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Show By General ARED WHITE t lJ a.whiti wnu sirvici ; ' " r V,! I "The President of the United States is dead." INSTALLMENT SEVEN THE STORY SO FAR: In an effort to foreign forces, and gained the conn- that forces were also reported mass- tubutantiate rumors that 200,000 foreign dence of two other officers, Fincke and lng In the Mediterranean and the Far troops were In Mexico preparatory for Bravot. Discovering that foreign troopi East. That night Fort Houston, Texas, an attack upon the United States, Intelll- were poised for an Invasion of the U. S., was heavily bomhed. Reports that an en- gence Officer Bennlng went to Mexico Benning returned to Washington to re- emy bombing squadron was approaching City. Here he Joined the itaff of the port to Colonel Flagwlll, acting chief Washington threw the city Into panic, unsuspecting Van Hassek, leader of tbu of Military Intelligence. FlagwiU stated Now continue with the story. W W TP W TP 7f 76 as best it could against the return trip of the invaders. "It'll not be very long now before they're back over the city tor a second fling at us," the air officer predicted, speaking in a calm voice. "No report yet of damage to important im-portant buildings, but one bomb came pretty flush into a crowded street and we have a preliminary report of heavy casualties." "No word of any other squadrons headed this way, Colonel?" Flagwill asked. "None. We'd have picked them up if any more were coming tonight. But what puzzles us is how these bombers expect to get back into Mexico without refueling. Especially Especial-ly since the bombs dropped sounded like heavy ones, probably a thousand pounds or more." "I'll want all details as rapidly as you get them," Flagwill instructed. "By the way, have our planes taken off for Texas yet?" "Yes, sir. We've notified Operations. Opera-tions. Our Third Wing will have one attack and two pursuit squadrons squad-rons at San Antonio before daybreak, day-break, all ready for business. Other forces will report there as rapidly as possible." The telephone buzzed, a summons for FlagwiU to conference with the Chief of Staff. Flagwill gathered up his notes and turned to Benning. "You'd better come along, Captain. Cap-tain. There may be some questions ques-tions on Mexico City for you to answer." an-swer." Briefly, as they marched down the 7C 7P W CHAPTER VII Continued. Hysteria was spreading. Thousands Thou-sands were fleeing the city In taxi-cabs taxi-cabs and private cars. Cavalry was ordered into the city from Fort My-er My-er to help police clear masses ol people who flooded the parks despite de-spite frantic radio warnings that crowding up was dangerous. Benning dismissed all thought of trying again tonight for the Van Hassek Has-sek spies. A finger of light leaped into the air across the Potomac. Benning went tense as he saw the restless movement into the skies of that ominous omi-nous beam. Another bolt of light shot up, the sky filled with those long pennants rising from the Sperry drums, driven driv-en upwards with the intensity of their thousand million candlepower.- The bark of . a cannon crept across the river. It told Benning that the lights had picked up an enemy craft within their six thousand yards' range of observation. Other cannon barked. The three-inch guns were driving at the skies. Grimly he lifted his wrist close to his eyes and strained at the luminous lumi-nous dial of his wrist watch. Thirty racking seconds ticked by. Forty. Benning braced himself, wet his lips, his hand was stricken by an ague.- Through the crackle of artillery he caught the ominous roar of motors in the sky. At this instant in-stant bombs were plummeting downward, down-ward, he reckoned, released three thousand yards or more to the southwest south-west of Washington while the planes "The President has given us carte blanche. We are mobilizing our entire en-tire Regular Army and National Guard. This " An aide-de-camp, face bloodless and eyes starting from their sockets, sock-ets, burst Into the room. General Hague glared sharply at the interruption, inter-ruption, then stiffened as he caught the stark tragedy that was written in the officer's face. "Please, sir, will the General take the telephone?" the aide stammered in a rasping whisper. "It's important." impor-tant." The Chief of Staff took the receiver re-ceiver of the portable telephone that was handed him by the aide. "Yes, General Hague speaking," he said. There followed a stifling silence. General Hague sat with the receiver receiv-er glued to his ear. Into the leaden silence of the room came the faint metallic squeak of an excited voice. The assembled officers saw their chief stiffen as if an electric current cur-rent had been driven through his body. General Hague stared dazedly across the room for several moments. mo-ments. His hand that held the telephone tele-phone instrument descended in a slow limp arc to the table. The aide took the telephone and removed it to an adjoining desk. "Gentlemen," General Hague focused fo-cused his eyes, looked about among them, waited for control of his voice, then spoke firmly, "Gentlemen, by the ill fortune of circumstance, the enemy targeted upon the White House with a heavy bomb. The President Pres-ident of the United States is dead." From out in the night came the screeching of sirens. The shrill screeches rose above an indescribable indescriba-ble rumble of sound, the frenzied cries, and excited shouts of a terrorized terro-rized populace. The bombers bad raced on back into the south. The fretful bark of the anti-aircraft guns was stilled. "Gentlemen," General Hague's voice broke the stricken tension of the room, "we will proceed with our business." The head of the Army resumed his chair and fumbled with trembling trem-bling fingers among his notes to pick up the shattered thread of his observations. The others sat down to a funereal stolidity. "Getting back to the enemy intentions," in-tentions," General Hague resumed, his voice dry and hoarse, "we must now consider only his immediate objectives. ob-jectives. We cannot now deny him possession of the world's largest oil fields lying in that region generally north of Beaumont. At the same time he gains the vast sulphur belt north and east of Galveston. We may reasonably expect, therefore, that Van Hassek will drive on to establish es-tablish his army on some such east-and-west line as Fort Worth Dallas Shreveport. "Yes, gentlemen, we'll take an awful beating in Texas for the time being. Lack of ammunition for all weapons will be a serious problem. Our lack of anti-aircraft guns will bring us horrible losses. The country coun-try will be in an uproar for days to come until the people get educated to this terrible new reality of their existence. "But all of this merely increases our own responsibilities. We must do the insuperable, we must achieve the impossible, we must face this crisis with patience and keep before us the protection of our country against later serious attack which I fear is inevitable. Gentlemen, let long corridor to the staff chief's conference con-ference room, Benning sketched in his own observations of the bombing of Washington, emphasizing the panic pan-ic in the streets, the chaos and disorder dis-order that followed. The floor under them reeled with the impact of a sudden terrific explosion ex-plosion in the distance. Flagwill's expression did not change, there was no hesitation in his gai. "Here the birds are back again," he muttered. He shook his head despairingly. "We've been pounding pound-ing the public by radio all evening not to bunch up, but I'm afraid people peo-ple will have to learn by costly experience. ex-perience. God, but I hope no persistent per-sistent gas is dropped! I doubt if there are a dozen gas masks in all Washington." Another savage detonation filled the night. As its vibrations waned, there came the uninterrupted click of typewriters and telegraph instruments instru-ments as messages went hurtling across the country from the War flashed toward the city. A vivid yellowish sheet of light winked over the city, low against the earth. In the next instant came the clap of thunder as the mighty detonation smote the city. Benning felt the earth reel under his heels, his ears rang with the reverberation. Another crash, a third, fourth, fifth. The titanic wrath of the bombers smothered all sound of the anti-aircraft in a bedlam of volcanic fury that filled all existence. Two more crashes, separated by short intervals inter-vals of time. Silence came swiftly, a hush that yielded no sound for several seconds. sec-onds. Then, as his ears recovered, Benning caught the shrill roar of motors overhead, the sharp staccato of machine-gun fire. Near-by, the crews of the .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns were peppering away inanely. A few rounds of futile bursts and they ceased fire. Now came the sound of excited masses of people. peo-ple. Benning headed into Fifteenth Street. People were running this way and that on the heels of hysterical, hysteri-cal, unbridled terror. Others were massed in stricken silence gaping into the skies. Taxicabs and automobiles auto-mobiles sped crazily in all directions. direc-tions. Benning saw pedestrians bowled over by wheeled vehicles, left floundering on the pavement. Scattered policemen were trying to stem the tide of panic. Sirens screeched as ambulances and police cars raced into the targeted area. It was a few minutes before midnight mid-night when Benning turned into Pennsylvania Avenue. There was no such thing as a taxicab in the present disorder. He walked rapidly rapid-ly on past the White House, intent on reaching Munitions by twelve. Bayoneted sentries paced placidly back and forth in front of the President's Presi-dent's official mansion. The place loomed solemn and tomblike in the vague light of a quarter moon, the somber mass of its gray walls unbroken un-broken by a single lighted window. But Benning, as he hurried on, knew that behind those screened windows win-dows grave conferences would carry car-ry through the night as the heads of government charted the desperate course of an unready nation plunged suddenly into war. On reaching Colonel Flagwill's office, of-fice, Benning found the G-2 chief engrossed in the verbal report of an air service staff colonel. As near as could be judged, the attack on Washington Wash-ington had been made by a single KmK. t.,rnn of spven Dlanes. Department mobilizing the country's armed forces. General Hague's conference room was filling with generals and colonels, colo-nels, all self-possessed, but with the effects of fatigue and strain in their faces after long days without rest. They were promptly in the room where they stood until the four-starred four-starred head of the Army, now in uniform, came in. General Hague was grave and lined, but his shoulders shoul-ders were erect and his gray eyes burned with a level vitality. "Gentlemen," he proceeded at once, "I've gone over the situation in detail with the President.- First I'll give you a brief summary of available enemy information " "Three enemy columns are reliably relia-bly reported at our Texas border and it is a reasonable assumption that they will bridgehead the Rio Grande tonight ready to attack at daybreak. Likely enough the main body will strike from Laredo with the objective objec-tive of San Antonio. Two other columns col-umns are likely to strike from Brownsville and Eagle Pass. "You are familiar with the bombing bomb-ing of San Antonio. Galveston, New Orleans, and Houston tonight. We hope to give those cities the protection protec-tion of our air forces, beginning tomorrow, to-morrow, but we are at the mercy of night raiders for the time being. I needn't tell you that nothing can save San Antonio and the occupation of our great oil and sulphur belts. It looks pretty hopeless for our troops. us 'remember this" General Hague rose to his feet and the muscles of his jaw hardened. He looked about among them again and his voice crackled as he concluded. "No matter what force may come against us, no matter what may be our initial reverses, our country has the basic character and the resources re-sources in manpower to make us invincible. in-vincible. In the bitter end of whatever what-ever storms may lie ahead, the forces, or coalition of forces, that dare attack the United States, will find the mighty vengeance of our massed valor. That'5 all for the present, gentlemen." TO BE r.OTlLED The bombers had been accompanied by a syuadron of pursuit ships. The anti-aircraft reported no hits, and was setting up now to cover the city |