d upon the earth had
sent its army of ideas, and they all charged together here, and the
walls of the Dirty Spoon resounded with the battle--with roars of
laughter and applause. For we were of free, tolerant minds. We were gay,
young dogs of war who had left our tails behind us--our tails of
prejudice, distrust--and our emancipated souls had only scorn for
hatreds born of race or creed. Like J. K., we had rid ourselves of all
creeds past and present--but J. K. had always been free with a scowl,
his feet set grimly on the ground--we here were free with a verve and a
dash that took us careering up into the stars to laugh at the very
heavens.

There was breadth in our very manner of speech. For here were we from
all over the earth, all speaking one tongue, the language in which half
the things that had moved the world had been said by men before us. And
what sparkling things there were still to be said, what dazzling things
we would see and do, in this prodigious onward march of the armies of
peace, out of all dark ages into a glad new world for men, where our
great smiling goddess of all the arts would reign supreme, where we
would dream mighty visions of life and all these visions would come
true.

So we saw the world those days in the radiant city on the Seine.

And meanwhile far up in the North, the Russian Czar, having started with
loud ostentation the movement for a world-wide peace, was swiftly
completing his preparations to strike with his armies at Japan. And the
other nations of Europe, jealous and suspicious of each other's every
secret plan--they, too, were making ready for what the future years
might bring.

"Young men are lucky. They will see great things."

And these young men have seen great things. But they have not been
lucky.

CHAPTER XI

It was about a year after this that again Joe Kramer broke in on my
dreams.

He arrived early on a raw, wet morning in the following winter. His
all-night ride from Cherbourg had left him disheveled, unshaven and
hungry.

"Well, boys," he asked when our greetings were over, "what do you think
of the news?"

"What news?"

Joe gave us a grim, fatherly smile.

"Say. Do I have to come all the way from Chicago to tell you what's
happening down the street? Well, you young beauty boosters, there's a
panic on the Bourse this week that's got your fair city flat on her
back. And the cause of the said panic is that France is in deep on
Russian bonds, whi