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Show ships. Aided by a heavy foe, troops from the Orient established bridgeheads od the Pacific Coast. Intelligence Officer Offi-cer Benninf was assigned the grim task of reporting developments to his superior. su-perior. Colonel Flag will, who was stationed. sta-tioned. In Washington. Now continue with the story. "Very good," he said. "This Is just what I've been waiting for my army 'a itching to jump ofT." From the distance heavy artillery grumbled at the dawn, its vibrations vibra-tions tossed from mountain to mountain moun-tain in a dull, ominous monotone of sound. In front of them the invader held the superiority of strength in the present moment But Van Hassek's air force no longer commanded the skies and his espionage system east of the Cascades and Rockies had been snuffed out by firing squads. Benning worked feverishly to ac- ( quaint himself with the intimate de- , tails of enemy strength, morale, and dispositions. In five days a million men would be ready to attack. Behind Be-hind that mighty cavalcade of 1 trained fighting men, another half-million half-million were in the final stages of seasoning for battle, and could be pushed forward when the need for i them arrived. j The Fourth Army was shaping it- self to attack to the south and west, j Whatever the cost, it was to push its 1 INSTALLMENT NINETEEN pared for this sudden attack, and could ooJy retreat in the face of overwhelming force. Expeditionary forces set saU from both the Mediterranean and the Far East. The U. S. Pacific fleet began the long trip around Cape Horn to protwet the Atlantic seaboard when the Panama Canal was destroyed by dynamite-laden in the diplomatic pouch and was shot here from Washington by air courier, it may have some importance." impor-tance." Eenning slit the envelope open with a paper-knife. A message on a . single slip of paper, which bore no signature, read: "Mon Capitaine, I presume you may know already that M. Bravot is in your country under masquerade masquer-ade in the hope of redeeming himself him-self in Van Hassek's favor." Benning passed the note to General Gen-eral Flag will and said, with a thoughtful smile: "That note from our little French girl startles me, sir. Rather a coincidence to receive re-ceive this just when Bravot has been on my mind today. I've had a hunch the fellow might be around somewhere." Flag will stood up and took from the pocket of his coat a pair of silver sil-ver oak leaves. He handed them to Benning and said: "Here's your new insignia of rank. Colonel, with my affectionate best wishes." Shortly before nine o'clock, Ben- TIIK STORY SO FAR: More than 2iio,i)')f) foreign troops secretly assembled In Vlciico by Van Hassek suddenly Invaded In-vaded the United -States. Vastly superior In numbers and equipment to th Amer-Iran Amer-Iran forces which opposed them, Van Ha tick's troops pushed relentlessly forward. for-ward. The If. S. army was not pre- CHAPTER XX Continued Benning took off to the east in l;i te afternoon. He decided on Boise as the point of vantage from which to observe flnal developments in the occupation of the Pacific coast. There he would find no difficulty diffi-culty in making his daily wire reports re-ports to Fl.igwiU. Enemy divisions had landed at the rnouth of the Columbia River on the Oregon co;ist, taken the antiquated coast forts from the rear with a few platoons of infantry, and were proceeding up the river toward Portland. Port-land. A submarine base was reported report-ed established at Tongue Point at the mouth of the Columbia. Other invader divisions had landed land-ed on the undefended coast north of Sun Francisco and were marching march-ing into the Sacramento Valley. Van Hassek's Guaymas motorized columns col-umns had taken Los Angeles and were well north toward San Francisco Fran-cisco to effect a junction with their Oriental allies. By tomorrow all coast naval bases would be in the hands of the enemy. ning wound his way in FlagwuTs sedan through the endless troop convoys con-voys to the landing-field. In his dispatch dis-patch case were the secret orders that would put Holling's Fourth Army into the attack. Four planes were lined up at the field to carry as many field-officer couriers with orders that would put the group of four field armies into action. Benning's pilot, stiff and erect at attention beside his fuselage, saluted salut-ed punctiliously. In his present preoccupation pre-occupation it was only Benning's long habit of sharp observation that picked up the minor inconsistency of a pilot with goggles fixed over his eyes before he climbed to the cockpit. As Benning searched the pilot, he saw the officer's body stiffen. Benning's Ben-ning's hand drove to his holstered service pistol as he picked out in the moonlight his fellow's profile. The masquerader flashed into action at the same instant. With swift, even deliberation Benning leveled his weapon and pressed the trigger. Bravot sank to the ground. Pilots and ground crew rushed up. Benning leaned over the fallen man and stripped off the goggles. Floodlights were switched on, a hurried hur-ried search made for Captain Trench, pilot of the plane. Trench's body was found in the shadow of a near-by hangar, a knife thrust through his heart. Benning hastily searched Bravot's uniform. In a canvas dispatch case he found cleverly counterfeited orders or-ders for a prompt withdrawal of three divisions from an important salient in enemy lines east of Sacramento. Sac-ramento. In the small hours of the morning, Benning's plane put him down at Carson City. A military automobile automo-bile took him north around Lake Ta-hoe, Ta-hoe, thence west into the slopes of the Sierras. Columns plodded on, silent shadows shad-ows in the night, an endless caravan cara-van of men moving to the front. Daybreak was close at hand when he reached the Fourth Army's advance ad-vance command post. The army commander took the dispatch from Benning, broke the seal, and read with a visible tightening tighten-ing of jaws. CHAPTER XXI Each night for a week past, Benning Ben-ning had gone to sleep with a joyous, joy-ous, rhythmic throbbing In his brain, the echo of what to him was a glorious glo-rious music. It was the music of marching feet and of rolling trains and caissons, music that conjured up visions of a great day yet to come. What time he could find to himself away from his duties at GHQ of late afternoons, he spent on the roads at the edge of Salt Lake listening listen-ing to that same refrain as it beat from the heavy field shoes of marching march-ing infantry on their way to the westward trains. A beautiful sight were those bronzed, strong bodies of men who marched with slanted muskets or sat upright in trucks behind their rolling caissons. They showed their long hard months of training, these rugged youngsters; and their faces were gravely radiant with a soldier's sol-dier's high morale as they faced the west at last on the great adventure. Texas and the Pacific states had suffered unspeakable cruelties and hardships under the heavy heels of the invader. What wealth they had was stripped to the bone, what energies en-ergies they had were harnessed against 'their own country to aid their armed oppressors. There had been those months of a reign of terror when cities within range of the Atlantic were shelled. Bombers rained the country's great cities with death, carrying their assaults as-saults in the dark of the night far inland in-land to such cities as Chicago and St. Louis. Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati, Cin-cinnati, Indianapolis. Then had come the Van Hassek demand. President Tannard himself him-self had insisted that Van Hassek be allowed to present to the whole country his terms of peace. Over all the networks, Van Hassek had spoken for the Coalition Powers. Peace could he had at the price of Alaska. Hawaii, the right of unrestricted un-restricted immigration, renunciation of the Monroe Doctrine, internationalization internation-alization of the Panama Canal. Tannard's voice came ringing back now in Benning's memory. An way past Sacramento and cut the Van Hassek forces in twain. Simultaneously Simul-taneously the First, Second, and Fifth Armies would press forward with a vigor that would prevent Van Hassek from centering his reserves against the Fourth. Upon the advantages ad-vantages of the first few weeks of action would depend the final massed attacks that were aimed to sweep the invader into the Pacific. Dawn of the day of attack came with a roar of artillery that shook the skies down a three-hundred-mile front Old-timers vowed that not even the Argonne witnessed such volcanic wrath of artillery. Light, medium, and heavy artillery pounded pound-ed the Van Hassek trenches for an hour and in its wake came the Infantry In-fantry waves pushing relentlessly ahead In the first red welter of the tortuous miles to the sea. On a day, after crimson weeks, that Benning flew in reconnaissance over Sacramento, the first American Ameri-can waves were at last on the edge of the city. A heavy pall of smoke told that the invader had abandoned the city In flames, indication that he meant to hold farther to the west rather than trust here to counterattacks. counter-attacks. That told Benning, too, that the Van Hassek lines to the north and south would be drawn back. Benning's pulse surged as he viewed from the skies heavy enemy columns marching to the west from Sacramento to take up some new strategic disposition. The spectacle seemed to vitalize Hague's prophecy, prophe-cy, bring nearer the day of fulfill, ment Dark months lay ahead; many, many men yet must die, and the country's stamina would be tested to the last fiber of its strength. But for Benning there were no doubts. The dawn would come, that glorious dawn of the day when he had vowed for himself a glorious adventure. On that day he meant to wing his way to the north again whence had come those fierce shadows in the fog. There he would see their survivors sur-vivors as they melted back into the Pacific before the mighty vengeance of our massed valor. THE END answer to go down in history. "The United States asks no terms. We mean to destroy the armies that have invaded our shores and then we will hold to an accounting those predatory powers that are responsible responsi-ble for international brigandage. That is our last word to our enemies, ene-mies, until you come before us on your knees in the humility of utter defeat! " There had been glorious days as well, as the months drifted, by. There had been that day of two months ago when the Third Army, reorganized, reinforced, and invincible, invinci-ble, crashed down across Texas to drive the invader south of the Rio Grande. Behind the passes of the Rockies there was formed this great army whose fighting reserves now marched into the west Long, patient pa-tient months this had taken, months that had tried the courage and resources re-sources of the country. Benning turned from his reflections reflec-tions to the realities of headquarters. headquar-ters. Dusk was falling, the skies were filling with planes, planes that pointed their noses to the west. The vast caravan of men and guns moved on in its endless rhythm as it emptied the huge training camps of the Salt Lake Valley of their half-million half-million men. At headquarters he checked his personal effects, musette bag. belt and pistol, map-case, field-glasses, raincoat steel helmet The buzzer from Flagv-'ill's desk rang at eight o'clock. Flagwill was now a two-s'.ar two-s'.ar general with the assignment of chief of start of the western gniup of field armies. "Smells to me like a crush note." Flagwill said, sniffing at a small linen lin-en envelope and handing it to Benning. Ben-ning. "But since it came from Paris |