OCR Text |
Show &. , " immmm """ -v ttJBPTHtc' IHfi"f ' 'SlmmmmmSmmmrffiw'Jfflf&m Herewith is presented the sixth installment of a fiction serial dealing with what might happen should European powers, after they had settled their own differences, differ-ences, wage war upon the United States.' The author, one of the best Ection writers in the country, has based bis story upon a thorough understanding of military, naval, and internal conditions in the United States and upon a sound knowledge of military and economic history. The story will cause you to realize the critical situation in which this country and you, your neighbors, and your family are H SYNOPSIS placed by the let-well-enough-alone attitude of the pacifists. M In Elgin, III., live the Ashby family, consisting AjA of Nathan Ashby, owner of the Ashby Braes com AjA pany, and his wife; a daughter, Nellie, married to AjA Bob Wendell, a navy lieutenant, and Jim Ashby, AjA a son, engaged to Agnes Ware. Nathan Ashby AjH is the archetype of pacifist, deaf to the warnings AAj of the imminence of danger to America, and his AS deafness in this respect is shared by his son. IHj v They are Impatient with Bob's refusal to resign AjWJ from service and take a more lucrative job with a Ajb business concern. In the Ashby works there are AjWJ two foreign chemists, Ingouf and Enloe, experts AjWf in their line.. Their night work and the discovery AjWJ of an incendiary bomb in the brass works arouse AjWJ Bob's suspicions. While driving down a lonely AjWJ road with Jim they discover the two chemists AjWf on motorcycles ahead of them. Thinking they are AjWj being trailed, the chemists hurl bombs back at AjWf the car and a revolver battle ensues. Ingouf is AjWJ killed by one of his own bombs, but Enloe escapes. AjWJ Lieut. Barrett of the U. S. Scout Cruiser Salem AjWJ has, in defiance of orders to proceed io Haiti AjWJ with two of the government's representatives AjWJ aboard, steamed cast in the north Atlantic and AjWJ encountered the fleet of the former European AjWj enemies. The foreign deet fires on the Salem a AjWJ deliberate act of, war and a onc-sided battle re- AjWJ suits in the sinking of one of the enemy's largest AjWJ ships and then of the Salem, but not before the AjWJ number and class of ships comprising the fleet and AjWJ the fact that they had fired the first shot have AjWj been wirelessed back to Washington. AjWJ Bob Wendell is notified to report at Newport AjV News, and after bidding farewell to Nellie he is AjW driven to Chicago b Jim. After Bob is gone Jim AB takes out the torn scrap of paper found on the AjV body of Ingouf, which revealed the fact that AjV Ingouf and Enloe were spies who had received AjWj orders for their duty at the outbreak of war. AjWj With the address " S. D. Marlatt, Insurance V building," on the torn envelope in mind, Bob AjV seeks the building, feeling that " Marlatt " is the AjV chief ftf the prince regent s spies. Some one is in AjWj the office, and as he makes nis way in he hears AjWJ others coming up the stairway. As he switches AjWj on the light a revolver spits its flame in front of AjWj his face; he fires back, but a heavy blow upon his AjWj head fells him. He regains consciousness to find AjV himself lying on n couch, guarded by one of the AjWJ agents. He feigns unconsciousness while the AjWJ agents try to revive him. Aa While Bole, the guard, is trying to bind Jim, Am th latter throws a noose about Bole's neck, AjWj overpowers him, leaves him bound In the room, AjV and locks the door. He investigates the house, BB finds a group of men and women sending out in- Bjfl furance solicitations, with orders written on them ASl in invisible ink, and then moving down the hall finds a telephone. He finds Marlatt's office num AJfl ber in the telephone book, but notices that the AVI telephone is not the same as Marlatt's residence ATM telephone number in the book. He telephones Hf Marlatt's office and Sibert, the U. S secret agent, J answers the phone. When Jim has satisfied Sibert Aj that it Is really Jim Ashby at the other end of H the wire, Jim tells the secret agent what has flAj happened to him. and Sibert answers that the Aj house will be traced through the phone company Aj offices and a squad of detectives will be at the Aj house In a few minutes. The spies find the door Aj to the room in which Jim was locked; confusion Aj reigns within while the spies batter down the Aj door, and confusion without while Sibert's men Aj close in on the spies. A girl, well known socially Aj as a debutante, enters the room as Jim is taking Aj away the spies' papers, and as Jim is moving Aj from the table with drawn revolver, demandjng H that she keep back, she rushes at him, daring AJ htm to shoot her. B Copyright: 1S10: By Tho Tribune Company. B I t E Bklppod back to the curtain over B T"l tne window, and as sue reached Mm B I 1 he fired. The fixing did not frighten B her. He had pointed the revolver fl far to one Bide to avoid all chance of hitting ; B she saw this before he Bhot, and Bhc laughed B . t him, tauntingly, as she seized his hand. B He dropped the revolver nnd tried to throw B her off, but sho held him. A man rushed up B to help Ker; it was the young man in evening B clothes. Jim threw the girl back from him, B and as the man came Jim caught him with a B fist under the jaw; but the man came on and B grappled at the Bame moment that the girl f j tripped Jim and he crashed back against the H window, shattering the glass about him and B the man who fought with him. B The girl cried out shrilly as the glass B smashed on the floor; then she stifled her B cry, and as Jim struggled with his antagonist B he felt tho girl's small, tenso hands seizing fl him. Ho was rolling on the floor nmid the B broken glass with the 'man who had grappled B him, when a pistol shot rang out In tho B street; another replied from beside the house; B now there were shoutB all about and a whistle B blew. As Jim wrestled and rolled over below B the window, from outside a man smashed in B the rest of tho glass and stepped in ; a window B farther down the room was burst open and. B as another man appeared, tho lights in tho B salon went out; in their place a flame flared B suddenly from the center of tho room and B jumped from rug to table and to the hangings B beforo the door; and Jim, as he gasped for B breath, sucked in tho fumes of gasoline. B Tho man with whom he was wrestling was B trying no longer to hold him; instead the B man now waB struggling to get away, nnd Wm Jim was the one who was holding. Tho girl IY1 no longer interfered. Now Jim made out B Slbert'B yolce calling commands to his men in B tno burning room, and Jim'a antagonist wcak- B . encd in his fight. "Ashby! Where are you?" Sibert's voice H. called. "Ashby!" B Jim unswered nnd Sibert was beside him. B Jim stood up with his prisoner as Slberfs B men completed their capture o the house, HI and, bringing buckets of water, darkened the H room again aB they extinguished the flames H which the spies had started. YIII. B THB CALL FOR X MILMON MDN. B "War! President fears war! Army and H navv chiefs in all night council at Whito H House! President fears war J" the scream of a newsboy echoed in tho street It was dawn. H A gray glow spread over tho sky from tho H cast, and tho moon, yellow and bright a few moments before, became whiter and dimmer. H The street lamps went out, and garish wore the electric lights which showed the ruin of the salon in tho house of tho spies. Two H police motor wagons, backed before the door, H were removing the men and tho women caught B In the b0U8C' wc(II,t tbc Birl Wh had struEslcd B with Jim Aahby and ono of the men who had B been on guard. An ambulance already had M & taken the girl to a hospital, where a Burgeon OB would repair tho artery in her arm cut by the H broken glass. The body of the guard was to H be removed later In tho dining room Jim Ashby and Sibert spread upon the "table tho letters which had been saved. There were only scraps or charred bits in addition to tho bundle of undamaged un-damaged papers which Jim had saved; the spies had succeeded in burning or otherwise destroying all the rest Sibert Bponged the sheets of paper with a chemical solution which he had brought, and between tho lines ow typewriting sentences of script came out in dear, brown characters. " How many more letters wero there?" Sibert asked. " I got maybe a fourth of those in sight." The secret service man gazed down at the letters grimly. "Theao are a quarter of the orders they wero sending out from here l Ashby, Ash-by, think of this sort of thing going on all over the country this morning! Look at what they wero telling their men to do! My God, the princo has given more thought to the organizing of his spies to watch our volunteer volun-teer army than the president has given to preparing tho organization of the army Itself!" It-self!" "... and immediately following the call for volunteers you will offer yourself and enliBt and thereafter as ordered communicate com-municate the details of numbers, equipment, morale, location, and probable destination of the force to which you are attached. . . ." Jim saw again in the letter lying before him this paragraph which he had read on the scrap of paper from Ingouf s pocket; he read it on the page lying further along the - " I r 0 "STrirf?SAAAri gaxfc- 4- I- ' table, upon tho next and the next And its repetition somehow stirred him more than tho different directions of villainy enjoined at tho start of each note of instructions. " They were ordering a man named Vcttis in Aurora to join an Illinois aviation division," divi-sion," Jim told Sibert " I heard the order given ; bnt his letter seems to bo lost" Sibert added the name to tho list he was making. Jim caught his shoulders in appeal. "You'll tako me with you now, Sibort, when you go to get those men?" The secret service man shook his head. "Tou'vo done your bit in regard to those men," he motioned toward the letters on the table. " Other men can arrest them better than you can. But for tho rest the agents whose letters were burned and the others like them, Ashby we're going to need every loyal man wo can got, and we're going to need them in our army. That's where most of our friends tho spies seem to bo going. So join the army, Aahby. The enemy seem to bo expecting a call for volunteers by morning. Go home, whero you know moBt of the men who'll bo in your battalion; get into the army and remember re-member what you baw here this night!" Jim drove down to the center of the city in a car with some ot Sibert's men; he found hia roadBtcr still at the curb around the corner cor-ner from Marlatt'B office. He took his car nnd drove it down tho streets which led to tho road for Elgin. At daybreak tho business V district was as deserted and silent as three hours before; a few wagons, bringing in vegetables and garden truck to the commission commis-sion houses near tho river, and a number of grocers' carts, bound to tho samo places to buy for tho dny, passed on the streets; their drivers shouted to each other and to Jim a word of astonishment at the news in tho early morning extras. Now Jim was driving between rows of flat buildings where windows were open and "from which men in bathrobes and women In kimonos ki-monos and with hair disheveled about their shoulders called to each other across areas and courts 'and shouted to the passerby for news. Now .paper boys were again rousing the block ahead of Jim and, in a minute more, he had reached tho corner whero he had encountered en-countered tho factory hands. Tho factory windows and sky panes were nil yellow from the electric lights within; the day was not yet bright enough for the mechanics to work by its light; and the second night Bhift was Btill at work. Men loafed on the street and crowded sullenly about tho fronts of saloons. Theso men stared with hostility at the automobile auto-mobile and 6ome of them flhouted jibes. A rock clattered against a mudguard and Jim, without increasing his speed,. went past On his way to the city a few hours beforo Jim had associated hostility and treachery at homo with such men and with others like Ingouf and Emloe; but now, as ho passed theso men, ho thought of thoso of them who were treacherous only as tho subordinates and agents of men of his own class of Marlatt and his associates in the spy system of the prince regent Ho was glad when he was beyond tho district of tho foreign factory workers ; but how would ho be Buro of jany men after this night? If there were spies in hi1! father's factory, at home, nnd in Buch homes as that homo in Chicago, nnd If such glrla as ehe who fought with him were traitors to the country, who could. bo Bure of hiB neighbor? AAkl . asssss EDWIN BALMER I JafiHr T&n Pldly past tha homes mKJm a Uttlo suburban village un- 7 disturbed yet by tho alarm of n war. Milkmen were bringing Jr their bottles to the llttlo houiea and here and there some one, who had arisen early to work among his flowers, gazed in curiosity at tho speeding car. Jim ran by farms and as ho glanced over tho fields he saw that no one was at work. It was well past time for tho farm people to be about, but they were still in their house or in llttlo groups on the porches. The car approached a farm house which stood near tho road and a tall man came from tho house and hailed Jim. "Hello! Hello, thcro!" ho shouted. " Hey, have you heard tho newB?" Jim stoped his car short "Yes! The president called his cabinet and army and navy people at midnight It looks liko war I" " Looks like it I" tho farmer bawled back. "It is war l" "They've declared it?" Jim cried; he stood up in his car. "War!" the farmer called back. "Yes; they've declared war I The telephone people arc calling every one and telling us! War! By God, stranger, we're at war! Everything was all right last night " Jim leaped down from his car and ran toward the farmer who gazed at him, ohserv- w tiVr iAbwliKMSiAMAAAEi53&: ( iiv 'Mffii if I I WM&Mr 0'' .- ' - -? 2SmamWKmm '- W- mJSfmwSf' :is ccnie on cctid yj'ctppfed &l nv ing his torn clothes and his bruised face without comment ; the farmer led Jim into the house, continuing: " And I was saying to Annie she's my wife ' It's all blown over again, like it always al-ways has. Tho old U. S. A. is safe and sound and's going to keep out of trouble.' And now we're at war. Come In, stranger! They'ro still Baying it ain't they. Annie? Come in, friend; listen to it yourself!" The farmer led back into the hall ; a woman, a tall boy and n young girl, and two smaller children were standing thero trembling in their excitement They stared at Jim but asked him no questions ; with such news aa was coming in over tho telephone wire, the state of a Btranger stirred no curiosity. The woman, who was at tho telephone, turned to Jim and handed him tho receiver. Her eyca wero wido and frightened. " She's just beginning to say it again," the woman informed Jim. " You can hear it all, if you listen now." Jim took tho receiver. A glrl'B voice wa speaking with tho slow, distinct enunicatlon of one ncciiBtomed to talk over the telephone ; but the constraint and the caro of her syllables sylla-bles could not banish the excitement from her tone. She evidently was at central and she had plugged in all lines to which sho could talk at once; she was saying: ". . . radio messago reached) the cnpl-,tol cnpl-,tol during tho afternoon. It claimed to b from ncout cruiser Salem, utating cruiser had sighted large battle fleet steaming for our coasts. Messago said fleet Immediately attacked at-tacked Salem. No credence given this report until late hour when other Information arrived confirming. Now is known that powerful fleet is approaching with hostile intent having destroyed American crulaer, committing act of war against tho United States. Information Informa-tion makes certain this was deliberate act, preliminary to general attack in forco against this country. Tho president has therefore called upon armed forces of United States to oppose the enemy; has cabled for recall American ambassadors in countries hostile, and sent passports to diplomatic representatives representa-tives here; president recogniios and proclaim that now exists botween those nations and ours a state of war I" The steady, constrained voice ceased ; at the clamor of questions and exclamations from other listeners on the line, the girl's voice replied. " I will read you again the bulletin received ; it contains all we know." Jim put down tho receiver and turned bout " What docs it mean, mister?" the boy appealed to him. " You were coming from Chicago; was they saying war there?" " War?" Jim repeated after the boy. They had been more than "saying" war; in Chicago, Chi-cago, as on the road near Elgin, men had been performing acta of war, Jim knew; but he could not tell that to tho boy then. " Yes, it's going to be war, all right" he said. " I brought my brother-in-law, who's a lieutenant in the navy, to take a special train east at half past 2. The government ha-s ordered east the sailors from the training station on the lake; I saw them get on tho train." He related that, hurriedly and went back to his car. KM tcjiiini '"- 1 ' xLQ&vaxik3fiw5Sr cSK8sW?aAr SC0l!!xry&ii9A' raNraMB9l j0 iiwfiA, liisAI ?afcffiBKB?ffilAiBgByAAzJ6aBly : p- v . . . War! So It was declared; it was real! "Preliminary to gencrnl attack in force against the United States!" "The armed forces of the nation to oppose the enemy!" Jim drovo on. Men and women appeared in the fields now but stood in groups talking, talk-ing, gazing about, not able to go at once to their work. Jim reached his father's house, whero the doors were still closed, the curtains were drawn. He put the car in the garage and went up to the house. His sister Nellie met him in the hall. She was quite cnlm, but her eyes weie bright, and as he took her hand he flt it wns rold. " It's war, Jim !" she whispered to h.ni. "Have you heard? It's war!" "Yes; it's war, Nellie," he Bald and stared, unable to sny more to her then. " Thp telephone rang and told us about an hour ogo," Nellie continued. " It woke father and when he heard what It was for, it made him furious. He's just got to sleep again. rv But, Jim, whnt's happened to you?" she observed ob-served with alarm the bruises on his head, the tears and cuts in his clothes, and the marks of struggle. "What huvc you been doing? You you got Bob to the train all right?" " Yes," Jim said. " I got Bob to the train ; ho got off. But, you sec, before we started, we found " He narrated to her, excitedly, all that had happened since he had seoa Bob on watch at the factory. Nellie listened, less amazed than apprehensive; Bho trembled as she held to her brother and he told her of the fight In the road, the destruction of Ingouf, In-gouf, then of Jim's following the spies. " So I'vo come back to enlist ! Bob asked me to look out for you, Nellie; rather he said he knew he didn't have to ask me to look out for you. But I'm not going to stay in Elgin. I'm going to fight, too!" Jim saw tho blood now flamo to his sister's pale cheeks ns he felt It burning in his own. Then tho flush was gone; another recollection had como to Nellie. " Agnes telephoned just after we got tha news, Jim." 44 Agnes !" " Yes. The telephone company called her bouso too and alio wanted to speak with you. I told her where you had gone ; and sho wanted you to call her on the phone as aoo? as you got back or come over to see her." Jim's lips parted, then pressed tight together to-gether again. Thought of Agnes and particularly particu-larly of their last agreement together had como too many times on the road home; and now, as Nellie spoke her name, there came to H Jim in reaction after his experiences of that H night the feeling of his hours alone with H Agnes, the sensation of tho soft warm pres- H sure of her lips upon his, her arms about his H neck drawing his cheek down against hers, H the serenity of their happiness as he held H her relaxed within his arm. H Then, as a hundred times in the last hours, H ho saw beforo him Ingouf o reeking body be- side the road; in his ears was the roar of jH the bomb which had almost destroyed Bob and himself, the resound of the pistol shots in Marlatt's office, the light, reckless laugh of M the girl in the house of the spies, and, again, jH the letters of tho spies with their writing H in brown, "and you will enlist and there- H after as ordered communicate the numbers, lo- B cation, etc." Jim's shoulders drew up sharply. H " I cannot call Agnes now," he said to Nellie. M "I will try to see her after a while." B But Agnes would not wait It was more VH than an hour since the telephone bell had H roused her and she had heard Martin's shout H through the house, " Father ! Mamma ! Agnes 1 ll Say, we're at war I What do you know about IB this? Say, central's reading everybody a IB bulletin saying we're at war! There's been a ll fight already! Gee I We're at warl" mm It was more than an hour since Agnes had lisslfl gone back to her room after she had got Mart H quieted; it was almost an hour since she H had given" up all idea of trying to sleep again B and had gone to sit at her window looking H out at the beauty and peace of the early H morning. H " War "' How ugly the word ! How horrible B the thought! "War!" It had burst upon her B when sho was dreaming of her wedding with H Jim 'and the trip they had planned and their H home afterwards in happiness and in peace. jH " War !I She would not have it ! She could M not imagine it as a present condition, already active, betraying nnd threatening the existence of the state in which Bho lived ; she could B , 'picture it only ns a wrong, sinful, inhuman VB act in which no good person should participate ihI it -was something distant, alien, and which ill could not conic if Americans refused it. Jim IssHh had agreed with her that he would rcfu&c it ' But war! It had come, they said; already VH therp had been n fight The president was VH calling upon the armed forces of tne country; jH that meant Mart had proclaimed that he H would call this morning for volunteers. H Jim hnd promised her that he would not IB be among those to make war; but now she mH must he sure that he remembered and under- IB stood. She went downstairs and to the tele- B phone for the second time. B Thus the ringing of the telephone bell again vH wakened Nathan Ashby from sleep; in heaw H anger he went to the top of the stairs and H etood there when he heard his son answer- "1 ing. Soon Ji:n came upstairs. ! " What vi' Asui-s talking to you about?1' H the father dci.i- udi-d. f. ."jilic.w .liicdx tu pakiwith me-about tlu jH " wo rjrnf ill. ' H '"Thiv -r" T!in what was that you Wf r , Ji:' thin lie faced his fatli i ,.-'.V.- . .i me that I hid (.!) K AAV .1V ,ul;tl is., 1 would ii. ir i, mmmmMm "-'nil w.ty of settling croub uHAfl ID said?" AYaB . .re so different from wh AmFsIh were that nothing 1 snul BaV ABAh ii .lu you're going to enlist? AmU "Of lALIflAV "Of (.jum you won't! There won't be ymmmmm anything to uii.st for. What we got n good HaH navy for? Why in hell have we been pay- BIssIIIm ing out our good money to get a navy if it fliAH can't keep war away? Let the fools uul JHLsH loafers enlist if they want to sit about camp HALiU on government pay. You got something fllALsfl to do, nnd you're in a hell of a shape for HbHHh work! Have you forgotten wo begin work (flffl on that rush order of motor parts for Detroit flftillH this morning?" fMKmmm " Father, I've had an experience bince I've fllAAB seen you. It started before Bob went away. HALiU He thought Ingouf and Jnlo: were apies KaAV uud " ABAA " Sober up and wash your face and go to iflH " And he proved it by " (jALsfl Nathan Ashby swung back wo his room and Ml slammed the door. Jim went on into bis rooi? B where he obeyed his father by bathing and I H changing his clothes. He wa uot couscious !'' JH of weariness at nil; instead, he felt the buoy- klAH ancy of an excitement which he had never 'mJmmm known before. JBAAB Upon his dresser stood a picture of Agnes; ,llffl he gazed at it, lifted it to his lips and ki&sed -fH it and then put it down nnd turned away. jAkH She did cot understand yet what hud hap- !H'LsH pened any better than he had understood yes- AkAH tcrday what was then going on. Ho turned IviilH to the bookshelves where were some of his AwAH boyhood e tones, his school books and thoso 'B-AA he had studied at the university. Scarchiuff 'ttLsfl through these, he picked out a small blue Hfsllfl bound book with the title ou tho back, "In- 'fljl fantry Drill Regulations." It was tho little textbook supplied him at the state university V to supplement the military drills -required of all students during their first two years. He B recollected tho drill requirements an hour B and a half a week for tbc first half of tho year, then threo hours a week a total of ninety hours altogether. What a formal H farce he and his classmates had considered the H "tin soldier stuff''; he had made it a poiut H to tako all his allowed "cuts" and, when H playing football, had been excused from drill jH altogothcr. But this morning the drill meant B something. He put " Infantry Drill Eegula- H tions" in his pocket as he went from his H room. H The newspaper delivery boy was hnrry- H ing up tho walk with tho morning paper H which had been held a littls lata; tkar usuaf for the ln "War Extn.' lH "A Million Men Called!" tho headline blared across the top of tho front page. "A MB Million Men Needed for Immediate Service!" H (To bo continued H i ammW AjAjAjJAjAjAMAMAIisAisAiisiisisisiBiMMh ' vjAAAAAAAAAAi |