slumbers, and a telegram was directed
to the nearest military post, but the latter proceeding was useless and
no answer was received, since the copper wires were long ago in the
control of the enemy. Even if it had got through, the telegraphic
warning would have come too late, for the military post in question, of
which half of the troops were, as usual, on leave, had been attacked and
captured by the Japanese at nine o'clock in the morning.

A hundred thousand Japanese had established the line of an eastern
advance-guard long before the Pacific States had any idea of what was
up. During Sunday, after the capture of San Francisco, the occupation of
Seattle, San Diego and the other fortified towns on the coast, the
landing of the second detachment of the Japanese army began, and by
Monday evening the Pacific States were in the grip of no less than one
hundred and seventy thousand men.

* * * * *

When, on Sunday morning, the Japanese had cut off the railway
connections, they adopted the plan of allowing all trains going from
east to west to pass unmolested, so that there was soon quite a
collection of engines and cars to be found within the zone bounded by
the Japanese outposts. On the other hand, all the trains running
eastward were held up, some being sent back and others being used for
conveying the Japanese troops to advance posts or for bringing the
various lines of communication into touch with one another. In some
cases these trains were also used for pushing boldly much farther east,
the enemy thus surprising and overpowering a number of military posts
and arsenals in which the guns and ammunition for the militia were
stored.

Only in a very few instances did this gigantic mechanism fail. One of
these accidents occurred at Swallowtown, where the mistake was made of
attacking the express-train to Umatilla instead of the local train to
Pendleton. The lateness of the former and the occupation of the station
too long before the expected arrival of the latter, and coupled to this
the heroic deed of the station-master, interfered unexpectedly with the
execution of the plan. The reader will remember that when the express
returned to Swallowtown, Tom's shanty was empty. The enemy had
disappeared and had taken the two captive farmers with them. The mounted
police, who had been summoned immediately from Walla Walla, found the
two men during the afternoon in their wagon, bound hand and foo