already had taken the field against the enemy. War having been declared,
the Italian general staff had wasted no time.

Along the Austrian frontier, at the head of the Adriatic, clear north to
the Swiss border, the troops of King Emmanuel had intrenched themselves
against a possible attack of the foe; big guns even now were roaring and
raining the messengers of death upon the fortified positions of the
Austrians in their front.

Skirmishes between isolated forces of the two armies, some of which
reached the proportions of real battles, had taken place, and upon the
southern border some slight success already had crowned the efforts of
the Italian troops.

The Italian fleet had been set in motion; giant battleships and other
vessels of war had joined other craft of the quadruple entente in an
effective blockade of Austrian ports in the Adriatic; and the Austrians
were keeping well behind the shelter of their own mines.

In one or two cases they had ventured forth to give battle, but each
expedition of this nature had resulted disastrously--at the bottom of the
sea. Apparently, now, they had given up attempts to run the blockade and
were content to lie snug in their well-fortified harbors, even as their
German allies were doing in their ports.

Several Austrian aircraft had left their bases and flown over Genoa,
dropping bombs, killing and wounding a score of non-combatants, but
doing little damage to fortified positions or to munition plants and
provision camps, which were presumed to be their goal. Also several had
been brought to earth by the accurate fire from the anti-air craft guns