The Seattle Star Newspaper, July 26, 1913, Page 8

ieee * hung to the shoulders, tasselled and crimson | TAt oo aa The God of Battles SatuS BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS ILLUSTRATES BY DAN SAYRE GROESBECK It happened so unexpectedly, so abruptly, that she forgot to scream. A moment before she had glanced out of the pantry window and seen the tall oats motionless in the field and the sunlight sifting through the corn, It was scarcely a moment; she bent over her flour pan, wistful, saddened by the summer silence, thinking of her brother; then again she raised her eyes to the window It was too sudden; she did not scream. Had they dropped from the sky, these men in blue—these tramping, crowding creatures? The corn was full of them, the pasture, the road; they were in the garden, tearing tendrils from the vines, their great shoes, plodding across the potato hills, and leveling it to a waste of beaten mould and green stuff They passed, hun dreds, thousands—she could not tell—she heard a harmony, subtle, vast as winds at sea—a nameless murmur that sweeps through brains of marching men—the voiceless prophecy of battle Breathless, spellbound, she moved on tiptoe to the porch one hand pressed trembling across her lips. The men in blue covered the earth, the world, her world, which stretched from the orchard to Benson's hill There was something on Benson's hill that she had never before seen. It looked like a brook in the sunshine; it was a column of infantry, rifles slanting in the sun Somebody had been speaking to her a minute or two, and now she looked down and saw a boy, slim, sunburnt. His dusty uniform glittered with yellow braid; he touched hie cap and fingered his sword hilt She looked at him listless, her hand still pressed to her lips. “Is there a well near the house?” he asked Something tugged gently at her apron, and “Show me the well, please,” repeated the boy beside her. She started and turned, trembling, to him, but he gravely motioned her on, and she went, passing swiftly under the trees to the vine-covered well curb. He thanked her; she pointed at the dipper and rope; but already blue-clad, red-faced soldiers were lowering the bucket Soldiers passed in the sunshine. She began to remember that her brother, too, was a soldier, somewhere out in the world; he had been a soldier for nearly a week, ever since Jim Bemis had taken him to Willow Corners to enlist. She remembered that first night, how she had been afraid to sleep in the house; how at dusk she had gone into the parlor to be near her mother. Her mother was dead, but her picture hung in the parlor. ee.) She began to watch the flags; she saw a regiment plunge into the trampled corn, but she knew it was not her brother's, because the trousers of the men were scarlet, and the caps As she looked a belt of flame encircled the forest, and through the outrush- ing smoke, the crash! crash! crash! of rifles echoed across the valley. In the orchard the rattle of the well bucket never ceased. A very young officer sat on his horse, eating an unripe apple and watching the men around the well. The girl went into the kitchen, reached up for her sun- bonnet, dangling on a peg, tied it under her chin, and walked gravely into the orchard. The very young officer wheeled in his saddle and leaned toward her deferentially as she came up. | an Before he spoke she saw that it was the same officer who 1 had asked her about the well; she had not noticed he was so young. “I am sorry,” he said—and as he spoke he removed his cap—“I am very sorry that we have trampled your garden. If you are loyal the government will idemnify you—" She spoke, scarcely hearing her own voice. “It is not Cash NLY A FEW LEFT At $250 Per Lot Cash and Per Month City Light, City Water, Good Car Service and Only 15 Minutes’ Car Ride ‘| DAVID P. | EASTMAN 505 Lowman Bidg. STAR WANT ADS BRING RESULTS | e THE SEATTLE STAR Fe ihe | On the hair-cloth sofa in the parlor she lay, flung face > —— down, hands pressed to her ears, But silence entered with her, stifling the sob in her throat When she raised her head it was dusk, She sat up peering fearfully into the darkness, and she heard the clock ticking in the kitchen and rustle of vines on the porch When she had sat silent a little while dreaming « sins of a blameless life, there came to her, peace, so sudden so perfect, that she could not understand How should she know peace? What thought of the past might bring com fort? She could just remember her mother—that wa As for her father, he had died as he had lived, a snarling drunkard And her brother? A lank, blue-eyed boy, dis some, already cursed with his father’s sin he be to her? He had gone away when he did it sipated, unwhol what comfort could enlist; he was drunk There was a creak at the gate, a click of a latch, and the fall of a foot on the moonlit porch. She half rose; she was not frightened. How st ho it God alone knows, ew was, but she looked up, timidly, understanding who was coming, knowing who would knock, who would enter, who would |speak. And yet she had seen him but once in her life All this she knew—this child made wise in the space of time urked by the ti of the kitchen clock; but she did not kne that the y of his smile had n her the peace ld not rstand, she not k th until he enterec nburnt, his F tlets folded in his abre in his | 7 knew it. When she this she stoc Pp certain. He bowed silently nd stepped forward, fumbling with his sabre hilt. She motioned toward a chair | He said he had a essage for the aster of the house, jand glanced about ly, noting the single place at table She said he might give the m ¢ to her “It is only that—if I ¢ not inconvenience you too much—" he led faint you we allow me—well, the truth is I ar eted here for the nigh She did not kr what that meant and he explained | “The master of the house is absent,” she said, thinking jof her broth “Will he return tonight?” he asked She shook her head; she was thinking that she did not want him to go away, Suddenly the thought of being alone laid hold of her with fresh horror “You may stay,” she said faintly. He bowed again. She asked him if he cared for supper, with a gesture toward the table, and when he thanked her she took courage and told him where to hang his cap and sabre. There « e clatter hoofs. “My orderly,” plained—"“he sleep in the stable, may he not?” THERE, SMIL “My ow room is all I have here,” she said. Li “Not—not the one you gave me!” he asked. : . She nodded. “You may have it—I often sleep in the that—I am loyal—it is only I wish to ask you where my |parlor—I did when my brother was home.” brother's regiment—where the 60th Maryland is.” “If I had had any idea,” he burst out. She stopped him “The 60th Maryland—oh—why, it's in King's brigade,| with a gesture; but he insisted and at last he had his own Wolcott's division. I think it's yonder.” He pointed toward| way. “If I may sleep in the parlor I will stay;” he said, and of he ex- AND bec ING VA NOW HE HAD ENTERED, NOW UELY AC THE TA the beech woods. she nodded and seated herself at the table. “Yonder? Where they are firing?” He ate a great deal; much bread and butter and many Again the cannon thundered and the ground shook under | eggs: he spoke about his orderly and the horses, and presently her. She saw him nod, smiling faintly. j asked for a lantern. She brought him one; he lighted it. But around the house the last of the troops had passed; When he had gone away with his lantern, she rested her she could see them, not yet far away, moving up among the| white face in her hands and looked at his empty chair fields toward the ridges where the sun burned on the bronz-| thought of her brother, she thought of the village people who ing scrub oak thickets, leered askance when she was obliged to go to the store at Wil- She stood a moment watching the yellow dust hanging) low Corners. The mention of her father’s name, of her motionless in the rear of the disappearing column. Benson's hill a bugle blew faintly; distant rifle shots sounded long as she could remember, the one great longing of her along the ridge; then silence crept through the sunlit meadows, life had been to be respected across the leveled corn, across the dead stalks and stems, a at night in the village street, drunk as a hog; she had seen silence that spread like a shadow. er the | ow | what a boy of 18 knows is soon told She| - thad nev yr € Le caming there wa to like other por n It weet, a heard his now he across the ked out into f the spurs click acr had entered, now he w A rush of tear table. the night where the yellow r tared and stared She found herself in the parlor nile, silent, listening to his voice; and all about her was born of the peace within her breast He told her of the ref cared, but now she cared. He spok f hunger and of thirst, a boyish laugh, and knowing how else to show her f Li and now, for the first time, she t was also her Land, her home she so. He drew s collar, and He spoke of the flag had ne t a penkr and s a button f her country ket, cut to he On handed it the button was an eagle stars, and 74 she pinned it he t, look at him with innocent ~/ eyes She told f he he ¢ yut she told red he told b about } meant to d t a da di A that he ough > it d with geifle- i not change anything , and she listesed God of Balied oke ater Through him learned s of youth, ness and deference in him, that he would be Wher she was silent Ah, but n the truths of u ge He sat there in the lamplight, his gilt straps gleaming, his glittering spurs ringi true with every movement, his. bronzed young face bent to her. She knew he knew every# thing that man could know; she drank in what he said, humbly. When he ceased speaking still looked into his eyes. Their brilliancy dazzled her; the lamp spun a halo behind his head. Wondering at his knowledge, she | wondered what those things might be that he knew and had not told. He was smiling now. She felt the power and mystery of his eyes. It is true that he had not told her all he knew—although He had not told her that her brother lay buried in a trench in the beech-grove on the ridge, shot by court-martial for desertion in the face of the enemy Yet that was the very thing he had come to tell her! About midnight, when they had been whispering long together, he told her that her brother was dead. He told her that death with honor wiped out every stain, and she cried a little and blessed God—the God of Battles, who had purified her brother in the flames of war. And that night, when he lay asleep on the musty hair- cloth sofa, she crept in, white, silent, and kissed his hair. He never knew it. In the morning he rode away. THE END. « JAP STATESMAN TALKS PEACE IN SPEECH HERE f the ea of the con ad itself satief ly because nxious to a of the Ch eed. pet re maps gr the California a law. Itw ng to Japan NNN AT THE THEATRES THIS WEE Moore—Gill Travel Pictures. Metropolitan—Dark, —— THE ——— MOVIES jeattio—"The Girl From P, Italy, Ct : ae From Pan The Cann I 4 t Jim's Orpheum Vaudevitie. Reward Emprese—Vaudevi DE dha tbe a Ciel Pantages—Vaudeville, 2 Clemmer ; ee en Grand—Vaudevillo and motion Home stg bape cain S rand—V Ps Wee Mistake in Kid ms eau < Clemmer — Photoplays an yeti vaudeville. . Melbourne Photoplays and At the Black Cat Until Sunday Exposure of G: g in } York,” th - Photoplays DON'T ENDURE and At the Circuit Until Sunday “Mannie’s Secret Code three “The Moving Pi Girl At the Melbourne Until Sunday reels Mask | eee | Don't stand tha At the Class A Until Sunday The On 1 Hannigan’s |kin torment one day longer. Go to Harem,” "Mo F h Drive at Jolo,”|the nearest druggist and get a “Granny's Old m Chatr,” “The | 4 Bolt From the Sk jar of Resinol Ointment and a enke of Resinol Soap. Bathe the patches of eruption with Resinol Soap and At the Colonial Until Sunday. Mahe 1 ! ea reels; “A/hot water, dry, and apply a little rovion ae wine MIEN" Resinol Ointment, The torturing 7 |itching and burning stop instantly, MARY’S OUT OF LUCK |you no longer have to dig and |scratch, sleep becomes posatble, and Mary Lee, a full-blooded healing b C) Soon the " 0} Cherokee Indian, who saya she |e te i 2 wih nae ni is the ther of five paire of |™menting Humor disappears com: twis nd Anna Leo, her sis. |Pletely and for good were arr Friday t | Resinol Soap and Resinol Oint e Bianchi on a charge ment are also speedily effective in bear with officer ate [2%e the stubbornest cases of pim inj at, offered to tell the |Ples, ®lackheads, dandruff, sores , prese d future of all and piles, ® Presersbed by doctors who cared te #8 their |for etghteen years, and sold by with imos. Th a rallro they every druggist Jn the United States Trial free; Dept, 12-P, Resinol, Bal- thinore, Md. palms 1 told Bianchi | me He proved wrong by making the At the Grand Until Sunday Mutual Week Bretheran of \) SINOL the cred Fish,” The Red | itching, burning | r - ; Beyond | brother's name in the village aroused sneers or laughter. As THE PENDULU M! She had seen her father fall Another story by ©. Henry, the man who knows the human} heart as it really is! 3 - her brother reel across the fields at noonday. She carried ee eRe, eee, of, Se conahons totes Sane oe ‘ r : 7 ever wrote. it tells wh ong her curse—and her longing—supposing that she was a thing | “gown to the corner” at night “to talk to the Boye” In The Stor apart. In the orchard at midday a man, a young boy, a | next Saturday soldier, had spoken to her and looked at her in a way she | we EE SSDS ASSES > OREGON STATE PENNANT - OUT ‘MONDAY You Must Have One of These Beautiful Pennants Secure One With Four Coupons Clipped From The Seattle Star and 15 Cents Size 15x 35 Inches < this is the kind of pennant you i - always paid 65cfor. It is the best offer we have ever made our readers. Look for the Pennant Coupon in The Daily Star. Send in your sub- scription and have the paper delivered to you daily so you will be sure and recelve your coupons daily. hese pennants are of the best wool felt and absolutely correct as to color and design. They will form a pretty ornament for your den or dining room, houseboat, bungalow or living room and will appeal to you even if you are not a college man. ‘ hese pennants will brighten any spot. 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