essity pressed hard on their heels, and the noise of war from across
the border sounded a shrill Mene Tekel in the white man's ear?

* * * * *

There were therefore no less than one hundred and seventy thousand
Japanese soldiers on American soil on Tuesday morning, May ninth. In the
north, the line of outposts ran along the eastern border of the States
of Washington and Oregon and continued through the southern portion of
Idaho, always keeping several miles to the east of the tracks of the
Oregon Short Line, which thus formed an excellent line of communication
behind the enemy's front. At Granger, the junction of the Oregon Short
Line and the Union Pacific, the Japanese reached their easternmost
bastion, and here they dug trenches, which were soon fortified by means
of heavy artillery. From here their line ran southward along the Wasatch
Mountains, crossed the great Colorado plateau and then continued along
the high section of Arizona, reaching the Mexican boundary by way of
Fort Bowie.

Only in the south and in the extreme north did railroads in any
respectable number lead up to the Japanese front. In the center,
however, the roads by way of which an American assault could be made,
namely the Union Pacific at Granger, the Denver and Rio Grande at Grand
Junction, and further south the Atcheson, Topeka & Santa Fe, approached
the Japanese positions at right angles, and at these points captive
balloons and several air-ships kept constant watch toward the east, so
that there was no possibility of an American surprise. In the north
strong field fortifications along the border-line of Washington and
Idaho furnished sufficient protection, and in the south the sunbaked
sandy deserts of New Mexico served the same purpose. Then, too, the
almost unbroken railway connection between the north and the south
allowed the enemy to transport his reserves at a moment's notice to any
point of danger, and the Japs were clever enough not to leave their
unique position to push further eastward. Any advance of large bodies
of troops would have weakened all the manifold advantages of this
position, and besides the Japanese numbers were not considerable enough
to warrant an unnecessary division of forces.

And what had we in the way of troops to oppose this hostile invasion?
Our regular army consisted, on paper, of sixty thousand men. Fifteen
thousand of these had been stationed in the Pacific States, composed