The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1917-08-25

bOn uedT-WDlle lHeTe > LlOOulIShb IL
the patton
Catching his hand she drew him
with her through the doorway.
The patio was very still and peace
full and deserted. The moonlight sill
vered it exquisitely. Its air was sweet
with the scent of flowers. In the |
shadow of the old well in its center, |
Patria released Donald's hand, and |
trned to him, lifting up her face to
Perhaps for the last sme
How she found it possible TO let him
go. in the end she never understood.
With a sense Of the unreality of II all
she watched his sOldierly figure, in its
khaki, field uniform, stride away
through the chiarOscuro Of milk-white
moonlight and inky shadow, till he
disappeared in the passageway lead
ing TO the front of the house.
And for a long time after he had
gone she stood clasping the hands
upon which his parting kisses had
been pressed, and staring at the spot
where she had last seen him.
1t seemed so hideously wrong that
these things could be, that this world
so beautiful could be made the slaugh-
ter-pen of embattled humanity. She
thought of France. the land she knew
and loved so well; her last night In
France had been a summers night,
moonsmitten and warm and sweet
even as this night. She had sailed
for New York the next day; and
week later the great war had broken
ont. And now all northern France
was the theater of horrors unspeak-
able.
And tomorrow would see the incep-
, ton of an effort to render her own
Tinted States counterpart of
France
The most she could hope for was
, that the preparations she had made
{ would check temporarily the invading
forces, give the country time TO real
ize its peril and arm against 1t. For
r the invasion, once launched woulu
never be stayed but by overwhelming
n force. If checked where the Chan
r ming property met the border, 1t woulc
A only recOil to strike new ana more
: effective blow. Even assuming the i'm
n possible-that the Claiming rancf
should prove an impregnable obstacle
n in its path-it would need only Il
a sweep round it in order to reach
y peaceful and defenseless land ant
i blacken it with the infamy of war
o turn 1t into place of death and terro
e and torment and hideOus waste, maxi
10 1t a sister to Belgium.
l. And all because a purblind peopl
refused TO see that the one way Z
n staye off the sin of war was to max
10 the country so strong for defense ina
nj no invader would ever dare set foo
across its borders.
r Slowly the girl assembled to her bee
lie chamber.
he Its windows overlooked the south
ID she stood in one of them for Ion
time staring incredulUusly at tn
I'd mysterious distances that lay beyon
o. the boundary line between the tw
lv countries, the Swallowed enigma {
of Mexico that rested so quietly there
Of the face of the moon.
ut Somewhere out there, somewhel
Mt between the border and those serrate
of mountains that walled in the souther
c. horizon, thousands upon thousands I
to men, armed and equipped, wei
d. marching northward troops of cava
nv were marching with them; trail
I'll of ammunition, companies of art
Up lery, machine-gun corps. all the
IL, visions of modern military servic
were astir, under the cloak of u
night.
at Her imagination conceived tn
e- army of invasion in the guise or
nd great serpent crawling through q
en- shadows to strike at the heart OF
sleeping giant, lOathy, dead
VI vicious thing that squirmed foul
lis upon its way to do a deed Of inexcr
IA able treachery and cruelty.
nv The vision of that great serpe
ed haunted all her dreams. She slept
fitfuIly. Between maps she lay avail
l." staring wide-eyed into the darkne
every sense alert, straining TO he
m any sound that might be the ov
be ture to tomorrow's tragedy, fan
es. ing that she heard the confused
re rvthmic shuttle of those thousands
er- marching feet.
on Towards dawn she fell into a p
he found and dreamleSs slumber OF
nd haustion, from which she was avs
ened in broad daylight by the sou
of of distant firing.
he Leaping from her bed she sell
in binoculars and ran to the window.
Ter But the glasses showed her nothi
he at first. The sounds of firing pers
aid ed-great thudding detOnations
rds companied by the screaming OF shr
rm mel in the air anG SCATTERING ext
sions as the shells found their bile
re- But nothing in the face of the Ia
in beyond the border revealed the sou
ind of the firing or betrayed the fact Z
uld any considerable body Of troops
nearing the boundary line.
avs Only in the air three warpla
vas hung. like buZZards. soaring, dart
ned swoOping above the border count
IT last he has found Russia an object