ur finances, the suspense to the markets?"

"About a month. We shall go swiftly. The completeness of modern
preparation must make a war of to-day brief between two great powers. We
must win with a rush, giving the defenders no breathing spell, pouring
masses after masses upon the critical positions."

"How long will it take to mobilize?"

"Less than a week after the railroads are put entirely at our service,
with three preceding days of scattered movements," answered Westerling.
"Deliberate mobilizations are all right for a diplomatic threat that
creates a furore in the newspapers and a depression in the stock-market,
but which is not to be carried out. When you mean war, all speed and the
war fever at white heat."

"Therefore, there would be little time for the public to hoard money or
to provoke a panic. The government, knowing precisely what was before
it, could take severe preventive measures."

"But I may say that we should strike before mobilization is complete. A
day will be required to take the La Tir tangent and other outlying
positions. The 128th and other regiments who will do this work are
already at the front. They were chosen because they came from distant
provinces and we can count on their patriotic fervor for brilliant and
speedy action, with resulting general enthusiasm for the whole army,
which will be up in time for the assault on the Browns' permanent
defences."

"You would have made a good politician, Westerling," the premier
remarked, with a twitching uplift of the brows and a knowing gleam in
his shrewd old eyes.

"Thank you," replied Westerling, appearing flattered, though secretly
annoyed that any one should think that a chief of staff could care to
change places with any man in the world. Governments might come and go,
but the army was the rock in the midst of the play of minor forces, the
ultimate head of order and power. "A man who is able to lead in anything
must be something of a politician," he said suavely.

"Very true, indeed. Perhaps I had that partly in mind in making you
vice-chief of staff," responded the premier enjoyably. "You spoke of the
war fever at white heat," he went on, returning to his muttons, "and of
the army's enthusiasm for its work. There we come to the kernel in the
nut, eh?" he asked, as he prodded the paper-knife into the palm of his
hand.

"Drill, organization, discipline, and centralized authority and a
high-spirited aristocracy of officers are most im