Mansfield mirror. (Mansfield, Wright County, Mo.) 1908-1957, 1914-12-10

neIe. Inc broWub VIII Iail oAck btep
by step. and we mean. with relatively
small cost to ourselves, to make the
Grays pay q heavy price for each step
Just as heavy ~ we can,
you need not use euphonious
terms" she said without lifting her
lashes or, any movement except q
quick. nervous gesture Of her free
hand. What you mean 10 that you
will kill 10 many as possible Of the
Grays. isn't is! And II you could kill
hve for every man you lost that would
be splendid. wouldn't III"
Il don't think OF It as splendid. There
is nothing splendid about war" he OBJ
iected; not to me. Marta"
And after you have made them pay
five to one or ten to one in human
lives for the tangent, what then? Go
on! want to look at war face to face.
free Of the will-o.the-wisp glamour that
draws on soldiers"
I'VE fall back to our first line Of de-
dense. 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 1t his headquarters"
Our house Westerling's h~eadquar-
ters!" she repeated. With a start that
brought her up erect, alert. challeng-
ing, her lashes Pickering, she recalled
that Westerling had said at parting
that he should see her il war came.
This corroborated Lanstron's informa.
ton. One side wanted a spy in the
garden; the other a general in the
house. Wac she expected to make a
choice? He had ceased to be Lanny.
He personified war. Westerling per-
sonifed war. Il suppose you have
spies under his very nose-in his very
staff ofices?" 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 ex:
claimed. you say that W~esterling.
who commands the killing on his side,
will be in no danger. And, Lanny, are
you a person Of such distinction in the
business Of killing that you also will
be out of d~anger?"
She did not see, as her eyes poured
her hot indignation into his, that his
MANNED hand was twitching or how
he bit his lips and flushed before he re-
piled:
Each n 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 eff
cheney which victory"
AN autocracy. a tyranny over the
lives OF all the adult males in countries
that boast of the ballot and self-gov-
erning institutions!" she put In.
But l hope" he went on, with the
quickening pulse and eager smile that
used to greet a call from Teller to "set
things going" in their cadet days, that
may take out a squadron of dirigibles.
After all this spy business. that would
be to my taste"
And II you caught a regiment in
close formation with a shower of
bombs. that would be positively heav.
emily, wouldn't it," She bent nearer
to him. her eyes flaming demand and
satire.
mo! War-necessary, horrible, hell
ish!" he replied. Something In her
seemed to draw out the brutal truth
she had asked for in place Of euphoni.
Gus terms.
when l became chief Of intelligence
I found that ar underground wire had
been laid to the castle from the Eighth
! division headquarters, which will be
our general staff headquarters in time
of wal. The purpose was the same as
now, but abandoned as c~himerical. All
that was necessary was to install the
instrument. which Teller did. /, too.
saw the plan as chimerical, yet 1t was
a ~chance-the one out OF a thousand.
II 1t should happen to succeed we
should play with our cards concealed
and theirs on the table.
"The rest of Feller's part you have
guessed already" he concluded. you
can see how a deaf, i~noffensiye old
gardener would hardly seem to know
a Gray soldier from a Brown; how II
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 stan, whether elated
or depressed. pick up scraps of CONVEX.
sation, and, as a trained officer, know
the value Of what he heard and report
it over the phone to Partow's head.
quarters" 4
"But what about the aeropIanes?"
she asked. Il thought you were to de-
pend on them for scouting"
I'VE shall use them, but they are
the least tried of all the new re-
sources" he said. "A Gray aeroplane
may cut a Brown ~aeroplane down be-
fore It returns with the news we want.
At most, when the aviator may descend
low enough for accurate observation
he a see only what is actually being
done. Feller would know Westerling's
plans before they were even in the
first steps Of execution: This"-play-
Ing 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.
IF there is war, the moment that
Feller's ruse is discovered he will be
shot as a spy" she asked.
:" warned him Of that said Ian.
stron. He 10 q soldier, with q sol.
diers fatalism. He sees no more dan
der in this than In commanding a bat