The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-08-16


the las, war to be fought by mankind
exactly where the present terrible con
flict is raging. The date he places at
about the middle Of this century.
.iswed from the standpoint Of a sane
and ambitious social order. says the
author. it Is difficult to understand and
II would be tedious to follow the mo-
tives that plunged mankind into the
war that fills the histories Of the mid
die decades of the twentieth century.
1t must always DE remembered that
the political structure of the world at
that time was everywhere eNtraordi-
narily behind the collective intelligence.
That IL the central fact of that history.
For two hundred years there had been
n great changes in political or legal
methods and pretcnsions. the utmost
change had been a certain shifting Of
boundaries and slight establishments OF
procedure. while in nearly every other
aspect OF life there had been fundamen.
tai revolutions. gigantic releases and an
enormous enlargement of scope and
outlook The absurdities Of courts and
the indignities Of representative parlia-
mentary government, coupled with the
opening Of vast fields of opportunity in
other directions. had Withdrawn the
best inteligences more and more from
public affairs. The ostensible govern
ments of the world in the twentieth
century were following in the wake OF
the ostensible religions. They were
ceasng to command the services Of any
but second rate men.
The plan Of campaign OF the allies
assigned the defence of the lower Meuse
10 the English, and the troop trains
we're run direct from the various Brit.
.ish depots n the points In the Ardennes
where they were intended to intrench
themselves.
In the great hall Of thr War Con-
troll, whose windows looked out across
the Seine to the TroCadero and the
palaces Of the western quarter. a series
of big scale relief maps were laid out
upon tables to display the whole seat
OF war. and the STAFF officers of the
control were continually busy shifting
the little blocks which represented the
contending troops as the reports and
intelligence came drifting in to the
various Geographic bureaus in the adj
iacent rooms. In other smaller apart
ments there were maps of a less de-
tailed sort. upon which, for example.
the reports of the British Admiralty
and OF the Slav commanders were re-
corded as they kept coming to hand
Upon these maps. as upon chcs boards
Marshal Dubois, in consultation with
Gen. Ward and the Earl of Delhi, was
to play the great game for world SUI
premacy against the central European
Powers. Very probably he had "A def
mite idea of his game; very probably he
had a coherent and admirable plan.
But he had reCkoncd without
proper estimate either of the new
strategy of aviation or of the POSSIBLE
tiles of atomic energy thai Hu.stcn
had opened for mankind. While he
planned intrenchments and inyaslons
and frontier war the central European
generalshp was striking al the eyes
and the brain. And while. with certain
difiident hesitation, he developed his
gamhit that night upon the lines laid
down by Napoleon and Moltl<e, his own
scientific corps in "A state of mutinous
activity was preparing a blow for Ber-
lin. These old fools" was the key in
which the scientific corps was thinking
When the rather british young avi-
ator with the bullet head and the black
hair cropped zen hrussc" who wa, in
charge of the French special scientific
corps heard presently Of the disaster
10 the War Control he was 50 wanting
in imagination in any sphere hut his
own that he laughed. Small matter 70
him that Paris was burning. His mother
and father and sister lived at Claude
bee, and the only swre heart he had
ever had and it was poor lovemaking
then. was girl In Rouen. II, slapped
his second in command on the shoulder
Now" he said. there's nothing on
earth To stop us going To Berlin and
giving them tit for tat Strategy
and reasons of state-they're over.
Come along, my boy, and well Just
show these old women what we can
do when they let MS have our heads"
He spent five minutes tclephoning,
and then he went out into the
court yard of the chateau in
which he had been installed and
shouted for his automobile. Things
would have to move quickly, because
there was scarcely an hour and "A half
before dawn. He looked at the sky
and noted with satisfaction a heavy
bank OF clouds athwart the pallid east.
lie was a young man of infinite
shrewdness, and his material and aero
planes were scattered all over the coun-
tryside, stuck away in barns, covered
with hay hidden in woods. \ hawk
could not have discovered any of them
without coming within reach of a gun.
But that night he only wanted one Of
the machines, and it was handy and
quite prepared under a tarpaulin be-
tween two ricks not a couple of miles
away; he was going to Berlin with that
and Just one other man. Two men
would be enough for what he meant to
He had in his hands the black COM
plement to all those other gifts science
was urging upon unregcnerate man
kind, the glft of destruction, and he
was an adventurous rather than a SYM
pathetic type
The face of the adVenturer at the
steering wheel darkly visible ever and
again by the oval greensh glow Of
the compass face, had something OF
that firm beauty which all concen-
trated purpose gives, and something
or the happiness of an idiot child that
mas at last got hold of the matches
his companion, "A less imaginative
type sat with his legs spread wide
over the long, coffin shaped box which
contained in it's compartments the