istling froze me rigid to my controls.
I had heard it before--there could be no mistaking the cry of that
oncoming torpedo--and I saw the damnable thing pass close to my ship.

I was doing two hundred--my motor was throttled down--but this inhuman
monster passed me as if my ship were frozen as unmoving as myself. It
tore on ahead. I saw an enemy plane above it some five thousand feet.
The torpedo was checked; I saw it poise; then it curved over and down.
And the screaming motor took up its cry that was like a thousand
devils until its sound was lost in the screams from below and the
infernal blast of its own explosion.

Only a trial flight--an experiment to test their controls! No need for
me to try to tell you of the thoughts that tore me through and through
while I struggled to bring my ship to an even keel in the hurricane of
explosion that drove up at me from below. But I spat out the one word:
"Brotherhood!" and I prayed for a place in the front line where I
might send one shot at least against so beastly a foe.

* * * * *

That was somewhere in Massachusetts. Their foremost columns were close
behind. They came to a stop some fifty miles from our waiting line of
battle: I learned this when I got to Washington. And the reason, too,
was known; it was published in all the papers. There had been messages
to the President, broadcast to the world from an unknown source:

"To the President of the United States--warning! This war must end.
You, as Commander-in-Chief of the American forces can bring it to a
close. I have prevailed upon the Red Army of the Brotherhood to halt.
They have listened to me. You, also, must take heed.

"You will issue orders at once to withdraw all resistance. You will
disband your army, ground all your planes; bring all your artillery
into one place and prepare to turn the government of this country over
to the representatives of the Central Council. You will act at once."

"This war is ended. All wars are ended forevermore. I have spoken."

And the strange message was signed "Paul."

The wild words of a maniac, it was thought at first. Yet the fact
remained that the enemy's advance had ceased. Who was this "Paul" who
had "prevailed upon the Red Army" to halt?

And then the obvious answer occurred; it was a ruse on the part of the
Reds. They feared to attack; their strength was not as great as we had
thought--officers and men of all branches of the service