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Show titilllttllMltllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllltlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll! f By BOOTH TARKINGTON I E Copyright by Doubladay, Pass & Company iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii imiiimiiimimiEiiiimiiimiiiiiimiimmimimiiiiiiimiiiimm CHAPTER XtV. Continued. ! 17 fie paused, then chattered briskly on. "WeH, there's one good old boy was with our class for a while, back In freshman year; I bet we won't see him In any good old army ! Old roughneck rough-neck Llnskl that you put the knob on his nose for. Tonimle Hopper says he saw Mm last summer In Chicago sonp-boxln', sonp-boxln', yellln' his head off cussln' every government under the sun, but mostly ours and the allies, you bet, and going to run the earth by revolution and representatives rep-resentatives of unskilled labor Immigrants, Immi-grants, nobody that can read or write allowed to vote, except Llnskl. Tom-mle Tom-mle Hopper says he knows all about Llnskl : he never did a day's work In his life too busy trying to get the worklngmen stirred up against the people peo-ple that exploit 'ein ! Tommle says he had a big crowd to hear him, though, and took up quite a little money for a 'cause' or something. Well, let him , holler 1 I guess we can attend to him when we get back from over yonder. By George, old Ram, I'm gettin" kind of floppy In the gills !" He administered adminis-tered a resounding slap to his comrade's com-rade's shoulder. "It certainly looks as if our big days were walking toward us !" tie patience." There was danger of a stampede, he said, and he and the rest of the faculty were In a measure responsible re-sponsible to their fathers and mothers far the.ru. "You must keep your heads," he said. "God knows, I do not seek to judge your duty In this gravest moment mo-ment of your lives, nor assume to tell you what you must or must not do. But by hurrying Into service now, without with-out careful thought or consideration, you may Impair the extent of your possible usefulness to the very cause you are so anxious to serve. Hundreds of you are taking technical courses which should be completed at least to the end of the term In June. Instructors In-structors from the United States army are already on the way here, and military mili-tary training will be begun at oneo for all who are physically eligible and of acceptable ago. A special course will be given In preparation for flying, and those who wish to become aviators may enroll themselves for the course at once. "1 speak to you In n crisis of the university's life, as well as that of the nation, and the warning I utter has been made necessary by what took place yesterday and today. Yesterdny morning, a student In the junior class enlisted as a private In the United States regular army. Far be It from me to deplore his course In so doing; he spoke to me about it, and In such a nay that I felt I had no right to ills- think It's possible for a person to have something within him that makes him care so much about his country that he " "Walt !" she cried. "Don't you think I'm willing to ffer a little ratherj than to see my country In the wrong? Don't you think I'm doing it?" "Well, I don't want to be rude; but,, of course, It seems to me that you're suffering because you think you know more about what's right and wrong1 tlmn anybody else does." "Oh, no. But I" "We wouldn't get anywhere, probably, prob-ably, by arguing It," Fred said. "You asked me." "I asked you to tell me why he enlisted." en-listed." "The trouble is, I don't think I can tell that to anybody who needs an answer, an-swer, lie Just went, of course. There Isn't any question about It. I always thought he'd be the first to go." "Oh, no !" she said. "Yes. I always thought so." "I think you were mistaken," she said, decidedly. "It was a special reason rea-son to make him act so cruelly." "'Cruelly' I" Fred cried. "It was!" "Cruel to whom?" "Oh, to his mother to his family. To have him go off that way, without a word" "Oh. no ; he'd been home," Fred corrected cor-rected her. "lie went home the Saturday Satur-day before he enlisted, and settled It JRW-- 1 He was right. The portentous days ( came on apuce, and each one brought a new and greater portent. The faces of men lost a driven look besetting them In the days of badgered waiting, and Instead of that heavy apprehension apprehen-sion one saw the look men's faces must have worn in 1776 and 1861, and the history of the old days grew clearer in the new. The President went to the congress, and the true Indictment he made there reached scoffing Potsdam Pots-dam with an unspoken prophecy somewhat some-what chilling even to Potsdam, one guesses and then through an April night went almost quietly the steady-word steady-word : we were at war with Germany. The bugles sounded acro.ss the continent; conti-nent; drums and fifes played up and down the city streets and in town and village squares and through the countrysides. coun-trysides. Faintly in all ears there was a multitudinous noise like distant, hoarse cheering . . . and a sound like that was what Dora Yoeum heard, one night, as she sat lonely In her room. The bugles and fifes and drums had been heard about the streets of the college town, that day, and she thought she must die of them, they hurt her so, and now to be haunted by this Imaginary cheering She started. Was it imaginary? She went downstairs and stood upon the steps of the dormitory in the open air. No; the cheering was real and loud. It came from the direction of the railway station, and the night air surged and beat with It. Below her stood the aged janitor of the building, listening. "What's the cheering for?" she asked, remembering remember-ing grimly that the janitor was one of her acquaintances who had not yet stopped "speaking" to her. "What's the matter?" "It's a good matter," the old man answered. "1 guess there must be a y big crowd of 'em down there. One of our students enlisted today, and they're glvln' him a send-off. Listen to 'em, how they do cheer. He's the first one to go." She went back to her room, shivering, shiver-ing, and spent the next day In bed with an aching head. She rose in the suade him. I told him that It would be preferable for college men to wait until they could go as officers, and. aside from the fact of a greater prestige, pres-tige, I urged thut men of education could perhaps be more useful In that capacity. He replied that if he were useful enough as a private a commission commis-sion might In time come his way, and. as I say, I did not feel at liberty to attempt at-tempt dissuasion. lie left to ioin a regiment to 'which he had been assigned, as-signed, and many of you were at the station to bid him farewell. "But enthusiasm may be too contagious; con-tagious; even a great and inspiring motive may work for harm, and the university must not become a desert. In the twenty-four hours since that young man went to Join the army last night, one hundred and eleven of our young men students have left our walls; eighty-four of them went off together to-gether at three o'clock to catch an east-bound train at the junction and enlist for the navy at Newport. We are, 1 say, In danger of a stampede." He spoke on, but Dora was not listening lis-tening ; she had become obsessed by an idea which seemed to be carrying her to the border of tragedy: When the crowd poured forth from the building build-ing she went with it mechanically, and paused in the dark outside. She spoke to a girl whom she did not know. "I beg your pardon " "Yes?" "I wanted fo ask : Do you know who was the student Doctor Crovls spoke of? I mean the one that was the first to enlist, and that they were cheering last night when he went away to be a private In the United States army. Did you happen to hear his name?" "Yes, he was a Junior." "Who was it?" "Ramsey llilliollanil." CHAPTER XV. Fred Mitchell, crossing the campus one morning, ten days later, saw Dora standing near the entrance of her dormitory, dor-mitory, where lie wouJd pass her unless un-less he altered his course; tvnd as he drew nearer her and the details of her face grew into distinctness, j was Indignant In-dignant with himself for feeling less and less indignation toward her in proportion pro-portion to the closeness of his approach. ap-proach. The pity that came over dim was mingled with an unruly admiration, admira-tion, causing him to wonder what unpatriotic un-patriotic stuff she could be made of. She was marked, but not whipped ; -she still held herself straight under all the hammering and cutting which, to his knowledge, she had been getting. She stopped him, "for on If a moment," mo-ment," she said, uddlng with a wan pryinlness : "That is, If you're not one of those who feel that I shouldn't be spoken to'?" "No," said Fred, stiffly. "I may share their point of view, perhaps, but I don't feel called upon to obtrude it on you In that manner." "I see," she said, nodding. "I've .vanted to speak with you about Ramsey." Ram-sey." "All right." She hit her lip, then asked, abruptly: abrupt-ly: "What made him do It?" "Enlist as a private with the regu-, regu-, lars?" "No. What made him enlist at all?" "Only because he's that sort." I'red returned briskly. "He may he inex-plicab'e inex-plicab'e to people who beJieve that his .:oiug out to fight for his country is ihe same thing as going out to commit com-mit a ninr " She lifted her hand. "Couldn't you " "1 beg your pardon," Fred said at nice. 'Tni sorry, but I don't know jnt i 'low to explain blm to yo'd." "Why?" He lauhi-d apologetically. "Well, you see. as i understand it, yon don'! She Lifted a Wet Face. "No', No! He Went in Bitterness Because 1 Told Him To, In My Own Bitterness!" with them. They're alJ broken up, of course; but when they saw he'd made up his mind, they quit opposing him. and I think they're proud of him about It, maybe, in spit e of feeling anxious. You see, his father was an artilleryman artillery-man in the war with Spain, and his grandfather was a colonel at the end of the Civil war, though be went into it as a private like Ramsey. He died when Ramsey was-about twelve; but Ramsey remembers hiin ; he was talking talk-ing of him the night before lie enlisted." Dora made a gesture of despairing protest, "You don't unders.Z'W" "What is it 1 don't understand?" "Ramsey ! I know why he went and it's just killing me !" Fred looked at her gravely. "I don't think you need worry about It," he said. "There's nothing about his going go-ing that you are responsible for." She repeated her despairing gesture. "You don't understand. But it's no use. II doesn't heln any to try to talk of It, Miougli I thought maybe it would, somehow." She wem a little nearer the dormitory entrance, leaving him where he was. then turned. "I suppose sup-pose you won't see him?" "I don't know. Most probably not till we meet if we should in France. I do l't know where he's stationed ; and I'm going with the aviation if it's ever ready! And he's with the regulars; regu-lars; he'll probably be among the first to go over." "I see." She turned sharply away, calling back over her shoulder in a choked voice. "Thank you. Cood-by!" But Fred's heart lad melted; gazing after her, be saw that her proud young head had lowered now, and that her shoulders were moving convulsively; I he ran after her and caught her as she ' began slowly to ascend the dormitory I steps. "See here," he cried. "Don't " She lifted a wet free. "No. no! Ht went In bitterness because I toM him i to, in my own bitterness: I've killed ! him ! Long ago. when he wasn't union j more than a child. 1 heard he'd said ! that some day he'd 'show' me. ami mm ! he's do ,ie It I" Fred wh'.slled low and long when sl.f ! had disappeared. "Girls"' he murmured mur-mured to himself "Some girls, anyhow any-how they will be tiiLs! You can't tell 'em what's what, and you ean'l har.ae 'em. either !" j Then, as more urgent matters aiain i occupied his attention, he went on at ; m ardent and lively t;ait to attend l,'j ' lass in imio-niaklnsr. ' (TO BE CONTINUED. l "If a Good Matter," the Old Man Answered. An-swered. evening, however a handbill had neon elid under her door at five o'clock, calling call-ing a "Mass Meeting" of the university univer-sity at eight, and she felt it her duty fo go; but when slie gut to the great hall she found a seat in the dimmest toruer. farthest frtm the rostrum. The president of the university addressed ad-dressed the iiHnuiHions many hundreds before him, for tumultuous they were until he quietevl them. H- nllwd to them soberly of patriotism, and called tipon then, for "deliberation aim n llt- |
