The Monticellonian. [volume] (Monticello, Ark.) 1870-1920, 1915-04-08
CHAPTER xxI-contlnued.

I'VE are going on, | and my guns
on to the best yet on in the pursuit!
Nothing can stop u.s. 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?''
she asked wistfully.
Yes, yes-a yes as real as the
gunsi"
Then it helps! Oh. how it helps.''
she murmured almost inaudibly.
"Good-by! God bless you!" he cried
as he started to go. adding over his
shoulder merrily: "Ill send you a 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 Fellers 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-oficers near by formed a
group with faces intent around an OPP
orator who was attaching his instru=
ment to 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 prisoners."
And five hundred gunsi"
Were coming in on their frontier
all along the line"
ITS incredible!"
But the word is official-it's right"
From mouth to meuth-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 cheer that
was not led, cheer unlike any Marta
had heard before. 1t had the high
notes of men who were weary. of ter.
rible 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
We'll go on!"
We'll make peace in their capital!"
And with an indemnity that will
stagger the world!"
Nothing is impossible with Ian.
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 keep
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 thin line and 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
new kind of shame; the desertion of
her principles
Nor did the officers observe a man of
thirty-fiye, wearing the cords of the
stan and generals stars, coming
around the corner of the house. Mar
ta's feverish, 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 un.
finished, hand in blouse pocket. his
tonally military-the same Lanny.
She was dimly conscious of surprise
not TO find him changed, perhaps be-
cause he was unaceompanied by re-
tinue or any other symbol of his power.
He might have been coming to call on
Sunday afternoon. In that first
glimpse it was difficult to think of
him a the m a,- ~
that he was she must not forget. She
was shaken and trembling; and a
mist rose before her. so that she did
not see him clearly when, with a ges-
ture of relief. he saw her
Lanstron!" exclaimed an officer in
the first explosive breath of amaze
ment on recognizing him; then added:
His Excellency, the chief of staff"
But the one word. Lanstron, had
been enough to thrill all the officers
into silence and ramrod salutes. Marta
noted the Difference of their glances as
they covertly looked him over.
i wanted a glimpse of the front as
well as the rear" Lanstron remarked
IN explanation of his presence to the
general of brigade as he passed on
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. as
II ne were in awe of her. while he
drank in the fact that she was there
before him at arms length. safe, alive.
She did not offer her hand in greeting