try Portugal is! Born dumb, she spoke twice: once
when she gave Asia to Europe, again when she presented the Lusiades to
the world. Her history is resumed in two miracles, a discovery and a
masterpiece. But when the Cape of Good Hope was succeeded by Camoens,
once more she relapsed into a silence that was broken only when she
shouted her defiance at the Huns."

Now though that voice was addressing them. Both turned and Lennox asked:
"What are you talking about--war?"

"Sit down," said Verelst, who gave him a hand.

Jones gave him another. "What else is there to talk about? It will be
talked of forever. So will that scrofulous Kaiser. Unfortunately he
knows it and that pleases him. Last year or the year before he called
for the death and destruction of all who opposed him. With singular
modesty he added: 'God who speaks through my mouth so orders!' Loti
claims that what spoke through him was a hyena. Loti is lacking in
literary sobriety. When a hyena has eaten he is at peace with the world.
But when was bestiality ever filled? It is insatiable and so is this
thug whom God, at most, may have permitted to look in the mirror without
vomiting. Meanwhile we stand by. A generation ago we fought for Cuba.
What is Hecuba to us in comparison to the Anima Mundi?"

Verelst turned on the novelist. "And what is literary sobriety? You are
hurling words in massed formation."

Jones smiled at him. "Where is my harp?"

"You mean your megaphone," Lennox put in. "You are always rehearsing
copy. One of these days I may give you some."

"From the front?" Jones asked.

"Yes, though I don't see how you knew. The President has asked for war.
Why aren't we up and at 'em? If Congress hems and haws over it much
longer, I'll get my gun and join the Foreign Legion."

Jones nodded. He had guessed that also and he said: "Wait and join the
legions here. At present, the country is alarmingly apathetic. The man
in the subway is muddled. The call to arms does not stir him. The
issues, clear enough to us, seem to him mixed as macaroni. He does not
understand a war that is three thousand miles away. But in a year, every
man in the country--a country that has never been beaten!--will be in it
body and soul. Undividedly, shoulder to shoulder, we will be in it as we
have never been in anything before."

The novelist touched a bell. "Lennox, have a Bronx. Verelst, what will
you take? I'll wager a pippin that war is declared to-morrow."

"Done," sai