"Well, the Regenerationists, along with many other sincere men and women in this country tried to prevent this war and are trying to get it peaceably settled now. The Japs don't want to die. They want a chance to live. We've got a lot of vainglorious, debauched, professional soldiery that wanted to fight something, and now they're getting their fill. In the first place, there is no need of war and in the second place, when there is war, the same stamina that will make efficient humans for the ordinary walks of life will make good soldiers. But money talks louder than reason. The ruling powers in American government are a crew of beer-bloated politicians who are in the pay of a cabal of wine-soaked plutocrats, and the American people under such administration have become a race of mental and physical degenerates. The Japs knew this or they would never have invaded the country." "What are you going to do about it? And what are you doing here now within the Japanese lines?" asked Ethel when her companion paused. "Oh, I am acting as my own war correspondent," he replied, smiling a little. "_Pat-a-pat, pat-a-pat_"--Winslow jumped up excitedly and clambered to the top of the embankment. Ethel noting his alarm, slipped her feet into her sandals and rose to follow him. "Quick," he exclaimed, hurrying down the bank again. "It's American cavalry." "But let us go meet them," said the girl. "No, never," replied Winslow, taking her by the arm and hurrying her into the culvert. "You don't understand. As for you in kimo, your reception would be anything but pleasant; and as for me, I'm an outlaw with a price on my head." Reaching the chink where the rocks had fallen out of the culvert wall, Winslow squeezed into it and pulled the girl down beside him. Carefully he crowded her feet and his own back so that their presence could not be detected from the end of the culvert. "I'm afraid we left tracks on the bank, but we can at least die game," he said, pulling his magazine pistol from his belt and handing it to the girl, while he drew from his hip pocket the weapon he had taken from the dead aviator. "I hate these things," he said, "but when a man is in a corner and no chance to run, I suppose he's justified in using a cowardly fighting machine." They heard clearly now the hoof beats on the roadway above. Presently an officer rode his horse down to the stream at the head of the culvert. "Anything under there?" called a voice from above. "Nothing doing," replied the other, peering beneath the archway. "You're a fool sitting there like that," called a third voice. "Company C lost two men back there from a wounded Jap under a bridge." The horseman urged his beast up the bank and the troop passed on.