: +the desertion of her principles. + +Nor did the officers observe a man of thirty-five, wearing the cords of +the staff and a general's stars, coming around the corner of the house. +Marta's feverish, roving glance had noted him directly he was in sight. +His face seemed to be in keeping with the other faces, in the ardor of a +hunt unfinished; hand in blouse pocket, his bearing a little too easy to +be conventionally military--the same Lanny. + +She was dimly conscious of surprise not to find him changed, perhaps +because he was unaccompanied by a retinue or any other symbol of his +power. He might have been coming to call on a Sunday afternoon. In that +first glimpse it was difficult to think of him as the commander of an +army. But that he was, she must not forget. She was shaken and +trembling; and a mist rose before her, so that she did not see him +clearly when, with a gesture of relief, he saw her. + +"Lanstron!" exclaimed an officer in the first explosive breath of +amazement on recognizing him; then added: "His Excellency, the chief of +staff!" + +But the one word, Lanstron, 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. On what meat had our Caesar fed +that he had grown so great? This was the man who had pleaded with her to +allow a spy in her garden; for whom she herself had turned spy. +To-morrow his name would be in the head-lines of every newspaper in the +world. His portrait would become as familiar to the eyes of the world as +that of the best-advertised of kings. He was the conqueror whose +commonplace sayings would be the sparks of genius because the gamble of +war had gone his way. He had grown so great by sending shells into the +stricken eddy at the foot of the garden and driving punishing columns +against the retreating masses in the defile. The god in the car and of +the machine, with his quiet manner, his intellectual features; this +one-time friend, more subtle in pursuit of the same ambitions than the +blind egoism of Westerling! These officers and men and all officers and +men and herself were pawns of his plans and his will. Yes, even herself. +Had he stopped with the repulse of the enemy? No. Would he stop now? No. +Her disillusion was complete. She knew the truth; she felt it as steel +stiffening against him and against every softer impulse of her own. + +"I wanted a glimpse of the front as well as the rear," Lanstron +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 his 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, safe, +alive. She did not offer her hand in greeting. She was incapable of any +movement, such was her emotion; and he, too, was held in a spell, as the +reality of her, after all that had passed, filled his eyes. He waited +for her to speak, but she was silent. + +"Marta--that bandage! You have been hurt?" he exclaimed. + +Unlike Feller, he had not been so obsessed with a purpose as to be blind +to externals. Her hostile mood was quick to recall that no smallest +detail of anything under his sight ever escaped him. This was his kind +of strength--the strength that had wrecked Westerling as a fine, +intellectual process. He could act, too. In the tone of the question, +"You've been hurt?" without tragic emphasis, was a twitching, throbbing +undercurrent of horror, which set the hand hidden in the pocket of his +blouse quivering. Why care if she were hurt? Why not think about the +hundreds of thousands of others who were wounded. Why not care for that +poor fellow whose ghastly wound kept staring at her as he wrote "Kill +me!" on the wagon body? + +"It's the fashion to be wounded," she said, eyebrows lifted and lashes +lowered, with a nervous smile. "I played Florence Nightingale, the +natural woman's part, I believe. We should never protest; only nurse the +victims of war. After helping to send men to death I went under fire +myself, and--and that helped." + +She could be kind to Feller but not to Lanstron. He was not a child. He +was Lanny, who, as she thought of him now, did nothing except by +calculation. + +"Yes, that would help," he agreed, wincing as from a knife thrust. + +Her old taunt: sending men to death and taking no risk himself! She saw +that he winced; she realized that she had stayed words that were about +to come in a flood. Then she seemed to see him through new lenses. He +appeared drawn and pale and old, as if he, too, had become ashes; +anything but the conqueror. Her feelings grew contradictory. Why all +this fencing? How weak, how silly! She had much to say to him--a last +appeal to make. Her throat held a dry lump. She was marshalling her +thoughts to begin when the brittle silence was broken by a rumbling of +voices, a stirring of feet, and a cheer. + +"Lanstron! Lanstron! Hurrah for Lanstron!" + +The soldiers in the garden did not bother with any "Your Excellency, the +chief of staff" formula when word had been passed of his presence. Marta +looked around to see their tempestuous enthusiasm as they tossed their +caps in the air and sent up their spontaneous tribute from the depths of +their lungs. Conqueror and hero to the living, but the dead could not +speak, whispered some fiend in her heart. + +Lanstron uncovered to the demonstration impulsively, when the +conventional military acknowledgment would have been a salute. He always +looked more like the real Lanny to her with his forehead bare. It +completed the ensemble of his sensitive features. She saw that he was +blinking almost boyishly at the compliment and noted the little +deprecatory shake of his head, as much as to say that they were making a +mistake. + +"Thank you!" he called, and the cheeriness of his voice, she thought, +expressed his real self; the delight of victory and the glowing +anticipation of further victories. + +"Thank _you_!" called a private with a big voice. + +"Yes, thank _you_!" repeated some of the officers in quick appreciation +of a compliment as real as human courage. + +"We're going to put your headquarters in the Grays' capital!" cried the +soldier with the big voice. + +Another cheer rose at the suggestion. + +"You will follow the staff?" Lanstron called in sudden intensity. + +"Yes, yes, yes!" they shouted. "Yes, yes; follow you!" + +"You think our staff led you wisely?" he continued distinctly, slowly, +and very soberly. "You think we can continue to do so? You trust us? You +trust our judgment?" + +"Yes, yes, yes!" + +"Thank you!" he said with a long-drawn, happy breath. + +"Thank _you_!" they shouted. + +He stood smiling for a moment in reply to their smiles; then, still +smiling, but in 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 clutch the wrist above the pocket of his +blouse to still the twitching; but beyond that there was no further sign +of emotion as he went to the telephone. She had been about to cry out +her protest against the continuance of the war in the name of humanity, +of justice, of every bit of regard he had ever had for her. When he was +through talking she should go to him in appeal--yes, on her knees, if +need be, before all the officers and soldiers--to stop the killing; but +instantly he was through he started toward the pass road, not by the +path to the steps, but by leaping from terrace to terrace and waving his +hand gayly to the soldiers as he went. The officers stared at the sight +of a chief of staff breaking away from his communications in this +unceremonious fashion. They saw him secure a horse from a group of +cavalry officers on the road and gallop away. + +Marta having been the object of Lanstron's attention now became the +object of theirs. It was good to see a woman, a woman of the Browns, +after their period of separation from feminine society. She found +herself holding an impromptu reception. She heard some other self +answering their polite questions; while a fear, a new kind of fear, was +taking hold of her real self; a fear inexplicable, insidiously growing. +Lanstron was still in the officers' minds after his strange appearance +and stranger departure. They began to talk of him, and Marta listened. + +"He said something about being a free man now!" + +"Yes, he looked as eager as a terrier after rats." + +"He knows what he is doing. He sees so far ahead of what we are thinking +that it's useless to guess his object. We'll understand when it's done." + +"How little side he has! So perfectly simple. He hardly seems to realize +the immensity of his success. In fact, none of us realizes it; it's too +enormous, overwhelming, sudden!" + +"And no nerves!" + +"No nerves, did you say? There you are wrong. Did you see that hand +twitching in his pocket? Of course, you've heard about the hand? Why, +he's a bundle of nerve-wires held in control; a man of the age; master +of his own machine, therefore, able to master the machine of an army." + +Of course, they guessed nothing of Marta's part in his success. The very +things 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 is not +news to you," remarked the brigade commander. + +"Yes, I saw the accident of his first flight when his hand was injured," +she said, and winced with horror. Never had the picture of him as he +rose from the wreck appeared so distinct. She could see every detail of +his looks; feel his twinges of pain while he smiled. Was the revelation +the more vivid because it had not once occurred to her since the war +began? It shut out the presence of the officers; she no longer heard +what they were saying. Black fear was enveloping her. Vaguely she +understood that they were looking away at something. She heard the roar +of artillery not far distant and followed their gaze toward the knoll +where Dellarme's men had received their baptism of fire, now under a +canopy of shrapnel smoke. + +"That's about their last stand in the tangent, their last snarl on our +soil," 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 feels, now we'll see how it looks at a +distance," piped one of the soldiers. + +Not until he had shouted to them did they notice a division +staff-officer who had come up from the road. He had a piece of +astounding news to impart before he mentioned official business. + +"What do you think of this?" he cried. "Nothing could stop him! +Lanstron--yes, Lanstron has gone into that charge with the African +Braves!" + +In these days, when units of a vast army in the same uniform, drilled in +the same way, had become interchangeable parts of a machine, the African +Braves still kept regimental fame. They had guarded the stretches of hot +sand in one of the desert African colonies of the Browns; and they had +served in the jungle in the region of Bodlapoo, which, by the way, was +nominally the cause of the war. They had fought Mohammedan fanatics and +black savages. It did not matter much to them when they died; now as +well as ever. If they had mothers or sisters they were the secrets of +each man's heart. The scapegrace youth, the stranded man of thirty who +would forget his past, the born adventurer, the renegade come a +cropper, the gentleman who had gambled, the remittance man whose +remittance had stopped, the peasant's son who had run away from home, +criminals and dreamers, some minor poets, some fairly good actors, +scholarly fellows who chanted the "Odyssey," and both oath-ripping and +taciturn, quiet-mannered fellows who could neither read nor write found +a home in the African Braves' muster-roll. Their spirit of corps had a +dervish fatalism. They had begged to have a share in the war and Partow +had consented. In the night after their long journey, while Westerling's +ram was getting its death-blow, they had detrained and started for the +front. But the Grays were going as fast as the Braves, and they had been +unable to get into action. + +"Wait for us! We want to be in it!" cried their impatience. "We'll show +you how they fight in Africa! Way for us!" + +"Give them a chance!" said Lanstron. + +This order a general of corps repeated to a general of division, who +repeated it to a general of brigade. + +"Give them a chance! Give them a chance!" + +Reserves along the route of their advance knew them at a glance by their +uniform, their Indian tan, and their jaunty swagger and gave a cheer as +they passed. They touched the chord of romance in the hearts of +officers, who regarded them as an archaic survival which sentiment +permitted in an isolated instance in Africa, where it excellently +served. And officers looked at one another and shook their heads +knowingly, out of the drear, hard experience in spade approaches, when +they thought of that brilliant uniform as a target and of frontier +tactics against massed infantry and gun-fire. + +"Once will be enough," said the cynical. "There won't be many left to +tell the tale!" + +And the African Braves knew how the army felt. They had a reputation out +of Africa to sustain, this band of exotics among the millions of +home-trained comrades. They didn't quite believe in all this machine +business. Down the slopes with their veteran stride, loose-limbed and +rhythmic, they went, past the line of the Galland house, with no +fighting in sight. What if they had to return to Africa without firing a +shot? The lugubrious prospect saddened them. They felt that a battle +should be ordered on their account. + +"You will take that regiment's place and it will fall back for support, +while you storm the knoll beyond!" said the brigade commander, a twinkle +in his eye. + +"Is it much of a job, do you think?" asked the colonel of the Braves. + +He had two fingers' length of service colors on his blouse. Lean he was +and bony-jawed, with deep-set eyes. He loved every mother's son of the +Braves, from illiterate to the chanter of the "Odyssey"; from peasant's +son to penniless nobleman, and thought any one of his privates rather +superior to a home brigade commander. + +"A pretty good deal. I think the Grays'll make a snappy resistance," +said the brigade commander honestly. "The way we feel them out, they're +getting back their wind, and for the first time we'll be fighting them +up-hill. Yes, there's a sting in a retreating army's tail when it gets +over its demoralization." + +"Good!" observed the colonel as if he had a sweet taste in his mouth. + +"And if you find it too stiff," the brigade commander went on, "why, +I've seasoned veterans back of you who will press in to your support." + +"Veterans, you say, and seasoned? I have some of my own, too! Thank you! +Thank you most kindly!" said the colonel, saluting stiffly, with a twist +to the corner of his mouth. "When we need their help it will be to bury +our dead," he added. "Can we do it alone? Will we?" + +He passed these inquiries along the line, which rose to the suggestion +with different kinds of oaths and jests and grins and grim whistles. The +scholar suddenly transferred his affections from the Greeks' phalanx to +the Roman legions and began with the first verse of Virgil's "AEneid." He +always made the change when action was near. "The Greeks for poetry and +the Romans for war!" he declared, and could argue his company to sleep +if anybody disputed him. + +"I want to be in one fight. I haven't been under fire in the whole war," +Lanstron explained to the colonel, who understood precisely the feeling. + +"Lanstron is with us! The chief of staff is watching us!" ran the +whisper from flank to flank of the Braves. It was not wonderful to them +that he should be there. This complicated business of running a war over +a telephone was not in the ken of their calculations. The colonel was +with them, so all the generals ought to be. "We'll show Lanstron!" +determined the Braves. "We'll show him how we fight in Africa!" + +"With the first rush you go to the bottom of the valley; with the +second, take the knoll!" Such were the colonel's simple tactics. "But +stop on the top of the knoll. Though we'd like to take the capital this +afternoon, it's against orders." + +Lanstron, dropping into place in the line, felt as if he were about to +renew his youth. He had the elation of his early aeroplane flights, when +he was likely to be hung on a church steeple. Now he was not sending men +to death; he was having his personal fling. It was all very simple +beside sitting at a desk with battle raging in the distance. He dodged +at the first bullet that whistled near his head and looked rather +sheepishly at the man next him, who was grinning. + +"Lots of fellows do that with the first one, no matter how many times +they've been under fire," said the comrade. "But if they do it with the +second one--" He dropped the corners of his mouth with a significance +that required no further comment to express his views on that kind of a +soldier. + +"I shan't!" said Lanstron; and he kept his word. + +"I knew by the cut of your jib you wouldn't!" observed the Brave, +speaking not to the chief of staff but to the man. What were chiefs of +staff to him? Everybody on the firing-line was simply another Brave. + +Lanstron liked the compliment. It pleased him better than those endowing +him with military genius. It was free of rank and etiquette and +selfishness. + +Of such stuff were the Braves as Caesar's veterans who walloped the +Belgae, the adventurous ruffians of Cortez, the swashbucklers who fought +in Flanders, the followers of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the regulars of +the American Indian campaigns. When they rose to the charge with a yell, +in a wave of scarlet and blue, flashing with brass buttons, their silken +flag rippling in the front rank, they made a picture to please the +romantic taste. Here on the brown background of the commonplace three +millions of moderns was a patch of the color and glamour that +story-tellers, poets, artists, and moving-picture men would choose as +the theme of real military glory. + +Intoxication of all the senses, of muscles and nerves, with the +mesmerism of movement and burning desire which calls the imagination of +youth to arms! The supreme moment of fury and splendid rush, which +becomes the recollection to the survivor to be told from the knee to +future generations in a way to make small boys love to play with +soldiers! These men knew nothing except that they had legs and that +ahead was a goal. Oaths and laughter were mingled in their souls; the +energy of a delirium sped their steps. They were so many human missiles +fired by an impulse, with too much initial velocity to stop at the +bottom of the valley as the colonel had directed. Lord, no! Let's have +the thing over with, bit in teeth! The common instinct of the living, +who neither saw nor thought of those who fell, swept them up the slope. +Every man who survived was the whole regiment in himself; its pride, its +gallantry, its inheritance in his keeping. + +"Fiends of hell and angels of heaven! We're here and we did it alone!" +gasped the winded, ragged line that reached the crest. + +"I thought they would!" said the brigade commander, who had watched the +charge through his glasses from an eminence. "But at what a cost! It was +lucky for them that it was only a rear-guard resistance. However, it +certainly thrills the imagination and it will be a good thing for Brown +prestige in Africa." + +"Why?" Marta heard the officers around her asking after their +exclamations of amazement at the news that Lanstron was going in the +charge. "Why should the chief of staff risk his life in this fashion?" + +Marta knew. All her taunts about sending others to death from his office +chair, uttered as the fugitive sarcasm of a mood, recurred in the +merciless hammer-beat of recollection. For a moment she was aghast, +speechless. Then the officers, occupied with the startling news, heard a +voice, wrenched from a dry throat in anguish, 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 +automatically. + +"Tell him I ask him not to! Try to reach him--try--you can try!" + +"Yes, yes! Certainly!" exclaimed the general, turning to the telephone +operator. + +He had seen now what the younger men had seen at a glance. They were +recalling Lanstron's relief at seeing her; how he had passed them by to +speak to her; the intensity of the two in their almost wordless meeting. +Her bloodless lips, the imploring passion in her eyes, her quivering +impatience told the rest. + +"Division headquarters!" called the operator. "They're getting brigade +headquarters," he added while he waited in silence. "Brigade +headquarters says the Braves have no wire. It's too late. The charge is +starting." + +"So it is!" cried one of the subalterns. "Look! Look!" + +Marta looked toward the rising ground this side of the knoll in time to +see bayonets flash in the waning afternoon sunlight and disappear as +they descended the slope. + +"There! They're up on the other slope without stopping!" exclaimed the +general. "Quick! Don't you want to see?" He offered his glasses to +Marta. + +"No, I can see well enough," she murmured, though the landscape was +moving before her eyes in giddy waves. + +"The madness of it! The whole slope is peppered with the fallen!" + +"What a cost! Magnificent, but not war. Carrying their flag in the good +old way, right at the front!" + +"Heavens! I hope they do it!" + +"The flag's down!" + +"Another man has it--it's up!" + +"Now--now--splendid! They're in!" + +"So they are! And the flag, too!" + +"Yes, what's left are in!" + +"And Lanstron was there--in that!" + +"What if--" + +"Yes, the chief of staff, the head of the army, in an affair like that!" + +"The mind of the army--the mind that was to direct our advance!" + +"When all the honors of the world are his!" + +Their words were acid-tipped needles knitting back and forth through +Marta's brain. Was Lanny one of those black specks that peppered the +slope? Was he? Was he? + +"Telephone and--and see if Lanny is--is killed!" she begged. + +She knew not how she uttered that monstrous word killed. But utter it +she did in its naked terror. Now she knew a simpler feeling than that of +the grand sympathy of the dreamer with the horrors of war as a whole. +She knew the dumb, helpless suspense of the womenfolk remaining at home +watching for the casualty lists that Westerling had suppressed. What +mattered policies of statesmen and generals, propagandas and tactics, to +them? The concern of each wife or sweetheart was with one--one of the +millions who was greater to the wife or the sweetheart than all the +millions. Marta was not thinking of sending thousands to death. Had she +sent _him_ to death? The agony of waiting, waiting there among these +strangers, waiting for that little instrument at the end of a wire to +say whether or not he were alive, became insupportable. + +"I'll go--I'll go out there where he is!" she said incoherently, still +looking 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, stumblingly. + +"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 romance into his 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 retreat, 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 as there is any," the aide +concluded, and, seeing that she wished to be alone, he left her. + +For the first time she had real oblivion from the memory of her deceit +of Westerling, the oblivion of drear, heart-pulling suspense. All the +good times, the sweetly companionable times, she and Lanny had had +together; all his flashes of courtship, 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, passed in review under +the hard light of her petty ironies and sarcasms, which had the false +ring of coquetry to her now, genuine as they had been at the time. +Through her varying moods she had really loved him, and the thing that +had slumbered in her became the drier fuel for the flame--perhaps too +late. + +Her thought, her feeling was as if he were not chief of staff, but a +private soldier, and she were not a woman who had girdled the world and +puckered her brow over the solution of problems, but a provincial girl +who had never been outside her village--his sweetheart. All questions of +the army following up its victory, of his responsibilities and her fears +that he would go on with conquest, faded into the fact of life--his +life, as the most precious thing in the world to her. For him, yes, for +him she had played the spy, as that village girl would for her lover, +thinking of warm embraces; for him she had kept steady under the strain. + +Without him--what then? It seemed that the fatality that had let him +escape 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 drove the last foot of the +invader off the soil of the Browns.... A voice was calling.... She heard +it hazily, with a sudden access of giddy fear, before it became a +cheerful, clarion cry that seemed to be repeating a message that had +already been spoken without her understanding it. + +"He's safe, safe, safe, Miss Galland! He was not hit! He is on his way +back and ought to be here very soon!" + +She heard herself saying "Thank you!" But that was not for some time. +The aide was already gone. He had had his thanks in the effect of the +news, which made him think that a chief of staff should not receive +congratulations for victory alone. + +Lanny would return through the garden. She remained leaning against the +wagon body, still faint from happiness, waiting for him. She was drawing +deeper and longer breaths that were velvety with the glow of sunshine. A +flame, the flame that Lanny had desired, of many gentle yet passionate +tongues, leaping hither and thither in glad freedom, was in possession +of her being. When his figure appeared out of the darkness the flame +swept her to her feet and toward him. Though he might reject her he +should know that she loved him; this glad thing, after all the shame she +had endured, she could confess triumphantly. + +But she stopped short under the whip of conscience. Where was her +courage? Where her sense of duty? What right had she, who had played +such a horrible part, to think of self? There were other sweethearts +with lovers alive who might be dead on the morrow if war continued. The +flame sank to a live coal in her secret heart. Another passion possessed +her as she seized Lanstron's hand in both her own. + +"Lanny, listen! Not the sound of a shot--for the first time since the +war began! Oh, the blessed silence! It's peace, peace--isn't it to be +peace?" As they ascended the steps she was pouring out a flood of +broken, feverish sentences which permitted of no interruption. "You kept +on fighting to-day, but you won't to-morrow, will you? It isn't I who +plead--it'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, Marta!" he whispered as he stood to one +side for her to enter. + + + + +XLVI + +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 +Lanstron 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 people +who had driven the burglar from her house 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?" +exclaimed the vice-chief. + +The others did not propose to let him do all the honors. Each murmured +words of welcome on his own account. + +"We are here, thanks to you!" + +"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 vice-chief 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!' To-morrow is to be a public holiday and they are +calling it Lanstron Day. The thing was so sudden that the speculators +who depressed 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 +unobserved. She noted a touch of color come to Lanstron's cheeks as he +made a little shrug of protest. + +"It never rains but it pours!" he said. "We were all just as able and +loyal yesterday as to-day when we find ourselves heroic. We owe our +victory to Partow's plans, to the staff's industry, the spirit of the +people and the army, and--" He threw a happy smile toward Marta. + +"Perhaps it ought to be Galland Day rather than Lanstron Day," remarked +the vice-chief. "The crowds at the capital when they know her part might +cheer her more frenziedly than you, general." + +"No, no--please, no!" Marta was hectic in alarm and protest. + +"Your secret is ours! It's in the family!" the vice-chief hastened to +assure her. Where could a secret be safe if not in the keeping of an +army staff? + +"That was almost like teasing!" she exclaimed with a laugh of relief. + +"We're all in pretty good humor," remarked the vice-chief. He seemed to +have a pleasant taste in his mouth that would last him for life. + +Then Marta saw their faces grow businesslike and 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 post yet!" +said the vice-chief impatiently. "As the Grays never expected to take +the defensive, their fortresses are inferior. Every hour we wait means +more time for them to fortify, more time to recover from their +demoralization. Our dirigibles having command of the air--we had a +wireless from one reporting all clear half-way to the Gray capital--why, +we shall 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 population with the Grays. With the unremitting offensive, +blow on blow, using the spirit of our men to drive in mass attacks at +the right points, the Gray range is ours!" + +Marta scanned the faces of the staff for some sign of dissent only to +find nothing but the ardor of victory calling for more victory, which +reflected the feeling of the coursing crowds in the capital. Though +Lanny wished to stop the war, he was only a chip on the crest of a wave. +Public opinion, which had made him 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 outlining the plan of +attack that they had worked out while awaiting their chief's return from +the charge. He was taking a paper from his pocket and looking from one +to another of his colleagues studiously; and she was conscious of that +determination in his smile which she had first seen when he rose from +the wreck of his plane. + +"This is from Partow: a message for you and the nation!" he announced, +as he spread a few thin, typewritten pages out on the table. "I was +under promise never to reveal its 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 +which the day's events had given the prestige of one of the heroes of +old, there was grave attention. + +"I think we have practically agreed that the two individuals who were +invaluable to our cause were Partow and Miss Galland," Lanstron remarked +tentatively. He waited for a reply. It was apparent that he was laying a +foundation before he went any further. + +"Certainly!" said the vice-chief. + +"And you!" put in another officer, which brought a chorus of assent. + +"No, not I--only these two!" Lanstron replied. "Or, I, too, if you +prefer. It little matters. The thing is that I am under a promise to +both, which I shall respect. He organized 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 Partow's plan. He +had a plan and a dream, this wonderful old man who made us all seem +primary pupils in the art of war." + +Could this be that terrible Partow, a stroke of whose pencil had made +the Galland house an inferno? Marta wondered as Lanstron read his +message--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 happened--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 ours. Then we should lay up +no legacy of revenge in their hearts. They could never have cause to +attack again. Civilization would have advanced 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. + +"I 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 practical. There is nothing +like mixing a little practice in your dreams while the world is still +well this side of Utopia, as the head on my old behemoth of a body well +knows. She had the right idea with her school. The oath so completely +expressed my ideas--the result of all my thinking--that I had a twinge +of literary jealousy. 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 will get a lesson that will last you forever 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 why 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 boyishly in happy embarrassment, incapable 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, with Miss Galland, and with my own ideas, if the +government orders the army to advance, by resigning as chief of +staff--my work finished." + +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 images, in respect to a field-marshal's rank. There +was no word of greeting but a telling silence before Turcas spoke. His +voice had lost its parchment crinkle and become natural. The blue veins +on his bulging temples were a little more pronounced, his thin features +a little more pinched, but otherwise he was unchanged and he seemed +equal to another strain as heavy as the one he had undergone. + +"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 became quieter. As we get in touch +with the divisions, we find the army in better shape than we had feared +it would be. There is a recovery of spirit, owing to our being on our +own soil." + +"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 face to another with +filmy eyes, lowered them before Bouchard. "There's a room ready for Your +Excellency up-stairs," Turcas continued. "The orderly will show you the +way." + +Now Westerling grasped the fact that he was no longer chief of staff. He +drew himself up in a desperate attempt at dignity; the staff saluted +again, and, uncertainly, he followed the orderly, with the aide and +valet still in loyal attendance. + +Meanwhile, the aerial scouts of the Grays were puzzled by a moving cloud +on the landscape several miles away. It filled the highway and +overflowed into the fields, without military form: women and men of +every age except the fighting age, marching together in a sinister +militancy of purpose. + +"Bring the children, too!" cried the leaders. "They've more right to be +heard than any of us." + +From such a nucleus it seemed that the whole population of the land +might be set in motion by a common passion. Neither the coming of +darkness nor a chill rain kept recruits from village and farmhouse from +dropping their tasks and leaving meals unfinished to swell the ranks. +What Westerling had called the bovine public with a parrot's head had +become a lion. + +"There's no use of giving any orders, to stop this flood," said an +officer who had ridden fast to warn the Gray staff. "The police simply +watch it go by. Soldiers ready to lay down their lives to hold the range +give it Godspeed when they learn what it wants. Both are citizens before +they are soldiers or policemen. The thing is as elemental as an +earthquake or a tidal wave." + +"Public opinion! Unanimous public opinion! Nothing can stop that!" +exclaimed Turcas in dry fatalism. "You will inform His Excellency," he +said to Westerling's aide, "that they are coming for him--all the people +are coming, and we are powerless. And--" Even Turcas's calmness failed +him and his voice caught in a convulsive swallow. + +"I--I understand!" the aide said thickly, and went up-stairs. + +He had suffered worse than in seeing his chief beaten; but even in +disillusion he was loyal. He was back immediately, and paused at the +foot of the stairs stonily, in the attitude of one who listens for +something; while the tramp of thousands of feet came pressing in upon +all sides. + +As one great, high-pitched voice, the crowd shouted its merciless +demand; and eyes eager with the hunt as those of soldiers in pursuit +gleamed through the windows out of the darkness. Bouchard, hawk-eyed, +stern, was standing by the street door. His mediaeval spirit revolted at +the thought of any kind of a mob. For such demonstrations he had a +single simple prescription--cold lead. + +"We cannot strike the overwhelming spirit which we would forge into the +nation's defence," said Turcas. + +The door was flung open and Bouchard drew back abruptly at the sight; he +drew back in fear of his own nature. If any one should so much as lay +hands on him when he was in uniform, a sword thrust would resent the +insult to his officer's honor; and even he did not want to strike +grandfathers and children and mothers. + +Two figures were in the doorway: a heavy-set market woman with a fringe +of down on her lip and a cadaverous, tidily dressed old man, who might +have been a superannuated schoolmaster, with a bronze cross won in the +war of forty years ago on his breast and his eyes burning with the +youthful fire of Grandfather Fragini's. + +"They got the premier in the capital. We've come for Westerling! We want +to know what he did with our sons! We want to know why he was beaten!" +cried the market woman. + +"Yes," said the veteran. "We want him to explain his lies. Why 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 Westerling to come out!" rose the impatient +shouts behind the two figures in the doorway. + +"You are sure that he has one?" whispered Turcas to Westerling'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 except +"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. + +"The man you seek is dead!" 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 rag's, wherever it went +was entitled by custom to the salute of officers and "present arms" by +sentries. + +As news of the shot travelled among the people the cries dropped into +long-drawn breaths of thirst satiated. Their mission was fulfilled. The +tramp of their feet as they dispersed homeward mingled with the urging +of officers to weary men and the rumbling of wagons and guns and the +sound of pick and spade on the range, where torches flickered over the +heads of the working parties. But no other shot after the one heard from +Westerling's room was fired. The Grays were at grip with the fact of +disaster. An angry, wounded animal that had failed of its kill was +facing around at the mouth of its lair for its own life. + +"We're tired--we're all tired; but keep up--keep up!" urged the +officers. "We have a new chief of staff and there will be no more +purposeless sacrifices. It's their turn at the charge; ours to hold. +We'll give them some of the medicine they've been giving us. God with +us! Our backs against the wall!" + +After Lanstron's announcement to the Brown staff of his decision not to +cross the frontier, there was a restless 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 proposal. 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 before 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 +for 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 of +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 +Westerling!" + +The vice-chief started as if he had received a sharp pin-prick. His +shoulders unconsciously relaxed. He began a fresh study of a certain +point on the table top. Lanstron, looking first 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 knew how to sink the plummet into +human emotions. He reminded the Brown soldiers that there had been a +providential answer to the call of "God with us!" he reminded the people +of the lives that would be lost to no end but to engender hatred; he +begged the army and the people not to break faith with that principle of +"Not for theirs, but for ours," which had been their strength. + +"I should like you all to sign it--to make it simply the old form of +'the staff has the honor to report,'" he said finally. + +There was a hush as he finished--the hush of a deep impression when one +man waits for another to speak. All were looking at him except the +vice-chief, who was still staring at the table as if he had heard +nothing. Yet every word was etched on his mind. The man whose name was +the symbol of victory to the soldiers, who would be more than ever a +hero as the news of his charge with the African Braves travelled along +the lines, would go on record to his soldiers as saying that they could +not take the Gray range. This was a handicap that the vice-chief did not +care to accept; and he knew how to turn a phrase as well as to make a +soldierly decision. He looked up smilingly to Marta. + +"I have decided that I had rather not be a Westerling, Miss Galland," he +said. "We'll make it unanimous. And you," he burst out to Lanstron--"you +legatee of old Partow; I've always said that he was the biggest man of +our time. He has proved it by catching the spirit of our time and +incarnating it." + +Vaguely, in the whirl of her joy, Marta heard the chorus of assent as +the officers sprang to their feet in the elation of being at one with +their chief again. Lanstron caught her arm, fearing that she was going +to fall, but a burning question rose in her mind to steady her. + +"Then my shame--my sending men to slaughter--my sacrifice was not in +vain?" she exclaimed. + +Misery crept into her eyes; she seemed to be seeing some horror that +would always haunt her. These businesslike men of the council were +touched by a fresh understanding of her and of the reason for her +success, which had demanded something more than human art--something +pure and fine and fearless underneath art. They sought to win one more +victory that should kill her memory of what she had done. + +"Miss Galland," said the vice-chief, "Westerling's fate, whatever it is, +would have been the same. He could never have taken our range. He would +have only more lives to answer for, and Partow's dream could not have +come true." + +"You think that--you--all of you?" she asked. + +"All! All!" they said together. + +"Yes, but for you the losses on both sides would have been +greater--hundreds of thousands greater," concluded the vice-chief. "And +to-night I think you helped me to see right; you struck a light in my +mind when I was about to forget the law of service." + +"You see, then, you did hasten the end, Marta," said Lanstron. + +"Yes, I do see, Lanny!" she whispered. She was weak now, with no spur to +her energy except her happiness as she leaned on his arm. Then he felt +an impulsive pressure as she looked up at him. "The law of service, as +you say!" she said, turning to the vice-chief. "Isn't that the finest +law of all? Couldn't I help you with the appeal? Perhaps I might put in +it a thought to reach the women. They are a part of public opinion" + +"I was going to suggest it, but you seemed so weary that I hadn't the +heart," said Lanstron. + +"Just the thing--the mothers, wives, and sweethearts!" declared the +vice-chief. + +"I'm not a bit tired now!" Marta assured them brightly. "I'm fresh for +the fight again." + +"Another thing," added Lanstron, "we ought to have the backing of the +corps and division commanders." + +"Precisely," agreed the vice-chief. "We want to make sure of this thing. +We'd look silly if the old premier ordered the army on and left us high +and dry; and it would mean certain disaster. Shall I get them on the +telephone?" + +"Yes," said Lanstron. + +It was long after midnight when the collaborative composition of that +famous despatch was finished. + +"Now I'm really tired, Lanny," said Marta as she arose from the table. +"I can think only of prayers--joyful little prayers of thanks rising to +the stars." + +She slipped her arm through his. As they moved toward the door the +chiefs of divisions, keeping to the etiquette that best expressed their +soldierly respect, saluted her. + +"If this were told, few would believe it; nor would they believe many +other things in the inner history of armies which are forever held +secret," thought the vice-chief. + +Outside, the stars were twinkling to acknowledge those little prayers of +thanks, and the night was sweet and peaceful, while the army slept. + + + + +XLVII + +THE PEACE OF WISDOM + + +The sea of people packed in the great square of the Brown capital made a +roar like the thunder of waves against a breakwater at sight of a white +spot on a background of gray stone, which was the head of an eminent +statesman. + +"It looks as if our government would last the week out," the premier +chuckled as he returned to his colleagues at the cabinet table. + +As yet only the brief bulletins whose publication in the newspapers had +aroused the public to a frenzy had been received. The cabinet, as eager +for details as the press, had remained up, awaiting a fuller official +account. + +"We have a long communication in preparation," the staff had +telegraphed. "Meanwhile, the following is submitted." + +"Good Heavens! It's not from the army! It's from the grave!" exclaimed +the premier as he read the first paragraphs of Partow's message. "Of all +the concealed dynamite ever!" he gasped as he grasped the full meaning +of the document, that piece of news, as staggering as the victory +itself, that had lain in the staff vaults for years. "Well, we needn't +give it out to the press; at least, not until after mature +consideration," he declared when they had reached the end of Partow's +appeal. "Now we'll hear what the staff has to say for itself after +gratifying the wish of a dead man," he added as a messenger gave him +another sheet. + +"The staff, in loyalty to its dead leader who made victory possible, +and in loyalty to the principles of defence for which the army fought, +begs to say to the nation--" + +It was four o'clock in the morning when this despatch concluded with "We +heartily agree with the foregoing," and the cabinet read the names of +all the general staff and the corps and division commanders. Coursing +crowds in the streets were still shouting hoarsely and sometimes +drunkenly: "On to the Gray capital! Nothing can stop us now!" The +premier tried to imagine what a sea of faces in the great square would +look like in a rage. He was between the people in a passion for +retribution and a headless army that was supposed to charge across the +frontier at dawn. + +"The thing is sheer madness!" he cried. "It's insubordination! I'll have +it suppressed! The army must go on to gratify public demand. I'll show +the staff that they are not in the saddle. They'll obey orders!" + +He tried to get Lanstron on the long distance. + +"Sorry, but the chief has retired," answered the officer on duty +sleepily. "In fact, all the rest of the staff have, with orders that +they are not to be disturbed before ten." + +"Tell them that the premier, the head of the government, their +commander, is speaking!" + +"Yes, sir. But the staff were up all last night and most of to-night, +not to mention a pretty busy day. When they had finished their report to +you, sir, they were utterly done up. Yes, the orders not to disturb them +are quite positive, and as a junior I could not do so except by their +orders as superiors. The chief, before retiring, however, repeated to +me, in case any inquiry came from you, sir, that there was nothing he +could add to the staff's message to the nation and the army. It is to be +given to the soldiers the first thing in the morning, and he will let +you know how they regard it." + +"Confound these machine minds that spring their surprises as fully +executed plans!" exclaimed the premier. + +"It's true--Par tow and the staff have covered everything--met every +argument. There is nothing more for them to say," said the foreign +minister. + +"But what about the indemnity?" demanded the finance minister. He was +thinking of victory in the form of piles of gold in the treasury. + +This question, too, was answered. + +"War has never brought prosperity," Partow had written. "Its purpose is +to destroy, and destruction can never be construction. The conclusion of +a war has often assured a period of peace; and peace gave the impetus of +prosperity attributed to war. A man is strong in what he achieves, not +through the gifts he receives or the goods he steals. Indemnity will not +raise another blade of wheat in our land. To take it from a beaten man +will foster in him the desire to beat his adversary in turn and recover +the amount and more. Then we shall have the apprehension of war always +in the air, and soon another war and more destruction. Remove the danger +of a European cataclysm, and any sum extorted from the Grays becomes +paltry beside the wealth that peace will create. An indemnity makes the +purpose of the courage of the Grays in their assaults and of the Browns +in their resistance that of the burglar and the looter. There is no +money value to a human life when it is your own; and our soldiers gave +their lives. Do not cheapen their service." + +"Considering the part that we played at The Hague," observed the foreign +minister, "it would be rather inconsistent for us not to--" + +"There is only one thing to do. Lanstron has got us!" replied the +premier. "We must jump in at the head of the procession and receive the +mud or the bouquets, as it happens." + +With Partow's and the staff's appeals went an equally earnest one from +the premier and his cabinet. Naturally, the noisy element of the cities +was the first to find words. It shouted in rising anger that Lanstron +had betrayed the nation. Army officers whom Partow had retired for +leisurely habits said that he and Lanstron had struck at their own +calling. But the average man and woman, in a daze from the shock of the +appeals after a night's celebration, were reading and wondering and +asking their neighbors' opinions. If not in Partow's then in the staff's +message they found the mirror that set their own ethical professions +staring at them. + +Before they had made up their minds the correspondents at the front had +set the wires singing to the evening editions; for Lanstron had directed +that they be given the ran of the army's lines at daybreak. They told of +soldiers awakening after the debauch of yesterday's fighting, normal and +rested, glowing with the security of possession of the frontier and +responding to their leaders' sentiment; of officers of the type favored +by Partow who would bring the industry that commands respect to any +calling, taking Lanstron's views as worthy of their profession; of that +irrepressible poet laureate of the soldiers, Captain Stransky, I.C. +(iron cross), breaking forth in a new song to an old tune, expressing +his brotherhood ideas in a "We-have-ours-let-them-keep-theirs" chorus +that was spreading from regiment to regiment. + +This left the retired officers to grumble in their coiners that war was +no longer a gentleman's vocation, and silenced the protests of their +natural ally in the business of making war, the noisy element, which +promptly adapted itself to a new fashion in the relation of nations. +Again the great square was packed and again a wave-like roar of cheers +greeted the white speck of an eminent statesman's head. All the ideas +that had been fomenting in the minds of a people for a generation became +a living force of action to break through the precedents born of +provincial passion with a new precedent; for the power of public opinion +can be as swift in its revolutions as decisive victories at arms. The +world at large, after rubbing its forehead and readjusting its +eye-glasses and clearing its throat, exclaimed: + +"Why not? Isn't that what we have all been thinking and desiring? Only +nobody knew how or where to begin." + +The premier of the Browns found himself talking over the long distance +to the premier of the Grays in as neighborly a fashion as if they had +adjoining estates and were arranging a matter of community interest. + +"You have been so fine in waiving an indemnity," said the premier of the +Grays, "that Turcas suggests we pay for all the damage done to property +on your side by our invasion. I'm sure our people will rise to the +suggestion. Their mood has overwhelmed every preconceived notion of +mine. In place of the old suspicion that a Brown could do nothing except +with a selfish motive is the desire to be as fair as the Browns. And the +practical way the people look at it makes me think that it will be +enduring." + +"I think so, for the same reason," responded the premier of the Browns. +"They say it is good business. It means prosperity and progress for both +countries." + +"After all, a soldier comes out the hero of the great peace movement," +concluded the premier of the Grays. "A soldier took the tricks with our +own cards. Old Partow was the greatest statesman of us all." + +"No doubt of that!" agreed the premier of the Browns. "It's a sentiment +to which every premier of ours who ever tried to down him would have +readily subscribed!" + +The every-day statesman smiles when he sees the people smile and grows +angry when they grow angry. Now and then appears an inscrutable genius +who finds out what is brewing in their brains and brings it to a head. +He is the epoch maker. Such an one was that little Corsican, who gave a +stagnant pool the storm it needed, until he became overfed and mistook +his ambition for a continuation of his youthful prescience. + + * * * * * + +Marta had yet to bear the shock of Westerling's death. After learning +the manner of it she went to her room, where she spent a haunted, +sleepless night. The morning found her still tortured by her +visualization of the picture of him, irresolute as the mob pressed +around the Gray headquarters. + +"It is as if I had murdered him!" she said. "I let him make love to +me--I let my hand remain in his once--but that was all, Lanny. I--I +couldn't have borne any more. Yet that was enough--enough!" + +"But we know now, Marta," Lanstron pleaded, "that the premier of the +Grays held Westerling to a compact that he should not return alive if he +lost. He could not have won, even though you had not helped us against +him. He would only have lost more lives and brought still greater +indignation on his head. His fate was inevitable--and he was a soldier." + +But his reasoning only racked her with a shudder. + +"If he had only died fighting!" Marta replied. "He died like a rat in a +trap and I--I set the trap!" + +"No, destiny set it!" put in Mrs. Galland. + +Lanstron dropped down beside Marta's chair. + +"Yes, destiny set it," he said, imploringly. + +"Just as it set your part for you. And, Marta," Mrs. Galland went on +gently, with what Marta had once called the wisdom of mothers, "Lanny +lives and lives for you. Your destiny is life and to make the most of +life, as you always have. Isn't it, Marta?" + +"Yes," she breathed after a pause, in conviction, as she pressed her +mother's hands. "Yes, you have a gift of making things simple and +clear." + +Then she looked up to Lanstron and the flame in her eyes, whose leaping, +spontaneous passion he already knew, held something of the eternal, as +her arms crept around his neck. + +"You are life, Lanny! You are the destiny of to-day and to-morrow!" + + * * * * * + +Though it was very late autumn now, such was the warmth of the sun that, +with a wrap, Mrs. Galland was sitting on the veranda. She was +content--too content to go to town. As she had said to Marta, no doubt +it would be a wonderful sight, but she had never cared for public +celebrations since she had lost her husband. She could get all the joys +of peace she wanted looking at the garden and the landscape; and it did +not matter at all now if Marta were twenty-seven, or even if she were +thirty or thirty odd. + +For the last week the people of La Tir had been returning to their +homes, and with the early morning those from the country districts had +come swarming in for the great day. Faintly she heard the cheers of the +crowds pouring toward the frontier--cheers for the Gray premier and +cheers for Lanstron and for Turcas as they gathered for a purpose which +looked further ahead than the mere ratification of the very simple terms +of peace that left the white posts where they were before the war. + +"I would rather meet you here than on your range," said Lanstron to +Turcas. + +"You certainly find me in a more genial frame of mind than you would +have if you had met me there. And I am very delighted that things have +turned out as they have," replied Turcas. As soldiers of a common type +of efficiency, who understood each other, they might exchange ideas. + +Marta in the family carriage, surrounded by her children, looked on. +Hugo Mallin, who had suggested getting acquainted with the Browns in a +common manoeuvre, witnessed his dream come true in miniature. His +sturdy sweetheart had become a heroine of the home town since the +newspapers had published the whole story of her lover's insubordination, +and how he had stood at the white posts rallying stragglers, which +appealed to the sentiment of the moment. People pointed her out as an +example of the loyalty of conviction. His father and mother, far from +hiding their faces in shame, carried their heads high in parental +distinction. + +There was nothing unfamiliar to the student of human nature in +campaigns, which many historians overlook, so keen are they to get their +dates and circumstantial details correct, in the way that the Gray and +the Brown veterans fraternized in groups, crossing and recrossing the +frontier line as they labored with each other's tongues. This frequently +comes with peace, when the adversaries have been of the same metal and +standards of civilization. The new thing was the theme of their talk. +They had little to say of the campaign itself. They drew the curtain on +the horrors for purposes of personal glory and raised it only to point a +lesson that should prevent another war. No, they would never try killing +again. That sort of business was buried as securely as Westerling's +ambition. Partow's name kept recurring; one of the paragraphs of his +message, showing how clearly he had foreseen the effect on sentiment, +was frequently quoted: + +"We have had war's test; who wants it repeated? We have kept peace with +force between these two brave, high-spirited peoples; why not have the +peace of wisdom? Former sacrifices of blood have been for the glory of +victory of one country over another. Why not consider this one a +sacrifice in common for the glory of a victory in common? If the leaders +of the great nations that boast their civilization cannot find a way to +a permanent understanding among themselves, while they stand for the +peace of the world, then the very civilization which produced the +resolute, intelligent courage and the arms and organization that we have +seen in being is a failure. Surely, the brains that directed these great +armies ought to be equal to some practical plan. Meet the conditions of +international distrust, if you will, by establishing a neutral zone ten +miles broad along the frontier free of all defences. Let the Grays guard +five miles of it on the Brown side and the Browns five miles on the Gray +side, as insurance against surprise or the ambitions of demagogues. What +an example for those other nations beyond Europe, as yet lacking your +organization and progress, whom you must aid and direct! What a return +to you in both moral and commercial profit! Keep armed, in reason; keep +strong, but only as an international police force." + + * * * * * + +The keen air had given Mrs. Galland the best appetite she had had for +months. She was beginning to fear a late luncheon, when Marta appeared +at the garden gate with the man whose legions had followed in the +footsteps of other winning armies through the pass. He was happier than +the old baron, when plundering was at its best, or the Roman commander +with Rome cheering him. Mrs. Galland's smile had the bliss of family +paradise regained as she watched them in a swinging hand-clasp coming up +the terrace steps. The picture they made might have seemed effeminate to +the baron. Yet we are not so sure of that. Marta had always insisted +that he was perfectly human, too, according to his lights. Possibly the +Roman commander swung hands with a Roman girl as soon as he could get +away from the crowd around his triumphal car. + +"Mother, it's a shame that you missed it!" Marta called. "Why, there are +so many great things in the air that it makes me feel a conservative! +They're actually discussing disarmament and an international peace pact +for twenty years," she continued, "that nothing can break. Partow's +statue in our capital is to have not victory, but peace on the fourth +face of the plinth. They're even talking of putting up a statue to him +in the Gray capital. Why not? The Grays have a statue of one of our +great poets and we of one of their great scientists. And, to be as +polite as they, we propose to honor one of their old generals who was +almost as generous in victory as Partow. What a session of the school +next Sunday! We're going to have the children from both La Tir and South +La Tir!... The only trouble is that if Lanny keeps on giving Partow all +the credit for the good work he will succeed in making everybody think +that every time he winked after Partow's death it was according to +Partow's directions for the conduct of the war!" + +"Then I shall have the more time for you," replied Lanstron, who, being +a real soldier of his time, did not care for hero worship. It was +entirely contrary to Partow's teachings. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST SHOT*** + + +******* This file should be named 13738.txt or 13738.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/7/3/13738 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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