first line of defence, fighting all the time. The
Grays occupy La Tir, which will be out of the reach of our guns. Your
house will no longer be in danger, and we happen to know that Westerling
means to make it his headquarters."

"Our house Westerling's headquarters!" she repeated. With a start that
brought her up erect, alert, challenging, her lashes flickering, she
recalled that Westerling had said at parting that he should see her if
war came. This corroborated Lanstron's information. One side wanted a
spy in the garden; the other a general in the house. Was she expected to
make a choice? He had ceased to be Lanny. He personified war. Westerling
personified war. "I suppose you have spies under his very nose--in his
very staff offices?" she asked.

"And probably he has in ours," said Lanstron, "though we do our best to
prevent it."

"What a pretty example of trust among civilized nations!" she exclaimed.
"And you say that Westerling, who commands the killing on his side, will
be in no danger?"

"Naturally not. As you know, a chief of staff must be at the wire head
where all information centres, free of interruption or confusion or any
possibility of broken lines of communication with his corps and
divisions."

"Then Partow will not be in any danger?"

"For the same reasons, no."

"How comfortable! In perfect safety themselves, they will order other
men to death!"

"Marta, you are unjust!" exclaimed Lanstron, for he revered Partow as
disciple reveres master. "Partow has the iron cross!"--the prized iron
cross given to both officers and men of the Browns for exceptional
courage in action and for that alone. "He won it leading a second charge
with a bullet in his arm, after he had lost thirty per cent, of his
regiment. The second charge succeeded."

"Yes, I understand," she went on a little wildly. "And perhaps the
colonel on the other side, who fought just as bravely and had even
heavier losses, did not get the bronze cross of the Grays because he
failed. Yes, I understand that bravery is a requisite of the military
cult. You must take some risk or you will not cause enough slaughter to
win either iron or bronze crosses. And, Lanny, are you a person of such
distinction in the business of killing that you also will be out of
danger?"

She had forgotten about the telephone; she had forgotten the picture of
dare-devil nerve he made when he rose from the wreck of his plane. If
his work were to make war, her w