FOREWORD: In this strange story of another day,the author has "dipped into the future" and viewedwith his mind's eye the ultimate effect ofAmerica's self-satisfied complacency, and herpersistent refusal to heed the lessons of Orientalprogress. I can safely promise the reader whotakes up this unique recital of the twentiethcentury warfare, that his interest will besustained to the very end by the interestingdeductions and the keen insight into thepossibilities of the present trend ofinternational affairs exhibited by theauthor.—Bernarr Macfadden.
"Kindly be prepared to absent yourself at a moment's notice." It wasGoyu speaking, blundering, old fool. He was standing in the doorwaywith his kitchen-apron on, and an iron spoon in his hand.
"What on earth is the matter?" asked Ethel Calvert, tossing asideher French novel in alarm, for such a lack of deference in Goyumeant vastly more than appeared upon the surface.
"I am informed," replied Goyu, gravely, "that there has been ananti-foreign riot and that many are killed."
"And father?" gasped Ethel.
"He was upon the grain boat," said Goyu.
"But where is he now?"
"I do not know," returned Goyu, locking nervously over his shoulder."But I fear he has not fared well—the boat was dynamited—that'swhat started the trouble."
With a gasp Ethel recalled that an hour before she had heard anexplosion which she had supposed to be blasting. Faint with fear,she staggered toward a couch and fell forward upon the cushions.
When the girl regained consciousness the house was dark. Slowly sherecalled the event that had culminated the uneventful day. Shewondered if Goyu had been lying or had gone crazy. The darkness wasnot reassuring—her father always came home before dark, and hisabsence now confirmed her fears. She wondered if the old servant haddeserted her. He was a poor stick anyway; Japanese men who had prideor character no longer worked as domestics in the households offoreigners.
Ethel Calvert was the daughter of an American grain merchant whorepresented the interests of the North American Grain ExportersAssociation at the seaport of Otaru, in Hokaidi, the North Island ofJapan. Three years before her mother had died of homesickness and abroken heart—although the Japanese physician had called ittuberculosis, and had prescribed life in a tent! Had they notsuffered discomforts enough in that barbarous country without addinginsult to injury?
Ethel was bountifully possessed of the qualities of hothouse beauty.Her jet black hair hung over the snowy skin of her temples instriking contrast. Her form was of a delicate slenderness and hermovement easy and graceful with just a little of that languidlistlessness considered as a mark of well-bred femininity. She knewthat she was beautiful according to the standards of her own peopleand her isolation from the swirl of the world's social life was toher gall and wormwood.
The Calverts had never really "settled" in Japan, but had merelyremained there as homesick Americans in