“Thank you!” called a private with a big voice.

“Yes, thank you!” repeated some of the officers in quick appreciation of a compliment as real as human courage.

“We’re going to put your headquarters in the Grays’ capital!” cried the soldier with the big voice.

Another cheer rose at the suggestion.

“You will follow the staff?” Lanstron called in sudden intensity.

“Yes, yes, yes!” they shouted.  “Yes, yes; follow you!”

“You think our staff led you wisely?” he continued distinctly, slowly, and very soberly.  “You think we can continue to do so?  You trust us?  You trust our judgment?”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

“Thank you!” he said with a long-drawn, happy breath.

“Thank you!” they shouted.

He stood smiling for a moment in reply to their smiles; then, still smiling, but in a different way, he said to Marta: 

“As you say, that helps!” with a nod toward the bandage on her forearm and hurriedly turned away.

She saw him involuntarily clutch the wrist above the pocket of his blouse to still the twitching; but beyond that there was no further sign of emotion as he went to the telephone.  She had been about to cry out her protest against the continuance of the war in the name of humanity, of justice, of every bit of regard he had ever had for her.  When he was through talking she should go to him in appeal—­yes, on her knees, if need be, before all the officers and soldiers—­to stop the killing; but instantly he was through he started toward the pass road, not by the path to the steps, but by leaping from terrace to terrace and waving his hand gayly to the soldiers as he went.  The officers stared at the sight of a chief of staff breaking away from his communications in this unceremonious fashion.  They saw him secure a horse from a group of cavalry officers on the road and gallop away.

Marta having been the object of Lanstron’s attention now became the object of theirs.  It was good to see a woman, a woman of the Browns, after their period of separation from feminine society.  She found herself holding an impromptu reception.  She heard some other self answering their polite questions; while a fear, a new kind of fear, was taking hold of her real self; a fear inexplicable, insidiously growing.  Lanstron was still in the officers’ minds after his strange appearance and stranger departure.  They began to talk of him, and Marta listened.

“He said something about being a free man now!”

“Yes, he looked as eager as a terrier after rats.”

“He knows what he is doing.  He sees so far ahead of what we are thinking that it’s useless to guess his object.  We’ll understand when it’s done.”

“How little side he has!  So perfectly simple.  He hardly seems to realize the immensity of his success.  In fact, none of us realizes it; it’s too enormous, overwhelming, sudden!”