University of California 
 
 Southern Regional 
 
 Library Facility
 
 ' 

 
 MY COUNTRY
 
 "Are you there, Senator? .... Why couldn't Billy Hartmann 
 
 be made Assistant Chief-of-Staff to the Commander-in- 
 
 Chief?" (Page 80)
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 A STORY OF TODAY 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE ROTHWELL BROWN 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 CHASE EMERSON 
 
 BOSTON 
 SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1917 
 
 BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 
 
 (INCORPORATED) 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
 
 TO 
 
 Z. H. 
 
 2134255
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I STRANGERS AT THE DOOR i 
 
 II A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY 10 
 
 III PURPLE EYES 17 
 
 IV SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 26 
 
 V THE IDOL ON THE ALTAR 36 
 
 VI "THEN I'LL COME BACK TO You " . . 45 
 
 VII THE CALL ACROSS THE SEA 60 
 
 VIII MR. MONSON READS A LETTER .... 73 
 
 IX WAITING ORDERS 82 
 
 X ADDED ATTRACTION^ MLLE. FRALLI . 92 
 
 XI A LITTLE TRIP TO NAMASCHET .... 109 
 
 XII A VOICE IN THE DARK 120 
 
 XIII CORRLE GIVES A PARTY 145 
 
 XIV IN SPITE OF ALL YOUR HEART .... 161 
 XV ELFRIEDA HAS AN IDEA 172 
 
 XVI THE PATHWAY TO A STAR 181 
 
 XVII A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 193 
 
 vii
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XVIII THE LAND OF YESTERDAY . . . . 
 
 XIX THE BLACK LEATHER CASE . . . . 
 
 XX MR. MONSON GETS AN EYEFUL . . 
 
 XXI THE SPARK ON THE CHIMNEY . . . 
 
 XXII THE PARTING OF THE WAYS . . . 
 
 XXIII STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA, FIVE MILES 
 
 XXIV " How CAN I LEAVE THEE ? " .
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "Are you there, Senator? . . . Why couldn't 
 Billy Hartmann be made Assistant Chief- 
 of-Staff to the Commander-in-Chief ? " See 
 
 Page 80 Frontispiece 
 
 "That, Frieda," he said, "is your flag against 
 everything" 172 
 
 She could not face the look that lay in his eyes 220
 
 MY COUNTRY
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 STRANGERS AT THE DOOR 
 
 "Elfrieda!" 
 
 There was no answer. 
 
 " Elfrieda! " Mrs. Sigbert's voice was deep, yet 
 shrill. There was silence as she stood intently, an 
 elderly woman, with a huge nose that was not quite 
 exactly in the centre of her large, plain face, and 
 snapping black eyes. Some one in the front of the 
 house began strumming the piano again, monoto- 
 nously and rebelliously. Mrs. Sigbert resumed her 
 work, re-arranging the table, smoothing the cloth, 
 that was already wrinkleless, and changing the 
 plates about. Presently she called : 
 
 "Charlotte! Charlotte!" 
 
 The kitchen door opened, and Charlotte Sigbert, 
 the eldest daughter, came into the room, a tall, un- 
 gainly, heavy- featured woman, all elbows, hips and 
 knees, and strikingly like her mother, having the 
 same large, crooked nose and swarthy complexion. 
 
 i
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 Her eyes redeemed the composite ugliness of her 
 personality. These were large and luminous, as if 
 glowing from some light within. She inclined her 
 coarse, heavy head inquiringly. 
 
 " Charlotte ! " Mrs. Sigbert's voice was pitched 
 in the tone of command she always used. " The 
 big dictionary from the sitting-room, and tell Helena 
 to hurry with the sofa pillows. It is too bad that 
 we have no high chairs. I am afraid the children 
 will not be able to sit at the table." 
 
 Charlotte left the room, and returned almost im- 
 mediately with the book hugged against her bosom. 
 She placed it in one of the chairs. Helena, drab 
 and quiet as a mouse, followed her, with an armful 
 of bright red and blue plush sofa pillows, which 
 her mother took from her and put into another of 
 the eight chairs ranged around the table, which had 
 been lengthened that afternoon by the addition of 
 extra leaves so that it almost completely filled the 
 dining room. 
 
 " Nun! . . . Everything is ready. Go tell Elsa 
 not to forget the bay leaf in the soup. They should 
 be here now," added Mrs. Sigbert, dusting a bit of 
 lint from the tablecloth. " The train was to arrive 
 at five. I hope that Greta did not miss them at the 
 station. You should have gone, Charlotte, you, 
 who know them, not Greta, who has not seen her 
 
 2
 
 STRANGERS AT THE DOOR 
 
 uncle since she was a baby. Suppose she should 
 have missed them ? " 
 
 " I described them to her," replied Charlotte. 
 " She could not make a mistake. You know I 
 could not go, I had a lesson at four." 
 
 There was the noise of a door slamming, a 
 commotion in the front hall, and a girl's voice 
 shouting : 
 
 " Here they are ! They 've come." 
 
 It had grown dark out of doors, and the hall 
 gas had not been lighted. Mrs. Sigbert untied her 
 heavy, dark apron, slipped it in the closet, and stood 
 at the door, listening. There was the sound of a 
 man's step, slow and uncertain. She drew in her 
 breath expectantly. In a moment a big, bearded 
 man in a heavy fur coat, and wearing a sealskin 
 cap, came into the room, blinking at the light. He 
 gazed about him, embarrassed, then took off his 
 spectacles, which were frosted with snow, and put 
 them into his pocket. 
 
 "Lottie!" he cried. "Well, here I am. You 
 received my letter? " 
 
 " Yesterday," answered Mrs. Sigbert, staring at 
 the half-brother whom she had not seen for nearly 
 fifteen years. 
 
 " Then you know that I am bringing the chil- 
 dren my boys ? " 
 
 3
 
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 " Yes," replied Mrs. Sigbert, kissing him, and 
 studying his face. " You have changed. You are 
 much older than I had expected. You do not look 
 well." 
 
 " I am well," he answered, and patted her shoul- 
 der awkwardly. He shook hands with Charlotte 
 and Helena, and kissed them on both cheeks. His 
 eyes roved over the room, and stopped when they 
 rested upon a picture of the young Kaiser in a big, 
 bronze frame that hung above the mantel. " It 
 is like home," he said. 
 
 " It is the same as Germany in my house," replied 
 his sister simply. " Here I have everything that 
 is to me my Fatherland." 
 
 "You are still not happy?" 
 
 " Yes, and no." she answered slowly. " This 
 is not my country, and my Alfred is gone, but I 
 have my children, and I live in them." 
 
 " Maybe you will not be so lonely, now that I am 
 here," suggested her brother, hopefully. 
 
 Charlotte and Helena shrugged their shoulders. 
 
 " This is not my country," repeated Mrs. Sig- 
 bert. " I remain because the business is not settled 
 yet. Alfred left no will, and there has been much 
 confusion. And then, when you go back, it will 
 be worse, it always is when Charlotte goes 
 back every Summer. Have you come on busi- 
 
 4
 
 STRANGERS AT THE DOOR 
 
 ness? I hope you will stay with us long." She 
 took his coat, from which he was struggling to free 
 himself. 
 
 " Be with you long? " he repeated, looking at her 
 as if astonished by the question. " Forever. I 
 shall never return to Germany. That part of my 
 life is finished." 
 
 "You are not going back!" cried his sister in 
 amazement. 
 
 His face was turning red, the cords in his neck 
 showed like whalebones above his collar, and the 
 veins on his temples stood out under the skin like 
 knotted cords. He slowly clenched and unclenched 
 his long, muscular hands. Into his blue eyes flamed 
 up a light that made the girls step back quickly, 
 their lips parted. 
 
 " Never." 
 
 " Not going back ? " stammered his sister. " Is 
 Louisa, then, to join you here later on ? " 
 
 " I shall never see her again," he said brokenly. 
 He stood there gulping at them stupidly, his eyes 
 filling with tears. 
 
 His sister went swiftly to him. " Gott im Him- 
 mel, Albert ! Tell me, she is not dead ? " 
 
 Her brother dully shook his head. His mouth 
 quivered. Words came into his throat only to die 
 there, strangled. His whole body began to shiver, 
 
 5
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 his knees to tremble. He felt for a chair, and sat 
 down. 
 
 " Not dead," he said at length, faintly, when he 
 had controlled himself. Suddenly his limp hands 
 became two rigid fists, and he dug his nails into his 
 palms. "Worse than dead," he moaned. " Ach, 
 Gott, Lottie, if she were only dead." He began 
 rocking his huge body, backward and forward. 
 " For a month I have held in my grief for the 
 kindchen. They do not know, and they must never 
 know, you must never tell them." 
 
 " Gott im Himmel! " said Mrs. Sigbert, and fell 
 to cracking the joints of her big, coarse, raw-boned 
 hands. " Gott im Himmel! " 
 
 " He was the Colonel of the garrison at Diissel- 
 dorf," continued her brother, when he had grown 
 more calm, " Count von Heidenreich, a Prussian, 
 tall, handsome, wealthy, a dashing figure of a man. 
 The women spoke often about him. We met him, 
 how, I do not know. We did not know him, and 
 suddenly we knew him, that is all I can remember. 
 He called at our house. I was flattered. It meant 
 much to me, for he was influential. Why should 
 I, Albert Hartmann, although my business was 
 good, and I was prosperous, be the friend of such 
 a great man, one of the nobility? It turned my 
 head. I was proud to be seen with him. He was 
 
 6
 
 STRANGERS AT THE DOOR 
 
 interested in me, and said that he could obtain a 
 contract for me, and " 
 
 " That was kind of him," interrupted Mrs. Sig- 
 bert " A von Heidenreich ! " 
 
 " He got the contract for me, through the Min- 
 ister. I was happy. I saw my fortune made. I 
 went up to Hamburg on this business, and was 
 gone two months. I came back. I suspected noth- 
 ing at first. And then, one day I had no warn- 
 ing. I thought I should lose my senses. I rushed 
 from the house, leaving Louisa on her knees, for 
 she had confessed." 
 
 He paused, exhausted. Charlotte and Helena 
 slily exchanged a morbid glance. 
 
 " I did not know what to do," he went on, 
 " where to go. I ran here and there, and finally 
 I saw him, and then I realized I had been searching 
 for him all the time. He was walking with some 
 officers, and sought to pass me by. I struck him ! " 
 
 " Albert ! " cried his sister, " you struck a von 
 Heidenreich ? " 
 
 " I did, thank God, I did. He drew his sword, 
 and tried to cut me down, cut me down like a dog, in 
 the street. I fought him, and he would have killed 
 me, but some people got in the way, and I saw how 
 hopeless it was. I escaped, otherwise I would not 
 be here now. And he would have gone free if he 
 
 7
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 had killed me, for that is the law. It would have 
 been his right to kill me, his duty, for I had struck 
 an officer. But I, because I had dared to raise my 
 hand against him, I would have gone to prison. I 
 saw my danger. I rushed to my home, my pretty 
 home, all ruined, ruined, ruined ! I took the twins, 
 Wilhelm and Karl. They are my heart, mine, mine, 
 mine. I gathered them into my arms, just as they 
 were. Fortunately I did not have to wait for a train, 
 and in three-quarters of an hour I was over the 
 frontier in Rotterdam, and safe." 
 
 " Albert ! " cried his sister, and began weeping. 
 
 " At London I wrote to you, for I thought I would 
 go to America. I had always longed to go, ever 
 since my boyhood. Well, here I am, to stay. God 
 help me, I am through with Germany." 
 
 The family stood grouped about him, in silence. 
 Greta Sigbert, who had met the visitors at the rail- 
 road station, and had brought them to the house, 
 had come into the room as he was speaking, and 
 stood in the shadows, by the hall door. By her side 
 were two sturdy little figures, muffled up in woolly 
 coats, and wearing small round caps on their closely- 
 cropped heads. They were clasping hands, and star- 
 ing around them with wide-open blue eyes. 
 
 " Hush ! " said the father, " here are Wilhelm and 
 Karl. They must not know." 
 
 8
 
 STRANGERS AT THE DOOR 
 
 " Which is which? " asked Mrs. Sigbert, stooping 
 to kiss them ; " I do not see how you can tell them 
 apart. Take the dictionary and the sofa pillows 
 away, Charlotte," she added, " they are larger than 
 I had imagined they would be ; they are not babies." 
 
 The sliding door between the dining room and the 
 drawing room slowly opened, and two big violet 
 eyes calmly surveyed them. Presently the crack 
 widened, and a slender, graceful, long-legged child 
 wriggled through. A heavy mane of dark brown 
 curly hair fell down around a little face of the Ital- 
 ian type, a haunting face, the kind of face that artists 
 love. 
 
 Mrs. Sigbert motioned towards her, nodding at 
 her brother. 
 
 " Elfrieda, whom you have never seen," she said. 
 " She was born in America."
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY 
 
 The Sigberts were transplanted Americans who 
 had sprouted but one root. When they had come to 
 the United States, nearly fifteen years before, they 
 had not left Germany they had brought it with 
 them. They lived in the German style, ate German 
 food cooked in the German way, and until the chil- 
 dren went to the public schools, were as little subject 
 to American influences as if they had been living 
 still in their old home in Diisseldorf. Mrs. Sigbert 
 read nothing but German books and German news- 
 papers, and although she could not prevent the chil- 
 dren from learning English in the schools, and did 
 not desire to do so, for she was ambitious for them, 
 and wanted them to speak and read all the modern 
 languages, she insisted upon the exclusive use of 
 German in the family circle. 
 
 Mr. Sigbert, a slender little man, with such a 
 stoop in the shoulders that he seemed at first glance 
 to be a hunchback, was very nearsighted, and as he 
 was never able to recognize anybody upon the street, 
 
 10
 
 A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY 
 
 and was always engrossed in his studies when he 
 was at home, he gradually retired within himself to 
 such an extent that the very pall-bearers who carried 
 his body from the house when he died had never 
 known him. He conducted a business in astronomi- 
 cal and scientific instruments which his family knew 
 so little about that after his death his widow prob- 
 ably would have lost it entirely, but for the inter- 
 vention of an old friend, who had removed from 
 Prussia about the time that they had come to Amer- 
 ica, and who took charge of it for her, organized a 
 company to assume the management, and gradually 
 put it upon a sound and substantial basis. Thus the 
 property was conserved, and two years after her hus- 
 band's death Mrs. Sigbert found herself in comfort- 
 able circumstances. She hoped eventually to be able 
 to withdraw entirely from the business, and return 
 to Germany, where the eldest daughter, Charlotte, 
 went every summer, to study music in the schools at 
 Berlin and Munich. 
 
 She had never known why her husband had left 
 Germany, and had come with him only because he 
 had packed the family off one day, without any ex- 
 planation, selling his business in Diisseldorf, and 
 starting anew, in the same line, when he had reached 
 America. A silent man, always buried in a book 
 when he was not at his laboratory, Mr. Sigbert had 
 
 ii
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 no confidants, not even his wife, who gradually be- 
 came to him little more than a housekeeper. Almost 
 as soon as he had arrived he took out his first natu- 
 ralization papers, and then forgot all about it, and 
 so never completed the legal process of becoming a 
 citizen, although he had announced to his family 
 that it was his intention to do so. The ambiguous- 
 ness of his position as a man practically without a 
 country did not, apparently, concern him, and he 
 died to all intents neither a German nor an American. 
 
 Mrs. Sigbert said little. She knew how to keep 
 her own counsel, but she had never renounced her 
 citizenship, legally or spiritually, and would have 
 scoffed the idea that she was anything but a German. 
 Three of the daughters. Charlotte, the eldest, 
 Helena, and Greta, had been born in Prussia, and 
 only the youngest, Elfrieda, bound the family to the 
 soil and flag of their adopted country. 
 
 There is some vitalizing quality in the climate of 
 America that gives to its native sons and daughters 
 that indefinable stamp of nationality that is the out- 
 ward sign of the American character, that mysteri- 
 ous something that is the common heritage of all 
 who were born north of the Rio Grande, clear to the 
 Arctic Circle, that makes the Mississippi cotton 
 planter the brother of the Michigan lumberman and 
 the Gloucester fisherman, and the fair-haired, blue- 
 
 12
 
 A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY 
 
 eyed boy one generation from the fjords of Norway, 
 and reared in a Rocky Mountain canon two hundred 
 miles from any visible influence, blood kin to the de- 
 scendants of the Puritan and the Cavalier. Elfrieda 
 had this heritage, which has put its unmistakable 
 imprint upon everything American, from the Indian 
 who first saw the Half Moon in the Hudson, to the 
 very newest mite of humanity squalling in a basket 
 on an Allen street fire-escape. Elfrieda, for this 
 reason, was a great trial to Mrs. Sigbert. 
 
 The arrival of her half-brother, although it had 
 pleased her, for loyalty to blood was a strong family 
 trait, was at the same time a cause of much concern 
 to her. For many months she had secretly cherished 
 the dream of returning to Germany to live, and it 
 had been her intention to suggest this plan as soon 
 as her husband's business affairs had been settled. 
 
 Now, she feared, an obstacle had arisen to pre- 
 vent the carrying out of this great scheme. Her 
 brother not only was firm in his determination never 
 again to return to Germany, but he was enthusiastic 
 in his efforts to become an American citizen as 
 quickly as possible, and interested himself in this 
 project even before he had established himself in 
 business, which his sister had insisted was the first 
 duty he owed to himself and to his boys. 
 
 " There is time enough for that," her brother said 
 13
 
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 on one occasion, when she brought the subject up, 
 " I have ample means for the present, and it is better 
 that I should look about carefully before I invest 
 my money." 
 
 " You will see Adolph Bruch tonight ? " she asked, 
 as if she were craving a favor. 
 
 " You think I should take his advice in business 
 matters ? " 
 
 " He has done everything for us," replied his sis- 
 ter ; " without him I am afraid we would have lost 
 the property. As it is, its value has been increased. 
 He is the very man for you to talk to." 
 
 As a result of this conversation Mr. Hartmann 
 finally made a small investment in a lumber com- 
 pany, one of the minor units in the enterprise which 
 Mr. Bruch was then quietly organizing into a great 
 trust that was reaching out beyond the borders of 
 his own State, where he was already supreme. Mr. 
 Hartmann knew nothing about lumber, but he was a 
 shrewd and conservative business man, and the step 
 he had just taken, in breaking away from the social 
 and economic ties of a lifetime, having given him 
 a vigorous mental jolting, his natural prudence be- 
 came tempered with the spirit of adventure. He 
 threw himself into his work with the desperate 
 energy of a man whose life had been shaken to its 
 foundations, and in a short time he had firmly estab- 
 
 14
 
 A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY 
 
 lished himself as an aggressive factor in the lumber 
 world, a man to be reckoned with. 
 
 His sister's pride was mingled with regret. She 
 was glad, for his sake, that he was doing well, but 
 she saw in his success an impediment to her own 
 plan. 
 
 " He will never return to Germany," she thought. 
 She realized that it would be harder for her to go, 
 leaving him behind. " The two boys, too," she 
 added to herself, " they will not want to leave, 
 now." 
 
 Wilhelm and Karl had adapted themselves to 
 their new surroundings with the philosophy of 
 youth. With the very first new clothes that had 
 been bought for them to replace the things they 
 had worn on the long journey from Dusseldorf, 
 they had become American boys, for such is the 
 levelling influence of a coat. Their hair had grown, 
 and they would not have it clipped again. 
 
 '' The boys laugh at me," said Wilhelm, explain- 
 ing his objection to his aunt. " I am always fight- 
 ing them as it is. They have got to stop calling 
 me ' Wilhelm/ too. My name is William." 
 
 And William it became in the family until El- 
 frieda shortened it to " Billy." After that there 
 was less fighting to be done. Names travel from 
 the home and the back yard, to the street and the 
 
 15
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 school room. It was not long before Billy Hart- 
 mann had established himself and his name as a 
 part of the small life of the neighborhood, and as 
 time went on, and the scenes of his early childhood 
 faded from his memory, he thought of himself as 
 being not at all different in any way from his com- 
 panions. But Karl remained Karl. 
 
 16
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PURPLE EYES 
 
 Mrs. Sigbert sat in the sunny bow window of her 
 pleasant dining room. Ranged in regular order 
 upon the flower stand at her back were the plants 
 upon which she lavished a mother's care, upstand- 
 ing, green, without a faded leaf to mar their fresh- 
 ness. They always had just enough sun, just 
 enough water, and no more. 
 
 The silver and glass on the sideboard sparkled 
 from vigorous application of polish and soap. The 
 dishes in the china closet shone, like so many bright- 
 eyed children who had just had their faces washed. 
 The mahogany gleamed in the sunlight, without a 
 blemish. On the window-sill lay a big gray cat, 
 asleep. Billy was playing marbles on the rug with 
 Frieda, who was growing into a rangy child, as 
 fond of out-door sports as any boy. Their voices 
 rose in shrill dispute. 
 
 "Children! Children!" cried Mrs. Sigbert, 
 " quarrel in German ! Frieda ! You are teaching 
 your cousin to forget his native tongue. You must 
 speak German in the house." 
 
 '7
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 Frieda paid no attention, but reached over slily, 
 and seized a marble. 
 
 " Give that to me," said Billy, angrily. 
 
 " I shan't, it 's mine." 
 
 " It is not." 
 
 " You said I could have all the blue ones." 
 
 " That one is not blue, it is purple, like your 
 eyes." 
 
 " My eyes are not purple." 
 
 " They are, too, Aunt Lottie," said Billy stoutly. 
 " They are that way often, not all the time, but I 
 have seen them when they were." 
 
 " You children should quarrel in German," in- 
 sisted Mrs. Sigbert. " I do not want to speak about 
 it again, Elfrieda." 
 
 Elfrieda's eyes began to blaze, a sign that her 
 mother had learned not to ignore. It meant that 
 her mind was made up, that all the stubborn in- 
 stincts of her nature were in revolt, that nothing 
 could move her. 
 
 " You speak German well now, but you will for- 
 get it," sighed Mrs. Sigbert. 
 
 " Oh, bother," replied Elfrieda, searching for an- 
 other blue marble. 
 
 " You listen in German, but you answer in Eng- 
 lish. Why do you not speak German, sing in 
 German ? " 
 
 18
 
 PURPLE EYES 
 
 " Oh," answered Elfrieda, " it is ugly, it is ... 
 hinausge strung! " 
 
 lt What can I do with such a child ? " cried poor 
 Mrs. Sigbert. 
 
 The three older girls spoke English without the 
 slightest accent, for even Charlotte had gone to 
 school long enough to have mastered it, not as a stu- 
 dent, but as one who is obliged to use it every day ; 
 but Mrs. Sigbert, and Elsa, the cook, whom they 
 had brought from Germany with them, after so 
 many years, still spoke it so brokenly as to be at 
 times almost unintelligible. But whatever they 
 lacked in accent they made up in volubility. 
 
 For the benefit of Billy and Karl, who had been 
 sent to school with Elfrieda, the whole family, de- 
 spite Mrs. Sigbert's protests, had gradually come to 
 abandon the use of German as the language of con- 
 versation, so that the twins were able to make great 
 progress in mastering the new tongue through 
 which they would have to obtain their education. 
 Elfrieda took such advantage of this that she exas- 
 perated her mother still more by refusing to sing in 
 German. The little songs which she was compelled 
 to practise were in German, but she made up Eng- 
 lish words for them, and nearly drove her mother 
 wild by singing barbaric jingles in slang, composed 
 on the spot, to the tunes of quaint old German folk 
 
 19
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 songs. Between keeping her at the piano for two 
 hours every afternoon, and three hours on Satur- 
 days, and preventing her from desecrating the 
 music of the Fatherland, Mrs. Sigbert sometimes 
 felt that she had little time left to devote to her 
 principal object in life, which was to keep the house 
 immaculate, from cellar to garret. 
 
 " It is time to study your lessons," said Mrs. Sig- 
 bert, looking at the clock. The sun had gone down 
 beyond the hills, over whose crest a bank of storm 
 clouds were gathering. She rose, pulled down the 
 shades, and lighted the gas, and the children, look- 
 ing at each other hopelessly, put their marbles in the 
 bag and dragged themselves to the dining table, 
 which was covered with a bright red cloth. They 
 got out their books, and fell into an argument. 
 
 " We will do the arithmetic first," said Billy. 
 
 " No, the history first," insisted Elfrieda with 
 determination. Billy put down the arithmetic. 
 " There is to be an examination tomorrow, and I 
 am almost sure to be called on to recite ' The Mid- 
 night Ride of Paul Revere.' " 
 
 " Himmel! " said Mrs. Sigbert, " what nonsense 
 is that ? It is not the proper thing to be putting such 
 ideas into the minds of the young. Midnight! It 
 is not a good hour for any child to be taking a 
 ride." 
 
 20
 
 PURPLE EYES 
 
 " You don't understand, Aunt Lottie," laughed 
 Billy. " This Paul Revere " 
 
 " Don't tell me, I don't want to hear it," said 
 Mrs. Sigbert. " I suppose it has something to do 
 about that Bunker Hill that Elfrieda was fretting 
 about the other night." 
 
 " I was perfect in it," said Frieda proudly, " and 
 passed. If I had n't known about that I would have 
 failed. I remembered the date and everything." 
 
 " Do you remember the date of the birth of Fred- 
 erick the Great?" asked Mrs. Sigbert bitterly. 
 " Why do they not teach the history of Prussia, and 
 of the German Empire, in the schools? " 
 
 " But mother," said Frieda, " that would be all 
 right in Germany. This is the United States." 
 
 " It is not my country," answered Mrs. Sigbert. 
 " You are learning in the schools to be Americans, 
 not Germans." 
 
 " That is right. That is as it should be." Mrs. 
 Sigbert looked up, and saw that her brother had 
 come into the room. 
 
 " As it should be ? " she asked. " Are my chil- 
 dren to be weaned away from their mother? It is 
 nothing to me, this Bunker Hill, and yet, if El- 
 frieda does not know the date she cannot pass, and 
 all her time is wasted at school." 
 
 " Children must know the history of their coun- 
 
 21
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 try, else they cannot be good citizens," said Mr. 
 Hartmann. 
 
 " Citizens ? That is not necessary . . . My 
 husband " 
 
 " I think it is very necessary," said her brother. 
 " They are to live here, are they not ? They will 
 go from the school to the college, they will go into 
 business, or a profession, and marry " 
 
 " Elfrieda and I ? " spoke up Billy, rising quickly, 
 and leaning across the table. 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 " Elfrieda and I will get married, you said," an- 
 swered Billy, looking at her. 
 
 " Why why I did not say that," replied his 
 father. 
 
 " You did, sir," insisted Billy. " That is right, 
 we are going to get married, are n't we, Frieda? " 
 
 " You are silly," said Elfrieda. " I am going 
 on the stage and be a a great dancer, the great- 
 est in the world. Kings and emperors and 
 dukes will pay to get in and and stand up at the 
 back." 
 
 " I cannot permit that, Frieda," answered Billy 
 slowly. " We are going to get married. Father 
 said so." 
 
 " I was speaking generally," laughed Mr. Hart- 
 mann. " I said you would grow up, and go into 
 
 22
 
 PURPLE EYES 
 
 business, and get married, and have children of 
 your own, all of you, I mean, everybody, boys like 
 you and girls like Frieda. You will form ties here 
 that cannot be broken without tearing the heart- 
 strings from you. I hope you two will never come 
 to that. I want you to stay here always." 
 
 " This is my country, I shall stay," said Billy, 
 "and Frieda will stay with me, won't you? " 
 
 " You cannot learn to be a dancer here," an- 
 swered Elfrieda. " I think I shall go away to 
 study, like Charlotte." 
 
 " That is nonsense," said Mrs. Sigbert ; " who 
 put such notions in your head? The money we 
 have must be spent on Greta." 
 
 " Frieda sings better than Greta," said Billy. " I 
 would rather listen to her sing than anybody in the 
 world. There is something I cannot tell you 
 how it makes me feel when I stand in the doorway, 
 when she does not know that I am there, and listen 
 to her sing." 
 
 " You must not do that," cried Frieda, but flashed 
 at him nevertheless a look from her dark violet 
 eyes that made him blush to the roots of his 
 hair. 
 
 " Come ! come ! " said Mr. Hartmann, laughing 
 heartily. A tall, heavy-set man, with a clearer skin 
 than men of his race and age usually have, the time 
 
 23
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 he had spent in America had taken the sorrow 
 from his eyes, and there was a firmness about the 
 mouth, and an alertness of movement that were 
 new to him. The competition of business life had 
 given him American mannerisms, a crispness of 
 speech and activity of motion that made him seem 
 like a different man. He stood looking down at the 
 two children, and patted Elfrieda on her head. 
 " You are too young yet, to think about such 
 things, and you are cousins, too." 
 
 " They are half cousins," corrected Mrs. Sigbert. 
 
 "That is so. Well, perhaps, who can tell? It- 
 would not be so bad, after all, eh?" He stooped 
 suddenly, and kissed the girl upon the hair. 
 " Look," he said, taking a black leather case from 
 his pocket, " see here, Frieda, Billy and Karl are 
 Americans now, as you are." 
 
 " As Frieda ! " cried Mrs. Sigbert. " She is 
 German." 
 
 " She was born in America," said her brother. 
 " This is her native land, and now it is my country, 
 too." 
 
 He opened the case, and spread some papers upon 
 the table. " See," he said, " the courts have made 
 me an American citizen. I am an American now, 
 by the law, and I have made Billy and Karl Ameri- 
 cans, also." 
 
 24
 
 PURPLE EYES 
 
 The door opened, and Karl came in, with Char- 
 lotte, who had taken him to a concert. 
 
 " Look, Karl, my naturalization papers," said 
 his father. " I did not tell any of you about it 
 until I had got all of them. I am an American."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 
 
 " Do it for me, Wilhelm," begged Karl, one morn- 
 ing, as they were going out to school. 
 
 " Go get your own picture taken," returned Billy, 
 " and moreover, stop calling me Wilhelm. I won't 
 have it." 
 
 "Will you do it?" 
 
 " I am going to play ball this afternoon," replied 
 Billy, thinking of another excuse. 
 
 " It won't take but a minute, just a tintype." 
 
 " Oh, all right then." 
 
 " If it were n't for this boil on my nose I would n't 
 ask you," said Karl. " I can't get my picture taken 
 like this, and I 've got to have it, that 's all." 
 
 " I suppose you want it for that Schoenleber girl," 
 remarked Billy, giving his brother an exasperating 
 look. 
 
 " You quit now, Wilhelm." 
 
 "If you don't stop calling me Wilhelm I '11 give 
 you something else on your nose besides a boil," 
 said Billy, flaring up. 
 
 26
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 
 
 " I '11 stop it, if you 're so fussy," agreed Karl, 
 ungraciously. " The main thing is to get the pic- 
 ture. Margaretha is going away tomorrow." 
 
 " Oh! " jeered Billy, " so you do want it for your 
 girl." 
 
 " I guess I 've got as much right to have a girl as 
 you have," cried Karl angrily. 
 
 " Huh ! I have n't got any girl, I " 
 
 "You have so," said Karl spitefully. "Isn't 
 Elf rieda your girl ? Everybody knows it." 
 
 " Well, anyhow," answered Billy, turning red, 
 " I 've got sense enough to pick out a pretty one." 
 
 " Elf rieda is n't any prettier than Margaretha," 
 Karl blazed up. 
 
 " Don't you say that again." 
 
 " It 's the truth." 
 
 " It is n't." 
 
 " It is." 
 
 The two boys stood on the steps, glaring at each 
 other. 
 
 " Then I won't have my photograph taken for 
 you," grinned Billy. " I don't want Margaretha to 
 be carrying my picture around with her anyhow, 
 even if she does think it 's yours." 
 
 " You 've got to do it," said Karl desperately. 
 " Just look at this boil. Besides, you 've promised." 
 
 " All right," Billy said, " I '11 do it for you, Karl." 
 27
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Do what? " demanded Frieda, joining them on 
 the front porch. 
 
 " Oh, nothing," said Karl, looking away. " Don't 
 tell." His eyes implored. 
 
 " All right, I won't," said Billy, " but you 've got 
 to walk a chalk line with me hereafter." Karl was 
 humbled. The three started off to school, Billy 
 carrying Elfrieda's books. 
 
 At the gate Margaretha Schoenleber, who lived 
 next door, came up, and they walked down the street 
 together. 
 
 " Why don't you carry my books, Karl? " asked 
 Margaretha, who was hurriedly finishing her break- 
 fast on the sidewalk. Invariably late, she always 
 came rushing from the house at the last minute, 
 mouth and hands full. This morning she was clutch- 
 ing a handful of seed cakes. 
 
 Karl, blushing, took her books. Thereafter she 
 made more progress, and presently was able to take 
 part in the conversation. 
 
 " You will have the picture today, Karl ? " she 
 whispered, swallowing the last remnant of crumbs. 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " Mine came last night," she went on. " I will 
 give you one this afternoon if you really want 
 it." 
 
 " Of course I want it, Margaretha." He looked 
 28
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 
 
 at her sidevvise, under his hat-brim, and she turned 
 away, her face quite pink. 
 
 Margaretha was as tall as Elfrieda, and as fair 
 as she was dark, but her complexion was beginning 
 to show the effect of too much heavy food, for the 
 Schoenlebers sometimes ate six meals a day, and 
 Margaretha was already suffering, in looks, the con- 
 sequences of gluttony. A naturally good figure was 
 being spoiled. In a few years she would be fat, but 
 as a young girl she was as yet wholesome looking 
 and robust. Karl was blind to any defects, present 
 or prospective. He saw only that her eyes were blue, 
 like the sky, that her heavy hair was yellow, the 
 color of corn-silk. 
 
 That afternoon, when school was out, Karl held 
 Billy to his promise. 
 
 "Can't we put it off until tomorrow?" asked 
 Billy. "The ball team " 
 
 " It must be done now, or not at all," replied 
 Karl, squinting ruefully at the boil on his nose. 
 
 " Well, come on, then." 
 
 They went around the corner, where an artist in 
 tin-types had a studio, a big, wagon-like affair, 
 without any wheels, in a yard next to a grocery 
 store. On the fence in front was a glass case, con- 
 taining many specimens of his work. 
 
 " I want one like that," said Karl, indicating an 
 29
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 atrocious tin-type that looked as though it had been 
 taken by the light of Vesuvius. 
 
 "All right." They walked in, and Billy sat 
 down, put his head into an iron frame, and began 
 glaring. The photographer gave the rack a twist 
 that nearly dislocated his neck, and stood off and 
 surveyed him approvingly, one eye closed, his 
 tongue in his cheek. 
 
 " Be quick," said Billy, " you are killing me." 
 
 The artist enshrouded himself, and raised a warn- 
 ing hand. 
 
 " Hold on," cried Karl, suddenly leaping in front 
 of the camera. 
 
 "What's the matter?" 
 
 " You have on a blue tie. I never wear blue 
 ones." 
 
 " It will not show blue in the picture," said the 
 photographer, scowling. " You have spoiled a fine 
 pose." 
 
 " I never wear that kind of a necktie," insisted 
 Karl, "and besides, look at that high collar. I 
 never wear collars like that." 
 
 " Let 's call it off, then," answered Billy, relieved. 
 
 " No, no, you must change collars with me." 
 
 " Hang it, Karl, you are too much trouble." 
 
 " Think of my boil," pleaded Karl. " I would 
 do as much for you." 
 
 30
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 
 
 " Well, all right then." Billy took off his collar 
 and tie, and put on Karl's, and settled himself once 
 more into the inquisitorial instrument of torture. 
 
 " Wait," cried Karl, " you must put on my coat, 
 too," 
 
 Billy glared, but put on the coat. " Now," he 
 said, " shall I take off my shoes ? " 
 
 " They won't show in the picture," replied Karl, 
 seriously. 
 
 " You are stupid, Karl," said Billy. " Well, I 'm 
 ready now." The picture was taken, and they 
 waited until the artist had completed the lightning- 
 like development. 
 
 " It is fine," said Billy. 
 
 " She will never know the difference," admitted 
 Karl; " you look exactly like me." 
 
 " I do not," said Billy angrily, " you look like 
 me." 
 
 Karl felt that he could afford to be generous, and 
 silently conceded, for the time being, the point that 
 was always in dispute between them. They walked 
 out. 
 
 " Here comes Neil Lawson," and Billy called to 
 him. Neil was his most intimate friend, a good 
 looking little fellow, with a bright eye and as clean- 
 cut and dapper as a fox terrier. He came bound- 
 ing up joyously.
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Say," said Karl, turning toward his brother, 
 "you won't tell him?" 
 
 " Why not?" demanded Billy, who had reached 
 that stage where he told Neil everything. " It 's a 
 good joke, isn't it?" 
 
 The perspiration broke out on Karl's forehead. 
 " You would n't do a mean thing like that, Billy, 
 would you? " 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," replied his brother, molli- 
 fied. He liked to be called " Billy," but could rarely 
 induce Karl to use the nickname. 
 
 " Promise you won't." 
 
 "Why should I?" 
 
 Karl dug at a loose brick in the sidewalk with his 
 toe, and his face slowly turned red. 
 
 " Oh, I see," said Billy, exasperatingly, " Neil 
 would tell Margaretha, and then she would 
 have it on you." He laughed. " Neil likes her, 
 too." 
 
 " That is why," confessed Karl, desperately. 
 "You won't tell?" 
 
 " Why, no," replied Billy, looking at his brother 
 curiously. " I did not know you liked her as much 
 as that, Karl. How long?" 
 
 " A long time," said Karl. " And now she is 
 going away." 
 
 Billy thought, " Suppose it were Elfrieda who was 
 32
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 
 
 going away!'' Then he said, "All right, I will 
 never tell anybody." 
 
 Karl carried the tin-types home, found Marga- 
 retha on her front porch, and the exchange of 
 keepsakes was made. 
 
 Billy went off with Neil and played baseball until 
 dinner time. He was in the back yard when Mar- 
 garetha came by her kitchen window. She held up 
 something proudly. 
 
 " See what I have," said Margaretha. ' 
 
 " Oh, that 's nothing." 
 
 " You are jealous," answered Margaretha, com- 
 ing to the fence, and sticking out her tongue at 
 him. 
 
 "Jealous?" 
 
 She showed him the picture. " Yes, you are jeal- 
 ous," she said tauntingly. " Karl is better looking 
 than you are, that 's why." 
 
 " Elfrieda is better looking than you are," re- 
 torted Billy chivalrously. 
 
 " She is not." 
 
 " She is so." 
 
 " I am glad I am going away," said Margaretha. 
 
 " So am I .No, I am not, Margaretha," he 
 added hastily. " I am sorry." 
 
 "Really?" She softened toward him. 
 
 " I am, that is true, Margaretha." 
 33
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 "As sorry as if as if Elfrieda were going 
 away?" 
 
 " No," he replied slowly, " not as sorry as that. 
 Nothing could make me as sorry as that, I think." 
 
 Mrs. Sigbert came to the dining room window, 
 her swarthy face almost white, and fear in her eyes. 
 
 " Wilhelm! " she screamed, " come quickly! " 
 
 He ran into the house, his legs, for some strange 
 reason, shaking beneath him. He had never heard 
 that note in her voice before. 
 
 " What is it, Aunt Lottie ? " 
 
 "Your father!" 
 
 "What!" 
 
 " I do not know ! Ach Himmel! He is in there," 
 and she pointed to the folding door. " Greta has 
 gone for the doctor." 
 
 " Doctor ! " Billy began trembling, why, he did 
 not know. He went into the drawing room. Mr. 
 Hartmann was sitting in a chair, and Billy had never 
 seen in any one's face the expression that he now 
 saw in his father's. 
 
 " Father! " he cried, and stood staring at him in 
 terror. 
 
 Mr. Hartmann tried to speak, and could not. He 
 had taken from his pocket a little black leather case, 
 which he held in his hand. Billy, seeing what was 
 in his eyes, took it. His father attempted again to 
 
 34
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 
 
 say something. His head fell forward, and he 
 slipped down in the chair as Greta and the doctor 
 came into the room. 
 
 " What is it, what is it ? " cried Billy, in an agony 
 of fear. 
 
 The doctor shook his head. 
 
 " I have come too late," he said. 
 
 35
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE IDOL ON THE ALTAR 
 
 The death of Mr. Hartmann had little effect, ap- 
 parently, upon the well-ordered life of the Sigbert 
 family, but its psychological influence was tremen- 
 dous. It brought Mrs. Sigbert to a decision to re- 
 turn to Germany as soon as the business could be 
 disposed of and the girls persuaded to agree to the 
 plan. But objections constantly arose as time 
 went on. 
 
 " Now that my brother is no longer with us," she 
 said one day, " there is less reason than ever for our 
 remaining here. Frieda will soon be through the 
 high school, and she can finish her education in Ber- 
 lin. That is where I have always wanted to live." 
 
 " I do not know," Helena answered doubtfully. 
 She was in the normal school, and looked forward 
 with eagerness to the time when she would have an 
 independent income from teaching. 
 
 " You can teach as well in Germany," reminded 
 her mother. " I no longer wish to remain. I have 
 few friends here." 
 
 36
 
 THE IDOL ON THE ALTAR 
 
 " We have no friends in Germany," said Helena. 
 " My friends are all here, now." 
 
 " Charlotte has friends in Berlin, and in Munich, 
 too." 
 
 " Still, they are not mine." 
 
 " But you can make friends, among your own 
 people." 
 
 " These are our own people," interjected Elfrieda. 
 " Why should we go back to Germany, among 
 strangers." 
 
 " It is different with you," replied her mother. 
 " You were born here, in America, and you have 
 known only the friends you have made here, but it 
 is not so with the rest of us. We came from Ger- 
 many, we are Germans." 
 
 " I am not sure," said Helena slowly. " I used 
 to think about Germany, but now I do not know. 
 Sometimes I feel almost as Elfrieda does." 
 
 " If I do not take them back soon," thought 
 Mrs. Sigbert, " they will not want to go at all." 
 
 " Margaretha Schoenleber is terribly homesick," 
 said Elfrieda. " Her letters are full of tears." 
 
 " She was anxious to live in Germany," cried 
 her mother, " she was always talking about it, and 
 saying how much better Germany was than the 
 United States. The Schoenlebers always talked 
 that way. I used to love to listen to them." 
 
 37
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Margaretha does not think so now," insisted 
 Elfrieda. 
 
 " She will get over it," Mrs. Sigbert said, shaking 
 her head sagely. " In a little while she will be as 
 good a German as though she had been born there. 
 Think how splendid it would be for us if we should 
 go. Charlotte could increase her income there, for 
 the field is larger, and Madame Ruhlmann has asked 
 her again to become her accompanist. It would be 
 a fine thing for all of us for her to be associated 
 with such a great opera singer." 
 
 " I don't want to go," said Elfrieda, who was 
 in one of her sulky moods. " Uncle Albert always 
 said there was a better chance for everybody, in 
 America." 
 
 " In business, yes," replied her mother, hope- 
 lessly; " in art, no." 
 
 " Anyhow, I don't want to go." 
 
 " Always she has said she wanted to be a dancer, 
 though how she can be a dancer without practising 
 I cannot see, and now, when there is a chance to 
 go to Germany, where all the singers and dancers 
 are, she complains, and drives me crazy with her 
 whims. Elfrieda! She is schrccklich! " 
 
 " Charlotte would teach, and Greta would have 
 all the money for music and things spent on her, 
 and you would make a school teacher of me. I do 
 
 38
 
 THE IDOL ON THE ALTAR 
 
 not want to teach school," said Elfrieda, " but if I 
 must, I shall teach in this country, and make money 
 of my own, and maybe some day I shall be able to 
 go on the stage, and do something in the world." 
 
 Charlotte came in, a letter in her hand, her eyes 
 shining with such exaltation that her plain face 
 was almost handsome. She laid her umbrella upon 
 the table, and exclaimed dramatically: 
 
 " What do you think? Ruhlmann is coming! " 
 
 The family was thrown into confusion. The 
 great German prima donna was the deity of the 
 Sigbert family. They worshipped her, not merely 
 because Charlotte knew her. They adored her as 
 an artist. 
 
 " Coming to the United States ? " asked Mrs. 
 Sigbert. " There is no opera now." 
 
 " Here to this city, to this house," replied Char- 
 lotte. " On her way back from Australia she will 
 stop here." 
 
 " She will hear Greta sing, and we shall know," 
 said Mrs. Sigbert reverently. 
 
 " That is why she is coming," replied Charlotte. 
 " It was a great favor, I hardly dared to ask it, 
 but she consented, and she will be here soon. I 
 would not tell you until it was settled. Now we 
 shall know." 
 
 Greta Sigbert was the hope and pride of the 
 39
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 family. She had been studying vocal music for 
 several years, and had a fine contralto voice that 
 had been well trained under the best teachers. Mrs. 
 Sigbert had selected them herself, for she was a 
 musical critic of ability. She had inspired the whole 
 family with her restless ambition, drove them con- 
 tinually to their studies, and kept the piano going 
 from morning until night, so that one of the girls 
 never left the bench but another was waiting to 
 take her place. Greta was acknowledged to be the 
 most promising. 
 
 She not only sang well, but was gifted with fine 
 musical sense and judgment. Small and delicate, 
 but tireless, the family for years had built upon her 
 their hopes for fame and wealth. 
 
 Naturally, there was intense excitement as the 
 date of Madame Ruhlmann's visit drew near, and 
 by the time the day actually arrived the entire fam- 
 ily was in a state bordering on hysteria. 
 
 She came, in a carriage, late in the afternoon, 
 wrapped in wonderful sables. Still a beautiful 
 woman, with the rounded throat of a singer, and 
 regular, almost classical features, the delicate lines 
 of her face showed intellect and character. Her 
 blonde hair was beginning to be streaked with gray, 
 but this, to the casual glance, seemed only to make it 
 of a lighter shade. 
 
 40
 
 THE IDOL ON THE ALTAR 
 
 Mrs. Sigbert had prepared an elaborate Kaffec- 
 kranschcn, but to her great disappointment Madame 
 refused everything, and when pressed to eat, finally 
 admitted that she lived almost entirely on oatmeal, 
 a confession that would have lost the respect of Mrs. 
 Sigbert for anybody else. 
 
 She had only a short time to stay, and was ready 
 to hear Greta sing. 
 
 Greta sang. She was tired and nervous, and did 
 not do as well as when she practised alone. Every- 
 one was chagrined, and Charlotte was on the verge 
 of tears. She sang again, "" Dich, theure Halle." 
 Disappointment was on every face. 
 
 Madame thought she had a good voice, and musi- 
 cal instinct. It was plain that she was not impressed. 
 Greta, crushed, left the piano. 
 
 " You have a talented family, Mrs. Sigbert," 
 said Madame Ruhlmann. " I hope to have Char- 
 lotte with me." 
 
 Mrs. Sigbert was inarticulate. " Greta will be a 
 failure," she thought; " we shall not go back home, 
 now." 
 
 " Are all the girls musical? " asked Madame. 
 
 " Helena does not play much," replied Mrs. 
 Sigbert, finding her voice at last. " She is study- 
 ing to be a teacher in the public schools. My 
 youngest daughter, Elfrieda, plays and sings, too,
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 but she is such a poor student that she does nothing 
 well." 
 
 " I would rather hear her sing than anybody in 
 all the world," said Billy, and did not know what 
 those few words would cost him in the years to 
 come. 
 
 "Really!" Ruhlmann's eyes were dancing. 
 " Sing for me, dear." 
 
 Elfrieda came forward hesitatingly. " I play be- 
 cause mother makes me," she said ; " I sing because 
 I like to sing." 
 
 Ruhlmann turned to look at her as she walked 
 into the light. " Ah ! " she said. 
 
 "What shall I sing?" 
 
 " Anything." 
 
 Elfrieda sang: 
 
 How can I leave thee, while I do love thee so? 
 Thou art my all in all, truly my own! 
 Thou hast this soul of mine so firmly lock'd in thine. 
 That my heart e'er will be thine, love, alone. 
 
 " Not in English ! " cried poor Mrs. Sigbert, 
 wringing her hands. " What will Madame Ruhl- 
 mann think of you? " 
 
 " Ah ! " said Ruhlmann. " Never mind. Sing to 
 me again, child." 
 
 She sang Coenen's "Das Fruhlingslied," and 
 Ruhlmann asked for more, and then she sang, in 
 
 42
 
 THE IDOL ON THE ALTAR 
 
 English, a gay little ballad of the streets, Mrs. Sig- 
 bert's hands raised meanwhile, in horror at the 
 sacrilege. But Frieda did not care, but went on, as 
 if she had been singing for Billy, and sang as the 
 Sigberts had never heard her sing before. 
 
 As she finished, and left the piano, Ruhlmann 
 rushed to her, and threw her arms around her neck, 
 and kissed her on both cheeks. 
 
 " I make no mistake, I am sure," she said dra- 
 matically, " when I say that I salute one of the 
 greatest future singers." 
 
 Mrs. Sigbert sank back in her chair, incapable of 
 moving. 
 
 " I must tell you," Ruhlmann went on, " it is only 
 fair for me to say, that in my judgment Greta can 
 never win success on the stage. She sings with in- 
 telligence and fine musical appreciation, but she is 
 not big enough, not colorful enough, for opera. 
 Moreover, she is delicate, she could never undergo 
 the training. And she lacks the temperamental 
 qualities. Let her keep to church work, and teach- 
 ing, for that is better than to give up everything 
 for the unattainable ideal. But this girl " She 
 took Elfrieda by the hand. " Here is the voice I 
 have long sought. She is strong, and when she is 
 a woman she will have the figure for heroic roles. 
 She has the strength to live through all the body- 
 
 43
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 breaking, sometimes heart-breaking, work that she 
 will have to do and she is beautiful." 
 
 " Frieda, your eyes are purple now ! " cried Billy, 
 forgetting where he was. 
 
 " It is the temperament," smiled Ruhlmann. 
 " She is brimming over with it, she has enough to 
 divide with all the family. Child," she added, " I 
 am more than proud to point a brilliant future for 
 so talented a girl." 
 
 Greta, in tears, had slipped away, and none had 
 seen her go. A new idol was on the family altar. 
 Mrs. Sigbert looked at Elfrieda as if she had found 
 a daughter whom she had never known before. 
 
 44
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 " THEN I ? LL COME BACK TO YOU 
 
 Elfrieda was in the grape-arbor, at the end of the 
 yard, reading a book in the hammock that was 
 swung between two posts. Billy found her there. 
 
 " Are you glad that we are going back to Ger- 
 many? " she asked. 
 
 He pulled a leaf to pieces, not daring to look at 
 her. " I am not going," he said at length. 
 
 "Not going?" 
 
 " I shall remain here." 
 
 " You would be lonesome, you could not stand it*" 
 
 " One must learn to stand things when one is a 
 man." 
 
 "Poof! You are a boy." 
 
 "I I you do not know how I feel, some- 
 times, Elfrieda." 
 
 He turned, and looked at her, and his body began 
 to tremble. She glanced away, quickly, and the 
 blood tinted her cheeks. 
 
 "What could you do here?" she asked, banter 
 in her voice. 
 
 45
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " I do not know. I shall have my share in the 
 property, and then, when I have finished school, I 
 can go into business if I have to, but I would rather 
 do something else." 
 
 "What could you do?" 
 
 " I do not know." 
 
 " That is because you are not a man," she said 
 lightly. " Men know what they want to do." 
 
 " You are a woman, yet you did not know what 
 you wanted do to until Ruhlmann told you that you 
 could be a singer. I wish she had never come. 
 Before, you did not know what you wanted to do 
 now, you must be a singer." 
 
 " I always knew," said Frieda, slowly, " only I 
 did not know how to express myself." 
 
 " You used to say you would be a dancer," he 
 reminded her. 
 
 " It is the same thing. I always wanted to do 
 something in the world." 
 
 " That is how I feel. I shall do it, too for 
 you, Elfrieda." 
 
 "For me?" 
 
 "I I love you, Frieda." 
 
 She could not look at him now. 
 
 " They have no right to take you back to 
 Germany." 
 
 " I suppose it is for the best." 
 46
 
 "THEN I'LL COME BACK TO YOU" 
 
 " You did not talk that way before. You always 
 said you did not want to go." 
 
 " I see things differently, now." 
 
 " And so do I. If you go away I shall not have 
 you, you will forget me." 
 
 " No, I shall not." 
 
 " Why should we go to Germany, Elfrieda? We 
 are Americans, you and I. We would not be happy 
 there, and I I want to make you happy." 
 
 " I must go back," she said, " you do not under- 
 stand, Billy. Now, I must" 
 
 " It is Ruhlmann," he cried passionately, " she 
 has spoiled everything. You will try to be a great 
 singer, and waste your life, and I shall have to go 
 on without you, and it will break my heart." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Elfrieda, and clasped her hands 
 tightly. 
 
 "It is true, I cannot live without you, Frieda. 
 I do not want to live without you. All I want in 
 the world is you. It is all I have ever wanted, ever 
 since I saw you first. You shan't go back to 
 Germany." 
 
 " I must go back, I cannot study here, and now 
 that my great opportunity has come something 
 is urging me on that is stronger than myself, some- 
 thing that I cannot resist." 
 
 " I know," he said dully, " I feel it too, some- 
 47
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 times. It is urging me on to have you, and I must 
 have you, Frieda, I must, I tell you. And I shall, 
 some day, I know it, I feel it. You are mine, and 
 nothing shall take you from me. Please don't go 
 back to Germany. After all, it is only going back 
 for your mother, and the rest. You have never 
 been. This is your home, you were born here, you 
 are an American." 
 
 " It would be going back for you," she said. 
 " You were not born here. You are a Prussian." 
 
 " Not now," said Billy, " my father changed all 
 that. You remember what he said that night when 
 he came home and told us that the courts had made 
 him an American? He said that by the law I was 
 made an American, too. I have never forgotten 
 that. This is my country, and I shall stay here, 
 where he is buried. Your father, too, is buried 
 here, Elfrieda. You should remain with me, even 
 if all the rest return." 
 
 " I could not do that." 
 
 " Then I must stay alone." 
 
 "What will mother say?" asked Frieda. 
 
 " I do not care what Aunt Lottie says," replied 
 Billy, closing his lips very tightly. " I have thought 
 it all out. Whatever happens, whatever they may 
 say or do, I shall not go back to Germany. There 
 was something my father left behind him there that 
 
 48
 
 THEN I'LL COME BACK TO YOU" 
 
 broke his heart, something he would never tell me, 
 something I have never dared to ask about. I won't 
 go back, I can't go back." 
 
 "Not even if I go?" 
 
 "If you should go it would be to study and work 
 to be a singer. You would have no room then, for 
 me, and I should only be in the way." 
 
 " You would not even go to see me? " 
 
 " Well, yes, I might do that. Would you want 
 me to?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "Very much?" 
 
 "Y yes." 
 
 "The most in the world, more than anything 
 else?" 
 
 " Yes, Billy." 
 
 " Frieda! They are purple now. For me?" 
 
 " Yes, I I guess so." 
 
 " You love me? Say you love me, Frieda." 
 
 She raised her eyes to his. 
 
 "Frieda!" 
 
 " Yes," she said, smiling. 
 
 " I know," he whispered, his voice full of awe. 
 " you do not need to tell me, it is in your eyes. I 
 never saw a light like that before." 
 
 Their lips met, and suddenly he was in the 
 hammock with her, and she was in his arms, and 
 
 49
 
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 they were off, together, upon a cloud, to Fairy- 
 land. 
 
 The soft sun filtered down upon them, the grape 
 leaves stirred above them in the breeze, a bird flew 
 in, and perched upon a twig, and sat there, preening 
 its feathers, undisturbed. 
 
 "Oh, Elfrieda!" He drew her closer to him. "I 
 cannot let you go." 
 
 " Maybe it will not be many years." 
 
 "Years! I could not stand it. You will come 
 back, some day." 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 " Do you promise ? " 
 
 " Well, yes, if you ask it." 
 
 " I do ; I want you to come back to me. I do not 
 want you to go at all." 
 
 " Life is very sad," said Elfrieda. 
 
 " You do not love me, or you would not leave 
 me." 
 
 " I love you more because I am going, because I 
 must go, because something stronger than myself is 
 forcing me to go." 
 
 " Oh," he said, much relieved, " I will take care 
 of Aunt Lottie." 
 
 " I mean something within myself." 
 
 "Something ?" 
 
 " I cannot tell you what it is, I hardly know." 
 50
 
 "THEN I'LL COME BACK TO YOU" 
 
 " It is Ruhlmann! She has ruined my whole life. 
 I shall never be happy again." 
 
 " Some day I shall come back to you." 
 
 "Some day?" 
 
 " When I have done what I am setting out to 
 do." 
 
 " Maybe I will be old, then." 
 
 " I shall love you just the same." 
 
 " Frieda, you do not know what you have done 
 to me." 
 
 " I do, dear, for I have done it to myself. I must 
 go on now, to the end." 
 
 "Without me?" 
 
 " Without you now." 
 
 They walked into the house, and Billy, with a 
 heavy heart, watched the packing that was going on. 
 
 The Sigberts had at last definitely decided to re- 
 turn to Germany, and Mrs. Sigbert was happy. 
 
 For many days after Ruhlmann's visit nothing 
 had been talked of in the family but Elfrieda's voice, 
 and the prospects the prima donna had held out to 
 them. Mrs. Sigbert was in a state of ecstasy, tem- 
 pered with frugality. She had been thrilled by 
 Ruhlmann's glowing words, and dimly saw a way, 
 through her youngest daughter, to the attainment 
 of the great dream of her life. But she was entirely 
 too sensible and prudent to rush blindly into an
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 enterprise that might turn out disastrously. She 
 feared that she could not trust Elfrieda, who, she 
 thought, lacked the seriousness and application of 
 Greta. 
 
 While she was in the midst of these perplexities a 
 letter arrived from Berlin that settled all doubts, 
 cleared away all obstacles, and changed the whole 
 current of the lives of all of them. 
 
 Madame Ruhlmann wrote that she had been 
 thinking constantly of Efrieda's voice, that she had 
 been haunted by its beauty and unusual quality. It 
 was the voice that she longed to train. Properly 
 guided, Elfrieda should make the greatest Wag- 
 nerian singer of the future. After careful con- 
 sideration she was prepared to make the following 
 offer. She would take Elfrieda into her home as a 
 member of her household, and give her all instruc- 
 tion, free of charge. The family would furnish her 
 clothes and spending money. She was also prepared 
 to increase the offer she had made to Charlotte to 
 become her accompanist. On the completion of El- 
 frieda's studies she would expect no repayment of 
 any kind. The only condition she would make was 
 that once started Elfrieda would see it through to 
 the end. Madame would not care to embark upon 
 so great an undertaking without this assurance. 
 
 Mrs. Sigbert felt that her prayers had been an- 
 52
 
 'THEN I'LL COME BACK TO YOU" 
 
 swered. The question that had long agitated the 
 family had been taken from their hands by Provi- 
 dence, and solved. The decision was made instantly. 
 They would return to Germany. 
 
 They did not, at first, take seriously Billy's deter- 
 mination to remain behind. They thought it would 
 be shaken, but it increased. His father's estate had 
 been settled, and there was a sum of money in trust 
 for each of the boys, not a large one, but a substan- 
 tial one. Financially, there was no reason why 
 Billy should not remain in America, to complete his 
 education, and when Mr. Bruch, the guide and 
 counsellor for many years, unexpectedly took his 
 part, the family capitulated. Karl had decided to 
 go back to Germany, and Mr. Bruch, for some 
 reason, approved of this. And so everything was 
 settled. 
 
 Charlotte gave her final lessons, and said good 
 bye to all her pupils. Karl and the girls left school, 
 and all were busy with the many affairs that had to 
 be attended to before they could go. But Billy re- 
 mained at his studies until the day of departure was 
 at hand. 
 
 Finally but one more day remained to them. 
 Much of the furniture had been sold. The house 
 was bare, empty, forlorn. The last few meals were 
 eaten in the kitchen, and here Billy, on the after- 
 
 53
 
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 noon of the last day, but one, burst in upon them, 
 breathlessly, face glowing, eyes shining. 
 
 "What is it?" cried Mrs. Sigbert. Charlotte 
 laid down her knife and fork. The girls looked at 
 him wonderingly. 
 
 " I am going to Annapolis." 
 
 "What!" 
 
 " It is true," said Billy, " I have been appointed 
 to the Naval Academy." 
 
 " You will be a sailor! " cried poor Mrs. Sigbert. 
 " What would your father say ? " 
 
 " He would be proud," replied Billy. " He would 
 be glad to have me an officer in the United States 
 Navy." 
 
 "An officer?" said Mrs. Sigbert. "That is 
 better." 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 " It is splendid," said Elfrieda, looking at him 
 with admiration. 
 
 " It is what I have always longed to be," said 
 Billy. 
 
 "Poof! You have never mentioned it before," 
 said Elfrieda. 
 
 " Neither did you ever mention being a singer 
 until Ruhlmann came," retorted Billy. 
 
 " I always said I would go on the stage," an- 
 swered Elfrieda. 
 
 54
 
 'THEN I'LL COME BACK TO YOU" 
 
 " As a dancer, yes." 
 
 " It is the same thing." 
 
 " Yes," Billy replied, " I see it now. I am that 
 way myself. I hardly knew what I was longing to 
 do until this came to me, and then I saw in a mo- 
 ment that this was what I had been dreaming of. 
 I understand you now, Elfrieda." 
 
 Elfrieda flashed at him a look full of significance. 
 She thought : " He will go everywhere, and meet 
 beautiful women, but he will love me always." 
 
 " How did it happen? " asked Charlotte. 
 
 " At school today. We marched to the hall for 
 the morning exercises, and Mr. Black, the principal, 
 said he had an announcement to make. One of the 
 boys in the fourth class had won an appointment 
 to the Naval Academy. He had been selected for 
 standing in his studies and other qualifications. 
 And then he introduced Congressman Marshfield." 
 
 " I never heard of him," said Mrs. Sigbert, 
 suspiciously. 
 
 " He is a great man," said Billy, enthusiastically. 
 " He represents this district in Congress, at Wash- 
 ington. He made a speech, a corker, all about 
 Bunker Hill, and Valley Forge, and Yorktown, and 
 Manila Bay, oh, he did n't forget anything. He 
 talked about an hour. And then he said he was 
 going to send one of the boys to Annapolis, and 
 
 55
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 just when I was wondering if it would be Neil 
 Lawson I saw that everybody was looking at 
 me, so then they called my name again, and I 
 stood up, feeling sort of queer, you know, and 
 they made me go up on the platform and make a 
 speech." 
 
 " Make a speech ! " cried Elf rieda. 
 
 " Oh, I did n't make much of a speech," admitted 
 Billy. " Everybody clapped, so I said I would al- 
 ways do my duty and never make any of my friends 
 ashamed of me, and then I started to walk off. 
 Mr. Marshfield called to me to know if I would 
 accept the appointment." 
 
 "What did you say?" asked Mrs. Sigbert. 
 
 " Well," said Billy, " I was sort of flustered, and 
 I just said, * You bet your life,' and everybody 
 laughed. And Mr. Marshfield shook hands with 
 me, and patted me on the back, and said I was one 
 of his boys and that he would keep his eye on me, 
 and for me to let him know if I ever wanted any- 
 thing. He 's a great man, Mr. Marshfield is. You 
 should have seen how glad he was to meet me. 
 And he has the brightest twinkle in his eye I ever 
 saw." 
 
 " Well, well ! " said Mrs. Sigbert, vigorously 
 polishing one of the old pans, that was going to be 
 left behind, "and everybody was there?" 
 
 56
 
 'THEN I'LL COME BACK TO YOU" 
 
 "All the school, and Mr. Bruch was on the 
 platform." 
 
 "Adolph Bruch?" 
 
 " Yes. He was with Mr. Marshfield, and they 
 went away together." 
 
 " I would not have accepted it," said Karl, 
 enviously. 
 
 " You would so." 
 
 " I would not." 
 
 " That 's because you could n't get it." 
 
 " Here, now," cried Karl, " you shan't say that. 
 It is because I am going back to Germany." 
 
 ;< You 've simply got to see Margaretha, have n't 
 you, Karl?" said Billy, tauntingly. 
 
 Karl made a rush for him. 
 
 ' Tin-types ! " said Billy. Karl stopped, and his 
 face turned red. 
 
 " Confound you, Wilhelm." 
 
 " I did n't mean it, Karl. I don't blame you." 
 He thought, " Karl will see Margaretha, but I shall 
 not see Elfrieda again for a long time, perhaps I 
 shall never see her again." He looked at her, and 
 saw that she was thinking the same thing. He ran 
 from the room, choking back the tears. 
 
 The family left the next morning on the long 
 journey to Berlin, and because he was older, then, 
 than when his father had died, it was the saddest 
 
 57
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 day of his life. Elfrieda cried when he kissed her 
 good bye, on the platform of the train that took 
 them all away, and he saw that her eyes were no 
 longer purple, nor even violet, but a drab, colorless 
 gray. 
 
 He went to Neil Lawson's house, where it had 
 been arranged that he should stay for a few days, 
 and then took a train himself, one morning, a train 
 that carried him to Annapolis, and into a new life. 
 
 For four years, then, every week, a letter went 
 to Berlin, and now and then one came to him from 
 her. Elfrieda was on the thorny, rocky road that 
 leads to fame, and she was footsore and weary. 
 She told him little about herself, except that her 
 star was beckoning her on, and that the end was 
 not in sight. He kept her letters, every one, and 
 sometimes the gaps between them would be months 
 in length. On his midshipman cruise they touched 
 at Kiel, where Karl was in the Naval School, and 
 they went up together to Berlin. 
 
 The Sigberts lived in the Charlottenburg quarter, 
 on the edge of the Tier gar ten, in one of the city's 
 newest apartment houses, a six-story, twin building, 
 with an arching entrance leading into a little court- 
 yard. They had a seven-room flat on the third etage. 
 They were very comfortable, and happy with their 
 
 58
 
 "THEN I'LL COME BACK TO YOU" 
 
 piano, their music, and their cat. Mrs. Sigbert was 
 contented, serene, and hopeful. The girls had been 
 homesick at first, but that was wearing off, now, and 
 while they did not like Germany as well as they had 
 thought they would while they were in America, 
 still, it was good enough. After all, their work was 
 everything. 
 
 He had but one day, and spent it with Elfrieda. 
 They walked under the trees in the Tiergarten, had 
 midday breakfast at the Tiergarten restaurant, and 
 spent the afternoon on a bench, under the lindens. 
 And then he went back to his ship. Elfrieda loved 
 him, but her music came first. The family had built 
 their hopes on her, and she had promised Ruhlmann 
 to stay until the end. She must go on without 
 him. Billy understood, and he would try to bear it, 
 like a man. The sea called to him, and he answered, 
 and the years slipped by. 
 
 59
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE CALL ACROSS THE SEA 
 
 Mrs. Winters sat on the gallery of the bachelors' 
 mess of the Hong Kong-Shanghai Bank, at Hong 
 Kong, the centre of an admiring group. It was the 
 tiffin hour. 
 
 Off across the rooftops of the business section the 
 slanting sun beat down upon the Chinese quarter 
 of the green and golden town. 
 
 In the harbor, choked with shipping, half a dozen 
 warships rode at their buoys, heavy, immovable, 
 dressed in battle gray. In-shore two old French 
 gunboats tugged at their hawsers. Beyond them lay 
 a British bulldog, business-like, on guard. There 
 was a Japanese cruiser a little farther out, and at the 
 head of the line, nearest Ly-Mun Pass, a great slate- 
 colored monster, broadside on. From the flagstaff 
 at her stern floated the Stars and Stripes. 
 
 Mrs. Winters sipped her tea, and basked in the 
 adoration of the crowd of white-clad young fellows 
 gathered about her table. 
 
 Nobody knew how old Corrie Winters was. She 
 60
 
 THE CALL ACROSS THE SEA 
 
 had systematically deceived herself about her age 
 for so many years that she had lost the count of 
 her own birthdays. Her last had happened ten 
 years before, an accident thereafter carefully 
 guarded against. A man would have said she was 
 somewhere between twenty-three and thirty; a 
 woman, who watches another woman's throat more 
 closely than she does her eyes, might have been a 
 little more exact, and raised the maximum five, or 
 even ten years. 
 
 The men she held under the spell of her feminine 
 charms, and she carried a full and complete line of 
 them, were hardly more than boys. Raleigh was the 
 Executive Officer of the American warship lying at 
 anchor beneath the town. The others were Lieu- 
 tenant-Commanders, Lieutenants, and infant En- 
 signs. 
 
 Mrs. Winters adored men, but she liked them best 
 when they were of the romantic age and amenable 
 to discipline. To be her admirer was to be her 
 slave. 
 
 Fresh of skin as a girl, groomed like a racehorse, 
 gowned a good six months ahead of the mode, Mrs. 
 Winters was a thoroughbred. The white em- 
 broidered batiste dress she wore was so simple in 
 its lines that only an artist could have duplicated it. 
 The mesh bag she carried was gold. Her lorgnette 
 
 61
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 was jewelled. On her fingers were a few beautiful 
 stones, uniquely set. 
 
 A widow for ten years of such freedom as she 
 had not known while she was married, and which 
 was the breath of her life, her source of livelihood 
 was as much a mystery to her friends as to her 
 enemies. 
 
 Bob Winters had been in the foreign commercial 
 service for years, and had dragged his wife from 
 Boma, on the Congo, to Cairo, on the Nile, around 
 the map and back again, but the rolling consul 
 gathers no moss. Yet she toiled not, neither did 
 she spin. 
 
 She was a migratory American, having no more 
 permanent habitat than a poker chip, but rested her 
 wings from time to time at the cross-roads of the 
 far-flung world. One took her to the cricket match 
 at Shanghai today, and sat next her at the Army 
 and Navy game six weeks later. She would be the 
 last to say good bye in Paris, and the first to extend 
 a greeting at the Waldorf. If one succeeded after 
 five years of effort in penetrating the Forbidden 
 City in disguise, and suddenly turned the corner 
 of a remote court in an obscure street and met Mrs. 
 Winters in Red fern's latest, one would simply thrust 
 out a friendly hand, as if it were the most natural 
 thing in the world for her to be in that particular 
 
 62
 
 THE CALL ACROSS THE SEA 
 
 place at that precise time. One would receive one 
 of her picture cards, postmarked " Melbourne," in 
 the morning mail, and bump into her on Pennsylva- 
 nia avenue at four o'clock that afternoon. Her mind 
 was a composite time-table and bridge score. 
 
 Mrs. Winters purred like an over-fed cat, stretch- 
 ing herself delicately in the sunlight. It was warm, 
 and the conversation lagged. They had talked of 
 everything, except the one thing uppermost in the 
 minds of everybody, and that was, would the United 
 States get into the war? After a long pause Hollis- 
 ter said: 
 
 " Where 's Billy Hartmann? " 
 
 There was an awkward silence. 
 
 " I have seen very little of him," said Prothero, 
 one of the junior officers of H.M.S. Norwich. 
 " Confound it, Hartmann is pro-German. The dear 
 old top has gone dotty in the crumpet" 
 
 His voice was pitched in an injured tone. It was 
 as though he had encountered an indubitable fact 
 that his mind could not grasp. 
 
 There was the faintest possible movement of Mrs. 
 Winters' eyebrows. 
 
 "His people are German, aren't they?" asked 
 Hollister. 
 
 " I believe so ; it 's a German name." 
 
 " I should n't have cared if it had been anybody 
 63
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 else but Billy Hartmann," Prothero continued. 
 " We have been like brothers." 
 
 Mrs. Winters, who had been flirting with a boy 
 young enough to have been her son, turned to listen. 
 
 ' You 've known him for years, have n't you, 
 Proth? " she queried. 
 
 " We 've been together nearly everywhere. If I 
 were ordered to Zanzibar I should n't any more than 
 get my mudhooks down before I should look around 
 for Hartmann. He invariably shows up. We Ve 
 seen a lot of service together on this station. You 
 remember the time I went down to clean out that 
 nest of pirates in Torres? An old tub of a gunboat 
 poked her nose out of the dawn one morning, and 
 sure enough, it was Hartmann. He was in com- 
 mand of her. It was n't any of his business, but the 
 doctor on my scow was working overtime and I 
 borrowed a few men from Billy. Of course, he 
 went along to see the fun. The beggars nearly got 
 him. Dirty beasts, all sorts of renegades." 
 
 "Shot him?" asked Mrs. Winters, her eyes 
 sparkling. 
 
 "Clean through," said Prothero. "The fight 
 was simply topping. We patched him up, and there 
 never was any report about it. So you see how I 
 feel. I should n't care if he 'd keep his confounded 
 views to himself." 
 
 64
 
 " He thinks he has a mission to inflict them on 
 others," said Raleigh. " That 's the German in him. 
 We cut out the war talk in our mess long ago. I 
 have n't heard Hartmann say much lately." 
 
 " He used to feel pretty strongly about it," said 
 Hollister. 
 
 " I can't say that I blame him," said Raleigh. 
 " His folks live in Germany, his brother was killed 
 in the Jutland battle, and you must admit that 's 
 tough. He got a cable about it at Manila." 
 
 "A cable from Germany?" asked Prothero, 
 interested. 
 
 " From somebody in the States, who had heard 
 about it, I think." 
 
 " Of course it 's beastly, and all that sort of thing, 
 hut then " Prothero got up suddenly, and walked 
 into the club. They understood. Prothero had lost 
 a brother, one of the first hundred thousand. 
 
 " Hang it," said Raleigh, " I suppose a fellow has 
 a right to be pro-German if he wants to be. What 
 I can't understand is why he should want to be." 
 
 " He is the handsomest man I have ever known, 
 but one," said Mrs. Winters, reminiscently, staring 
 off across the harbor with a dreamy look in her 
 green-gray eyes. " In hips and shoulders I have 
 never seen his superior, and he has adorable legs. 
 His eyes are a trifle too small and too close set." 
 
 65
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " I never noticed that," said Raleigh. 
 
 " You are not a woman. Is he really so pro- 
 German ? " She bent forward, interested. 
 
 " One of the worst I ever heard," said Hollister. 
 " There was a time, when the war first began, when 
 he could have edited a German newspaper. You 
 never listened to such arguments. He was in my 
 class at Annapolis, the youngest man in the class. 
 We thought he had brains, and I cherished that 
 opinion through all the years of service I saw with 
 him, and you do come to know a man on shipboard. 
 When the war broke out well, you know what 
 these German apologists are. Discussing a ques- 
 tion of morality and decency with them is like try- 
 ing to debate abstract knowledge with a flea. You 
 can't hold them down to anything. There is no 
 logic in them." 
 
 Mrs. Winters looked at her wrist watch, and 
 found that she must go. Six eager young gentle- 
 men looked at their wrist watches and made the 
 same discovery. They escorted her to her hotel, 
 bearing her parasol, her fan, her various traps and 
 accoutrements. 
 
 The men on the gallery watched her go, and 
 sighed. There was a long silence, while Raleigh 
 ordered the drinks. Then said little Wallis, who 
 was tongue-tied in the presence of beautiful women : 
 
 66
 
 THE CALL ACROSS THE SEA 
 
 " I don't think that Billy Hartmann is pro- 
 German." 
 
 " Wallis," observed Raleigh witheringly, " has a 
 mind like a weather prophet. He finds out what 
 everybody thinks the weather will be, and then 
 coppers the bet. Did you ever agree with anybody, 
 about anything, in your life, Wallie?" 
 
 " All the same, I don't think that Billy Hartmann 
 is pro-German," insisted Wallis, doggedly. 
 
 " If he is n't a pro-German why does he talk like 
 one?" 
 
 " He does n't," said Wallis. " He has n't talked 
 pro-German for months. You fellows thought you 
 were hurting his feelings, and when the arguments 
 began running pretty high you agreed to drop the 
 subject. I 've been confidential with Hartmann 
 lately, and he has n't talked pro-German to me." 
 
 " Now you 've said something, Wallis," admitted 
 Raleigh, wagging his head. " You score one point. 
 If a man is pro-German he can't help talking." 
 
 " Moreover I don't believe that Hartmann ever 
 was really what you would call pro-German," said 
 Wallis. " I think he was broken-hearted over the 
 whole business, and tried to make excuses. There 's 
 his brother, killed in action, and then, well, he gets 
 letters from a girl in Berlin, and you know what 
 that means." 
 
 67
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Romance. You interest me." 
 
 " That 's all I know, except that he has to write 
 a hundred to get one in reply." 
 
 " Evidently she does n't like him so well as as 
 another lady I could mention," grinned Hollister. 
 
 " Maybe that 's it," said Wallis. " I remember 
 it was four or five years ago, when we were in 
 the Mediterranean. She was in Milan, and Hart- 
 mann took his leave and went up to see her. He 
 had told me about her, some. When he came back 
 he was like a dead man. I never saw such a look 
 in anybody's eyes. He volunteered nothing, and I 
 asked no questions, but I think I guessed. I sup- 
 pose I should n't have said anything, but I don't 
 think you understand him." 
 
 " Well, he 's a good officer, I '11 say that for him," 
 said Raleigh, who was a disciplinarian. 
 
 " One of the best sailormen in all the seven seas," 
 admitted Prothero, who had come back, and was 
 listening. " I shall go out to see him tonight, to 
 say good bye. You are tearing yourselves away 
 from us tomorrow ? " 
 
 " Homeward bound ! We sail at ten," grinned 
 Raleigh. 
 
 " God ! I envy you," said Prothero slowly. 
 " My folks have used all the pull the family can 
 muster to have me transferred to the fleet. I 'm 
 
 68
 
 THE CALL ACROSS THE SEA 
 
 dying for a whiff of that fishy North Sea smell, 
 and It's no use; here I stick." 
 
 " You Ve done your bit, give someone else a 
 chance," laughed Raleigh. 
 
 " It 's all well enough for you to talk," answered 
 the Englishman. " You 're going home, and unless 
 I am no prophet there '11 be something topping for 
 you." 
 
 " That is on the knees of the gods," replied the 
 American discreetly. " I don't know what may be 
 in store for me," he added. " Hartmann, Wallis, 
 and Hollister are under orders to report at once at 
 Washington. The rest of us won't know where 
 we are going until we arrive at 'Frisco, unless we 
 get something by radio on the way across." 
 
 Prothero arose to go. " Well, you know what I 
 would like to say," he said simply. " I '11 call this 
 evening." 
 
 " We dine at seven," smiled Raleigh. 
 
 " Thanks, I '11 be there and say good bye to 
 Hartmann. Too bad he should have avoided me so 
 lately." 
 
 " He 's studying a great deal," little Wallis has- 
 tened to explain. 
 
 " Studying what ? " asked Raleigh. 
 
 " Oh, tactics, and strategy, everything. He 's a 
 regular grind, and you 'd be surprised to see how 
 
 69
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 far he 's gone along some lines. He 's 'way past 
 the text books, working out problems of his own 
 that he 's invented. I 'd like to see him in ma- 
 noeuvres." 
 
 " I 'd like to see us all in manoeuvres," said 
 Raleigh bitterly. 
 
 " He 's got some sort of a war-game board that 
 he 's made himself," went on Wallis. " It takes up 
 the whole of his stateroom. I 've seen it. We 've 
 worked together some. That 's how I 've found out 
 how sensitive he is. He thinks he 's rather in the 
 way in the wardroom country because he 's German. 
 I don't blame him. Everybody stops talking when 
 he shows up, and the conversation is switched to 
 something else. Things are better now, but they 
 used to be pretty bad. I know, that 's why I don't 
 think Hartmann is pro-German." 
 
 " What would you rather do than to argue that 
 black is white, Wallie ? " laughed Hollister. 
 
 " It 's his liver," said Raleigh. 
 
 " It 's my common sense," grinned Wallis. " You 
 don't know anything about psychology, that's 
 all." 
 
 Prothero left. At the cable office he met Mrs. 
 Winters, who was just going in. 
 
 "Dreadfully smelly place, that, Proth," she 
 smiled ; " won't you file this for me ? " 
 
 70
 
 THE CALL ACROSS THE SEA 
 
 He took the message from her hand, left it with 
 the man at the desk, rejoined her, and walked back 
 with her to her hotel. If he had happened to have 
 read it he would have discovered that it was ad- 
 dressed to Hannibal G. White, Valparaiso, and that 
 it said simply : " Sell hundred shares Copiapo." 
 
 It might have interested him, as an officer of the 
 British navy, if he had known that the message was 
 relayed from. Valparaiso to New York, that it 
 crossed the ocean to Stockholm, and was transmitted 
 thence to Berlin, and that eventually it was handed 
 to a snug-looking little man in the Foreign Office, 
 who first consulted a book which he took from his 
 safe, and then smiled grimly as he read it; and he 
 would have been even more interested if he had 
 known that the little man touched a button upon 
 his desk, and that two hours later a big, blonde, 
 bearded man with a hastily packed suitcase in his 
 hand took the express for Kiel, but that is what 
 happened. 
 
 The bearded man boarded a long, gray-mottled 
 submarine that thereupon headed northwest through 
 the Cattegat into the North Sea. Then she sub- 
 merged, and nosed along the coast of Norway, 
 cleared the north coast of Scotland between the 
 Hebrides and the Faroe Islands, dodging mines 
 that she could not see and could not feel, taking a
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 chance with destiny in the dark, cold waters wash- 
 ing south from Iceland. She headed around the 
 north coast of Ireland, fifty miles off shore in a 
 hundred fathoms, and clear then of the mine fields, 
 laid a course straight across the Atlantic.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MR. MONSON READS A LETTER 
 
 The first thing Lieut.-Commander Hartmann did 
 when he reached Washington was to report at the 
 Navy Department. 
 
 The next thing he did was to write to Elfrieda, 
 as he had done once every week for many years, 
 although he knew there was little hope of the letter 
 reaching her. 
 
 It was not the kind of letter he would have writ- 
 ten at a happier time. He told her that he was in 
 Washington, that he was well, and that he loved 
 her, as he had loved her from the time he had first 
 seen her. He posted the letter in a mail box on 
 the corner, took a walk, dined alone, and went alone 
 to a theatre, for he was hungry for amusement. 
 He returned to the club at 1 1 o'clock, and went to 
 bed, at about the time that Elfrieda's letter was 
 being opened and read by Mr. Monson, a quiet and 
 inoffensive looking middle-aged gentleman con- 
 nected with the United States Secret Service. 
 
 As Billy was driving his right arm a little farther 
 73
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 under the pillow, and settling down for a good 
 night's sleep, Mr. Monson, with the sagacity born 
 of long experience, and the assistance of Mr. Chip- 
 man Peters, who was quite an expert in his way, 
 having an uncanny eye for codes and ciphers, was 
 reaching the conclusion that the letter was probably 
 entirely harmless. 
 
 " Indiscreet, but that is all so far as I can make 
 out," said Mr. Peters. 
 
 Mr. Monson nodded. " He should n't have writ- 
 ten that he was in Washington, and he would n't 
 have, if he had been trying to put something over. 
 I hate this spying upon our own officers, Peters. 
 Damn it, can't we trust our own men ? Why, these 
 fellows they will do the fighting for us." He 
 shook his head. " I 'd like to tip this Hartmann 
 off," he said. " He seems a decent sort, very 
 decent. Nice letter, Peters. It 's to his girl. 
 Confound it, he ought to know. It may put him 
 in bad. Damn it, Peters, some other man may 
 get her." 
 
 " Cut out the sentiment," growled Peters, " it 
 does n't go in your business." 
 
 " Yes, I know," said Monson, " I was only think- 
 ing out loud. Still, she must be a nice girl, Peters, 
 to have a man write a letter to her like that, don't 
 you think?" 
 
 74
 
 MR. MONSON READS A LETTER 
 
 " How should I know? " said Peters. 
 
 " Why, man, you read the letter." 
 
 " Bah ! It was n't a letter to me ; it was a 
 code." 
 
 " Well, you could n't find the key." 
 
 " I may yet. See here, what do you make of 
 this?" 
 
 "Of what?" 
 
 Peters handed to him a telegram. It was ad- 
 dressed to Hannibal G. White, 43 Broadway, New 
 York. Monson read it over slowly, in a monotone : 
 " Sell hundred shares Boulder." 
 
 " Humph ! Unsigned," said Monson. " Woman's 
 handwriting. Very clear, legible handwriting, busi- 
 ness-like." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " You still persist in suspecting this Hannibal G. 
 White?" 
 
 " I suspect everybody." 
 
 " But about White, in particular? " 
 
 " His cables to Stockholm make quite a collec- 
 tion in my files." 
 
 " New York is still doing considerable business 
 with Stockholm, you know." 
 
 " Quite true." 
 
 " Have we heard anything from that end ? " 
 
 " Enough to make it certain that there is a big 
 75
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 leakage through Stockholm into Berlin. We have 
 nothing on White yet. This is the first despatch 
 to White from Washington. It was received in 
 New York at 2:08, delivered to White in 
 say, fifteen minutes. At 3 :oi White sent the 
 following cable to his Stockholm branch : ' Sales 
 26487.' " 
 
 "What does this White do?" asked Monson. 
 
 " Wood pulp and paper stocks, and a small 
 brokerage business." 
 
 " Well, it 's a case for the British branch, if 
 there 's anything in it. Have you communicated 
 with them?" 
 
 " Of course and maybe you are right, but I 
 am thinking that it will soon be a case for us." 
 
 Monson fingered the telegram Peters had handed 
 to him. "Who sent this?" 
 
 " A Mrs. Winters. This is the original from the 
 Western Union. Presumably in her handwriting. 
 I wanted a sample of it. We may need it. She 
 sent several other telegrams at the same time. That 
 is how I identified this one." 
 
 " Did you get them ? " 
 
 " Copies." 
 
 " Let me see them." 
 
 Peters spread them out upon the desk, and Mon- 
 son read them over, a word at a time : 
 
 76
 
 MR. MONSON READS A LETTER 
 
 HARWICH AND SONS, 
 
 Thirty-eighth Street and Broadway, New 
 
 York. 
 
 Send both gowns immediately care Summit, 
 Washington. Letter follows. 
 
 MRS. C. H. WINTERS. 
 
 " The lady wants her new dresses, and must have 
 them," commented Mr. Monson. " Next." 
 
 CAPT. WALTER T. FARQUHAR, U.S.A., 
 
 Fort D. A. Russell, Cheyenne, Wyo. 
 Disgusted find you stationed such beastly 
 hole. Shall I have you transferred East? 
 Answer. 
 
 CORRIE. 
 
 " The lady hath pull," chuckled Mr. Monson. 
 " And push," observed Peters drily. " Read this 
 one:" 
 
 MCQUARRIE CONSTRUCTION Co., 
 
 Ninth and Chestnut streets, Philadelphia, 
 
 Pa. 
 
 Splendid opening American construction 
 company Hong Kong. Would you entertain 
 business proposition? Wire appointment. 
 CORRIE H. WINTERS. 
 
 "One more?" asked Monson, bored. He read: 
 77
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 MRS. RICHARD BRAINERD SABISTON, 
 
 Namaschet, Mass. 
 
 Delighted accept invitation, please wire your 
 convenience. 
 
 CORRIE HARDING WINTERS. 
 
 " Smart woman," said Monson. " She 's covered 
 the whole range, business, romance, society. I '11 
 bet you a dinner she has this Farquhar transferred 
 to Governor's Island and builds a sky-scraper 
 in Hong Kong. Sound like perfectly natural, 
 normal, straight- forward telegrams to me. Smart 
 woman." 
 
 " All plain enough except the last one. Somehow 
 that 's the one that interests me." 
 
 " Look here, Peters," said Monson, " if there 
 were anything wrong she never would have sent 
 these telegrams along with the one to White. She 'd 
 have put that one over incog." 
 
 "If people never slipped up where would we be? " 
 asked Peters. " The smartest of them make mis- 
 takes. I may be of a suspicious nature, but all the 
 same I am interested in this Mrs. Sabiston. Na- 
 maschet, Mass. Let 's see, that is down on Cape 
 Cod, isn't it?" 
 
 " Not so far down as that," replied Monson. 
 
 " Well, it 's on the sea, anyhow." 
 78
 
 MR. MONSON READS A LETTER 
 
 " Sure." Monson crossed the room, found a 
 time-table in the rack, and skimmed the pages. 
 " Here it is," he said, " about an hour from Boston, 
 on the South shore between Boston and Plymouth." 
 
 " Some day," said Peters, on his way to the door, 
 " I shall be buying a ticket to Namaschet ; I feel it 
 in my bones." 
 
 "If you ever get caught down there in one of 
 those East winds you '11 feel it in your bones," 
 laughed Monson, " and anyhow, we can't spare you 
 for these wild goose chases. You 're learning too 
 much about the code stuff." 
 
 " I 'm thinking of cutting that out," replied 
 Peters, wrinkling up his forehead. " I like the 
 outside work better. More doing." 
 
 " You stick to your job and you '11 be famous." 
 
 " Famous and unknown. Well, anyhow, Monson, 
 find out what you can about Winters. I 'm really 
 interested." 
 
 He went out, and Monson deposited Elfrieda's 
 letter in the filing case, under the H's, along with 
 more intimate details about Lieut-Commander Wil- 
 liam Hartmann, U.S.N., than that slumbering gen- 
 tleman knew about himself. 
 
 The clock struck one as he went back and sat down 
 at his desk, which was a coincidence, for at that 
 precise instant, Corrie, who had just returned to her 
 
 79
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 apartment from a dinner and a bridge, was picking 
 up from her dressing table a letter from the pile of 
 mail which she had left there earlier in the evening, 
 in the haste of getting away to her engagement. 
 The envelope was plain, but the letter within was 
 written on the stationery of Mr. Hannibal G. White, 
 of 45 Broadway, New York. It read : 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. WINTERS: 
 
 Thank you so much for your interest in my 
 friend. I was wondering if you could n't help 
 to obtain a good detail for him, something, 
 for instance, such as Assistant Chief-of-Staff 
 to the Commander-in-Chief. I think it would 
 be splendid. You will find my check enclosed. 
 
 Corrie glanced at the check, and smiled with satis- 
 faction. She lighted a cigarette, and smoked it, 
 her eyes half closed. Presently she went to the tele- 
 phone, asked for a number, and stood waiting im- 
 patiently, while the cigarette burned to her fingers. 
 At last her face brightened. 
 
 "Are you there, Senator?" she asked into the 
 receiver. " This is Mrs. Winters. Yes, thanks, I 
 reached home safely. Senator, I 've been thinking, 
 and I want you to do something for me. Why 
 could n't Billy Hartmann be made " she glanced 
 at the letter on her dressing table " Assistant 
 
 80
 
 MR. MONSON READS A LETTER 
 
 Chief-of-Staff to the Commander-in-Chief ? Isn't 
 that an adorable idea ? I 'm not certain, but I think 
 he has enough rank for it. Oh, yes, I 'm sure he 'd 
 like it. Thank you, Senator, good night." 
 Then she went to bed, smiling. 
 
 81
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 WAITING ORDERS 
 
 Billy turned over and yawned, and stretched him- 
 self luxuriously. Liberty like this was good, after 
 so many months at sea, and he meant to enjoy it. 
 He took another nap, overslept himself, and it was 
 nearly twelve o'clock when, after his bath and shave, 
 he dressed himself leisurely and went down to 
 breakfast. 
 
 He was half-way across the room when he looked 
 up from the headlines he had been scanning, and 
 saw Mrs. Winters and little Wallis lunching tete-a- 
 tete in the cosiest corner. They beckoned to him 
 joyously, and he went over and joined them, Mrs. 
 Winters regarding him, as he crossed the room with 
 the swift stride that only the long-limbed use, with a 
 critical and approving eye. 
 
 Like most men, in both branches of the service, 
 Billy liked to get into citizen's clothes whenever he 
 could, and like most soldiermen, and some sailor- 
 men, he looked remarkably well in them. Not even 
 Mrs. Winters, who could detect the slightest physi- 
 
 82
 
 WAITING ORDERS 
 
 cal flaw in a man at a single glance, found fault 
 with him, and there was something more than the 
 passing whim of the moment in the warm touch of 
 her soft fingers as she patted the long-fingered, 
 sinewy hand he held out to her. He had known 
 Mrs. Winters too long to feel the slightest surprise 
 at seeing her. It was the most natural thing in the 
 world for her to be lunching at the club. 
 
 He had grown into a tall man, straight and tough 
 as a spar. Blonde, but not too blonde, with dark 
 blue eyes that could cut like a chisel and a fair, clear 
 skin, he was colored by the wind that sweeps a deck 
 across an open sea to a pink-bronze shade that is 
 vastly different from the beach sunburn of a lands- 
 man. He had a good, strong nose, high in the 
 bridge, and a mouth that was open only when he 
 spoke. 
 
 " Sit down, Billy," commanded Mrs. Winters. 
 
 He drew up a chair, while Wallis called a waiter, 
 and recommended the chops and corn muffins. 
 
 " It 's good to see you again, dear boy," purred 
 Mrs. Winters. " You kept yourself so close at 
 Hong Kong I scarcely caught a glimpse of you. 
 When did you get in, how long shall you be here, 
 and where are you going? " 
 
 " Yesterday. As for the rest, I don't know. I 'm 
 waiting orders." 
 
 83
 
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 Wallis looked as though he had intended to speak, 
 but he gulped bashfully instead, and abandoned the 
 effort. He had been about to remind Mrs. Winters 
 that she knew when Billy had arrived in Washing- 
 ton, because she had called him up at the club the 
 day before, and he had told her that they had both 
 reached town that morning. 
 
 " What do you want to do ? " asked Mrs. Winters. 
 
 " What does any man want to do ? " he smiled. 
 " I want active service, of course." He spread out 
 the paper, and showed her the headlines. " Be- 
 ginning to look serious, is n't it ? " 
 
 " Do you really think we are going to have war, 
 Billy?" Mrs. Winters leaned across the table to- 
 ward him, and in her green-gray eyes there sud- 
 denly shone a more serious light than he remem- 
 bered ever to have seen in them. He had looked 
 into Mrs. Winters' eyes, which were famous on 
 four continents, many times before, and had seen 
 in them only other things. Now for the first 
 time he beheld anxiety and concern. " Do you 
 really think so, Billy?" she repeated, bending over 
 so close to him that he could feel her warm breath 
 upon his cheek. 
 
 " Of course," said Billy, " it 's inevitable, and has 
 been for a long time." 
 
 " Do you think that Germany will fight ? " 
 84
 
 WAITING ORDERS 
 
 " She 's forcing us to fight her. She 's been 
 fighting us for a long time," he answered. Little 
 Wallis, glad of an opportunity to get into the con- 
 versation, wagged his head vigorously, and subsided. 
 
 Mrs. Winters' memory flashed back across the 
 Pacific, to the club gallery at Hong Kong, to the 
 conversation about Hartmann she had heard there 
 on her last afternoon, to the cablegram she had sent 
 to Valparaiso. 
 
 " She 's forcing us to fight her ! " That sentence, 
 that had come from Hartmann's lips so vigorously 
 and naturally, repeated itself over and over again in 
 her brain like the tantalizing refrain of the latest 
 tango waltz. She flashed a quick glance at him, 
 then turned her head, and sat staring out of window, 
 so that she did not see the party of young naval 
 officers who entered at that moment, and took a 
 table that was screened from where they sat by a 
 bank of palms. They had evidently been having an 
 argument, which they resumed. Suddenly a man's 
 voice said : 
 
 " Nevertheless and notwithstanding, I don't want 
 to go into action under a Prussian." 
 
 " Don't get worked up about it," laughed another 
 voice, the voice of an older man, " you won't have to." 
 
 " I 'm not so sure of that," insisted the first. 
 " Take Billy Hartmann, for example." 
 
 85
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Is Billy Hartmann a Prussian? " 
 
 " Look him up in the Register." 
 
 " I have served with him for years, and I never 
 knew that." 
 
 "We don't know lots of things, and we have 
 forgotten others, but we are beginning to re- 
 member them, now. Billy Hartmann was born in 
 Germany." 
 
 " I knew he had a German name, but I supposed 
 he was born here." 
 
 " Well, he was n't, and what are you going to 
 do about it ? I tell you, it 's serious business. And 
 Billy Hartmann is n't the only one. I mention him 
 because we all know him, and like him." 
 
 " He 's always been one of us. Confound it, 
 man, he 's as good an American as any of us," 
 said another voice. Mrs. Winters was squirming. 
 Billy sat doggedly cutting his chop. 
 
 " Just the same he 's a Prussian," insisted the 
 man who had spoken at first. " I think the decent 
 thing for all of them to do, at a time like this, is 
 to recognize that the situation is embarrassing and 
 offer to step aside." 
 
 "Resign?" 
 
 " Not necessarily. Oh, no, not resign. I think 
 they should ask for service where well, where 
 nobody would be you know what I mean. ' Put 
 
 86
 
 WAITING ORDERS 
 
 none but Americans on guard tonight ! ' That 's 
 my motto." 
 
 " That 's what I say," said another voice. " My 
 ancestors " 
 
 " Now, we know all about your ancestors, Hollis- 
 ter. We 've got 'em catalogued. Forget 'em." 
 Another voice had taken up the conversation. 
 " What difference does it make whether your an- 
 cestors came over in the Mayflower or the Kaiser 
 Wilhelm der Grossed " 
 
 " It 's going to make a lot of difference when 
 this war comes." 
 
 " It ought not to, and I don't believe it will. 
 We 're all immigrants and we 're here because 
 we 're here. We can't ask every chap with a Ger- 
 man name to intern himself for the war. We need 
 every officer we 've got and then some. As for 
 Billy Hartmann, why, man, he 's one of the best 
 strategists in the service." 
 
 " He has the reputation in the British navy," 
 admitted Hollister, " of being the best strategist 
 we have." 
 
 " I don't mean to say anything against Billy 
 Hartmann," interjected the first voice. " He is 
 without exception one of the finest men I ever 
 knew. And he is strong in strategy and in tactics. 
 But what good would it do us if if in a pinch 
 
 8?
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 if on the final show-down he had a soft spot in 
 his heart for It means something to be born in 
 a country. I don't believe you ever get over it." 
 
 There was silence for a moment. Billy was look- 
 ing straight before him, and he was smiling, but 
 his cheeks were red. Mrs. Winters had risen nobly 
 to many occasions, but she could not rise to this 
 one. Little Wallis started from his chair, and 
 Billy motioned him back. 
 
 " However, so far as Billy Hartmann is con- 
 cerned," resumed a voice at the next table, " you 
 can calm your anxieties. He has n't enough rank 
 for command, except, of course, that he might 
 command a division of four destroyers. But he 
 could n't command the fleet." 
 
 " Yes, but he could, and that 's just the point. 
 Do you know that Hartmann has been made As- 
 sistant Chief-of-Staff to the Commander-in-Chief ? " 
 
 " Has that been decided on ? " 
 
 " Everybody at the Department has it." Mrs. 
 Winters abandoned every pretence of not listening. 
 
 " That should n't have been announced." 
 
 " Who 's keeping secrets at the Department 
 now ? " asked a husky, disgusted voice that had not 
 joined in the conversation before. " I '11 answer it 
 nobody." 
 
 " Well, Hartmann is Assistant Chief-of-Staff, 
 88
 
 then, and the fleet goes into action, and he '$ in 
 the flag conning tower with the Admiral and the 
 Chief-of-Staff, do you get me? Well, a fragment 
 of shell, the first shell fired, we '11 say, enters the 
 conning tower, and kills the Admiral and the Chief- 
 of-Staff. Are you following me? Hartmann is n't 
 killed. Now of course he could notify the Captain 
 of the flagship but he would n't have to, and 
 there would be no way for anybody to know unless 
 he did. He could stay in that conning tower and 
 give every signal, every order to the fleet. The 
 plan of battle would be his to make. He would 
 hold the destiny of the American republic in the 
 hollow of his hands and the fleet opposing him 
 would be the fleet of his Fatherland." 
 
 " By Jove ! " A very deep-voiced man suddenly 
 boomed out. " And the German fleet might even 
 be commanded by Hartmann's brother." 
 
 "What!" 
 
 " Hartmann has a brother in the German navy." 
 
 " I 've heard that, too," said another. " Some- 
 thing peculiar about it, as I recall it. What was 
 it, now? It was when we were on our first mid- 
 shipman cruise. We touched at Kiel and Billy 
 Hartmann brought his brother to lunch, and I 
 have it, I remember all about it. It was a twin 
 brother, the living image of Billy." 
 
 89
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 "There, do you get that?" said the man who 
 had been the first to speak. " Here 's Billy Hart- 
 mann in the flag conning tower, and here 's the 
 German fleet coming out of the fog, commanded 
 by his twin brother. Of course, his brother may 
 not be commanding the German fleet." 
 
 " No," interjected Hollister, " his brother is dead, 
 lost in the Jutland fight. I heard them talking about 
 it at Hong Kong." 
 
 " That 's not the point, it 's the principle of the 
 thing." 
 
 "Good God! I hadn't thought of that," said 
 anothe'r voice. 
 
 " It 's time you did think of it. The men are 
 sulking about it. Waldron has a great way of find- 
 ing out what the gun deck is thinking. He told me. 
 They 're superstitious. They don't want to go into 
 battle under any Prussians, and that 's all there is to 
 it, and I don't blame them. And mark my words, 
 the country will be sitting up and taking notice be- 
 fore long." 
 
 " You forget that the German fleet can't get out. 
 Don't overlook the British fleet," laughed some 
 one. 
 
 " We may not have that to depend upon always. 
 We may have to look out for ourselves some day, 
 and that 's the day I 'm thinking of." 
 
 90
 
 WAITING ORDERS 
 
 Billy could stand no more. He felt as though he 
 were choking, as though every drop of blood in his 
 body had ebbed away. He gave Mrs. Winters his 
 hand, nodded at Wallis, who smiled encouragingly 
 at him, and walked out. Wallis waited until he 
 had got away, then leaped to his feet and burst 
 through the palms. 
 
 " My God!" he cried, " Hartmann was sitting 
 here all the time." 
 
 " Billy Hartmann! Why did n't you tell us? " 
 
 "Tell you? I was frozen." He went back to 
 Mrs. Winters, and took her away, voluble for the 
 first time in his life in the presence of a good-looking 
 woman. 
 
 " Think of the insult of it," he said. " It will kill 
 him. He 's as sensitive as a girl." He babbled on. 
 
 " What was it they said Billy had been appointed," 
 she asked, " Assistant Chief-of-Staff to the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief ? Yes, that was it." She was look- 
 ing off across the park, and had completely forgotten 
 Wallis. 
 
 That afternoon Mr. Peters took into Mr. Mon- 
 son, and laid upon that romantic gentleman's desk, 
 a telegram addressed to Mr. Hannibal G. White, 
 of 45 Broadway, New York. It read : 
 
 " Sell hundred shares Ankorite."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 ADDED ATTRACTION MLLE. FRALLI 
 
 Billy had instructions to report at the Depart- 
 ment at two, so there was still an hour for him to 
 pull himself together. 
 
 He headed south, blindly, not knowing where he 
 was going, entered the grounds back of the White 
 House, and turned into the ellipse. This brought 
 him out on the Speedway, and he was soon at the 
 river, where he walked on the seawall, all alone, 
 until he felt that he had himself under control. He 
 kept his appointment punctually, and learned offi- 
 cially of his assignment as Assistant Chief-of-Staff 
 to the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 " God is good to me in some things," he thought ; 
 " I shall be with the fleet." 
 
 He knew that an older man, with more rank, 
 might have a greater claim to this post, but if his 
 value were recognized, so much the better for him. 
 He was to remain in Washington for the present, 
 awaiting orders. He left the building, walking on 
 air. 
 
 92
 
 ADDED ATTRACTION MLLE. FRALLI 
 
 Billy thought of the day when Mr. Black had 
 come down to the front of the platform to inform 
 the school that one of the boys had been appointed 
 to an Annapolis cadetship, and how proud he had 
 been when he had been called up by the principal to 
 make a speech. Not since that day of his youth had 
 he known such exhilaration of soul as he now felt. 
 He would be with the North Atlantic fleet, and if 
 Fate were kind he would go into action, not a 
 wretched brush with a handful of miserable Chinese 
 and Malay pirates, or West Indian revolution- 
 ists, but the real thing, the thing that every man 
 in the navy had dreamed of, and had wondered 
 about, and worked and planned towards. He 
 crossed the street, skipping like a boy, turned into 
 the Avenue, under the monster elms that were 
 beginning to respond to the soft caresses of ap- 
 proaching spring, and strode along by the high 
 iron fence that stands guard around the home of 
 the President. 
 
 Ahead of him was a little man in a black overcoat 
 and a black slouch hat. There was something very 
 familiar about the neck and shoulders, and upon 
 passing him, and turning to take a side-long glance 
 at him, Billy was not surprised to find that he knew 
 him. It was Mr. Marshfield, a trifle stouter, a bit 
 more bald, decidedly grayer. The hair that showed 
 
 93
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 beneath his hat was, in fact, quite white ; but his eye 
 still had the whimsical, humorous twinkle, and his 
 hand-clasp was as warm and friendly as it had been 
 in the old days. Billy found himself believing, as 
 he did on the first day he had ever seen Mr. Marsh- 
 field, that he was the one person in the whole world 
 whom Mr. Marshfield would rather see and shake 
 hands with above all others. His heart warmed to 
 him as he caught step. 
 
 " This is a delightful surprise, Mr. Marshfield," 
 Billy smiled. " I did n't expect to meet you in 
 Washington." 
 
 Mr. Marshfield regarded him with astonishment. 
 He seemed hurt, even offended. It was a new sen- 
 sation for him to discover that there was anybody 
 on earth who did n't expect to meet Ben Marshfield 
 in Washington. 
 
 " I 'm here practically all the time, nowadays," 
 he said, and helped himself to a fresh cigar, throw- 
 ing the old one through the iron bars. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said Billy, declining a cigar 
 from the proffered case. " It seems to me I heard 
 that you had been defeated for Congress, some 
 years ago, and I supposed you had retired from 
 politics." 
 
 " They gerrymandered me out of my old district, 
 dad-blame 'em, so I tried for the other end of the 
 
 94
 
 ADDED ATTRACTION MLLE. FRALLI 
 
 Capitol, and finally landed. Been there two years," 
 explained Mr. Marshfield. 
 
 " I 've been at sea nearly three," said Billy. 
 " That accounts for my ignorance. I had wondered 
 if you would remember me after all these years." 
 
 " I never forget anybody I 've done a favor for," 
 laughed Senator Marshfield. " Slow up, son, those 
 are long legs of yours. Besides, it has n't been so 
 many years." It was as if some one had accused him 
 of being old. There was nothing that Mr. Marsh- 
 field resented so much as the imputation that by any 
 possibility the years could be telling upon him. It 
 was his one feminine trait. " Don't forget any- 
 body. I Ve kept my eye on you ever since you 
 entered the Academy." 
 
 " I shall never be able to repay you for what you 
 have done for me," said Billy ; " you gave me my 
 start." 
 
 " You 're one of my boys," laughed the Senator. 
 " Never forget my boys. I Ve watched your career, 
 read a lot about you, and I 'm glad you 're getting 
 along so well. This new assignment of yours is a 
 big thing. Make the most of it." 
 
 " My assignment ? " stammered Billy. " I did n't 
 know that you had heard about that. I supposed it 
 was merely known in the service." 
 
 Senator Marshfield chuckled. His face glowed 
 95
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 with the warmth of mirth. His beady little eyes 
 fairly danced. 
 
 " I fixed it," he said, patting Billy's shoulder. 
 They had turned into the Avenue again. Ahead of 
 them the great dome of the Capitol stood out, a 
 white sentinel of liberty, against the arching blue. 
 
 " You fixed it? " Billy's voice in spite of himself 
 was incredulous. He knew that Congressman 
 Marshfield had given to him, unasked, one of the 
 prizes in the world, and he had always regarded that 
 as one of the remarkable things of life not to be ac- 
 counted for by any mere mortal. But that he could 
 do this thing, even though he was now a Senator, 
 seemed so stupendous that it dazed him. He 
 stopped, and looked at the Senator in amazement. 
 
 " Sure I fixed it, Hartmann," laughed the Sena- 
 tor heartily. " Now, don't overwhelm me with 
 your gratitude. I know it 's a big thing for you, 
 and of course I always like to do things for my own 
 boys. But this appointment of yours was so obvi- 
 ously the proper one to make that it was, as you 
 might say, practically inevitable. It 's the best ap- 
 pointment that could possibly have been made." 
 
 Billy's face turned the color of a red brick wall. 
 He tried to say something, to express the thoughts 
 that came crowding to his mind. He had worked, 
 he had studied, he had given to the navy, which 
 
 96
 
 ADDED ATTRACTION MLLE. FRALLI 
 
 was all he had in the world, his days and nights, 
 his whole life, everything. He had tried the best 
 he could to be worthy of the opportunity that had 
 come to him so wonderfully, the chance to stay in 
 America, to make Elfrieda his, some day; and 
 when that hope had finally been abandoned, he had 
 clung to the navy itself as a symbol. If what he 
 had given was understood and appreciated, he was 
 content. He stammered brokenly something of 
 what he felt. 
 
 " Best possible," insisted Senator Marshfield, as 
 though some one had argued the point with him. 
 " Smartest political appointment that could have 
 been made. No chance in the navy for many of 
 them." 
 
 "Sir!" 
 
 " Absolutely." 
 
 "Political? I thought " 
 
 " Why, boy, don't you see," said Senator Marsh- 
 field, drawing Billy's arm through his own, " it '11 
 have a tremendous political effect. It '11 just about 
 cinch the German-American vote. Of course, 
 there 's a lot of wild clamor against the Germans 
 now, but after the war we '11 have to live with them 
 and we '11 need them." 
 
 Billy's tongue slipped down his throat, and he 
 could n't find it. 
 
 97
 
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 " I asked your appointment as a personal favor 
 I 'm on the Naval Committee see ? It '11 
 tickle 'em out home. That name Hartmann will 
 fetch 'em. They '11 like the idea of our trusting a 
 man with that kind of a name in an important post. 
 You see, son, the fight for the next House is going 
 to be about the most important political contest this 
 country has seen since the Civil War. It may de- 
 termine the complexion of the Government for 
 fifty years. If the cards are played right the party 
 in power will stay in. The Allies are going to win 
 the war, of course. Germany is a gone coon. When 
 it is over we don't want any German-American 
 grudges settled at the polls. Tickle 'em now when- 
 ever it is possible, that 's the scheme." 
 
 " When did you do this? " Billy asked. 
 
 " Nine o'clock this morning. Whenever I get a 
 good idea I never let any grass grow under my 
 feet." 
 
 " Did n't the Board pass on it? " 
 
 Senator Marshfield chuckled. " It takes the prac- 
 tical politician to cut out the red tape, son," he said. 
 " What we need to do at a time like this is to get 
 down to brass tacks. Well, I guess I '11 have to 
 leave you. I had intended to walk down to the 
 Capitol, but I 'm tired. It keeps a man busy nowa- 
 days getting things for his constituents. A war 
 
 98
 
 ADDED ATTRACTION MLLE. FRALLI 
 
 means lots of patronage, and patronage means 
 work." He whistled for a taxi. 
 
 " Good bye, Senator," Billy said, holding out his 
 hand. 
 
 " When are you going? " asked Senator Marsh- 
 field, shaking it with great cordiality. 
 
 " My orders are uncertain. I do not know. I 
 may not see you again, so let me thank you for your 
 interest in me, and for this " He could not 
 bring himself to finish the sentence. 
 
 " Don't thank me, son," laughed Senator Marsh- 
 field, lightly, " thank Mrs. Winters." 
 
 "Mrs. Winters!" 
 
 " She put the idea into my mind. Of course, I 
 might have thought of it myself, in fact somebody 
 else suggested it, too, but Mrs. Winters saw it first. 
 Smart woman." 
 
 " I did not know that you knew Mrs. Winters." 
 
 " Everybody knows Mrs. Winters," said the 
 Senator. " I 'd as soon be dead as not to know 
 her. Charming woman, ideas just shoot from her. 
 She called me up last night, and then, Bruch 
 thought it would be a good thing. You remember 
 him, old friend of the family? I had a letter about 
 it this morning. The rest was easy. Well, good 
 bye, son." He waved farewell from the taxicab. 
 
 Billy groaned in spirit. He felt as though he 
 99
 
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 had suddenly gone dead on his feet. He was still 
 standing on the curbstone where the Senator had 
 left him, five minutes later, when somebody came 
 out of the hotel behind him, looked at him closely, 
 and then touched him on the arm. 
 
 Billy turned dejectedly, and there was Neil Law- 
 son. He recognized him at once, although it had 
 been years since he had seen him last. He had 
 grown from a clean-cut boy into a quick, active, 
 alert man, a little under size, but as full of snap 
 as a fox terrier, and very good looking. 
 
 They shook hands, as men do who have been 
 separated for a long time, and feel the same old 
 thrill of friendship that they knew as boys, upon 
 meeting again. Billy could have hugged him, for 
 he was lonesome and low-spirited. He suggested 
 lunch. 
 
 " Too busy packing," said Neil. " I '11 tell you, 
 Billy, you come out to my apartment, and have 
 luncheon with me, and we can talk over old times 
 while I am getting my things together." 
 
 " That will suit me splendidly." 
 
 " You are still in the navy, of course. I 've read 
 about you now and then. That was a fine thing 
 you did at the time of that revolution in Santo 
 Domingo. When was it, four or five years ago? 
 I can't keep track of the years. They are slipping 
 
 IOO
 
 ADDED ATTRACTION MLLE. FRALLI 
 
 by, but somehow it seems only yesterday that we 
 were playing ball in the field back of the old 
 school. You have n't changed a bit, Billy, a few 
 more lines of character in your face, but you look 
 the same." 
 
 " You are much the same, too. I am certainly 
 glad to see you." 
 
 " And Karl poor old Karl was killed." 
 
 "You heard of it?" 
 
 ' There was something about him in the papers. 
 I I know how you feel, Billy." 
 
 " Thanks, old man." 
 
 "And how are all the Sigberts?" 
 
 " I hear from them, now and then. The war 
 must have fallen upon them heavily. Lately the 
 letters have stopped coming." 
 
 " Elfrieda, she is well, I hope? " 
 
 " Yes, I I hope so." 
 
 "You never married, Billy?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 "I had thought Elfrieda I was sure she 
 would have become a great singer by now." 
 
 ' There is no short cut to success in opera," said 
 Billy. 
 
 " She is still studying?" 
 
 " She is still with Ruhlmann." 
 
 " Oh I see." 
 
 101
 
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 They got into Lawson's car, that was waiting at 
 the curb, and rode out to the apartment in Seven- 
 teenth street, where Neil had a large living room, 
 a bedroom and bath, and a long hallway, lined 
 with books. It was attractively furnished, and 
 comfortable. 
 
 "Shall we have lunch here, or in the cafe?" 
 asked Neil. 
 
 " In here, if you would just as soon." 
 
 " I prefer it, too." He gave an order over the 
 telephone, mixed a cocktail, and drew a chair up 
 beside Billy, who sat staring into the gas-log. 
 
 Luncheon was brought in, and they sat down at 
 a round mahogany table near the window. 
 
 " I '11 have some packing to do," Neil said, " but 
 we can talk away, just the same." 
 
 " Where are you going? " 
 
 " Florida. Aviation school." 
 
 " That is fine, Neil." 
 
 " I must do something, of course. I thought that 
 was the best thing to go into. It is up-to-date, and 
 modern, and everybody, more or less, will be a 
 novice 7 , at first, and I shall not seem such a dunce. 
 I can run an automobile it is the only practical 
 thing I do know how to do and I thought I might 
 manage with an airplane. I had a little political 
 pull, and obtained an appointment to the school.'' 
 
 1 02
 
 ADDED ATTRACTION MLLE. FRALLI 
 
 Billy winced. " Do you have to have pull? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " Certainly. It is the royal road to everything, in 
 Washington. I shall probably secure a commission 
 and break my neck. Well, that is what we are 
 here for. I saw something in the paper about you. 
 I do not understand about it exactly. I hope the 
 detail is a good one." 
 
 " Was it in the newspapers? " 
 
 " The noon extra." 
 
 " It is an important post," said Billy, " I am 
 very happy about it." 
 
 " It is splendid, I think, to give a thing like that 
 to a man You know what I mean, Billy. You 
 were born in Germany, you know." 
 
 "You thought of that?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, it is great. It shows the world that we 
 are really one people, after all, that we are Ameri- 
 cans together." 
 
 "Do you think so?" 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 Billy felt something within him suddenly come to 
 life. He stretched his hand quickly across the table. 
 
 " I want to shake hands with you, Neil," he said. 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " You have helped me. The fact is, some people 
 will not like this appointment of mine, I am afraid." 
 
 103
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 "What people?" 
 
 " The folks whose ancestors came over in the 
 Mayflower. They forget that these same ancestors 
 of theirs fought two wars against England, and that 
 they themselves were generally anti-English at the 
 time of the Boer War. They think that nobody else 
 could be like that." 
 
 Lawson nodded. " Still," he said slowly, " the 
 German-Americans are responsible for whatever 
 feeling against them there may be. They have 
 carried on an outrageous propaganda." 
 
 " The subsidized editors and professors have, and 
 they have spilled the beans. The reaction against it 
 among Americans of German descent set in long 
 ago." 
 
 " I have an idea that you are right." 
 
 " I know it, for that has been my experience. The 
 propagandists over-capitalized the blood instinct. It 
 is strong, but it is n't fool proof. I went part of 
 the distance with them, but there came a time 
 when my brain got the better of my heart. Well, 
 here is one crowd, .wanting to throw me out of 
 the navy because I was born in Germany, and an- 
 other crowd putting me forward for the same 
 reason." He repeated to Neil what Senator Marsh- 
 field had told him. " Why can't they take me just 
 as I am ? " 
 
 104
 
 ADDED ATTRACTION MLLE. FRALLI 
 
 Neil's eyes blazed. " I 'd like to serve under you 
 in the navy, Billy," he said warmly. 
 
 " That is good of you." 
 
 " But I could n't even swab a deck in the navy. 
 The truth is, this war has caught me unprepared." 
 
 " You think we shall have war? " 
 
 " I don't see how it can be avoided." 
 
 " I agree with you." 
 
 "Of course, I want to do something," Neil went 
 on. " I look around, and I find that I am utterly 
 stupid. They can use blacksmiths, and tinners, and 
 bakers, and policemen, and bricklayers, and a cotton 
 spinner can make munitions, but I don't even know 
 how to dig a trench. There is n't a drop of gas in 
 my tank. You don't know, because seamanship is 
 your profession, but to be caught like this, to know 
 that your country needs you, and that you are soft 
 and flabby and downright ignorant of anything use- 
 ful, and to want to go, and not to know where or 
 how to go, is rotten, just plain rotten. I happened 
 to think of the aviation corps. I went up in a hy- 
 droplane at a summer resort one time, and I stretched 
 that aerial flight at the dizzy altitude of eight inches 
 into something that sounded pretty big. I can run 
 a car, and so I got in, and now I 'm going to begin 
 training, I 'm going to start locking my own par- 
 ticular stable door." 
 
 105
 
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 " When do you go? " 
 
 " This afternoon, at four." 
 
 " I am sorry to lose you, but I am glad." 
 
 " Shall you be here long? " 
 
 "Haven't the remotest idea indefinitely." 
 
 " Where are you stopping ? " 
 
 " My club." 
 
 " \Vhy don't you come in here? I am going to 
 keep it ; no telling when they '11 be bringing me 
 back on a stretcher, you know. You can have it 
 for as long as you want, and when you go away, 
 simply leave the key with the janitor. I have let my 
 man go, but you can engage the janitor's wife to look 
 after the rooms. You used to play, did n't you? " 
 
 "A little," said Billy; "they tried to make me 
 learn." 
 
 " Here 's the piano and a barrel of music, and 
 books, and things, why not make yourself at 
 home?" 
 
 " I can't refuse, Neil, it is too tempting." 
 
 " That is fine. You will like Washington. Is 
 this your first visit here? " 
 
 " Yes ; I have spent nearly my whole life at sea. 
 How do you happen to be living here, Neil?" 
 
 " Father left me a little something, you know, 
 and part of it was in Washington real estate. I 
 came down to look after the property, liked the 
 
 106
 
 ADDED ATTRACTION MLLE. FRALLI 
 
 place, stayed around, made some friends, and now 
 I 'm a regular. It is hard to break the Washington 
 habit once you form it." 
 
 He was busy with his bags. Finally everything 
 was packed, and they went out together, and Billy 
 went with Neil to the station. Lawson had insisted 
 upon leaving his car for him to use. 
 
 Billy drove back to the club to get his steamer 
 trunk and bags. He threw his things together hur- 
 riedly, and coming upon a small black leather case, as 
 he was packing, he took that from the trunk where 
 he had found it, and slipped it into his pocket. 
 
 Then he returned to the apartment, settled him- 
 self, dressed, and went out to dinner. 
 
 Billy had met Corrie Winters in a pith helmet 
 on the sun-stricken quay at Aden, without feeling 
 in the least surprised to see her there, and he had 
 said good bye to her in Honolulu, and been wel- 
 comed, when he landed at the dock in Nagasaki, 
 by her smiling face, and he had accepted these 
 things as part of the well-ordered scheme of the 
 universe, so he was not in the least astonished, when 
 he stepped into the elevator, to find her beaming 
 upon him. 
 
 " Why, Billy ! Where in the world have you 
 been? " she wanted to know. " I did n't know that 
 you had friends in the Summit." 
 
 107
 
 " I live here," he smiled. 
 
 "Since when, pray?" 
 
 " Just now." 
 
 " That 's adorable. So do I. Have a charming 
 little apartment." Her taxi was waiting at the 
 door. " You '11 come to see me tomorow evening? " 
 
 " I 'm afraid I have half an engagement," he 
 pleaded. 
 
 " Won't do, you must come." 
 
 " I '11 let you know, call you up in the morning." 
 
 " Oh," she said, " I nearly forgot added at- 
 traction, Mile. Fralli." 
 
 " I 'm afraid " 
 
 " I shan't take no for an answer, and besides, 
 she's adorable and she wants to meet you." 
 
 " Never heard of her." 
 
 " She has heard of you." 
 
 " How do you know ? " 
 
 " She said so." 
 
 "French?" 
 
 "H m! Italian." 
 
 "Well bridge?" 
 
 " Poker." 
 
 "All right." 
 
 " Good bye." 
 
 " So long, Corrie." 
 
 108
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 A LITTLE TRIP TO NAMASCHET 
 
 " I think I shall go to Namaschet," announced 
 Mr. Peters, entering Mr. Monson's room, with an 
 eager light burning in his small, dark eyes, and a 
 sheaf of papers in his hand. 
 
 "Namaschet? Oh, yes, I remember." 
 
 " I said I had a hunch." 
 
 " I always act on hunches," commented Mr. Mon- 
 son ; " I can't get over having been a police re- 
 porter." 
 
 " So do I," said Mr. Peters. 
 
 " Anything doing? " 
 
 " Several things. Want to listen ? " 
 
 " Sure." 
 
 " I have found out something about Mrs. Winters 
 on my own account ; I could n't wait for you." 
 
 " I can't do half the big things that demand im- 
 mediate attention, let alone " 
 
 " Never mind that, now, read this," interrupted 
 Mr. Peters. He laid a telegram on the desk in 
 front of Mr. Monson, who adjusted his spectacles, 
 
 109
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 and read it aloud in the monotonous voice he always 
 used : 
 
 MRS. RICHARD BRAINERD SABISTON, 
 Namaschet, Mass. 
 
 Delighted to have her. 
 
 CORRIE HARDING WINTERS. 
 
 " What do you make of that ? " demanded Mr. 
 Peters, his eyes snapping with enjoyment. 
 
 " Not a blamed thing." 
 
 " Neither do I." 
 
 " It does n't code up with anything you have ? " 
 
 " It is merely a social telegram." 
 
 " What the dickens " 
 
 " Now let 's talk for a moment about Hannibal G. 
 White. He has been receiving telegrams, in code, 
 at Valparaiso. I have a file of them. There was 
 one from Hong Kong that interested me." Peters 
 placed a slip of paper in front of Mr. Monson, who 
 read: 
 
 " Sell hundred shares Copiapo." 
 
 " That suggested something to me," Peters con- 
 tinued. " You will remember that one of the tele- 
 grams sent from Washington by Mrs. Winters was 
 to a Philadelphia construction company?" 
 
 no
 
 A LITTLE TRIP TO NAMASCHET 
 
 ' Yes, the lady is going to build a sky-scraper in 
 Hong Kong, or you eat with me." 
 
 " That 's just the point," said Peters, fairly 
 dancing, " do you see, Hong Kong! " 
 
 " Humph ! Does begin to look interesting, 
 doesn't it?" 
 
 " I 'm glad your mind is working." 
 
 " What does Hong Kong say? " 
 
 Peters placed another slip of paper before Mr. 
 Monson, who glanced at it. It read : 
 
 " Cable filed Prothero, British navy." 
 
 "Humph!" 
 
 " Prothero," said Peters, " is attached to the 
 Norwich, Asiatic Station. I have notified the British 
 branch as a precaution, but it is n't necessary." 
 
 " You don't think your case is hurt ? " 
 
 " Of course not. Read this one." 
 
 Mr. Monson read: 
 
 " Yes, on Winters." 
 
 " I cabled Hong Kong to learn if Mrs. Winters 
 was there on the date this Valparaiso cable to White 
 was sent. This is the answer. Prothero was the 
 messenger boy. How these navy men do trail after 
 a petticoat." 
 
 " How do you know that Prothero " 
 in
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Why did God give me an imagination ? Mrs. 
 Winters is using an arbitrary code. ' Sell hundred 
 shares ' either identifies sender or refers to some 
 person or thing. The last word conveys the infor- 
 mation. Private affair, probably used by two people 
 only, and for but one particular line of work, what- 
 ever that may be. Hardest kind of code to do any- 
 thing with. So I am going to Namaschet." 
 
 " How does Mrs. Sabiston come in ? " 
 
 " Hannibal White is her broker. She sends him 
 orders nearly every day, and receives market 
 reports." 
 
 " That is natural enough, he is a broker, is n't 
 he?" 
 
 "Oh, certainly!" 
 
 " And Mrs. Winters " 
 
 " Within a few hours after arriving from Hong 
 Kong she is in touch with both White and Mrs. 
 Sabiston. First she is going to visit the lady at 
 Namaschet, and now somebody is going to visit 
 her. Who that is I don't know. We '11 have to 
 take a squint at her mail." 
 
 " I '11 attend to that," promised Mr. Monson. 
 
 " I asked Boston for a report on Mrs. Sabiston," 
 Peters went on. " She is the widow of the Presi- 
 dent of the Sabiston Company, shoes, Brockton. 
 You've heard of Sabiston shoes?" 
 
 112
 
 A LITTLE TRIP TO NAMASCHET 
 
 " I have on a pair," said Monson. 
 
 " A man would be lucky to be in Mr. Sabiston's 
 shoes." 
 
 "Why so?" 
 
 " He left her about five millions. She lives on 
 Commonwealth avenue, and has a summer home 
 near Namaschet, a place called ' Rock Crest,' one 
 of the finest estates on the South Shore, forty-five 
 acres, and a house that cost a hundred thousand 
 dollars. She is very good looking, under thirty 
 married Sabiston when he was sixty-three and 
 she was twenty-two and her maiden name was 
 Margaretha Schoenleber." 
 
 "A German?" 
 
 " He met her at Wiesbaden and she landed him 
 in two weeks." 
 
 " All right, go on to Namaschet, if you want to." 
 
 " Thanks. One thing more. Here 's a telegram 
 I have just received from Boston : ' Sabiston adver- 
 tising morning papers man to operate motorboat.' ' 
 
 " Rather unusual season for motorboating for 
 pleasure," observed Mr. Monson. " Maybe she is 
 going to join the coast patrol, and apply for a 
 commission as an Admiral." 
 
 " Fortunately," said Peters, " motorboating is 
 my one folly." 
 
 " I should imagine she would n't have to adver-
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 tise for a man," said Mr. Monson, after thinking 
 for a moment. 
 
 " That occurred to me instantly." 
 
 " She should be able to pick one up anywhere 
 on that coast." 
 
 " The answer is that she does n't want local 
 talent. I shall apply for the job." 
 
 " All right, good luck." 
 
 " I 'm leaving this afternoon," said Peters. " I 
 have some old togs that will just fit the picture, 
 and I shall really enjoy it." 
 
 Peters had brought his bag to the office. He 
 finished the work upon which he was engaged, and 
 took an early train for New York, arriving in 
 Boston a few minutes before nine o'clock the next 
 morning. 
 
 It was his first visit to the complacent capital of 
 New England, and the psychology of the vast 
 throngs of people pouring slowly through the gates, 
 on their leisurely way to work, amazed and con- 
 fused him, for Peters was from the West, where 
 folks show it when they hurry. Enormous as it 
 was in its smoky hideousness, the South Station 
 was congested with these somnambulant men and 
 women, all hustling to work in the most dignified 
 manner imaginable, showing the nervousness that 
 was consuming them, and that came by living on 
 
 114
 
 A LITTLE TRIP TO NAMASCHET 
 
 a diet of sugar and time-tables, only in their eyes 
 and complexions, but heroically keeping it out of 
 their gait, and all of them so dingy and crumpled 
 and sooty, and covered, as to shoes and trousers, 
 and skirt-hems, with the same kind of fine, black 
 mud, as to make it quite impossible to distinguish 
 a bank president from his bookkeeper, or the mother 
 of a prosperous family from her cook. Accustomed 
 as he was to travelling, everywhere, and under all 
 conditions, Peters was disturbed by this jam of 
 self-satisfied humanity that long lines of reeking 
 trains brought from their homes in the suburban 
 towns and emptied into the depot in an endless 
 stream, everybody with a little yellow bag in his 
 hand, and nobody caring whether the clock was 
 fast or slow. 
 
 A man who found pleasure in everything he did, 
 Peters looked upon this scene with the keenest de- 
 light. Many of the faces were new types to him, 
 and he studied them eagerly. 
 
 " They must be retired business men," he thought, 
 " going in to their stores and offices from force of 
 habit, and not because they have to." 
 
 The concrete platform upon which he was slowly 
 crawling on his way to the gate being choked with 
 people, and with trucks loaded with baggage and 
 freight, and the opposite one nearly deserted, he
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 crossed the intervening tracks, in order to make 
 better time. A few people, outward bound, were 
 taking a train then ready to pull out. The engineer 
 was in his cab, the conductor at the last car had 
 raised his hand. Peters saw two women sprinting 
 through the gate. 
 
 " They must be strangers," thought Peters ; 
 " they don't care who knows they are in a hurry." 
 
 A porter, with a suitcase in his hand, and a big 
 leather hat box under his arm, was struggling to 
 keep up with them. The bell rang, the wheels 
 slipped on the rails, the train straightened its verte- 
 brae. The women ran like deer, their white spats 
 twinkling, their skirts flying. Peters stopped to 
 watch them, and as they raced abreast the train, 
 now getting under way, he shouted to them : " You 
 can make it I '11 give you a hand." 
 
 He took the arm of the younger of the two, a tall, 
 graceful girl, with an oval face and pale com- 
 plexion, and a great mass of dark hair beneath her 
 black spring straw. She grasped the brass rail, 
 and swung aboard, giving Peters, by way of re- 
 ward, a nod and a tantalizing glimpse of black silk 
 hosiery. The gasping porter hurled the luggage 
 upon the rear platform, and Peters, turning, saw 
 that the other woman was not going. She waved 
 her hand to the dark-eyed girl, and then turned, and 
 
 116
 
 A LITTLE TRIP TO NAMASCHET 
 
 walked back to the gate. The porter was slowly 
 counting a dime that she had dropped into his eager 
 palm. 
 
 " The more these Boston women has, the more 
 they holds on to it," said the porter. " I like to 
 broke my back, and look what I gets." 
 
 " She is n't a Boston woman," said Peters. " She 
 has n't got the complexion, and her shoes are too 
 clean." 
 
 " Yes she is, too," said the porter, " that 's Mrs. 
 Sabiston." 
 
 " Sabiston ? " said Peters. 
 
 " You ain't from Boston yo'self, or you 'd have 
 known her," commented the porter, in that tone of 
 superiority that even the naturalized Bostonian 
 eventually assumes. 
 
 " No," admitted Peters, " what Mrs. Sabiston? " 
 
 " The Mrs. Sabiston, they ain't but one," sniffed 
 the porter, who had not lost his corn-field English 
 in the process of picking up a Back Bay accent. 
 " Lives down at Namaschet, mostly. She travels 
 through here considerable, but that don't put no fat 
 on my han'." 
 
 " What train was that ? " asked Peters. 
 
 " The one that lady took? That 's the New York 
 express." 
 
 " Well, cheer up," laughed Peters, giving him a 
 117
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 quarter, "you don't have to do much hurrying 
 around this station. This place reminds me of Chi- 
 cago it 's so different. Why, these people must 
 have an engagement somewhere for next week/' 
 
 ;< You ought to see 'em catching the 5:15 this 
 evening, with them little yellow bags full of bottles, 
 and in the summer time, man, it 's positively hazard- 
 ous around here afternoons, dodging goff sticks." 
 
 On his way out Peters stopped at the Western 
 Union office, and wired a description of the dark- 
 haired girl to New York. A fat man in a gray 
 overcoat picked her out of the crowd in the Grand 
 Central. He trailed her across town to the Pennsyl- 
 vania Station and stood by examining a time-table 
 when she stepped on board the train for Washing- 
 ton. Then he went to the telegraph office. 
 
 At the Union Station, in Washington, a man with 
 a very blank face and a large black mustache, who 
 looked like a policeman dressed up, watched her to 
 her taxi, hired another when she had gone, and fol- 
 lowed her out Massachusetts avenue, and into 
 Seventeenth street. Half an hour later Mr. Monson 
 filed away for future reference the fact that Mrs. 
 Sabiston's friend, five feet seven, weight one hun- 
 dred and thirty, hair dark, general appearance sty- 
 lish, probably Italian, was visiting Mrs. Winters, at 
 the Summit. Then he forgot all about it. 
 
 118
 
 A LITTLE TRIP TO NAMASCHET 
 
 Peters, leaving the telegraph office, changed his 
 clothes at a hotel across the street, under the Ele- 
 vated, checked his suitcase at the baggage room in 
 the depot, and in flannel shirt, corduroy trousers, 
 and a heavy coat that had seen much service, took 
 the train for Namaschet. 
 
 Two hours later he was employed by Mrs. Sabis- 
 ton to run her motorboat, at thirty dollars a month, 
 and board, and went to bed that night in an unheated 
 loft over a small boathouse which stood in a clump 
 of pines close to the water's edge. He had preferred 
 it to a bed in the butler's room in the servants' quar- 
 ters. He shivered as he pulled off his clothes. 
 
 " This must be Monson's east wind," he said, " I 
 feel it in my bones." 
 
 119
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston's summer home was just across the 
 street from Europe. 
 
 It stood on a rocky promontory facing the sea, 
 which beat and thundered and roared at her door. 
 She could step from her bed to her bath, in a little 
 cove behind a line of ragged reefs, by going down 
 a path through her flower garden, over the face of 
 the cliff, where cement steps had been built into the 
 solid granite when they could not be carved from 
 the living stone. 
 
 Every morning in summer she took her dip at 
 six o'clock in a one-piece silk bathing suit, for she 
 enjoyed the privacy of Robinson Crusoe. No house 
 was nearer than half a mile, and from no point on 
 the shore in either direction could the cove at the 
 foot of the stairway be seen. 
 
 The house had been built by her husband as a 
 wedding gift, and the architect had admirably used, 
 as the main building, the old house which had stood 
 there since 1820. This was of solid construction. 
 
 1 20
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 The walls in some places were more than three feet 
 thick. The timbers might have gone into a bridge. 
 It was flanked on either side by an enormous brick 
 chimney, on one of which was still attached the old- 
 fashioned iron lightning rod that had been put up 
 nearly a hundred years before. Around the old 
 mansion the new house had been built. It would 
 have been a " show place," but for the fact that on 
 the land side it stood back so far from the main road, 
 that ran south from the little town of Namaschet, 
 that it could not be seen. A heavy growth of natu- 
 ral forest trees, some of them of such age that they 
 might have been there when the Pilgrims landed, 
 screened it from the view of passers-by. A private 
 road, barred by an iron fence, led through the trees 
 to the house. The garage, for twelve cars, was at 
 the back, and below the level of the house; and 
 the stables, which had long been closed, for 
 Mrs. Sabiston kept no horses, were some distance 
 away. 
 
 There was a garden at the right of the house, 
 full of old-fashioned roses, the only flowers for 
 which Mrs. Sabiston cared, and a large kitchen gar- 
 den on the southern slope beyond the half-acre of 
 rose bushes. The lawn immediately around the 
 house, which extended in front to the edge of the 
 cliff, was as finely kept as a putting green, but the 
 
 121
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 rest of the estate was a primal wilderness. The trees 
 had felt no pruning knife. The deadfalls were never 
 taken up and burned. 
 
 Where the lawn ended the rocky walls of the cliff 
 began. Huge masses of red stone, some of them 
 larger than a house, seemed to have been thrown 
 about by some convulsion of nature. The sea had 
 been pounding upon them for ages, but though the 
 grind of sand had been ceaseless the promontory re- 
 mained unconquerable. At the foot of the cliff were 
 other masses of the same red granite, some of it 
 streaked strangely with broad stripes of bright 
 yellow and black stone. Beyond them was a line 
 of reefs, on which the waves pounded at high water, 
 sending up huge and fantastic columns of white 
 spray, and farther out, the open sea in all its thou- 
 sand moods and shades. 
 
 In one place only the rocky barrier of the cliff was 
 broken. Through this break the sea had found a 
 way to make a small cove, sheltered on the outside 
 by a long, low line of reefs, some of which showed 
 their sharp heads a foot or two above water even on 
 the highest tides. Here it had also made a bit of 
 beach, with a bottom that was sometimes sand, 
 sometimes small stones, rounded and polished by 
 the waves. Here Mrs. Sabiston swam in summer, 
 and here, the morning after his arrival, Peters 
 
 122
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 found the motorboat of which he was to be the 
 skipper. 
 
 As he looked out to sea across Massachusetts Bay, 
 deep blue under a cloudless March sky, and whipped 
 to foam where the reefs impeded the sweep of 
 billow, he thanked his stars that he knew something 
 about boats. He had never cruised in such waters 
 as these, his excursions having been confined to the 
 Lakes, when he had lived in the West, and to Chesa- 
 peake Bay, when he had removed to Washington. 
 
 He looked at the boat, fastened to a buoy, and did 
 not think much of her. There was a small skiff 
 hauled up at the head of the cove, and finding a pair 
 of oars in the boathouse, he went out and looked 
 her over. She was a thirty-foot, decked-over dory 
 of about six feet beam, with a twelve horse-power, 
 two-cylinder, two-cycle engine, forward and reverse 
 clutch. She seemed to be about six years old. She 
 was equipped with spray hood, cork cushions and 
 oars. She improved upon inspection, and Peters 
 imagined she would be very seaworthy. He went 
 back, and found Mrs. Sabiston waiting for him on 
 the beach. 
 
 She questioned him closely about his skill, and 
 he saw that she knew as much about boats as he 
 did himself. She was fond of the sport, and his 
 duties would be to take her out whenever she de- 
 
 123
 
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 sired to go. She had whims about such things, and 
 he must be ready when she wanted him, as her 
 fancies to go outside were sudden. For this reason 
 he must remain within call at all times. She would 
 insist upon this, and if he did not care to hold him- 
 self in readiness he might go, and she would en- 
 gage another man, several having applied by mail. 
 Peters said he would keep the job. He was inter- 
 ested in the wages. 
 
 " Very well," said Mrs. Sabiston, " you must 
 become familiar with the boat. ,It is one that I 
 bought second-hand and I want you to see what 
 you can get out of her. It is useless to have a 
 good boat here, as it is likely to be pounded to 
 pieces any night in a storm. Therefore I shall 
 expect you to take care that it is securely anchored 
 and fastened to the buoy." 
 
 Peters was sure he would have no trouble. He 
 had taken care of boats all his life. 
 
 " For the next day or two," continued Mrs. 
 Sabiston, " you had better familiarize yourself with 
 it. Take it outside and give it a trial. Watch the 
 engine, and if there is anything wrong with it re- 
 port to me and I will have a mechanic come down 
 from Boston to repair it." She spoke with a 
 slight German accent, so slight as to be almost 
 unnoticeable. 
 
 124
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 <. 
 
 She left him, with no further instructions, and 
 
 Peters watched her as she climbed the stone stairs 
 that wound up the face of the cliff, and thought 
 that she was a very good-looking woman. 
 
 Margaretha no longer spent her life at the table. 
 She had conquered her appetite, just in time to 
 prevent it from conquering her, and eating, from 
 being an art, had become a science. She had given 
 up food entirely, and lived on vitamines and calo- 
 ries, and a famous dietitian, who had become in- 
 terested in her, and shown her the way to health 
 and beauty, prepared all her menus. She had a 
 horror of the heavy stews and thick soups, the 
 fried food and sweetmeats, of her childhood, and 
 ate nothing but cereals, with butter and salt in- 
 stead of sugar and cream, and vegetables. Broiled 
 chicken and lobster were the only meats she tasted. 
 She drank no coffee or tea, and although her cellar 
 was stocked with wines, and her husband's favorite 
 liquors, they were enjoyed only by her guests. At 
 thirty she had the figure of a high-school girl and 
 the complexion of a baby, a pink and white skin, 
 as soft as velvet. Her corn-silk hair had ripened, 
 and there was a tawny tinge in it, as though the 
 sun had burned it. 
 
 She made such a pretty figure on the stairway, 
 with the wind whipping her skirts about her neat 
 
 125
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 ankles, that Peters lingered until she was gone. 
 Then he ran to the boathouse, got his coat and an 
 old sou'wester that he had seen there, rowed out 
 to the motorboat, and tried the engine. It was in 
 perfect condition. Feeling his way slowly, he made 
 out the channel, and so got clear of the reefs. It 
 was rough outside, and he was not quite sure of 
 himself, at first, but confidence soon came to him, 
 and after the first trial he enjoyed himself as though 
 he were on a vacation. In a few days he had 
 learned all about the dory, and he reported to Mrs. 
 Sabiston that she seemed an admirable boat in 
 every way, being tight and dry. 
 
 " I shall try her myself," said Margaretha. 
 
 " When do you wish to go out? " 
 
 " At once. Bring her in, and I will go aboard." 
 
 Peters brought the dory in, running her along- 
 side an enormous flat rock, a natural wharf, where 
 Mrs. Sabiston assured him there was plenty of 
 water on all tides. 
 
 She stepped aboard, and took a seat in the stern, 
 muffled to her pink ears in a big motor coat. There 
 was not much wind, but the air had a sting in it 
 to which Peters, fresh from the South, was not 
 accustomed. 
 
 "Do you see that pinnacle of rock?" asked 
 Margaretha, pointing. 
 
 126
 
 A VOICE ;N THE DARK 
 
 " Yes, madam." 
 
 " Get your bearings by sighting the south chim- 
 ney over that steeple. Have you got them? Then 
 go straight out to sea five miles," she said. " That 
 is your course." 
 
 Every day, for a week, after that, Peters took 
 Mrs. Sabiston out, five miles, straight to sea, never 
 more, never less, but five nautical miles, exactly. 
 Attached to the bulkhead forward was a small 
 " log " of brass and glass, that looked very much 
 like an ordinary thermometer. Her eye on the 
 indicator, Mrs. Sabiston noted the speed, and from 
 this calculated the distance covered from the big 
 reef that lay directly beneath the Colonial portico 
 of the house on the cliff. Having gone five miles 
 Peters would be ordered to stop the engine and 
 they would drift until the order was given to re- 
 turn; and always, as they started back, the huge 
 chimney over the pinnacle of red granite would be 
 dead ahead. A pair of binoculars lay at hand in the 
 stern-sheets, but on clear days they were not needed. 
 
 " You are learning very well," said Mrs. Sabis- 
 ton, evidently much pleased, as she started up the 
 stairs one day after returning from one of these 
 excursions. 
 
 " So," thought Peters, " I 'm learning something. 
 I wonder what the deuce it is? " 
 
 127
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 He had been confined so closely to the boat since 
 his arrival that he had learned very little about the 
 house or its occupants. That Mrs. Sabiston was 
 not alone was evident. At night he saw reflections 
 against the window shades, but whoever the guests 
 were they did not show themselves in the day; 
 and being employed wholly in connection with the 
 motorboat, and living as he did at the boathouse, 
 Peters found no opportunity to enter the house. 
 His meals were served to him at the boathouse, 
 where after the first day a fire was made for him 
 in a rusty old stove that apparently had not been 
 used for years. His bedroom in the loft above re- 
 mained unheated, but Mrs. Sabiston sent down to 
 him a supply of thick blankets, and he managed to 
 be comfortable at night. 
 
 The servants who brought his meals to him were 
 German, and he soon came to understand that none 
 but Germans were employed. Thinking it wise to 
 conceal the fact that he spoke that language, he 
 asked no questions. He hoped that some day Mrs. 
 Sabiston, unsuspecting his acquaintance with her 
 mother tongue, might say something in his presence 
 that would give him a lead, but on the trips with 
 him she invariably went alone. 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston did not care for horses, and had 
 sold the stable that her husband had owned at his 
 
 128
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 death. But she was inordinately fond of dogs, and 
 had four, which Peters thought were the hand- 
 somest he had ever seen. 
 
 Her favorite was an English pointer, a thorough- 
 bred, groomed like a woman, slender of build, deli- 
 cate, and as high-strung as a racehorse. His name 
 was Bruno, and he accompanied Mrs. Sabiston 
 everywhere. Around his neck he wore for a collar 
 a heavy gold-linked band, like a woman's bracelet. 
 In the gold lock which fastened it was set a dia- 
 mond. The other dogs were Danes, heavy, fero- 
 cious-looking beasts with tawny hides and mouths 
 like steel traps. These stayed in the stable all day, 
 and were turned into the grounds at night; and 
 Peters could hear them, when he had gone to bed, 
 sniffing at the door of the boathouse. 
 
 Peters was fond of dogs, and owned a setter 
 that accompanied him on all his motorboat trips 
 down the Potomac, when he would get a bit of 
 vacation and go away for a few days. Whether 
 because his clothes bore the canine odor of his four- 
 footed companion, or because he sensed in him a 
 man who knew and understood dogs, Bruno 
 quickly took a fancy to him. The pointer slept in 
 the house at night, but always looked Peters up 
 the first thing in the morning, and went with him 
 in the motorboat, even when he sailed out alone, 
 
 129
 
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 as Mrs. Sabiston made him do, every day, to cover 
 the course she had laid down for him. The dog 
 was an affectionate animal and seemed unhappy 
 when he could not have his head in some human 
 being's lap. He would lie at Peters' feet, asleep, 
 on his coat, for the weather had suddenly become 
 much milder, and the sou'wester was no longer 
 needed as extra covering. 
 
 One day, when Mrs. Sabiston informed him that 
 she would not desire to go out with him, Peters 
 tuned the engine up, and tried it out for speed. 
 He ran down the coast, keeping a mile or two off 
 shore, and finding a little harbor unexpectedly 
 breaking through the sand dunes, made a landing 
 at Scituate, where he laid in a supply of tobacco. 
 He spent half an hour in the sleepy little town, and 
 before he left, happening to think of Monson, wrote 
 him a note, in which he recounted briefly the un- 
 eventful experiences of his new employment. Then 
 he chugged back, found his bearings, and navigated 
 the reefs by twilight, which made him quite proud 
 of himself, for it was the most treacherous looking 
 water he had ever sailed in. 
 
 Bruno had been turned out on the lawn, for 
 his evening's exercise, and Peters could hear him 
 barking at the top of the cliff. He went into the 
 boathouse, started the fire, and sat down to his 
 
 130
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 supper, which had been left for him, when he heard 
 the grunts of a heavy-breathing animal at the door, 
 and the pawing of sharp claws. He tip-toed across 
 the room, and looking through the window, saw 
 two of the Danes rolling and tumbling about in 
 the sand, at play. The third was evidently smell- 
 ing at his door. As he looked Bruno bounded 
 into view, and the dog at the door went over and 
 wished him good evening, dog style. Peters 
 whistled, and Bruno pricked up his ears. He 
 opened the door a crack, and Bruno came 
 jumping joyously toward him. The Dane looked, 
 and his ears went back. Then he began walking 
 slowly toward him. Peters had on the old sou'- 
 wester which was Bruno's favorite bed when 
 they went out to sea together, and to this fact he 
 probably owed his life, for coming to a desperate 
 resolve very suddenly, although not in the least 
 underestimating the ferocity or fidelity of the 
 Dane dogs, Peters opened the door of the boat- 
 house, sat down upon the sill, and pulled Bruno 
 into his lap. The Dane watched him, uttering 
 not a sound. The other two were busy with their 
 sport. 
 
 Peters pulled Bruno's ears, and scratched his 
 head, but he kept his eye on the Dane, who came 
 toward him suspiciously, his tail stiff. He was wise
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 enough to make no move, to speak no word. He 
 understood dogs, and he knew what this one could 
 do to him. The Dane came on, and neither barked 
 nor growled, and Peters could smell its fetid breath, 
 hot, reeking of raw meat. He did not move, and 
 the Dane stopped, and sniffed at the old sou'wester 
 that he wore. He sniffed at Peters' hand, that had 
 been caressing Bruno's glossy skin. He smelled 
 Peters' trousers, where the setter had rubbed him- 
 self a hundred times. Peters put out his hand boldly, 
 unhesitatingly, as a man does who knows that be- 
 tween him and dogs there is a bond of sympathy 
 and understanding. He scratched the great Dane's 
 ears, and massaged the folds of skin at the base of 
 the skull. The huge beast rolled over, and Peters 
 ran his hand across the powerful muscles of his 
 breast, and dug his fingers into his ribs. The other 
 two Danes came up, and seeing that everything was 
 quite all right, laid down a little distance away. 
 Peters spoke to them the language he had learned 
 from dogs. 
 
 Presently there came a whistle from the house, 
 and Bruno sprang to his feet, and stood listen- 
 ing. There came another whistle, and he stretched 
 himself. The whistle was repeated, long and clear, 
 and Bruno bounded away. The Danes looked 
 at him, blinking, but did not follow, and Peters, 
 
 132
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 stretching forth his hand in the darkness, pulled the 
 monster nearest him by the ears, and rubbed its 
 backbone with his knuckles. He stood up, and the 
 dog rose lazily to his feet. He spoke, and walked 
 down the beach toward the stairs that led up the side 
 of the cliff. The Dane looked at him, then joined 
 him, marching by his side, and Peters gave a great 
 sigh of contentment. 
 
 Every night, after that, the dogs came to him, and 
 he made friends with them, and fed them. Every 
 night he walked with them to the foot of the stone 
 stairway, and each night he went up that stairway a 
 little farther, a step or two at a time. Finally the 
 night came, when he stepped out upon the soft lawn 
 at the summit of the cliff, already soggy and yield- 
 ing to the feet, for the frost was going out of the 
 ground. The dogs were with him. He walked up 
 and down by the rose garden, keeping out of sight 
 of the house, although the night was dark, for the 
 moon was in its infancy. 
 
 Thereafter at night he walked more boldly about 
 the grounds, always accompanied by the dogs, and 
 wearing an old pair of tennis shoes that he had 
 found in the boathouse. At last the night came when 
 he dared approach the house. He walked softly 
 upon the wide veranda, and peered through the win- 
 dow. On the hearth the embers of a dying fire were 
 
 133
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 glowing. They made a soft, shadowy light, by 
 which he made out that the room was either a library 
 or a living room. There was a deep divan by the 
 fireplace, and a table, with a lamp and books upon 
 it, at its back. The rest of the room was shrouded 
 in impenetrable gloom. On the other side of the 
 piazza the shutters were closed, and he could see 
 nothing. He walked around the house, the dogs at 
 his heels, and then, it being after one o'clock in the 
 morning, he turned in, the dogs accompanying him 
 to the door of the boathouse. 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston had planned to go out with him at 
 ten o'clock the following morning, and he was ready 
 at the hour, but she did not come. He waited, the 
 boat in readiness, but noon came, and she had not 
 arrived. Mindful of his instructions, he waited on 
 the beach, walking up and down from the boathouse 
 to the stairway, to keep himself warm. At one 
 o'clock she appeared. He brought the dory in, and 
 helped her aboard. As he was pushing off he saw 
 a maid, in black dress and white cap, running down 
 the stairway. She was calling, but her voice was 
 lost in the pounding of the surf against the rocks, 
 for the tide was high. He told Mrs. Sabiston, and 
 they waited. The girl came up breathlessly, and 
 Mrs. Sabiston leaned over the rail and took the tele- 
 gram the servant handed to her. She read it, and 
 
 134
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 said in German : " I shall be back in time," and then 
 gave Peters the order to shove off. 
 
 They shipped a little water passing the reefs, and 
 there was nothing to bail it out with. She called 
 him to account for this, and he promised to see that 
 it would not happen again. She went forward to 
 the " log," the wind tearing at her coat, and while 
 steadying herself as she tried to fasten it more 
 closely the telegram, which she still held in her hand, 
 blew away. Peters watched it, his heart in his 
 mouth. He stifled an exultant shout when it flut- 
 tered down almost at his feet. His anxious eye 
 upon it, he saw it rest lightly upon the water in the 
 bottom of the boat. Gradually it became soaked 
 and soggy. Mrs. Sabiston made no search for it, 
 and Peters saw with satisfaction that it was now too 
 wet and heavy to blow away. 
 
 They covered the five-mile course, drifted about 
 ten minutes or so, got their bearings by the chimney 
 over the granite steeple, and started back, Mrs. 
 Sabiston smiling to herself all the way. 
 
 Peters busied himself about the boat, and when 
 she had disappeared over the top of the cliff, his 
 hand closed over the telegram, and he rolled it into 
 a ball in his palm, and took it to the boathouse. 
 There, by the fire, .he dried it, smoothed it out, and 
 examined it anxiously. The ink was blurred, but 
 
 135
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 the message could be made out. He read it softly 
 to himself : 
 
 Missed connection New York, arrive Na- 
 maschet 5:10. 
 
 CORRIE HARDING WINTERS. 
 
 Peters chuckled. He very much desired to see 
 the lady who had been in Hong Kong when one 
 Prothero, of the British navy, had sent a cablegram 
 to Mr. Hannibal G. White, in Valparaiso, and who 
 had herself sent telegrams to the same Mr. White 
 in New York. How to manage it was another ques- 
 tion. He doubted very much whether Mrs. Sabis- 
 ton would take her out with them in the motorboat, 
 for there were evidently other guests in the house, 
 who had not accompanied their hostess, on any of 
 her trips to sea. 
 
 " I shall have to get into the house," said Peters 
 to himself, " and I may as well try it tonight." 
 
 He ran up to his loft, and felt under the mattress 
 to make sure that his automatic was where he had 
 put it, and after idling away the early part of the 
 evening, huddled over his stove, he slipped the gun 
 into his pocket at midnight, and a few minutes 
 later climbed the stairway, and came out upon 
 Mrs. Sabiston's lawn. 
 
 Great was his astonishment to find the house, that 
 136
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 had always been dark at this hour, showing a bril- 
 liant light in a window on the top floor immediately 
 above the south end of the piazza, the last window, 
 toward the south, of the main house. 
 
 " That," said Peters, to himself, stroking the 
 ears of one of the Danes that had come out to meet 
 him, " is about the most brilliant thing in the way 
 of a light that I have ever seen." 
 
 He kept in the shadows of a clump of cedars. As 
 he looked the light suddenly went out, and he was 
 about to move forward, when it flashed forth again. 
 He shrank back into the trees, and waited. The 
 light disappeared, and was not turned on again. 
 He stood there, straining his eyes at the window, 
 and the night seemed a deeper black than it had been 
 before. As he watched he saw a spark play up and 
 down the lightning rod that surmounted the north 
 chimney. It fascinated him. 
 
 Keeping in the shadows of the trees and shrub- 
 bery of the rose garden, he worked his way to the 
 rear of the house. 
 
 From where he had stood before the sky-line was 
 obscured by the dense woods. 
 
 Now he could see, between the two chimneys, 
 over the house top, a bright expanse of clear, open 
 sky. Against this background the web of a wireless 
 stood out faintly, the wires strung between the chim- 
 
 137
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 neys. As he assured himself of this the spark ap- 
 peared again, a tongue of bluish flame, playing up 
 and down along the lightning rod. 
 
 " They forgot about the induction from that light- 
 ning rod," said Peters, chuckling softly. " Portable 
 radio, put up at night and taken down before dawn. 
 Very clever, if they had n't forgotten about that 
 lightning rod. Bad insulation, and I saw the spark. 
 The smartest of them slip up sometime." 
 
 He became aware now that, whereas the rest of 
 the house was in darkness, the middle room on the 
 second story of the old building was lighted, as was 
 one back room in the north wing. 
 
 " In one or the other of those rooms," whispered 
 Peters to himself, " somebody is sending a radio- 
 gram, and somehow or other I must take a good look 
 at him." 
 
 He cursed the stupidity which had led him, be- 
 cause of his aversion to sleeping in the room with 
 another person, to choose a bedroom in the boathouse 
 loft. But for that, he reflected, he would be in the 
 servants' quarters, from which he might make his 
 way into other parts of the house, upstairs. 
 
 " And on the other hand," he added, " if I had 
 been indoors tonight that spark would have sputtered 
 without my having seen it." 
 
 This thought made him feel a little better. The 
 138
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 lighted room in the old building was directly above 
 the back portico. A rose trellis at one side of this 
 gave him an idea. He tried it, and found it of heavy 
 wire. It was attached at the top to the cornice of 
 the portico. Peters put his weight on it, it held 
 him, and he began to climb. He reached the roof, 
 pulled himself over the edge, and on his belly wrig- 
 gled toward the window. The shade was pulled 
 down to within an inch of the bottom window frame, 
 and putting his eye at this narrow crack of light, 
 he looked into the room. 
 
 At a table in the middle of the floor sat a heavy- 
 featured German, with a brown mustache. Over his 
 head was a metallic harness, and his ears were cov- 
 ered with two hard, round black rubber disks. 
 
 " Receiving," said Peters to himself, impressing 
 the man's picture upon his memory. As he looked 
 the man reached forward, and while Peters could 
 not see the instruments he knew were there, the un- 
 mistakable "wh-r-r-r-r! wh-r-r-r-r!" of the wire- 
 less came to his straining ears. 
 
 " Sending," commented Peters, and slid softly to 
 the edge of the portico roof. He lowered himself 
 to the ground. Followed by the dogs, he crept back 
 until he was in the shadow of the trees, and then 
 worked his way around through the rose garden, 
 until he was at the head of the stairs. He wanted 
 
 139
 
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 to go back to the boathouse, and think. As he started 
 down the steps one of the dogs raised its head, and 
 drew its lips over its fangs. 
 
 " They 're on the job," thought Peters, " but they 
 don't advertise it." Creeping back he peered across 
 the lawn, and in the dim light of the stars he saw 
 the figure of a woman, coming toward him from the 
 house. 
 
 Reckless then in his haste he threw himself down 
 the stairway, for the slim, alert figure was that of 
 Mrs. Sabiston. He reached the bottom bruised and 
 sore, ran to the boathouse, keeping as far under the 
 cliff as he could, and was on his bed, in the loft, 
 when he heard her calling to him, and throwing 
 rocks at the door. Presently he arose, stamped 
 down the steps, and unfastened the door, and 
 stood there looking at her in bewilderment, rubbing 
 his eyes. 
 
 " What is it, madam ? " he asked. 
 
 " I am nervous tonight, and can't sleep," replied 
 Mrs. Sabiston. " I should like to go out in the 
 motorboat." 
 
 "When, madam?" 
 
 " At once." 
 
 " Yes, madam." 
 
 " Come, then. You have your overcoat on," she 
 added suspiciously. 
 
 140
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 " I have been sleeping in my clothes," said Peters. 
 " It is very cold." 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston shuddered at the thought of sleep- 
 ing in one's clothes. 
 
 " She is excited," thought Peters. " I wonder 
 what 's up ? " 
 
 " Please be quick," said Mrs. Sabiston. 
 
 He followed her to the flat rock, and she lighted 
 his way with an electric flash of strong power that 
 she took from the pocket of her coat, while he found 
 the skiff, rowed out to the dory, and brought it in. 
 As soon as its gunwale scraped against the stone she 
 stepped aboard. 
 
 He looked at her inquiringly. 
 
 " Five miles, straight out to sea," she said. 
 
 " Yes, madam." 
 
 " The same course." 
 
 " I understand, madam." 
 
 " You take the wheel." 
 
 Peters started the engine, and went aft, and Mrs. 
 Sabiston stood in the bow and turned her pocket 
 searchlight on the reefs ahead. It was low water, 
 and they showed plainly. 
 
 " You will take your bearings by the south chim- 
 ney and the pinnacle rock," she said. 
 
 " In the dark? " 
 
 " Certainly."
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 Peters turned, and as he looked back over his 
 wake, there suddenly shone out in the south window 
 the brilliant white light he had seen there an hour 
 before. Looking full into it now he judged 
 that it was a calcium, with a powerful reflector. 
 It flooded the red granite steeple in a radiant bath 
 that made it stand out like a sentinel against the 
 night. 
 
 " The light," said Mrs. Sabiston, " is almost 
 directly beneath the chimney. Hold her dead ahead, 
 about ten miles an hour." 
 
 " Aye, aye, madam." 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston turned her pocket flashlight on the 
 " log," and studied the indicator. It was a dark, 
 heavy night. The wind was light, and getting into 
 the east. The sea was calm. Peters kept his eyes 
 on his bearings and was beginning to think that 
 they had covered the course, when Mrs. Sabiston, 
 looking up quickly from the indicator of the " log," 
 called to him sharply, " Way enough ! ", and swept 
 the water around them with her light. 
 
 Peters stopped the engine, and got upon his feet, 
 and then, for the first time, saw lying dead over the 
 bow a low, black hulk, shadowy and indistinct. Mrs. 
 Sabiston's light found it, and then she snapped it off. 
 A man's voice hailed cheerily in German : 
 
 " Wie geht 's! " 
 
 142
 
 A VOICE IN THE DARK 
 
 " How do you do," answered Mrs. Sabiston, in 
 English. 
 
 The dory, drifting slowly under her headway, 
 now grated upon the black hulk, which Peters made 
 out to be a submarine. 
 
 Her stern swung around, and the two boats were 
 sucked together by the tide and lay quietly length 
 to length. 
 
 On the U-boat's deck stood a little group of men. 
 Two of them came to the side, and grasped the dory 
 with boathooks. A third shook hands in the dark- 
 ness with somebody at his back, and then stepped 
 into the motorboat 
 
 He greeted Mrs. Sabiston warmly and they whis- 
 pered a few words together. 
 
 As the man came aboard the bow of the dory 
 swung off, and as the stern now came around, 
 Peters was suddenly seized under the arms, and 
 hauled up the sloping deck of the submarine. 
 
 He struggled to free himself, to get at his gun, 
 but two other men grasped him by the knees, trip- 
 ping him up, and he felt himself being lowered down 
 a companion-way. 
 
 He heard a man outside say in English, " Let me 
 take the helm, Mrs. Sabiston," and her fresh, silvery 
 voice calling from the darkness, 
 
 " Gott befohlen! Auf Wiedersehen! " 
 -143
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 There was the purr of a motor, the undersea boat 
 began submerging, and turned its nose toward the 
 German submarine base at Caribou Island, on the 
 Maine coast. 
 
 " The smartest of them," said Mr. Peters to him- 
 self reminiscently, " slip up sometime." 
 
 144
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 CORRIE GIVES A PARTY 
 
 Corrie Winters was a bird of passage, but when 
 she did light she insisted upon having an attractive 
 nest. Where she abided permanently, and two 
 months in any town made her regard herself as one 
 of the oldest inhabitants, she built a bower. 
 
 She owned little furniture, preferring to sell such 
 things when she was through with them, with a 
 view to buying new ones when she should require 
 them again. She could fly into a strange city, any- 
 where in the world, in the morning, purchase some 
 wicker tables and chairs, a big, deep divan, to fit 
 her velvet cushions, and a small brass bed, and by 
 evening transform a bare apartment into a charm- 
 ing retreat. The possessions upon which she prided 
 herself, and which she had been accumulating all 
 over the earth for years, consisted almost wholly 
 of rugs, draperies, and silverware. 
 
 When she became finally settled her walls would 
 be hung with rare Chinese embroideries and Japa- 
 nese and Indian silks, picked up with discriminat- 
 es
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 ing taste in the Orient, her floors would be covered 
 with the richest treasures of Turkey and Persia. 
 Her lamp shades were invariably selected with care- 
 ful regard for their effect upon her complexion, and 
 she always wore gowns, of her own designing, that 
 harmonized with her surroundings. 
 
 Innumerable photographs, in gold and silver 
 frames, stood about in her rooms, most of them of 
 men. The same instinct prompted their display as 
 leads a sportsman to hang above his fireplace the 
 head of a moose. They were her trophies of the 
 chase. 
 
 To spend an evening with Mrs. Winters was a 
 privilege. Her cigarettes were made to her order 
 in Cairo or Constantinople, and although they bore 
 her monogram in silver, they were neither gold- 
 tipped nor scented, for Mrs. Winters enjoyed to- 
 bacco for its own sake. She had lived in the wine 
 districts of France and Italy so long, when her 
 husband had been in the consular service, that she 
 knew almost as much about vintages as most people 
 pretend to know. Her cocktails were famous. 
 
 Billy thought of the cocktail before he remem- 
 bered that he had promised to go to Mrs. Winters' 
 that evening. He had been reading " The Song 
 of Songs," and preferred Sudermann to other com- 
 pany, but finally he tore himself away from the 
 
 146
 
 CORRIE GIVES A PARTY 
 
 book and dressed, taking so much time at his bath 
 that it was nearly nine o'clock when he closed the 
 door of Lawson's apartment behind him, and 
 walked up the stairs to the next floor above, where 
 Mrs. Winters lived. 
 
 Her rooms were crowded when he entered. 
 There was a poker game at a table in the reception 
 hall, and in the drawing room beyond were two 
 tables of bridge. 
 
 Senator Marshfield, who had just won a large 
 pot on a small pair, hailed him with a shout of 
 delight. 
 
 Mrs. Winters came forward smilingly, in a 
 simple little white gown, with milky-white beads 
 clinging to arms, waist, and hips. It was exquisite, 
 and might have been worn by a grammar-school 
 miss. Her hair was banded close across the fore- 
 head, and tucked up at the nape of the neck, like 
 the coiffure of a nun. A pair of barbaric jewelled 
 earrings belied the grammar school and the nunnery. 
 
 She introduced him to the few he did not know. 
 Little Wallis was there, full of unuttered thoughts, 
 and Gaines, of the Porpoise, with whom he had 
 served in the Caribbean. There was an attache of 
 the Italian Embassy, a vapid-looking man with a 
 sensual eye and a small waxed mustache which he 
 everlastingly twirled, two young officers of the
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 army, and a famous specialist, whose two passions 
 in life were frontal sinuses and no-trump bids. The 
 women were young girls, just learning to drink 
 cocktails and smoke, and making the usual rapid 
 progress of beginners. 
 
 Billy said he would be delighted to fill in at the 
 poker table, but Mrs. Winters slipped her arm 
 through his, and led him into the bow-window of 
 the drawing room, where a slender girl, with deep, 
 dark violet eyes, and a mass of hair so brown in 
 shade that it was almost black framing a face of 
 the Italian type, arose to greet them, the men 
 about her falling away on either side as she stood 
 up. 
 
 " I want you to meet Miss Fralli, Billy," said 
 Corrie. 
 
 " Miss Fralli," he murmured, the room suddenly 
 spinning about him like a top. He took the small, 
 delicate hand she held out to him. It was 
 Elfrieda. 
 
 He looked at her without daring to speak, his 
 brain in a turmoil. He could only stand and look, 
 just look at her, tongue-tied, stammering, inarticu- 
 late. The blood rushed to his face, and then re- 
 ceded, leaving him white under his sea-tan. He 
 was hot all over, and then suddenly numb to his 
 feet. He became aware that everyone was look- 
 
 148
 
 CORRIE GIVES A PARTY 
 
 ing at him curiously, that the laughter and chatter 
 had ceased. 
 
 He shook hands with her again, mechanically, 
 and went back to the poker table, and Corrie saw 
 that he was trembling. 
 
 " What 's the matter, Billy? " she whispered. " I 
 thought you could face a good-looking girl with- 
 out quaking. I shall have to put a pair of blinders 
 on you." 
 
 There was more composure in her voice than 
 in her soul, and she thought to herself, as she sat 
 down and took up her cards, that she would give 
 all she had if she could see in Billy Hartmann's 
 eyes the look Miss Fralli must have seen in them. 
 
 Billy was still in a daze when supper was served. 
 He drank a cocktail, tasted the oysters, choked on a 
 single cracker. 
 
 Elfrieda eluded him, keeping the distance of the 
 room between them. Always there was an eager 
 guard around her. She smiled, and laughed, and 
 showed her little white teeth, and there was a touch 
 of color in her clear, creamy skin. She dominated 
 the whole room, not by her beauty, not by her 
 clothes, but by her personality. The very air around 
 her was charged with it, as if her body were a 
 dynamo sending out currents of some strange and 
 subtle force. 
 
 149
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 Billy tried to eat, to be agreeable, to talk. The 
 conversation was about the war. Everybody was 
 cynical and apathetic, except the army and navy 
 officers, who said little, but listened intently when- 
 ever anyone spoke. 
 
 There was some indignation at the transfer of 
 General Birch, which had just been announced. It 
 had been expected that he would command the army, 
 and his removal to an obscure and minor post on the 
 eve of hostilities had proved a mild sensation. One 
 of the young girls thought it served him right. He 
 had been entirely too critical and naturally he had 
 made enemies. She supposed there were others. 
 
 " They will send for Birch yet," said little Wallis, 
 who was having his palm read by a debutante with 
 a face like an angel and a gown like a chorus 
 girl's. 
 
 " Why will they send for him? " demanded Sen- 
 ator Marshfield, snorting. 
 
 " They will find that they can't get along without 
 him," replied Wallis, blushing at his loquacity. 
 
 One of the army men looked as though he would 
 like to say something, but after opening his mouth 
 he shrugged his shoulders and helped himself to a 
 highball. 
 
 Elfrieda was talking to the Italian about Milan, 
 and he was looking at her in a way that made Billy 
 
 150
 
 CORRIE GIVES A PARTY 
 
 grind his teeth. He replied to the chatter of the 
 girl on the divan beside him in monosyllables, his 
 forehead in a frown. He signalled Elfrieda with his 
 eyes that he wanted to speak to her, but she pre- 
 tended not to catch his meaning. He felt that he 
 must see her, must speak with her alone. He waited 
 desperately for the party to break up, but it was 
 after two o'clock when the guests began to look for 
 their hats and coats. 
 
 He lingered on, among the last. Finally all went 
 away, except Senator Marshfield, who was voluble. 
 He expected a declaration of war, although he was 
 opposed to it himself. If Americans had n't per- 
 sisted in going abroad the country would n't have 
 been in this trouble. They should have stayed at 
 home, and minded their own business. 
 
 " Don't you agree with me, Mrs. Winters ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " Of course I don't," said Corrie emphatically. 
 " People have a right to travel." 
 
 Senator Marshfield had touched on something in 
 which she was very much interested. He changed 
 the subject and the conversation dragged. Even 
 Mrs. Winters, who would have been classified orni- 
 thologically as an owl, yawned. Billy managed to 
 get Elfrieda by the window. 
 
 " I must see you tonight," he said. 
 151
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Not tonight, Billy, it 's quite impossible," she 
 whispered. 
 
 " But I must. I tell you I must. I feel as though 
 my head would burst. What are you doing here, 
 under an assumed name? " 
 
 " It 's my stage name, but you must n't give me 
 away. I have a good reason for being here. We 
 will talk it over tomorrow. It is good to see you, 
 Billy." 
 
 " It is more than good to see you again. I 've 
 longed so for the sight of you, and here you stand. 
 It 's like having Heaven suddenly open before me." 
 
 " You are nervous." 
 
 " I am always like this when I am with you. 
 Don't you remember, the last time, in the Tier- 
 garten, how I shook when I said good bye to you? 
 I am like that, sometimes, merely from thinking of 
 you." 
 
 " Stop, Billy," she said quickly. " Come to see 
 me in the morning." 
 
 " You are visiting Mrs. Winters? " 
 
 She nodded that she was. 
 
 " How long shall you be here ? " 
 
 " I do not know." 
 
 " Can't you tell me why you are here ? How did 
 you come, at such a time as this, when travel from 
 the other side is so hazardous?" 
 
 152
 
 " Through Italy," she answered. ' There was no 
 trouble, no danger, I have Italian passports." 
 
 " Have you just arrived? " 
 
 " In Washington, yes. I have been visiting an 
 old friend, Mrs. Sabiston, at her home near Boston, 
 for a week." 
 
 Senator Marshfield was at the door. " Come 
 along, Billy," he called, " it is getting late." 
 
 Billy shook hands with Mrs. Winters, and went 
 away without another word with Elfrieda, merely 
 smiling his good bye. He felt stifled and ill at ease. 
 
 At the elevator he said good night to Senator 
 Marshfield. " I think I '11 go to my rooms for 
 my coat, and take a walk," he said. 
 
 " Do you live here ? " 
 
 " I am occupying the apartment of a friend." 
 
 " Well, get your coat, and I '11 wait for you down- 
 stairs, and go as far as the hotel with you," said 
 the Senator. 
 
 Billy rejoined him at the entrance, and they 
 walked down the street together. 
 
 " Smart woman," said Senator Marshfield. " Did 
 you observe how she headed off that conversation 
 about General Birch ? There was a squall brewing, 
 but she stepped in, and presently we were all talking 
 about something else. I noticed it." 
 
 " She is very clever," Billy agreed. 
 153
 
 " They certainly did throw it into Birch," ob- 
 served the Senator, helping himself to a cigar from 
 his case. " That little Miss What 's-her-name hit it 
 off exactly; it serves him right.'' 
 
 " Everybody says his removal was political," said 
 Billy. 
 
 " Political," snorted Senator Marshfield, " well, 
 was n't his appointment in the first place political ? " 
 
 " He is a natural-born soldier," insisted Billy, 
 warmly. 
 
 " Natural-born politician," grunted Senator 
 Marshfield. " He came from my old Congres- 
 sional district. If he had n't gone into the army 
 I would still be practising law in a one-horse town. 
 We can't afford to let a man like that get any 
 glory out of this war he 's too good a vote- 
 getter." 
 
 Billy stopped, and regarded Senator Marshfield 
 with a look of amazement on his face. 
 
 " Too good a vote-getter? " he repeated, as if he 
 had not heard correctly. 
 
 "Ab solutely!" 
 
 " What 's that got to do with it, if he is an effi- 
 cient soldier, and the government needs him? The 
 War Department knows that he is a great soldier, 
 everybody knows it. It is one of those things there 
 can be no mistake about. It is in his record, and 
 
 154
 
 you can see it in his face. You know it, and the 
 whole country knows it." 
 
 " That 's just the point," laughed Senator Marsh- 
 field. "Of course he 's a pretty good soldier. All 
 you army and navy people say so, and you ought to 
 know if anybody does. But he 's too popular. 
 We '11 be electing a President again before you 
 realize it, son." 
 
 " Four years before we have a new President," 
 reminded Billy. 
 
 "Who said anything about a new one?" de- 
 manded Senator Marshfield. " That 's just the 
 point. Well, an ambitious man might find it 
 easy to make in this kind of a war the sort 
 of military reputation that leads to the White 
 House. After the first blood has been spilled 
 the American people will be clamoring for a 
 hero. I know 'em they are never happy without 
 a hero." 
 
 " Birch is a soldier," said Billy. " He has been 
 trying for years, long before this war was dreamed 
 of, to do for the United States what Roberts tried 
 to do for England. He is n't thinking about the 
 White House." 
 
 " But some of the long-headed politicians are. 
 We Ve got to be careful, son, mighty careful," and 
 Senator Marshfield chuckled. 
 
 155
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " He should not be put aside at a time like this 
 for political reasons," said Billy, vigorously. 
 
 " Is n't he being put forward for political rea- 
 sons?" demanded the Senator. "Of course he is 
 that 's the game. I was n't born yesterday. Gen- 
 eral Birch is being groomed for the Presidency by a 
 crowd that wanted to put him over last time, and 
 could n't. We propose to head them off." 
 
 " There should n't be any politics now," Billy said. 
 
 " Son," replied Senator Marshfield, " in this coun- 
 try everything is politics." 
 
 " You gave out a statement at the White House 
 this morning that the watchword now was * Patriot- 
 ism first,' " said Billy. " I read it in the newspapers. 
 It was splendid." 
 
 " I got some good headlines, did n't I ? " he 
 chuckled. " Sure, patriotism first. By the way, 
 Billy, they 're going to put one of the big mobiliza- 
 tion camps in our State, I 've just fixed it." 
 
 "It's a rotten selection," said Billy. "We 
 have n't adequate transportation facilities out there." 
 
 " Transportation ? " demanded Senator Marsh- 
 field, looking at him pityingly. " Man, it 's a doubt- 
 ful State!" 
 
 " You speak as if politics was the supreme 
 consideration." 
 
 " It is, nearly, and don't forget, son, that we 
 156
 
 CORRIE GIVES A PARTY 
 
 always have made our Presidents on the battlefield. 
 And we '11 be doing it again, if we are n't careful. 
 We got a crop of them from the Revolution, there 
 was Andy Jackson, the Mexican war furnished its 
 quota, and the Civil war produced a whole raft 
 of them, clear down to McKinley. We had a scrap 
 with Spain, and even that gave us one." 
 
 " Yes, by God," said Billy, " and he was a 
 whale." 
 
 " That 's what the people used to think, once." 
 
 " And they will think it again." 
 
 " Not if we see him first, they won't," said 
 Senator Marshfield, grimly. " We shall refuse to 
 make any political generals if we can get away 
 with it," and he chuckled as he chewed the end of 
 his cigar. 
 
 "Political!" said Billy. "Why, the man's a 
 natural leader. He could raise an army while any- 
 body else was recruiting a platoon." 
 
 " Yes, and it would be his army, and if he ever 
 got on the battle line it would be his own private 
 war. He 'd even make France forget who Joffre 
 was." 
 
 " To see him leading an American army to 
 Europe would be an inspiring sight," insisted 
 Billy. 
 
 " That 's not the point," interrupted the Senator, 
 157
 
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 " what we are thinking about is how he would look 
 coming back." 
 
 "If he is to be kept out because of politics," 
 said Billy, " it 's a pity the Constitution was n't 
 amended to make him ineligible for a third 
 term." 
 
 " We could n't do it," said Senator Marshfield, 
 regretfully. 
 
 " You had the votes at one time." 
 
 " We could have limited him to two terms more, 
 but we could n't have prevented him from going 
 back. There 's an ex post facto clause in the Con- 
 stitution, son. Did you ever think of that?" 
 
 " So you 're going to keep him ' 
 
 " Out of the spotlight," nodded Senator Marsh- 
 field. "That is," he added doubtfully, "if we 
 can. It may be impossible to do it. He '11 go 
 tearing around telling everybody what a great gen- 
 eral he is, and thousands of the feeble-minded of 
 the genus Ovis will fall for it. They already think 
 that San Juan was one of the fifteen decisive battles 
 of the world. If I had my way about it I 'd make 
 him a Major General and Custodian-in-Chief of 
 the ink bottle, and let him write all the round robins. 
 I don't see why he does n't apply for a commission 
 as Admiral of the Navy, he 's spent a month aboard 
 ship for every day he ever spent in the camp or 
 
 158
 
 on the battle-field. I don't believe in sending 
 twenty thousand hot-headed, untrained Americans 
 to France to be slaughtered to make a headline 
 holiday. Still, we may have to let him go. If we 
 don't he '11 probably organize a third-party move- 
 ment and break up the darned war. On the other 
 hand, it may prove advisable to have a third-termer 
 for the other candidate, hey ? You can't tell. Lots 
 of things enter into this question." 
 
 " You '11 have to send somebody to France, that 's 
 certain," said Billy, " the inevitable logic of the 
 situation will require it." 
 
 " The obvious thing," agreed Senator Marsh- 
 field, " is to pick somebody for the calcium like 
 yourself." 
 
 " Like me ? " said Billy, wonderingly. 
 
 " A naturalized American. Suppose we had 
 some general who was born in Canada, for in- 
 stance, and put him right out in the full glare of 
 publicity, would n't that be a corking idea ? " 
 
 " If he was a good soldier, yes." 
 
 " Hang it, if there 's a point anywhere you miss 
 it," said Senator Marshfield, in the pitying tone of 
 a professor addressing an infant class. " I mean 
 from the political point of view. He could n't be 
 President, and he could go after all the glory he 
 wanted." 
 
 159
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Oh, I see." 
 
 " Sure. We Ve got to find a man like that, or 
 else some cracking good soldier who has something 
 in his private record, something not generally 
 known, that would overwhelm him in a political 
 campaign, and that he would know would over- 
 whelm him." 
 
 " A man like that would n't be in the army," 
 said Billy. 
 
 " Maybe not, and maybe yes," replied Senator 
 Marshfield, drawing his left eye into a laborious 
 wink. " Maybe yes. We don't propose to turn 
 this country over to the military, son, but if we 
 find that we shall have to, he '11 be our kind of a 
 military man. Here 's my hotel, so good night." 
 
 Billy walked back to his apartment and passed a 
 restless night. The atmosphere of Washington was 
 beginning to nauseate him. He thought of El- 
 frieda, of the false colors under which she was 
 passing, and did not close his eyes until daylight. 
 
 160
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 IN SPITE OF ALL YOUR HEART 
 
 Billy wasted almost the entire day at the Navy 
 Department, and it was late in the afternoon when 
 Elfrieda, who had been watching the clock since 
 breakfast, heard his knock at the door and went 
 to let him in. 
 
 He shook hands with her gravely, and thought, 
 as they went into the drawing room, " she is more 
 beautiful than ever." He found it hard to realize 
 that years had passed since he had seen her before, 
 years that had changed him from a boy to a man, 
 and had left her a girl, with the same flawless skin, 
 the same soft hair, the same deep eyes that made 
 him tremble when he looked into them. Her body 
 was fuller and rounder, but she had lost none of 
 the supple gracefulness of her young girlhood. 
 " She has not felt the years as I have," he thought, 
 as he stood on the rug by the window regarding 
 her, with such a look in his eyes that she turned 
 her head away, not daring to return his glance. 
 
 Mrs. Winters was at her dentist's. They had 
 161
 
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 the drawing room to themselves. He could scarcely 
 speak, could only look at her, with hungry longing. 
 He asked after the family in Berlin. 
 
 The war had fallen heavily upon the Sigberts, 
 all of them. Charlotte's business, built up after 
 years of teaching, had been ruined. Nobody was 
 taking music lessons in Berlin now. Their income 
 had been much reduced, and only the money from 
 the property in America sustained them. Now 
 there was a possibility that that would be cut off. 
 She did not know what they would do. Food was 
 very scarce, and they had all suffered except her- 
 self, who had learned long ago from Ruhlmann 
 how to live on simple fare. Helena had married, 
 a young man of good family, an officer in a Bava- 
 rian regiment. He had been killed at Verdun two 
 months later, and Helena had a baby, born after 
 his father's death. Greta had been in a hospital 
 at Posen since the beginning of the war. She now 
 had an important post. 
 
 Billy stared out of window, a mist before his 
 eyes. Finally he asked: 
 
 "And you?" 
 
 " I have been serving the government," she re- 
 plied, hesitatingly. 
 
 " And your music ? " 
 
 " I have given up everything. When the war 
 162
 
 IN SPITE OF ALL YOUR HEART 
 
 is over I shall keep on. I shall reach my goal, 
 some day." 
 
 " You have not yet " 
 
 " I have not found success. I have been within 
 reach of it, I have had it within my grasp, only to 
 see it slip away, but I shall try again. I must sing, 
 I must sing, Billy, it would kill my mother if I 
 failed, and the same old demon within me is whip- 
 ping me on." 
 
 " I understand, dear," he said. " I promised 
 you, the day I saw you last in the Tiergarten, 
 that I would not speak to you again of myself 
 until until you had achieved your ambition. 
 Surely you will not hold me to that now. I love 
 you, Frieda, I have loved you every day of my life 
 from the day I saw you first, from the day I kissed 
 you in the old grape arbor there at home, from 
 the day I said good bye to you when you went 
 back to Germany, from the day I left you in Berlin 
 to go my way alone. The best of life is still be- 
 fore us, Frieda. Come to me now." 
 
 " I must keep on to the end," she answered. 
 " All look to me to do this thing, and more than 
 ever now their hopes for the future are bound up 
 in my success. I cannot fail them, so I must go 
 on, and all the work must be repeated when the 
 fighting ends, and all the steps that I have climbed 
 
 163
 
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 up in the past I must mount slowly, one by one, 
 again, I must continue till I win or die." 
 
 " You will succeed, I know, dear heart, the spark 
 that burns in your immortal soul will never flicker 
 out. That 's why I love you so, and shall go on 
 to love you to the end." 
 
 He stood up quickly, and walked to where she 
 sat. " And now," he said, a new note in his voice 
 that grew into a whisper as he spoke, " you know 
 what next to you lies closest to my heart. . . . Tell 
 me about Karl." 
 
 She would not look at him as she replied, 
 " There is not much to tell you, Billy." She tried 
 to speak again, but could not go on, and clasped 
 and unclasped her hands nervously. 
 
 " Elsa cabled me at Manila, that he was dead, 
 and that is all I have ever known, except for what 
 I saw in a brief line in one of the papers. How 
 did Elsa know ? " 
 
 " I sent her word." 
 
 " You thought of me ? I shall never forget that, 
 Elfrieda." 
 
 " Don't, Billy, I cannot bear to have you speak 
 like that don't thank me, I cannot stand it. 
 When when it happened, I thought at once of 
 Elsa. Although she remained behind when we 
 went back to Germany, we had always kept in 
 
 164
 
 IN SPITE OF ALL YOUR HEART 
 
 touch with her. She is a faithful friend, more 
 than a servant. Mother mourns for her even now." 
 
 " Aunt Lottie misses the good things she used 
 to cook," smiled Billy sadly, thinking of his boy- 
 hood. " I can see her now in the old kitchen at 
 home, making the icing for the cake. She always 
 gave the spoon to Karl." He stopped, and then 
 went on: "Tell me everything, Elfrieda, I can 
 stand it now, tell me how he died my brother. 
 Thank God, it was in battle." 
 
 Elfrieda looked up at him, her face ashen, every 
 vestige of color gone from skin and eyes. She 
 was silent. 
 
 "Is there nothing more you can tell me?" 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 "Where is he buried?" 
 
 " His his his body was not recovered. It 
 was simply reported to us that he was dead, 
 that he had gone down with his ship." 
 
 Billy felt for a chair. After a while he said : 
 
 " Elfrieda, why are you in the United States 
 under a name that is not your own? " 
 
 " I cannot tell you. All I can say is that you must 
 not betray me." 
 
 " But some one may recognize you." 
 
 " It is not likely. I have been away for many 
 years. I thought I should faint last night when 
 
 165
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 Senator Marshfield came into the room. He used to 
 live in our town, but I was a little girl then, and he 
 did not know me. I know nobody in Washington." 
 
 " Still, somebody may see you. Neil Lawson, for 
 instance. He would remember you." 
 
 "Where is he?" 
 
 " In Florida, now, but he may return. I am oc- 
 cupying his apartment on the floor below." 
 
 " I shall have to guard against that. You will 
 not tell?" 
 
 " Of course not." 
 
 " Do you promise ? " She suddenly got up, and 
 went to him, and put her hand upon his shoulder, and 
 he could smell the delicious feminine odor of her body, 
 and feel the soft touch of her hair against his cheek. 
 
 " Certainly, if you wish it." 
 
 " Then I am safe." 
 
 " Safe? Are you in danger?" 
 
 " Yes. .No. I do not know." 
 
 " Elfrieda, I am anxious about you." 
 
 " It is nothing," she said, going back to her chair. 
 
 " I cannot bear to think of you being in danger." 
 
 " You must n't be alarmed." 
 
 " But I am, I cannot be easy in my mind. Is there 
 no way I can help you ? " 
 
 She shook her head, doubtfully. They sat in si- 
 lence. Then she said : 
 
 166
 
 IN SPITE OF ALL YOUR HEART 
 
 " It was a great joy to us all to know that your 
 heart was with the Fatherland." 
 
 " You could not know that. I would not write 
 about the war in my letters to you." 
 
 " We heard." 
 
 "Heard?" 
 
 " It is what the reports said." 
 
 " Reports ? What reports ? " 
 
 " I do not know. I was told so." 
 
 "Told what?" 
 
 " That at heart you were a German. That you 
 were with us." 
 
 " I was at first." 
 
 " I do not understand." 
 
 " When the war broke out everything was con- 
 fused. I was swept off my feet and I wanted Ger- 
 many to win. It was the blood call, and there is 
 no reason in it. I made myself believe that Germany 
 did not will the war, although I knew better." 
 
 "Knew better?" 
 
 " Certainly. Officers of the German navy told me 
 more than five years ago that Germany was getting 
 ready to strike. Still, I did not think she had started 
 it. I forced myself to believe that England began it ! " 
 
 " England did start it," said Elfrieda, her face 
 suddenly flaming with passion. 
 
 " I compelled myself to believe this at first. I 
 167
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 knew that the British navy was ready in the North 
 Sea when the hour struck." 
 
 " It is all that saved England," said Elfrieda, 
 passionately. 
 
 " But you just now said that England started the 
 war." 
 
 " She did." 
 
 " Then why do you say that the presence of the 
 British fleet in the North Sea is all that saved 
 England?" 
 
 She was silent. 
 
 " Don't you see, Elfrieda, it is n't logical. That 
 is the trouble with the German arguments, they are 
 not logical. Every time your brain comes up against 
 a stone wall of fact." 
 
 " England was ready," insisted Elfrieda. 
 
 " England has been ready on the sea for three 
 hundred years." 
 
 " She had a secret treaty with Belgium," said 
 Elfrieda, doggedly. 
 
 " Discovered when the German army reached 
 Brussels." 
 
 " You are trying to trap me." 
 
 " No, I am not. I want to help you see." 
 
 " God will punish England," said Elfrieda, in- 
 tensely. " Billy ! They are even poisoning the 
 wells." 
 
 1 68
 
 IN SPITE OF ALL YOUR HEART 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 ' The English. They are killing our men, who 
 are fighting for the Fatherland, like rats." 
 
 " Frieda," replied Billy, " I have known English- 
 men ever since I went into the navy. I have worked 
 with them, played with them, fought with them. 
 They are the finest sportsmen in the world. I be- 
 lieve that an Englishman would give a mad dog a 
 sporting chance for its life. The Englishman has n't 
 been born who would poison a well. It is n't in his 
 code. I know, and must bear witness." 
 
 " Everybody in Germany knows they have poi- 
 soned wells," cried Elfrieda, passionately. 
 
 " Does everybody in Germany know about the 
 French and Belgian girls carried off from their 
 homes like cattle to be the wretched playthings of 
 the fighting men ? " he said slowly. 
 
 " It is not true. It is an English lie. General von 
 Heidenreich would not permit it. He has done a 
 great constructive work in Belgium; everyone 
 knows it." 
 
 " Von Heidenreich," said Billy, " is the man on 
 whose account my father left his home. His name 
 has been a shame to me for all my life. I never 
 knew, when I was still a boy, the mystery of it all, 
 but things have come to me, the memory of my 
 father's words, the reason why my mother stayed 
 
 169
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 behind when we moved here. . . . My mother! 
 Von Heidenreich, he is a beast, I would believe any- 
 thing of him. I know these horrors, all of them, 
 are true." 
 
 " The women of Germany would not permit it. 
 It is a lie, an English lie." 
 
 " There are some things the women of Germany 
 are not permitted to know. Some day they will 
 learn, they must learn, and it will break their 
 hearts." 
 
 " There are, I suppose, some bad men in the 
 world," she faltered. 
 
 " Individual cases might be put down to the de- 
 generacy of a few abnormal men here and there, 
 but when whole villages of girls are driven off be- 
 fore their masters there is but one explanation, it is 
 deliberate, organized." 
 
 " You do not talk like a German," she said faintly. 
 
 "I I I am talking like a man," said Billy, 
 slowly. " I love you so, Elfrieda, I love all women 
 in you. Whatever any man does to one of them he 
 does to you and to me." 
 
 She hung her head, not daring to look at him, 
 her lip trembling. Presently she said : 
 
 " It can't be true, Billy, as a German woman I 
 know it can't be true." 
 
 " What do you believe as an American woman ? " 
 170
 
 IN SPITE OF ALL YOUR HEART 
 
 " An American ? " she asked, startled. 
 
 " You were born in this country. Have you ever 
 been naturalized a German subject? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Then you are an American." 
 
 " Yes, I know," she answered slowly, " I have 
 thought of that, sometimes. I am not quite like 
 Charlotte, and Greta, and Helena. I feel it. They 
 are Germans but I am for Germany," she fin- 
 ished, in a voice shaking with emotion, " for Ger- 
 many, with all my heart, and all my soul." 
 
 " Yes, dear, against England, and Russia, and 
 even France, if you wish." 
 
 " Against everything ! " she cried, her little 
 white hands clenched until the blue veins stood out 
 on them like knots. 
 
 Billy smiled at her, half sadly, half quizzically, 
 and pointed through the window. 
 
 Over the rooftops, far away across the town, on 
 the flagpole upon the top of a tall building, the 
 Stars and Stripes fluttered in the March breeze 
 against the blue spring sky. 
 
 " That, Frieda," he said, " is your flag against 
 everything. It is because it is, in spite of all your 
 heart and all your soul." 
 
 171
 
 ELFRIEDA HAS AN IDEA 
 
 Billy had begun some work at the Department 
 upon the science to which he had devoted the best 
 years of his life, strategy. He had conceived and 
 worked out problems far in advance of those in the 
 course at Newport, and he had acquired from inti- 
 mate friends in the British navy, in many a social 
 hour on shipboard, some of the things that English 
 fleet commanders had done in actual manoeuvres, 
 and in battle. 
 
 He had the same instinct for this that makes the 
 born chess player. 
 
 Many of the officers who had served with him 
 knew what he had done already, what he might do 
 if given the opportunity. Just when Billy had de- 
 spaired of being called upon, of being utilized in 
 any practical way, he was called into consultation, 
 without actually being placed upon the board of 
 strategy. 
 
 To his friends he voiced some of the fears that 
 constantly arose in his mind. If war were declared 
 would it be followed by righting? 
 
 172
 
 i 
 
 
 That, Frieda," he said, "is your flag against everything" 
 
 PAGE 171
 
 ELFRIEDA HAS AN IDEA 
 
 " Will the fleet," he asked Wallis, who had been 
 attached to operations, " co-operate with the British 
 fleet?" 
 
 Nobody knew. 
 
 Suppose the North Sea fleet were defeated, or the 
 German fleet should break through into the Atlantic, 
 would that fleet be met at sea, or would the American 
 fleet be called in to protect the coast cities? 
 
 Nobody knew the answer to that. 
 
 Who was to determine what the fleet would do? 
 
 Senator Marshfield brought the matter up one 
 afternoon. He had been to the Department, and had 
 succeeded in having a constituent appointed a Passed 
 Assistant Paymaster. Billy met him at the door, as 
 he was going out, much pleased with himself. They 
 walked down the street together, the Senator smil- 
 ing, Billy's face drawn about the mouth and eyes. 
 
 " Things are going fine," said Senator Marshfield. 
 
 "Do you still think that we shall have war?" 
 asked Billy. 
 
 " Oh, yes, in a way," replied the Senator, select- 
 ing a cigar with much care. " In a way. Great 
 idea, we have now." 
 
 "About what?" 
 
 " We 're going to help France. That won't get 
 anybody sore. Old friendship, and all that sort of 
 thing. Nobody will resent what we do for France."
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " An army? " asked Billy, interested. 
 
 " Not if we can help it," replied Senator Marsh- 
 field. " Money. Nobody can make a military repu- 
 tation writing a check." 
 
 " We ought to send an army to France if we 
 really mean to help," insisted Billy. 
 
 " The public may clamor for it. If we can't risk 
 ignoring it we '11 have to send a division, about 
 twenty thousand men, say, regulars, and the ideal 
 man, if we can find him, will command it." 
 
 " The best major-general we 've got," said Billy, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " Hell, no," laughed Senator Marshfield " the 
 poorest politician. He '11 be absolutely safe, see ? 
 Then we '11 organize an army for the moral effect 
 in Europe and America. There '11 probably be a 
 million men in uniform in this country next 
 summer." 
 
 " The khaki for the first hundred thousand of 
 them has n't been woven yet," said Billy, bitterly. 
 " What '11 you put the other nine hundred thousand 
 in, pink silk kimonos ? " 
 
 " We can go into the open market and buy any- 
 thing we want," said Senator Marshfield, grandly. 
 " We have unlimited resources." 
 
 " You have n't seen your resources stacked up 
 alongside your liabilities yet," answered Billy, shrug-
 
 ELFRIEDA HAS AN IDEA 
 
 ging his shoulders. " What will Congress do about 
 the war?" 
 
 " Well," said Senator Marshfield, taking his cigar 
 from his mouth, and regarding it reflectively, " of 
 course we 've got to hang our clothes on a hickory 
 limb but we won't go near the water, not if I can 
 help it." 
 
 Billy spoke of a possible military and naval move- 
 ment there had been much talk about in the news- 
 papers. 
 
 " Dangerous," said Senator Marshfield, shortly. 
 
 " It 's the only thing to do," said Billy, with more 
 than his usual heat, " and we 've got to play the 
 British way, too," he added. " It is n't dangerous ; 
 it 's the only safe thing to do." 
 
 " You don't grasp the point," laughed Senator 
 Marshfield. " You forget the Irish vote. We 
 could n't do a more dangerous thing. Most 
 of the Irish in this country hate England, and 
 for that matter, so did most of the descend- 
 ants of the old English stock until the Euro- 
 pean war began. We Ve been feeding our people 
 on it for years in the school books, and you 
 can't undo that in a day. There 'd be a howl 
 if we helped England, and the people would 
 get even at the polls. We '11 help France, that 's 
 safe." 
 
 175
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Surely we 've got over our Fourth Reader 
 days," said Billy. 
 
 Senator Marshfield patted him on the arm. 
 " Son," he smiled, " what kind of newspapers do 
 the people read nowadays, the great masses of the 
 people, I mean ? Two or three screaming headlines, 
 and the rest comic pictures. That 's the class we 're 
 thinking about. They go to the polls every election 
 day, rain or shine. They don't think." 
 
 " If you mean to cast any slur on the patriotism 
 of the people " 
 
 " Oh, not that, exactly," interjected Senator 
 Marshfield. 
 
 " You ought to look over the enlistment figures," 
 said Billy. " The country is full of enthusiasm. 
 It 's far ahead of the government. The people 
 want the government to lead, not to throw cold 
 water. Some of the things they are doing are splen- 
 did, perfectly splendid." 
 
 " It 's love of excitement, adventure," said Sena- 
 tor Marshfield. 
 
 " It 's patriotism," insisted Billy. 
 
 " You don't talk like a German-American," 
 said Senator Marshfield, turning to look at him 
 curiously. 
 
 " By God, I am not a German-American," Billy 
 almost shouted. 
 
 176
 
 ELFRIEDA HAS AN IDEA 
 
 " For Heaven's sake, then, what are you ? " de- 
 manded Senator Marshfield in amazement. 
 
 " I 'm an American," said Billy, "a a regular 
 American." 
 
 " You have n't been out home lately," said Sena- 
 tor Marshfield. " You have n't been living in our 
 State for the past two and a half years. I don't 
 know where you 've been getting your ideas." 
 
 " I Ve been getting them on the deck of a United 
 States warship," said Billy, the blood in his face. 
 " It 's a great place for ideas, Senator." 
 
 " I 'm in closer touch with the people," said Sena- 
 tor Marshfield. " I have good reasons for all my 
 plans, if you do know more about fourteen-inch 
 guns." 
 
 " Do you know what one of those big guns could 
 do to your plans if it were fired?" asked Billy. 
 " Blow 'em out of water! " 
 
 He went to Elfrieda, high strung, nervous, and 
 found her moping at Mrs. Winters' window. There 
 was something in her eyes that made him say 
 quickly : 
 
 " Homesick, dear ? " 
 
 " No; not that exactly, just sad, that 's all. But 
 you mustn't call me 'dear,' someone might hear you." 
 
 " Can't I call you ' dear ' when we are alone? " 
 
 " Y yes, I I suppose so, Billy." 
 177
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " You remember the promise I made you, the 
 last day we spent together, in the Tiergarten? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " You made me promise that I would not make 
 love to you again until you had become a famous 
 singer." 
 
 " I remember." 
 
 " Has n't the war changed that, does n't it relieve 
 me of my promise ? " 
 
 "The war?" 
 
 " It puts everything so far away. It has inter- 
 rupted your studies, spoiled your career no, no, 
 dear, I don't mean that. I mean it it has put the 
 goal farther away, that 's it, just moved the goal a 
 little farther away. And I don't want to wait. El- 
 frieda, dear, I love you the same as I always have. 
 I 've always loved you. I loved you the night I saw 
 you slip through the folding door, that night I came 
 to your mother's house, and I have loved you every 
 day of my life since then. I have never wanted any 
 other woman, Elfrieda, but oh, I do want you." 
 
 " You 're breaking your promise." she said, turn- 
 ing away. 
 
 " Let 's not wait, Elfrieda," he begged. " Life is 
 so short. You could still study, and sing, if we were 
 married. I won't demand all of you, Elfrieda. 
 Have your career, gratify your ambition, I '11 only 
 
 178
 
 ELFRIEDA HAS AN IDEA 
 
 ask for part of you, Elfrieda, the part that 's 
 left." 
 
 ' There 's more than that between us now," she 
 said, looking at him again through half -closed eyes. 
 
 He cried out. startled : " Is there is there some- 
 one else ? ' 
 
 " I mean the war." 
 ' The war shan't come between us, Elfrieda." 
 
 " It has come already. It is between us. I can 
 feel it, like a great, black something dreadful." 
 
 She buried her face in her hands, and her slender 
 body trembled, but when she raised her head again 
 there were no tears upon her cheek, and her eyes 
 were hot and dry. 
 
 " It shan't come between us," he cried passion- 
 ately. " Why should it ? It is a nightmare to all 
 the world, but we will keep it from becoming a 
 nightmare to us. We will push it away from us, 
 you and I, dear." 
 
 " I mean the the war between Germany and 
 the United States." 
 
 " Oh." 
 
 " That is what is between us." 
 
 " You and I are Americans, Frieda." 
 
 " I am afraid that I had forgotten it, all these 
 years." 
 
 " You must remember it." 
 179
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " I have as much right to be a German as you 
 have to be an American. I must be a German, Billy, 
 I must, I must ! " 
 
 " You were born here, under that flag out there." 
 
 " If that makes me an American, the fact that 
 you were born in Prussia makes you a German." 
 
 " It it is different." 
 
 " It is the same thing." 
 
 " Frieda ! Stop ! You must not put such ideas 
 in my mind." 
 
 180
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE PATHWAY TO A STAR 
 
 " The phonograph is a wonderful little thing, 
 but it does n't satisfy the artistic temperament," 
 said Corrie one afternoon. " Miss Fralli is long- 
 ing for a piano." 
 
 " Why don't you come down to my apartment? " 
 said Billy, eagerly. " I 'd love to have you, for I 
 am wild for some music myself. Lawson has a 
 little grand, and although I have not tried it, I 
 am sure it would satisfy even Miss Fralli." 
 
 " Perfectly adorable idea ! " exclaimed Mrs. Win- 
 ters with enthusiasm. " Come along, honey," she 
 smiled, putting her arm around Elfrieda's waist, 
 " I 'm dying to hear you sing. Anyone who has 
 sighed for a piano as you have must be a real 
 artist." 
 
 Frieda clapped her hands joyously. Corrie said 
 to her maid : " If Captain Farquhar calls, tell him we 
 are all down in Commander Hartmann's apartment." 
 
 "What Farquhar is that?" asked Billy. 
 
 " Army Farquhar," replied Corrie. " He 's a 
 181
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 dear," she added, turning to Elfrieda, " you '11 
 adore him. He has just been ordered to Washing- 
 ton, staff duty. Fancy, keeping a man like that 
 in Cheyenne! He said he would drop around this 
 afternoon, but you know how things are now. I 'm 
 afraid that if this war with Germany does come 
 it will make men awfully scarce." She led the way 
 downstairs. 
 
 Elfrieda sat down at the piano and began to 
 sing " Elsa's Dream." She broke off in the middle 
 of it, with a shrug of the shoulders, and started 
 to play Chopin. Mrs. Winters' maid came in. 
 
 " There is a telephone call for you, Madame," 
 she said. 
 
 " Tell Central to put it on here. What 's your 
 number, Billy ? " asked Corrie. 
 
 " It 's a long-distance call, Madame New 
 York." 
 
 " Oh ! I 'm sorry, people, but I 'm afraid I must 
 leave you. Long distance is not to be denied." She 
 waved her hand to them at the door, and was 
 gone. 
 
 " Do you remember how I used to hate Chopin, 
 Billy? " said Elfrieda, turning to him with a smile. 
 " I said there was n't any music in him. I am be- 
 ginning to think now that he has more than all 
 the others put together." 
 
 182
 
 THE PATHWAY TO A STAR 
 
 She started off again, in a lighter mood. She 
 sang half way through the " Habannera," and got 
 up with an impatient gesture. 
 
 " I don't know what 's the matter with me. I 
 am miserable away from a piano, and when I get 
 to one I am all out of mood. It won't come. 
 Can't sing. Everything as hard as nails. You 
 don't know what it means, Billy, to long for some- 
 thing, and never seem to reach -what you are after." 
 
 " I do, Frieda. God knows I do are you going 
 to hold me to the promise, dear?" 
 
 " Sometimes I seem to see it just at hand," she 
 went on quickly, " and then I 'm elated, not happy. 
 At other times I see all my life given up to this 
 striving and straining after something I am never 
 to attain. Youth passing, without the joy of youth. 
 Love pushed aside. Motherhood denied and then 
 I come to a gray and withered middle age, like 
 Charlotte, teaching and grinding away until the 
 night folds down in a merciful release from all 
 I Ve made myself, or never made myself." 
 
 Billy started toward her, joy leaping in his eyes. 
 He thought it meant surrender, but she threw out 
 her hands, and walked over to the window. She 
 snapped up the shade, and stood there, framed 
 against the light, her back toward him. 
 
 " Don't think I 'm giving up because I say all 
 183
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 this to you. I 've said it to myself before, and 
 gone back and struggled on. I don't always feel 
 like this. What I need is to get back to Ruhlmann. 
 She would soon batter me into shape. But that 
 can't be. There is no place for that now. Yet it 
 is what I long for. I would never have to think 
 then. She does all the thinking for the people she 
 is guiding along the way to opera. Up at seven 
 bang ! when the knock comes. Cold bath, that 
 takes the thoughts out of you. Callisthenics, dress, 
 eight o'clock breakfast of gruel and zwieback. If 
 my thought apparatus works, I long for a cup of 
 coffee, and a roll and oh ! a grapefruit ! But 
 usually it does n't. Eight-thirty to nine-thirty, 
 fresh air, alone, no lolling along, and no thinking, 
 swing out and back again, just breathing. Then 
 scales and scales, and tones and tones, and trills 
 and scales and scales and tones. Then diction with 
 Fraulein, French, German, Italian. Drink it in, 
 but don't think ! Rest. Lunch one chop, one 
 potato, salad with just oil and salt, one piece of 
 bread. More rest. More scales, more tones, then 
 roles, over and over and over, and then, when 
 everything comes right, sometimes I am happy. 
 Then Ruhlmann kisses me, and says I am her own 
 dear child, and that we must wait only a little 
 longer. It all seems very near, then." 
 
 184
 
 " It is n't a normal way to live," said Billy. " It 's 
 too much work and no play. You 've shut out every- 
 thing from your life but your music you 've shut 
 out me." 
 
 " Music is what I need," she said. " It 's my life 
 and I have to live it. I must get back why am I 
 here why did I ever come ? " and she looked at him 
 with moist eyes suddenly full of doubt, and trouble. 
 The tears were near, but Elfrieda fought them back, 
 and the smile came out, and sent them scurrying. 
 
 " Sing to me again," said Billy. 
 
 " Do you want to hear me ? " 
 
 " More than anything in the world, dear." 
 
 She started " Elsa " again. 
 
 " Not that, sing me something from my youth," 
 he said. " There was a little song you used to 
 play when you were a child. I can see you now, 
 sitting up so straight and rebellious, swearing you 
 would n't sing, but going right on with it just the 
 same, strumming the piano with one eye on your 
 music and the other on the clock." 
 
 " I 'm afraid that 's rather indefinite," smiled El- 
 frieda. " That 's the way I used to play everything 
 then. It is a wonder, looking back, that I should 
 have gone as far as I have." 
 
 " It was Aunt Lottie," said Billy. 
 
 " She did not put this gnawing ambition in me." 
 185
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " She knew it was coming, and made you ready 
 for it. You owe a lot to that little song. How your 
 mother drove you at it." 
 
 " Can't you think what it was? " 
 
 " No. Wait ! " He began humming. 
 
 " It is the first song I sang for Ruhlmann," she 
 said, and began to sing, very softly: 
 
 Ach, wie ist's moglich dann, dass ich dich lassen kann: 
 Hab' dich von Herzen lieb, das glaube mir! 
 
 "That's it," cried Billy, looking at her with 
 hunger in his eyes. " I can see you in the very little 
 blue dress you used to wear, singing away through 
 your tears of rage, only you would n't sing it in 
 German then. Aunt Lottie could n't force you to 
 do it. It used to make the family wild." 
 
 She was laughing with him now. " I remember, 
 I remember," she said joyously. " Oh, Billy, those 
 were happy days." She sang the words then in 
 English : 
 
 How can I leave thee, while I do love thee so? 
 Thou art my all in all, truly my own! 
 Thou hast this soul of mine so firmly lock'd in thine, 
 That my heart e'er will be thine, love, alone. 
 
 " Frieda," he said suddenly, " let 's go away to- 
 gether, and spend a whole day in the country, a 
 day like the last one we spent in the Tiergarten." 
 
 186
 
 THE PATHWAY TO A STAR 
 
 She jumped up, shouting, and clapping her hands 
 like a child. " Billy, you do think of the grandest 
 things." 
 
 "Then you '11 go?" 
 
 " It will be glorious, a whole day, out in the 
 woods and the fields, and maybe we shall find some 
 flowers. The spring is coming on. There are 
 robins in the park, and in the open country I 'm sure 
 there will be meadow larks." 
 
 " You 're just as fond of birds as ever, are n't 
 you, dear?" 
 
 " I love them all," said Frieda. " I always did. 
 Do you remember the frozen sparrow you brought 
 home one day, and how I nursed it, and what a pest 
 it became ? " 
 
 " I remember everything about you," he said 
 simply, " everything." 
 
 " The horse trough, where you threw my books. 
 I can picture you now." 
 
 " There is n't a thing about you, in the old times, 
 that I can't see as vividly as if it were today. I re- 
 member every dress you ever wore, the very ribbons 
 in your hair." 
 
 She sat with her slim, delicate hands in her lap, 
 her head bent toward him, a smile in her eyes and 
 on her arching lips. 
 
 " You are a queer one, Billy," she said. " You 
 187
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 really seem to care for me, to think of all those 
 things." 
 
 " Care for you ! Frieda, I 'm mad for you. 
 The fire that you kindled in me long ago is burning 
 as fiercely now as it did then. I sometimes feel 
 that it will consume me." He started up, and went 
 to her. 
 
 There was something in his eyes that made her 
 raise her hand. The eyes that could at times be 
 cold as ice now brimmed with tenderness that grew 
 to mellow love-light as she looked, then turned to 
 flaming passion. She dared not have him near her 
 with those eyes. 
 
 " Remember your promise, Billy," she laughed, 
 and put the big divan between them. 
 
 He sank into a chair, shaking, and raised his 
 hands in a gesture of hopelessness. 
 
 " Are you going to let this music kill us both, 
 girl?" 
 
 " Not kill us, Billy, purify us, exhalt us." 
 
 " I am no Stoic. I do not want to crucify my- 
 self on an unattainable ideal. I want to strive, to 
 reach the heights if I can, but I want to live by 
 the way. I want you." 
 
 " I 'm with you in the spirit, Billy dear, and 
 have been always," she said. 
 
 " I don't want you with me in the spirit. I want 
 1 88
 
 THE PATHWAY TO A STAR 
 
 you with me in the flesh, all the time, day and 
 night, today, tomorrow. I 've wanted you all 
 the yesterdays, and you would n't come to me. I 
 want your hair, and eyes, and arms, I want all of 
 your beautiful self to love like a man and not like 
 a saint, I want you, Frieda, you, you, can't you 
 understand ? " 
 
 " The promise ! the promise, Billy, you 're break- 
 ing your promise. Can't you see that I must n't 
 let you talk to me like this?" 
 
 "Why not? It's my love. I've nurtured it a 
 thousand nights at sea, under the stars. It 's been 
 all that I 've had, but my work, and that has been 
 a symbol of my love. It 's mine, I tell you, it has 
 been mine for years, and I have a right to do with 
 it as I please, I have a right to give it to you." 
 
 " But I have no right to take it, Billy, can't you 
 see?" 
 
 " I can't, God knows I can't." 
 
 " My pathway leads me to another star than 
 yours, Billy. We go by different ways, and I can 
 only greet you from afar, and wish you well." 
 
 " We could go on together." 
 
 " That could not be." 
 
 " It could." 
 
 " Would you give up your work for me, Billy? 
 Would you give up your career ? " 
 
 189
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " The navy ? " he asked, looking up quickly. 
 
 " That is your career." 
 
 " I could not give that up," said Billy, " it is all 
 I have, all I know." 
 
 " So is music all that I have, all that I know." 
 
 " There is a difference." 
 
 " Not the slightest." 
 
 " You would not have to give it up." 
 
 " One has to give up everything for music, Billy. 
 The way is long and hard, and one must travel all 
 alone." 
 
 " I would not ask you to give it up, dear," he 
 said, steadying his voice. " I require no sacrifice 
 of you, I only want just you. You could sing, 
 and satisfy the longings of your soul, and some 
 day reach the heart's desire, and we could be to- 
 gether when the fates were kind to us, and have 
 each other for a little while at least before we 
 go." 
 
 She answered him at the piano, and as she sang 
 a great contentment came to him, and he was 
 happy to be near her. 
 
 She sprang up in the middle of a note, and 
 danced toward him with her hands outstretched. 
 
 " We '11 go in the car, Billy, out into the coun- 
 try, and when we have ridden far away from the 
 city, far away from everything " 
 
 190
 
 THE PATHWAY TO A STAR 
 
 " We '11 get out, and take a long walk in the 
 woods." 
 
 " And pick flowers." 
 
 " And hear the birds sing." 
 
 " And cross a little brook, and watch the tad- 
 poles turning into baby frogs." 
 
 " And have our dinner at some farmhouse." 
 
 " And and " 
 
 " Talk about ourselves." 
 
 '' That 's what I was trying to say." 
 
 " And you will release me from my promise? " 
 
 " Ah " 
 
 " Just for one day, one little day? " he pleaded. 
 
 " And you will be good forever after? " 
 
 " If I must." 
 
 " Then for one day." 
 
 " You are an angel." 
 
 " We shall go in the morning." 
 
 " Bright and early." 
 
 " Oh, I forgot. We shall have to ask Mrs. 
 Winters." 
 
 " That 's so. You are her guest. Confound it! " 
 
 She looked at him keenly, sideways through her 
 narrowed eyelids. " You would n't want to take 
 Mrs. Winters?" 
 
 "And spoil everything?" he demanded. "We 
 must find some way " 
 
 191
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 She smiled at him, a deep peace somewhere in the 
 heart of her, and put her arm upon his shoulder, just 
 as Mrs. Winters came gaily in. 
 
 "Awfully sorry to have kept you waiting," she 
 said, and added to herself, as she glanced at the two 
 flushed and eager faces before her, " how time does 
 fly with some people ! " 
 
 Billy and Frieda murmured their guilty regrets. 
 
 " Awfully important call," explained Corrie. 
 " I 'm sorry, but I must go away this evening. You 
 won't mind, will you dear?" she asked, turning to 
 Miss Fralli. 
 
 " I shall miss you, of course," said Elfrieda, 
 " but I shall get along quite all right, I 'm sure." 
 
 " I '11 look after her," Billy hastened to say, his 
 face beaming. " We have planned to take a little 
 trip into the country one day soon." 
 
 " It 's too bad you won't be able to go with us," 
 said Elfrieda, " we 're going to have such a jolly 
 time." 
 
 " I may be back," replied Corrie, slowly, looking 
 at Billy. 
 
 " Oh ! I do hope so," Elfrieda smiled. 
 
 " Here I am going to Namaschet on Hannibal G. 
 White's business," thought Corrie, " and neglecting 
 my own. This looks like a bad time to be leaving 
 an Italian temperament loose." 
 
 192
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 Mrs. Winters missed one train in New York, and 
 another one in Boston, so that it was nearly six 
 o'clock when she stepped out on the platform of the 
 little station, and looked about her, at the white 
 steeple of the church, and the broad main street of 
 the town curving off to the left between two lines 
 of gnarled and aged trees. 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston met her with a runabout, and drove 
 her to " Rock Crest." She was cordial and gracious, 
 and nobody would have imagined, to see them laugh- 
 ing and chatting like old friends, that the two women 
 had never met before. 
 
 At the iron gate which guarded the Sabiston 
 estate, Margaretha herself got out, and closed it, 
 and locked it ; then stepped back into the car. They 
 rode through the woods, and Corrie thought it was 
 a wild and unattractive place, until they passed the 
 stable and garage, and came out on the driveway 
 in front of the house, on the high plateau at the top 
 of the cliff. The sweep of the blue sea, tumbling 
 
 193
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 and roaring against the rocks below, fascinated her, 
 and when they had entered the drawing room, and 
 Mrs. Sabiston left her for a moment, she went to 
 the window, and looked out across the broad piazza 
 upon the vast expanse of billows spreading out, as 
 far as the eye could see, to the hazy sky-line where 
 cloud and ocean blended in a shade of gray that 
 Corrie thought would be adorable in a gown. 
 
 They dined alone, at seven, although she sensed 
 the presence of other persons in the house, and 
 wondered who they were, and why they did not 
 join them at table, and at the fireside in the drawing 
 room afterwards. 
 
 They talked of everything, except the business 
 affairs of Mr. White, that Corrie had come to talk 
 about, of the Far East, of Paris, and Berlin, and 
 Mrs. Winters discovered that Mrs. Sabiston also was 
 a woman of the world. 
 
 They went to bed at ten o'clock, and Corrie 
 dropped off to sleep almost immediately, for she 
 was tired after her long trip. 
 
 She had breakfast alone, in her room, and it 
 was nearly eleven o'clock when she went down to 
 the drawing room, which Mrs. Sabiston used as 
 a living room, still feeling that delicious drowsi- 
 ness inspired by the sea. 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston was in an arm chair by the fire, 
 194
 
 A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 reading the morning papers, a pile of which lay 
 on the floor beside her. She picked them up, and 
 put them down upon a small table, in an alcove, 
 where there was a telephone and writing materials, 
 and then hurried forward to welcome her warmly. 
 
 And then she turned, to introduce to her a man 
 who had left his deep chair by the fire, and who 
 crossed the room with a long, quick, free-swinging 
 stride. 
 
 Corrie suppressed an exclamation of surprise as 
 she took the narrow, sinewy, long-fingered hand 
 he held out to her, and started as he smiled and 
 said: 
 
 " I am very glad to meet you, Mrs. Winters." 
 
 Where had she seen that smile, heard that voice 
 before? She looked at him more closely, and saw 
 a tall, long-limbed, blue-eyed, blonde man, with a 
 high, arched nose, and a strong, firm mouth. 
 
 He wore a heavy beard, and it was quite evident 
 that he was German, although he spoke without 
 an accent. This must be the man Mr. White had 
 told her about, but it was certain she had never 
 seen him before, for Corrie's mental card-index of 
 men had never failed to catalogue everyone she 
 had ever met. Yet he reminded her strongly of 
 some one she had known, but whose name and 
 face eluded her memory. 
 
 195
 
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 " Captain von Hagenah is very busy," explained 
 Mrs. Sabiston, " and if you are willing, he would 
 like to speak with you at once." She turned, as 
 if to leave them. 
 
 " Do not go, Mrs. Sabiston," he said quickly, 
 " I may need your assistance, as you are familiar 
 with much of this business." 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston inclined her pretty head, and took 
 a seat near the fire, warming her hands at the blaze, 
 for though the room was not cold, she was very 
 lightly clad in a plain dress of silk, that fell from 
 her bare throat to the turn of the calf of her leg 
 in a long, graceful line, as soft as a cobweb. 
 
 Corrie sat down. 
 
 " If you please, Mrs. Winters," said Captain von 
 Hagenah, crisply, " let us get this business over 
 with as quickly as possible. Time is precious." 
 
 He opened a large leather bag which Corrie had 
 noticed on the floor, by the chair where he had 
 been sitting, and placed upon the table in the middle 
 of the room several bundles of papers. 
 
 " My letters ! " exclaimed Corrie. 
 
 " Do you recognize them? " he laughed. 
 
 " I ought to," she said, picking up several, and 
 examining them, " they are the letters I wrote to 
 Mr. White." 
 
 "Admirable letters, Mrs. Winters," he said. 
 196
 
 A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 " Admirable in every way. They contain just the in- 
 formation we wanted." 
 
 " I did not expect any one else to have my let- 
 ters," said Corrie, slowly, her forehead in a frown. 
 " Here are some I had quite forgotten about." 
 
 " Your first report, so far as I can judge by 
 the papers I have here, and I am supposed to have 
 a complete file of them, was made ten years, eight 
 months and sixteen days ago," said von Hagenah, 
 glancing at a date. 
 
 Mrs. Winters seized the letter he held out to 
 her, and looked at it. 
 
 " Heavens! " she gasped, " how the years do slip 
 by, Mrs. Sabiston." 
 
 " Really," said Mrs. Sabiston, languidly, " I 
 had n't noticed it." 
 
 Corrie smiled sweetly, with her lips closed. In- 
 side her mouth she was secretly biting her tongue. 
 
 "That is the first time," she thought, "that a 
 woman ever put one over on me like that," and 
 Mrs. Sabiston, without in the least realizing it, 
 had made an enemy, and sharpened that enemy's 
 wits. 
 
 "If you will examine these reports, Mrs. Win- 
 ters," said von Hagenah, " you will find that they 
 cover some forty-odd officers in the American navy 
 most minutely. There are some additional details 
 
 197
 
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 that I require, and these I desire to obtain from 
 you personally." 
 
 " I understood it was something like that," said 
 Corrie, doubtfully. " Mr. White called me on the 
 long-distance, and asked me if I would n't run down 
 here to see a friend of his. He had arranged for 
 me to come some time ago, and Mrs. Sabiston had 
 invited me, but I presume," she added, looking over 
 toward the fireplace, " that she has been ill." 
 
 " I was delayed," explained von Hagenah, and 
 Mrs. Sabiston smiled at Corrie. 
 
 " I thought from what he told me," said Corrie, 
 " that Mr. White would be here too. I don't like 
 to talk about these things to strangers." 
 
 " Talking to me is precisely as though you talked 
 to him," said von Hagenah, suavely. 
 
 " Indeed ? " said Corrie. " It does n't seem quite 
 the same to me." 
 
 " It is, I assure you." 
 
 " The information I gave to Mr. White was 
 well, quite confidential." 
 
 " Very confidential, Mrs. Winters." 
 
 " Very well, ask your questions, and I shall try 
 to answer them." 
 
 " You have some reports here on Waltermeyer. 
 The last one was six no, five months and three 
 days ago, at Honolulu. He was still gambling 
 
 198
 
 A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 heavily, his wife was living beyond his means, and he 
 was deeply in debt. He was born in Wisconsin, and 
 appointed to the Naval Academy from North 
 Dakota. He is of German descent, Hessian stock. 
 Admirable report." 
 
 " Well," asked Corrie, " what more do you want 
 to know about him ? " 
 
 Von Hagenah passed quickly around the table, 
 and looked intently into her eyes. 
 
 " Where on earth," thought Mrs. Winters, " have 
 I known this man ? " 
 
 " Confound it ! " said von Hagenah, " I really 
 hate to do this sort of thing, but from what you 
 know of Captain Waltermeyer is his financial 
 condition such could he be reached that way, for 
 say ten, fifteen, twenty thousand dollars? " 
 
 " What a remarkable question," said Mrs. Win- 
 ters. " Mr. White never asked me things like that. 
 Why, I don't think that question is proper at all. 
 I never heard of such a thing." 
 
 " It is one of the questions I desire to ask, and I 
 want an answer." 
 
 Corrie's cheeks pinkened. She fell to studying 
 the design in the rug. 
 
 " No, Captain von Hagenah," she answered, look- 
 ing up, " I 'm afraid not." 
 
 " Afraid? Are you certain? " 
 199
 
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 " Yes, I am certain. I don't think poor Walty 
 could be reached in any way. You see, he com- 
 mitted suicide at Singapore about four months 
 ago. I happened to be there at the time, and at- 
 tended the funeral at the American consulate. I 
 nearly cried my eyes out. He was a dear." 
 
 " Really, Mrs. Winters," said von Hagenah, 
 brusquely, " I have n't time for trivialities. There 
 are similar reports here as to other officers. Could 
 any of them be reached ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Corrie, smiling sweetly, " I think 
 nearly all of them could be reached." 
 
 " Blits! " he cried eagerly, banging his fist upon 
 the table. "How?" 
 
 " By cable," beamed Mrs. Winters, " or, if you 
 are not in a great hurry, by mail." 
 
 Von Hagenah looked at Mrs. Sabiston help- 
 lessly. " You don't seem to understand me, Mrs. 
 Winters," he went on after a pause. " Here is 
 a report on Hollister much like the one on 
 Waltermeyer." 
 
 " Oh, Hollister. He 's a dear, I assure you, a 
 perfect dear." 
 
 " Financial condition very bad, cards, etc.," von 
 Hagenah was reading. 
 
 "That's true," said Mrs. Winters. "Still, I 
 suppose I should n't have written that about dear 
 
 200
 
 A 1 WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 old Hollister. He is positively the worst poker 
 player I ever saw, and the most persistent." 
 
 "In debt?" 
 
 " Heavily. Always has been. Spends his money 
 a year or so before he gets it. Owes everybody." 
 
 " Take Hollister, for instance," said von Ha- 
 genah, searching her eyes again. " Could he be 
 reached with money ? " 
 
 "Reached? By whom?" 
 
 " Well, by White, say." 
 
 " Are you asking me if Hollister would take 
 money from Mr. White, or anybody else he did n't 
 know?" 
 
 " Precisely. Ten, twenty thousand dollars, say." 
 
 " Jimmy Hollister never borrows money from 
 anybody but his friends," said Corrie, decidedly. 
 
 " This would n't be a loan, but a gift." 
 
 " He would n't do it," said Corrie, firmly. 
 
 " Not if he was, as this report shows, heavily 
 involved financially? " 
 
 " Not if he owed the sum total of the entire poker 
 debt of the United States Navy." 
 
 " You know him well enough to say ' no ' ? " 
 
 " I know him well enough to have said * no ' three 
 times," smiled Corrie. 
 
 Von Hagenah looked at Mrs. Sabiston again and 
 raised his eyebrows. He drummed upon the table 
 
 201
 
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 for a moment with his knuckles, staring through the 
 window at the sea, that was changing to a deep, 
 slaty gray. His face was darker than the March 
 sky. Presently he turned. 
 
 " About Hartmann, then ? " he asked, lowering 
 his eyes. " Lieut.-Commander Wilhelm Hart- 
 mann." 
 
 " Don't know him," said Corrie, shortly. 
 
 " You Ve given us some highly interesting re- 
 ports about him, Mrs. Winters. Two of the recent 
 ones are dated at Shanghai, one at Manila and one 
 at Honolulu. The last reports are a code cable 
 from Hong Kong, and a code telegram from Wash- 
 ington announcing his arrival there." 
 
 " Oh, you mean Billy Hartmann," laughed Corrie. 
 " For a minute I could n't think whom you were 
 talking about." 
 
 " Those reports are gratifying more gratifying 
 to me than I could tell you, Mrs. Winters. You 
 speak of his strong love for the Fatherland, his pro- 
 nounced German sympathies." 
 
 " German ! " said Corrie, raising her head quickly, 
 and looking von Hagenah squarely in the eyes, 
 " why, you are German, are n't you ? I had almost 
 forgotten that. And Mrs. Sabiston, you spoke to 
 me so intimately last night of Berlin, surely, you are 
 German, too." 
 
 202
 
 A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 " I am asking you about Hartmann," said von 
 Hagenah, sharply. " Your reports on him are ac- 
 curate? You know him?" 
 
 " Know him ! " echoed Corrie, all smiles. 
 
 ' You speak here of the coolness that has sprung 
 up toward him in the American navy because of 
 these German sympathies. He is for his Fatherland, 
 Mrs. Winters?" 
 
 Von Hagenah took a swift step toward her, and 
 she could hear him breathe. 
 
 " For the Fatherland ? " she repeated. She put 
 her head on one side, and wrinkled her forehead. 
 " Umm, yes and still " 
 
 " He must be for his Fatherland," cried von Ha- 
 genah, throwing out his arms. " He must be ! He 
 must be ! I feel it, I know it, my heart tells me that 
 he is true to the land that gave him birth." 
 
 His voice was vibrant with exultation. Mrs. 
 Sabiston had sprung to her feet, and she stood now, 
 her head thrown back, her delicate nostrils quivering. 
 
 Over Corrie's aristocratic features there gradually 
 spread a very blank expression that her friends 
 knew and dreaded. It was her poker face. She 
 covertly studied the two faces before her as she 
 would have studied the faces across a card table. 
 She suddenly stepped forward, her shapely body 
 drawn up very straight and tense. 
 
 203
 
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 "For Germany!" 
 
 " Thank God," said von Hagenah. 
 
 " Yes ! Yes ! for Germany," said Mrs. Sabiston, 
 her blue eyes glistening. 
 
 " For Germany ? " repeated Corrie, the words in 
 a question. 
 
 "ForDeutschland!" 
 
 " So that is what you people are up to ? " said 
 Corrie, flashing a triumphant look at Mrs. Sabiston, 
 as if to say, " you will * put one over ' on me, will 
 you?" 
 
 " It is terribly stupid of me not to have seen 
 through it at once. I shall certainly have to speak 
 to our friend Mr. White about it. He has grossly 
 violated my confidence. He should n't have sent 
 me here. Why did he send me here? ... I see it 
 now, White 's a part of this, that 's it, there can 
 be no other explanation. And I have been doing 
 this for years and years." She stopped suddenly, 
 and limply sank into a chair. 
 
 Von Hagenah was restlessly pacing the floor, 
 scowling, doubling up his great fists, his body heav- 
 ing with agitation and resentment. He stopped, 
 and stood looking down at her. 
 
 " This has gone far enough, Mrs. Winters," he 
 said, speaking rapidly. " We must reach an under- 
 standing. Let me repeat, what you tell me is told 
 
 204
 
 A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 in confidence. It is precisely as though you dealt 
 directly with White." 
 
 " I have no information for Germany," said 
 Corrie. 
 
 " You need not try to drive a bargain, Mrs. 
 Winters," he said icily. " It is not a question of 
 money. You can name your own price." 
 
 " Price ! " gasped Corrie, and the blood poured 
 into her face, as though some one had lashed her 
 with a whip. " Money ! " she said, and fell to 
 trembling. 
 
 " One would think you had never taken it," said 
 von Hagenah, sarcastically. " Really, Mrs. Winters, 
 you are rather over-doing it, you know." 
 
 " I shall not stay here to be insulted like 
 this," said Corrie, and stood up, her whole body 
 quivering. 
 
 " Tausend! " said von Hagenah to Mrs. Sabiston, 
 over his shoulder. 
 
 " Mrs. Sabiston," said Corrie, ignoring him, 
 looking through him, not in the least observing 
 him, as though he had not been in the room at all, 
 " will you kindly have the car come around for 
 me ? I '11 wait at the station for the first train 
 out." 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston's eyelashes fluttered, and she 
 crossed her knees, but she said nothing. Corrie 
 
 205
 
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 looked at her, and then was forced to turn to von 
 Hagenah, who was smiling cynically. 
 
 " I want no money from Germany," she said. 
 " Let that be understood between us. It is final." 
 
 She turned, and started to the door. 
 
 Von Hagenah, in three strides, reached it first, 
 turned the key in the lock, and put it in his pocket. 
 
 " Mrs. Sabiston," said Corrie, " I must appeal 
 to you. Will you kindly call the car? " 
 
 " For a woman who has been on the payroll of 
 the German Secret Service, naval branch and For- 
 eign Affairs branch, for nearly eleven years, you 
 seem to have taken quite a sudden aversion to 
 German money," said von Hagenah. He spoke 
 to her as he would have spoken to a man. 
 
 " There is only one word in which to answer 
 a charge like that," said Corrie. " It is a lie." 
 
 " Eleven years," mused von Hagenah, aloud, 
 " and she waxes indignant. I never understood 
 women, and never expect to." 
 
 " I never until now heard of the German Secret 
 Service," said Corrie. Mrs. Sabiston was standing 
 by the fireplace. 
 
 " You must have suspected what you were doing 
 for White. Was he paying you all those years 
 for nothing?" demanded von Hagenah, his blue 
 eyes suddenly hard and cold, his voice a sneer. 
 
 206
 
 A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 " I sent him little scraps of information every 
 now and then, yes," said Corrie. " About 
 people " 
 
 " And other things," said von Hagenah. " You 
 gave us the best photographs we have of the 
 Panama fortifications." 
 
 " Good God ! " cried Corrie, " did those go to the 
 German Secret Service? Mr. White thought he 
 would like to have some pictures of the guns down 
 there, so I got a friend of mine to take me around. 
 I had a little camera with me, and whenever I saw 
 something that he seemed to brag about I got him 
 to put me up on a gun, or something, and then 
 he snapped me." 
 
 " Gescheit! " said von Hagenah. " Mrs. Winters, 
 you are a smart woman. You gave us the first 
 information we had about the Copperton electrical 
 fire control." 
 
 " I got that at a dance at the Mare Island navy 
 yard one night," said Mrs. Winters. " One of my 
 friends was talking about it, and I did n't under- 
 stand, and he drew a sort of sketch of it on the 
 back of my card for me. Mr. White wrote me 
 that he was awfully interested." 
 
 " He was," said von Hagenah. " It was brilliant. 
 Mrs. Winters, I don't know of any woman who 
 has done better work along these lines than you 
 
 207
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 have. You 've been one of the shrewdest spies we 
 have had." 
 
 " Spy ! " She sank to the floor, and buried her 
 face in her hands. 
 
 " You 've given us the best information we have 
 about the American navy and personnel. And we 
 need it, now that war " 
 
 " I did n't know, I did n't know," moaned Corrie, 
 struggling to her feet. " So help me God I did n't 
 know. I had to live. I did n't know what to do. 
 Mr. White offered me a way to travel, to make 
 money. He had large business interests in con- 
 nection with the navy, he said, contracts and things. 
 He was interested in it. He wanted to know all 
 he could about it, about the men. I didn't think 
 that what I told him was important. I did n't know 
 I was betraying my country." 
 
 " Don't be theatrical, Mrs. Winters. Let us be 
 practical. You shall have all the money you want, 
 all the hats and gowns, and jewels. Everything a 
 woman like you must have, without which life would 
 be unendurable. There are two men I must reach 
 through you. One is Hartmann, the other is Wallis. 
 I want information, I want co-operation. And you 
 can name your own price and have it in gold." 
 
 " Mrs. Sabiston," said Corrie, " will you kindly 
 call the car, or shall I walk to the station ? " 
 
 208
 
 A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 She stood waiting for a moment, then threw bade 
 her head, and started toward the door. 
 
 Von Hagenah exchanged a glance with Mrs. 
 Sabiston. 
 
 " She will cause trouble. She must not leave the 
 house," his eyes said. 
 
 She nodded, that she understood. 
 
 Corrie tried the door, and came back by the table. 
 
 " Give me that key." 
 
 She looked from Mrs. Sabiston to von Hagenah, 
 saw what was in their eyes, then turned, and ran to 
 the window. 
 
 Von Hagenah was there first, and met her with 
 his arm around her waist. 
 
 " Be reasonable, my dear Mrs. Winters." 
 
 She shook him off. 
 
 " We have paid you all these years. We have de- 
 pended on you." 
 
 " You are a fool." 
 
 " You may name the sum, any sum." 
 
 " There has n't been enough money made," said 
 Corrie. " I betray no more friends. From now on 
 I shall try to undo the injuries I have done." 
 
 Her glance fell upon the table, covered with its 
 litter of letters. 
 
 She sped across the room, made a basket of her 
 dress, swept into it every scrap of paper there, and 
 
 209
 
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 was at the fireplace in one swift, frantic bound. 
 Into the flames she threw the literary production of 
 eleven years, and they were curled and blackened 
 cinders by the time von Hagenah and Mrs. Sabiston 
 had dragged her away from the hearth where she 
 crouched to shield them. 
 
 " There 's your information, Captain von Ha- 
 genah," she cried, " why don't you go up the chim- 
 ney after it ? " 
 
 " We shall have to intern her," said von Hagenah, 
 shrugging his shoulders. " We can't let her go 
 back to Washington, she '11 tell everything she 
 knows to the first man she meets. Have you a 
 room, Mrs. Sabiston ? " 
 
 " I can make her very comfortable," said Mrs. 
 Sabiston, not without a trace of humor. 
 
 " Lock her in," said von Hagenah, " and if neces- 
 sary keep her confined for the period of the war." 
 
 " It 's quite impossible," said Corrie. " You 're 
 too absurd. I must return to Washington. I have 
 several important engagements." 
 
 " She will ruin me, war or no war," said Mrs. 
 Sabiston, her slim, muscular body shaking with 
 rage. " She will drive me out of the country." 
 
 " That is true," said von Hagenah. " You must 
 be protected at whatever cost. Keep her closely 
 confined for the present. You have a guard? " 
 
 210
 
 A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 " The six men who escaped from the interned 
 ships at Norfolk. They are in hiding here." 
 
 " They will do. And remember, Mrs. Sabiston, 
 this woman's presence in Washington would spoil 
 everything." 
 
 " I shan't forget." 
 
 " Let me make one more appeal to you, Mrs. Win- 
 ters," said von Hagenah. " Give me the information 
 I want, promise me your co-operation in what I 
 desire you to do, and you may put your hand in 
 that bag, and take what you wish. In addition to 
 that you shall be paid handsomely for having Hart- 
 mann made Assistant Chief-of-Staff to the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief. That was very clever of you, 
 Mrs. Winters. Very prompt, very efficient. We 
 owe you more than mere thanks for that." 
 
 If Captain von Hagenah had known Mrs. Win- 
 ters longer he would have recognized the expression 
 that was coming into her eyes, dominating her nose, 
 shaping her rich, red mouth, as the one she invari- 
 ably employed when about to crush somebody. 
 
 " It would be quite impossible to accept anything 
 for that, Captain von Hagenah," she said, " because 
 I had nothing to do with it. I merely suggested it 
 to Senator Marshfield. He did it." 
 
 " Clever ! I call it," said von Hagenah softly to 
 himself. " Nevertheless, Mrs. Winters," he added, 
 
 211
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " you shall be paid, just the same. Put your hand 
 in that bag, and take what you want." 
 
 From Corrie's eyes all the gray had vanished, 
 leaving only the green. She ran quickly past him, 
 and threw herself against the French window, open- 
 ing out upon the east piazza., and the frame cracked 
 beneath the impact of her weight. Von Hagenah 
 caught her in his arms, and held her. 
 
 " Open the door, Mrs. Sabiston, and show me 
 where to cage this wildcat." 
 
 " Down the hall, and up the stairway," said Mrs. 
 Sabiston, and ran ahead. 
 
 Corrie struggled to free herself. Von Hagenah 
 slipped his left arm beneath her knees, and held 
 her closer to him. 
 
 "Let me go!" 
 
 Her eyes were close to his. She could feel his 
 hot breath on her cheek and in her hair. 
 
 "Let me go!" 
 
 " Why not surrender and let us be friends? " 
 
 " You beast ! " she said, and suddenly freeing 
 her arm, slapped him across the cheek. 
 
 He laughed, tightened his hold upon her, and 
 went lightly up the stairs, carrying her as easily 
 as if she had been a child. In the hall above Mrs. 
 Sabiston awaited them. At a door stood a man 
 with a round, closely clipped head. His heels 
 
 212
 
 A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 clicked, and his hand went to salute as von Ha- 
 genah came up. 
 
 " Keep this lady locked in this room," said von 
 Hagenah, drawing Corrie more closely to him, 
 " and set a guard. If she tries to escape, shoot 
 her. If she does escape I '11 shoot you. Where 's 
 the radio man? " 
 
 " Asleep, Herr Captain." 
 
 " Instruct him to keep in close touch with the 
 base at Caribou Island. Mrs. Sabiston will be at 
 the Willard, in Washington. You are not to use 
 the telephone. Anything of importance should be 
 communicated at once by wire, in code." 
 
 " I will get the new book," said Mrs. Sabiston. 
 " It was changed last week." She ran lightly down 
 the stairs. 
 
 Von Hagenah carried Corrie, struggling, into 
 the room. He deposited her in a chair, kissed her 
 impudently upon the lips, went out, and closed and 
 locked the door. Then he joined Mrs. Sabiston 
 in the drawing room. 
 
 " I shall have to go to Washington," he said. 
 
 "When?" 
 
 " At once. She has upset all my plans." 
 
 " It will be dangerous," she answered, with some- 
 thing in her voice that made him look at her 
 narrowly. 
 
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 " Perhaps, but I must get in touch with them 
 there without delay." 
 
 " There are several trains this afternoon." 
 
 " I am afraid of trains." 
 
 " I had not thought of danger, except in Wash- 
 ington. You are so rash." 
 
 "The Secret Service " 
 
 She smiled scornfully. " You are not in Ger- 
 many," she reminded him. " They don't know how 
 to do anything over here." 
 
 " You think you are not suspected ? " 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston laughed merrily. 
 
 " I do not know," he said doubtfully, " the 
 radio " 
 
 " It is taken down every morning before 
 dawn." 
 
 " Could anyone have seen us come in last 
 night?" 
 
 " The sea and the cliffs have no eyes." 
 
 " I feel uneasy. This woman has disturbed me. 
 It is a bad sign. I do not like the idea of the 
 trains. The stations would be watched." 
 
 " You might go by automobile." 
 
 " Splendid. I shall go as your chauffeur. You 
 will know the way, and ask the questions." 
 
 " It seems the best plan." 
 
 "You have Elfrieda's address?" 
 214
 
 A WILDCAT IN A CAGE 
 
 " I have Mrs. Winters' address. She is stopping 
 with her." 
 
 " Then I shall go there, and you can remain at 
 your hotel, in touch with me, ready to start back, 
 at night, at a moment's notice." 
 
 " My car everything I have myself all 
 are at your disposal." 
 
 " You are splendid, Mrs. Sabiston. The Emperor 
 knows of you, appreciates what you have done. . . . 
 When shall we start ? " 
 
 " Whenever you say, tonight, now. I am ready, 
 and you can have your choice of cars." 
 
 " A touring car, high power. Can you provide 
 me with a chauffeur's outfit ? " . 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Very well Margaretha, let us be off." 
 
 Half an hour later Mrs. Sabiston's car turned 
 out of the gate of " Rock Crest " into the main 
 road. At the wheel was von Hagenah, in leather 
 and goggles. On the back seat with Mrs. Sabiston 
 lay Bruno, his head in her lap.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 " Every day should be like this one for us, dear," 
 said Billy, when he found Elfrieda waiting for him 
 at Mrs. Winters' door. " We ought to be together 
 all the time, to have each other always, every day 
 and every night, for the rest of our lives." 
 
 " You 're forgetting your promise, Billy," smiled 
 the girl, raising her ringer warningly. 
 
 " Why, don't you remember," said Billy, hastily, 
 " there is n't any promise now ? You released me 
 from it, for one whole, glorious day." 
 
 " So I did. Well, are you ready? " 
 
 " The car is at the door. I telephoned for it 
 early." 
 
 "Where shall we go?" 
 
 " I thought we would go down into Maryland, 
 the Virginia roads are red clay, and muddier. You 
 see, I 've thought of everything, and asked lots of 
 questions. I shall have to report at the Department 
 for a moment first." 
 
 They went down in the elevator, and Billy helped 
 216
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 her into Lawson's car, and drove down Seventeenth 
 street. At the Department he stopped, and got out. 
 
 " May I go in with you ? " she asked. 
 
 " I 'd love to have you. Nobody is admitted now 
 without a pass, unless he is known to the watch- 
 men, but I can take you in with me." 
 
 They passed through the big west archway, 
 turned into a door at the right, and walked along a 
 dark corridor. 
 
 " This is the State Department side," he ex- 
 plained. " We turn to the left here, go up this 
 flight of stairs, and here 's my office, second door 
 to the right." 
 
 As they entered the small room, in which were 
 two desks, a table, and a row of bookshelves, little 
 Wallis got up quickly, and shook hands with them, 
 and Billy saw that the man who was usually so shy 
 with women could not keep his eyes from Elfrieda's 
 pretty face. 
 
 " I suppose it will be all right for me to be away 
 for today?" asked Billy; "that was the arrange- 
 ment." 
 
 " So I understand ; yes." 
 
 " Then I think I shall be going. Miss Fralli and 
 I are spending the day in the country." 
 
 " Oh," said little Wallis, " I envy you it it 
 is such a great day, such a wonderful day." 
 
 217
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Perfectly glorious," smiled Frieda. 
 
 " They 've given you my desk," said Wallis, his 
 face a picture of gloomy despair as he looked into 
 Frieda's dancing eyes, " and moved me over here. 
 There 's a safe in it, and you will want the com- 
 bination. I have written it out for you," he added, 
 handing Billy a card. 
 
 " Thanks. I think I '11 put these papers in it 
 now." 
 
 He tried the combination, opened the safe, and 
 taking from his breast pocket a small black leather 
 case, deposited it within, then closed the door, and 
 took out his watch. 
 
 " I guess I '11 keep the combination in the back 
 of this," he said, prying it open. A bit of paper 
 fluttered out. Wallis stooped quickly, and picked 
 it up. He could not help seeing what it was. They 
 all saw it. Elfrieda looked quickly out of window, 
 and Billy blushed. Wallis stammered an apology, 
 as if he had been guilty of some crime, and the 
 gloom deepened in his eyes. It was a picture of 
 Elfrieda, in a dress with big balloon sleeves and a 
 high-crowned hat covered with artificial flowers. 
 The hat and gown had been out of style so many 
 years that little Wallis thought they were the very 
 latest thing. The girlish face might have been from 
 a photograph taken that morning. 
 
 218
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 Billy put the picture back into his watch, with 
 the combination of the safe, whereupon they shook 
 hands with little Wallis, and went away, laughing, 
 leaving a very disconsolate young naval officer star- 
 ing at the closed door when they had gone. 
 
 " Where on earth did you get that picture, 
 Billy ? " demanded Frieda, when they were in the 
 car, and he had turned through the Monument 
 grounds into the Mall. " Give it to me at once, it 's 
 a perfect fright." 
 
 " Don't you remember it? " he asked. 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " It was taken just before I went away to Annap- 
 olis. We went down to the photographers and had 
 our photographs taken. Mine was in a huge stand- 
 ing collar that came up under the ears and nearly 
 choked me to death. My shirtfront was covered by 
 a big black silk tie that enveloped my chest like a 
 muffler. I was wretchedly happy. You gave me 
 your photograph and I gave mine to you." 
 
 She shook her head. " I had forgotten it," she 
 said. 
 
 " I have kept yours," said Billy, simply. " All 
 these years it has been in my watch. It has been 
 next to my heart by day, and under my head by 
 night. I have never been without it." 
 
 Elfrieda looked at him sideways beneath the brim 
 219
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 of her black straw, then turned her head away. 
 She could not face the look that lay in his eyes. 
 Billy was trembling. He grasped the wheel more 
 firmly, jumped the indicator, and broke the speed 
 laws for a mile. They turned into the Capitol 
 grounds, and flew along the long stretch of that 
 inconspicuous part of Pennsylvania avenue that 
 bisects the eastern half of Washington, crossed the 
 bridge over the river and the railroad tracks, and 
 the city was behind them. Without knowing or 
 caring where he went, he followed the best roads as 
 they opened up before him through the vistas of 
 trees that were coming into life at the touch of 
 spring. 
 
 The sweet, damp smell of open country flooded 
 their thirsty lungs, intoxicated them with the per- 
 fume of bursting buds and steaming meadows. The 
 sky above was cloudless, the air warm and amorous. 
 Mating birds were singing their love songs in every 
 thicket and hedge. Everywhere the earth was com- 
 ing to life after its winter's sleep, and the green 
 fields were streaked with great brown patches where 
 the ploughing had already been done. 
 
 " Your eyes," said Billy, stealing a look at her 
 under her hat, " are purple." 
 
 " It is the light," she laughed. " They are dark, 
 like that, when the sky is a certain shade of blue." 
 
 220
 
 She could not face the look that lay in his eyes
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 "They are beautiful, when they are purple 
 they are beautiful always." 
 
 " You always used to like it when the sky made 
 them purple." 
 
 " It is not the sky," he answered, after a while, 
 " it is your mood. I have seen them like that on a 
 cold, gray day, when there was no sun, no blue, no 
 warmth. It is your mood, your love mood." 
 
 " Stop, Billy." 
 
 " I shan't." , 
 
 " You must." 
 
 " There is no such word in your vocabulary 
 today." 
 
 " You are incorrigible." 
 
 He answered her by slipping his arm around her 
 waist, and drawing her to him. 
 
 " You '11 upset the car." 
 
 " I shall, if you don't stop pushing my arm." 
 
 " Some one may see us." 
 
 " Here in this wild country ? " 
 
 She could not argue with a man like that, and 
 Billy had his way. The miles slipped by, and still 
 he held her close to him. Growing tired, she moved, 
 and put her arm around him, and heard him give a 
 sigh of content. 
 
 " The country," he said, " appeals to me more 
 than all the cities in the world. The country, and 
 
 221
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 the sea. I should like to live on a wild, forest-grown 
 island, with the sea beating on my own beach, and 
 nobody there with me, but you, Frieda." 
 
 " Don't be sentimental." 
 
 " Take my left hand in yours, there. I want the 
 touch of you. Would n't you like to share that 
 island with me, dear?" 
 
 " There 's a meadow lark ! Look, Billy, over in 
 that field. I 'm sure it 's a meadow lark. Let 's 
 stop, and watch it." 
 
 " Hang the meadow lark," said Billy. " Think of 
 the sea, rolling up the beach, Frieda, a long, white 
 beach, with sand dunes, and then the forest, oak 
 and pine and it would have to be a Southern, 
 island, and you would wear a soft, white gown 
 and a big straw hat, and your eyes would al- 
 ways be purple, Frieda. Let us go find an island, 
 dear." 
 
 " We shall have to go find some gasolene first," 
 she laughed. 
 
 "Why gasolene ?" 
 
 " The car stopped ten minutes ago." 
 
 "The deuce!" 
 
 " I 'm afraid so. See if you can start it, Billy." 
 
 " No use," he said, " it 's stalled." 
 
 " Touch some more of those little knobs and 
 things; maybe it will run." 
 
 222
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 " No ; it 's the gasolene. I forgot about it. 
 They should have attended to that at the garage." 
 
 " What on earth shall we do now? " 
 
 " Oh, just sit here and talk," said Billy. 
 
 " You are impossible, today." 
 
 " This is the greatest day of my life." 
 
 " Then we should n't waste it." 
 
 " Waste it? " he cried. " I don't know of any- 
 thing I 'd rather do than to spend it sitting right 
 here with you, talking to you, looking into your 
 purple eyes." 
 
 " Here in the middle of this town ? " 
 
 " Town ? " said Billy, astonished. " I had n't no- 
 ticed it." 
 
 He looked around curiously now. To the right 
 of them was a picket fence, from which most of the 
 palings had disappeared. Beyond it was a weather- 
 beaten house, with a long, sloping roof, on which all 
 the shingles were curled up like little cornucopias. 
 Down the road, ahead of them, were two or three 
 more houses of the same forlorn appearance, and 
 what had once been a barn. Its rough walls, defying 
 all the natural and architectural laws, were standing 
 at every possible angle from the perpendicular. Half 
 the roof had caved in, and pigeons used the opening 
 for an entrance. In the yard was a lean red cow, 
 and looking over the fence at them a half-starved 
 
 223
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 animal that Billy said was probably a horse. A pale 
 and freckled boy came out of the stable, and sur- 
 veyed them with interest, his eyes staring. 
 
 " Son," asked Billy, " what was the name of this 
 town ? " 
 
 "Sir?" 
 
 " When was it moved ? " 
 
 " This is Piscataway," said the boy. 
 
 " Oh. Well, where 's the garage? " 
 
 "The which?" 
 
 " The place where they feed automobiles." 
 
 The boy shook his head. 
 
 " Is n't there a garage somewhere around ? " in- 
 sisted Billy, amazed that such a thing could be any- 
 where in America. 
 
 " Never heard of one, sir." 
 
 " Where can I buy some gasolene ? " 
 
 " That 's a new one on me," said the boy, 
 blankly. 
 
 " Look here, is n't there some kind of a store in 
 this place?" 
 
 " There used to be a store. It fell down, and 
 they never built a new one." 
 
 " Can we get luncheon somewhere ? " 
 
 "Get what?" 
 
 " Something to eat." 
 
 " You might get something to eat in there, I 
 224
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 dunno," said the boy, pointing to the dilapidated 
 house. 
 
 " Not in that place, I could n't," whispered 
 Elfrieda. 
 
 " I should say not. Son, is n't there a farm 
 around here somewhere ? " 
 
 " Oh, there 's a farm, yes, there 's a farm." 
 
 "How far?" 
 
 " I dunno." 
 
 "A mile?" 
 
 " I dunno." 
 
 "Two miles?" 
 
 " About two miles." 
 
 "Which way?" 
 
 " Over that hill, through the woods, and across 
 the crick." 
 
 " The very tramp I Ve been longing for," cried 
 Elfrieda, joyously. " Have they a telephone up 
 there?" 
 
 " Of course they have n't," chortled Billy. " This 
 is the land of love and romance, the Land of Yester- 
 day. I would n't use a telephone if they had one." 
 
 " All right, we '11 take a chance on the lunch," 
 agreed Frieda. 
 
 They got out, and Billy pushed the car to the 
 side of the road, and they left it there, climbed a 
 fence, and started up the hill. 
 
 225
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 The ground was soft, but was covered with a 
 heavy sod in which the new grass was show- 
 ing, tender and green. They reached the top of 
 the hill and sat down on a rock under a walnut 
 tree. 
 
 "Tired, dear?" 
 
 " Not a bit, are you? '' 
 
 " I could walk like this with you forever, to the 
 end of the world." 
 
 She stood up quickly and they went along side 
 by side, keeping at the edge of a woods. 
 
 " This is a path," said Elfrieda. " I wonder 
 where it leads ? " 
 
 " To Heaven," said Billy, and put his arm around 
 her. 
 
 " You must n't," said Frieda, and tried to pull 
 away. He answered her protest with a kiss, upon 
 the lips, and the next instant he had her in his 
 arms, and was covering her face with kisses, her 
 eyes, her ears, her throat. His body was shaking. 
 
 "Stop! Billy," she gasped. 
 
 " The promise does n't bind today," he reminded 
 her. 
 
 " You must n't kiss me like that, I can't stand 
 it." 
 
 " You 've starved me for years ; all the days have 
 been yours, but today is mine." 
 
 226
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 " You must n't kiss me like that," she repeated 
 faintly. 
 
 " You said I might make love to you today." 
 
 " Yes, yes, talk to me, Billy." 
 
 " This is the only language I know. Kiss me, 
 Frieda." 
 
 "Billy!" 
 
 " I love you so." 
 
 " I I " 
 
 " One kiss." 
 
 "Oh, Billy " 
 
 ' You 've never kissed me in your life." 
 
 " Why, you have kissed me, lots of times, when 
 we were " 
 
 " I know, but you have never kissed me, Frieda. 
 Just once ! " 
 
 "Will you be good, then?" 
 
 " Just one, Frieda! " 
 
 "You will be good?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Just one, remember ever." 
 
 "You don't hate me, Frieda?" 
 
 "Oh, Billy." 
 
 ' You don't mind kissing me ? There is n't some 
 one you would rather I should n't care to kiss 
 you, if you 'd rather " 
 
 " Oh, very well then." 
 
 227
 
 "There is some one else some one in Ger- 
 many ? " 
 
 " Stop, Billy, you are hurting my wrists. No 
 She looked off across the valley, toward the 
 pine woods at the other side of the bottom lands, 
 her eyelids nearly closed, the long lashes on her 
 cheek. " No," she said slowly, " no, Billy, there is 
 no one else in Germany. There might have been 
 once but he died." 
 
 Her voice fell to a whisper, but it sounded like 
 the roar of a tempest in Billy's brain. His body, 
 that had been trembling, was suddenly limp. He 
 steadied himself, closing his long, sinewy fingers 
 around a sapling. 
 
 " Frieda I did not know. I did not under- 
 stand. Forgive me. Can you ever forgive me ? " 
 
 " Why, Billy, you are so pale." 
 
 " It is nothing. Shall we walk on ? " 
 
 They walked in silence, keeping in the sheep path 
 along the edge of the woods. Birds were singing 
 in the branches of the leafing trees, but Billy did 
 not hear them. Flowers started out of the mould 
 and grass at his feet, but he did not see them. 
 Something within him that he had had all the days 
 of his life had suddenly been taken away. They 
 came to a fence. 
 
 " I can climb it," said Frieda, gaily, "if you will 
 228
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 give me your arm and let me put my hand on your 
 shoulder." 
 
 " I will take the bars down for you," said Billy. 
 
 She waited while he put them up again, and 
 walked along ahead of him, through an open field, 
 up another hill, and through a bit of woods. 
 
 " Arbutus ! " cried Frieda, and stooped to gather 
 the tough vine, full of delicate pink blossoms. 
 " And violets ! Just look at the violets, Billy, wild 
 ones." 
 
 " Shall I help you to find them ? " he asked dully. 
 
 " Why, no," she answered, looking at him hesi- 
 tatingly, " let them stay, it seems such a pity to 
 pluck them, only to throw them away. Is n't that a 
 house, down there ? " 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " Let us hurry on, then," and she danced merrily 
 along before him, skipping about in the warm sun- 
 shine, looking into every bush, listening to the call 
 of every bird. She stopped, and waited for him to 
 come up. " I have spoiled his day," she thought. 
 " What a fool I am, always to be doing things like 
 that." 
 
 He held a wire fence apart while she climbed 
 through, and they slid down a sloping hillside, slip- 
 pery with wet leaves and moss. 
 
 " How in the world shall we get across ? " asked 
 229
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 Elfrieda, with a little feminine scream of dismay, 
 as she beckoned to him. 
 
 " A creek," said Billy, coming up. " Maybe 
 there is a bridge somewhere." 
 
 They walked on. Presently Elfrieda said : " This 
 is taking us further away from the house we 
 saw. We must cross here, or we shall lose our 
 way." 
 
 " Could you step on those stones ? " he asked. 
 
 " They look terribly wet," said Elfrieda, critically. 
 " The water is 'way over them in some places. I 
 should ruin my shoes." 
 
 "They seem quite heavy and stout." 
 
 " And get my feet wet, and maybe take cold. I 
 have to be so careful about my throat." 
 
 " We shall have to walk further. There must be 
 a bridge." 
 
 " You you could carry me? " 
 
 " Oh." 
 
 " It is not far across, Billy." 
 
 " Come along, then." 
 
 He stepped down the bank upon a flat stone, and 
 reached up his arms to her, and she fluttered into 
 them like a bird. 
 
 "Comfortable?" 
 
 " Quite." 
 
 He picked his way across the stream, from rock 
 230
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 to rock. Once he slipped, and tightened his hold 
 upon her. She thought, " He will kiss me now." 
 
 He put her down upon the opposite bank, and 
 they walked up through the trees, and came out in 
 an orchard. Ahead of them was a farm house, 
 white, with a big red chimney. A dog came out 
 to growl and remained to scamper at their heels. 
 They opened a gate and went into a yard, and a 
 woman, who was sitting on the porch, arose and 
 welcomed them. Yes, she could give them a dinner, 
 and would be delighted to do so. It would be ready 
 in a few minutes. The lady could go into her room, 
 and she would find everything she needed. She 
 went ahead to show the way. 
 
 Billy waited for Frieda on the porch, rocking 
 gloomily in a big, red, split-bottom chair. A man 
 was shouting to a plough horse in a field across 
 the way, and the robins were singing overhead. 
 
 " What a sad place the world is, after all," 
 thought Billy. "Why are we here?" 
 
 Elfrieda came out, her eyes smiling. " They are 
 purple," he thought, " but not for me." 
 
 They went in to dinner fried chicken, and great 
 slices of cold ham, and hot biscuits, and corn pone, 
 and a big dish of fried potatoes, and buttermilk. 
 
 " What would Ruhlmann think if she could see 
 me now," laughed Frieda, her mouth full of chicken. 
 
 231
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Did you ever see it cooked like this before, Billy, 
 in batter? I never tasted anything like it in my 
 life." 
 
 Billy pretended he was enjoying himself. He 
 tasted nothing that he ate. 
 
 " And the biscuits, Billy ! Look, see how they 
 come open, like a watch." 
 
 The woman was smiling in the doorway, a good 
 cook with an appreciative audience. She would 
 have given Frieda the farm if she had asked for it, 
 and when Billy tried to pay her for her trouble later, 
 when they were ready to go, she was indignant, and 
 would accept nothing. 
 
 She had the buggy brought around for them. 
 Her husband had come in from the fields, and 
 thought that they might obtain some gasolene at 
 Fort Washington, down toward the river a piece. 
 They were to leave the buggy in the village when 
 they returned to their automobile, and somebody 
 would see that it got home, all right. Everybody 
 knew the buggy, and the horse, they might leave 
 them anywhere. 
 
 They drove away, waving their thanks for the 
 generous hospitality. Elfrieda was chirping with 
 joy. 
 
 The road led through a pine woods, where the 
 branches overhead were thick, shutting out the sun. 
 
 232
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 The wheels crunched musically in the heavy sand, 
 the horse's hoofs made scarcely a sound. Along 
 the fence, on either side, a tangled thicket of grape 
 vines were putting on their new dresses, and a bird 
 sat on a limb, preening its feathers. 
 
 " He will think of the time he kissed me first, 
 and he will kiss me now," she thought, looking at 
 him covertly. 
 
 Billy's memory had gone back to the arbor, in 
 the yard at home, and he could see her, as she 
 looked that day, when they had swung together in 
 the hammock, and he had held her in his arms. 
 She saw by his eyes what he was thinking. 
 " Surely," she thought, " he will kiss me now." 
 But Billy did n't. 
 
 At the fort they had no trouble in obtaining all 
 the gasolene they required. They met there one 
 of the young army officers who had been at Mrs. 
 Winters' party a few evenings before, and he was 
 delighted to see them, and pressed them to stay to 
 dinner with him. His striker attended to the gaso- 
 lene, and put a large can in the back of the buggy. 
 Billy thought they would better go, as the sky was 
 becoming overcast, and the air was beginning to 
 feel like rain. 
 
 There was great activity at the post, and as they 
 started back to the buggy they stopped, and watched 
 
 233
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 some troops which had just landed at the wharf, and 
 which were mobilizing there. Bronzed and hard- 
 ened by the sun of the desert, for they were fresh 
 from the Mexican border, they won even Billy's 
 critical approval. The sun was glinting on their 
 guns. Their band was playing. Billy glanced 
 at Elfrieda, and saw that her eyes were shining. 
 
 " Do you remember that tune ? " he asked. 
 
 " A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight," she 
 laughed. " How it brings back to me the memory 
 of the Spanish war time." 
 
 " You remember how we went down to see the 
 regiment from our town go ? " 
 
 " I was thinking about that very thing," said 
 Elfrieda. 
 
 " And how enthusiastic we were ? " 
 
 " Oh, but were n't we, just! " 
 
 The flag was passing, and Billy came to atten- 
 tion, and saluted. 
 
 " Frieda," he asked, turning to her suddenly, " in 
 a war between the United States and Germany, 
 who, do you think, would win ? " 
 
 " Oh, we would, of course," she answered quickly, 
 her sparkling eyes full of admiration for the fine 
 looking boys who were swinging by. 
 
 " What do you mean by ' we ' ? " 
 
 " The United States," said Frieda. 
 234
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 Billy threw back his head, and laughed, but Frieda 
 was not laughing, and he saw that the light had 
 faded from her eyes. 
 
 " Only the other day you told me that you must, 
 you simply must be a German, and now 
 
 She looked at him dumbly, and as he took her 
 arm he could feel her body shaking. 
 
 " I I spoke " 
 
 " Instinctively," he finished. " Frieda, I told you 
 that you were an American. Now I know it." 
 
 " Die Eingeborene! " she said helplessly. 
 
 " That is it, you are a native born," said Billy, as 
 serious now as she was. 
 
 They walked back to the buggy in silence. He 
 put her in the seat, tucked the laprobe around her 
 feet, and they drove over the road by which they had 
 come, to the little town where they had left the car, 
 and scarcely spoke, for each was busy with thoughts 
 of many things. 
 
 They were well on their way to Washington when 
 Elfrieda regained her outward composure. In- 
 wardly she was more agitated than she had been 
 before. 
 
 What would Billy think if he knew the errand 
 upon which she had crossed the Atlantic! 
 
 She offered up a silent prayer that he might never 
 know. 
 
 235
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 She looked at Billy as they reached the turn of 
 the road where he had put his arm around her that 
 morning; but he kept his eyes straight ahead, and 
 both hands on the steering wheel, and did not look 
 at her, or speak to her. 
 
 " I am stupid," she thought, " I have spoiled his 
 day and mine." 
 
 The clouds, which had been following the river, 
 now dissolved into mist, and then the rain came 
 down. Almost in an instant they were drenched. 
 
 He drew the robe over her, and tucked it in at her 
 back, and she pressed closer to him. 
 
 " As soon as we get into town I will telephone for 
 a taxi," he said. " Lawson should have had a top 
 on his car." 
 
 " I don't mind the rain." 
 
 " But your throat ? " 
 
 " I never take cold." 
 
 " Oh, I - " 
 
 " It 's a warm rain," Frieda hastened to add, " I 
 don't mind it really, in the least." 
 
 . Night was coming on, and they drove through 
 the deserted streets, indifferent to the deluge. At 
 the apartment he hurried her into the elevator, and 
 went up with her. 
 
 " Will you come in ? " she asked, at the door. 
 
 "Now, like this?" 
 
 236
 
 THE LAND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 " Yes, I want to talk with you about something 
 that is that is on my mind." 
 
 " I will go in." 
 
 " You said I was an American," she said hesitat- 
 ingly, her hand on the knob. 
 
 " Your answer, at the fort, proved that I was 
 right. It is the call of country." 
 
 " Then why are you not a Prussian ? " 
 
 " Der Eingeborener! " said Billy. " Don't put 
 such ideas in my mind, Elfrieda." And then the 
 words he had heard at the club, rushed back upon 
 his memory : " It means something to be born in 
 a country I don't believe you ever get over it," 
 some one had said, and had been speaking of him. 
 
 "Good God!" said Billy to himself, "Elfrieda 
 could n't stand the gaff when the question was put 
 right up to her. I wonder if I could? " 
 
 He opened the door, and followed Elfrieda into 
 Mrs. Winters' drawing room. As they entered a 
 big, blonde, bearded man arose from the chair by 
 the window, and crossed the room with a quick 
 stride. 
 
 Billy looked at him, and threw out his arms. 
 
 "Karl! "he said. 
 
 237
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 " I hope you rested well," said Billy the next 
 morning, going into his bedroom, where his brother 
 had slept. 
 
 "Splendidly, thanks," said Karl. "And you? 
 I feel like a dog for letting you go in on the 
 couch." 
 
 " I was quite comfortable." 
 
 " It was good of you to bring me down here with 
 you." 
 
 " It was the only thing to do, of course," an- 
 swered Billy. " You could n't stay in Mrs. Winters' 
 apartment, especially since Elfrieda is there alone 
 now. Mrs. Winters has gone away for a few days. 
 She 's a good sort ; you must meet her." 
 
 "Thanks, I think I 'd a little rather not," said 
 Karl, hiding a smile as he thought of Mrs. Winters, 
 and wondered how she was getting along. 
 
 " I 'm sure you 'd like her," said Billy enthusiasti- 
 cally, " Corrie 's charming, just the kind you fancy, 
 I should think." 
 
 238
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 "A a particular friend of yours? " asked Karl, 
 looking at his brother keenly. 
 
 " I Ve known her for years, and " 
 
 " Nothing more? " 
 
 " Certainly not." 
 
 " Oh. You used to be awfully fond of Frieda. 
 Are you " 
 
 "Please don't," said Billy, quickly. "You'll 
 find your bath in there, and my shaving things. 
 But you don't need those, do you, Karl? I never 
 saw such a beard. How long have you been 
 afflicted ? " 
 
 "Nearly eight years," said Karl, soberly; "I 
 don't know how I 'd look without it now." 
 
 " Very much as I do, I imagine," Billy replied. 
 " You are like me in every other way, just as you 
 always were." 
 
 " You are like me," amended Karl. 
 
 " It is the same thing, is n't it ? You always in- 
 sisted on that point. Well, have your way. But 
 you are like me, just the same, height, shoulders, 
 arms. Only the face is different. If I had n't been 
 your twin I probably would n't have recognized 
 you." 
 
 " I hope your clothes will fit me," laughed Karl. 
 " These automobile togs are the only things I 
 brought with me, and they are a sight." 
 
 239
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Help yourself to anything you want, in that 
 closet," answered Billy, " and when you have had 
 your tub, and dressed, breakfast will be served." 
 
 "Inhere?" 
 
 " I have ordered it from the cafe." 
 
 " Elfrieda told me you would probably do so. I 
 invited her to have breakfast with us." 
 
 " I don't know " 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " I 'm afraid it 's hardly " 
 
 " Is n't she our cousin ? " 
 
 " Other people do not know that she is Miss 
 Fralli here for some strange reason, I am sorry to 
 say. I don't like the idea of her going under a false 
 name." 
 
 " Bother ! It 's her stage name," said Karl, 
 lightly. 
 
 " She has never used it on the stage. How- 
 ever, if she is coming it can't be helped. Hurry, I 
 think I hear her at the door now." 
 
 It was Frieda, and she came in smiling, but with 
 none of the purple in her eyes that he loved. 
 
 " I shall never see it again," he thought, as he 
 shook hands. She sat down, and the breakfast was 
 brought in. 
 
 " Chops, potatoes, bacon, eggs on toast, and 
 coffee," Billy called through the bedroom door. 
 
 240
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 " You have remembered my favorite breakfast," 
 answered Karl. 
 
 " And a grapefruit." 
 
 " If there is only one grapefruit I shall have it," 
 said Frieda, firmly ; " I am off the diet now, and 
 propose to go the limit." 
 
 Karl came in. He was wearing one of Billy's 
 suits, of gray, that had just come from the tailor's. 
 " How do you like the fit ? " he asked, turning 
 around. 
 
 " How like Billy you are," said Frieda. " I have 
 seen you in nothing but your uniform for so long 
 that I hardly know you." 
 
 Billy's face darkened, and into his eyes came a 
 troubled look. He crossed to the window and stood 
 staring out, then turned, and came back to the 
 table, and took his seat at the head. 
 
 "What's wrong?" asked Karl. 
 
 " I did not trouble you with it last night," said 
 Billy, " for it was a strange and joyous re-union, 
 after I had been thinking all this time that you 
 were dead, but, Karl, I don't like the idea of your 
 being in Washington at such a time as this." 
 
 "Why not?" demanded Karl. 
 
 " You are a Captain in the German navy." 
 
 " Germany and the United States are not at war." 
 
 "They will be, perhaps tomorrow, at any mo- 
 241
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 ment. They are practically at war now, and have 
 been for months. It is indiscreet is hardly the 
 word." 
 
 " I am among friends and relatives," said Karl 
 unconcernedly, helping himself to the potatoes. 
 " and with the exception of one person well, two 
 who are reliable and faithful in every way, not 
 a soul in America knows who I am. or that I am 
 here, or why I am here, but you and Frieda." 
 
 " I do not know why you are here," replied Billy, 
 " I know only that you are here and in disguise. 
 You know what the consequences would be in times 
 like these if that disguise were penetrated." 
 
 " How can it be? " answered Karl, shrugging his 
 shoulders. " I have not been in America since I 
 was a boy. Nobody knows me now." 
 
 " Several officers in the navy know that I have 
 a twin brother," said Billy, anxiously; " they might 
 suspect something." 
 
 " Had a twin brother, perhaps," admitted Karl. 
 " Officially I am dead. That was provided for 
 long ago." 
 
 " You mean the report of your death was delib- 
 erately faked? " 
 
 "Of course. My visit was foreseen, everything 
 is foreseen in Germany. It was realized, of course, 
 that my relationship with you was known to vari- 
 
 242
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 ous people in the United States. My death was 
 decided on, and so they killed me off in the Jutland 
 battle, and the necessary steps were taken to have 
 it published in the American papers. I wrote the 
 despatch, that went by wireless, myself," and he 
 laughed merrily. " It was a good joke." 
 
 " It was no joke to me," said Billy, getting up 
 and pacing the floor. " I suffered. My twin brother 
 dead! It nearly broke my heart." 
 
 " I understand, brother," said Karl, tears in his 
 eyes. " Forgive me." 
 
 " A twin always cares, more than other people," 
 said Billy, slowly. " I grieved for you, Karl." 
 
 " Where were you when you heard of it ? " 
 
 " Manila," answered Billy. 
 
 " Good old Elsa," laughed Karl. 
 
 " You knew she sent me a cable ? But " He 
 wheeled suddenly, and stood looking down at 
 Frieda, whose breakfast was untasted on her plate. 
 She turned her head away. " Frieda ! " said Billy, 
 " I did n't think you 'd have a hand in anything 
 like that, I did n't think you 'd put a burden on me 
 that nearly killed me, changed the whole current of 
 my affections, filled me with hate for all my former 
 English friends. I could n't forget that they had 
 killed my brother." 
 
 "I couldn't help it, I had to," said Frieda 
 243
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 brokenly ; " they made me, Billy. It was n't I, it 
 was some one " 
 
 " Upon my word, Wilhelm," said Karl, getting 
 up, and taking his brother's hand, " I did n't realize 
 how hard you would take it. I understand, now, 
 and I 'm glad, glad it happened, if it has made me 
 comprehend, made me know how true and firm you 
 are. All our reports about you are confirmed, Gott 
 sei dank! " 
 
 " Reports about me ? " said Billy. 
 
 " I did not doubt you. I would have known 
 without them," said Karl, his eyes shining with a 
 look that was almost exhaltation. " You are my 
 brother, you could not be anything else than what 
 you are, like me, just like me. I '11 tell you," he 
 added quickly, sitting down and drawing his chair 
 up confidentially. " Frieda ! Is the door locked ? 
 There is no one here? Be sure, please, and close 
 that window. That," he went on eagerly, turning 
 to Billy, " brings me to the question of why I am 
 here. As soon as the cable reached us stating that 
 you were leaving Hong Kong, I started for Wash- 
 ington to meet you. Now you know everything." 
 
 "Know?" said Billy, wonderingly. "Why, I 
 don't know anything." 
 
 " I had to come," Karl went on rapidly, the words 
 pouring from his lips. " The thing was pre-or- 
 
 244
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 dained by Fate. The Admiralty saw it, and so did 
 I. You had been in the American navy for years, 
 you had been through the Newport college, you had 
 worked out problems in strategy, you had made a 
 reputation, you would have the whole inside of the 
 American navy in your grasp, access to everything 
 we might want. The time came, and I am here. I 
 will go over with you the points we wish cleared up, 
 I will get from you the information you have, that 
 we need. We had not contemplated war with the 
 United States. We thought you would stand for 
 anything. You have taken us by surprise. We 
 have been obtaining much information, of course, 
 for we realized that war was a possibility, although 
 not likely. Now the blow is about to fall. It is es- 
 sential that we have the new plan of naval opera- 
 tions that has been agreed upon, the location of 
 bases and mines, the size and gun strength of the 
 fleet. Will that fleet remain on this side of the 
 Atlantic to protect the coast against our submarines, 
 or will it combine with the British fleet in the North 
 Sea? Have you perfected the submarine destroyer 
 that Pendleton has been working on? We have 
 something about it, but not much. An undersea 
 destroyer that can see and hear under water might 
 be our ruin. These are some of the things we must 
 know. You will go over it all with me, and place in 
 
 245
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 my possession such information in addition as you 
 may be able to obtain. I am ready to return as soon 
 as I have what I have come for." 
 
 "You have your get-away all planned?" asked 
 Billy, who had not taken his eyes from his brother's 
 face. 
 
 " Yes ; I shall go back as I came." 
 
 "And how was that?" 
 
 " I crossed by submarine," said Karl. 
 
 "And made your landing ?" 
 
 " In Massachusetts Bay, five miles off the estate 
 of Mrs. Sabiston. who lives at some place, I 've for- 
 gotten the name. You remember Margaretha 
 Schoenleber? Her people returned to Germany 
 about the time that we did." 
 
 " She lived next door to us," laughed Billy, " a 
 little pudgy, yellow-haired girl." 
 
 " You would not know her now," said Karl, " she 
 is beautiful. She came back to America when 
 she married." He walked to the window, and stood 
 there, with his back to them. 
 
 " I thought, Karl " Billy began. 
 
 " I know, I thought so once myself," said Karl, 
 coming back. " Well, it was n't to be. I had my 
 way to make in the navy, and nothing but work, no 
 time for anything else." Billy looked at him with 
 eyes full of understanding and sympathy. 
 
 246
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 " You remember the tin-type, Karl ? " he asked, 
 a smile coming to his lips. 
 
 " I have it yet," said Karl. " She sent it back 
 to me when she broke the engagement." 
 
 " I did not know " 
 
 " A boy and girl affair, but it was serious enough 
 with me. ... I do not blame her. . . . Ever since 
 the war began she has been doing magnificent work 
 for us." 
 
 "What does her husband think of that? Sabis- 
 ton is not a German name." 
 
 " She is a widow," answered Karl, turning away 
 to the window again. 
 
 "Oh! ... I see." 
 
 " I had much correspondence with her, about 
 business. You recall the efficiency with which 
 the interned ships were put out of commission? 
 That order was sent through her." 
 
 " She must have been very helpful," said Billy, 
 while Elfrieda watched his eyes. 
 
 " I could not tell you the things she has done. 
 She picked me up in a motorboat when I landed, 
 and brought me to Washington with her. She is 
 ready at any moment to return when I give the 
 word." 
 
 " The submarine is waiting for you? " suggested 
 Billy. 
 
 247
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " At our base at " 
 
 " Stop, Karl ! " cried Elf rieda, springing to her 
 feet and trembling with excitement. " Can't you 
 see his eyes? Don't you understand that he is 
 draining you of everything you know ? " 
 
 "Eh! What? "cried Karl. 
 
 " Are you sure he is not leading you on to tell 
 him your secrets ? " cried Elf rieda. " Have you 
 been watching his face ? " 
 
 Billy looked at her, with one of those smiles of 
 his that she could never quite understand. 
 
 "What have you to say, Wilhelm?" demanded 
 Karl, placing himself in front of his brother. 
 
 Billy shrugged his shoulders. " What are you 
 accusing me of, Karl? " he laughed. 
 
 " I thought he would not do it," said Elf rieda; 
 " I was almost sure he would not." 
 
 " You knew this," cried Karl in a terrible voice, 
 his body shaking, his hands moving convulsively. 
 " Why did you not warn me last night? " 
 
 " Because," she replied brokenly, " yesterday I 
 was not quite certain. There was a doubt in my 
 mind. He told me that I was an American, and 
 then he trapped me by asking which would win in 
 a war, the United States, or Germany, and I told 
 him that we would, and then he saw he had be- 
 trayed my heart. I was born here, in America. 
 
 248
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 It makes a difference, Karl, oh, my God, it does, 
 it does." 
 
 " You should have warned me! " 
 
 " How could I? If I am an American at heart 
 because I was born in this country, if I am an 
 American in spite of myself, although I try to be 
 a German, if I long to be a German, if I pray to 
 be a German, why is he not a German because he 
 was born in Germany? I asked myself. I could 
 not be sure. I was tormented, I felt as if my heart 
 were being torn to pieces. I watched his face last 
 night, and saw that the same doubt, the same fear, 
 the same frightful agony was in his mind. I saw 
 he was not sure of himself, that he wondered. 
 Then how could I be sure? I waited.'* 
 
 " You should have put me on my guard," said 
 Karl, and stood over her with anger darting from 
 his eyes. 
 
 " How could I be sure ? " she almost screamed. 
 " I am not sure of myself ! " 
 
 " I am sure of myself," said Billy. 
 
 " I knew it ! " cried Karl, exultantly. " I knew 
 it ! You are loyal ? " 
 
 " Of course," said Billy. 
 
 " My heart told me so," Karl laughed. " Women 
 do not understand. She quite upset me for a 
 moment." 
 
 249
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Frieda was right," said Billy. " She has un- 
 derstood me all her life. She saw last night that 
 there was fear in my heart, fear that on the show- 
 down I could n't stand the gaff. Well, I Ve found 
 I can." 
 
 " Then you will help me ? There is no time to 
 lose. I realize how dangerous my position is, and 
 the more quickly I can obtain what I have come 
 for and get away the better." 
 
 " You are mad, Karl ; stupid." 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 Billy smiled to the roots of his hair. 
 
 " You said that last night you doubted yourself," 
 said Karl, suspiciously. 
 
 " Only as to my heart," said Billy, the smile 
 fading from his face. " There is a difference, Karl, 
 between the heart and the brain. I have denied 
 my heart all that I have ever wanted, all my life, 
 and the denial has given me strength to go on, to 
 the end." 
 
 Karl glanced at Elfrieda, then back again to his 
 brother, and a flash of understanding passed be- 
 tween the two men. 
 
 " I must know if you will help me," said Karl, 
 " I must know now." 
 
 Billy threw out his arms with a gesture of 
 helplessness. 
 
 250
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 " You have the fate of the Fatherland in your 
 hands," cried Karl, intensely. " Would you kill 
 the land that gave you birth, your native land?" 
 
 " Don't, Karl, it is hard enough as it is." 
 
 " The life of Germany may depend on what you 
 do today. I have trusted you, brother. I have 
 planned for this, dreamed of it. Your Emperor 
 is waiting for you." 
 
 " Is there a bigger dunce in Germany than you? " 
 asked Billy, in mock incredulity. 
 
 " You can speak that way of your Kaiser? " de- 
 manded Karl, his face very red under his beard 
 and his eyes lowering. 
 
 " I have no Kaiser, man. Are all of you in Ger- 
 many insane like this?" 
 
 " You owe to him all that you have, all that you 
 are today." 
 
 " What nonsense is this? " 
 
 " Who put you where you are ? " 
 
 "Put me where?" 
 
 " In the navy." 
 
 " I do not understand." 
 
 "Who sent you to Annapolis?" 
 
 "Why," said Billy, " Marshfield did; he was a 
 Congressman then." 
 
 " Don't you know that Marshfield was ordered 
 to appoint you?" Karl laughed derisively. "The 
 
 251
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 boss from whom he was taking orders then, as 
 now, was Adolph Bruch. Don't you know that 
 Bruch was instructed to select a bright and promis- 
 ing German boy for Annapolis? Don't you know 
 that Bruch chose you, and passed the word to 
 Marshfield, and that Marshfield took his orders and 
 appointed you? Don't you know that Bruch got 
 his orders from Berlin? Who gives the orders in 
 Berlin? You are the Kaiser's man." 
 
 Billy's tongue clove to his mouth. He could not 
 speak. There flashed into his memory a picture of 
 that day in school, the greatest day in his life. There 
 was the platform, with Mr. Black, and the Con- 
 gressman, great man that he was. And there was 
 Adolph Bruch ! He tried to speak again, and could 
 not, for he knew in his heart that it was true. 
 
 " Of course it is true," said Karl, who had read 
 his brother's thoughts. " And when I went back to 
 Germany they sent me to Kiel, although I wanted 
 to be an engineer. I did not care for the navy, but 
 in Germany they think of everything. They have 
 watched you all these years, they have advanced 
 you step by step. You have been designated As- 
 sistant Chief-of-Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, 
 the highest post you can hold with your rank. Do 
 you want me to tell you where the order for that 
 came from?" 
 
 252
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 Billy swayed forward, as he thought of Senator 
 Marshfield. " Who told you this ? " he asked, chok- 
 ing on the words. 
 
 " I found out all about it later," said Karl, " when 
 I went to headquarters. You were sent to the 
 Naval Academy with this very day in view, and 
 now the day is here. We need you I come to 
 you." 
 
 " You are fools," said Billy, so passionately that 
 his words were white with heat, " fools, all of you, 
 from the Kaiser down. You might send a yellow 
 dog to Annapolis, and he would come out a 
 gentleman." 
 
 " You are a Prussian," cried Karl, " a German. 
 Your country is dying, and you are asked to save 
 her. The lives of thousands of your fellow Ger- 
 mans depend on you. The Empire's condition is 
 desperate. If the United States goes in against her 
 she may die, die, I tell you, not merely be defeated, 
 but be obliterated. She may be wiped off the earth. 
 We must have the secret plans of the American 
 navy. When we learn where it is, how it is pro- 
 tected, we shall know where and how to strike, and 
 we can destroy it. And with the American fleet 
 disposed of we can starve England and win the 
 war. Do you want Germany to win? I am your 
 brother, Wilhelm, your twin, do it for me." 
 
 253
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " You are quite mad, Karl," said Billy. " Don't 
 talk like this to me again, I beg you." 
 
 " You shall have everything in the world you 
 want," said Karl. " You shall be rewarded in every 
 way. The people of Germany will worship you to 
 the end of time." 
 
 " Where is the monument in England to Benedict 
 Arnold? "asked Billy. 
 
 He looked at Frieda, who was on her knees, weep- 
 ing, her head buried in the cushion of a chair, and 
 Karl's eyes rested on her for a moment, too, and 
 then flashed back to meet his brother's. 
 
 " You shall have everything you want every- 
 thing," said Karl, his voice dying to a whisper. 
 " If you do not think it safe to remain here after 
 you have given to me what I want we will go away 
 together, you, and I and Frieda. The sub- 
 marine is within call. We will leave Washington 
 at night, and no person will see us go. In four days 
 we shall be safely at sea, you, and I and Frieda. 
 And you shall marry her, Wilhelm, in Germany. 
 You shall have her, have her, do you understand, 
 man, to do with as you please! " 
 
 As Billy's fist shot out he slipped on the rug, 
 tripped, and fell, and the next instant Karl was 
 upon him, and gave him a blow on the butt of the 
 ear that laid him senseless on the floor. 
 
 254
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 Frieda crawled across the floor to him, and took 
 his head into her lap. 
 
 "Billy! Billy!" she wailed. "Karl! You've 
 killed him." 
 
 " Nonsense," said Karl, putting his automatic 
 back into his pocket, " he will come around all right. 
 It would take more than that to kill a brother of 
 mine. Take hold of his feet there to steady him, 
 and help me drag him into this room." 
 
 " What are you going to do, Karl? " she cried, 
 her eyes wide with fear. 
 
 " I 'm not going to hurt him," he answered. 
 " Jove ! I 've never seen you look like that before, 
 Frieda what 's the matter with you? " 
 
 " You shan't do anything to him, you shan't, do 
 you hear ? " 
 
 " No hysterics, please, I won't have it. Lend a 
 hand there and help me haul him in." He kicked 
 open the bedroom door. " Steady there, now. 
 I Ve got to get him tied up before he comes around 
 and gives me a fight." 
 
 "Tied up!" 
 
 He took her roughly by the shoulder. "I want 
 no woman's word in this, Frieda," he said. " Do 
 you understand ? Don't forget it. I 've got to tie 
 him up and gag him." 
 
 " Karl ! I won't have it. Look ! He 's bleeding." 
 255
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " I cut his ear a bit. It is nothing. Help me get 
 him on the bed. There. Now for a gag, he '11 be 
 yelling murder in a minute." 
 
 Karl gagged him. He pulled down the curtain 
 cords and the heavy silk ropes that held the por- 
 tieres back, and lashed his brother's hands and feet 
 to the brass bed, tying him with the deft and tena- 
 cious knots that sailors make. He took the straps 
 off the trunk and bound him to the bed, across the 
 thighs and chest. 
 
 Billy came around, and his eyes glared. Karl 
 looked down at him and laughed. 
 
 " Sorry to do this, brother," he grinned, " but 
 you know how things are. I can't be having you 
 loose now, you know too much." 
 
 He went out, taking Elfrieda with him, and 
 closed the door. 
 
 " Have you searched the place? " he asked. 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Those were your instructions." 
 
 " I was told to use my best judgment. I decided 
 to wait for you. Besides, I could not do it, Karl. 
 He never suspected me, never dreamed why I was 
 here." 
 
 " You will help me now, search everything. We 
 have no time to lose. You take the things in this 
 room." 
 
 256
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 " These are not his things. This is the apartment 
 of a friend. Billy has nothing here but his clothes, 
 and the trunk and the bag in the other room." 
 
 " Are you sure?" 
 
 " Positive." 
 
 " I will search the trunk. You search the bag." 
 
 " I will have nothing to do with it." 
 
 " You will do as I say." 
 
 "I won't, I won't!" 
 
 Karl went into the bedroom, opened the trunk, 
 and began throwing the contents about, while Billy 
 lay upon the bed, struggling. 
 
 " Nothing but clothes," said Karl. 
 
 " Billy ! " cried Frieda, " I cannot help myself. 
 I did not know he would attack you, or I would 
 have warned you." 
 
 " I did not attack him," said Karl. " He attacked 
 me when I asked his aid for the Fatherland." 
 
 " He struck you because you insulted me," re- 
 plied Frieda, passionately, " because you offered me 
 to him, as though I were for sale as though I 
 were a a Belgian girl ! " 
 
 " Is that so? I did not understand. I thought " 
 
 " You do not understand because you are not like 
 him. You offered me to him as if I had been one 
 of the the wretched women captured for the 
 the soldiers. It 's true, it 's true, I know it 's true." 
 
 257
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Halt! " cried Karl. " You will arouse every- 
 one. You do not know what you are talking 
 about. Be silent and do not interfere with me, 
 whatever I do." 
 
 " You are a fool," said Frieda. " You have 
 gagged him without learning anything." 
 
 " He said " 
 
 " He was born a German, I tell you, just as I 
 was born an American. It makes no difference 
 what he said you you don't know how it is, 
 Karl, to be torn like this, as I am, as I am sure he 
 is. You feel one way one moment, and and 
 something quite different the next. You don't 
 know what you feel, what you think. I know from 
 my own raw heart what it is. He might have told 
 you, he might have helped you in the end." 
 
 " Yes, yes," said Karl, " he might, I always 
 thought he would, I knew he would. He is my 
 brother, my twin brother. I will untie him no. 
 no, he would never forgive me now, he has 
 hardened against me. He would be revenged. 1 
 dare not trust him now. I must find what I can 
 alone." 
 
 "Unfasten him, Karl," Frieda begged. "He 
 may not help you, but he will not betray you." 
 
 " I dare not run the risk." 
 
 Karl seized her by the arm and led her from the 
 258
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 room, forcing her face to the light and looking at 
 her with a terrible expression in his eyes. 
 
 " See here ! " he said, " you play no tricks on 
 me. What was it he told you about being born in 
 America? I will have no weakness. You are a 
 German, and you are under my orders. You have 
 been here with him for some time and must know 
 where he keeps his papers. Have you asked no 
 questions ? " 
 
 " Let me go, Karl." 
 
 " By God, I will not. You came here to help me. 
 I need your help. Do you know where he keeps 
 any of his papers? Answer me." 
 
 " I won't; let go my hand." 
 
 " Did you obey instructions?" 
 
 "I tried to." 
 
 " Then where are his papers ? " 
 
 " I will not tell you." 
 
 "You will not? You know then. I demand an 
 answer." 
 
 " I would die first. I will not betray him." 
 
 " Would you rather betray Germany ? Did you 
 not come here to serve Germany in all things ? Did 
 you not? " 
 
 "Yes; I did. That is true." 
 
 " What has changed you ? " 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 259
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " That is not so. You are not the same. Do you 
 not still love Germany ? " 
 
 " Yes, I do." 
 
 " Then tell me what you know, Frieda. Time is 
 flying past. Do you want to see me shot by a 
 firing squad ? " 
 
 " Oh, Karl." 
 
 " I am in great danger." 
 
 " What shall I do ? " cried Frieda, wringing her 
 hands, "what shall I do?" 
 
 " You must help me. By Jove ! I forgot to 
 search him." 
 
 He opened the door, and went into the bedroom. 
 He felt in Billy's pockets, and there was nothing 
 there, but his watch fell out, and rolled from the 
 bed to the floor, and the back case flew open. A 
 photograph and a bit of paper fluttered out, and 
 Karl stooped and picked them up. He studied the 
 three rows of figures written upon the card, and 
 then stepped back quickly into the living room. 
 
 " Here is a photograph of you, Frieda," he said. 
 
 " An old one," she nodded. 
 
 " You remember it ? " 
 
 " I saw it yesterday." 
 
 " Then you must have seen this also," and he 
 held the card out to her. " It is the combination 
 of a safe." 
 
 260
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 She looked at it, and turned her head away. 
 
 " Look at me ! Do you wish to see me die like 
 a dog? Then answer, what is this? Do you wish 
 to break your mother's heart, see Germany laid 
 waste, and English troops in Berlin? Then 
 answer." 
 
 " Yes," she said so faintly he could hardly hear 
 her, " it is the combination of a safe." 
 
 "What safe?" 
 
 " At his office in the Navy Department." 
 
 " How do you know that? " 
 
 " I was with him when the combination was 
 given to him." 
 
 " Was there anything in the safe ? " 
 
 " He put some papers in." 
 
 "What kind of papers?" 
 
 " I did not see them, they were in a black leather 
 case." 
 
 " Oh," said Karl, and took a deep breath. 
 
 " Were they plans, orders what were they ? " 
 
 " He did not say." 
 
 " He has been working on operations ? " 
 
 " He has been in consultation with the board of 
 strategy." 
 
 "God!" said Karl, and took another deep 
 breath. 
 
 " You would know his office again ? " 
 261
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " You know how to get there ? " 
 
 " He showed me," said Elfrieda, " the day I was 
 there yesterday ! Turn to the left, go up a flight 
 of stairs, second door to the right." 
 
 " You must go to the Department, and get into 
 that safe." 
 
 " It is impossible. There are guards, and no 
 visitors are admitted without passes. There is no 
 way to get in." 
 
 " There is always a way for everything," said 
 Karl, and pulled his twany beard. " Wait ! " he 
 cried. " I have it." 
 
 He locked the bedroom door behind him, and 
 rushed like a madman into the bathroom, tore off 
 his coat and collar, and turned on the hot water. 
 He found Billy's razors, the soap, and the strop, 
 hanging on a hook behind the door. Twenty min- 
 utes later he walked back into the room, and Frieda, 
 who had thrown herself exhausted upon the couch, 
 started up with a cry: 
 
 "Billy!" 
 
 Karl laughed. " Am I as like him as that ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 She stared at him in amazement, and Karl 
 grinned, and rubbed his face with his hands. 
 
 " I have n't been like this for years," he said. 
 262
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 " I hardly know myself with a smooth face. Now, 
 call up the Willard, and ask for Mrs. Sabiston." 
 
 He walked up and down the floor, smoking and 
 scowling. Presently he took the receiver from 
 Elfrieda. 
 
 " Mrs. Sabiston ? You recognize my voice ? 
 Quite well, thank you. Can you be ready to start 
 back in, say, half an hour? Thank you. No, not 
 very successful, but things may turn out all right 
 in the end. I will tell you when I see you. This 
 is most important. Can you be at the north en- 
 trance in half an hour? We are going back at 
 once. What 's that ? Yes, I fear so, but we can- 
 not wait for night, there is not time." 
 
 He hung up the receiver, and turned to go. 
 
 Frieda looked at him inquiringly. 
 
 " I am going to walk into Wilhelm's office," 
 whispered Karl, " and take those papers out of his 
 safe, and you are going with me to show the way." 
 
 " Karl ! I could n't do that." 
 
 " You must, and shall." 
 
 ' You will be discovered, arrested, you may even 
 be " 
 
 " I fooled you," laughed Karl, lightly. 
 
 " I see the difference now," said Frieda. " Your 
 faces are not the same. There is something 
 spiritual " 
 
 263
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Are you ready? " 
 
 " I must say good bye to him." 
 
 " Keep out of that room," said Karl, and pushed 
 her from the door. " I shall take no chances with 
 you." 
 
 " I must say good bye to him alone." 
 
 " Come with me," he answered. 
 
 " Good bye, Billy," she called through the door, 
 " Karl is " 
 
 Karl put his hand over her mouth. " No more," 
 he said, " not another word. You will spoil every- 
 thing in a minute." 
 
 " I must get my things upstairs." 
 
 " There is no time. You have your coat and hat. 
 I am waiting." 
 
 " What are we going to do, Karl ? " 
 
 " I shall obtain that leather case, and then we 
 shall return to Germany, in the submarine." 
 
 " Are you going to leave Billy tied up like that ? " 
 
 " It won't hurt him." 
 
 " He may starve he lives here all alone." 
 
 " He will work loose in two days ; by that time I 
 shall have escaped." 
 
 " In two days he will die of hunger." 
 
 " He will be no hungrier than the people of Ger- 
 many. Who looks after his rooms ? " 
 
 " The janitor's wife." 
 
 264
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 " I will call her on the 'phone and say I am going 
 out, and tell her not to bother with my apartment 
 today or tomorrow." 
 
 He called the janitor, and gave his orders. Then 
 he walked to the bedroom, and paused with his hand 
 upon the knob. 
 
 " I will not go in," he said to Elfrieda. " Good 
 bye, brother," he called through the door. " There 
 will be sorrow in Berlin when I return. They 
 trusted you so everybody." 
 
 " And now, Frieda," he said, turning to her sud- 
 denly, and putting his face so close to hers that she 
 shrank back with a cry, and tried to escape the hand 
 he closed over hers, " feel this in my pocket. A 
 pistol! So help me God, Frieda, if you attempt 
 any tricks I will kill you. Germany has put her 
 trust in you for this hour, and you shall not fail. 
 Swear that you will not betray your country." 
 
 " I promise, Karl," said Frieda, faintly. 
 
 " Do you swear? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And you will not attempt to communicate with 
 Wilhelm?" 
 
 " If you demand it of me, Karl, I will not." 
 
 " Come, then." 
 
 They walked to the Navy building, and she took 
 him to the western archway. Inside she turned to 
 
 265
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 the right into the first corridor, and then she 
 stopped : 
 
 " Turn to the left," she repeated, " go up a flight 
 of stairs, and it is the second door to the right." 
 
 " Who will be in the room?" asked Karl. 
 
 " An officer named Wallis shares the room with 
 Billy." 
 
 "How does he address him?" 
 
 " Everyone calls him ' Wallie.' ' 
 
 They walked in, and there was little Wallis, busy 
 at his desk. 
 
 " Hello, Billy," he called, and got up, and shook 
 hands. 
 
 " Hello, Wallie," laughed Karl, and saw with sat- 
 isfaction that the other man's eyes were all for 
 Elfrieda. " I dropped in to get some papers I left 
 here yesterday." 
 
 He took the combination from his pocket, studied 
 it a moment, opened the safe, secured the leather 
 case, closed the safe, buttoned his coat over the 
 package, and took Elfrieda's arm. 
 
 Little Wallis followed them to the door, and 
 looked longingly after them, and then returned to 
 his desk with a sigh. 
 
 On the sidewalk Karl lighted a cigarette, nodded 
 to a watchman, who was going in, and asked El- 
 frieda to show him the way to the Willard. 
 
 266
 
 THE BLACK LEATHER CASE 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston was waiting for them in the car at 
 the north entrance, with Bruno asleep on the 
 seat beside her. They stepped quickly in, and Karl 
 took the wheel, and drove through F street, east. 
 
 " We will leave the car at the railroad station," 
 said Karl. 
 
 "We are not going back the way we came?" 
 asked Mrs. Sabiston. 
 
 " It would take too long, we have not four days 
 at our disposal. We must go by train. You can 
 leave the car with the taxicab people at the depot 
 and have them take it to their garage, to be called 
 for later. You go do this while I buy the tickets." 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston and Elfrieda joined him at the 
 ticket window a few minutes later, and he showed 
 them the tickets. 
 
 " You have bought them by the B. & O.," said 
 Mrs. Sabiston ; " I always use the Pennsylvania." 
 
 " The other train goes first. We must get out 
 of Washington as quickly as possible. Take this, 
 Mrs. Sabiston, and guard it closely. If anything 
 happens to me see that it is put aboard the sub- 
 marine. And now I must ask you to send a 
 telegram." 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston nodded, and took the small black 
 leather case he passed to her through her muff. 
 "What shall I send?" she asked. 
 
 267
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " In code. Tell the wireless man to have the sub- 
 marine come back to pick me up as soon after mid- 
 night tonight as possible. You have your code book 
 with you?" 
 
 " Yes. Where shall I go to write the message? " 
 " In that telephone booth. We will wait here." 
 When Mrs. Sabiston returned, and filed the mes- 
 sage, they walked through the concourse, and took 
 the train. Mrs. Sabiston boldly carried Bruno 
 into the parlor-car. She expected the usual argu- 
 ment with the conductor, but had much faith in the 
 persuasive eloquence of a small gratuity. 
 
 268
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 MR. MONSON GETS AN EYEFUL 
 
 " While I am in Boston," said Mr. Monson, " I 
 think I shall run down to Namaschet, and see how 
 Peters is getting along." 
 
 The Chief nodded. 
 
 " In fact, I think I had better go there first, and 
 attend to the Boston business later." 
 
 " Very well. You have had absolutely no report 
 from Peters?" 
 
 " Nothing but the one letter, that he wrote from 
 Scituate. It was rather personal." 
 
 "What did he say?" 
 
 " Merely that he had been employed by Mrs. 
 Sabiston to run her motorboat, and that he was en- 
 joying himself." 
 
 " He had learned nothing? " 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 " That is not like Peters. Had he got into the 
 house?" 
 
 " Not yet." 
 
 " He had searched nothing, questioned nobody ? " 
 
 " Apparently he had not." 
 269
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Rather slow work, for Peters." 
 
 " There was something about dogs. Oh, yes, I 
 remember. He said that Mrs. Sabiston was fond 
 of them. Had a pointer that wore a gold collar, 
 and some great Danes that roamed the grounds at 
 night, so that he dared not approach the house." 
 
 " That is suspicious." 
 
 " I thought so." 
 
 " What was he doing with himself ? " 
 
 " Running the motorboat." 
 
 "That was all?" 
 
 " Yes. She made him go out every day." 
 
 "Alone?" 
 
 " Sometimes she accompanied him." 
 
 " Just sail around anywhere ? " 
 
 " Why no," said Monson, " come to think of it, 
 Peters said she made him go straight out to sea five 
 miles, never more and never less, always five miles." 
 
 "Then what?" 
 
 " Then back." 
 
 " That was all he was doing? " 
 
 " He mentioned nothing else." 
 
 "Has Mrs. Sabiston left Washington yet?" 
 
 " She is still at the hotel." 
 
 " Then you would better go over immediately 
 and give Peters a lift. It should be easier to get 
 what you want in her absence. And if it does n't 
 
 270
 
 MR. MONSON GETS AN EYEFUL 
 
 look like a good prospect, send Peters back. We 
 need every man." 
 
 Half an hour later a quiet, middle-aged gentle- 
 man in spectacles glanced up from the newspaper 
 that he was reading in the Pullman of the New 
 York train, then about to leave, and observed a 
 belated party coming through the car. 
 
 " Remarkably handsome man," thought Mr. 
 Monson, " and a very good-looking woman two 
 of them, as I live. Two of the best-looking ones 
 I have seen in a long time. Both German no, 
 the brunette looks a little like an Italian ' five 
 feet seven inches, weight one hundred and thirty, 
 hair dark, general appearance stylish, probably 
 Italian ' where did I hear that description be- 
 fore ? Sounds familiar. She is n't Italian, though, 
 I can see that now. That 's the American look, 
 you can't mistake it. You don't see a face like that 
 often, not once out of a hundred thousand. Hello! 
 pointer dog gold collar! Why, these must be 
 some of Peters' friends. I should n't be surprised 
 if we had quite a little reunion at Namaschet." 
 
 Mr. Monson sauntered behind the party with 
 the pointer dog through the Pennsylvania station, 
 in New York, and his taxi followed theirs across 
 town. He was behind them when they passed the 
 Boston gate, sat opposite them at table in the din- 
 
 271
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 ing car, listened to the argument over the pointer 
 dog, and saw the bill passed and noted the con- 
 ductor's smile, and other details. 
 
 But he did not follow the pretty brunette when 
 she left the car at New London, for he saw that 
 she was bare-headed, and would return, and be- 
 sides, he was more interested in the other woman. 
 So he did not read the messages that Elfrieda filed 
 at the telgraph office, although one of them would 
 have interested him. 
 
 It was addressed to Hannibal G. White, 45 Broad- 
 way, New York, and read : " W. H. unsatisfactory 
 see Bruch immediately," and was signed " S." The 
 other telegram was addressed to Mrs. Sabiston's 
 chauffeur, and directed him to meet her train at 
 Clifton Junction. 
 
 Nor did Mr. Monson see Elfrieda, when she had 
 filed the two despatches that had been written on 
 the train, glance swiftly around, seize a pen, and 
 write a message of her own, a message that would 
 have puzzled him, for it was worded: 
 
 JANITOR, 
 
 Summit Apartment, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Go to Mr. Lawson's rooms at once and find 
 watch I have left on bedroom floor. 
 
 W. H. 
 272
 
 MR. MONSON GETS AN EYEFUL 
 
 Mr. Monson did not observe any of these things. 
 Hence he was much surprised, when the train 
 stopped, fifteen miles from Boston, a most unusual 
 thing for those fast trains to do, to see the pointer 
 dog with the gold collar escorted from the car by 
 two very good-looking ladies and a tall, handsome 
 man. He surmised, after glancing at the map in his 
 time-table, that Mrs. Sabiston was making a short- 
 cut to Namaschet by automobile, so that, upon reach- 
 ing Boston, he lost no time in getting up to the offices 
 of the Secret Service branch, and enlisting the serv- 
 ices of six men. 
 
 He had decided to go down to Namaschet that 
 night, by automobile, and felt that for an expedi- 
 tion of that kind too many assistants would be 
 likely to prove less annoying than too few. 
 
 " And by the way," asked Mr. Monson, when they 
 were ready to start, " stop at the first drugstore and 
 get a bottle of strychnine, and if you see a grocery 
 store or a butcher shop open, let me know, I want 
 three or four big chunks of raw meat. Will you 
 attend to that, Roberts?" 
 
 "Yes, sir dogs?" 
 
 " Danes," answered Mr. Monson, and settled him- 
 self for a nap. 
 
 They shook him, when the big touring car had 
 stopped in front of the entrance to " Rock Crest," 
 
 273
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 and Mr. Monson got out, and stretched his legs in 
 the roadway, and complained bitterly of the mud. 
 
 " Gate 's locked, sir," said Roberts. 
 
 Mr. Monson turned his flashlight on the lock, and 
 then upon the driveway. 
 
 "Automobile tracks," he announced briefly, 
 " fresh ones. The party has gone in. Man's foot- 
 prints here in the mud, lot of 'em." 
 
 " The chauffeur got out to open the gate," sug- 
 gested Roberts. 
 
 "Yes, that's it. No hello! Here's a foot- 
 print over the tire track. Somebody else has been 
 here, somebody came up and looked through the 
 gate after the automobile had gone through. Rather 
 gloomy place for a lone pedestrian, a cold, dark 
 night like this. What's down that way?" 
 
 " Stone wall, both sides," replied Roberts, who 
 had been looking about. " There 's the stump of a 
 tree twenty-five yards down, where we can get over." 
 
 " Lead me to it," said Mr. Monson, and scrambled 
 through the wet bushes. " I '11 go over first. No, 
 I '11 wait on the wall for you fellows, and we '11 all 
 go over together. Peters has a graphic way of de- 
 scribing dogs. Hello! see here, more footprints. 
 Our unknown also found this stump, and got over, 
 judging by the vines pulled off this wall. Well, give 
 me a leg. There ! Thanks." 
 
 274
 
 MR. MONSON GETS AN EYEFUL 
 
 " Here 's the meat," said Roberts. 
 
 " Put the strychnine on it. Maybe the dogs will 
 fall for it, but I don't know about these Danes, 
 they're uncommonly faithful and hello! Gad! 
 that gave me a turn. Look, there in the bushes, 
 Roberts, what do you see?" He flashed his light 
 downward again. 
 
 " That 's a dog, all right," said Roberts, " a regu- 
 lar elephant. Dead, too." He scrambled down the 
 wall, and examined the dog under the light. " Shot 
 through the head, Mr. Monson," he called softly, 
 " a forty- four." 
 
 The other men joined him on the ground, and 
 they began picking their way through the trees. 
 Presently they came to the roadway for which they 
 had been searching, and a hundred yards up the 
 drive lay the body of another dog, shot, like the 
 first, through the head. 
 
 " I don't know who did it, but he is my friend," 
 said Mr. Monson. " And now for the third one." 
 
 "Three?" asked Roberts. "Well, I hope 
 here it is, sir." 
 
 The men came up, and they stood for a moment 
 looking down at the Dane, a monster, the largest of 
 them all. 
 
 " Gad ! what teeth," laughed Monson. " No 
 wonder Peters did n't make more progress." 
 
 275
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 They walked along quietly under the thick 
 branches of the trees, threshing about in the wind. 
 
 " Stable and garage," whispered Mr. Monson, 
 presently. "Any lights?" 
 
 " All dark," replied Roberts. 
 
 " There 's the house," said Monson after a while. 
 " We 've come in the back way." 
 
 The men passed through the woods, and stood 
 now on the edge of the grounds, hesitating, keep- 
 ing in the shadows. Before them was open sky 
 above the sea, which they could hear roaring on 
 the beach below. 
 
 " Peters sleeps in a boathouse, down that way 
 somewhere," said Mr. Monson. " It 's at the foot 
 of the cliff, he said. We must get there somehow, 
 but we can't cross those open grounds. Now Rob- 
 erts, you hello, Roberts, did you see that?" 
 
 "What, sir?" 
 
 "Look, straight ahead and up, there. Get those 
 two chimneys. Now watch the north one. See 
 that!" 
 
 " Looked like a spark," said Roberts, softly. 
 
 "Looked? It was a spark," whispered Mr. 
 Monson. " There it is again, running up and down 
 like lightning it 's a lightning rod, that 's what 
 it is, Roberts, I can see it now. Most peculiar." 
 
 " What do you suppose " 
 276
 
 MR. MONSON GETS AN EYEFUL 
 
 "Shucks! Roberts," interjected Mr. Monson, 
 " there 's only one thing it could be. It 's a wire- 
 less. Wait a minute, now you can see." 
 
 The round moon, like a ship at sea, came riding 
 out of the ocean of scurrying cloud. Monson 
 threw himself upon the ground, and looking up 
 brought her smiling prow in line with the south 
 chimney. Across the silvery disk the spider-like 
 wires traced their cobweb way. 
 
 " Wireless, all right," chuckled Monson, " you 
 can see it now as plain as day. Dandy place for 
 one, too, could n't be better. Chimneys were just 
 made for it. But they forgot about the induction 
 from that lightning rod. Bad insulation and I 
 saw the spark. Smart, but there 's always a slip 
 somewhere. The slickest of them will do it. Now 
 I would like to see Peters show up." 
 
 " Maybe it was Peters who killed those dogs," 
 suggested Roberts. " Has he got a silencer on his 
 gun?" 
 
 " I guess so, but what 's that got to do with it ? " 
 
 " Well," said Roberts, " those dogs were shot 
 since the party came in by auto." 
 
 " Yes," nodded Mr. Monson. 
 
 " That could n't have been more than an hour 
 and a half ago. Whoever killed those dogs had a 
 silencer, otherwise the people would have heard 
 
 277
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 the shots, and the house would be aroused. You 
 see, it 's black." 
 
 " It could n't have been Peters," said Mr. Mon- 
 son, " unless he was out tonight. The man who 
 made those footprints out there killed the dogs. 
 They were shot by the gate, and somebody coming 
 in did that. Besides, the house is n't as black as 
 it looks. There 's a crack of light under the win- 
 dow over that portico." 
 
 " I see it now, sir." 
 
 " You 've "got to look in that window, Roberts. 
 Come along with me, and I '11 give you a boost 
 up. The rest of you fellows stay here, ready if 
 anything happens." 
 
 Mr. Monson and Roberts left the shadows of the 
 woods, and cautiously crossed the back lawn to the 
 house. 
 
 " Here 's a rose trellis, sir! " said Roberts. 
 
 " Strong enough to hold you? Then up with 
 you." 
 
 Roberts climbed up like a cat, pulled himself over 
 the cornice of the portico, and crawled across the 
 roof, Mr. Monson waiting at the foot of the rose 
 trellis until he returned. 
 
 " Well ? " he asked in a whisper. 
 
 " Man sending wireless," said Roberts, " heavy 
 man, brown mustache, German." 
 
 278
 
 MR. MONSON GETS AN EYEFUL 
 
 " Very good," replied Mr. Monson. " And now 
 for a look at the front of the house." 
 
 He beckoned to the other men, and posting two 
 at the rear, led Roberts and the rest through the 
 shrubbery. 
 
 They crept along under the walls of the main 
 building, turned the angle of the south wing, and 
 passed around to the piazza. 
 
 " Plenty of light on this side," said Mr. Monson 
 under his breath ; " the folks have n't retired. You 
 wait here, while I go get an eyeful." 
 
 He eased himself upon the piazza, crept across 
 to the window, and looked in. 
 
 " Good God! " said Mr. Monson to himself, and 
 put his shoulder against the window. A dog barked 
 as he shouted, " Come on, boys ! " and heaved him- 
 self into the room, a gun in each hand. 
 
 379
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE SPARK ON THE CHIMNEY 
 
 Neil Lawson opened his bedroom door, and was 
 half way across the room before he suddenly 
 stopped as if he had been petrified. Over his hand- 
 some, boyish face spread a look of mingled horror, 
 astonishment and mirth. 
 
 Gradually he came to his senses, his eyes blinking, 
 his mouth twitching. He tried to speak, and suc- 
 ceeded only in making incoherent sounds. Then 
 he became galvanic, and began to pull frantically 
 at the straps that bound Billy to the bed. He 
 loosened the cords, and for the first time observing 
 the gag, pulled it out. 
 
 " Where are they ? " cried Billy. 
 
 " Who ? What the deuce " 
 
 " Have they gone ? " 
 
 "I I " stammered Neil. 
 
 " Get me loose, here. Thanks, old man. Damned 
 lucky you came in. He telephoned the janitor not 
 to bother about the rooms for two days, and I had 
 reconciled myself to the thought of a long fast, 
 and I 've got to find them." 
 
 280
 
 THE SPARK ON THE CHIMNEY 
 
 He struggled to his feet, and began rubbing the 
 soreness out of his arms and legs. 
 
 " Who the devil " 
 
 " You laughed at me," interrupted Billy. 
 
 " I could n't help it," admitted Neil, " you did 
 look so comical, stretched out there, tied up like a 
 ham. What 's the matter, burglars ? Have you 
 been robbed? I never had such a shock in my life; 
 walked right in and there you were." 
 
 "I've got to find them," said Billy, "I must 
 find them, but where to look Give me a ciga- 
 rette. Thanks, Neil, lucky you came in, old man, 
 providential. How do you happen to be back in 
 Washington ? " 
 
 " Well," said Neil, full of enthusiasm, his face 
 glowing, but a little of shame in his eyes, " I Ve 
 got a commission in the army captain. Of 
 course I 'm not fit to be a captain, don't know a 
 thing, but Senator Marshfield fixed it up for me, 
 and wired me to come on, so I quit the aviation 
 school, and here I am. Just got in. Don't know 
 where I 'm going or what I 'm expected to do, but 
 I '11 try to bluff it through. One could n't turn 
 down a captaincy, although I I would rather 
 have got it through merit than pull. Still, it 's 
 fortunate." 
 
 " Fortunate for me," said Billy. 
 281
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " How long had you been tied up like that ? " 
 
 " Nearly an hour." 
 
 " You would have worked loose." 
 
 " In about two days, yes. And then it might 
 have been too late. Well, I 'm off. Sorry about 
 the portieres and things, Neil, I '11 " 
 
 " Nonsense, I '11 have them fixed up all right. 
 Whoever pulled them down was in a hurry, just 
 ripped them away. Who did it, Billy?" 
 
 " I I I 'd a little rather " 
 
 " Oh," said Neil, looking at him curiously. 
 "You you don't want to notify the police?" 
 
 "No," said Billy, quickly, "no, I I really 
 think I 'd better just let the matter drop. Rather 
 personal sorry I can't tell you more, old man, 
 but you you know " 
 
 " Don't tell me, of course," said Neil. " So far 
 as my things are concerned it 's quite all right." 
 
 " You are considerate, Neil, I don't know how 
 to thank you for your kindness, and your your 
 delicacy. Now, I must hurry. I really must not 
 delay any longer." 
 
 " Where are you going ? Can I help you ? You 
 may depend upon me for anything, Billy." 
 
 " Thanks. I I don't know where I 'm going. 
 Why why, Neil, I don't know where to go. All 
 I know is that she has gone " 
 
 282
 
 THE SPARK ON THE CHIMNEY 
 
 " Oh," said Neil, with a grin, " she 's gone, has 
 she ? By Jove ! she ! " 
 
 " She did nit tie me up," explained Billy, his face 
 scarlet. " I can't tell you, Neil. I would if I 
 could, but there are reasons I can't." 
 
 " Is there anything I can do? " 
 
 " I think not," said Billy. " I 'm trying to re- 
 member a name, the name of a woman she has 
 probably gone there. Oh, I say, Neil, did you ever 
 hear of a Mrs. Sabiston ? That 's the name I was 
 trying to think of. They called her on the 'phone 
 just before they left, and made arrangements to 
 go away by auto. I don't know where she was 
 stopping.'' 
 
 " Sabiston," said Neil, wrinkling his forehead ; 
 " I 've read about her some place where does she 
 live?" 
 
 * That 's what I want to find out." 
 
 " Of course! I 'm very helpful. Let me think." 
 
 " She lives somewhere near Boston," said Billy, 
 slowly. " It seems to me I Ve heard that. Hold 
 on, Neil, maybe Mrs. Winters would know." 
 
 He rushed to the 'phone, and called Mrs. Winters' 
 apartment. Mrs. Winters had not yet returned, 
 and the maid did not know anything about a Mrs. 
 Sabiston. Miss Fralli had gone out to breakfast 
 at seven, and had n't come back yet. 
 
 283
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " It 's no use, Neil," said Billy, dejectedly, " I 'm 
 absolutely up against it." 
 
 " Are you sure the lady lives near Boston ? " 
 
 " I remember having heard that." 
 
 " Then she might be in the Boston Blue Book, 
 probably would. Let 's take a look." 
 
 " Where would we find one ? " 
 
 " There would be one at the Willard," answered 
 Neil, after thinking for a moment. " I '11 go down 
 there with you. Come, pull yourself together, you 
 are agitated. We will walk, it will do you good." 
 
 They started out, but Billy insisted on taking a 
 taxi, and they were at the hotel in a few minutes. 
 At the desk they found a Blue Book, and Neil 
 skimmed the pages rapidly. 
 
 " Here it is, Billy," he said presently, " ' Sabiston, 
 Mrs. Richard Brainerd, nee Schoenleber ' 
 
 "That's the one," laughed Billy, excitedly, 
 " Margaretha Schoenleber." 
 
 " Why, I knew her, I have n't heard of her for 
 years. I thought she went to Germany when she 
 was a squab." 
 
 " She married an American, and came back, some 
 years later." 
 
 " ' Commonwealth avenue,' " said Neil, reading, 
 " ' Namaschet ' her summer home is there." 
 
 " That 's the place," said Billy, " I 'm sure." 
 284
 
 THE SPARK ON THE CHIMNEY 
 
 " Mrs. Sabiston has left," interrupted a clerk who 
 had been standing near. 
 
 "She was here?" 
 
 " She went away this morning, by automobile." 
 
 " How long ago? " 
 
 " Maybe half an hour. I saw her in the lobby with 
 the dog. Handsomest dog I think I ever saw ; wore 
 a solid gold collar, with a diamond in the locket." 
 
 " Gold collar ! " interrupted Neil. " Was it a liver 
 and white English pointer?" 
 
 " That 's the one," nodded the clerk. 
 
 " Two women and a man ? " asked Neil. 
 
 " Mrs. Sabiston was alone, she did n't even have 
 a maid." 
 
 " I saw the dog in the Union Station, going 
 through the New York gate, as I was coming in 
 this morning," said Neil, turning to Billy. " Two 
 women and a man. One of the women was a perfect 
 stunner." 
 
 " Yes, that is so," smiled Billy, enthusiastically. 
 
 "Tall, slender " 
 
 " Yes, yes." 
 
 " blonde," finished Neil, rapturously, "a per- 
 fect corker, face like soft pink velvet, and big blue 
 eyes, oh, she was " 
 
 " That 's not the one," interrupted Billy, crest- 
 fallen. 
 
 285
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " That was Mrs. Sabiston," grinned the clerk. 
 
 " That Margaretha Schoenleber ! " cried Neil. 
 " Not in a thousand years. She was beginning to 
 bulge when I was a kid. She must have a shape like 
 a bushel of potatoes by this time." 
 
 " That was Mrs. Sabiston, all right," insisted 
 the clerk, " and she has the best figure that I 've seen 
 in Peacock Alley this winter, too. Well, she ought 
 to have. Plenty of porterhouse steak went up to 
 her dining room for the dog. All she ate while 
 she was here was hominy and spinach, and listen to 
 what I 'm saying, if many more women go in for 
 this new fad a whole lot of hotels are going to close 
 up before long." 
 
 " What was the other woman like? " asked Billy, 
 anxiously. 
 
 " The other one," said Neil, " let me see now. 
 Tan shoes and spats, and sand-colored silk stock- 
 ings. Is that the one you're looking for?" 
 
 "Tall?" 
 
 " Yes, rather. I did n't notice particularly, don't 
 care much for brunettes." 
 
 "She was dark?" 
 
 " I think so. But the other woman well, if 
 I had known that Margaretha Schoenleber was 
 going to grow up to have sense enough to live on 
 spinach, I 'd have gone to Germany myself." 
 
 286
 
 THE SPARK ON THE CHIMNEY 
 
 "What kind of a man was with them?" asked 
 Billy. 
 
 " Chap about your build." 
 
 " Oh." 
 
 " He had his hat pulled down over his eyes, so 
 I did n't see him, but that blonde " 
 
 "They were taking a train?" 
 
 " They were going through the New York gate." 
 
 " I 'm off to Namaschet," said Billy. " I have 
 two days' leave." 
 
 " Is there anything I can do for you, old man ? " 
 
 " Nothing, Neil, thanks, good bye." 
 
 Billy jumped into a taxi. Half an hour later 
 he was on the Pennsylvania express, on the way 
 to New York. He arrived in Boston in time to 
 catch a late train to Namaschet, and rode to the 
 gate of " Rock Crest " in the town jitney. 
 
 " Mrs. Sabiston came by here a short time ago," 
 the chauffeur said as they rode along. Billy watched 
 the man turn back, and then tried the heavy iron 
 gate. It was locked. 
 
 He shook it, and looked through the bars. A 
 heavy-breathing animal came up, and Billy could 
 see its white teeth glistening in the darkness. 
 
 " Dane," he said, " and about the largest one I 
 ever saw. Nice sort of people must live here." 
 
 He walked along by the high stone wall that 
 287
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 bordered the road, stumbling through the bushes 
 that were wet with the rain that had been falling. 
 Twenty-five yards away he came upon the stump 
 of a tree. He climbed up, scrambled to the top of 
 the wall, and peering down in the gloom saw that 
 the dog had followed him, silently, its head back, 
 its fangs uncovered. 
 
 " Old man," said Billy, " you are as fine a dog 
 as I ever saw, and under many circumstances you 
 and I could be great friends, but just now you are 
 interfering with my plans. I did n't come all the 
 way up here to let anything stop me now." 
 
 He took his pistol from his pocket, examined it, 
 leaned down, and fired. 
 
 The great Dane collapsed. 
 
 " The silencer," said Billy to himself, " has some 
 drawbacks. I 'd be rather glad if somebody would 
 come down now and show me the way up to the 
 house." 
 
 He dropped over the wall, and walked slowly 
 through the trees, found the roadway, and followed 
 it over the hill. At a turn in the road the tawny 
 body of a huge beast loomed before him in the dim 
 light that showed beneath the archway of trees. 
 
 " Another one ! " said Billy, and got his gun out 
 just in time. A little further on he killed the third 
 Dane, and after that he walked more warily. 
 
 288
 
 THE SPARK ON THE CHIMNEY 
 
 " That was my last cartridge," he thought. " I 
 wonder if they have any more dogs? Nice people, 
 very nice people, so hospitable." 
 
 He emerged at last from the shadows of the 
 woods, passing the dark and silent garage, and 
 stood for a moment on the lawn, looking at the 
 house framed against the wintry sky. 
 
 " This must be the back of it," he thought ; " it 
 probably faces the sea, that is how I should have 
 built it. Fine old place, middle part pure Colonial, 
 look at those old-fashioned chimneys hello ! what 
 the deuce was that ? Looked like a spark there 
 it is again it is a spark. It 's a radio, could n't 
 possibly be anything else. Portable radio. So, Mrs. 
 Sabiston, you have been very helpful, have you? 
 Well, I rather guess yes. Very clever, very, but 
 somebody forgot about the lightning rod on the 
 north chimney. Bad insulation, and I saw the 
 spark. Things are beginning to look quite inter- 
 esting. I 'd like to take a peep under the window 
 shade in that room over the portico. Well, I may 
 do it yet, the night 's young." 
 
 He walked around the corner of the south wing, 
 following the driveway, stepped on the piazza, and 
 lifted the heavy brass knocker. A dog barked. 
 
 " By Jove ! another Dane. No, that 's a smaller 
 dog." He waited, and knocked again. The door 
 
 289
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 was opened, and Mrs. Sabiston, in evening dress, 
 stood framed against the light, a pointer dog bark- 
 ing at her side, and behind her, Karl, in the suit 
 of gray in which he had left Washington. They 
 stared at him unable to say a word as he walked 
 gravely into the hall. 
 
 " Put your gun up, Karl," said Billy, and took 
 off his hat and coat. 
 
 " How the devil " Karl's eyes were hard and 
 cold, like two tempered steel drills. Billy's were 
 soft, with the blue light in them. 
 
 " Don't look at me like that, Karl," he laughed. 
 " I did n't come here to interfere with you. Get 
 away if you can make it; perhaps, after all 
 He paused, as he thought of the spark he had seen 
 on the chimney, and then he added slowly : " I 
 came for Frieda ; where is she ? " 
 
 290
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston was very glad to meet Billy again. 
 She remembered him, of course, and how she had 
 made faces at him through the fence, in the old 
 days, and she smiled at the recollection as she led 
 the way into the drawing room. 
 
 " She is very good looking for a blonde," thought 
 Billy, " but Neil has a primitive taste in beauty." 
 
 He crossed the room to the big fireplace, and 
 then, looking about him, he asked again, " Where 
 is Frieda ? " 
 
 " She is here," replied Karl, ungraciously. 
 
 Frieda at that moment came in, very quietly, and 
 Billy saw, as he took her hand, that her face was 
 drawn and white. She wore her hat and coat, and 
 carried a small satchel in her hand. On the divan, 
 by the window, lay a heavy ulster, and by it a 
 woman's motor wrap. 
 
 "They are going," thought Billy; "I have got 
 here just in time." 
 
 " How like your brother you are ! " said Marga- 
 291
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 retha, looking from Billy to Karl. " It is almost 
 impossible to tell them apart, is it not, Elfrieda? " 
 
 " There is a great difference," replied Elfrieda, 
 " in the eyes, and about the mouth." 
 
 " Yes, I notice it now," said Mrs. Sabiston, and 
 thought : " Karl is the handsomer." 
 
 Elfrieda put her satchel on the table, and turned 
 to the window, and stood looking out across the 
 lawn to where the ocean lay dark and sullen under 
 the clouds. Billy followed her with his eyes. Then 
 he asked: 
 
 " You are leaving, Karl ? " 
 
 Karl's eyelids narrowed, and he looked at his 
 brother closely. 
 
 " Yes," he admitted, after a long pause, " yes, we 
 are going away tonight." 
 
 " Elfrieda is not going." 
 
 " You are mistaken ; she is returning with me." 
 
 " I cannot have her in Germany now," said Billy. 
 "There is too much suffering there and things 
 may soon be worse. She might be hungry, ill she 
 might even die, and the crossing would be danger- 
 ous, very dangerous, Karl, as you know." 
 
 " That is true," conceded Karl, " but notwith- 
 standing, she is going with me, so there need be no 
 argument about that." 
 
 " They are ready to go, that is certain," thought 
 292
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 Billy, " yet there is no car at the door and the garage 
 was dark as I came by. Can it be possible that the 
 submarine is coming in here ? " 
 
 He walked to the window, where Mrs. Sabiston 
 had joined Elfrieda, and looked over their heads 
 at the vast expanse of heaving billows spread before 
 them, and at the breakers foaming over the reefs. 
 
 " You are close to the sea, Margaretha ; I had no 
 idea. Rather a rocky coast, quite dangerous, I 
 should think." 
 
 " Very," answered Mrs. Sabiston, shortly. 
 
 " Ugly looking reefs." 
 
 " Very." 
 
 " Where is the nearest harbor ? " 
 
 " Harbor ? Oh, north of us, not a great distance." 
 Margaretha went back to the fire, and then began to 
 pace the floor nervously, glancing from time to time 
 at the watch on her wrist. At her side, back and 
 forth across the room, walked Bruno, who could 
 not bear to be away from her an instant. Billy 
 turned to Elfrieda. 
 
 " Are you really going away from me, girl ? " 
 
 " I must," she answered in a faint voice. " You 
 don't understand, Billy, you do not know all the 
 things that I know. I must go back ! " Her hands 
 were tightly clasped together, and he saw that her 
 body was tense with suppressed emotion. 
 
 293
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " No one can make you, dear," said Billy, quietly, 
 " if you do not wish to go." 
 
 " You do not understand." 
 
 " No one shall force you to go against your will. 
 Give me the right to speak for you, dear, and you 
 shall stay here with me." 
 
 " I cannot, Billy." 
 
 " You must reach a great decision tonight, Frieda. 
 You have come to the parting of the ways." 
 
 " I know," she answered in a low tone. 
 
 " You have thought of all the things we have 
 talked about ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And your mind is made up about every- 
 thing?" 
 
 " I do not know, I I cannot see my way." 
 
 " It is very clear before you, it seems to me." 
 
 " That is because you do not understand." 
 
 " Oh, but I do, dear, I have been through it all 
 myself." 
 
 " It is different with me. There is something, 
 I cannot tell you what it is, something that I am 
 beginning to see is terrible." 
 
 Billy looked back across the room. Margaretha 
 and Karl were standing close together by the fire- 
 place. He held her hand as he bent over her, and 
 her face was as white as Elfrieda's. 
 
 294
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 " It is a trying time for many of us, dear, for 
 others as well as for yourself," Billy whispered. 
 " For me, also, Frieda." 
 
 " I know. You should not have come, Billy, but 
 I was sure you would know how I needed you 
 and come to me." Her lip was trembling. 
 
 " I am here," he said simply. 
 
 " When we arrived, and I learned that all the 
 plans were made, and that we were going to leave 
 tonight, I feared you could not reach me in time." 
 
 " I started as soon as I was released." 
 
 " You do not blame me for any share in that ? " 
 
 " Frieda ! No, dear, you had nothing to do with 
 it" 
 
 " You trust me so." 
 
 "Am I not here?" 
 
 " But how did you manage that ? It has puzzled 
 me. I could not put the address in the telegram, 
 I could n't even send you word, Karl made me 
 swear I would n't. What time did the janitor find 
 you?" 
 
 "Janitor!" 
 
 " I told him to look in your bedroom for your 
 watch, and I signed your name to the telegram, 
 but I did n't have a chance to send it until we had 
 reached New London. You must have come some 
 shorter way." 
 
 295
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " I have n't the faintest idea what you are talk- 
 ing about," laughed Billy. " Did you send a tele- 
 gram to the janitor to go to my room to look 
 for my watch ? By Jove ! that was clever, Frieda." 
 
 "He found you?" 
 
 "Well, no," smiled Billy; and then, apologeti- 
 cally, as though he was sorry he had not waited 
 for the janitor, " Neil Lawson came in unexpect- 
 edly, an hour after you had left. I learned that 
 you had taken the train to New York, and con- 
 cluded that you would come here. You and Karl 
 must have gone directly from the apartment to the 
 station." 
 
 " No," said Frieda, impulsively, " we went to 
 the Navy Department first, and " 
 
 " Navy Department ! " exclaimed Billy, his voice 
 rising unconsciously. 
 
 "What's that!" cried Karl, his throat choked 
 with anger. " Frieda, you have broken your prom- 
 ise, you have " 
 
 " Not quite so loud, please, in speaking to 
 Frieda," said Billy, turning upon his brother sud- 
 denly, and holding out his hand, warningly. 
 
 Karl looked at his watch. 
 
 " It is nearly time," he said in an undertone to 
 Mrs. Sabiston. "Is the motorboat ready?" 
 
 " I brought it in to the flat rock myself," she an- 
 296
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 swered, looking at him with admiration in her eyes. 
 " Everything is attended to." 
 
 " You are quite sure you can come back alone ? " 
 
 " Quite sure." 
 
 " Don't you think you would better take one of 
 the men along with you? It is rough outside 
 tonight." 
 
 " It was decided that we would not trust them, 
 besides, they have been unable to venture out by 
 day, and so could not learn the course, and the 
 channel through the reefs. I must go alone with 
 you and Frieda." 
 
 " Let us be off, then," said Karl, aloud, looking 
 once more at his watch. 
 
 " Frieda is not going," interrupted Billy, " and I 
 am not at all sure now that you are." 
 
 ; * You speak with considerable positiveness for 
 a man who has absolutely nothing to say about it," 
 replied Karl, with a note in his voice that Billy had 
 never heard before in any voice addressed to him 
 by any man. 
 
 " What were you doing at the Navy Depart- 
 ment?" 
 
 ' You shall pay dearly for giving me away," cried 
 Karl, savagely, turning upon the girl with a snarl, 
 " you have broken your word." 
 
 " You shall not threaten her," said Billy. " This 
 297
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 business has gone far enough, farther, I see now, 
 than I had ever dreamed. I must know everything." 
 
 " What shall I do! " moaned Frieda, " what shall 
 I do!" 
 
 " Think what you have done," cried Karl. 
 
 " I could not help it, Karl." 
 
 " You have brought him here to betray me." 
 
 " That is not so," exclaimed Billy. " I came of 
 my own accord, to see her again, perhaps for the 
 last time. I had hoped that you would get away. I 
 had thought that nobody had seen you, that nobody 
 knew that you had been here, and I believed that 
 you had gained nothing, had learned nothing, but 
 now " 
 
 "Well, now? What then?" demanded Karl. 
 
 " You can't go." 
 
 " I shall go, and nothing shall prevent me." 
 
 " I can't permit it." 
 
 Karl laughed. " I might have known," he said 
 bitterly, but speaking easily, as one who felt quite 
 sure of himself, and of his strength, " that a man 
 who would betray his country would betray his 
 brother." 
 
 " I have betrayed neither the one nor the other." 
 
 " You could have saved your Fatherland in its 
 hour of travail," cried Karl, " you are a traitor to 
 your native land." 
 
 298
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 " I have a higher obligation." 
 
 " There is no obligation greater than that which a 
 man owes to the land of his birth." 
 
 " Unless he deliberately assumes that obligation." 
 
 " You are a Prussian." 
 
 " I am an American." 
 
 " What do the other men in your service think of 
 that?" 
 
 " Why " The shot went home, as Billy recalled 
 what some of his brother officers did think on that 
 subject. 
 
 Karl looked at him and laughed coarsely. 
 
 " It does not matter what they think," said Billy. 
 " It is what I think that counts. I am an American 
 citizen." 
 
 "Skin deep!" 
 
 " I took the oath of allegiance, and I have renewed 
 that oath a thousand times, in every act of my life, 
 in every salute to the colors." 
 
 " It is a temporary allegiance. You were born a 
 German, and once a German always a German. This 
 country is a mongrel nation, made up of derelicts 
 from all the world. Their business is here, their 
 hearts are elsewhere. How can you stand against 
 your own blood, when the destiny of kin and country 
 rests in your hands?" 
 
 " The destiny of Germany does n't rest in my 
 299
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 hands," Billy answered. " Your nerves are in a 
 dreadful state, Karl." 
 
 " We planned to place it there." 
 
 " You are quite mad." 
 
 " Mad ! Why did we have you made Assistant 
 Chief-of-Staff to the Commander-in-Chief ? Do 
 you think we merely wanted to tickle your vanity? 
 It was because that assignment would put you, in 
 time of action, in the flag conning tower, with the 
 Admiral and his Chief-of-Staff." 
 
 "What of that?" 
 
 " Once they were out of the way, the fate of the 
 war would have been in your keeping." 
 
 "Karl!" 
 
 " The battle would have been yours to throw 
 away. You could have delivered the North Atlantic 
 fleet into our hands, manoeuvred it across our mine 
 fields!" 
 
 " Time enough for you to be figuring on what to 
 do with the American fleet when you have defeated 
 the British fleet," remarked Billy, drily. 
 
 " We shall take care of that," cried Karl. 
 
 Something in his voice made Billy look at him 
 sharply. 
 
 " We are coming out! " 
 
 "When?" 
 
 Karl's voice grew tense. " The day is at hand ! " 
 300
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 "And then?" 
 
 " It will be America's turn. Then we shall starve 
 England, and win the war. You had a part to play 
 in this, a great part, planned long ago, and when 
 the hour came you proved false to your own blood." 
 
 " Stop, Karl ! You do not know what you are 
 saying." 
 
 " It was all planned, I tell you," Karl went on, his 
 great excitement increasing, his voice rising. " You 
 would have been in a position to give every order to 
 the fleet by radio, every signal." 
 
 " What would the Admiral and the Chief-of-Staff 
 have been doing all this time?" demanded Billy, 
 smiling in spite of himself as he looked into Karl's 
 face, alive with emotion. 
 
 " My God ! " said Karl, " would odds of two to 
 one have proved too great for you? Then you are 
 no brother of mine." 
 
 " You don't mean " Billy's voice sank to an 
 incredulous whisper. 
 
 ' You could have taken care of both of them, as 
 the action began. When they had been done for 
 no one would have known. You would have been 
 in command of the whole fleet." 
 
 " Done for ! " said Billy, his face white. 
 
 " God ! you could have killed them both with 
 one shot." 
 
 301
 
 "You scoundrel!" 
 
 " That was your chance," Karl went on reck- 
 lessly, his whole body shaking convulsively, his 
 forehead wet with sweat. " The Emperor would 
 have conferred on you the Order of the Red Eagle, 
 yes, brother, you might have been a Prince of the 
 Empire, you might have had wealth, and honors 
 and the woman you love. That is what you have 
 thrown away by your treason. But there is a hope 
 yet. It is not too late. There is still time, if you 
 will say the word, if you will promise to help your 
 Fatherland." 
 
 " I do not think you are naturally a villain, Karl," 
 said Billy, looking into his brother's twitching face, 
 " I think you are a crazy man." 
 
 " You refuse to aid us, to save your own kindred 
 in their hour of agony? " 
 
 " My own brother ! " cried Billy. 
 
 " You mongrel ! " said Karl, looking into the 
 depths of his eyes, his passionate voice full of 
 bitter scorn and contempt. " You are no longer 
 my brother." 
 
 " I fear that is true, Karl." 
 
 " I disown you." 
 
 " You have changed so, Karl, I scarcely know 
 you for the brother of my boyhood." 
 
 "The change is in you, you traitor." 
 302
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 " Frieda ! " called Billy, " where 's the telephone ? 
 I must call up the Charlestown Navy Yard." 
 
 Karl laughed. " You are rather late in reaching 
 a decision to expose me," he said with a sneer. 
 
 " I thought at first that you had come here to 
 corrupt me," said Billy, slowly. " That was per- 
 sonal, Karl. I strained my conscience, and because 
 you are my twin, I thought I would let you go 
 back unopposed, since you had learned nothing here. 
 But I find you are a spy, and worse. It breaks 
 my heart to do it, but I must do my duty now." 
 
 "Don't shoot, Karl!" Frieda, who had been 
 watching them, her nails dug into her palms, threw 
 herself between the two men, while Margaretha, a 
 smile on her lips, sank into the arm chair by the 
 fire, and pulled the pointer into her lap. 
 
 Karl pushed Elfrieda roughly out of his way, 
 and the pistol in his hand moved to the waist line. 
 
 "What did you do at the Department?" de- 
 manded Billy, his voice low and even, his eyes 
 never for an instant leaving Karl's. 
 
 " He took some papers," cried Elfrieda, hysteri- 
 cally; " thank God, I Ve told you." 
 
 " And now I 've got to kill him," said Karl, and 
 pulled the trigger. 
 
 The weapon missed fire, and Karl looked up into 
 the muzzle of a big, black forty-four. 
 
 303
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Your gun jammed. That 's the trouble with 
 those automatics, they get all clogged up with grit 
 and dirt and dampness. We 're going back to the 
 old revolver in our service. Throw it over into 
 that cushion ! " And Billy pushed the black barrel 
 into his brother's stomach. 
 
 Karl tossed the automatic into the chair, and 
 Billy picked it up, and shoved his own pistol back 
 into the holster under his shoulder. 
 
 " Mine was empty," he explained, " had to shoot 
 three big dogs on the way down to the house. 
 I 'd have been rather up against it if there had been 
 four." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Margaretha, " I had wondered." 
 
 " Damn you," cried Karl, fervently. 
 
 " Thanks. And now, about that trip to the Navy 
 Department. So that is why you shaved those 
 handsome whiskers off? I should have thought 
 of that." 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston got up languidly, moved over to 
 the mantelpiece, stroked Bruno's ears for a mo- 
 ment, and then walked toward the door. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Margaretha," said Billy, 
 " but won't you please be seated." 
 
 " I 'm afraid I don't quite understand." 
 
 " I hate to lose an audience." 
 
 " I shall be right back." 
 304
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 " If you would just as soon! " He pointed to 
 a chair. 
 
 " Oh," said Mrs. Sabiston, and sat down. 
 
 " Thank you. So, Karl, you quit the jungle and 
 appeared for the first time in eight years in the 
 civilization of a smooth face. And then you went 
 to the Navy Department. What next?" 
 
 " Take that gun out of my stomach." 
 
 " We have n't come to that part yet," smiled 
 Billy. 
 
 " You damned " 
 
 " No profanity, remember, there are ladies pres- 
 ent. So you walked in, and by Jove ! well, it 
 took nerve, anyhow, Karl, even if you could pose 
 for my photograph. Now go on with the story." 
 
 Karl looked intently at Mrs. Sabiston, who made 
 a barely perceptible sign that she understood what 
 was in his mind. 
 
 " Karl, did you have the audacity to attend the 
 conference this morning of the Board of Strategy? " 
 There was deep anxiety in Billy's voice. 
 
 " God ! I was there, and never thought of it. 
 I am a fool." 
 
 " That is what I have been telling you," laughed 
 Billy, his blue eyes smiling again. " And now, how 
 about those papers ? " 
 
 " I have no papers," answered Karl, doggedly. 
 305
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " They are in his pocket," interjected Elfrieda, 
 who was standing by the big table in the middle 
 of the room. " They are yours, you have a right 
 to know." 
 
 " It seems to me that Frieda has decided not to 
 go back to Germany," observed Mrs. Sabiston, 
 sweetly. 
 
 " Nobody is going back to Germany," amended 
 Billy. 
 
 " Indeed ? " smiled Margaretha. 
 
 " Now Karl," said Billy, " don't become too en- 
 thusiastic over passing those papers to me. Keep 
 your hands out like that, there, I '11 find them," 
 and he felt in Karl's coat, and brought out the 
 black leather case. 
 
 " Those are the papers," said Elfrieda. " Oh. 
 what have I done, what have I done ! " 
 
 " You have betrayed me, you have betrayed your 
 mother and sisters, you have betrayed your Father- 
 land, that is what you have done," cried Karl. 
 
 " Are these all the papers you took? " asked Billy, 
 smiling to the eyes. 
 
 " He took nothing else," said Frieda. 
 
 " Have you examined the contents? " 
 
 Elfrieda shook her head. 
 
 " I '11 answer none of your questions, you damned 
 traitor. Take that gun away." Karl flashed an- 
 
 306
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 other signal to Mrs. Sabiston, who inclined her 
 shapely head. 
 
 " Open it, Frieda," and Billy passed the case to 
 her. 
 
 With nervous ringers that shook so that she could 
 scarcely loosen the fasteners, Elfrieda opened the 
 black leather case. Two small packages, tied with 
 purple ribbon, dropped out. She stooped and picked 
 them up, and cried : 
 
 " My letters ! " 
 
 " All you have ever written to me, all these long 
 years," smiled Billy. " I 've always carried them 
 about with me wherever I have gone. That is all 
 that the case contains, and Karl put his head in a 
 noose to get them." 
 
 " Why, no," said Frieda, " here is something else, 
 two bits of paper, folded up. Shall I take them out? 
 See, they are under the lining." 
 
 " I had forgotten about them," answered Billy. 
 " I must have put them in there years ago." 
 
 Elfrieda took them out carefully, two sheets, be- 
 ginning to turn yellow, and rubbed quite black from 
 contact with the leather, and spread them upon the 
 table, 
 
 " ' The United States District Court ' Why, 
 Billy," she cried, " they are your father's naturali- 
 zation papers." 
 
 307
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " I remember the day he gave them to me," said 
 Billy, his voice hushed, " the day he died, and I re- 
 member, too, the night he brought them home, and 
 showed them to us, you remember, Karl, don't you, 
 how glad and proud he was ? And he told us that 
 he was an American, and that he had made us Amer- 
 icans, too, and God help you, Karl, you are an 
 American citizen now ! " 
 
 " Take that gun away, and I '11 show you what 
 I am." 
 
 " It 's true, Karl, don't you see ? I 've been an 
 American since my childhood, I Ve always known 
 that. When father became an American citizen we 
 were minors, and so we became American citizens, 
 too." 
 
 " I went back to Germany," said Karl. 
 
 " Were you ever naturalized a German subject? " 
 
 " Of course not." 
 
 " Then you are an American citizen today, just 
 the same kind of an American as I am, as good an 
 American as Frieda, or Mrs. Sabiston, who were 
 born here. That is the law." 
 
 "What law?" asked Karl. 
 
 " The law of the United States." 
 
 " Germany does not recognize that law," replied 
 Karl. 
 
 " The trouble with Germany is that she does n't 
 308
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 recognize any law," said Billy, " but the time is com- 
 ing when she will have to recognize a good many 
 that she now ignores, and when that time does come 
 this naturalization law that made you and me Ameri- 
 cans will be at the top of the list." 
 
 " Put up that gun." 
 
 " You are the traitor, Karl ! " 
 
 " Damn you, let me go." 
 
 " I can't let you go. Frieda, call up the Charles- 
 town Navy Yard for me." 
 
 There was no whit of color in her face as she 
 started for the alcove, where the telephone stood 
 upon a table. Her hands hung limply at her side. 
 " You are tearing the heartstrings out of me," she 
 said, " tearing me to pieces, killing me, both of you." 
 
 " You will denounce me ? " Karl looked from 
 Elfrieda into Billy's eyes. 
 
 " I must. It is no longer personal, it is a duty. 
 You are a spy." 
 
 " Then you will have to inform against her, also," 
 said Karl, and looked at Frieda ; " she came to aid 
 me." 
 
 "For that!" 
 
 " What else would bring her here at such a time 
 as this?" 
 
 " It is not so. Say that it is not so, Frieda." 
 
 Elfrieda bowed her head. 
 309
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 "It is true?" 
 
 " She was to go back by another route, and take 
 copies of anything that I might obtain. If one 
 failed, the other would get through. She has Italian 
 passports, forged. She told me the paper in your 
 watch contained the combination of your safe." 
 
 " Elfrieda ! You did not do that ! " She did not 
 speak. 
 
 " She guided me to the Navy Department, showed 
 me your room, talked to the man Wallis while I 
 took this damn leather case. What you do to me, 
 you do to her. Remember that." 
 
 " Say something, Elfrieda." Billy looked at her 
 imploringly. 
 
 " What can she say ? " cried Karl. " We planned 
 this in Berlin, and now we are ready to go back. 
 Come with us, brother, and you shall marry her 
 there. I give you one last chance, for your honor 
 arid your happiness." 
 
 " Call up the Navy Yard, Elfrieda." She moved 
 on a step. 
 
 "A man who would betray his country and his 
 brother would betray the woman he loves," said 
 Karl. " He would betray anything." 
 
 " What he said of me," said Elfrieda, steadying 
 her way across the room at table and chair, " is 
 true, except one part. They sent me here because 
 
 310
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 I knew you and God help me, I let them do it. 
 I was wild, mad with fervor. I had seen my friends 
 go to the front, and not return. I had seen Helena 
 a bride and a widow in a few weeks of horror while 
 the slaughter at Verdun was going on. I had seen 
 those I loved weeping for their sons and fathers. 
 They sent me, and I came." 
 
 " I understand, dear." The tenderness had come 
 back to Billy's voice. 
 
 " I saw you, and I began to think," she went on, 
 " to lie awake at nights, my brain burning, my soul 
 in torment. And you reminded me that I was born 
 here. I thought I should go mad. I tried to think 
 that I was n't an American, I tried to tell myself 
 so, and I could n't. It kept coming back, coming 
 back, coming back. It gave me no peace, no rest, 
 for I saw then what lay beyond. And Karl came ! " 
 She swayed forward, and saved herself from fall- 
 ing, clinging to a chair. 
 
 " Don't cry, dear heart." 
 
 " And then I refused to do what he ordered, 
 and he made me. He held that pistol, that you 
 hold now in your hand, in the pocket of his coat, 
 and pressed it up against me as we walked along, 
 as we went into your office, and I saw by his eyes 
 that he would kill me, as he said he would, if I 
 failed him." 
 
 311
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 Billy's eyes were shining, but all he said was: 
 " Now call up the Navy Yard, Elfrieda, it is get- 
 ting late." 
 
 " Halt! " cried Karl. " Don't touch that 'phone. 
 You and I will be away from here in a few minutes 
 now, but do you want to betray Margaretha ? She 
 must remain." 
 
 " Don't bother about the Navy Yard," com- 
 manded Billy, crisply. " Ask Central to connect 
 you with the nearest police station, the sheriff, 
 anybody." 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston left her chair, walked to the 
 mantelpiece, picked up a Chinese porcelain vase, 
 and hurled it with all her strength against the door 
 opening into the hall. She threw back her head, 
 the corn-silk hair tumbling about her white shoul- 
 ders, and shouted: 
 
 "Hilfe! Hilfe!" 
 
 Billy circled around his brother, keeping him 
 covered with the gun, and backed against the fire- 
 place, facing the door. 
 
 "Max! LudwigV screamed Margaretha. 
 
 A door slammed somewhere in the distant part 
 of the big house, and a moment later a huge blonde 
 man, with a closely-cropped head, came in, his eyes 
 staring with excitement, a rifle in his hand. 
 
 There was the bark of an automatic, and the big 
 312
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 blonde man dropped his Winchester, and threw his 
 hand to his mouth, smearing his face with blood. 
 
 " Never mind the 'phone now, Frieda," said 
 Billy. " Pick up that rifle and bring it to me. Stay 
 where you are, Karl! " 
 
 " Do not move, Elf rieda," commanded Karl ; 
 " you are under my orders." 
 
 She hesitated. 
 
 " We are on the same side, you and I, dear," 
 said Billy. 
 
 " She came to aid me," cried Karl, thickly. " Re- 
 member, Frieda, you swore you would be true. I 
 hold you to that oath." 
 
 " She must choose between us," Billy answered 
 softly; " she has come to the parting of the ways." 
 He turned his head for an instant, and smiled at 
 her. 
 
 " All right, Billy," cried Frieda, her voice sud- 
 denly strong and vibrant. She started to obey, but 
 stopped, and stood listening. There was the clatter 
 of hurrying feet on the stairs, and the next instant 
 the butler was in the doorway. 
 
 " The men ! Ludwig," said Mrs. Sabiston. 
 
 " Sie kommen." 
 
 A tall, distinguished-looking man, with a heavy 
 face and brown mustache, rushed in, drawing a 
 pistol as' he came. Behind his back were five young
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 fellows, smooth-shaved of pate and pink and white 
 of skin. 
 
 " Get him ! " commanded Karl in German, and 
 jerked his head toward Billy. 
 
 Billy threw his gun as he spoke, and pulled the 
 trigger. 
 
 " Confound your automatic, Karl," he said, " the 
 darned thing 's jammed again. There must be a 
 defective cartridge in there." 
 
 " Get him ! " repeated Karl, and laughed. 
 
 Elfrieda had seized the rifle, and backed off 
 until the table was between them. 
 
 "Karl," she said, "if that man shoots Billy I 
 am going to kill you," and she laid the repeater 
 over the lamp, and stood there tensely, her finger 
 on the trigger, the muzzle covering his heart. 
 
 "Get her!" said Karl, and flung himself upon 
 his brother, trying for his throat. 
 
 " Look out, Frieda ! He 's going to shoot. 
 Drop!" shouted Billy, and landed a right hook on 
 the point of Karl's jaw that sent him reeling against 
 the table. 
 
 The man with the brown mustache had moved. 
 so that he had the girl away from the others. He 
 raised his pistol. The pointer dog sprang across 
 the room, barking. There was the crash of shat- 
 tered glass, the French window opening upon the
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 east piazza suddenly collapsed, and a quiet-looking, 
 middle-aged man in spectacles entered Mrs. Sabis- 
 ton's exclusive drawing room without the formality 
 of sending in his card. 
 
 As Mr. Monson's Colt cracked, the man with the 
 brown mustache lost all interest in the proceedings, 
 and the next instant several gentlemen connected 
 with the United States Secret Service had appeared 
 out of the blackness of the night, and were busily 
 engaged in checking up half a dozen interned Ger- 
 man sailors from Norfolk, who had broken their 
 parole some weeks before, and departed without 
 leaving their address. 
 
 315
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA, FIVE MILES 
 
 " Which of you is which ? " asked Mr. Monson 
 presently, when the round-up had been completed, 
 and two of the Secret Service men had laid the gen- 
 tleman with the brown mustache on the divan, and 
 had announced that he was merely shot through the 
 shoulder, nothing serious. " That 's the one I saw 
 on the train and you?" 
 
 Billy told him his name. 
 
 " And this man your brother, of course, 
 could n't be anything else. He looks like a naval 
 officer, too, you can always tell a sailor, but I don't 
 seem to remember " 
 
 " He is a Captain in the German navy," said Billy. 
 
 Mr. Monson whistled. " As bad as that ! " 
 
 " A whole lot worse than that." Billy's voice 
 faltered, but he held his head erect. " He is a 
 German spy." 
 
 Mr. Monson's eyes shone. " And your brother, 
 your twin brother ! " He held out his hand, silently, 
 and Billy, hesitating, took it. 
 
 " It was no easy thing to do," he smiled sadly. 
 316
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA 
 
 " Tough, I call it," admitted Mr. Monson, " about 
 the hardest I ever heard of." He turned, and took 
 a mental inventory of Karl, who sat in the big arm 
 chair by the fireplace, his eyes roving restlessly, a 
 look of defiance in his face. 
 
 " Just arrived ? " asked Mr. Monson. 
 
 " Just going," replied Billy. 
 
 "Oh! Where?" 
 
 " Back to Germany." 
 
 " French or British steamer ? " and Mr. Monson 
 grinned at his little jest. 
 
 " Submarine," Billy answered shortly. 
 
 " That 's how he came, I suppose." 
 
 Billy nodded. 
 
 "Submarine coming in here?" He looked out 
 of the window. " What kind of water out there? " 
 
 " Not familiar with it," said Billy, " I have been 
 wondering if the submarine would come in here." 
 
 " How long has he been in the United States ? " 
 
 " Several days." 
 
 " You did n't give him away ? " 
 
 " I was trying to telephone for the police when 
 you burst in." 
 
 Mr. Monson nodded his head briskly in approval. 
 
 " Been doing much ? " 
 
 " Nothing, so far as I am aware. He shaved his 
 face and got into the Navy Department." 
 
 317
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Oh ! " interjected Mr. Monson. " He wore a 
 beard." 
 
 " At first. He went to my apartment in Wash- 
 ington and there he he shaved." 
 
 " I see," observed Mr. Monson, shaking his head 
 again, " you went back on him, threw him down, and 
 then he had to go it alone. How did he get you out 
 of the way? '' Mr. Monson had come up very close 
 to him, and stood on the rug, rising up and down 
 on his toes, interested from chin to soles. 
 
 " We had a bit of a fight," Billy began slowly, 
 " nothing very serious. He got me, and before I 
 came around he had me tied down on the bed, ropes 
 and trunk straps and things." 
 
 " And then he shaved himself put on some of 
 your clothes, I suppose and beat it, went to the 
 Navy Department and what did he get?" 
 
 " Some private papers of mine, out of my safe." 
 
 " Strictly personal ? " 
 
 " That is all I had in there." 
 
 Mr. Monson chuckled. " And then they came 
 over on the B. & O. quick get-away. Mrs. Sabis- 
 ton, that 's the blonde. Who is his other accomplice, 
 the pretty girl with the dark hair? " And he jerked 
 his finger over his shoulder, to where Elfrieda stood 
 listlessly at the window, looking out through the 
 night at the sea.
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA 
 
 " She " began Billy, and came to an embar- 
 rassed pause. 
 
 " Presumably Italian, weight one hundred and 
 thirty, height five feet seven," nodded Mr. Monson, 
 talking half to himself. " That 's Peters' friend." 
 
 " Miss Sigbert is the one who sent the telegram to 
 the janitor to go to my apartment and turn me 
 loose," cried Billy, eagerly. 
 
 "The dickens she did," said Mr. Monson, as if 
 rather disappointed to hear it. " She of course 
 she did sent the telegram from New London." 
 
 " Yes, that 's it," smiled Billy, quickly, " but how 
 the deuce you Secret Service men seem to know 
 everything." 
 
 Mr. Monson chuckled and enveloped himself in 
 mystery. " But wait a minute, hold on ! " he added, 
 " if she sent you a telegram from New London " 
 
 " Told the janitor to go to my bedroom and look 
 for my watch." 
 
 " But if she waited until she got to New London 
 to do that, how do you happen to be here? You 
 could n't have made it by airship." 
 
 " The man whose apartment I was using tempo- 
 rarily, in his absence, unexpectedly returned," 
 explained Billy, and dried his hands upon his 
 handkerchief. 
 
 " Well, we '11 see," said Mr. Monson, doubtfully. 
 319
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " And then you came here, knowing where they 
 were going." 
 
 " I did n't know. I found it out by accident at 
 the Willard." 
 
 " You did n't know that your brother had been 
 at the Department ? " 
 
 " I learned that when I reached here tonight." 
 
 " The dogs did n't furnish the only surprise. 
 That was a good piece of work, much obliged." 
 
 " How the " 
 
 " Say, look here," interrupted Mr. Monson, and 
 lowering his voice, " I '11 bet you saw that saw 
 something on the roof, between the chimneys, 
 hey ? " He laughed. " And then you walked 
 around, and dropped in on them, and the fight 
 began. I 'm glad I decided to come down tonight. 
 Had a hunch. Always act on hunches, always. 
 You 're all right, Commander Hartmann. I knew 
 that a man who could write a letter like that was 
 a good sort, could n't be anything else." 
 
 "Letter?" questioned Billy. 
 
 " Letter to Miss Sigbert say well I '11 
 be " He turned, and studied Elfrieda intently. 
 "Miss Sigbert is that the one?" 
 
 ' The one ? " asked Billy, wonderingly. 
 
 " The Miss Sigbert you wrote a letter to the 
 night you arrived in Washington?" 
 
 320
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA 
 
 " Yes," said Billy, " that is the Miss Sigbert." 
 
 " You are beginning to interest me," and Mr. 
 Monson drew him further into the alcove. " She 
 was supposed to be in Berlin, then, and now she is 
 -here." 
 
 " How the devil do you know that? " demanded 
 Billy. 
 
 " It 's my business to know," and Mr. Monson 
 drew the cloak of mystery a little closer about him 
 and polished his eyeglasses with a self-satisfied air. 
 " So she was in Berlin ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " He came over by submarine, and she took an- 
 other route, probably through Italy or Spain. She 
 was putting one over about that telegram to the 
 janitor accomplice." 
 
 " Was n't she about to shoot him with that rifle 
 when you came in?" 
 
 " That is so," admitted Mr. Monson, doubtfully. 
 " You don't think " 
 
 "Think? I know." Billy was eager again. 
 " He tried to make her help him in something he 
 wanted done, but she refused." 
 
 " And on the show-down she pulled the gun on 
 him ? Hum ! Well, we '11 see. . . . What the deuce 
 was that?" 
 
 It was a loud shriek. It came, evidently, from 
 321
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 the floor above, and was followed by another, and 
 by frantic hammering upon a door. Mrs. Sabiston 
 started up, and then sank back into her chair, and 
 the look of doubt and anxiety deepened in her eyes, 
 that had been half closed as she sat apart from the 
 rest, busy with her thoughts. 
 
 " A woman screaming," said Billy, and started 
 for the door. On the threshold he paused, as an- 
 other shrill feminine cry of rage and excitement 
 echoed through the hall. 
 
 " Up the stairs ! " shouted Mr. Monson, and fol- 
 lowed Billy, two steps at a time, one of the Secret 
 Service men at their heels. They stopped before 
 a door on the second floor. Somebody within was 
 beating upon it a frenzied tattoo, and a woman's 
 half inarticulate voice, choked with wrath, was 
 yelling, " Let me out ! " 
 
 Mr. Monson tried the knob. " Locked," said he. 
 " Anybody got a jimmy? " 
 
 " Let me try." Billy lifted the knob, put his 
 shoulder against the door, the muscles in his arms 
 and back stood out under his coat, and with a final 
 mighty heave the panels splintered and he crashed 
 into the room. 
 
 Billy had encountered the indignant lady who 
 now confronted him, armed with a brass curtain 
 rod, so frequently, and under such a variety of cir- 
 
 322
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA 
 
 cumstances, that he was no more surprised than he 
 would have been if he had suddenly met her on 
 the boardwalk at Atlantic City or caught a glimpse 
 of her, in a cab, at Charing Cross. It seemed the 
 most natural thing in the world for her to be there. 
 He put out his hand and said : 
 
 " Hello, Corrie." 
 
 ' You dear man ! " exclaimed Mrs. Winters, 
 throwing down her weapon and snatching up a 
 mirror from the dressing-table. " How perfectly 
 adorable of you to come here to rescue me. Lead 
 me from this place and shake me up a cocktail," 
 and with a final squint at the mirror she stepped over 
 the broken door into the hall. 
 
 " Anything to oblige you, Mrs. Winters," laughed 
 Billy. 
 
 " Mrs. Winters ! " exclaimed Mr. Monson dra- 
 matically. " Introduce me. I have been anxious 
 to meet you for some time." 
 
 " Pardon me, Mr. Monson, let me present you to 
 Mrs. Winters; Corrie, Mr. Monson, of the Secret 
 Service." 
 
 " Secret Service! " cried Corrie. " My dear Mr. 
 Monson, get out your notebook and pencil, I have 
 some things to tell you that will make your hair 
 stand on end. Billy, a cigarette, please, I 'm perish- 
 
 ing! 
 
 323
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Where is Peters ? " asked Mr. Monson, his eyes 
 snapping behind his glasses. 
 
 " Peters ? Never heard of the man." 
 
 " That 's so, my mistake, Peters knows you, I 
 was thinking you knew Peters. It 's Hannibal G. 
 White that you know." 
 
 " I should say I do know him," agreed Corrie, em- 
 phatically, " why, do you know do you want me 
 to tell you everything? " 
 
 " Everything. But wait a moment, that must be 
 the wireless room, there at the end of the hall." 
 
 " I looked after that," reported Roberts, coming 
 up. " Complete plant. The operator is the man 
 you winged, the chap with the brown mustache." 
 
 Mr. Monson nodded. " We '11 get around to that 
 later," he said ; " and now, Mrs. Winters, I '11 listen. 
 You 'd better go back to the drawing room, Com- 
 mander, while we talk up here." He led the way 
 into the wireless room, and gave her the chair at the 
 table. " Everything, Mrs. Winters," he said, " es- 
 pecially about that cablegram you sent from Hong 
 Kong." 
 
 " Mrs. Sabiston has been blabbing," pouted 
 Corrie. 
 
 "What does Mrs. Sabiston know about this?" 
 asked Mr. Monson, showing even more interest. 
 
 " Then it must have been Captain von Hagenah," 
 324
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA 
 
 ventured Come. " I hope he did n't go too far/' 
 she added to herself ; " well, anyhow, burnt letters 
 make no scandals." 
 
 " Who 's von Hagenah ? " asked Mr. Monson, his 
 eyes fairly twinkling, " a friend of yours ? " 
 
 " Sir ! " said Corrie. " He 's a perfectly horrible 
 creature, I assure you. He 's the man who dragged 
 me up here and locked me in that room, and 
 and " She rubbed her lips with the back of her 
 hand at the recollection of von Hagenah's kiss. 
 
 " Start at the beginning," said Mr. Monson, 
 crisply, and settled himself comfortably on the edge 
 of the table by the wireless instruments. 
 
 Billy went back to the drawing room, where the 
 Secret Service men, alertly on their job, were keep- 
 ing a close watch upon Mrs. Sabiston and her friends 
 without in the least appearing to do so. Margaretha 
 sat at one side of the fireplace, Karl, buried in the 
 big arm chair, at the other. Billy, going to Elfrieda 
 at the window, which had been propped back into 
 place to keep out the cold, saw that across the hearth 
 rug they were conversing silently with eyes, and 
 brows, and every twitching nerve of face and finger. 
 
 Elfrieda was in no mood to talk. Her nervous- 
 ness had passed, but Billy was more alarmed by the 
 cold, emotionless frigidity that held her in its grasp 
 than he would have been by hysteria. Her eyes had 
 
 325
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 faded to a listless gray, her face was dull, expres- 
 sionless, and white. 
 
 Mr. Monson, followed by Mrs. Winters, came in. 
 They did not speak. She took a seat by him in the 
 alcove, while he picked up the telephone receiver, 
 and said crisply: 
 
 " Long-distance." 
 
 He waited. They all waited. There was no sound 
 but the crackling of the fire as the back-log burned 
 through and fell across the andirons. 
 
 " New York," said Mr. Monson, in the same pun- 
 gent voice, and gave a number. 
 
 They waited again. The man on the divan stirred 
 slightly, and groaned a muttered curse under his 
 breath. After a while the telephone bell rang, and 
 Mr. Monson answered. 
 
 "Is Calder there?" he asked, his lips at the re- 
 ceiver. " Oh, hello, Calder. This is Monson, from 
 Washington. I want you to get Hannibal G. White, 
 tonight. Yes, that 's the one, 45 Broadway. I don't 
 know where he lives. What? Yes, I think I 've 
 got the goods. And say, ask New London for a 
 complete set of all telegrams filed there at the New 
 Haven railroad station today, and send them to me 
 at Washington. Thanks, that 's all. What 's that ? 
 Thank God, now our hands will be untied. Good 
 night." 
 
 326
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA 
 
 He hung up the receiver, and turned with a 
 broad smile upon his face. 
 
 " Good news," announced Mr. Monson; joyously ; 
 " the New York branch says that the Senate tonight 
 passed the resolution declaring war on Germany/' 
 
 Elfrieda's knees weakened beneath her, and she 
 clasped Billy's arm tightly. 
 
 " What is it? " he asked quickly, bending down. 
 
 " Nothing, I felt faint. I am quite all right 
 now.'' 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston and Karl sprang to their feet. 
 Then he, shrugging his shoulders, sat down again, 
 and continued gazing into the fire, but Margaretha 
 stood steadying herself at the mantelpiece. She 
 turned at the sound of Mr. Monson's voice. 
 
 " You are under arrest, Mrs. Sabiston," he said. 
 
 " For what, pray? " 
 
 " Various things, I need not go into details." 
 
 " You have no warrant." 
 
 " Oh, that will be all right," smiled Mr. Monson, 
 easily. 
 
 " You have no evidence, I have done nothing." 
 
 Mr. Monson looked at Karl, and grinned. 
 
 Margaretha followed his look. " I could not 
 turn an old friend from my house." 
 
 Mr. Monson waved his arm to embrace the 
 closely-cropped men who sat together on the big 
 
 327
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 couch, their faces blank, their blue eyes expres- 
 sionless. 
 
 " My servants," said Margaretha. 
 
 " What is this, anyhow, Mrs. Sabiston," he 
 asked drily, "a house or a yacht?" 
 
 " You have no right to insult me, sir." 
 
 " I beg your pardon, just a bit of pleasantry, 
 that's all," Mr. Monson hastened to say, making 
 the lady a very gallant bow. " I was merely amused 
 by your nautical taste in housekeeping." 
 
 " I can employ whom I choose." 
 
 "And the wireless on your roof?" 
 
 " A mere toy," said Margaretha, but her voice 
 shook; "it shall be taken down immediately." 
 
 " Oh, yes indeed," agreed Mr. Monson. " And 
 that man ? " he pointed to the divan. 
 
 " My my under butler," said Margaretha, 
 hesitatingly. 
 
 " Quite a come-down for a Count," observed 
 Mr. Monson. " You know who he is, Mrs. Sabis- 
 ton, so let us understand one another; that is von 
 Baribel. He is under indictment for trying to blow 
 up the Union Station tunnel, in Washington. You 
 are harboring here a nest of enemies of the United 
 States." 
 
 " I shall not submit to this indignity," cried Mar- 
 garetha. " It is quite evident that you do not know 
 
 328
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA 
 
 who I am. Sabiston is my name. I own the Sab- 
 iston shoe factories at Brockton, and " 
 
 " I have on a pair," smiled Mr. Monson, and 
 remembered what Peters had said. " By the way, 
 Mrs. Sabiston, will you kindly inform me where 
 Mr. Peters of course, you don't know him by 
 that name. Where is the man you hired to operate 
 your motorboat? " 
 
 " Why why " stammered Margaretha. 
 
 " You told me the Secret Service did n't know 
 anything," said Karl, sullenly, in an aside. 
 
 " Where is he ? " demanded Mr. Monson, sharply. 
 " He is one of our men." 
 
 " You will not see him again in a hurry," said 
 Margaretha, vindictively, and bit her lip, seeing she 
 had made a blunder. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Mr. Monson, and spoke volumes in 
 a monosyllable. 
 
 " Be careful, Margaretha," admonished Karl in 
 a whisper, " you will ruin us all." 
 
 " Ludwig! " commanded Margaretha, " hang out 
 the American flag." 
 
 :< Tonight, gnadige Frau? " asked the butler, in 
 German. 
 
 " At once," said Margaretha. " Let me see, 
 where is it ? " 
 
 " There is one under the cellar stairs," said Lud- 
 329
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 wig, after thinking a moment, " I was using it the 
 other day in the big chest to pack around some " 
 
 "Ludwig! Be silent." 
 
 " It is hardly necessary to put out the flag to show 
 your patriotism, Mrs. Sabiston," interrupted Mr. 
 Monson. " There are other ways of doing that 
 and of not doing it. Besides, we can't spare dear 
 old Ludwig, but one of my men will go down cellar 
 to see what 's in that box," and he gave an order, 
 briskly, with his eloquent thumb. 
 
 Mrs. Sabiston swayed forward, and Karl, spring- 
 ing to her side, caught her just in time. 
 
 " What is it? " he whispered, as she settled limply 
 into his arms. 
 
 " The box," she said, her lips close to his ear. 
 
 "What is in it?" 
 
 " The bombs White sent." 
 
 "Good God!" 
 
 "I shall be ruined," said Mrs. Sabiston; "they 
 will hound me to death, confiscate my property. 
 There is no hope now, for anything." 
 
 " There is always hope," whispered Karl, holding 
 her close to him. " There is still one desperate 
 chance. Will you take it with me ? " 
 
 She swayed forward, and her lips touched his 
 cheek, and clung there. 
 
 " She is fainting," said Karl, and took her in his 
 330
 
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 arms; " let me get her to the air, quickly." There 
 was the sharp note of command in his voice. He 
 bore her to the window, Mr. Monson and his men 
 falling back. Her head was on his shoulder, her 
 eyes half closed, but the color had come back into 
 her face, her velvet skin was pink to where her 
 breast lay close against his heart. 
 
 Karl reached the window, and opened the shat- 
 tered frame with his foot. 
 
 " Whiskey ! " he called. " Quick ! " 
 
 " Bring some whiskey, somebody," echoed Mr. 
 Monson, much concerned. 
 
 " The electric switch is there, at your left, just 
 inside the window," whispered Margaretha, and 
 threw out her hand. " I have it," she added. 
 
 Karl stepped clear of the sill. 
 
 " Do you think you can make it? " he asked, his 
 lips nearly touching hers. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "Then come!" 
 
 She turned off the electric lights as he put her 
 down, and the whole house was then in darkness. 
 They crossed the piazza in a mad flight, and ran 
 like deer, keeping in the shelter of the shrubbery, 
 her skirts gathered about her knees with both hands, 
 her silk-clad legs skimming the ground, and Karl 
 behind her, urging her on.
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Damnation ! " Mr. Monson was suddenly fran- 
 tic. " Where 's the light ? Find that switch, some- 
 body, it must be near the window. Where 's my 
 overcoat! Get through there, somebody, and after 
 'em, hard now, I tell you, don't let them get away. 
 But don't shoot the woman!" He groped for his 
 overcoat, finally found it over the back of a chair, 
 took his searchlight from his pocket, and flashed it. 
 
 " Here 's the switch," called Billy, and turned it 
 on. There was a rush, Mr. Monson leading the way 
 to the lawn, shrouded in the impenetrable darkness 
 that precedes the dawn. Beyond the rim of the 
 pathway of light made by his pocket electric the 
 night seemed solid. 
 
 ' Quickly, Frieda ! " whispered Billy, watching 
 them go, " where are your passports ? " 
 
 " In my satchel," she answered. " Why, 
 Billy " 
 
 " Find them, hurry." 
 
 She brought them to him with a frightened look, 
 and he took them, crossed the room with a long 
 stride, and threw them upon the blaze. " We will 
 wait here," he said, his voice calm once more, " these 
 men might try to break away." They walked to the 
 window, just as the pointer dog, that had been run- 
 ning around whining, dashed past them. Outside 
 they could hear Mr. Monson. 
 
 332
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA 
 
 " They must have gone over the cliff," he called. 
 "If they cut back our men will get them." 
 
 The men had reached the edge of the precipice, 
 where they stopped, undecided what to do. 
 
 " Don't see how they could have made it," growled 
 Mr. Monson, looking down the steep chaos of ragged 
 boulder. 
 
 " There goes the dog," shouted Roberts, " he 's 
 following them. There they go ! " 
 
 Margaretha had darted into the path that ran 
 through her rose garden, Karl at her side. They 
 reached the cliff at the top of the stairway that led to 
 the beach. As they stood for an instant poised for 
 the downward flight their bodies stood out against 
 the wintry sky and the scud of hurrying clouds. 
 
 "There they are!" repeated Mr. Monson, and 
 plunged away. They came at last to the steps. 
 
 " Down here," he cried. " Gad ! what steps, I '11 
 break my neck. Ice, at this time of year ! I never 
 saw such a climate. Well, come on, this is the way 
 they went." 
 
 They picked their way down with the aid of the 
 pocket lights, twisting and turning between enor- 
 mous rocks, some of them as large as a house. 
 Calling to one another in the darkness, they came 
 out at last on the shingle beach. 
 
 " See anything of them? " asked Mr. Monson. 
 333
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Not a sign," replied Roberts. " Wait ! What 
 was that ? Listen ! " 
 
 They stood still. 
 
 To their straining ears came a sound as saucy 
 and tantalizing as it was unmistakable: 
 
 Putt ! putt ! putt ! putt ! putt ! b rrrrr ! putt ! putt ! 
 
 "Motorboat!" The voice sounded little like 
 Mr. Monson's customary cheerful tone. 
 
 "Stung!" ejaculated Roberts. "Look! There 
 they are." 
 
 The full moon bored a hole in the pall of night 
 and came plunging through the opening. Belated 
 cloud drifts floated across her smiling face, hurry- 
 ing on to meet the sun, and were gone. A radiant 
 shaft of beaming mellowness streamed down, fell 
 across the pinnacle rock, bathing it in a soft, white 
 light, touched the south window, under the big 
 chimney, illuminating it brightly, and then went 
 dancing out to sea where it laid a silver pathway 
 across the desert of waters. 
 
 " There ! " cried Roberts. 
 
 Far out beyond the reefs the motorboat rose for 
 an instant upon the crest of an on-rushing breaker, 
 held there for one brief, fleeting instant, like a gull 
 at rest, and then went slanting down into the trough 
 of the sea, a spray of sparkling foam at her bow, 
 where the slender figure of Mrs. Sabiston stood 
 
 334
 
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 framed against the night that lay beyond. Then 
 the heaving wilderness closed down, and the pic- 
 ture was blotted out. 
 
 They walked back, climbing the slippery stairs, 
 feeling their way across the lawn. Mr. Monson's 
 face told the story as he entered the drawing room. 
 
 " Gone?" asked Billy, who was standing by the big 
 arm chair at the fireplace, where Elfrieda now sat. 
 
 Mr. Monson nodded dejectedly. 
 
 " Sorry I could n't help, but I had to look after 
 these fellows. You forgot them." 
 
 "So I did," confessed Mr. Monson. "Well, 
 we Ve got them, at least. Thank you for your 
 thought fulness, although they would hardly have 
 got away; we are guarded at the back." 
 
 "How did they manage it?" Billy asked. He 
 felt neither regret nor satisfaction. Since Karl 
 would take back with him, if he escaped, nothing 
 of value to the enemy, he felt that perhaps things 
 had turned out for the best. 
 
 " Motorboat," answered Mr. Monson, shortly. 
 
 " Then the submarine must be waiting for them 
 off here." 
 
 " That is so," replied Mr. Monson, " no doubt 
 about it. They know where to go." A line from 
 Mr. Peters' letter flashed into his memory. " Gad ! 
 I see it all now straight out to sea, five miles ! " 
 
 335
 
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 " Five miles at sea in an evening gown on a 
 night like this," said Billy, incredulously. " It will 
 kill her." 
 
 " Oh, no it won't," Corrie smiled, " she told me 
 she never had a cold. But then, think what she 
 eats, buttered cereal and spinach." 
 
 " It will be ten miles in all, at the very least," 
 Billy added. 
 
 " Not ten, five," insisted Mr. Monson. 
 
 " But she must come back." 
 
 " I don't believe she will," chuckled Mr. Monson. 
 " We Ve got too much on her, and she knows that 
 we have." 
 
 " She is n't coming back," agreed Corrie, " but 
 not for that reason. Did you see her eyes when 
 he picked her up in his arms? Well, I did." 
 
 "Oh," said Mr. Monson, "so that is it?" 
 
 " What makes you believe they have gone straight 
 out from here five miles ? " interrupted Billy, who 
 had been thinking. 
 
 " We had a man here, running Mrs. Sabiston's 
 motorboat. She made him cover the course every 
 day, five nautical miles." 
 
 "Where is he?" 
 
 " We have n't a trace of him. He has disap- 
 peared." 
 
 " By Jove ! Billy's voice was shrill with excite- 
 336
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA 
 
 ment. " They kidnapped him, don't you see, the 
 night my brother Karl came. This Mr. Peters 
 went out, and while they were lying* alongside 
 the submarine they pulled your man aboard. 
 You won't hear from him for a considerable 
 time." 
 
 " Well, there are some advantages in having a 
 man on a German submarine," said Mr. Monson, 
 optimistically. " If Peters were carried off by a 
 balloon he 'd come back some day with a counter- 
 feiter. He '11 show up like as not in command 
 of the U-boat." 
 
 Billy went swiftly to the telephone. 
 
 " What 's up ? " asked Mr. Monson. 
 
 " I must notify the Charlestown Navy Yard. 
 They '11 have to send a destroyer out, but I 'm 
 afraid it 's too late now. Hold on ! I remember 
 something, there 's a German submarine base 
 Where was it Karl started to say " 
 
 " Oh ! I have it." Corrie had sprung to her 
 feet. " He told me." 
 
 " Who told you ? " demanded Mr. Monson. 
 
 " That perfectly odious Captain von Hagenah." 
 
 " Say, we seem to have missed him," exclaimed 
 Mr. Monson. " We must try to get him." 
 
 " He should be burned in oil," said Corrie. 
 
 " Let 's see, what was his description, again ? " 
 337
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " About Billy's build," Corrie went on, " same 
 kind of legs and shoulders, but a horrible crea- 
 ture, face covered to the eyes with a big blonde 
 beard." 
 
 The light was beginning to dawn on Billy. " That 
 must have been Karl. It was Karl." 
 
 " Why, it was almost as though I had known 
 him," exclaimed Corrie, " positively uncanny. I 
 felt that I had known him before, although I knew 
 I had n't. Your twin brother ! " She stood looking 
 down at the rug. " So that is why," she added to 
 herself "I thought there was something familiar 
 about the lips." 
 
 " He mentioned a submarine base, you said," 
 interrupted Mr. Monson. 
 
 " He gave an order about it to one of the men, 
 told him to keep in touch with it." 
 
 "Where?" cried Mr. Monson, impatiently. 
 
 " Caribou Caribou Island, that 's it," cried 
 Corrie, triumphantly. 
 
 Billy picked up the receiver. " Charlestown 
 Navy Yard," he said crisply, and waited. " Hello! 
 Navy Yard? Give me the duty officer. Yes, yes. 
 . . . This is Lieutenant-Commander Hartmann. 
 There 's a German submarine off what 's the 
 name of this place? Namaschet five miles out, 
 and hello! I have information that there is a base 
 
 338
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA 
 
 at Caribou Island. Maine coast, that 's it. Get 
 busy thank^. Goodnight." 
 
 " And now to get back to Washington," said Mr. 
 Monson. " I '11 have to let the Boston business go. 
 I want to see this man White, and take a look at 
 his papers." 
 
 Corrie stared dreamily into the fireplace, and 
 smiled. 
 
 " You will go back with us, Mrs. Winters? You 
 have been of great value He drew near, and 
 lowered his voice. " We could use you to very 
 good advantage, if you could see your way clear 
 the compensation would be, well, we would be lib- 
 eral to a woman like you." 
 
 " I '11 do anything to be of assistance, to serve 
 my country," said Corrie, " and I '11 enjoy it if 
 what you want me to do is what I think it is." 
 
 " Smart woman ! " commented Mr. Monson, 
 beaming approval. " I have n't the slightest doubt 
 that you will build a fire-proof hotel in Hong Kong 
 that will " 
 
 " I love that ! " cried Corrie. " But how on 
 earth The wonder in her eyes was incense to 
 his soul. 
 
 " I must get back to Washington," interrupted 
 Billy, joining them. " I expect to receive my orders 
 now without delay. Let us take the first train." 
 
 339
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 He turned to Frieda. "Of course you will I 
 am sure that Mrs. Winters " 
 
 " I hardly know," said Frieda, doubtfully. 
 
 " Miss Fralli is still my guest," said Corrie, help- 
 fully, noting his anxiety and embarrassment. " Cer- 
 tainly she will go back with me." 
 
 " Miss Fralli ! " exclaimed Mr. Monson, and took 
 off his spectacles and rubbed them vigorously, " you 
 mean Miss Sigbert." 
 
 " Pardon me, I am speaking of Miss Fralli," ob- 
 served Corrie, in one of her numerous imperious 
 tones. 
 
 " It is a name Miss Sigbert sometimes uses," ex- 
 plained Billy, looking at Elfrieda with anxiety in 
 his eyes. 
 
 " Indeed ? " commented Mr. Monson, suspiciously. 
 " It seems to me " 
 
 " Miss Sigbert is an opera singer," Billy ex- 
 plained ; " Fralli is her stage name, her professional 
 name. She is my cousin we were brought up 
 together." 
 
 "Oh," said Mr. Monson, subsiding. "Well, 
 let 's be getting along. We have a big car waiting 
 at the gate, and as the men will remain here until 
 these interned Germans can be taken care of and 
 this property turned over to the Department of 
 Justice, it will accommodate all of us comfortably." 
 
 340
 
 STRAIGHT OUT TO SEA 
 
 " There 's no use going back to Boston at this 
 hour," suggested Corrie. " I 'd rather wait here 
 than in that barn of a station. What do you say 
 to a couple of rubbers of bridge?" 
 
 " Better make sure of an early train," answered 
 Mr. Monson. 
 
 " Oh, very well, then, but I shan't stir a step 
 until I have had a cocktail," and Corrie sat down 
 in front of the fire with a gesture that left no ground 
 for argument. 
 
 " Make mine a highball," laughed Mr. Monson. 
 " I guess we can spare the butler for a moment. 
 Roberts, you go along with him to the pantry, 
 please." 
 
 " Pantry!" exclaimed Corrie, dramatically. "I 'm 
 starving. Some sandwiches, Ludwig!" 
 
 " I '11 get them," cried Billy, eagerly, starting up. 
 
 " Thank you, dear boy." 
 
 " Miss Sigbert must be quite faint after this try- 
 ing night." He hurried from the room, and Corrie 
 followed him with her eyes, and then glanced down 
 at Frieda, a crumpled heap in the big arm chair. 
 
 " Oh," said Corrie, and walked slowly to the 
 window, and stood watching the sea as it came to 
 life in the soft light of approaching dawn. " And 
 I had thought," she added to herself, " that I was 
 going to get out of this without any punishment."
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 " HOW CAN I LEAVE THEE? " 
 
 " Anybody home ? " 
 
 " Come in," smiled Billy, going to the door, and 
 shaking hands with Corrie. He watched Elfrieda's 
 face as he took her hand, but could make nothing 
 of the inscrutable look that lay in the depths of her 
 eyes. 
 
 " Her position is intolerable," he thought. " I can 
 do nothing now, nothing to help her in any way. 
 She would feel her dependence on me, she might 
 even think there was an obligation to be kind now 
 where she has been cold before. I must be careful, 
 and set a guard upon my words." 
 
 They walked into Neil's living room. The shades 
 were drawn to the tops of the windows, and the 
 bright, warm April sun was streaming in. The sky 
 had donned the springtime garb of blue it wears in 
 Washington. 
 
 " Just ran down to look in and let you know that 
 we are quite rested," chirped Corrie. " You are 
 going away? " 
 
 342
 
 "HOW CAN I LEAVE THEE?" 
 
 Billy took a suitcase from the couch, and threw 
 it into a corner. 
 
 " This evening," he replied listlessly. 
 
 " Shall I help you pack? " asked Frieda. 
 
 " They may be cousins," thought Corrie, " and 
 reared together when they were children, and all 
 that sort of thing, and I suppose it 's all right, but 
 somehow I can't get used to it." 
 
 " Thanks, no, I Ve finished," Billy was saying. 
 
 Frieda would not look at him, but stood at the 
 window, staring out across the roof-tops of the town 
 that lay stretched at her feet like a languid woman 
 arousing from her sleep. 
 
 " He is different," she thought, " the warmth in 
 his eyes has gone, and the smile is not the same. 
 He was not like this when I came. I have brought 
 wretchedness and misery upon him. No doubt he 
 hates me, now, and Mrs. Winters she is very 
 good looking." She turned from the window. 
 Billy was filling his cigarette case. 
 
 "You are really going?" she asked. 
 
 " Very soon, now. I expect my orders at any 
 moment." 
 
 " And then " 
 
 " Good bye." 
 
 " You must feel it must be wonderful," she 
 said, with a flash of feminine intuition. 
 
 343
 
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 " One does not get a chance like this every day," 
 he replied soberly. " It is what we have all dreamed 
 of, worked for and now ! " 
 
 " I have seen so many go, these last three years," 
 said Frieda, her face very pale. " I know how it 
 feels. Even the women understand, although they 
 only stay behind, to grieve, and wait and wait." 
 
 " The man in Germany ! " thought Billy. " He 
 was killed in action! After that, there can never 
 be a place in her heart for me. There is nothing 
 left but the affection of a cousin, there has never 
 been anything else. I shall have to give her up, and 
 put these dreams forever from my mind." 
 
 He could see now, what he had never seen before, 
 that she did not really love him, had never loved 
 him, else his waiting would have ended long ago. 
 " If I cannot have all her love, it is better that I 
 should have none," he thought. " Still, she will 
 always be, as she has always been, the only one for 
 me." 
 
 " I shall be lonely," said Frieda. 
 
 He looked up quickly, all his resolution gone in 
 an instant. 
 
 " Mrs. Winters is going away," she explained, 
 reddening. 
 
 " Oh ! I see. Where now, Corrie, or east or 
 west?" 
 
 344
 
 "HOW CAN I LEAVE THEE?" 
 
 " I 'm going to box the compass," laughed Corrie, 
 " I 'm going everywhere. I adore it." 
 
 " See you in Kamchatka." He laughed. 
 " Back to the Orient, or is it a mere flying trip to 
 Paris London ? " 
 
 " It 's a secret can't tell you," and Corrie smiled 
 with delight. " Miss Sigbert has promised to keep 
 my apartment, so I shall always have a nice, comfy 
 place to run back to. I '11 be in town from time to 
 time." 
 
 " You are very good, Corrie," said Billy, trying 
 not to let his voice betray his gratitude. He felt re- 
 lieved to know that in his absence Elfrieda would 
 remain in Washington, where his friends, and 
 Corrie's, would be company and protection for her. 
 
 " I am going down to Old Point tonight," Corrie 
 added. 
 
 " I am planning to go to Hampton Roads this 
 evening myself, by boat." There was genuine 
 pleasure in Billy's voice. Between him and this 
 woman of inextinguishable youth there had long 
 been a comradeship that had been, to him, as nearly 
 platonic as any relationship between two people of 
 opposite sex can be. 
 
 " I should not have come," thought Frieda, 
 watching him. " There are others in his life. I 
 do not see how I can stay here, now." 
 
 345
 
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 Corrie's eyes were dancing with the delight she 
 always found in everything, even the trifles of life, 
 the ever-bubbling spring of joy in her nature that 
 kept her young. 
 
 " That will be splendid," she said. Elfrieda tried 
 to find a source of satisfaction in it too, for his sake, 
 and could not. 
 
 There was somebody at the door, and when 
 Corrie ran to open it, little Wallis came in, bathed 
 in gloom, saturated in woe. 
 
 "What's up?" asked Billy, quickly. 
 
 " Why why " stammered Wallis. 
 
 " I see it in your face," said Billy. 
 
 " You have n't heard, then ? " 
 
 "Heard what?" 
 
 " I suppose it is my fate to be the bearer of bad 
 news," said little Wallis. " I hoped somebody else 
 had told you, but I see you don't know." He found 
 a cigarette on the table, lighted it, looked out of 
 window, fidgeted into a chair and jerked himself 
 nervously out of it again, and finally said : 
 
 " Your orders have been revoked." 
 
 " I have n't had my orders yet," said Billy ; " I 'm 
 expecting them now, and intend to join the flagship 
 tomorrow morning." 
 
 " I mean the orders designating you as Assistant 
 Chief-of-Staff to the Commander-in-Chief." 
 
 346
 
 "HOW CAN I LEAVE THEE?" 
 
 Billy said nothing, but he looked as though some- 
 body had struck him a blow in the face. The blood 
 mounted to his scalp. 
 
 " I 'm terribly sorry," said Wallis. 
 
 " Thank you, old man." Billy found his voice. 
 
 " I know how you feel." 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " It 's an outrage," cried Wallis. " Man ! I 
 did n't know how it would cut you up " 
 
 " I '11 get over it," replied Billy. " I 've weath- 
 ered other bitter disappointments. They all serve 
 their purpose. Have you heard what they propose 
 to do with me ? " 
 
 " No other orders are out; this one has just been 
 issued. Hollister came up this way ahead of me, I 
 thought maybe you had heard of it from him." 
 
 " No, I have n't seen Hollister.'' He stopped, and 
 then went on, " Wallis, I can speak confidentially 
 to you. They had this done ? " 
 
 "Who?" asked Wallis, wonderingly. 
 
 " Hollister, those men at the club, you remem- 
 ber the ones who could n't bear the thought of 
 serving in action under a man who was born in 
 Prussia. That 's the hardest part about it." 
 
 Little Wallis's face broke into a smile. He 
 reached out impulsively, and wrung Billy's hand. 
 
 " Hollister 's the maddest one of the bunch," he 
 347
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 said. " He 's positively furious. That 's why I 
 thought you might have seen him. He wants to 
 tell you how glad and proud he would be to 
 serve with you and under you. All the men I have 
 talked with feel that way about it, Billy. They 
 think it was magnificent." 
 
 " You all know? " Billy looked at him blankly. 
 
 " Do you want to see the headlines ? " 
 
 Billy groaned, and waved the paper aside. 
 
 " You should be glad," said little Wallis. " It 
 has made everyone see things as they really are, 
 not as they imagined them to be. The men had 
 nothing to do with this, old fellow, absolutely noth- 
 ing. They were more surprised than anybody when 
 the order was issued. There was no recommenda- 
 tion of it. Why don't you ask Marshfield? He 
 might know. He was at the Department yesterday 
 afternoon, and again this morning." 
 
 " I guess you '11 have to go to Old Point alone, 
 Corrie," smiled Billy. 
 
 " Old Point ! I 'm going down tonight. De- 
 lighted ! " and little Wallis fairly danced. He had 
 found that he could talk to Mrs. Winters now with- 
 out getting tongue-tied, and the discovery enchanted 
 him. " Well, I must be getting along," he added. 
 " Shall I see you on the boat? " 
 
 " I '11 be there," answered Corrie, " look me up." 
 348
 
 "HOW CAN I LEAVE THEE?" 
 
 Wallis danced out, and at the door bumped into 
 a quiet-looking, middle-aged gentleman in specta- 
 cles. It was Mr. Monson, and they were all glad 
 to see him, much as if he had been a long-lost friend, 
 instead of a recent acquaintance whom they had 
 parted from but a few hours before. 
 
 " I went up to see you, Mrs. Winters," explained 
 Mr. Monson. " The maid said that you were here, 
 so I thought I would n't wait, but would come right 
 down." 
 
 " Charmed, I 'm sure," said Corrie. 
 
 " So this is the apartment where they tied you up, 
 is it?" he asked Billy, looking around with profes- 
 sional interest. 
 
 " He," amended Billy, " not they." 
 
 " I have shamed him before his friends, before all 
 the world," thought Frieda, going back to the win- 
 dow. " I wish I were dead." 
 
 Mr. Monson peeped into the bedroom, where the 
 trunk and bags were scattered about. 
 
 " Going away ? " he asked. 
 
 " I was," answered Billy. 
 
 "What's happened?" 
 
 " My orders have been revoked ; I have just 
 learned of it." 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Monson, " we all have disap- 
 pointments, so cheer up, Commander. I want to 
 
 349
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 say," he added, " that it 's all right about that tele- 
 gram to the janitor." 
 
 He took a sheaf of papers from his pocket, and 
 shuffled through them. 
 
 " Here is it," he said, and held out a slip. " Rec- 
 ognize that, Miss Sigbert ? " 
 
 " That is a copy of the telegram I sent to the 
 janitor from New London," said Elfrieda. 
 
 " And a clever one it was," declared Mr. Monson, 
 wagging his head approvingly. " Did you file any 
 other telegrams at the same time ? " 
 
 " Not for myself," said Frieda. 
 
 "For anybody?" 
 
 " Yes, two." 
 
 " Can you identify them? " 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 " Kindly find them for me." 
 
 Elfrieda took a file of telegram duplicates, and ran 
 through them swiftly. " Here they are," she said. 
 
 " Hum! " said Mr. Monson, reading, " this is to 
 the chauffeur, directing him to meet the train at 
 Clifton Junction. I know about this one." 
 
 " Here 's the other," and Elfrieda pointed it out 
 to him. 
 
 " Yes, this one is more interesting," commented 
 Mr. Monson. "I could n't quite make it out. It 's 
 to White, Hannibal G. White "he glanced at 
 
 350
 
 "HOW CAN I LEAVE THEE?" 
 
 Mrs. Winters " ' W. H. unsatisfactory see Bruch 
 immediately.' Signed *S.' That 'S' is for 'Sabis- 
 ton,' of course, but who the dickens is Bruch?" 
 
 " ' W. H. unsatisfactory/ " repeated Corrie, look- 
 ing over his shoulder. 
 
 " Does that mean anything to you, Mrs. 
 Winters?" 
 
 " Not a thing," said Corrie, shaking her head 
 doubtfully, " I don't know anybody named Bruch, 
 never heard of him." 
 
 " The name is familiar to me," said Billy. 
 
 "He is in the Navy?" 
 
 " Oh, no," answered Billy. " There is a Bruch in 
 my State, the political boss. He is the campaign 
 manager of Senator Marshfield." 
 
 " Marshfield ! " cried Corrie, her face suddenly 
 turning scarlet. " I wonder if * W. H.' could stand 
 for ' William Hartmann '?" 
 
 " What makes you suspect that? " demanded Mr. 
 Monson, looking at her with admiring eyes that 
 seemed to say, " Smart woman ! " 
 
 " Marshfield had Billy appointed Assistant Chief- 
 of-Staff to the Commander-in-Chief," she said 
 slowly. 
 
 "This Bruch, he probably did that," cried Mr. 
 Monson. " It 's as plain as day." 
 
 " No, he did n't," interrupted Corrie, looking
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 away, " no, I happen to know that Bruch did n't have 
 anything to do with that." 
 
 " He might have had," insisted Mr. Monson. 
 " These initials must refer to William Hartmann. 
 Unsatisfactory ! Well, they 've got you out, what ? " 
 
 " I ought to tell you something," said Billy, 
 " something I learned only recently. Marshfield 
 appointed me to Annapolis and Bruch told him to 
 do it." 
 
 " And now he 's told him to take this assignment 
 away from you," finished Mr. Monson. 
 
 " And I filed the telegram," Elfrieda cried out. 
 " I have brought nothing but trouble and disgrace 
 upon you since I came." She sat down, trembling. 
 " I have ruined his career," she thought. " How he 
 must despise and loathe me." 
 
 Mr. Monson turned, and looked down at her curi- 
 ously, his eyes snapping away at a furious rate. 
 
 " Did you know what that telegram was when you 
 filed it, Miss Sigbert?" 
 
 Her face colored, as she stood up, indignation 
 blazing from her eyes. 
 
 " Mr. Monson ! " she said. 
 
 " There, now, there, now," he said soothingly, " I 
 knew you did n't." 
 
 " Oh, nobody thinks that, Frieda," interjected 
 Billy, hastily. 
 
 352
 
 "HOW CAN I LEAVE THEE?" 
 
 " It 's absurd," said Corrie. 
 
 " I was simply the messenger." She looked at 
 Billy imploringly. " I did n't know anything, Billy. 
 You believe me, don't you ? " 
 
 " Of course, Frieda, everyone understands." 
 
 " How about this Bruch ? " said Mr. Monson. 
 " That 's what we are interested in. He must be 
 somebody. What office does he hold ? " 
 
 " He has never held any office," said Billy. 
 
 " That 's so, the big fellows never do," agreed 
 Mr. Monson. " Pull the wires on the outside, and 
 make a barrel of money while nobody is looking. 
 I know the type." 
 
 " He 's a millionaire lumberman, must be about 
 seventy now. I knew him when I was a child. He 
 came from Diisseldorf, too, and knew my people 
 there." 
 
 " A German ! " cried Mr. Monson, striking an 
 attitude. " Now are n't they the most obliging 
 people you ever knew in all your born days ? They 
 don't let a little thing like a war stop their philan- 
 thropy, no indeed, they pitch right in and help us 
 run it. Little hitch up at the Navy Department, 
 and Mr. Bruch gives up all his private affairs, 
 neglects his family, and takes right hold. Bruch 
 orders Marshfield, and Marshfield " 
 
 " Senator Marshfield was at the Department 
 353
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 yesterday afternoon, and again this morning," re- 
 minded Corrie, helpfully, " Wallie said so." Mr. 
 Monson regarded her with an approving eye. 
 
 " Bruch gets his orders from White, and Mrs. 
 Sabiston gives the tip to White. I suppose she re- 
 ceived her instructions from Berlin," added Mr. 
 Monson, " by way of that cute little toy radio." 
 
 " I don't think so," ventured Billy, after a mo- 
 ment. " It is Karl's work. He got me ! " 
 
 " I am going to take a hand in this," said Mr. 
 Monson, in his very crispest tone. " You just do 
 like br'er rabbit, and watch me. Politics at a time 
 like this ! " 
 
 " Marshfield is very powerful," said Billy, doubt- 
 fully ; " just about runs the government. He says 
 the President is going to have a third term." 
 
 " He is trying to capitalize the President's popu- 
 larity for his own benefit," replied Mr. Monson, 
 in the cynical tone a Washingtonian always uses. 
 " He is coming up for re-election himself next 
 time, see? He thinks he 's managing editor of the 
 whole works, but all his plans will go to smash. 
 He 's on the Naval Committee, and they do have 
 to knuckle down to him some, but I '11 fix him 
 when I have attended to his case he won't be able 
 to pry his way into the White House with a crow- 
 bar." He turned to Corrie. 
 
 354
 
 "HOW CAN I LEAVE THEE?" 
 
 " How well do you know Senator Marshfield, 
 Mrs. Winters? " he asked in a low tone. " Maybe 
 when you come back from Fortress Monroe - 
 well, I '11 take that up with you later. And now, 
 can I see you about that matter down there ? " 
 
 " Come right up to my apartment," smiled Corrie 
 cheerfully, " and we can have a nice, long talk." 
 She called over her shoulder, at the door, " Excuse 
 me, won't you I '11 be back." 
 
 Elfrieda, in a simple little pink dress, sat in the 
 sunshine, and Billy watched her as he went to the 
 table, and found the cigarettes. 
 
 " Will you join me? " he asked, offering her his 
 case. 
 
 " Thank you, no." 
 
 " I thought " 
 
 *' I 'm not a real opera singer yet, Billy," she re- 
 minded him. 
 
 " that maybe Corrie had taught you how. 
 That 's where all the young girls learn. They are 
 crazy about her." 
 
 ;< The men seem very fond of her, too," said 
 Frieda, " I never saw a woman with so many 
 friends. She is so interesting." 
 
 " She is an institution," laughed Billy, " we could 
 not get along without her." 
 
 " You have known her long? " 
 355
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 " Do you remember the day I spent with you in 
 Berlin, when I was on my midshipman cruise ? " 
 
 " Of course, Billy. We walked in the Tiergarten, 
 and sat on the bench under the lindens." 
 
 " And then you sent me away," he finished slowly. 
 " Well, when we left Kiel the ship touched at 
 Malta, and I met Corrie there. Her husband was 
 a Consul, then. A year later I ran across her in the 
 Orient. She was a widow, and trying to remember 
 it, and after that I met her everywhere. She has 
 a wanderlust, and loves her freedom more than 
 any woman I have ever known but one." 
 
 " It is plain that she is a widow from choice." 
 
 " Her scalps would fill a wigwam, but she is 
 wary, she could not settle down." 
 
 " A navy man was made for her," said Frieda. 
 
 "A good many of them have thought so," Billy 
 laughed. 
 
 " She will marry some day, I am sure." 
 
 " The flags will be at half mast if she does." 
 
 "I wonder if he loves her?" thought Elfrieda. 
 " Certainly, he is no longer mine." She looked 
 away across the rooftops, and the forest of trees, 
 lining all the streets and avenues, coming to life 
 and putting on their Easter clothes, and suddenly 
 her soul felt limp, and all her heart seemed ebbing 
 away. " I thought the other day that I had ruined 
 
 356
 
 "HOW CAN I LEAVE THEE?" 
 
 his life," she said to herself, " but now I see that 
 I have spoiled my own. I have thrown away his 
 love." 
 
 She got up quickly, and began walking up and 
 down the room nervously, her hands clasped behind 
 her head. 
 
 " Billy," she said presently, " I want to go into 
 the Red Cross." 
 
 There was sympathy and understanding in his 
 look as he replied, " I think it would be splendid, 
 Frieda. You have done work of that kind in 
 Germany? " 
 
 " No," she replied slowly, " I did nothing there 
 until I I let them send me here. Oh, Billy, do 
 you hate me for coming here ? " 
 
 " You promised me, one day in the arbor at home, 
 that you would come back to me," he said, evading 
 her question, and wished he had not spoken. " I 
 am always forgetting myself," he thought. " She 
 does not remember things like that." 
 
 " I always intended to, Billy, always, but I never 
 dreamed that I would come the way I did." 
 
 " Don't scourge yourself, Elfrieda. You came 
 because you thought that when you reached here 
 you would find me with you, on your side." 
 
 " Yes, that is true," she cried eagerly; " I did." 
 
 " Well, we are on the same side." 
 357
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 :< You think I know it 's true and yet I 
 have blundered so, and I have broken my oath. 
 It hurts, Billy, it hurts me terribly." 
 
 " Oath, Frieda ? What oath ? " 
 
 " I swore to Karl I would not betray my country. 
 He made me, but I swore it, just the same." 
 
 " And when the test came, Frieda, you were true." 
 
 " What I do not understand oh, yes, I do 
 
 this is my country, isn't it?" 
 
 " You are paying the penalties of a dual national- 
 ity, Frieda and so am I. Grit your teeth, and 
 hold on. We are under the knife now, and the 
 operation is severe, but it will cure. Only those 
 whose roots in a country go deeper than ours escape 
 unscathed at a time like this, and there are many 
 like us, in this country, in every country. Boundary 
 lines are more distinct on the map than they are in 
 the census. Find out where your allegiance lies, 
 and then hang on like grim death." 
 
 " You do not have to find it," said Elfrieda ; " it 's 
 a thing that comes to you, Billy, like something very 
 clear and illuminating that pops into your mind at 
 night, just as you are dropping off to sleep. I know 
 where my allegiance belongs this is my country 
 
 but I shall have my heartaches, just the same." 
 " The man in Germany ! " said Billy, thinking 
 
 aloud. 
 
 358
 
 "HOW CAN I LEAVE THEE?" 
 
 " What 's that? " she cried, startled by his tone, 
 and turning to him swiftly. 
 
 " Forgive me, Frieda, I did not mean to speak of 
 it again. You are entitled to your sorrow, your 
 grief for him, your love. I did not mean to hurt 
 you." 
 
 " What on earth are you talking about ? " 
 
 " The man in Germany who died, the man 
 you told me about him, the day we were in the 
 country together." 
 
 " I am so foolish and silly, Billy. There was no 
 man in Germany." 
 
 " No man " 
 
 " There never was. It 's just the romance in me. 
 I 'm always saying things like that, because they 
 they sound you think I 'm quite absurd, don't 
 you it 's the drama of it, Billy. ... A foolish 
 little fib." 
 
 " Frieda ! " He went to her across the room, and 
 stopped. The bell was ringing. 
 
 "Confound it!" 
 
 Elfrieda opened the door. 
 
 " Miss Sigbert, here is a letter for you." Mr. 
 Monson's face was beaming. 
 
 "Oh thank you." 
 
 " I 'm sorry delayed I hope you will under- 
 stand. I told Peters it was a shame. I put it in my 
 
 359
 
 MY COUNTRY 
 
 pocket to give to you, and forgot it. Well, better 
 late than never, you know." He trotted off. 
 
 " Why, Billy," said Elfrieda, " it 's one of yours 
 and it has been opened." 
 
 " The letter I wrote to you the night I arrived 
 in Washington. They have held it up. It is an 
 outrage, I shall see about it" 
 
 Elfrieda sat down on the piano bench, tore away 
 the envelope, and began reading. Once she looked 
 up at him, quickly, under her lashes. 
 
 "What is it, Frieda?" 
 
 " You have changed, since you wrote this ? " 
 
 " Changed ? No, Frieda, I have never changed. 
 I have always been the same." 
 
 She finished the letter, and thrust it in her dress, 
 her hands found the keys, she struck a mighty chord, 
 and then she sang, wildly, madly, exultantly; all 
 the golden melody of her soul came pouring out. 
 
 Billy leaned toward her across the piano. Her 
 mood changed, and she began, softly, the little song 
 that she had sung for Ruhlmann, and as she raised 
 her crimson face he saw that in her mist-dimmed 
 eyes the purple light was shining for him. 
 
 THE END
 
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