The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1914-11-13

things.
Just like the old dayk, isn't it7" he
exclaimed with his first sip, convinced
that the officers commissary supplied
excellent tea in the field
yes, for the moment-if we forget
I the war!" she replied, and looked
away, preoccupied, toward the land
scape.
If we forget the war! She bore on
the words rather grimly. The change
that he had noted between the Marta
of the hotel reception-room and the
Marta Of the moment was not alto
gether the work of ten years. 1t had
developed since she was in the capt.
tai. In these three weeks war had
been brought to her door. She had
been under heavy fire. Yet this sub
ject of the war was the one which he,
as an invader, considered himself
bound to avoid.
I'VE do forget it at tea, don't weH"
he asked.
"At least we need not speak Of it,"
she replied.
i am staying tonight. l was going
to ask if you wouldn't remain on the
veranda while I go over these pa
pers. lit would be very coy and
pleasant"
"Why, yes" she agreed with evident.
pleasure.
Turcas came, in answer to Wester-
ling's ring. The orders and sugges-,
lions on the table seemed to be the
product Of this lath of a man, the vice
chief, but lath of steel, not wood,
who appeared a runner trained for a
race Of intellects in the scratch class.
One by one, almost perfunctorily,
Westerling gave his assent as he
passed the papers to Turcas; while
Turcas's dry voice, coming from be-
tween a narrow opening of the thin
lips, gave his reasons with a rapid.
firer's precision in answer to his
chiefs inquiries.
With each order somewhere along
that frontier some unit of a great or
ganism would respond. The reserves
from this position would be trans
ferred to that; such position would
be felt out before dark by a reconnois-
sance in force, however costly; the
rapid-1rers Of the 10Th Division would
be transferred to the goth; despite the
37th Brigade's losses, 1t would still
form the advance; General So-and-So
would be superseded after his failure
of yesterday; Colonel So-and-So would
take his place as acting major-general;
more care must be exercised in recon-
mendations for bronze crosses, lest
their value so depreciate that officers
and men would lack incentive to win
them.
Marta was having look behind the
scenes at the fountainhead of great
events. Power! power! The abso-
Lutte power of the soldier in the saddle,
with premier and government and all
the institutions of peace only dim
background for the processes of war!
Opposite her was a man who could
make and unmake not only generals
but even the destinies of peoples. BY
every sign he enjoyed his power for
its own sake. There must be chief
Of the five millions, which were as a
moving forest of destruction, and here
was the chief, his strength reflected
in the strong muscles of his short
neck as he turned his head to listen
to Turcas. Marta recalled the con-
trast between Westerling and Lam
stron as they faced each other after
the wreck Of the aeroplane ten years
ago; the iron invincibility of the
elders sturdy, mature figure and the
alert, high-strung invincibility of the
slighter figure Of the younger man.
He had taken up paper thought
fully after Turcas withdrew, when he
looked up to Marta in answer to a
In her chair She had bent
forward in pose that freed her figure
from the chair-back in an outline of
and firmness; her lips were
parted, showing a faint line of the
white Of her teeth, and he caught her
gazing at him in a kind of wondering
admiration. But she dropped her eye
ids instantly and said deliberately, !
C0o " llllu l1ldu " uSI Sell
you have the gift!"
No tea-table f1attery that, he knew;
only the reflection of a fact whose ex-
stence had been borne in on her by |
THE gift? How?" he inquired,
speaking to the fringe of hair that
lalf hid her lowered face.
She looked up, smiling brightly.
You don't know what gift! Not
he pianist's! Not the poets! Why,
# course, the supreme gift of COM
nand! The thing that made you chief
# staff! And the war goes we'll for
ou, doesn't it?"
Delicious morsel, this, to a connois-
eur in compliments! He tasted it
With the same self-satisfed smile that
e had her first prophecy. To her
Who had then voiced secret he had
haired with no one, as his chest
welled with a full breath, he barred
mother in the delight Of the impress