Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-05-04

IIolCu ny the StnCtdi still .N~SaA@- -
modified five divisions on the frontier
of East Prussia and Galicia!'
Not Il sound save the sharp catching
of breath oyer all the acre of tables.
Then the stage manager nodded to the
orchestra leader. and in a fury the
brass mouths began to bray. Men
climbed on table tops, women stood on
chairs. and all-all sang in tremendous
chorus:
Deutschland. Deutschland deber
alles!"
The night of July 26. The scene is
the table cluttered sidewalk before the
Cafe Pytheas. where the Cours st,
Louis filings its night tide of oilers
into the broader stream of the Came
biere, Marseilles' Broadway-the white
street OF the great Proyencal port.
Around the news kiosk at the Cafe
Pytheas orner a constant stream ed
died. Men snatched papers from the
pile. spread them before their faces
and Numbered into their fellow pedes-
trians as they walked, buried in the
inky columns. Now and again half
naked urchins came charging down the
Cannebiere, waving shinplaster extras
above their heads "L'Allemagne
s'arme! La Guerre vient!" Up from
the Quai marched a dozen sailors from
a torpedo boat, arms linked so that
they almost spanned the Cannebiere.
Their red tasseled caps were pushed
back at cocky angles on their black
heads, and as they marched they shout
ed in time: "A Berlin! Hou-houw
The black shadow of war-the first
Authorizations of the great Madness
gripped Marseilles.
For Captain Woodhouse. just in from
Berlin that evening, all this swirling
excitement had but an incidental inter-
est. He sat alone by one of the little
iron tables before the Cafe Pytheas
slipping his boo, and from time to time
his eyes %carelessly followed the eddy
ing of the swarm about the news kiosk.
Always his attention would come back,
however, to center OF the thin Shout
ders of a man sitting fifteen or twenty
feet away with a wine cooler by his
side. He could not see the face of the
wine drinker. He did not want to.
All he cared to do was to keep those
thin shoulders always In sight. Each
time the solicitous waiter renewed the
bottle in the wine cooler Captain
Woodhouse nodded grimly, as a doc
tor might when he recognized the
symptoms of advancing fever In a pa
tient.
So for two days, from Berlin across
to Paris, and now on this third day
here in the Mediterranean port, Wood
house had kept ever in sight those thin
shoulders and that trembling hand be-
yond the constantly crooking elbow
not a pleasant task. He had come to
loathe and abominate the very wrin-
kles in the back of hat shiny coat.
But a very necessary duty it was for
CAPTAIN Woodhouse to shadow Mr..
Billy Capper until the right moment
should arrive. They had come down
on the same express together from
Paris. Woodhouse had observed Cap
per when he checked his baggage, a
single shoddy handbag. for La Vendee.
the French line ship sailing with the
dawn next morning for Alexandria and
Port Said via Malta. Capper had
squared his account at the Hotel Al
lees de Meilhan, for the most part a
bill for absinth frappes, after dinner
that night and was nov enjoying the
night life Of Marseilles in anticipa-
L. .r.Jo,tlu of oopfyin0 dirpPt IN tho
| steamer with him as his farewell from
France all of the bottled laughter OF
her peasant girls he could accommo-
date.
Woodhouse, who watched, noted only
one popularity in Capper's conduct.
The drinker nursed his stick, a plain,
crook handled malacca, with a tender
ness almost maternal. 1t never left
his hands. Once when Capper dropped
it and the waiter made to prop the
stick against a nearby chair the little
spy leaped to his feet and snatched
the cane away with a growl. There
after he propped his chin on the ham
die. only removing this guard when he
had to tip his head back for another
draft of champagne.
Eleven o'clock came. Capper rose
from the table and looked owhshly
about him. Woodhouse quickly turned
his back to the man and was absorbed
in the passing strollers. When he look
ed back again Capper was slowly and
a little unsteadily making his way
around the corner into the Cannebiere.
Woodhouse followed, sauntering. Cap
per began a dilatory exploration of the
various cafes along the white street.
His general course was toward the
city's Sums about the Quai. Wood
house, dawdling about tree boxes and
lodging into shadows by black door
ways, found his quarry easy to trail
and he knew that each of Capper's 30
1ourns in an oasis put a period to the
length of the pursuit. The time for