The Oklahoma Ledger. (Sterling, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 14, 1915 Page: 2 of 8
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The Last Shot
FREDERICK PALMER
(Copyright, 1914, by Chark* Scnboet's Son*)
SYNOPSIS.
At their home on the frontier between
the Browna and Grays Maria Galland and
her mother, entertaining Colonel Wester-
lln*c of the Grays, nee Captain I^anntron
of the Browns Injured by u (all In hie
aeroplane. Tep yearn later. Weiterllng,
nominal vice but real chief of staff, re-en-
tones Bouth La Tlr and meditate* on war.
Marta tells hltf of her teaching children
the follies of war and martial patriotism,
ami beg* him to prevent war while he I*
chli;f of statf. Lanstron calls on Marta
at her home. She tells Lanstron that *he
believe* Feller, the gardener, to be a *py.
Lanstron confesses It Is true and shows
her a telephone which Feller ha* con-
cealed In a ieoret passage under the toWSr
for use to benefit the Brown* In war
emergencies. matron declares bis love
lor Marta. Wejterll ( and the Gray pre-
mier plan to use a trivial International
uffulr to foment warlike patilotl^m and
strike before declaring war. Bartow,
Brown chief of staff, reveals his plans to
Lanstron, made vice chief. The Gray
ariny crosses the border line and attack*.
The Browns check them. Artillery. In-
fantry, aeroplanes and dirigibles enpag
Marta has her tint gllrnpsri of war 1
model n, cc!<f, (dentlflc, murderrtl*
tallty. The Browns fall back to tf><" Gal-
land house. Marta see* a night attaclf.
The Gray* attack In forre. F«llor leave*
his wcirtit telephone and foe* back to hi*
guns. Hand to hand fighting. The Browns
I all back again. Marta aak* Lanstron over
to Palrtow to stop the
fighting. Vandalism In the Galland house.
Westerllng and hi* staff occupy the Gal-
land house and he begins to woo Marta,
who apparently throws her fortunes with
the Grays and offers valuable Information.
She call* up Lanstron on the secret tele-
phone and plans to give Westerllng Infor-
mation that will trap the Gray nrmy.
Westerllng forms hi* plan_of oti
what he learns from her ~
Ujrdlr.
.upon upon
The Grays take
CHAPTER XVI—Continued.
"This la like you—like what I want
you to be!" he said. "You are right."
He caught her hand. Inclosing it en-
tirely In his grip, and she was sen-
sible, In a kind of dazed horror, of the
thrill of his strength. "Nothing can
stop us! Numbers will win! Hard
fighting In the mercy of a quick end!"
he declared with his old rigidity of
five against three which was welcome
to her. "Then," he added — "and
then—"
"Then!" she repeated, averting her
glance. "Then—" There the devil
ended the sentence and she withdrew
her hand and felt thtf relief of one es-
caping suffocation, to find that he had
realized that anything further during
that Interview would be banality and
was rising to go.
"I don't feel decent!" she thought.
"8oclety turned on Minna for a hu-
man weakness, but I—I'm not a human
being! 1 am one of the pawns of the
machine of war!"
Walking slowly wltb lowered head
as she left the arbor, ehe almost ran
Into Bouchard, who apologized with
the single word "Pardon!" as he lifted
ills cap in overdone courtesy, which
his stolid brevity made the more con-
spicuous.
"Miss Galland. you seem lost in ab-
strttctlon," he said in sudden loquac-
ity. "I am almost on the point of
accusing you of being a poet."
"Accusing!" she replied. "Then you
must think that I would write bad
poetry."
"On the contrary, I should say ex-
cellent—using the sonnet form," he re-
turned.
"I might make a counter accusa-
tion, only that yours would be the
epic form," answered Marta. "For you,
too, seem fond of rambling."
There was a veiled challenge In the
hawk eyes, which she met with com-
monplace politeness In hers, before
be again lifted his cap and proceeded
on hie way.
• ••••••
For the next two weeks Marta's ro'e
resolved Itself into a kind of routine.
Their cramped quarters became a
refuge to Marta. in ths trial of her
secret work under the very nose of
th staff. With little Clarissa Eileen,
they formed the only feminine society
In the neighborhood. On sunshiny
dayn Mrs. Galland was usually to be
found In her favorite chair outside
the tower door; and here Minna set
the urn on a table at four-thirty as In
the old day*.
No member of lie staff was more
frequently present at Marta'a ur.i
than Bouchard, who was developing
bis social Instinct late in life by alt-
ting In the background and allowing
others to do the talking while he
watched and listened. In his bearing,
Marta's attitude toward the progress
of the war was sympathetic but never
Interrogatory, while she shared atten-
tion with Clarissa Eileen, who was in
danger of becoming spoiled by officers
who had children of their own at home.
After the reports of killed and wound-
ed, which came with such appalling
regularity, it was a relief to hear of
the day's casualties among Clarissa's
dolls. The chief of transportation
and aupply rode her on hl« shoulder;
the chief of tactics played hlde-and-
•eek wltb *>«r; the chief engineer
built her a doll house of stones with
his own hands; and the chief medical
officer was as concerted when she
caught cold as If the health of the
army were at stake.
"We mustn't get too set up over ail
this attention, Clarissa Eileen, my ri-
val," said Marta to the Child. "You
are the only little girl and I am the
only big girl within reach. If there
were lote of others it would be dif-
ferent"
Bouchard was ,r?ing flesh; his eyes
were sinking deepur under a heavier
frown. His duty being to get Infor-
mation, he was gaining none. His
duty being to keep the Grays' secrets,
there was a leak somewhere In his
own department. He quizzed subordi-
nate*; he made abrupt transfers, to no
avail.
Meanwhile, the Grays were taking
the approaches to the main line of
defense, which had been thought rela-
tively Immaterial but had been found
shrewdly placed and their vulnerabil-
ity overestimated. The thunders of
batteries hammer'"? them became a
routine of existence, like the passing
of trains to one 'living near a railroad.
The guns went on while tea was be-
ing served; they ushered in dawn and
darknees; they were going when sleep
came to those whom they later awak-
ened with a start. Fights as desper-
ate as the one around the house be-
came features of this period, which
was only a warming-up practice for
the war demon before the orgy of
Impending assault on the main line.
Marta began to realize the Immen-
sity of the chessboard and of the
forces engaged in more than the bare
statement of numbers and distances.
If a first attack on a position failed,
the wires from the Galland house re-
peated their orders to concentrate
more guns and attack again. In the
end the Browns always yielded, but
grudgingly, calculatingly, never be-
ing taken by surprise. The few of
them who fell prisoners said, "God
with us! We shall win In the end!"
a(jd answered no questions. Gradually
the Gray army began to feel that It
was battling with a mystery which
was fighting under cover, falling back
under cover—a tenacious, watchful
mystery that sent sprays of death Into
every finger of flesh that the Grays
thrust forward In assault
"Another position taken. Our ad-
vance continues," wae the only news
that Westerllng gave to the army, hlB
people, and the world, which forgot
Its aports and murders and divorce
cases in following the progress of the
first greajt European war for two gen-
erations. f!e made bo mention of the
costs; his casualty lists were secret
The Gray hosts were sweeping for-
ward as a slow, irresistible tide; this
by Partow's own admission. He an-
nounced the loss of a position as
promptly aB the Grays its taking. He
published a dally list of casualties so
meager In contrast to their own that
the GrayB thought it false; he made
known the names of the killed and
wounded to their relatives. Yet the
seeming candor of his press bureau
Included no straw of Information of
military value to the enemy.
Westerllng never went to tea at the
Gallands' with the other officers, for It
was part of his cultivation of great-
ness to keep aloof from his subordi-
nates. His meetings with Marta hap-
pened casually when he went out Into
the garden. Only once had be made
any reference to the "And then" of
their interview In the arbor.
"I am winning battles for you!" he
had exclaimed with the thing In his
eyes which she loathed.
To her It was equivalent to saying
that (he had tricked him Into sending
men to be killed in order to please
her. She despised herself for the
way he confided in her; yet she had
to go on keeping hla confidence, re-
turning a tender glance with one that
held out hope. She learned not to
shudder when he spoke of a loss of
"only ten thousand." In order to rally
herself chen she grew faint-hearted
to her task, she learned to picture the
lines of his face hard-set with five-
agalnst-three brutality, while in com-
fort he ordered multitudes to death,
and. In contrast, to recall the smile
of Dellarme, who asked his soldiers to
undergo no risk that he would not
share. And after every success be
would remark that he was so much
nearer Engadlr, that position of the
main line of defense whose weakness
she had revealed. #
"Your Engadlr!" he came to aay.
"Then we shall again profit by your
information; that la, unless they bar*
fortified since you received It"
"They haven't They had already
fortified!" she thought. She was al-
ways seeing the mockery of his words
In the light of her own knowledge and
her own part, which never escaped
her consciousness. One chamber of
her mind was acting for him; a sec-
and chamber was perfectly aware that
the other wa$ acting.
"One position more—the Twin Boul-
der Redoubt, it is called," he an-
nounced at last. "We shall not press
hard In front. We shall drive In
masses on either side and storm the
flanks."
This she waB telephoning to Lan-
stron a few minutes later and ha\ lng,
in return, all the news of the Browns.
The sheer fascination of knowing what
both sides were doing exerted its spell
in keeping her to her part.
"They've lost four hundred thousand
men now, Lanny," she said.
"And we only a hundred thousand.
We'fe whittling them down," answered
Lanstron.
"Whittling them down! What a
ghastly expression!" she gasjted. "You
are as bad as Westerllng and I am
worse than either of you! •I—I an-
nounced the four hundred thousand as
If they were a score—a score in a
game in our favor. I am helping,
Lanny? All my sacrifice isn't for
nothing?" she asked for tiie hun-
dredth time.
"Immeasurably. You have saved us
many lives!" he replied.
"And coat them many?" ehe asked.
"Yes, Marta, no doubt," he admitted;
"but no more than they would bavt
lost In the end. It is only the mount-
ing up, of their casualties that can
end the war. Thus the lesson must
be taught."
"And I can be of most help when the
attack on the main defense 1b begun?"
"Yes."
"And when Westerllng finds that my
information Is false about Engadlr—
then—"
She had never put the question to
him In this way beforl. Whit would
Westerling do if he found her out?
"My God, Marta!" he exclaimed. "If
I'd had any sense I would have thought
of that In the beginning and torn out
the 'phone! I've been mad, mad with
the one thought of the nation—inhu-
man in my greedy patriotism. I will
not let you go any further!"
It was a new thing for her to be
rallying him; yet this she did as the
strange effect of his protest on the
abnormal sensibilities that her acting
had developed.
"Thinking of me—little me!" she
called back. "Of one person's com-
fort when hundreds of thousanda of
other women are in terror; when the
destiny of millions Is at stake! Lanny,
you are in a blue funk!" and she was
laughing forcedly and hectically. "I'm
going on—going on like one in a
trance who can't Btop if he would.
It's all Tight, Lanny. I undertook the
taBk myself. I must see It through!"
After she had hung np the receiver
her buoyancy vanished. She leaned
against the wall of the tunnel weakly.
Yes, what If she were found out? She
was thinking of the possibility seri-
ously for the first time. Yet, for only
a moment did she dwell upon it be-
fore she dismissed It In sudden rea&
tlon.
"No matter what they do to me or
what becomes of me!" she thought
"I'm a lost soul, anyway. The thing
Is to serve as long as I can—and
then I don't care!"
CHAPTER XVII.
Thumba Down for Bouchard.
Haggard and at bay, Bouchard faced
the circle of frowns around the pol-
ished expanse of that precious heir-
loom, the dining-room table of the Gal
lands. The dreaded reckoning of the
apprehensions which kept him rest-
lessly awake at night had come at the
next staff council after the fall of the
Twin Bouider Redoubt. With the last
approach to the main line of defense
cleared, one chapter of the war was
finished. But the officers did not man-
ifest the elation that the occasion
called for, which Is not saying that
they were discouraged. They had no
doubt that eventually the Grays would
dictate peace In the Browns' capital.
Exactly stated, their mood was one of
repressed professional Irritation, Not
until the third attempt was Twin Boul-
der Redoubt taken. As far as results
were concerned, the nicely planned
first assault might have been a stroke
of strategy by the Browns to drive
the Grays into an impassable fire zone.
"The trouble Is we are not In
formed!" exclaimed Turcas, opening
his thin lips even less than uaual, but
twisting them In a significant manner
as he gave his words a rasping em-
phasis. The others hastened to follow
hla lead with equal candor.
"Exactly. We have no reports of
their artillery strength, which we had
greatly underestimated," said the
chief of artillery.
"Our maps of their forta could not
be less correct If revealed to ua for
purposes of deceit. Again and again
we have thought that we had them
surprised, only to be surprised our-
selves. In ahort they know what we
are doing and we don't know what
they are doing!" said the tactical ex-
pert.
There the chief of the aerostatic di-
vision U ok the defensive.
"They certainly don't learn our plana
with their planes and dirigibles!" he
declared enorgetlcally.
"Hardly, when we never see these
over our lines."
"The Brown* are acting on the de-
fensive In the air as well as on the
earth!"
"But our own planes and dirigibles
bring little news," said Turcas. "I
mean, those that return," he added
pungently.
"And few do return. My men are
not wanting In courage!" replied the
chief aeroatatic officer. "Immediately
we get over the Brown lines the
Browns, who keep cruising to and fro,
are on us like hawks. They risk any-
thing to bring us down. When we de-
scend low we strike the fire of their
high-angle guns, which are distributed
the length of the frontier. I believe
both their aerial fleet and their high-
angle artillery were greatly under-
estimated. Finally, I cannot reduce
my force too much In scouting or they
might take the offensive."
"Another case of not being in-
formed!" concluded Turcas, returning
grimly to his point
He looked at Bouchard, and every
one began looking at Bouchard. If the
Gray tacticians had been outplayed by
their opponents, if their losses for the
ground gained exceeded calculations,
then It was good to have a scape-
goat for their professional mistakes.
Bouchard was Wepterling's choice for
chief of Intelligence. His blind loy-
alty was pleasing to his superior, who,
hitherto, had promptly silenced any
suggestion of critlciBm by repeating
that the defensive always appeared to
the offensive to better Informed
than Itself. But this time Westerllng
let the conversation run on without a
word of excuse for his favorite.
Each fresh reproach from the staff,
whose opinion was the only god he
knew, was a dagger thrust to Bou-
chard. At night he had lain awake
worrying about the leak; by day he
had sought to trace it, only to find
every clew lending back to the stall.
Now he was as confused in his shame
as a sensitive schoolboy. Vaguely,
In his distress, he heard Westerllng
asking a question, while he saw all
those eyes staring at him.
"What Information have wc ibout
:>.«,adlr?"
"I believe It to be strongly forti-
fied!" stammered Bouchard.
"You believe! You have no infor-
mation?" pursued Westerling.
"No, sir," replied Bouchard. "Noth
lng—nothing new!"
"We do seem to get little Informa-
tion," said Westerling, looking hard
at Bouchard In silence—the com-
bined silence of he whole staff.
This public reproof could have but
one meaning. He should soon receive
a note which would thank him politely
for his aervlces, In the stereotyped
phrases always used for the purpose,
before announcing his transfer t.o a
less responsible poat.
'Very little, sir!" Bouchard replied
doggedly.
"There Is that we had from one of
our aviators whose machine came
down in a smash Just as he got over
our Infantry positions on hlB return,"
said the chief aerostatic officer. "He
was in a dying condition when we
picked him up, and, as he was speak-
ing with the last breaths In hla body,
naturally his account of what he had
seen was somewhat Incoherent. It
would be of use, however, if we had
plans of the forts that would enable
us to check off his report intelli-
gently."
"Yet, what evidence have we that
Partow or Lanstron has done more
than to make a fortunate guess or
show military insight?" Westerllng
asked. "There la the case of my own
belief that Bordlr was weak, which
proved correct."
"Last night we got a written tele-
graphic staff message from the body
of a dead officer of the Browns found
hi the Twin Boulder Redoubt," said
the vice-chief, "which showed that In
an hour after our plans were transmit-
ted to our own troops for the first
attack they were known to the en-
emy."
"That looks like a leak!" exclaimed
Westerling, "a leak, Bouchard, do you
hear?" Ke was frowning and his Upa
were drawn and hla chceks mottled
with red In a way not pleasant to see.
Stiffening in hla chair, a flash of
desperation In hla eye, Bouchard'a
bony, long hand gripped the table
edge. Every one felt that a sensa-
tion was coming.
"Yea, I have known that there was
a leak!" he said with hoarse, painful
deliberation. "I have aent out every
possible tracer. I have followed up
every aort of clew. I have trans-
ferred a dozen men. I have left noth-
ing undone!"
"With no result?" persisted Wester
ling Impatiently.
"Yea, always the aame result: That
the leak Is here in thia house—here
In the grand headquarters of the army
under our very noses. I know It is not
the telegraphers or the clerks. It ia
a member of the staff!"
"Have you gone out of your head?"
demanded Westerling. "What staff-
officer? How doea he get the Infor-
mation to the enemy? Name the per-
aona you auapect here and now! Ex-
plain, if yon want to be considered
sanai"
Here waa the blackest acousaHon
that could be made against an officcrl
The cboaen men of the ataff, tested
through many grades before they
reached the inner circle of cabinet ae-
crecy, lost the composure of a council.
All were leaning forward toward Bou-
chard breathleas for hia answer.
"There are three women on the
grounda," said Bouchard. "I have been
against their staying from the first
I—"
He got no turther. His words were
drowned by the outburst of one of the
younger members of the staff, who
had either to laugh or choke at the
picture of this deej>-eyed, spectral sort
of man, known as a woman-hater, Id
bis revelation of the farcical source
of his suspicions.
"Why not include Clarissa Eileen?"
some one asked, starting a chorus ol
satirical exclamatlona.
"How do they get through the lint?"
"Yes, past a wall of bayonets?"
"When not even a soldier in uni-
form ia allowed to move away from
his command without a pass?"
"By wireless?"
"Perhaps by telepathy!*
"Unless," said the chief of the aero-
static division, grinning,* "Bouchard
lends them the use of ou/ own wires
through the capital and around by the
neutral countries across the Brown
frontier!"
"But the correct plans and location
of their forts and the numbers of their
heavy guns and of their planes and
dirigibles—your failure to have this
Information la not the result of any
leak from our staff since the war be-
gan," said Turcae in his dry, pene-
trating voice, clearing the air of the
smoke of scattered explosions.
"All were staring at Bouchard again.
What answer had he to this? He was
in the box, the evidence stated by the
prosecutor. Let him speak!
He was fairly beside himself in a
paroxysm of rage and struck at the
air with his clenched fist.
•' Lanstron!" he cried.
"There's no purpose In that He
can't hear you!" said Turcas, dryly as
ever.
"He might, through the leak," said
the chief aerostatic officer, who con-
sidered that many of his gallant sub-
ordinates had lost their lives through
Bouchard's inefficiency. "Perhaps Cla-
rissa Eileen has already telepathically
wigwagged it to him."
To lose your temper at a staff coun-
cil is most unbecoming. Turcas would
have kept his if hit In the back by a
fool automoblllst. Westerllng had now
recovered his. He was again the su-
perman In command.
"It Is for you and not for us to
locate the leak; yes, for you!" he
said. "That Is all on the subject for-
the present," he added in a tone of'
mixed pity and contempt, which left
Bouchard freed from the stare of Lis
colleagues and In the miserable com-
pany of his humiliation.
(TO BE CONTINUED./
NOTHING NEW IN JOKE LINE
Foolish Is the Humorist Who Would
Insist That This "Has Never
Been Sprung Before."
A reader of the Docket in New York
city cut out the Item relating to the
dlsolution of partnership, in which
one partner makes the statement that
"those who owe the firm will settle
with him, and those that the firm owes
will settle with Mose," and sends It
back to us with this notation; "Thia
was an old chestnut when I lived in
, which was in 18b6."
To thin charge we enter a plea of
confession and avoidance. We con-
tend that the courts will take Judicial
notice of the fact that there 1b nothing
new under the sun, and In our Judg-
ment the Jokesmith Is well within
his rights In resurrecting a Joke
which was**ld in 1855.
The Incident brings to mind the fol-
lowing story: "The editor of a Minne-
sota newspaper back in the '80s con-
cocted the following: 'Yon Yonson put
four sticks of dynamite In the stove
last Sunday to thaw them out. The
handles were nickel plated and only
cost $10.'" A professor of English
literature in an eastern university
wrote a very interesting article on
this joke, claiming that It represented
a distinctly American brand of humor,
and that It could not have happened
In any other country or at any other
time.
But alas for the professor of Eng-
lish literature—for there Is nothing
new under the sun. Reference to II
Chronicles, Chapter 16, Verses 12 and
13, produces the following:
12. And Asa In the thirty and
ninth year of his reign was diseased
In his feet, until his disease was ex-
ceedingly great; yet in his disease
he sought not to the Lord, but to the
physicians.
13. And Asa slept with his fathers.
—West's Docket
Algeria's River of Ink.
In Algeria there Is a river of Ink.
In the upper part of Its course It
flows through beds of decaying moss.
In the lower part through strata of
Iron ore, and thus, through the combi-
nation of the two, Its waters acquire
very nearly the color and something
of the taste a* black Ink.
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Seay, R. R. The Oklahoma Ledger. (Sterling, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 14, 1915, newspaper, January 14, 1915; Sterling, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc155331/m1/2/?q=kitchen+cabinet: accessed June 25, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.