The Cass County Sun (Linden, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 47, Ed. 1 Tuesday, November 24, 1914 Page: 3 of 8
eight pages : ill. ; page 21 x 14 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
>■
w8$$m m
I Wmitm
THE CASS COUNTY SUN
mm
FREDERICK PALMER
(Copyright, 19H. by Charles Scribner's Sons)
8YN0P8I3.
At their home on tho frontier between
the Browns and Grays Marts Galland and
her mother, entertaining Colonel Wester-
11 n« of the Grays, see Captain Lanstron,
staff Intelligence oflteor of the Browns,
Injured by a fall In his aeroplane. Ten
years later, Westorllng, nominal vice hut
teal chief of staff, reinforces South La
Tlr, meditates on war, unci speculates on
tho comparative ages of himself and Mar-
ia, who Is vtsltlng In the Gray capital.
Westerllng calls on Marta. She tells him
Df her teaching children the follies of war
and martial patriotism, bees'him t pre-
vent war while he Is chief of staff, and
predicts that If he makes war against the
Browns he will not win. On the march
with the 53d of the Browns Private Htran-
pk,y, anarchist, decries war and played-
out patriotism and Is placed under arrest.
Colonel Lanstron everheurlng. begs him
off.
CHAPTER IV—Continued.
Then impulse broke through the
restraint that Beemed to characterize
the Lanstron of thlrty-flve. The Lan-
stron of twenty-five, who had met
catastrophe because he was "wool-
gathering," asserted himself. Me put
llie hand on Stransky's shoulder. It
was a strong though slim hand that
looked as if it had been trained to do
tho work of two hands in the process
of Its owner's own transformation.
Thus the old sergeant had seen a gen-
eral remonstrate with a brave veteran
who had been guilty of bad conduct in
Africa. The old colonel gasped at such
a subversion of the dignity of rank
He saw the army going to the devil.
But young Dellarme, watching with
eager curiosity, was sensible of no
familiarity In the act. It all depended
on how such a thing was done, he was
thinking.
"We all have minutes when we are
more or less anarchists," said Lau-
etron in the human appeal of one man
to another. "But we don't want to be
judged by one of those minutes. 1 got
a hand mashed up for a mistake that
took only a second. Think this over
tonight before you act. Then, if you
are of the same opinion, go to the col-
one) and tell him so. Come, why not?"
"All right, sir, you're eo decent
about it!" grumbled Stransky, taking
liis place in the ranks.
Hep-hep-hep! Tho regiment started
on Its way, with Grandfather I^raglnl
keeping at his grandson's side.
"Makes me feel young again, but It's
<larned solemn beside tho Hussars,
with their horses' bite a-jingllng. Times
have certainly changed—officers'
bands in their pockets, saying 'If you
don't mind' to a man that's insulted
the flag! Kicking ain't good enough
for that traitor! Ought to hang him—
yes, sir, hang and draw him!"
Lanstron watched the marching col-
umn for a time.
"Hep-hep-heb! It's the brown of tho
Infantry that counts in the end/' he
mused. "I liked that wall-eyed gjlant.
He's all man!" \
Then his livening glance swepti the
heavenB inquiringly. A speck In the
blue, far away in the realms of atmos-
pheric infinity, kept growing In size
until It took the form of the wings
■with which man flies. The plane vol-
planed down with steady swiftness,
till its racing shadow lay large over
the landscape for a few seconds beforo
It rose again with beautiful ease and
precision.
"Bully for you, Etzel!" Lanstron
thought, as he started back to tho
aeroplane station. "You belong in the
corps. We shall not let you return to
your regiment, for a while. You've a
cool head nnd you'd charge a church
tower if that were the orders."
CHAPTER V.
A Sunday Morning Call.
As a boy, Arthur Lanstron had per-
sisted in being an exception to the in-
fluences of both heredity and environ-
ment. Though his father and both
grandfathers woro officers who be-
lieved theirs to be the true gentle-
man's profession, he had preferred
any kind of mechanical toy to arrang-
ing the most gayly painted tin sol-
diers In formation on the nursery
'floor; and he would rather read about
the wonders of natural history and
electricity than the campaigns of Na-
poleon and Frederick the Great and
my Lord Nelson. Left to his own
.choice, he would miss the parade of
the garrison for Inspection by an ex-
cellency In order to ask questions of
ia man wiping the oil off his hatids with
cotton-waste, who was far more enter-
taining to him than the most spick-and-
span I'amrod of a sergeant.
Upon being told one day that he was
to g<# to the military school the follow-
llng autumn, he broke out in open ro-
bellv>n.
"1 don't want to go to the army:" he
Old.
"Why?" asked his father, thinking
that when the boy had to give bis rea-
sons he would soon be argued out of
tho heresy.
"It's drilling a few hours a day, then
nothing to do," Arthur replied. "All
your work waits on war and you don't
know that there will ever be any war.
It waits on something nobody wants
to hnppen. Now, If you manufacture
something, why, you see wool come
out cloth, steel come out an automo-
bile. If you build a bridge you see It
rising little by little. You're getting
your results every day; you see your
mistakes and your successes. You're
making something, creating some-
thing; there's something going on all
the while that isn't guesswork. I
think that's what I want to say. Vou
won't order me to be a soldier, will
you?"
The father, loath to do this, called In
tho assistance of an able pleader then,
Eugene Partow, lately become chief of
staff of the Browns, who was an old
friend of the I^anstron family. Partow
turned the balance on the side of filial
affection. He kept watch of the boy,
but without favoring him with Influ-
ence. Young Lanstron, who wanted to
see results, had to earn them. He real-
ized in practice the truth of Partow's
saying that there was nothing he had
ever learned but what could be of setv-
ice to him aa an officer.
"Finding enough work to do?" Par-
tow would ask with a chuckle when
they met In these days; for he had
mado Lanstron both chief of intelli-
gence and chief aerostatic officer.
Young Colonel Lanstron's was tho duty
of gaining the secrets of the Gray
staff and keeping those of the Brown
and organizing up-to-the-moment effi-
ciency in the new forces of the air.
Ho had remarked truly enough that
the injury to his left hand served as
a better reminder against the folly of
wool-gathering than a string, even a
large red string, tied around his fin-
ger. Thanks to skillful surgery, the
fingers, incapable of spreading much,
wero yet serviceable and had a firm
grip of the wheel as he rose from the
aeroplane station on the Sunday morn-
ing after Marta's return home for a
flight to La Tir.
lie knew the pattern weaving under
his feet as one. knows that of his own
garden from an overlooking window.
Every detail of the staff map, ravines,
roads, buildings, battery positions, was
stitched together In the flowing reality
of actual vision. No white posts were
necessary to tell him where the
boundary between the two nations lay
The line was drawn In his brain.
Now that Lanstron was the organ-
izer of the aviation corps his own
flights were rare. Mostly they were
made to La Tir. His visits to Marta
were his holidays. All the time that
she was absent on her journey around
the world they had corresponded. Her
letters, so revealing of herself and her
peculiar angles of observation, formed
a bundle sacredly preserved. Her
mother's joking reference about her
girlish resolution not to marry a sol-
dier often recurred to him. There, he
sometimes thought, was the real ob-
stacle to his great desire.
When he alighted from the plane he
thrust his left hand into his blouse
pocket. He always carried it there,
as if it were literally sewn in place.
In moments of emotion tho scarred
nerves would twitch as the telltale of
his sensitiveness; and this was some-
thing he would conceal from others no
matter how conscious he was of It him-
self. He found the Galland veranda
deserted. In response to his ring a
maid came to the open door. Her
face was Bad, with a beauty that had
prematurely faded. But it lighted
pleasurably in recognition. Her hair
was thick end tawny, lying low over
tho brow; her eyes were a softly
luminous brown and her full lips sensi-
tive and yielding. Lanstron, an inti-
mate of the Galland household, knew
her story well and the part that Marta
had played lu It
Some four years previously, when a
baby was In prospect for Minna, who
wore no wedfllng ring, Mrs. Galland
had been Inclftied to send the maid to
an Institution, "where they will take
good care of her, my dear. That's
what Buch lnsfltutlons are for. It Is
quite scandalous for her and for us—
never happened In our family before 1"
Mam arched her eyebrowB.
"We don't know I" she exclaimed
softly.
"How, can you think such a thing,
lot alone saving It—you. a Galland I"
her mother gasped In Indignation.
"That Is, if we go tar back." aald
Marta. "At all events, we have no
precedent, so let's establish one by
keeping her."
"But for her own sake! She will
have to live with her shame!" Mrs.
Galland objected. "Let her begin
afreeh In the city. We shall give her
a good recommendation, for she Is
really an excellent servant. Yes, she
will readily llnd a place among
strangers."
"Still, she doesn't want to go, and It
would be cruel to send her away."
'Cruel! Why, Marta, do you think
I would be cruel? Oh, very well, then
we will let her stay!"
• ••••••
'Both are away at church. Mrs. Gal-
land ought to be here any minute, but
Miss Galland will be later because of
her children's class," said Minna. "Will
you wait on the veranda?"
He was saying that he would stroll
In the garden when childish footsteps
wore heard in the hall, and after a
curly head had nestled against the
mother's skirts Its owner, reminded of
the Importance of manners In tho
world where the stork had left her,
made a curtesy. Lanstron shook a
small hand which must have lately
been on intimate terms with sugar or
Jam.
"How do you do, flying soldier man?"
chirruped Clarissa Eileen. It was evi-
dent that Bhe held Lanstron In high
favor.
"Let me hear you say your name,"
said Lanstron.
Clarissa Eileen was triumphant. She
had been waiting for days with the
revelation when he should make that
old request. Now she enunciated It
with every vowel and consonant cor-
rectly and primly uttered; Indeed, she
repeated it four or five times In proof
of complete mastery.
"A pretty name. I've often wondered
how you came to give it to her," said
Lanstron to Minna.
"You do like It!" exclaimed Minna
with girlish eagerness. "I gave her
the most beautiful name I could think
of because"—she laid her hand caress-
ingly on the child's head and a ma-
donna-like radiance stole into her face
—"because she might at least have a
beautiful name when"—the dull blaze
of a recollection now burning In her
eyes—"when th6re wasn't much pros-
pect of many beautiful things coming
into her life; though I know, of course,
that tbe world thinks she ought to be
called Maggie."
Proceeding leisurely along the main
path of the first terrace, Lanstron fol-
lowed it past the rear of the house to
the old fower. Long ago the moat that
surrounded the castle had been filled
in. Tho green of rows of grape vines
lay against the background of a mat
of ivy on the ancient stone walls, which
had been cut away from the loopholes
set with window glass. The door was
open, showing a room that had been
clased in by a ceiling of boards from
the walls to the circular stairway that
ran aloft from the dungeons. On the
floor of flagd were cheap rugs. A num-
ber of seed and nursery catalogues
were piled on a round table covered
with a brown cloth.
"Hello!" Lanstron called softly.
"Hello!" he called louder and yet
louder.
Receiving no answer, he retraced his
Bteps and seated himself on the second
terrace In a secluded spot In the
shadow of the first terrace wall, where
he could see anyone coming up the
main flight of steps from the road.
When Marta walked she usually came
from town by that way. At length the
sound of a slow stop from another di-
rection broke on his ear. Some one
was approaching along the path that
ran at his feet. Around the corner of
the wall, In his workman's Sunday
clothes of black, but wearing his old
straw hat, appeared Feller, the gar-
dener. He paused to examine a roso
bush and Lanstron regarded him
thoughtfully.
As he turned away he looked up,
and a glance of definite and unfalter-
ing recognition was exchanged be-
tween the two men. They had the
garden to themselves.
"Gustave!" Lanstron exclaimed un-
der his breath.
"Lanny!" exclaimed the gardener,
turning over a branch of the rose bush.
Ho seemed unwilling to risk talking
openly with Lanstron.
"You look the good workman in his
Sunday best to a T!" said Lanstron.
"Being stone-deaf," returned Feller,
with a trace of drollery In his voice,
"I hear ve^ry well—at times. Tell me"
—his whisper was quivering with
oagerneas—"shall we fight? Shall we
fight?"
"We are nearer to It than we have
ever been in our time," Lanstron re-
plied.
The hat still shaded Feller's face,
his stoop was unchanged, but the
branch in his hand shook.
"Honest?" he exclaimed. "Ob, the
chance of ltl The chance of It!"
"Gustave!" Lanstron'B voice, still
low, came In a gust of sympathy, and
the pocket which concealed his hand
gave a nervous twitch aa If It held
something alive and distinct from his
own being. "The trial wears on youl
Do yo" want to got"
"Not" Feller shot back Irritably.
"Not' ho repeated resolutely. "I dont
'—■ *
want to got I mean
He shifted his gaz
la
mi
I tiii M -;m
wmmmm
?
=
to be game—I
from tbe bush
which he still preti uded to examine
and suddenly broke off with: "Miss
Gal'and Is comlngl'T
Lanstron started tpward the steps
that Marta was ascending. She moved
leisurely, yet with 4 certain springy
energy that suggested that she might
have como on the run without being
out of breath or seem'ng to have made
an effort.
"Hello, stranger!"(she called as she
saw him, and quickened her pace.
"Hello, pedagogue!/' he responded.
As they Bhook hiijids they swung
their arms back and Iforth like a pair
of romping children for a moment.
"We had a grand session of the
school this morningj the largest class
ever!" she said. "And the points we
scored off you soldiers! You'll find
disarmament already in progress when
you return to headquarters. We're ir-
resistible, or at least;" she added, with
a flash of Intensity, 'J we're going to be
some day."
"So you put on your war-paint!"
"It must be the po ien from the hy-
drangeas!" She flicked her handker-
chief from her belt and paseed it to
him. "Show that yoi. know how to be
useful!"
He performed the task with delib-
erate care.
"HeavenB! You even have some on
your ear and some on your hair; but
I'll leave It on your hair; it's rather be-
coming. There you are!" he concluded.
"Oft my hair, too!"
"Very well. I always obey orders."
"I oughtn't to have asked you to do
It at all!" she exclaimed with a sud-
den change of manner as they started
up to the house. "But a habit of
friendship, a habit of tiking to believe
In ones friends, was uppermost. I
forgot. I oughtn't even to have shaken
hands with you!"
"Marta! What now, Marta?" he
asked.
He had known her in reproach. In
anger, In laughing inockery, in mili-
tant seriousness, but never before like
this. The pain and indignation In her
eyes came not from *i.he sheer hurt of
a wound but from the hurt of its
source. It was as if lie had learned by
the signal of its loss that he had a
deeper hold on her than he had real-
ized.
"Yes, I hav.e a bine to pick with
you," she said, recovering a grim sort
of fellowship. "A bi|< bone! If you're
half a friend you'll give me the very
marrow of It."
"I am ready!" he answered more pa-
thetically than philosophically.
"There's not time now; after lunch-
eon, when mother Is'taking her nap,"
she concluded as they came to the last
step and saw Mrs. Galland on the
veranda.
Ater luncheon Mrs. Galland kept bat-
tling with her nods until nature was
victorious and she fell fast asleep.
Marta, grown restless with Impatience,
suggested to Lanstron that they stroll
In the garden, and they took the path
past the house toward the castle
tower, stopping in an urbor with high
hedges on either aide around a statue
of Mercury.
"Now!" exclaimed Marta narrowly.
"It was you, Lanny, iwho recommend-
ed Feller to us as a .gardener, compe-
tent though deaf! 11 have proved him
to be a man of most Sensitive hearing.
I didn't let him know that he was dis-
covered. You brougljfr-Min here—yo-i,
Lanny, you are the one to explain."
"True, he is not deaf!" Lanstron re-
plied.
"He is a spy?" sh«! asked.
"Yes, a spy. You can put things In
a bright light, Marta!/1 He found words
coining with difficultly in face of the
pain and disillusion q!' her set look.
"Using some man as a pawn; setting
htm as a spy in tho garden where you
have been the welcffime friend!" she
exclaimed. "A spy U what—on my
mother, on Minna, on ?na, on tbe flow-
ers, as a part of this] monstrous game
of trickery and lies that you are play-
ing?" . j
There was no trac* of anger in her
tone. It was that of ane mortally hurt.
Anger would have be®n easier to bear
than the measuring, (penetrating won-
der that found him /guilty of such a
horrible part. Those! eyes would have
confused Partow hllmself with tho
steady, welling intensity of their gaze.
She did not see how fcls left hand was
twitching and how ho stilled its move-
ment by pressing It against the bench.
"You will take FellW with you when
you go!" she said, rising."
Lanstron dropped his head in a kind
of shaking throb of his whole body and
raised a face white *f\h appeal.
"Marta!" He was (speaking to a pro-
file, very sensitive and yet like Ivory.
"I've no excuse for nuch an abuse of
hospitality except the obsession of a
loathsome work that some man must
do and I was set to do. My God, Marta!
I cease to be nntural and human. I am
a machine. I keep thinking, what If
war comes and some error of mine let
the enemy know where to strike tbe
blow of victory; or If there were Infor-
mation I might have gained and failed
to gain that would have given ua the
victory—If, because I had not done my
part, thousands of lives of our soldlar*
were sacrificed heedlessly I"
qulckty,'
__
At that she turned
her face softening.
"You do think of that—tbe livesV
"Yes, why shouldn't I?"
"Of those on yoor side!" ehe e
claimed, turning away.
"Yes, of those first," be replied.
"And, Marta, I did not tell you why
Feller was here becauce he did not
want me to."
AT"
3:
CHAPTER VI.
A Crisis Within ■ Crisis.
Following the path to the tower
leisurely, they had reached the tower.
Feller's door was open. Marta looked
Into the room, finding In tbe ne^t ar-
rangement of Its furniture a new sig-
nificance. He was absent, for It was
the dinner hour.
"On my recommendation you took
him," Lanstron said.
'Yes, on yours, Lanny, on a friend's!
You"—she put a cold emphasis on the
word—"you wanted him here for your
plans! And why? You haven't an-
swered that yet. What purpose of the
war game does he serve In our gar-
den?"
His look pleaded for patience, while
he tried to smile, which was rather dif-
ficult In face of her attitude.
"Not altogether in the garden; part-
ly In the tower," he replied. "You are
to be In the whole secret and In such a
way as to make my temptation clear, I
hope. First, I think you ought to see
the setting. Let us go in."
. Impelled by a curiosity that Lan-
stron's manner accentuated, she en-
tered the room. Apparently Lanstron
was familiar with the premises. Pass-
ing through the sitting-room into the
room adjoining, where Feller stored
his tools, he opened a door that gave
on to the circular stone steps leading
down into the dungeon tunnel.
"I think we had better have a light,"
he said, and when he had fetched one
from the bedchamber he descended the
steps, asking her to follow.
They were In a passage six feet la
height and about tljree feet broad,
which seemed to lead on Indefinitely
Into clammy darkness. The dewy walls
sparkled In fantastic and ghostly
iridescence under the rays from tbe
lantern. The dank air lay moist against
their faces.
"This is far enough." He paused
and raised the lantern. With Its light
full in her face, she blinked. "There,
at the height of your chin!"
She noted a metal button painted
gray, set at the side of one of the
stones of the wall, which looked un-
real. She struck the stone with her
knuckles and it gave out the sound of
hollow wood, which wa3 followed, as
an echo, by a little laugh from Lan-
stron. Pressing the button, a panel
door flew open, revealing a telephone
mouthpiece and receiver set in the
recess.
"Like a detective play!" were the
first words that sprang to her lips.
"Well?" As she faced around bei
eyes glittered in the lantern rays.
"Well, have you any other little tricks
to show me? Are you a slelght-of-hand
artist, too, Lanny? Are you going to
take a machine gun out of your hat?"
"That Is the whole bag," he an-
swered. "I thought you'd rather sea
it than have It described to you."
"Having seen it, let us go!" she said,
In a manner that Implied further reck-
oning ti\ come.
"If of a thousand poesibl?
bVuTW-s' one straits, syiixeefia, iVien the
cost and pains of the other nine hun-
dred and ninety-nine are more than re-
paid," he was saying urgently, the sol-
dier uppermost in him. "Some of the
best service we have had has been ab-
surd In its simplicity and its audacity.
In time of war more than one battle
has been decided by a thing that was a
trifle In itself. No matter what your
preparation, you can never remove the
element of chance. An hour gained in
information about your enemy's plans
may turn the tide in your favor. A
Chinese peasant spy, because he hap-
pened to be Intoxicated, was able to
give the Japanese warning in time for
Kuroki to make full dispositions fo*
receiving tho Russian attack In force
at the Sha-ho. There are many other
Incidents of like nature In history. So
is is my duty to neglect no possible
method, however absurd."
By this time he was at the head ot
the steps. Standing to one side, he of-
fered his hand to assist MarVj. But
she seemed not to see It. Her aspect
was that of downright antagonism.
"However absurd! Yes, It Is absurd
to think that you can make me a party
to any of your plans, for—" She broke
off abruptly with staring eyes, as If she
had seen an apparition.
Lanstron turned and through the
door of the toolroom saw Feller enter-
ing the sitting-room. He was not the
bent, deferential gardener. His fea-
tures were hard-set, a fighting rage
burning In his eyes, his sinews taut
aa If about to spring upon an advei*
sary. When he recognized the in-
truders he turned limp, hfs head
dropped, hiding his faoe with his hat
brim, and he steadied himself by rest*
Ing a hand on the table edge.
(TO Btt CONTINUED.)
Barcelona. Boala.
of UMN.
has m population
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View two places within this issue that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Banger, J. E. A. & Erwin, W. L. The Cass County Sun (Linden, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 47, Ed. 1 Tuesday, November 24, 1914, newspaper, November 24, 1914; Linden, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth340982/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Atlanta Public Library.