OCR Text |
Show ESS il ! Herewith is presented the eighth installment of a Bction serial dealing with what M might happen should European powers, after they had settled their own differ- ences, wage war upon the United States. The author, one of the best Bction writers j in the country, has based his story upon a thorough understanding of military, naval, and internal conditions in the United States and upon a sound knowledge j of military and economic history. The story will cause you to realize the critical I situation in which this country and you, your neighbors, and your family are placed j by the let-well-enough-alone attitude of the paciBsts. I SYNOPSIS In Elgin, 111., live the Ashby family, consisting '( of Nathan Ashby, owner of the Aihhy Brass company, com-pany, and his wife; a daughter, Nellie, married to Bob Wendell, n navy lieutenant, and Jim Ashby, n son, engaged to Agnes Ware. Nathan Ashby 1 is the archetype of oaciust, deaf to the warnings of the imminence of danger to America, and hii 1 deafness in this respect is shared by his son. 1 They arc impatient with Bob's refusal to resign i from scrxicc and take n more lucrative job with a business concern. In the Ashby uorks there arc r, two foreign chemists, Tngouf and Enloe, experts - in their line. Their night work and the discovery j of an incendiary bomb in the brass works arouse Boba suspicions. While driving down a lonely road with Jim they discover the two chemists 0 on motorcycles ahead of them. Thinking they arc J being trailed, the chemists hurl bombs bock at 2 fi?, 5air a a revolver battle ensues. Ingouf is killed by one of his own bombs, but Enloe escapes. J Lieut. Barrett of the U. S. Scout Cruiser Salem !( has. in defiance of orders to proceed to Haiti ' two of the government's representatives j. aboard, steamed east in the north Atlantic and i encountered the fleet of the former European .-, enemies The foreign fleet fircB on tltc Salem a Jr deliberate act of war and a onc-sided battle re-j re-j suits ill the sinking of one of the enemy's largest ships and then of the Salem, but not before the , number and clais of ships comprising the fleet and if the fact that they had fired the first shot have T, been wirelessed back to Washington. Bob Wendell is notified to report at Newport News, and after bidding farewell to Nellie he in -j driven to Chicago by Jim. After Bob is gone Jim takes out the torn scrap of paper found on the body of Ingouf, which revealed the fact that Ingouf and Enloe were spies who had received orders for their duty at the outbreak of war. S With the address " S. D. Marlatt, Insurance v building " on the torn envelope in mind. Bob ceks the building It is a rendezvous of the Prince J Regent's spies and Bob, after an encounter, is 1 knocked senseless When he awakes he finds 4 himself in a residence. Simulating unconscious- (ness he overcomes his guard and finds in another part of the house a group of men and women spies engaged in sending out insurance solicitation-? v ith instructions to the thousands of the enemy's 6pies written on them in invisible ink. lie notifies tji Sibcrt oter the telephone, and by tracing the call through the phone company's office Sibert is able to send a squad of detectives to Jim's rescue. A girl, who was one of the season's debutantes and v.ho is one of the spies, discovers Jim and nearly ,' prevents his escape. The spies, when the bouse is surrounded by Sihert's men, attempt to burn up the building and (he papers therein. The girl is wounded by crashing gliss and one of the spies .1 is killed. The rest are taken prisoners Sibert's men gather what remnants of the spies' instruc-St instruc-St tions they can from the ruins of the house. :V When Jim gets back to Elgin news that war has ' been declared and that the president has called for the enlistment of 1,000,000 men, is abroad. There i is a rush at the recruiting office, but so many militia officers, who were former subjects of the prince regent and who fear their men will not trust them, resign, that the militia is rapidly shorn of its most able officers. A terrible state of I unpreparedness exists throughout the United i States. Jim, who once had promised Agnes never to enlist, tells her he is going to enlist, rnd she i hysterically tells him never to speak or look at 1 her again. Lj Copyright: 101C: By Tho Chicago Tribune. f IM got her out of the crowd and started !' I to go further with Jcr, but Bbe would j nollmvo him. He turned away from her and went through the tumult of tho ' struct toward his father's factory. Tho noise "V and cheering wcro as loud as before louder, if 1 anything ; nnd a band woa parading somewhere , blaring "The Star Spangled Banner." But I now to Jim there was a hollowncss in that noise a hollowncss of a nation at war and unready; a nation in which, before the advance of tliQ enemy, one state cried to all the others T for help and, at the Bame moment, denied the f right of other states to ask for aid; a nation f throughout which wcro millions of men and j "women who by blood nnd by beliefs and in- etincts must be ono with the soldiers of tho enemy ; a nation raising regiments for its defense de-fense in which no' man could be certain of the comrade who migbt be beside him in battle ; a nation which, obliged now to do a year's task lu a day, could not yet fully understand that the day had come I The smoke was streaming from the chimney : of the Ashby factory, and Jim could see, as he -', ncared the shops, that work was going on ; but ns he entered the door he heard his father's voice roaring in violcntv vituperation. Two men in plain clothes, but displaying special deputy's stars, and a man in police uniform were dragging Nathan Ashby from Bis office. " Orders!" the policeman told Jim when for an instant Nathan Ashby was quiet. " Orders from Chicago, as I've tried to explain to him, w'r. There's hell to pay there, sir! There'll be martial law by night if tho riots keep up. They've arretted a lot of men one of them named Uoman, who had a good deal to do with jour father yesterday afternoon. Orders arc to arrest and hold for examination every one Homan saw, so we're doing it That's all there is to it, and you nor no one can do anything any-thing different about it till we- get different orders from Chicago." Jim went with his father to the police station, sta-tion, where the cells already were full of men nnd boys taken that morning ; the police, booking book-ing Nathan Ashby under the charge of conspiracy conspir-acy against the safety of the state, thrust him with two others into a cell. Jim, able to do' nothing then, went back to the factory. Smoko wan still "coming from the chimney, but all work inside was stopped and tho workmen were leaving the building. "What's the matter?" Jim demanded of Drayton, the superintendent " Look at these !" Drayton cried, shoving at Jim a sheaf of telegTams. " They've been coming com-ing in all morning as fait as the wires could carry them and some by telephone, too. Cancellations Can-cellations all con collations! We'd almost cleared the boards, you know, to start work on the automobile parts for Detroit ; that was canceled can-celed at 9 o'clock ; and overything else we're working on has followed. The country's paralyzed, par-alyzed, I tell you. They're shutting down everything everywhere. That's some of the trouble In Chicago, I understand ; they're turning turn-ing off people by the tens of thousands thcro and everywhere. And stocks! Lord, they never dared open the exchanges ; but the banks " Drayton stopped helplessly. " O, it's hell's loose hell's hose, and it's only begun to go around ! " Jim went on dizzily into his office. His telephone tele-phone was ringing and he answered it " Private James Ashby?'' he repeated, surprised sur-prised at fir3t " Yes ; that's me. Are you the captain O, Connor, you're speaking for him? Yes, yes. I understand." He hung up the receiver and crossed into his father's room, where Drayton was at the desk replying to the calls which were coming In and opening other telegrams. " Things arc happening, Drayton," Jim said. " Connor just called one to .say Elgin's rushing two companies by first train to Chicago ; I'm in one which is to go. Connor didn't know whether it's the riots in Chicago or whether we're to go on east. But things se-em to be happening." "Tho sort of things which will open the Ashby Brass works tomorrow morning," Drayton Dray-ton agreed. " LooTc at this! The National AnnB company has wired us an ofTcr to pay for changes In our machinery and to take our entire output for three years making Springfield Spring-field rifle shells. Nothing but rifle shells for three years'. And the National Arms company's com-pany's a responsible concern and run by business busi-ness men who know things. God, man, can you bo going for three years' war?" Jim put his hand over the revolver in his pocket? it was Bole's revolver, which ho had kept since leaving the house of the spies; he hnd it aTF for his new duty, which was to arrest or to shoot down if circumstances required re-quired any comrado who proved to be a traitor as the company of volunteers moved to I " pby Its part In the tremendous events upon the nation. For portentous things were happening portents por-tents without parallel even In the terrible " twelve days " of July nnd August, 1914. Then the whole world knowing little of tho methods and means of modern destruction wns paralyzed as to normal industry and palsied pal-sied to all new enterprise except the awful obsession of war; and now the world knew that war meant for the invaded nation destruction destruc-tion and ruin on a scale undreamed of before. Also in 1914 the world knew that the powers WAre opposed were so equal that neither alliance might work its will upon the other, but now in 1917, upon the neutral exchanges of Europe, American securities the " standard " securities securi-ties of a few months before were obliterated as things of value ; and in America everywhere men displayed their terrors of the future. Before Be-fore noon, when a moratorium was declared in every state in tho union, credit had ceased to exist. The men and women who had -awalcened to a morning of amazement before news oflicc and bulletin board, crushed to the banka to withdraw their money, but they clamored uselessly use-lessly In the streets and beat upon doors which were closed and barred. And business except the trado in the supply of the barest daily necessities and the manufacture of arms and munitions of war was dead. The capitol cried to the country for aid, " A million men between sunriso and sunset " the million men who, as the country had been told to believe, would ward off all disaster. And in that day the country pledged to the capitol more than three hundred thousand men, a rocoid for voluntary vol-untary enlistment under any similar conditions; condi-tions; and, with tho million soon to be assured, as-sured, the country called to the capitol now for tho protection promised if the volunteers camo forward. So, In tho cabinet room at the capitol, the chief of staff his name was Stone who wai charged with the offering of a plan for the de-fenso de-fenso of the nutlon and Rear Admiral Poc, In command of the navy, faced the president and his cabinet across a table upon which a large map was spread. The map showed North America and the western half of tho North ..Atlantic ocean. Upon the continental section of the chart wcro chalked tho numbers and location of tho 300,000 men, including the militia, mili-tia, who already had been raised to reinforce the 80,000 men of the regular army being mobilized mob-ilized in tho cast At the mobilization point in each state was chalked the number of men "avallablo": Washington, 8,500; Oregon, 1,000; California, 10,000; Texas, 8,000; Minnesota, Min-nesota, 10,000 ; Michigan, 8,000 ; Illinois, 18,-000; 18,-000; Louisiana, 8,000; Maine, 5,000; Vermont, Ver-mont, 2,500; Florida, 4,000; and so on throughout the forty-eight Btates. " Those figures mean of course," the general oald quietly, " a proportion of from three to five absolutely green and untrained men. In some slatcj the situation is oven worse. Nevada Ne-vada has pledged men, but has bad not even a national guard organization for ten years. However, approximately ono-thlrd of the men now have rifles and uniforms; we can supply rifles to all the rest now enlisted. Entirely ' neglecting tho problems of their equipment, drill, and training, the matter of their organisation organi-sation and transport alono will require many days." As tho chief of staff bad been speaking an aid had been laying down upon the sea section of tho great chart a number of Braall seed haped blockf. As the chief of staff gazed at them the eyes of the president and his advisers followed. "What arc thoEe?' the secretary of the interior inte-rior inquired. The aid continued to lay down additional blocks as the general replied. "Those are Eome of the transports of tho enemy. According Accord-ing to the figures which the general staff furnished fur-nished the houso some time ago, the number of the first expeditionary force sent to attack uh was calculated to be in excess of 250,000 men. We have no reason to believe tire force now at sea is less. They are, of course, Jhor- oughly trained troops, completely organized and disciplined, and have adequate artillery of all sizes and entirely adequate supplies of ammunition." am-munition." Tho aid placed his last block; the chief or staff bent closer and read tho longitude figures. " You have placed the transports where, according ac-cording to our infoimation, they were yesterday," yester-day," Stone said; he put his hand over the blocks and swept them toward the American coast. "Today, of course, they must be 300 miles nearer." The president, as he gazed at the new position posi-tion of the ships, wet his lips and clinched his hands. The secretary of war estimated again uith his glance tho distance of the enemy's transports from tho coast and the distance pt the pointB inland upon which were marked the numbers of the militia levies. " You will explain." the president directed, " tho plan of the general staff for the present contingency." " That part of the plan already under the authority of tho general staff Is being carried out, as you see," Stone referred to the map. "The coast defenses aic being manned to their full capacity as rapidly as possible and adequate ammunition is to be supplied as quickly quick-ly as It can be manufactured. The national guards of tho coast states are being mobIli7ed In their own states and will remain to defend de-fend their own states until the objective of the enemy la determined. Tho national guards of other states arc being mobilized, as jou see, in their own btates, and as rapidly rap-idly as possible will bo concentrated at a secret railroad center. The regular army h being reformed so that each battalion at peace strength shall be the nucleus of a regiment at war Btrcngth, forming a brigade, with the colonel as brigadier, the batalllon commanders command-ers us colonels, and corresponding promotion of other officers and noncommissioned officers, and with privates mado noncommissioned officers. " Tho navy should at once be concentrated In Long iBland sound and tho national guard of New York, Increased to war strength, should be sent to Long island. With this dono and with the army concentrated at a point unknown to the enemy, it will not be feasible for him to make a landing south of Portland, Me., or north of Chesapeake bay without exposing ex-posing himself to the double danger of a naval attack and a land attack at the moment of debarkation." " With tho probable result?" " That the enemy would havo to land in a southern state, whero he could do little military mili-tary damage and where he should be left to roam, watched by cavalry which would destroy de-stroy all railroads In front of him until our army, equipped from tho New England fac-torien fac-torien and hardened by training, is able to meet him in tho open field." " You mean to sacrifice the south?" The chief of itaff turned patiently to the ' secretary of the navy. " I mean to choow no section of our country for sacrifice," Stona replied curtly, " I hope to force the enemy to occupy a section where, in addition to having hav-ing to transport his munitions from over the seas, he will bo obliged to bring all food for his soldiers also a section which cannot be held by us If the northern Atlantic seaboard fall, but which may be redeemed if we hold our industrial centers. To prevent the enemy supplying himself from our storehouses, 1 ask that measures be taken at onco to prevent foodstuffs from moving from the west into the Bcaboard states." "And starve our civil population? Tho wholo proposal is infamous 1 H The chief of staff flushed a Tittle under hla tin and his hand on the tablo twitched. " What ia your alternative proposal?" ho questioned the secretary of tho navy. "To defend the whole seaboard I" "You mean to offer battlo with the enemy at sea?" The secretary of the navy hammered the table. "I mean to fight for the whole nation, na-tion, if we loso every ship, beforo I would consent to cowaidly locking our dreadnaughts into a sound for the protection of one group of states I" The chief of staff turned from the secretary of war to the admiral beside him. "The superiority of tho enemy at sea as reported by the Salem is conservatively put at twenty-two to fourteen against us, is it not?" he questioned. Poe nodded. " Conservatively and if we are able to assemble all our first line ships in time." "And that superiority is absolutely decisive?" de-cisive?" the president inquired. "A superiority of 10 per cent has usually proved absolutely decisive, sir." The secretary of tho interior rose to his feet "I recognize that this is no time for sectional differences ; but the president hai authorized me to advise you of the claims of the part of the country from which I come and which has appealed to me to represent it in his council. The citizens of the Pacific coast states, alarmed by activities on the other shore of tho Pacific, havo become convinced con-vinced during the day that as soon as we become involved in the eastern section Japan means to move against California as she moved against Tsingtau when Germany was involved. I have been receiving demands from the governors of all tho far western states, mayors of cities, and prominent indi viduals to urge you to send our enllre force of first lino ships through the Panama canal at once for the protection of our western coast " You have just heard that the preponderance preponder-ance of power in the Atlantic is in the hands of the enemy ; at best our navy may succeed in tho Atlantic in altering the landing point of the enemy ; in the Pacific it will be decisive de-cisive in protecting us from aggression. Further, unless adequate naval protection is furnished tho western coast, the states there will be obliged to act for their own protection. protec-tion. That means, gentlemen, that the western west-ern states will not send troops to tho aid of the east The state of Texas already has been obliged to station its troops on the Mexican Mex-ican border to take the place of the regulars now withdrawn." The Californian sat down. The secrcLnry to the president, who hnd entered the room the moment before, advanced to the head of the council table nnd laid a report before the president, and above it a telegram in code with the translation of the code words written writ-ten in pencil below tho message. The president presi-dent read the telegram, jerked back, and then, controlling himself, looked along the table. " The question as to whether we are to send our fleet to the Pacific or keep it in the Atlnntlc haG been removed from the field of our discussion, gentlemen. Gen. Goethals has just telegraphed that the Gatun dcim was destroyed de-stroyed an hour ago by a scricB of charges of high explosives. For six months, at least, the Panama canal Is closed 1 " "Then the fleet must go around the Horn to the Pacific!" "Wo must offer battlo at once in tho Atlantic I" "We must ". For a few moments, as he read over tho 1 brief report brought him by his secretary, th M president permitted the storm of debate ,to rnge about him. Then he silenced it gTavely H and said: IH " Gentlemen, the disposition of the enemy's forces, as Just now brought to jne, makes it fH imperative that whatever action we'" taUe M should be ordered without a moment's further ' M delay; and in this emergency I must agree M , with the secretary of tho navy, and as so, It Aeoms, with tho majority of you ; I order tho H fleet to sea to battle with the enemy at tho H earliest possible moment and under the most ll favorable conditions for the defense of our j country 1" H IH ' BATTLE STATIONS." IH . A gun was going "Thunn! Thunn!" It jH censed and opened again, firing more quickly. fH " Thunn I Thunn 1 " and now, further away, rH echoed different detonations, "Lamml !iH Lamm I " fH "That's not saluting 1" " Saluting? I should eny not; nor practice 11 cither." IH "Then, what b ft? H Wt " Anti-aircraft, I should Bay" El Tho special from Chicago, now running on 11 the Chesapeake and Ohio tracks, pulled into RH the station at Newport News, and as the of- IH ficcra led the bluejackets from the cars the 11 firing on tho river becamo more distinct IH Bob Wendell, not having charge of a detail, IH went from the station with the officers, who fll were similarly unattached, and hurried down 11 - to the water front The estuary of' tho James Rl river, where it widens to Hampton roads, lay ll gleaming under tho warm afternoon sun. A. H wind from the ocean was whipping np white H Epray in the roads and the launches and little Dl boats in the James rolled and splashed on 11 their errands to and from the grim, gray bat- 11 tleships lying away toward Norfolk. 11 "Anti-aircraft, all right!" A gun was aimed almost directly upward El from tho forward deck of a destroyer in. the 11 middle of tho river. A haze of powder gas 11 puffed from its muzzle, for the gnu was firing 11 as rapidly as the gunners could handle the ammunition. " Thunn I Thunn I " the detonn- H tton of the discharge thudded ncro33 the water, M and from high overhead echoed the bursting of the shells. Big blobs of white smoke spot- M ted the sky where the sheila were breaking; M thcro wero more white blobs up there than M one gun could' fire; another rifle mu3t have IH como into action. Wendell, listening, heard the noise of a second gun from down the IH river, nnd yet for n moment more he failed to discern the target H It was only a streak when ho saw it a del- M icate bluo lino barely discoverable against the H nruro of the sky. On both sides of the streak M there was something upon which the sunlight H glinted now and then, but which was, itself, H iuv'isible; these wero the wings of the aero- M piano, he knew, composed of the transparent M cellulose substance used in Europe; the JA streak, painted to match tho sky, was tho body IH of the plane armored, undoubtedly, and freighted with bombs. The height at which H the machine was flying indicated at first that IH the pilot's purpose was rccounaissancc ; he was M -nell above the smoke of the shells, bnt as Wendell watched, the plane suddenly swooped H downwnrd, circled and dropped again. Other H guns ten or a score of them, some in ships and others on the shore awoke and mottled iH t the sky about the plane with bursting shells. M ' The machine dashed through them and IH swooped still lower, and, turning and coming with the wind, flew at the navy yard with IH marvelous speed. H " Mr. Wendell," a voice inquired. " Mr. IH Fulton and Mr. Ross? " WM Wendell and his companions were in unl- IH form, hnving made the change on tho train; IH their orders, telegraphed to the train, were to H report at once aboard the Arizona. A boy, in IH ' ensign's uniform, was addressing thdm. " I've WM come for you," he explained. " I'm from the M Arizona ; the launch Is right there, sir." H TO BE CONTINUED 1 jH fi02&-,;csv 'Ash. til fM |