2
A QUESTION 195
VIII THE STAGES TO CALVARY 208
PART III
I THE ARMED VIGIL 233
II THEY WHO GO TO THEIR DEATH 249
III IDEAS AND FACTS 268
IV THE SACRED SOIL 281
THE FRONTIER
CHAPTER I
A HEAD BETWEEN THE BUSHES
"They've done it!"
"What?"
"The German frontier-post ... at the circus of the Butte-aux-Loups."
"What about it?"
"Knocked down."
"Nonsense!"
"See for yourself."
Old Morestal stepped aside. His wife came out of the drawing-room and went and stood by the telescope, on its tripod, at the end of the terrace.
"I can see nothing," she said, presently.
"Don't you see a tree standing out above the others, with lighter foliage?"
"Yes."
"And, to the right of that tree, a little lower down, an empty space surrounded by fir-trees?"
"Yes."
"That's the circus of the Butte-aux-Loups and it marks the frontier at that spot."
"Ah, I've got it!... There it is!... You mean on the ground, don't you? Lying flat on the grass, exactly as if it had been rooted up by last night's storm...."
"What are you talking about? It has been fairly felled with an axe: you can see the gash from here."
"So I can ... so I can...."
She stood up and shook her head:
"That makes the third time this year.... It will mean more unpleasantness."
"Fiddle-de-dee!" he exclaimed. "All they've got to do is to put up a solid post, instead of their old bit of wood." And he added, in a tone of pride, "The French post, two yards off, doesn't budge, you know!"
"Well, of course not! It's made of cast-iron and cemented into the stone."
"Let them do as much then! It's not money they're wanting ... when you think of the five thousand millions they robbed us of!... No, but, I say ... three of them in eight months!... How will the people take it, on the other side of the Vosges?