And silent and more silent grew the room; All eyes were fixed upon the silent guest, And on the woman squatted, strange to see. "She is quite young"--a whispering round me went; And with a child's greed she was drinking milk. Yet almost old she seemed to me, whenever Her tongue shot through a gap in her black teeth, Her pointed tongue out of her hissing mouth, While her gray, eager glance took in the room; The gaslight in it shone like poisonous green. And now she rose. He had not touched his glass; A great coin lit the table. She went out; He automatically followed her. The crimson curtain round the door fell to, Once more the cold draught shivered through the heat, But no one cursed. Through me a shiver ran. I did not choose a partner--suddenly I knew them: it was Syphilis and Death. BOOK XI _War_ Pictures of a terrible evil, and denunciations of it, which will be found especially timely at the present hour. I Sing the Battle (_From "The Cry of Youth"_) BY HARRY KEMP (See pages 37, 351) I sing the song of the great clean guns that belch forth death at will. Ah, but the wailing mothers, the lifeless forms and still! I sing the songs of the billowing flags, the bugles that cry before. Ah, but the skeletons flapping rags, the lips that speak no more! I sing the clash of bayonets and sabres that flash and cleave. And wilt thou sing the maimed ones, too, that go with pinned-up sleeve? I sing acclaimèd generals that bring the victory home. Ah, but the broken bodies that drip like honey-comb! I sing of hearts triumphant, long ranks of marching men. And wilt thou sing the shadowy hosts that never march again? War (_From "Beyond the Breakers"_) BY GEORGE STERLING (See page 504) The night was on the world, and in my sleep I heard a voice that cried across the dark: "Give steel!" And gazing I beheld a red, Infernal stithy. There were Titans five Assembled, thewed and naked and malign Against the glare. One to the furnace throat, Whence issued screams, fed shapes of human use-- The hammer, axe and plow. Those molten soon, Another haled the dazzling ingot forth With tongs, and gave it to the anvil. Two, With massy sledges throbbing at the task, Harried the gloom with unenduring stars And poured a clangorous music on the dark, With loud, astounding shock and counter-shock Incessant. And the fifth colossus stood The captain of that labor. From his form Spread wings more black than Hell's high-altar--ribbed As are the vampire-bat's. The night grew old, And I was then aware they shaped a sword....