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Show BY GENERAL Yttil "'X' Uv, ''V 1'IIK Sl'OKY SO l-WIt: More lhan foreign troops svoretl.v ascmMt-d tr Mfvu-o by Van H.iNsek suihleul.v Invaded In-vaded the I ulti-d Stales. Vastly superior In numbers and equipment to the American Amer-ican forces which opined them. Van H.issek's troops pushed rcK'ntlessly lor-ward. lor-ward. Tne li. S. army was not pre- ,r r ciivrn u xix j Colonel Flagwill had sprawled out o:i a cot in his offlce in the Munitions Muni-tions Building for a few winks of v sleep at sunrise, when he was shaken shak-en to wakefulness by an assistant. "Here's our report from the Fourth Army at San Diego, sir," the assistant reported. "Air reconnaissance recon-naissance confirmed Major Ben-nir.g's Ben-nir.g's report from El Paso. Van Hassek's troops are moving north from Guaymas! Facts confirmed by photographs taken by one of our observation ob-servation planes." Flagwill sat up and read the report re-port with a blank expression. The staggering succession of events, the crushing responsibilities of the past few days had bankrupt him of emotion. emo-tion. "Well one more report from our Asiatic fleet and we'll know the worst," he muttered. "Is General Hague at his desk yet, do you know?" "No, sir, the general has been asleep for nearly an hour. His aide refuses to let anyone disturb him on any account Major Benning reported re-ported In from El Paso half an hour ago. You were asleep " f "Let him come in," Flagwill Interrupted. In-terrupted. Benning responded at once, his face a peculiar chalky color. Flag-will's Flag-will's eyes centered on the major's left arm that hung from bis neck in a woolen sling. "You didn't tell me you'd been in a jam," Flagwill accused. "What are all the bandages about?" Benning smiled placidly, and said: "The sawbones took a Luger slug out at El Paso, sir. I've only myself my-self to blame for taking foolish chances, but at least all's well that - ends well and I suppose I'll always feel better about the way I handled It." "What about Boggio?" Flagwill sharply interrupted. "When I met him, instead of shooting him at sight, I said, "Boggio, "Bog-gio, I'm Major Benning. United States Army. I understand you claim responsibility for bombing the White House." Boggio snatched out his pistol pis-tol and went into action. I aimed very deliberately at his heart and effected a clean bull's-eye. I didn't even know I'd been hit until some minutes later." Flagwill nodded gravely and said: "I'm glad you did it just that way, Benning. Hope your arm isn't in too bad a fix." "Just a little hole, sir. El Paso gave me anti-tetanus treatment and said I'd be as good as new in a short time. Things seem to look pretty black just now. Anything new from Panama?" "Yes. Engineers affirm that it'll take a year to put the Canal in commission." General Hague's aide-de-camp banged into the room with a summons, sum-mons, his ashen face and distended eyes eloquent of some major catastrophe ca-tastrophe that he did not wait to disclose. Flagwill got to his feet "There must be blood on the moon, Ben- ning!" he exclaimed. "Better go out to Walter Reed and get your arm treated, then report back here to me in event I need you." Benning passed up the hospital to search through Intelligence summaries summa-ries and press reports. They reflected reflect-ed a world now black as pitch with ttark omens of mighty violence. An hour later President Tannard walked slowly up and down hi study, head sunk to his chest hands tightly clenched, the tense silence of the room broken only by the soft , tread of his feet and the noisy tick of a small clock. Across the room from him stood General Hague and Admiral Hunt the latter, chief of naval operations. The President halted in front of Hague and said in a low voice, "You are sure of your estimate. General that you haven't sufficient forces to hold the Pacific coast against a major ma-jor invasion?" "Positive, sir," Hague affirmed at once. "Even if we shoved all our available troops onto the Pacific coast, we couldn't supply them with ammunition for more than two weeks of action, if that long. As I said before, sir, our defense plans have been laid on having an effective effec-tive force ready in three hundred days after mobilization." "I regret to say, General," President Pres-ident Tannard responded, "that with all my years in the Senate I didn't realize that condition." The President turned to Admiral Hunt and asked him, "With the loss "Vof your naval bases on the Pacific, you will have Pearl Harbor to fall back on?" "If two of our battleship divisions divi-sions and other craft are to be ordered or-dered to protect the Atlantic, sir, I'd recommend against risking what remains re-mains of our fleet on the Pacific in Pearl Harbor. Such a division of the fleet Is very dangerous." "Then you recommend abandon-men', abandon-men', si the Pacific coasts, at least for the time being?" President Tannard Tan-nard demanded. INSTALLMENT EIGHTEEN pared tor Uiis sudden attack, and could only retreat In Uie (ace ot overwhelming force. High army ortlcers worked desperately des-perately to organise an vffectlve resist-anco resist-anco against the Invader. Intelllgenca Olttcer Itennlng barely escaped with his lite when a dynamlle-laden ship explod ed in uiu Panama Canal, trapping the it- if T n- w The admiral's face went ashen; He swallowed several times and licked purple lips. "That, sir," he said In a low, tremulous voice, "is a matter of decision de-cision entirely beyond my province. I can only give you the facts as to the limitations of your navy." Tannard nodded slowly and resumed re-sumed his pacing of the floor. Hij head sunk again to his chest, the knuckles of his clenched hands were white as bleached bones. "Very well, gentlemen. I will decide," de-cide," President Tannard said at last He halted and looked from one to another. His face now was wrinkled and drawn until he had the aspect of a very old man. "The inevitable decision," he added, add-ed, and wet his lips with several nervous flicks of his tongue. "You, Admiral, will be prepared to withdraw with-draw your fleet to the Atlantic to protect the country's vital centers of population. You, General, will meet the invasion as best you can at the Pacific shore, and fight a delaying action. There must be no public announcement of this decision temporarily tem-porarily to abandon the Pacific coast We are simply yielding to the inevitable. That is all gentlemen." gentle-men." A momentous decision had to be made by the commander of the Fourth Army. General Brunn and "Very well, gentlemen, I will decide." his general staff had been in a huddle hud-dle through long hours. American bombers, attack and pursuit planes, had hammered Van Hassek's marching columns without greatly reducing their relentless northern movement Another complication was the monstrous specter of invasion from the Pacific, now looming nearer and nearer. Airplane observers, risking themselves far out over the sea, verified the actuality of it. Though there had been no declaration of war, yet transport and warcraft, cloaked in greasy smudge, swept toward the coast like some cataclysmic cata-clysmic pestilence. "We have done our best here." Brunn finally told his staff. "We have no alternative than to withdraw with-draw northward to the vicinity of Sacramento. Otherwise we will find ourselves inevitably in a pocket from which we'll be unable to extricate ourselves. Our withdrawal commences com-mences tonight" Benning heard the decision with a gloomy tightening of the muscles of his jaw. Events of the past few days had dulled his sense of acute feeling, left him numb and dazed. Brunn's decision meant the abandonment aban-donment of the great Naval Operating Operat-ing Base at San Diego. It meant the first move of the land forces in evacuating evac-uating the Pacific coast CHAPTER XX A plane from the 21st Reconnaissance Reconnais-sance Squadron had brought Benning Ben-ning from Washington two days before be-fore as Flagwill observer of the inevitable in-evitable invasion. Captain Hawtry, pilot, was on the lookout for his passenger. pas-senger. "Hear the news, Major?" Hawtry Haw-try inquired. Hawtry. a lanky Virginian Vir-ginian with clear gray eyes and the relaxed features of a man who takes life as it comes, added in a laconic drawl: "It just come in a minute ago over the radio. They've cracked us up pretty bad off the Jersey coast with their ships. There's hell popping on the Atlantic. It looks like Atlantic City was in for a shelling before the day's over." Benning merely stared at his pilot out of hollow eyes and said: "We're NEXT WEEK l). S. Meet In the Pacific Ocean. Ordered to Mexico City, he learned that Van tlassck would soon Invade America's west coast. Itennlng Uien left for Washington Wash-ington to reitorl to Culonel Klagwlll, chK'f of the U. S. Intelligence Department, Depart-ment, Now continue with the story. IT TP If pulling out of here, Hawtry. I want to get to the Putfet Sound country as soon as possible." They took off at once for San Francisco. Below them they saw the roads massed black with fleeing flee-ing thousands from Los Angeles, Pasadena, and towns along the path of impending Invasion. At San Francisco they put down for the night because of heavy fogs. The city was in a panic. Steady streams of people were pouring out of the city on all roads. The Mint was being emptied, money and securities se-curities from banks being shipped by train and truck. A new terror fed Die panic. Fog had engulfed most of the coastline from Seattle to San Francisco. Visibility Vis-ibility had been stripped from the sea by vast blankets of fog. Air observers ob-servers were land-bound. If the fog held out through the next few days, the invader would be able to put ashore in whaleboats and establish a foothold unhampered by American Ameri-can fighting planes. With nightfall word came to San Francisco that the Fourth Army was retreating north from San Diego. General Brunn refused to make any announcement but the secret leaked that his divisions were headed into the region of Sacramento. News of this retreat converted panic into frenzy. In the morning Hawtry took a chance against the fog. He found a hole at Medford and put down to refuel re-fuel Four hours later, Hawtry nosed about In the fleecy sky over Fort Lewis until he found a rift and dived to a landing. Here on Puget Sound, some two thousand miles north of Brunn'i retreating re-treating divisions, was the northernmost northern-most element of his Fourth Army. For defense of the Northwest were two National Guard Divisions and part of the Third Regulars. Benning reported to Lieutenant Colonel Marsh. G-2, at Fort Lewis headquarters, whence operations In the field were being directed. ' Marsh's bloodless, drawn face re- I fleeted stunned hopelessness; his voice was a contained but colorless monotone as he sketched over the operations map with Benning. "This fog has us stumped," he groaned. "We know enemy trans- j ports are not far off shore they may make a landing tonight But they can land anywhere from Gray Harbor on down the coast into Oregon. Ore-gon. All we can do is watch and I wait keeping our reserves massed and mobile. When they do land, all we can do is fight them in successive suc-cessive positions for a day or two and then pull out for the Cascades!" Astride his machine gun on the sandy beach south of Aberdeen, Private Pri-vate John Rand, 161st Infantry, thought he heard a rift in the monotonous mo-notonous splash of the incoming tide. The gun crew held its breath to strain into the washing waves. "There's men moving," someone hoarsely whispered. Private Rand knew that friendly patrols were not allowed in front of his own position. His heart pounded so hard he heard nothing else. A stab of flame leaped from the muzzle of Rand's gun. A succession succes-sion of sharp flames followed as he poured the murderous might of his machine gun into the night A shrill cry rang out in front Rand did not live to near the howling, maddening storm that swiftly grew out of that first bark of his machine gun. Shadows loomed out of the fog and bore in on his crew. The long steel fang of a bayonet bay-onet bit into his breast From a mile behind the shoreline the commander of a battalion of howitzers barked an order. Muzzle flashes cut the night momentarily to ribbons. The earth rocked from the force of the explosion that sent high-explosive shells screaming 'to the unseen shoreline. From the sea came now the roar of thunder as heavy naval guns picked up the brawl to mock the puny defiance of the howitzers. The violence spread in length and depth, swiftly rose in fury until it became a ceaseless roar of mighty thunder. There was no such thing in this foggy night as observation, no such thing as gauging the tidal wave of invasion, or co-ordinating resistance. resist-ance. Only by sound could the invader in-vader be estimated. Ten thousand men, the staff decided at dawn, must have landed on the beach under un-der cover of darkness. Men enough to force a human bridgehead for an army to follow under the savage protection of naval guns. Through the stricken, sodden day that followed, Benning remained at Fort Lewis while the Fourth Army's Puget Sound divisions slowly dropped back. They fought the invader in-vader from successive lines of ridges, but the die was cast, the command given. The Forty-First was to cover the withdrawal to the Cascade passes. The conquest of the Northwest waited only consolidation consoli-dation by the now victorious divisions divi-sions of the invader. I (TO BE COXTl.WEDl |