Adventure, December 1914 — page 211: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Sinews of War but upon humanity in the mass. A small handful of men and women in Sofia fought to avert the calamity, foreseeing exactly what would happen—the disintegration of the confederation they had labored to con- struct in order that the Balkan peoples might once more be able to raise their voices in the councils of Europe and inspire the Great Powers with respect. Their efforts were backed up to some extent by other groups in Belgrade and Athens, while in Bucharest and Constantinople the jackals sat outside the range of the firelight and thumped their tails expectantly, waiting for hell to break loose and give them the chance they craved. But against them was ranged the weight -of Austrian diplomacy and the thirst for power of Czar Ferdinand. Vassili Kurtsky, despite the ingratitude with which he had been treated after a lifetime spent in the service of the dynasty, despite even the Open usurpation of his power at the royal council-table by his rabid enemies of the Left, labored as no other man could have labored to make Ferdinand see his error and change his policy before it was too late. Masoya, too, was active in the attempt to shift the course of events. Strangely, after my interview with the Czar, she seemed to regain her influence over him—because he hoped, through her, to obtain a new hold upon me, according to old Kurtsky. At any rate, alone of all of us, Masoya persisted in believing that all might yet end well. She persisted in this belief in the face of the gradual dissolution of the bonds that held our delegates in sympathy with those of the other allied states at the Peace Conference; in face of the unrest which de- veloped in Greece in consequence of the iteration and reiteration of Ferdinand’s claim to Salonika; in face of the growing nervousness of Servia, and the menacing insistence of Roumania’s demands for com- pensation for having done none of the work; aye, in face of the growing exultation in Constantinople, where the warlike party of the Young Turks already perceived the chance to rehabilitate themselves for the losses of the campaign in Thrace. Great events move slowly. So week after week slipped by in fruitless nogotiations, demands and answers, claims and counter- claims, pourparliers and representations— all of the tedious machinery which diplo- Je employs as a preliminary to war. 209 More than once it looked as if affairs might be adjusted. But every time Kurt- sky and his friends of the Moderate party gained an advantage—as when they had all but induced Ferdinand to accept Russia’s offer of mediation—Sofia would suddenly swarm with Austrian spies and agents, and Héléne von Anhalt would find it necessary to make hurried trips to Vienna. The end was always the same. They said one thing that determined Ferdinand in his obstinacy was my con- tinued presence in Sofia. He seemed to think that so long as I stayed on there was reason to believe that I would weaken in the long run and grant him his much-desired loan. Heas much as hinted this to Masoya, not once, but twice; and although she gave him scant satisfaction in return, he clung to it with persistence. It was pathetic to see how Masoya tried to believe in him where all her friends were convinced to the contrary. You must re- member that the dream of her life was at stake, for the accomplishment of which she had worked with every ounce of energy in her. It made me groan to watch her throw herself into the fight every day, worn out with anxiety,conscious that she must distrust all those who were nominally on her side. She grew pale and thin and wan, until I was ready to wish that she might meet with the success she sought. It was toward the beginning of June, I think, that we heard Savoff had been called back from Adrianople, where he had estab- lished his headquarters so that he might keep an eye upon the huge Turkish arma- ments which still crammed the camps be- hind the Tchataldja Lines. This could mean but one thing—a council of war. And both the minister and myself were surprised when Savoff called upon us early the fol- lowing day. The bluff old war-horse looked worried and made no bones about admitting that the situation did not appeal to him. “T have come here to get the straight facts,” he said without any prefatory re- marks. “Before I go to his Majesty I want to know just how it looks to you.” Kurtsky blocked it out for him, gave him the history of the various diplomatic moves, sketched the sentiment prevailing in the surrounding countries, summed up the in- fluence behind the Austrian intrigue, cited comiclooolx C©