Nebraska Newspapers

    THE STORY SO FAR: More than
*00,000 foreign troops secretly assembled
In Mexico by Van Hassek suddenly In
vaded the United States. Vastly superior
In numbers and equipment to the Amer
ican forces which opposed them. Van
Hassek’s troops pushed relentlessly for
ward. The U. S. army was not pro
* * *
INSTALLMENT EIGHTEEN
pared for this sudden attack, and could
only retreat In the face of overwhelming
force. High army officers worked des
perately to organise an effective resist
ance against the Invader. Intelligence
Officer Denning barely escaped with his
life when a dynamite-laden ship explod
ed In the Panama Canal, trapping the
******
U. 8. fleet In the Pacific Ocean. Ordered
to Mexico City, he learned that Van
Hassek would soon bivade America'*
west coast. Bennlng then left for Wash
ington to report to Colonel FlagwlU. >
chftef of the I). 8. Intelligence Depart
ment.
Now continue with the story.
* * #
CHAPTER XIX
Colonel Flagwill had sprawled out
on a cot in his office in the Muni
tions Building for a few winks of
sleep at sunrise, when he was shak
en to wakefulness by an assistant.
"Here’s our report from the
Fourth Army at San Diego, sir,”
the assistant reported. "Air recon
naissance confirmed Major Ben
Ding’s report from El Paso. Van
Hassek’s troops are moving north
from Guaymasl Facts confirmed by
photographs taken by one of our ob
servation planes."
Flagwill sat up and read the re
port with a blank expression. The
staggering succession of events, the
crushing responsibilities of the past
few days had bankrupt him of emo
tion.
“Well—one more report from our
Asiatic fleet and we’ll know the
worst," he muttered. "Is Gmeral
Hague at his desk yet, do you
know?”
"No, sir, the general has been
asleep for nearly an hour. His aide
refuses to let anyone disturb him
on any account. Major Benning re
ported in from El Paso half an
hour ago. You were asleep—”
"Let him come in,” Flagwill In
terrupted.
Benning responded at once, his
face a peculiar chalky color. Flag
will’s eyes centered on the major’s
left arm that hung from his neck in
a woolen sling.
“You didn’t tell me you’d been in
a Jam,” Flagwill accused. "What
are all the bandages about?”
Benning smiled placidly, and said:
"The sawbones took a Luger slug
out at El Paso, sir. I’ve only my
self to blame for taking foolish
chances, but at least all’s well that
ends well, and I suppose I’ll always
feel better about the way I handled
it.”
“What about Boggio?” Flagwill
sharply interrupted.
“When I met him, instead of
shooting him at sight, I said, "Bog
gio, I’m Major Benning, United
States Army. I understand you claim
responsibility for bombing the White
House." Boggio snatched out his pis
tol and went into action. I aimed
very deliberately at his heart and
effected u clean bull’s-eye. I didn’t
even know I’d been hit until some
minutes later."
Flagwill nodded gravely and said:
“I’m glad you did it Just that way,
Benning. Hope your arm isn’t in
too bad a fix."
“Just a little hole, sir. El Paso
gave me anti-tetanus treatment and
said I’d be as good as new in a
short time. Things seem to look
pretty black just now. Anything new
from Panama?”
“Yes. Engineers affirm that it’ll
take a year to put the Canal in
commission.”
General Hague’s aide-de-camp
banged into the room with a sum
mons, his ashen face and distended
eyes eloquent of some major ca
tastrophe that he did not wait to
disclose.
Flagwill got to his feet. “There
must be blood on the moon, Ben
ning!" he exclaimed. “Better go
out to Walter Reed and get your arm
treated, then report back here to
me in event I need you.”
Benning passed up the hospital to
search through Intelligence summa
ries and press reports. They reflect
ed a world now black as pitch with
stark omens of mighty violence.
An hour later President Tannard
walked slowly up and down his
study, head sunk to his chest, hands
tightly clenched, the tense silence of
the room broken only by the soft
tread of his feet and the noisy tick
of a small clock. Across the room
from him stood General Hague and
Admiral Hunt, the latter, chief of
naval operations.
The President halted in front of
Hague and said in a low voice, “You
are sure of your estimate, General,
that you haven’t sufficient forces to
hold the Pacific coast against a ma
jor invasion?”
"Positive, sir," Hague affirmed at
once. “Even if we shoved all our
available troops onto the Pacific
cosst, we couldn’t supply them with
ammunition for more than two
weeks of action, if that long. As I
said before, sir, our defense plans
have been laid on having an effec
tive force ready in three hundred
days after mobilization.”
“I regret to say, General,” Pres
ident Tannard responded, “that with
all my years in the Senate I didn’t
realize that condition.”
The President turned to Admiral
Hunt and asked him, “With the loss
of your naval bases on the Pacific,
you will have Pearl Harbor to fall
back on?"
“If two of our battleship divi
sions and other craft are to be or
dered to protect the Atlantic, sir, I’d
recommend against risking what re
mains of our fleet on the Pacific in
Pearl Harbor. Such a division of
the fleet is very dangerous.”
"Then you recommend abandon
ment of the Pacific coasts, at least
for the time being?” President Tan
nard demanded.
The admiral's face went ashen;
He swallowed several times and
licked purple Ups.
"That, sir," he said in a low,
tremulous voice, "is a matter of de
cision entirely beyond my province.
I can only give you the facts as to
the limitations of your navy."
Tannard nodded slowly and re
sumed his pacing of the floor. His
head sunk again to his chest, the
knuckles of his clenched hands were
white as bleached bones.
“Very well, gentlemen, I wiU de
cide,” President Tannard said at
last.
He halted and looked from one to
another. His face now was wrinkled
and drawn untU he had the aspect
of a very old man.
"The inevitable decision," he add
ed, and wet his lips with several
nervous flicks of his tongue. “You,
Admiral, wiU be prepared to with
draw your fleet to the Atlantic to
protect the country’s vital centers of
population. You, General, wiU meet
the invasion as best you can at the
Pacific shore, and fight a delaying
action. There must be no pubUc
announcement of this decision tem
porarUy to abandon the Pacific
coast. We are simply yielding to
the inevitable. That is aU, gentle
men.”
A momentous decision had to be
made by the commander of the
Fourth Army. General Brunn and
“Very well, gentlemen, 1
will decide.”
his general staff had been in a hud
dle through long hours.
American bombers, attack and
pursuit planes, had hammered Van
Hassek’s marching columns without
greatly reducing their relentless
northern movement
Another complication was the
monstrous specter of invasion from
the Pacific, now looming nearer and
nearer. Airplane observers, risking
themselves far out over the sea,
verified the actuality of it. Though
there had been no declaration of
war, yet transport and warcraft,
cloaked in greasy smudge, swept
toward the coast like some cata
clysmic pestilence.
‘‘We have done our best here,”
Brunn finally told his staff. ‘‘We
have no alternative than to with
draw northward to the vicinity of
Sacramento. Otherwise we will find
ourselves inevitably in a pocket from
which we’ll be unable to extricate
ourselves. Our withdrawal com
mences tonight.”
Benning heard the decision with
a gloomy tightening of the muscles
of his jaw. Events of the past few
days had dulled his sense of acute
feeling, left him numb and dazed.
Brunn’s decision meant the aban
donment of the great Naval Operat
ing Base at San Diego. It meant the
first move of the land forces in evac
uating the Pacific coast.
CHAPTER XX
A plane from the 21st Reconnais
sance Squadron had brought Ben
ning from Washington two days be
fore as Flagwill observer of the In
evitable invasion. Captain Hawtry,
pilot, was on the lookout for his pas
senger.
‘‘Hear the news, Major?” Haw
try inquired. Hawtry, a lanky Vir
ginian with clear gray eyes and the
relaxed features of a man who takes
life as it comes, added in a laconic
drawl: "It just come in a minute
ago over the radio. They’ve cracked
us up pretty bad off the Jersey
coast with their ships. There’s hell
popping on the Atlantic. It looks like
Atlantic City was in for a shelling
before the day’s over.”
Benning merely stared at his pilot
out of hollow eyes and said: ‘‘We’re
NEXT WEEK
Anotlf* AUonUttf OntiaUmtd
pulling out of here, Hawtry. I want
to get to the Puget Sound country
as soon as possible."
They took off at Mice for San
Francisco. Below them they saw
the roads massed black with flee
ing thousands from Los Angeles.
Pasadena, and towns along the path
of impending invasion.
At San Francisco they put down
for the night because of heavy fogs.
The city was in a panic. Steady
streams of people were pouring out
of the city on all roads. The Mint
was being emptied, money and se
curities from banks being shipped
by train and truck.
A new terror fed the panic. Fog
had engulfed most of the coastline
from Seattle to San Francisco. Vis
ibility had been stripped from the
sea b.v vast blankets of fog. Air ob
servers were land-bound. If the fog
held out through the next few days,
the invader would be able to put
ashore in whaleboats and establish
a foothold unhampered by Ameri
can fighting planes.
With nightfall word came to San
Francisco that the Fourth Army was
retreating north from San Diego.
General Brunn refused to make any
announcement, but the secret leaked
that his divisions were headed into
the region of Sacramento. News of
this retreat converted panic into
frenzy.
In the morning Hawtry took a
chance against the fog. He found a
hole at Medford and put down to re
fuel. Four hours later, Hawtry
nosed about in the fleecy sky over
Fort Lewis until he found a rift
and dived to a landing.
Here on Puget Sound, some two
thousand miles north of Brunn’s re
treating divisions, was the northern
most element of his Fourth Army.
For defense of the Northwest were
two National Guard Divisions and
part of the Third Regulars.
Benning reported to Lieutenant
Colonel Marsh, G-2, at Fort Lewis
headquarters, whence operations in
the field were being directed.
Marsh's bloodless, drawn face re
flected stunned hopelessness; his
voice was a contained but colorless
monotone as he sketched over the
operations map with Benning.
‘‘This fog has us stumped,’’ he
groaned. "We know enemy trans
ports are not far oil shore—they
may make a landing tonight. But
they can land anywhere from Gray
Harbor on down the coast into Ore
gon. All we can do is watch and
wait, keeping our reserves massed
and mobile. When they do land,
all we can do is light them in suc
cessive positions for a day or two
and then pull out for the Cascades!”
Astride his machine gun on the
sandy beach south of Aberdeen, Pri
vate John Rand, 161st Infantry,
thought he heard a rift in the mo
notonous splash of the Incoming
tide. The gun crew held its breath
to strain into the washing waves.
"There’s men moving,’’ someone
hoarsely whispered.
Private Rand knew that friendly
patrols were not allowed in front of
his own position. His heart pounded
so hard he heard nothing else.
A stab of flame leaped from the
muzzle of Rand’s gun. A succes
sion of sharp flames followed as he
poured the murderous might of his
machine gun into the night. A shrill
cry rang out in front
Rand did not live to near the
howling, maddening storm that
swiftly grew out of that first bark
of his machine gun. Shadows loomed
out of the fog and bore in on his
crew. The long steel fang of a bay
onet bit into his breast.
From a mile behind the shoreline
the commander of a battalion of
howitzers barked an order. Muzzle
flashes cut the night momentarily
to ribbons. The earth rocked from
the force of the explosion that sent
high-explosive shells screaming to
the unseen shoreline.
From the sea came now the roar
of thunder as heavy naval guns
picked up the brawl to mock the
puny deflance of the howitzers. The
violence spread in length and depth,
swiftly rose in fury until it became
a ceaseless roar of mighty thunder.
There was no such thing in this
foggy night as observation, no such
thing as gauging the tidal wave of
invasion, or co-ordinating resist
ance. Only by sound could the in
vader be estimated. Ten thousand
men, the staff decided at dawn,
must have landed on the beach un
der cover of darkness. Men enough
to force a human bridgehead for an
army to follow under the savage
protection of naval guns.
Through the stricken, sodden day
that followed, Benning remained at
Fort Lewis while the Fourth Army's
Puget Sound divisions slowly
dropped back. They fought the In
vader from successive lines of
ridges, but the die was cast, the
command given. The Forty-First
was to cover the withdrawal to the
Cascade passes. The conquest of
the Northwest waited only consoli
dation by the now victorious divi
sions of the Invader.
(TO BE CONTINUED>
PLANT TISSUE
‘MIRRORS’ SOIL
Furnishes Accurate Test
For Essential Minerals.
By DR. GEORGE D. SCAR SETH
(Soil Chemist. Purdue University Agricul
ture Espariment Station)
An effective checkup of the "con
veyor belts” that supply farm crop*
with food from the soil can be made
during the growing season by means
of Tissue Tests. These tests will
tell whether the growing plants are
receiving their principal nourish
ment—nitrogen, phosphorus and pot
ash—in balanced amounts.
The tissue test of plants, like the
rapid chemical test of the soil, af
fords a quick diagnosis of plant nu
trition or starvation. The proper
use of either of these tests make it
possible for the farmer more accu
rately to determine the fertilizer
needs of various crops on individual
fields.
The tissue test consists of splitting
open stalks or leaf stems of corn or
other growing crops and cutting out
thin pieces of tissue. These pieces
are placed in a glass vial containing
a chemical agent. The reaction of
the chemical to the plant tissue re
veals the presence or absence of
the necessary plant foods.
Usually six or eight samples rep
resentative of the type of plants
growing in a field will suffice. Cer
tain parts of a plant give more reli
able Indications of fertilizer needs
than others. In analyzing com, tis
sue from the base of the main stalk
is best suited for a nitrogen test.
For phosphorus, the tip of the main
stalk or the main stalk Just below
the tassel is best, while for potash
the base of the leaf at the ear node
is most effective.
If the nitrogen supply of corn
plants is deficient, the test for ni
trates will be negative, while those
for phosphates and potash may be
high. The corn plants in such a
case are likely to be stunted.
Leaves will be greenish yellow, with
yellowing tissues following the mid
rib from the tip end.
If the phosphate “conveyor belt”
runs empty, tests are likely to
show: Nitrates high, phosphates
negative and potash high. Physical
symptoms will be plants dark green
in color with spindly growth, but
with leaves otherwise normal.
When potash is insufficient, tests
will show nitrates and phosphorus
both high while potash is low.
Plants will be weak, dark green in
color with leaves showing a mar
ginal scorch.
L AGRICULTURE 1
IN INDUSTRY |
By Florence C. Weed
(Tbit it oat oi t ttriet of trticlet tbow
ing bow itrm products trt finding ta im
portant market ia industry.)
Milk
It is a modern miracle that a
man can tip his hat made of milk
and yet it won’t spill. Following
the lead of Italy, American research
workers have produced a "milk
wool” which they claim is much
superior to the foreign product It
is cheap, long wearing and takes
color well and can probably be used
for upholstering material. At pres
ent, it is going into men’s hats.
In recent years, the ingenuity of
government and dairy scientists has
uncovered new uses for 30,000,000,
000 quarts which once was wasted.
It goes into casein for coating pa
per, making window shades and
manufacturing a paste paint which
is thinned with water. It is the
base for insecticide sprays and a
filler for cloth. Textiles, leather tan
ning, and color plating industries
use lactic acid in their manufac
turing processes.
Akin to the many food uses are
the new milk-derived animal feeds
for poultry and livestock. Some in
gredients for popular vitamin cap
sules are also obtained from milk.
Milk plastics are being made into
small articles such as buttons, door
handles and book ends. Casein is
fabricated into lamp bases, backs
for pin-up lamps, and bowl diffus
ers for indirect lighting.
Still in the experimental stage are
wines of sherry and sauterne type
which can be made from milk whey.
A resin made from lactose may be
adaptable as lining for food con
tainers.
There is probably more research
going on in dairies and creameries
than in any other industry, but in
spite of the advance, there remain
24,000,000,000 quarts of skimmed
milk without a commercial outlet.
Agriculture News
The farmer’s share of the consum
er’s dollar spent for 58 different
foods, averaged 42 cents in 1940,
compared with 41 cents in 1939 and
40 cents in 1938.
• • •
Farmers of the United States are
now passing up every year $150,000,
000 of income that could be realized
through better management of farm
woods, says the U. S. forest service.
*Ksk Me Another
0 A General Quiz
ii—
1. Are alligators the slow,
creeping creatures they appear to
be?
2. Are all national flags alike on
both sides?
3. What lake, 12,500 feet above
sea level, is the highest large body
of navigable water in the world?
4. Are marriages in England
restricted as to the time per
formed?
5. What is a tympanist?
6. What is the principal lan
guage of Brazil?
The Answers
1. No. They are real sprinters
when they care to run. Their legs
stretch out to 18 inches in length
when in top speed.
2. The national flags of Para
guay, Lithuania and Yemen, Ara
bia, are not alike on both sides.
3. Lake Titicaca (in Bolivia).
4. Marriages in England are
legal only when performed be
tween 8 a. m. and 6 p. m. on
week days.
5. A drummer.
6. Portuguese. Italian and Ger
man are widely spoken in the
southern states.
NEW IDEAS
-^04 Jf6m*-moJt4bdr^
B< »CfH WYETH i££!_=
PRESS SIM
EDGES OF COVER
BACK ON RUFFLE
COVtR
(M(i S-g
WITH <*P
*'x»“ JfLf
boards 4ML
SCREWS D^J
to bottom”
BOARDS
SCREW* Xf*
BOARDS FLAT
OH UNDER
_ SIDE Of PLY
WOOD CUT TO FIT TOP
^ OF CAMP STOOL_
CO MANY clever slip cover
^ tricks are being used now that
it is possible to transform an en
tire house with a few yards of gay
chintz. Old chairs of all types
step right out and become the life
of the party in smart new frocks.
Even tables and lamp shades
are slip-covered but the best trick
is to make something out of next
to nothing by slip-covering it. A
smart coffee table from a camp
stool for instance.
The lower sketch shows how to
make a substantial removable top
for the stool. The 2-inch boards
which are screwed to all four
sides of the top fit down over the
stool. Flowered chintz is used for
the top of the cover and a plain
3-inch glazed chintz frill is added
repeating one of the tones in the
flower pattern. The seam allow
ance around the cover may be
tacked to the removable top of the
table and the whole thing may
then be folded away in a small
space when not in use.
• • •
NOTE: You will find direction* lor re
modeling and slip-coveting many type* of
chair*, a* well as an out-moded couch tn
Book S of the series of home-making book
let* offered with these article*. The new
Book 7 contains a number of ways to use
slip covers. In it boxes become ottomans:
and an old wicker chair Is padded and
tufted. Each book contains more than
thirty useful home-making projects with
complete directions for making. Send
order to:
^^mrnmmmmrnmmm»
MRS. RUTH WYETH SPEARS
Drawer to
Bedford Hllli New York
Enclose 10 cents for each book
ordered.
Name ....
Address ....
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