Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-08-27
CHAPTER !.

CHAPTER ],
A speck In tho Sky.
was Marta who first saw the speck
N le sky. Her outcry and her bound
fro her seat at the teatable brought
he mother and Colonel Westerling
afr her onto the lawn, where they
bame motionless figures. screening
tlr eyes with their hands. The new
. and most wonderful thing in the
Vld at the time was this speck ap-
Iring above the irregular horizon Of
Brown range, in view of a land
ape that centuries of civilization had
'tilized and cultivated and formed.
At the base of the range ran q line
white stone posts. placed by inter
honal commissions of surveyors to
70 nicely of an inch's variation. In
ie very direction Of the specks fight
spur of foothills extended into the
lain that stretched away to the Gray
ange, distinct at the distance OF
hirty miles in the bright afternoon
light. Faithful to their part in refus-
.ng 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 q road, drawn straight across
the plain and over the glistening
thread of river. On its way to the
pass of the Brown range 1t skirted the
garden of the Gallands, which rose in
terraces to seventeenth-century
house overlooking the old town from it's
outskirts. They were such town, such
q road, such a landscape as you may
see on many European frontiers. The
Christian people who lived In the re-
gion were like the Christian people
you know II you look for the realities
of human nature under the surface diff
ferences of language and habits.
Beyond the house rose the ruins of a
castle, its tower still intact. Marta al
ways referred TO the castle as the
baron; for In her girlhood she had
way of personifying all inanimate
things. If the castle walls were cov-
cred 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 demo-
cratic 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. 1t had been
a trail for tribes long before Roman
legions won q victory in the pass,
which was acclaimed an imperial tri-
umph. To hold the pass was to hold
the range. All the blood shed there
would make red river, inundating the
plain.
Beside the old baron, We are par
venus" Marta would say. And what
a parvenu the baron would have been
to the Roman aristocratl"
"Our family is old enough-none
older In the provtnoep Mrs. GallaNd
would reply. ~Marta. how your mind
does wanderi I'd get o headache just
contemplating<he things you are able
to think of In i've 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.
Even the tower. Raised to the glory
of an older family whose descendants,
II any survived, were unaware Of their
lineage. had become known as the
Ealland tower. The Gallands were
rooted In the soil Of the frontier; they
fwsre used to having waass hot breath
blow past their doors they were at
home In the language and customs Of
two peoples; theirs was peculiar ira
dition, which Marta had absorbed with
her first breath. Town and plain and
range were the first vista of landscape