Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-10-02
THE LAST SHOT
By FREDERICK PALMER

, woman's hair-hair of jet abundance,
shading a face that brought familiar
completeness to the scene. Their
glances met where the path ended
at the second terrace flight; hers shot
with a beam of restrained and ques-
tioning good humor that spoke at
least a truce to the invader.
you called sooner than expected"
she said in a note of eQuivocal pleas
antry.
"Or l." he rejoined with shade of
triumph, the politest of triumph. Ne
was a step above her, her head on d
lev with the pocket of his blouse.
His square shoulders, commanding
height, and military erectness were
thus emphasized, as was her own femi-
nine slightness.
81 want to thank you," she said. "As
becomes a soldier, your forethought
was expressed in action. 1t was the
promptness of the men you sent to
look after the garden which saved the
uprooted plants before they were past
recovery"
what for my own sake to be the same
that it was in the days when l used
to CALL" he said graciously. "Tea was
from four to five, do you remember?
Will you join me? have just ordered
it."
A generous, pleasant conqueror,
this! No one knew better than Wester-
Ipo hnuy IN ho ono urb a nbnco He
was something of an actor. Leaders
of men of his type usually are.
why. yes. Very gladly" she as
sented with no undue cordiality and
no undue constraint, quite as If there
were no war.
Neutrality could not be better i'm.
personated, he thought, than in the
even cleaving Of her lips over the
words. They seemed to say that
storm had come and gone and new
set OF masters had taken the place of
| the old. AS they approached the
veranda Francois was placing the tea
thiAgs.
"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 land
! scape.
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 alto
gether the work of ten years. It had
developed since she was in the capi-
tai. In these three weeks war had
been brought 10 her door. She had
been under heavy fire. Yet this sub
ject of the war was the one which he.
as an invader, considered himself
bound to avoid.
Eve do forget it at tea, don't we9"
he asked.
EAT least we need not speak Of til"
she replied.
Il am staying tonight. I was going
to ask If you wouldn't remain on the
veranda while I go over these pa
pers. lit would be very cozy and
| pleasant"
'Why, yes" she agreed with evident
pleasure.
Turcas came, in answer to Wester-
ling's ring. The orders and sugges-
tions on the table seemed to be the
product of this lath of 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 perfunctor4y,
Westerling gave his assent as he
passed the papers to Turcas; while
Turcass dry voice, coming from be-
tween a narrow opening of the thin
lips, gave his reasons with a rapid
firer's precision in answer to his
chiefs inquiries.
With each order somewhere along
that frontier some unit of a great or
ganism would respond. The reserves
from this position would be trans
ferred to that such a position would
be felt out before dark by reconnois-
sance in force, however costly; the
rapid-flrers of the 10th Division would
be transferred to the goth: 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 recon-
mendations for bronze crosses, lest