Part 80 (2/2)

”We have a new government, a new premier!” Turcas repeated, with firm, methodical politeness. Westerling looking from one face to another with filmy eyes, lowered them before Bouchard. ”There's a room ready for Your Excellency up-stairs,” Turcas continued. ”The orderly will show you the way.”

Now Westerling grasped the fact that he was no longer chief of staff. He drew himself up in a desperate attempt at dignity; the staff saluted again, and, uncertainly, he followed the orderly, with the aide and valet still in loyal attendance.

Meanwhile, the aerial scouts of the Grays were puzzled by a moving cloud on the landscape several miles away. It filled the highway and overflowed into the fields, without military form: women and men of every age except the fighting age, marching together in a sinister militancy of purpose.

”Bring the children, too!” cried the leaders. ”They've more right to be heard than any of us.”

From such a nucleus it seemed that the whole population of the land might be set in motion by a common pa.s.sion. Neither the coming of darkness nor a chill rain kept recruits from village and farmhouse from dropping their tasks and leaving meals unfinished to swell the ranks.

What Westerling had called the bovine public with a parrot's head had become a lion.

”There's no use of giving any orders, to stop this flood,” said an officer who had ridden fast to warn the Gray staff. ”The police simply watch it go by. Soldiers ready to lay down their lives to hold the range give it G.o.dspeed when they learn what it wants. Both are citizens before they are soldiers or policemen. The thing is as elemental as an earthquake or a tidal wave.”

”Public opinion! Unanimous public opinion! Nothing can stop that!”

exclaimed Turcas in dry fatalism. ”You will inform His Excellency,” he said to Westerling's aide, ”that they are coming for him--all the people are coming, and we are powerless. And--” Even Turcas's calmness failed him and his voice caught in a convulsive swallow.

”I--I understand!” the aide said thickly, and went up-stairs.

He had suffered worse than in seeing his chief beaten; but even in disillusion he was loyal. He was back immediately, and paused at the foot of the stairs stonily, in the att.i.tude of one who listens for something; while the tramp of thousands of feet came pressing in upon all sides.

As one great, high-pitched voice, the crowd shouted its merciless demand; and eyes eager with the hunt as those of soldiers in pursuit gleamed through the windows out of the darkness. Bouchard, hawk-eyed, stern, was standing by the street door. His mediaeval spirit revolted at the thought of any kind of a mob. For such demonstrations he had a single simple prescription--cold lead.

”We cannot strike the overwhelming spirit which we would forge into the nation's defence,” said Turcas.

The door was flung open and Bouchard drew back abruptly at the sight; he drew back in fear of his own nature. If any one should so much as lay hands on him when he was in uniform, a sword thrust would resent the insult to his officer's honor; and even he did not want to strike grandfathers and children and mothers.

Two figures were in the doorway: a heavy-set market woman with a fringe of down on her lip and a cadaverous, tidily dressed old man, who might have been a superannuated schoolmaster, with a bronze cross won in the war of forty years ago on his breast and his eyes burning with the youthful fire of Grandfather Fragini's.

”They got the premier in the capital. We've come for Westerling! We want to know what he did with our sons! We want to know why he was beaten!”

cried the market woman.

”Yes,” said the veteran. ”We want him to explain his lies. Why did he keep the truth from us? We were ready to fight, but not to be treated like babies. This is the twentieth century!”

”We want Westerling! Tell Westerling to come out!” rose the impatient shouts behind the two figures in the doorway.

”You are sure that he has one?” whispered Turcas to Westerling's aide.

”Yes,” was the choking answer--”yes. It is better than that”--with a glance toward the mob. ”I left my own on the table.”

”We can't save him! We shall have to let them--”

Turcas's voice was drowned by a great roar of cries, with no word except ”Westerling” distinguishable, that pierced every crack of the house. A wave of movement starting from the rear drove the veteran and the market woman and a dozen others through the doorway toward the stairs. Then the sound of a shot was heard overhead.

”The man you seek is dead!” said Turcas, stepping in front of the crowd, his features unrelenting in authority. ”Now, go back to your work and leave us to ours.”

”I understand, sir,” said the veteran. ”We've no argument with you.”

”Yes!” agreed the market woman. ”But if you ever leave this range alive we shall have one. So, you stay!”

<script>