s the deck. The three men
watched the bodies drifting past, brainless skulls, eyeless sockets,
floating along many of them as if they were swimming on their backs.
"It is really a fine example of the power of civilization," said the
stranger. "I don't approve of everything that has been done, by any
means. Some of the armies have treated women rather badly, but no
English-speaking soldiers have done that. In fact, your army has hardly
been up to the average in effectiveness. You and the Japs have been
culpably lenient, if you will permit me to say so."

"We are only just starting out on our career as a military nation,"
said Sam. "You must not expect too much of us at first. We'll soon get
our hand in. As for the Japs, why they're heathen. They can hardly be
expected to behave like Christians. But we were afraid that the war was
over and that we should find nothing to do."

"The war over! What an absurdity! I have lived in Porsslania for over
thirty years and I ought to know something about it by now. There's an
army of at least forty thousand Fencers over there to the northwest
and another twenty-five thousand in the northeast. The Tutonians are
the only people who understand it. Their first regiments have just
arrived, and they are going to do something. They say the Emperor is
coming himself, and he will put an end to this state of affairs. He is
not a man to stand rebellion. All we can say is that we have made a
good beginning. We have laid the whole province waste, and it will be a
long time before they forget it."

The journey was hot and tedious; the desolated shore, the corpses and
vultures, and an occasional junk with square-rigged sails and high poop
were the only things upon which to fix the eye. When at last our
travelers arrived at the city of Gin-Sin, Sam learned that his regiment
had proceeded to the Capital and was in camp there, and it would be
impossible for him to leave until the following day. He stopped with
Cleary at the principal hotel. The city was in a semi-ruined condition,
but life was already beginning to assume its ordinary course. The
narrow streets, hung with banners and lanterns and cabalistic signs,
were full of people. Barbers and scribes were plying their trades in
the open air, and war was not always in sight. Sam's reputation had
preceded him, and he had scarcely gone to his room when he received an
invitation from a leading Anglian merchant to d