laugh I
looked as solemn as I could, for there was such terror in his face, I
knew that if I laughed he would turn and run back to civilization.

"An hour later we reached the timber line. Before we entered it the
first boy fell flat on his face and prayed to the god of the mountain
asking that god not to hurt them. Then the next boy did likewise; then
the third and the fourth and the fifth!

"Their faces were almost white with fear when we missionaries did not
pray. It filled them with terror!"

* * * * *

And the last Flash-light of Fear is that of the baby in Medan. The
Priest lived across the way in a temple.

The baby was sick with whooping-cough. It was the usual, simple case of
baby sickness that American babies all have, and which is not taken
seriously here by either doctor or mother.

The mother took the baby to the priest.

The priest took a red hot iron; laid the baby on the church altar and
ran the iron across its neck, and then across its breast and then across
its little stomach. Then he laid it on the front steps of the temple.

The baby died after a few hours spent in terrible pain.

Hate the Priest?

No!

Despise the mother?

No!

Pity them!

The priest was honest and the mother was honest. They were doing the
best thing for the baby that either of them knew. They knew that the
baby had a devil in its little body and they were merely trying to drive
that devil out of its body.

Fear! Fear! Fear! Fear of devils in the home, lurking in the shadows of
night and in the light of day; lurking in the bodies of babies; devils
everywhere--always.

These are the Flash-lights of Fear!

And like unto them are the pictures of Frightfulness which I have set
down in the next chapter.

CHAPTER V

FLASH-LIGHTS OF FRIGHTFULNESS

"The Jap is the slant-eyed Hun of the Orient. He has a slant-eyed
ethics, a slant-eyed morality, a slant-eyed honesty, a slant-eyed social
consciousness; a slant-eyed ambition, a slant-eyed military system; and
a slant-eyed mind!" said Peter Clarke Macfarlane, the well-known author
and lecturer, one day when I was interviewing him on the Japanese
question.

"That's pretty strong, Mr. Macfarlane, in the light of your usual
conservatism," I commented.

"I say it carefully and after much thought. It is said to stay said so
far, as I am concerned," he added with finality.

This was also my own opinion, after spending three mont