THE SEQUEL

WHAT THE GREAT WAR WILL MEANTO AUSTRALIA. 

Being the Narrative of "Lieutenant Jefson, Aviator. "

By

GEORGE A. TAYLOR. 

First Edition, June. 1915. 2nd Edition. July. 1915. 

Printed and Published by Building Limited. 17 Grosvenor Street. Sydney, Australia. 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

1910. --"The Air Age and its Military Significance. "

1911. --"The Highway of the Air and the Military Engineer. "

1913. --"The Balkan Battles. " How Bad Roads Lost a War. 

1913. --"The Schemers. " (A Story. )

1913. --"Songs for Soldiers. "

1914. --"Town Planning for Australia. "

 "Ah! when Death's hand our own warm hand hath ta'en Down the dark aisles his sceptre rules supreme, God grant the fighters leave to fight again And let the dreamers dream!" --Ogilvie. 

PREFACE

These are mighty days. 

We stand at the close of a century of dazzling achievement; a centurythat gave the world railways, steam navigation, electric telegraphs, telephones, gas and electric light, photography, the phonograph, theX-ray, spectrum analysis, anæsthetics, antiseptics, radium, thecinematograph, the automobile, wireless telegraphy, the submarine andthe aeroplane!

Yet as that brilliant century closed, the world crashed into a war topreserve that high level of human development from being dragged back tobarbarism. 

And how the scenes of battle change!

Cities are being smashed and ships are being torpedoed. Thousands oflives go out in a moment. And these tremendous tragedies pass so swiftlythat it is risky to write a story round them carrying any touch ofprophecy. I, therefore, attempt it, realising that risk. The story iswritten for the close of the year 1917. Its incidents are built upon theoutlook at June, 1915. 

It first appeared in an Australian weekly journal, "Construction, " inJanuary, 1915, and already some of its early predictions have beenrealised; as, for instance, the entry of Italy in June, the use of"thermit" shells, and the investigation of "scientific management inAustralian work. "

To many readers, some of the predictions may not pleasantly appeal. Butit must be remembered that, being merely predictions, they are notincapable of being made pleasant in the practical sense. In other words, should any threaten to develop truth, to materialise, all efforts can beconcentrated in shaping them to the desired end. 

Predictions are oftentimes warnings. Many of these are. 

The story is written to impress the people, with their greatresponsibilities in these wonderful days--when a century of incident iscrowded into a month, when an hour contains sixty minutes of tremendouspossibilities, when each of us should live the minutes, hours, days andweeks with every fibre strained to give the best that is in us to helpin the present stupendous struggle for the defence of civilisation. 

GEORGE A. TAYLOR. Sydney, Australia, June, 1915. 

 The map, on pages 6 and 7, shows the lines followed by the German armies through Belgium and France during August and September, 1914. The main line of the Allies' attack, through Metz, in August and September, 1915, culminating in the defeat of Germany (predicted for the purpose of this story) is also shown. 

 You can facilitate the early realisation of this prediction by enlisting NOW. 

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration:

They often met before and fought. To gain supremacy in sport. They meet again now side by side. For freedom in the whole world wide. ]

CHAPTER I. 

Winged!

It was the second day in February, 1915. 

I'll not forget it in a hurry. That day I fell into the hands of theGerman Army. "Fell, " in my case, was the correct word, for my monoplanewas greeted with a volley of shots from some tree-hidden German troopsas I was passing over the north-eastern edge of the Argonne Forest. 

I was returning from Saarbruck when I got winged. Bullets whizzedthrough the 'plane, and one or two impinged on the engine. I tried toturn and fly out of range, but a shot had put the rudder out of action. An attempt to rise and trust to luck was baulked by my engine losingspeed. A bullet had opened the water cooler, and down, down the 'planeglided, till a clear space beyond a clump of trees received it rathereasily. I let the petrol run out and fired it to put the machine out ofuse. Then a rifle cracked and a bullet tore a hole through my left side, putting me into the hospital for six weeks. 

That forced idleness gave me plenty of time for retrospection. 

I lived the previous energetic five months over and over again. I hadlittle time before to think of anything but my job and its bestpossibilities, but the quietness of the hospital at Aix la Chapelle madethe previous period of activity seem a nightmare of incident. 

I remember how surprise held me that I should be lying wounded in aGerman hospital--I, a lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps, who foryears before the war, had actually been a member of an Australian PeaceSociety!

Zangwill's couplet had been to me a phrase of force:--

 "To safeguard peace--we must prepare for war. I know that maxim--it was forged in Hell!"

I remembered well how I had hung on the lips of Peace Advocate DoctorStarr Jordan during his Australian visits, and how I had wondered at hisstories that Krupp's, Vicker's, and other great gun-building concernswere financially operated by political, war-hatching syndicates; thatthe curse of militarism was throttling human progression, and that thedoctrine of "non-resistance" was noble and Christianlike, for "all theythat take the sword shall perish by the sword. "

I remembered how in Australia I had grieved that aviation, in which Itook a keen interest as a member of the Aerial League, was beingfostered for military purposes instead of for that glorious epochforetold by Tennyson:--

For I dipped into the future far as human eye could see, Saw the vision of the world and all the wonders that would be, Saw the heavens filled with commerce, Argosies of magic sails, Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales. 

I remembered I felt that the calm of commerce held far more glories thanthe storm of war; that there was no nobler philosophy than:--

 "Ye have heard it said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but I say . .. Resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. If any man take thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. "

Then came the thunderclap of war; and in the lightning flash I saw thefolly of the advocacy of peace. I felt that I, like others, had heldback preparation for this great war, that had been foreseen by trainedminds. I felt that extra graves would have to be dug, becausedreamers--like myself--had prated peace instead of helping to make ournation more secure. 

"Non-resistance" may be holy, but it encourages tyranny and makes easythe way of the wrongdoer. If every man gave his cloak to the thief whostole his coat, there would be no inducement for the robber to lead anhonest life. Vice would be more profitable than virtue. 

"Non-resistance" may be saintly, but it would make it impossible to helpthe weak or protect the helpless from cruelty and outrage. 

All law, all justice, rests on authority and force. A judge could notinflict a penalty unless there were force to carry it out. 

Creeds, after all, are tried in the fires of necessity. "They that takethe sword shall perish by the sword. " Well, the Kaiser had grasped thesword. By whose sword should he perish except by that of the defender?

Christ's teachings are characterised by sanity and strength. He speaksof His angels as ready to fight for Him; He flogged the moneychangersfrom the temple: He said that no greater love can be shown than by aman's laying down his life for his friend; and the Allies fightingbravely to protect the oppressed, were manifesting to the full thisgreat love. Germany's attack on a weaker nation, which she had signed toprotect, called for punishment from other nations who had also pledgedtheir honor. 

Unhappy Belgium called to the civilised world to check the Germanoutrages on its territory and people. 

My peace doctrines went out like straw before a flame. I was a"peace-dove" winged by grim circumstance; and that is how I became a manof war. 

[Illustration: HOW HISTORY REPEATED ITSELF. 

England to Belgium, in 1870: "Let us hope they (Germany) will nottrouble you, but if they do--"

(Tenniel, in "London Punch, " at the time of the Franco-Prussian War. )]

CHAPTER II. 

The First Three Months of War. 

I was in England when the war cloud burst, having just completed acourse of aviation at the Bristol Flying Grounds; so I volunteered foractive service; and, after a month's military training, was appointed alieutenant in Number 4 Squadron of the R. F. C. 

I remember how the first crash of war struck Europe like a smash in theface. How armies were rapidly mobilised! How the British Fleet steamedout into the unknown, and Force became the only guarantee of nationalsafety!

It is hard to write of these things now that many days have passedbetween, for events followed each other with the swiftness of a mightyavalanche. 

How Germany thrilled the universe by throwing at Belgium the greatestarmy the world had ever seen. An awful wave of 1, 250, 000 men crashedupon the gate of Liege. 

How the great Krupp siege guns slowly crawled up, stood out of range ofthe Liege forts, and broke them at ease. 

How through the battered gate a flood of Uhlans poured to make up forthat wasted fortnight, preceded by their Taube aeroplanes spying out themovements of the Belgium army; the German artillery following, andsmashing a track through France!

How that fortnight gave France and England the chance to interpose awall of men and steel, which met the shock of battle at Mons, but waspushed back almost to the gates of Paris. 

It was at the battle of Mons that the squadron to which I was attachedwent into active operation, reconnoitring the battle line on our leftflank. It was my first taste of battle, but I do not remember anystrange feelings. 

I was in that awful shock of forces that stopped the southern progressof the German juggernaut like a chock beneath a wheel, when on September2 it recoiled back--back to the Marne--back to the Aisne--back almost tothe Belgian frontier. Then winter dropped upon it, turning the roadsinto pools of mud, checking all speed movements necessary to activeoperations, and the troops dug in like soldier crabs upon a river bank. 

[Illustration: "The Aeroplane had been a . .. Curiosity. "--Chapter III. 

(The first Aeroplane to fly in Australia. )]

All surprise movements had to be made at night; the dawn finding ouraeroplanes out in the frosty air spying out any changes in positions ofthe day before. A smoke-ball fired as we flew above a new trench gaveour artillery the range; then till night fell a rain of shells wouldbatter that new position. In the dark our troops would creep forward, rush that trench, and dawn would find them dozing in their newly wonquarters. The war had become a battle of entrenchments. 

CHAPTER III. 

The Flying Men. 

For ages man walked the earth. 

To-day he is the only living creature that can travel in the air byother than its own substance. 

'Till the Great War the aeroplane was a scientific curiosity. The Battleof the Nations blooded it; and its wonderful utility in speeding the endof the war has proved its right to be recognised as a distinct factor inhuman movement. 

When the war crash came there were two aerial types; the lighter thanair type, the dirigible balloon; and the heavier than air machine, theaeroplane. This is how the Powers stood in aerial furnishing when thefirst shot was fired. Germany and Austria had 25 airships, including 11Zeppelins, as well as 556 aeroplanes. 

England, France, Russia and Belgium had 33 airships and 1019 aeroplanes. 

The English dirigibles had not made long flights, and not being verydependable had not received much attention from the militaryauthorities. A non-dependable factor in war is worse than useless. Amistake may be made in tactics, but when ascertained may be retrievedand, perhaps, turned to good account. Non-dependability is fatal, asmany a commander would not know how to act, and in war, he who hesitatesis lost. 

The French had experimented a good deal with the dirigible, but mostlyof the non-rigid type, which was a type "without a backbone" and was asuncertain, so that its general non-dependability turned French attentionto the aeroplane. 

The Germans, however, pinned their faith on the balloon, and for longmade it a feature for observation purposes, so that when Zeppelinbrought out his rigid framework balloon, Germany fancied she saw in itthe command of the air. 

The Zeppelin, however, had many disabilities over the aeroplane. It hadto have its own kennel. It was almost impossible to get it into its shedif the wind was against it. The kennels had, therefore, to be either onwheels or floating. Furthermore, not being able to replenish its gas, aZeppelin had always to return to its base for supplies. But the gasballoon suited the smug character of the German. Unlike the aviator whothrew himself into the air on a bundle of steel rods and rubber, apropeller and a petrol engine, the phlegmatic German took no risks witha balloon. He found, however, that Zeppelins were expensive freaks. Theyhad a habit of catching fire in the air, because the tail created avacuum and sucked back some escaping gas into the engine where thecontact spark ignited it. 

One recently alighted in a field and a country bumpkin came over withthe crowd to see the fun. He had a pipe in his mouth. He was told to goaway. He wouldn't for a while, but he soon left in a hurry. After theexplosion they found bits of him and sixty-seven other people!

The Germans pinned their faith to the Zeppelin because it could carry aheavy load of explosives and would be an easy way of damaging an enemy;and it was only a few months before the war that considerable enthusiasmruled Germany because a Zeppelin had made a record trip from thesouthern to the northern fringe of Germany, or, as "Vorwarts" said, "asfar as from Germany to England and back again. "

Here, then, was an easy way to fight. Just rise up out of danger anddrop bombs. 

They tried it at Antwerp. 

On 25th August, 1915, a Zeppelin flew over the sleeping city, guided byflash lamps from German spies on roofs. It was a night of terror--a bombdropped to fall upon the royal palace, missed and injured two women; abomb aimed for the Antwerp Bank missed and killed a servant; but onefell into a hospital and another into a crowd in the city square. Fivepeople were blown to atoms. 

It must have been an awful night, for it is recorded that the citywatchman of Antwerp announced: "12 o'clock and all's hell. "

On September 2nd (the anniversary of Sedan), the Zeppelin came again togive its stab in the dark, but finding it was recognised, retreated. Itdid not rise higher to get out of danger of the air guns and put up afight. The German in the air takes few risks. It is his temperament. Notso with the Frenchman. He is by nature dashing and volatile. Theeasy-going of the dirigible little appealed to him. The risk, the speed, the adventure of the aeroplane touched his soul, which explained whyFrance had 2032 military aviators, whilst Germany had only 300 qualifiedmilitary pilots. 

The German lacks the dash, nerve, vim and initiative essential to asuccessful flier. He is moulded as a cog. He is part of a system--out ofthat he must not move. It has wrecked his initiative, and the sneer ofthe greatest German in history, Frederick the Great, has to-day grimsignificance. 

"See those two mules, " he said satirically to one of his officers, wholacked initiative, "they have been in fifteen campaigns and--they'restill mules. "

The German training system has taken all the humanity out of the men. They move like machines, either destroying or rolling on to destruction, and they often act with the dumb sense of the machine to pain andsuffering. 

Lloyd George has very truly put it: "God made man to his own image, butthe German recreated him in the form of a Diesel engine. "

No one questioned the efficiency of the German machine. The Allies weredisputing its right to go on destroying. 

[Illustration: "The New Arm. "--Chapter IV. ]

CHAPTER IV. 

The New Arm. 

"It strikes me that these fool commanders don't know what to do with us. We aviators seem to be too new to come into all their stunts. Here we'vebeen flying over eight years, and we're still novel enough to berepeatedly fired on by our own side. Why the beggars in our own battery, when they see an aeroplane overhead in their excitement let fly. Theydon't bother to notice that the plane of our Bleriot hasn't claw endslike the enemy's Taube. Neither do they note we carry our owndistinguishing mark. We're the circus show. We're the 'comic relief'sure. "

He was about to spit his disgust on an unoffending fly, but quicklychanged his mind. 

He was a Yank from the U. S. A. Military School at San Diego, and "hikedover the pond as there was nothing doing. "

In appearance he was tall and wiry with a thin face and hooked nose thatsuggested the bird-man. His name on the roll was Walter Edmund Byrne, but his bony appearance won him his nickname--Nap. 

We knew nicknames would shock those who stand for the rigid rule ofmilitary discipline, but aviators clear the usual wall of demarcationbetween officers and subordinates. A nod supplants the "heels togetherand touch your cap. "

The Aviation Sections seemed to be communistic concerns, in the air rankbeing only recognised by achievement. In fact, the new arm was too newto be brought under the iron rule of military etiquette or into mostOperation Orders. I told Nap as much. 

"Yes, " he said, "I guess we're too new. Even when cannon first came intowar it was novel enough to fire as often from the wrong end and teachthings 'to the man behind the gun'; but I've a bit of dope here thatought to be pasted into every book of your field service regulations, and every officer ought to repeat it before breakfast three times aweek. It's the flyers' creed. "

Fumbling amongst some newspaper scraps in his note book, he producedthis bit of verse. 

 The snake with poisoned fang defends (And does it really very well). The cuttle fish an inkcloud sends; The tortoise has its fort of shell; The tiger has its teeth and claws; The rhino has its horns and hide; The shark has rows of saw-set jaws; Man--stands alone, the whole world wide Unarmed and naked! But 'tis plain For him to fight--God gave a brain!

 Far back in this world's early mists When man began to use his head; He stopped from fighting with his fists And gripped a wooden club instead. But when the rival tribe was slain, The first tribe then to stand alone Had once again to work its brain And made an axe--an axe of stone! The stone-axe tribe would hold first place; And ruled the rest where'er it went. Because then--as to-day--the race Was first that had best armament. But human brain expanding more (Its limits none can circumscribe); The stone-axe crowd went down before The more developed bronze-axe tribe. Then shields came in to quickly show Their party victors in the strife: By warding off the vicious blow And giving warriors longer life. The tribe's wise men would urge at length, No doubt as now, for tax on tax, To keep the "Two tribe" fighting strength With "super-dreadnought" shield and axe!

 The bow and arrow came and won For Death came winged from far away. Then came the cannon and the gun; And brought us where we are to-day. And now we see the shield of yore An arsenal of armour plate; With crew a thousand men or more; And guns a hundred tons in weight. Beneath our seas dart submarines, Around the world and back again. But every marvel only means Some greater triumph of the brain. For while the thund'ring hammers ring; And super-dreadnoughts swarm the sea; There flits above, a birdlike thing, That claims an aerial sovereignty! A thing of canvas, stick and wheel "The two-man fighting aeroplane. " It screams above those hulks of steel: "Oh! human brain begin again. "

[Illustration]

Nap was busy with bad language, a size brush and some fabric remnantspatching the plane, whilst I read his treasure by my pocket lamp. Thenhe came over. 

"Mind you, " he said, "I don't greatly blame folks here. It can't beworse than in America--America, where the first machine got up and madegood--where the man the world had waited for for ages, Wilbur Wright(though he's been dead some years), hasn't even got a tablet up to say:'Good on you old man, God rest your soul. '"

We were standing by our machines, waiting for the dawn light to call usaloft for our daily reconnaissance when Nap let his tongue loose. 

"Five years ago, when the Wright Brothers first flew, Europe went dottyand began to offer big prizes for stunts in the air. Wright took his old'bus across the pond and won everything. Next year our Glen Curtis wentover and brought back all the scalps. Then America got tired. We live ina hurry there. We're the spoilt kids of the earth, always wanting a newtoy. When we tired of straight flying, we went in for circus stunts;such as spiral turning, volplaning, upside-down flying and looping theloop. We interested the crowd for a while, as there was a chance of someof us smashing up. But when flying got safe and sane and the aeroplanealmost foolproof, the public got cold feet, and the only men flying whenI left, were young McCormick, the Harvester chap of Chicago, occasionally hiking across Lake Michigan in his 'amphoplane, ' andBeechy, dodging death in 'aeroplane versus automobile' races. 

"Curtis has a factory that had been shooing the bailiff till Wanamakercame along and financed that Atlantic aeroplane that was too heavy tocarry its weight; and Lieutenant Porte, who was to take it across, wasin a fix till this war came along and called him over. Orville Wright istrying to make a do of his factory. It is significant that CaptainMitchell, of the U. S. Signal Corps, the other day asked the U. S. Government 'to help those fellows out or they'll have to quit thebusiness. ' So you see Jefson, that's why I get the huff when I see thesame sort of thing over here, especially in times like these 'that trymen's souls. '"

Then the dawn light streaked the eastern sky rim. We pulled the planefrom under the tree screen. The propeller hummed, dragged us across adozen yards and up into the cold air of the early New Year morn. 

[Illustration: "When flying got safe and sane. "--Chapter IV. ]

CHAPTER V. 

The Tired Feeling. 

Our quarters were outside Epernay, about fifteen miles south of Rheims, with the Marne between us and the enemy. 

To the north the horizon was fringed with the ridge-backed plateau cutby the Aisne. The enemy had been holding that fringe since October, having pushed back our almost daily attempts to get on to it. We got aparticularly bad smack early in 1915, after crossing at Soissons. 

To the north east was the ridge covered by the Argonne Forest; a sealedarea to the man in the air. 

We had been here three months, and our daily flight over the same arearobbed the view of any scenic interest. 

Perhaps, in the clear air of the winter morning, we would see far offsilhouetted against the pale green of the brightening eastern sky, thedove-like aeroplanes of the enemy moving over the distant forest likebees above a bush. 

Sometimes an "affair of aerial patrols" would result in the exchange oflong shots, but seldom with any effect, for the reason that our enemytook few risks in the air and, furthermore, we could not pursue, as ourorders were for speedy reconnaissance and early report. This was no easymatter over a country covered with the snowy quilt of winter, when eventrees were unrecognisable, except at an angle that would show the trunksbeneath: an angle that would call for low flying, bringing us within the6000 feet range of the enemy's "air-squirts. "

By day we "trimmed our ship, " examined every screw and bolt andinspected our bombs and fuses. These "cough drops" were radish-shapedshells, each weighing thirty-one pounds; and were fired from anapparatus which could be worked by the pilot and which carried aregulator showing height and speed of the machine. Fair accuracy couldthus be achieved. 

One evening, the commander of the battery to which we were attached cameover to our quarters, the skillion of a wrecked farm house. 

He brought word that another Zeppelin had been rammed by one of ourmachines. Both machines and their occupants had been smashed. 

He spoke in French, and we understood, which explained why we werestationed so far east on the fighting line. 

"Magnificent it must have been, " he said, "we groundlarks always have afighting chance, but there is no chance for you bird-men. Ah! who cannow say the romance has gone out of war with the improvement in range ofweapons. Time was not long since when the general headed his men with awaving sword. As your Shakespeare said it--'Once more into the breach, dear friends. ' And my comrades are fighting through this campaign, banging at an enemy they may never see. But the aeroplane has broughtback the romance again. Ah! it is fine. "

When he strolled out Nap ventured his opinion. 

"Romance in war! There's not a scrap of it. The fool-flyer who rams aZepp. Deserves what he gets. It's wasteful for a flyer to so risk hisspeedy plane, when he has a better fighting chance of rising anddropping 'cough-drops' on the slow old 'bus beneath him; as Pegoud toldus the other day: 'The Zeppelins! Ah, they are slow as geese, but ouraeroplanes, they are swift as swallows. '

"The trouble is there's not enough opportunity here to do things. Thisdaily 'good-morning fly' and cleaning engines the rest of the day isgetting on my nerves, we've been marking time here for months. I wantsomething to happen along 'right soon. '"

And something did happen along next morning. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Civilised Warfare. 

Nap was in a bad humor. 

The breeze from the north-east had kept us up for three days. It came tous over fields of long-unburied dead. It explained our morbid cravingfor tobacco--and Nap, during the night, had lost a cherished half-cigar!

We felt the cold that morning, as we wheeled the 'plane into the openspace. The engine was also out of sorts, coughing like an asthmaticvictim. 

The first sun ray shot into the sky and called us aloft. So with enginespluttering the 'plane climbed over the Marne-Vesle Ridge and above thecloud of smoke that hid Rheims 5000 feet below us. 

Looking far to the north-west, a great fog cloud lay over the wetcountry of the Yser. About twenty-five miles off, near Laon, we spottedone of the enemy's observation balloons being inflated. 

"Shall we drop a 'cough-drop'?" Nap shouted to me through the speakingtube. 

"No chance, " I shouted back, "there's something coming at us. "

A swift Taube was racing up to challenge. It was rising to get the"drop" on us. We carried an aerial gun, but hesitated to fire, as wewanted all our speed to get above our rival. Our engine lost its badtemper for a change. Round and round we began to circle like game cocksspoiling for a fight; rising, forgetting, in the excitement, the cold ofthe upper air--higher and higher, till Nap shouted, "We'll get herbeneath us in the next round and then for a 'cough-drop' or the gun. "

But the Taube had seen our advantage. It banked up on a sharp turn, dropped like a stone fully a thousand feet, making a magnificentvolplane, and scurried away like a frightened vulture, dropping anddropping in a series of gigantic swoops. 

"We won't chase, " said Nap, "she wants to bring us into range of their'air-squirts, ' and 'Archibalds' are not pleasant on an empty stomach. "

[Illustration: "ONE OF THE ENEMY'S 'AIR-SQUIRTS. '"

A German Aerial Gun. ]

We turned home and then the engine sulked again. I could see Nap was introuble. It was was just as well that the roar of the engine and the humof the propeller compelled the use of speaking-tube communication, forwhen a man uses bad language he isn't cool enough to pour his sentimentsthrough a pipe. But we were coming down, gliding down on a long angle, with the engine giving a spasmodic kick. Down, down towards a light fogthat the breeze had brought down from the north-west; down, down till wecould see below us trench lines that were not our own! Then the enginestopped!

Nap looked out, turned to me and pulled a face. Putting his mouth to thetube he shouted "Lean over and wave your hand like. .. . "

Several grey-coated soldiers were now running over to a bare patch towhich we seemed to be sliding. I waved frantically--the soldiershesitated to fire and waved back again! Down, down, with Nap workinglike a fiend at the engine! Down, down to within a few hundred feet ofthe ground, when something happened. The engine, after a splutter, setoff at its usual rattle, the propeller caught up its momentum anddescent was checked. 

Nap leaned over and joined in the waving demonstration and, knowing thatan attempt to rise abruptly would give away the fact that we were tryingto escape, he kept at a low level, flying over waving Germans, past along line of German troops breakfasting behind the trenches; then backagain to try and convince them that we were of their own, then circlingaround till we reached a safe height above the thickening fog, ouraching arms stopped waving. We headed for home, and repaid the kindnessof our German friends by having their position shelled for the rest ofthe day. 

"That was a tight fix, " Nap ventured, as I gave him a tribute from theSquadron Commander--one of the most coveted of prizes of the campaign--acigar!

"Yes, that waving stunt was a bit of spice, " he said. 

"But what beats me, " I replied, "is why they didn't fire on us, as wecarried our distinguishing mark. "

"That's easy, " said Nap, sucking his cigar, "they've got some of theirown 'planes carrying our mark and guessed we were one of them. But asthe song says: 'We're all here, so we're alright. ' Some of these daysI'm going to invent an apparatus that can change signs--press a buttonand the Germans' black cross will cover our mark, and so on--and thenwe'll fly where we like. "

"It's unfair to fly an enemy's flag, you know, Nap, " I ventured. 

"How?" he queried. "That's where the Allies, particularly youhypersensitive British, make the greatest mistake. Everything in war isfair. Get the war over, say I, even if it comes to smashing up theenemy's hospitals. The wounded, nowadays, are getting well too quickly. There's a fellow in that battery yonder who has been in the hospitaltwice already, and, if this war lasts out Kitchener's tip of threeyears, practically the whole of the armies will have gone up foralterations and repairs, and be as lively as ever on the firing line. The Geneva Treaty, that prohibits firing on the Red Cross in time ofwar, is like any other 'scrap of paper. ' I'd wipe out the enemy'shospitals and poison his food supplies. It's an uncivilised idea, Iguess, but so is war. What's the difference between tearing out afellow's 'innards' with a bayonet, and killing him by the gentler way ofpoisoning his liquor? What's the difference between poisoning theenemy's drinking water and poisoning the enemy's air with thenew-fangled French explosive--Turpinite? It's all hot air talking of theenemy's barbarism--scratch the veneer off any of us and we're back intothe stone age. If I had a free leg or free wing, I'd drop arsenic inevery reservoir in Germany. Why, we're even prevented dropping 'coughs'on those long strings of trains we see every day, crawling far beyondthe enemy's line carrying supplies from their bases to the firing line, feeding 'em up, feeding 'em up all the time. "

We chafed at this restriction of our possibilities. 

It gave Nap a fine opportunity for nasty remarks. 

"Here we've got the most wonderful arm of the war, and the men over usdon't know how to appreciate it. It's the same old prejudices, as my oldColonel, Sam Reber, used to say, 'every new thing has to fight its way. 'It's the same with wireless. Here they're only using it for tiddlywiddly messages, like school kids practising with pickle bottles, whenthey could use it to guide a balloon loaded with explosives and fittedup with a wireless receiver and a charged cell, so that it could beexploded by a wave when it got over a position or a city. I'd like tosee this fight a war of cute stunts, a battle of brains against brains, but I suppose we'll have to stick here till our fabrics rot whilst thosefellows out yonder are burrowing into the earth like moles, coming outat night, like cave-men, and battling with a club. "

CHAPTER VII. 

What Australia was Doing. 

That day I had a letter from Australia. Here it is:--

"Dear Jefson, --Your cheery letter from the front was full of the powderand shot of action and riotous optimism. I'm afraid mine will be acontrast. 

"Our Australia isn't faring well. Our vigorous assertion of the strengthof our young nationhood has been manifested only in a military and navalsense--commercially, we are nearly down and out. 

"We are outrageously pessimistic. There was an excuse at the beginningof the war, when we dropped behind a rock, stunned at the very thoughtof an Armageddon; then we clapped our hands on our pockets, tightened upour purse strings, and, with white faces, waited for the worstand--we're still waiting. There was an excuse for us to be absolutelyflabbergasted when the Kaiser's crowd rushed on to Paris. There may havebeen reason then for more than ordinary caution, but since the 'greatcheck, ' there has been no valid reason for people to still sit tight andwait. People with money to invest are holding up most of the formeravenues of activity. 'Till the war is over' is the only excuse they canmumble. 

"Take building investments in Sydney alone. A friend showed me a list ofninety-one plans held up, totalling over £4, 000, 000; held up 'till thewar is over, ' held up till the accumulated business will rush like anavalanche, running prices that are now low to such a high figure thatthe fools who waited will find they will have lost thousands. Buildingprices are now fifteen per cent. Cheaper than before the war andtwenty-five per cent. Cheaper than they will be when the war has broken. Twenty-five per cent. Means a distinct loss of £1, 000, 000 in one avenueof investment alone, not counting the tying up of the many hundredsother lines depending upon building construction--and when you consider, Jefson, that such inactivity is almost everywhere, you can guess we'rein for a bad time if people don't buck up. To make matters worse, somefirms are stopping advertising, forgetting that advertising is thelife-blood of their business, and by stopping advertising they'restopping circulation of money. The firm that thinks it can save money bystopping advertising is in the same street as the man who thinks he cansave time by stopping the clock. 

"These are no ordinary firms, but what the local Labor League is so fondof describing as 'capitalistic institutions. ' They hold many thousandsin reserve and their annual dividends have been at least 10 per cent. For years and years and years. Moreover their businesses have notmaterially suffered. In some cases, indeed, there has been improvement. But 'profits' evidently supersede humanity; the interests of gold aregreater than the welfare of human flesh and blood and even the call ofcountry. It seems hard, Jefson, that you should be risking your life andother brave fellows shedding their blood, for such men who have neithercommercial instinct nor human feeling. I fully expected some of thosefirms to start their jobs as an incentive to others. We only wantsomeone to start and do something big to galvanise the smaller investorsinto action. It's not capital they lack, but confidence. 

"I often wonder why the men who have had the acumen to amass money havenot the common sense to realise that unemployed capital is arapidly-accruing debt. Sovereigns by themselves are not wealth. It istheir purchasing capacity and their equivalent in the requirements oflife that represent fortunes. Investment, not idle capital, is wealth. 

"Australia is being held back a great deal by the operation of StateEnterprise. It has always been extravagant, inefficient and slow; butthe effects are being more keenly felt at this time. At Cockatoo Island, the Federal Shipbuilding Yard, a cruiser was built that could not belaunched. (I don't want you to mention this because we feel mightyhumiliated. ) Someone blundered. Who that someone was I do not suppose weshall ever know. That is the worst of being an employer of politicians. They run your business when they like, how they like, and with whom theylike. You only come in on the pay day. However, the difficulty is beinggot over by the construction of a coffer-dam--at a cost of £30, 000. Wehave been confidently assured by the men running our business thateverything will be all right in the long run. Perhaps that assurance isintended as a guarantee that we shall get a long run for our money. Anyhow, at time of writing the coffer-dam is being constructed. 

"In N. S. W. The position of the Public Works Department must be much thesame as the Sultan of Turkey's--no money, no friends. And no wonder! Itdrained the State of all spare cash for the edification of its day-laborjoss, and is about to pawn the State to foreign money lenders for more. Being now on its absolute uppers, the Public Works Department is handingover work to a private syndicate to be carried out on a percentagebasis. The longer the work takes and the more it costs, the better forthe private company. Here again the public pays. 

"State Enterprise has wrecked the people's self-reliance and initiative. As soon as a man gets out of work now his first aim is to demand thatthe State make him a billet. This, of course, the State cannot do, andthe rejected job-seekers, who are growing in numbers daily, are like alot of hornets round the ears of Ministers. 

"There is one way out of the difficulty, and that is, the abandonment ofthe whole system of State Socialism and the re-establishment of privateenterprise. If that policy were to be endorsed to-morrow, plenty ofcapital would be found for many schemes that are held up at present, andMinisters would be relieved of all worry and responsibilities. Butthey're not game, they're just hanging on--hanging on, and, I tell you, something is going to snap somewhere, sometime. 

"From a military point of view there is no reason to worry. We have abig army in Egypt on the road to back you up, with more to follow. Imust not say much on that matter. The censor will chop it out, but we'recoming to the point that every man who doesn't go to the front mustlearn how to shoot straight. Let's hope he'll also learn that he can doa good deal to help fellows like yourself that are keeping the flagflying abroad, by keeping up confidence and the flag flying at home. "

I read the letter to Nap. 

"There are two points in that letter, " he said. "The funk at home andthe readiness to enlist. We've also got that funk-bee, sure. Why, when Ileft U. S. A. A ten million dollar war tax was launched, unemployed wereswarming into the cities, factories were closing down because of thefalling-off of exports, and the situation was getting so desperate thatthe Wilson-Bryan crowd were talking of forcing the British blockade ofGermany with ships of contraband stuff. But there's no readiness toenlist, Jefson, not on your life. I'm sorry to say the physically worstare offering themselves for their country's service, and only ten percent. Of those offering are accepted; and though they advertise 'bowlingalleys, ' 'free trips round the world, ' and other stunts as inducements, the response is so flat that when I passed through Chicago last Augustto come here, the recruiting stations had a notice up 'colored menwanted for infantry!' You know there's a sure prejudice against thenigger, we grudge giving him a vote, but when it comes to fighting forthe country, well, he's as welcome as the 'flowers that bloom in thespring, tra-la. ' I guess you Australians lick us right there. "

[Illustration: "Information had been received of a new type ofZeppelin. "--Chapter VIII. ]

CHAPTER VIII. 

A Prisoner in Cologne. 

A military operation order is crystallised commonsense. It is awonderfully concise bunch of phraseology. 

Our squadron commander read the latest by lamplight over a spread map ofthe theatre of war. 

The general situation of the campaign explained that a Zeppelin raid onthe east coast of England had been made on the 19th of January, thirteendays before. 

Information had been received that a new type of Zeppelin had beenconstructed, a "mother" type, capable of carrying a number ofaeroplanes. 

The intention of the operation order was to destroy all known Zeppelinsheds; each air squadron supplying special officers for the purpose. 

I well remember the particulars of that order. They printed theirdetails upon my memory because I had been selected to destroy the shedsat Saarbruck. I was to leave three hours before the following dawn. 

I remember Nap's disappointment that I was to go alone. He helped mymachine out without a word. He may have had a premonition that I was notto return as I watched him silently fixing the compass and map-roller, testing the spring catch and guide of the bomb-dropper and packing intoit its heavy load of "cough-drops. " Then he stood like a dumb figurewaiting for my starting signal. 

"Buck up, Nap, " I ventured, climbing into the seat. "One would thinkthis was a funeral. I must get a hustle on as I've got to do 120 milesbefore I can get to business, so if everything's right, I'll swoop up. "

Nap looked up. 

"Fly high, and good luck, " was all he said as he gripped my hand. Then Ipressed the starter, the propeller hummed and pulled me into thestar-specked sky. 

I steered easterly, leaving on my left the red fire-glow of Rheims andpassing over the sleepy lights of Valny. Within an hour I was over thegreat black stretch of the Argonne Forest, and crossing the Meuse, along line of fog with Verdun 7000 feet below. The engine was workingwell, throwing back the miles at about 60 per hour. A glow of lights tothe right showed Metz next to a streak of grey, the Moselle River; andas the dawn-light came into the sky, the Saar River came under me, covered by a fog with a fringe that flapped over its right bank andcovered Saarbruck. 

According to the sketch-map the Zeppelin sheds were near the railwaystation. So I flew low into the mist to get their correct position. Thenoise of my engine brought a shot from an aerial gun, but the fog savedme. A bunch of lights brought the station into view with theunmistakable long hangar of the Zeppelin adjacent to it. 

I turned to get the sheds beneath me, and three foot-treads sent as manybombs chasing each other earthwards. 

The first hit the ground near the shed, exploding without doing anydamage. The second crashed through the roof of the hangar, its explosionbeing almost coincident with a fearful crash; the resulting air-rushalmost overturning my 'plane. The third bomb fell into the back end ofthe shed, but I guessed it was not required. 

My job was done, so I rose high above the fog line to get a straight runfor home. Three Taubes were patrolling high, evidently on the look out. 

I saw they would have the drop on me, so I sank back into the fog andunder its cover swooped across the river for home. I was over theenemy's country where I guessed I was being searched for, so takingadvantage of the fog I maintained a 1000 feet level and made a bee-linefor Epernay. 

[Illustration: THE ZEPPELIN SHED, AT SAARBRUCK. 

Chapter VIII. ]

My job was done, and I remember I was particularly elated. 

I got a surprise near the Argonne Forest, striking a breeze thatsuddenly came up from the south, lifting the fog curtain and showing medangerously close to the earth. 

I swiftly jerked the elevator for a swoop up as a rifle cracked. I wasspotted!

A volley of shots followed and--I was winged. 

I remember, like a hideous dream, a long, evil-smelling shed in which Ilay, a stiffly stretched and bandaged figure on a straw-strewn floor. 

I was afterwards told it was Mezieres Railway Station, and that I wasone of many hundred wounded being taken from the field hospitals to thebase. 

I need not detail my experiences for the next six months. I was takenfrom the hospital at Aix-la-Chapelle to Cologne to be attached to a gangof prisoners for street cleaning. 

I remember our daily march across the Great Rhine Bridge with itswonderful arches at its entrance, and the great bronze horses on itsflanks. I had occasion to remember that bridge, for there, some timelater, the sunshine was to come into my life. 

For six months I had not heard much of the war. My hospital friends hadbeen wounded about the same time as I. My street-gang mates, a Belgianand a Frenchman, knew little except that up till June the Ostend-Nancyfighting line was still held by both armies. The lack of news did notworry me during my days of pain, but as the strength came back to me itbrought a craving for news of the Great Game. Where were the Allies?What of the North Sea Fleet? How was Australia taking it? What was Napdoing? were questions that chased each other through my mind. FiveTaubes had flown over us the day before, going south, but--what wasdoing?

It was on the Cologne Bridge a week later that a rather pretty girl, with an unmistakable English face, stopped to converse with one of myguard. At the same time she pointed to me: at which the guard lookedround, frowned and spat with contempt. 

"Are you English?" she queried. 

"Yes, " I replied, "I'm from Australia. "

I had touched a sympathetic chord and she "sparked" up. 

"Australia! Do you know Sydney?" she asked. 

"I'm from Manly, " was all I replied. 

Then she did what I thought was a foolish thing--she came over andnearly shook my arm off!

The officer of the guard resented it, but she jabbered at him andexplained to me that Australian prisoners were to have specialtreatment, then glancing at my number she stepped out across the bridge. 

I found she was correct. When my gang returned to the barracks my numberwas called and I was questioned by the officer in charge. I was informedthat Germany had no quarrel with Australia, hence I was only to be aprisoner on parole, to report myself twice a day and come and go as Ipleased. 

That is how I came to win great facts regarding Germany and her ideals. That is how I found out how it was that with Austria, Germany for ninemonths could hold at bay the mighty armies of the world's three greatestEmpires, British, French and Russian, as well as the fighting cocks ofBelgium; and at the same time endeavor to knock into some sort offighting shape the crooked army of the Turks; how three nations of109, 000, 000 people could defy for nine months the six greatest nationsin the world with a joint population of 622, 200, 000!

The facts are of striking import to-day and should be understood byevery man who is fighting for the Allies on and in the land, sea andair. 

[Illustration: "On the bridge across the Rhine, at Cologne. "--ChapterVIII. ]

CHAPTER IX. 

Some Surprises in Cologne. 

My unexpected freedom in Cologne was but one of many surprise. 

There was the surprise of meeting an Australian friend in suchunexpected quarters. I ascertained her name was Miss Goche. Her fatherwas a well-known merchant of Melbourne, but was now living in Sydney. Hehad sent his daughter to the Leipsic Conservatorium to receive thetechnical polish every aspiring Australian musician seems to considerthe "hall mark of excellence. "

But the war closed the Conservatorium as it did most other concerns, bydrawing out the younger professors to the firing line and the older mento the Landstrum, a body of spectacled elderly men in uniform, who feltthe spirit wake in their feeble blood and prided themselves as"bloodthirsty dogs, " as they watched railway lines, reservoirs, powerstations, and did other unexciting small jobs. 

Miss Goche was staying with her aunt and grandfather in Cologne. Attheir home I was made welcome. 

Little restriction was placed on my movements, than the twice dailyreporting at the Barracks. 

I wondered at this freedom. 

"It is easily explained, " said old Goche, who could speak English. "TheFatherland knows no enmity with Australia. We have sympathy for theIndians, Canadians and other races of your Empire, who have been whippedinto this war against their own free will. "

"But, " I interrupted, "there has been no whipping. "

"Tut, tut, " he continued. "We of the Fatherland know. Have we not proof?Our "Berliner Tageblatt" tells us so. We have no quarrel with thecolonial people. Our hate is for England alone; and when this war isover and we have England at our feet, we shall be welcomed by Australiaand the colonies, and we shall let them share with us the freedom andthe light and the wisdom of our great Destiny. "

There was no convincing the old man to the contrary, and hisgranddaughter informed me that the same opinion was universal inGermany. 

"The best proof that it is so is the freedom you enjoy, " she said. 

"And yet there are times, " she continued, "that I feel there is a subtlereason for this apparent kindliness for the colonies of the BritishEmpire. You know Germany cannot successfully develop her own colonies. She has not that spirit of initiative that the Britisher has inattacking the various vicissitudes that every pioneer meets with in thedevelopment of a new land. That is why she let her colonies be snappedup by Australia without a pang; that is why as you say, she let herpeople hand over Rabaul and New Guinea to your Colonel Holmes without abattle. She fancies that when she wins this war as she has convincedherself she will, it will be a simple matter to step into the occupationof ready made colonies of such wonderful wealth and development. "

The chief surprise of my freedom, however, was my changed opinionregarding the way Germany was taking the war. 

I, like the average Britisher, had believed that in checking the Germanrush on Paris and driving it to the Aisne, we had whipped Germany to astandstill. 

We had pictured her checked on the east with her Austrian ally on theverge of pleading for peace; her fleet cowering in the Kiel Canal like afrightened hen beneath a barn. 

I, like every other Britisher, had fancied that Germany was undergoingan awful process of slow death; that she was faced with economic ruin;that her trade and manufacture had been smashed, causing untoldruination and forcing famine into every home; that the German populacewere being crushed under the terrors of defeat, were cursing "theKaiser and his tyrannical militarism, " and waiting for the inevitableuprising with revolution and general social smash up. 

And I knew such was the belief of the Allies and the world generally. 

Never was a more mistaken notion spread!

Germany, notwithstanding what blunders and miscalculations she wasaccused of making, believed she would win. 

This belief obsessed her. 

Every movement, whether it achieves its direct object or not was made tonail that belief more secure. 

A great philosopher wrote many years ago the following maxims:--

"To the persevering--everything is possible. "

"They will conquer who believe they can. "

Germany believed she would conquer, and for forty years she had beenbuilding up that belief. 

[Illustration: "German aeroplanes were built from English types. "

Chapter X. ]

CHAPTER X. 

"Made in Germany. "

Grandpa Goche told the story of Germany's development with mingledpride, yet with a tinge of regret. 

We sat before his wide fireplace where a great fire crackled. 

Puffing at his long pipe Grandpa Goche peered into the fire for a spacebefore answering my query as to Germany's destiny. 

"The destiny of the Deutschland?" he finally exclaimed. "Ah! It will begreat and wonderful. But where it will end--who knows! Will it be likethe Tower of Babel, great in conception, great in execution, butoverreaching in its greatness? Will our destiny be like the snowball, accumulating as it rolls till it becomes immovable in its immensity?Then--stagnation! And yet the start of that snowball was but 50 yearsago. 

"I remember as a boy when Bismarck was Prime Minister of Prussia, and heforced through the Reichstag his great army re-organisation scheme. In'64 he attacked Denmark and took Schleswig-Holstein. That is how we gotKiel. Two years after he crushed the Austrians in six weeks, and tookHanover, Hesse, and Nassau; and four years after that he smashed theFrench and took Alsace-Lorraine. 

"Flushed with victory, proud Deutschland, with Denmark, Austria andFrance humbled in the dust, wiped her sword and peered at the Dawn. Butshe did not sheath that sword. No! In the ecstasy of triumph she wastrying to formulate a policy of carving a destiny great and glorious. She looked first to peaceful development by legislation; and then, inthat passing period of uncertainty, Bismarck threw out his famousdeclaration that the destiny of Deutschland was to be won, not by votesand speeches, but by Blood and Iron. 

"It was what you call a 'happy hit. '

"It appealed to the animal strength of the German race. Bismarck knewthat beneath the surface most of the men of Germany were of a wildnature; he knew that in less than a century they rose from thedegradation of conquered barbarians to the heights of victors of threenations, and the 'blood and iron' policy ran through Germany as a newinspiration. 

"Bismarck floated the great new Ship of State, and stood at the wheelpeering keenly into the troublous waters of the future. There was onegreat rock of which he wished to steer clear, so on the Ship of Destinyhe placed a maxim. It was: 'War not with England. '

"There were other simple rules of navigation that irritated a new youngofficer on the bridge, who felt that the Bismarckian policy, thoughperhaps sure, was not speedy enough for his vaulting ambition. 

"I remember well this young Kaiser, a man of wonderful vitality, whorevelled in the strength of developing manhood, and who early began toassert himself. Those who tried to curb his youthful impetuosity wentdown before him till there was but one great personality left who couldtalk to him as a father would to his wayward son. It was Bismarck, hewho dragged Prussia from the depths and gave her the ideal for a worldpower. The cool calculating wiseacre said, 'Steady, lad, ' so--he had togo. 

"Then the Kaiser took the wheel. 

"He found Germany a comparatively small country, with a great andprolific population of sixty-six millions. He found the German woman notthe mild and simple 'hausfrau' of folk lore, but a virile woman with acreed that the production of children was her first duty, not only toher husband and herself, but to her country. He knew that in Germanyillegitimacy was no disgrace, and he saw Germany's population increaseten millions in the course of ten years. 

"He looked at his restricted boundaries and saw his people being bottledup. That's why he gave the declaration that 'Germany's destiny is uponthe water'. 

"We needed colonies, but all the colonies worth having were takenby--whom? Your England!

"We were hungry for trade and influence in distant waters, but yourEngland held the gateways to the world's trade channels. 

"The road to Asia and Australia was lined with England's forts, andGibraltar, Malta, Port Said and Aden watched the way like frowningsentinels. 

"It was then that we prepared for 'The Day. '

"Our Kaiser gave the call 'Deutschland Uber Alles' (Germany over all). It was a new creed, and it soon gained the strength of a religion. 

"I know you English ridicule the idea of the Kaiser and his DivineRight--but do not forget an English King claimed the same thing. "

[Illustration: "DROPPING THE PILOT. "

Tenniel's Cartoon in "Punch, " showing the reckless irresponsibility ofthe Kaiser began early. ]

"Yes, " I interrupted, "and we chopped off his head. "

He went on, ignoring my interruption--

"You English speak of God as the God of Hosts and the God of Battles, but you only mouth it. We Germans believe in it, and we work for it. Itpermeates our life like a divine call. It makes every man feel he is apart of a great whole, a working unit in an immense machine, whether itbe in the field of battle or in the field of industry. We feel we aredoing a divine duty. 

"And this divine spirit is in our work. 

"We associate all our tasks with a sense of service to our fellowcitizens. We make trade and civic education compulsory to all boys from14 to 18 years of age and to all girls from 11 to 16 years of age. YourEngland has only 26 per cent. Of children at school between those ages. 

"We train our children and people to discharge specialised functions. Weassociate practice with theory. We amalgamate science with manufacture. 

"Your England at one time was the chief glass manufacturing country, butthirty years ago a professor of mathematics at Jena joined a glassmaker, and to-day we lead in the world's glass manufacture. 

"In 1910, your England exported one and a half million pounds worth ofglass, and Germany exported five million pounds worth. 

"In 1880, your England led the world in the output of pig iron, producing nearly eight million tons to four million tons produced by theUnited States. 

"In 1910, the United States produced twenty-seven million tons, Germanyfifteen million tons, and Great Britain ten million tons. 

"In 1856 an Englishman named Perkins first produced a coal tar dye. 

"In 1910, Germany exported nine and a half million pounds worth, whileGreat Britain exported only £336, 000 worth. 

"So you see Germany has beaten England in peace as you will see we shallbeat her in war. "

Then he spat into the fire, put his pipe away, and as he was going outto bed flung this final shot:

"And there again we differ from you English. That is why we go into thisdivine struggle as a grim and serious business. One great united armywith a hymn to God, and one great battle cry, 'Deutschland Uber Alles. 'You English take it as what you call 'a jolly sport, ' with your battlecry, 'Are we down-hearted?' and your battle hymn, 'It's a long long wayto Tipperary, ' ah-ha-ho"--and he laughed his way up to his bedroom. 

I sat looking into the dying flames, dwelling upon all his jibes. 

I thought how each German felt he was a cog in the immense nationalmachine, and had his work systematised. I could then understand how thatkilled initiative in the individual, and why Germany had not made anygreat discoveries in science or manufacture, but had simply stolen ideasof other countries and adapted them to her own ends. 

Grandpa Goche had spoken of coal tar dye, then I recalled how Germanyhad also taken Marconi's wireless invention and Germanised it; how ithad taken the French and the English ideas in airship and aeroplaneconstruction and worked upon them; how even the English town planningmovement was imitated. In the latter case I remembered reading that the"Unter den linden" had been widened by the process of pushing thedwellings back until they each housed 60 families. Germany, on thisoccasion, had grabbed the idea but missed the spirit, in the absence ofwhich town planning is merely a name. 

Even the manufactures of Germany had been built upon those of othercountries. There was a case I recalled, that of the Australian cordialmanufacturer, who desired to introduce his stuff into Germany. He wasmet with a stiff tariff, but informed that if he established a factorythere there would be no need to import it. Why, now I came to rememberit, even the original "Rush-on-Paris" plan was stolen. Hilaire Belloc, the Anglicised Frenchman, had written of it in the "London" Magazine, ofMay, 1912. When that plan failed what had Germany done? Why, dug itselfin on the Aisne!

The idea of the German submarine raids was not original, as it formedthe base of a story by Sir Conan Doyle that appeared in the English"Strand Magazine" and in the American "Colliers' Weekly" many monthsbefore!

Germany, in fact, built its fame on assiduous imitation rather thanoriginality. But at what cost? Its people had degenerated in the processfrom thinking humans to dumb, driven cattle, going, going, for evergoing, but non-comprehending the why or the wherefore of it all, beyondthe arrogant assumption of "welt-politik. " Every refining trait wassubordinated to the exigencies of the gospel of force. Not only theplebeian mass, but the exclusive aristocracy, revelled in the brutishimpulse that associated all appeals to reason with effeminacy andinvested the sword-slash on the student's cheek with the honorordinarily claimed by the diploma. 

This gospel of exalting animal strength developed a living passion fortyranny and grossness. We have seen it evidenced in the orgies that havereddened Belgium and France. 

And I had given my parole to a nation without a soul--a nation thatexpected honor but knew not what it meant. 

I crept to bed disturbed in mind, but resolved next day to take certainaction. 

[Illustration: "I remembered our march across the great Rhine Bridge, with its wonderful arches and great bronze horses. "--Chapter VIII. ]

CHAPTER XI. 

The Escape from Cologne. 

Next morn I rose from a sleepless couch. 

Thoughts grim and gaunt had purged my brain the whole night long. Therewas a flood of reasons why I should leave that German home. I chafed atbeing a guest in the house of old Goche, whose animosity to the Causewas undying. I could see that our discussions on the war were increasingin bitterness and would, ere long, terminate in a storm. I desired toavoid this for the sake of Miss Goche, whose friendship was the onlybalm in that period of stress. I had little further desire to accepthospitality from a stranger simply because I happened to be from thesame country as his granddaughter. 

But greatest of all reasons why I should leave was because I had nowcompletely recovered from my wound, and the War of the World was wagingwithin 100 miles of me. 

My job was "action on the firing line" and not lolling in security as aguest of an enemy! Now that my wound had healed and my strength hadknitted firmly again, I felt I was a traitor in giving my parole not toescape. 

That August morning, when I made my first daily call at the barracks, Istated to the officer to whom I generally reported, that I was going totry and escape. He first seemed somewhat surprised, but soon broke intoa laugh. Turning, he spoke laughingly to another officer, who joined inthe hilarity. 

"So you're going to escape, eh?" he said. "Well, we don't think youwill. If you intended to escape you would not be so foolish as to tellus about it; and then, if you did attempt it, you could not get out ofCologne with an English face like yours. That's alright, " he repeated, "you will report this afternoon as usual. "

I stood awhile. 

"There is the door, " he said. "Good morning, we are busy. "

I returned and acquainted Miss Goche of my action. 

I explained there were two reasons for my giving notice. I could nowattempt to get away without breaking my parole; and now no blame couldbe placed on the Goche household for my escape. 

I need not here mention the scene that followed, but I may state I wasaware that my departure had taken on a new aspect. I knew I was leavingone for whom I had now more than friendship, one whom I found had riskedmuch to make me secure. She admitted that, without doubt, my duty laybeyond the Rhine. 

"But you will please me greatly if you will report at the barracks thisafternoon, as usual, " she said. 

I did so, and was met by an officer with an "I told you so" smile. 

I left the Goche home that afternoon at dusk. I did not intend to crossthe river at Cologne. The way west would be too black with grimforebodings. The best opportunity of escaping seemed to be south, downthe right bank of the Rhine to Coblenz, then crossing to the Rhinemountains, going south into Luxembourg, and then keeping east, trustingto good fortune to get through the German lines into the Vosges. 

Miss Goche accompanied me as far as the park on the river bank, where ina quiet alcove I somewhat Germanised my appearance. I shaved my shortbeard and trimmed my moustache with the ends erect, the now universalfashion of the German menfolk; and with an old felt cap and unmistakableGerman clothes, I felt I could probably pass muster until I opened mymouth. 

I had, thanks to my good friend, learned off a few German phrases foruse at odd times, so, as night fell we parted. 

Down the pathway I stepped with a world of mystery ahead of me. Iremember now it took no slight effort to leave, but though the call awaywas unmistakable, I knew the reply was the hardest task in myexperience. But I set my teeth and trudged down the track till Ireached the bend, then I looked back. At the top of the road a figurestood, a hand waved and--yes--a kiss was thrown, then she turned away. 

I felt alone in a new world, so marked my way and went into the night. 

[Illustration]

During the first hours I stepped along in fear and trembling. I peopledevery dark corner with a sentry; I pictured every distant tree ascovering watching soldiers. I wondered at the lack of challenge, till itdawned upon me that I was not in the fighting country. There was no warin these parts, so I tramped along at the side of the road till earlymorning, the only incident being a hail from a man on a bridge which Ihad passed but did not have to cross. The bridges were evidentlyguarded. As dawn light came into the sky I saw an aeroplane pass flyinglow and stared at by an early morning ploughman, then I crept behind ahedge and stole a sleep. 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Waste of War. 

I could not have been long in slumber, when a slight noise, perhaps thecracking of a stick, drove sleep from my anxious brain, and I sat upwith surprise, staring at a long figure in black that stood peering atme. The black gown, the beads and the broad-brimmed hat told me it was apriest. 

He spoke to me in German. It was one of the sentences Miss Goche told meI would be asked--he wished to know where I was going. So I fired at hima second of my readied German phrases: "I'm going south to fight, " Isaid, which was true. 

Then he let free a flood of German that floored me. He waited for areply that hesitated; then with a queried look into my face, he said:"English! you're no German, " and his eyes began to twinkle. 

"You can confess, " he said, "remember there is no war with men of God. I, too, am going south, I am going to France, our journey will seemquicker in company, let us step forth. "

He was a Christian Brother. He had been to Australia, where many of hisOrder were established. I explained I knew of their work in education;in fact, I happened to know many of the fraternity by name. I ran over agamut of names of those I knew in past years. There were Brothers Paul, Wilbrid, Aloysius and Mark. 

"I may know some of those you mention, " he said, "but I do not think itpossible. We seldom know each other by name unless we are beneath thesame roof. There are hundreds called by the names you mentioned, Imyself am a 'Brother Wilbrid. '"

It is a wonderful fact that there is nothing that knits strangerstogether, as the hitting on the name of a mutual friend, so we becameclose companions. 

He had been born in Lorraine, but had lived most of his time in Berlin. His close-cropped grey hair showed he was well on in years. He had beenan artisan before he joined his Order, and he lightened our long trampto Coblenz with his idea of the trend of things. 

The road was good and the air was clean and sweet. We passed by somefarms where women were behind the plough. 

Summer was breaking, and the Autumn sunshine was drying the lastdewdrops from the grass. 

"Note, " Brother Wilbrid said, "how all Nature welcomes the sunshine, hear the birds twitter, see the cattle slowly moving on that rise. AllNature here joins in a hymn of peace, yet far beyond those westernridges three million men lay trenched through the winter and stared inhellish hate at each other across a narrow strip. 

"All Nature welcomed the Spring with a pæan of praise, but by fightingmen it was welcomed as the opportunity to rise from winter holes andrush across the Spring sun-warmed earth to warm it anew with flowingblood. But it is not the waste of blood that so appals, it's the wasteof effort and the waste of heroism. The labor of three million mencould, in the wasted months of war build much to ensure unending humanhappiness. Thirty-two thousand men cut a channel through Panama andshortened the world's journey to your home by a third! Think what thelabor of three million men could do!

"And then there is the waste of heroism. 

"Men with large hearts will risk their lives to drag a comrade out ofdanger. It is heroism--yes--but it is wasted on a cause offoolishness----"

"But, " I interrupted, "there is other heroism than that on the fightingline, " and I told him the story of Abbe Chinot, of Rheims, the youngpriest in charge of the cathedral; how, when German shells were crashinginto the grand old pile which was being used as a hospital for Germansoldiers, Chinot, aided by Red Cross nurses, dragged the wounded intothe street, where surged a mob, maddened that their beloved church wasin flames, and that their homes and five hundred of their folks hadbeen smashed with German shells. The sight of the grey uniforms on theGerman wounded drove the mob into frenzied screams of revenge, but thefearless Abbe placed himself between the uplifted rifles of the crowdand the German wounded. "If you kill them, " he said, "you must firstkill us"; and how the mob, struck with his perfect courage, moved awayin silence. 

[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL OF RHEIMS. ]

[Illustration: "Smashed with German Shells. "

(The Rheims Cathedral Front. )]

"Yes, that is fine, very fine, " he said--"yet it does not prove thatthe war made the brave Abbe heroic. 

"This war is unnecessary. It is the most unnecessary of all wars. It isnot a war of the people. It is a merchants' war. It is not a war of theworkers. It is a war for commerce--and four million or more lives willgo up to God in the interests of Trade. 

"I fear the consequences of this war. I feel this war spirit will bringon a sequel that will surprise humanity. 

"A great writer[1] likened the war spirit to a carbuncle on the body. The poison flowing through the blood localises itself, and a painfullump forms in the flesh. Relief is sought in salves, ointments, andpoultices. But the lump continues to swell, and the pain to increase, until at the very time when the soul is in mortal agony the carbunclebursts and spews out the poison. The pain ceases, the swelling subsides, and the flesh regains its normal color. 

"The poison of injustice flows through the veins of society. Men aredenied their natural rights; and when the oppression becomesunendurable, their oppressors make all manner of excuses. The afflictionis due, they say, to the wrath of God, to the niggardliness of nature, or to the encroachments of foreign nations. Ah, the encroachments offoreign nations! When all other excuses fail, there is this to fall backupon; and each ruling class of oppressors holds its victims insubjection by charging the trouble to the others. 

"But the people are awakening. A few already see their real oppressors. It is for each who sees the truth to tell his fellow, and that fellowhis fellow, until presently all will know the truth, and the truth shallmake them free; free from industrial tyranny at home, and free frommilitary tyranny from abroad. The work of the peace advocate is notnegative. It is not enough for him to cry peace, peace! He must firstlay the foundation for peace. To cry peace while the people writhe underinjustice is like trying to heal the carbuncle without cleansing theblood. "

[Illustration: "The Waste of War. "--Chapter XII. 

(The Cartoon, "Advance of Civilisation, " by Bradley, in the "ChicagoDaily Mail. ")]

[Footnote 1: Stoughton Cooley. ]

[Illustration: "It is not the people's fight. "--Chapter XIII. 

(The Cartoon, "Must Peace Wait for This, " by Bradley, in the "ChicagoDaily Mail. ")]

CHAPTER XIII. 

How the War Wrecked Theories. 

I shall never forget that wonderful walk on the Coblenz road: the grave, hard-cut featured face of the man of religion, pouring out hissocialistic theories, like a long pent-up torrent bursting through yearsof accumulated debris. At one moment he would be calm and clear, but attimes, in his excitement, he would lash at wayside flowers with hisstick like a soldier with a sabre. 

"The people are not sincere at heart in this Great War, " he said, "it isnot the people's fight. If soldiers only had their own way this warwould be short lasting--in fact the war nearly ended on Christmas Day. You have heard how the Germans and the English ceased firing at the dawnof that holy morn. How a bayonet from a German trench held up a placardwith those magic words of good cheer that ever move the world--"A MerryChristmas. " How each side sang hymns at the other's invitation, crossedthe zone of fire, and exchanged cigarettes. Surely the spirits of Jesusand Jaures moved along that line that wonderful morn. "

"And yet, " I said, "when time was up, back to their trenches thesoldiers crept and fought again like devils. "

He went on, ignoring my interruption. 

"And German officers, high in rank, held up their hands in horror at theidea of an armistice being arranged without their consent. That is thespirit that is going to end war--that human spirit that came to thesurface on Christmas morn and that proved that this awful war is but athing of Business. "

Our road passed along the cliff tops of the Rhine. There was littletraffic on the river and no sign of war. Everything seemed peaceful. Thewar, in draining the men and youths from the countryside, had placed amantle of calm upon life in the villages of the Rhine Valley. Evenacross the river a long length of railway line lay as a long road ofemptiness. Not a train, not a truck, not any sign of life was upon thelong stretch of metal. 

"And yet, " said Brother Wilbrid, "that is the main line from Bonn toCoblenz. All railwaymen, stock, and traffic are confined to the Theatresof War. "

We had walked in silence for quite a while. My companion was lost inthought. I ventured an interruption. 

"You are a Socialist, " I said. 

He looked at me a while before replying. 

"A Socialist? Well, no, I'm not--that is so far as Socialists have gone. I describe myself as a 'Humanist. ' Socialism as we had it before the warwas synonymous with revolution. Its creed, 'Revolution beforeevolution, ' spelt destruction and anarchy. It aimed to get what itwanted by force instead of striving to get it by constitutional means. Ibroke with them just there--and yet--and yet, " he mused, as if tohimself, "they were hounded down as outlaws of society for promisingforce--for threatening to do what the armies are to-day doing in the'interests of civilisation. '

"What a shuffle of theories this mighty conflict has brought about!Strange that your Allies claim they are fighting to save civilisationfrom being destroyed by the 'German barbarians, ' whilst the Germanconvinces himself that he is fighting to impress his 'higher culture'upon an unenlightened world!

"Listen! I was once an engineer in the Krupp Works, at Essen; that nestof the German War Eagle. I was but a unit in a mighty mass. We were allwell treated. Our health was well served. Our masters had learned that, just as they watched the health of horses, it was just as necessary tostudy the well-being of their human workers; so model homes and villageswere built for us, our masters realising that if we were healthy theywould get more work from us. They were philanthropists with an eye onthe output. And the average German worker was getting contented--gettinginto a groove. "

[Illustration: "That Nest of the German War Eagle. "-Chapter XIII. 

(The Krupp Works, at Essen. )]

"Then, " I ventured, "if a man's contented and has nothing to growlabout--why worry?"

"Ah, " he replied, "that's just the trouble, the German worker, as aworker, has little to complain of, but he is becoming systematised. Hecannot rise, he is forced to be content and do his job. His health isinsured by groups of employers sharing the responsibility. If workersget hurt too much or sick too much, the insurance syndicate begins tolose money; hence safety devices are considered and sanitoria built toprevent illness; and this German social insurance speeds individualinitiative to top speed. It makes the German worker a splendidanimal--and there is the danger. 

"You know it's human nature to complain--progress is built upondiscomfort, contentment means stagnation. I could see the workers fixedin their contented groove under the studied philanthropy of hisemployers and ending as in the dumb-driven-cattle age of the FeudalBarons. "

"It strikes me, " I said, "that the Socialist is of that type of Irishmanthat's never happy unless there's a chance of a fight. You might atleast admit that many employers have hearts like other human beings. There are many that recognise that profits are not everything. "

"No doubt, " he said, "but they're not in Germany. Prior to the war theworkers were moving close to a war with employers--the rise of Labor hasbeen steady and sure the world over. Why in your own country, Australia, Labor already controls the Governments. It was coming to that in Europe. The worker was climbing, climbing, all the time--organising, organising--but against the increasing demand for labor the employershad a powerful weapon in the invention of labor-saving machinery. 

"Every day saw more and more of the work of the world taken up bymachinery. Did a labor union demand increased wages, then a machine wasdevised to do the work with less assistance. In a return issued by theU. S. Government, it was estimated that 4, 500, 000 factory machine workersof that country were turning out products in quantities equal to thehand labor of 45, 000, 000 men. That meant that 90 per cent. Of the workin factories was being done by machinery; that one man, with the help ofmachines could produce ten times more than he needs. It was more acutein Germany. In other words, to satisfy the wants of one man for one day, a factory worker with a machine requires only one hour instead of theten he formerly worked. For whom was he doing the work of the remainingnine hours? Why, for rulers, soldiers, and other parasites, who do notwork but have to live. 

"When I was a worker in Essen I saw the set lives of the workers--notedhow a new labor-saving device threw out so many men at a time. I lookedback at the development of machinery and saw that a very large part ofmachinery is driven by steam-power, which meant largely coal-power, andI knew with the getting and burning of the coal there was not only aterrible waste of human labor, but 90 per cent. Of the heat generatedescaped unused, and not more than 5 per cent. Of the stored energy inthe coal became available for human needs. Even the finest quadrupleexpansion engines, with all the modern devices for super-heated steam toaugment their capacity, did not utilise more than 15 per cent. Weengineer workers knew that if an engine were invented to economise thiswaste there would be a further reduction of labor--and this device came. It came in the Diesel motor. "

"This wonderful engine meant the production of power from crude oil at acost of one-eighth of a penny to a farthing per horse-power, far beyondthe economy of any other form of engine and five times cheaper than theordinary steam engine. Its only rival was water-power--and water-poweris not everywhere. 

"We could see, at no distant day, nine-tenths of the workers of theworld supplanted by the machine! We could see that new labor-savingmachinery would mean a fearful catastrophe in the labor markets of theworld. Think of it. We could see wonderful engines, put together by thehands of the workers in the factories, pushing out the useless laborer, pushing him out into the crowded avenues of unemployed. We could seethis awful Frankenstein of machinery--a huge soulless metal monster, stalking through the world, bringing starvation, anarchy and destructionin its wake. 'It should not be--it must not be, ' we said, and lots weredrawn. "

Then he stopped short and sat upon a bank at the roadside. 

I watched him stare in thought at an ant creeping over a twig at hisfeet. 

"Well?" I said. 

He started and looked at me with lowered head. He peered at me beneathhis long grey eyebrows and quietly whispered--"Diesel had to die. "

"Then he was killed!" I said, starting up. I remembered he hadmysteriously disappeared in October, 1913. 

"Yes, " he replied, "and it was my task. "

He turned from me and looked across the peaceful Rhine. In the silencefaint booms seemed to come from the western battlefield, but it may havebeen the throbbing of my brain. I looked at the man with his hard-setjaw and quivering lips. 

I sat down again at his side, and for many minutes silently scratchedlines upon the road. 

Fully ten minutes passed, and he turned his face to me. 

"Listen!" he said. "Can you hear those distant guns? They tell methere's no Socialism in the world to-day. That war came in and smashedthe barriers. At Ghent, not long before the war, an InternationalCongress met and formed an Association for the best development of theworld's cities; at Paris, one month before the strife broke out, 2000delegates from Chambers of Commerce, representing 31 nations, met toensure the world's commercial peace and commercial prosperity; and justbefore the war a World's Congress of Socialists met in Berlin, andJaures won every heart with his denunciation of human strife. 

"Within a month a city-destroying army passed through Ghent and wreckedthe greatest constructional glories of the world. Within a month theworld's commerce was paralysed. Within a month Jaures was shot andSocialists the world over became blood-blinded. To-day they 'see red. 'They know not what they are fighting for, but there they fight likebloodthirsty fiends because they're told to. What are they fighting for?Will life be any harder for them what flag flies above their city? Thepeople fight and the people suffer, and when their job is done thoseleft are given scraps of metal to wear and are sent back to clear up themess. "

"Stop!" I said. "Don't forget there is such a thing as Patriotism. Listen!

 "'Breathes there the man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land. '"

Then he looked at me for a moment with his grave grey face--and smiled. 

"Listen, my boy, I am not a Frenchman, though born in Lorraine--I am nota German, though living most of my life in Germany--I am a Worldsman. Iam a Christian. To me all men are as brothers. I do not love any countrymore than any other. I prove that by making a friend of you. I should, in the casual order of things just now, hate you with the awful Germanhate of England. Patriotism is the love of the land in which youaccidentally happened to be born. Why should any one love a particulargeographical district upon the face of the earth because there hehappened to first see the light?

"Let me tell you, " he continued, with a strange fire in his eyes andslashing at a flower by the way, "God, or Nature if you like, will enacta punishment to fit this awful crime of the murder of five million men, and the heartbreaks of mothers, wives and children. This, the greatesttragedy the world has ever seen, will call for a fearful atonement. Iforesee, in this war, with its daily expense of three million pounds, and the additional waste, a general bankruptcy of the world, thedownfall of classes, of wealth, the wrecking of privilege. I foresee, when peace is declared, the fruitless return of millions of men to jobsthat have vanished, and to employers shorn of all power to employ them. Mark me! The world to-day is on the verge of a mighty cataclysm fargreater than the present awful clash of armies. Wise are the man andcountry that are preparing. "

He paused awhile as if in deep thought. 

"Listen, my boy, you quoted me some verse just now, let me quote youlines from the new version of the 'Watch on the Rhine':

 "Dear Fatherland, we'll soon be free, From Prussian Kings' autocracy: The world shall see all the battles cease, With dawn of universal peace. Each German worker has to pay One-fourth of what he earns per day To keep two million marching feet And please a Kaiser's mad conceit. Oh God! we're punished bitterly For Kaiser Wilhelm's blasphemy; Three million of our sons are slain, Let sacrifice be not in vain!"

He rose abruptly, grasped his stick, and set off down the road. 

I stood for a moment half-dazed; then I followed him. 

[Illustration: "If soldiers only had their own way, this war would beshort lasting. "--Chapter XIII. 

(The Cartoon, "An International Conference that would bring aboutPeace, " by Bradley, in the "Chicago Daily News. ")]

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Restless Masses. 

What sort of man was this? "A man of God" and yet a murderer! A manwithout a spark of patriotism. A man without a country. What a curiosityin these days, when at the first blast of war almost every man on earthranged himself beneath a nation's flag be it for strife or neutral!

Here was a man:--

 Whose heart had ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he had turned, From wandering on a foreign strand--

And the rhyming lines kept jogging through my brain as I trudged behindthat long straight figure in black. 

A turn of the road brought a house in sight and my companion quickenedhis steps. I hung back as he went up to the house. He turned, lookedaround, and waved me on. I passed by and waited some distance along theroad. 

An hour later he came up. He brought some brown bread and salt meat tome, and even better, some news of what was doing; and he told it to meas I sat and ate upon the bank. I remember, as he talked, and I keptwatching far to the west where some aeroplanes hovered above the nowgreening tops of the forest hills. 

"You get the truth from country folk, " he said. "They win their newsfirst hand from wounded fathers and sons. In the city the war news isground, sifted, and only what is of little interest is dispersed. Therehave been great deeds. The German armies hold the line between Ghent andMulhausen and are wearing out the Allies by exhaustion. Many armies havereinforced the British and the French, but the German lines hold fastand wear out the Allies. The Russians are still upon the defensive inPoland. London is in a panic as it has been attacked by Zeppelins, andthe German Fleet has come out from Kiel and claims a victory. That news, of course, you can doubt, as it does not come first hand. The Allies, however, threaten Constantinople and the Turkish armies are demoralised. But the greatest of the news, " and here the fire came into his faceagain, "is that the workers of the world are uneasy. Strikes rage inEngland, in Australia, in Canada, in the United States, and--yes inGermany. The English shipyard workers on the Clyde and at Southamptonhave at various times since March held up British naval construction;and it is now August. There is a universal demand for shorter hours withincreased wages, and food prices are high. The Australian workers arestriking against their own Labor Governments, and refusing to fit outtroopships unless they get treble pay for night work, and in Germany theworkers are rising because they are tiring of forced employment. All thecivil, as well as military factories, have been working treble shifts;and huge stocks of all kinds of manufactures have accumulated everywhereand cannot be distributed. Workers are losing heart. This war isstretching out too long for them. It was to be a short, sharp war, andthey now fear time is on the side of the Allies, so a general uprisingis threatened. But alas--alas!" he continued as if to himself, "thisnews is a fortnight old. "

Then he turned to me with anxious face. 

"I knew not of these things when I went on this road to Coblenz, " hesaid. "For fourteen days I had been in silent seclusion in a monasteryat Deutz, as each of our brotherhood must do once a year; and now I mustretrace my steps. I feel this new rebellion is a call to me. Listen, mynew found friend, " and he peered into my face. "I left the world twoyears ago. I could see that a change in great human conditions wasinevitable. I was what you call a labor leader. I went into a monasteryfor two purposes. I can confess to you. It is safe, as we will nevermeet again, and all ideas of justice will upend in the coming cataclysm. Listen I say, " and he gripped my wrist with a vice-like clutch of hisbony fingers. "I went into a monastery to escape the suspicion that Ihad removed one whom we felt would bring much unhappiness upon theearth. I went into a monastery to think. The turmoil of a busy worker'slife gave little opportunity for serious thought. I felt the day wascoming when the workers of the world would rise. I wanted to study theproposition and its possibilities with all the clearness of vision thatthe calmness of a monastery could give. I feel now that the day iscoming fast. It is near. All the signs of the approaching storm arebeing manifested. I am ready. 

"Some clear-visioned people in high office saw the portents in the skyand feared the toppling of the thrones, so threw this war into the ringto give the toilers opportunity for their heated passions, but this warwill be like blood to a tiger, it will quicken up the fighting spirit ofthe animal, and on those who forced this war it will recoil with awfuleffect. They saw the labor storm approach and put off the evil day. Itwas like neglecting to physic the human body--the longer deferred, theworse the disease. 

"I am going back again, " he continued. "You had better go on intoFrance. Your trouble will be to cross the Rhine. "

He paused awhile and looked pityingly at me. 

"Alas!" he continued. "You're a poor fool in these wild parts with onlyyour English and your bad French. "

He took a sheet of paper from his pocket and sketched a rough map uponit. 

"You can cross the Rhine, " he went on, "just here at Neuwied, it is buta mile along this road, then you go directly west to the Coblenz-TrevesRoad, which follows the Mozelle. That road will take you to Luxembourg;but keep away from Coblenz. They tell me at the farmhouse that it isfull of wounded soldiers and others are coming in by the Treves railwaythat skirts the road you will take. Beyond the Rhine there is muchdanger to you, but take this, " and he wrote some words on the back ofthe map. "God pardon me, for I know it is not all truth. Those words areGerman--they say you are 'deaf and dumb' and that 'you are going to thefront. '"

"Then you are going back to Cologne?" I asked. 

"Yes, " he said, "and beyond. I know not yet--perhaps to Berlin. "

A distant bell chimed. 

"The Angelus, " he said, standing and bowing his head in prayer. Thoughnot of his religion I also removed my hat and stood beside that man ofdeep mystery. His steel grey hair and care-lined face seemed foreign tohis strong built frame and iron hand grip, and as he prayed upon theroad, my thoughts rolled back to Cologne and dwelt upon that brave girlwhose friendship had made so sweet my prison days in that City of theBridges. I pictured my last vision of her upon the hill, wafting me afarewell. 

The man of prayer interrupted my reverie. 

"It is now good-bye, Australian, " he said. "Though all countries arealike to me, your nation seems to promise much. It leads the world injustice for the men who toil, and perhaps that is why I would like tosee you safely out of this maelstrom of human passions; but our waysmust part just here--good-bye!"

He left me as the evening shadows began to encircle the hills, andthough I felt a strange feeling of loneliness as he passed up the roadand out of sight, I felt brave and cheerful--for my friend had taken alove-letter to Cologne for me. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Figures on the Road. 

I reached the Rhine at dusk. The ferry barge, a small rope affair with ahand wheel, was at the water's edge. All was quiet this side of theriver, but across the water anxious voices called. Close to me a dooropened and a shaft of light split the darkness as the little old andwhite-haired ferry keeper came clattering out, wiping his mouth andmuttering savagely. He stepped upon the barge. I followed and took thewheel from him. He smiled and spoke, but as I pointed to my ears andtongue and shook my head, he nodded. Between us we worked the bargeacross the river. 

As the ferry neared the bank my heart beat fast, for I saw the waitingfigures were soldiers! There were five of them and they seemedimpatient. Before the barge had touched the shore they had jumpedaboard, not noticing me walk off. They were without rifles, this struckme at the time as very significant, and the soldiers began to hurriedlywork the ferry back again. I turned and watched the barge fade into thedarkness, but hearing footsteps, looked up and saw more soldiersoutlined on the skyline of the high bank. The road zig-zagged up thehill, and by keeping in the shadow of the cliff I passed along withouttrouble. From the hilltop I discovered to the left the light-dotted cityof Coblenz. I took the road to the west and walked through the night. Attimes many people passed along that road to the river, includingscattered bands of soldiers. I knew them by their spiked helmetssilhouetted against the sky. 

It must have been midnight when I struck the main Coblenz Road. A stringof waggons and carts rumbled along towards Coblenz with many soldierswalking between. Close by a railway line ran parallel with the road andcontinuous trains slowly crawled, hissing and shrieking like woundedthings. I plodded along the tree-screened roadside, the cloudy darknessof the night helping my security. And all through that night and earlymorning silent tramping figures passed along--all going in the onedirection!

As dawn began to break I left the high road, tired and foot weary andstruck into the bush to snatch some sleep. 

I woke with the sun well up in the sky. I still could hear the squealingof the railway trains, and when I climbed to a distant ridge and lookedaround me I saw the Coblenz-Treves road stretching far to the south-westand dotted with figures--grey soldiers and others, hospital waggons andfarm carts, all moving along like a great procession. 

I felt that road was not safe for me. 

Beyond the belt of timber between myself and the road were fencedpaddocks with scattered farm houses. To the west the forest stretchedwhere far ahead a speck of white caught my eye. I made it a guide markand worked towards it. 

Beyond the ridge I stumbled on to a small farm, and as I came in sight abarking dog brought a woman to the door. I felt hungry and took achance. She watched me approach, then closed the door, and as I came upshe opened it again, but held a gun in her hand and talked fiercely atme. 

I pointed to my ear and tongue and shook my head; at the same time heldout the sheet of paper. I remember the simple old lady put down her gunand pulled the spectacles from her forehead to her nose, read my notethat I was 'going to the front' and--kissed me! Possibly this wasbecause of the suggestion of a retreat, whilst I, a mute, was going tothe fighting line. Then she pointed towards the road and went off into atemper, rattling off a torrent of excited German, and again lookingtowards the road, spat vigorously. 

As she handed me bread and cheese there were tears in her eyes. Iremember as I left I kissed her and as I made for the strip of white Ihad seen earlier in the day, I carried the vision of those tear-dimmedeyes. "Somebody's mother, " I mused. "Somebody's mother. "

CHAPTER XVI. 

From February to August. 

It has been said that, if coincidences did not happen, stories would notbe written, and what I am about to write seemed at first strange, andyet, as events proved, was only natural. 

Before I reached the white mark upon the tree I heard the noise of thebreaking of bushes, so I carefully reconnoitred, and before long aswishing near by caused me to drop beneath a shrub, as there passed mewithin one hundred yards a figure dragging two saplings. I clapped myhand over my mouth to prevent shouting. It looked like Nap!

In my excitement I had moved. A sun-ray struck my white jacket. Thefigure stood, dropped the bushes, drew his revolver and turned his facetoward me. It was Nap!

I rushed out. 

"Nap, " I shouted--but the revolver was still pointed. 

"Hands up, " he called, nonplussed at the German-looking figure rushingtowards him. I threw his old phrase at him: "Fly high and good luck, oldman. " Then his arm dropped. 

"The voice is Jefson's, sure enough, " he said, "but the darned mug licksme. "

"Wait till I cover up the mo', " I said, putting my hand over my mouth. 

"Well, old chap, shall we drop a 'cough drop'?" I asked; and he nearlywrung my arm off. 

"I fell near here three nights ago, " he explained, "engine trouble--and, although it's enemy's country I don't like to burn the old 'bus, so I'vebacked its tail as far as I could into the bush and am screening theexposed part with bushes so that it won't be spotted from aloft. There'snot much wrong with it, rather a bad strip of the fabric ripped off as Iwas coming down, but I struck an abandoned farm yesterday a mile fromhere, and when I cover up the jigger, I'm just going over to see if Ican fossick out something to patch her up. "

"I guess I know where your strip of fabric is, " I said. 

I then told him of the white mark on the tree and how it led me to him, and as we went to salvage it, he told me of the mighty doings of thewar. 

"Let me see, " he said, "you went out on your Zep. Raid last February?Well, lots have happened since. 

"Shortly after that Germany started to blockade England with submarinesto starve her out, and began to sink all sorts of ships. They bagged afine and large lot including some Americans--just sunk 'em on sight, asking no questions. "

"Did America buck up, Nap?" I asked. 

"Don't ask me, Jefson--that's the sick part. I want to dodge that. Letme get on--where was I? Oh, yes, Germany's submarine piracy; but thatdidn't do much harm, and she got tired of that stunt after a month orso. Then her fleet came out of Kiel to make a grand attack: at least, abit of it came out, but only a bit of that bit got back again. 

"Turkey, in the meantime had butted in and went for the Suez Canal, butyour Australian fellows, who had been dropped at Egypt, made those buckshike back quick and lively, then your Australians helped to chase themoff the banks of the Dardanelles: and the British and French Fleets, smashing their way through, had threatened Constantinople--and thenTurkey got the axe. 

"All through February, March and April, Belgians, British and Frenchheld that line from Ostend to Nancy, getting a trench to-day and losingit to-morrow, all the while Kitchener was waiting for the winter tobreak and the Spring to come along and dry the roads for the cavalry andthe big guns. 

"In the east the Russian Army was just sitting like a rock. The Germans, relying on their idea of attack, were simply chucking themselves away onthat Russian rock and smashing up like spray. 

"Kitchener had six great armies waiting, but during May, June and Julythose armies doubled! The French and Russian Armies also practicallydoubled and streams increased from Australia and Canada. 

"It was the most extraordinary thing of the war--and a young woman didit!

"She is a Belgian. She saw her mother being outraged by a Germansoldier. She slipped in, took up his bayonet, and skewered him, shot hiscompanion, and with the weapon escaped to France. Through France andEngland she preached a crusade of Revenge. Crowds came to hear thesweet-faced woman speak frankly of unprintable horrors, and the fire ofher tongue as she preached in her simple country dress with thebloodstained bayonet in her hand, won thousands of recruits. On top ofher crusade out came the official report, that among other awful things, over 4000 Belgian women who had been maltreated by German soldiers wouldbecome mothers this year. Men with memories of dear mothers and sweetsisters tumbled over one another to hear and bless the world's new Joanof Arc, and marched in hundreds to recruiting stations with a fearfulsong of Revenge. 

"Then she went to Italy! and though she spoke in a foreign tongue, thecrowds understood and the Italians, passionate to the extreme, rose instorm--and Italy declared war!

"Italy got busy early in June, invading the Tyrol and smashing Pola onthe Adriatic. Then its armies worked north, finding the great Austrianfortresses abandoned and destroyed, the big guns having been removed tobe used against the Russians. 

"Greece, when it found that Turkey was in danger of being smashed, joined with the Allies. It hung fire for a bit as its king was arelative of the Kaiser, but the people got sore, and at an election senta popular Premier in who got the Greeks into the firing line. 

"The principal Balkan States are also joining in the rumpus, as I guessthey're anxious to be in the "top dog" so as to get some pickings afterthe scrap. Then in August we got the tip to get the big move on. "

CHAPTER XVII. 

How the Great War Ended. 

I remember how Nap sparked up as he described the happenings of the pastfortnight. 

"We got the tip to prepare for the 'Grand Advance, '" he said. "Our stuntwas to thoroughly screen from German aerial reconnaissance all ourmovements between Rheims and Metz; and so for a week the air actuallyswarmed with our 'planes. Gee! but the smash-up of aircraft was awful. We lost quite a collection, but the Germans must have very few left. Andthe way we went about it was a caution! We had a real aerialfandango--smashing bridges, trains, railway stations and any old thing. You see our commandants untied us--let us loose. Why one of my 'goes'was the bust up of the big balloon and 'plane 'deepo' at Laon; but inchasing a Taube three days ago I came to grief right here--enginetrouble, sure. "

"But what was the game, Nap?" I asked excitedly. "What was the reason ofyour aerial razzle?"

"Simple enough, Jefson, " he replied, "we were screening a big transferof our forces towards Metz. You see, the Germans, during June and July, had been pushed back to a line along the Lys, where they dug in on theright bank and waited. 

"The great new armies Kitchener had in training during the winter wereto be flung at that German line between Courtrai and Antwerp, to try andforce their way through Belgium to Liege. 

"We on the south were to put up a big bluff between Rheims and Metz inorder to divert German attention from that big smashing attack on theLys. Gee! How I'm itching to be back before the game starts!"

Then it all came back to me; the incident of the impatient Germansoldiers at the ferry on the Rhine; the tramp-tramp, rattle-clink of theGerman troops and carts on the Coblenz road; the anger of the littleGerman woman at the farm--and one line of reasoning linked all theincidents. 

"They've started, " I said. "The Germans are retreating! That Coblenzroad is a crowded procession of despair!"

He stopped and looked at me in surprise. 

"How?" he queried. "Why we're 100 miles from Metz. Bless me, they musthave started just after I lit out. Gee! but we must hustle. "

So we stepped out briskly and reached the white strip on the tree. Itwas the piece of fabric from Nap's 'plane. That night we repaired themachine, and after many hours coaxed the engine back to sanity. Beforethe dawn the leafy screen was cleared, the 'plane wheeled into the open, the engine coughed, spluttered and "got busy"; and up to greet themorning sun we rose and turned southward with the sky clear of cloud, fog or 'plane. 

As we climbed, we could discern the Coblenz road and the River Mosellebelow us, the former still a long length of moving figures. In half anhour, up came the sounds of big guns. Far to the south the opposingarmies were evidently in touch. It was round Metz that the fighting wastaking place, and we could see the "grey coats" retreating along atleast five roads. 

As we passed over Metz, I remembered my last crossing it in a fog and mydash to the Argonne Forest seven months before. Things had changedsomewhat since. 

We crossed the fighting lines and were lucky to descend without beinghit, as several shots were fired as we volplaned down. 

I remember, in those excitement-laden days, how for a while I wassurprised that we were only welcomed back with a nod. There wereevidently more important happenings to consider than the return of twolucky aviators, so we were soon again in operation with our squadronreconnoitring on our right to watch for any German reinforcements comingagainst our right flank. 

It was evident that the Germans understood that our attack from thesouth was only a feint, as our advance was poorly retarded; in fact theGerman rearguard defence was so weak that our mounted forces began topush ahead rather quickly. The enemy was evidently concentrating on theLys to oppose the Allies' main attack in West Belgium. 

I remember that our forces to the left of Metz, the left wing of thesouthern armies, found an opening in the enemy's line at the ArgonneForest, and poured through: and being mostly French, Italian andAustralian mounted troops, with artillery; speedily moved ahead, dashedinto the Ardennes; and, being reinforced with our Metz forces joiningthem at Longwy, pushed on with a six road front through the ArdennesForest. They concentrated in force at the edge of the forest on the leftbank of the Lesse River to wait for the engineers. 

Oh, what a mad dash that was! There seemed to be no thought of takingprisoners. It was a wild rush north, with, of course, every precautiontaken for providing defence on both sides of our advance. 

I remember that I wondered, at the time, why the Germans were almostwithout horses. Their dash across Belgium in the previous year explainedthe mobs of broken-backed, split-heeled and fleshless wrecks we met inthe paddocks along the Meuse. 

Within four days we occupied the whole of the country south of the LesseRiver; with two railways, one a double line, feeding us withreinforcements and supplies. 

Then our second dash began, and within a week our front was entrenchedat the junction of the Meuse and Ourthe, with our artillery banging intothe swarms of German infantry pouring into Liege!

What a sacrilege it seems to tell of this wonderful week in plainmatter-of-fact language!

A week of feverish excitement, when one hardly remembered meals, sleepor rest, when our spirits raced in front of us pulling our responsiveflesh!

I remember that when the French mounted troops, who led the way, linedthe ridge beyond Nandrin and looked down upon the City of Liege betweenthe hills they fairly screamed in their frenzied delight. 

The main attack of the Allies had changed from the west to the south!

In the meantime our forces on our right extended along the Ourthe, withthose on our left along the Meuse, two natural defensive positions, asthe troops kept pouring in from the south to strengthen our attack. 

We were as a spear-head at the heart of Germany, and great armies ofFrench reinforcements were coming up behind us to drive that spear-headhome!

Against that "spear-head" German reinforcements drawn from the easternarmy flung themselves, but their attacks seemed spiritless. Russia hadalready broken their power. 

Beneath a fearful fire from the Liege forts the Allies' armies pouredacross the Ourthe, climbed like cats on to the 200 foot ridge to theeast of Liege; and within ten days all supplies for the German armies inBelgium were cut off!

On the second day of September, the main German armies in Belgium, thathad held the line at the Lys, retired to their second line of defence atthe Dendre, but almost before they could deploy the British were uponthem and they unconditionally surrendered. 

Thousands had fled to the Meuse, where the relentless French shellsplowed passages through their ranks. Thousands had rushed, demoralised, northward, to be rounded up like wild cattle by the Dutch troops at theborder line. 

Then the British armies marched through Brussels and across thebattle-blackened country easterly through Louvain; and at Liege joinedhands with the armies from the south, as news came of the surrender ofthe German armies of the east. 

The armies of Russia and Italy had been closing in on Vienna from thenorth and south. 

Germany having no desire to get upon its own soil the awful devastationit had bestowed upon Belgium and France, through President Wilson, ofthe United States of America, asked the Allies for the terms of peace. 

Then ensued a rather interesting situation. 

The United States had not acted through the war with any admiration fromthe Allies. 

Even when the German submarines had sunk the "Lusitania" and drownedover 1000 Americans, President Wilson did not take any action beyondpractically asking Germany to frame any "old excuse. " He was a man ofpeace. He seemed to have forgotten that the foundations of the U. S. A. Were carved with a sword, and that Jefferson's first draft of theDeclaration of Independence was militant and resistant. "For the supportof this declaration, " he wrote, "we mutually pledge our lives, ourfortunes and our sacred honor. "

President Wilson had previously informed the Allies that he was "tooproud to fight, " so when the message requesting the terms of peace camethrough Wilson, the Allies received it in a cold and formal fashion. 

There are some phrases in the world's history that will live for ever. There is Kitchener's reply to General Cronje in the Boer War: "Not aminute"--there is Nelson's immortal message on the "Victory" of "Englandexpects----"; so the reply of the Allies to America will long endure:--

"They who conquer can dictate the terms of peace. "

Next day Germany and Austria pleaded for cessation of war. 

Within fifteen months a world's war had begun and ended, and the eventsat its close had moved as swiftly as those at its beginning. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

A Campaign of Errors. 

So the Great War had ended. 

In fifteen months the greatest tragedy the world had ever known came andpassed. One could now calmly review the awful affair with an unbiassedmind. When one studied events during the war, there was always aprejudice against the enemy. His virtues were only "accidents" orstrokes of luck. Our successes were always "brilliant affairs. "

Yet the Great War was a campaign of blunders. 

Victor Hugo said: "Alexander blundered in India, Cæsar blundered inAfrica, Napoleon blundered in Russia. "

After all, every book of war is a catalogue of errors, and the errors ina campaign, though unrealised at the time by those who make them, becamepalpable after the deed is done, and increase in notoriety as timepasses. 

British, French and German Generals blundered through the Great War. Only one nation came out of that awful clash of arms without criticism. It was Belgium. 

The war opened with two mistakes on the part of Germany. 

The first and greatest, as it proved now she was defeated, was themistake of entering on a campaign that ended in her disaster. 

Germany's second mistake was that of using heavy assaulting columns tocharge the Liege forts, with the resultant horrible carnage. It was theold military rule of thumb. It went out at Liege, and the Mars of old, with his blood-dripping sword, had to stand aside as Modern Sciencestepped out of the Krupp factory with the great 42 centimeter gun. Ittook thirty horses to drag the first of these monsters out of that nestof the Prussian war eagle, and soldiers had to give way for that greatweapon as it was drawn into place, accompanied by its retinue ofmechanics and engineers, who set it up, armed, and fired it. 

The monster required a concrete base; and concrete took 14 days toharden, but the Krupp experts brought a new concrete that hardened in 24hours, and, within a week from leaving its home, the great Krupp demonbegan to batter a road through Liege. 

France made the third blunder of the war as Belgium bravely held thegate at Liege and awaited aid from France and England. 

France, mistaking the main line of the German advance, massed the mainarmy of her forces along the upper Meuse from Belfort, two hundred milesaway from the right position. 

Britain's first blunder was in not being prepared to immediately helpBelgium. So the Krupp monsters smashed that Belgian gate and the Germanhordes swept towards Paris. 

Britain somewhat retrieved her delay by quickly rushing to block thetriumphant tide of Germany. And two British army corps saved the war byholding up five of Germany's best armies at Mons; holding them whilstthey waited for the French to move up from their first mistakenly-heldposition; till, finding that aid not forthcoming, they fought back tothe Marne. 

Germany now blundered once again. Its aerial scouts failed to see agreat French army coming at its right flank; failed to note it, becauseit came so swiftly out from behind Paris. It drove the German righttowards its centre, past the British forces, which, catching the Germanson their flank, smashed them back to the readied trenches on the AisneRidge. 

Then the Germans came round the north of Belgium, and Britain blunderedagain in sending a force of marines and reserves to hold Antwerp. Theyhad to ignominiously retire as they found the country too flat foroffensive manoeuvring, and they had arrived too late to do thenecessary extensive trenching which really meant the making ofartificial land contours. That British force, however, helped to coverthe retreat of the Belgian army. 

Germany's final mistake was holding their position on the ridge of theAisne. It could not have retreated without fearful loss as that ridgewas the last conformation of any military value in the practically flatcountry between the Aisne and Liege. 

After the war, experts maintained that it would, for many reasons, havebeen better strategy for Germany not to have crossed the Meuse in thefirst place. 

The Germans were fired with the false idea that the capture of Parismeant the end of French aggression. 

They had forgotten the lesson they learnt in 1870, when the capture ofParis did not end that campaign. They had forgotten the lessons of theBoer War, that the capture of the South African capitals did notterminate that long struggle. 

They had their fixed plan. It had been prepared many years before andbeen put away till required, though military strategy had moved along inthe meantime. At the first blast of war they blindly threw themselvesacross Belgium with their battle cry of 34 years before: "A Paris. "

They could have occupied the country to the east of the Meuse, fortifiedthe long length of high cliffs along its right bank, and sat there likea rock, letting the Allies smash themselves against it, whilst vastarmies could have been free to push the Russians back to St. Petersburg, obtain supplies from Russia and so neutralise any British blockade. 

Furthermore, having the fight nearer German soil would have given theGerman people a better idea of the actual state of the war and helped tostifle any lack of enthusiasm on the part of German Socialists which, later on, was to develop into serious trouble. 

It was a war of surprises. 

Science had laid its new-won gifts at the feet of Mars. 

It brought as new factors into human warfare, wireless telegraphy, aeronautics and motor traction. 

Wireless telegraphy, one of the greatest gifts to mankind in the savingof human life at sea, and in the sending of messages of peace, utterlyfailed during the stress of human strife. 

It seemed that just as clashing human passions in war stultified allthoughts of brotherly love and goodwill, so the ether waves frommilitary wireless plants clashed in the air and destroyed allintelligence in messages. 

In aeronautics, the swift aeroplane asserted its superiority over theballoon, and where movements were in open country as between Liege andthe Aisne, it furnished a new and wonderful aid for reconnaissance. 

It failed when the movements took place beneath cover, as in thefighting in the thickly wooded country to the south of Compeigne; again, when the French army moved out under cover of the houses of Paris andenvirons before the battle of Marne; and finally when, in the conclusivephases of the war the Allies moved north beneath the screen of theforests of the Argonne and the Ardennes. 

Motor traction counted most in the new aids of science. It brought intothe war the most vital factor of all human element--speed. 

The great smash on the German right at the Marne, which gave the firstcheck to the German advance, was only possible because the FrenchGeneral, Gallieni, moved 70, 000 soldiers out of Paris in taxicabs andother motor vehicles, and in six hours had them in action before eventhe German aerial reconnaissance knew about it. 

The motor brought speed into the fighting in running the cheeringsoldiers to the front, and with auto hospitals brought the sorry woundedas speedily back again. 

It was a triumph for the machine, and yet the machine, in the end, gaveplace to the hand to hand death grip of primitive man. 

As Kipling wrote:--

"What I ha' seen since ocean steam beganLeaves me no doot for the machine; what, what about the man?"

The Great War answered that question. 

There was a doubt about the man--he dropped off the veneer of the humanand became the animal once again. 

When foe came face to face with foe the world dropped back ten thousandyears. 

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Revolution. 

And now the war was over--bar the shouting. 

I remember the soldiers had strange emotions at the sudden ending tofifteen months' activity. At times they would be excited, and at othersdisappointed. It seemed like the feeling of the London 'busman who leftoff work for a week's holiday, but found himself on a 'bus next dayasking the driver to "let him hold the ribbons for a bit. "

The war fever had got into our blood, and the camps, instead of beingorderly in arrangement, became moving masses of wandering soldiers. Discipline snapped as the news of Peace passed through the ranks. Somesoldiers would cheer--they had loved ones awaiting their return. Otherstook it as a matter of little concern--they, no doubt, had cut all tiesin enlisting, and, perhaps, wondered if their old places had been keptopen for them. 

Troops still poured in from the south, adding to the demoralisation. 

I remember that the commandant of my air corps rose with me in the'plane and surveyed the wonderful scene. 

Around Liege troops were moving in a wonderful mass, not unlike themixed crowd that one sees in a city street after a procession has passedalong, but with the crowd increased a thousandfold. 

Yet it was not a disorderly crowd. It seemed a crowd of good fellowship. The German soldiers in the west had fought against the British and foundthem brave enemies. The revulsion of feeling made them friends. Thetension of hate snapped. 

It has ever been thus. With a quarrel over, the greatest haters becomethe warmest friends. 

For two days the armies at the Meuse fraternised. 

Our soldiers learnt much from their former enemies. They found, throughsome papers that had slipped the eyes of the censors, that theSocialists of Germany were in revolt. 

I could then understand the excitement of my religious friend, BrotherWilbrid, on the Rhine road, and his anxiety to get back to Berlinwithout loss of time. 

It appears that the first public indication of the insurrection tookplace as far back as December 2, 1915, when a party of fifteen Socialistdeputies in the Reichstag, led by Karl Leibknecht, refused to vote forthe second war credits. Four of these members were from Berlin. One, Stadthagen, represented a popular workmen's suburb in Berlin, whileanother, Geyer, represented a workers' suburb in Leipsic. The Socialistsof Bremen, Stuttgart and Hamburg endorsed the Socialist Deputies'refusal by a majority of two to one. Not only were the Socialist partyrising in revolt, but the Moderates, under Bernstein, were opposed, because the war was entered into by Socialists exclusively as a waragainst Russia, whilst the authorities had cleverly turned the reason asa war against England. Though the Socialists may have hated England, thewar proved that they were used as a cat's paw. So riots broke out inBerlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg. 

In Berlin, down the Unter der Linden, a mighty mob of workers marchedand stoned the Government offices. The military police dispersed them. 

Fate helped the revolt. 

At the surrender of the German armies, thousands of German soldiers, rather than surrender, had retreated along the roads leading intoGermany, sullenly shouting the news of the defeat. 

Bad news travels fast, and to the German people, who had been kept inignorance of reverses, the news came with stunning effect. 

Only a few days before had the authorities at Berlin announced to theSocialists that ultimate success was certain, and bade the people be ofgood cheer. Now, like a crash, came the news of defeat with theadditional disgrace of being brought by retreating soldiers of theEmpire!

Then the revolution crashed on Germany. It was a riot that rolled roundthe earth. 

I remember it was a week after our arrival at Liege that the armies ofthe Allies began their march to the Rhine. They had not yet reachedGerman soil, and the Peace terms would not be disclosed till the Allieswere in Germany. 

To my delight, the French army of the Argonne was given the post ofhonor. It must have been a wonderful sight to see the Air Squadron oftwelve aeroplanes moving backward and forward over the heads of themoving columns. Nap accompanied me in my 'plane, and I remember I keptsomewhat in advance of the rest to catch the first sight of CologneCathedral. 

It came upon the horizon, its two great spires piercing the skyunscathed. How unlike the Churches of Rheims, Ypres and the other citiesof France and Belgium. Germany well knew the value of its historicalbuildings to protect them, even at the price of peace. We flew low togive a more spectacular effect to our advance. 

Soon the great piers of the familiar Rhine Bridge came into sight as theorder was given to descend on a plain to the west of the river. 

That night the army bivouacked on the outskirts of Aix la Chappele, butsleep did not come to my eyes. At times I desired to fly ahead toCologne and tread the familiar ways--but strict regulations tied alltroops to the camp lines. 

I comforted myself that to-morrow I would reach Cologne and someonewould be pleased to see me. 

Next day we crossed the Rhine, circled the city of Cologne, and parkedour 'planes in the gardens I had left but three weeks previously. 

The Allied troops were marched through the city and encamped two milesbeyond it. A regiment of French soldiers were deputed as military policeto take possession of the city; and within an hour, from the poles ofthe official buildings, French, Belgian, Russian and British flagsfluttered, and an order was issued that all arms must be handed in. 

I remember the happy feeling as Nap and I hastened through the city toGoche's house. 

I was in my uniform and felt I would cut a smarter figure before mysweetheart, than I did in the ragged "cast-offs" I wore as a prisoner. 

I walked on air when I entered the familiar street and saw, in thedistance, the house I knew so well. The street was silent. I reached thehouse, pulled myself together and knocked at the door. Happiest ofthoughts coursed through my mind. What a wealth of news I had to tellher!

The door slowly opened, and Grandpa Goche's whitened and aged face cameto the light. His under jaw seemed to shiver in terror. He gave theimpression that he was expecting some dreadful calamity. As herecognised me, his jaw fell and he retreated into the room, sank into achair, gripped its arms with shaking clutch, looked at me with holloweyes and said: "Ja wohl. "

"Where is Helen?" I asked. 

"Forgive me, " he said, "forgive me, " shaking his head. "They came to meand asked for the Englishman that escaped--'the English dog' they calledyou. I told them I knew not, but as I hated you and hated her, for Iknew she cared for you, I told them she could tell, as she saw youleave. Then they took her, " and he bowed his head in his hands, "tookher away----"

"Where, where?" I almost shouted at him. 

"To Berlin, a week ago, " was all he said. 

[Illustration: "In Berlin. "]

CHAPTER XX. 

Footing the Bill. 

It is difficult at this distant date to give in detail the story of theriot that began in Berlin and thundered round the earth toward the endof 1915. 

While the Great War was under way the belligerents were like gamblerscrowded round a table, as they threw down their millions in men andmoney to beat the whirling finger of Fate. 

Great Britain and her Allies had 12, 600, 000 men and had spent£1, 180, 000, 000. Germany, Austria and Turkey had 8, 800, 000 men and hadspent £1, 282, 000, 000. When the awful game was over there were over18, 000, 000 people to go back to civil life, many of whom were crippled. Withal the belligerents had lost over £9, 000, 000, 000 in directexpenditure, loss of production and capitalised value of the humansacrifice. 

These 18, 000, 000 men were flung back into civil life at a time whenalmost all productive industry was crippled or paralysed. The worldcould not immediately reorganise her industries and taxation promised tobe colossal. 

When men came back to their homes, or what was left of them, took offtheir uniforms and put their guns behind the doors, they sat down andpondered. They began to count up the cost and wondered how to foot thebill. 

One can, therefore, easily understand they did not form a high opinionof the wisdom of those who had governed them and exacted unquestioningobedience from them. 

Was it any wonder then that they should consider they might as well takea hand in governing? They could not make a worse mess of things thanthose who claimed to have had a divine commission for the job. When themasses, who had furnished the bulk of the soldiers, began to think, theposition became dangerous, especially as real thinking had stoppedfifteen months before and there was a call for overtime in thinking tomake up. 

The man with the gun would remember that before Britain entered the warthere was a heavy tax per head. He would find out that though Britainhad been attempting to cheer herself up during the war with a motto of"Business as Usual, " her exports had diminished by £50, 000, 000, and theactual cost had been £1, 250, 000, 000!

Then he would think very hard. 

If he were French he would remember that before the war opened Francehad a permanent debt of £1, 269, 223, 600, or £32. 05 for every man, womanand child. 

If he were Russian he would remember that before the war the nationaldebt was £1, 461, 000, 000, with annual loss of revenue from the Vodkamonopoly of £140, 000, 000. 

If he were German he would remember that the war tax had been£74, 700, 000, and that the war had cost £2, 770, 000, 000. 

One question would come into the minds of those 18, 000, 000 thinkers. Whowas going to pay for this loss of £9, 000, 000, 000?

One answer came from Germany. 

It was voiced by Wilbrid the Humanist. 

The "psychological" had arrived for sounding the note of revolt. It wasstruck and echoed round the earth; even throughout America!

"Europe is filled with human wrecks, " Wilbrid preached. 

"All the time the physical stamina of Europe was being destroyed on thebattlefield, national debts piled up, adding phenomenal burdens to thealready crushing taxes cast on the toilers. 

"Millions still unborn must toil the harder and live the meaner forevery day of the monstrous lunacy. 

"There is only one reason for the ocean of blood and tears. 

"Eighty per cent. Of the world's population belong to a class supportedby its own exertions--the working class. It only gets back half thewealth it produces; the other half goes to the 20 per cent. That doesnot toil; but as that 20 per cent. Cannot consume that half, marketsmust be found for what is over, and some nation must yield markets, colonies and dumping grounds to another nation able to put into thefield stronger battalions and deadlier guns. Those conditions must bealtered or this peace will be only an armed truce. 

"War can be abolished by giving the 80 per cent. Who produce the resultof their efforts, instead of paying it to the 20 per cent. ; in short, let all the results of labor go toward the Common Good. 

"Men should work for humanity generally, not for an individual. Thatsystem would kill competition in manufacture between individuals andnations. 

"All men should be prepared to fight for humanity, not for anindividual. That would kill monarchy. 

"The Great War debts can be paid by taxing those 20 per cent. Non-workers who have been taking more than their share since time began. 

"It is those non-workers that made the war by their competition fortrade, for individual power and personal wealth. So let them pay for it. 

"The age of individualism ended with the war. There will be no furtherneed for that 'joke of the ages' at Hague. A 'Palace of Peace' erectedby a 'millionaire'! No wonder the Hague conventions were 'scraps ofpaper. '"

It was such doctrines that brought about the revolution. 

It was not a revolution of force, although at its outset a mob ofirresponsibles stoned the Government offices in Berlin. The distinctivenote preached by the Humanists was abolition of armed force and reformby constitutional means. So when Wilbrid's mighty "Army of Humanity"marched through Berlin as a demonstration of numbers, half of its rankswere soldiers. But they walked with arms reversed as a proof of thedeath of "Armed Force. "

The presence of the soldiers in the crowd was evidently misunderstood atPotsdam, for that day the Kaiser and his staff fled and the Governmentresigned. 

Then the wonderful organising ability of Brother Wilbrid asserteditself. Within a few days the socialistic doctrines of the Humanistscovered Germany. 

The doctrines found ready acceptance. The Humanists pointed out thattheir advocacy of the control of production by the Government for theCommon Good was not so novel in its application. 

They showed that, before the war, the railways were Government-owned, and it was ready to nationalise the electrical industry. 

They showed that, during the war, every nation had taken over railwaytraction and was manufacturing and supplying to citizens certainnecessaries of life. 

They showed that in Britain for many years men who had argued that theGovernment should take over and operate the privately-owned railwayswere looked upon as revolutionaries, extremists and fanatics; yet on thevery day war was declared the British Government reached out and seizedevery railroad and began to operate it. 

"During the war Germany was manufacturing and supplying citizens withfood, clothing and shelter, " preached Wilbrid. "If Governments can dothat for the sake of war they can do it for the sake of peace. If theycan operate clothing factories to clothe soldiers, they can operate themto clothe citizens. If they can operate food factories to feed soldierson the firing line, they can operate food factories to feed starvingcitizens. If such things can be done to destroy life, they can do thesethings to preserve it. "

These fantastic phrases struck home. 

The fact was that the masses foresaw colossal taxation following thewar, and jumped at any opportunity of letting some one else pay it. 

It was the old story of the "have-nots" and the "haves, " with the resultthat the Reichstag became almost unanimously a Humanist assembly. 

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXI. 

Into Berlin. 

It seemed strange at the time that the Allies' forces were being keptout of Berlin till the elections were decided. The wisdom of it wasafterwards ascertained, however. 

The allied armies were kept out of Berlin because their presence therewould have given opportunity for tumult, and perhaps seriouslyinterrupted the course of events the Humanists were, perhapsunconsciously, shaping in favor of the Allies. 

The change in German politics cleared out the Hohenzollern regime, deposed the Kaiser and his class, and as the chief policy doctrine ofthe Humanists was disarmament, it suited the Allies to let the people dothe work for them. 

The wisdom of this step was evident when news came through that theHumanist movement was spreading across France and England. 

In Belgium and France it met with more opposition than it did inGermany. Strange to say the Belgian "Joan of Arc" was the leader. Shepreached the cause of "the capitalist" with much vigor. I do not knowwhy she took up this political campaign. Maybe the wonderful response toher appeals for financial aid for the starving Belgians won her sympathywhen she saw the capitalistic class that helped her in danger of beingdestroyed. 

Her eloquence, spiced by anecdote and parable, won many followers. Shepointed out that the doctrine of the Humanist in abolishing worldcompetition hit at the fundamental principle that made for initiativeand made man utilise thought and self-improvement. 

"Abolish competition or distinction, " she said, "and all men come underthe one rule, like so many animals. "

She pointed to Joffre and Kitchener as successful examples of the oldand well-tried system. 

She pointed to Belgium's King, Albert, who fought throughout the war inthe fighting line, sharing the lot of the soldier. She was joined inher campaign by many of her own sex, even from Berlin, whence many haddeparted, at the advent of the Humanist campaign which was spreadingthroughout Germany. 

When the Reichstag elections were decided, a force from each of theAllied armies entrained for Berlin and, to my delight, my company wasamong those favored. 

It is difficult for one accustomed to plain writing to tell in fittingphrases the wonderful enthusiasm that reigned as our troop-trains slowlyrolled into Berlin. 

Along ten lines, crowded with continuous trains, we were conveyed to ourdestination. Our trains were preceded by slow trains which droppedguards at each bridge and station. 

As our train steamed into the depot outside Berlin, I saw the wonderfulsystem of getting away troops. As soon as a train arrived columns pouredinto a great park adjoining and took up allotted places. 

As we passed along the streets the populace did not show any of thefright and fear we fancied our presence would cause. They chatted, smiled and pointed at us as if it were an ordinary parade of troops andnot the triumphant conquerors of their country. 

Truth to tell, they were mighty sick of the war and the longpreparation, and our presence proved it was all over. 

I remember, best of all, the frenzied welcome we received from theRussian forces who had trained in from the south east. 

They had kept the enemy busy on the east whilst we were moving up. Itwas like the meeting of many friends who had come through adversitytogether. 

I can only picture one simile. I remember a story of two minersimprisoned in a mine. They were cut off from all help and separated, butbegan digging to meet one another. After many hours they cut through thewall of clay that stood between them. Their hand-grip must have been asours was on that wonderful day in August. 

It would take three days for all troops to detrain, so I sought theearliest opportunity of finding Miss Goche. Nap came with me. The onlyclue I had was that she had been removed to a concentration camp atBerlin. I found that camp. A military officer who could speak Englishsaluted as we approached and informed us that all foreign militaryprisoners had been transferred to Belgium and given their liberty. 

"Was a Miss Goche among them?" I anxiously asked. 

"I cannot say, " he replied. 

My heart sank. I felt that it was a difficult task for a strangerunacquainted with German and a former enemy to attempt to trace theinformation. 

Nap tapped me on the shoulder, and in order to cheer me said: "You'vegot a friend here, come and look him up. "

There would be little difficulty in finding Wilbrid, he was now a publiccharacter. So we took a car for the Humanist headquarters and there wefound him seated at a large desk in his shirt sleeves. On either side ofhim were two dictaphones, and into the cylinders he was alternativelydictating his correspondence. As one cylinder would fill it wouldautomatically ring, and he would turn to the other, an assistantremoving the filled cylinder. 

We stood behind him at the end of the room afraid to interrupt, but heturned and, seeing me, rose and came with outstretched hand. 

"My brother Jefson, " he said. "I know your first desire. You have beento the concentration camp. I found your friend there. When I returned toCologne I found she had been arrested for assisting your escape. Itraced her to the camp, gave her your letter and saw much of her foryour sake. But she has gone--to Belgium. She was high-spirited. I talkedmuch to her of the Humanist creed, but she would have none of it: so onher release she left for Belgium and she joined the woman called theBelgian "Joan of Arc. "

CHAPTER XXII. 

The Great Combine. 

"Your war has ended at last, " said Wilbrid, after a long pause. "Ours isbut beginning; and our conquest will not be limited by an empire'sboundaries, or even by those of a continent. It will embrace the earth. "Having spoken he turned to the window and peered at the blood-red sunsetcontemplatively. 

I surveyed his tall, spare figure, his steel grey hair and sharply-cutfeatures, the latter pinked by the evening glow. 

Here is a new Kaiser, I thought. 

"You said a 'world conquest, '" I remarked to him. "Don't you think thedays have gone when persons should 'talk big'? The great war shouldhenceforth limit the ambitions of those who dream of world's dominion byconquest. "

"Do not misunderstand me, " he said. "We shall conquer the world becauseof the human appeal of our creed. Its basis is that the strength of anation lies in the welfare of its producers--the working class, and notin its mighty armaments or individual wealth. There is not an atom ofnational strength in the accumulation of much money by any individual. Where wealth is in the hands of the few, misery stalks among the many;and, where the masses are ill-fed and hopeless, moral and physicalstrength cannot exist. "

Then he walked from the window to his desk and back again; his armsstill behind him, flinging his phrases at us as he passed to and fro. 

"Great things can only be achieved by combination, " he went on. "Thevictory of the Allies is proof of that. We are going to combine allworkers, and, in order to make our combination supreme, we will notonly organise those at work, but, also, those out of work. It is goingto be a combination of all who can labor, " he snapped out. 

"Up till now, " he continued, "there have been more men in the world thanthere have been jobs to go round; so there have always been manyunemployed. Those unemployed are the men who keep down the wages of theworkers. If there were no men or women to take the jobs from those whowork, then the workers could demand shorter hours and a better share ofthe wealth they produce. It is the unemployed who have been keeping upthe competition in wages. That is where they have been useful to theemployer. 

"Up till now the workers have struggled to hold their jobs; and havefought to maintain or raise their wages without taking into account thethousands of unemployed who need work. 

"Those out of work are humans after all, and when hunger drives them totake the work at lower wages, they're called 'scabs' and other vilenames; and we have treated them as our bitterest enemies. 

"Can you blame a man whose wife is sinking and whose children cry forfood, if he is willing to take a job at less than the wage you get?

"Would not any man lower the wages scale and take another man's job forless, in order to save the life of his wife and the new baby? Should anyunion principles stand between him and his wife's life? That is why weare going to combine with the unemployed. "

It had grown dark, so he stepped to the wall and touched a switch. Asthe light flooded the room I ventured a reply. 

"Don't you think the human appeal in your creed is rather one-sided, " Iremarked. "Why not purge your workers' unions first! You know there arecertain trade unions that make the entrance fees so high, that many oftheir own trade are excluded. "

"There is a Wharf Laborers' Union in Australia that has an entrance feethat is considered to prohibit new membership, and it has as itssecretary a Federal Minister of the Crown. "

"I guess you're right just there, " Nap put in. "The Union of GlassBlowers of the U. S. A. Demand 1000 dollars as initiation fee; so they getfine pay and they're 'some' people, I guess. "

"There are unions in Australia, " I rejoined, "that not only demand ahigh entrance fee, but, in order to continue a monopoly of employment, are limiting the number of apprentices who desire to learn their trade. 

"There are unionists who, when work is slack and members are unemployed, will advocate shorter hours at the same rate of pay so as to make roomfor their unemployed mates. 

"And, perhaps, you are not aware that Australia is a land where Natureis so generous that in its short history it has reached the highestlevel in the world's wheat and wool production. Yet in that land, twentytimes the size of your Germany and with one-thirteenth of yourpopulation, the workers discourage immigration of people of their ownBritish race, because they foolishly fancy the newcomers would createcompetition in their high-priced work; and that is in a wonderful landcrying out for development and only having an average population of oneperson to the square mile. "

I finished in a highly-strung manner, but Wilbrid came forward and puthis hands on my shoulders. 

"My boy, " he said calmly, "you are right, and I am also right. Thatselfishness on the part of the workers is but the fear of having theirwages cut and becoming unemployed with the advent of furthercompetition. Remove that fear and keep the unemployed from cutting wagesand the selfishness will disappear. The Humanist creed recognises allmen as sparks of Divinity. There will be no 'scabs, ' 'pimps, ''blacklegs, ' or other vile, cruel epithets. The men and women who workwill combine with those unemployed. The result will be such a world'scombination of labor that all sources of profit-winning will be in thehands of the men who toil. It will indeed be a conquest of the world. 

"Already we control the Governments of Germany and Austria. France andEngland will certainly follow at the next elections. The French workersdo not forget that, during the war, their Government successfullyorganised the whole of the industries; and the English toilers rememberhow the Asquith Government successfully controlled all the greatmunition factories and limited the employers' profits to 10 per cent. , giving the surplusage to the State. Now I note that the British workersare demanding that just as the State successfully controlled great worksduring the war and claimed the profits in excess, so it should controlall works now and let the profits go also to the Common Good--yes, that's the term. It's almost a divine inspiration. The Common Good isthe doctrine of the Humanist! Watch the cause! It will sweep the earth!"

As he shook hands with me, I could feel his nerves twitching. 

Nap and I walked back to the great camp almost in silence, and littlesleep came to me that night. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Terms of Peace. 

I shall never forget the grand march of the Allies through Berlin, andthe sealing of the Treaty of Peace. 

There had been much delay regarding what the Terms of Peace should be. Great Britain was the stumbling block. 

Eighty years before, Washington Irving wrote of "John Bull":--

 "Though no one fights with more obstinacy to carry a contested point, yet when the battle is over and he comes to reconciliation, he is so much taken up with the mere shaking of hands, that he is apt to let his antagonists pocket all they have been fighting about. "

England proved that once again in South Africa, for after fighting fiveyears with the Boers, she actually gave them what they were fightingfor--their independence. 

With Germany she was inclined to be generous, but the French, Belgianand Russian delegates urged firmness, and the Terms of Peace werefinally settled. 

It was estimated that the actual expenditure of the Allies was£1, 180, 000, 000, and the loss in shipping £250, 000, 000, a total loss of£1, 430, 000, 000. 

Germany and Austria had to hand over to the Allies the whole of theirNavies to be held for the protection of the world's peace, and eachnation had to pay an indemnity of £1, 000, 000, 000. The German prisonershad to be kept in Belgium for nine months to repair damage done toBelgian towns. The boundaries of France and Belgium were to be extendedto the Rhine. Holland was to be absorbed by a joint protectorate thattook in the Schleswig-Holstein Peninsula. Poland was to go back toRussia, Servia and Italy being allotted the shorelines of the Adriatic. The Dardanelles was to be an open, undefended waterway. Bulgaria was toabsorb Turkey in Europe, Russia obtaining further concessions inCaucasia. 

There were other details of the terms that need not be here mentioned. But on the 1st day of December, 1915, the Treaty of Berlin confirmedthem. 

There was little demonstration in Germany. The new political party inpower, the Humanists, had already agreed to disarmament; so the firstpart of the treaty did not trouble. The policy of "universalbrotherhood" subdued any qualms that might have arisen regarding loss ofterritory. Regarding the indemnity: it could be met by imposing a heavyincome tax on all incomes over 3000 marks (£150). By this means theHumanists would make the capitalists pay for the war. 

The Humanist Government readily accepted the demand of the Allies thatthe German prisoners should not be returned to Germany for nine months. They were drafted into great work-camps in Belgium, and were put toreplacing bridges, reconstructing buildings, and making good all theyhad devastated. 

I remember at the time, how the world jeered at the so-called "Humanist"Government in Germany, because it so readily agreed to the harshtreatment of the "Sons who fought for the German Empire. " But the Berlinofficials were wise. For nine months an army of 800, 000 men were beingfed and kept at the Allies' expense. That mob was thus prevented fromreturning to an overstocked manufacturing nation. They were being heldback to give their country nine months' opportunity to "put its house inorder. "

CHAPTER XXIV. 

What Happened in England. 

On leaving Berlin our squadron was part of the force that had to returnto England. I had hoped to break the journey at Brussels, to meet HelenGoche, but Fate stepped in. To my disappointment the troop-trains passedon to Ostend along a line to the south of Brussels. 

On arrival in England, the Flying Corps were not disbanded, but wereattached to the permanent forces. 

Nap, however, desired to return to the United States, and as we shookhands in "good-bye, " I felt I was losing a friend to whom adventurousdays had linked me by heart-grips. 

"I'm going along through to that country of yours, " he said to me as heswung into the train. "From what you tell me, it must be 'some place. 'We'll grip again there, sure. " And the train pulled out and tore him outof my life for many days. 

The months succeeding the Declaration of Peace were troublesome timesfor England. Troops were pouring back from the Continent and beingdismissed to return to jobs they found had disappeared. 

During the war a fine spirit of "cheer up" generally prevailed. Peopletried to put vim into themselves by tacking the motto over their shops:"Business as Usual. " They knew full well that business was nearly dead;but they were like the boy who whistled going through the graveyard inorder to keep up his courage. 

Apart from the trades making munitions of war, few factories maintainedtheir full output. Recruiting lessened the number of employees, andthose who stayed behind fought for shorter hours and higher wages. Investors generally eased off, as money was too high in value to risk innew concerns in such uncertain times. Even the highly boosted scheme tobring back to England from Germany the Aniline dye industry failed forthe want of the necessary capital. 

Then a great movement was inaugurated throughout the British Empire. "Trade only with the Allies. " It seemed a fine idea in theory, but whenRussia, in desiring to place an order for £1, 400, 000 worth of railwayplant, found English prices inflated by labor demands and placed theorder with America, the "Trade-only-with-the-Allies" movement began towobble. 

Then the troops began to pour back into England in thousands. Manufacturers and investors kept off of any new enterprises as they sawthe Asquith Government, always rather radical, lending a sympathetic earto the workers' demand that the State should control all industries. 

Cities and towns now began to fill with unemployed and riots broke outeverywhere. 

Then the Government took action. All steel and woollen industries wereplaced under military control with "preference to returned soldiers. "

The outcries of the owners were pacified by the promise of 10 per cent. Of all profits on work done, with proportional profits according to thevalue of the plant and enterprise. But under the military control, asincreased wages were given and shorter hours worked in order to absorball unemployed, profits diminished rapidly. 

The General Elections in February, 1916, divided the country into twoparties. The Humanist party, headed by Lloyd-George and Blatchford, aiming at Government control of all production, and the Individualistparty, in which Winston Churchill was prominent, standing for "privateenterprise. " Though the latter had behind it the full force of Britishcapitalists, the Humanist party, elected on a general franchise, sweptthe poll. Thus England became Socialistic. Heavy land and income taxesfollowed with high wages ruling for the working classes. It was abloodless revolution!

CHAPTER XXV. 

Belgium Holds the Gate Again. 

It was shortly after the Humanist Government assembled in London thatconsiderable disbandment in the British military forces took place, mysquadron, amongst others, being marked out. I lost no time in crossingto Brussels. I remember when I again met Helen Goche I felt, at first, astrange reserve, fearing that our short friendship in Cologne had nodeeper meaning for her; but we both realised that henceforward our pathswould be together; so I joined her in her work with the Belgian "Joan ofArc. "

I never knew the name of this wonderful woman. We simply called her"Madame"; but her power of organising was remarkable and recalled to mymind the similar success of Wilbrid in Germany. 

Madame was the head of an organisation that had a branch in every townin Belgium. 

Tall and somewhat thin, without any striking personal beauty, she stooderect before her audience, and, with the sincerity of her purpose, carried all before her. 

The second night of my return, I went with Helen to a great assemblywhere, for two hours, ten thousand Belgians absorbed the purpose of herphrases. 

"Men of Belgium, " she said, "we are asked, in these days of peace, toforget and forgive; but can you ever forget those terrible days of'frightfulness' the German swine inflicted upon us and our belovedcountry?

"Return to your homes, your farms and your factories, but take with youa hate for the Huns--a hate that time can never heal. To forgive may bedivine, but justice is the prime attribute to divinity. Justice in thiscase calls for our undying hate. And now these Germans, not content withhaving tried to subjugate our flesh, are trying to subjugate our mindsand our very souls. Think well upon the tempting creed of the Humaniststhat was 'Made in Germany. '

"It is a creed that calls for State control of all production; a creedthat cuts out all private enterprise and initiative; a creed that forcesmen to shut down upon their self-development and independence and torely upon employment by the State. 

"I ask you, men of Belgium, to look at those whom the State employsto-day. Eight hundred thousand Germans are under State control to makegood the works they have wantonly destroyed. They may repair the bridgesand the highways, but there are broken hearts they cannot heal, and--there are many empty chairs in Belgian homes. 

"Do any of you wish to have the brand of shame those wastrels wear? Doany of you wish to have broken that national independent spirit thatmade our brothers bravely hold the Gate at Liege?

"To-day this German-made Humanist creed has gripped Germany, England, France and Austria. It stands for the levelling of the human being. Nonecan rise above the common level. They call it the gospel of the CommonGood, but there is nothing good in anything that clips the wings ofthose who would dare to excel; that baulks the aspirations of those whowould use the brains their God has given them that they may rise. 

"I tell you this 'Humanist' creed, rating all men as equal, and onlyrecognising each man and each woman as one in a mob of similar animals, will lower the race till even your name will be replaced with a numeral. It is a creed akin to the German ideal of the man-animal that dragged abloody trail across our country. 

"I tell you, the creed must fail that cannot recognise any degrees ofmental capacity; that cannot understand that man has a soul that cannotbe confined within any man-drawn boundaries. This German-creed sweepsthe earth with all the bombast of a war-mad Kaiser. It is going to fail, but not till men who think will rise and fight for recognition of theirimmortality. It will be the War of the Ages!

"And in the fight Belgium will stand firm once again as the Buffer Stateof Civilisation. It will hold the gate for the future of Humanity. "

I came away from that meeting impressed with the air of prophecy in thediscourse, for Belgium was standing firm for Individualism. A lonelyState in a developing world of Socialism, and though Kings in otherlands began to fear the safety of their crowns, Albert of Belgium wasstill the beloved sovereign of a prosperous people. 

It was strange how Belgium quickly recovered from the war!

The energy generated by that conflict, the confidence engendered bysuccess, and the adaptability and resourcefulness taught by the war, setoff the loss of many of her manhood. 

The war was a forerunner of a vigorous period of expansion of Belgianindustry, for the employment of 800, 000 German prisoners on nationalworks set free the population to develop various enterprises. 

Another incentive to excel was the practical sympathy the world hadshown to Belgium in her days of distress. It put such stimulation intothe nation that it felt it had to make good to merit the world's highregards. 

I write at length on this remarkable sequel to the war on the part ofBelgium, as other nations did not rise to the occasion like it did. TheSocialistic doctrines of the Humanist countries sapped at the initiativeof the worker, advanced his wages, but crushed the men of wealth andforced them to seek new fields for their enterprise. 

It is a trait of the human nature that he, desiring to excel, willeventually rise; so the men of enterprise, the men of initiative, themen who do things, came to Belgium though many sought wider fields ofenterprise across the seas. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

What a Letter from Australia Told Me. 

Australia had sent 100, 000 men to the front at a cost of £18, 000, 000, which was covered by a loan from Britain. 

Though the decline in trade on account of the war caused widespreadunemployment, the sending off of 75, 000 men eased matters considerably. As these men were paid at almost the same rate as their ordinary wage, and as a big proportion of their pay was held in Australia, the war didnot hit the Commonwealth so very hard in this respect. 

So people did not trouble much. They went about their business almost asusual and enjoyed the many entertainments arranged by "society people"for any object, however remotely connected with the war--"SheepskinWaistcoat Funds, " "Comfort for Horses Fund, " "Knitted Socks Fund, " andothers. It was all so much work and gave people opportunity to have abusy time, flavored with the knowledge that it was an act of patriotism. 

Six months before the war had ended the manufacturers began to get busy. When public bodies begin to get busy in Australia, the first thing theysay is: "Let's have a Dinner. "

The manufacturers saw a chance of influencing High Protection by the useof a new gag: "Don't buy German-made goods. " They, of course, wantedpeople to buy only the Australian made, but they were cute. 

They put it this way:

"Only trade with the Empire and its Allies. Every pound, " it was said, "that is spent with Germany means another gun to our future menace. " Sothe public were exhorted to confine business to the Empire and itsAllies--with Britain, Africa, India, Canada, France, Belgium, Russia, Servia and Japan, and to cut the rest of the world. That is to say, totrade with three quarters of the world!

Their decision practically meant free trade with nearly the whole world, and so their hands were tied so long as Britain was joined up withforeign allies!

A striking proof that this slogan, "Trade with the Allies, " was only anafter-dinner sentiment was given when, in May, 1915, the AustralianPostmaster-General rejected a Japanese tender for electric insulators, although its price was £1000 cheaper than a local tender, the totalamount of which was £3281/6/8--a thirty-three per cent. Preference beinggiven against the work of an allied nation. 

In the meantime the N. S. W. Government found their system of StateSocialism so expensive that the Treasury began to rapidly empty. Thewar, with its upsetting of the British money market, stopped the usualmethod of loan-raising, but some smart English capitalists, moreexperienced in finance than the average labor politician, offered totake over the public works of New South Wales if they were paid 10 percent. On their expenditure. 

They 'cutely pointed out that by the system of State Socialism, theN. S. W. Government had gathered an immense army of laborers. It had builtup an enormous civil service, and if men were thrown on the marketconsequent on the State's lack of funds, they would make ituncomfortable for the Government. That action would bring home to theworkers the utter fallacy of State control of industries. They alsowhispered, with their tongues in their cheeks, that "private enterprise"would then become prosperous and the Labor movement would be thrown backfor "years and years and years. "

The temptation proved too strong and the compact was signed. 

"Of course, " said the Government, "you will give preference tounionists, the maximum wage, and all that?"

"Oh, of course, " said the Syndicate, rubbing its hands with glee. 

It was getting 10 per cent. On all the expenditure!

What though the men loafed through the work, the percentage of theoutlay went on just the same!

So the N. S. W. Government signed the compact, practically threw overState Socialism, so far as public works were concerned, thanked goodnessfor the riddance, and sat back for a while, stripped of responsibility, a Syndicate's collection of "rubber stamps. "

Some of the Ministers, however, tired of the "nothin'-doin' policy, "hankered after the tinpot glory they had when in charge of men, so theybegan to look for new fields of enterprise not touched by the Syndicate. 

They saw an opportunity in Government bread-making. 

The Government had heard a good deal about the profit possibilities ofgreat American "combines. " Why not introduce the thing into Australia asa great Government scheme, and combine all the small bakeryestablishments into one big concern, in which great automatic bakingmachinery would supplant the small ovens of the small employers?

This would not only knock out the "hated employers, " but it wouldcapture all their profits--and the Government wanted money rather badly. 

So, immense bread-making factories were built. A standard price was puton wheat the Government wanted, which knocked the farmer rather hard andhundreds of employees were thrown out of the bakehouses. 

It was an awkward situation for a Government pledged to Socialism. Theunionists had shouted for Socialism, yet when Socialism brought inlabor-saving machines, when, in fact, it hit the chap who shouted, heobjected. Socialism seemed alright "for the other fellow. " It was likethe old story of the Irishman's pigs. He believed in sharing alike, except regarding pigs--he happened to have a few. 

The Socialist Government was in a quandary with its mob of unemployedbaker unionists, till the voice of the tempter came again. 

The Syndicate quietly whispered, "Give us a little more power and we'llabsorb them. "

They got it, and got further power as the Government installedlabor-saving machinery into other concerns; and for a while theSyndicate proved a fine "haven of rest" for the out-of-work unionists, so that the Government encouraged it even to the extent of absolving itfrom having to pay income tax. 

"You see, " whispered the Syndicate in the ear of a harassed Premier, "itwould be unjust to have to pay you income tax on what you have to payus. "

The "syndicate" idea began to appeal to the Governments of the otherStates, which were now all Labor ruled. The fact that the BritishGovernment had taken over private factories and distributed all profitsover 10 per cent. , gave Socialism such an advertisement that before thewar had ended, Queensland and Victoria had joined the other AustralianStates and declared for Labor. 

The Syndicate idea appealed to Labor Governments. 

It seemed an easy way to get rid of responsibility. Of course, the timewould come when the bill would have to be paid--but that was a matterposterity would have to look at--and besides, as one Minister blatantlyshouted: "What has posterity done for us?"

CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Rise of the "Syndicate. "

The failure of the Australian manufacturers' campaign had its ludicrousside. 

Prior to the termination of the war, all their talk was based upon thesewar-cries--"German manufacturers must be wiped off the earth. " "KillGerman trade and you kill their capacity for mischief. " "Smash Germanynow for all time. " So "Trade only with the Empire and its brave Allies. "

It was noticeable what fraternal consideration the manufacturers gave"the brave Allies. "

As they put it . .. "Those brave brothers of freedom are fightingshoulder to shoulder with the sons of the Empire, mingling their bloodupon the fields of Europe in the battle for the world's civilisation. "

So the "Brave Allies" were mentioned on every pamphlet issued during thewar. 

Of course, there were a few oversights regarding the Allies. 

For instance, in an exhibition of manufactured goods, only the"Australian-made" were given any prominence. There may have been some"made by the brave Allies, " but they were not very conspicuous. 

It was also an oversight forgetting the "Brave Allies" when the U. S. A. , taking the occasion of the stoppage of trade with Europe, joined handswith the Australian Governments in encouraging trade across the Pacific. 

But the "Brave Allies" were mentioned in all the after dinnerspeeches--till the end of the war. 

Then came a change. The manufacturers dropped their cloak of hypocrisyand made a straight-out appeal--"Only Buy Goods Made in Australia. " The"Brave Allies" were dropped. Heavy duties were requested on all importedgoods, whether they were made in Britain, Belgium, Bagdad orBeloochistan. 

But the manufacturers were too late. They should have played thattrump-card nine months before. Their first duty should have been toAustralia. Their battle-cries from the beginning should havebeen--"Australia First"; and: "By being true to ourselves we can bestcontribute to Empire solidarity"; also: "The increased strength of theunits will mean the more powerful whole. "

Then the soldiers began to return from Europe. They found the sametrouble their comrades were meeting in England, most of the jobs theyhad left had disappeared. 

Many of the employers who had loudly boasted that the jobs of those whoenlisted would be kept waiting for them, had done practically nothing tokeep their promise. 

During the war, when they should have been busy keeping the wheelsmoving, they had lost confidence. 

They had forgotten that the times called for the best in every man andwoman; that the first duty of those who could not go to the fightingline of Europe was to get in the fighting line of business at home; thatfull speed at home was absolutely necessary not only to keep a level ofprosperity that would, at the end of the war, find the country wellprepared to meet the inevitable heavy taxation, but to keep business atfull strength so that when our soldiers returned they would have foundplaces ready to be filled. 

They had forgotten that slump is often only a mental attitude, and thateven bad times can be bettered by putting an extra ounce into everypound of business energy. They had forgotten that if everyone made amove business would shift along at a faster pace. But they had donenothing but talk; so trade slackened generally and lack of business mademany other vacant places besides those vacated by the men who went tothe Front. 

Australia wanted a commercial Kitchener, to get together businessmanagers and labor leaders, and talk them into a better businessoutput. 

Instead of uniting together for the one common end to speedily end thewar with credit to the Empire, politicians still kept up their bittercontentious legislation. 

Instead of concentrating the whole of Australia's political machinery onthe defence of the Empire and heartening the men with the knowledge ofwhole-souled support and sympathy, Australian Labor Governments devotedmost of their attention to paltry party politics. 

Instead of inviting workers to put in a little extra vim in time ofstress; in fact, to be a bit more generous in their output, the laborleaders urged the workers to be more militant, to grip bad times as afitting occasion to demand more wages and less hours. So the employerssat entrenched behind their desks, watching the political moves of theworkers, as the Allies peered at the Germans across the trench edges ofthe Aisne--sat there till the soldiers came home and found no work todo. 

There were cheers for them when they went out and they got some morewhen they came back, but they did not get much else. And they kept oncoming back. A foolish politician blurted out: "Those unemployedsoldiers are becoming a public nuisance. "

The Federal Prime Minister, by whose Ministry the military forces werecontrolled, was in a quandary. 

On one side, the manufacturers were telling him how to solve theproblem. 

"Put on thumping big taxes and help our factories to get busy, then wecan take on the unemployed soldiers. "

On the other side, the importers were advising the Prime Minister todrop the customs tariff and allow imports free. That, they explained, would cheapen the cost of living, and those out of work would have abetter chance to live. 

Then the "Syndicate, " which had now grown to a great size, which, infact, was controlling Government work in all the States, had a longconsultation with the Prime Minister. 

"Never mind the manufacturer, " it said. "Remember, there are threestages in this country's development--Pastoral, Agricultural, andManufacturing. The latter should be the last considered by Australia, which is a pastoral and agricultural country. We can develop Australiaas it should be developed, by constructing irrigation schemes andopening agricultural areas. We could solve your unemployed problem, giveyour soldiers a good living wage and increase your country's prosperity. All we ask is that the Federal Government follow the States' example, and pay us 10 per cent. On the first five years expenditure, the wholeamount of which we shall return at the end of that period with five percent. Added, provided you arrange with the States to give us, free oftaxation, land they do not require. "

A hurried conference of State Premiers was called and the situation wascarefully studied. Unemployed were crowding Australian cities. Privateenterprise was being crippled by the heavy income taxes imposed by StateGovernments to pay the increasing cost of the "Syndicates" controllingthe Public Works of the various States. It was admitted that these workswere being efficiently carried out, and being mostly railway anddevelopmental constructions, they would be productive when completed. Still, with private enterprise choked off, investment was at a lowlevel. The manufacturer was also being hard hit, for although some ofthe tariff duties imposed by the Federal Government helped him, eachState appointed a Necessary Commodities Commission to regulate prices. The manufacturer, who was being helped by the tariff, had to pay highwages to manufacture his goods, but the Commodities Commission preventedhim raising his prices so that he could not sell at a profitable figure. He, therefore, shut down and threw another mob of unemployed on themarket. 

Another factor that affected the matter was the great flow ofimmigration forwarded to Australia from Europe. 

The Great War had put a sort of terror into the souls of men, and thefear of heavy taxation that threatened to follow drove them across theseas. 

Every boat carried its full complement; so that when the "Syndicate"declared its intention to open up agricultural areas, each Staterecognised that this would not only absorb the unemployed, but as landdevelopment meant development in other quarters, a general prosperitywould naturally follow. Hence they vied with each other in offering freeof charge the choicest Crown lands. 

The States recognised that the Crown lands had cost them nothing, andthat the Commonwealth, having control of customs and land taxation, could easily raise the money for the cost of developing them. 

So the "Syndicate" idea began to develop, and many capitalists who werebeing driven out of Europe by the uprising of Socialism, came toAustralia and quietly invested in the "Syndicate" until the world sawthe anomaly of a Socialistic country having all its public works andgreat armies of workers under the control of a capitalistic syndicate, which was now getting the opportunity to extend its scope of action bybeing offered tax-free land areas!

 * * * * *

I will not soon forget the joy of having that letter from Australia. Itwas the second I had received since the Great War began. 

I read it to Helen in a pretty little house which was perched upon thecliff above the Meuse, at Dinant, and which was our honeymoon home. Madame had come in to spend some days with us, and as I read the letterbefore the glowing fire, for it was in the winter of 1916, I could seeher eyes sparkle with interest. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Age of Brain Passes. 

The war was a blessing to Germany. In cutting out the old militarysystem it gave wider opportunity for manufacturing. Young men, insteadof spending their days in military training, went into business, andthings boomed. 

The war had caused a great outcry against German-made goods, yet whenpeace came and dropped the barriers, the manufactures of Germany beganto flood the world. 

Germany's indemnity of £1, 000, 000, 000 could only be paid from itsmanufactures, so the Allied nations took every opportunity to see thatthose goods got into circulation. 

Though British, Russian and French merchants during the war had tried to"kill German trade, " as money was urgently required the Allies had tolet it live, and see that it had a vigorous life in order to get theirindemnity without delay. That was why Australia, as well as other partsof the British Empire, was advised to lift tariff restrictions on Germangoods. It was an extraordinary request, and later on was to have aworld-wide effect. 

I remembered a remark Nap once made to me during one of our yarns whilstwaiting behind the fighting lines on the Aisne for the dawn to call usinto the air. 

"It's blamed hard, " he said, "to have this war in our life time. It'sgoing to throw the world back thirty years, and thirty years in afellow's life is a mighty big hunk. This war had to come. The world hadbeen moving too quickly during the last ten years, which saw wireless, flying, radium, and other marvellous stunts--in fact, the world hadrushed ahead so swiftly that it had to pull up to take breath. This waris giving the earth breathing space, but it's going to take thirty yearsto clear up the mess, wipe the stains away and patch mankind upphysically and mentally. "

But time proved that Nap, like all the other gloomy prophets of badtimes, was wrong. The war speeded up things. Men, flushed with theactivity of the battlefield, came back quick-witted. Country louts andcity boys, who had been taken in hand and trained to physical perfectionfor the battlefield, came back in twelve months--men. 

There was prosperity everywhere. All Western Europe, with the exceptionof Belgium had declared for Socialism. The Humanist (Socialist) trend ofthings made high wages for the workers everywhere. But the capitalistswere being hit hard. Their factory profits were dwindling away underHumanist rule, and as each one went under, the Government would takeover his business. Great estates were taxed and super-taxed, till theowners had to relinquish them. 

The Socialistic ideal of "all sharing the wealth of the wealthy" wasrapidly approaching, but bringing with it a social cataclysm. 

There was no doubt of that. It was being hastened by the lessened outputof the workers. The ca-canny system ruled everywhere. With good pay forlittle work there was no incentive to excel, and from "little work" to"no work" was an easy step for many, as under the Humanist rule theunemployed were also paid. 

The people were rapidly losing self-respect. With their false idea ofequality, discipline was difficult to maintain, and lawlessness wasrife. 

People were so sick of war that in most of the nations disarmament wasan easy matter. Even the German Navy, that was passed over to the Alliednations at the termination of the war rapidly deteriorated from lack ofdiscipline and reduced votes for upkeep. 

War was looked upon as a waste of blood and a waste of heroism, so themanufacture of arms was declared to be illegal. 

Invention practically ceased. 

There was no incentive to invest, as the Humanists had gradually taxedthe capitalist out of existence; and it is interesting to note how timeproved that the capitalist was essential to inventive progress. 

The State desired to improve the flying machine, as flying was stillconfined to the aeroplane and the dirigible. 

The then type of aeroplane could not rise or descend vertically, andonly kept in the air when at great speed. The dirigible balloon was ofthe Zeppelin type, and was not always dependable. 

It was decided to invent a machine that could easily rise and descend, and could rest in the air and be independent of all atmosphericconditions. So a State flying machine factory was commenced in Englandon Salisbury Plain. 

The first trouble arose when the building was being erected. Manyworkers objected to what was called the waste of labor. It was pointedout that under the Socialistic rule, the product of labor had to go tolabor, and as the building of the flying machine factory was notproducing food or clothing, and the workers on it had to be supported bythe labor of the whole community, it was making a distinct class ofthem, which was illegal. However, the Government went on with the work. 

The first machine made was not successful. Then an agitation ensued thatit was not equitable and just that the community should support anylabor engaged in such a foolish enterprise. It was demanded that thefactory should be closed, and the workers set at useful employment, instead of being a burden on the state and reviving the old system ofclasses. 

I remember reading at the time that a leader in the experiments namedCooley, pointed out that the successful machine would save much labor inafter years, by giving more efficient means of transport, and that whenthe successful machine was built the whole community would enjoy theresult of the labor expended on it. 

[Illustration: "The First Wright Aeroplane. "]

He pointed out that in the production of the first aeroplane, the WrightBrothers had spent years of effort in the solution of the problem ofaerial navigation, and that a vast amount of labor and material wasconsumed before the first practical machine was made, so it was, therefore, reasonable to consider that much expenditure of labor andmaterial would have to continue till the perfect machine was found, andthat it was worth it all to win that ideal means of transport. The laborof the hand and brain to achieve the perfect flying machine would haveto be directed either by a capitalist or by the State. There were now nocapitalists, and it was, therefore, the duty of the State to take thematter up notwithstanding the so-called waste of labor and material. 

He pointed out that all industry involved waste. That millions of poundshad been spent in experiments in evolving the machines we were usingto-day. He also mentioned that he remembered, when in America, thatmillions of dollars were spent in attempting to tunnel under the HudsonRiver, at New York, and that many failures were met with before the workwas successfully achieved. 

He might also have mentioned that all this expense was borne by thecapitalist, and that if the State had had charge of it, the enormouswaste of money in experiments would have caused a public panic. 

He pleaded that all great inventions were developed on expensiveexperimenting, and the perfect flying machine could only be won in thesame way. 

The State flying machine factory was, therefore, given anotheropportunity, and the second flying machine was made. On its first testit failed to rise, so the public objected to the mad enterprise andrefused to support the experiments in unprofitable labor. The factorywas closed, and the workers put at employment that "showed results. "

I mention this incident of the flying machine, as the same oppositionwas met in other branches of science. 

Thus the spirit of invention was suppressed. There was no anxiety toachieve, no desire for individual excellence. With invention ceasing theAge of Brain went out--that Age of Brain that brilliant period in theworld's history which only covered one hundred years, yet saw the riseand development of the most brilliant scientists the world had everseen!

Great brains rose in one brief space of a century, and gave the worldrailways, steam navigation, electric telegraphs, the telephone, gas andelectric lighting, photography, the phonograph, the X-Ray, spectrumanalysis, anæsthetics, antiseptics, radium, the cinematograph, theautomobile, wireless telegraphy, and the aeroplane; all perfectly newdepartures from anything previously devised!

That wonderful Age of Brain passed out, giving place to the Age ofBrawn!

It was the sunset of ambition, and the remarkable events that followedare all so recent that to give details seems like telling news ofgeneral knowledge. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

The Trumpet Blast. 

It will be remembered that, at the close of the European War, the alliednations of Western Europe had requested Canada, India, Australia, andAfrica to open their ports to free admission of German-made goods. Thosecolonies at first demurred, but assented and gradually drifted towardsindependence. 

During the war these colonies had sent their contingents to help theMother Country, and at the declaration of peace desired an ImperialFederation throughout the British Empire, but the politicians in theHumanist Government saw no profit in Empire connections. Sentiment hadno place in Socialistic policies. 

Canada gave free trade to the United States of America, and the barriersbetween India and the surrounding nations were dropped, whilst thevarious parts of the British Empire gradually drew apart from GreatBritain. 

In Asia, freedom of exchange between the nations had welded Russia, India, China, Japan and Siam into a great federation of wonderfulprosperity. It was called "the United Nations of Asia. "

The barriers of trade that formerly existed between these nations seemedas absurd as a farmer dividing his farm into little plots and trying tocultivate all kinds of plants on each plot instead of putting only wheatin wheat land and corn in corn land. 

As Owasi, the great Japanese statesman who brought about the coalition, put it, "Let Asia have the intelligence to utilise its lands to the bestadvantage. Let it develop each nation's products as the result ofnatural selection. We can grow rice in India, we can grow wheat inRussia. We can put up a high tariff wall and grow rice in Russia, if wegrow it in a hothouse; but it would not be so profitable as raisingwheat. Tariff walls are trade restrictions. They are as obsolete as thegreat wall of China. "

"But freedom of exchange will close up some industries, " said a critic. 

"Yes, if they are run at a loss, " Owasi replied, "and besides, some onemust pay for that loss, and a loss to one nation instantly acts uponothers. Freedom of interchange of trade is reciprocal, both nations gainor they wouldn't trade--and there is amity. When trade is restrainedcompetition commences. Competition soon becomes jealous of therestricted territory and war begins. Commercial wars often begin with atariff and end with a shell. It is at first a commercial war, but as itsintensity develops the bullet and the shell come in. Artificial barriersare obsolete in these days of flying. The airship should be thepeace-bringer of the world. "

So Eastern and Central Asia developed into great producing nations withthe consequent desire for trade expansion--particularly with Australiaand with the markets of Western Europe. 

The great Asiatic federation opened up close trade relations withAustralia. This movement, strange to say, had been predicted in Sydneyas far back as April, 1915, when at a public reception to some Japanesejournalists, it was pointed out that a most serious moment in thehistory of Australia would occur when the Australian came back from thebig job in Europe, that when he had put his gun in the corner and hadtaken off his coat for business, he would see the rapidly developingnations of Eastern Asia about to dominate the Pacific trade, and that hewould then be wise if he decided at the outset to formulate a policy ofpeaceful progress and preserve the closest and most friendly traderelations with Japan and Eastern Asia. 

Australia, therefore, joined in a trade treaty with Eastern Asia, butWestern Europe refused. 

It considered that the flooding of its markets with cheap-made Asiaticgoods would mean serious opposition to home factories, which were beingrun under high wages. 

Belgium alone stood for freedom of trade exchange with Asia. This singlenation in Western Europe that had stood against Socialism was now anation of great manufacturing capacity, a country of wealthy people, ahaven for the thoughtful and the ambitious who were forced out ofHumanist nations. Belgium was the centre of European invention. 

It could foresee trouble in restricting Asiatic desires for tradeexchange, and pleaded with the nations of Western Europe to open theirports. It was pointed out, that out of 300 of the wars in the history ofthe world, 272 were due to trade causes and only 28 were due toreligious or other causes. 

It was pointed out that freedom of trade between German States had madeGermany so strong, that in 1914 it could fight a fifteen months war withthe greatest nations of the world. 

But the Humanist nations, being non-militant, turned a deaf ear. 

Then a threat of war came from Asia!

It came like a trumpet blast in the ear of a sleeping man, and it foundWestern Europe unprepared--with its energy wasted under the rule ofSocialism, and with its armies and navies almost deteriorated out ofexistence. 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Wilbrid Passes Out. 

I remember it was the afternoon of Christmas Day, 1916. 

Madame had come across to our little home at Dinant for a few days'rest. 

She had almost worked herself to sickness in her active campaign oforganising in preparation for the war-storm that threatened Europe. 

We were sitting on the verandah, overlooking the river, when we noticedfar down the zig-zag track that led to the house, a black-cloakedfigure. It was coming towards us and walked with the aid of a stick. Asit approached, it brought to my memory a similar figure I had met on theCoblenz road; and I told Madame the story of my meeting with Wilbrid. 

"If that is Wilbrid, " she exclaimed, "he is spying. He must not see mehere. "

I explained that it could not be the Great Humanist, as, eighteen monthsbefore, he had changed his clerical garb for that of a civilian; andthis figure was old and bent, whereas Wilbrid was tall and erect. 

I then went down the track to investigate. Within a hundred yards, theperson stopped and raised his hand. 

"Jefson, " was all he said. 

It was Wilbrid!--but old, careworn, and almost out of breath. 

"Why this change?" I asked, as I came up to him and we moved to a seatat the side of the track. 

"I'm down and out, " he said. "My mission failed. " And his chin sank uponthe top of the hand-clasped stick. "The crowd did not understand. Youknow that I began to preach the doctrine of the Humanist to help themasses to come into their own. You know we won upon the wave of reactionthat followed the war. We should have stayed at that level and movedalong, but the momentum was too great, the pendulum had swung too far;for when the masses ruled they sinned worse than the party theysupplanted. They became more bitter autocrats than the rulers wesuppressed. 

"Instead of 'Justice for the People, ' it was 'Brute Strength for theMob. '

"I could not stem the flood that I had let loose. Heaven only knows howhard I tried, for when I pleaded that a moderate track be taken, the mobinsisted that I sought a place to dominate, and put me in the rut. 

"To-day they fear no law of man or God. To-day their self-satisfactionhas made them indifferent to anything that elevates. I had led them intoa morass, and deeper in the mire have they rushed!"

He sat silent and watched the shadows creeping along the river. 

"And what now?" I asked. 

"I am going back--back to the monastery. I misread the world, I misreadhuman nature. I was one of the fools who think they know all thestatesmanship that controls the destinies of nations, who think theirpetty untrained minds can grasp the great problems of diplomacy. 

"I have found you can only qualify for high administrative posts byunselfish study. You cannot create a statesman by the mere toss of acoin at a political meeting. Though people fitted to rule and lead mento build mighty nations are sometimes born in obscurity, they cannotdevelop there. 

"But I meant rightly--I meant rightly. In my ignorance I have playedwith a sharp-edged weapon, and it is turning upon me and--civilisation. "

"How?" I queried. 

"A cataclysm is coming, " he said. "I can feel it. No, it will not bewithin Asia, as many people fear, but within Europe. 

"The hasty structure of Humanism cannot stand. Even now it is toppling. It is going to crash, and from the ruins another creed will rise, acreed, I trust, more rational. 

"I was passing home, so came to tell you. "

Then Madame came down the track. 

Wilbrid rose as she approached. His hand shook as he removed his blackbroad-brimmed hat. They stood before each other for a moment without aword. 

For the first time, these leaders faced each other. Then Wilbrid benthis head. 

"You have won, " he said. "You have won. "

"It took you some time to find that out, " she remarked, with a tremblingvoice. "I could have told you that soon after you began. You cried forthe destruction of the very things that have made the world progress. You aimed to destroy individuality and you did so--but only with yourown class. 

"You have preached that all wealth is the result of labor, but now youhave realised that intelligent supervision is required to make laboreffective, and that brains are just as necessary to the world'sprosperity as is manual toil. 

"You went out to reform society and level down; and your party no soonerwon some power than your women-folk tried to form a "social set" oftheir own--you don't know women. You are as ignorant of their desires asyou are of your own. You do not know it is woman's instinct to besomething more than a drab. There is more of the divine spark in thewoman than in the man. It should be so with the producers of men. Sheyearns for uplift, even if it be the sneered-at "society" you sought tocrush. 

"You have only to note how, when Socialist politicians in any countrywin any power, their wives crowd each other into those circles ofsociety, that husbands had won notoriety by attacking as "loafing on theworkers. "

"You have only to note the social columns of the daily press of thosecountries to see how anxious these wives of Socialist members are tohave their names in print that they have had "afternoon-tea" with ladiesof any title. 

"Deep in the heart of every woman is respect for the title or thedecorative side of human life. A flower to her is something more than athing. 

"You women will tell you you do not know them--and how could you?--you, a man who lived the greater part of your life in a monastery apart fromyour fellows, apart from the problems, apart from the battle againstconditions that make men--men. You, in the seclusion of your own kind, conceived dreams of Utopian madness and you came forth and cast yourfoolish fancies like a net upon the ignorant. And now you find yourfailings; you see the petty smallness of your ideals and youretreat--back into your abbey like a frightened crab creeping beneaththe cover of a stone. "

"I know it now, " said the crestfallen man. "We can only learn ourlessons through bitter experience. "

He turned upon his heel as if to leave. 

She was touched by the pathetic figure and held out her hand to him. 

He took it in his and bent over it. 

"Good-bye, " he said. "I go home on this day of days, this day of 'peaceon earth and good will to men'--and alas! the world a seething mass ofdiscontent!"

I brought him to the house and gave him some wine to drink. 

"Good-bye, " he said. "God bless you. " And he waved his hat as we watchedthe careworn figure slowly stroll down the track and pass out of ourlives. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Wonderful Month of War. 

Then the great war crashed upon Europe, and it did not come from Asia!

Its sudden outbreak proved many things; first, that invention had notbeen entirely exterminated; and second, that artificial laws could notdestroy the divine in humanity. 

Above all, the war proved that brawn could not suppress the aspiringflights of the brain; for during the socialistic era of "humanequality, " men with more highly developed inventive faculties, men whowished to cultivate the spirit that inspires the human to ever excel, met in mysterious places and plotted!

They felt the time must eventually arrive when the unnatural socialposition the Humanists adopted must overbalance itself; hence theyprepared for the impending cataclysm. 

It is strange, in the history of the world, how a thread of sympathymysteriously binds together those whose souls are suffering from acommon tyranny. 

Throughout Europe bands of scientific militants of both sexes met insecret conclave and plotted for "Another Day. "

Yet the great secrecy observed by these insurgents was unnecessary. TheHumanist policy of non-considering and non-observing, of suppressingoriginality of thought as being useless in an age of equality, haddulled the thinking faculty in its followers. Nature has no use for thenon-used, so the socialists were developing into living and workinghuman automata, in fact, taking life more like an advanced kind ofanimal. Was it, therefore, any wonder that they were blind to thedeveloping danger?

The same circumstances quickened the inventive faculty of the oppressed. Danger quickens intuition, and the spark of invention shone brightly inmany covert places. 

Thought was, however, concentrated on one object, the quickest andsurest method of overthrowing the Humanist policy and installing anideal method of living in which not only would there be "equalopportunities for all, " which, though it was the policy of the Humanistsat their inauguration, had developed into "equal opportunities forleaders, " but there would also be the rule of "payment by results. "

Inventive genius concentrated upon two objectives:--First, an idealmethod of secret communication between followers; and second, the mostefficient fighting machine--a weapon that would only require a minimumof personnel to operate. With such a weapon, a small force, such as theIndividualists numbered, would be a match for a multitude. 

The ideal means of inter-communication was invented by a Belgian. It wassimply the improvement of the method of transmitting and receiving acertain type of ether wave through the earth. This wave did not needaerials, and could only be received and transmitted through certaininstruments that were kept in sacred seclusion in secret places. 

With these instruments followers were ever in close touch with eachother, and co-operative measures were detailed for the day of generaluprising. 

The fighting machine was also invented by a Belgian. It was the idealflying machine, sought since the Wright Brothers conquered the air tenyears before. 

The old style of aeroplane only kept in the air when at a great speed, hence it could not hover. As a weapon of offence it had, therefore, manydisadvantages in bomb-dropping or other belligerent action. Thesedisadvantages increased according to the height from which the aeroplanewould have to operate; and as the German War of 1915 had improved therange of air cannon, the old type aeroplane was almost useless foroffence purposes. The dirigible balloon, being lighter than air, wasnot always dependable, and having also to operate from a great height, the rarefied air in those regions seriously affected the gas carriers. 

The Belgian "Heliocoptre" carried its propellers above the machine; theaxles, having "universal" joints, enabled them to revolve in any plane, whilst engines, operating by means of powerful, non-clogging explosives, generated the enormous power. These "Heliocoptres" were armed with great"Thermit" shells, which, when they struck and burst, would not only setfree a paralysing gas, but would also produce a molten "thermit" mass ofa heat of over 5000 degrees, which could burn its way even througharmored plate. 

It is too recent for me to detail, at length, the remarkablecircumstances following the prescribed day, when these machinessimultaneously rose in various cities, and after but a week's reign ofterror took possession of all Governments in the Humanist nations. 

The people generally were not antagonistic to a change of rule. Theywere tired of the unnatural life and almost listlessly waiteddevelopments. These did not tarry, for within a very short period thepresent systems of Commission Governments were adopted, and Royaltieswere recalled to their various kingdoms as governing figureheads. 

I only briefly mention this, the shortest war in history, because it wasso recent. Yet it had the greatest bearing upon human development. 

Belgium came through it untouched, though it held the centre ofoperations. 

I shall never forget that wonderful month of war, and the almostsuperhuman energy Madame displayed in assisting to direct operations. Itwas not strange that her constitution collapsed under the remarkablestrain, and that for a while death hovered round the sick room. Hercomplete recovery called for a long sea voyage, which explained why weentered Sydney Harbor some weeks later. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

What Happened in Australia. 

I found Australia in a strange way. 

Every State had a "socialistic" Government, and yet all public workswere controlled by combines of capitalists. The business interests ofthese combines were so interlocked as to be one huge concern generallyknown as the "Syndicate. " It carried out all constructional works at apercentage on the cost. The percentage and interest on the capitalinvested were raised by the Commonwealth and State Governments mainlyfrom customs duties at first and, when these slackened, as they didlater, from land taxation. 

It seemed strange to find that the Socialist Governments had actuallyhanded over the Australian States to the oft'-maligned capitalist; and, stranger still, the people did not complain. The fact of the matter wasthat the people had found that socialistic theories were very fine forplatform platitudes, but not for practical politics. 

Australia learnt over again the lesson she should have remembered froman experiment of twenty years previously. 

It was the old story of "New Australia": the story that taught the worldthat ideal socialism is impossible whilst human nature is as it is. Andyet Australia had forgotten it! It is strange that people rarely profitfrom past failures. Countries as well as peoples usually insist onbuying their own experience, and the history of the socialisticexperiment in Australia between 1910 and 1917 was simply a repetition ofthe great failure of William Lane's ideal. 

It is interesting, at this stage, to study the analogy. 

In 1890, a brilliant-phrasing Socialist, named William Lane, setQueensland workers' minds aflame with his Utopian dreams of the idealsocialistic life that could be lived on a large tract of countryoffered them in the heart of South America. Three years later 250Australians, including 60 single men and many single girls, put alltheir wealth into a common fund and sailed away from Australia in aspecially chartered ship. 

It was a unique experiment in Socialism. The men were not the scum ofcities, but enthusiastic and hearty individuals; clean-thinkingIrishmen, for the most part, trained in the tasks of settlement. Allwere equal, and the warmest comradeship existed between men and women. 

Here was the first weakness of the Socialistic creed: by allcontributing to a common fund, Lane had provided for communism of goods;by recognising all children as belonging to the State he had providedfor communism of children; but as a father and a husband he fearedcommunism of morals. Hence he framed a regulation aimed to preserve theconventional relations between the sexes, especially on board ship. Toprevent "flirtations" he issued a decree forbidding women to appear ondeck after sunset!

The first dissension arose through the women objecting to remain in thestuffy atmosphere of the ship's hold below the water line from sunset tosunrise, and, as each woman claimed equality with Lane, the notice wastorn down. Lane, however, produced a bundle of proxies from members ofthe movement in Australia, so that his single vote constituted amajority! He then assumed the post of dictator. 

The party then split into two factions; one that believed in Lane, andthe other that objected to his despotic control and questioned his rightto allot to them the "dirty jobs, " such as "washing up" and "scrubbingthe decks. "

After many trying adventures the socialists reached the site of thecommunistic settlement and found opportunity to study and compareSocialism in practice and in theory. They had at last done away with thebad old methods of capitalism, which "ground the people down and robbedthem of rest, energy, food and life"; so the "New Australians"determined to avoid drudgery in their new life, and were very keen onbeing properly "uplifted. " There were a number of musical instruments inthe stores, so thirty-six socialists formed a band and practisedassiduously in the pleasant shade of the trees for a considerableproportion of the time they should have been clearing timber andbuilding houses under the tropical sun. 

Those who toiled hardest protested, but Lane, with a stern hand and arevolver in his belt put down revolt and punished those who disputed hisdecision by setting them the most disagreeable tasks. 

Against Lane's decision there was no appeal. Three men disobeyed him andhe ordered them out of the colony. One of them had put £1000 into theventure and wanted to argue. Lane, however, called in a posse of nativesoldiers, armed to the teeth. They marched into the camp with fixedbayonets, and the three malcontents were taken out and cast adrift. 

One of the "faithful" wrote at this time:--

"We have surrendered all civil rights and become mere cogs in a wheel. We are no longer active factors in the scheme of civilisation: in fact, each man is practically a slave. Lane does the thinking; we do the work. Result--barbarism!"

A third of the party soon broke camp and threw themselves upon thecharity of Paraguay. Those who stayed behind shortly afterwards expelledLane. With forty-five sympathisers he set out to establish anotherParadise!

Those who stayed behind drew up a series of regulations that made anychange a subject for universal discussion, and as the regulations werebeing continually altered, public gatherings took up most of the day'swork. Convening meetings and arguing thereat was found much moreinteresting than toiling in the hot sun; so practically little work wasdone. 

A Frenchman had a little farm close by and was making a small fortunefrom it for himself, whilst thirty-five Australians next to him couldnot make a living for each other! So much for the advantages ofSocialistic co-operation!

Soon the "New Australians" had to get busy to prevent starvation. One ofthe many authoritative writers said:--

 A brief but brilliant span of existence may be attained by a Socialistic State living on the capital of its predecessors, but it soon runs through the capital and goes out like a spent squib and leaves a nasty smell. 

(New South Wales also found this out ten years later. )

Instead of the "New Australians" getting busy and making the profitsthat awaited the exploitation of the wonderful timber on their area, they looked for easy work and fancied they found it in the cultivationof ramie fibre. 

The fibre failed; money was being exhausted; the leaders were faced withtwo propositions. They had either to set the people at productive labor, such as timber-getting, or raise money somehow, somewhere. They followedthe latter as being the easier task. So they sold to an outsidecapitalist the exclusive right for three years of cutting timber on thearea. They sold it for an absurdly small consideration, to find laterthat they were also prevented cutting wood for their own uses!

Although Lane had started a new colony, he made but two innovations. Heruled that as woman's only sphere was in the home, he would abolish thewoman's vote. His other innovation for an ideal Socialist community wasthe employment of cheap native labor. He thus revived the "wickedcapitalistic idea of cheap--nigger labor. "

It was also found that the inclusion of the native element had a seriouseffect upon the morality of the Socialists. There was a remarkableincrease of half-caste children without the formality of marriage withthe Paraguayians. 

Communism was still advocated, yet to the communistic dining table eachman brought his private bottle of treacle, which he stowed away betweenmeals under his pillow or in some other secret hiding place. Childrengrew up godless and ignorant and--Lane disappeared!

The original population was reduced to 22 men, 17 women and 51 children. 

It was decided to abandon Socialism and let each man work for himselfinstead of "each for all and all for each. " Then things began toprosper. The ambition of each was to become a capitalist. There was notalk of an "eight-hour day"! From sunrise to sunset men, women, andchildren worked, and in an incredibly short time houses rose, gardensdeveloped and later teachers came to uplift the children and to start aSunday School. 

What is left of "New Australia" to-day is an average community of sane, sober and hard-working farmers, taking as their motto: "What we have, wehold"!

Yet the failure of that experiment was forgotten in the rush ofSocialistic legislation that gripped Australia before and during thewar; and the rise of the "Syndicate" saved Australia from a similarwreck that followed the previous experiment. 

The "Syndicate" idea began to develop. It became another name forco-operation. The keen people at the head of it saw that its continuedsuccess depended on the people having an interest in the profits oftheir work, so they gave the public opportunity to share in it. 

The "Syndicate" expanded its sphere of co-operation. Did a State factoryfail, then, if there was a chance of profit in the material itmanufactured, a co-operation "Syndicate"--a subsidiary branch of thecombine--took it over. The workers, supplanted by labor-savingmachinery, were taken up by the great farms the "Syndicate" wasdeveloping throughout the country. 

The "Syndicate, " however, did not encourage manufacture unless the goodscould be made cheaper and better than they could be imported duty free. It studied every new manufacturing proposition apart from any tariffpossibilities. The first point it considered was whether it wasadvisable to establish in Australia a factory with necessarily expensivepower to compete with Canadian or other factories that utilised cheapwater power. 

This policy naturally brought about two conditions. It establishedmanufacture on an honest basis by doing away with the necessity for theusual political wire-pulling for the imposition of tariff duties, and itgradually brought about free trade in goods not worth manufacturing inAustralia. 

From an industrial point of view the "Syndicate" system revolutionisedthe lot of the Australian worker. It fixed a minimum wage, much higherthan the then ruling rate, and instituted piece-work. The regular wagewas guaranteed whatever the output, and the piece-work rate was added toit. 

The "Syndicate" introduced scientific management and, from a businesspoint of view, considered men first and profits second. It knew thatbetter working conditions resulted in easier and more profitable work. It considered the conditions of labor by grading employees. It studiedtheir equipment and noted if tools, benches or machines were best fittedfor the people who used them. It saw that a "five-foot" man was notgiven a "six-foot" shovel, or that a short girl-worker was not sittingon a seat that would be more comfortable for a tall girl. It fitted theequipment to the worker just as a shoe is fitted to the foot. 

It studied the work as well as the equipment. Each part of the work wasspecially arranged to eliminate unnecessary movements until it became sostandardised as to give the worker the easiest way of doing it properly. Working hours were shortened; yet more work was done. Each worker didwhat he could do best. Profit-sharing was introduced in all ventures, but it was based upon individual effort; in fact, the "Syndicate"combine was a system of organisation and profitable co-operation, asystem that put the Socialist out of business. 

Organisation and co-operation stopped the mad war upon privateenterprise and industry. It found the value of men lay in their abilityto think individually and act collectively. Trade Unionism did not dothat. It is true it helped the workman to secure higher wages, betterworking conditions and shorter hours, but it was not satisfied withthat. It sought absolute ownership of factories and all means ofproduction, with evasion of responsibilities and no provision madeagainst deficits. 

The Trade Unionist called for opportunity for all, but denied it tothose workers who could not afford to pay the entrance fee to the union. 

Whilst the Trade Unionist, on the one hand, was getting highest wagesfrom private enterprise, on the other hand, he demanded from the Statecheap house rentals--as at Daceyville and other State-controlledsuburbs. 

The Australian worker, therefore, practically lived upon Governmentcharity, until the Government was beggared and the capitalist"Syndicate" providentially stepped in and saved the country. 

It was well for Australia that the capitalists considered theindividual, and that it was just as good business to have efficientmachinists as well as efficient machines. 

It was well for Australia that the capitalists knew the value of humanflesh and nurtured it. And Australia understood. In the stress of theGerman War it had sobered up. It had dropped the Utopian dreams of theimpracticable and used its head. It saw an analogy in the system of the"Syndicate, " "Organisation and Co-operation, " to a similar system thathad led them to victory on the battlefields of Europe. 

The perfect organisation that military training gave, and the intenseco-operation the call of the blood demanded, instilled these two greatprinciples into Australian character. 

The great German War was worth while to Australia. 

It is evening as I write these concluding phrases. I look across SydneyHarbor from my Cremorne home, and I see the city skyline edged with aglistening fringe. 

Beyond the distant hills of purple blue the sun is sinking in a saffronsky. 

Into the evening air the homeward 'planes are rising from the city park. 

A faint report comes from the sunset gun and starts a train of visionrunning through my mind. 

I hear again the gun that brought me from the sky into the Forest of theArgonne, and then "Nap" passes through my thoughts. (He is now in chargeof a Syndicate concern. )

Madame then comes into vision. (She is now the "gran'ma" of my home. )

Then Wilbrid totters across my field of thought. 

And then Helen--but my reverie has ended. .. . 

She calls me in. 

(The End. )