Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-01-21
CHAPTER XXI-Continued.


on to the best yet on in the pursuit!
Nothing can stop us! We shall hit the
Grays so fast and hard that they can
never get their machine in order again.
God bless you! Everything that is fine
in me will always think finely Of you!
You and Lanny-two fixed stars for
mel"
TRULY" She was radiant "Truly?"
sshe asked wistfulIy.
yes, yes-a yes as real as the
guns!"
''Then it helps! Oh, how it helps!"
she murmured almost inaudibly.
Goodbye God bless you'll" he cried
as he started to go, adding over his
shoulder merrily: 'Ill send you pic
ture postcard from the Grays' capital
of my guns parked in the palace
square"
She watched him leap the garden
wall as lightly as he had come and
gallop away, an impersonation Of the
gay, adventurous spirit of war, count
ing death and wounds and hardship as
the delights Of the gamble. Yes, he
would follow the Grays, throwing
shells in the irresponsible joy of toss
ing confetti in a carnival. Pursuit!
Was Feller's the sentiment of the
army? Were the Browns not to stop
at the frontier? Were they to change
their song to, NOW we have ours we
shall take some of theirs?" The
thought was fresh fuel to the live Goals
that still remained under the ashes.
A brigade commander and some Of
his staff-officers near by formed
group with faces intent around an OPP
orator who was attaching his instru-
ment to a field-wire that had just been
reeled over the hedge. Marta moved
toward them, but paused on hearing an
outburst of jubilant EXPLANATIONS:
"A hundred thousand prisonersl"
And five hundred guns!"
Were coming in on their frontier
all along the Incl"
Its incredible!"
But the word is official-it's right"
From mouth to mouth-a hundred
thousand prisoners, five hundred guns
the news was passed in the garden.
Eyes dull with fatigue began flashing
as the soldiers broke into a cheer that
was not led, a cheer unlike any Marta
had heard before. 1t had the high
notes of men who were weary, of a ter
ribIe exultation, of spirit stronger than
tired legs and as yet unsatisfied. Other
explanations from both officers and
men expressed hunger whetted by
the taste of one days victory.
Wen go oni"
''We1l make peace in their capital"
And with an indemnity that will
stagger the world"
Nothing is impossible with Lam
stron. How he has worked it out
baited them to their own destruction! -
"A frontier of our own choosing!"
"On the next range. We will keen
all that stretch of plain there!"
And the river, tool"
They shall pay-pay for attacking
us!'
Pay, pay for the drudgery, the sleep
less nights, the dead and the wounded
for our dead and wounded No mat
ter about theirs! The officers were too
intent in their elation to observe a
young woman, standing quite still, her
lips a thin line and a deep blaze in
her eyes as she looked this way and
that at the field of faces, seeking some
dissentient, some partisan of the right.
She was seeing the truth now; the
cold truth, the old truth to which she
had been untrue when she took Eel
ler's place. There could be no choice
of sides in war unless you believed in
war. One who fought for peace must
take up arms against all armies. Her
part as spy appeared to her clad in
a new kind of shame; the desertion of
her principles.
Nor did the officers observe man OF
thirty-fve. wearing the cords of the
staff and a generals stars, coming
around the corner of the house Mar.
ta's feyerish, rowing glance had noted
him directly he was in sight. His face
seemed to be in keeping with the
other faces, in the ardOr of a hunt I'M
finished; hand in blouse pocket, his
bearing little too easy to be conyen.
tionally military-the same Lanny.
She was dimly conscious of surprise
not to find him changed, perhaps be
cause he was unaccompanied by a re
tinue or any other symbol of his power
lie might have been coming to call on
a Sunday afternoon. In that first
glimpse it was difficult to think OF
him as the commander of an army. But
that he was, she must not forget. She
was shaken and trembling; and g
mist rose before her, so that she die
not see him clearly when, with q ges
ture of relief, he saw her.
''Lanstroni" exclaimed an officer in
the first explosive breath of amaze
ment on recognizing him; then added:
His ExceIency. the chief of staff"
But the one word, Lanstron, haG
been enough. to thrill all the officers
Into silence and ram7od salutes. Marts
noted the Difference of their glances as
they covertly looked him over.
q wanted a glimpse Of the front a:
well as the rear" Lanstron remarked
in explanation of his presence to the
general of brigade as he passed or
toward Marta, who was thinking that
she, at least, was not in awe of him;
she, at least, saw clearly and truly his
part
Marta! Marital"
Lanstron's voice was tremulous. a.
If he were in awe of her. while ht
drank in the fact that she was there
before him at arms length, safe. alive
She did not offer her hand in greeting
She was incapable of any movement