In the Clutch of the War-God Part 5

But instead of stopping, she pa.s.sed by and continued down between the rows of cotton, avoiding as much as possible the lights that dotted the field about her.

"Oh, G.o.d!" she repeated under her breath; "Oh, G.o.d! I can't go! I won't go!"

For some time she walked on briskly trying to calm her feverish mind and reason out a sane course of procedure.

She was pa.s.sing thus where the lights of two planes glowed fifty meters at either side, when she stumbled heavily over some dark object between the cotton rows. She turned to see what it was; and, bending forward, discerned in the starlight the body of a man. She started to run; then, fearing pursuit the more, checked her speed.

As she did so some one grasped her arm and a heavy hand was clapped over her mouth.

"Keep quiet," commanded her captor hoa.r.s.ely. In another instant he had bent her back over his knee and thrown her--or rather dropped her for she did not resist--upon the soft earth beneath.

"If you make a sound, I'll have to shoot," he said, resting a heavy knee upon her chest and clasping her slender wrist in a vise-like grip of a single hand.

The girl breathed heavily.

The man reached toward his hip pocket and drawing forth a bright metallic object held it close to her face. Her breath stopped short.

Then a flood of light struck her full in the eyes, as her captor pressed the b.u.t.ton on his flash lamp.

"G.o.d! a woman!" the man gasped. The exclamation and voice were clearly not j.a.panese.

Ethel felt the grip loosen from her wrists and the weight s.h.i.+ft from her chest.

"You're no j.a.panese!" he said under his breath, at the same time letting the glowing flash lamp fall from his hand.

Presently Ethel raised her head and reached for the lamp where it lay wasting its rays against the black soil. She now turned the glow on the other and saw kneeling beside her a young man in American clothes. He was hatless and coatless and his soft gray s.h.i.+rt was torn and mud bespattered. A ma.s.sive head of uncombed hair crowned a handsome forehead, but the face beneath was marred by a stubby growth of beard.

"Who are you?" whispered Ethel finding her voice.

"Put out the light," he commanded, reaching forward to take it from her.

"Who are you?" he asked reversing the query as they were again in darkness.

"I'm a girl," said Ethel.

The man laughed softly.

"I'm not," he said.

Ethel drew herself into a sitting posture. "Which side of this war are you on?" she asked.

The man was afraid to commit himself--then a happy thought struck him. "The same side that you are," he answered diplomatically.

It was Ethel's turn to smile.

"You are an American?" she ventured at length.

"Yes," he said. "So are you?"

"Yes."

"Then why are you wearing j.a.panese clothes?"

"Because--" she said hesitatingly, "I haven't any others."

For some minutes he said nothing.

"Are you going to give the alarm of my presence?" he asked at length.

"No."

"Then I'll go," he said.

Rising from his knees, but still stooping, he made off rapidly down the cotton row.

Ethel breathed deeply. Confused thoughts flashed through her mind.

She would not return to go with Komoru; in her j.a.panese garb she feared the early morning sweep of American cavalry; but to the man who had just left her, why could she not explain?

Without further debate, she arose, and at top speed ran after the retreating figure.

The next instalment of this absorbing tale will appear in the September issue of PHYSICAL CULTURE.

It tells of how the j.a.panese attempt to obtain control of the United States through scientific measures rather than barbarous warfare, and is wonderfully interesting and readable. Don't miss it.

PART THREE.

In the Clutch of the War-G.o.d

THE TALE OF THE ORIENT'S INVASION OF THE OCCIDENT, AS CHRONICLED IN THE HUMANICULTURE SOCIETY'S "NOTES ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY"

By Milo Hastings

SYNOPSIS: In the year of 1958, Ethel Calvert, a daughter of an American grain-merchant, residing in j.a.pan, because of her father's death in an anti-foreign riot, is forced to take refuge, with Madame Os.h.i.+ma, the French wife of a j.a.panese scientist. She becomes accustomed to the land and mode of living followed by the j.a.panese, and is finally persuaded to adopt the costume of the land of her exile. War is declared between j.a.pan and the United States, and Professor Os.h.i.+ma, and Komoru, his Secretary, together with Madame Os.h.i.+ma and Ethel Calvert, sail for the United States in a j.a.panese war vessel. When near the Pacific Coast, the many men and women who have been pa.s.sengers on the vessel, leave the s.h.i.+p by means of aeroplanes, and sail eastwardly toward Texas, where they establish plantations and conduct a desultory warfare by aeroplanes with United States troops.

While working in the fields Ethel discovers a young American in concealment. He warns her to keep silent, and immediately runs away.

In a few minutes Ethel had caught up with the man who, more cautiously, ran before her. Checking her speed, she followed silently.

For a half-mile she pursued him thus. He came to the end of the field and dodged into the thicket of bushes that lined the fence row. He moved more slowly now, and she followed by sound rather than by sight. At length they came to where a brook ran at right angles to the fence row. The man stopped and crawled under the barbed-wire fence and came out on the turnpike that ran alongside.

Ethel, peering out from the bushes, saw him walk boldly forward and stand upon the end of the stone culvert that conducted the brook beneath the roadway. For a moment only he remained so, and then clambered quickly down at the end of the arch and disappeared in the darkness beneath. She heard a foot splash in the water, and then all was quiet save the gurgle of the stream.

Climbing over the fence, she top ran forward upon the culvert. She listened and looked toward either end, resolved to call to him if he emerged.