Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-09-30

Marta. - that you are all ON
virss!"
eyes: janslins wires, every one,
ianglinR every second out OF tune"
Marta acQuiescsd.
Marta, my father"--her father had
been a premier OF the Browns-"al-
ways said that you may enjoy the lux
ury OF fuesing over little things, for
they don't count much one way or an
other; 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. 1t 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 q woman of sixty,
who has a secret heart-break that she
had never given her husband son.
may smile at 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 be-
side the bed in sudden burst OF SEN
timent and gathered the plump hand
in hers and kissed it.
Mother, you are wonderful" she
said. Mother, you are great"
After a time, her ear becoming ac-
customed to the firing as a city dwell
ler's to the distant roar of city traf-
fic, Mrs. Galland slept. But Marta
could not follow her advice. II, tran
silently at least. she had found some
thing 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 win
dow. The symbol OF what the ear
had heard the eye saw-war, working
in tones Of the landscape by day with
smoEeless powder; war. revealed by
it's tongues of flame at night. Ugly
spread to the heavens like an aurora
boxealis and broke their messengers
in sheets of flame over the lower hills
the batteries of the Browns sprin-
king 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, de-
marked infantry lines Of the Browns
assisting the autonatics.
There were lulls between the
crashes Of the small, arms and the
heavy, throsty speech Of the guns;
lulIs that seemed to say that both
sides had paused for q breathing
spell; lulls that allowed the battle in
the distance to be heard In its perva-
sfve undertone. In one Of them. when
even the undertone had ceased for a
few seconds, Marta caught family the
groans of wounded man-one OF the
crew of Gray dirigible burned by
an explosion and brought In his agony
softly to earth by a billowing piece OF
envelope which acted as parachute.
Fighting proceeded in La Tir in
stages Of ferocity and blank silence.
The upper part Of the town. which
the Browns still held. YVES In dark
ness; 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 q
mad storm, voicing their feelings at
getting a company IL. close order in a
street for the space of minute, be-
fore those who escaped could plaster
themselves against doorways or find
cover in alleys. Then silence from
the automatics and cheer from the
Browns that rasped out its triumph
like the rubbing together of steel files.
From the line of defense, that in
cluded the first terrace of the Galland
grounds as the angle of a redoubt, not
q shot. not a sound; silence on the
part of officers and men as profound
as Mrs. Gallands slumber, while one
Of the Browns search-lights, like some
great witch's slow-turning eye in a
narrow radius, covered the lower ter
races and the road.
Marta gave intermittent glances at
the garden; the s;ances 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 move
ment accompanying that Of the legs.
The search-light caught them in mer-
CHESS 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
1T.