Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1915-03-12
Copyright, 1914, by Charles Scribners sons)
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?"
she asked wistfully.
Eyes, yes-a yes as real as the
guns!"
Then it helps! Oh, how it helps!"
she murmured almost inaudibly.
"Good-by! God bless you'll" he cried
as he started to go, adding over his
shoulder merrily: "I'll 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 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
al 10
that still remained under the ashes.
A brigade commander and some of
his staff-officers 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 ordinations:
"A hundred thousand prisoners!"
And five hundred guns!"
Were coming in on their frontier
all along the line!"
It's 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.
4 es 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 a ter
rible eXultation, of spirit stronger than
tired legs and as yet unsatisfied Other
EXPLANATIONS from both officers and
men expressed a hunger whetted by
the taste Of one days victory.
Wen 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 a thin line and a deep blaze in
her eyes as she looked this way and
that at the field Of faces, seeking some
sdissentient, 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
ier'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 a man of
thirty-five, wearing the cords of the
staff and a 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 hunt un.
finished; hand in blouse pocket, his
bearing little too easy to be conven.
tionally military-the same Lanny.
She was dimly conscious of surprise
not to find him changed, perhaps be-
cause he was unaccompanied by re
tinue or any other symbol of his power
He might have been coming to call on
Sunday afternoon. In that first
glimpse 1t 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 9
mist rose before her, so that she die
not see him clearly when, with a ges
ture of relief, he saw her.
"Lanstron!" exclaimed an officer II
the first explosive breath of amaze
ment on recognizing him; then added
'His Excellency, the chief Of staff"
But the one word, Lanstron. hat
been enough to thrill all the officer
into silence and ramrod salutes. Marti