American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1917-09-21

to her, offering to take her In his arms,
but she shook her head with a little
smile.
mot here" she begged, mot here,
Don dear-while there's moonlight In
the patio ="
Catching his hand she drew him
with her through the doorway.
The patio vas very still and peace
full and deserted. The moonlight sill
vered it exquisitely. It's air was sweet
with the scent of flowers. In the
shadow of the old we'll in its center,
Patria released Donald's hand, and
turned to him, lifting up her face to
his lips.
Perhaps for the last time
How she found 1t possible to let him
go, In the end, she never understood.
With a sense of the ~unreality of it all
she watched his soldlerly figure, in it's
khaki field uniform, stride away
through the c|hiaroscuro 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 a
week later the great war had broken
out. 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
United States a 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 it's peril and arm against it.. For
the invasion, once launched, would
never be stayed but by overwhelming
force. If checked where the Chan
ming property met the border, it would
! only recoil to strike a new and more
effective blow. Even assuming the i'm
I possible-that the Claiming ranch
should prove an ~impregnable obstacle
in its path-it would need only to
sweep round it in order to reach a
peaceful and de~fenseless land and
blacken 1t with the infamy of war,
turn it into a place of death and terror
and torment and hideous waste, make
it a sister to Belgium.
And all because a purblind people
refused to see that the n way to
stave off the sin of war was to make
the country so strong for defense that
no invader would ever dare set foot
across its borders.
Slowly the girl assembled to her bed
chamber.
Its windows overlooked the south
she stood in one of them for a Ions
time staring incredulously at tbs
mysterious distances that lay beyonC
the boundary line between the TIVE
countries. the Swallowed enigma o.
Mexico that rested so quietly there il
the face Of the LOOT.
Somewhere out there, somewhere
between the border and those serrateC
I mountains that walled in the southern
horizon, thousands upon thousands o
men, armed and equipped, wer'
marching northward troops Of caval
ry were marching with them; train
of ammunition, companies Of artil
lery, machine-gun corps, all the di
visions Of modern military service
were astir, under the cloak Of tn
night.
Her Imagination conceived tina
army Of invasion in the guise OF
great serpent crawling through tn
shadows to strike at the heart Of
sleeping giant, q loathy, deadly
vicious thing that squirmed FOUL
upon Its way to do a deed Of inexcu'
able treachery and cruelty. .
The vision of that great serper
haunted all her dreams. She slept IL
itfully. Between maps she lay awak'
staring wide-eyed into the darkness
every sense alert, strainiRg to hes
any sound that might be the owe
ture to tomorrow's tragedy, fame,
ing that she heard the confused b.
rhythmic shuttle of those thousands {
marching feet.
Towards dawn she fell into a pr
found and dreamless slumber of e,
haustion, from which she was awal
ened in broad daylight by the soul
of distant firing.
, Leaping from her bed she seize
binoculars and ran to the window.
|. But the glasses showed her nothin
at first. The sounds of firing persis
ed-great thudding detonations a
!, companied by the screaming of shral