Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1914-10-02
CHAPTER II.
Ten Years Later.


His Excellency the chief of staff of
the Grays was seldom in his Office. His
Excellency had years, rank, prestige.
The breast of his uniform sagged with
the weight of his decorations. He ap-
peared for the army at great func-
tions; his picture was in the shop
windows. Hedworth Westerling, the
new vice-chief of staff, was content
with this arrangement His years
would not permit him the supreme
honor. This was for f1gurehead, while
he had the power.
His appointment to the staff ten
years ago had given him the field he
wanted, the capital itself, for the play
of his abilities. His vital energy, his
impressive personality, his gift for
counting the influences that counted,
whether mans or woman's, his astute
readiness in STOPPING to some meas
urSs that were in keeping with the
times but not with army precedent,
had won for him the goal of his ambi-
ton. He had passed over the heads Of
older men, whom many thought his
betters, rather ruthlessly. Those who
would serve loyalty he drew around
him; those who were bitter he crowd
ed out of his way.
In the adjoining room, occupied by
Westerling, the walls were hung with
the silhouettes of infantrymen, such
as you see at maneuvers, in different
positions of firing, crouching in shall
low trenches, standing in deep
trenches, or lying fiat on the stomach
on level earth. Another silhouette,
that of an infantryman running, was
peppered with white points in arms
and legs and parts of the body that
were not vital, to show in how many
places a man may be hit with small
caliber bullet and still survive.
In this day of universal European
conception, if Westerliag were to win
in war it would be with five millions
five hundred thousand more than when
he faced young Brown officer over
the wreck of an aeroplane-including
the reserves; each man running, firing,
crouching, as was the figure on the
wall, and trying to give more of the
white points that peppered the sill
houette than he receiy ed
Now Turcas, the assistant vice-chief
of staff, and Bouchard. chief of the di-
vision OF intelligence, standing on
either side of Westerling's deck, await
ed his decisions on certain matters
which they had brought to his atten-
ton. Both were older than Wester-
ling, Turcas by ten and Bouchard by
fifteen years.
Turcas had been strongly urged in
inner army circles for the place that
Westerling had won, but his manner
and his ability to court influence were
against him. A lath of man and stiff
as lath, pale, with thin, tightly drawn
lips, quiet, steel-gray eyes, tracery of
blue veins showing on his full temples,
he suggested the ascetic no less than
the soldier, while his incisive breyity
of speech, favored now and then with
pungent humor, without any infection
in his dry voice, was in keeping with
his appearance. He arrived with the
clerks in the morning and frequently
remained after they were gone As a
master of detail Westerling regarded
him as an invaluable assistant. with
certain limitations, which were those
of the pigeonhole and the treadmill.
As for Bouchard, nature had meant
him to be a Wheel-horse. He had never
had any hope of being chief of star.