nd guns will follow. The war is as good
as won!"

He caught at Marta's hand, but she drew away; and her start of revulsion
at his touch was almost coincident with a start on his part for another
reason. A huge shadow shot at railway-train speed over their heads.
Something very like fear flashed into his expression.

"One of our dirigibles!" he exclaimed. "I confess it came so near that
it gave me a sort of shock, too."

"Only a shadow with no death in it," she said. "And there is death in
every flash there on the range. General Westerling, have you ever been
under fire?" she asked suddenly.

He had scarcely heard the question. He took a step forward, with head
raised and shading his eyes.

"Not ours! One of theirs!" he exclaimed. "Theirs--and any number of
theirs!"

Driving toward the volcano's centre were many Brown dirigibles, slowing
down as they approached. Greater eruptions than any from shells rose
from the earth as they passed.

"So that's what they've had their dirigibles in reserve for--for the
last desperate defence!" he said. "The defence that can never win! Not
their dirigibles--not any power known to man can stop my men. I have
sent in so many that enough must survive. But where are _our_
dirigibles? A few are up--why don't they close in? And our guns--why
don't they fire at a target before their eyes as big as a house? There
they go, and they got one!"--as a circle of flame brighter than the
illumination of other explosions broke in the sky. "And one of ours is
closing in! Look, both have blown up as they collided! That shows that
two can play at the game! But what a swarm they have--more than we knew!
Bouchard's intelligence at fault again! However, if they try to stop our
fortifying the redoubt our guns will care for them. That clever trick of
Lanstron's may have cost us a few extra casualties, but it will not
change the result. It's time we had details over the wire," he
concluded, turning back to the house rather precipitately. "Then there
may be work for me."

* * * * *

"After hell, more hell, and then still more hell!" was the way that
Stransky expressed his thought when the engineers had taken the place of
the 53d of the Browns in the redoubt. They put their mines and
connections deep enough not to be disturbed by shell fire. After the
survivors in the van of the Grays' charge, spent of breath, reached
their goal and threw themselves down, the earth under