OCR Text |
Show y' 53 y I I - " v -- uCt i' ,flTrxJ f - I tx1' frfl l ' -, U L s : "Kelly field In flames." INSTALLMENT FIVE THE STORY SO FAR: Colonel Flag- soon took him Into Us confidence. Ben-will, Ben-will, acting chief o G-2, U. S. military ning was joined in Mexico City by Lu-Intelligence Lu-Intelligence department, estimated there cette Ducos, a French spy, who told were 200,000 European troops In Mexl- him that Bromlitz had escaped. He re-co re-co preparing for an attack on the Unit- turned to Washington alter learning Van ed States. Posing as Bromlitz, an Amer- Hassek's plans for an invasion of the lean traitor captured In Paris, Intelll- United States. Acting on the basis of fence Officer Benning went to Mexico this Information the President sent an City where he was unsuspectingly ac- ultimatum to Mexico demanding an im-cepted im-cepted as an officer by Van Hassek, mediate explanation of the foreign troops leader of the foreign armed forces In on her soil. Mexico. Fincke, another enemy officer, Now continue with the story. CHAPTER VI Continued. "I read a news flash on the Presi-. Presi-. dent's ultimatum In the San Antonio papers last night before I took oft for Washington, sir," Benning said. "If my opinion is worth anything, Colonel, Ruiz will merely stall around in a play for time. He's controlled con-trolled wholly by Van Hassek." "We're getting ready to mobilize the army and National Guard, Benning." Ben-ning." Flagwill rubbed a tormented torment-ed hand across his brow. "Gad, what a headache if it finally comes to that! "We'll be lucky if we get anything any-thing mobilized before Van Hassek hits us," Benning predicted. "I mean if we wait much longer." "Wait? Wait? What else .can we do but wait? The people just simply sim-ply refuse to believe we're vulnerable, vulnera-ble, Benning. Late yesterday a prominent senator dressed down the President for sending an ultimatum to Ruiz. Said the present troubled time is not one to rock the boat intimated the President was playing play-ing politics. The press gave that statesman almost as much space as it gave the ultimatum. But now you get busy and type out your report re-port in detail, Benning. General Hague has called a General Staff conference for eight o'clock. Hague has been at his desk constantly since your report came in yesterday no one around here has had any sleep. I'll be back as soon as possible." Benning dictated to a confidential clerk his report covering his movements move-ments and observations from the day of his arrival in Paris. This done, he reproduced from memory the Van Hassek operations map with its numerous sinister red arrows indicating points of possible invasion of the United States by a major land force supported by warships war-ships and aircraft. Colonel Flagwill came in from staff conference, his face "gravely tense. "What's fretting the President is his next move. G-2 ha3 canvassed public opinion throughout our nine corps areas and finds the public isn't very much excited over the Mexican Mexi-can situation. The President's ultimatum ulti-matum stirred up more curiosity curios-ity than alarm in the country. Too many newspapers treat the matter apathetically, or question the vigor and finality with which the President Presi-dent went after Ruiz." A stenographer brought in Ben-ning's Ben-ning's complete report and Flag-will Flag-will seized it avidly. His brows met as he came to the scene in Van Hassek's quarters at the Palacio NacionaL "You say, Benning, you saw a black flag with crossed sabers with your own eye and all the officers saluted it?" he asked sharply. "Yes, sir." "You didn't tell me that in your verbal account. Man, that's vital Information! That same flag has been showing up in Europe among the armies of the Coalition Powers. It's also been reported in Tokio and China. Reports have leaked out that the militarists are rallying behind that flag, hell-bent on taking matters mat-ters In their own hands if necessary. Of course, that's a subterfuge for Coalition governments to maneuver maneu-ver behind while they keep up a pretense of peace negotiations. But the presence of that flag in Van Hassek's headquarters Is highly significant. sig-nificant. I'll take your report at once to General Hague." Benning spent morning and afternoon after-noon checking over the G-2 reports 3D complications and developments the world over. Notes of ambassadors, ambassa-dors, consuls, army and navy attaches at-taches In foreign capitals, and summaries sum-maries of press clippings all reflected reflect-ed the unrest and tension that gripped the world. Europe continued a maelstrom of rumor. Germany, Italy, Spain, and their allied Balkan slates were shut of! by rigid censorship. On the plea of internal necessity they had closed their frontiers to foreigners, denied aliens all use of malls and wire :ommunicotion8. Similar action hud been taken by Japan. Unverified reports came from China of heavy troop concentrations north of Shanghai Shang-hai together with concentration of transport fleets. Russia had drawn off to herself behind an unbreakable curtain of censorship. Diplomacy admittedly ad-mittedly had broken down the world over, fretted capitals waited in the grip of fear for the next moves in a world gone mad. Only in the United States was there tranquillity left, a lack of fear and tension. G-2 reports gave the same story from over the country. There was lively interest but little tension. War was something on remote re-mote horizons, isolated by broad seas. America wanted nothing to do with it, wished only to be left alone with her peaceful intentions. Therefore no harm could come. The war scare was jingoistic poppycock promoted by militarists in their quest of heavier appropriations for armaments. Just as though recent millions pledged to them were insufficient. in-sufficient. As for those mercenary troops in the Mexican army, our own army could gobble them up in a jiffy if they were senseless enough to start anything. During the day Benning saw little of Flagwill. Endless staff conferences confer-ences were being held, the whole War' and Navy Departments a beehive bee-hive of strained activity. A new plan was hot In the making, a tortured, tor-tured, impossible plan, out of which the best must be drawn. It was a plan to meet the one emergency for which the United States was wholly and utterly unprepared, un-prepared, the emergency of sudden invasion. At Fort Sam Houston, on the outskirts out-skirts of San Antonio, Lieutenant Colonel Bart, Corps Area G-2 Chief, received a disturbing bit of information informa-tion late in the day. Shortly after sunset a formation, identified as bombers, had passed over the Rio Grande at a point west of Brownsville, Browns-ville, headed north. Bart had telephoned the villages of Kingsville, Gregory, Skidmore, Beeville, and Kennedy to the north of the border, in Texas, without picking up any further report of the flight, from which he concluded that the bombers must have taken out across the Gulf of Mexico. He had alerted Galveston and New Orleans, but as the evening passed no reports came from those cities. Neither Kelly Field nor Randolph Field had any planes out. A query to Washington brought the response that no American bombers were known to be in the lower Texas region re-gion or along the Gulf of Mexico. The reported bomber expedition had followed a series of reports during dur-ing the afternoon that had put General Gen-eral Brill and the whole corps area on the jagged edge. A Mexican had brought into Laredo the report that heavy motorized divisions were spending the day In screened bivouacs biv-ouacs in Coahuila and Nueva Leon. Half an hour later came news from Colonel Denn that was not to be ignored. "Four flights have passed over Laredo La-redo within the past fifteen minutes," min-utes," Denn said. "If my ears know an American plane these were not American. They were headed about due north, and traveling high and fast." General Brill calmly made his own estimate of the situation. Parked In the grounds of Fort Sam Houston were the sixteen hundred shining new trucks of the Second Division, together with the division's material materi-al and supplies. The Second, alerted alert-ed and with all leaves suspended, was In barracks and camp ready for emergency. At Kelly and Randolph Ran-dolph Fields, near-by, were the planes and supplies used In training a small new army of pilots for an expanded air service. "Have the Second Division get their trucks out of here as soon as possible," he directed his chief of stafT. "They'll also disperse their artillery. Notify the mayor of San Antonio and suggest that he have all lights cut off. Notify the flying fields of our information. Notify Eagle Ea-gle Pass and Fort Bliss." He paused to receive another report re-port from Bart. "Sir, Third Army Headquarters just called in from Atlanta. They've a report from Charleston of bombers bomb-ers flying high over that city at ten-seventeen o'clock, heading north by east." Outside there was orderly commotion. commo-tion. Troops were pouring out of barracks bar-racks and bivouac camps already, the first drivers were moving their trucks out of the fort Another report from Colonel Denn. The colonel's voice now crackled with Intensity. One of his intelligence intelli-gence scouts, disguised as a Mexican Mexi-can peon, had the word from friendly friend-ly Mexicans that a heavy motor column was moving north from the vicinity of Palo Blanco. Another column was reported moving by night through Tamaulipas toward Brownsville and a third was said to have passed Mesquite, in Coahuila, Coahui-la, headed in the direction of Eagle Pass. n hour later the Second Division's Divi-sion's trucks, filled with men, were whirring out of the fort; rubber-tired rubber-tired artiUery was shifting Its light and medium cannon out of the zone of possible danger. An aide, whom General Brill had sent out Into the garrison to observe, ob-serve, burst ' into headquarters, breathless, his face stripped of color. "Sir, airplanes!" he panted. "Flying "Fly-ing high but you can hear them coming!" General Brill left his staff at their allotted jobs and went outside with his aide. The garrison was dark, headquarters worked behind drawn shades. The roar of motors filled the air as trucks and artillery continued to roll out of the garrison. But above that he caught the sharp whine of higher-powered engines far overhead. over-head. The 69th Anti-Aircraft Artillery had got its guns In position, but was withholding its searchlights pending development. Suddenly a small plane zoomed down over the garrison garri-son and dropped a flare that turned night Into day. Brill stood calmly observing. He knew that flare was the first violence of an invasion of the United States. He knew that in a few minutes the bombers would circle over their target tar-get of Fort Sam Houston and let drive. He knew, too, that there was nothing he could do to prevent what was to follow. A hissing shriek caught his ears. Involuntarily he raised himself on his toes and placed his finger-tips at his ears. A savage flash of yellow yel-low flame leaped from the earth into the heavens. The ground under him shook with volcanic intensity from the savage wrath of a heavy bomb. Long fingers of light leaped into the sky from the 69th's searchlights. A heavy demolition bomb detonated In the field from which the trucks were whirring. Brill caught, in the momentary flash of light, the grim tragedy of shattered men and material. ma-terial. Above the din he heard the cries of wounded men. Another bomb crashed and another. His antiaircraft anti-aircraft regiment began crackling, but his handful of guns were almost al-most lost In the din of titanic thunder thun-der that crashed from the sky. Incendiary bombs rained down, bringing an irresistible heat that ate its way into all combustible parts of barracks. General Brill turned back into his headquarters, sat down at his desk stricken by his utter helplessness, help-lessness, but maintaining his self-control. self-control. His staff, their bloodless faces drawn and lined, worked coolly, outwardly out-wardly oblivious to the danger. Information kept coming in, reports that had to be appraised until the whole picture of attack and disaster dis-aster had been assembled and appraised ap-praised as the basis for whatever later action was to be taken. The wooden hangars at Kelly Field were In flames. Randolph Field was being hammered. San Antonio was in a mad panic which had got out of all police control. People were flooding the streets, rushing about in a mad frenzy in their efforts to escape the city. Roads were choked with passenger vehicles. But the Van Hassek bombers were confining their major fury to Fort Sam Houston and the flying fields, which told General Brill that the attack presaged a crossing of the Rio Grande by mobile troops during the night or at daybreak. From New Orleans and Galveston came reports of raids that were still in progress. Hundreds were killed in the streets. No other details. Shortly after midnight the violence suddenly ceased, the bombers and their accompanying attack ships sailed off to the south. Colonel Denn called In again from Laredo. The head of a motorized column had halted at Nuevo Laredo just south of the Rio Grande. His intelligence patrols had verified this with their own eyes. "All right, gentlemen," Brill told his BtafT. "Get the Second Division together as quickly as possible and start them moving south toward the Nueces River! Tell General Mole of the Second I'll meet him at Kirk In three hours with his orders for the defense of San Antonio. Get General Gen-eral Hague on the long-distance again while I report. We're going to do our best In a desperate situation, situa-tion, and I needn't tell you wha' we're up against! I'll be ready for your recommendations In an hour, gentlemen." (TO UE CONTWUHJi) |