How much can a soldier carry and how best carry it easily? What shoes
are the most serviceable for marching and yet cheap? Nothing was so
precise in all their surroundings, nothing seemed so resolutely
dependable as this column of soldiers. They were the last word in
filling human tissue into a mould for a set task. Where these came from
were other boys growing up to take their places. The mothers of the
nation were doing their duty. All the land was a breeding-ground for the
dividends of Hedworth Westerling.

At the far side of the park he saw another kind of dividend--another
group of marching men. These were not in uniform. They were the
unemployed. Many were middle-aged, with worn, tired faces. Beside the
flag of the country at the head of the procession was that of universal
radicalism. And his car had to stop to let them pass. For an instant the
indignation of military autocracy rose strong within him at sight of the
national colors in such company. But he noted how naturally the men kept
step; the solidarity of their movement. The stamp of their army service
in youth could not be easily removed. He realized the advantage of
heading an army in which defence was not dependent on a mixture of
regulars and volunteers, but on universal conscription that brought
every able-bodied man under discipline.

These reservists, in the event of war, would hear the call of race and
they would fight for the one flag that then had any significance. Yes,
the old human impulses would predominate and the only enemy would be on
the other side of the frontier. They would be pawns of his will--the
will that Marta Galland had said would make him chief of staff.

Wasn't war the real cure for the general unrest? Wasn't the nation
growing stale from the long peace? He was ready for war now that he had
become vice-chief, when the retirement of His Excellency, unable to bear
the weight of his years and decorations in the field, would make him the
supreme commander. One ambition gained, he heard the appeal of another:
to live to see the guns and rifles that had fired only blank cartridges
in practice pouring out shells and bullets, and all the battalions that
had played at sham war in manoeuvres engaged in real war, under his
direction. He saw his columns sweeping up the slopes of the Brown range.
Victory was certain. He would be the first to lead a great modern army
against a great modern army; his place as the master of modern tactics
s