Charlevoix county herald., 1915-01-16
BY NV. OlESY

prove again lib uiSBulSSs anu ScCh
for information in "a place far
enough removed from the outer
world of cities to, as he hoped, be
safe. Fortune had favored him
again. In the morning he would go
forward, follow the railroad as a
guide, and so come to the place he
sought.
Gafford thanked his God that he
was possessed of the physique to go
with his part, and an excellent COM
mand of Japanese. Again in the
dark he seemed to hear Shiela Nc
Rae's voice in the garden of the
Nippon: as it possible that you
were sent to your country's aid
years ago that you might be pre-
pared ?"
The thought invoked another.
Shikoku had said: "The gods will
destroy those who seek to shed more
blood" He recalled the rapt eX-
preston of the mans face as he had
spoken-the strange force of his
words.
He quivered with a odd, nervous
tremor as he lay on his mat in the
room of the charcoal-burner's son.
CHOSE who seek to shed the blood
of their fellows to satisfy their own
selfish greed" The description was
apt for Oshitu and Yamata.
He with his own ears had heard
them plan to enrich themselves from
the toll of war. He had not thought
of it before, but here was 2 peasant
burner of charcoal, who alone in the
silence of his hills had thought il
all out.
He thought o. Shiela, and of
White Kate. They were as far apart
as heaven and hell, yet both women,
and both bound together in their
common love of country, and both
linked with his fate.
The one had inspired his promise
to work for his country. The other
had furnished the means and the
help which had enabled him to at
least make the attempt. The one
had become the victim of a mans
lust for beauty and gold. The other
was already doubly the victim of the
lust of the man she had killed to
avenge another's wrongs.
1t was she who had at the last
still further sacrificed good part of
her hopes in order to enable him to
save both the former and his land
from the one who would destroy
equally both woman and country for
his own gain. 1t was always women,
though Gafford, who made the SUI
preme sacrifice.
His thoughts went again to Shiela,
beyond the mountain, in the valley
of blue bombs, as he had come to
call the place. The thought of her
held him until he fell asieep and ran
over into his dreams.
The first light of morning saw
Shikoku and his guest moving. At
ter frugal breakfast the stranger
prepared to depart. The charcoal
burner and his daughter bowed him
away as though he might have been
parsonage of degree, rather than
the thing he seemed.
"Saonart," they called after him
as he started up the road. "If you
return this way, come and sec u.s.
"Saonar! he called back
Noon found him past the top of
the mountains. Below him stretched
the sweep of fir-clad shoulders. Far
to the left he became aware of
smudge which hung over distant
cup in the tumbled landscape. Far
down raw red scar in the hillside
showed where the newly built rail
road chung to the side of the cliff.
A sense of citation thrilled him as
he stood and gaZed toward the dis
tant smoke-hazed valley. There
within sight was the spot which he
had started to find. Alone and
single-handed he was going to fight
his country's battle. Without official
recognition, to be denied if he failed,
unrecognized if he won, he was at
tempting this thing.
Yet no soldier ever went into bat
tie with more sincere love of his
home land than pulsed through CAT
ford's veins as he turned from his
first view of the smoky valley and
went OF down the road.
After time he came to the rail-
road and turned off along it. He
went carefully now, with an eye out
for any chance observation. Once.
about the middle of the afternoon, q
rumble and a singing of the rails
sent him to cover under some
bushes, while train ratified by.
Armed men sat guard on the box
like coaches. Scowlin~ frown faces
looked out of narrow slitlike win
dows as they passed. Gafford real
lied that they were convicts on their
way to work in the bomb plant.
The sight spurred him to haste.
More men taken in meant that they
were rushing the work on the things.
He scrambled back to the track and
went on after the train.
1t was a crooked trail the road
took around the shoulders of hills,
through cuttings, on spidery trestles
over brawling mountain torrents.
Gafford, out of his knowledge of
engineering, admired the work of
the men who had built the track. No
mean ability had run those tangents
and levels and supervised their
working into a concrete whole.
Twilight came down while ne
trudged forward, but he kept on.
The valley of the smoke smudge still
lay before. Presently, as the dark
ness settled, he became aware of a
dim glow against the sky ahead,
which faded and frightened like the
flicker of heat lightning, and knew
that it came from the furnaces of