first let us leave Feller's quarters. We are intruders
here."

XII

A CRISIS WITHIN A CRISIS

"A broken-hearted man playing deaf; a secret telephone installed on our
premises without our consent--this is all I know so far," said Marta,
who was opposite Lanstron at one end of the circular seat in the arbor
of Mercury, leaning back, with her weight partly resting on her hand
spread out on the edge of the bench, head down, lashes lowered so that
they formed a curtain for her glance. "I listen!" she added.

"Of course, with our three millions against their five, the Grays will
take the offensive," he said. "For us, the defensive. La Tir is in an
angle. It does not belong in the permanent tactical line of our
defences. Nevertheless, there will be hard fighting here. The Browns
will fall back step by step, and we mean, with relatively small cost to
ourselves, to make the Grays pay a heavy price for each step--just as
heavy as we can!"

They had often argued before with all the weapons known to controversy;
but now the realization that his soldierly precision was bringing the
forces of war into their personal relations struck her cold, with a
logic as cold as his own seemed to her.

"You need not use euphonious terms," she said without lifting her lashes
or any movement except a quick, nervous gesture of her free hand that
fell back into place on her lap. "What you mean is that you will kill as
many as possible of the Grays, isn't it? And if you could kill five for
every man you lost, that would be splendid, wouldn't it?"

"I don't think of it as splendid. There is nothing splendid about war,"
he objected; "not to me, Marta."

"Still you would like to kill five to one, even ten to one, wouldn't
you?" she persisted.

"Marta, you are merciless!"

"So is war. It should be treated mercilessly."

"Yes, twenty to one if they try to take our land!" he declared. "If we
could keep up that ratio the war would not last more than a week. It
would mean a great saving of lives in the end. We should win."

"Exactly. Thank you. Westerling could not have said it better as a
reason for another army-corps. For the love of humanity--the humanity of
our side--please give us more weapons for murder! And after you have
made them pay five to one or ten to one in human lives for the tangent,
what then? Go on! I want to look at war face to face, free of the
will-o'-the-wisp glamour that draws on soldiers!"

"We fall back to our