"But who, who in Sabinsport sees this as it is? How are they to be made to see it? Half the town will treat the _Lusitania_ as a tragedy like the _Titanic_. Captain Billy will rave and say, 'If we had protested--if we hadn't a Democratic administration.' But that isn't seeing the issue--his kind of fury against the Germans misses the point--the inner meaning which the country must see if it ever goes whole-heartedly in. Wanton piracy--as savage and unmerciful as the Wotan they worship. God! if I could get into it. But here I stay. I will go home--bathe--dress--read my mail--prepare for services to-morrow--go through them. I'll sleep and eat and write and smile and talk as if this fearful thing was not on the earth--as if I didn't know that every day brought it closer to Sabinsport--and she doesn't know it. Ralph's right--it's closing in on us. And what will Ralph say, I wonder." What Ralph said was in that evening's _Argus_. It was brief. "When men go to war the appeal is to violence, destruction, death. He who can destroy most, kill most, is the superior. You take what comes in your path. To talk of laws of war is nonsense. To talk of mercy in war is to talk hypocrisy. You're out to kill. You kill what's in your way. To debate your right to do what will injure an enemy is not the way of war. It is the way of peace. The destruction of the _Lusitania_ was an act of war--that hideous, senseless thing to which Europe has appealed. It is a tragedy that Americans should have been destroyed. It is a greater tragedy that they should have put themselves deliberately in the path of death. If they had as deliberately walked between the firing lines in battle, would we have condemned the combatants if they lost their lives?" Dick bowed his head at the merciless logic of the paragraph, its contempt for humanity as it is, its lofty and reckless egotism. He was encouraged, however, when he learned afterwards that when Otto had congratulated Ralph on the editorial, Ralph had said: "But you miss _my_ point, Otto. I'm not defending your infernal country. It was cowardly business, but it was logical. You Germans are in a fair way to demonstrate the silliness of trying to insist on honor in war. Laws of war are about as reasonable as laws against tornadoes. The only hope I have is that you'll reduce the beastly business to its absurdity."