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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forest of Swords, by Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Forest of Swords
+       A Story of Paris and the Marne
+
+Author: Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+Release Date: May 3, 2005 [EBook #15760]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST OF SWORDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Jon King and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FOREST OF SWORDS
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
+
+
+THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR SERIES
+
+The Hunters of the Hills           The Shadow of the North
+The Rulers of the Lakes            The Masters of the Peaks
+The Lords of the Wild              The Sun of Quebec
+
+
+THE YOUNG TRAILERS SERIES
+
+The Young Trailers                 The Free Rangers
+The Forest Runners                 The Riflemen of the Ohio
+The Keepers of the Trail           The Scouts of the Valley
+The Eyes of the Woods              The Border Watch
+
+
+THE TEXAN SERIES
+
+The Texan Star                     The Texan Triumph
+The Texan Scouts
+
+
+THE CIVIL WAR SERIES
+
+The Guns of Bull Run               The Star of Gettysburg
+The Guns of Shiloh                 The Rock of Chickamauga
+The Scouts of Stonewall            The Shades of the Wilderness
+The Sword of Antietam              The Tree of Appomattox
+
+
+THE GREAT WEST SERIES
+
+The Lost Hunters                   The Great Sioux Trail
+
+
+THE WORLD WAR SERIES
+
+The Guns of Europe                 The Hosts of the Air
+The Forest of Swords
+
+
+BOOKS NOT IN SERIES
+
+Apache Gold                        A Soldier of Manhattan
+The Quest of the Four              The Sun of Saratoga
+The Last of the Chiefs             A Herald of the West
+In Circling Camps                  The Wilderness Road
+The Last Rebel                     My Captive
+The Candidate
+
+
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+New York          London
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "He heard a shock near him and, ... saw a huddled mass
+of wreckage."]
+
+
+
+
+WORLD WAR SERIES
+
+
+THE FOREST
+OF SWORDS
+
+A STORY OF PARIS
+AND THE MARNE
+
+
+BY
+
+
+JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE GUNS OF EUROPE,"
+"THE STAR OF GETTYSBURG," ETC.
+
+
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+1928
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+Printed in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+"The Forest of Swords," while an independent story, based upon the World
+War, continues the fortunes of John Scott, Philip Lannes, and their
+friends who have appeared already in "The Guns of Europe." As was stated
+in the first volume, the author was in Austria and Germany for a month
+after the war began, and then went to England. He saw the arrival of the
+Emperor, Francis Joseph, in Vienna, the first striking event in the
+gigantic struggle, and witnessed the mobilization of their armies by
+three great nations.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                PAGE
+
+   I. IN PARIS                            1
+  II. THE MESSAGE                        30
+ III. IN THE FRENCH CAMP                 53
+  IV. THE INVISIBLE HAND                 76
+   V. SEEN FROM ABOVE                    99
+  VI. IN HOSTILE HANDS                  121
+ VII. THE TWO PRINCES                   146
+VIII. THE SPORT OF KINGS                167
+  IX. THE PUZZLING SIGNAL               186
+   X. OLD FRIENDS                       209
+  XI. THE CONTINUING BATTLE             231
+ XII. JULIE LANNES                      247
+XIII. THE MIDDLE AGES                   268
+ XIV. A PROMISE KEPT                    291
+  XV. THE RESCUE                        311
+
+
+
+
+THE FOREST OF SWORDS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+IN PARIS
+
+
+John Scott and Philip Lannes walked together down a great boulevard of
+Paris. The young American's heart was filled with grief and anger. The
+Frenchman felt the same grief, but mingled with it was a fierce, burning
+passion, so deep and bitter that it took a much stronger word than anger
+to describe it.
+
+Both had heard that morning the mutter of cannon on the horizon, and
+they knew the German conquerors were advancing. They were always
+advancing. Nothing had stopped them. The metal and masonry of the
+defenses at Liège had crumbled before their huge guns like china
+breaking under stone. The giant shells had scooped out the forts at
+Maubeuge, Maubeuge the untakable, as if they had been mere eggshells,
+and the mighty Teutonic host came on, almost without a check.
+
+John had read of the German march on Paris, nearly a half-century
+before, how everything had been made complete by the genius of Bismarck
+and von Moltke, how the ready had sprung upon and crushed the unready,
+but the present swoop of the imperial eagle seemed far more vast and
+terrible than the earlier rush could have been.
+
+A month and the legions were already before the City of Light. Men with
+glasses could see from the top of the Eiffel Tower the gray ranks that
+were to hem in devoted Paris once more, and the government had fled
+already to Bordeaux. It seemed that everything was lost before the war
+was fairly begun. The coming of the English army, far too small in
+numbers, had availed nothing. It had been swept up with the others,
+escaping from capture or destruction only by a hair, and was now driven
+back with the French on the capital.
+
+John had witnessed two battles, and in neither had the Germans stopped
+long. Disregarding their own losses they drove forward, immense,
+overwhelming, triumphant. He felt yet their very physical weight,
+pressing upon him, crushing him, giving him no time to breathe. The
+German war machine was magnificent, invincible, and for the fourth time
+in a century the Germans, the exulting Kaiser at their head, might enter
+Paris.
+
+The Emperor himself might be nothing, mere sound and glitter, but back
+of him was the greatest army that ever trod the planet, taught for half
+a century to believe in the divine right of kings, and assured now that
+might and right were the same.
+
+Every instinct in him revolted at the thought that Paris should be
+trodden under foot once more by the conqueror. The great capital had
+truly deserved its claim to be the city of light and leading, and if
+Paris and France were lost the whole world would lose. He could never
+forget the unpaid debt that his own America owed to France, and he felt
+how closely interwoven the two republics were in their beliefs and
+aspirations.
+
+"Why are you so silent?" asked Lannes, half angrily, although John knew
+that the anger was not for him.
+
+"I've said as much as you have," he replied with an attempt at humor.
+
+"You notice the sunlight falling on it?" said Lannes, pointing to the
+Arc de Triomphe, rising before them.
+
+"Yes, and I believe I know what you are thinking."
+
+"You are right. I wish he was here now."
+
+John gazed at the great arch which the sun was gilding with glory and he
+shared with Lannes his wish that the mighty man who had built it to
+commemorate his triumphs was back with France--for a while at least. He
+was never able to make up his mind whether Napoleon was good or evil.
+Perhaps he was a mixture of both, highly magnified, but now of all
+times, with the German millions at the gates, he was needed most.
+
+"I think France could afford to take him back," he said, "and risk any
+demands he might make or enforce."
+
+"John," said Lannes, "you've fought with us and suffered with us, and so
+you're one of us. You understand what I felt this morning when on the
+edge of Paris I heard the German guns. They say that we can fight on,
+after our foes have taken the capital, and that the English will come in
+greater force to help us. But if victorious Germans march once through
+the Arc de Triomphe I shall feel that we can never again win back all
+that we have lost."
+
+A note, low but deep and menacing, came from the far horizon. It might
+be a German gun or it might be a French gun, but the effect was the
+same. The threat was there. A shudder shook the frame of Lannes, but
+John saw a sudden flame of sunlight shoot like a glittering lance from
+the Arc de Triomphe.
+
+"A sign! a sign!" he exclaimed, his imaginative mind on fire in an
+instant. "I saw a flash from the arch! It was the soul of the Great
+Captain speaking! I tell you, Philip, the Republic is not yet lost! I've
+read somewhere, and so have you, that the Romans sold at auction at a
+high price the land on which Hannibal's victorious army was camped, when
+it lay before Rome!"
+
+"It's so! And France has her glorious traditions, too! We won't give up
+until we're beaten--and not then!"
+
+The gray eyes of Lannes flamed, and his figure seemed to swell. All the
+wonderful French vitality was personified in him. He put his hand
+affectionately upon the shoulder of his comrade.
+
+"It's odd, John," he said, "but you, a foreigner, have lighted the spark
+anew in me."
+
+"Maybe it's because I _am_ a foreigner, though, in reality, I'm now no
+foreigner at all, as you've just said. I've become one of you."
+
+"It's true, John, and I won't forget it. I'm never going to give up hope
+again. Maybe somebody will arrive to save us at the last. Whatever the
+great one, whose greatest monument stands there, may have been, he loved
+France, and his spirit may descend upon Frenchmen."
+
+"I believe it. He had the strength and courage created by a republic,
+and you have them again, the product of another republic. Look at the
+flying men, Lannes!"
+
+Lannes glanced up where the aeroplanes hovered thick over Paris, and
+toward the horizon where the invisible German host with its huge guns
+was advancing. The look of despair came into his eyes again, but it
+rested there only a moment. He remembered his new courage and banished
+it.
+
+"Perhaps I ought to be in the sky myself with the others," he said, "but
+I'd only see what I don't like to see. The _Arrow_ and I can't be of any
+help now."
+
+"You brought me here in the _Arrow_, Lannes," said John, seeking to
+assume a light tone. "Now what do you intend to do with me? As everybody
+is leaving Paris you ought to get me out of it."
+
+"I hardly know what to do. There are no orders. I've lost touch with the
+commander of our flying corps, but you're right in concluding that we
+shouldn't remain in Paris. Now where are we to go?"
+
+"We'll make no mistake if we seek the battle front. You know I'm bound
+to rejoin my company, the Strangers, if I can. I must report as soon as
+possible to Captain Colton."
+
+"That's true, John, but I can't leave Paris until tomorrow. I may have
+orders to carry, I must obtain supplies for the _Arrow_, and I wish to
+visit once more my people on the other side of the Seine."
+
+"Suppose you go now, and I'll meet you this afternoon in the Place de
+l'Opéra."
+
+"Good. Say three o'clock. The first to arrive will await the other
+before the steps of the Opera House?"
+
+John nodded assent and Lannes hurried away. Young Scott followed his
+figure with his eyes until it disappeared in the crowd. A back may be an
+index to a man's strength of mind, and he saw that Lannes, head erect
+and shoulders thrown back, was walking with a rapid and springy step.
+Courage was obviously there.
+
+But John, despite his own strong heart, could not keep from feeling an
+infinite sadness and pity, not for Lannes, but for all the three million
+people who inhabited the City of Light, most of whom were fleeing now
+before the advance of the victorious invader. He could put himself in
+their place. France held his deepest sympathy. He felt that a great
+nation, sedulously minding its own business, trampled upon and robbed
+once before, was now about to be trampled upon and robbed again. He
+could not subscribe to the doctrine, that might was right.
+
+He watched the fugitives a long time. They were crowding the railway
+stations, and they were departing by motor, by cart and on foot. Many of
+the poorer people, both men and women, carried packs on their backs. The
+boulevards and the streets were filled with the retreating masses.
+
+It was an amazing and stupefying sight, the abandonment by its
+inhabitants of a great city, a city in many ways the first in the world,
+and it gave John a mighty shock. He had been there with his uncle and
+Mr. Anson in the spring, and he had seen nothing but peace and
+brightness. The sun had glittered then, as it glittered now over the Arc
+de Triomphe, the gleaming dome of the Invalides and the golden waters of
+the Seine. It was Paris, soft, beautiful and bright, the Paris that
+wished no harm to anybody.
+
+But the people were going. He could see them going everywhere. The
+cruel, ancient times when cities were destroyed or enslaved by the
+conqueror had come back, and the great Paris that the world had known so
+long might become lost forever.
+
+The stream of fugitives, rich and poor, mingled, poured on without
+ceasing. He did not know where they were going. Most of them did not
+know themselves. He saw a great motor, filled high with people and
+goods, break down in the streets, and he watched them while they worked
+desperately to restore the mechanism. And yet there was no panic. The
+sound of voices was not high. The Republic was justifying itself once
+more. Silent and somberly defiant, the inhabitants were leaving Paris
+before the giant German guns could rain shells upon the unarmed.
+
+It was three or four hours until the time to meet Lannes, and drawn by
+an overwhelming curiosity and anxiety he began the climb of the Butte
+Montmartre. If observers on the Eiffel Tower could see the German forces
+approaching, then with the powerful glasses he carried over his shoulder
+he might discern them from the dome of the Basilica of the Sacred
+Heart.
+
+As he made his way up the ascent through the crooked and narrow little
+streets he saw many eyes, mostly black and quick, watching him. This by
+night was old Paris, dark and dangerous, where the Apache dwelled, and
+by day in a fleeing city, with none to restrain, he might be no less
+ruthless.
+
+But John felt only friendliness for them all. He believed that common
+danger would knit all Frenchmen together, and he nodded and smiled at
+the watchers. More than one pretty Parisian, not of the upper classes,
+smiled back at the American with the frank and open face.
+
+Before he reached the Basilica a little rat of a young man stepped
+before him and asked:
+
+"Which way, Monsieur?"
+
+He was three or four years older than John, wearing uncommonly tight
+fitting clothes of blue, a red cap with a tassel, and he was about five
+feet four inches tall. But small as he was he seemed to be made of
+steel, and he stood, poised on his little feet, ready to spring like a
+leopard when he chose.
+
+The blue eyes of the tall American looked steadily into the black eyes
+of the short Frenchman, and the black eyes looked back as steadily. John
+was fast learning to read the hearts and minds of men through their
+eyes, and what he saw in the dark depths pleased him. Here were cunning
+and yet courage; impudence and yet truth; caprice and yet honor. Apache
+or not, he decided to like him.
+
+"I'm going up into the lantern of the Basilica," he said, "to see if I
+can see the Germans, who are my enemies as well as yours."
+
+"And will not Monsieur take me, too, and let me have look for look with
+him through those glasses at the Germans, some of whom I'm going to
+shoot?"
+
+John smiled.
+
+"If you're going out potting Germans," he said, "you'd better get
+yourself into a uniform as soon as you can. They have no mercy on _franc
+tireurs_."
+
+"I'll chance that. But you'll take me with you into the dome?"
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"Pierre Louis Bougainville."
+
+"Bougainville! Bougainville! It sounds noble and also historical. I've
+read of it, but I don't recall where."
+
+The little Frenchman drew himself up, and his black eyes glittered.
+
+"There is a legend among us that it was noble once," he said, "but we
+don't know when. I feel within me the spirit to make it great again.
+There was a time when the mighty Napoleon said that every soldier
+carried a marshal's baton in his knapsack. Perhaps that time has come
+again. And the great emperor was a little man like me."
+
+John began to laugh and then he stopped suddenly. Pierre Louis
+Bougainville, so small and so insignificant, was not looking at him. He
+was looking over and beyond him, dreaming perhaps of a glittering
+future. The funny little red cap with the tassel might shelter a great
+brain. Respect took the place of the wish to laugh.
+
+"Monsieur Bougainville," he said in his excellent French, "my name is
+John Scott. I am from America, but I am serving in the allied
+Franco-British army. My heart like yours beats for France."
+
+"Then, Monsieur Jean, you and I are brothers," said the little man, his
+eyes still gleaming. "It may be that we shall fight side by side in the
+hour of victory. But you will take me into the lantern will you not?
+Father Pelletier does not know, as you do, that I'm going to be a great
+man, and he will not admit me."
+
+"If I secure entrance you will, too. Come."
+
+They reached side by side the Basilique de Sacré-Coeur, which crowns the
+summit of the Butte Montmartre, and bought tickets from the porter,
+whose calm the proximity of untold Germans did not disturb. John saw the
+little Apache make the sign of the cross and bear himself with dignity.
+In some curious way Bougainville impressed him once more with a sense of
+power. Perhaps there was a spark of genius under the red cap. He knew
+from his reading that there was no rule about genius. It passed kings
+by, and chose the child of a peasant in a hovel.
+
+"You're what they call an Apache, are you not?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, Monsieur."
+
+"Well, for the present, that is until you win a greater name, I'm going
+to call you Geronimo."
+
+"And why Zhay-ro-nee-mo, Monsieur?"
+
+"Because that was the name of a great Apache chief. According to our
+white standards he was not all that a man should be. He had perhaps a
+certain insensibility to the sufferings of others, but in the Apache
+view that was not a fault. He was wholly great to them."
+
+"Very well then, Monsieur Scott, I shall be flattered to be called
+Zhay-ro-nee-mo, until I win a name yet greater."
+
+"Where is the Father Pelletier, the priest, who you said would bar your
+way unless I came with you?"
+
+"He is on the second platform where you look out over Paris before going
+into the lantern. It may be that he has against me what you would call
+the prejudice. I am young. Youth must have its day, and I have done some
+small deeds in the quarter which perhaps do not please Father Pelletier,
+a strict, a very strict man. But our country is in danger, and I am
+willing to forgive and forget."
+
+He spoke with so much magnanimity that John was compelled to laugh.
+Geronimo laughed, too, showing splendid white teeth. The understanding
+between them was now perfect.
+
+"I must talk with Father Pelletier," said John. "Until you're a great
+man, as you're going to be, Geronimo, I suppose I can be spokesman.
+After that it will be your part to befriend me."
+
+On the second platform they found Father Pelletier, a tall young priest
+with a fine but severe face, who looked with curiosity at John, and with
+disapproval at the Apache.
+
+"You are Father Pelletier, I believe," said John with his disarming
+smile. "These are unusual times, but I wish to go up into the lantern. I
+am an American, though, as you can see by my uniform, I am a soldier of
+France."
+
+"But your companion, sir? He has a bad reputation in the quarter. When
+he should come to the church he does not, and now when he should not he
+does."
+
+"That reputation of which you speak, Father Pelletier, will soon pass.
+Another, better and greater will take its place. Our friend here, and
+perhaps both of us will be proud to call him so some day, leaves soon to
+fight for France."
+
+The priest looked again at Bougainville, and his face softened. The
+little Apache met his glance with a firm and open gaze, and his figure
+seemed to swell again, and to radiate strength. Perhaps the priest saw
+in his eyes the same spark that John had noticed there.
+
+"It is a time when France needs all of her sons," he said, "and even
+those who have not deserved well of her before may do great deeds for
+her now. You can pass."
+
+Bougainville walked close to Father Pelletier, and John heard him say in
+low tones:
+
+"I feel within me the power to achieve, and when you see me again you
+will recognize it."
+
+The priest nodded and his friendly hand lay for a moment on the other's
+shoulder.
+
+"Come on, Geronimo," said John cheerfully. "As I remember it's nearly a
+hundred steps into the lantern, and that's quite a climb."
+
+"Not for youth like ours," exclaimed Bougainville, and he ran upward so
+lightly that the American had some difficulty in following him. John was
+impressed once more by his extraordinary strength and agility, despite
+his smallness. He seemed to be a mass of highly wrought steel spring.
+But unwilling to be beaten by anybody, John raced with him and the two
+stood at the same time upon the utmost crest of the Basilique du
+Sacré-Coeur.
+
+They paused a few moments for fresh breath and then John put the glasses
+to his eye, sweeping them in a slow curve. Through the powerful lenses
+he saw the vast circle of Paris, and all the long story of the past that
+it called up. Two thousand years of history rolled beneath his feet, and
+the spectacle was wholly magnificent.
+
+He beheld the great green valley with its hills, green, too, the line of
+the Seine cutting the city apart like the flash of a sword blade, the
+golden dome of the Hotel des Invalides, the grinning gargoyles of Notre
+Dame, the arches and statues and fountains and the long green ribbons
+that marked the boulevards.
+
+Although the city stood wholly in the sunlight a light haze formed on
+the rim of the circling horizon. He now moved the glasses slowly over a
+segment there and sought diligently for something. From so high a point
+and with such strong aid one could see many miles. He was sure that he
+would find what he sought and yet did not wish to see. Presently he
+picked out intermittent flashes which he believed were made by sunlight
+falling on steel. Then he drew a long and deep breath that was almost
+like a sigh.
+
+"What is it?" asked Bougainville who had stood patiently by his side.
+
+"I fear it is the glitter of lances, my friend, lances carried by German
+Uhlans. Will you look?"
+
+Bougainville held out his hands eagerly for the glasses, and then drew
+them back a little. In his new dignity he would not show sudden emotion.
+
+"It will give me gladness to see," he said. "I do not fear the Prussian
+lances."
+
+John handed him the glasses and he looked long and intently, at times
+sweeping them slowly back and forth, but gazing chiefly at the point
+under the horizon that had drawn his companion's attention.
+
+John meanwhile looked down at the city glittering in the sun, but from
+which its people were fleeing, as if its last day had come. It still
+seemed impossible that Europe should be wrapped in so great a war and
+that the German host should be at the gates of Paris.
+
+His eyes turned back toward the point where he had seen the gleam of the
+lances and he fancied now that he heard the far throb of the German
+guns. The huge howitzers like the one Lannes and he had blown up might
+soon be throwing shells a ton or more in weight from a range of a dozen
+miles into the very heart of the French capital. An acute depression
+seized him. He had strengthened the heart of Lannes, and now his own
+heart needed strengthening. How was it possible to stop the German army
+which had come so far and so fast that its Uhlans could already see
+Paris? The unprepared French had been defeated already, and the slow
+English, arriving to find France under the iron heel, must go back and
+defend their own island.
+
+"The Germans are there. I have not a doubt of it, and I thank you,
+Monsieur Scott, for the use of these," said Bougainville, handing the
+glasses back to him.
+
+"Well, Geronimo," he said, "having seen, what do you say?"
+
+"The sight is unpleasant, but it is not hopeless. They call us decadent.
+I read, Monsieur Scott, more than you think! Ah, it has been the
+bitterness of death for Frenchmen to hear all the world say we are a
+dying race, and it has been said so often that some of us ourselves had
+begun to believe it! But it is not so! I tell you it is not so, and
+we'll soon prove to the Germans who come that it isn't! I have looked
+for a sign. I sought for it in all the skies through your glasses, but I
+did not find it there. Yet I have found it."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In my heart. Every beat tells me that this Paris of ours is not for the
+Germans. We will yet turn them back!"
+
+He reminded John of Lannes in his dramatic intensity, real and not
+affected, a true part of his nature. Its effect, too, upon the American
+was powerful. He had given courage to Lannes, and now Bougainville, that
+little Apache of the Butte Montmartre, was giving new strength to his
+own weakening heart. Fresh life flowed back into his veins and he
+remembered that he, too, had beheld a sign, the flash of light on the
+Arc de Triomphe.
+
+"I think we have seen enough here, Geronimo," he said lightly, "and
+we'll descend. I've a friend to meet later. Which way do you go from the
+church?"
+
+"To the army. I shall be in a uniform tonight, and tomorrow maybe I
+shall meet the Germans."
+
+John held out his hand and the Apache seized it in a firm clasp.
+
+"I believe in you, as I hope you believe in me," said young Scott. "I
+belong to a company called the Strangers, made up chiefly of Americans
+and English, and commanded by Captain Daniel Colton. If you're on the
+battle line and hear of the Strangers there too I should like for you to
+hunt me up if you can. I'd do the same for you, but I don't yet know to
+what force you will belong."
+
+Bougainville promised and they walked down to the second platform, where
+Father Pelletier was still standing.
+
+"What did you see?" he asked of John, unable to hide the eagerness in
+his eyes.
+
+"Uhlans, Father Pelletier, and I fancied that I heard the echo of a
+German forty-two centimeter. Would you care to use the glasses? The view
+from this floor is almost as good as it is from the lantern."
+
+John distinctly saw the priest shudder.
+
+"No," he replied. "I could not bear it. I shall pray today that our
+enemies may be confounded; tomorrow I shall throw off the gown of a
+priest and put on the coat of a soldier."
+
+"Another sign," said John to himself, as they continued the descent.
+"Even the priests will fight."
+
+When they were once more in the narrow streets of Montmartre, John said
+farewell to Bougainville.
+
+"Geronimo," he said, "I expect to see you leading a victorious charge
+directly into the heart of the German army."
+
+"If I can meet your hopes I will, Monsieur Scott," said the young
+Frenchman gayly, "and now, _au revoir_, I depart for my uniform and
+arms, which must be of the best."
+
+John smiled as he walked down the hill. His heart had warmed toward the
+little Apache who might not be any Apache at all. Nevertheless the name
+Geronimo seemed to suit him, and he meant to think of him by it until
+his valor won him a better.
+
+He saw from the slopes the same endless stream of people leaving Paris.
+They knew that the Germans were near, and report brought them yet
+nearer. The tale of the monster guns had traveled fast, and the shells
+might be falling among them at any moment. Aeroplanes dotted the skies,
+but they paid little attention to them. They still thought of war under
+the old conditions, and to the great mass of the people flying machines
+were mere toys.
+
+But John knew better. Those journeys of his with Lannes through the
+heavens and their battles in the air for their lives were unforgettable.
+Stopping on the last slope of Montmartre he studied space with his
+glasses. He was sure that he saw captive balloons on the horizon where
+the German army lay, and one shape larger than the rest looked like a
+Zeppelin, but he did not believe those monsters had come so far to the
+south and west. They must have an available base.
+
+His heart suddenly increased its beat. He saw a darting figure and he
+recognized the shape of the German Taube. Then something black shot
+downward from it, and there was a crash in the streets of Paris,
+followed by terrible cries.
+
+He knew what had happened. He caught another glimpse of the Taube
+rushing away like a huge carnivorous bird that had already seized its
+prey, and then he ran swiftly down the street. The bomb had burst in a
+swarm of fugitives and a woman was killed. Several people were wounded,
+and a panic had threatened, but the soldiers had restored order already
+and ambulances soon took the wounded to hospitals.
+
+John went on, shocked to the core. It was a new kind of war. The flying
+men might rain death from the air upon a helpless city, but their
+victims were more likely to be women and children than armed men. For
+the first time the clean blue sky became a sinister blanket from which
+dropped destruction.
+
+The confusion created by the bomb soon disappeared. The multitude of
+Parisians still poured from the city, and long lines of soldiers took
+their place. John wondered what the French commanders would do. Surely
+theirs was a desperate problem. Would they try to defend Paris, or would
+they let it go rather than risk its destruction by bombardment? Yet its
+fall was bound to be a terrible blow.
+
+Lannes was on the steps of the Opera House at the appointed time,
+coming with a brisk manner and a cheerful face.
+
+"I want you to go with me to our house beyond the Seine," he said. "It
+is a quaint old place hidden away, as so many happy homes are in this
+city. You will find nobody there but my mother, my sister Julie, and a
+faithful old servant, Antoine Picard, and his daughter, Suzanne."
+
+"But I will be a trespasser?"
+
+"Not at all. There will be a warm welcome for you. I have told them of
+you, how you were my comrade in the air, and how you fought."
+
+"Pshaw, Lannes, it was you who did most of the fighting. You've given me
+a reputation that I can't carry."
+
+"Never mind about the reputation. What have you been doing since I left
+you this morning?"
+
+"I spent a part of the time in the lantern of the Basilica on
+Montmartre, and I had with me a most interesting friend."
+
+Lannes looked at him curiously.
+
+"You did not speak of any friend in Paris at this time," he said.
+
+"I didn't because I never heard of him until a few hours ago. I made his
+acquaintance while I was going up Montmartre, but I already consider
+him, next to you, the best friend I have in France."
+
+"Acquaintanceship seems to grow rapidly with you, Monsieur Jean the
+Scott."
+
+"It has, but you must remember that our own friendship was pretty
+sudden. It developed in a few minutes of flight from soldiers at the
+German border."
+
+"That is so, but it was soon sealed by great common dangers. Who is your
+new friend, John?"
+
+"A little Apache named Pierre Louis Bougainville, whom I have nicknamed
+Geronimo, after a famous Indian chief of my country. He has already gone
+to fight for France, and, Philip, he made an extraordinary impression
+upon me, although I don't know just why. He is short like Napoleon, he
+has the same large and beautifully shaped head, and the same penetrating
+eyes that seem able to look you through and through. Maybe it was a
+spark of genius in him that impressed me."
+
+"It may be so," said Lannes thoughtfully. "It was said, and said truly
+that the First Republic meant the open career to all the talents, and
+the Third offers the same chance. One never can tell where military
+genius is going to appear and God knows we need it now in whatever shape
+or form it may come. Did you hear of the bomb?"
+
+"I saw it fall. But, Phil, I don't see the object in such attacks. They
+may kill a few people, nearly always the unarmed, but that has no real
+effect on a war."
+
+"They wish to spread terror, I suppose. Lend me your glasses, John."
+
+Lannes studied the heavens a long time, minutely examining every black
+speck against the blue, and John stood beside him, waiting patiently.
+Meanwhile the throng of fleeing people moved on as before, silent and
+somber, even the children saying little. John was again stirred by the
+deepest emotion of sympathy and pity. What a tremendous tragedy it would
+be if New York were being abandoned thus to a victorious foe! Lannes
+himself had seemed to take no notice of the flight, but John judged he
+had made a powerful effort of the will to hide the grief and anger that
+surely filled his heart.
+
+"I don't see anything in the air but our own machines," said Lannes, as
+he returned the glasses. "It was evidently a dash by the Taube that
+threw the bomb. But we've stayed here long enough. They're waiting for
+us at home."
+
+He led the way through the multitude, relapsing into silence, but
+casting a glance now and then at his own peculiar field, the heavens.
+They reached the Place de la Concorde, and stopped there a moment or
+two. Lannes looked sadly at the black drapery hanging from the stone
+figure that typified the lost city of Strassburg, but John glanced up
+the great sweep of the Place to the Arc de Triomphe, where he caught
+again the glittering shaft of sunlight that he had accepted as a sign.
+
+"We may be looking upon all this for the last time," said Lannes, in a
+voice of grief. "Oh, Paris, City of Light, City of the Heart! You may
+not understand me, John, but I couldn't bear to come back to Paris
+again, much as I love it, if it is to be despoiled and ruled by
+Germans."
+
+"I do understand you, Philip," said John cheerfully, "but you mustn't
+count a city yours until you've taken it. The Germans are near, but
+they're not here. Now, lead on. It's not like you to despair!"
+
+Lannes shook himself, as if he had laid violent hands upon his own body,
+and his face cleared.
+
+"That was the last time, John," he said. "I made that promise before,
+but I keep it this time. You won't see me gloomy again. Henceforward
+it's hope only. Now, we must hurry. My mother and Julie will be growing
+anxious, for we are overdue."
+
+They crossed the Seine by one of the beautiful stone bridges and entered
+a region of narrow and crooked streets, which John thought must be a
+part of old Paris. In an American city it would necessarily have been a
+quarter of the poor, but John knew that here wealth and distinction were
+often hidden behind these modest doors.
+
+He began to feel very curious about Lannes' family, but he was careful
+to ask no questions. He knew that the young Frenchman was showing great
+trust and faith in him by taking him into his home. They stopped
+presently before a door, and Lannes rang a bell. The door was opened
+cautiously in a few moments, and a great head surmounted by thick, gray
+hair was thrust out. A powerful neck and a pair of immense shoulders
+followed the head. Sharp eyes under heavy lashes peered forth, but in an
+instant, when the man saw who was before him, he threw open the door and
+said:
+
+"Welcome, Monsieur."
+
+John had no doubt that this was the Antoine Picard of whom Lannes had
+spoken, and he knew at the first glance that he beheld a real man. Many
+people have the idea that all Frenchmen are little, but John knew
+better.
+
+Antoine Picard was a giant, much over six feet, and with the limbs and
+chest of a piano-mover. He was about sixty, but age evidently had made
+no impression upon his strength. John judged from his fair complexion
+that he was from Normandy. "Here," young Scott said to himself, "is one
+of those devoted European family servants of whom I've heard so often."
+
+He regarded the man with interest, and Picard, in return, measured and
+weighed him with a lightning glance.
+
+Lannes laughed.
+
+"It's all right, Antoine," he said. "He's the young man from that far
+barbarian country called America, who escaped from Germany with me, only
+he's no barbarian, but a highly civilized being who not only likes
+France, but who fights for her. John, this is Antoine Picard, who rules
+and protects this house."
+
+John held out his hand, American fashion, and it was engulfed in the
+mighty grasp of the Norseman, as he always thought of him afterward.
+
+"Madame, your mother, and Mademoiselle, your sister, have been anxious,"
+said Picard.
+
+"We were delayed," said Lannes.
+
+They stepped into a narrow hall, and Picard shut the door behind them,
+shooting into place a heavy bolt which sank into its socket with a click
+like the closing of the entrance to a fortress. In truth, the whole
+aspect of the house reminded John of a stronghold. The narrow hall was
+floored with stone, the walls were stone and the light was dim. Lannes
+divined John's thoughts.
+
+"You'll find it more cheerful, presently," he said. "As for us, we're
+used to it, and we love it, although it's so old and cold and dark. It
+goes back at least five centuries."
+
+"I suppose some king must have slept here once," said John. "In England
+they point out every very old house as a place where a king passed the
+night, and make reverence accordingly."
+
+Lannes laughed gayly.
+
+"No king ever slept here so far as I know," he said, "but the great
+Marshal Lannes, whose name I am so proud to bear, was in this house more
+than once, and to me, a staunch republican, that is greater than having
+had a king for a tenant. The Marshal, as you may know, although he took
+a title and served an Emperor, was always a republican and in the early
+days of the empire often offended Napoleon by his frankness and brusque
+truths. But enough of old things; we'll see my mother."
+
+He led the way up the steps, of solid stone, between walls thick enough
+for a fortress, and knocked at a door. A deep, full voice responded
+"Enter!" and pushing open the door Lannes went in, followed by John.
+
+It was a large room, with long, low windows, looking out over a sea of
+roofs toward the dome of the Invalides and Napoleon's arch of triumph. A
+tall woman rose from a chair, and saying "My son!" put her hands upon
+Lannes shoulders and kissed him on the forehead. She was fair like her
+son, and much less than fifty years of age. There was no stoop in her
+shoulders and but little gray in her hair. Her eyes were anxious, but
+John saw in them the Spartan determination that marked the women of
+France.
+
+"My friend, John Scott, of whom I have already spoken to you, Madame my
+mother," said Lannes.
+
+John bowed. He knew little of French customs, particularly in the heart
+of a French family, and he was afraid to extend his hand, but she gave
+him hers, and let it rest in his palm a moment.
+
+"Philip has told me much of you," she said in her deep, bell-like voice,
+"and although I know little of your far America, I can believe the best
+of it, if its sons are like you."
+
+John flushed at the compliment, which he knew to be so sincere.
+
+"Thank you, Madame," he said. "While my country can take no part in this
+war, many of my countrymen will fight with you. France helped us once,
+and some of us, at least, will help France now."
+
+She smiled gravely, and John knew that he was welcome in her house.
+Lannes would see to that anyhow, but he wished to make a good impression
+on his own account.
+
+"I know that Philip risks his life daily," she said. "He has chosen the
+most dangerous of all paths, the air, but perhaps in that way he can
+serve us most."
+
+She spoke with neither complaint nor reproach, merely as if she were
+stating a fact, and her son added briefly:
+
+"You are right, mother. In the air I can work best for our people. Ah,
+John, here is my sister, who is quite curious about the stranger from
+across the sea."
+
+A young girl came into the room. She was tall and slender, not more than
+seventeen, very fair, with blue eyes and hair of pure gold. John was
+continually observing that while many of the French were dark and small,
+in accordance with foreign opinion that made them all so, many more were
+blonde and tall. Lannes' sister was scarcely more than a lovely child,
+but his heart beat more quickly.
+
+Lannes kissed her on the forehead, just as he kissed his mother.
+
+"Julie," he said lightly and yet proudly, "this is the young American
+hero of whom I was telling you, my comrade in arms, or rather in the
+air, and adopted brother. Mr. John Scott, my sister, Mademoiselle Julie
+Lannes."
+
+She made a shy curtsey and John bowed. It was the first time that he was
+ever in the heart of an old French home, and he did not know the rules,
+but he felt that he ought not to offer his hand. Young girls, he had
+always heard, were kept in strict seclusion in France, but the great war
+and the approach of the German army might make a difference. In any
+event, he felt bold enough to talk to her a little, and she responded, a
+beautiful color coming into her face.
+
+"Dinner is ready for our guest and you," said Madame Lannes, and she led
+the way into another apartment, also with long, low windows, where the
+table was set. The curtains were drawn from the windows, and John caught
+through one of them a glimpse of the Seine, of marching troops in long
+blue coats and red trousers, and of the great city, massing up beyond
+like a wall.
+
+He felt that he had never before sat down to so strange a table. The
+world without was shaking beneath the tread of the mightiest of all
+wars, but within this room was peace and quiet. Madame was like a Roman
+matron, and the young Julie, though shy, had ample dignity. John liked
+Lannes' manner toward them both, his fine subordination to his mother
+and his protective air toward his sister. He was glad to be there with
+them, a welcome guest in the family.
+
+The dinner was served by a tall young woman. Picard's daughter Suzanne,
+to whom Lannes had referred, and she served in silence and with
+extraordinary dexterity one of the best dinners that he ever ate.
+
+As the dinner proceeded John admired the extraordinary composure of the
+Lannes family. Surely a woman and a girl of only seventeen would feel
+consternation at the knowledge that an overwhelming enemy was almost
+within sight of the city they must love so much. Yet they did not refer
+to it, until nearly the close of the dinner, and it was Madame who
+introduced the subject.
+
+"I hear, Philip," she said, "that a bomb was thrown today from a German
+aeroplane into the Place de l'Opéra, killing a woman and injuring
+several other people."
+
+"It is true, mother."
+
+John glanced covertly at Julie, and saw her face pale. But she did not
+tremble.
+
+"Is it true also that the German army is near?" asked Madame Lannes,
+with just the faintest quiver in her voice.
+
+"Yes, mother. John, standing in the lantern of the Basilique du
+Sacré-Coeur, saw through his glasses the flash of sunlight on the lances
+of their Uhlans. A shell from one of their great guns could fall in the
+suburbs of Paris."
+
+John's covert glance was now for Madame Lannes. How would the matron who
+was cast in the antique mold of Rome take such news? But she veiled her
+eyes a little with her long lashes, and he could not catch the
+expression there.
+
+"I believe it is not generally known in Paris that the enemy is so very
+near," said Philip, "and while I have not hesitated to tell you the full
+truth, mother, I ask you and Julie not to speak of it to others."
+
+"Of course, Philip, we would add nothing to the general alarm, which is
+great enough already, and with cause. But what do you wish us to do?
+Shall we remain here, or go while it is yet time to our cousins, the
+Menards, at Lyons?"
+
+Now it was the mother who, in this question of physical peril, was
+showing deference to her son, the masculine head of the family. John
+liked it. He remembered an old saying, and he felt it to be true, that
+they did many things well in France.
+
+Lannes glanced at young Scott before replying.
+
+"Mother," he said, "the danger is great. I do not try to conceal it from
+you. It was my intention this morning to see you and Julie safe on the
+Lyons train, but John and I have beheld signs, not military, perhaps,
+but of the soul, and we are firm in the belief that at the eleventh hour
+we shall be saved. The German host will not enter Paris."
+
+Madame Lannes looked fixedly at John and he felt her gaze resting like a
+weight upon his face. But he responded. His faith had merely grown
+stronger with the hours.
+
+"I cannot tell why, Madame," he said, "but I believe as surely as I am
+sitting here that the enemy will not enter the capital."
+
+Then she said decisively, "Julie and I remain in our own home in Paris."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MESSENGER
+
+
+There was little more talk. The dignified quiet of the Lannes family
+remained unchanged, and John imitated it. If they could be so calm in
+the face of overwhelming disaster it should be no effort for him to
+remain unmoved. Yet he glanced often, though covertly, at Julie Lannes,
+admiring her lovely color.
+
+When dinner was over they returned to the room in which Madame Lannes
+had received them. The dark had come already, and Suzanne had lighted
+four tall candles. There was neither gas nor electricity.
+
+"Mr. Scott will be our guest tonight, mother," said Lannes, "and
+tomorrow he and I go together to the army."
+
+John raised his hand in protest. It had not been his intention when he
+came to remain until morning, but Lannes would listen to no objection;
+nor would his mother.
+
+"Since you fight for our country," she said, "you must let us give you
+shelter for at least one night."
+
+He acquiesced, and they sat a little while, talking of the things
+furthest from their hearts. Julie Lannes withdrew presently, and before
+long her mother followed. Lannes went to the window, and looked out over
+Paris, where the diminished lights twinkled. John stood at the other
+window and saw the great blur of the capital. All sounds were fused into
+one steady murmur, rather soothing, like the flowing of a river.
+
+He seemed to hear presently the distant thunder of German guns, but
+reason told him it was only a trick of the imagination. Nerves keyed
+high often created the illusion of reality.
+
+"What are you thinking about, Lannes?" he asked.
+
+"Of my mother and sister. Only the French know the French. The family
+tie is powerful with us."
+
+"I know that, Phil."
+
+"So you do. You're an adopted child of France. Madame Lannes is a woman
+of great heart, John. I am proud to be her son. I have read of your
+civil war. I have read how the mothers of your young soldiers suffered
+and yet were brave. None can know how much Madame, my mother, has
+suffered tonight, with the Germans at the gates of Paris, and yet she
+has shown no sign of it."
+
+John was silent. He did not know what to say, but Lannes did not pursue
+the subject, remaining a full five minutes at the window, and not
+speaking again, until he turned away.
+
+"John," he said then, "let's go outside and take a look about the
+quarter. It's important now to watch for everything."
+
+John was full willing. He recognized the truth of Lannes' words and he
+wanted air and exercise also. A fortress was a fortress, whether one
+called it a home or not, Lannes led the way and they descended to the
+lower hall, where the gigantic porter was on watch.
+
+"My friend and I are going to take a look in the streets, Antoine," said
+Lannes. "Guard the house well while we are gone."
+
+"I will," replied the man, "but will you tell me one thing, Monsieur
+Philip? Do Madame Lannes and Mademoiselle Julie remain in Paris?"
+
+"They do, Antoine, and since I leave tomorrow it will be the duty of you
+and Suzanne to protect them."
+
+"I am gratified, sir, that they do not leave the capital. I have never
+known a Lannes to flee at the mere rumor of the enemy's coming."
+
+"And I hope you never will, Antoine. I think we'll be back in an hour."
+
+"I shall be here, sir."
+
+He unbolted the door and Lannes and John stepped out, the cool night air
+pouring in a grateful flood upon their faces. Antoine fastened the door
+behind them, and John again heard the massive bolt sink into its place.
+
+"The quarter is uncommonly quiet," said Lannes. "I suppose it has a
+right to be after such a day."
+
+Then be looked up, scanning the heavens, after the manner that had
+become natural to him, a flying man.
+
+"What do you see, Philip?" asked John.
+
+"A sky of dark blue, plenty of stars, but no aeroplanes, Taubes or other
+machines of man's making."
+
+"I fancy that some of them are on the horizon, but too far away to be
+seen by us."
+
+"Likely as not. The Germans are daring enough and we can expect more
+bombs to be dropped on Paris. Our flying corps must organize to meet
+theirs. I feel the call of the air, John."
+
+Young Scott laughed.
+
+"I believe the earth has ceased to be your natural element," he said.
+"You're happiest when you're in the _Arrow_ about a mile above our
+planet."
+
+Lannes laughed also, and with appreciation. The friendship between the
+two young men was very strong, and it had in it all the quality of
+permanence. Their very unlikeness in character and temperament made them
+all the better comrades. What one could not do the other could.
+
+As they walked along now they said but little. Each was striving to read
+what he could in that great book, the streets of Paris. John believed
+Lannes had not yet told him his whole mission. He knew that in their
+short stay in Paris Philip had spent an hour in the office of the
+military governor of the city, and his business must be of great
+importance to require an hour from a man who carried such a fearful
+weight of responsibility. But whatever Lannes' secret might be, it was
+his own and he had no right to pry into it. If the time came for his
+comrade to tell it he would do so.
+
+When they reached the Seine the city did not seem so quiet. They heard
+the continuous sound of marching troops and people were still departing
+through the streets toward the country or the provincial cities. The
+flight went on by night as well as day, and John again felt the
+overwhelming pity of it.
+
+He wondered what the French generals and their English allies would do?
+Did they have any possible way of averting this terrible crisis? They
+had met nothing but defeat, and the vast German army had crashed,
+unchecked, through everything from the border almost to the suburbs of
+Paris.
+
+They stood in the Place Valhubert at the entrance to the Pont
+d'Austerlitz, and watched a regiment crossing the river, the long blue
+coats and red trousers of the men outlined against the white body of the
+bridge. The soldiers were short, they looked little to John, but they
+were broad of chest and they marched splendidly with a powerful swinging
+stride.
+
+"From the Midi," said Lannes. "Look how dark they are! France is called
+a Latin nation, but I doubt whether the term is correct. These men of
+the Midi though are the real Latins. We of northern France, I suspect,
+are more Teutonic than anything else, but we are all knitted together in
+one race, heart and soul, which are stronger ties than blood."
+
+"We are to go early in the morning, are we not, Philip?"
+
+"Yes, early. The _Arrow_ is at the hangar, all primed and eager for a
+flight, fearful of growing rusty from a long rest."
+
+"I believe you actually look upon your plane as a human being."
+
+"A human being, yes, and more. No human being could carry me above the
+clouds. No human being could obey absolutely and without question the
+simplest touch of my hand. The _Arrow_ is not human, John, it is
+superhuman. You have seen its exploits."
+
+The dark emitted a figure that advanced toward them, and took the shape
+of a man with black hair, a short close beard and an intelligent face.
+He approached John and Lannes and looked at them closely.
+
+"Mr. Scott!" he exclaimed, with eagerness, "I did not know what had
+become of you. I was afraid you were lost in one of the battles!"
+
+"Why, it's Weber!" said John, "our comrade of the flight in the
+automobile! And I was afraid that you too, were dead!"
+
+The two shook hands with great heartiness and Lannes joined in the
+reunion. He too at once liked Weber, who always made the impression of
+courage and quickness. He wore a new uniform, olive in color with dark
+blue threads through it, and it became him, setting off his trim,
+compact figure.
+
+"How did you get here, Mr. Weber?" asked John.
+
+"I scarcely know," he replied. "My duties are to a certain extent those
+of a messenger, but I was caught in the last battle, wounded slightly,
+and separated from the main French force. The little company which I had
+formed tried to break through the German columns, but they were all
+killed or captured except myself, and maybe two or three others. I hid
+in a wood, slept a night there, and then reached Paris to see what is
+going to happen. Ah, it is terrible! terrible! my comrades! The Germans
+are advancing in five great armies, a million and a half strong, and no
+troops were ever before equipped so magnificently."
+
+"Do you know positively that they have a million and a half?" asked
+Lannes.
+
+"I did not count them," replied Weber, smiling a little, "but I have
+heard from many certain sources that such are their numbers. I fear,
+gentlemen, that Paris is doomed."
+
+"Scott and I don't think so," said Lannes firmly. "We've gained new
+courage today."
+
+Weber was silent for a few moments. Then he said, giving Lannes his
+title as an officer:
+
+"I've heard of you, Lieutenant Lannes. Who does not know the name of
+France's most daring aviator? And doubtless you have information which
+is unknown to me. It is altogether likely that one who pierces the air
+like an eagle should bear messages between generals of the first rank."
+
+Lannes did not answer, but looked at Weber, who smiled.
+
+"Perhaps our trades are not so very different," said the Alsatian, "but
+you shoot through clouds while I crawl on the ground. You have a great
+advantage of me in method."
+
+Lannes smiled back. The little tribute was pleasing to the dramatic
+instinct so strong in him.
+
+"You and I, Mr. Weber," he said, "know enough never to speak of what
+we're going to do. Now, we'll bid you good night and wish you good luck.
+I'd like to be a prophet, even for a day only, and tell what the morrow
+would bring."
+
+"So do I," said Weber, "and I must hurry on my own errand. It may not
+be of great importance, but is vital to me that I do it."
+
+He slid away in the darkness and both John and Lannes spoke well of him
+as they returned to the house. Picard admitted them.
+
+"May I ask, sir, if there is any news that favors France?" he said to
+Philip.
+
+"Not yet, my good Antoine, but it is surely coming."
+
+John heard the giant Frenchman smother a sigh, but he made no comment,
+and walked softly with Lannes to the little room high up that had been
+assigned to him. Here when he was alone with his candle he looked around
+curiously.
+
+The room was quite simple, not containing much furniture, in truth,
+nothing of any note save on the wall a fine picture of the great Marshal
+Lannes, Napoleon's dauntless fighter, and stern republican, despite the
+ducal title that he took. It was a good portrait, painted perhaps by
+some great artist, and John holding up the candle, looked at it a long
+time.
+
+He thought he could trace some likeness to Philip. Lannes' face was
+always stern, in repose, far beyond his years, although when he became
+animated it had all the sunniness of youth. But he noticed now that he
+had the same tight lips of the Marshal, and the same unfaltering eyes.
+
+"Duke of Montebello!" said John to himself. "Well, you won that title
+grandly, and while the younger Lannes may do as well, if the chance
+comes to him, the new heroes of France will be neither dukes nor
+princes."
+
+Then, after removing all the stiff pillows, inclines, foot pieces and
+head pieces that make European beds so uncomfortable, he slipped between
+the covers, and slid quickly into a long and soothing sleep, from which
+he was awakened apparently about a minute later by Lannes himself, who
+stood over him, dressed fully, tall and serious.
+
+"Why, I just got into bed!" exclaimed John.
+
+"You came in here a full seven hours ago. Open your window and you'll
+see the dawn creeping over Paris."
+
+"Thank you, but you can open it yourself. I never fool with a European
+window. I haven't time to master all the mechanism, inside, outside and
+between, to say nothing of the various layers of curtains, full length,
+half length and otherwise. Nothing that I can conceive of is better
+fitted than the European window to keep out light and air."
+
+Lannes smiled.
+
+"I see that you're in fine feather this morning," he said, "I'll open it
+for you."
+
+John jumped up and dressed quickly, while Lannes, with accustomed hand,
+laid back shutters and curtains.
+
+"Now, shove up the window," exclaimed John as he wielded towel and
+brush. "A little fresh air in a house won't hurt you; it won't hurt
+anybody. We're a young people, we Americans, but we can teach you that.
+Why, in the German hotels they'd seal up the smoking-rooms and lounges
+in the evenings, and then boys would go around shooting clouds of
+perfume against the ceilings. Ugh! I can taste now that awful mixture of
+smoke, perfume and thrice-breathed air! Ah! that feels better! It's like
+a breath from heaven!"
+
+"Ready now? We're going down to breakfast with my mother and sister."
+
+"Yes. How do I look in this uniform, Lannes?"
+
+"Very well. But, Oh, you Americans! we French are charged with vanity,
+but you have it."
+
+John had thought little of his raiment until he came to the house of
+Lannes, but now there was a difference. He gave the last touch to his
+coat, and he and Philip went down together. Madame Lannes and Julie
+received them. They were dressed very simply, Julie in white and Madame
+Lannes in plain gray. Their good-morning to John was quiet, but he saw
+that it came from the heart. They recognized in him the faithful comrade
+in danger, of the son and brother, and he saw once more that French
+family affection was very powerful.
+
+It was early, far earlier than the ordinary time for the European
+breakfast, and he knew that it had been served so, because he and Lannes
+were to depart. He sat facing a window, and he saw the dawn come over
+Paris in a vast silver haze that soon turned to a cloud of gold. He
+again stole glances at Julie Lannes. In all her beautiful fairness of
+hair and complexion she was like one of the blonde American girls of his
+own country.
+
+When breakfast was over and the two young men rose to go John said the
+first farewell. He still did not know the French custom, but, bending
+over suddenly, he kissed the still smooth and handsome hand of Madame
+Lannes. As she flushed and looked pleased, he judged that he had made no
+mistake. Then he touched lightly the hand of the young girl, and said:
+
+"Mademoiselle Julie, I hope to return soon to this house with your
+brother."
+
+"May it be so," she said, in a voice that trembled, "and may you come
+back to a Paris still French!"
+
+John bowed to them both and with tact and delicacy withdrew from the
+room. He felt that there should be no witness of Philip's farewell to
+his mother and sister, before going on a journey from which the chances
+were that he would never return.
+
+He strolled down the hall, pretending to look at an old picture or two,
+and in a few minutes Lannes came out and joined him. John saw tears in
+his eyes, but his face was set and stern. Neither spoke until they
+reached the front door, which the giant, Picard, opened for them.
+
+"If the worst should happen, Antoine," said Lannes, "and you must be the
+judge of it when it comes, take them to Lyons, to our cousins the
+Menards."
+
+"I answer with my life," said the man, shutting together his great
+teeth, and John felt that it was well for the two women to have such a
+guardian. Under impulse, he said:
+
+"I should like to shake the hand of a man who is worth two of most men."
+
+Whether the French often shake hands or not, his fingers were enclosed
+in the mighty grasp of Picard, and he knew that he had a friend for
+life. When they went out Lannes would not look back and was silent for a
+long time. The day was warm and beautiful, and the stream of fugitives,
+the sad procession, was still flowing from the city. Troops too were
+moving, and it seemed to John that they passed in heavier masses than on
+the day before.
+
+"I went out last night while you slept," said Lannes, when they were
+nearly at the hangar, "and I will tell you that I bear a message to one
+of our most important generals. I carry it in writing, and also in
+memory in case I lose the written word. That is all I feel at liberty to
+tell you, and in truth I know but little more. The message comes from
+our leader to the commander of the army at Paris, who in turn orders me
+to deliver it to the general whom we're going to seek. It directs him
+with his whole force to move forward to a certain point and hold fast
+there. Beyond that I know nothing. Its whole significance is hidden from
+me. I feel that I can tell you this, John, as we're about to start upon
+a journey which has a far better prospect of death than of life."
+
+"I'm not afraid," said John, and he told the truth. "I feel, Philip,
+that great events are impending and that your dispatch or the effect of
+it will be a part in some gigantic plan."
+
+"I feel that way, too. What an awful crisis! The Germans moved nearer in
+the dark. I didn't sleep a minute last night. I couldn't. If the signs
+that you and I saw are to be fulfilled they must be fulfilled soon,
+because when a thing is done it's done, and when Paris falls it falls."
+
+"Well, here we are at the hangar, and the _Arrow_ will make you feel
+better. You're like the born horseman whose spirits return when he's on
+the back of his best runner."
+
+"I suppose I am. The air is now my proper medium, and anyway, John, my
+gallant Yankee, for a man like me the best tonic is always action,
+action, and once more action."
+
+The _Arrow_ was in beautiful condition, smooth, polished and fitted with
+everything that was needed. They put on their flying clothes, drew down
+their visors, stowed their automatics in handy pockets, and took their
+seats in the aeroplane. Then, as he put his hand on the steering rudder
+and the attendants gave the _Arrow_ a mighty shove, the soul of Lannes
+swelled within him.
+
+They rose slowly and then swiftly over Paris, and his troubles were left
+behind him on the earth. Up, up they went, in a series of graceful
+spirals, and although John, at first, felt the old uneasy feeling, it
+soon departed. He too exulted in their mounting flight and the rush of
+cold air.
+
+"Use your glasses, John," said Lannes, "and tell me what you can see."
+
+"Some captive balloons, five other planes, all our own, and on the
+horizon, where the German army lies, several black specks too vague and
+indefinite for me to make out what they are, although I've no doubt
+they're German flyers."
+
+"I'd like to have a look at the Germans, but our way leads elsewhere.
+What else do you see, John?"
+
+"I look downward and I see the most magnificent and glittering city in
+the world."
+
+"And that's Paris, our glorious Paris, which you and I and a million
+others are going to save. I suppose it's hope, John, that makes me feel
+we'll do something. Did you know that the Germans dropped two more bombs
+on the city last night? One, luckily, fell in the Seine. The other
+struck near the Madeleine, close to a group of soldiers, killing two and
+wounding four more."
+
+"Bombs from the air can't do any great damage to a city."
+
+"No, but they can spread alarm, and it's an insult, too. We feel as the
+Germans would if we were dropping bombs on Berlin. I wish you'd keep
+those glasses to your eyes all the time, John, and watch the skies. Let
+me know at once, if you see anything suspicious."
+
+John, continually turning in his seat, swept the whole curve of the
+world with the powerful glasses. Paris was now far below, a blur of
+white and gray. Above, the heavens were of the silkiest blue, beautiful
+in their infinite depths, with tiny clouds floating here and there like
+whitecaps on an ocean.
+
+"What do you see now, John?"
+
+"Nothing but one of the most beautiful days that ever was. It's a fine
+sun, that you've got over here, Philip. I can see through these glasses
+that it's made out of pure reddish gold."
+
+"Never mind about that sun, John. America is a full partner in its
+ownership and you're used to it. I've heard that you have more sunshine
+than we do. Watch for our companions of the air, friend or foe."
+
+"I see them flying; over Paris, but none is going in our direction. How
+far is our port of entry, Lannes?"
+
+"We should be there in two hours, if nothing happens. Do we still have
+the course to ourselves or is anything coming our way now?"
+
+"No company at all, unless you'd call a machine about three miles off
+and much lower down, a comrade."
+
+"What does it look like?"
+
+"A French aeroplane, much resembling the _Arrow_."
+
+"Is it following us?"
+
+"Not exactly. Yes, it is coming our way now, although it keeps much
+lower! A scout, I dare say."
+
+Lannes was silent for a little while, his eyes fixed on his pathway
+through the blue. Then he said:
+
+"What has become of that machine, John?"
+
+"It has risen a little, but it's on our private course, that is, if we
+can claim the right of way all down to the ground."
+
+Lannes glanced backward and downward, as well as his position would
+allow.
+
+"A French plane, yes," he said thoughtfully. "There can be no doubt of
+it, but why should it follow us in this manner? You do think it's
+following us, don't you, John?"
+
+"It begins to look like it, Phil. It's rising a little now, and is
+directly in our wake."
+
+"Take a long look through those glasses of yours."
+
+John obeyed, and the following aeroplane at once increased in size
+tenfold and came much nearer.
+
+"It's French. There cannot be any doubt of it," he said, "and only one
+man is in it. As he's hidden by his flying-suit I can't tell anything
+about him."
+
+"Watch him closely, John, and keep your hand on the butt of your
+automatic. I don't like that fellow's actions. Still, he may be a
+Frenchman on an errand like ours. We've no right to think we're the only
+people carrying important messages today."
+
+"He's gaining pretty fast. Although he keeps below us, it looks as if he
+wanted to communicate with us."
+
+The second aeroplane suddenly shot forward and upward at a much greater
+rate of speed. John, still watching through his glasses, saw the man
+release the steering rudder for an instant, snatch a rifle from the
+floor of his plane, and fire directly at Lannes.
+
+John uttered a shout of anger, and in action, too, he was as quick as a
+flash. His automatic was out at once and he rained bullets upon the
+treacherous machine. It was hard to take aim, firing from one flying
+target, at another, but he saw the man flinch, turn suddenly, and then
+go rocketing away at a sharp angle.
+
+Blazing with wrath John watched him, now far out of range, and then
+reloaded his automatic.
+
+"Did you get him, John?" asked Lannes.
+
+"I know one bullet found him, because I saw him shiver and shrink, but
+it couldn't have been mortal, as he was able to fly away."
+
+"I'm glad that you at least hit him, because he hit me."
+
+"What!" exclaimed John. Then he looked at his comrade and saw to his
+intense horror that black blood was flowing slowly down a face deadly
+pale.
+
+"His bullet went through my cap and then through my head," said Lannes.
+"Oh, not through my skull, or I wouldn't be talking to you now. I think
+it glanced off the bone, as I know it's gone out on the other side. But
+I'm losing much blood, John, and I seem to be growing numb."
+
+His voice trailed off in weakness and the _Arrow_ began to move in an
+eccentric manner. John saw that Lannes' hand on the rudder was uncertain
+and that he had been hard hit. He was aghast, first for his friend, to
+whom he had become so strongly attached, and then for the _Arrow_, their
+mission and himself. Lannes would soon become unconscious and he, no
+flying man at all, would be left high in air with a terrible weight of
+responsibility.
+
+"We must change seats," said Lannes, struggling against the dimness that
+was coming over his eyes and the weakness permeating his whole body. "Be
+careful, Oh, be careful as you can, and then, in your American language,
+a lot more. Slowly! Slowly! Yes, I can move alone. Drag yourself over
+me, and I can slide under you. Careful! Careful!"
+
+The _Arrow_ fluttered like a wounded bird, dropping, darting upward, and
+careering to one side. John was sick to his soul, both physically and
+mentally. His head became giddy and the wind roared in his ears, but the
+exchange of seats was at last, successfully accomplished.
+
+"Now," said Lannes, "you're a close observer. Remember all that you've
+seen me do with the plane. Resolve to yourself that you do know how to
+fly the _Arrow_. Fear nothing and fly straight for our destination.
+Don't bother about the bleeding of my wound. My thick hair and thick cap
+acting together as a heavy bandage will stop it. Now, John, our fate
+rests with you."
+
+The last words were almost inaudible, and John from the corner of his
+eye saw his comrade's head droop. He knew that Lannes had become
+unconscious and now, appalling though the situation was, he rose to the
+crisis.
+
+He knew the immensity of their danger. A sudden movement of the rudder
+and the aeroplane might be wrecked. And in such a position the nerves of
+a novice were subject at any time to a jerk. They might be assailed by
+another treacherous machine, the dangers, in truth, were uncountable,
+but he was upborne by a tremendous desire to carry the word and to save
+Lannes and himself.
+
+In the face of intense resolve all obstacles became as nothing and his
+hand steadied on the rudder. He knew that when it came to the air he was
+no Lannes and never could be. The solid earth, no matter how much it
+rolled around the sun or around itself, was his favorite field of
+action, but he felt that he must make one flight, when he carried with
+him perhaps the fate of a nation.
+
+The _Arrow_ was still rocking from side to side and dipping and jumping.
+Slowly he steadied it, handling the rudder as if it were a loaded
+weapon, and gradually his heart began to pound with triumph. It was no
+such flying as the hand of Lannes drew from the _Arrow_, but to John it
+seemed splendid for a first trial. He let the machine drop a little
+until it was only six or seven hundred yards above the earth, and took
+wary glances from side to side. He feared another pursuer, but the air
+seemed clear.
+
+Lannes had sunk a little further forward. John saw that the
+bleeding from his head had ceased. There was a dark stain down either
+cheek, but it was drying there, and as Lannes had foreseen, his hair and
+the cap had acted as a bandage, at last checking the flow effectively.
+His breathing was heavy and jerky, but John believed that he would
+revive before long. It was not possible that one so vital as Lannes, so
+eager for great action, could die thus.
+
+Now he looked ahead. Their landmarks as Lannes had told him before the
+fight, were to be a high hill, a low hill, and a small stream flowing
+between. Just behind it they would find a great French army marching
+northward and their errand would be over. He did not yet see the hills,
+but he was sure that he was still in the pathway of the air.
+
+He had left Paris far behind, but when he looked down he saw a beautiful
+country, a fertile land upon which man had worked for two thousand
+years, too beautiful to be trodden to pieces by armies. He saw the
+cultivated fields, varying in color like a checker board, and the neat
+villages with trees about them. Here and there the spire of a church
+rose high above everything. Churches and wars were so numerous in
+Europe!
+
+John checked the speed of the _Arrow_. He was afraid, despite all his
+high resolve, to fly fast, and then he must not go beyond the army for
+which he was looking. He dropped a little lower as he was passing over a
+wood, and then he heard the crack of rifles beneath him. Bullets whizzed
+and sang past his ears and he took one fearful glance downward.
+
+He saw men, spiked helmets on their heads, galloping among the trees,
+and he knew that they were a daring band of Uhlans, actually scouting
+inside the French lines. They were shooting at the _Arrow_ and firing
+fast.
+
+He attempted to rise so suddenly that the plane gave a violent jerk and
+quivered in every fiber. He thought for a moment they were going to
+fall, and the sickening sensation at his heart was overpowering. But the
+trusty _Arrow_ ceased quivering, and then rose swiftly at an angle not
+too great.
+
+Bullets still whizzed around the plane, and one glanced off its polished
+side, but John's first nervous jerkiness in handling the machine had
+probably saved him. The target had been so high in air, and of such a
+shifting nature that the Uhlans had little chance to hit it.
+
+He was now beyond the range of any rifle, and he drew a long breath of
+relief that was like a deep sigh. Then he took a single downward glance,
+and caught a fleeting glimpse of the Uhlans galloping away. Doubtless
+they were making all speed back to their own army.
+
+He flew on for a minute or two, searching the horizon eagerly, and at
+last, he saw a tall hill, a low hill and a flash of water between. He
+felt so much joy that he uttered a cry, and an echo of it came from a
+point almost by his side.
+
+"Did I hear firing, John?"
+
+It was Lannes' voice, feeble, but showing all the signs of returning
+strength, and again John uttered a joyous shout.
+
+"You did," he replied. "It was Uhlans in a grove. I was flying low and
+their bullets whistled around us. But the _Arrow_ has taken no harm. I
+see, too, the hills and the stream which are our landmarks. We're about
+to arrive, Philip, with our message, but there's been treachery
+somewhere. I wish I knew who was in that French plane."
+
+"So do I, John. It certainly came out of Paris. In my opinion it meant
+to destroy us and keep our message from reaching the one for whom it was
+intended. Who could it have been and how could he have known!"
+
+"Feeling better now, aren't you, Phil?"
+
+"A lot better. My head aches tremendously, but the dimness has gone from
+before my eyes, and I'm able to think, in a poor and feeble way,
+perhaps, but I'm not exactly a dumb animal. Where are the hills?"
+
+John pointed.
+
+"I can see them," said Lannes exultantly. "Since they did no harm I'm
+glad the Uhlans fired at the _Arrow_. Their shots aroused me from stupor
+and as we're to reach the army I want to be in possession of my five
+senses when I get there."
+
+John understood perfectly.
+
+"It's your message and you deliver it," he said.
+
+Lannes' strength continued to increase, and his mind cleared rapidly.
+His head ached frightfully, but he could think with all his usual
+swiftness and precision. He sat erect in his seat.
+
+"Pass me your glasses, John," he said.
+
+"Now I see the troops," he said, after a long look. "Frenchmen,
+Frenchmen, Frenchmen, infantry in thousands and scores of thousands, big
+guns in scores and hundreds, cuirassiers, hussars, cannoneers! Ah! It's
+a sight to kindle a dead heart back to life! John, this is one of the
+great wheels in the mighty machine that is to move forward! Here come
+two aeroplanes, scouts sent forward to see who and what we are."
+
+"You are sure they contain genuine Frenchmen? Remember the fellow who
+shot you."
+
+"Frenchmen, good and true. I can see them for myself."
+
+He moved his hand, and in a few moments John heard hissing and purring
+near, as if great birds were flying to meet him. The outlines of the
+hovering planes showed by his side, and Lannes called in a loud voice to
+shrouded and visored men.
+
+"Philip Lannes and his comrade, John Scott, with a message from Paris
+to the commander!" he exclaimed.
+
+He was his old self again, erect, intense, dramatic. He evidently
+expected the name Philip Lannes to be known well to them, and it was, as
+a cheer followed high in air.
+
+"Now, John," said Lannes, "Be careful! Your hardest task is before you,
+to land. But I've noticed that with you the harder the task the better
+you do it. Make for that wide green space to the left of the stream and
+come down as slowly and gently as you can. Just slide down."
+
+John had a fleeting glimpse of thousands of faces looking upward, but he
+held a true course for the grassy area, and with a multitude looking on
+his nerve was never steadier. Amid great cheering the _Arrow_ came
+safely to rest at her appointed place. John and Lannes stepped forth, as
+an elderly man in a quiet uniform came forward to meet them.
+
+Lannes, holding himself stiffly erect, drew a paper from his pocket and
+extended it to the general.
+
+"A letter, sir, from the commander-in-chief of all our armies," he said,
+saluting proudly.
+
+As the general took the letter, Lannes' knees bent beneath him, and he
+sank down on his face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+IN THE FRENCH CAMP
+
+
+John rushed forward and grasped his comrade. The sympathetic hands of
+others seized him also, and they raised him to his feet, while an
+officer gave him stimulant out of a flask, John meanwhile telling who
+his comrade was. Lannes' eyes opened and he flushed through the tan of
+his face.
+
+"Pardon," he said, "it was a momentary weakness. I am ashamed of myself,
+but I shall not faint again."
+
+"You've been shot," said the officer, looking at his sanguinary cap and
+face.
+
+"So I have, but I ask your pardon for it. I won't let it occur again."
+
+Lannes was now standing stiffly erect, and his eyes shone with pride, as
+the general, a tall, elderly man, rapidly read the letter that Philip
+had delivered with his own hand. The officer who had spoken of his wound
+looked at him with approval.
+
+"I've heard of you, Philip Lannes," he said, "you're the greatest flying
+man in the world."
+
+Lannes' eyes flashed now.
+
+"You do me too much honor," he said, "but it was not I who brought our
+aeroplane here. It was my American friend, John Scott, now standing
+beside me, who beat off an attack upon us and who then, although he had
+had no practical experience in flying, guided the machine to this spot.
+Born an American, he is one of us and France already owes him much."
+
+John raised his hand in protest, but he saw that Lannes was enjoying
+himself. His dramatic instinct was finding full expression. He had not
+only achieved a great triumph, but his best friend had an important
+share in it. There was honor for both, and his generous soul rejoiced.
+
+Both John and Lannes stood at attention until the general had read the
+letter not once but twice and thrice. Then he took off his glasses,
+rubbed them thoughtfully a moment or two, replaced them and looked
+keenly at the two. He was a quiet man and he made no gestures, but John
+met his gaze serenely, read his eyes and saw the tremendous weight of
+responsibility back of them.
+
+"You have done well, you two, perhaps far better than you know," said
+the general, "and now, since you are wounded, Philip Lannes, you must
+have attention. De Rougemont, take care of them."
+
+De Rougemont, a captain, was the man to whom they had been talking, and
+he gladly received the charge. He was a fine, well built officer, under
+thirty, and it was obvious that he already took a deep interest in the
+two young aviators. Noticing Lannes' anxious glances toward his precious
+machine, he promptly detailed two men to take care of the _Arrow_ and
+then he led John and Lannes toward the group of tents.
+
+"First I'll get a surgeon for you," he said to the Frenchman, "and after
+that there's food for you both."
+
+"I hope you'll tell the surgeon to be careful how he takes off my cap,"
+said Lannes, "because it's fastened to my head now by my own dried
+blood."
+
+"Trust me for that," said de Rougemont. "I'll bring one of our best
+men."
+
+Then, unable to suppress his curiosity any longer, he added:
+
+"I suppose the message you brought was one of life or death for France."
+
+"I think so," said Lannes, "but I know little of its nature, myself."
+
+"I would not ask you to say any more. I know that you cannot speak of
+it. But you can tell me this. Are the Germans before Paris?"
+
+"As nearly as I could tell, their vanguard was within fifteen miles of
+the capital."
+
+"Then if we strike at all we must strike quickly. I think we're going to
+strike."
+
+Lannes was silent, and they entered the tent, where blankets were spread
+for him. A surgeon, young and skillful, came promptly, carefully removed
+the cap and bound up his head. John stood by and handed the surgeon the
+bandages.
+
+"You're not much hurt," he said to Lannes as he finished. "Your chief
+injury was shock, and that has passed. I can keep down the fever and
+you'll be ready for work very soon. The high powered bullet makes a
+small and clean wound. It tears scarcely at all. Nor will your beauty be
+spoiled in the slightest, young sir. Both orifices are under the full
+thickness of your hair."
+
+"I'm grateful for all your assurances," said Lannes, his old indomitable
+smile appearing in his eyes, "but you'll have to cure me fast, faster
+than you ever cured anybody before, because I'm a flying man, and I fly
+again tomorrow."
+
+"Not tomorrow. In two or three days, perhaps--"
+
+"Yes, tomorrow, I tell you! Nothing can keep me from it! This army will
+march tonight! I know it! and do you think such a wound as this can keep
+me here, when the fate of Europe is being decided? I'd rise from these
+blankets and go with the army even if I knew that it would make me fall
+dead the next day!"
+
+He spoke with such fierce energy that the surgeon who at first sternly
+forbade, looked doubtful and then acquiescent.
+
+"Go, then," he said, "if you can. The fact that we have so many heroes
+may save us."
+
+He left John alone in the tent with Lannes. The Frenchman regarded his
+comrade with a cool, assured gaze.
+
+"John," he said, "I shall be up in the _Arrow_ tomorrow. I'm not nervous
+and excited now, and I'll not cause any fever in my wound. Somebody will
+come in five minutes with food. I shall eat a good supper, fall quietly
+to sleep, sleep soundly until night, then rise, refreshed and strong,
+and go about the work for which I'm best fitted. My mind shall rule over
+my body."
+
+"I see you're what we would call at home a Christian Scientist, and in
+your case when a mind like yours is brought to bear there's something in
+it."
+
+The food appeared within the prescribed time, and both ate heartily.
+John watched Lannes. He knew that he would suffer agonies of
+mortification if he were not able to share in the great movement which
+so obviously was about to take place, and, as he looked, he felt a
+growing admiration for Philip's immense power of self-control.
+
+Mind had truly taken command of body. Lannes ate slowly and with evident
+relish. From without came many noises of a great army, but he refused to
+be disturbed or excited by them. He spoke lightly of his life before the
+war, and of a little country home that the Lannes family had in
+Normandy.
+
+"We own the two places, that and the home in the city," he said. "The
+house in Normandy is small, but it's beautiful, hidden by flower gardens
+and orchards, with a tiny river just back of the last orchard. Julie has
+spent most of her life there. She and my mother would go there now, but
+it's safer at Lyons or in the Midi. A wonderful girl, Julie! I hope,
+John, that you'll come for a long stay with us after the war, among the
+Normandy orchards and roses."
+
+"I hope so," said John. He was dreaming a little then, and he saw young
+Julie sitting at the table with them back in Paris. Truly, her golden
+hair was the purest gold he had ever seen, and there was no other blue
+like the blue of her blue eyes.
+
+"Now, John," said Lannes, "I'll resume my place on the blankets and in
+ten minutes I'll be asleep."
+
+He lay down, closed his eyes and three minutes short of the appointed
+time slept soundly. John gazed at him for a moment in wonder and
+admiration. The triumph of will over body had been complete. He touched
+Lannes' head. It was normally cool. Either the surgeon's skill had been
+great or the very strength of his resolve had been so immense that he
+had kept nerves and blood too quiet for fever to rise.
+
+John left the tent, feeling for the time a personal detachment from
+everything. He had no position in this army, and no orders had been
+given to him by anybody. But he knew that he was among friends, and
+while he stood looking about in uncertainty Captain de Rougemont
+appeared.
+
+"How is young Lannes?" he asked.
+
+"Sleeping and free from fever. He will move with the army, or rather he
+will be hovering over it in his aeroplane. I never before saw such
+extraordinary power of will."
+
+"He's a wonderful fellow. Of course, most of us have heard of him
+through his marvelous flying exploits, but it's the first time that I've
+ever seen him. What are you going to do?"
+
+"I don't know. I seem to be left high and dry for the present, at least.
+My company is with one of the armies, but where that army is now is more
+than I can tell."
+
+"Nor do I know either. We're all in the dark here, but any young strong
+man can certainly get a chance to fight in this war. I'm on the staff of
+General Vaugirard, a brigade commander, and he needs active young
+officers. You speak good French, and the fact that you came with Lannes
+will be a great recommendation, I'll provide you with a horse and all
+else necessary."
+
+John thanked him with great sincerity. The offer was in truth most
+welcome. He knew that Lannes would willingly take him in the _Arrow_,
+but he felt that he would be in the way there and, as he had said to his
+friend, the rolling earth rather than the air around it was his true
+field of action. His first enrollment in the French army had been
+hurried and without due forms, but war had made it good.
+
+"I'll not come back for you until afternoon," said de Rougemont,
+"because we're already making preparations to advance, and I shall have
+much to do meanwhile. You can watch over Lannes and see that he's not
+interrupted in his sleep. He'll need it."
+
+"Yes, I have reason to know that he did not sleep at all last night, and
+he must be in a state of complete exhaustion. But, just as he predicted,
+he'll rise, his old self again."
+
+Captain de Rougemont hurried away, and John was left alone in the midst
+of a great army. He stood before Lannes' tent, which was in the midst of
+a grassy and rather elevated opening, and he heard once more the
+infinite sounds made by two hundred thousand armed men, blending into
+one vast, fused note.
+
+The army, too, was moving, or getting ready to move. Batteries of the
+splendid French artillery passed before him, squadrons of horsemen
+galloped by, and regiments of infantry followed. It all seemed confused,
+aimless to the eye, but John knew that nevertheless it was proceeding
+with order and method, directed by a master mind.
+
+Often trumpets sounded and the motion of the troops seemed to quicken.
+Now he beheld men from the lands of the sun, the short, dark, fierce
+soldiers of the Midi, youths of Marseilles and youths of the first Roman
+province, whose native language was Provencal and not French. He
+remembered the men of the famous battalion who had marched from
+Marseilles to Paris singing Rouget de Lisle's famous song, and giving it
+their name, while they tore down an ancient kingdom. Doubtless, spirits
+no less ardent and fearless than theirs were here now.
+
+He saw the Arabs in turbans and flowing robes, and black soldiers from
+Senegal, and seeing these men from far African deserts he knew that
+France was rallying her strength for a supreme effort. The German
+Empire, with the flush of unbroken victory in war after war, could
+command the complete devotion of its sons, but the French Republic,
+without such triumphs as yet, could do as well. John felt an immense
+pride because he, too, was republican to the core, and often there was a
+lot in a name.
+
+It was about noon now, and the sun was shining with dazzling brilliancy.
+The tall hill and the low hill were clothed in deep green, and the
+waters of the little river that ran between, sparkled in the light. The
+air was crisp with a cool wind that blew from the west, and John felt
+that the omens were good for the great mysterious movement which he
+believed to be at hand.
+
+He looked into the tent and saw that Lannes was sleeping soundly, with a
+good color in his face. A powerful constitution aided by a strong will
+had done its work and he was sure that on the morrow Lannes would again
+be the most daring French scout of the air.
+
+John found the waiting hard work. There was so much movement and action
+that he wanted to be a part of it. He had thrown in his lot with this
+army and he wanted to share its work at once. Yet much time passed, and
+de Rougemont did not return. The evidences that the great French army
+was marching to the point designated in the note brought by Lannes
+multiplied. From the crest of the hill he already saw large bodies of
+troops marching forward steadily, their long blue coats flapping
+awkwardly about their legs. He wondered once more why they wore such an
+inharmonious and conspicuous uniform as blue frock coats and baggy red
+trousers.
+
+He heard presently the martial sounds of the Marseillaise, and the
+regiment singing it passed very close to him. The men were nearly all
+short, dark, and very young. But the spring and fire with which they
+marched were magnificent. As they thundered out the grand old tune their
+feet seemed scarcely to touch the earth, and fierce eyes glowed in dark
+faces.
+
+John, with a start, recognized one, a petty officer, a sergeant it
+seemed, who marched beside the line. He was the most eager of them all,
+and his face was tense and wrapt. It was Geronimo, the little Apache, in
+whom the spark of patriotism had lit the fire of genius. His call had
+come and it had drawn him from a half savage life into one of glorious
+deeds for his country.
+
+"He'll be a general if he isn't killed first," murmured John, with
+absolute conviction.
+
+Geronimo, at that moment, looked his way and recognized him. His hand
+flew to his head in a military salute, which John returned in kind, and
+his eyes plainly showed pleasure at sight of this new friend whom he had
+made in a few minutes on the Butte Montmartre.
+
+"We meet again," he said, "and before the week is out it will be victory
+or death."
+
+"I think so, too," said John.
+
+"I know it," said Geronimo, and, saluting once more, he marched on with
+his regiment. John saw them pass across the valley and join the great
+mass of troops that filled the whole northern horizon. About an hour
+later a cheerful voice called to him, and he beheld Lannes standing in
+the door of the tent, his head well bandaged, but his eyes clear and
+strong and the natural color in his face.
+
+"What has happened, John?" he asked.
+
+"You've slept six or seven hours."
+
+"And while I slept, the army, as I can see, has begun its march
+according to the order we brought. I'm sorry I had to miss any of it,
+but I was bound to sleep."
+
+"You're a marvel."
+
+"No marvel at all. I'm merely one of a million Frenchmen molded on the
+same model. An army can't move fast and tonight the _Arrow_ and I will
+be hovering over its front. There's your old place for you in the
+plane."
+
+"I'd only be in your way, Philip. But can't you wait until tomorrow?
+Don't rush yourself while you've got a new wound."
+
+"The wound is nothing. I'm bound to go tonight with the _Arrow_. But
+what are you going to do if you don't go with me?"
+
+"A new friend whom I've made while you slept has found a place for me
+with him, on the staff of General Vaugirard, a brigade commander. I
+shall serve there until I'm able to rejoin the Strangers."
+
+"General Vaugirard! I've seen him. An able man, and a most noticeable
+figure. You've fared well."
+
+"I hope so. Here comes Captain de Rougemont."
+
+The captain showed much pleasure at seeing Lannes up and apparently
+well.
+
+"What! Has our king of the air revived so soon!" he exclaimed.
+
+"The dead themselves would rise when we're about to strike for the life
+of France," said Lannes, his dramatic quality again coming to the front.
+
+"Well spoken," said de Rougemont, the color flushing into his face.
+
+"I return to my aeroplane within two hours," said Lannes. "I hold a
+commission from our government which allows me to operate somewhat as a
+free lance, but, of course, I shall conform for the present to the
+wishes of the man who commands the flying corps of this army. Meanwhile,
+I leave with you my young Yankee friend here, John Scott. For some
+strange reason I've conceived for him a strong brotherly affection.
+Kindly see that he doesn't get killed unless it's necessary for our
+country, and this, I think, is a long enough speech for me to make now."
+
+"I'll do my best for him," said de Rougemont earnestly. "I've come for
+you, Scott."
+
+"Good-bye, Philip," said John, extending his hand.
+
+"Good-bye, John," said Lannes, "and do as I tell you. Don't get yourself
+killed unless it's absolutely necessary."
+
+Usually so stoical, his voice showed emotion, and he turned away after
+the strong pressure of the two hands. John and de Rougemont walked down
+the valley, where they joined General Vaugirard and the rest of his
+staff.
+
+As soon as John saw the general he knew what Lannes meant by his phrase
+"a noticeable figure." General Vaugirard was a man of about sixty, so
+enormously fat that he must have weighed three hundred pounds. His face
+was covered with thick white beard, out of which looked small, sharp red
+eyes. He reminded John of a great white bear. The little red eyes bored
+him through for an instant, and then their owner said briefly:
+
+"De Rougemont has vouched for you. Stay with him. An orderly has your
+horse."
+
+A French soldier held for him a horse bearing all the proper equipment,
+and John, saluting the general, sprang into the saddle. He was a good
+horseman, and now he felt thoroughly sure of himself. If it came to the
+worst, and he was unseated, the earth was not far away, but if he were
+thrown out of the _Arrow_ he would have a long and terrible time in
+falling.
+
+General Vaugirard had not yet mounted, but stood beside a huge black
+horse, fit to carry such a weight. He was listening and looking with the
+deepest attention and his staff was silent around him. John saw from
+their manner that these men liked and respected their immense general.
+
+More trumpets sounded, much nearer now, and a messenger galloped up,
+handing a note to General Vaugirard, who glanced at it hastily, uttered
+a deep Ah! of relief and joy and thrust it into his pocket.
+
+Then saying to his staff, "Gentlemen, we march at once," he put one hand
+on his horse's shoulder, and, to John's immense surprise, leaped as
+lightly into the saddle as if he had been a riding master. He settled
+himself easily into his seat, spoke a word to his staff, and then he
+rode with his regiments toward that great mass of men on the horizon who
+were steadily marching forward.
+
+John kept by the side of de Rougemont. There were brief introductions to
+some of the young officers nearest him, and he felt an air of
+friendliness about him. As de Rougemont told them he had already given
+ample proof of his devotion to the cause, and he was accepted promptly
+as one of them.
+
+John was now conscious how strongly he had projected himself into the
+life of the French. He was an American for generations back and his
+blood by descent was British. He had been among the Germans and he liked
+them personally, he had served already with the English, and their point
+of view was more nearly like the American than any other. But he was
+here with the French and he felt for them the deepest sympathy of all.
+He was conscious of a tie like that of blood brotherhood.
+
+He knew it was due to the old and yet unpaid help France had given to
+his own country, and above all to the conviction that France, minding
+her own business, had been set upon by a greater power, with intent to
+crush and destroy. France was attacked by a dragon, and the old similes
+of mythology floated through his mind, but, oftenest, that of Andromeda
+chained to the rock. And the figure that typified France always had the
+golden hair and dark blue eyes of slim, young Julie Lannes.
+
+They advanced several hours almost in silence, as far as talk was
+concerned, but two hundred thousand men marching made a deep and steady
+murmur. General Vaugirard kept well in front of his staff, riding,
+despite his immense bulk, like a Comanche, and occasionally putting his
+glasses to those fiery little red eyes. At length he turned and beckoned
+to John, who promptly drew up to his side.
+
+"You speak good French?" he said in his native tongue.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied John promptly.
+
+"I understand that you came with the flying man, Lannes, who brought the
+message responsible for this march, and that it is not the only time
+you've done good service in our cause?"
+
+John bowed modestly.
+
+"Did you see any German troops on the way?"
+
+"Only a band of Uhlans."
+
+"A mere scouting party. It occurred to me that you might have seen
+masses of troops belonging to the foe, indicating perhaps what is
+awaiting us at the end of our march."
+
+"I know nothing, sir. The Uhlans were all the foes we saw from the air,
+save the man who shot Lannes."
+
+"I believe you. You belong to the youngest of the great nations. Your
+people have not yet learned to say with the accents of truth the thing
+that is not. I am sixty years old, and yet I have the curiosity to know
+where I am going and what I am expected to do when I get there. Behold
+how I, an old man, speak so frankly to you, so young."
+
+"When I saw your excellency leap into the saddle you did not seem to me
+to be more than twenty."
+
+John called him "your excellency" because he thought that in the absence
+of precise knowledge of what was fitting the term was as good as
+another.
+
+A smile twinkled in the eyes of General Vaugirard. Evidently he was
+pleased.
+
+"That is flattery, flattery, young man," he said, "but it pleases me.
+Since I've drawn from you all you know, which is but little, you may
+fall back with your comrades. But keep near; I fancy I shall have much
+for you to do before long. Meanwhile, we march on, in ignorance of what
+is awaiting us. Ah, well, such is life!"
+
+He seemed to John a strange compound of age and youth, a mixture of the
+philosopher and the soldier. That he was a real leader John could no
+longer doubt. He saw the little red eyes watching everything, and he
+noticed that the regiments of Vaugirard had no superiors in trimness and
+spirit.
+
+They marched until sundown and stopped in some woods clear of
+undergrowth, like most of those in Europe. The camp kitchens went to
+work at once, and they received good food and coffee. As far as John
+could see men were at rest, but he could not tell whether the whole army
+was doing likewise. It spread out much further to both right and left
+than his eyes could reach.
+
+The members of the staff tethered their horses in the grove, and after
+supper stood together and talked, while the fat general paced back and
+forth, his brow wrinkled in deep thought.
+
+"Good old Papa Vaugirard is studying how to make the best of us," said
+de Rougemont. "We're all his children. They say that he knows nearly ten
+thousand men under his command by face if not by name, and we trust him
+as no other brigade commander in the army is trusted by his troops. He's
+thinking hard now, and General Vaugirard does not think for nothing. As
+soon as he arrives at what seems to him a solution of his problem he
+will begin to whistle. Then he will interrupt his whistling by saying:
+'Ah, well, such is life.'"
+
+"I hope he'll begin to whistle soon," said John, "because his brow is
+wrinkling terribly."
+
+He watched the huge general with a sort of fascinated gaze. Seen now in
+the twilight, Vaugirard's very bulk was impressive. He was immense,
+strong, primeval. He walked back and forth over a line about thirty feet
+long, and the deep wrinkles remained on his brow. Every member of his
+staff was asking how long it would last.
+
+A sound, mellow and soft, but penetrating, suddenly arose. General
+Vaugirard was whistling, and John's heart gave a jump of joy. He did not
+in the least doubt de Rougemont's assertion that an answer to the
+problem had been found.
+
+General Vaugirard whistled to himself softly and happily. Then he said
+twice, and in very clear tones: "Ah, well, such is life!" He began to
+whistle again, stopped in a moment or two and called to de Rougemont,
+with whom he talked a while.
+
+"We're to march once more in a half-hour," said de Rougemont, when he
+returned to John and his comrades. "It must be a great converging
+movement in which time is worth everything. At least, General Vaugirard
+thinks so, and he has a plan to get us into the very front of the
+action."
+
+"I hope so," said John. "I'm not anxious to get killed, but I'd rather
+be in the battle than wait. I wonder if I'll meet anywhere on the front
+that company to which I belong, the Strangers."
+
+"I think I've heard of them," said de Rougemont, "a body of Americans
+and Englishmen, volunteers in the French service, commanded by Captain
+Daniel Colton."
+
+"Right you are, and I've two particular friends in that company--I
+suppose they've rejoined it--Wharton, an American, and Carstairs, an
+Englishman. We went through a lot of dangers together before we reached
+the British army near Mons, and I'd like to see them again."
+
+"Maybe you will, but here comes an extraordinary procession."
+
+They heard many puffing sounds, uniting in one grand puffing chorus, and
+saw advancing down a white road toward them a long, ghostly train, as if
+a vast troop of extinct monsters had returned to earth and were marching
+this way. But John knew very well that it was a train of automobiles and
+raising the glasses that he now always carried he saw that they were
+empty except for the chauffeurs.
+
+General Vaugirard began to whistle his mellowest and most musical tune,
+stopping only at times to mutter a few words under his breath. John
+surmised that he was expressing deep satisfaction, and that he had been
+waiting for the motor train. War was now fought under new conditions.
+The Germans had thousands and scores of thousands of motors, and perhaps
+the French were provided almost as well.
+
+"I fancy," said de Rougemont, who was also watching the arrival of the
+machines, "that we'll leave our horses now and travel by motor."
+
+De Rougemont's supposition was correct. The line of automobiles began to
+mass in front, many rows deep, and all the chauffeurs, their great
+goggles shining through the darkness, were bent over their wheels ready
+to be off at once with their armed freight. It filled John with elation,
+and he saw the same spirit shining in the eyes of the young French
+officers.
+
+General Vaugirard began to puff like one of the machines. He threw out
+his great chest, pursed up his mouth and emitted his breath in little
+gusts between his lips, "Very good! Very good, my children!" he said,
+"Oil and electricity will carry us now, and we go forward, not
+backward!"
+
+True to de Rougemont's prediction, the horses were given to orderlies,
+and the staff and a great portion of the troops were taken into the
+cars. General Vaugirard and several of the older officers occupied a
+huge machine, and just behind him came de Rougemont, John and a
+half-dozen young lieutenants and captains in another. Before them
+stretched a great white road. Far overhead hovered many aeroplanes. John
+had no doubt that the _Arrow_ was among them, or rather was the farthest
+one forward. Lannes' eager soul, wound or no wound, would keep him in
+front.
+
+They now moved rapidly, and John's spirits continued to rise. There was
+something wonderful in this swift march on wheels in the moonlight. As
+far back as he could see the machines came in a stream, and to the left
+and right he saw them proceeding on other roads also. All the country
+was strange to John. He could not remember having seen it from the
+aeroplane, and he was sure that the army, instead of going to Paris, was
+bound for some point where it would come in instant contact with the
+German forces.
+
+"Do you know the road?" he asked of de Rougemont.
+
+"Not at all. I'm from the Gironde country. I've been in Paris, but I
+know little of the region about it. A good way to reach the front, is it
+not, Mr. Scott?"
+
+"Fine. I fancy that we're hurried forward to make a link in a chain, or
+at least to stop a gap."
+
+"And those large birds overhead are scouting for us."
+
+"Look! One of them is dropping down. I dare say it's making a report to
+some general higher in rank than ours."
+
+He pointed with a long forefinger, and John watched the aeroplane come
+down in its slanting course like a falling star. It was a beautiful
+night, a light blue sky, with a fine moon and hosts of clear stars. One
+could see far, and soon after the plane descended John saw it rise again
+from the same spot, ascend high in air, and shoot off toward the east.
+
+"That may have been Lannes," he said.
+
+"Likely as not," said de Rougemont.
+
+John now observed General Vaugirard, who sat erect in the front of his
+automobile, with a pair of glasses, relatively as huge as himself, to
+his eyes. Occasionally he would purse his lips, and John knew that his
+favorite expression was coming forth. To the young American's
+imaginative mind his broad back expressed rigidity and strength.
+
+The great murmuring sound, the blended advance of so many men, made John
+sleepy by-and-by. In spite of himself his heavy eyelids drooped, and
+although he strove manfully against it, sleep took him. When he awoke he
+heard the same deep murmur, like the roll of the sea, and saw the army
+still advancing. It was yet night, though fine and clear, and there
+before him was the broad, powerful back of the general. Vaugirard was
+still using the glasses and John judged that he had not slept at all.
+But in his own machine everybody was asleep except the man at the wheel.
+
+The country had grown somewhat hillier, but its characteristics were the
+same, fertile, cultivated fields, a small wood here and there, clear
+brooks, and church spires shining in the dusk. Both horse and foot
+advanced across the fields, but the roads were occupied by the motors,
+which John judged were carrying at least twenty thousand men and maybe
+forty thousand.
+
+He was not sleepy now, and he watched the vast panorama wheel past. He
+knew without looking at his watch that the night was nearly over,
+because he could already smell the dawn. The wind was freshening a bit,
+and he heard its rustle in the leaves of a wood as they pushed through
+it.
+
+Then came a hum and a whir, and a long line of men on motor cycles at
+the edge of the road crept up and then passed them. One checked his
+speed enough to run by the side of John's car, and the rider, raising
+his head a little, gazed intently at the young American. His cap closed
+over his face like a hood, but the man knew him.
+
+"Fortune puts us on the same road again, Mr. Scott," he said.
+
+"I don't believe I know you," said John, although there was a familiar
+note in the voice.
+
+"And yet you've met me several times, and under exciting conditions. It
+seems to me that we're always pursuing similar things, or we wouldn't be
+together on the same road so often. You're acute enough. Don't you know
+me now?"
+
+"I think I do. You're Fernand Weber, the Alsatian."
+
+"And so I am. I knew your memory would not fail you. It's a great
+movement that we've begun, Mr. Scott. France will be saved or destroyed
+within the next few days."
+
+"I think so."
+
+"You've deserted your friend, Philip Lannes, the finest of our airmen."
+
+"Oh, no, I haven't. He's deserted me. I couldn't afford to be a burden
+on his aeroplane at such a time as this."
+
+"I suppose not. I saw an aeroplane come down to earth a little while
+ago, and then rise again. I'm sure it was his machine, the _Arrow_."
+
+"So am I."
+
+"Here's where he naturally would be. Good-bye, Mr. Scott, and good luck
+to you. I must go on with my company."
+
+"Good-bye and good luck," repeated John, as the Alsatian shot forward.
+He liked Weber, who had a most pleasing manner, and he was glad to have
+seen him once more.
+
+"Who was that?" asked de Rougemont, waking from his sleep and catching
+the last words of farewell.
+
+"An Alsatian, named Fernand Weber, who has risked his life more than
+once for France. He belongs to the motor-cycle corps that's just
+passing."
+
+"May he and his comrades soon find the enemy, because here is the day."
+
+The leaves and grass rippled before the breeze and over the eastern
+hills the dawn broke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE INVISIBLE HAND
+
+
+It was a brilliant morning sun, deepening the green of the pleasant
+land, lighting up villages and glinting off church steeples. In a field
+a little distance to their right John saw two peasants at work already,
+bent over, their eyes upon the ground, apparently as indifferent to the
+troops as the troops were to them.
+
+It was very early, but the sun was rising fast, unfolding a splendid
+panorama. The French army with its blues and reds was more spectacular
+than the German, and hence afforded a more conspicuous target. John was
+sure that if the war went on the French would discard these vivid
+uniforms and betake themselves to gray or khaki. He saw clearly that the
+day of gorgeous raiment for the soldier had passed.
+
+The great puffing sound of primeval monsters which had blended into one
+rather harmonious note ceased, as if by signal, and the innumerable
+motors stopped. As far as John could see the army stretched to left and
+right over roads, hills and fields, but in the fields behind them the
+silent peasants went on with their work--in fields which the Republic
+had made their own.
+
+"I think we take breakfast here," said Rougemont. "War is what one of
+your famous American generals said it was, but for the present, at
+least, we are marching _de luxe_. Here comes one of those glorious
+camp-kitchens."
+
+An enormous motor vehicle, equipped with all the paraphernalia of a
+kitchen, stopped near them, and men, trim and neatly dressed, served hot
+food and steaming coffee. General Vaugirard had alighted also, and John
+noticed that his step was much more springy and alert than that of some
+officers half his age. His breath came in great gusts, and the small
+portion of his face not covered by thick beard was ruddy and glowing
+with health. He drank several cups of coffee with startling rapidity,
+draining each at a breath, and between times he whistled softly a
+pleasing little refrain.
+
+The march must be going well. Undoubtedly General Vaugirard had received
+satisfactory messages in the night, while his young American aide, and
+other Frenchmen as young, slept.
+
+"Well, my children," he said, rubbing his hands after his last cup of
+coffee had gone to its fate, "the day dawns and behold the sun of France
+is rising. It's not the sun of Austerlitz, but a modest republican sun
+that can grow and grow. Behold we are at the appointed place, set forth
+in the message that came to us from the commander-in-chief through
+Paris, and then by way of the air! And, look, my children, the bird
+from the blue descends once more among us!"
+
+There were flying machines of many kinds in the air, but John promptly
+picked out one which seemed to be coming with the flight of an eagle out
+of its uppermost heights. He seemed to know its slim, lithe shape, and
+the rapidity and decision of its approach. His heart thrilled, as it had
+thrilled when he saw the _Arrow_ coming for the first time on that spur
+of the Alps near Salzburg.
+
+"It's for me," said General Vaugirard, as he looked upward. "This flying
+demon, this man without fear, was told to report directly to me, and he
+conies at the appointed hour."
+
+Something of the mystery that belongs to the gulf of the infinite was
+reflected in the general's eyes. He, too, felt that man's flight in the
+heavens yet had in it a touch of the supernatural. Lannes' plane had
+seemed to shoot from white clouds, out of unknown spaces, and the
+general ceased to whistle or breathe gustily. His chest rose and fell
+more violently than usual, but the breath came softly.
+
+The plane descended rapidly and settled down on the grass very near
+them. Lannes saluted and presented a note to General Vaugirard, who
+started and then expelled the breath from his lungs in two or three
+prodigious puffs.
+
+"Good, my son, good!" he exclaimed, patting Lannes repeatedly on the
+shoulder; "and now a cup of coffee for you at once! Hurry with it, some
+of you idle children! Can't you see that he needs it!"
+
+John was first with the coffee, which Lannes drank eagerly, although it
+was steaming hot. John saw that he needed it very much indeed, as he was
+white and shaky. He noticed, too, that there were spots of blood on
+Lannes' left sleeve.
+
+"What is it, Philip?" he whispered. "You've been attacked again?"
+
+"Aye, truly. My movements seem to be observed by some mysterious eye. A
+shot was fired at me, and again it came from a French plane. That was
+all I could see. We were in a bank of mist at the time, and I just
+caught a glimpse of the plane itself. The man was a mere shapeless
+figure to me. I had no time to fight him, because I was due here with
+another message which made vengeance upon him at that time a matter of
+little moment."
+
+He flecked the red drops off his sleeve, and added:
+
+"It was but a scratch. My weary look comes from a long and hard flight
+and not from the mysterious bullet. I'm to rest here an hour, which will
+be sufficient to restore me, and then I'm off again."
+
+"Is there any rule against your telling me what you've seen, Philip?"
+
+De Rougemont and several other officers had approached, drawn by their
+curiosity, and interest in Lannes.
+
+"None at all," he replied in a tone all could hear, "but I'm able to
+speak in general terms only. I can't give details, because I don't know
+'em. The Germans are not many miles ahead. They're in hundreds of
+thousands, and I hear that this is only one of a half-dozen armies."
+
+"And our own force?" said de Rougemont eagerly.
+
+Lannes' chest expanded. The dramatic impulse was strong upon him again.
+
+"There is another army on our right, and another on our left," he
+replied, "and although I don't know surely, I think there are others
+still further on the line. The English are somewhere with us, too."
+
+John felt his face tingle as the blood rose in it. He had left a Paris
+apparently lost. Within a day almost a tremendous transformation had
+occurred. A mighty but invisible intellect, to which he was yet scarcely
+able to attach a name, had been at work. The French armies, the beaten
+and the unbeaten, had become bound together like huge links in a chain,
+and the same invisible and all but nameless mind was drawing the chain
+forward with gigantic force.
+
+"A million Frenchmen must be advancing," he heard Lannes saying, and
+then he came out of his vision. General Vaugirard bustled up and gave
+orders to de Rougemont, who said presently to John:
+
+"Can you ride a motor cycle?"
+
+"I've had some experience, and I'm willing to make it more."
+
+"Good. In this army, staff officers will no longer have horses shot
+under them. We're to take orders on motor cycles. They've been sent
+ahead for us, and here's yours waiting for you."
+
+The cycles were leaning against trees, and the members of the staff took
+their places beside them. General Vaugirard walked a little distance up
+the road, climbed into an automobile and, standing up, looked a long
+time through his glasses. Lannes, who had been resting on the grass,
+approached the general and John saw him take a note from him. Then
+Lannes went away to the _Arrow_ and sailed off into the heavens. Many
+other planes were flying over the French army and far off in front John
+saw through his own glasses a fleet of them which he knew must be
+German.
+
+Then he heard a sound, faint but deep, which came rolling like an echo,
+and he recognized it as the distant note of a big gun. He quivered a
+little, as he leaned against his motor cycle, but quickly stiffened
+again to attention. The faint rolling sound came again from their right
+and then many times. John, using his glasses, saw nothing there, and the
+giant general, still standing up in the car and also using his glasses,
+saw nothing there either.
+
+Yet the same quiver that affected John had gone through this whole army
+of two hundred thousand men, one of the huge links in the French chain.
+There was none among them who did not know that the far note was the
+herald of battle, not a mere battle of armies, but of nations face to
+face.
+
+General Vaugirard did not show any excitement. He leaped lightly from
+the car, and then began to pace up and down slowly, as if he were
+awaiting orders. The men moved restlessly on the meadows, looking like a
+vast sea of varied colors, as the sun glimmered on the red and blue of
+their uniforms.
+
+But no order came for them to advance. John thought that perhaps they
+were saved to be driven as a wedge into the German center and whispered
+his belief to de Rougemont, who agreed with him.
+
+"They are opening on the left, too," said the Frenchman. "Can't you hear
+the growling of the guns there?"
+
+John listened and soon he separated the note from other sounds. Beyond a
+doubt the battle had now begun on both flanks, though at distant points.
+He wondered where the English force was, though he had an idea that it
+was on the left then. Yet he was already thoroughly at home with the
+staff of General Vaugirard.
+
+The growling on either side of them seemed soon to come a little closer,
+but John knew nevertheless that it was many miles away.
+
+"Not an enemy in sight, not even a trace of smoke," said de Rougemont to
+him. "We seem to be a great army here, merely resting in the fields, and
+yet we know that a huge battle is going on."
+
+"And that's about all we do know," said John. "What has impressed me in
+this war is the fact that high officers even know so little. When cannon
+throw shells ten or twelve miles, eyesight doesn't get much chance."
+
+A wait for a full half-hour followed, a period of intense anxiety for
+all in the group, and for the whole army too. John used his glasses
+freely, and often he saw the French soldiers moving about in a restless
+manner, until they were checked by their officers. But most of them were
+lying down, their blue coats and red trousers making a vast and vivid
+blur against the green of the grass.
+
+All the while the sound of the cannon grew, but, despite the power of
+his glasses, John could not see a sign of war. Only that roaring sound
+came to tell him that battle, vast, gigantic, on a scale the world had
+never seen before, was joined, and the volume of the cannon fire, beyond
+a doubt, was growing. It pulsed heavily, and either he or his fancy
+noticed a steady jarring motion. A faint acrid taint crept into the air
+and he felt it in his nose and throat. He coughed now and then, and he
+observed that men around him coughed also. But, on the whole, the army
+was singularly still, the soldiers straining eye or ear to see something
+or hear more of the titanic struggle that was raging on either side of
+them.
+
+John again searched the horizon eagerly with his glasses, but it showed
+only green hills and bits of wood, bare of human activity. The French
+aeroplanes still hovered, but not in front of General Vaugirard. They
+were off to right and left, where the wings of the nations had closed in
+combat. He was ceasing to think of the foes as armies, but as nations in
+battle line. Here stood not a French army, but France, and there stood
+not a German army, but Germany.
+
+As he looked toward the left he picked out a narrow road, running
+between hedges, and showing but a strip of white even through the
+glasses. He saw something coming along this road. It was far away when
+he first noticed it, but it was coming with great speed, and he was soon
+able to tell that it was a man on a motor cycle. His pulse leaped
+again. He felt instinctively that the rider was for them and that he
+bore something of great import. The figure, man and cycle, molded into
+one, sped along the narrow road which led to the base of the hill on
+which General Vaugirard and his staff stood.
+
+The huge general saw the approaching figure too, and he began to whistle
+melodiously like the note of a piccolo, with the vast thunder of the
+guns accompanying him as an orchestra. John knew that the cyclist was a
+messenger, and that he was eagerly expected. An order of some kind was
+at hand! All the members of the staff had the same conviction.
+
+The cyclist stopped at the bottom of the hill, leaped from the machine
+and ran to General Vaugirard, to whom he handed a note. The general read
+it, expelled his breath in a mighty gust, and turning to his staff,
+said:
+
+"My children, our time has come. The whole central army of which we are
+a part will advance. It will perhaps be known before night whether
+France is to remain a great nation or become the vassal of Germany. My
+children, if France ever had need for you to fight with all your hearts
+and souls, that need is here today."
+
+His manner was simple and majestic, and his words touched the mind and
+feeling of every one who heard them. John was moved as much as if he had
+been a Frenchman too. He felt a profound sympathy for this devoted
+France, which had suffered so much, to which his own country still owed
+that great debt, and which had a right to her own soil, fertilized with
+so many centuries of labor.
+
+General Vaugirard, resting a pad on his knee, wrote rapid notes which he
+gave to the members of his staff in turn to be delivered. John's was to
+a Parisian regiment lying in a field, and expanding body and mind into
+instant action, he leaped upon the cycle and sped away. It was often
+hard for him now to separate fact from fancy. His imagination, vivid at
+all times, painted new pictures while such a tremendous drama passed
+before him.
+
+Yet he knew afterward that the sound of the battle did increase in
+volume as he flew over the short distance to the regiment. Both east and
+west were shaking with the tremendous concussion. One crash he heard
+distinctly above the others and he believed it was that of a forty-two
+centimeter.
+
+He reached the field, his cycle spun between the eager soldiers, and as
+he leaped off in the presence of the colonel he fairly thrust the note
+into his hand, exclaiming at the same time in his zeal, "It's an order
+to advance! The whole Army of the Center is about to attack."
+
+He called it the Army of the Center at a guess, but names did not matter
+now. The colonel glanced at the note, waved his sword above his head and
+cried in a loud voice:
+
+"My lads, up and forward!"
+
+The regiment arose with a roar of cheering and began to advance across
+the fields. John caught a glimpse of a petty officer, short and small,
+but as compact and fierce as a panther, driving on men who needed no
+driving. "Geronimo is going to make good," he said to himself. "He'll do
+or die today."
+
+As he raced back for new orders, if need be, he knew now that fact not
+fancy told him the battle was growing. The earth shook not only on right
+and left but in front also. A hasty look through the glasses showed
+little tongues of fire licking up on the horizon before them and he knew
+that they came from the monster cannon of the Germans who were surely
+advancing, while the French were advancing also to meet them.
+
+General Vaugirard sprang into his automobile, taking only two of his
+senior officers with him, while the rest followed on their motor cycles.
+As far as John could see on either side the vast rows of French swept
+across hills and fields. There was little shouting now and no sound of
+bands, but presently a shout arose behind them: "Way for the artillery!"
+
+Then he heard cries, the rumble of wheels and the rapid beat of hoofs.
+With an instinctive shudder, lest he be ground to pieces, he pulled from
+the road, and saw the motor of General Vaugirard turn out also. Then the
+great French batteries thundered past to seek positions soon in the
+fields behind low hills. He saw them a little later unlimbering and
+making ready.
+
+The French advance changed from a walk to a trot. John saw the Parisian
+regiment, not far away, but at the very front and he knew that among all
+those ardent souls there was none more ardent than that of the little
+Apache, Bougainville. Meanwhile, Vaugirard in his motor kept to the
+road and the staff on their motor cycles followed closely.
+
+On both flanks the thunder of massed cannon was deepening, and now John,
+who used his glasses occasionally, was able to see wisps and tendrils of
+smoke on the eastern and northern horizons. The tremor in the air was
+strong and continuous. It played incessantly upon the drums of his ears,
+and he found that he could not hear the words of the other aides so well
+as before. But there was no succession of crashes. The sound was more
+like the roaring of a distant storm.
+
+They advanced another mile, two hundred thousand men, afire with zeal, a
+whole vast army moved forward as the other French armies were by the
+hidden hand which they could not see, of which they knew nothing, but
+the touch of which they could feel.
+
+John heard a whizzing sound, he caught a glimpse of a dark object,
+rushing forward at frightful velocity, and then he and his wheel reeled
+beneath the force of a tremendous explosion. The shell coming from an
+invisible point, miles away, had burst some distance on his right,
+scattering death and wounds over a wide radius. But Vaugirard's brigades
+did not stop for one instant. They cheered loudly, closed up the gap in
+their line, and went on steadily as before. Some one began to sing the
+Marseillaise, and in an instant the song, like fire in dry grass, spread
+along a vast front. John had often wished that he could have heard the
+armies of the French Revolution singing their tremendous battle hymn as
+they marched to victory, and now he heard it on a scale far more
+gigantic than in the days of the First French Republic.
+
+The vast chorus rolled for miles and for all he knew other armies, far
+to right and left, might be singing it, too. The immense volume of the
+song drowned out everything, even that tremor in the air, caused by the
+big guns. John's heart beat so hard that it caused actual physical pain
+in his side, and presently, although he was unconscious of it, he was
+thundering out the verses with the others.
+
+He was riding by the side of de Rougemont, and he stopped singing long
+enough to shout, at the top of his voice:
+
+"No enemy in sight yet?"
+
+"No," de Rougemont shouted back, "but he doesn't need to be. The German
+guns have our range."
+
+From a line on the distant horizon, from positions behind hills, the
+German shells were falling fast, cutting down men by hundreds, tearing
+great holes in the earth, and filling the air with an awful shrieking
+and hissing. It was all the more terrible because the deadly missiles
+seemed to come from nowhere. It was like a mortal hail rained out of
+heaven. John had not yet seen a German, nothing but those tongues of
+fire licking up on the horizon, and some little whitish clouds of smoke,
+lifting themselves slowly above the trees, yet the thunder was no longer
+a rumble. It had a deep and angry note, whose burden was death.
+
+They must maintain their steady march directly toward the mouths of
+those guns. John comprehended in those awful moments that the task of
+the French was terrible, almost superhuman. If their nation was to live
+they must hurl back a victorious foe, practically numberless, armed and
+equipped with everything that a great race in a half-century of supreme
+thought and effort could prepare for war. It was spirit and patriotism
+against the monstrous machine of fire and steel, and he trembled lest
+the machine could overcome anything in the world.
+
+He was about to shout again to de Rougemont, but his words were lost in
+the rending crash of the French artillery. Their batteries were posted
+on both sides of him, and they, too, had found the range. All along the
+front hundreds of guns were opening and John hastily thrust portions
+that he tore from his handkerchief into his ear, lest he be deafened
+forever.
+
+The sight, at first magnificent, now became appalling. The shells came
+in showers and the French ranks were torn and mangled. Companies existed
+and then they were not. The explosions were like the crash of
+thunderbolts, but through it all the French continued to advance. Those
+whose knees grew weak beneath them were upborne and carried forward by
+the press of their comrades. The French gunners, too, were making
+prodigious efforts but with cannon of such long range neither side could
+see what its batteries were accomplishing. John was sure, though, that
+the great French artillery must be giving as good as it received.
+
+He was conscious that General Vaugirard was still going forward along
+the long white road, sweeping his glasses from left to right and from
+right to left in a continuous semi-circle, apparently undisturbed,
+apparently now without human emotion. He was no figure of romance, but
+he was a man, cool and powerful, ready to die with all his men, if death
+for them was needed.
+
+Still the invisible hand swept them on, the hand that a million men in
+action could not see, but which every one of the million, in his own
+way, felt. The crash of the guns on both sides had become fused together
+into one roar, so steady and continued so long that the sound seemed
+almost normal. Voices could now be heard under it and John spoke to de
+Rougemont.
+
+"Can you make anything of it?" he asked. "Do we win or do we lose?"
+
+"It's too early yet to tell anything. The cannon only are speaking, but
+you'll note that our army is advancing."
+
+"Yes, I see it. Before I've only beheld it in retreat before
+overwhelming numbers. This is different."
+
+General Vaugirard beckoned to his aides, and again sent them out with
+messages. John's note was to the commander of a battery of field guns
+telling him to move further forward. He started at once through the
+fields on his motor cycle, but he could not go fast now. The ground had
+been cut deep by artillery and cavalry and torn by shells and he had to
+pick his way, while the shower of steel, sent by men who were firing by
+mathematics, swept over and about him.
+
+Shivers seized him more than once, as shrapnel and pieces of shell flew
+by. Now and then he covered his eyes with one hand to shut out the
+horror of dead and torn men lying on either side of his path, but in
+spite of the shells, in spite of the deadly nausea that assailed him at
+times, he went on. The rush of air from a shell threw him once from his
+motor cycle, but as he fell on soft clodded earth he was not hurt, and,
+springing quickly back on his wheel, he reached the battery.
+
+The order was welcome to the commander of the guns, who was anxious to
+go closer, and, limbering up, he advanced as rapidly as weapons of such
+great weight could be dragged across the fields. John followed, that he
+might report the result. They were now facing toward the east and the
+whole horizon there was a blaze of fire. The shells were coming thicker
+and thicker, and the air was filled with the screaming of the shrapnel.
+
+The commander of the battery, a short, powerful Frenchman, was as cool
+as ice, and John drew coolness from him. One can get used to almost
+anything, and his nervous tremors were passing. Despite the terrible
+fire of the German artillery the French army was still advancing. Many
+thousands had fallen already before the shells and shrapnel of the
+invisible foe, but there had been no check.
+
+The cannon crossed a brook, and, unlimbering, again opened a tremendous
+fire. To one side and on a hill here, a man whom the commander watched
+closely was signaling. John knew that he was directing the aim of the
+battery and the French, like the Germans, were killing by mathematics.
+
+He rode his cycle to the crest of a little elevation behind the battery
+and with his newfound coolness began to use his glasses again. Despite
+the thin, whitish smoke, he saw men on the horizon, mere manikins moving
+back and forth, apparently without meaning, but men nevertheless. He
+caught, too, the outline of giant tubes, the huge guns that were sending
+the ceaseless rain of death upon the French.
+
+He also saw signs of hurry and confusion among those manikins, and he
+knew that the French shells were striking them. He rode down to the
+commander and told him. The swart Frenchman grinned.
+
+"My children are biting," he said, glancing affectionately at his guns.
+"They're brave lads, and their teeth are long and sharp."
+
+He looked at his signal man, and the guns let loose again with a force
+that sent the air rushing away in violent waves. Batteries farther on
+were firing also with great rapidity. In most of these the gunners were
+directed by field telephones strung hastily, but the one near John still
+depended upon signal men. It was composed of eight five-inch guns, and
+John believed that its fire was most accurate and deadly.
+
+Using his glasses again, he saw that the disturbance among those
+manikins was increasing. They were running here and there, and many
+seemed to vanish suddenly--he knew that they were blown away by the
+shells. To the right of the great French battery some lighter field guns
+were advancing. One drawn by eight horses had not yet unlimbered, and he
+saw a shell strike squarely upon it. In the following explosion pieces
+of steel whizzed by him and when the smoke cleared away the gun, the
+gunners and the horses were all gone. The monster shell had blown
+everything to pieces. The other guns hurried on, took up their positions
+and began to fire. John shuddered violently, but in a moment or two, he,
+too, forgot the little tragedy in the far more gigantic one that was
+being played before him.
+
+He rode back to General Vaugirard and told him that his order had been
+obeyed. The general nodded, but did not take his glasses from the
+horizon, where a long gray line was beginning to appear against the
+green of the earth. "It goes well so far," John heard him say in the
+under note which was audible beneath the thunder of the battle.
+
+In a quarter of an hour the great batteries limbered up again, and once
+more the French army went forward, the troops to lie down and wait
+again, while the artillery worked with ferocious energy. It was yet a
+battle of big guns, at least in the center. The armies were not near
+enough to each other for rifles; in truth not near enough yet to be
+seen. John, even with his glasses, could only discern the gray line
+advancing, he could make little of its form or order or of what it was
+trying to do.
+
+But a light wind was now bringing smoke from one flank where the battle
+was far heavier than in the center, and the concussion of the artillery
+at that point became so frightful that the air seemed to come in waves
+of the utmost violence and to beat upon the drum of the ear with the
+force of a hammer. Owing to the wind John could not hear the battle on
+the other flank so well, but he believed that it was being fought there
+with equal fury and determination.
+
+He was watching with such intentness that he did not hear the sweep of
+an aeroplane behind him, but he did see Lannes run to General
+Vaugirard's car and give him a note.
+
+While the general read and pondered, Lannes turned toward the wheel on
+which John sat. Although he tried to preserve calm, John knew that he
+was tremendously excited. He had taken off his heavy glasses and his
+wonderful gray eyes were flashing. It was obvious to his friend, who now
+knew him so well, that he was moved by some tremendous emotion.
+
+John rode up by the side of Lannes and said:
+
+"What have you seen, Philip? You can tell a little at least, can't you?"
+
+"More than a little! A lot! The _Arrow_ and I have looked over a great
+area, John! Miles and miles and yet more miles! and wherever we went we
+gazed down upon armies locked in battle, and beyond that were other
+armies locked in battle, too! The nations meet in wrath! You can't see
+it here, nor from anywhere on the earth! It's only in the air high
+overhead that one can get even a partial view of its immensity! The
+English army is off there on the flank, a full thirty miles away, and
+you're not likely to see it today!"
+
+He would have said more, but General Vaugirard beckoned to him, gave him
+a note which he had written hastily, and in a few more minutes Lannes
+was flitting like a swallow through the heavens. Then General
+Vaugirard's car moved forward and brigade after brigade of the French
+army resumed its advance also.
+
+John felt that the great German machine had been met by a French machine
+as great. Perhaps the master mind that thrills through an organism of
+steel no less than one of human flesh was on the French side. He did not
+know. The invisible hand thrusting forward the French armies was still
+invisible to him. Yet he felt with the certainty of conviction that the
+eye and the brain of one man were achieving a marvel. In some mysterious
+manner the French defense had become an offense. The Republican troops
+were now attacking and the Imperial troops were seeking to hold fast.
+
+He seemed to comprehend it all in an instant, and a mighty joy surged
+over him. De Rougemont saw his glistening eye and he asked curiously:
+
+"What is it that you are feeling so strongly, Mr. Scott?"
+
+"The thrill of the advance! The unknown plan, whatever it is, is
+working! Your nation is about to be saved! I feel it! I know it!"
+
+De Rougemont gazed at him, and then the light leaped into his own eyes.
+
+"A prophet! A prophet!" he cried. "Inspired youth speaks!"
+
+A great crisis may call into being a great impulse, and de Rougemont's
+words were at once accepted as truth by all the young aides. Words of
+fire, words vital with life had gone forth, predicting their triumph,
+and as they rode among the troops carrying orders they communicated
+their burning zeal to the men who were already eager for closer battle.
+
+The storm of missiles from the cannon was increasing rapidly. John now
+distinctly saw the huge German masses, not advancing but standing firm
+to receive the French attack, their front a vast line of belching guns.
+He knew that they would soon be within the area of rifle fire and he
+knew with equal truth that it would take the valor of immense numbers,
+wielded by the supreme skill of leaders to drive back the Germans.
+
+The guns, some drawn by horses and others by motors, were moving forward
+with them. When the horses were swept away by a shell, men seized the
+guns and dragged them. Then they stopped again, took new positions and
+renewed the rain of death on the German army.
+
+They began to hear a whistle and hiss that they knew. It was that of the
+bullets, and along the vast front they were coming in millions. But the
+French were using their rifles, too, and at intervals the deep
+thundering chant of the Marseillaise swept through their ranks. In spite
+of shell, shrapnel and bullets, in spite of everything, the French army
+in the center was advancing and John believed that the armies on the
+other parts of the line were advancing, too.
+
+The bullets struck around them, and then among them. One aide fell from
+his cycle, and lay dead in the road, two more were wounded, but two
+hundred thousand men, their artillery blazing death over their heads,
+went on straight at the mouths of a thousand cannon.
+
+Companies and regiments were swept away, but there was no check. Nor did
+the other French armies, the huge links in the chain, stop. A feeling of
+victory had swept along the whole gigantic battle front. They were
+fighting for Paris, for their country, for the soil which they tended,
+alive, and in which they slept, dead, and just at the moment when
+everything seemed to have been lost they were saving all. The heroic age
+of France had come again, and the Third Republic was justifying the
+First.
+
+The battle deepened and thickened to an extraordinary degree, as the
+space between the two fronts narrowed. John for the first time saw the
+German troops without the aid of glasses. They were mere outlines
+against a fiery horizon, reddened by the mouths of so many belching
+cannon, but they seemed to him to stand there like a wall.
+
+Another giant shell burst near them, and two more members of the staff
+fell from their cycles, dead before they touched the ground. That
+convulsive shudder seized John again, but the crash of tremendous events
+was so rapid that fear and horror alike passed in an instant. A piece of
+the same shell struck General Vaugirard's car and put it out of action
+at once. But the general leaped lightly to the ground, then swung his
+immense bulk across one of the riderless motor cycles and advanced with
+the surviving members of his staff. Imperturbable, he still swept the
+field with his glasses. Two aides were now sent to the right with
+messages, and a third, John himself, was despatched to the left on a
+similar errand.
+
+It was John's duty to tell a regiment to bear in further to the left and
+close up a vacant spot in the line. He wheeled his cycle into a field,
+and then passed between rows of grapevines. The regiment, its ranks much
+thinned, was now about a hundred yards away, but shell and bullets alike
+were sweeping the distance between.
+
+Nevertheless, he rode on, his wheel bumping over the rough ground, until
+he heard a rushing sound, and then blank darkness enveloped him. He fell
+one way, and the motor cycle fell another.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SEEN FROM ABOVE
+
+
+John's period of unconsciousness was brief. The sweep of air from a
+gigantic shell, passing close, had taken his senses for a minute or two,
+but he leaped to his feet to find his motor cycle broken and puffing out
+its last breath, and himself among the dead and wounded in the wake of
+the army which was advancing rapidly. The turmoil was so vast, and so
+much dust and burned gunpowder was floating about that he was not able
+to tell where the valiant Vaugirard with the remainder of his staff
+marched. In front of him a regiment, cut up terribly, was advancing at a
+swift pace, and acting under the impulse of the moment he ran forward to
+join them.
+
+When he overtook the regiment he saw that it had neither colonel, nor
+captains nor any other officers of high degree. A little man, scarcely
+more than a youth, his head bare, his eyes snapping fire, one hand
+holding aloft a red cap on the point of a sword, had taken command and
+was urging the soldiers on with every fierce shout that he knew. The
+men were responding. Command seemed natural to him. Here was a born
+leader in battle. John knew him, and he knew that his own prophecy had
+been fulfilled.
+
+"Geronimo!" he gasped.
+
+But young Bougainville did not see him. He was still shouting to the men
+whom he now led so well. The point of the sword, doubtless taken from
+the hand of some fallen officer, had pierced the red cap which was
+slowly sinking down the blade, but he did not notice it.
+
+John looked again for his commander, but not seeing him, and knowing how
+futile it was now to seek him in all the fiery crush, he resolved to
+stay with the young Apache.
+
+"Geronimo," he cried, and it was the last time he called him by that
+name, "I go with you!"
+
+In all the excitement of the moment young Bougainville recognized him
+and something droll flashed in his eyes.
+
+"Did I boast too much?" he shouted.
+
+"You didn't!" John shouted back.
+
+"Come on then! A big crowd of Germans is just over this hill, and we
+must smash 'em!"
+
+John kept by his side, but Bougainville, still waving his sword, while
+the red cap sank lower and lower on the blade, addressed his men in
+terms of encouragement and affection.
+
+"Forward, my children!" he shouted. "Men, without fear, let us be the
+first to make the enemy feel our bayonets! Look, a regiment on the right
+is ahead of you, and another also on the left leads you! Faster!
+Faster, my children!"
+
+An angle of the German line was thrust forward at this point where a
+hill afforded a strong position. Bullets were coming from it in showers,
+but the Bougainville regiment broke into a run, passed ahead of the
+others and rushed straight at the hill.
+
+It was the first time that men had come face to face in the battle and
+now John saw the French fury, the enthusiasm and fire that Napoleon had
+capitalized and cultivated so sedulously. Shouting fiercely, they flung
+themselves upon the Germans and by sheer impact drove them back. They
+cleared the hill in a few moments, triumphantly seized four cannon and
+then, still shouting, swept on.
+
+John found himself shouting with the others. This was victory, the first
+real taste of it, and it was sweet to the lips. But the regiment was
+halted presently, lest it get too far forward and be cut off, and a
+general striding over to Bougainville uttered words of approval that
+John could not hear amid the terrific din of so many men in battle--a
+million, a million and a half or more, he never knew.
+
+They stood there panting, while the French line along a front of maybe
+fifty miles crept on and on. The French machine with the British wheels
+and springs coöperating, was working beautifully now. It was a match and
+more for their enemy. The Germans, witnessing the fire and dash of the
+French and feeling their tremendous impact, began to take alarm. It had
+not seemed possible to them in those last triumphant days that they
+could fail, but now Paris was receding farther and farther from their
+grasp.
+
+John recovered a certain degree of coolness. The fire of the foe was
+turned away from them for the present, and, finding that the glasses
+thrown over his shoulder, had not been injured by his fall, he examined
+the battle front as he stood by the side of Bougainville. The country
+was fairly open here and along a range of miles the cannon in hundreds
+and hundreds were pouring forth destruction. Yet the line, save where
+the angle had been crushed by the rush of Bougainville's regiment, stood
+fast, and John shuddered at thought of the frightful slaughter, needed
+to drive it back, if it could be driven back at all.
+
+Then he glanced at the fields across which they had come. For two or
+three miles they were sprinkled with the fallen, the red and blue of the
+French uniform showing vividly against the green grass. But there was
+little time for looking that way and again he turned his glasses in
+front. The regiment had taken cover behind a low ridge, and six rapid
+firers were sending a fierce hail on the German lines. But the men under
+orders from Bougainville, withheld the fire of their rifles for the
+present.
+
+Bougainville himself stood up as became a leader of men, and lowered his
+sword for the first time. The cap had sunk all the way down the blade
+and picking it off he put it back on his head. He had obtained glasses
+also, probably from some fallen officer, and he walked back and forth
+seeking a weak spot in the enemy's line, into which he could charge with
+his men.
+
+John admired him. His was no frenzied rage, but a courage, measured and
+stern. The springs of power hidden in him had been touched and he stood
+forth, a born leader.
+
+"How does it happen," said John, "that you're in command?"
+
+"Our officers were all in front," replied Bougainville, "when our
+regiment was swept by many shells. When they ceased bursting upon us and
+among us the officers were no longer there. The regiment was about to
+break. I could not bear to see that, and seizing the sword, I hoisted my
+cap upon it. The rest, perhaps, you saw. The men seem to trust me."
+
+"They do," said John, with emphasis.
+
+Bougainville, for the time at least, was certainly the leader of the
+regiment. It was an incident that John believed possible only in his own
+country, or France, and he remembered once more the famous old saying of
+Napoleon that every French peasant carried a marshal's baton in his
+knapsack.
+
+Now he recalled, too, that Napoleon had fought some of his greatest
+defensive battles in the region they faced. Doubtless the mighty emperor
+and his marshals had trod the very soil on which Bougainville and he now
+stood. Surely the French must know it, and surely it would give them
+superhuman courage for battle.
+
+"I belong to the command of General Vaugirard," he said to Bougainville.
+"I'm serving on his staff, but I was knocked off my motor cycle by the
+rush of air from a shell. The cycle was ruined and I was unconscious
+for a moment or two. When I revived, my general and his command were
+gone."
+
+"You'd better stay with me a while," said Bougainville. "We're going to
+advance again soon. When night comes, if you're still alive, then you
+can look for General Vaugirard. The fire of the artillery is increasing.
+How the earth shakes!"
+
+"So it does. I wish I knew what was happening."
+
+"There comes one of those men in the air. He is going to drop down by
+us. Maybe you can learn something from him."
+
+John felt a sudden wild hope that it was Lannes, but his luck did not
+hold good enough for it. The plane was of another shape than the
+_Arrow_, and, when it descended to the ground, a man older than Lannes
+stepped out upon the grass. He glanced around as if he were looking for
+some general of division for whom he had an order, and John, unable to
+restrain himself, rushed to him and exclaimed:
+
+"News! News! For Heaven's sake, give us news! Surely you've seen from
+above!"
+
+The man smiled and John knew that a bearer of bad news would not smile.
+
+"I'm the friend and comrade of Philip Lannes," continued John, feeling
+that all the flying men of France knew the name of Lannes, and that it
+would be a password to this man's good graces.
+
+"I know him well," said the air scout. "Who of our craft does not? My
+own name is Caumartin, and I have flown with Lannes more than once in
+the great meets at Rheims. In answer to your question I'm able to tell
+you that on the wings the soldiers of France are advancing. A wedge has
+been thrust between the German armies and the one nearest Paris is
+retreating, lest it be cut off."
+
+Bougainville heard the words, and he ran among the men, telling them. A
+fierce shout arose and John himself quivered with feeling. It was
+better, far better than he had hoped. He realized now that his courage
+before had been the courage of despair. Lannes and he, as a last resort,
+had put faith in signs and omens, because there was nothing else to bear
+them up.
+
+"Is it true? Is it true beyond doubt! You've really seen it with your
+own eyes?" he exclaimed.
+
+Caumartin smiled again. His were deep eyes, and the smile that came from
+them was reassuring.
+
+"I saw it myself," he replied. "At the point nearest Paris the gray
+masses are withdrawing. I looked directly down upon them. And now, can
+you tell me where I can find General Vaugirard?"
+
+"I wish I could. I'm on his staff, but I've lost him. He's somewhere to
+the northward."
+
+"Then I'll find him."
+
+Caumartin resumed his place in his machine. John looked longingly at the
+aeroplane. He would gladly have gone with Caumartin, but feeling that he
+would be only a burden at such a time, he would not suggest it.
+Nevertheless he called to the aviator:
+
+"If you see Philip Lannes in the heavens tell him that his friend John
+Scott is here behind a low ridge crested with trees!"
+
+Caumartin nodded, and as some of the soldiers gave his plane a push he
+soared swiftly away in search of General Vaugirard. John watched him a
+moment or two and then turned his attention back to the German army in
+front of them.
+
+The thudding of the heavy guns to their left had become so violent that
+it affected his nerves. The waves of air beat upon his ears like
+storm-driven rollers, and he was glad when Bougainville's regiment moved
+forward again. The Germans seemed to have withdrawn some of their force
+in the center, and, for a little while, the regiment with which John now
+marched was not under fire.
+
+They heard reserves now coming up behind them, more trains of motor
+cars, bearing fresh troops, and batteries of field guns advancing as
+fast as they could. Men were busy also stringing telephone wires, and,
+presently, they passed a battery of guns of the largest caliber, the
+fire of which was directed entirely by telephone. Some distance beyond
+it the regiment stopped again. The huge shells were passing over their
+heads toward the German lines, and John believed that he could hear and
+count every one of them.
+
+The remains of the regiment now lay down in a dip, as they did not know
+anything to do, except to wait for the remainder of the French line to
+advance.
+
+Something struck near them presently and exploded with a crash. Steel
+splinters flew, but as they were prone only one man was injured.
+
+"They're reaching us again with their shell fire," said John.
+
+"Not at all," said Bougainville. "Look up."
+
+John saw high in the heavens several black specks, which he knew at
+once were aeroplanes. Since the bomb had been dropped from one of them
+it was obvious that they were German flyers, and missiles of a like
+nature might be expected from the same source. Involuntarily he crouched
+close to the ground, and tried to press himself into it. He knew that
+such an effort would afford him no protection, but the body sought it
+nevertheless. All around him the young French soldiers too were clinging
+to Mother Earth. Only Bougainville stood erect.
+
+John had felt less apprehension under the artillery fire and in the
+charge than he did now. He was helpless here when death fell like hail
+from the skies, and he quivered in every muscle as he waited. A crash
+came again, but the bomb had struck farther away, then a third, and a
+fourth, each farther and farther in its turn, and Bougainville suddenly
+uttered a shout that was full of vengeance and exultation.
+
+John looked up. The group of black specks was still in the sky, but
+another group was hovering near, and clapping his glasses to his eyes he
+saw flashes of light passing between them.
+
+"You're right, Bougainville! you're right!" he cried, although
+Bougainville had not said a word. "The French flyers have come and
+there's a fight in the air!"
+
+He forgot all about the battle on earth, while he watched the combat in
+the heavens. Yet it was an affair of only a few moments. The Germans
+evidently feeling that they were too far away from their base, soon
+retreated. One of their machines turned over on its side and fell like a
+shot through space.
+
+John shuddered, took the glasses down, and, by impulse, closed his eyes.
+He heard a shock near him, and, opening his eyes again, saw a huddled
+mass of wreckage, from which a foot encased in a broad German shoe
+protruded. The ribs of the plane were driven deep into the earth and he
+looked away. But a hum and swish suddenly came once more, and a sleek
+and graceful aeroplane, which he knew to be the _Arrow_, sank to the
+earth close to him. Lannes, smiling and triumphant, stepped forth and
+John hailed him eagerly.
+
+"I met Caumartin in an aerial road," said Lannes, in his best dramatic
+manner, "and he described this place, at which you were waiting. As it
+was directly on my way I concluded to come by for you. I was delayed by
+a skirmish overhead which you may have seen."
+
+"Yes, I saw it, or at least part of it."
+
+"I came in at the end only. The Taubes were too presuming. They came
+over into our air, but we repelled the attack, and one, as I can see
+here, will never come again. I found General Vaugirard, although he is
+now two or three miles to your right, and when I deliver a message that
+he has given me I return. But I take you with me now."
+
+John was overjoyed, but he would part from Bougainville with regret.
+
+"Philip," he said, "here is Pierre Louis Bougainville, whom I met that
+day on Montmartre. All the officers of this regiment have been killed
+and by grace of courage and intuition he now leads it better than it was
+ever led before."
+
+Lannes extended his hand. Bougainville's met it, and the two closed in
+the clasp of those who knew, each, that the other was a man. Then a drum
+began to beat, and Bougainville, waving his sword aloft, led his
+regiment forward again with a rush. But the _Arrow_, with a hard push
+from the last of the soldiers, was already rising, Lannes at the
+steering rudder and John in his old place.
+
+"You can find your cap and coat in the locker," said Lannes without
+looking back, and John put them on quickly. His joy and eagerness were
+not due to flight from the field of battle, because the heavens
+themselves were not safe, but because he could look down upon this field
+on which the nations struggled and, to some extent, behold and measure
+it with his own eyes.
+
+The _Arrow_ rose slowly, and John leaned back luxuriously in his seat.
+He had a singular feeling that he had come back home again. The sharp,
+acrid odor that assailed eye and nostril departed and the atmosphere
+grew rapidly purer. The rolling waves of air from the concussion of the
+guns became much less violent, and soon ceased entirely. All the smoke
+floated below him, while above the heavens were a shining blue,
+unsullied by the dust and flame of the conflict.
+
+"Do you go far, Philip?" John asked.
+
+"Forty miles. I could cover the distance quickly in the _Arrow_, but on
+such a day as this I can't be sure of finding at once the man for whom
+I'm looking. Besides, we may meet German planes. You've your automatic
+with you?"
+
+"I'm never without it. I'm ready to help if they come at us. I've been
+through so much today that I've become blunted to fear."
+
+"I don't think we'll meet an enemy, but we must be armed and watchful."
+
+John had not yet looked down, but he knew that the _Arrow_ was rising
+high. The thunder of the battle died so fast that it became a mere
+murmur, and the air was thin, pure and cold. When he felt that the
+_Arrow_ had reached its zenith he put the glasses to his eyes and looked
+over.
+
+He saw a world spouting fire. Along a tremendous line curved and broken,
+thousands of cannon great and small were flashing, and for miles and
+miles a continuous coil of whitish smoke marked where the riflemen were
+at work. Near the center of the line he saw a vast mass of men advancing
+and he spoke of it to Lannes.
+
+"I've seen it already," said the Frenchman. "That's where a great force
+of ours is cutting in between the German armies. It's the movement that
+has saved France, and the mind that planned it was worth a million men
+to us today."
+
+"I can well believe it. Now I see running between the hills a shining
+ribbon which I take to be a river."
+
+"That's the Marne. If we can, we'll drive the Germans back across it.
+Search the skies that way and see if you can find any of the Taubes."
+
+"I see some black specks which I take to be the German planes, but they
+don't grow."
+
+"Which indicates that they're not coming any nearer. They've had enough
+of us for the present and it's to their interest too to keep over their
+own army now. What do you see beneath us?"
+
+"A great multitude of troops, French, as I can discern the uniform, and
+by Jove, Lannes, I can trace far beyond the towers and spires of Paris!"
+
+"I knew you could. It marks how near the Germans have come to the
+capital, but they'll come no nearer. The great days of the French have
+returned, and we'll surely drive them upon the Marne."
+
+"Suppose we fly a little lower, Lannes. Then we can get a better view of
+the field as we go along."
+
+"I'll do as you say, John. I rose so high, because I thought attack here
+was less possible, but as no enemy is in sight we'll drop down."
+
+The _Arrow_ sank gradually, and now both could get a splendid view of a
+spectacle, such as no man had ever beheld until that day. The sounds of
+battle were still unheard, but they clearly saw the fire of the cannon,
+the rapid-firers, and the rifles. It was like a red streak running in
+curves and zigzags across fifty or maybe a hundred miles of country.
+
+"We continue to cut in," said Lannes. "You can see how our armies off
+there are marching into that great open space between the Germans.
+Unless the extreme German army hastens it will be separated entirely
+from the rest. Oh, what a day! What a glorious, magnificent day! A day
+unlike any other in the world's story! Our heads in the dust in the
+morning and high in the air by night!"
+
+"But we haven't won yet?"
+
+"No, but we are winning enough to know that we will win."
+
+"How many men do you think are engaged in that battle below?"
+
+"Along all its windings two millions, maybe, or at least a million and a
+half anyhow. Perhaps nobody will ever know."
+
+Then they relapsed into silence for a little while. The _Arrow_ flew
+fast and the motor drummed steadily in their ears. Lannes let the
+aeroplane sink a little lower, and John became conscious of a new sound,
+akin nevertheless to the throb of the motor. It was the concussion of
+the battle. The topmost and weakest waves of air hurled off in circles
+by countless cannon and rifles were reaching them. But they had been
+softened so much by distance that the sound was not unpleasant, and the
+_Arrow_ rocked gently as if touched by a light wind.
+
+John never ceased to watch with his glasses, and in a few minutes he
+announced that men in gray were below.
+
+"I expected that," said Lannes. "This battle line, as you know, is far
+from straight, and, in order to reach our destination in the quickest
+time possible, we must pass over a portion of the German army, an
+extended corner or angle as it were. What are they doing there, John?"
+
+"Firing about fifty cannon as fast as they can. Back of the cannon is a
+great huddle of motors and of large automobile trucks, loaded, I should
+say, with ammunition."
+
+"You're quite sure of what you say?" asked Lannes, after a silence of a
+moment or two.
+
+"Absolutely sure. I fancy that it's an ammunition depot."
+
+"Then, John, you and I must take a risk. We are to deliver a message,
+but we can't let go an opportunity like this. You recall how you threw
+the bombs on the forty-two centimeter. I have more bombs here in the
+_Arrow_--I never fly now without 'em--little fellows, but tremendously
+powerful. I shall dip and when we're directly over the ammunition depot
+drop the bombs squarely into the middle of it."
+
+"I'm ready," said John, feeling alternate thrills of eagerness and
+horror, "but Philip, don't you go so near that if the depot blows up it
+will blow us up too."
+
+"Never fear," said Lannes, laughing, not with amusement but with
+excitement, "I've no more wish to be scattered through the firmament
+than you have. Besides, we've that message to deliver. Do you think the
+Germans have noticed us?"
+
+"No, a lot of smoke from their cannon fire has gathered above them and
+perhaps it veils us. Besides, their whole attention must be absorbed by
+the French army, and I don't think it likely that they're looking up."
+
+"But they're bound to see us soon. We have one great advantage, however.
+The target is much larger than the forty-two centimeter was, and there
+are no Taubes or dirigibles here to drive us off. Ready now, John, and
+when I touch the bottom of my loop you throw the bombs. Here they are!"
+
+Four bombs were pushed to John's side and they lay ready to his grasp.
+Then as the _Arrow_ began its downward curve, he laid his glasses aside
+and watched. The most advanced German batteries were placed in a pit,
+into which a telephone wire ran. Evidently these guns, like the French,
+were fired by order from some distant point. John longed to hurl a bomb
+at the pit, but the chances were ten to one that he would miss it, and
+he held to the ammunition depot, spread over a full acre, as his target.
+
+Now the Germans saw them. He knew it, as many of them looked up, and
+some began to fire at the _Arrow_, but the aeroplane was too high and
+swift for their bullets.
+
+"Now!" said Lannes in sudden, sharp tones.
+
+The aeroplane dipped with sickening velocity, but John steadied himself,
+and watching his chance he threw four bombs so fast that the fourth had
+left his hands before the first touched the ground. An awful, rending
+explosion followed, and for a minute the _Arrow_ rocked violently, as if
+in a hurricane. Then, as the waves of air decreased in violence, it
+darted upward on an even keel.
+
+John saw far below a vast scene of wreckage, amid which lay many dead or
+wounded men. Motors were blown to pieces and cannon dismounted.
+
+"Score heavily for us," said Lannes. "I scarcely hoped for such a goodly
+blow as this while we were on our way!"
+
+John would not look down again. Despite the value of the deed, he
+shuddered and he was glad when the _Arrow_ in its swift flight had left
+the area of devastation far behind.
+
+"We're flying over the French now," he said. "So I expected," said
+Lannes. "Can you see a hill crested with a low farm house?"
+
+"Yes," replied John, after looking a little while. "It's straight ahead.
+The house is partly hidden by trees."
+
+"Then that's the place. You wouldn't think we'd come nearly fifty miles,
+would you, John?"
+
+"Fifty miles! It feels more like a thousand!"
+
+Lannes laughed, this time with satisfaction, not excitement.
+
+"You'll find there the general to whom we reported first," he said, "and
+he'll be glad to see us! I can't tell you how glad he will be. His joy
+will be far beyond our personal deserts. It will have little to do with
+the fact that you, John Scott, and I, Philip Lannes, have come back to
+him."
+
+The circling _Arrow_ came down in a meadow just behind the house, and
+officers rushed forward to meet it. Lannes and John, stepping out, left
+it in charge of two of the younger men. Then, proudly waving the others
+aside, they walked to the low stone farmhouse, in front of which the
+elderly, spectacled general was standing. He looked at Lannes
+inquiringly, but the young Frenchman, without a word, handed him a note.
+
+John watched the general read, and he saw the transformation of the
+man's face. Doubting, anxious, worn, it was illumined suddenly. In a
+voice that trembled he said to the senior officers who clustered about
+him:
+
+"We're advancing in the center, and on the other flank. Already we've
+driven a huge wedge between the German armies, and Paris, nay, France
+herself, is saved!"
+
+The officers, mostly old men, did not cheer, but John had never before
+witnessed such relief expressed on human faces. It seemed to him that
+they had choked up, and could not speak. The commander held the note in
+a shaking hand and presently he turned to Lannes.
+
+"Your fortune has been great. It's not often that one has a chance to
+bear such a message as this."
+
+"My pride is so high I can't describe it," said Lannes in a dramatic but
+sincere tone.
+
+"Go in the house and an orderly will give food and wine to you and your
+comrade. In a half hour, perhaps, I may have another message for you."
+
+Both John and Lannes needed rest and food, and they obeyed gladly. The
+strain upon the two was far greater than they had realized at the time,
+and for a few moments they were threatened with collapse which very
+strong efforts of the will prevented. They were conscious, too, as they
+stood upon the ground, of a quivering, shaking motion. They were
+assailed once more by the violent waves of air coming from the
+concussion of cannon and rifles past counting. The thin, whitish film
+which was a compound of dust and burned gunpowder assailed them again
+and lay, bitter, in their mouths and nostrils.
+
+"The earth shakes too much," said Lannes in a droll tone. "I think we'd
+better go back into the unchanging ether, where a man can be sure of
+himself."
+
+"I'm seasick," said John; "who wouldn't be, with ten thousand cannon,
+more or less, and a million or two of rifles shaking the planet? I'm
+going into the house as fast as I can."
+
+It was a building, centuries old, of gray crumbling stone, with large,
+low rooms, and, to John's amazement, the peasant who inhabited it and
+his family were present. The farmer and his wife, both strong and dark,
+were about forty, and there were four children, the oldest a girl of
+about thirteen. What fear they may have felt in the morning was gone
+now, and, as they knew that the French army was advancing, a joy,
+reserved but none the less deep, had taken its place.
+
+John and Lannes sat down at a small table covered with a neat white
+cloth, and Madame, walking quickly and lightly, served them with bread,
+cold meat and light red wine. The smaller children hovered in the
+background and looked curiously at the young foreigner who wore the
+French uniform.
+
+"May I ask your name, Madame?" John asked politely.
+
+"Poiret," she said. "My man is Jules Poiret, and this farm has been in
+his family since the great revolution. You and your comrade came from
+the air, as I saw, and you can tell us, can you not, whether the Poiret
+farm is to become German or remain French? The enemy has been pushed
+back today, but will he come so near to Paris again? Tell me truly, on
+your soul, Monsieur!"
+
+"I don't believe the Germans will ever again be so near to Paris,"
+replied John with sincerity. "My friend, who is the great Philip Lannes,
+the flying man, and I, have looked down upon a battle line fifty, maybe
+a hundred miles long, and nearly everywhere the Germans are retreating."
+
+She bent her head a little as she poured the coffee for them, but not
+enough to hide the glitter in her eye. "Perhaps the good God intervened
+at the last moment, as Father Hansard promised he would," she said
+calmly. "At any rate, the Germans are gone. I gathered as much from
+chance words of the generals--never before have so many generals
+gathered under the Poiret roof, and it will never happen again--but I
+wished to hear it from one who had seen with his own eyes."
+
+"We saw them withdrawing, Madame, with these two pairs of eyes of ours,"
+said Lannes.
+
+"And then Poiret can go back to his work with the vines. Whether it is
+war or peace, men must eat and drink, Monsieur."
+
+"But certainly, Madame, and women too." "It is so. I trust that soon the
+Germans will be driven back much faster. The house quivers all the time.
+It is old and already several pieces of plaster have fallen."
+
+Her anxiety was obvious. With the Germans driven back she thought now of
+the Poiret homestead. John, in the new strength that had come to him
+from food and drink, had forgotten for the moment that ceaseless quiver
+of the earth. He held the little bottle aloft and poured a thin stream
+of wine into his glass. The red thread swayed gently from side to side.
+
+"You speak truly, Madame," he said. "The rocking goes on, but I'm sure
+that the concussion of the guns will be too far away tonight for you to
+feel it."
+
+They offered her gold for the food and wine, but after one longing
+glance she steadfastly refused it.
+
+"Since you have come across the sea to fight for us," she said to John,
+"how could I take your money?"
+
+Lannes and John returned to the bit of grass in front of the house,
+where the elderly general and other generals were still standing and
+using their glasses.
+
+"You are refreshed?" said the general to Lannes.
+
+"Refreshed and ready to take your orders wherever you wish them to go."
+
+John stepped aside, while the general talked briefly and in a low tone
+to his comrade. He looked upon himself merely as a passenger, or a sort
+of help to Lannes, and he would not pry into military secrets. But when
+the two rose again in the _Arrow_, the general and all his suite waved
+their caps to them. Beyond a doubt, Lannes had done magnificent work
+that day, and John was glad for his friend's sake.
+
+The _Arrow_ ascended at a sharp angle, and then hovered for a little
+while in curves and spirals. John saw the generals below, but they were
+no longer watching the aeroplane. Their glasses were turned once more to
+the battle front.
+
+"Ultimately we're to reach the commander of the central army, if we
+can," said Lannes, "but meanwhile we're to bend in toward the German
+lines, in search of your immediate chief, General Vaugirard, who is one
+of the staunchest and most daring fighters in the whole French Army. If
+we find him at all it's likely that we'll find him farther forward than
+any other general."
+
+"But not any farther than my friend of Montmartre, Bougainville. There's
+a remarkable fellow. I saw his military talent the first time I met him.
+Or I should better say I felt it rather than saw it. And he was making
+good in a wonderful manner today."
+
+"I believe with you, John, that he's a genius. But if we find General
+Vaugirard and then finish our errand we must hasten. It will be night in
+two hours."
+
+He increased the speed of the aeroplane and they flew eastward,
+searching all the hills and woods for the command of General Vaugirard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+IN HOSTILE HANDS
+
+
+The task that lay before the two young men was one of great difficulty.
+The battle line was shifting continually, although the Germans were
+being pressed steadily back toward the east and north, but among so many
+generals it would be hard to find the particular one to whom they were
+bearing orders. The commander of the central army was of high
+importance, but the fact did not bring him at once before the eye.
+
+They were to see General Vaugirard, too, but it was possible that he had
+fallen. John, though, could not look upon it as a probability. The
+general was so big, so vital, that he must be living, and he felt the
+same way about Bougainville. It was incredible that fate itself should
+snuff out in a day that spark of fire.
+
+Lannes, uncertain of his course, bore in again toward the German lines,
+and dropped as low as he could, compatible with safety from any kind of
+shot. John meanwhile scanned every hill and valley wood and field with
+his powerful glasses, and he was unable to see any diminution in the
+fury of the struggle. The cannon thundered, with all their might, along
+a line of scores of miles; rapid firers sent a deadly hail upon the
+opposing lines; rifles flashed by the hundred thousand, and here and
+there masses of troops closed with the bayonet.
+
+Seen from a height the battle was stripped of some of its horrors, but
+all its magnitude remained to awe those who looked down upon it. From
+the high, cold air John could not see pain and wounds, only the swaying
+back and forth of the battle lines. All the time he searched attentively
+for men who did not wear the red and blue of France, and at last he
+said:
+
+"I've failed to find any sign of the British army."
+
+"They're farther to the left," replied Lannes. "I caught a glimpse of
+their khaki lines this morning. Their regular troops are great fighters,
+as our Napoleon himself admitted more than once, and they've never done
+better than they're doing today. When I saw them they were advancing."
+
+"I'm glad of that. It's curious how I feel about the English, Philip.
+They've got such a conceit that they irritate me terribly at times, yet
+I don't want to see them beaten by any other Europeans. That's our
+American privilege."
+
+"A family feeling, perhaps," said Lannes, laughing, "but we French and
+English have been compelled to be allies, and after fighting each other
+for a thousand years we're now the best of friends. I think, John, we'll
+have to go down and procure information from somebody about our
+general. Otherwise we'll never find him."
+
+"We must be near the center of our army, and that's where he's likely to
+be. Suppose we descend in the field a little to the east of us."
+
+Lannes looked down, and, pronouncing the place suitable, began to drop
+in a series of spirals until they rested in a small field that had been
+devoted to the growth of vegetables. Here John at once felt the shaking
+of the earth, and tasted the bitter odor again. But woods on either side
+of them hid the sight of troops, although the sound of the battle was as
+great and violent as ever.
+
+"We seem to have landed on a desert island," said Lannes.
+
+"So we do," said John. "Evidently there is nobody here to tell us where
+we can find our dear and long lost general. I'll go down to the edge of
+the nearest wood and see if any of our skirmishers are there."
+
+"All right, John, but hurry back. I'll hold the _Arrow_ ready for
+instant flight, as we can't afford to linger here."
+
+John ran toward the wood, but before he reached the first trees he
+turned back with a shout of alarm. He had caught a glimpse of horses,
+helmets and the glittering heads of lances. Moreover, the Uhlans were
+coming directly toward him.
+
+In that moment of danger the young American showed the best that was in
+him. Forgetful of self and remembering the importance of Lannes'
+mission, he shouted:
+
+"The Uhlans are upon us, Philip! I can't escape, but you must! Go! Go
+at once!"
+
+Lannes gave one startled glance, and he understood in a flash. He too
+knew the vital nature of his errand, but his instant decision gave a
+wrench to his whole being. He saw the Uhlans breaking through the woods
+and John before them. He was standing beside the _Arrow_, and giving the
+machine a sharp push he sprang in and rose at a sharp angle.
+
+"Up! Up, Philip!" John continued to cry, until the cold edge of a lance
+lay against his throat and a brusque voice bade him to surrender.
+
+"All right, I yield," said John, "but kindly take your lance away. It's
+so sharp and cold it makes me feel uncomfortable."
+
+As he spoke he continued to look upward. The _Arrow_ was soaring higher
+and higher, and the Uhlans were firing at it, but they were not able to
+hit such a fleeting target. In another minute it was out of range.
+
+John felt the cold steel come away from his throat, and satisfied that
+Lannes with his precious message was safe, he looked at his captors.
+They were about thirty in number, Prussian Uhlans.
+
+"Well," said John to the one who seemed to be their leader, "what do you
+want with me?"
+
+"To hold you prisoner," replied the man, in excellent English--John was
+always surprised at the number of people on the continent who spoke
+English--"and to ask you why we find an American here in French
+uniform."
+
+The man who spoke was young, blond, ruddy, and his tone was rather
+humorous. John had been too much in Germany to hate Germans. He liked
+most of them personally, but for many of their ideas, ideas which he
+considered deadly to the world, he had an intense dislike.
+
+"You find me here because I didn't have time to get away," he replied,
+"and I'm in a French uniform because it's my fighting suit."
+
+The young officer smiled. John rather liked him, and he saw, too, that
+he was no older than himself.
+
+"It's lucky for you that you're in some kind of a uniform," the German
+said, "or I should have you shot immediately. But I'm sorry we didn't
+take the man in the aeroplane instead of you."
+
+John looked up again. The _Arrow_ had become small in the distant blue.
+A whimsical impulse seized him.
+
+"You've a right to be sorry," he said. "That was the greatest flying man
+in the world, and all day he has carried messages, heavy with the fate
+of nations. If you had taken him a few moments ago you might have saved
+the German army from defeat today. But your chance has gone. If you were
+to see him again you would not know him and his plane from others of
+their kind."
+
+The officer's eyes dilated at first. Then he smiled again and stroked
+his young mustache.
+
+"It may be true, as you say," he replied, "but meanwhile I'll have to
+take you to my chief, Captain von Boehlen."
+
+John's heart sank a little when he heard the name von Boehlen. Fortune,
+he thought, had played him a hard trick by bringing him face to face
+with the man who had least cause to like him. But he would not show it.
+
+"Very well," he said; "which way?"
+
+"Straight before you," said the officer. "I'd give you a mount, but it
+isn't far. Remember as you walk that we're just behind you, and don't
+try to run away. You'd have no chance on earth. My own name is Arnheim,
+Wilhelm von Arnheim."
+
+"And mine's John Scott," said John, as he walked straight ahead.
+
+They passed through a wood and into another field, where a large body of
+Prussian cavalry was waiting. A tall man, built heavily, stood beside a
+horse, watching a distant corner of the battle through glasses. John
+knew that uncompromising figure at once. It was von Boehlen.
+
+"A prisoner, Captain," said von Arnheim, saluting respectfully.
+
+Von Boehlen turned slowly, and a malicious light leaped in his eyes when
+he saw John on foot before him, and wholly in his power.
+
+"And so," he said, "it's young Scott of the hotel in Dresden and of the
+wireless station, and you've come straight into my hands!"
+
+The whimsical humor which sometimes seized John when he was in the most
+dangerous situation took hold of him again. It was not humor exactly,
+but it was the innate desire to make the best of a bad situation.
+
+"I'm in your hands," he replied, "but I didn't walk willingly into 'em.
+Your lieutenant, von Arnheim here, and his men brought me on the points
+of their lances. I'm quite willing to go away again."
+
+Von Boehlen recognized the spirit in the reply and the malice departed
+from his own eyes. Yet he asked sternly:
+
+"Why do you put on a French uniform and meddle in a quarrel not your
+own?"
+
+"I've made it my own. I take the chances of war."
+
+"To the rear with him, and put him with the other prisoners," said von
+Boehlen to von Arnheim, and the young Prussian and two Uhlans escorted
+him to the edge of the field where twenty or thirty French prisoners sat
+on the ground.
+
+"I take it," said von Arnheim, "that you and our captain have met
+before."
+
+"Yes, and the last time it was under circumstances that did not endear
+me to him."
+
+"If it was in war it will not be to your harm. Captain von Boehlen is a
+stern but just man, and his conduct is strictly according to our
+military code. You will stay here with the other prisoners under guard.
+I hope to see you again."
+
+With these polite words the young officer rode back to his chief, and
+John's heart warmed to him because of his kindness. Then he sat down on
+the grass and looked at those who were prisoners with him. Most of them
+were wounded, but none seemed despondent. All were lying down, some
+propped on their elbows, and they were watching and listening with the
+closest attention. A half-dozen Germans, rifle in hand, stood near by.
+
+John took his place on the grass by the side of a fair, slim young man
+who carried his left arm in a bandage.
+
+"Englishman?" said the young man.
+
+"No, American."
+
+"But you have been fighting for us, as your uniform shows. What
+command?"
+
+"General Vaugirard's, but I became separated from it earlier in the
+day."
+
+"I've heard of him. Great, fat man, as cool as ice and as brave as a
+lion. A good general to serve under. My own name is Fleury, Albert
+Fleury. I was wounded and taken early this morning, and the others and I
+have been herded here ever since by the Germans. They will not tell us a
+word, but I notice they have not advanced."
+
+"The German army is retreating everywhere. For this day, at least, we're
+victorious. Somebody has made a great plan and has carried it through.
+The cavalry of the invader came within sight of Paris this morning, but
+they won't be able to see it tomorrow morning. Whisper it to the others.
+We'll take the good news quietly. We won't let the guards see that we
+know."
+
+The news was circulated in low tones and every one of the wounded forgot
+his wound. They spoke among themselves, but all the while the thunder of
+the hundred-mile battle went on with unremitting ferocity. John put his
+ear to the ground now, and the earth quivered incessantly like a ship
+shaken at sea by its machinery.
+
+The day was now waning fast and he looked at the mass of Uhlans who
+stood arrayed in the open space, as if they were awaiting an order.
+Lieutenant von Arnheim rode back and ordered the guards to march on with
+them.
+
+There was none too severely wounded to walk and they proceeded in a file
+through the fields, Uhlans on all sides, but the great mass behind them,
+where their commander, von Boehlen, himself rode.
+
+The night was almost at hand. Twilight was already coming over the
+eastern hills, and one of the most momentous days in the story of man
+was drawing to a close. People often do not know the magnitude of an
+event until it has passed long since and shows in perspective, but John
+felt to the full the result of the event, just as the old Greeks must
+have known at once what Salamis or Platæa meant to them. The hosts of
+the world's greatest military empire were turned back, and he had all
+the certainty of conviction that they would be driven farther on the
+next day.
+
+The little band of prisoners who walked while their Prussian captors
+rode, were animated by feelings like those of John. It was the captured
+who exulted and the captors who were depressed, though neither expressed
+it in words, and the twilight was too deep now for faces to show either
+joy or sorrow.
+
+John and Fleury walked side by side. They were near the same age. Fleury
+was an Alpinist from the high mountain region of Savoy and he had
+arrived so recently in the main theater of conflict that he knew little
+of what had been passing. He and John talked in whispers and they spoke
+encouraging words to each other. Fleury listened in wonder to John's
+account of his flights with Lannes.
+
+"It is marvelous to have looked down upon a battle a hundred miles
+long," he said. "Have you any idea where these Uhlans intend to take
+us?"
+
+"I haven't. Doubtless they don't know themselves. The night is here now,
+and I imagine they'll stop somewhere soon."
+
+The twilight died in the west as well as the east, and darkness came
+over the field of gigantic strife. But the earth continued to quiver
+with the thunder of artillery, and John felt the waves of air pulsing in
+his ears. Now and then searchlights burned in a white blaze across the
+hills. Fields, trees and houses would stand out for a moment, and then
+be gone absolutely.
+
+John's vivid imagination turned the whole into a storm at night. The
+artillery was the thunder and the flare of the searchlights was the
+lightning. His mind created, for a little while, the illusion that the
+combat had passed out of the hands of man and that nature was at work.
+He and Fleury ceased to talk and he walked on, thinking little of his
+destination. He had no sense of weariness, nor of any physical need at
+all.
+
+Von Arnheim rode up by his side and said:
+
+"You'll not have to walk much further, Mr. Scott. A camp of ours is just
+beyond a brook, not more than a few hundred yards away, and the
+prisoners will stay there for the night. I'm sorry to find you among
+the French fighting against us. We Germans expected American sympathy.
+There is so much German blood in the United States."
+
+"But, as I told Captain von Boehlen, we're a republic, and we're
+democrats. In many of the big ideas there's a gulf between us and
+Germany so wide that it can never be bridged. This war has made clear
+the enormous difference."
+
+Von Arnheim sighed.
+
+"And yet, as a people, we like each other personally," he said.
+
+"That's so, but as nations we diverge absolutely."
+
+"Perhaps, I can't dispute it. But here is our camp. You'll be treated
+well. We Germans are not barbarians, as our enemies allege."
+
+John saw fires burning in an ancient wood, through which a clear brook
+ran. The ground was carpeted with bodies, which at first he thought were
+those of dead men. But they were merely sleepers. German troops in
+thousands had dropped in their tracks. It was scarcely sleep, but
+something deeper, a stupor of exhaustion so utter, both mental and
+physical, that it was like the effect of anesthesia. They lay in every
+imaginable position, and they stretched away through the forest in
+scores of thousands.
+
+John and Fleury saw their own place at once. Several hundred men in
+French uniforms were lying or sitting on the ground in a great group
+near the forest. A few slept, but the others, as well as John could see
+by the light of the fires, were wide awake.
+
+The sight of the brook gave John a burning thirst, and making a sign to
+the German guard, who nodded, he knelt and drank. He did not care
+whether the water was pure or not, most likely it was not, with armies
+treading their way across it, but as it cut through the dust and grime
+of his mouth and throat he felt as if a new and more vigorous life were
+flowing into his veins. After drinking once, twice, and thrice, he sat
+down on the bank with Fleury, but in a minute or two young von Arnheim
+came for him.
+
+"Our commander wishes to talk with you," he said.
+
+"I'm honored," said John, "but conversation is not one of my strong
+points."
+
+"The general will make the conversation," said von Arnheim, smiling. "It
+will be your duty, as he sees it, to answer questions."
+
+John's liking for von Arnheim grew. He had seldom seen a finer young
+man. He was frank and open in manner, and bright blue eyes shone in a
+face that bore every sign of honesty. Official enemies he and von
+Arnheim were, but real enemies they never could be.
+
+He divined that he would be subjected to a cross-examination, but he had
+no objection. Moreover, he wanted to see a German general of high
+degree. Von Arnheim led the way through the woods to a little glade, in
+which about a dozen officers stood. One of them, the oldest man present,
+who was obviously in command, stood nearest the fire, holding his helmet
+in his hand.
+
+The general was past sixty, of medium height, but extremely broad and
+muscular. His head, bald save for a fringe of white hair, had been
+reddened by the sun, and his face, with its deep heavy lines and his
+corded neck, was red, too. He showed age but not weakness. His eyes,
+small, red and uncommonly keen, gazed from under a white bushy thatch.
+He looked like a fierce old dragon to John.
+
+"The American prisoner, sir," said von Arnheim in English to the
+general.
+
+The old man concentrated the stare of his small red eyes upon John for
+many long seconds. The young American felt the weight and power of that
+gaze. He knew too instinctively that the man before him was a great
+fighter, a true representative of the German military caste and system.
+He longed to turn his own eyes away, but he resolutely held them steady.
+He would not be looked down, not even by an old Prussian general to whom
+the fate of a hundred thousand was nothing.
+
+"Very well, Your Highness, you may stand aside," said the general in a
+deep harsh voice.
+
+Out of the corner of his eye John saw that the man who stood aside was
+von Arnheim. "Your Highness!" Then this young lieutenant must be a
+prince. If so, some princes were likable. Wharton and Carstairs and he
+had outwitted a prince once, but it could not be von Arnheim. He turned
+his full gaze back to the general, who continued in his deep gruff
+voice, speaking perfect English:
+
+"I understand that you are an American and your name is John Scott."
+
+"And duly enrolled and uniformed in the French service," said John,
+"You can't shoot me as a _franc tireur_."
+
+"We could shoot you for anything, if we wished, but such is not our
+purpose. I have heard from a captain of Uhlans, Rudolf von Boehlen, a
+most able and valuable officer, that you are brave and alert."
+
+"I thank Captain von Boehlen for his compliment. I did not expect it
+from him."
+
+"Ah, he bears you no malice. We Germans are large enough to admire skill
+and courage in others. He has spoken of the affair of the wireless. It
+cost us much, but it belongs to the past. We will achieve what we wish."
+
+John was silent. He believed that these preliminaries on the part of the
+old general were intended to create an atmosphere, a belief in his mind
+that German power was invincible.
+
+"We have withdrawn a portion of our force today," continued the general,
+"in order to rectify our line. Our army had advanced too far. Tomorrow
+we resume our march on Paris."
+
+John felt that it was an extraordinary statement for an old man, one of
+such high rank, the commander of perhaps a quarter of a million
+soldiers, to be making to him, a young American, but he held his peace,
+awaiting what lay behind it all.
+
+"Now you are a captive," continued the general, "you will be sent to a
+prison, and you will be held there until the end of the war. You will
+necessarily suffer much. We cannot help it. Yet you might be sent to
+your own country. Americans and Germans are not enemies. I know from
+Captain von Boehlen who took you that you have been in an aeroplane with
+a Frenchman. Some account of what you saw from space might help your
+departure for America."
+
+And so that was it! Now the prisoner's eye steadily confronted that of
+the old general.
+
+"Your Highness," he said, as he thought that the old man might be a
+prince as well as a general, "you have read the history of the great
+civil war in my country, have you not?"
+
+"It was a part of my military duty to study it. It was a long and
+desperate struggle with many great battles, but what has it to do with
+the present?"
+
+"Did you ever hear of any traitor on either side, North or South, in
+that struggle?"
+
+The deep red veins in the old general's face stood out, but he gave no
+other sign.
+
+"You prefer, then," he said, "to become a charge upon our German
+hospitality. But I can say that your refusal will not make terms harder
+for you. Lieutenant von Arnheim, take him back to the other prisoners."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said John, and he gave the military salute. He could
+understand the old man's point of view, rough and gruff though he was,
+and he was not lacking in a certain respect for him. The general
+punctiliously returned the salute.
+
+"You've made a good impression," said von Arnheim, as they walked away
+together.
+
+"I gather," said John, "from a reference by the general, that you're a
+prince."
+
+Von Arnheim looked embarrassed.
+
+"In a way I am," he admitted, "but ours is a mediatized house. Perhaps
+it doesn't count for much. Still, if it hadn't been for this war I might
+have gone to your country and married an heiress."
+
+His eyes were twinkling. Here, John thought was a fine fellow beyond
+question.
+
+"Perhaps you can come after the war and marry one," he said. "Personally
+I hope you'll have the chance."
+
+"Thanks," said von Arnheim, a bit wistfully, "but I'm afraid now it will
+be a long time, if ever. I need not seek to conceal from you that we
+were turned back today. You know it already."
+
+"Yes, I know it," said John, speaking without any trace of exultation,
+"and I'm willing to tell you that it was one of the results I saw from
+the aeroplane. Can I ask what you intend to do with the prisoners you
+have here, including myself?"
+
+"I do not know. You are to sleep where you are tonight. Your bed, the
+earth, will be as good as ours, and perhaps in the morning we'll find an
+answer to your question."
+
+Von Arnheim bade him a pleasant good night and turned to duties
+elsewhere. John watched him as he strode away, a fine, straight young
+figure. He had found him a most likable man, and he was bound to admit
+that there was much in the German character to admire. But for the
+present it was--in his view--a Germany misled.
+
+The prisoners numbered perhaps six hundred, and at least half of them
+were wounded. John soon learned that the hurt usually suffered in
+stoical silence. It was so in the great American civil war, and it was
+true now in the great European war.
+
+Rough food was brought to them by German guards, and those who were able
+drank at the brook. Water was served to the severely wounded by their
+comrades in tin cups given to them by the Germans, and then all but a
+few lay on the grass and sought sleep.
+
+John and his new friend, Fleury, were among those who yet sat up and
+listened to the sounds of battle still in progress, although it was far
+in the night. It was an average night of late summer or early autumn,
+cool, fairly bright, and with but little wind. But the dull, moaning
+sound made by the distant cannonade came from both sides of them, and
+the earth yet quivered, though but faintly. Now and then, the
+searchlights gleamed against the background of darkness, but John felt
+that the combat must soon stop, at least until the next day. The German
+army in which he was a prisoner had ceased already, but other German
+armies along the vast line fought on, failing day, by the light which
+man himself had devised.
+
+Fleury was intelligent and educated. Although it was bitter to him to be
+a prisoner at such a time, he had some comprehension of what had
+occurred, and he knew that John had been in a position to see far more
+than he. He asked the young American many questions about his flight in
+the air, and about Philip Lannes, of whom he had heard.
+
+"It was wonderful," he said, "to look down on a battle a hundred miles
+long."
+
+"We didn't see all of it," said John, "but we saw it in many places, and
+we don't know that it was a hundred miles long, but it must have been
+that or near it."
+
+"And the greatest day for France in her history! What mighty
+calculations must have been made and what tremendous marchings and
+combats must have been carried out to achieve such a result."
+
+"One of the decisive battles of history, like Platæa, or the Metaurus or
+Gettysburg. There go the Uhlans with Captain von Boehlen at their head.
+Now I wonder what they mean to do!"
+
+A thousand men, splendidly mounted and armed, rode through the forest.
+The moonlight fell on von Boehlen's face and showed it set and grim.
+John felt that he was bound to recognize in him a stern and resolute
+man, carrying out his own conceptions of duty. Nor had von Boehlen been
+discourteous to him, although he might have felt cause for much
+resentment. The Prussian glanced at him as he passed, but said nothing.
+Soon he and his horsemen passed out of sight in the dusk.
+
+John, wondering how late it might be, suddenly remembered that he had a
+watch and found it was eleven o'clock.
+
+"An hour of midnight," he said to Fleury.
+
+Most all the French stretched upon the ground were now in deep slumber,
+wounded and unwounded alike. The sounds of cannon fire were sinking
+away, but they did not die wholly. The faint thunder of the distant
+guns never ceased to come. But the campfire, where he knew the German
+generals slept or planned, went out, and darkness trailed its length
+over all this land which by night had become a wilderness.
+
+John was able to trace dimly the sleeping figures of Germans in the
+dusk, sunk down upon the ground and buried in the sleep or stupor of
+exhaustion. As they lay near him so they lay in the same way in hundreds
+of thousands along the vast line. Men and horses, strained to their last
+nerve and muscle, were too tired to move. It seemed as if more than a
+million men lay dead in the fields and woods of Northeastern France.
+
+John, who had been wide awake, suddenly dropped on the ground where the
+others were stretched. He collapsed all in a moment, as if every drop of
+blood had been drained suddenly from his body. Keyed high throughout the
+day, his whole system now gave way before the accumulated impact of
+events so tremendous. The silence save for the distant moaning that
+succeeded the roar of a million men or more in battle was like a
+powerful drug, and he slept like one dead, never moving hand or foot.
+
+He was roused shortly before morning by some one who shook him gently
+but persistently, and at last he sat up, looking around in the dim light
+for the person who had dragged him back from peace to a battle-mad
+world. He saw an unkempt, bearded man in a French uniform, one sleeve
+stained with blood, and he recognized Weber, the Alsatian.
+
+"Why, Weber!" he exclaimed, "they've got you, too! This is bad! They
+may consider you, an Alsatian, a traitor, and execute you at once!"
+
+Weber smiled in rather melancholy fashion, and said in a low tone:
+
+"It's bad enough to be captured, but I won't be shot Nobody here knows
+that I'm an Alsatian, and consequently they will think I'm a Frenchman.
+If you call me anything, call me Fernand, which is my first name, but
+which they will take for the last."
+
+"All right, Fernand. I'll practice on it now, so I'll make no slip. How
+did you happen to be taken?"
+
+"I was in a motor car, a part of a train of about a hundred cars. There
+were seven in it besides myself. We were ordered to cross a field and
+join a line of advancing infantry. When we were in the middle of the
+field a masked German battery of rapid-firers opened on us at short
+range. It was an awful experience, like a stroke of lightning, and I
+don't think that more than a dozen of us escaped with our lives. I was
+wounded in the arm and taken before I could get out of the field. I was
+brought here with some other prisoners and I have been sleeping on the
+ground just beyond that hillock. I awoke early, and, walking the little
+distance our guards allow, I happened to recognize your figure lying
+here. I was sorry and yet glad to see you, sorry that you were a
+prisoner, and glad to find at least one whom I knew, a friend."
+
+John gave Weber's hand a strong grasp.
+
+"I can say the same about you," he said warmly. "We're both prisoners,
+but yesterday was a magnificent day for France and democracy."
+
+"It was, and now it's to be seen what today will be."
+
+"I hope and believe it will be no less magnificent."
+
+"I learned that you were taken just after you alighted from an
+aeroplane, and that a man with you escaped in the plane. At least, I
+presume it was you, as I heard the Germans talking of such a person and
+I knew of your great friendship for Philip Lannes. Lannes, of course was
+the one who escaped."
+
+"A good surmise, Fernand. It was no less a man than he."
+
+Weber's eyes sparkled.
+
+"I was sure of it," he said. "A wonderful fellow, that Lannes, perhaps
+the most skillful and important bearer of dispatches that France has.
+But he will not forget you, Mr. Scott. He knows, of course, where you
+were taken, and doubtless from points high in the air he has traced the
+course of this German army. He will find time to come for you. He will
+surely do so. He has a feeling for you like that of a brother, and his
+skill in the air gives him a wonderful advantage. In all the history of
+the world there have never before been any scouts like the aeroplanes."
+
+"That's true, and that, I think, is their chief use."
+
+Impulse made John look up. The skies were fast beginning to brighten
+with the first light in the east, and large objects would be visible
+there. But he saw nothing against the blue save two or three captive
+balloons which floated not far above the trees inside the German lines.
+He longed for a sight of the _Arrow_. He believed that he would know its
+shape even high in the heavens, but they were speckless.
+
+The Alsatian, whose eyes followed his, shook his head.
+
+"He is not there, Mr. Scott," he said, "and you will not see him today,
+but I have a conviction that he will come, by night doubtless."
+
+John lowered his eyes and his feeling of disappointment passed. It had
+been foolish of him to hope so soon, but it was only a momentary
+impulse, Lannes could not seek him now, and even if he were to come
+there would be no chance of rescue until circumstances changed.
+
+"Doubtless you and he were embarked on a long errand when you were
+taken," said Weber.
+
+"We were carrying a message to the commander of one of the French
+armies, but I don't know the name of the commander, I don't know which
+army it is, and I don't know where it is."
+
+Weber laughed.
+
+"But Lannes knew all of those things," he said. "Oh, he's a close one!
+He wouldn't trust such secrets not even to his brother-in-arms."
+
+"Nor should he do so. I'd rather he'd never tell them to me unless he
+thought it necessary."
+
+"I agree with you exactly, Mr. Scott. Hark! Did you hear it? The battle
+swells afresh, and it's not yet full day!"
+
+The roaring had not ceased, but out of the west rose a sound, louder
+yet, deep, rolling and heavy with menace. It was the discharge of a
+great gun and it came from a point several miles away.
+
+"We don't know who fired that," said Weber, "It may be French, English
+or German, but it's my opinion that we'll hear its like in our forest
+all day long, just as we did yesterday. However, it shall not keep me
+from bathing my face in this brook."
+
+"Nor me either," said John.
+
+The cold water refreshed and invigorated him, and as he stooped over the
+brook, he heard other cannon. They seemed to him fairly to spring into
+action, and, in a few moments, the whole earth was roaring again with
+the huge volume of their fire.
+
+Other prisoners, wounded and unwounded, awakened by the cannon, strolled
+down to the brook and dipped into its waters.
+
+"I'd better slip back to my place beyond the hillock," said Weber.
+"We're in two lots, we prisoners, and I belong in the other lot. I don't
+think our guards have noticed our presence here, and it will be safer
+for me to return. But it's likely that we'll all be gathered into one
+body soon, and I'll help you watch for Lannes."
+
+"I'll be glad of your help," said John sincerely. "We must escape. In
+all the confusion of so huge a battle there ought to be a chance."
+
+Weber slipped away in the crowd now hurrying down to the stream, and in
+a few moments John was joined by Fleury, whose attention was centered on
+the sounds of the distant battle. He deemed it best to say nothing to
+him of Weber, who did not wish to be known as an Alsatian. Fleury's
+heavy sleep had made him strong and fresh again, but he was in a fury at
+his helplessness.
+
+"To think of our being tied here at such a time," he said. "France and
+England are pushing the battle again! I know it, and we're helpless,
+mere prisoners!"
+
+"Still," said John, "while we can't fight we may see things worth
+seeing. Perhaps it's not altogether our loss to be inside the German
+army on such a day."
+
+Fleury could not reconcile himself to such a view, but he sought to make
+the best of it, and he was cheered, too, by the vast increase in the
+volume of the cannon fire. Before the full day had crossed from east to
+west the great guns were thundering again along the long battle line.
+But in their immediate vicinity there was no action. All the German
+troops here seemed to be resting on their arms. No Uhlans were visible
+and John judged that the detachment under von Boehlen, having gone forth
+chiefly for scouting purposes, had not yet returned.
+
+They received bread, sausage and coffee for breakfast from one of the
+huge kitchen automobiles, and nearly all ate with a good appetite. Their
+German captors did not treat them badly, but John, watching both
+officers and men, did not see any elation. He had no doubt that the
+officers were stunned by the terrible surprise of the day before, and as
+for the men, they would know nothing. He had seen early that the Germans
+were splendid troops, disciplined, brave and ingenious, but the habit of
+blind obedience would blind them also to the fact that fortune had
+turned her face away from them.
+
+He wished that his friend von Arnheim--friend he regarded him--would
+appear and tell him something about the battle, but his wish did not
+come true for an hour and meanwhile the whole heavens resounded with the
+roar of the battle, while distant flashes from the guns could be seen on
+either flank.
+
+The young German, glasses in hand, evidently seeking a good view, walked
+to the crest of the hillock behind which Weber had disappeared. John
+presumed enough on their brief friendship to call to him.
+
+"Do you see anything of interest?" he asked.
+
+Von Arnheim nodded quickly.
+
+"I see the distant fringe of a battle," he replied amiably, "but it's
+too early in the morning for me to pass my judgment upon it."
+
+"Nevertheless you can look for a day of most desperate struggle!"
+
+Von Arnheim nodded very gravely.
+
+"Men by tens of thousands will fall before night," he said.
+
+As if to confirm his words, the roar of the battle took a sudden and
+mighty increase, like a convulsion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE TWO PRINCES
+
+
+John sat with the other prisoners for more than two hours listening to
+the thunder of the great battle or rather series of battles which were
+afterwards classified under the general head the Battle of the Marne. He
+was not a soldier, merely a civilian serving as a soldier, but he had
+learned already to interpret many of the signs of combat. There was an
+atmospheric feeling that registered on a sensitive mind the difference
+between victory and defeat, and he was firm in the belief that as
+yesterday had gone today was going. Certainly this great German army
+which he believed to be in the center was not advancing, and something
+of a character most menacing was happening to the wings of the German
+force. He read it in the serious, preoccupied faces of the officers who
+passed near. There was not a smile on the face of the youngest of them
+all, but deepest anxiety was written alike on young and old.
+
+John and Fleury sat together at the edge of the brook, and for a while
+forgot their chagrin at not being on the battle line. The battle itself
+which they could not see, but which they could hear, absorbed them so
+thoroughly that they had no time to think of regrets.
+
+John had thought that man's violence, his energy in destruction on the
+first day could not be equalled, but it seemed to him now that the
+second day surpassed the first. The cannon fire was distant, yet the
+waves of air beat heavily upon them, and the earth shook without
+ceasing. Wisps of smoke floated toward them and the air was tainted
+again with the acrid smell of burned gunpowder.
+
+"You're a mountaineer, Fleury, you told me," said Scott, "and you should
+be able to judge how sound travels through gorges. I suppose you yodel,
+of course?"
+
+"Yodel, what's that?"
+
+"To make a long singing cry on a peak which is supposed to reach to
+somebody on another peak who sends back the same kind of a singing cry.
+We have a general impression in America that European mountaineers don't
+do much but stand in fancy costumes on crests and ridges and yodel to
+one another."
+
+"It may have been so once," said the young Savoyard, "but this is a bad
+year for yodeling. The voice of the cannon carries so far that the voice
+of man doesn't amount to much. But what sound did you want me to
+interpret?"
+
+"That of the cannon. Does its volume move eastward or westward? I should
+think it's much like your mountain storms and you know how they travel
+among the ridges."
+
+"The comparison is just, but I can't yet tell any shifting of the
+artillery fire. The wind brings the sound toward us, and if there's any
+great advance or retreat I should be able to detect it. I should say
+that as far as the second day is concerned nothing decisive has happened
+yet."
+
+"Do you know this country?"
+
+"A little. My regiment marched through here about three weeks ago and we
+made two camps not far from this spot. This is the wood of Sénouart, and
+the brook here runs down to the river Marne."
+
+"And we're not far from that river. Then we've pressed back the Germans
+farther than I thought. It's strange that the German army here does not
+move."
+
+"It's waiting, and I fancy it doesn't know what to do. I've an idea that
+our victory yesterday was greater than the French and British have
+realized, but which the Germans, of course, understand. Why do they
+leave us here, almost neglected, and why do their officers walk about,
+looking so doubtful and anxious? I've heard that the Germans were
+approaching Paris with five armies. It may be that we've cut off at
+least one of those armies and that it's in mortal danger."
+
+"It may be so. But have you thought, Fleury, of the extraordinary
+difference between this morning and yesterday morning?"
+
+"I have. In conditions they're worlds apart. Hark! Listen now, Scott, my
+friend!"
+
+He lay on the grass and put his ear to the ground, just as John had
+often done. Listening intently for at least two minutes, he announced
+with conviction that the cannonade was moving eastward.
+
+"Which means that the Germans are withdrawing again?" said John.
+
+"Undoubtedly," said Fleury, his face glowing.
+
+They listened a quarter of an hour longer, and John himself was then
+able to tell that the battle line was shifting. The Germans elsewhere
+must have fallen back several miles, but the army about him did not yet
+move. He caught a glimpse of the burly general walking back and forth in
+the forest, his hands clasped behind him, and a frown on his broad,
+fighting face. He would walk occasionally to a little telephone station,
+improvised under the trees--John could see the wires stretching away
+through the forest--and listen long and attentively. But when he put
+down the receiver the same moody look was invariably on his face, and
+John was convinced as much by his expression as by the sound of the guns
+that affairs were not going well with the Germans.
+
+Another long hour passed and the sun moved on toward noon, but a German
+army of perhaps a quarter of a million men lay idle in the forest of
+Sénouart, as John now called the whole region.
+
+Presently the general walked down the line and John lost sight of him.
+But Weber reappeared, coming from the other side of the hillock, and
+John was glad to see him, since Fleury had gone back to attend to a
+wounded friend.
+
+"There doesn't seem to be as much action here as I expected," said
+Weber, cheerfully, sitting down on the grass beside young Scott.
+
+"But they're shaking the world there! and there!" said John, nodding to
+right and to left.
+
+"So they are. This is a most extraordinary reversal, Mr. Scott, and I
+can't conceive how it was brought about. Some mysterious mind has made
+and carried through a plan that was superbly Napoleonic. I'd give much
+to know how it was done."
+
+John shook his head.
+
+"I know nothing of it," he said.
+
+"But doubtless your friend Lannes does. What a wonderful thing it is to
+carry through the heavens the dispatches which may move forward a
+million armed men."
+
+"I don't know anything about Lannes' dispatches."
+
+"Nor do I, but I can make a close guess, just as you can. He's surely
+hovering over the battle field today, and as I said last night he
+certainly has some idea where you are, and sooner or later will come for
+you."
+
+John looked up, but again the heavens were bare and clear. Then he
+looked down and saw walking near them a heavy, middle-aged, bearded man
+to whom all the German officers paid great deference. The man's manner
+was haughty and overbearing, and John understood at once that in the
+monarchical sense he was a personage.
+
+"Do you know the big fellow there?" he said to Weber. "Have you heard
+anyone speak of him?"
+
+"I saw him this morning, and one of the guards told us who he is. That
+is Prince Karl of Auersperg. The house of Auersperg is one of the
+oldest in Germany, much older than the Emperor's family, the
+Hohenzollerns. I don't suppose the world contains any royal blood more
+ancient than that of Prince Karl."
+
+"Evidently he feels that it's so. I'm getting used to princes, but our
+heavy friend there must be something of a specialist in the princely
+line. I should judge from his manner that he is not only the oldest man
+on earth, speaking in terms of blood, but the owner of the earth as
+well."
+
+"The Auerspergs have an immense pride."
+
+"I can see it, but a lot of pride fell before Paris yesterday, and a lot
+more is falling among these hills and forests today. There seems to be a
+lot of difference between princes, the Arnheims and the Auerspergs, for
+instance."
+
+Then a sudden thought struck John. It had the vaguest sort of basis, but
+it came home to him with all the power of conviction.
+
+"I wonder if Prince Karl of Auersperg once owned a magnificent armored
+automobile," he said.
+
+Weber looked puzzled, and then his eyes lightened.
+
+"Ah, I know what you mean!" he exclaimed. "The one in which we took that
+flight with Carstairs the Englishman and Wharton the American. It
+belonged to a prince, without doubt, yes. But no, it couldn't have been
+Prince Karl of Auersperg who owned the machine."
+
+"I'm not so sure. I've an intuition that it is he. Besides, he looks
+like just the kind of prince from whom I'd like to take his best
+automobile, also everything else good that he might happen to have. I
+shall feel much disappointed if this proves not to be our prince."
+
+"You Americans are such democrats."
+
+"I don't go so far as to say a man is necessarily bad because of his
+high rank, but as I reminded you a little while ago, there are princes
+and princes. The ancient house of Auersperg as it walks up and down,
+indicating its conviction of its own superiority to everything else on
+earth, does not please me."
+
+"The Uhlans are coming back!" exclaimed Weber in tones of excitement.
+
+"And that's von Boehlen at their head! I'd know his figure as far as I
+could see it! And they've had a brush, too! Look at the empty saddles
+and the wounded men! As sure as we live they've run into the French
+cavalry and then they've run out again!"
+
+The Uhlans were returning at a gallop, and the German officers of high
+rank were crowding forward to meet them. It was obvious to every one
+that they had received a terrible handling, but John knew that von
+Boehlen was not a man to come at a panicky gallop. Some powerful motive
+must send him so fast.
+
+He saw the Prussian captain spring from his horse and rush to a little
+group composed of the general, the prince and several others of high
+rank who had drawn closely together at his coming.
+
+Von Boehlen was wounded slightly, but he stood erect as he saluted the
+commander and talked with him briefly and rapidly. John's busy and
+imaginative mind was at work at once with surmises, and he settled upon
+one which he was sure must be the truth. The French advance in the
+center was coming, and this German army also must soon go into action.
+
+He was confirmed in his belief by a hurried order to the guards to go
+eastward with the prisoners. As the captives, the wounded and the
+unwounded, marched off through the forest of Sénouart they heard at a
+distance, but behind them, the opening of a huge artillery fire. It was
+so tremendous that they could feel the shaking of the earth as they
+walked, and despite the hurrying of their guards they stopped at the
+crest of a low ridge to look back.
+
+They gazed across a wide valley toward high green hills, along which
+they saw rapid and many flashes. John longed now for the glasses which
+had been taken from him when he was captured, but he was quite sure that
+the flashes were made by French guns. From a point perhaps a mile in
+front of the prisoners masked German batteries were replying. Fleury
+with his extraordinary power of judging sound was able to locate these
+guns with some degree of approximation.
+
+"Look! the aeroplanes!" said John, pointing toward the hills which he
+now called to himself the French line.
+
+Numerous dark shapes, forty or fifty at least, appeared in the sky and
+hovered over the western edge of the wide, shallow basin. John was sure
+that they were the French scouts of the blue, appearing almost in line
+like troops on the ground, and his heart gave a great throb. No doubt
+could be left now, that this German army was being attacked in force
+and with the greatest violence. It followed then that the entire German
+line was being assailed, and that the French victory was continuing its
+advance. The Republic had rallied grandly and was hurling back the
+Empire in the most magnificent manner.
+
+All those emotions of joy and exultation that he had felt the day before
+returned with increased force. In daily contact he liked Germans as well
+as Frenchmen, but he thought that no punishment could ever be adequate
+for the gigantic crimes of kings. Napoleon himself had been the champion
+of democracy and freedom, until he became an emperor and his head
+swelled so much with success that he thought of God and himself
+together, just as the Kaiser was now thinking. It was a curious
+inversion that the French who were fighting then to dominate Europe were
+fighting now to prevent such a domination. But it was now a great French
+republican nation remade and reinvigorated, as any one could see.
+
+The guards hurried them on again. Another mile and they stopped once
+more on the crest of a low hill, where it seemed that they would remain
+some time, as the Germans were too busy with a vast battle to think much
+about a few prisoners. It was evident that the whole army was engaged.
+The old general, the other generals, the princes and perhaps dukes and
+barons too, were in the thick of it. John's heart was filled with an
+intense hatred of the very name of royalty. Kings and princes could be
+good men personally, but as he saw its work upon the huge battle fields
+of Europe he felt that the institution itself was the curse of the
+earth.
+
+"We shall win again today," said Fleury, rousing him from his
+absorption. "Look across the fields, Scott, my friend, and see how those
+great masses of infantry charging our army have been repulsed."
+
+It was a far look, and at the distance the German brigades seemed to be
+blended together, but the great gray mass was coming back slowly. He
+forgot all about himself and his own fate in his desire to see every act
+of the gigantic drama as it passed before him. He took no thought of
+escape at present, nor did Fleury, who stood beside him. The fire of the
+guns great and small had now blended into the usual steady thunder,
+beneath which human voices could be heard.
+
+"We don't have the forty-two centimeters, nor the great siege guns,"
+said Fleury, "but the French field artillery is the best in the world.
+It's undoubtedly holding back the German hosts and covering the French
+advance."
+
+"That's my opinion, too," said John. "I saw its wonderful work in the
+retreat toward Paris. I think it saved the early French armies from
+destruction."
+
+The German army was made of stern material. Having planted its feet here
+it refused to be driven back. Its cannon was a line of flaming
+volcanoes, its cavalry charged again and again into the face of death,
+and its infantry perished in masses, but the stern old general spared
+nothing. Passing up and down the lines, listening at the telephone and
+receiving the reports of air scouts and land scouts, he always hurled
+in fresh troops at the critical points and Fritz and Karl and Wilhelm
+and August, sober and honest men, went forward willingly, sometimes
+singing and sometimes in silence, to die for a false and outworn system.
+John as a prisoner had a better view than he would have had if with the
+French army. In a country open now he could see a full mile to right and
+left, where the German hosts marched again and again to attack, and
+while the French troops were too far away for his eyes he beheld the
+continuous flare of their fire, like a broad red ribbon across the whole
+western horizon.
+
+The passing of time was nothing to him. He forgot all about it in his
+absorption. But the sun climbed on, afternoon came, and still the battle
+at this point raged, the French unable to drive the Germans farther and
+the Germans unable to stop the French attacks. John roused himself and
+endeavored to dissociate the thunder on their flanks from that in front,
+and, after long listening, he was able to make the separation, or at
+least he thought so. He knew now that the struggle there was no less
+fierce than the one before him.
+
+The Kaiser himself must be present with one or the other of these
+armies, and a man who had talked for more than twenty years of his
+divine right, his shining armor, his invincible sword and his mailed
+fist must be raging with the bitterness of death to find that he was
+only a mortal like other mortals, and that simple French republicans
+were defeating the War Lord, his Grand Army and the host of kings,
+princes, dukes, barons, high-born, very high-born, and all the other
+relics of medievalism. Dipped to the heel and beyond in the fountain of
+democracy, John could not keep from feeling a fierce joy as he saw with
+his own eyes the Germans fighting in the utmost desperation, not to take
+Paris and destroy France, but to save themselves from destruction.
+
+The afternoon, slow and bright, save for the battle, dragged on. Scott
+and Fleury kept together. Weber appeared once more and spoke rather
+despondently. He believed that the Germans would hold fast, and might
+even resume the offensive toward Paris again, but Fleury shook his head.
+
+"Today is like yesterday," he said.
+
+"How can you tell?" asked Weber.
+
+"Because the fire on both flanks is slowly moving eastward, that is, the
+Germans there are yielding ground. My ears, trained to note such things,
+tell me so. My friend, I am not mistaken."
+
+He spoke gravely, without exultation, but John took fresh hope from his
+words. Toward night the fire in their front died somewhat, and after
+sunset it sank lower, but they still heard a prodigious volume of firing
+on both flanks. John remembered then that they had eaten nothing since
+morning, but when some of the prisoners who spoke German requested food
+it was served to them.
+
+Night came over what seemed to be a drawn battle at this point, and
+after eating his brief supper John saw the automobiles and stretchers
+bringing in the wounded. They passed him in thousands and thousands,
+hurt in every conceivable manner. At first he could scarcely bear to
+look at them, but it was astonishing how soon one hardened to such
+sights.
+
+The wounded were being carried to improvised hospitals in the rear, but
+so far as John knew the dead were left on the field. The Germans with
+their usual thorough system worked rapidly and smoothly, but he noticed
+that the fires were but very few. There was but little light in the wood
+of Sénouart or the hills beyond, and there was little, too, on the
+ridges that marked the French position.
+
+John kept near the edges of the space allotted to the prisoners, hoping
+that he might again see von Arnheim. He had discovered early that the
+Germans were unusually kind to Americans, and the fact that he had been
+taken fighting against them did not prevent them from showing generous
+treatment. The officer in charge of the guard even wanted to talk to him
+about the war and prove to him how jealousy had caused the other nations
+to set upon Germany. But John evaded him and continued to look for the
+young prince who was serving as a mere lieutenant.
+
+It was about an hour after dark when he caught his first glimpse of von
+Arnheim, and he was really glad to see that he was not wounded.
+
+"I've come to tell you, Mr. Scott," said von Arnheim, "that all of you
+must march at once. You will cross the Marne, and then pass as prisoners
+into Germany. You will be well treated there and I think you can
+probably secure your release on condition that you return to your own
+country and take no further part in the war."
+
+John shook his head.
+
+"I don't expect any harshness from the Germans," he said, "but I'm in
+this war to stay, if the bullets and shells will let me. I warn you now
+that I'm going to escape."
+
+Von Arnheim laughed pleasantly.
+
+"It's fair of you to give us warning of your intentions," he said, "but
+I don't think you'll have much chance. You must get ready to start at
+once."
+
+"I take it," said John, "that our departure means the departure of the
+German army also."
+
+Von Arnheim opened his mouth to speak, but he closed it again suddenly.
+
+"It's only a deduction of mine," said John.
+
+Von Arnheim nodded in farewell and hurried away.
+
+"Now I'm sure," said John to Fleury a few minutes later, "that this army
+is going to withdraw."
+
+"I think so too," said Fleury. "I can yet hear the fire of the cannon on
+either flank and it has certainly moved to the east. In my opinion, my
+friend, both German wings have been defeated, and this central army is
+compelled to fall back because it's left without supports. But we'll
+soon see. They can't hide from us the evidences of retreat."
+
+The prisoners now marched in a long file in the moonlight across the
+fields, and John soon recognized the proof that Fleury was right. The
+German army was retreating. There were innumerable dull, rumbling
+sounds, made by the cannon and motors of all kinds passing along the
+roads, and at times also he heard the heavy tramp of scores of
+thousands marching in a direction that did not lead to Paris.
+
+John began to think now of Lannes. Would he come? Was Weber right when
+he credited to him a knowledge near to omniscience? How was it possible
+for him to pick out a friend in all that huge morass of battle! And yet
+he had a wonderful, almost an unreasoning faith in Philip, and, as
+always when he thought of him, he looked up at the heavens.
+
+It was an average night, one in which large objects should be visible in
+the skies, and he saw several aeroplanes almost over their heads, while
+the rattle of a dirigible came from a point further toward the east.
+
+The aeroplane was bound to be German, but as John looked he saw a sleek
+shape darting high over them all and flying eastward. Intuition, or
+perhaps it was something in the motion and shape of the machine, made
+him believe it was the _Arrow_. It must be the _Arrow_! And Lannes must
+be in it! High over the army and high over the German planes it darted
+forward like a swallow and disappeared in a cloud of white mist. His
+hair lifted a little, and a thrill ran down his spine.
+
+He still looked up as he walked along, and there was the sleek shape
+again! It had come back out of the white mist, and was circling over the
+German planes, flying with the speed and certainty of an eagle. He saw
+three of the German machines whirl about and begin to mount as if they
+would examine the stranger. But the solitary plane began to rise again
+in a series of dazzling circles. Up, up it went, as if it would
+penetrate the last and thinnest layer of air, until it reached the dark
+and empty void beyond.
+
+The _Arrow_--he was sure it could be no other--was quickly lost in the
+infinite heights, and then the German planes were lost, too, but they
+soon came back, although the _Arrow_ did not. It had probably returned
+to some point over the French line or had gone eastward beyond the
+Germans.
+
+John felt that he had again seen a sign. He remembered how he and Lannes
+had drawn hope from omens when they were looking at the Arc de Triomphe,
+and a similar hope sprang up now. Weber was right! Lannes would come to
+his rescue. Some thought or impulse yet unknown would guide him.
+
+Light clouds now drifted up from the southwest, and all the aeroplanes
+were hidden, but the heavy murmur of the marching army went on. The
+puffing and clashing of innumerable automobiles came from the roads
+also, though John soon ceased to pay attention to them. As the hours
+passed, he felt an increased weariness. He had sat still almost the
+whole day, but the strain of the watching and waiting had been as great
+as that of the walking now was. He wondered if the guards would ever let
+them stop.
+
+They waded another brook, passed through another wood and then they were
+ordered to halt. The guards announced that they could sleep, as they
+would go no farther that night. The men did not lie down. They fell, and
+each lay where he fell, and in whatever position he had assumed when
+falling.
+
+John was conscious of hearing the order, of striking the grass full
+length, and he knew nothing more until the next morning when he was
+aroused by Fleury. He saw a whitish dawn with much mist floating over
+the fields, and he believed that a large river, probably the Marne, must
+be near.
+
+As far as he could see the ground was covered with German soldiers. They
+too had dropped at the command to stop, and had gone to sleep as they
+were falling. The majority of them still slept.
+
+"What is it, Fleury? Why did you wake me up?" asked John.
+
+"The river Marne is close by, and I'm sure that the Germans are going to
+retreat across it. I had an idea that possibly we might escape while
+there's so much mist. They can't watch us very closely while they have
+so much else to do, and doubtless they would care but little if some of
+us did escape."
+
+"We'll certainly look for the chance. Can you see any sign of the French
+pursuit?"
+
+"Not yet, but our people will surely follow. They're still at it already
+on the flanks!"
+
+The distant thunder of cannon came from both right and left.
+
+"A third day of fighting is at hand," said Fleury.
+
+"And it will be followed by a fourth."
+
+"And a fifth."
+
+"But we shall continue to drive the enemy away."
+
+Both spoke with the utmost confidence. Having seen their armies
+victorious for two days they had no doubt they would win again. All that
+morning they listened to the sounds of combat, although they saw much
+less than on the day before. The prisoners were in a little wood, where
+they lay down at times, and then, restless and anxious, would stand on
+tiptoe again, seeking to see at least a corner of the battle.
+
+John and Fleury were standing near noon at the edge of the wood, when a
+small body of Uhlans halted close by. Being not more than fifty in
+number, John judged that they were scouts, and the foaming mouths of
+their horses showing that they had been ridden hard, confirmed him in
+the opinion. They were only fifty or sixty yards from him, and although
+they were motionless for some time, their eager faces showed that they
+were waiting for some movement.
+
+It was pure chance, but John happened to be looking at a rather large
+man who sat his horse easily, his gloved hand resting on his thigh. He
+saw distinctly that his face was very ruddy and covered with beads of
+perspiration. Then man and horse together fell to the ground as if
+struck by a bolt of lightning. The man did not move at all, but the
+horse kicked for a few moments and lay still.
+
+There was a shout of mingled amazement and horror from the other Uhlans,
+and it found its echo in John's own mind. He saw one of the men look up,
+and he looked up also. A dark shape hovered overhead. Something small
+and black, and then another and another fell from it and shot downward
+into the group of Uhlans. A second man was hurled from his horse and lay
+still upon the ground. Again John felt that thrill of horror and
+amazement.
+
+"What is it? What is it?" he cried.
+
+"I think it's the steel arrow," said Fleury, pressing a little further
+forward and standing on tiptoe. "As well as I can see, the first passed
+entirely through the head of the man and then broke the backbone of the
+horse beneath him."
+
+John saw one of the Uhlans, who had dismounted, holding up a short,
+heavy steel weapon, a dart rather than an arrow, its weight adjusted so
+that it was sure to fall point downward. Coming from such a height John
+did not wonder that it had pierced both horse and rider, and as he
+looked another, falling near the Uhlan, struck deep into the earth.
+
+"There goes the aeroplane that did it," said John to Fleury, pointing
+upward.
+
+It hovered a minute or two longer and flew swiftly back toward the
+French lines, pursued vainly a portion of the distance by the German
+Taubes.
+
+"A new weapon of death," said Fleury. "The fighters move in the air,
+under the water, on the earth, everywhere."
+
+"The Uhlans are off again," said John. "Whatever their duty was the
+steel arrows have sent them on it in a hurry."
+
+"And we're about to move too. See, these batteries are limbering up
+preparatory to a withdrawal."
+
+Inside of fifteen minutes they were again marching eastward, though
+slowly and with the roar of battle going on as fiercely behind them as
+ever. John heard again from some of the talk of the guards that the
+Germans had five armies along their whole line, but whether the one with
+which he was now a prisoner was falling back with its whole force he
+had no way of knowing. Both he and Fleury were sure the prisoners
+themselves would soon cross the Marne, and that large detachments of the
+enemy would go with them.
+
+Thoughts of escape returned. Crossing a river in battle was a perilous
+operation, entailing much confusion, and the chance might come at the
+Marne. They could see too that the Germans were now being pressed
+harder. The French shells were coming faster and with more deadly
+precision. Now and then they exploded among the masses of German
+infantry, and once or twice they struck close to the captives.
+
+"It would be a pity to be killed by our own people," said Fleury.
+
+"And at such a time as this," said John. "Do you know, Fleury, that my
+greatest fear about getting killed is that then I wouldn't know how this
+war is going to end?"
+
+"I feel that way myself sometimes. Look, there's the Marne! See its
+waters shining! It's the mark of the first great stage in the German
+retreat."
+
+"I wonder how we're going to cross. I suppose the bridges will be
+crowded with artillery and men. It might pay the Germans just to let us
+go."
+
+"They won't do that. There's nothing in their rules about liberating
+prisoners, and they wouldn't hear of such a thing, anyhow, trouble or no
+trouble."
+
+"I see some boats, and I fancy we'll cross on them. I wonder if we
+couldn't make what we call in my country a get-away, while we're waiting
+for the embarkation."
+
+"If our gunners become much more accurate our get-away, as you call it,
+will be into the next life."
+
+Two huge shells had burst near, and, although none of the flying metal
+struck them, their faces were stung by fine dirt. When John brushed the
+dust out of his eyes he saw that he was right in his surmise about the
+crossing in boats, but wrong about probable delays in embarkation. The
+German machine even in retreat worked with neatness and dispatch. There
+were three boats, and the first relay of prisoners, including John and
+Fleury, was hurried into them. A bridge farther down the stream rumbled
+heavily as the artillery crossed on it. But the French force was coming
+closer and closer. A shell struck in the river sixty or eighty feet from
+them and the water rose in a cataract. Some of the prisoners had been
+put at the oars and they, like the Germans, showed eagerness to reach
+the other side. John noted the landing, a narrow entrance between thick
+clumps of willows, and he confessed to himself that he too would feel
+better when they were on the farther bank.
+
+The Marne is not a wide river, and a few powerful pulls at the oars sent
+them near to the landing. But at that moment a shell whistled through
+the air, plunged into the water and exploded practically beneath the
+boat.
+
+John was hurled upward in a gush of foam and water, and then, when he
+dropped back, the Marne received him in its bosom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE SPORT OF KINGS
+
+
+John Scott, who was suffering from his second immersion in a French
+river, came up with mouth, eyes and nose full of water. The stream
+around him was crowded with men swimming or with those who had reached
+water shallow enough to permit of wading. As well as he could see, the
+shell had done no damage besides giving them a huge bath, of which every
+one stood in much need.
+
+But he had a keen and active mind and it never worked quicker than it
+did now. He had thought his chance for escape might come in the
+confusion of a hurried crossing, and here it was. He dived and swam down
+the stream toward the willows that lined the bank. When he could hold
+his breath no longer he came up in one of the thickest clumps. The water
+reached to his waist there, and standing on the bottom in all the
+density of willows and bushes he was hidden thoroughly from all except
+watchful searchers. And who would miss him at such a time, and who, if
+missing, would take the trouble to look for him while the French cannon
+were thundering upon them and a perilous crossing was to be made?
+
+It was all so ridiculously easy. He knew that he had nothing to do but
+stand close while the men pulled themselves out of the river and the
+remaining boats made their passage. For further protection he moved into
+water deep enough to reach to his neck, while he still retained the
+cover of the willows and bushes. Here he watched the German troops pass
+over, and listened to the heavy cannonade. He soon noted that the
+Germans, after crossing, were taking up strong positions on the other
+side. He could tell it from the tremendous artillery fire that came from
+their side of the Marne.
+
+John now found that his position, while safe from observation, was far
+from comfortable. The chill of the water began to creep into his bones
+and more shells struck unpleasantly near. Another fell into the river
+and he was blinded for a moment by the violent showers of foam and
+spray. He began to feel uneasy. If the German and French armies were
+going to fight each other from the opposing sides of the Marne he would
+be held there indefinitely, either to be killed by a shell or bullet or
+to drown from cramp.
+
+But time passed and he saw no chance of leaving his watery lair. The
+chill went further into his bones. He was lonesome too. He longed for
+the companionship of Fleury, and he wondered what had become of him. He
+sincerely hoped that he too had reached a covert and that they should
+meet again.
+
+No rumbling came from the bridge below, and, glancing down the stream,
+John saw that it was empty. There must be many other bridges over the
+Marne, but he believed that the German armies had now crossed it, and
+would devote their energy to a new attack. He was squarely between the
+lines and he did not see any chance to escape until darkness.
+
+He looked up and saw a bright sun and blue skies. Night was distant, and
+so far as he was concerned it might be a year away. If two armies were
+firing shells directly at a man they must hit him in an hour or two, and
+if not, a polar stream such as the Marne had now become would certainly
+freeze him to death. He had no idea French rivers could be so cold. The
+Marne must be fed by a whole flock of glaciers.
+
+His teeth began to chatter violently, and then he took stern hold of
+himself. He felt that he was allowing his imagination to run away with
+him, and he rebuked John Scott sternly and often for such foolishness.
+He tried to get some warmth into his veins by jumping up and down in the
+water, but it was of little avail. Yet he stood it another hour. Then he
+made one more long and critical examination of the ground.
+
+Shells were now screaming high overhead, but nobody was in sight. He
+judged that it was now an artillery battle, with the foes perhaps three
+or four miles apart, and, leaving the willows, he crept out upon the
+bank. It was the side held by the Germans, but he knew that if he
+attempted to swim the river to the other bank he would be taken with
+cramps and would drown.
+
+There was a little patch of long grass about ten yards from the river,
+and, crawling to it, he lay down. The grass rose a foot high on either
+side of him, but the sun, bright and hot, shone directly down upon his
+face and body. It felt wonderfully good after that long submersion in
+the Marne. Removing all his heavy wet clothing, he wrung the water out
+of it as much as he could, and lay back in a state of nature, for both
+himself and his clothing to dry. Meanwhile, in order to avoid cold, he
+stretched and tensed his muscles for a quarter of an hour before he lay
+still again.
+
+A wonderful warmth and restfulness flowed back into his veins. He had
+feared chills and a serious illness, but he knew now that they would not
+come. Youth, wiry and seasoned by hard campaigning, would quickly
+recover, but knowing that, for the present, he could neither go forward
+nor backward, he luxuriated in the grass, while the sun sucked the damp
+out of his clothing.
+
+Meanwhile the battle was raging over his head and he scarcely noticed
+it. The shells whistled and shrieked incessantly, but, midway between
+the contending lines, he felt that they were no longer likely to drop
+near. So he relaxed, and a dreamy feeling crept over him. He could hear
+the murmur of insects in the grass, and he reflected that the smaller
+one was, the safer one was. A shell was not likely to take any notice of
+a gnat.
+
+He felt of his clothing. It was not dry yet and he would wait a little
+longer. Anyhow, what was the use of hurrying? He turned over on his
+side and continued to luxuriate in the long grass.
+
+The warmth and dryness had sent the blood pulsing in a strong flood
+through his veins once more, and the mental rebound came too. Although
+he lay immediately between two gigantic armies which were sending
+showers of metal at each other along a line of many miles, he considered
+his escape sure and the thought of personal danger disappeared. If one
+only had something to eat! It is curious how the normal instincts and
+wants of man assert themselves even under the most dangerous conditions.
+He began to think of the good German brown bread and the hot sausage
+that he had devoured, and the hot coffee that he had drunk. One could
+eat the food of an enemy without compunction.
+
+But it was folly to move, even to seek dinner or supper, while the
+shells were flying in such quantities over his head. As he turned once
+more and lay on his back he caught glimpses as of swift shadows passing
+high above, and the whistling and screaming of shells and shrapnel was
+continuous. It was true that a missile might fall short and find him in
+the grass, but he considered the possibility remote and it did not give
+him a tremor. As he was sure now that he would suffer no bodily ill from
+his long bath in the Marne he might remain in the grass until night and
+then creep away. Blessed night! It was the kindly veil for all
+fugitives, and no one ever awaited it with more eagerness than John
+Scott.
+
+The sun was now well beyond the zenith, and its golden darts came
+indirectly. His clothing was thoroughly dry at last, and he put it on
+again. Clad anew he was tempted to seek escape at once, but the sound of
+a footstep caused him to lie down in the shelter of the grass again.
+
+His ear was now against the earth and the footsteps were much more
+distinct. He was sure that they were made by a horse, and he believed
+that a Uhlan was riding near. He remembered how long and sharp their
+lances were, and he was grateful that the grass was so thick and tall.
+He longed for the automatic revolver that had been such a trusty friend,
+but the Germans had taken it long since, and he was wholly unarmed.
+
+He was afraid to raise his head high enough to see the horseman, lest he
+be seen, but the footsteps, as if fate had a grudge against him, were
+coming nearer. His blood grew hot in a kind of rebellion against chance,
+or the power that directed the universe. It was really a grim joke that,
+after having escaped so much, a mere wandering scout of a Uhlan should
+pick him up, so to speak, on the point of his lance.
+
+He pressed hard against the earth. He would have pressed himself into it
+if he could, and imagination, the deceiver, made him think that he was
+doing so. The temptation to raise his head above the grass and look
+became more violent, but will held him firm and he still lay flat.
+
+Then he noticed that the hoofbeats wandered about in an irregular,
+aimless fashion. Not even a scout hunting a good position for
+observation would ride in such a way, and becoming more daring he
+raised his head slowly, until he could peep over the grass stems. He saw
+a horse, fifteen or twenty feet from him, but without rider, bridle or
+saddle. It was a black horse of gigantic build like a Percheron, with
+feet as large as a half-bushel measure, and a huge rough mane.
+
+The horse saw John and gazed at him out of great, mild, limpid eyes. The
+young American thought he beheld fright there and the desire for
+companionship. The animal, probably belonging to some farmer who had
+fled before the armies, had wandered into the battle area, seeking the
+human friends to whom he was so used, and nothing living was more
+harmless than he. He reminded John in some ways of those stalwart and
+honest peasants who were so ruthlessly made into cannon food by the
+gigantic and infinitely more dangerous Tammany that rules the seventy
+million Germans.
+
+The horse walked nearer and the look in his eyes became so full of
+terror and the need of man's support that for the time he stood as a
+human being in John's imagination.
+
+"Poor old horse!" he called, "I'm sorry for you, but your case is no
+worse than mine. Here we both are, wishing harm to nobody, but with a
+million men shooting over our backs."
+
+The horse, emboldened by the friendly voice, came nearer and nuzzled at
+the human friend whom he had found so opportunely, and who, although so
+much smaller than himself, was, as he knew, so much more powerful. This
+human comrade would show him what to do and protect him from all harm.
+But John took alarm. He too found pleasure in having a comrade, even if
+it were only a horse, but the animal would probably attract the
+attention of scouts or skirmishers. He tried to shoo him away, but for a
+long time the horse would not move. At last he pulled a heavy bunch of
+grass, wadded it together and threw it in his face.
+
+The horse, staring at him reproachfully, turned and walked away. John's
+lively fancy saw a tear in the huge, luminous eye, and his conscience
+smote him hard.
+
+"I had to do it, Marne, old fellow," he called. "You're so big and you
+stick up so high that you arouse attention, and that's just what I don't
+want."
+
+He had decided to call the horse Marne, after the river near by, and he
+noticed that he did not go far. The animal, reassured by John's friendly
+after-word, began to crop the grass about twenty feet away. He had a
+human friend after all, one on whom he could rely. Man did not want to
+be bothered by him just then, but that was the way of man, and he did
+not mind, since the grass was so plentiful and good. He would be there,
+close at hand, when he was needed.
+
+John was really moved by the interlude. The loneliness, and then the
+friendliness of the horse appealed to him. He too needed a comrade, and
+here he was. He forgot, for a time, the moaning of the shells over his
+head, and began to think again about his escape. So thinking, the horse
+came once more into his mind. He showed every sign of grazing there
+until dark came. Then why not ride away on him? It was true that a
+horse was larger and made more noise than a fugitive man slipping
+through the grass, but there were times when strength and speed,
+especially speed, counted for a lot.
+
+The last hours of the afternoon waned, trailing their slow length,
+minute by minute, and throughout that time the roar of the battle was as
+steady as the fall of Niagara. It even came to the point that John paid
+little attention to it, but the sport of kings, in which thousands of
+men were ground up, they knew not why, went merrily on. None of the
+shells struck near John, and with infinite joy he saw the coming of the
+long shadows betokening the twilight. The horse, still grazing near by,
+raised his head more than once and looked at him, as if it were time to
+go. As the sun sank and the dusk grew John stood up. He saw that the
+night was going to be dark and he was thankful. The Marne was merely a
+silver streak in the shadow, and in the wood near by the trees were
+fusing into a single clump of darkness.
+
+He stood erect, stretching his muscles and feeling that it was glorious
+to be a man with his head in the air, instead of a creature that
+grovelled on the ground. Then he walked over to the horse and patted him
+on the shoulder.
+
+"Marne, old boy," he said, "I think it's about time for you and me to
+go."
+
+The horse rubbed his great head against John's arm, signifying that he
+was ready to obey any command his new master might give him. John knew
+from his build that he was a draught horse, but there were times in
+which one could not choose a particular horse for a particular need.
+
+"Marne, old fellow," he said, stroking the animal's mane, "you're not to
+be a menial cart horse tonight. I am an Arabian genie and I hereby turn
+you into a light, smooth, beautifully built automobile for one passenger
+only, and I'm that passenger."
+
+Holding fast to the thick mane he sprang upon the horse's back, and
+urged him down the stream, keeping close to the water where there was
+shelter among the willows and bushes. He had no definite idea in his
+head, but he felt that if he kept on going he must arrive somewhere. He
+was afraid to make the horse swim the river in an effort to reach the
+French army. Appearing on the surface of the water he felt that he would
+almost certainly be seen and some good rifleman or other would be sure
+to pick him off.
+
+He concluded at last that if no German troops came in sight he would let
+the horse take him where he would. Marne must have a home and a master
+somewhere and habit would send him to them. So he ceased to push at his
+neck and try to direct him, and the horse continued a slow and peaceful
+progress down the stream in the shadow of small trees. The night was
+darker than those just before it, and the dampness of the air indicated
+possible flurries of rain. Cannon still rumbled on the horizon like the
+thunder of a summer night.
+
+While trusting to the horse to lead him to some destination, John kept a
+wary watch, with eyes now growing used to the darkness. If German
+troops appeared and speed to escape were lacking, he would jump from
+Marne's back and hunt a new covert. But he saw nobody. The evidences of
+man's work were present continually in the cannonade, but man himself
+was absent.
+
+The horse went on with ponderous and sure tread. Evidently he had
+wandered far under the influence of the firing, but it was equally
+evident that his certain instinct was guiding him back again. He crossed
+a brook flowing down into the Marne, passed through a wheat field, and
+entered a little valley, where grew a number of oaks, clear of
+undergrowth.
+
+When he saw what was lying under the oaks he pulled hard at the rough
+mane, until the horse stopped. He had distinctly made out the figures of
+men, stretched upon the ground, apparently asleep, and sure to be
+Germans. He stared hard at them, but the horse snorted and tried to pull
+away. The action of the animal rather than his own eyesight made him
+reckon aright.
+
+A horse would not be afraid of living men, and, slipping from the back
+of Marne, John approached cautiously. A few rays of wan moonlight
+filtered through the trees, and when he had come close he shuddered over
+and over again. About a dozen men lay on the ground and all were stone
+dead. The torn earth and their own torn figures showed that a shell had
+burst among them. Doubtless it had been an infantry patrol, and the
+survivors had hurried away.
+
+John, still shuddering, was about to turn back to his horse, when he
+remembered that he needed much and that in war one must not be too
+scrupulous. Force of will made him return to the group and he sought for
+what he wanted. Evidently the firing had been hot there and the rest of
+the patrol had not lingered in their flight.
+
+He took from one man a pair of blankets. He could have had his choice of
+two or three good rifles, but he passed them by in favor of a large
+automatic pistol which would not be in the way. This had been carried by
+a young man whom he took to be an officer, and he also found on him many
+cartridges for the pistol. Then he searched their knapsacks for food,
+finding plenty of bread and sausage and filling with it one knapsack
+which he put over his shoulder.
+
+He returned hastily to his horse, guided him around the fatal spot, and
+when he was some distance on the other side dismounted and ate as only a
+half-starved man can eat. Water was obtained from a convenient brook and
+carefully storing the remainder of the food in the knapsack he remounted
+the horse.
+
+"Now go on, my good and gallant beast," he said, "and I feel sure that
+your journey is nearly at an end. A draught horse like you, bulky and
+slow, would not wander any great distance."
+
+The horse himself immediately justified his prediction by raising his
+head, neighing and advancing at a swifter pace. John saw, standing among
+some trees, a low and small house, built of stone and evidently very
+old, its humble nature indicating that it belonged to a peasant. Behind
+it was a tiny vineyard, and there was a stable and another outhouse.
+
+"Well, Marne, my lad, here's your home, beyond a doubt," said John. But
+no answer came to the neigh. The house remained silent and dark. It
+confirmed John's first belief that the horse belonged to some peasant
+who had fled with his family from the armies. He stroked the animal's
+neck, and felt real pity for him, as if he had been a child abandoned.
+
+"I know that while I'm a friend I'm almost a stranger to you, but come,
+we'll examine things," he said.
+
+He sprang off the horse, and drew his automatic. The possession of the
+pistol gave him an immense amount of courage and confidence, but he did
+not anticipate any trouble at the house as he was sure that it was
+abandoned.
+
+He pushed open the door and saw a dark inside. Staring a little he made
+out a plainly furnished room, from which all the lighter articles had
+been taken. There was a hearth, but with no fire on it, and John decided
+that he would sleep in the house. It was in a lonely place, but he would
+take the risk.
+
+The horse had already gone to the stable and was pushing the door with
+his nose. John let him in, and found some oat straw which he gave him.
+Then he left him munching in content, and as he departed he struck him a
+resounding blow of friendliness on the flank.
+
+"Good old Marne," he said, "you're certainly one of the best friends
+I've found in Europe. In fact, you're about the only living being I've
+associated with that doesn't want to kill somebody."
+
+He entered the house and closed the door. In addition to the
+sitting-room there was a bedroom and a kitchen, all bearing the signs of
+recent occupancy. He found a small petroleum lamp, but he concluded not
+to light it. Instead he sat on a wooden bench in the main room beside a
+small window, ate a little more from the knapsack, and watched a while
+lest friend or enemy should come.
+
+It had grown somewhat darker and the clouds were driving across the sky.
+The wind was rising and the threatened flurries of rain came, beating
+against the cottage. John was devoutly glad that he had found the little
+house. Having spent many hours immersed to his neck in a river he felt
+that he had had enough water for one day. Moreover, his escape, his snug
+shelter and the abundance of food at hand, gave him an extraordinary
+sense of ease and rest. He noticed that in the darkness and rain one
+might pass within fifty feet of the cottage without seeing it.
+
+The wind increased and moaned among the oaks that grew around the house,
+but above the moaning the sounds of battle, the distant thunder of the
+artillery yet came. The sport of kings was going merrily on. Neither
+night nor storm stopped it and men were still being ground by thousands
+into cannon food. But John had now a feeling of detachment. Three days
+of continuous battle had dulled his senses. They might fight on as they
+pleased. It did not concern him, for tonight at least. He was going to
+look out for himself.
+
+He fastened the door securely, but, as he left the window open,
+currents of fresh cool air poured into the room. He was now fully
+revived in both mind and body, and he took present ease and comfort,
+thinking but little of the future. The flurries of rain melted into a
+steady pour. The cold deepened, and as he wrapped the two blankets
+around him his sense of comfort increased. Lightning flared at
+infrequent intervals and now and then real thunder mingled with that of
+the artillery.
+
+He felt that he might have been back at home. It was like some snug
+little place in the high hills of Pennsylvania or New York. Like many
+other Americans, he often felt surprise that Europe should be so much
+like America. The trees and the grass and the rivers were just the same.
+Nothing was different but the ancient buildings. He knew now that
+history and a long literature merely created the illusion of difference.
+
+He wondered why the artillery fire did not die, with the wind sweeping
+such gusts of rain before it. Then he remembered that the sound of so
+many great cannon could travel a long distance, and there might be no
+rain at the points from which the firing came. The cottage might stand
+in a long narrow valley up which the clouds would travel.
+
+Not feeling sleepy yet he decided to have another look about the house.
+A search revealed a small box of matches near the lamp on the shelf.
+Then he closed the window in order to shut in the flame, and, lighting
+the lamp, pursued his investigation.
+
+He found in the kitchen a jar of honey that he had overlooked, and he
+resolved to use a part of it for breakfast. Europeans did not seem able
+to live without jam or honey in the mornings, and he would follow the
+custom. Not much was left in the other rooms, besides some old articles
+of clothing, including two or three blue blouses of the kind worn by
+French peasants or workmen, but on one of the walls he saw an excellent
+engraving of the young Napoleon, conqueror of Italy.
+
+It showed him, horseback, on a high road looking down upon troops in
+battle, Castiglione or Rivoli, perhaps, his face thin and gaunt, his
+hair long and cut squarely across his forehead, the eyes deep, burning
+and unfathomable. It was so thoroughly alive that he believed it must be
+a reproduction of some great painting. He stood a long time, fascinated
+by this picture of the young republican general who rose like a meteor
+over Europe and who changed the world.
+
+John, like nearly all young men, viewed the Napoleonic cycle with a
+certain awe and wonder. A student, he had considered Napoleon the great
+democratic champion and mainly in the right as far as Austerlitz. Then
+swollen ambition had ruined everything and, in his opinion, another
+swollen ambition, though for far less cause, was now bringing equal
+disaster upon Europe. A belief in one's infallibility might come from
+achievement or birth, but only the former could win any respect from
+thinking men.
+
+It seemed to John presently that the deep, inscrutable eyes were gazing
+at him, and he felt a quivering at the roots of his hair. It was young
+Bonaparte, the republican general, and not Napoleon, the emperor, who
+was looking into his heart.
+
+"Well," said John, in a sort of defiance, "if you had stuck to your
+early principles we wouldn't have all this now. First Consul you might
+have been, but you shouldn't have gone any further."
+
+He turned away with a sigh of regret that so great a warrior and
+statesman, in the end, should have misused his energies.
+
+He returned to the room below, blew out the lamp and opened the window
+again. The cool fresh air once more poured into the room, and he took
+long deep breaths of it. It was still raining, though lightly, and the
+pattering of the drops on the leaves made a pleasant sound. The thunder
+and the lightning had ceased, though not the far rumble of artillery.
+John knew that the sport of kings was still going on under the
+searchlights, and all his intense horror of the murderous monarchies
+returned. He was not sleepy yet, and he listened a long time. The sound
+seemed to come from both sides of him, and he felt that the abandoned
+cottage among the trees was merely a little oasis in the sea of war.
+
+The rain ceased and he concluded to scout about the house to see if any
+one was near, or if any farm animals besides the horse had been left.
+But Marne was alone. There was not even a fowl of any kind. He concluded
+that the horse had probably wandered away before the peasant left, as so
+valuable an animal would not have been abandoned otherwise.
+
+His scouting--he was learning to be very cautious--took him some
+distance from the house and he came to a narrow road, but smooth and
+hard, a road which troops were almost sure to use, while such great
+movements were going on. He waited behind a hedge a little while, and
+then he heard the hum of motors.
+
+He had grown familiar with the throbbing, grinding sound made by many
+military automobiles on the march, but he waited calmly, merely
+loosening his automatic for the sake of precaution. He felt sure that
+while he stood behind a hedge he would never be seen on a dark night by
+men traveling in haste. The automobiles came quickly into view and in
+those in front he saw elderly men in uniforms of high rank. Nearly all
+the German generals seemed to him to be old men who for forty or fifty
+years had studied nothing but how to conquer, men too old and hardened
+to think much of the rights of others or ever to give way to generous
+emotions.
+
+He also saw sitting erect in one of the motors the man for whom he had
+felt at first sight an invincible repulsion. Prince Karl of Auersperg.
+Young von Arnheim had represented the good prince to him, but here was
+the medieval type, the believer in divine right, and in his own
+superiority, decreed even before birth. John noted in the moonlight his
+air of ownership, his insolent eyes and his heavy, arrogant face. He
+hoped that the present war would sweep away all such as Auersperg.
+
+He watched nearly an hour while the automobiles, cyclists, a column of
+infantry, and then several batteries of heavy guns drawn by motors,
+passed. He judged that the Germans were executing a change of front
+somewhere, and that the Franco-British forces were still pressing hard.
+The far thunder of the guns had not ceased for an instant, although it
+must be nearly midnight. He wished he knew what this movement on the
+part of the Germans meant, but, even if he had known, he had no way of
+reaching his own army, and he turned back to the cottage.
+
+Having fastened the door securely again he spread the blankets on the
+bench by the window and lay down to sleep. The tension was gone from his
+nerves now, and he felt that he could fall asleep at once, but he did
+not. A shift in the wind brought the sound of the artillery more
+plainly. His imagination again came into vivid play. He believed that
+the bench beneath him, the whole cottage, in fact, was quivering before
+the waves of the air, set in such violent motion by so many great guns.
+
+It annoyed him intensely. He felt a sort of personal anger against
+everybody. It was past midnight of the third day and it was time for the
+killing to stop. At least they might rest until morning, and give his
+nerves a chance. He moved restlessly on the bench a half hour or more,
+but at last he sank gradually to sleep. As his eyes closed the thunder
+of the cannonade was as loud and steady as ever. He slept, but the
+murderous sport of kings went on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE PUZZLING SIGNAL
+
+
+When John awoke a bright sun was shining in at the window, bringing with
+it the distant mutter of cannon, a small fire was burning on the hearth
+on the opposite side of the room, a man was bending over the coals, and
+the pleasant odor of boiling coffee came to his nostrils. He sat up in
+amazement and looked at the man who, not turning around, went on
+placidly with his work of preparing breakfast. But he recognized the
+figure.
+
+"Weber!" he exclaimed.
+
+"None other!" said the Alsatian, facing about, and showing a cheery
+countenance. "I was in the boat just behind you when your own was
+demolished by the shell. In all the spray and foam and confusion I saw
+my chance, and dropping overboard from ours I floated with the stream. I
+had an idea that you might escape, and since you must come down the
+river between the two armies I also, for the same reasons, chose the
+same path. I came upon this cottage several hours ago, picked the
+fastenings of the door and to my astonishment and delight found you, my
+friend, unharmed, but sound asleep upon the bench there. I slept a while
+in the corner, then I undertook to make breakfast with provisions and
+utensils that I found in the forest. Ah, it was easy enough last night
+to find almost anything one wished. The fields and forest were full of
+dead men."
+
+"I provided myself in the same way, but I'm delighted to see you. I was
+never before in my life so lonely. How chance seems to throw us together
+so often!"
+
+"And we've both profited by it. The coffee is boiling now, Mr. Scott.
+I've a good German coffee pot and two cups that I took from the fallen.
+God rest their souls, they'll need them no more, while we do."
+
+"The battle goes on," said John, listening a moment at the window.
+
+"Somewhere on the hundred mile line it has continued without a break of
+an instant, and it may go on this way for a week or a month. Ah, it's a
+fearful war, Mr. Scott, and we've seen only the beginning! But drink the
+coffee now, while it's hot. And I've warmed too, some of the cold food
+from the knapsacks. German sausage is good at any time."
+
+"And just now it's heavenly. I'm glad we have such a plentiful supply of
+sausage and bread, even if we did have to take it from the dead. I want
+to tell you again how pleasant it is to see you here."
+
+"I feel that way too. We're like comrades united. Now if we only had
+your English friend Carstairs, your American friend Wharton, and Lannes
+we'd be quite a family group."
+
+"I fancy that we'll see Lannes before we do Carstairs and Wharton."
+
+"I think so too. He'll certainly be hovering today somewhere over the
+ground between the two armies--either to observe the Germans or more
+likely to carry messages between the French generals. I tell you, Mr.
+Scott, that Philip Lannes is perhaps the most wonderful young man in
+Europe. In addition to his extraordinary ability in the air he has
+courage, coolness, perception and quickness almost without equal.
+There's something Napoleonic about him."
+
+"You know he's descended from the family of the famous Marshal, Lannes,
+not from Lannes himself, but from a close relative, and the blood's the
+same. They say that blood will tell, and don't you think that the spirit
+of the great Lannes may have reappeared in Philip?"
+
+"It's altogether likely."
+
+"I've been thinking a lot about Napoleon. There's a wonderful picture of
+him as a young republican general in a room here. Perhaps it's the
+conditions around us, but at times I am sure the heroic days of the
+First Republic have returned to France. The spirit that animated Hoche
+and Marceau and Kleber and Bonaparte, before he became spoiled, seems to
+have descended upon the French. And there were Murat, Lannes and
+Lefebvre, and Berthier and the others. Think of that wonderful crowd of
+boys leading the republican armies to victories over all the kings! It
+seems to me the most marvelous thing in the history of war, since the
+Greeks turned back the Persians."
+
+Weber refilled his coffee cup, drank a portion of it, and said:
+
+"I have thought of it, Mr. Scott, I have thought of it more than once.
+It may be that the Gallic fury has been aroused. It has seemed so to me
+since the German armies were turned back from Paris. The French have
+burned more gunpowder than any other nation in Europe, and they're a
+fighting race. It would appear now that the Terrible Year, 1870, was
+merely an aggregation of mistakes, and did not represent either the
+wisdom or natural genius of the nation."
+
+"That is, the French were then far below normal, as we would say, but
+have now returned to their best, and that the two Kaisers made the
+mistake of thinking the French in their lowest form were the French in
+their usual form?"
+
+"It may be so," said Weber, thoughtfully. "Nations reckon their strength
+in peace, but only war itself discloses the fact. Evidently tremendous
+miscalculations have been made by somebody."
+
+"By somebody? By whom? That's why I'm against the Kaisers and all the
+secret business of the military monarchies. War made over night by a
+dozen men! a third of the world's population plunged into battle! and
+the rest drawn into the suffering some way or other! I don't like a lot
+of your European ways."
+
+Weber shook his head.
+
+"We've inherited kings," he said. "But how did you find this place?"
+
+"Accident. Stumbled on it, and mighty grateful I was, too. It kept me
+warm and dry after standing so long in the Marne I thought I was bound
+to turn into a fish. Isolated little place, but the Germans have been
+passing near. Before sleeping last night, I went out scouting and as I
+stood behind a hedge I saw a lot of them. I recognized in a motor the
+Very High Born, his High Mightiness, the owner of the earth, the Prince
+of Auersperg."
+
+Weber took another drink of coffee.
+
+"An able man and one of our most bitter enemies," he said. "A foe of
+democracy everywhere. I think he was to have been made governor of
+Paris, and then Paris would have known that it had a governor. I've seen
+him in Alsace, and I've heard a lot about him."
+
+"But all that's off now. I fancy that the next governor of Paris, if it
+should have a governor, will be a Frenchman. But the day is advancing,
+Weber; what do you think we ought to do?"
+
+"I've been thinking of your friend Lannes. I've an idea that he'll come
+for you, if he finds an interval in his duties."
+
+"But how could he possibly find me? Why, it's the old needle in the
+haystack business."
+
+"He couldn't unless we made some sort of signal."
+
+"There's no signal that I can make."
+
+"But there's one that I can. Look, Mr. Scott."
+
+He unbuttoned his long French coat, and took from his breast a roll of
+red, white and blue. He opened it and disclosed a French flag about four
+feet long.
+
+"If that were put in a conspicuous place," he said, "an aviator with
+glasses could see it a long way, and he would come to find out what it
+meant."
+
+"The top of a tree is the place for it!" exclaimed John. "Now if you
+only had around here a real tree, or two, in place of what we call
+saplings in my country, we might do some fine signaling with the flag."
+
+"We'll try it, but I think we should go a considerable distance from the
+cottage. If Germans instead of French should come then we'd have a
+better chance of escaping among the hedges and vineyards."
+
+John agreed with him and they quickly made ready, each taking his
+automatic and knapsack, and leaving the fire to die of itself on the
+hearth.
+
+"I'm telling that cottage good-bye with regret," said John, as they
+walked away. "I spent some normal and peaceful hours there last night
+and it's a neat little place. I hope its owners will be able to come
+back to it. As soon as I open the stable door, in order that the horse
+may go where he will, I'll be ready."
+
+He gave the big animal a friendly pat as he left and Marne gazed after
+him with envious sorrowful eyes.
+
+They walked a full mile, keeping close to the Marne, where the trees and
+bushes were thickest, and listened meanwhile to the fourth day's
+swelling roar of the battle. Its long continuance had made it even more
+depressing and terrifying than in its earlier stages. To John's mind, at
+least, it took on the form of a cataclysm, of some huge paroxysm of the
+earth. He ate to it, he slept to it, he woke to it, and now he was
+walking to it. The illusion was deepened by the fact that no human being
+save Weber was visible to him. The country between the two monstrous
+battle lines was silent and deserted.
+
+"Apparently," said Weber, "we're in no danger of human interference as
+we walk here."
+
+"Not unless a shell coming from a point fifteen miles or so beyond the
+hills should drop on us, or we should be pierced by an arrow from one of
+our Frenchmen in the clouds. But so far as I can see there's nothing
+above us, although I can make out one or two aeroplanes far toward the
+east."
+
+"The air is heavy and cloudy and that's against them, but they'll be out
+before long. You'll see. I think, Mr. Scott, that we'll find a good tree
+in that little grove of beeches there."
+
+"The tall one in the center. Yes, that'll suit us."
+
+They inspected the tree and then made a long circuit about it, finding
+nobody near. John, full of zeal and enthusiasm, volunteered to climb the
+tree and fasten the flag to its topmost stem, and Weber, after some
+claims on his own behalf, agreed. John was a good climber, alert, agile
+and full of strength, and he went up the trunk like an expert. It was an
+uncommonly tall tree for France, much more than a sapling, and when he
+reached the last bough that would support him he found that he could see
+over all the other trees and some of the low hills. At a little distance
+ran the Marne, a silver sheet, and he thought he could discern faint
+puffs of smoke on the hills beyond. No human being was in sight, but
+although high in the tree he could still feel the vibrations of the air
+beneath the throb of so many great guns. Several aeroplanes hovered at
+points far distant, and he knew that others would be on the long battle
+line.
+
+Reaching as high as he could he tied the flag with a piece of twine that
+Weber had given him--the Alsation seemed to have provided for
+everything--and then watched it as it unfolded and fluttered in the
+light breeze. He felt a certain pride, as he had done his part of the
+task well. The flag waved above the green leaves and any watcher of the
+skies could see it.
+
+"How does it show?" he called to Weber.
+
+"Well, indeed. You'd better climb down now. If the Germans come from the
+air they'll get you there, and if they come on land they'll have you in
+the tree. You'll be caught between air and earth."
+
+"That being the case I'll come down at once," said John, and he
+descended the tree rapidly. At Weber's advice they withdrew to a cluster
+of vines growing near, where they would be well hidden, since their
+signal was as likely to draw enemies as friends.
+
+"I think Lannes will surely see that flag," said Weber.
+
+"Why do you have such great confidence in his coming?" asked John.
+
+"He inspires confidence, when you see him, and there's his reputation.
+I've an idea that he'll be carrying dispatches between the two wings of
+the French army, dispatches of vast importance, since the different
+French forces have to cooperate now along a line of four or five score
+miles. Of course the telephone and the telegraph are at work, too, but
+the value of the aeroplane as a scout and dispatch bearer cannot be over
+estimated."
+
+"One is coming now," said John, "and I think it has been attracted by
+our flag. I take it to be German."
+
+"Then we'd better keep very close. Still, there's little chance of our
+being seen here, and the aviators, even if they suspect a presence,
+can't afford to descend, leave their planes and search for anybody."
+
+"I agree with you there. One can remain here in comparative safety and
+watch the results of our signal. That machine is coming fast and I'm
+quite sure it's German."
+
+"An armored machine with two men and a light rapid fire gun in it.
+Beyond a doubt it will circle about our tree."
+
+The plane was very near now, and assuredly it was German. John could
+discern the Teutonic cast of their countenances, as the two men in it
+leaned over and looked at the flag. They dropped lower and lower and
+then flew in circles about the tree. John, despite his anxiety and
+suspense, could not fail to notice the humorous phase of it. The plane
+certainly could not effect a landing in the boughs, and if it descended
+to the ground in order that one of their number might get out, climb the
+tree and capture the flag, they would incur the danger of a sudden swoop
+from French machines. Besides, the flag would be of no value to them,
+unless they knew who put it there and why.
+
+"The Germans, of course, see that it's a French flag," he said to
+Weber. "I wonder what they're going to do."
+
+"I think they'll have to leave it," said Weber, "because I can now see
+other aeroplanes to the west, aeroplanes which may be French, and they
+dare not linger too long."
+
+"And our little flag may make a big disturbance in the heavens."
+
+"So it seems."
+
+The German plane made circle after circle around the tree, finally drew
+off to some distance, and then, as it wavered back and forth, its
+machine gun began to spit fire. Little boughs and leaves cut from the
+tree fell to the ground, but the flag, untouched, fluttered defiantly in
+the light breeze.
+
+"They're trying to shoot it down," said John, "and with such an unsteady
+gun platform they've missed every time."
+
+"I doubt whether they'll continue firing," said Weber. "An aeroplane
+doesn't carry any great amount of ammunition and they can't afford to
+waste much."
+
+"They're through now," said John. "See, they're flying away toward the
+east, and unless my imagination deceives me, their machine actually
+looks crestfallen, while our flag is snapping away in the wind, haughty
+and defiant."
+
+"A vivid fancy yours, Mr. Scott, but it's easy to imagine that German
+machine looking cheap, because that's just the way the men on board it
+must feel. Suppose we sit down here and take our ease. No flying man
+can see through those vines over our heads, and we can watch in safety.
+We're sure to draw other scouts of the air, while for us it's an
+interesting and comparatively safe experience."
+
+"Our flag is certainly an attraction," said John, making himself
+comfortable on the ground. "There's a bird of passage now, coming down
+from the north as swift as a swallow."
+
+"It's a little monoplane," said Weber, "and it certainly resembles a
+swallow, as it comes like a flash toward this tree. I thought at first
+it might be Lannes in the _Arrow_, but the plane is too small, and it's
+of German make."
+
+"I fancy it won't linger long. This is not a healthy bit of space for
+lone fellows in monoplanes."
+
+The little plane slackened its speed, as it approached the tree, and
+then sailed by it at a moderate rate. When it was opposite the flag a
+spurt of flame came from the pistol of the man in it, and John actually
+laughed.
+
+"That was sheer spite," he said. "Did he think he could shoot our flag
+away with a single bullet from a pistol when a machine gun has just
+failed? That's right, turn about and make off as fast as you can, you
+poor little mono!"
+
+The monoplane also curved around the tree, but did not make a series of
+circles. Instead, when its prow was turned northward it darted off again
+in that direction, going even more swiftly than it had come, as if the
+aviator were ashamed of himself and wished to get away as soon as
+possible from the scene of his disgrace. Away and away it flew,
+dwindling to a black speck and then to nothing.
+
+John's shoulders shook, and Weber, looking at him, was forced to smile
+too.
+
+"Well, it was funny," he said. "Our flag is certainly making a stir in
+the heavens."
+
+"I wonder what will come next," said John. "It's like bait drawing birds
+of prey."
+
+The heavens were now beautifully clear, a vault of blue velvet, against
+which anything would show. Far away the cannon groaned and thundered,
+and the waves of air pulsed heavily, but John noticed neither now. His
+whole attention was centered upon the flag, and what it might call from
+the air.
+
+"In such a brilliant atmosphere we can certainly see our visitors from
+afar," he said.
+
+"So we can," said Weber, "and lo! another appears out of the east!"
+
+The dark speck showed on the horizon and grew fast, coming apparently
+straight in their direction. John did not believe it had seen their flag
+at first, owing to the great distance, but was either a messenger or a
+scout. As it soon began to descend from its great height in the air,
+although still preserving a straight course for the tree, he felt sure
+that the flag had now come into its view. It grew very fast in size and
+was outlined with startling clearness against the burning blue of the
+sky.
+
+The approaching machine consisted of two planes alike in shape and size,
+superimposed and about six feet apart, the whole with a stabilizing tail
+about ten feet long and six feet broad. John saw as it approached that
+the aviator sat before the motor and screw, but that the elevating and
+steering rudders were placed in front of him. There were three men
+besides the aviator in the machine.
+
+"A biplane," said John.
+
+"Yes," said Weber, "I recognize the type of the machine. It's originally
+a French model."
+
+"But in this case, undoubtedly a German imitation. They've seen our
+flag, because I can make out one of the men with glasses to his eyes.
+They hover about as if in uncertainty. No wonder they can't make up
+their minds, because there's the tricolor floating from the top of that
+tall tree, and not a thing in the world to explain why it's in such a
+place. A man with a rifle is about to take a shot at it. Bang! There it
+goes! But I can't see that the bullet has damaged our flag. Look, how it
+whips about and snaps defiance! Now, all the men except the aviator
+himself have out glasses and are studying the phenomenon of our signal.
+They come above the tree, and I think they're going to make a swoop
+around the grove near the ground. Lie close, Weber! As I found out once
+before, a thick forest is the best defense against aeroplanes. They
+can't get through the screen of boughs."
+
+They heard a whirring and drumming, and the biplane not more than fifty
+feet above the earth made several circles about the little wood. John
+saw the men in it very clearly. He could even discern the German cast of
+countenance where all except the one at the wheel that controlled the
+two rudders had thrown back their hoods and taken off their glasses.
+The three carried rifles which they held ready for use, in case they
+detected an enemy.
+
+Whirling around like a vast primeval bird of prey the biplane began to
+rise, as if disappointed of a victim, and winding upward was soon above
+the trees. Then John heard the rapid crackle of rifles.
+
+"Shooting at our flag again!" he exclaimed.
+
+But the whizz of a bullet that buried itself in the earth near him told
+him better.
+
+"It isn't possible that they've seen us!" he exclaimed.
+
+"No," said Weber, "they're merely peppering the woods and vines in the
+hope that they'll hit a concealed enemy, if such there should be."
+
+"That being the case," said John, "I'm going to make my body as small as
+possible, and push myself into the ground if I can."
+
+He lay very close, but the rifle fire quickly passed to other portions
+of the wood, and then died away entirely. John straightened himself out
+and saw the biplane becoming smaller, as it flew off in the direction
+whence it had come.
+
+"I hope you'll come to no good," he said, shaking his fist at the
+disappearing plane. "You've scared me half to death with your shots, and
+I hope that both your rudders will get out of gear and stay out of gear!
+I hope that the wheel controlling them will be smashed up! I hope that
+the top plane will crash into the bottom one! I hope that a French shell
+will shoot your tail off! And I hope that you'll tumble to the earth and
+lie there, nothing but a heap of rotting wood and rusty old metal!"
+
+"Well done, Mr. Scott!" said Weber. "That was quite a curse, but I think
+it will take something more solid to disable the biplane."
+
+"I think so too, but I've relieved my feelings, and after a man has done
+so he can work a lot better. What are we to look for now, Weber? We
+don't seem to have success in attracting anything but Germans. If Lannes
+is coming at all, as you think he will, he'll get a pretty late ticket
+of admission to our reserved section of the air."
+
+"You must remember that the sky above us is a pretty large place, and at
+any rate we're a drawing power. We're always pulling something out of
+the ether."
+
+"And our biggest catch is coming now! Look, Weber, look I If that isn't
+one of Herr Zeppelin's railroad trains of the air then I'll eat it when
+it gets here!"
+
+"You're right, Mr. Scott. There the monster comes. It can't be anything
+but a Zeppelin! They must have one of their big sheds not far east of
+us."
+
+"We'll hear its rattling soon. Like the others it will surely see our
+flag and make for it. But if they take a notion to shoot up the wood, as
+the men on that biplane did, we'd better hunt holes. A Zeppelin can
+carry a lot of soldiers."
+
+The Zeppelin was not moving fast. It had none of the quick graceful
+movements of the aeroplanes, but came on slowly like some huge monster
+of the air, looking about for prey. It turned southeast for a moment or
+two, then some one on board saw the flag and coming back it lumbered
+toward the tree.
+
+"Ugly things," said John. "Lannes and I blew up one once, and I wish I
+had the same chance against that fellow up there. But they're in the
+same puzzled state that the other fellows were. Men on both platforms
+are examining the flag through glasses, and the flag doesn't give a rap
+for them. It's standing out in the wind, now, straight and stiff. It
+seems to know that old Noah's ark can't make it out."
+
+The huge Zeppelin drew its length along the grove, coming as close to
+the trees as it dared, then passed above, and after some circling
+lumbered away to the south.
+
+"Good-bye, old Mr. Curiosity," exclaimed John. "You weren't invited
+here, and I don't care whether you ever come again. Besides, you're
+nothing but a big bluff, anyway. There's our flag, still standing
+straight out in the wind, so you can see every stripe on it, and yet you
+haven't, despite your visit, the remotest idea why it was put there!"
+
+Weber smiled.
+
+"They've all gone away as ignorant as they were when they came," he
+said, "but we must be due for a French visitor or two. After so long a
+run of Germans we should have Frenchmen soon."
+
+"I begin to believe with you that Lannes will arrive some time or other.
+He flies fast and far and in time he must see our signal."
+
+"I've never doubted it. Meanwhile I think I'll take a little luncheon,
+and I'd advise you to do the same. We haven't had such a bad time here,
+saving those random rifle shots from the biplane."
+
+"Not at all. It's like watching a play, and you certainly have a clear
+field for observation, when you look up at the heavens. The stage is
+always in full view."
+
+John was feeling uncommonly good. Their concealment while they watched
+the scouts and messengers from the skies coming to see the meaning of
+the flag had been easy and restful. Much of his long and painful tension
+had relaxed. The hum of distant artillery was in his ears as ever, like
+a moaning of the wind, but he was growing so used to it that he would
+now have noticed its absence rather than its presence. So he ate his
+share of bread and sausage with a good appetite, meanwhile keeping a
+watchful eye upon the heavens which burned in the same brilliant blue.
+
+It was now about noon. The rain the night before had given fresh tints
+to the green of grass and foliage. The whole earth, indifferent to the
+puny millions that struggled on its vast bosom, seemed refreshed and
+revitalized. A modest little bird in brown plumage perched on a bough
+near them, and, indifferent too, to war, poured forth a brilliant volume
+of song.
+
+"Happy little fellow," John said. "Nothing to do but eat and sleep and
+sing."
+
+"Unless he's snapped up by some bigger bird," said Weber, "but having
+been an hour without callers we're now about to have a new one. And as
+this comes from the west it's likely to be French."
+
+John felt excitement, and stood up. Yes, there was the machine coming
+out of the blue haze in the west, soaring beautifully and fast. It was
+very high, but his eye, trained now, saw that it was descending
+gradually. He felt an intense hope that it was Lannes, but he soon knew
+that it was not lie. The approaching machine could not possibly be the
+_Arrow_.
+
+"It's a Bleriot monoplane," said Weber. "I can tell the type almost as
+far as I can see it. It's much like a gigantic bird, with powerful
+parchment wings mounted upon a strong body. The wings as you see now
+present a concave surface to the earth. They always do that. The flyer
+sits between the two wings and has in front of him the lever with which
+he controls the whole affair."
+
+"You seem to know a good deal about flying machines, Weber."
+
+"Oh, yes, I've observed them a lot. I've always been curious about them
+and I've attended the great flying meets at Rheims, but personally I'm a
+coward about heights. I study the types of these wonderful machines, but
+I don't go up in 'em. That's a little fellow coming now and he's seen
+the flag."
+
+"There's only one man in the plane, but as he's undoubtedly French what
+do you think we ought to do? He can't carry us away with him in the
+machine, it's too small. Do you think we should signal him to come to
+the ground and have a talk?"
+
+"Perhaps we'd better let him pass, Mr. Scott. We have no real
+information to give. He might suspect that we are Germans and a lot of
+time would be lost maneuvering. Suppose we remain in hiding, and say
+nothing until Lannes himself appears."
+
+"You still feel sure that he will come?"
+
+"It's a conviction."
+
+"Same way with me, and I agree with you that we'd better let our friend
+in the Bleriot go by. He's descending fast now. The plane certainly does
+look like a bird. Reminds me somewhat of a German Taube, though this
+machine is much smaller."
+
+"The pilot will take only a look or two at the flag. Then, if we don't
+hail him, he'll sail swiftly back to the west."
+
+"For good reasons too. The air here is chiefly in the German sphere of
+influence, and if I were in his place I'd take to my heels too at a
+single glance."
+
+"That's what he's doing now. He's flying past the flag just as one of
+the Germans did. He leans over to take a look at it, can't make out what
+it means, glances back apprehensively toward the German quarter of the
+heavens, and now he's sliding like a streak through the blue for French
+air."
+
+"So near and yet so far! A friend in the air just over our heads, and we
+had to let him go. Well, he couldn't have done us any good."
+
+"No, he couldn't, and he's gone back so fast that he's out of sight
+already, but another and different inhabitant of the air is coming out
+of the south. See, the shape off there, Mr. Scott. Wait until it comes
+nearer, and I think I can tell you what it is. Now it's made out the
+flag and is steering for it."
+
+"What class of plane is it, Weber? Can you tell that yet?"
+
+"Yes. It's an Esnault-Pelterie, an invention of a young Frenchman. It's
+a monoplane with flexible, warped wings. It's made of steel tubes,
+welded together, and it has two wheels, one behind the other for contact
+with the ground."
+
+"I noticed something queer in its appearance. It's the wheels. I don't
+call this machine any great beauty, but it seems to cut the air well. I
+suppose we'd better treat it as we did the Bleriot--let it go as it
+came, none the worse and none the wiser?"
+
+"I think so. But we have no other choice! That flyer is a suspicious
+fellow and he isn't taking any chances. He's come fairly close to the
+flag, and now he's sheering off at an angle."
+
+"I don't blame him. He probably has something more important to do than
+to unravel the meaning of a flag in a tree top."
+
+"Nor I either. But whatever comes we'll wait for Lannes, always for
+Lannes. The heavens here, Mr. Scott, are peopled with strange birds, but
+of all the lot there is one particular bird for which we are looking."
+
+"Right again. My eyes have grown a little weary of watching the skies.
+For a long stare, blue isn't as soft and easy a sight as green, and I
+think I'll look at the grass and leaves for a little while."
+
+"Then while you rest I'll keep an outlook and when I'm tired you can
+relieve me."
+
+"Good enough."
+
+John lay down in the grass and rested his body while he eased his worn
+eyes. Weber commented now and then on the new birds in the heavens,
+aeroplanes of all kinds, but they kept their distance.
+
+"The air over us is not held now by either French or Germans," said
+Weber, "and I imagine that only the more daring make incursions into it.
+Perhaps, too, they are kept busy elsewhere, because, as my ears
+distinctly tell me, the battle is increasing in volume."
+
+"I noticed the swelling fire when I lay down here," said John. "It seems
+a strange thing, but for a while I had forgotten all about the battle."
+
+Presently Weber took his eyes from the heavens, moved about and looked
+uneasy.
+
+"If I'm not mistaken," he said, "I caught a glimpse of steel down the
+river. I think it was a lance head glittering in the sun, and Uhlans may
+be near."
+
+"How far away do you think it was."
+
+"A half-mile or more. I must take a look in that direction. I'm a good
+scout, Mr. Scott, and I'll see what's up. Watch here will you, until I
+come back? It may be some time."
+
+"All right, but don't get yourself captured, Weber. I'd be mighty
+lonesome without you."
+
+"Don't fear for me. Of course, as I told you, I'll be gone for some
+time, and if I may suggest, Mr. Scott, I wouldn't move from among the
+vines."
+
+"Catch me doing it! I'll say here in my green bower and as my eyes are
+back in form I'll watch the heavens."
+
+"Good-bye, then, for a while."
+
+Weber slipped away. His tread was so light that he vanished, as if he
+had melted into air.
+
+"That man would certainly have made a good scout in our old Indian
+days," thought John, and with the thought came the conviction that Weber
+was too clever to let himself be caught. Then he turned his attention
+back to the heavens.
+
+They were now well on into the afternoon, and the sun was at the zenith.
+A haze of gold shimmered against the vast blue vault. A wind perfumed
+with grass and green leaves, brought also the ceaseless roar of the
+guns, and now and then the bitter taste of burned gunpowder. The faint
+trembling of the earth, or rather of the air just above it, went on, and
+John, turning about in his little bower, surveyed the heavens from all
+quarters.
+
+He saw shapes, faint, dark and floating on every horizon, but none of
+them came near until a full half-hour had elapsed. Then one shot out of
+the west, sailed toward the northeast, but curving suddenly, came back
+in the direction of the tree. As the shape grew larger and more defined
+John's heart began to throb. He had seen many aeroplanes that day, and
+most of them had been swift and graceful, but none was as swift and
+graceful as the one that was now coming.
+
+It was a machine, beautiful in shape, and as lithe and fast as the
+darting swallow. There could be none other like it in the heavens, and
+his heart throbbed harder. Intuition, perhaps, was back of knowledge and
+he never for a moment doubted that it was he for whom they had looked so
+long.
+
+The aeroplane seemed fairly to shoot out of space. First its outlines
+became visible, and then the man at the rudder. He came straight toward
+the tree, dropped low and circled about it, while John rushed from the
+vines and cried as loud as he could:
+
+"Lannes! Lannes, it's me! John Scott! I've been waiting for you!"
+
+The _Arrow_ dropped further, barely touched the earth, and Lannes,
+leaning over, shouted to John in tones, tense and sharp with command:
+
+"Give the plane a shove with all your might, and jump in. For God's sake
+don't linger, man! Jump!"
+
+The impulse communicated by Lannes was so powerful that before he knew
+what he was doing John pushed the _Arrow_ violently and sprang into the
+extra seat, just as it was leaving the earth.
+
+Lannes gave the rudder a strong twist and the aeroplane shot up like a
+mounting bird. John got back his breath and presence of mind.
+
+"Wait, Philip! Wait!" he cried. "We're leaving behind our friend Weber!
+He's down there, somewhere by the river!"
+
+Lannes made no reply. The _Arrow_ continued its rise, sharp and swift,
+and John heard a crackling sound below. Little missiles, steel and
+deadly, shot by them. One passed so close to his face that his breath
+went again. When he recovered it once more the _Arrow_, its inmates,
+unharmed, was far above the range of rifles, flying in a circle.
+
+"Look down, John," said Lannes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+OLD FRIENDS
+
+
+John, obeying Lannes' command, glanced down, as one looks over the side
+of a ship toward the sea, and he saw many horsemen galloping across the
+field. He recognized at once the Uhlans, and, for all he knew; they
+might be von Boehlen's own command.
+
+"Hand me your glasses, will you?" he said.
+
+When Lannes passed them to him he looked long and well, but he did not
+see any sign of a prisoner among the Prussians. He also searched the
+woods and other fields near by, but they were empty. The whole Prussian
+force was gathered beneath them. John breathed a deep sigh of relief.
+
+"It's evident that Weber has escaped," he said. "Doubtless this was the
+very troop of Uhlans of which the Alsatian had caught a glimpse. He is
+clever and swift and I've no doubt he found a covert."
+
+"I'm sorry we had to leave him," said Lannes, "but there was no other
+choice. I came to the tree to examine the flag, and being above I saw
+the Uhlans nearby before you did. Then I heard your shout and dropped
+down. But as I knew the Uhlans were coming for us I made you jump almost
+before you knew it, and we got away by a hair. The _Arrow_ was struck
+twice, but the bullets glanced off its polished sides. There are two
+slight scars, but I can have them removed."
+
+John laughed.
+
+"Philip," he said, "I believe you love the _Arrow_ as a fellow loves his
+best girl."
+
+"Well spoken, Monsieur Jean the Scott, and the _Arrow_ never fails me.
+And so you've been with Weber?"
+
+"It's a long tale. I was in a boat crossing the Marne. It was sunk by
+one of the French shells, and I escaped. I reached the deserted cottage
+of a peasant, and Weber, who was wandering around, happened to come
+there, too. We've been trying to escape today, and we put that flag up
+in the tree as a sort of signal, while we hid among the vines below,
+until you should come, as he believed you would. He was right, but he
+was unlucky enough to be absent when you arrived." "Maybe it couldn't
+have happened in a better way. The _Arrow_ can carry only two, and I
+don't know what we'd have done with him. He's a clever fellow and he'll
+make his way back to the army."
+
+"I hope so, in fact I feel so. But, Philip, it's glorious to be with you
+again, and to be up here, where the bullets can't reach you."
+
+"That is, so long as the German flyers don't come near enough to take
+shots at us."
+
+"I don't see any in sight, and meanwhile I intend to be comfortable.
+Good old _Arrow_! The best little rescuer in the world! Lannes, I
+believe it's a large part of your business to fly about over fields of
+battle and rescue me."
+
+"You certainly give me plenty of opportunities," laughed Lannes.
+
+"What's been happening? I fancy that a lot of water has flowed under the
+bridges of the Marne since I left you."
+
+"We continue to gain," replied Lannes, with quiet satisfaction. "We
+press the German armies back everywhere. Our supreme chief is a silent
+man, but he has delivered a master stroke. We've emerged from the very
+gulf of defeat and despair to the heights of victory. We're not only
+driving the Germans across the Marne, but we're driving them further.
+Moreover, their armies are cut apart, and one is fighting for its
+existence, just as the French and English were fighting for theirs in
+that terrible retreat from Mons and Charleroi."
+
+"It's glorious, but we mustn't be too sanguine, Lannes. The powers that
+overcome the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires will not forget for a
+hundred years that they had a war."
+
+"You're not telling me any news, Monsieur Jean the Scott. I've been in
+Germany often, and like you I've seen what they have and what they are.
+We're only beginning."
+
+"Where are you going now, Philip?"
+
+"Toward the end of our line. I've some dispatches for the commander of
+the British force. Your friends, Carstairs and Wharton, are there, and
+you may see them. But I understand that the Strangers are to remain with
+the French, so you, Carstairs and Wharton will have to consider
+yourselves Frenchmen and stay under our banner."
+
+"That's all right. I hope we'll be under the command of General
+Vaugirard. Do you know anything of him?"
+
+"Not today, but he was alive yesterday. Take the glasses now, John, will
+you, and be my eyes as you have been before. One needs to watch the
+heavens all the time."
+
+John took Lannes' powerful glasses, and objects invisible before leaped
+into view.
+
+"I see two or three rivers, a dozen villages, and troops," he said. "The
+troops are to the west, and although they are this side of the Marne, I
+should judge that they are ours."
+
+"Ours undoubtedly," said Lannes, glancing the way John's glasses
+pointed. "Not less than a hundred thousand of our men have crossed the
+Marne at that point, and more will soon be coming. It's a part of the
+great wedge thrust forward by our chief. But keep your eye on the air,
+John. What do you see there?"
+
+"Nothing that's near. In the east I barely catch seven or eight black
+dots that I take to be German aeroplanes, but they seem to be content
+with hovering over their own lines. They don't approach."
+
+"Doubtless they don't, because they're beginning to watch the air over
+the Marne as a danger zone. That pretty little signal of yours may have
+scared them."
+
+Lannes laughed. It was evident that he was in a most excellent humor.
+
+"All right, have your fun," said John, showing his own teeth in a smile.
+"If our flag didn't frighten away the German army it at least achieved
+what we wanted, that is, it brought you. The whole episode would be
+perfect if it were not for the fact that we lost sight of Weber."
+
+"I tell you again not to worry about him. That man has shown uncommon
+ability to take care of himself."
+
+"All right. I'll let him go for the present. Hello, here we are crossing
+the Marne again, and without getting our feet wet."
+
+"We're a good half mile above it, but we'll cross it once more soon. I'm
+following the shortest road to the British army and that takes us over a
+loop of the river."
+
+"Yes, here we are recrossing, and now we're coming to a region of
+chequered fields, green and brown and yellow. I always like these varied
+colors of the French country. It's a beautiful land down there, Philip."
+
+"So it is, but see if it isn't defaced by sixty or seventy thousand
+sunburnt men in khaki, the khaki often stained with blood. The men, too,
+should be tired to death, but you can't tell that from this height."
+
+"The British army you mean? Yes, by all that's glorious, I see them, or
+at least a part of them! I see thousands of men lying down in the
+fields as if they were dead."
+
+"They're not dead, though. They just drop in their tracks and sleep in
+any position."
+
+"I saw the Germans doing that, too. I suppose we'll land soon, Philip,
+won't we? They've sighted us and a plane is coming forward to meet us."
+
+"We'll make for the meadow over there just beyond the little stream. I
+think I can discern the general's marquee, and I must deliver my message
+as soon as possible. Wave to that fellow that we're friends."
+
+An English aeroplane was now very near them and John, leaning over, made
+gestures of amity. Although the aviator's head was almost completely
+enshrouded in a hood, he discerned a typically British face.
+
+"Kings of the air, with dispatches for your general!" John cried. He
+knew that the man would not hear him, but he was so exultant that he
+wanted to say something, to shout to him, or in the slang of his own
+land, to let off steam.
+
+But while the English aviator could not understand the words the
+gestures were clear to him, and he waved a hand in friendly fashion.
+Then, wheeling in a fine circle, he came back by their side as an
+escort.
+
+The _Arrow_, like a bird, folding its wings, sank gracefully into the
+meadow, and Lannes, hastily jumping out, asked John to look after the
+aeroplane. Then he rushed toward a group of officers, among whom he
+recognized the chief of the army.
+
+John himself disembarked stiffly, and stretched his limbs, while several
+young Englishmen looked at him curiously. He had learned long since how
+to deal with Englishmen, that is to take no notice of them until they
+made their presence known, and then to acquiesce slowly and reluctantly
+in their existence. So, he took short steps back and forth on the grass,
+flexing and tensing his muscles, as abstractedly as if he were alone on
+a desert island.
+
+"I say," said a handsome fair young man at last, "would you mind telling
+us, old chap, where you come from?"
+
+John continued to stretch his muscles and took several long and deep
+breaths. After the delay he turned to the fair young man and said:
+
+"Beg pardon, but did you speak to me?"
+
+The Englishman flushed a little and pulled at his yellow mustache. An
+older man said:
+
+"Don't press His Highness, Lord James. Don't you see that he's an
+American and therefore privileged?"
+
+"I'm privileged," said John, "because I was with you fellows from
+Belgium to Paris, and since then I've been away saving you from the
+Germans."
+
+Lord James laughed. He had a fine face and all embarrassment disappeared
+from it.
+
+"We want to be friends," he said. "Shake hands."
+
+John shook. He also shook the hand of the older man and several others.
+Then he explained who he was, and told who had come with him, none less
+than the famous young French aviator, Philip Lannes.
+
+"Lannes," said Mr. Yellow Mustache, who, John soon learned, was Lord
+James Ivor. "Why, we've all heard of him. He's come to the chief with
+messages a half-dozen times since this battle began, and I judge from
+the way he rushed to him just now that he has another, that can't be
+delayed."
+
+"I think so, too," said John, "although I don't know anything about it
+myself. He's a close-mouthed fellow. But do any of you happen to have
+heard of an Englishman, Carstairs, and an American, Wharton, who belong
+to a company called the Strangers in the French army, but who must be at
+present with you--that is, if they're alive?"
+
+John's voice dropped a little, as he added the last words, but Lord
+James Ivor walked to the brow of a low hill, called to somebody beyond,
+and then walked back.
+
+"It's a happy chance that I can tell you what you want to know," he
+said. "Those two men have been serving in my own company, and they're
+both alive and well. But they were lying on the grass there, dead to the
+world, that is, sleeping, as if they were two of the original seven
+sleepers."
+
+Two figures appeared on the brow of the hill, gazed at first in a
+puzzled manner at John and then, uttering shouts of welcome, rushed
+toward him. Carstairs seized him by one hand and Wharton by the other.
+
+"Not killed, I see," said Carstairs.
+
+"Nor is he going to be killed," said Wharton.
+
+"Now, where have you been?" asked Carstairs.
+
+"Yes, where have you been?" asked Wharton.
+
+"I've been taking a couple of pleasure trips with my friend, Lannes,"
+replied John. "Between trips I was a prisoner of the Germans, and I've
+seen a lot of the great battle. Has the British army suffered much?"
+
+A shade flitted over the face of Carstairs as he replied:
+
+"We haven't been shot up so much since Waterloo. It's been appalling.
+For days and nights we've been fighting and marching. Whenever we
+stopped even for a moment we fell on the ground and were asleep before
+we touched it. Half the fellows I knew have been killed. I think as long
+as I live I'll hear the drumming of those guns in my ears, and, confound
+'em, I still hear 'em in reality now. If you turn your attention to it
+you can hear the confounded business quite plainly! But what I do know,
+Scott, is that we've been winning! I don't know where I am and I haven't
+a clear idea of what I've been doing all the time, but as sure as we're
+in France the victory is ours."
+
+"But won by the French chiefly" John could not keep from saying.
+
+"Quite true. Our own army is not large, but it has done as much per
+man."
+
+"And the moral support," added John. "The French have felt the presence
+of a friend, a friend, too, who in six months will be ten times as
+strong as he is now."
+
+"Where is Lannes?" asked Wharton.
+
+"He's got your job, Wharton," replied John with a smile. "He's Envoy
+Extraordinary and Bearer of Messages concerning Life and Death between
+the armies. As soon as he landed he went directly to the British
+commander, and they're now conferring in a tent. That will never happen
+to you. You will never be closeted with the leader of a great army."
+
+"I don't know. I may not be able to fly like the Frenchman, but he can't
+handle the wireless as I can, and he isn't the chain-lightning chauffeur
+that Carstairs is. Please to remember those facts."
+
+"I do. But here comes Lannes, the man of mystery."
+
+Lannes seemed preoccupied, but he greeted Carstairs and Wharton warmly.
+
+"I'm about to take another flight," he said. "No, thank you so much, but
+I've time neither to eat nor to drink. I must fly at once, though it's
+to be a short flight. Take care of my friend, Monsieur Jean the Scott,
+while I'm gone, won't you? Don't let him wander into German hands again,
+because I won't have time to go for him once more."
+
+"We won't!" said Carstairs and Wharton with one voice. "Having got him
+back we're going to keep him."
+
+Lannes smiling sprang into the _Arrow_. The willing young Englishmen
+gave it a mighty push, and rising into the blue afternoon sky he sailed
+away toward the south.
+
+"He'll be back all right," said Carstairs. "I've come to the conclusion
+that nothing can ever catch that fellow. He's a wonder, he is. One of
+the most difficult jobs I have, Scott, is to give the French all the
+credit that's due 'em. I've been trained, as all other Englishmen were,
+to consider 'em pretty poor stuff that we've licked regularly for a
+thousand years, and here we suddenly find 'em heroes and
+brothers-in-arms. It's all the fault of the writers. Was it Shakespeare
+who said: 'Methinks that five Frenchmen on one pair of English legs did
+walk?'"
+
+"No," said Lord James Ivor, "It was the other way around. 'Methinks that
+one Englishman on five pairs of French legs did walk.'"
+
+"I'm not so sure about the number, either," interjected Wharton. "Are
+you positive it was five?"
+
+"Whatever it was," said Carstairs, "the Frenchman was slandered, and by
+our own great bard, too. But come and take something with us, if Lord
+James, our immediate chief, is willing."
+
+"He's willing, and he'll go with you," said Lord James Ivor. "I need a
+bite myself and in war like this a man can't afford to neglect food and
+drink, when the chance is offered."
+
+"The habits of you Europeans are strong," said John, whose spirits were
+still exuberant. "If you didn't have to stop now and then to work or to
+fight you'd eat all the time. One meal would merge into another, making
+a beautiful, savory chain linked together. I know the Englishman's
+heaven perfectly well. It's made of lakes of ale, beer, porter and
+Scotch highballs, surrounded by high banks of cheese, mutton and roast
+beef."
+
+"There could be worse heavens," said Carstairs, "and if it should happen
+that way it wouldn't be long before you Yankees would be trying to break
+out of your heaven and into ours. But here's a taste of it now, the
+cheese, for instance, and the beer, although it's in bottles."
+
+A spry Tommy Atkins served them, and John, thankful at heart, ate and
+drank with the best of them. And while they ate the pulsing waves of air
+from the battle beat upon their ears. It seemed to these young men to
+have been beating that way for weeks.
+
+"Lannes will be back soon," said John to Carstairs and Wharton, "and
+he'll tear you away from your friends here. You think, Carstairs, that
+you're an Englishman, and you're convinced, Wharton, that you're an
+American, but you're both wrong. You're Frenchmen, and you're going back
+to the French army, where you belong. Then Captain Daniel Colton of the
+Strangers will want to know from you why you haven't returned sooner."
+
+"But how are we to go?" said Carstairs.
+
+"And where are we to go?" said Wharton.
+
+"I'd go in a minute," added Carstairs, "if the German army would let
+me."
+
+"So would I," said Wharton, "but the Germans fight so hard that we can't
+get away."
+
+"Lannes will attend to all those matters," said John. "I'll rest until
+he comes, if I have the chance. Is that your artillery firing?"
+
+"It's our big guns out in front," said Lord James Ivor. "Jove, but what
+work they've done! A lot of our guns have been smashed, one half of our
+gunners maybe have been smashed with 'em, but they've never flinched.
+They covered our retreat from Belgium, and they've been the heralds of
+our advance here on the Marne! Listen to 'em! How they talk!"
+
+The heavy crash of guns far in front and the thunder of the German guns
+replying came back to their ears. It was a louder note in the general
+and ceaseless murmur of the battle, but the young men paid it only a
+passing moment of attention. Carstairs presently added as an
+afterthought:
+
+"Unless Lannes returns soon I don't think we'll hear from him. That
+blaze of the guns in front of us indicates close fighting again, and
+we'll probably be ordered forward soon."
+
+"I don't think so," said Lord James Ivor. "Our guns and the German guns
+will talk together for quite a while before the infantry advance. You
+can spend a good two hours with us yet, and still have time to depart
+for the French army."
+
+It was evident that Lord James Ivor knew what he was talking about,
+since, as far as John could see, the khaki army lay outspread on the
+turf. These men were too much exhausted and too much dulled to danger to
+stir merely because the cannon were blazing. It took the sharp orders of
+their officers to move them. Shells from the German guns began to fall
+along the fringe of the troops, but thousands slept heavily on.
+
+John, after disposing of the excellent rations offered to him, sat down
+on the grass with Wharton, Carstairs and Lord James Ivor. The sun was
+now waning, but the western sky was full of gold, and the yellow rays
+slanting across the hills and fields made them vivid with light. Lord
+James handed his glasses to John with the remark:
+
+"Would you like to take a look there toward the east, Scott?"
+
+John with the help of the glasses discerned the English batteries in
+action. He saw the men working about them, the muzzles pointing upward,
+and then the flash. Some of the guns were completely hidden in foliage,
+and he could detect their presence only by the heavy detonations coming
+from such points. Yet, like many of the English soldiers about him,
+John's mind did not respond to so much battle. He looked at the flashes,
+and he listened to the reports without emotion. His senses had become
+dulled by it, and registered no impressions.
+
+"We've masked our batteries as much as possible," said Lord James. "The
+Germans are great fellows at hiding their big guns. They use every clump
+of wood, hay stacks, stray stacks and anything else, behind which you
+could put a piece of artillery. They trained harder before the war, but
+we'll soon be able to match 'em."
+
+While Lord James was talking, John turned the glasses to the south and
+watched the sky. He had observed two black dots, both of which grew fast
+into the shape of aeroplanes. One, he knew, was the _Arrow_. He had
+learned to recognize the plane at a vast distance. It was something in
+the shape or a trick of motion perhaps, almost like that of a human
+being, with which he had become familiar and which he could not mistake.
+The other plane, by the side of Lannes' machine, bothered him. It was
+much larger than the _Arrow_, but they seemed to be on terms of perfect
+friendship, each the consort of the other.
+
+"Lannes is coming," announced John. "He's four or five miles to the
+south and he's about a quarter of a mile up, but he has company. Will
+you have a look, Lord James?"
+
+Lord James Ivor, taking back his own glasses, studied the two
+approaching planes.
+
+"The small one looks like your friend's plane," he said, "and the other,
+although much bigger, has only one man in it too. But they fly along
+like twins. We'll soon know all about them because they're coming
+straight to us. They're descending now into this field."
+
+The _Arrow_ slanted gently to the earth and the larger machine descended
+near by. Lannes stepped out of one, and an older man, whom John
+recognized as the aviator Caumartin, alighted from the other.
+
+"My friends," said Lannes, cheerily, "here we are again. You see I've
+brought with me a friend, Monsieur Caumartin, a brave man, and a great
+aviator."
+
+He paused to introduce Caumartin to Wharton and the Englishmen, and then
+went on:
+
+"This flying machine in which our friend Caumartin comes is not so swift
+and so graceful as the _Arrow_--few aeroplanes are--but it is strong and
+it has the capacity. It is what you might call an excursion steamer of
+the air. It can take several people and our good Caumartin has come in
+it for Lieutenant Wharton and Lieutenant Carstairs. So! he has an order
+for them written by the brave Captain Colton of the Strangers. Produce
+the order, Monsieur Caumartin."
+
+The aviator took a note from a pocket in his jacket and handed it to
+Lord James Ivor, who announced that it was in truth such an order.
+
+"You're to be delivered to the Strangers F.O.B.," said John.
+
+"What's F.O.B.?" exclaimed Carstairs.
+
+"It's a shipping term of my country," replied John. "It means Free on
+Board, and you'll arrive among the Strangers without charge."
+
+"But," said Carstairs, looking dubiously at the big, ugly machine,
+"automobiles are my specialty!"
+
+"And the wireless is mine!" said Wharton in the same doubting tone.
+
+"Oh, it's easy," said John lightly. "Easiest thing in the world. You
+have nothing to do but sit still and look calm and wise. If you're
+attacked by a Zeppelin, throw bombs--no doubt Caumartin has them on
+board--but if a flock of Taubes assail you use your automatics. I
+congratulate you both on making your first flight under such auspices,
+with two armies of a million men each, more or less, looking at you, and
+with the chance to dodge the shells from four or five thousand cannon."
+
+"Your trouble, Scott, is talking too much," said Wharton, "because you
+went up in the air when you had no other way to go, you think you're a
+bird."
+
+"So I am at times," laughed John. "A bird without the feathers. Come
+now, brace up! Remember that the solid earth is always below you, a long
+way below, perhaps, but it's there, and Friend Caumartin is bound to
+deliver you soon to your rightful master, Captain Daniel Colton, who
+will talk to you like an affectionate but stern parent."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, let's start and get away from this wild Yankee,"
+said Carstairs.
+
+"But you won't get away from me," rejoined John. "Lannes and I in the
+_Arrow_ will watch over you all the way, and, if we can, rescue you,
+should your plane break down."
+
+Caumartin supplied Wharton and Carstairs with suitable coats and caps,
+and they took their places unflinchingly in the big plane. Their hearts
+may have been beating hard, but they would not let their hands tremble.
+
+"I suppose the _Omnibus_ starts first, Philip, doesn't it?" asked John.
+
+"Yes," replied Lannes, smiling, "and we can overtake it. _Omnibus_ is a
+good name for it. We'll call it that. It looks awkward, John, but it's
+one of the safest machines built."
+
+Plenty of willing hands gave the _Omnibus_ a lift and then did a like
+service for the _Arrow_. As they rose, aviators and passengers alike
+waved a farewell to Lord James Ivor, and he and the Englishmen about him
+waved back. But the thousands lying on the grass slept heavily on, while
+the cannon on their utmost fringe thundered and crashed and the German
+cannon crashed and thundered, replying.
+
+The _Arrow_ kept close to the _Omnibus_, so close that John could see
+the white faces of Wharton and Carstairs and their hands clenching the
+sides. But he remembered his own original experience, and he was not
+disposed to jest at them now.
+
+"They're air-sick--as I was," he said to Lannes. "Call to them to look
+westward at the troops," said Lannes. "Great portions of the French and
+English armies are now visible, and such a sight will make them forget
+their natural apprehensions."
+
+Lannes was right. When they beheld the magnificent panorama spread out
+for them the color came back into the faces of Carstairs and Wharton,
+and their clenched fingers relaxed. The spectacle was indeed grand and
+gorgeous as they looked up at the sky, down at the earth, and at the
+line where they met. The sun was now low, but mighty terraces of red and
+gold rose in the west, making it a blaze of varied colors. In the east
+the terraces were silver and silver gray, and the light there was
+softer. The green earth beneath was mottled with the red and silver and
+gold from the skies.
+
+The German army was yet invisible beyond the hills, although the cannon
+were flashing there, but to the west they saw vast masses of infantry,
+some stationary, while others moved slowly forward. Looking upon this
+wonderful sight, Wharton and Carstairs forgot that they were high in the
+air. Their hearts beat fast, and their eyes became brilliant with
+enthusiasm. They waved hands at the _Arrow_ which flew near like a
+guiding friend.
+
+"Wonderful, isn't it?" shouted John.
+
+"I never expect to see its like again," Carstairs shouted back, and
+then, lest he should not be true to his faith, he added:
+
+"But I won't desert the automobile. It's my best friend."
+
+"British obstinacy!" shouted John.
+
+Carstairs shouted back something, but the planes were now too far apart
+for him to hear. John saw that the _Omnibus_, despite her awkward look,
+was flying well and he also saw through Lannes' glasses four aeroplanes
+bearing up from the east. He did not say much until he had examined them
+well and had concluded that they were Taubes.
+
+"Lannes," he said, "German machines are trespassing on our air, and
+unless I'm mistaken they're making for us."
+
+"It's likely. Just under the locker there you'll find a rifle, and a
+belt of cartridges. It's a good weapon, and if the pinch comes you'll
+have to use it. Are your friends good shots?"
+
+"I think they are, and I know they're as brave as lions."
+
+"Then they'll have a chance to show it. The _Omnibus_ carries several
+rifles and an abundance of ammunition. She might be called a cargo boat,
+as there's a lot of room on her. I'm going to bear in close, and you
+tell Caumartin and the others of the danger."
+
+The _Arrow_ swerved, came near to the _Omnibus_, and John shouted the
+warning. Carstairs and Wharton instantly seized rifles and he saw them
+lay two others loaded at their feet. With the prospect of a battle for
+life air-sickness disappeared.
+
+"You can rely on them, Philip," said John as the _Arrow_ bore away a
+little, "but I don't like the looks of one of those German machines."
+
+"What's odd about it?"
+
+"It's bigger than the others. Ah, now I see! It carries a machine gun."
+
+"That's bad. It can send a hail of metal at us. It's lucky that
+aeroplanes are such unstable gun-platforms. When platforms and targets
+are alike swerving it's hard to hit anything. We're going to rise and
+dive, and rise and dive and swerve and swerve, John, so be ready. I'll
+signal to Caumartin to do the same, and maybe the machine gun won't get
+us."
+
+John was quite sure that the _Arrow_ could escape by immediate flight,
+but he knew that Lannes would never desert the _Omnibus_, and its
+passengers, and he felt the same way. The subject was not even mentioned
+by either.
+
+The German machines, approaching rapidly, spread out like a fan, the
+heavier one with the machine gun in the center. John could see the man
+at the rapid firer, but he did not yet open with it. The _Arrow_ and the
+_Omnibus_ were wavering like feathers in a storm and closer range was
+needed. John sat with his own rifle across his knee and then looked at
+Wharton in the _Omnibus_ scarcely a hundred yards away. The figure of
+Wharton was tense and rigid. His rifle was raised and his eyes never
+left the man at the machine gun.
+
+"I forgot to tell you, Philip," said John, "that Wharton is a great
+sharpshooter. It's natural to him, and I don't believe the shifting
+platform will interfere with his aim."
+
+"Then I hope that he never has done better sharp-shooting than he will
+do today. Ah, there goes the machine gun!"
+
+There was a rapid rat-a-tat, not so clear and distinct as it would have
+been at the same distance on ground, and a stream of bullets poured from
+the machine gun. But they passed between the _Arrow_ and the _Omnibus_,
+and only cut the unoffending air. Meanwhile Wharton was watching. A
+wrath, cold but consuming, had taken hold of him. The fact that he was
+high above the earth, perched in a swaying unstable seat was forgotten.
+He had eyes and thought only for the murderous machine gun and the man
+who worked it. An instinctive marksman, he and his rifle were now as
+one, and of all the birds of prey in the air at that moment Wharton was
+the most dangerous.
+
+The machine gun was silent for a minute. The riflemen in the Taubes on
+the wings of the attacking force fired a few shots, but all of them went
+wild. John, tense and silent, sat with his own rifle raised, but half of
+the time he watched Wharton.
+
+The two forces came a little nearer. Again the machine gun poured forth
+its stream of bullets. Two glanced off the sides of the _Omnibus_, and
+then John saw Wharton's rifle leap to his shoulder. The movement and the
+flash of the weapon were so near together that be seemed to take no aim.
+Yet his bullet sped true. The man at the machine gun, who was standing
+in a stooped position, threw up his hands, fell backward and out of the
+plane. A thrill of horror shot through John, and he shut his eyes a
+moment to keep from seeing that falling body.
+
+"What has happened?" asked Lannes, who had not looked around.
+
+"Wharton has shot the man at the machine gun clean out of the aeroplane.
+He must be falling yet."
+
+"Ghastly, but necessary. Has anybody taken the slain man's place?"
+
+"Yes, another has sprung to the gun! But he's gone! Wharton has shot him
+too! He's fallen on the floor of the car, and he lies quite still."
+
+"Your friend is indeed a sharpshooter. How many men are left in the
+plane?"
+
+"Only one! No, good God, there's none! Wharton has shot the third man
+also, and now the machine goes whirling and falling through space!"
+
+"I said that friend of yours must be a sharpshooter," said Lannes, in a
+tone of awe, "but he must be more! He must be the king of all riflemen.
+It's evident that the _Omnibus_ knows how to defend herself. I'll swing
+in a little, and you can take a shot or two."
+
+John fired once, without hitting anything but the air, which made no
+complaint, but the battle was over. Horrified by the fate that had
+overtaken their comrades and seeing help for their enemy at hand the
+Taubes withdrew.
+
+The _Arrow_ and the _Omnibus_ flew on toward the French lines, whence
+other machines were coming to meet them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE CONTINUING BATTLE
+
+
+The _Arrow_ bore in toward the _Omnibus_. Wharton had put his rifle
+aside and was staring downward as if he would see the wreck that he had
+made. Lannes called to him loudly:
+
+"You've saved us all!"
+
+Wharton looked rather white, but he shouted back:
+
+"I had no other choice."
+
+The French aeroplanes were around them now, their motors drumming
+steadily and the aviators shouting congratulations to Lannes and
+Caumartin, whom they knew well. It was a friendly group, full of pride
+and exultation, and the _Arrow_ and the _Omnibus_ had a triumphant
+escort. Soon they were directly over the French, and then they began
+their descent. As usual, when they reached the army they made it amid
+cheers, and the first man who greeted John was short and young but with
+a face of pride.
+
+"You have come back to us out of the air, Monsieur Scott," he said, "and
+I salute you."
+
+It was Pierre Louis Bougainville, made a colonel already for
+extraordinary, almost unprecedented, valor and ability in so young a
+man. John recognized his rank by his uniform, and he acknowledged it
+gladly.
+
+"It's true, I have come back, Colonel Bougainville," he said, "and right
+glad I am to come. I see that your country has had no cause to complain
+of you in the last week."
+
+"Nor of hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen," said Bougainville. "Your
+company, the Strangers, is close at hand, and here is your captain now."
+
+Captain Daniel Colton, thin and ascetic, walked forward. John gave him
+his best salute and said:
+
+"Captain Colton, I beg to report to you for duty."
+
+A light smile passed swiftly over Cotton's face.
+
+"You're a little late, Lieutenant Scott," he said.
+
+"I know it, sir, but I've brought Lieutenant Carstairs and Lieutenant
+Wharton with me. There have been obstacles which prevented our speedy
+return. We've done our best."
+
+"I can well believe it. You left on horseback, and you return by air.
+But I'm most heartily glad to see all three of you again. I feared that
+you were dead."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said John. "But we don't mean to die."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Captain Colton, gravely, "death has been all about
+us for days and nights. Many of the Strangers are gone. You will find
+the living lying in the little valley just beyond us, and you can resume
+your duties."
+
+Lannes, after a word or two, left them, and Caumartin took the
+_Omnibus_ to another part of the field. Lannes' importance was
+continually growing in John's eyes, nor was it the effect of
+imagination. He saw that under the new conditions of warfare the ability
+of the young Frenchman to carry messages between generals separated
+widely could not be overrated. He might depart that very night on
+another flight.
+
+"May I ask, sir," he said to Captain Colton, "to what command or
+division the Strangers are now attached?"
+
+"To that of General Vaugirard, a very able man."
+
+"I'm glad to hear it, sir. I know him. I was with him before I was taken
+by the Germans."
+
+"It seems that you're about to have a general reunion," said Carstairs
+to young Scott, as they walked away.
+
+"I am, and I'm mighty happy over it. I'll admit that I was rather glad
+to see you, you blooming Britisher."
+
+About one-third of the Strangers were gone forever, and the rest, except
+the higher officers, were prostrate in the glade. White, worn and
+motionless they lay in the same stupor that John had seen overtake the
+German troops. Some were flat upon their backs, with arms outstretched,
+looking like crosses, others lay on their faces, and others were curled
+up on their sides. Few were over twenty-five. Nearly all had mothers in
+America or Great Britain.
+
+While they slept the guns yet grumbled at many points. The sound on the
+horizon had gone on so long now that it seemed normal to John. He knew
+that it would continue so throughout the night, and maybe for many more
+days and nights. Unless it came near and made him a direct personal
+menace he would pay no attention to it.
+
+It was growing late. Night was spreading once more over the vast battle
+field, stretching over thirty leagues maybe. The common soldier knew
+nothing, majors and colonels knew little more, but the silent man whose
+invisible hand had swept the gigantic German army back from Paris knew
+much. While the fire of the artillery continued under the searchlights
+the exhausted infantry sank down. Then the telephones began to talk over
+a vast stretch of space, dazzling white lights made signals, the
+sputtering wireless sent messages in the air, and the flying machines
+shot through the heavens. Commanders talked to one another in many ways
+now, and they would talk all through the night.
+
+John and his comrades ate supper, while most of the Strangers slept
+around them. Those who were awake recognized them, shook hands and said
+a few words. They were a taciturn lot. After supper Carstairs and
+Wharton dropped upon the grass and were soon sound asleep. Scott was
+inclined to be wakeful and he walked along the edge of the glade,
+looking anxiously at the sleeping forms.
+
+He saw the loom of a fire just beyond the ridge and going to the crest
+to look at it he beheld outlined before it a gigantic figure that he
+recognized at once. It was General Vaugirard, and John would have been
+glad to speak to him, but he hesitated to approach a general. While he
+stood doubting a hand fell upon his shoulder and a glad voice said in
+his ear:
+
+"And our young American has come back! Ah, my friend, let me shake your
+hand!"
+
+It was Captain de Rougemont, trim, erect and without a wound. John
+gladly let him shake. Then in reply to de Rougemont's eager questions he
+told briefly of all that had happened since they parted.
+
+"The general has asked twice if we had any news of you," said de
+Rougemont. "He does not forget. A great mind in a vast body."
+
+"Could I speak to him?"
+
+"Of a certainty, my friend; come."
+
+They advanced toward the fire. General Vaugirard was walking up and
+down, his hands clasped behind his back, and whistling softly. His huge
+figure looked yet more huge outlined against the flames. He heard the
+tread of the two young men and looking up recognized John instantly.
+
+"Risen from the dead!" he exclaimed with warmth, clasping the young
+man's hand in his own gigantic palm. "I had despaired of ever seeing you
+again! There are so many more gallant lads whom I will certainly never
+see! Ah, well, such is life! The roll of our brave young dead is long,
+very long!"
+
+He reclasped his hands behind his back and walking up and down began to
+whistle again softly. His emotion over the holocaust had passed, and
+once more he was the general planning for victory. But he stopped
+presently and said to John:
+
+"The Strangers, to whom you belong, have come under my command. You are
+one of my children now. I have my eye on all of you. You are brave lads.
+Go and seek rest with them while you can. You may not have another
+chance in a month. We have driven the German, but he will turn, and then
+we may fight weeks, months, no one knows how long. Ah, well, such is
+life!"
+
+John saluted respectfully, and withdrew to the little open glade in
+which the Strangers were lying, sleeping a great sleep. Captain Colton
+himself, wrapped in a blanket, was now a-slumber under a tree, and
+Wharton and Carstairs near by, stretched on their sides, were deep in
+slumber too. Fires were burning on the long line, but they were not
+numerous, and in the distance they seemed mere pin points. At times bars
+of intense white light, like flashes of lightning, would sweep along the
+front, showing that the searchlights of either army still provided
+illumination for the fighting. The note of the artillery came like a
+distant and smothered groan, but it did not cease, and it would not
+cease, since the searchlights would show it a way all through the night.
+
+John sat down, looked at the faint flashes on the far horizon and
+listened to that moaning which grew in volume as one paid close
+attention to it. Europe or a great part of it had gone mad. He was
+filled once more with wrath against kings and all their doings as he
+looked upon the murderous aftermath of feudalism, the most gigantic of
+all wars, made in a few hours by a few men sitting around a table. Then
+he laughed at himself. What was he! A mere feather in a cyclone!
+Certainly he had been blown about like one!
+
+His nervous imagination now passed quickly and throwing himself upon the
+ground he slept like those around him. All the Strangers were awakened
+at early dawn by the signal of a trumpet, and when John opened his eyes
+he found the air still quivering beneath the throb of the guns. As he
+had foreseen they had never ceased in the darkness, and he could not
+remember how many days and nights now they had been raining steel upon
+human beings.
+
+He was refreshed and strengthened by a night of good sleep, but his mind
+was as sensitive as ever. In the morning no less bitterly than at night
+he raged against the folly and ambition of the kings. But the others
+paid no attention to the cannon. They were light of heart and easy of
+tongue. They chaffed one another in the cool dawn, and cried to the
+cooks for breakfast, which was soon brought to them, hot and plentiful.
+
+"I suppose it's forward again," said Carstairs between drinks of coffee.
+
+"I fancy you're right," said Wharton. "Since we've been put in the
+brigade of that giant of a general, Vaugirard, we're always going
+forward. He seems to have an uncommon love of fighting for a fat man."
+
+"It's an illusion," said John, "that a fat man is more peaceful than a
+thin one."
+
+"How are you going to prove it?" asked Wharton.
+
+"Look at Napoleon. When he was thin he was a great fighter, and when he
+became stout he was just as great a fighter as ever. Fat didn't take
+away his belligerency."
+
+"I hear that the whole German army has been driven across the Marne,"
+said Carstairs, "and that the force we hoped to cut off has either
+escaped or is about to escape. If that's so they won't retreat much
+further. The pride of the Germans is too great, and their army is too
+powerful for them to yield much more ground to us."
+
+"I think you're right, or about as near right as an Englishman can be,
+Carstairs," said John. "What must be the feelings of the Emperor and the
+kings and the princes and the grand dukes and the dukes and the martial
+professors to know that the German army has been turned back from Paris,
+just when the City of Light seemed ready to fall into their hands?"
+
+"Pretty bitter, I think," said Carstairs, "but it's not pleasant to have
+the capital of a country fall into the hands of hostile armies. I don't
+read of such things with delight. It wouldn't give me any such
+overwhelming joy for us to march into Berlin. To beat the Germans is
+enough."
+
+Another trumpet blew and the Strangers rose for battle again with an
+invisible enemy. All the officers, like the men, were on foot, their
+horses having been killed in the earlier fighting, and they advanced
+slowly across the stubble of a wheat field. The morning was still cool,
+although the sun was bright, and the air was full of vigor. The rumbling
+of the artillery grew with the day, but the Strangers said little.
+Battle had ceased to be a novelty. They would fight somewhere and with
+somebody, but they would wait patiently and without curiosity until the
+time came.
+
+"I suppose Lannes didn't come back," said Carstairs. "I haven't heard
+anyone speak of seeing him this morning."
+
+"He may have returned before we awoke," said John. "The _Arrow_ flies
+very fast. Like as not he delivered his message, whatever it was, and
+was off again with another in a few minutes. He may be sixty or eighty
+miles from here now."
+
+"Odd fellow that Lannes," said Carstairs. "Do you know anything about
+his people, Scott?"
+
+"Not much except that he has a mother and sister. I spent a night with
+them at their house in Paris. I've heard that French family ties are
+strong, but they seemed to look upon him as the weak would regard a
+great champion, a knight, in their own phrase, without fear and without
+reproach."
+
+"That speaks well for him."
+
+John's mind traveled back to that modest house across the Seine. It had
+done so often during all the days and nights of fighting, and he thought
+of Julie Lannes in her simple white dress, Julie with the golden hair
+and the bluest of blue eyes. She had not seemed at all foreign to him.
+In her simplicity and openness she was like one of the young girls of
+his own country. French custom might have compelled a difference at
+other times, but war was a great leveler of manners. She and her mother
+must have suffered agonies of suspense, when the guns were thundering
+almost within hearing of Paris, suspense for Philip, suspense for their
+country, and suspense in a less degree for themselves. Maybe Lannes had
+gone back once in the _Arrow_ to show them that he was safe, and to tell
+them that, for the time at least, the great German invasion had been
+rolled back.
+
+"A penny for your dream!" said Carstairs.
+
+"Not for a penny, nor for a pound, nor for anything else," said John.
+"This dream of mine had something brilliant and beautiful and pure at
+the very core of it, and I'm not selling."
+
+Carstairs looked curiously at him, and a light smile played across his
+face. But the smile was sympathetic.
+
+"I'll wager you that with two guesses I can tell the nature of your
+dream," he said.
+
+John shook his head, and he, too, smiled.
+
+"As we say at home," he said, "you may guess right the very first time,
+but I won't tell you whether you're right or wrong."
+
+"I take only one guess. That coruscating core of your dream was a girl."
+
+"I told you I wouldn't say whether you were right or wrong."
+
+"Is she blonde or dark?"
+
+"I repeat that I'm answering no questions."
+
+"Does she live in one of your Northern or one of your Southern States?"
+
+John smiled.
+
+"I suppose you haven't heard from her in a long time, as mail from
+across the water isn't coming with much regularity to this battle
+field."
+
+John smiled again.
+
+"And now I'll conclude," said Carstairs, speaking very seriously. "If
+it is a girl, and I know it is, I hope that she'll smile when she thinks
+of you, as you've been smiling when you think of her. I hope, too, that
+you'll go through this war without getting killed, although the chances
+are three or four to one against it, and go back home and win her."
+
+John smiled once more and was silent, but when Carstairs held out his
+hand he could not keep from shaking it. Then Paris, the modest house
+beyond the Seine, and the girl within it, floated away like an illusion,
+driven from thought in an instant by a giant shell that struck within a
+few hundred yards of them, exploding with a terrible crash and filling
+the air with deadly bits of flying shell.
+
+There was such a whistling in his ears that John thought at first he had
+been hit, but when he shook himself a little he found he was unhurt, and
+his heart resumed its normal beat. Other shells coming out of space
+began to strike, but none so near, and the Strangers went calmly on. On
+their right was a Paris regiment made up mostly of short, but
+thick-chested men, all very dark. Its numbers were only one-third what
+they had been a week before, and its colonel was Pierre Louis
+Bougainville, late Apache, late of the Butte Montmartre. All the
+colonels, majors and captains of this regiment had been killed and he
+now led it, earning his promotion by the divine right of genius. He, at
+least, could look into his knapsack and see there the shadow of a
+marshal's baton, a shadow that might grow more material.
+
+John watched him and he wondered at this transformation of a rat of
+Montmartre into a man. And yet there had been many such transformations
+in the French Revolution. What had happened once could always happen
+again. Napoleon himself had been the son of a poor little lawyer in a
+distant and half-savage island, not even French in blood, but an Italian
+and an alien.
+
+Crash! Another shell burst near, and told him to quit thinking of old
+times and attend to the business before him. The past had nothing more
+mighty than the present. The speed of the Strangers was increased a
+little, and the French regiments on either side kept pace with them.
+More shells fell. They came, shrieking through the air like hideous
+birds of remote ages. Some passed entirely over the advancing troops,
+but one fell among the French on John's right, and the column opening
+out, passed shudderingly around the spot where death had struck.
+
+Two or three of the Strangers were blown away presently. It seemed to
+John's horrified eyes that one of them entirely vanished in minute
+fragments. He knew now what annihilation meant.
+
+The heavy French field guns behind them were firing over their heads,
+but there was still nothing in front, merely the low green hills and not
+even a flash of flame nor a puff of smoke. The whistling death came out
+of space.
+
+The French went on, a wide shallow valley opened out before them, and
+they descended by the easy slope into it. Here the German shells and
+shrapnel ceased to fall among them, but, as the heavy thunder
+continued, John knew the guns had merely turned aside their fire for
+other points on the French line. Carstairs by his side gave an immense
+sigh of relief.
+
+"I can never get used to the horrible roaring and groaning of those
+shells," he said. "If I get killed I'd like it to be done without the
+thing that does it shrieking and gloating over me."
+
+They were well in the valley now, and John noticed that along its right
+ran a dense wood, fresh and green despite the lateness of the season.
+But as he looked he heard the shrill snarling of many trumpets, and, for
+a moment or two, his heart stood still, as a vast body of German cavalry
+burst from the screen of the wood and rushed down upon them.
+
+It was not often in this war that cavalry had a great chance, but here
+it had come. The ambush was complete. The German signals, either from
+the sky or the hills, had told when the French were in the valley, and
+then the German guns had turned aside their fire for the very good
+reason that they did not wish to send shells among their own men.
+
+John's feeling was one of horrified surprise. The German cavalry
+extending across a mile of front seemed countless. Imagination in that
+terrific moment magnified them into millions. He saw the foaming mouths,
+the white teeth and the flashing eyes of the horses, and then the tense
+faces and eyes of their riders. Lances and sabers were held aloft, and
+the earth thundered with the tread of the mounted legions.
+
+"Good God!" cried Wharton.
+
+"Wheel, men, wheel!" shouted Captain Colton.
+
+As they turned to face the rushing tide of steel, the regiment of
+Bougainville whirled on their flank and then Bougainville was almost at
+his side. He saw fire leap from the little man's eye. He saw him shout
+commands, rapid incisive, and correct and he saw clearly that if this
+were Napoleon's day that marshal's baton in the knapsack would indeed
+become a reality.
+
+The Paris regiment, kneeling, was the first to fire, and the next
+instant flame burst from the rifles of the Strangers. It was not a
+moment too soon. It seemed to many of the young Americans and Englishmen
+that they had been ridden down already, but sheet after sheet of bullets
+fired by men, fighting for their lives, formed a wall of death.
+
+The Uhlans, the hussars and the cuirassiers reeled back in the very
+moment of triumph. Horses with their riders crashed to the ground, and
+others, mad with terror, rushed wildly through the French ranks.
+
+John, Carstairs and Wharton snatched up rifles, all three, and began to
+fire with the men as fast as they could. A vast turmoil, frightful in
+its fury, followed. The German cavalry reeled back, but it did not
+retreat. The shrill clamor of many trumpets came again, and once more
+the horsemen charged. The sheet of death blazed in their faces again,
+and then the French met them with bayonet.
+
+The Strangers had closed in to meet the shock. John felt rather than saw
+Carstairs and Wharton on either side of him, and the three of them were
+firing cartridge after cartridge into the light whitish smoke that hung
+between them and the charging horsemen. He was devoutly thankful that
+the Paris regiment was immediately on their right, and that it was led
+by such a man as Bougainville. General Vaugirard, he knew, was farther
+to their left, and now he began to hear the rapid firers, pouring a rain
+of death upon the cavalry.
+
+"We win! we win!" cried Carstairs. "If they couldn't beat us down in the
+first rush they can't beat us down at all!"
+
+Carstairs was right. The French had broken into no panic, and, when,
+infantry standing firm, pour forth the incessant and deadly stream of
+death, that modern arms make possible, no cavalry can live before them.
+Yet the Germans charged again and again into the hurricane of fire and
+steel. The tumult of the battle face to face became terrific.
+
+John could no longer hear the words of his comrades. He saw dimly
+through the whitish smoke in front, but he continued to fire. Once he
+leaped aside to let a wounded and riderless horse gallop past, and
+thrice he sprang over the bodies of the dead.
+
+The infantry were advancing now, driving the cavalry before them, and
+the French were able to bring their lighter field guns into action. John
+heard the rapid crashes, and he saw the line of cavalry drawing back.
+He, too, was shouting with triumph, although nobody heard him. But all
+the Strangers were filled with fiery zeal. Without orders they rushed
+forward, driving the horsemen yet further. John saw through the whitish
+mist a fierce face and a powerful arm swinging aloft a saber.
+
+He recognized von Boehlen and von Boehlen recognized him. Shouting, the
+Prussian urged his horse at him and struck him with the saber. John,
+under impulse, dropped to his knees, and the heavy blade whistled above
+him. But something else struck him on the head and he fell senseless to
+the earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+JULIE LANNES
+
+
+John Scott came slowly out of the darkness and hovered for a while
+between dusk and light. It was not an unpleasant world in which he
+lingered. It seemed full of rest and peace. His mind and body were
+relaxed, and there was no urgent call for him to march and to fight. The
+insistent drumming of the great guns which could play upon the nervous
+system until it was wholly out of tune was gone. The only sound he heard
+was that of a voice, a fresh young voice, singing a French song in a
+tone low and soft. He had always liked these little love songs of the
+kind that were sung in a subdued way. They were pathetic and pure as a
+rose leaf.
+
+He might have opened his eyes and looked for the singer, but he did not.
+The twilight region between sleep and consciousness was too pleasant. He
+had no responsibilities, nothing to do. He had a dim memory that he had
+belonged to an army, that it was his business to try to kill some one,
+and to try to keep from getting killed, but all that was gone now. He
+could lie there, without pain of body or anxiety of mind, and let vague
+but bright visions pass through his soul.
+
+His eyes still closed, he listened to the voice. It was very low,
+scarcely more than a murmur, yet it was thrillingly sweet. It might not
+be a human voice, after all, just the distant note of a bird in the
+forest, or the murmur of a brave little stream, or a summer wind among
+green leaves.
+
+He moved a little and became conscious that he was not going back into
+that winter region of dusk. His soul instead was steadily moving toward
+the light. The beat of his heart grew normal, and then memory in a full
+tide rushed upon him. He saw the great cavalry battle with all its red
+turmoil, the savage swing of von Boehlen's saber and himself drifting
+out into the darkness.
+
+He opened his eyes, the battle vanished, and he saw himself lying upon a
+low, wooden platform. His head rested upon a small pillow, a blanket was
+under him, and another above him. Turning slowly he saw other men
+wrapped in blankets like himself on the platform in a row that stretched
+far to right and left. Above was a low roof, but both sides of the
+structure were open.
+
+He understood it all in a moment. He had come back to a world of battle
+and wounds, and he was one of the wounded. But he listened for the soft,
+musical note which he believed now, in his imaginative state, had drawn
+him from the mid-region between life and death.
+
+The stalwart figure of a woman in a somber dress with a red cross sewed
+upon it passed between him and the light, but he knew that it was not
+she who had been singing. He closed his eyes in disappointment, but
+reopened them. A man wearing a white jacket and radiating an atmosphere
+of drugs now walked before him. He must be a surgeon. At home, surgeons
+wore white jackets. Beyond doubt he was one and maybe he was going to
+stop at John's cot to treat some terrible wound of which he was not yet
+conscious. He shivered a little, but the man passed on, and his heart
+beat its relief.
+
+Then a soldier took his place in the bar of light. He was a short, thick
+man in a ridiculous, long blue coat, and equally ridiculous, baggy, red
+trousers. An obscure cap was cocked in an obscure manner over his ears,
+and his face was covered with a beard, black, thick and untrimmed. He
+carried a rifle over his shoulder and nobody could mistake him for
+anything but a Frenchman. Then he was not a prisoner again, but was in
+French hands. That, at least, was a consolation.
+
+It was amusing to lie there and see the people, one by one, pass between
+him and the light. He could easily imagine that he was an inspection
+officer and that they walked by under orders from him. Two more women in
+those somber dresses with the red crosses embroidered upon them, were
+silhouetted for a moment against the glow and then were gone. Then a man
+with his arm in a sling and his face very pale walked slowly by. A
+wounded soldier! There must be many, very many of them!
+
+The musical murmur ceased and he was growing weary. He closed his eyes
+and then he opened them again because he felt for a moment on his face a
+fragrant breath, fleeting and very light. He looked up into the eyes of
+Julie Lannes. They were blue, very blue, but with infinite wistful
+depths in them, and he noticed that her golden hair had faint touches of
+the sun in it. It was a crown of glory. He remembered that he had seen
+something like it in the best pictures of the old masters.
+
+"Mademoiselle Julie!" he said.
+
+"You have come back," she said gently. "We have been anxious about you.
+Philip has been to see you three times."
+
+He noticed that she, too, wore the somber dress with the red cross, and
+he began to comprehend.
+
+"A nurse," he said. "Why, you are too young for such work!"
+
+"But I am strong, and the wounded are so many, hundreds of thousands,
+they say. Is it not a time for the women of France to help as much as
+they can?"
+
+"I suppose so. I've heard that in our civil war the women passed over
+the battle fields, seeking the wounded and nursed them afterward. But
+you didn't come here alone, did you, Mademoiselle Julie?"
+
+"Antoine Picard--you remember him--and his daughter Suzanne, are with
+me. My mother would have come too, but she is ill. She will come later."
+
+"How long have I been here?"
+
+"Four days."
+
+John thought a little. Many and mighty events had happened in four days
+before he was wounded and many and mighty events may have occurred
+since.
+
+"Would you mind telling me where we are, Mademoiselle Julie?" he asked.
+
+"I do not know exactly myself, but we are somewhere near the river,
+Aisne. The German army has turned and is fortifying against us. When the
+wind blows this way you can hear the rumble of the guns. Ah, there it is
+now, Mr. Scott!"
+
+John distinctly heard that low, sinister menace, coming from the east,
+and he knew what it was. Why should he not? He had listened to it for
+days and days. It was easy enough now to tell the thunder of the
+artillery from real thunder. He was quite sure that it had never ceased
+while he was unconscious. It had been going on so long now, as steady as
+the flowing of a river.
+
+"I've been asking you a lot of questions, Mademoiselle Julie, but I want
+to ask you one more."
+
+"What is it, Mr. Scott?"
+
+"What happened to me?"
+
+"They say that you were knocked down by a horse, and that when you were
+falling his knee struck your head. There was a concussion but the
+surgeon says that when you come out of it you will recover very fast."
+
+"Is the man who says it a good surgeon, one upon whom a fellow can rely,
+one of the very best surgeons that ever worked on a hurt head?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Scott. But why do you ask such a question? Is it your odd
+American way?"
+
+"Not at all. Mademoiselle Julie. I merely wanted to satisfy myself. He
+knows that I'm not likely to be insane or weak-minded or anything of the
+kind, because I got in the way of that horse's knee?"
+
+"Oh, no, Mr. Scott, there is not the least danger in the world. Your
+mind will be as sound as your body. Don't trouble yourself."
+
+She laughed and now John knew that it was she whom he had heard singing
+the chansonette in that low murmuring tone. What was that little song?
+Well, it did not matter about the words. The music was that of a soft
+breeze from the south blowing among roses. John's imaginings were
+growing poetical. Perhaps there were yet some lingering effects from the
+concussion.
+
+"Here is the surgeon now," said Mademoiselle Julie. "He will take a look
+at you and he will be glad to find that what he has predicted has come
+true."
+
+It was the man in the white jacket, and with that wonderful tangle of
+black whiskers, like a patch cut out of a scrub forest.
+
+"Well, my young Yankee," he said, "I see that you've come around. You've
+raised an interesting question in my mind. Since a cavalry horse wasn't
+able to break it, is the American skull thicker than the skulls of other
+people?"
+
+"A lot of you Europeans don't seem to think we're civilized."
+
+"But when you fight for us we do. Isn't that so, Mademoiselle Lannes?"
+
+"I think it is."
+
+"War is a curious thing. While it drives people apart it also brings
+them together. We learn in battle, and its aftermath, that we're very
+much alike. And now, my young Yankee, I'll be here again in two hours to
+change that bandage for the last time. I'll be through with you then,
+and in another day you can go forward to meet the German shells."
+
+"I prefer to run against a horse's knee," said John with spirit.
+
+Surgeon Lucien Delorme laughed heartily.
+
+"I'm confirmed in my opinion that you won't need me after another change
+of bandages," he said. "We've a couple of hundred thousand cases much
+worse than yours to tend, and Mademoiselle Lannes will look after you
+today. She has watched over you, I understand, because you're a friend
+of her brother, the great flying man, Philip Lannes."
+
+"Yes," said John, "that's it, of course."
+
+Julie herself said nothing.
+
+Surgeon Delorme passed through the bar of brilliant light and
+disappeared, his place being taken by a gigantic figure with grizzled
+hair, and the stern face of the thoughtful peasant, the same Antoine
+Picard who had been left as a guardian over the little house beyond the
+Seine. John closed his eyes, that is nearly, and caught the glance that
+the big man gave to Julie. It was protecting and fatherly, and he knew
+that Antoine would answer for her at any time with his life. It was one
+remnant of feudalism to which he did not object. He opened his eyes wide
+and said:
+
+"Well, my good Picard, perhaps you thought you were going to look at a
+dead American, but you are not. Behold me!"
+
+He sat up and doubled up his arm to show his muscle and power. Picard
+smiled and offered to shake hands in the American fashion. He seemed
+genuinely glad that John had returned to the real world, and John
+ascribed it to Picard's knowledge that he was Lannes' friend.
+
+Julie said some words to Picard, and with a little _au revoir_ to John,
+went away. John watched her until she was out of sight. He realized
+again that young French girls were kept secluded from the world, immured
+almost. But the world had changed. Since a few men met around a table
+six or seven weeks before and sent a few dispatches a revolution had
+come. Old customs, old ideas and old barriers were going fast, and might
+be going faster. War, the leveler, was prodigiously at work.
+
+These were tremendous things, but he had himself to think about too, and
+personality can often outweigh the universe. Julie was gone, taking a
+lot of the light with her, but Picard was still there, and while he was
+grizzled and stern he was a friend.
+
+John sat up quite straight and Picard did not try to keep him from it.
+
+"Picard," he said, "you see me, don't you?"
+
+"I do, sir, with these two good eyes of mine, as good as those in the
+head of any young man, and fifty is behind me."
+
+"That's because you're not intellectual, Picard, but we'll return to our
+lamb chops. I am here, I, a soldier of France, though an American--for
+which I am grateful--laid four days upon my back by a wound. And was
+that wound inflicted by a shell, shrapnel, bomb, lance, saber, bullet or
+any of the other noble weapons of warfare? No, sir, it was done by a
+horse, and not by a kick, either, he jostled me with his knee when he
+wasn't looking. Would you call that an honorable wound?"
+
+"All wounds received in the service of one's country or adopted country
+are honorable, sir."
+
+"You give me comfort, Picard. But spread the story that I was not hit by
+a horse's knee but by a piece of shell, a very large and wicked piece of
+shell. I want it to get into the histories that way. The greatest of
+Frenchmen, though he was an Italian, said that history was a fable
+agreed upon, and you and I want to make an agreement about myself and a
+shell."
+
+"I don't understand you at all, sir."
+
+"Well, never mind. Tell me how long Mademoiselle Julie is going to stay
+here. I'm a great friend of her brother, Lieutenant Philip Lannes. Oh,
+we're such wonderful friends! And we've been through such terrible
+dangers together!"
+
+"Then, perhaps it's Lieutenant Lannes and not his sister, Mademoiselle
+Julie, that you wish to inquire about."
+
+"Don't be ironical, Picard. I was merely digressing, which I admit is
+wrong, as you're apt to distract the attention of your hearer from the
+real subject. We'll return to Mademoiselle Julie. Do you think she's
+going to remain here long?"
+
+"I would tell you if I could, sir, but no one knows. I think it depends
+upon many circumstances. The young lady is most brave, as becomes one of
+her blood, and the changes in France are great. All of us who may not
+fight can serve otherwise."
+
+"Why is it that you're not fighting, Picard?"
+
+The great peasant flung up his arms angrily.
+
+"Because I am beyond the age. Because I am too old, they said. Think of
+it! I, Antoine Picard, could take two of these little officers and crush
+them to death at once in my arms! There is not in all this army a man
+who could walk farther than I can! There is not one who could lift the
+wheel of a cannon out of the mud more quickly than I can, and they would
+not take me! What do a few years mean?"
+
+"Nothing in your case, Antoine, but they'll take you, later on. Never
+fear. Before this war is over every country in it will need all the men
+it can get, whether old or young."
+
+"I fear that it is so," said the gigantic peasant, a shadow crossing his
+stern face, "but, sir, one thing is decided. France, the France of the
+Revolution, the France that belongs to its people, will not fall."
+
+John looked at him with a new interest. Here was a peasant, but a
+thinking peasant, and there were millions like him in France. They were
+not really peasants in the old sense of the word, but workingmen with a
+stake in the country, and the mind and courage to defend it. It might be
+possible to beat the army of a nation, but not a nation in arms.
+
+"No, Picard," said John, "France will not fall."
+
+"And that being settled, sir," said Picard, with grim humor, "I think
+you'd better lie down again. You've talked a lot for a man who has been
+unconscious four days."
+
+"You're right, my good Picard, as I've no doubt you usually are. Was I
+troublesome, much, when I was out in the dark?"
+
+"But little, sir. I've lifted much heavier men, and that Dr. Delorme is
+strong himself, not afraid, either, to use the knife. Ah, sir, you
+should have seen how beautifully he worked right under the fire of the
+German guns! Psst! if need be he'd have taken a leg off you in five
+minutes, as neatly as if he had been in a hospital in Paris!"
+
+John felt apprehensively for his legs. Both were there, and in good
+condition.
+
+"If that man ever comes near me with the intention of cutting off one of
+my legs I'll shoot him, good fellow and good doctor though he may be,"
+he said. "Help me up a little higher, will you, Picard? I want to see
+what kind of a place we're in."
+
+Picard built up a little pyramid of saddles and knapsacks behind him and
+John drew himself up with his back against them. The rows and rows of
+wounded stretched as far as he could see, and there was a powerful odor
+of drugs. Around him was a forest, of the kind with which he had become
+familiar in Europe, that is, of small trees, free from underbrush. He
+saw some distance away soldiers walking up and down and beyond them the
+vague outline of an earthwork.
+
+"What place is this, anyway, Picard?" he asked.
+
+"It has no name, sir. It's a hospital. It was built in the forest in a
+day. More than five thousand wounded lie here. The army itself is
+further on. You were found and brought in by some young officers of that
+most singular company composed of Americans and English who are always
+quarreling among one another, but who unite and fight like demons
+against anybody else."
+
+"A dollar to a cent it was Wharton and Carstairs who brought me here,"
+said John, smiling to himself.
+
+"What does Monsieur say?"
+
+"Merely commenting on some absent friends of mine. But this isn't a bad
+place, Picard."
+
+The shed was of immense length and breadth and just beyond it were some
+small buildings, evidently of hasty construction. John inferred that
+they were for the nurses and doctors, and he wondered which one
+sheltered Julie Lannes. The forest seemed to be largely of young pines,
+and the breeze that blew through it was fresh and wholesome. As he
+breathed it young Scott felt that he was inhaling new life and strength.
+But the wind also brought upon its edge that far faint murmur which he
+knew was the throbbing of the great guns, miles and miles away.
+
+"Perhaps, Monsieur had better lie down again now and sleep awhile," said
+Picard insinuatingly.
+
+"Sleep! I need sleep! Why, Picard, by your own account I've just
+awakened from a sleep four days and four nights long."
+
+"But, sir, that was not sleep. It was the stupor of unconsciousness.
+Now your sleep will be easy and natural."
+
+"Very well," said John, who had really begun to feel a little weary,
+"I'll go to sleep, since, in a way, you order it, but if Mademoiselle
+Julie Lannes should happen to pass my cot again, will you kindly wake me
+up?"
+
+"If possible, sir," said Picard, the faintest smile passing over his
+iron features, and forced to be content with that reply, John soon slept
+again. Julie passed by him twice, but Picard did not awaken him, nor
+try. The first time she was alone. Trained and educated like most young
+French girls, she had seen little of the world until she was projected
+into the very heart of it by an immense and appalling war. But its
+effect upon her had been like that upon John. Old manners and customs
+crumbled away, an era vanished, and a new one with new ideas came to
+take its place. She shuddered often at what she had seen in this great
+hospital in the woods, but she was glad that she had come. French
+courage was as strong in the hearts of women as in the hearts of men,
+and the brusque but good Dr. Delorme had said that she learned fast. She
+had more courage, yes, and more skill, than many nurses older and
+stronger than she, and there was the stalwart Suzanne, who worked with
+her.
+
+She was alone the first time and she stopped by John's cot, where he
+slept so peacefully. He was undeniably handsome, this young American who
+had come to their house in Paris with Philip. And her brother, that
+wonderful man of the air, who was almost a demi-god to her, had spoken
+so well of him, had praised so much his skill, his courage, and his
+honesty. And he had received his wound fighting so gallantly for France,
+her country. Her beautiful color deepened a little as she walked away.
+
+John awoke again in the afternoon, and the first sound he heard was that
+same far rumble of the guns, now apparently a part of nature, but he did
+not linger in any twilight land between dark and light. All the mists of
+sleep cleared away at once and he sat up, healthy, strong and hungry.
+Demanding food from an orderly he received it, and when he had eaten it
+he asked for Surgeon Delorme.
+
+The surgeon did not come for a half hour and then he demanded brusquely
+what John wanted.
+
+"None of your drugs," replied happy young Scott, "but my uniform and my
+arms. I don't know your procedure here, but I want you to certify to the
+whole world that I'm entirely well and ready to return to the ranks."
+
+Surgeon Delorme critically examined the bandage which he had changed
+that morning, and then felt of John's head at various points.
+
+"A fine strong skull," he said, smiling, "and quite undamaged. When this
+war is over I shall go to America and make an exhaustive study of the
+Yankee skull. Has bone, through the influence of climate or of more
+plentiful food, acquired a more tenacious quality there than it has
+here? It is a most interesting and complicated question."
+
+"But it's solution will have to be deferred, my good Monsieur Delorme,
+and so you'd better quit thumping my head so hard. Give me that
+certificate, because if you don't I'll get up and go without it. Don't
+you hear those guns out there, doctor? Why, they're calling to me all
+the time. They tell me, strong and well, again, to come at once and join
+my comrades of the Strangers, who are fighting the enemy."
+
+"You shall go in the morning," said Surgeon Delorme, putting his broad
+hand upon young Scott's head. "The effects of the concussion will have
+vanished then."
+
+"But I want to get up now and put on my uniform; can't I?"
+
+"I know no reason why you shouldn't. There's a huge fellow named Picard
+around here who has been watching over you, and who has your uniform.
+I'll call him."
+
+When John was dressed he walked with Picard into the edge of the forest.
+His first steps were wavering, and his head swam a little, but in a few
+minutes the dizziness disappeared and his walk became steady and
+elastic. He was his old self again, strong in every fiber. He would
+certainly be with the Strangers the next morning.
+
+Many more of the wounded, thousands of them, were lying or sitting on
+the short grass in the forest. They were the less seriously hurt, and
+they were cheerful. Some of them sang.
+
+"They'll be going back to the army fast," said Picard. "Unless they're
+torn by shrapnel nearly all the wounded get well again and quickly. The
+bullet with the great power is merciful. It goes through so fast that it
+does not tear either flesh or bone. If you're healthy, if your blood is
+good, psst! you're well again in a week."
+
+"Do you know if Lieutenant Lannes is expected here?" asked John.
+
+"I heard from Mademoiselle Julie that he would come at set of sun. He
+has been on another perilous errand. Ah, his is a strange and terrible
+life, sir. Up there in the sky, a half mile, maybe a mile, above the
+earth. All the dangers of the earth and those, too, of the air to fight!
+Nothing above you and nothing below you. It's a new world in which
+Monsieur Philip Lannes moves, but I would not go in it with him, not for
+all the treasures of the Louvre!"
+
+He looked up at the calm and benevolent blue sky and shuddered.
+
+John laughed.
+
+"Some of us feel that way," he said. "Many men as brave as any that ever
+lived can't bear to look down from a height. But sunset is approaching,
+my gallant Picard, and Lannes should soon be here."
+
+The rays of the sun fell in showers of red gold where they stood, but a
+narrow band of gray under the eastern horizon showed that twilight was
+not far away. The two stood side by side staring up at the heavens,
+where they felt with absolute certainty the black dot would appear at
+the appointed time. It was a singular tribute to the courage and
+character of Lannes that all who knew him had implicit faith in his
+promises, not alone in his honesty of purpose, but in his ability to
+carry it out in the face of difficulty and danger. The band of gray in
+the east broadened, but they still watched with the utmost faith.
+
+"I see something to the eastward," said John, "or is it merely a shadow
+in the sky?"
+
+"I don't think it's a shadow. It must be one of those terrible machines,
+and perhaps it's that of our brave Monsieur Philip."
+
+"You're right, Picard, it's no shadow, nor is it a bit of black cloud.
+It's an aeroplane, flying very fast. The skies over Europe hold many
+aeroplanes these days, but I know all the tricks of the _Arrow_, all its
+pretty little ways, its manner of curving, looping and dropping, and I
+should say that the _Arrow_, Philip Lannes aboard, is coming."
+
+"I pray, sir, that you are right. I always hold my breath until he is on
+the ground again."
+
+"Then you'll have to make a record in holding breath, my brave Picard.
+He is still far, very far, from us, and it will be a good ten minutes
+before he arrives."
+
+But John knew beyond a doubt, after a little more watching, that it was
+really the _Arrow_, and with eager eyes he watched the gallant little
+machine as it descended in many a graceful loop and spiral to the earth.
+They hurried forward to meet it, and Lannes, bright-eyed and trim,
+sprang out, greeting John with a welcome cry.
+
+"Up again," he exclaimed, "and, as I see with these two eyes of mine,
+as well as ever! And you too, my brave Picard, here to meet me!"
+
+He hastened away with a report, but came back to them in a few minutes.
+
+"Now," he said, "We'll go and see my sister."
+
+John was not at all unwilling.
+
+They found her in one of the new houses of pine boards, and the faithful
+and stalwart Suzanne was with her. It was the plainest of plain places,
+inhabited by at least twenty other Red Cross nurses, and John stood on
+one side until the first greeting of brother and sister was over. Then
+Lannes, by a word and a gesture, included him in what was practically a
+family group, although he was conscious that the stalwart Suzanne was
+watching him with a wary eye.
+
+"Julie and Suzanne," said Lannes, "are going tomorrow with other nurses
+to the little town of Ménouville, where also many wounded lie. They are
+less well supplied with doctors and nurses than we are here. Dr. Delorme
+goes also with a small detachment as escort. I have asked that you,
+Monsieur Jean the Scott, be sent with them. Our brave Picard goes too.
+Ménouville is about eight miles from here, and it's not much out of the
+way to the front. So you will not be kept long from your Strangers,
+John."
+
+"I go willingly," said John, "and I'm glad, Philip, that you've seen fit
+to consider me worth while as a part of the escort."
+
+He spoke quietly, but his glance wandered to Julie Lannes. It may have
+been a chance, but hers turned toward him at the same time, and the
+eyes, the blue and the gray, met. Again the girl's brilliant color
+deepened a little, and she looked quickly away. Only the watchful and
+grim Suzanne saw.
+
+"Do you have to go away at once, Philip?" asked Julie.
+
+"In one hour, my sister. There is not much rest for the _Arrow_ and me
+these days, but they are such days as happen perhaps only once in a
+thousand years, and one must do his best to be worthy. I'm not
+preaching, little sister, don't think that, but I must answer to every
+call."
+
+The twilight had spread from east to west. The heavy shadows in the east
+promised a dark night, but out of the shadows, as always, came that
+sullen mutter of the ruthless guns. Julie shivered a little, and glanced
+at the dim sky.
+
+"Must you go up there in the cold dark?" she said. "It's like leaving
+the world. It's dangerous enough in the day, but you have a bright sky
+then. In the night it's terrible!"
+
+"Don't you fear for me, little sister," said Lannes. "Why, I like the
+night for some reasons. You can slip by your enemies in the dark, and if
+you're flying low the cannon don't have half the chance at you. Besides,
+I've the air over these regions all mapped and graded now. I know all
+the roads and paths, the meeting places of the clouds, points suitable
+for ambush, aerial fields, meadows and forests. Oh, it's home up there!
+Don't you worry, and do you write, too, to Madame, my mother, in Paris,
+that I'm perfectly safe."
+
+Lannes kissed her and went away abruptly. John was sure that an attempt
+to hide emotion caused his brusque departure.
+
+"Believe everything he tells you, Mademoiselle Julie," he said. "I've
+come to the conclusion that nothing can ever trap your brother. Besides
+courage and skill he has luck. The stars always shine for him."
+
+"They're not shining tonight," said Picard, looking up at the dusky sky.
+
+"But I believe, Mr. Scott, that you are right," said Julie.
+
+"He'll certainly come to us at Ménouville tomorrow night," said John,
+speaking in English--all the conversation hitherto had been in French,
+"and I think we'll have a pleasant ride through the forest in the
+morning, Miss Lannes. You'll let me call you Miss Lannes, once or twice,
+in my language, won't you? I like to hear the sound of it."
+
+"I've no objection, Mr. Scott," she replied also in English. She did not
+blush, but looked directly at him with bright eyes. John was conscious
+of something cool and strong. She was very young, she was French, and
+she had lived a sheltered life, but he realized once more that human
+beings are the same everywhere and that war, the leveler, had broken
+down all barriers.
+
+"I've not heard who is to be our commander, Miss Lannes," he continued
+in English, "but I'll be here early in the morning. May I wish you happy
+dreams and a pleasant awakening, as they say at home?"
+
+"But you have two homes now, France and America."
+
+"That's so, and I'm beginning to love one as much as the other. Any
+way, to the re-seeing, Miss Lannes, which I believe is equivalent to _au
+revoir_."
+
+He made a very fine bow, one that would have done credit to a trained
+old courtier, and withdrew. The fierce and watchful eyes of Suzanne
+followed him.
+
+John was up at dawn, as strong and well as he had ever been in his life.
+As he was putting on his uniform an orderly arrived with a note from
+Lieutenant Hector Legaré, telling him to report at once for duty with a
+party that was going to Ménouville.
+
+The start was made quickly. John found that the women with surgical
+supplies were traveling in carts. The soldiers, about twenty in number,
+walked. John and the doctor walked with them. All the automobiles were
+in use carrying troops to the front, but the carts were strong and
+comfortable and John did not mind. It ought to be a pleasant trip.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE MIDDLE AGES
+
+
+The little party moved away without attracting notice. In a time of such
+prodigious movement the going or coming of a few individuals was a
+matter of no concern. The hood that Julie Lannes had drawn over her hair
+and face, and her plain brown dress might have been those of a nun. She
+too passed before unseeing eyes.
+
+Lieutenant Legaré was a neutral person, arousing no interest in John who
+walked by the side of the gigantic Picard, the stalwart Suzanne being in
+one of the carts beside Julie. The faint throbbing of the guns, now a
+distinct part of nature, came to them from a line many miles away, but
+John took no notice of it. He had returned to the world among pleasant
+people, and this was one of the finest mornings in early autumn that he
+had ever seen.
+
+The country was much more heavily forested than usual. At points, the
+woods turned into what John would almost have called a real forest. Then
+they could not see very far ahead or to either side, but the road was
+good and the carts moved forward, though not at a pace too great for the
+walkers.
+
+Picard carried a rifle over his shoulders, and John had secured an
+automatic. All the soldiers were well armed. John felt a singular
+lightness of heart, and, despite the forbidding glare of Suzanne, who
+was in the last cart, he spoke to Julie.
+
+"It's too fine a morning for battle," he said in English. "Let's pretend
+that we're a company of troubadours, minnesingers, jongleurs, acrobats
+and what not, going from one great castle to another."
+
+"I suppose Antoine there is the chief acrobat?"
+
+"He might do a flip-flap, but if he did the earth would shake."
+
+"Then you are the chief troubadour. Where is your harp or viol, Sir
+Knight of the Tuneful Road?"
+
+"I'm merely imagining character, not action. I haven't a harp or a viol,
+and if I had them I couldn't play on either."
+
+"Do you think it right to talk In English to the strange young American,
+Mademoiselle? Would Madame your mother approve?" said Suzanne in a
+fierce whisper.
+
+"It is sometimes necessary in war, Suzanne, to talk where one would not
+do so in peace," replied Julie gravely, and then she said to John again
+in English:
+
+"We cannot carry out the pretense, Mr. Scott. The tuneful or merry folk
+of the Middle Ages did not travel with arms. They had no enemies, and
+they were welcome everywhere. Nor did they travel as we do to the
+accompaniment of war. The sound of the guns grows louder."
+
+"So it does," said John, bending an ear--he had forgotten that a battle
+was raging somewhere, "but we're behind the French lines and it cannot
+touch us."
+
+"It was a wonderful victory. Our soldiers are the bravest in the world
+are they not, Mr. Scott?"
+
+John smiled. They were still talking English. He liked to hear her
+piquant pronunciation of it, and he surmised too that the bravest of
+hearts beat in the bosom of this young girl whom war had suddenly made a
+woman. How could the sister of such a man as Lannes be otherwise than
+brave? The sober brown dress, and the hood equally sober, failed to hide
+her youthful beauty. The strands of hair escaping from the hood showed
+pure gold in the sunshine, and in the same sunshine the blue of her eyes
+seemed deeper than ever.
+
+John was often impressed by the weakness of generalities, and one of
+them was the fact that so many of the French were so fair, and so many
+of the English so dark. He did not remember the origin of the Lannes
+family, but he was sure that through her mother's line, at least, she
+must be largely of Norman blood.
+
+"What are you thinking of so gravely, Mr. Scott?" she asked, still in
+English, to the deep dissatisfaction of Suzanne, who never relaxed her
+grim glare.
+
+"I don't know. Perhaps it was the contrast of our peaceful journey to
+what is going on twelve or fifteen miles away."
+
+"It is beautiful here!" she said.
+
+Truly it was. The road, smooth and white, ran along the slopes of hills,
+crested with open forest, yet fresh and green. Below them were fields of
+chequered brown and green. Four or five clear brooks flowed down the
+slopes, and the sheen of a little river showed in the distance. Three
+small villages were in sight, and, clean white smoke rising from their
+chimneys, blended harmoniously into the blue of the skies. It reminded
+John of pictures by the great French landscape painters. It was all so
+beautiful and peaceful, nor was the impression marred by the distant
+mutter of the guns which he had forgotten again.
+
+Julie and Suzanne, her menacing shadow, dismounted from the wagon
+presently and walked with John and Picard. Lieutenant Legaré was stirred
+enough from his customary phlegm to offer some gallant words, but war,
+the great leveler, had not quite leveled all barriers, so far as he was
+concerned, and, after her polite reply, he returned to his martial
+duties. John had become the friend of the Lannes family through his
+association with Philip in dangerous service, and his position was
+recognized.
+
+The road ascended and the forest became deeper. No houses were now in
+sight. As the morning advanced it had grown warmer under a brilliant
+sun, but it was pleasant here in the shade. Julie still walked, showing
+no sign of a wish for the cart again. John noticed that she was very
+strong, or at least very enduring. Suddenly he felt a great obligation
+to take care of her for the sake of Lannes. The sister of his
+comrade-in-arms was a precious trust in his hands, and he must not
+fail.
+
+The wind shifted and blew toward the east, no longer bringing the sound
+of guns. Instead they heard a bird now and then, chattering or singing
+in a tree. The illusion of the Middle Ages returned to John. They were a
+peaceful troupe, going upon a peaceful errand.
+
+"Don't tell me there isn't a castle at Ménouville," he said. "I know
+there is, although I've never been there, and I never heard of the place
+before. When we arrive the drawbridge will be down and the portcullis
+up. All the men-at-arms will have burnished their armor brightly and
+will wait respectfully in parallel rows to welcome us as we pass
+between. His Grace, the Duke of Light Heart, in a suit of red velvet
+will be standing on the steps, and Her Graciousness, the Duchess, in a
+red brocade dress, with her hair powdered and very high on her head,
+will be by his side to greet our merry troupe. Behind them will be all
+the ducal children, and the knights and squires and pages, and ladies. I
+think they will all be very glad to see us, because in these Middle Ages
+of ours, life, even in a great ducal castle, is somewhat lonely.
+Visitors are too rare, and there is not the variety of interest that
+even the poor will have in a later time."
+
+"You make believe well, Mr. Scott," she said.
+
+"There is inspiration," he said, glancing at her. "We are here in the
+deeps of an ancient wood, and perhaps the stories and legends of these
+old lands move the Americans more than they do the people who live here.
+We're the children of Europe and when we look back to the land of our
+fathers we often see it through a kind of glorified mist."
+
+"The wind is shifting again," she said. "I hear the cannon once more."
+
+"So do I, and I hear something else too! Was that the sound of hoofs?"
+
+John turned in sudden alarm to Legaré, who heard also and stiffened at
+once to attention. They were not alone on the road. The rapid beat of
+hoofs came, and around a corner galloped a mass of Uhlans, helmets and
+lances glittering. Picard with a shout of warning fired his rifle into
+the thick of them. Legaré snatched out his revolver and fired also.
+
+But they had no chance. The little detachment was ridden down in an
+instant. Legaré and half of the men died gallantly. The rest were taken.
+Picard had been brought to his knees by a tremendous blow from the butt
+of a lance, and John, who had instinctively sprung before Julie, was
+overpowered. Suzanne, who endeavored to reach a weapon, fought like a
+tigress, but two Uhlans finally subdued her.
+
+It was so swift and sudden that it scarcely seemed real to John, but
+there were the dead bodies lying ghastly in the road, and there stood
+Julie, as pale as death, but not trembling. The leader of the Uhlans
+pushed his helmet back a little from his forehead, and looked down at
+John, who had been disarmed but who stood erect and defiant.
+
+"It is odd, Mr. Scott," said Captain von Boehlen, "how often the
+fortunes of this war have caused us to meet."
+
+"It is, and sometimes fortune favors one, sometimes the other. You're
+in favor now."
+
+Von Boehlen looked steadily at his prisoner. John thought that the
+strength and heaviness of the jaw were even more pronounced than when he
+had first seen the Prussian in Dresden. The face was tanned deeply, and
+face and figure alike seemed the embodiment of strength. One might
+dislike him, but one could not despise him. John even found it in his
+heart to respect him, as he returned the steady gaze of the blue eyes
+with a look equally as firm.
+
+"I hope," said John, "that you will send back Mademoiselle Lannes and
+the nurses with her to her people. I take it that you're not making war
+upon women."
+
+Von Boehlen gave Julie a quick glance of curiosity and admiration. But
+the eyes flashed for only a moment and then were expressionless.
+
+"I know of one Lannes," he said, "Philip Lannes, the aviator, a name
+that fame has brought to us Germans."
+
+"I am his sister," said Julie.
+
+"I can wish, Mademoiselle Lannes," said von Boehlen, politely in French,
+"that we had captured your brother instead of his sister."
+
+"But as I said, you will send them back to their own people? You don't
+make war upon women?" repeated John.
+
+"No, we do not make war upon women. We are making war upon Frenchmen,
+and I do not hesitate to say in the presence of Mademoiselle Lannes that
+this war is made upon very brave Frenchmen. Yet we cannot send the
+ladies back. The presence of our cavalry here within the French lines
+must not be known to our enemies. Moreover, I obey the orders of
+another, and I am compelled to hold them as prisoners--for a while at
+least."
+
+Von Boehlen's tone was not lacking in the least in courtesy. It was more
+than respectful when he spoke directly to Julie Lannes, and John's
+feeling of repugnance to him underwent a further abatement--he was a
+creation of his conditions, and he believed in his teachings.
+
+"You will at least keep us all as prisoners together?" said John.
+
+"I know of no reason to the contrary," replied von Boehlen briefly. Then
+he acted with the decision that characterized all the German officers
+whom John had seen. The women and the prisoners were put in the carts.
+Dismounted Uhlans took the place of the drivers and the little
+procession with an escort of about fifty cavalry turned from the road
+into the woods, von Boehlen and the rest, about five hundred in number,
+rode on down the road.
+
+John was in the last cart with Julie, Suzanne and Picard, and his soul
+was full of bitter chagrin. He had just been taking mental resolutions
+to protect, no matter what came, Philip Lannes' sister, and, within a
+half hour, both she and he were prisoners. But when he saw the face of
+Antoine Picard he knew that one, at least, in the cart was suffering as
+much as he. The gigantic peasant was the only one whose arms were bound,
+and perhaps it was as well. His face expressed the most ferocious anger
+and hate, and now and then he pulled hard upon his bonds. John could see
+that they were cutting into the flesh. He remembered also that Picard
+was not in uniform. He was in German eyes only a _franc tireur_, subject
+to instant execution, and he wondered why von Boehlen had delayed.
+
+"Save your strength, Antoine," he whispered soothingly. "We'll need it
+later. I've been a prisoner before and I escaped. What's been done once
+can be done again. In such a huge and confused war as this there's
+always a good chance."
+
+"Ah, you're right, Monsieur," said Antoine, and he ceased to struggle.
+
+Julie had heard the whisper, and she looked at John confidently. She was
+the youngest of all the women in the carts, but she was the coolest.
+
+"They cannot do anything with us but hold us a few days," she said.
+
+John was silent, turning away his somber face. He did not like this
+carrying away of the women as captives, and to him the women were
+embodied in Julie. They were following a little path through the woods,
+the German drivers and German guards seeming to know well the way. John,
+calculating the course by the sun, was sure that they were now going
+directly toward the German army and that they would pass unobserved
+beyond the French outposts. The path was leading into a narrow gorge and
+the banks and trees would hide them from all observation. He was
+confirmed in his opinion by the action of their guards. The leader rode
+beside the carts and said in very good French that any one making the
+least outcry would be shot instantly. No exception would be made in the
+case of a woman.
+
+John knew that the threat would be kept. Julie Lannes paled a little,
+and the faithful Suzanne by her side was darkly menacing, but they
+showed no other emotion.
+
+"Don't risk anything," said John in the lowest of whispers. "It would be
+useless."
+
+Julie nodded. The carts moved on down the gorge, their wheels and the
+hoofs of the horses making but little noise on the soft turf. The crash
+of the guns was now distinctly louder and far ahead they saw wisps of
+smoke floating above the trees. John was sure that the German batteries
+were there, but he was equally sure that even had he glasses he could
+not have seen them. They would certainly be masked in some adroit
+fashion.
+
+The roaring also grew on their right and left. That must be the French
+cannon, and soon they would be beyond the French lines. His bitterness
+increased. Nothing could be more galling than to be carried in this
+manner through one's own forces and into the camp of the enemy. And
+there was Julie, sitting quiet and pale, apparently without fear.
+
+He reckoned that they rode at least three miles in the gorge. Then they
+came into a shallow stream about twenty feet wide that would have been
+called a creek at home. Its banks were fairly high, lined on one side by
+a hedge and on the other by willows. Instead of following the path any
+further the Germans turned into the bed of the stream and drove down it
+two or three miles. The roar of the artillery from both armies was now
+very great, and the earth shook. Once John caught the shadow of a huge
+shell passing high over their heads.
+
+All the prisoners knew that they were well beyond hope of rescue for the
+present. The French line was far behind them and they were within the
+German zone. It was better to be resigned, until they saw cause for
+hope.
+
+When they came to a low point in the eastern bank of the stream the
+carts turned out, reached a narrow road between lines of poplars and
+continued their journey eastward. In the fields on either side John saw
+detachments of German infantry, skirmishers probably, as they had not
+yet reached the line of cannon.
+
+"Officer," said John to the German leader, "couldn't you unbind the arms
+of my friend in the cart here? Ropes around one's wrists for a long time
+are painful, and since we're within your lines he has no chance of
+escape now."
+
+The officer looked at Picard and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Giants are strong," he said.
+
+"But a little bullet can lay low the greatest of them."
+
+"That is so."
+
+He leaned from his horse, inserted the point of his sword between
+Picard's wrists and deftly cut the rope without breaking the skin.
+Picard clenched and unclenched his hands and drew several mighty breaths
+of relief. But he was a peasant of fine manners and he did not forget
+them. Turning to the officer, he said:
+
+"I did not think I'd ever thank a German for anything, but I owe you
+gratitude. It's unnatural and painful to remain trussed up like a fowl
+going to market."
+
+The officer gave Picard a glance of pity and rode to the head of the
+column, which turned off at a sharp angle toward the north. The great
+roar and crash now came from the south and John inferred that they would
+soon pass beyond the zone of fire. But for a long time the thunder of
+the battle was undiminished.
+
+"Do you know this country at all?" John asked Picard.
+
+The giant shook his head.
+
+"I was never here before, sir," he said, "and I never thought I should
+come into any part of France in this fashion. Ah, Mademoiselle Julie,
+how can I ever tell the tale of this to your mother?"
+
+"No harm will come to me, Antoine," said Julie. "I shall be back in
+Paris before long. Suzanne and you are with me--and Mr. Scott."
+
+Suzanne again frowned darkly, but John gave Julie a grateful glance.
+Wisdom, however, told him to say nothing. The officer in command came
+back to the cart and said, pointing ahead:
+
+"Behold your destination! The large house on the hill. It is the
+headquarters of a person of importance, and you will find quarters there
+also. I trust that the ladies will hold no ill will against me. I've
+done only what my orders have compelled me to do."
+
+"We do not, sir," said Julie.
+
+The officer bowed low and rode back to the head of the column. He was a
+gallant man and John liked him. But his attention was directed now to
+the house, an old French château standing among oaks. The German flag
+flew over it and sentinels rode back and forth on the lawn. John
+remembered the officer's words that a "person of importance" was making
+his headquarters there. It must be one of the five German army
+commanders, at least.
+
+He looked long at the château. It was much such a place as that in which
+Carstairs, Wharton and he had once found refuge, and from the roof of
+which Wharton had worked the wireless with so much effect. But houses of
+this type were numerous throughout Western Europe.
+
+It was only two stories in height, large, with long low windows, and the
+lawn was more like a park in size. It as now the scene of abundant life,
+although, as John knew instinctively, not the life of those to whom it
+belonged. A number of young officers sat on the grass reading, and at
+the edge of the grounds stood a group of horses with their riders lying
+on the ground near them. Not far away were a score of high powered
+automobiles, several of which were armored. John also saw beyond them a
+battery of eight field guns, idle now and with their gunners asleep
+beside them. He had no doubt that other troops in thousands were not far
+away and that, in truth, they were in the very thick of the German army.
+
+The château and its grounds were enclosed by a high iron fence and the
+little procession of carts stopped at the great central gate. A group
+of officers who had been sitting on the grass, reading a newspaper, came
+forward to meet them and John, to his amazement and delight, recognized
+the young prince, von Arnheim. It was impossible for him to regard von
+Arnheim as other than a friend, and springing impulsively from the cart
+he said:
+
+"I had to leave you for a while. It had become irksome to be a prisoner,
+but you see I've come back."
+
+Von Arnheim stared, then recognition came.
+
+"Ah, it's Scott, the American! I speak truth when I say that I'm sorry
+to see you here."
+
+"I'm sorry to come," said John, "but I'd rather be your prisoner than
+anybody else's, and I wish to ask your courtesy and kindness for the
+young lady, sitting in the rear of the cart, Mademoiselle Julie Lannes,
+the sister of that great French aviator of whom everybody has heard."
+
+"I'll do what I can, but you're mistaken in assuming that I'm in command
+here. There's a higher personage--but pardon me, I must speak to the
+lieutenant."
+
+The officer in charge was saluting, obviously anxious to make his report
+and have done with an unpleasant duty. Von Arnheim gave him rapid
+directions in German and then asked Julie and the two Picards to
+dismount from the cart, while the others were carried through the gate
+and down a drive toward some distant out-buildings.
+
+John saw von Arnheim's eyes gleam a little, when he noticed the beauty
+of young Julie, but the Prussian was a man of heart and manner. He
+lifted his helmet, and bowed with the greatest courtesy, saying:
+
+"It's an unhappy chance for you, but not for us, that has made you our
+prisoner, Mademoiselle Lannes. In this château you must consider
+yourself a guest, and not a captive. It would not become us to treat
+otherwise the sister of one so famous as your brother."
+
+John noticed that he paid her no direct compliment. It was indirect,
+coming through her brother, and he liked von Arnheim better than ever,
+because the young captive was, in truth, very beautiful. The brown dress
+and the sober hood could not hide it as she stood there, the warm red
+light from the setting sun glancing across her rosy face and the
+tendrils of golden hair that fell from beneath the hood. She was
+beautiful beyond compare, John repeated to himself, but scarcely more
+than a child, and she had come into strange places. The stalwart Suzanne
+also took note, and she moved a little nearer, while her grim look
+deepened.
+
+"We will give you the best hospitality the house affords," continued von
+Arnheim. "It's scarcely equipped for ladies, although the former owners
+left--"
+
+He paused and reddened. John knew his embarrassment was due to the fact
+that the house to which he was inviting Julie belonged to one of her own
+countrymen. But she did not seem to notice it. The manner and appearance
+of von Arnheim inspired confidence.
+
+"We'll be put with the other prisoners, of course," said John
+tentatively.
+
+"I don't know," replied von Arnheim. "That rests with my superior, whom
+you shall soon see."
+
+They were walking along the gravel toward a heavy bronze door, that told
+little of what the house contained. Officers and soldiers saluted the
+young prince as he passed. John saw discipline and attention everywhere.
+The German note was discipline and obedience, obedience and discipline.
+A nation, with wonderful powers of thinking, it was a nation that ceased
+to think when the call of the drill sergeant came. Discipline and
+obedience had made it terrible and unparalleled in war, to a certain
+point, but beyond that point the nations that did think in spite of
+their sergeants, could summon up reserves of strength and courage which
+the powers of the trained militarists could not create. At least John
+thought so.
+
+The long windows of the house threw back the last rays of the setting
+sun, and it was twilight when von Arnheim and his four captives entered
+the château. A large man, middle-aged, heavy and bearded, wearing the
+uniform of a German general rose, and a staff of several officers rose
+with him. It was Auersperg, the medieval prince, and John's heart was
+troubled.
+
+Von Arnheim saluted, bowing deeply. He stood not only in the presence of
+his general, but of royalty also. It was something in the German blood,
+even in one so brave and of such high rank as von Arnheim himself, that
+compelled humility, and John, like the fierce democrat he was, did not
+like it at all. The belief was too firmly imbedded in his mind ever to
+be removed that men like Auersperg and the mad power for which they
+stood had set the torch to Europe.
+
+"Captain von Boehlen took some prisoners, Your Highness," said von
+Arnheim, "and as he was compelled to continue on his expedition he has
+sent them here under the escort of Lieutenant Puttkamer. The young lady
+is Mademoiselle Julie Lannes, the sister of the aviator, of whom we all
+know, the woman and the peasant are her servants, and the young man,
+whom we have seen before, is an American, John Scott in the French
+service."
+
+He spoke in French, with intention, John thought, and the heavy-lidded
+eyes of Auersperg dwelt an instant on the fresh and beautiful face of
+Julie. And that momentary glance was wholly medieval. John saw it and
+understood it. A rage against Auersperg that would never die flamed up
+in his heart. He already hated everything for which the man stood.
+Auersperg's glance passed on, and slowly measured the gigantic figure of
+Picard. Then he smiled in a slow and ugly fashion.
+
+"Ah, a peasant in civilian's dress, captured fighting our brave armies!
+Our orders are very strict upon that point. Von Arnheim, take this
+_franc tireur_ behind the château and have him shot at once."
+
+He too had spoken in French, and doubtless with intention also. John
+felt a thrill of horror, but Julie Lannes, turning white, sprang before
+Picard:
+
+"No! No!" she cried to Auersperg. "You cannot do such a thing! He is not
+a soldier! They would not take him because he is too old! He is my
+mother's servant! It would be barbarous to have him shot!"
+
+Auersperg looked again at Julie, and smiled, but it was the slow, cold
+smile of a master.
+
+"You beg very prettily, Mademoiselle," he said.
+
+She flushed, but stood firm.
+
+"It would be murder," she said. "You cannot do it!"
+
+"You know little of war. This man is a _franc tireur_, a civilian in
+civilian's garb, fighting against us. It is our law that all such who
+are caught be shot immediately."
+
+"Your Highness," said von Arnheim, "I have reason to think that the
+lady's story is correct. This man's daughter is her maid, and he is
+obviously a servant of her house."
+
+Auersperg turned his slow, heavy look upon the young Prussian, but John
+noticed that von Arnheim met it without flinching, although Picard had
+really fired upon the Germans. He surmised that von Arnheim was fully as
+high-born as Auersperg, and perhaps more so. John knew that these things
+counted for a lot in Germany, however ridiculous they might seem to a
+democratic people. Nevertheless Auersperg spoke with irony:
+
+"Your heart is overworking, von Arnheim," he said "Sometimes I fear that
+it is too soft for a Prussian. Our Emperor and our Fatherland demand
+that we shall turn hearts of steel to our enemies, and never spare them.
+But it may be, my brave Wilhelm, that your sympathy is less for this
+hulking peasant and more for the fair face of the lady whom he serves."
+
+John saw Julie's face flush a deep red, and his hand stole down to his
+belt, but no weapon was there. Von Arnheim's face reddened also, but he
+stood at attention before his superior officer and replied with dignity:
+
+"I admire Mademoiselle Lannes, although I have known her only ten
+minutes, but I think, Your Highness, that my admiration is warranted,
+and also that it is not lacking in respect."
+
+"Good for you, von Arnheim," said John, under his breath. But the
+medieval mind of Auersperg was not disturbed. The slow, cruel smile
+passed across his face again.
+
+"You are brave my Wilhelm," he said, "but I am confirmed in my opinion
+that some of our princely houses have become tainted. The harm that was
+done when Napoleon smashed his way through Europe has never been undone.
+The touch of the democracy was defilement, and it does not pass. Do you
+think our ancestors would have wasted so much time over a miserable
+French peasant?"
+
+This was a long speech, much too long for the circumstances, John
+thought, but von Arnheim still standing stiffly at attention, merely
+said:
+
+"Your Highness I ask this man's life of you. He is not a _franc tireur_
+in the real sense."
+
+"Since you make it a personal matter, my brave young Wilhelm, I yield.
+Let him be held a prisoner, but no more requests of the same kind. This
+is positively the last time I shall yield to such a weakness."
+
+"Thank you, Your Highness," said von Arnheim. Julie gave him one
+flashing look of gratitude and stepped away from Picard, who had stood,
+his arms folded across his chest, refusing to utter a single word for
+mercy. "This indeed," thought John "is a man." Suzanne was near, and now
+both he and his daughter turned away relaxing in no wise their looks of
+grim resolution. "Here also is a woman as well as a man," thought John.
+
+"I hope, Your Highness, that I may assign Mademoiselle Lannes and her
+maid to one of the upper rooms," said von Arnheim in tones respectful,
+but very firm. "Here also is another man," thought John.
+
+"You may," said Auersperg shortly, "but let the peasant be sent to the
+stables, where the other prisoners are kept."
+
+Two soldiers were called and they took Picard away. Julie and Suzanne
+followed von Arnheim to a stairway, and John was left alone with
+medievalism. The man wore no armor, but when only they two stood in the
+room his feeling that he was back in the Middle Ages was overpowering.
+Here was the baron, and here was he, untitled and unknown.
+
+Auersperg glanced at Julie, disappearing up the stairway, and then
+glanced back at John. Over his heavy face passed the same slow cruel
+smile that set all John's nerves to jumping.
+
+"Why have you, an American, come so far to fight against us?" he asked.
+
+"I didn't come for that purpose. I was here, visiting, and I was caught
+in the whirl of the war, an accident, perhaps. But my sympathies are
+wholly with France. I fight in her ranks from choice."
+
+Auersperg laughed unpleasantly.
+
+"A republic!" he said. "Millions of the ignorant, led by demagogues!
+Bah! The Hohenzollerns will scatter them like chaff!"
+
+"I can't positively say that I saw any Hohenzollern, but I did see their
+armies turned back from Paris by those ignorant people, led by their
+demagogues. I'm not even sure of the name of the French general who did
+it, but God gave him a better brain for war, though he may have been
+born a peasant for all I know, than he did to your Kaiser, or any king,
+prince, grand duke or duke in all the German armies!"
+
+John had been tried beyond endurance and he knew that he had spoken with
+impulsive passion, but he knew also that he had spoken with truth. The
+face of Auersperg darkened. The medieval baron, full of power, without
+responsibility, believing implicitly in what he chose to call his order,
+but which was merely the chance of birth, was here. And while the Middle
+Ages in reality had passed, war could hide many a dark tale. John was
+unable to read the intent in the cruel eyes, but they heard the
+footsteps of von Arnheim on the stairs, and the clenched hand that had
+been raised fell back by Auersperg's side. Nevertheless medievalism did
+not relax its gaze.
+
+"What to you is this girl who seems to have charmed von Arnheim?" he
+asked.
+
+"Her brother has become my best friend. She has charmed me as she has
+charmed von Arnheim, and as she charms all others whom she meets. And I
+am pleased to tell Your Highness that the spell she casts is not alone
+her beauty, but even more her pure soul."
+
+Auersperg laughed in an ugly fashion.
+
+"Youth! Youth!" he exclaimed. "I see that the spell is upon you, even
+more than it is upon von Arnheim. But dismiss her from your thoughts.
+You go a prisoner into Germany, and it's not likely that you'll ever see
+her again."
+
+Young Scott felt a sinking of the heart, but he was not one to show it.
+
+"Prisoners may escape," he said boldly, "and what has been done once can
+always be done again."
+
+"We shall see that it does not happen a second time in your case. Von
+Arnheim will dispose of you for the night, and even if you should
+succeed in stealing from the château there is around it a ring of German
+sentinels through which you could not possibly break."
+
+Some strange kink appeared suddenly in John's brain--he was never able
+to account for it afterward, though Auersperg's manner rasped him
+terribly.
+
+"I mean to escape," he said, "and I wager you two to one that I do."
+
+Auersperg sat down and laughed, laughed in a way that made John's face
+turn red. Then he beckoned to von Arnheim.
+
+"Take him away," he said. "He is characteristic of his frivolous
+democracy, frivolous and perhaps amusing, but it is a time for serious
+not trifling things."
+
+John was glad enough to go with von Arnheim, who was silent and
+depressed. Yet the thought came to him once more that there were princes
+and princes. Von Arnheim led the way to a small bare room under the
+roof. John saw that there were soldiers in the upper halls as well as
+the lower, and he was sorry that he had made such a boast to Auersperg.
+As he now saw it his chance of escape glimmered into nothing.
+
+"You should not have spoken so to His Highness," said von Arnheim. "I
+could not help but hear. He is our commander here, and it is not well to
+infuriate one who holds all power over you?"
+
+"I am but human," replied John.
+
+"And being human, you should have had complete control over yourself at
+such a time."
+
+"I admit it," said John, taking the rebuke in the right spirit.
+
+"You're to spend the night here. I've been able to secure this much
+lenity for you, but it's for one night only. Tomorrow you go with the
+other prisoners in the stables. Your door will be locked, but even if
+you should succeed in forcing it don't try to escape. The halls swarm
+with sentinels, and you would be shot instantly. I'll have food sent to
+you presently."
+
+He spoke brusquely but kindly. When he went out John heard a huge key
+rumbling in the lock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A PROMISE KEPT
+
+
+The room in which John was confined contained only a bed, a chair and a
+table. It was lighted by a single window, from which he could see
+numerous soldiers below. He also heard the distant mutter of the cannon,
+which seemed now to have become a part of nature. There were periods of
+excitement or of mental detachment, when he did not notice it, but it
+was always there. Now the soldiers in the grounds were moving but
+little, and the air pulsed with the thud of the great guns.
+
+He recalled again his promise, or rather threat, to Auersperg that he
+would escape. Instinctively he went to the narrow but tall window and
+glanced at the heavens. Then he knew that impulse had made him look for
+Lannes and the _Arrow_, and he laughed at his own folly. Even if Lannes
+knew where they were he could not slip prisoners out of a house,
+surrounded by watchful German troops.
+
+He heard the heavy key turning in the lock, and a silent soldier brought
+him food, which he put upon the table. The man remained beside the door
+until John had eaten his supper, when he took the dishes and withdrew.
+He had not spoken a word while he was in the room, but as he was passing
+out John said:
+
+"Good-bye, Pickelbaube! Let's have no ill feeling between you and me."
+
+The German--honest peasant that he was--grinned and nodded. He could not
+understand the English words, but he gathered from John's tone that they
+were friendly, and he responded at once. But when he closed the door
+behind him John heard the heavy key turning in the lock again. He knew
+there was little natural hostility between the people of different
+nations. It was instilled into them from above.
+
+Food brought back new strength and new courage. He took his place again
+at the window which was narrow and high, cut through a deep wall. The
+illusion of the Middle Ages, which Auersperg had created so completely,
+returned. This was the dungeon in a castle and he was a prisoner doomed
+to death by its lord. Some dismounted Uhlans who were walking across the
+grounds with their long lances over their shoulders gave another touch
+to this return of the past, as the first rays of the moonlight glittered
+on helmet and lance-head.
+
+He was not sleepy at all, and staying by the window he kept a strange
+watch. He saw white flares appear often on a long line in the west. He
+knew it was the flashing of the searchlights, and he surmised that what
+he saw was meant for signals. The fighting would go on under steady
+light continued long, and that it would continue admitted of no doubt.
+He could hear the mutter of the guns, ceaseless like the flowing of a
+river.
+
+He saw the battery drive out of the grounds, then turn into the road
+before the château and disappear. He concluded that the cannon were
+needed at some weak point where the Franco-British army was pressing
+hard.
+
+Then a company of hussars came from the forest and rode quietly into the
+grounds, where they dismounted. John saw that many, obviously the
+wounded, were helped from their horses. In battle, he concluded, and not
+so far off. Perhaps not more than two or three miles. Rifle-fire, with
+the wind blowing the wrong way, would not be heard that distance.
+
+The hussars, leading their horses, disappeared in a wood behind the
+house, and they were followed presently by a long train of automobiles,
+moving rather slowly. The moonlight was very bright now and John saw
+that they were filled with wounded who stirred but little and who made
+no outcry. The line of motors turned into the place and they too
+disappeared behind the château, following the hussars.
+
+Two aeroplanes alighted on the grass and their drivers entered the
+house. Bearers of dispatches, John felt sure, and while he watched he
+saw both return, spring into their machines and fly away. Their
+departure caused him to search the heavens once more, and he knew that
+he was looking for Lannes, who could not come.
+
+Now von Arnheim passed down the graveled walk that led to the great
+central gate, but, half way, turned from it and began to talk to some
+sentinels who stood on the grass. He was certainly a fine fellow, tall,
+well built, and yet free from the German stoutness of figure. He wore a
+close uniform of blue-gray which fitted him admirably, and the moonlight
+fell in a flood on his handsome, ruddy face.
+
+"I hope you won't be killed," murmured John. "If there is any French
+shell or shrapnel that is labeled specially for a prince and that must
+have a prince, I pray it will take Auersperg in place of von Arnheim."
+
+It was a serious prayer and he felt that it was without a trace of
+wickedness or sacrilege. Evidently von Arnheim was giving orders of
+importance, as two of the men, to whom he was talking, hurried to
+horses, mounted and galloped down the road. Then the young prince walked
+slowly back to the house and John could see that he was very thoughtful.
+He passed his hand in a troubled way two or three times across his
+forehead. Perhaps the medieval prince inside was putting upon the modern
+prince outside labors that he was far from liking.
+
+John's unformed plan of escape included Julie Lannes. He could not go
+away without her. If he did he could never face Lannes again, and what
+was more, he could never face himself. It was in reality this thought
+that made his resolve to escape seem so difficult. It had been lurking
+continuously in the back of his head. To go away without Julie was
+impossible. Under ordinary circumstances her situation as a prisoner
+would not be alarming. Germans regarded women with respect. They had
+done so from the earliest times, as he had learned from the painful
+study of Tacitus. Von Arnheim had received a deep impression from
+Julie's beauty and grace. John could tell it by his looks, but those
+looks were honest. They came from the eyes and heart of one who could do
+no wrong. But the other! The man of the Middle Ages, the older prince.
+He was different. War re-created ancient passions and gave to them
+opportunities. No, he could not think of leaving without Julie!
+
+He kept his place at the tall, narrow window, and the night was steadily
+growing brighter. A full, silver moon was swinging high in the heavens.
+The stars were out in myriads in that sky of dusky, infinite blue, and
+danced regardless of the tiny planet, Earth, shaken by battle. From the
+hills came the relentless groaning which he knew was the sound of the
+guns, fighting one another under the searchlights.
+
+Then he heard the clatter of hoofs, and another company of Uhlans rode
+up to the château. Their leader dismounted and entered the great gate.
+John recognized von Boehlen, who had taken off his helmet to let the
+cool air blow upon his close-cropped head. He stood on the graveled walk
+for a few minutes directly in a flood of silver rays, every feature
+showing clearly. He had been arrogant and domineering, but John liked
+him far better than Auersperg. His cruelty would be the cruelty of
+battle, and there might be a streak of sentimentalism hidden under the
+stiff and harsh German manner, like a vein of gold in rock. As von
+Boehlen resumed his approach to the house he passed from John's range of
+vision, and then the prisoner watched the horizon for anything that he
+might see. Twice he beheld the far flare of searchlights, but nobody
+else came to the château, and the night darkened somewhat. No rattle of
+arms or stamp of hoofs came from the hussars in the grounds, and he
+judged that all but the sentinels slept. Nor was there any sound of
+movement in the house, and in the peaceful silence he at last began to
+feel sleepy. The problems of his position were too great for him to
+solve--at least for the present--and lying down on the cot he was fast
+asleep before he knew it.
+
+Youth does not always sleep soundly, and the tension of John's nerves
+continued long after he lapsed into unconsciousness. That, perhaps, was
+the reason why he awoke at once when the heavy key began to turn again
+in the lock. He sat up on the cot--he had not undressed--and his hand
+instinctively slipped to his belt, where there was no weapon.
+
+The key was certainly turning in the lock, and then the door was
+opening! A shadow appeared in the space between door and wall, and
+John's first feeling was of apprehension. An atmosphere of suspicion had
+been created about him and he considered his life in much more danger
+there than it had been when he was first a prisoner.
+
+The door closed again quickly and softly, but somebody was inside the
+room, somebody who had a light, feline step, and John felt the prickling
+of the hair at the back of his neck. He longed for a weapon, something
+better than only his two hands, but he was reassured when the intruder,
+speaking French, called in a whisper:
+
+"Are you awake, Mr. Scott?"
+
+It was surely not the voice and words of one who had come to do murder,
+and John felt a thrill of recognition.
+
+"Weber!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, it's Weber, Mr. Scott."
+
+"How under the sun did you get here, Weber?"
+
+"By pretending to be a German. I'm an Alsatian, you know, and it's not
+difficult. I'm doing work for France. It's terribly dangerous. My life
+is on the turn of a hair every moment, but I'm willing to take the risk.
+I did not know you were here until late tonight, when I came to the
+château to see if I could discover anything further about the numbers
+and movements of the enemy. You must get away now. I think I can help
+you to escape."
+
+There was a tone in Weber's voice that aroused John's curiosity.
+
+"It's good of you, Weber," he said, "to take such a risk for me, but why
+is it so urgent that I escape tonight?"
+
+"I've learned since I came to the château that the Prince of Auersperg
+is much inflamed against you. Perhaps you spoke to him in a way that
+gave offense to his dignity. Ah, sir, the members of these ancient royal
+houses, those of the old type, consider themselves above and beyond the
+other people of the earth. In Germany you cannot offend them without
+risk, and it may be, too, that you stand in his way in regard to
+something that he very much desires!"
+
+Although Weber spoke in a whisper his voice was full of energy and
+earnestness. His words sank with the weight of truth into John's heart.
+
+"Can you really help me to escape?" he asked.
+
+"I think so. I'm sure of it. The guards in the house are relaxed at this
+late hour, and they would seem needless anyhow with so many sentinels
+outside."
+
+"But, Weber, Julie Lannes, the sister of Philip Lannes, is here a
+prisoner also. She was taken when I was. She is a Red Cross nurse, and
+although the Germans would not harm a woman, I do not like to leave her
+in this château. Your Prince of Auersperg does not seem to belong to our
+later age."
+
+"Perhaps not. He holds strongly for the old order, but the young von
+Arnheim is here also. His is a devoted German heart, but his German eyes
+have looked with admiration, nay more, upon a French face. He will
+protect that beautiful young Mademoiselle Julie with his life against
+anybody, against his senior in military rank, the Prince of Auersperg
+himself. Sir, you must come! If you wish to help Philip Lannes' sister
+you can be of more help to her living than dead. If you linger here you
+surely disappear from men tomorrow!"
+
+"How do you know these things, Weber?"
+
+"I have been in the house three or four hours and there is talk among
+the soldiers. I pray you, don't hesitate longer!"
+
+"How can you find a way?"
+
+"Wait a minute."
+
+He slipped back to the door, opened it and looked into the hall.
+
+"The path is clear," he said, when he returned. "There is no sentinel
+near your door, and I've found a way leading out of the château at the
+back. Most of these old houses have crooked, disused passages."
+
+"But suppose we succeed in reaching the outside, Weber, what then? The
+place is surrounded by an army."
+
+"A way is there, too. One man in the darkness can pass through a
+multitude. We can't delay, because another chance may not come!"
+
+John was overborne. Weber was half pulling him toward the door.
+Moreover, there was much sense in what the Alsatian said. It was a
+commonplace that he could be of more service to Julie alive than dead,
+and the man's insistence deciding him, he crept with the Alsatian into
+the hall. They stood a few minutes in the dark, listening, but no sound
+came. Evidently the house slept well.
+
+"This way, Mr. Scott," whispered Weber, and he led toward the rear of
+the house. Turning the corner of the hall he opened a small door in the
+wall, which John would have passed even in the daylight without
+noticing.
+
+"Put a hand on my coat and follow me," said Weber.
+
+John obeyed without hesitation, and they ascended a half dozen steps
+along a passage so narrow that his shoulders touched the walls. It was
+very dark there, but at the top they entered a room into which some
+moonlight came, enough for John to see barrels, boxes and bags heaped on
+the floor.
+
+"A storeroom," said Weber. "The French are thrifty. The owner of this
+house had splendor below, and he has kept provision for it above, almost
+concealed by the narrowness of the door and stair. But we'll find a
+broader stair on the other side, and then we'll descend through the
+kitchen and beyond."
+
+"This looks promising. You're a clever man, Weber, and my debt to you is
+too big for me."
+
+"Don't think about it. Be careful and don't make any noise. Here's the
+other stair. You'd better hold to my coat again."
+
+They stole softly down the stair, crossed an unused room, went down
+another narrow, unused passage, and then, when Weber opened a door, John
+felt the cool air of the night blowing upon his face. When the attempt
+at escape began, he had not been so enthusiastic, because he was leaving
+Julie behind, but with every step his eagerness grew and the free wind
+brought with it a sort of intoxication. He did not doubt now that he
+would make good his flight. Weber, that fast friend of his, was a
+wonderful man. He worked miracles. Everything came out as he predicted
+it would, and he would work more miracles.
+
+"Where are we now?" asked John.
+
+"This door is by the side of the kitchens. A little to the left is an
+extensive conservatory, nearly all the glass of which has been shattered
+by a shell, but that fact makes it all the more useful as a path for
+us. If we reach it unobserved we can creep through the mass of flowers
+and shrubbery to a large fishpond which lies just beyond it. You're a
+good swimmer, as I know--and you can swim along its edge until you reach
+the shrubbery on the other side. Then you ought to find an opening by
+which you can reach the French army."
+
+"And you, Weber?"
+
+"I? Oh, I must stay here. The Prince of Auersperg is a man of great
+importance. He is high in the confidence of the Kaiser. Besides his
+royal rank he commands one of the German armies. If I am to secure
+precious information for France it must be done in this house."
+
+"Come away with me, Weber. You've risked enough already. They'll catch
+you and you know the fate of spies. I feel like a criminal or coward
+abandoning you to so much danger, after all that you've done for me."
+
+"Thank you for your good words, Mr. Scott, but it's impossible for me to
+go. Keep in the shadow of the wall, and a dozen steps will take you to
+the conservatory."
+
+John wrung the Alsatian's hand, stepped out, and pressed himself against
+the side of the house. The breeze still blew upon his face, revivifying
+and intoxicating. The lazy, feathery clouds were yet drifting before the
+moon and stars.
+
+He saw to his right the gleam of a bayonet as a sentinel walked back and
+forth and he saw another to his left. His heart beat high with hope. He
+was merely a mote in infinite night, and surely they could not see him.
+
+He walked swiftly along in the shadow of the house, and then sprang into
+the conservatory, where he crouched between two tall rose bushes. He
+waited there a little while, breathing hard, but he had not been
+observed. From his rosy shelter he could still see the sentinels on
+either side, walking up and down, undisturbed. Around him was a
+frightful litter. The shell, the history of which he would never know,
+had struck fairly in the center of the place, and it must have burst in
+a thousand fragments. Scarcely a pane of glass had been left unbroken,
+and the great pots, containing rare fruits and flowers, were mingled
+mostly in shattered heaps. It was a pitiable wreck, and it stirred John,
+although he had seen so many things so much worse.
+
+He walked a little distance in a stooping position, and then stood up
+among some shrubs, tall enough to hide him. He noticed a slight dampness
+in the air, and he saw, too, that the feathery clouds were growing
+darker. The faint quiver in the air brought with it, as always, the
+rumble of the guns, but he believed that it was not a blended sound.
+There was real thunder on the horizon, where the French lay, and then he
+saw a distant flash, not white like that of a searchlight, but like
+yellow lightning. Rain, a storm perhaps, must be at hand. He had read
+that nearly all the great battles in the civil war in his own country
+had been followed at once by violent storms of thunder, lightning and
+rain. Then why not here, where immense artillery combats never ceased?
+
+Near the end of the conservatory he paused and looked back at the house.
+Every window was dark. There must be light inside, but shutters were
+closed. His heart throbbed with intense gratitude to Weber. Without him
+escape would have been impossible. He would make his way to the French.
+He would find Lannes and together in some way they would rescue Julie,
+Julie so young and so beautiful, held in the castle of the medieval
+baron. In the lowering shadows the house became a castle and Auersperg
+had always been of the Middle Ages.
+
+The wind freshened and a few drops of rain struck his face. He stood
+boldly erect now, unafraid of observation, and picked a way through the
+mass of broken glass and overturned shrubbery toward the end of the
+conservatory, seeing beyond it a gleam of water which must be the big
+fishpond.
+
+He turned to the left and reached the edge of the pond just as four
+figures stepped from the dusk, their raised rifles pointing at him. The
+shock was so great that, driven by some unknown but saving impulse, he
+threw himself forward into the water just as the soldiers fired. He
+heard the four rifles roaring together. Then he swam below water to the
+far edge of the pond and came up under the shelter of its circling
+shrubbery, raising above its surface only enough of his face for breath.
+
+As his eyes cleared he saw the four soldiers standing at the far edge of
+the pond, looking at the water. Doubtless they were waiting for his
+body to reappear, as his action, half fall, half spring, and the roaring
+of the rifles had been so close together that they seemed a blended
+movement.
+
+He was trembling all over from intense nervous exertion and excitement,
+but his mind steadied enough for him to observe the soldiers.
+Undoubtedly they were talking together, as he saw them making the
+gestures of men who speak, but, even had he heard them, he could not
+have understood their German. They were watching for his body, and as it
+did not reappear they might make the circle of the pond looking for it.
+He intended, in such an event, to leap out and run, but the elements
+were intereceding in his favor. Thunder now preponderated greatly in
+that rumble on the western horizon, and a blaze of yellow lightning
+played across the surface of the pond. It was followed by a rush of rain
+and the soldiers turned back toward the house, evidently sure that they
+had not missed.
+
+John drew himself out of the water and climbed up the bank. His knees
+gave way under him and he sank to the ground. Excitement and emotion had
+been so violent that he was robbed of strength, but the condition lasted
+only a minute or two. Then he rose and began to pick a way.
+
+The rain was driving hard, and it had grown so dark that one could not
+see far. But he felt that the German sentinels now would seek a little
+shelter from the wrath of the skies, and keeping in the shelter of a
+hedge he passed by the stables, where many of the hussars and Uhlans
+slept, through an orchard, the far side of which was packed with
+automobiles, and thence into a wood, where he believed at last that he
+was safe.
+
+He stopped here a little while in the lee of a great oak to protect
+himself from the driving rain, and he noticed then that it was but a
+passing shower, sent, it seemed then to him, as a providential aid. The
+part of the rumble that was real thunder was dying. The yellow flare of
+the lightning stopped and the rain swept off to the east. The moon and
+stars were coming out again.
+
+John tried to see the château, but it was hidden from him by trees. They
+would miss him there, and then they would know that it was he whom the
+soldiers had fired upon at the edge of the pond. All of them would
+believe that he was dead, and he remembered suddenly that Julie, who was
+there among them, would believe it, too. Would she grieve? Or would he
+merely be one of the human beings passing through her life, fleeting and
+forgotten, like the shower that had just gone? It was true that he had
+escaped, but he might be killed in some battle before she was rescued
+from Auersperg--if she was rescued.
+
+These thoughts were hateful, and turning into the road by which they had
+come to the château he ran down it. He ran because he wanted motion,
+because he wished to reach the French army as quickly as he could, and
+help Lannes organize for the rescue of Julie.
+
+He ran a long distance, because his excitement waned slowly, and because
+the severe exercise made the blood course rapidly through his veins,
+counteracting the effects of his cold and wetting. When he began to feel
+weary he turned out of the road, knowing that it was safer in the
+fields. He had the curious belief or impression now that the black
+shower was all arranged for his benefit. Providence was merely making
+things even. The soldiers had been brought upon him when the chances
+were a hundred to one against him, and then the shower had been sent to
+cover him, when the chances were a hundred to one against that, too.
+
+He saw far to the south a sudden faint radiance and he knew that it was
+the last of the lightning. The little feathery clouds, which looked so
+friendly and pleasant against the blue of the sky, came back and the
+moaning on the western horizon toward which he was traveling was wholly
+that of the guns.
+
+He heard a noise over his head, a mixture of a whistle and a scream, and
+he knew that a shell was passing high. He walked on, and heard another.
+But they could not be firing at him. He was still that mere mote in the
+infinite darkness, but, looking back for the bursting of the shells, he
+saw a blaze leap up near the point from which he had come.
+
+A cold shiver seized him. The range was that of the château, and Julie
+was there. The French gunners could have no knowledge that their own
+people were prisoners in the building, and if one of those huge shells
+burst in it, ruin and destruction would follow. The conservatory had
+been a silent witness of what flying metal could do. He stopped,
+appalled. He had been wrong to leave without Julie, and yet he could
+have done nothing else. It was impossible to foresee a shelling of the
+château by the French themselves.
+
+The screaming and whistling came again, but he did not see any
+explosion near the château. One could not tell much from such a swift
+and passing sound, but he concluded that it was a German shell replying.
+He had seen a German battery near the house and it would not remain
+quiet under bombardment.
+
+He had no doubt that the French gunners, having got the range, would
+keep it. Somebody, perhaps an aeroplane or an officer with flags in a
+tree, was signaling. It was horrible, this murderous mechanism by which
+men fired at targets miles away, targets which they could not see, but
+which they hit nevertheless. Every pulse beating hard, John shook his
+fist at the invisible German guns and the invisible French guns alike.
+
+Then he recovered himself with an angry shake and began to run again. He
+knew now that he must go forward and secure a French force for rescue.
+But no matter how much he urged himself on, a great power was pulling at
+him, and it was Julie Lannes, a prisoner of the Germans in the château.
+Often he stopped and looked back, always in the same direction. Twice
+more he saw shells burst in the neighborhood of the house, and then his
+heart would beat hard, but after brief hesitation he would always pursue
+his course once more toward the French army.
+
+He did not know the time, but he believed it to be well past midnight.
+He had his watch, but his immersion in the fish pond had caused it to
+stop. Still, the feel of the air made him believe that he was in the
+morning hours. Shells continued to pass over his head, and now they
+came from many points. He had seen or heard so much firing in the last
+eight or ten days that the world, he felt, must be turned into a huge
+ammunition factory to feed all the guns. He laughed to himself at his
+own grim joke. He was overstrained and he began to see everything
+through a red mist.
+
+His clothing was drying fast, but his throat was very hot from
+excitement and exertion. He came to a little brook, and kneeling down,
+drank greedily. Then he bathed his face and felt stronger and better.
+His nerves also grew steadier. There was not so much luminous mist in
+the atmosphere. Ahead of him the crash of the guns was much louder, and
+he knew that he had already come a long distance. It seemed that the
+passing of the storm had renewed the activity of the gunners. The mutter
+had become rolling thunder, and both to north and south the searchlights
+flared repeatedly.
+
+He heard the beat of hoofs, and he hoped that they were French cavalry
+on patrol, but they proved to be German Hussars, Bavarians he judged by
+the light blue uniforms, and they were coming from the direction of the
+French lines. They had been scouting there, he had no doubt, but they
+passed in a few moments, and, leaving his hedge, he resumed his own
+rapid flight, continually hoping that he would meet some French force,
+scouting also.
+
+But he was doomed to a long trial of patience. Twice he saw Germans and
+hid until they had gone by. They seemed to be scouting in the night
+almost to the mouths of the French guns, and he admired their energy
+although it stood in the way of his own plans. He came to a second
+brook, drank again, and then took a short cut through a small wood. He
+had marked the reports of guns from a hill about two miles in front of
+him, and he was sure that a French battery must be posted there. He
+reckoned that he could reach it in a half hour, if he exerted himself.
+
+Half way through the wood and human figures rose up all about him.
+Strong hands seized his arms and an electric torch flashed in his face.
+
+"Who are you?" came the fierce question in French.
+
+But it was not necessary for John to answer. The man who held the torch
+was short, but very muscular and strong, his face cut in the antique
+mold, his eyes penetrating and eager. It was Bougainville and John gave
+a gasp of joy. Then he straightened up and saluted:
+
+"Colonel Bougainville," he said, "I see that you know me! I have just
+escaped from the enemy for the second time. There is a house in that
+direction, and it is occupied by the Prince of Auersperg, one of the
+German generals."
+
+He pointed where the château lay, and Bougainville uttered a shout:
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"He holds there a prisoner, Mademoiselle Julie Lannes, the sister of the
+great Philip Lannes, the aviator; and other Frenchwomen."
+
+"Ah!" said Bougainville again.
+
+"You will help rescue them, will you not?"
+
+Bougainville smiled slightly.
+
+"An army can't turn aside for the rescue of women," he replied, "but it
+happens that this brigade, under General Vaugirard is marching forward
+now to find, if possible, an opening between the German armies, and
+you're the very man to lead it."
+
+John's heart bounded with joy. He would be again with the general whom
+he admired and trusted, and he would certainly guide the brigade
+straight to the château.
+
+"Is General Vaugirard near?" he asked.
+
+"Just over the brow of this hill, down there where the dim light is
+visible among the trees."
+
+"Then take me to him at once."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE RESCUE
+
+
+Escorted by Bougainville, John went down a little slope to a point where
+several officers stood talking earnestly. The central figure was that of
+a huge man who puffed out his cheeks as he spoke, and whose words and
+movements were alive with energy. Even had he seen but a dim outline,
+John would have recognized him with no difficulty as General Vaugirard,
+and beside him stood de Rougemont.
+
+Bougainville saluted and said;
+
+"The American, John Scott, sir. He has just escaped from the enemy and
+he brings important information."
+
+Vaugirard puffed out his great cheeks and whistled with satisfaction.
+
+"Ah, my young Yankee!" he said. "They cannot hold you!"
+
+"No, my general," replied John, "I've come back again to fight for
+France."
+
+General Vaugirard looked at him keenly.
+
+"You're exhausted," he said. "You've been under tremendous pressure."
+
+"But I can guide you. I want neither sleep nor rest."
+
+"You need both, as I can see with these two old eyes of mine. Sleep you
+can't have now, but rest is yours. You go with me in my automobile,
+which this war has trained to climb mountains, jump rivers, and crash
+through forests. The motor has become a wonderful weapon of battle."
+
+"May I ask one question, General?" said John.
+
+"A dozen."
+
+"Do you know where the aviator, Philip Lannes, is? His sister is held a
+prisoner by a German general in a château toward which we will march,
+and doubtless he would wish to go at once to her rescue."
+
+"He is not here, but his friend, Caumartin, is only a half-mile away.
+I'll send a man at once with a message to him to find Lannes, who will
+surely follow us, if he can be found. And now, my brave young Yankee,
+here is my machine. Into it, and we'll lead the way."
+
+John sprang into the automobile, and sank down upon the cushions. He had
+a vast sense of ease and luxury. He had not known until then, the extent
+of his mental and physical overstrain, but de Rougemont, who was also in
+the machine, observed it and gave him a drink from a flask, which
+revived him greatly.
+
+Then the automobile turned into the road and moved forward at a slow
+gait, puffing gently like a monster trying to hold in his breath. From
+the wood and the fields came the tread of many thousand men, marching
+to the night attack. Behind their own automobile rose the hum of
+motors, bearing troops also, and dragging cannon.
+
+John felt that he was going back in state, riding by the side of a
+general and at the head of an army. He found both pride and exultation
+in it. Sleep was far from his eyes. How could one think of sleep at such
+a moment? But youth, the restorer, was bringing fresh strength to his
+tired muscles and he was never more alert.
+
+At one point they stopped while the general examined the dusky horizon
+through his glasses, and a company of men with faces not French marched
+past them. They were John's own Strangers, and despite the presence of
+General Vaugirard both Wharton and Carstairs reached up and shook his
+hand as they went by.
+
+"Welcome home," said Wharton.
+
+"See you again in the morning," said Carstairs.
+
+"God bless you both," said John with some emotion.
+
+Captain Daniel Colton nodded to him. They were not effusive, these men
+of the Strangers, but their feelings were strong. When the automobile in
+its turn passed them again and resumed its place at the head of the
+column, they seemed to take no notice.
+
+No more shells passed over John's head. He knew that General Vaugirard
+had sent back word for the batteries to cease firing in that direction,
+but both to south and north of them the sullen thunder went on. The
+night remained light, adorned rather than obscured by the little white
+clouds floating against the sky. The only sound that John could hear was
+the great hum and murmur of a moving army, a sound in which the puffing
+of automobiles had introduced a new element. He wondered why they had
+not roused up German skirmishers, but perhaps those vigilant gentlemen,
+had grown weary at last.
+
+They reached the first brook, and, as they were crossing it, the rifle
+fire expected so long began to crackle in front. Then the French
+trumpets shrilled, and the whole force marched rapidly, rifles and field
+guns opening in full volume. But the French had the advantage of
+surprise. Their infantry advanced at the double quick, a powerful force
+of cavalry on their right flank galloped to the charge, and
+Bougainville's Paris regiment and the Strangers swept over the field.
+
+A heavy fire met them, but the general's automobile kept in front
+puffing along the main road. General Vaugirard puffed with it, but now
+and then he ceased his puffing to whistle. John knew that he was pleased
+and that all was going well. The battle increased in volume, and their
+whole front blazed with fire. The dark was thinning away in the east and
+dawn was coming.
+
+"The château! The château!" cried John as a dark shape rose on the
+horizon. Even as he looked a shell burst over it and it leaped into
+flames. He cried aloud in fear, not for himself, but for those who were
+there. But General Vaugirard was calmly examining the field and the
+house through powerful glasses.
+
+"They're pouring from the building," he said, "and it's full time. Look
+how the fire gains! What a pity that we should destroy the home of some
+good Frenchman in order to drive out the enemy."
+
+"Faster, sir! Faster! Ah, I pray you go faster!" exclaimed John, whose
+heart was eaten up with anxiety as he saw the château roaring with
+flames. But he did not need the general's glasses now to see the people
+stream from it, and then rush for refuge from the fire of the French.
+The surprise had been so thorough that at this point the enemy was able
+to offer little resistance, and, in a few moments more, the automobile
+reached the grounds surrounding the burning château.
+
+John, reckless of commands and of everything else, leaped out of the
+machine and ran forward. A gigantic man bearing a slender figure in his
+arms emerged from the shrubbery. Behind him came a stalwart young woman,
+grim of face. John shouted with joy. It was Picard, carrying Julie, and
+the woman who followed was the faithful Suzanne.
+
+Picard put Julie down. She stood erect, pale as death. But the color
+flooded into her face when she saw John, and uttering a cry of joy she
+ran forward to meet him. She put her hands in his and said:
+
+"I knew that you would save me!"
+
+Time and place were extraordinary, and war, the great leveler, was once
+more at work.
+
+"The château was set on fire by shells, Monsieur Scott," Picard said,
+"and when the enemy saw the French force appearing across the fields
+they took to flight. That dog of a prince, the Auersperg, tried to carry
+off Mademoiselle Julie in his automobile, but the young prince
+interfered and while they were quarreling I seized her and took her
+away. All the other women have escaped too."
+
+"Thank God, Picard," exclaimed John, wringing the huge hand of the
+peasant, who was at once a peasant and a prince too.
+
+"And look," said Carstairs, who with Wharton had approached unnoticed.
+"An aeroplane comes like the flight of an eagle, and my guess is poor if
+it is not our friend, the great Lannes."
+
+Caumartin in truth had found Philip, and he came like the lightning,
+circling and swooping until he touched the ground almost at Julie's
+feet. Brother and sister were united in a close embrace, and Lannes
+turned to John.
+
+"I have heard from Caumartin that it was you who brought the word. We
+can never repay you."
+
+"We'll wait and see," said John.
+
+Her brother did not see Julie flush rosily, as she turned her face away.
+
+"And now," said Lannes, "we go to Paris. My duties allow me enough time
+for the flight. No, John, my friend, don't object. She's been up in the
+_Arrow_ with me before. Picard, you and Suzanne can come later."
+
+The thunder of the battle rolling toward the east still reached them,
+but Lannes quickly threw a coat around Julie, gave her a cap and huge
+glasses to put on, and exclaimed:
+
+"Now we go."
+
+"But I must first thank Mr. Scott himself for saving me," she said.
+
+She put her hand, small and warm, in his, American fashion, and the two
+palms met in a strong clasp.
+
+"Good-bye, Mr. Scott," she said.
+
+"Good-bye, but not forever. I'm coming back to Paris."
+
+"And it's my hope, too, that it's not forever."
+
+She and her brother took their seats in the _Arrow_. Carstairs, Wharton
+and the others gave it a push, and it soared up into the fresh blue of
+the dawn. An ungloved hand, white and small, reached over the side and
+waved farewell, a farewell which John felt was for him.
+
+To the east the battle still rolled, but John had forgotten its
+existence. Higher and higher rose the _Arrow_, flying toward Paris,
+until it diminished to a mere dot in the sky, and then was gone.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
+
+
+_The Civil War Series_
+
+In this series of stories Mr. Altsheler covers the principal battles of
+the Civil War. In four of the volumes Dick Mason, who fights for the
+North, is the leading character, and in the others, his cousin, Harry
+Kenton, who joins the Confederate forces, takes the principal part.
+
+The Guns of Bull Run
+
+Harry Kenton follows the lead of his father and joins the Southern
+forces. His cousin, Dick Mason, the hero, fights with the North.
+
+The Guns of Shiloh
+
+Dick takes part in the battle of Mill Spring, is captured but escapes.
+The story gives a vivid account of the first defeat of the South.
+
+The Scouts of Stonewall
+
+Harry and some friends become aides of Stonewall Jackson. They follow
+him through the campaign in the Valley of Virginia.
+
+The Sword of Antietam
+
+After engaging in the Battle of Shiloh, Dick gets into three big fights.
+Antietam is the big battle described, with McClellan always in the
+foreground.
+
+The Star of Gettysburg
+
+In this book Harry and his friends take part in the battles of
+Fredericksburg, The Wilderness and finally Gettysburg. General Lee is a
+central figure.
+
+The Rock of Chickamauga
+
+This volume deals with the crisis of the Union during the siege of
+Vicksburg and the Battle of Chickamauga. Dick takes an active part.
+
+The Shades of the Wilderness
+
+The story opens with Lee's retreat after Gettysburg. Harry is sent to
+Richmond and becomes involved in a dangerous situation with a spy.
+
+The Tree of Appomattox
+
+This description of the Battle of Appomattox has been written from the
+account of an eyewitness. Dick plays an important part. The volume
+closes with the blue and the gray turning toward a new day.
+
+
+These Are Appleton Books
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, New York
+
+
+
+
+BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
+
+
+_The Texan Series_
+
+Three stories telling of the Texan struggle for independence and the
+events culminating in the capture of the erratic Santa Anna.
+
+The Texan Star
+
+Ned Fulton, the hero, is a prisoner in the city of Mexico. He makes an
+exciting escape and sees the capture of San Antonio.
+
+The Texan Scouts
+
+Ned Fulton and his friends are right in the midst of exciting events
+that keep the reader continually on edge. The battle of the Alamo is the
+climax of the story.
+
+The Texan Triumph
+
+The duel of skill and courage between Ned and Urrea, his young Mexican
+enemy, furnishes pages of excitement. The battle of San Jacinto, which
+secured Texan Independence, and the capture of Santa Anna by five Texans
+is vividly described.
+
+
+_The World War Series_
+
+Mr. Altsheler, who was in Vienna the day war was declared on Servia, in
+Munich when war was declared against Russia, and in England when the
+British forces were mobilising, has given in three volumes the
+impressions he gained at the places of action during the world crisis.
+
+The Guns of Europe
+
+A young American, unable to reach home, enlists with the Allies where he
+sees active service from the beginning. The story closes with the fierce
+fighting which preceded the retreat of the Germans from Paris.
+
+The Forest of Swords
+
+The hero finds himself in Paris with Phillip Lannes, his friend, and the
+Germans only fifteen miles away. Finally the enemy is turned back at the
+Marne, a battle in which John and Phillip are actively engaged.
+
+The Hosts of the Air
+
+The pretty young sister of Phillip is seized by the enemy and carried
+into Austria. John resolves to get her back and his adventures make a
+wonderfully exciting story.
+
+
+These Are Appleton Books
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, New York
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Forest of Swords, by Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST OF SWORDS ***
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forest of Swords, by Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Forest of Swords
+       A Story of Paris and the Marne
+
+Author: Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+Release Date: May 3, 2005 [EBook #15760]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST OF SWORDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Jon King and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>THE FOREST OF SWORDS</h1>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<div class='ctr'>
+<table border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' summary=''>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='topleftright'><h3>BOOKS BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER</h3></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='leftright'><h4>THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR SERIES</h4></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Hunters of the Hills</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Shadow of the North</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Rulers of the Lakes</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Masters of the Peaks</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Lords of the Wild</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Sun of Quebec</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' class='leftright'>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='leftright'><h4>THE YOUNG TRAILERS SERIES</h4></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Young Trailers</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Free Rangers</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Forest Runners</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Riflemen of the Ohio</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Keepers of the Trail</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Scouts of the Valley</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Eyes of the Woods</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Border Watch</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' class='leftright'>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='leftright'><h4>THE TEXAN SERIES</h4></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='leftright'>The Texan Star</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Texan Scouts</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Texan Triumph</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' class='leftright'>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='leftright'><h4>THE CIVIL WAR SERIES</h4></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Guns of Bull Run</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Star of Gettysburg</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Guns of Shiloh</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Rock of Chickamauga</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Scouts of Stonewall</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Shades of the Wilderness</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Sword of Antietam</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Tree of Appomattox</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' class='leftright'>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='leftright'><h4>THE GREAT WEST SERIES</h4></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Lost Hunters</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Great Sioux Trail</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' class='leftright'>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='leftright'><h4>THE WORLD WAR SERIES</h4></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='leftright'>The Guns of Europe</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Forest of Swords</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Hosts of the Air</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' class='leftright'>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='leftright'><h4>BOOKS NOT IN SERIES</h4></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>Apache Gold</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>A Soldier of Manhattan</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Quest of the Four</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Sun of Saratoga</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Last of the Chiefs</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>A Herald of the West</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>In Circling Camps</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>The Wilderness Road</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='left'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>The Last Rebel</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='right'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>My Captive</span></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='leftright'>The Candidate</td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' class='leftright'><hr style="width: 100%; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em;" /></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan='3' align='center' class='leftright'><h4>D. APPLETON AND COMPANY</h4></td>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <td class='leftbottom'><span style='margin-right: 2em; margin-left: 1em;'>New York</span></td>
+    <td class='bottom'>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align='right' class='rightbottom'><span style='margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 1em;'>London</span></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/front.jpg"><img src="./images/front_sm.jpg" alt="Frontispiece" title="Frontispiece" /></a></p>
+<p class="figcenter">&quot;He heard a shock near him and, ... saw a huddled mass of wreckage.&quot;</p>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>WORLD WAR SERIES</h3>
+<p><br /></p>
+<h1>THE FOREST<br />
+OF SWORDS</h1>
+
+<h2>A STORY OF PARIS<br />
+AND THE MARNE</h2>
+<p><br /></p>
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<p><br /></p>
+<h2>JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER</h2>
+<h4>AUTHOR OF &quot;THE GUNS OF EUROPE,&quot;<br />
+&quot;THE STAR OF GETTYSBURG,&quot; ETC.</h4>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<h3>D. APPLETON AND COMPANY<br />
+NEW YORK AND LONDON<br />
+1928</h3>
+
+<h4>COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY<br />
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY</h4>
+
+<h4>Printed in the United States of America</h4>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>FOREWORD</h2>
+
+<p>&quot;The Forest of Swords,&quot; while an independent story, based upon the World
+War, continues the fortunes of John Scott, Philip Lannes, and their
+friends who have appeared already in &quot;The Guns of Europe.&quot; As was stated
+in the first volume, the author was in Austria and Germany for a month
+after the war began, and then went to England. He saw the arrival of the
+Emperor, Francis Joseph, in Vienna, the first striking event in the
+gigantic struggle, and witnessed the mobilization of their armies by
+three great nations.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<div class="ctr">
+<table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='2' summary=''>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_I'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter I.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_I'><b><span class="smcap">In Paris</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_II'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter II.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_II'><b><span class="smcap">The Message</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_III'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter III.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_III'><b><span class="smcap">In the French Camp</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_IV'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter IV.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_IV'><b><span class="smcap">The Invisible Hand</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_V'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter V.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_V'><b><span class="smcap">Seen from Above</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_VI'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter VI.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_VI'><b><span class="smcap">In Hostile Hands</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_VII'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter VII.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_VII'><b><span class="smcap">The Two Princes</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_VIII'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_VIII'><b><span class="smcap">The Sport of Kings</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_IX'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter IX.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_IX'><b><span class="smcap">The Puzzling Signal</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_X'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter X.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_X'><b><span class="smcap">Old Friends</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_XI'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter XI.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_XI'><b><span class="smcap">The Continuing Battle</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_XII'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter XII.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_XII'><b><span class="smcap">Julie Lannes</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIII'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter XIII.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIII'><b><span class="smcap">The Middle Ages</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIV'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter XIV.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIV'><b><span class="smcap">A Promise Kept</span></b></a></td></tr>
+  <tr><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_XV'><b><span class="smcap">Chapter XV.</span></b></a></td><td align='left'><a href='#CHAPTER_XV'><b><span class="smcap">The Rescue</span></b></a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<h1>THE<br />
+FOREST OF SWORDS</h1>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" />CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>IN PARIS</h3>
+
+
+<p>John Scott and Philip Lannes walked together down a great boulevard of
+Paris. The young American's heart was filled with grief and anger. The
+Frenchman felt the same grief, but mingled with it was a fierce, burning
+passion, so deep and bitter that it took a much stronger word than anger
+to describe it.</p>
+
+<p>Both had heard that morning the mutter of cannon on the horizon, and
+they knew the German conquerors were advancing. They were always
+advancing. Nothing had stopped them. The metal and masonry of the
+defenses at Li&egrave;ge had crumbled before their huge guns like china
+breaking under stone. The giant shells had scooped out the forts at
+Maubeuge, Maubeuge the untakable, as if they had been mere eggshells,
+and the mighty Teutonic host came on, almost without a check.</p>
+
+<p>John had read of the German march on Paris, nearly a half-century
+before, how everything had been made complete by the genius of Bismarck
+and von Moltke, how the ready had sprung upon and crushed the unready,
+but the present swoop of the imperial eagle seemed far more vast and
+terrible than the earlier rush could have been.</p>
+
+<p>A month and the legions were already before the City of Light. Men with
+glasses could see from the top of the Eiffel Tower the gray ranks that
+were to hem in devoted Paris once more, and the government had fled
+already to Bordeaux. It seemed that everything was lost before the war
+was fairly begun. The coming of the English army, far too small in
+numbers, had availed nothing. It had been swept up with the others,
+escaping from capture or destruction only by a hair, and was now driven
+back with the French on the capital.</p>
+
+<p>John had witnessed two battles, and in neither had the Germans stopped
+long. Disregarding their own losses they drove forward, immense,
+overwhelming, triumphant. He felt yet their very physical weight,
+pressing upon him, crushing him, giving him no time to breathe. The
+German war machine was magnificent, invincible, and for the fourth time
+in a century the Germans, the exulting Kaiser at their head, might enter
+Paris.</p>
+
+<p>The Emperor himself might be nothing, mere sound and glitter, but back
+of him was the greatest army that ever trod the planet, taught for half
+a century to believe in the divine right of kings, and assured now that
+might and right were the same.</p>
+
+<p>Every instinct in him revolted at the thought that Paris should be
+trodden under foot once more by the conqueror. The great capital had
+truly deserved its claim to be the city of light and leading, and if
+Paris and France were lost the whole world would lose. He could never
+forget the unpaid debt that his own America owed to France, and he felt
+how closely interwoven the two republics were in their beliefs and
+aspirations.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why are you so silent?&quot; asked Lannes, half angrily, although John knew
+that the anger was not for him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've said as much as you have,&quot; he replied with an attempt at humor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You notice the sunlight falling on it?&quot; said Lannes, pointing to the
+Arc de Triomphe, rising before them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, and I believe I know what you are thinking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right. I wish he was here now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John gazed at the great arch which the sun was gilding with glory and he
+shared with Lannes his wish that the mighty man who had built it to
+commemorate his triumphs was back with France&mdash;for a while at least. He
+was never able to make up his mind whether Napoleon was good or evil.
+Perhaps he was a mixture of both, highly magnified, but now of all
+times, with the German millions at the gates, he was needed most.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think France could afford to take him back,&quot; he said, &quot;and risk any
+demands he might make or enforce.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;John,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;you've fought with us and suffered with us, and so
+you're one of us. You understand what I felt this morning when on the
+edge of Paris I heard the German guns. They say that we can fight on,
+after our foes have taken the capital, and that the English will come in
+greater force to help us. But if victorious Germans march once through
+the Arc de Triomphe I shall feel that we can never again win back all
+that we have lost.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A note, low but deep and menacing, came from the far horizon. It might
+be a German gun or it might be a French gun, but the effect was the
+same. The threat was there. A shudder shook the frame of Lannes, but
+John saw a sudden flame of sunlight shoot like a glittering lance from
+the Arc de Triomphe.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A sign! a sign!&quot; he exclaimed, his imaginative mind on fire in an
+instant. &quot;I saw a flash from the arch! It was the soul of the Great
+Captain speaking! I tell you, Philip, the Republic is not yet lost! I've
+read somewhere, and so have you, that the Romans sold at auction at a
+high price the land on which Hannibal's victorious army was camped, when
+it lay before Rome!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's so! And France has her glorious traditions, too! We won't give up
+until we're beaten&mdash;and not then!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gray eyes of Lannes flamed, and his figure seemed to swell. All the
+wonderful French vitality was personified in him. He put his hand
+affectionately upon the shoulder of his comrade.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's odd, John,&quot; he said, &quot;but you, a foreigner, have lighted the spark
+anew in me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe it's because I <i>am</i> a foreigner, though, in reality, I'm now no
+foreigner at all, as you've just said. I've become one of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's true, John, and I won't forget it. I'm never going to give up hope
+again. Maybe somebody will arrive to save us at the last. Whatever the
+great one, whose greatest monument stands there, may have been, he loved
+France, and his spirit may descend upon Frenchmen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe it. He had the strength and courage created by a republic,
+and you have them again, the product of another republic. Look at the
+flying men, Lannes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes glanced up where the aeroplanes hovered thick over Paris, and
+toward the horizon where the invisible German host with its huge guns
+was advancing. The look of despair came into his eyes again, but it
+rested there only a moment. He remembered his new courage and banished
+it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps I ought to be in the sky myself with the others,&quot; he said, &quot;but
+I'd only see what I don't like to see. The <i>Arrow</i> and I can't be of any
+help now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You brought me here in the <i>Arrow,</i> Lannes,&quot; said John, seeking to
+assume a light tone. &quot;Now what do you intend to do with me? As everybody
+is leaving Paris you ought to get me out of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hardly know what to do. There are no orders. I've lost touch with the
+commander of our flying corps, but you're right in concluding that we
+shouldn't remain in Paris. Now where are we to go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll make no mistake if we seek the battle front. You know I'm bound
+to rejoin my company, the Strangers, if I can. I must report as soon as
+possible to Captain Colton.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's true, John, but I can't leave Paris until tomorrow. I may have
+orders to carry, I must obtain supplies for the <i>Arrow,</i> and I wish to
+visit once more my people on the other side of the Seine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Suppose you go now, and I'll meet you this afternoon in the Place de
+l'Op&eacute;ra.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good. Say three o'clock. The first to arrive will await the other
+before the steps of the Opera House?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John nodded assent and Lannes hurried away. Young Scott followed his
+figure with his eyes until it disappeared in the crowd. A back may be an
+index to a man's strength of mind, and he saw that Lannes, head erect
+and shoulders thrown back, was walking with a rapid and springy step.
+Courage was obviously there.</p>
+
+<p>But John, despite his own strong heart, could not keep from feeling an
+infinite sadness and pity, not for Lannes, but for all the three million
+people who inhabited the City of Light, most of whom were fleeing now
+before the advance of the victorious invader. He could put himself in
+their place. France held his deepest sympathy. He felt that a great
+nation, sedulously minding its own business, trampled upon and robbed
+once before, was now about to be trampled upon and robbed again. He
+could not subscribe to the doctrine, that might was right.</p>
+
+<p>He watched the fugitives a long time. They were crowding the railway
+stations, and they were departing by motor, by cart and on foot. Many of
+the poorer people, both men and women, carried packs on their backs. The
+boulevards and the streets were filled with the retreating masses.</p>
+
+<p>It was an amazing and stupefying sight, the abandonment by its
+inhabitants of a great city, a city in many ways the first in the world,
+and it gave John a mighty shock. He had been there with his uncle and
+Mr. Anson in the spring, and he had seen nothing but peace and
+brightness. The sun had glittered then, as it glittered now over the Arc
+de Triomphe, the gleaming dome of the Invalides and the golden waters of
+the Seine. It was Paris, soft, beautiful and bright, the Paris that
+wished no harm to anybody.</p>
+
+<p>But the people were going. He could see them going everywhere. The
+cruel, ancient times when cities were destroyed or enslaved by the
+conqueror had come back, and the great Paris that the world had known so
+long might become lost forever.</p>
+
+<p>The stream of fugitives, rich and poor, mingled, poured on without
+ceasing. He did not know where they were going. Most of them did not
+know themselves. He saw a great motor, filled high with people and
+goods, break down in the streets, and he watched them while they worked
+desperately to restore the mechanism. And yet there was no panic. The
+sound of voices was not high. The Republic was justifying itself once
+more. Silent and somberly defiant, the inhabitants were leaving Paris
+before the giant German guns could rain shells upon the unarmed.</p>
+
+<p>It was three or four hours until the time to meet Lannes, and drawn by
+an overwhelming curiosity and anxiety he began the climb of the Butte
+Montmartre. If observers on the Eiffel Tower could see the German forces
+approaching, then with the powerful glasses he carried over his shoulder
+he might discern them from the dome of the Basilica of the Sacred
+Heart.</p>
+
+<p>As he made his way up the ascent through the crooked and narrow little
+streets he saw many eyes, mostly black and quick, watching him. This by
+night was old Paris, dark and dangerous, where the Apache dwelled, and
+by day in a fleeing city, with none to restrain, he might be no less
+ruthless.</p>
+
+<p>But John felt only friendliness for them all. He believed that common
+danger would knit all Frenchmen together, and he nodded and smiled at
+the watchers. More than one pretty Parisian, not of the upper classes,
+smiled back at the American with the frank and open face.</p>
+
+<p>Before he reached the Basilica a little rat of a young man stepped
+before him and asked:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which way, Monsieur?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was three or four years older than John, wearing uncommonly tight
+fitting clothes of blue, a red cap with a tassel, and he was about five
+feet four inches tall. But small as he was he seemed to be made of
+steel, and he stood, poised on his little feet, ready to spring like a
+leopard when he chose.</p>
+
+<p>The blue eyes of the tall American looked steadily into the black eyes
+of the short Frenchman, and the black eyes looked back as steadily. John
+was fast learning to read the hearts and minds of men through their
+eyes, and what he saw in the dark depths pleased him. Here were cunning
+and yet courage; impudence and yet truth; caprice and yet honor. Apache
+or not, he decided to like him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm going up into the lantern of the Basilica,&quot; he said, &quot;to see if I
+can see the Germans, who are my enemies as well as yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And will not Monsieur take me, too, and let me have look for look with
+him through those glasses at the Germans, some of whom I'm going to
+shoot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you're going out potting Germans,&quot; he said, &quot;you'd better get
+yourself into a uniform as soon as you can. They have no mercy on <i>franc
+tireurs</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll chance that. But you'll take me with you into the dome?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's your name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pierre Louis Bougainville.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bougainville! Bougainville! It sounds noble and also historical. I've
+read of it, but I don't recall where.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little Frenchman drew himself up, and his black eyes glittered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is a legend among us that it was noble once,&quot; he said, &quot;but we
+don't know when. I feel within me the spirit to make it great again.
+There was a time when the mighty Napoleon said that every soldier
+carried a marshal's baton in his knapsack. Perhaps that time has come
+again. And the great emperor was a little man like me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John began to laugh and then he stopped suddenly. Pierre Louis
+Bougainville, so small and so insignificant, was not looking at him. He
+was looking over and beyond him, dreaming perhaps of a glittering
+future. The funny little red cap with the tassel might shelter a great
+brain. Respect took the place of the wish to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Monsieur Bougainville,&quot; he said in his excellent French, &quot;my name is
+John Scott. I am from America, but I am serving in the allied
+Franco-British army. My heart like yours beats for France.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then, Monsieur Jean, you and I are brothers,&quot; said the little man, his
+eyes still gleaming. &quot;It may be that we shall fight side by side in the
+hour of victory. But you will take me into the lantern will you not?
+Father Pelletier does not know, as you do, that I'm going to be a great
+man, and he will not admit me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I secure entrance you will, too. Come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They reached side by side the Basilique de Sacr&eacute;-Coeur, which crowns the
+summit of the Butte Montmartre, and bought tickets from the porter,
+whose calm the proximity of untold Germans did not disturb. John saw the
+little Apache make the sign of the cross and bear himself with dignity.
+In some curious way Bougainville impressed him once more with a sense of
+power. Perhaps there was a spark of genius under the red cap. He knew
+from his reading that there was no rule about genius. It passed kings
+by, and chose the child of a peasant in a hovel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're what they call an Apache, are you not?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, Monsieur.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, for the present, that is until you win a greater name, I'm going
+to call you Geronimo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why Zhay-ro-nee-mo, Monsieur?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because that was the name of a great Apache chief. According to our
+white standards he was not all that a man should be. He had perhaps a
+certain insensibility to the sufferings of others, but in the Apache
+view that was not a fault. He was wholly great to them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well then, Monsieur Scott, I shall be flattered to be called
+Zhay-ro-nee-mo, until I win a name yet greater.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where is the Father Pelletier, the priest, who you said would bar your
+way unless I came with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is on the second platform where you look out over Paris before going
+into the lantern. It may be that he has against me what you would call
+the prejudice. I am young. Youth must have its day, and I have done some
+small deeds in the quarter which perhaps do not please Father Pelletier,
+a strict, a very strict man. But our country is in danger, and I am
+willing to forgive and forget.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with so much magnanimity that John was compelled to laugh.
+Geronimo laughed, too, showing splendid white teeth. The understanding
+between them was now perfect.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must talk with Father Pelletier,&quot; said John. &quot;Until you're a great
+man, as you're going to be, Geronimo, I suppose I can be spokesman.
+After that it will be your part to befriend me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>On the second platform they found Father Pelletier, a tall young priest
+with a fine but severe face, who looked with curiosity at John, and with
+disapproval at the Apache.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are Father Pelletier, I believe,&quot; said John with his disarming
+smile. &quot;These are unusual times, but I wish to go up into the lantern. I
+am an American, though, as you can see by my uniform, I am a soldier of
+France.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But your companion, sir? He has a bad reputation in the quarter. When
+he should come to the church he does not, and now when he should not he
+does.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That reputation of which you speak, Father Pelletier, will soon pass.
+Another, better and greater will take its place. Our friend here, and
+perhaps both of us will be proud to call him so some day, leaves soon to
+fight for France.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The priest looked again at Bougainville, and his face softened. The
+little Apache met his glance with a firm and open gaze, and his figure
+seemed to swell again, and to radiate strength. Perhaps the priest saw
+in his eyes the same spark that John had noticed there.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a time when France needs all of her sons,&quot; he said, &quot;and even
+those who have not deserved well of her before may do great deeds for
+her now. You can pass.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bougainville walked close to Father Pelletier, and John heard him say in
+low tones:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel within me the power to achieve, and when you see me again you
+will recognize it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The priest nodded and his friendly hand lay for a moment on the other's
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come on, Geronimo,&quot; said John cheerfully. &quot;As I remember it's nearly a
+hundred steps into the lantern, and that's quite a climb.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not for youth like ours,&quot; exclaimed Bougainville, and he ran upward so
+lightly that the American had some difficulty in following him. John was
+impressed once more by his extraordinary strength and agility, despite
+his smallness. He seemed to be a mass of highly wrought steel spring.
+But unwilling to be beaten by anybody, John raced with him and the two
+stood at the same time upon the utmost crest of the Basilique du
+Sacr&eacute;-Coeur.</p>
+
+<p>They paused a few moments for fresh breath and then John put the glasses
+to his eye, sweeping them in a slow curve. Through the powerful lenses
+he saw the vast circle of Paris, and all the long story of the past that
+it called up. Two thousand years of history rolled beneath his feet, and
+the spectacle was wholly magnificent.</p>
+
+<p>He beheld the great green valley with its hills, green, too, the line of
+the Seine cutting the city apart like the flash of a sword blade, the
+golden dome of the Hotel des Invalides, the grinning gargoyles of Notre
+Dame, the arches and statues and fountains and the long green ribbons
+that marked the boulevards.</p>
+
+<p>Although the city stood wholly in the sunlight a light haze formed on
+the rim of the circling horizon. He now moved the glasses slowly over a
+segment there and sought diligently for something. From so high a point
+and with such strong aid one could see many miles. He was sure that he
+would find what he sought and yet did not wish to see. Presently he
+picked out intermittent flashes which he believed were made by sunlight
+falling on steel. Then he drew a long and deep breath that was almost
+like a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it?&quot; asked Bougainville who had stood patiently by his side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear it is the glitter of lances, my friend, lances carried by German
+Uhlans. Will you look?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bougainville held out his hands eagerly for the glasses, and then drew
+them back a little. In his new dignity he would not show sudden emotion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will give me gladness to see,&quot; he said. &quot;I do not fear the Prussian
+lances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John handed him the glasses and he looked long and intently, at times
+sweeping them slowly back and forth, but gazing chiefly at the point
+under the horizon that had drawn his companion's attention.</p>
+
+<p>John meanwhile looked down at the city glittering in the sun, but from
+which its people were fleeing, as if its last day had come. It still
+seemed impossible that Europe should be wrapped in so great a war and
+that the German host should be at the gates of Paris.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes turned back toward the point where he had seen the gleam of the
+lances and he fancied now that he heard the far throb of the German
+guns. The huge howitzers like the one Lannes and he had blown up might
+soon be throwing shells a ton or more in weight from a range of a dozen
+miles into the very heart of the French capital. An acute depression
+seized him. He had strengthened the heart of Lannes, and now his own
+heart needed strengthening. How was it possible to stop the German army
+which had come so far and so fast that its Uhlans could already see
+Paris? The unprepared French had been defeated already, and the slow
+English, arriving to find France under the iron heel, must go back and
+defend their own island.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Germans are there. I have not a doubt of it, and I thank you,
+Monsieur Scott, for the use of these,&quot; said Bougainville, handing the
+glasses back to him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Geronimo,&quot; he said, &quot;having seen, what do you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The sight is unpleasant, but it is not hopeless. They call us decadent.
+I read, Monsieur Scott, more than you think! Ah, it has been the
+bitterness of death for Frenchmen to hear all the world say we are a
+dying race, and it has been said so often that some of us ourselves had
+begun to believe it! But it is not so! I tell you it is not so, and
+we'll soon prove to the Germans who come that it isn't! I have looked
+for a sign. I sought for it in all the skies through your glasses, but I
+did not find it there. Yet I have found it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In my heart. Every beat tells me that this Paris of ours is not for the
+Germans. We will yet turn them back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He reminded John of Lannes in his dramatic intensity, real and not
+affected, a true part of his nature. Its effect, too, upon the American
+was powerful. He had given courage to Lannes, and now Bougainville, that
+little Apache of the Butte Montmartre, was giving new strength to his
+own weakening heart. Fresh life flowed back into his veins and he
+remembered that he, too, had beheld a sign, the flash of light on the
+Arc de Triomphe.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think we have seen enough here, Geronimo,&quot; he said lightly, &quot;and
+we'll descend. I've a friend to meet later. Which way do you go from the
+church?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the army. I shall be in a uniform tonight, and tomorrow maybe I
+shall meet the Germans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John held out his hand and the Apache seized it in a firm clasp.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe in you, as I hope you believe in me,&quot; said young Scott. &quot;I
+belong to a company called the Strangers, made up chiefly of Americans
+and English, and commanded by Captain Daniel Colton. If you're on the
+battle line and hear of the Strangers there too I should like for you to
+hunt me up if you can. I'd do the same for you, but I don't yet know to
+what force you will belong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bougainville promised and they walked down to the second platform, where
+Father Pelletier was still standing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What did you see?&quot; he asked of John, unable to hide the eagerness in
+his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Uhlans, Father Pelletier, and I fancied that I heard the echo of a
+German forty-two centimeter. Would you care to use the glasses? The view
+from this floor is almost as good as it is from the lantern.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John distinctly saw the priest shudder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; he replied. &quot;I could not bear it. I shall pray today that our
+enemies may be confounded; tomorrow I shall throw off the gown of a
+priest and put on the coat of a soldier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Another sign,&quot; said John to himself, as they continued the descent.
+&quot;Even the priests will fight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When they were once more in the narrow streets of Montmartre, John said
+farewell to Bougainville.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Geronimo,&quot; he said, &quot;I expect to see you leading a victorious charge
+directly into the heart of the German army.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I can meet your hopes I will, Monsieur Scott,&quot; said the young
+Frenchman gayly, &quot;and now, <i>au revoir</i>, I depart for my uniform and
+arms, which must be of the best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John smiled as he walked down the hill. His heart had warmed toward the
+little Apache who might not be any Apache at all. Nevertheless the name
+Geronimo seemed to suit him, and he meant to think of him by it until
+his valor won him a better.</p>
+
+<p>He saw from the slopes the same endless stream of people leaving Paris.
+They knew that the Germans were near, and report brought them yet
+nearer. The tale of the monster guns had traveled fast, and the shells
+might be falling among them at any moment. Aeroplanes dotted the skies,
+but they paid little attention to them. They still thought of war under
+the old conditions, and to the great mass of the people flying machines
+were mere toys.</p>
+
+<p>But John knew better. Those journeys of his with Lannes through the
+heavens and their battles in the air for their lives were unforgettable.
+Stopping on the last slope of Montmartre he studied space with his
+glasses. He was sure that he saw captive balloons on the horizon where
+the German army lay, and one shape larger than the rest looked like a
+Zeppelin, but he did not believe those monsters had come so far to the
+south and west. They must have an available base.</p>
+
+<p>His heart suddenly increased its beat. He saw a darting figure and he
+recognized the shape of the German Taube. Then something black shot
+downward from it, and there was a crash in the streets of Paris,
+followed by terrible cries.</p>
+
+<p>He knew what had happened. He caught another glimpse of the Taube
+rushing away like a huge carnivorous bird that had already seized its
+prey, and then he ran swiftly down the street. The bomb had burst in a
+swarm of fugitives and a woman was killed. Several people were wounded,
+and a panic had threatened, but the soldiers had restored order already
+and ambulances soon took the wounded to hospitals.</p>
+
+<p>John went on, shocked to the core. It was a new kind of war. The flying
+men might rain death from the air upon a helpless city, but their
+victims were more likely to be women and children than armed men. For
+the first time the clean blue sky became a sinister blanket from which
+dropped destruction.</p>
+
+<p>The confusion created by the bomb soon disappeared. The multitude of
+Parisians still poured from the city, and long lines of soldiers took
+their place. John wondered what the French commanders would do. Surely
+theirs was a desperate problem. Would they try to defend Paris, or would
+they let it go rather than risk its destruction by bombardment? Yet its
+fall was bound to be a terrible blow.</p>
+
+<p>Lannes was on the steps of the Opera House at the appointed time,
+coming with a brisk manner and a cheerful face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want you to go with me to our house beyond the Seine,&quot; he said. &quot;It
+is a quaint old place hidden away, as so many happy homes are in this
+city. You will find nobody there but my mother, my sister Julie, and a
+faithful old servant, Antoine Picard, and his daughter, Suzanne.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I will be a trespasser?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all. There will be a warm welcome for you. I have told them of
+you, how you were my comrade in the air, and how you fought.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pshaw, Lannes, it was you who did most of the fighting. You've given me
+a reputation that I can't carry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind about the reputation. What have you been doing since I left
+you this morning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I spent a part of the time in the lantern of the Basilica on
+Montmartre, and I had with me a most interesting friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes looked at him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You did not speak of any friend in Paris at this time,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't because I never heard of him until a few hours ago. I made his
+acquaintance while I was going up Montmartre, but I already consider
+him, next to you, the best friend I have in France.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Acquaintanceship seems to grow rapidly with you, Monsieur Jean the
+Scott.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It has, but you must remember that our own friendship was pretty
+sudden. It developed in a few minutes of flight from soldiers at the
+German border.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is so, but it was soon sealed by great common dangers. Who is your
+new friend, John?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A little Apache named Pierre Louis Bougainville, whom I have nicknamed
+Geronimo, after a famous Indian chief of my country. He has already gone
+to fight for France, and, Philip, he made an extraordinary impression
+upon me, although I don't know just why. He is short like Napoleon, he
+has the same large and beautifully shaped head, and the same penetrating
+eyes that seem able to look you through and through. Maybe it was a
+spark of genius in him that impressed me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be so,&quot; said Lannes thoughtfully. &quot;It was said, and said truly
+that the First Republic meant the open career to all the talents, and
+the Third offers the same chance. One never can tell where military
+genius is going to appear and God knows we need it now in whatever shape
+or form it may come. Did you hear of the bomb?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw it fall. But, Phil, I don't see the object in such attacks. They
+may kill a few people, nearly always the unarmed, but that has no real
+effect on a war.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They wish to spread terror, I suppose. Lend me your glasses, John.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes studied the heavens a long time, minutely examining every black
+speck against the blue, and John stood beside him, waiting patiently.
+Meanwhile the throng of fleeing people moved on as before, silent and
+somber, even the children saying little. John was again stirred by the
+deepest emotion of sympathy and pity. What a tremendous tragedy it would
+be if New York were being abandoned thus to a victorious foe! Lannes
+himself had seemed to take no notice of the flight, but John judged he
+had made a powerful effort of the will to hide the grief and anger that
+surely filled his heart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see anything in the air but our own machines,&quot; said Lannes, as
+he returned the glasses. &quot;It was evidently a dash by the Taube that
+threw the bomb. But we've stayed here long enough. They're waiting for
+us at home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He led the way through the multitude, relapsing into silence, but
+casting a glance now and then at his own peculiar field, the heavens.
+They reached the Place de la Concorde, and stopped there a moment or
+two. Lannes looked sadly at the black drapery hanging from the stone
+figure that typified the lost city of Strassburg, but John glanced up
+the great sweep of the Place to the Arc de Triomphe, where he caught
+again the glittering shaft of sunlight that he had accepted as a sign.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We may be looking upon all this for the last time,&quot; said Lannes, in a
+voice of grief. &quot;Oh, Paris, City of Light, City of the Heart! You may
+not understand me, John, but I couldn't bear to come back to Paris
+again, much as I love it, if it is to be despoiled and ruled by
+Germans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do understand you, Philip,&quot; said John cheerfully, &quot;but you mustn't
+count a city yours until you've taken it. The Germans are near, but
+they're not here. Now, lead on. It's not like you to despair!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes shook himself, as if he had laid violent hands upon his own body,
+and his face cleared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That was the last time, John,&quot; he said. &quot;I made that promise before,
+but I keep it this time. You won't see me gloomy again. Henceforward
+it's hope only. Now, we must hurry. My mother and Julie will be growing
+anxious, for we are overdue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They crossed the Seine by one of the beautiful stone bridges and entered
+a region of narrow and crooked streets, which John thought must be a
+part of old Paris. In an American city it would necessarily have been a
+quarter of the poor, but John knew that here wealth and distinction were
+often hidden behind these modest doors.</p>
+
+<p>He began to feel very curious about Lannes' family, but he was careful
+to ask no questions. He knew that the young Frenchman was showing great
+trust and faith in him by taking him into his home. They stopped
+presently before a door, and Lannes rang a bell. The door was opened
+cautiously in a few moments, and a great head surmounted by thick, gray
+hair was thrust out. A powerful neck and a pair of immense shoulders
+followed the head. Sharp eyes under heavy lashes peered forth, but in an
+instant, when the man saw who was before him, he threw open the door and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Welcome, Monsieur.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John had no doubt that this was the Antoine Picard of whom Lannes had
+spoken, and he knew at the first glance that he beheld a real man. Many
+people have the idea that all Frenchmen are little, but John knew
+better.</p>
+
+<p>Antoine Picard was a giant, much over six feet, and with the limbs and
+chest of a piano-mover. He was about sixty, but age evidently had made
+no impression upon his strength. John judged from his fair complexion
+that he was from Normandy. &quot;Here,&quot; young Scott said to himself, &quot;is one
+of those devoted European family servants of whom I've heard so often.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He regarded the man with interest, and Picard, in return, measured and
+weighed him with a lightning glance.</p>
+
+<p>Lannes laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's all right, Antoine,&quot; he said. &quot;He's the young man from that far
+barbarian country called America, who escaped from Germany with me, only
+he's no barbarian, but a highly civilized being who not only likes
+France, but who fights for her. John, this is Antoine Picard, who rules
+and protects this house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John held out his hand, American fashion, and it was engulfed in the
+mighty grasp of the Norseman, as he always thought of him afterward.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Madame, your mother, and Mademoiselle, your sister, have been anxious,&quot;
+said Picard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We were delayed,&quot; said Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>They stepped into a narrow hall, and Picard shut the door behind them,
+shooting into place a heavy bolt which sank into its socket with a click
+like the closing of the entrance to a fortress. In truth, the whole
+aspect of the house reminded John of a stronghold. The narrow hall was
+floored with stone, the walls were stone and the light was dim. Lannes
+divined John's thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll find it more cheerful, presently,&quot; he said. &quot;As for us, we're
+used to it, and we love it, although it's so old and cold and dark. It
+goes back at least five centuries.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose some king must have slept here once,&quot; said John. &quot;In England
+they point out every very old house as a place where a king passed the
+night, and make reverence accordingly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes laughed gayly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No king ever slept here so far as I know,&quot; he said, &quot;but the great
+Marshal Lannes, whose name I am so proud to bear, was in this house more
+than once, and to me, a staunch republican, that is greater than having
+had a king for a tenant. The Marshal, as you may know, although he took
+a title and served an Emperor, was always a republican and in the early
+days of the empire often offended Napoleon by his frankness and brusque
+truths. But enough of old things; we'll see my mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He led the way up the steps, of solid stone, between walls thick enough
+for a fortress, and knocked at a door. A deep, full voice responded
+&quot;Enter!&quot; and pushing open the door Lannes went in, followed by John.</p>
+
+<p>It was a large room, with long, low windows, looking out over a sea of
+roofs toward the dome of the Invalides and Napoleon's arch of triumph. A
+tall woman rose from a chair, and saying &quot;My son!&quot; put her hands upon
+Lannes shoulders and kissed him on the forehead. She was fair like her
+son, and much less than fifty years of age. There was no stoop in her
+shoulders and but little gray in her hair. Her eyes were anxious, but
+John saw in them the Spartan determination that marked the women of
+France.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My friend, John Scott, of whom I have already spoken to you, Madame my
+mother,&quot; said Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>John bowed. He knew little of French customs, particularly in the heart
+of a French family, and he was afraid to extend his hand, but she gave
+him hers, and let it rest in his palm a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Philip has told me much of you,&quot; she said in her deep, bell-like voice,
+&quot;and although I know little of your far America, I can believe the best
+of it, if its sons are like you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John flushed at the compliment, which he knew to be so sincere.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you, Madame,&quot; he said. &quot;While my country can take no part in this
+war, many of my countrymen will fight with you. France helped us once,
+and some of us, at least, will help France now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled gravely, and John knew that he was welcome in her house.
+Lannes would see to that anyhow, but he wished to make a good impression
+on his own account.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that Philip risks his life daily,&quot; she said. &quot;He has chosen the
+most dangerous of all paths, the air, but perhaps in that way he can
+serve us most.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She spoke with neither complaint nor reproach, merely as if she were
+stating a fact, and her son added briefly:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right, mother. In the air I can work best for our people. Ah,
+John, here is my sister, who is quite curious about the stranger from
+across the sea.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A young girl came into the room. She was tall and slender, not more than
+seventeen, very fair, with blue eyes and hair of pure gold. John was
+continually observing that while many of the French were dark and small,
+in accordance with foreign opinion that made them all so, many more were
+blonde and tall. Lannes' sister was scarcely more than a lovely child,
+but his heart beat more quickly.</p>
+
+<p>Lannes kissed her on the forehead, just as he kissed his mother.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Julie,&quot; he said lightly and yet proudly, &quot;this is the young American
+hero of whom I was telling you, my comrade in arms, or rather in the
+air, and adopted brother. Mr. John Scott, my sister, Mademoiselle Julie
+Lannes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She made a shy curtsey and John bowed. It was the first time that he was
+ever in the heart of an old French home, and he did not know the rules,
+but he felt that he ought not to offer his hand. Young girls, he had
+always heard, were kept in strict seclusion in France, but the great war
+and the approach of the German army might make a difference. In any
+event, he felt bold enough to talk to her a little, and she responded, a
+beautiful color coming into her face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dinner is ready for our guest and you,&quot; said Madame Lannes, and she led
+the way into another apartment, also with long, low windows, where the
+table was set. The curtains were drawn from the windows, and John caught
+through one of them a glimpse of the Seine, of marching troops in long
+blue coats and red trousers, and of the great city, massing up beyond
+like a wall.</p>
+
+<p>He felt that he had never before sat down to so strange a table. The
+world without was shaking beneath the tread of the mightiest of all
+wars, but within this room was peace and quiet. Madame was like a Roman
+matron, and the young Julie, though shy, had ample dignity. John liked
+Lannes' manner toward them both, his fine subordination to his mother
+and his protective air toward his sister. He was glad to be there with
+them, a welcome guest in the family.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner was served by a tall young woman. Picard's daughter Suzanne,
+to whom Lannes had referred, and she served in silence and with
+extraordinary dexterity one of the best dinners that he ever ate.</p>
+
+<p>As the dinner proceeded John admired the extraordinary composure of the
+Lannes family. Surely a woman and a girl of only seventeen would feel
+consternation at the knowledge that an overwhelming enemy was almost
+within sight of the city they must love so much. Yet they did not refer
+to it, until nearly the close of the dinner, and it was Madame who
+introduced the subject.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hear, Philip,&quot; she said, &quot;that a bomb was thrown today from a German
+aeroplane into the Place de l'Op&eacute;ra, killing a woman and injuring
+several other people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is true, mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John glanced covertly at Julie, and saw her face pale. But she did not
+tremble.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it true also that the German army is near?&quot; asked Madame Lannes,
+with just the faintest quiver in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, mother. John, standing in the lantern of the Basilique du
+Sacr&eacute;-Coeur, saw through his glasses the flash of sunlight on the lances
+of their Uhlans. A shell from one of their great guns could fall in the
+suburbs of Paris.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John's covert glance was now for Madame Lannes. How would the matron who
+was cast in the antique mold of Rome take such news? But she veiled her
+eyes a little with her long lashes, and he could not catch the
+expression there.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe it is not generally known in Paris that the enemy is so very
+near,&quot; said Philip, &quot;and while I have not hesitated to tell you the full
+truth, mother, I ask you and Julie not to speak of it to others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course, Philip, we would add nothing to the general alarm, which is
+great enough already, and with cause. But what do you wish us to do?
+Shall we remain here, or go while it is yet time to our cousins, the
+Menards, at Lyons?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now it was the mother who, in this question of physical peril, was
+showing deference to her son, the masculine head of the family. John
+liked it. He remembered an old saying, and he felt it to be true, that
+they did many things well in France.</p>
+
+<p>Lannes glanced at young Scott before replying.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mother,&quot; he said, &quot;the danger is great. I do not try to conceal it from
+you. It was my intention this morning to see you and Julie safe on the
+Lyons train, but John and I have beheld signs, not military, perhaps,
+but of the soul, and we are firm in the belief that at the eleventh hour
+we shall be saved. The German host will not enter Paris.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Madame Lannes looked fixedly at John and he felt her gaze resting like a
+weight upon his face. But he responded. His faith had merely grown
+stronger with the hours.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot tell why, Madame,&quot; he said, &quot;but I believe as surely as I am
+sitting here that the enemy will not enter the capital.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then she said decisively, &quot;Julie and I remain in our own home in Paris.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" />CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MESSENGER</h3>
+
+
+<p>There was little more talk. The dignified quiet of the Lannes family
+remained unchanged, and John imitated it. If they could be so calm in
+the face of overwhelming disaster it should be no effort for him to
+remain unmoved. Yet he glanced often, though covertly, at Julie Lannes,
+admiring her lovely color.</p>
+
+<p>When dinner was over they returned to the room in which Madame Lannes
+had received them. The dark had come already, and Suzanne had lighted
+four tall candles. There was neither gas nor electricity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Scott will be our guest tonight, mother,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;and
+tomorrow he and I go together to the army.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John raised his hand in protest. It had not been his intention when he
+came to remain until morning, but Lannes would listen to no objection;
+nor would his mother.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since you fight for our country,&quot; she said, &quot;you must let us give you
+shelter for at least one night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He acquiesced, and they sat a little while, talking of the things
+furthest from their hearts. Julie Lannes withdrew presently, and before
+long her mother followed. Lannes went to the window, and looked out over
+Paris, where the diminished lights twinkled. John stood at the other
+window and saw the great blur of the capital. All sounds were fused into
+one steady murmur, rather soothing, like the flowing of a river.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to hear presently the distant thunder of German guns, but
+reason told him it was only a trick of the imagination. Nerves keyed
+high often created the illusion of reality.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you thinking about, Lannes?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of my mother and sister. Only the French know the French. The family
+tie is powerful with us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that, Phil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you do. You're an adopted child of France. Madame Lannes is a woman
+of great heart, John. I am proud to be her son. I have read of your
+civil war. I have read how the mothers of your young soldiers suffered
+and yet were brave. None can know how much Madame, my mother, has
+suffered tonight, with the Germans at the gates of Paris, and yet she
+has shown no sign of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John was silent. He did not know what to say, but Lannes did not pursue
+the subject, remaining a full five minutes at the window, and not
+speaking again, until he turned away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;John,&quot; he said then, &quot;let's go outside and take a look about the
+quarter. It's important now to watch for everything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John was full willing. He recognized the truth of Lannes' words and he
+wanted air and exercise also. A fortress was a fortress, whether one
+called it a home or not, Lannes led the way and they descended to the
+lower hall, where the gigantic porter was on watch.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My friend and I are going to take a look in the streets, Antoine,&quot; said
+Lannes. &quot;Guard the house well while we are gone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will,&quot; replied the man, &quot;but will you tell me one thing, Monsieur
+Philip? Do Madame Lannes and Mademoiselle Julie remain in Paris?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They do, Antoine, and since I leave tomorrow it will be the duty of you
+and Suzanne to protect them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am gratified, sir, that they do not leave the capital. I have never
+known a Lannes to flee at the mere rumor of the enemy's coming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I hope you never will, Antoine. I think we'll be back in an hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall be here, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He unbolted the door and Lannes and John stepped out, the cool night air
+pouring in a grateful flood upon their faces. Antoine fastened the door
+behind them, and John again heard the massive bolt sink into its place.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The quarter is uncommonly quiet,&quot; said Lannes. &quot;I suppose it has a
+right to be after such a day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then be looked up, scanning the heavens, after the manner that had
+become natural to him, a flying man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you see, Philip?&quot; asked John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A sky of dark blue, plenty of stars, but no aeroplanes, Taubes or other
+machines of man's making.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fancy that some of them are on the horizon, but too far away to be
+seen by us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Likely as not. The Germans are daring enough and we can expect more
+bombs to be dropped on Paris. Our flying corps must organize to meet
+theirs. I feel the call of the air, John.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Young Scott laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe the earth has ceased to be your natural element,&quot; he said.
+&quot;You're happiest when you're in the <i>Arrow</i> about a mile above our
+planet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes laughed also, and with appreciation. The friendship between the
+two young men was very strong, and it had in it all the quality of
+permanence. Their very unlikeness in character and temperament made them
+all the better comrades. What one could not do the other could.</p>
+
+<p>As they walked along now they said but little. Each was striving to read
+what he could in that great book, the streets of Paris. John believed
+Lannes had not yet told him his whole mission. He knew that in their
+short stay in Paris Philip had spent an hour in the office of the
+military governor of the city, and his business must be of great
+importance to require an hour from a man who carried such a fearful
+weight of responsibility. But whatever Lannes' secret might be, it was
+his own and he had no right to pry into it. If the time came for his
+comrade to tell it he would do so.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the Seine the city did not seem so quiet. They heard
+the continuous sound of marching troops and people were still departing
+through the streets toward the country or the provincial cities. The
+flight went on by night as well as day, and John again felt the
+overwhelming pity of it.</p>
+
+<p>He wondered what the French generals and their English allies would do?
+Did they have any possible way of averting this terrible crisis? They
+had met nothing but defeat, and the vast German army had crashed,
+unchecked, through everything from the border almost to the suburbs of
+Paris.</p>
+
+<p>They stood in the Place Valhubert at the entrance to the Pont
+d'Austerlitz, and watched a regiment crossing the river, the long blue
+coats and red trousers of the men outlined against the white body of the
+bridge. The soldiers were short, they looked little to John, but they
+were broad of chest and they marched splendidly with a powerful swinging
+stride.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From the Midi,&quot; said Lannes. &quot;Look how dark they are! France is called
+a Latin nation, but I doubt whether the term is correct. These men of
+the Midi though are the real Latins. We of northern France, I suspect,
+are more Teutonic than anything else, but we are all knitted together in
+one race, heart and soul, which are stronger ties than blood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are to go early in the morning, are we not, Philip?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, early. The <i>Arrow</i> is at the hangar, all primed and eager for a
+flight, fearful of growing rusty from a long rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe you actually look upon your plane as a human being.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A human being, yes, and more. No human being could carry me above the
+clouds. No human being could obey absolutely and without question the
+simplest touch of my hand. The <i>Arrow</i> is not human, John, it is
+superhuman. You have seen its exploits.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The dark emitted a figure that advanced toward them, and took the shape
+of a man with black hair, a short close beard and an intelligent face.
+He approached John and Lannes and looked at them closely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Scott!&quot; he exclaimed, with eagerness, &quot;I did not know what had
+become of you. I was afraid you were lost in one of the battles!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, it's Weber!&quot; said John, &quot;our comrade of the flight in the
+automobile! And I was afraid that you too, were dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two shook hands with great heartiness and Lannes joined in the
+reunion. He too at once liked Weber, who always made the impression of
+courage and quickness. He wore a new uniform, olive in color with dark
+blue threads through it, and it became him, setting off his trim,
+compact figure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How did you get here, Mr. Weber?&quot; asked John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I scarcely know,&quot; he replied. &quot;My duties are to a certain extent those
+of a messenger, but I was caught in the last battle, wounded slightly,
+and separated from the main French force. The little company which I had
+formed tried to break through the German columns, but they were all
+killed or captured except myself, and maybe two or three others. I hid
+in a wood, slept a night there, and then reached Paris to see what is
+going to happen. Ah, it is terrible! terrible! my comrades! The Germans
+are advancing in five great armies, a million and a half strong, and no
+troops were ever before equipped so magnificently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know positively that they have a million and a half?&quot; asked
+Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did not count them,&quot; replied Weber, smiling a little, &quot;but I have
+heard from many certain sources that such are their numbers. I fear,
+gentlemen, that Paris is doomed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Scott and I don't think so,&quot; said Lannes firmly. &quot;We've gained new
+courage today.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Weber was silent for a few moments. Then he said, giving Lannes his
+title as an officer:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've heard of you, Lieutenant Lannes. Who does not know the name of
+France's most daring aviator? And doubtless you have information which
+is unknown to me. It is altogether likely that one who pierces the air
+like an eagle should bear messages between generals of the first rank.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes did not answer, but looked at Weber, who smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps our trades are not so very different,&quot; said the Alsatian, &quot;but
+you shoot through clouds while I crawl on the ground. You have a great
+advantage of me in method.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes smiled back. The little tribute was pleasing to the dramatic
+instinct so strong in him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You and I, Mr. Weber,&quot; he said, &quot;know enough never to speak of what
+we're going to do. Now, we'll bid you good night and wish you good luck.
+I'd like to be a prophet, even for a day only, and tell what the morrow
+would bring.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So do I,&quot; said Weber, &quot;and I must hurry on my own errand. It may not
+be of great importance, but is vital to me that I do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He slid away in the darkness and both John and Lannes spoke well of him
+as they returned to the house. Picard admitted them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I ask, sir, if there is any news that favors France?&quot; he said to
+Philip.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not yet, my good Antoine, but it is surely coming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John heard the giant Frenchman smother a sigh, but he made no comment,
+and walked softly with Lannes to the little room high up that had been
+assigned to him. Here when he was alone with his candle he looked around
+curiously.</p>
+
+<p>The room was quite simple, not containing much furniture, in truth,
+nothing of any note save on the wall a fine picture of the great Marshal
+Lannes, Napoleon's dauntless fighter, and stern republican, despite the
+ducal title that he took. It was a good portrait, painted perhaps by
+some great artist, and John holding up the candle, looked at it a long
+time.</p>
+
+<p>He thought he could trace some likeness to Philip. Lannes' face was
+always stern, in repose, far beyond his years, although when he became
+animated it had all the sunniness of youth. But he noticed now that he
+had the same tight lips of the Marshal, and the same unfaltering eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Duke of Montebello!&quot; said John to himself. &quot;Well, you won that title
+grandly, and while the younger Lannes may do as well, if the chance
+comes to him, the new heroes of France will be neither dukes nor
+princes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then, after removing all the stiff pillows, inclines, foot pieces and
+head pieces that make European beds so uncomfortable, he slipped between
+the covers, and slid quickly into a long and soothing sleep, from which
+he was awakened apparently about a minute later by Lannes himself, who
+stood over him, dressed fully, tall and serious.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, I just got into bed!&quot; exclaimed John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You came in here a full seven hours ago. Open your window and you'll
+see the dawn creeping over Paris.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you, but you can open it yourself. I never fool with a European
+window. I haven't time to master all the mechanism, inside, outside and
+between, to say nothing of the various layers of curtains, full length,
+half length and otherwise. Nothing that I can conceive of is better
+fitted than the European window to keep out light and air.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see that you're in fine feather this morning,&quot; he said, &quot;I'll open it
+for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John jumped up and dressed quickly, while Lannes, with accustomed hand,
+laid back shutters and curtains.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, shove up the window,&quot; exclaimed John as he wielded towel and
+brush. &quot;A little fresh air in a house won't hurt you; it won't hurt
+anybody. We're a young people, we Americans, but we can teach you that.
+Why, in the German hotels they'd seal up the smoking-rooms and lounges
+in the evenings, and then boys would go around shooting clouds of
+perfume against the ceilings. Ugh! I can taste now that awful mixture of
+smoke, perfume and thrice-breathed air! Ah! that feels better! It's like
+a breath from heaven!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ready now? We're going down to breakfast with my mother and sister.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. How do I look in this uniform, Lannes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. But, Oh, you Americans! we French are charged with vanity,
+but you have it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John had thought little of his raiment until he came to the house of
+Lannes, but now there was a difference. He gave the last touch to his
+coat, and he and Philip went down together. Madame Lannes and Julie
+received them. They were dressed very simply, Julie in white and Madame
+Lannes in plain gray. Their good-morning to John was quiet, but he saw
+that it came from the heart. They recognized in him the faithful comrade
+in danger, of the son and brother, and he saw once more that French
+family affection was very powerful.</p>
+
+<p>It was early, far earlier than the ordinary time for the European
+breakfast, and he knew that it had been served so, because he and Lannes
+were to depart. He sat facing a window, and he saw the dawn come over
+Paris in a vast silver haze that soon turned to a cloud of gold. He
+again stole glances at Julie Lannes. In all her beautiful fairness of
+hair and complexion she was like one of the blonde American girls of his
+own country.</p>
+
+<p>When breakfast was over and the two young men rose to go John said the
+first farewell. He still did not know the French custom, but, bending
+over suddenly, he kissed the still smooth and handsome hand of Madame
+Lannes. As she flushed and looked pleased, he judged that he had made no
+mistake. Then he touched lightly the hand of the young girl, and said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mademoiselle Julie, I hope to return soon to this house with your
+brother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May it be so,&quot; she said, in a voice that trembled, &quot;and may you come
+back to a Paris still French!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John bowed to them both and with tact and delicacy withdrew from the
+room. He felt that there should be no witness of Philip's farewell to
+his mother and sister, before going on a journey from which the chances
+were that he would never return.</p>
+
+<p>He strolled down the hall, pretending to look at an old picture or two,
+and in a few minutes Lannes came out and joined him. John saw tears in
+his eyes, but his face was set and stern. Neither spoke until they
+reached the front door, which the giant, Picard, opened for them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the worst should happen, Antoine,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;and you must be the
+judge of it when it comes, take them to Lyons, to our cousins the
+Menards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I answer with my life,&quot; said the man, shutting together his great
+teeth, and John felt that it was well for the two women to have such a
+guardian. Under impulse, he said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should like to shake the hand of a man who is worth two of most men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Whether the French often shake hands or not, his fingers were enclosed
+in the mighty grasp of Picard, and he knew that he had a friend for
+life. When they went out Lannes would not look back and was silent for a
+long time. The day was warm and beautiful, and the stream of fugitives,
+the sad procession, was still flowing from the city. Troops too were
+moving, and it seemed to John that they passed in heavier masses than on
+the day before.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I went out last night while you slept,&quot; said Lannes, when they were
+nearly at the hangar, &quot;and I will tell you that I bear a message to one
+of our most important generals. I carry it in writing, and also in
+memory in case I lose the written word. That is all I feel at liberty to
+tell you, and in truth I know but little more. The message comes from
+our leader to the commander of the army at Paris, who in turn orders me
+to deliver it to the general whom we're going to seek. It directs him
+with his whole force to move forward to a certain point and hold fast
+there. Beyond that I know nothing. Its whole significance is hidden from
+me. I feel that I can tell you this, John, as we're about to start upon
+a journey which has a far better prospect of death than of life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not afraid,&quot; said John, and he told the truth. &quot;I feel, Philip,
+that great events are impending and that your dispatch or the effect of
+it will be a part in some gigantic plan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel that way, too. What an awful crisis! The Germans moved nearer in
+the dark. I didn't sleep a minute last night. I couldn't. If the signs
+that you and I saw are to be fulfilled they must be fulfilled soon,
+because when a thing is done it's done, and when Paris falls it falls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, here we are at the hangar, and the <i>Arrow</i> will make you feel
+better. You're like the born horseman whose spirits return when he's on
+the back of his best runner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose I am. The air is now my proper medium, and anyway, John, my
+gallant Yankee, for a man like me the best tonic is always action,
+action, and once more action.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> was in beautiful condition, smooth, polished and fitted with
+everything that was needed. They put on their flying clothes, drew down
+their visors, stowed their automatics in handy pockets, and took their
+seats in the aeroplane. Then, as he put his hand on the steering rudder
+and the attendants gave the <i>Arrow</i> a mighty shove, the soul of Lannes
+swelled within him.</p>
+
+<p>They rose slowly and then swiftly over Paris, and his troubles were left
+behind him on the earth. Up, up they went, in a series of graceful
+spirals, and although John, at first, felt the old uneasy feeling, it
+soon departed. He too exulted in their mounting flight and the rush of
+cold air.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Use your glasses, John,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;and tell me what you can see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Some captive balloons, five other planes, all our own, and on the
+horizon, where the German army lies, several black specks too vague and
+indefinite for me to make out what they are, although I've no doubt
+they're German flyers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'd like to have a look at the Germans, but our way leads elsewhere.
+What else do you see, John?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I look downward and I see the most magnificent and glittering city in
+the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that's Paris, our glorious Paris, which you and I and a million
+others are going to save. I suppose it's hope, John, that makes me feel
+we'll do something. Did you know that the Germans dropped two more bombs
+on the city last night? One, luckily, fell in the Seine. The other
+struck near the Madeleine, close to a group of soldiers, killing two and
+wounding four more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bombs from the air can't do any great damage to a city.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, but they can spread alarm, and it's an insult, too. We feel as the
+Germans would if we were dropping bombs on Berlin. I wish you'd keep
+those glasses to your eyes all the time, John, and watch the skies. Let
+me know at once, if you see anything suspicious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John, continually turning in his seat, swept the whole curve of the
+world with the powerful glasses. Paris was now far below, a blur of
+white and gray. Above, the heavens were of the silkiest blue, beautiful
+in their infinite depths, with tiny clouds floating here and there like
+whitecaps on an ocean.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you see now, John?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing but one of the most beautiful days that ever was. It's a fine
+sun, that you've got over here, Philip. I can see through these glasses
+that it's made out of pure reddish gold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind about that sun, John. America is a full partner in its
+ownership and you're used to it. I've heard that you have more sunshine
+than we do. Watch for our companions of the air, friend or foe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see them flying; over Paris, but none is going in our direction. How
+far is our port of entry, Lannes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We should be there in two hours, if nothing happens. Do we still have
+the course to ourselves or is anything coming our way now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No company at all, unless you'd call a machine about three miles off
+and much lower down, a comrade.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What does it look like?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A French aeroplane, much resembling the <i>Arrow</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it following us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not exactly. Yes, it is coming our way now, although it keeps much
+lower! A scout, I dare say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes was silent for a little while, his eyes fixed on his pathway
+through the blue. Then he said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What has become of that machine, John?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It has risen a little, but it's on our private course, that is, if we
+can claim the right of way all down to the ground.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes glanced backward and downward, as well as his position would
+allow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A French plane, yes,&quot; he said thoughtfully. &quot;There can be no doubt of
+it, but why should it follow us in this manner? You do think it's
+following us, don't you, John?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It begins to look like it, Phil. It's rising a little now, and is
+directly in our wake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take a long look through those glasses of yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John obeyed, and the following aeroplane at once increased in size
+tenfold and came much nearer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's French. There cannot be any doubt of it,&quot; he said, &quot;and only one
+man is in it. As he's hidden by his flying-suit I can't tell anything
+about him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Watch him closely, John, and keep your hand on the butt of your
+automatic. I don't like that fellow's actions. Still, he may be a
+Frenchman on an errand like ours. We've no right to think we're the only
+people carrying important messages today.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's gaining pretty fast. Although he keeps below us, it looks as if he
+wanted to communicate with us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The second aeroplane suddenly shot forward and upward at a much greater
+rate of speed. John, still watching through his glasses, saw the man
+release the steering rudder for an instant, snatch a rifle from the
+floor of his plane, and fire directly at Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>John uttered a shout of anger, and in action, too, he was as quick as a
+flash. His automatic was out at once and he rained bullets upon the
+treacherous machine. It was hard to take aim, firing from one flying
+target, at another, but he saw the man flinch, turn suddenly, and then
+go rocketing away at a sharp angle.</p>
+
+<p>Blazing with wrath John watched him, now far out of range, and then
+reloaded his automatic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you get him, John?&quot; asked Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know one bullet found him, because I saw him shiver and shrink, but
+it couldn't have been mortal, as he was able to fly away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm glad that you at least hit him, because he hit me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&quot; exclaimed John. Then he looked at his comrade and saw to his
+intense horror that black blood was flowing slowly down a face deadly
+pale.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His bullet went through my cap and then through my head,&quot; said Lannes.
+&quot;Oh, not through my skull, or I wouldn't be talking to you now. I think
+it glanced off the bone, as I know it's gone out on the other side. But
+I'm losing much blood, John, and I seem to be growing numb.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His voice trailed off in weakness and the <i>Arrow</i> began to move in an
+eccentric manner. John saw that Lannes' hand on the rudder was uncertain
+and that he had been hard hit. He was aghast, first for his friend, to
+whom he had become so strongly attached, and then for the <i>Arrow</i>, their
+mission and himself. Lannes would soon become unconscious and he, no
+flying man at all, would be left high in air with a terrible weight of
+responsibility.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must change seats,&quot; said Lannes, struggling against the dimness that
+was coming over his eyes and the weakness permeating his whole body. &quot;Be
+careful, Oh, be careful as you can, and then, in your American language,
+a lot more. Slowly! Slowly! Yes, I can move alone. Drag yourself over
+me, and I can slide under you. Careful! Careful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> fluttered like a wounded bird, dropping, darting upward, and
+careering to one side. John was sick to his soul, both physically and
+mentally. His head became giddy and the wind roared in his ears, but the
+exchange of seats was at last, successfully accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;you're a close observer. Remember all that you've
+seen me do with the plane. Resolve to yourself that you do know how to
+fly the <i>Arrow</i>. Fear nothing and fly straight for our destination.
+Don't bother about the bleeding of my wound. My thick hair and thick cap
+acting together as a heavy bandage will stop it. Now, John, our fate
+rests with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The last words were almost inaudible, and John from the corner of his
+eye saw his comrade's head droop. He knew that Lannes had become
+unconscious and now, appalling though the situation was, he rose to the
+crisis.</p>
+
+<p>He knew the immensity of their danger. A sudden movement of the rudder
+and the aeroplane might be wrecked. And in such a position the nerves of
+a novice were subject at any time to a jerk. They might be assailed by
+another treacherous machine, the dangers, in truth, were uncountable,
+but he was upborne by a tremendous desire to carry the word and to save
+Lannes and himself.</p>
+
+<p>In the face of intense resolve all obstacles became as nothing and his
+hand steadied on the rudder. He knew that when it came to the air he was
+no Lannes and never could be. The solid earth, no matter how much it
+rolled around the sun or around itself, was his favorite field of
+action, but he felt that he must make one flight, when he carried with
+him perhaps the fate of a nation.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> was still rocking from side to side and dipping and jumping.
+Slowly he steadied it, handling the rudder as if it were a loaded
+weapon, and gradually his heart began to pound with triumph. It was no
+such flying as the hand of Lannes drew from the <i>Arrow</i>, but to John it
+seemed splendid for a first trial. He let the machine drop a little
+until it was only six or seven hundred yards above the earth, and took
+wary glances from side to side. He feared another pursuer, but the air
+seemed clear.</p>
+
+<p>Lannes had sunk a little further forward. John saw that the
+bleeding from his head had ceased. There was a dark stain down either
+cheek, but it was drying there, and as Lannes had foreseen, his hair and
+the cap had acted as a bandage, at last checking the flow effectively.
+His breathing was heavy and jerky, but John believed that he would
+revive before long. It was not possible that one so vital as Lannes, so
+eager for great action, could die thus.</p>
+
+<p>Now he looked ahead. Their landmarks as Lannes had told him before the
+fight, were to be a high hill, a low hill, and a small stream flowing
+between. Just behind it they would find a great French army marching
+northward and their errand would be over. He did not yet see the hills,
+but he was sure that he was still in the pathway of the air.</p>
+
+<p>He had left Paris far behind, but when he looked down he saw a beautiful
+country, a fertile land upon which man had worked for two thousand
+years, too beautiful to be trodden to pieces by armies. He saw the
+cultivated fields, varying in color like a checker board, and the neat
+villages with trees about them. Here and there the spire of a church
+rose high above everything. Churches and wars were so numerous in
+Europe!</p>
+
+<p>John checked the speed of the <i>Arrow</i>. He was afraid, despite all his
+high resolve, to fly fast, and then he must not go beyond the army for
+which he was looking. He dropped a little lower as he was passing over a
+wood, and then he heard the crack of rifles beneath him. Bullets whizzed
+and sang past his ears and he took one fearful glance downward.</p>
+
+<p>He saw men, spiked helmets on their heads, galloping among the trees,
+and he knew that they were a daring band of Uhlans, actually scouting
+inside the French lines. They were shooting at the <i>Arrow</i> and firing
+fast.</p>
+
+<p>He attempted to rise so suddenly that the plane gave a violent jerk and
+quivered in every fiber. He thought for a moment they were going to
+fall, and the sickening sensation at his heart was overpowering. But the
+trusty <i>Arrow</i> ceased quivering, and then rose swiftly at an angle not
+too great.</p>
+
+<p>Bullets still whizzed around the plane, and one glanced off its polished
+side, but John's first nervous jerkiness in handling the machine had
+probably saved him. The target had been so high in air, and of such a
+shifting nature that the Uhlans had little chance to hit it.</p>
+
+<p>He was now beyond the range of any rifle, and he drew a long breath of
+relief that was like a deep sigh. Then he took a single downward glance,
+and caught a fleeting glimpse of the Uhlans galloping away. Doubtless
+they were making all speed back to their own army.</p>
+
+<p>He flew on for a minute or two, searching the horizon eagerly, and at
+last, he saw a tall hill, a low hill and a flash of water between. He
+felt so much joy that he uttered a cry, and an echo of it came from a
+point almost by his side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did I hear firing, John?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was Lannes' voice, feeble, but showing all the signs of returning
+strength, and again John uttered a joyous shout.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You did,&quot; he replied. &quot;It was Uhlans in a grove. I was flying low and
+their bullets whistled around us. But the <i>Arrow</i> has taken no harm. I
+see, too, the hills and the stream which are our landmarks. We're about
+to arrive, Philip, with our message, but there's been treachery
+somewhere. I wish I knew who was in that French plane.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So do I, John. It certainly came out of Paris. In my opinion it meant
+to destroy us and keep our message from reaching the one for whom it was
+intended. Who could it have been and how could he have known!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Feeling better now, aren't you, Phil?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A lot better. My head aches tremendously, but the dimness has gone from
+before my eyes, and I'm able to think, in a poor and feeble way,
+perhaps, but I'm not exactly a dumb animal. Where are the hills?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John pointed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can see them,&quot; said Lannes exultantly. &quot;Since they did no harm I'm
+glad the Uhlans fired at the <i>Arrow</i>. Their shots aroused me from stupor
+and as we're to reach the army I want to be in possession of my five
+senses when I get there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John understood perfectly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's your message and you deliver it,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>Lannes' strength continued to increase, and his mind cleared rapidly.
+His head ached frightfully, but he could think with all his usual
+swiftness and precision. He sat erect in his seat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pass me your glasses, John,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now I see the troops,&quot; he said, after a long look. &quot;Frenchmen,
+Frenchmen, Frenchmen, infantry in thousands and scores of thousands, big
+guns in scores and hundreds, cuirassiers, hussars, cannoneers! Ah! It's
+a sight to kindle a dead heart back to life! John, this is one of the
+great wheels in the mighty machine that is to move forward! Here come
+two aeroplanes, scouts sent forward to see who and what we are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are sure they contain genuine Frenchmen? Remember the fellow who
+shot you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Frenchmen, good and true. I can see them for myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He moved his hand, and in a few moments John heard hissing and purring
+near, as if great birds were flying to meet him. The outlines of the
+hovering planes showed by his side, and Lannes called in a loud voice to
+shrouded and visored men.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Philip Lannes and his comrade, John Scott, with a message from Paris
+to the commander!&quot; he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>He was his old self again, erect, intense, dramatic. He evidently
+expected the name Philip Lannes to be known well to them, and it was, as
+a cheer followed high in air.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, John,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;Be careful! Your hardest task is before you,
+to land. But I've noticed that with you the harder the task the better
+you do it. Make for that wide green space to the left of the stream and
+come down as slowly and gently as you can. Just slide down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John had a fleeting glimpse of thousands of faces looking upward, but he
+held a true course for the grassy area, and with a multitude looking on
+his nerve was never steadier. Amid great cheering the <i>Arrow</i> came
+safely to rest at her appointed place. John and Lannes stepped forth, as
+an elderly man in a quiet uniform came forward to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>Lannes, holding himself stiffly erect, drew a paper from his pocket and
+extended it to the general.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A letter, sir, from the commander-in-chief of all our armies,&quot; he said,
+saluting proudly.</p>
+
+<p>As the general took the letter, Lannes' knees bent beneath him, and he
+sank down on his face.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" />CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>IN THE FRENCH CAMP</h3>
+
+
+<p>John rushed forward and grasped his comrade. The sympathetic hands of
+others seized him also, and they raised him to his feet, while an
+officer gave him stimulant out of a flask, John meanwhile telling who
+his comrade was. Lannes' eyes opened and he flushed through the tan of
+his face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pardon,&quot; he said, &quot;it was a momentary weakness. I am ashamed of myself,
+but I shall not faint again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've been shot,&quot; said the officer, looking at his sanguinary cap and
+face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So I have, but I ask your pardon for it. I won't let it occur again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes was now standing stiffly erect, and his eyes shone with pride, as
+the general, a tall, elderly man, rapidly read the letter that Philip
+had delivered with his own hand. The officer who had spoken of his wound
+looked at him with approval.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've heard of you, Philip Lannes,&quot; he said, &quot;you're the greatest flying
+man in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes' eyes flashed now.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You do me too much honor,&quot; he said, &quot;but it was not I who brought our
+aeroplane here. It was my American friend, John Scott, now standing
+beside me, who beat off an attack upon us and who then, although he had
+had no practical experience in flying, guided the machine to this spot.
+Born an American, he is one of us and France already owes him much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John raised his hand in protest, but he saw that Lannes was enjoying
+himself. His dramatic instinct was finding full expression. He had not
+only achieved a great triumph, but his best friend had an important
+share in it. There was honor for both, and his generous soul rejoiced.</p>
+
+<p>Both John and Lannes stood at attention until the general had read the
+letter not once but twice and thrice. Then he took off his glasses,
+rubbed them thoughtfully a moment or two, replaced them and looked
+keenly at the two. He was a quiet man and he made no gestures, but John
+met his gaze serenely, read his eyes and saw the tremendous weight of
+responsibility back of them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have done well, you two, perhaps far better than you know,&quot; said
+the general, &quot;and now, since you are wounded, Philip Lannes, you must
+have attention. De Rougemont, take care of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>De Rougemont, a captain, was the man to whom they had been talking, and
+he gladly received the charge. He was a fine, well built officer, under
+thirty, and it was obvious that he already took a deep interest in the
+two young aviators. Noticing Lannes' anxious glances toward his precious
+machine, he promptly detailed two men to take care of the <i>Arrow</i> and
+then he led John and Lannes toward the group of tents.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;First I'll get a surgeon for you,&quot; he said to the Frenchman, &quot;and after
+that there's food for you both.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope you'll tell the surgeon to be careful how he takes off my cap,&quot;
+said Lannes, &quot;because it's fastened to my head now by my own dried
+blood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Trust me for that,&quot; said de Rougemont. &quot;I'll bring one of our best
+men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then, unable to suppress his curiosity any longer, he added:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose the message you brought was one of life or death for France.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;but I know little of its nature, myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would not ask you to say any more. I know that you cannot speak of
+it. But you can tell me this. Are the Germans before Paris?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As nearly as I could tell, their vanguard was within fifteen miles of
+the capital.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then if we strike at all we must strike quickly. I think we're going to
+strike.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes was silent, and they entered the tent, where blankets were spread
+for him. A surgeon, young and skillful, came promptly, carefully removed
+the cap and bound up his head. John stood by and handed the surgeon the
+bandages.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not much hurt,&quot; he said to Lannes as he finished. &quot;Your chief
+injury was shock, and that has passed. I can keep down the fever and
+you'll be ready for work very soon. The high powered bullet makes a
+small and clean wound. It tears scarcely at all. Nor will your beauty be
+spoiled in the slightest, young sir. Both orifices are under the full
+thickness of your hair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm grateful for all your assurances,&quot; said Lannes, his old indomitable
+smile appearing in his eyes, &quot;but you'll have to cure me fast, faster
+than you ever cured anybody before, because I'm a flying man, and I fly
+again tomorrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not tomorrow. In two or three days, perhaps&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, tomorrow, I tell you! Nothing can keep me from it! This army will
+march tonight! I know it! and do you think such a wound as this can keep
+me here, when the fate of Europe is being decided? I'd rise from these
+blankets and go with the army even if I knew that it would make me fall
+dead the next day!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with such fierce energy that the surgeon who at first sternly
+forbade, looked doubtful and then acquiescent.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go, then,&quot; he said, &quot;if you can. The fact that we have so many heroes
+may save us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He left John alone in the tent with Lannes. The Frenchman regarded his
+comrade with a cool, assured gaze.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;John,&quot; he said, &quot;I shall be up in the <i>Arrow</i> tomorrow. I'm not nervous
+and excited now, and I'll not cause any fever in my wound. Somebody will
+come in five minutes with food. I shall eat a good supper, fall quietly
+to sleep, sleep soundly until night, then rise, refreshed and strong,
+and go about the work for which I'm best fitted. My mind shall rule over
+my body.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see you're what we would call at home a Christian Scientist, and in
+your case when a mind like yours is brought to bear there's something in
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The food appeared within the prescribed time, and both ate heartily.
+John watched Lannes. He knew that he would suffer agonies of
+mortification if he were not able to share in the great movement which
+so obviously was about to take place, and, as he looked, he felt a
+growing admiration for Philip's immense power of self-control.</p>
+
+<p>Mind had truly taken command of body. Lannes ate slowly and with evident
+relish. From without came many noises of a great army, but he refused to
+be disturbed or excited by them. He spoke lightly of his life before the
+war, and of a little country home that the Lannes family had in
+Normandy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We own the two places, that and the home in the city,&quot; he said. &quot;The
+house in Normandy is small, but it's beautiful, hidden by flower gardens
+and orchards, with a tiny river just back of the last orchard. Julie has
+spent most of her life there. She and my mother would go there now, but
+it's safer at Lyons or in the Midi. A wonderful girl, Julie! I hope,
+John, that you'll come for a long stay with us after the war, among the
+Normandy orchards and roses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope so,&quot; said John. He was dreaming a little then, and he saw young
+Julie sitting at the table with them back in Paris. Truly, her golden
+hair was the purest gold he had ever seen, and there was no other blue
+like the blue of her blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, John,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;I'll resume my place on the blankets and in
+ten minutes I'll be asleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He lay down, closed his eyes and three minutes short of the appointed
+time slept soundly. John gazed at him for a moment in wonder and
+admiration. The triumph of will over body had been complete. He touched
+Lannes' head. It was normally cool. Either the surgeon's skill had been
+great or the very strength of his resolve had been so immense that he
+had kept nerves and blood too quiet for fever to rise.</p>
+
+<p>John left the tent, feeling for the time a personal detachment from
+everything. He had no position in this army, and no orders had been
+given to him by anybody. But he knew that he was among friends, and
+while he stood looking about in uncertainty Captain de Rougemont
+appeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How is young Lannes?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sleeping and free from fever. He will move with the army, or rather he
+will be hovering over it in his aeroplane. I never before saw such
+extraordinary power of will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's a wonderful fellow. Of course, most of us have heard of him
+through his marvelous flying exploits, but it's the first time that I've
+ever seen him. What are you going to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know. I seem to be left high and dry for the present, at least.
+My company is with one of the armies, but where that army is now is more
+than I can tell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor do I know either. We're all in the dark here, but any young strong
+man can certainly get a chance to fight in this war. I'm on the staff of
+General Vaugirard, a brigade commander, and he needs active young
+officers. You speak good French, and the fact that you came with Lannes
+will be a great recommendation, I'll provide you with a horse and all
+else necessary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John thanked him with great sincerity. The offer was in truth most
+welcome. He knew that Lannes would willingly take him in the <i>Arrow</i>,
+but he felt that he would be in the way there and, as he had said to his
+friend, the rolling earth rather than the air around it was his true
+field of action. His first enrollment in the French army had been
+hurried and without due forms, but war had made it good.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll not come back for you until afternoon,&quot; said de Rougemont,
+&quot;because we're already making preparations to advance, and I shall have
+much to do meanwhile. You can watch over Lannes and see that he's not
+interrupted in his sleep. He'll need it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, I have reason to know that he did not sleep at all last night, and
+he must be in a state of complete exhaustion. But, just as he predicted,
+he'll rise, his old self again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Captain de Rougemont hurried away, and John was left alone in the midst
+of a great army. He stood before Lannes' tent, which was in the midst of
+a grassy and rather elevated opening, and he heard once more the
+infinite sounds made by two hundred thousand armed men, blending into
+one vast, fused note.</p>
+
+<p>The army, too, was moving, or getting ready to move. Batteries of the
+splendid French artillery passed before him, squadrons of horsemen
+galloped by, and regiments of infantry followed. It all seemed confused,
+aimless to the eye, but John knew that nevertheless it was proceeding
+with order and method, directed by a master mind.</p>
+
+<p>Often trumpets sounded and the motion of the troops seemed to quicken.
+Now he beheld men from the lands of the sun, the short, dark, fierce
+soldiers of the Midi, youths of Marseilles and youths of the first Roman
+province, whose native language was Provencal and not French. He
+remembered the men of the famous battalion who had marched from
+Marseilles to Paris singing Rouget de Lisle's famous song, and giving it
+their name, while they tore down an ancient kingdom. Doubtless, spirits
+no less ardent and fearless than theirs were here now.</p>
+
+<p>He saw the Arabs in turbans and flowing robes, and black soldiers from
+Senegal, and seeing these men from far African deserts he knew that
+France was rallying her strength for a supreme effort. The German
+Empire, with the flush of unbroken victory in war after war, could
+command the complete devotion of its sons, but the French Republic,
+without such triumphs as yet, could do as well. John felt an immense
+pride because he, too, was republican to the core, and often there was a
+lot in a name.</p>
+
+<p>It was about noon now, and the sun was shining with dazzling brilliancy.
+The tall hill and the low hill were clothed in deep green, and the
+waters of the little river that ran between, sparkled in the light. The
+air was crisp with a cool wind that blew from the west, and John felt
+that the omens were good for the great mysterious movement which he
+believed to be at hand.</p>
+
+<p>He looked into the tent and saw that Lannes was sleeping soundly, with a
+good color in his face. A powerful constitution aided by a strong will
+had done its work and he was sure that on the morrow Lannes would again
+be the most daring French scout of the air.</p>
+
+<p>John found the waiting hard work. There was so much movement and action
+that he wanted to be a part of it. He had thrown in his lot with this
+army and he wanted to share its work at once. Yet much time passed, and
+de Rougemont did not return. The evidences that the great French army
+was marching to the point designated in the note brought by Lannes
+multiplied. From the crest of the hill he already saw large bodies of
+troops marching forward steadily, their long blue coats flapping
+awkwardly about their legs. He wondered once more why they wore such an
+inharmonious and conspicuous uniform as blue frock coats and baggy red
+trousers.</p>
+
+<p>He heard presently the martial sounds of the Marseillaise, and the
+regiment singing it passed very close to him. The men were nearly all
+short, dark, and very young. But the spring and fire with which they
+marched were magnificent. As they thundered out the grand old tune their
+feet seemed scarcely to touch the earth, and fierce eyes glowed in dark
+faces.</p>
+
+<p>John, with a start, recognized one, a petty officer, a sergeant it
+seemed, who marched beside the line. He was the most eager of them all,
+and his face was tense and wrapt. It was Geronimo, the little Apache, in
+whom the spark of patriotism had lit the fire of genius. His call had
+come and it had drawn him from a half savage life into one of glorious
+deeds for his country.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He'll be a general if he isn't killed first,&quot; murmured John, with
+absolute conviction.</p>
+
+<p>Geronimo, at that moment, looked his way and recognized him. His hand
+flew to his head in a military salute, which John returned in kind, and
+his eyes plainly showed pleasure at sight of this new friend whom he had
+made in a few minutes on the Butte Montmartre.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We meet again,&quot; he said, &quot;and before the week is out it will be victory
+or death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so, too,&quot; said John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it,&quot; said Geronimo, and, saluting once more, he marched on with
+his regiment. John saw them pass across the valley and join the great
+mass of troops that filled the whole northern horizon. About an hour
+later a cheerful voice called to him, and he beheld Lannes standing in
+the door of the tent, his head well bandaged, but his eyes clear and
+strong and the natural color in his face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What has happened, John?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've slept six or seven hours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And while I slept, the army, as I can see, has begun its march
+according to the order we brought. I'm sorry I had to miss any of it,
+but I was bound to sleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're a marvel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No marvel at all. I'm merely one of a million Frenchmen molded on the
+same model. An army can't move fast and tonight the <i>Arrow</i> and I will
+be hovering over its front. There's your old place for you in the
+plane.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'd only be in your way, Philip. But can't you wait until tomorrow?
+Don't rush yourself while you've got a new wound.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The wound is nothing. I'm bound to go tonight with the <i>Arrow</i>. But
+what are you going to do if you don't go with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A new friend whom I've made while you slept has found a place for me
+with him, on the staff of General Vaugirard, a brigade commander. I
+shall serve there until I'm able to rejoin the Strangers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;General Vaugirard! I've seen him. An able man, and a most noticeable
+figure. You've fared well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope so. Here comes Captain de Rougemont.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The captain showed much pleasure at seeing Lannes up and apparently
+well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! Has our king of the air revived so soon!&quot; he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The dead themselves would rise when we're about to strike for the life
+of France,&quot; said Lannes, his dramatic quality again coming to the front.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well spoken,&quot; said de Rougemont, the color flushing into his face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I return to my aeroplane within two hours,&quot; said Lannes. &quot;I hold a
+commission from our government which allows me to operate somewhat as a
+free lance, but, of course, I shall conform for the present to the
+wishes of the man who commands the flying corps of this army. Meanwhile,
+I leave with you my young Yankee friend here, John Scott. For some
+strange reason I've conceived for him a strong brotherly affection.
+Kindly see that he doesn't get killed unless it's necessary for our
+country, and this, I think, is a long enough speech for me to make now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll do my best for him,&quot; said de Rougemont earnestly. &quot;I've come for
+you, Scott.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-bye, Philip,&quot; said John, extending his hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-bye, John,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;and do as I tell you. Don't get yourself
+killed unless it's absolutely necessary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Usually so stoical, his voice showed emotion, and he turned away after
+the strong pressure of the two hands. John and de Rougemont walked down
+the valley, where they joined General Vaugirard and the rest of his
+staff.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as John saw the general he knew what Lannes meant by his phrase
+&quot;a noticeable figure.&quot; General Vaugirard was a man of about sixty, so
+enormously fat that he must have weighed three hundred pounds. His face
+was covered with thick white beard, out of which looked small, sharp red
+eyes. He reminded John of a great white bear. The little red eyes bored
+him through for an instant, and then their owner said briefly:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;De Rougemont has vouched for you. Stay with him. An orderly has your
+horse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A French soldier held for him a horse bearing all the proper equipment,
+and John, saluting the general, sprang into the saddle. He was a good
+horseman, and now he felt thoroughly sure of himself. If it came to the
+worst, and he was unseated, the earth was not far away, but if he were
+thrown out of the <i>Arrow</i> he would have a long and terrible time in
+falling.</p>
+
+<p>General Vaugirard had not yet mounted, but stood beside a huge black
+horse, fit to carry such a weight. He was listening and looking with the
+deepest attention and his staff was silent around him. John saw from
+their manner that these men liked and respected their immense general.</p>
+
+<p>More trumpets sounded, much nearer now, and a messenger galloped up,
+handing a note to General Vaugirard, who glanced at it hastily, uttered
+a deep Ah! of relief and joy and thrust it into his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>Then saying to his staff, &quot;Gentlemen, we march at once,&quot; he put one hand
+on his horse's shoulder, and, to John's immense surprise, leaped as
+lightly into the saddle as if he had been a riding master. He settled
+himself easily into his seat, spoke a word to his staff, and then he
+rode with his regiments toward that great mass of men on the horizon who
+were steadily marching forward.</p>
+
+<p>John kept by the side of de Rougemont. There were brief introductions to
+some of the young officers nearest him, and he felt an air of
+friendliness about him. As de Rougemont told them he had already given
+ample proof of his devotion to the cause, and he was accepted promptly
+as one of them.</p>
+
+<p>John was now conscious how strongly he had projected himself into the
+life of the French. He was an American for generations back and his
+blood by descent was British. He had been among the Germans and he liked
+them personally, he had served already with the English, and their point
+of view was more nearly like the American than any other. But he was
+here with the French and he felt for them the deepest sympathy of all.
+He was conscious of a tie like that of blood brotherhood.</p>
+
+<p>He knew it was due to the old and yet unpaid help France had given to
+his own country, and above all to the conviction that France, minding
+her own business, had been set upon by a greater power, with intent to
+crush and destroy. France was attacked by a dragon, and the old similes
+of mythology floated through his mind, but, oftenest, that of Andromeda
+chained to the rock. And the figure that typified France always had the
+golden hair and dark blue eyes of slim, young Julie Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>They advanced several hours almost in silence, as far as talk was
+concerned, but two hundred thousand men marching made a deep and steady
+murmur. General Vaugirard kept well in front of his staff, riding,
+despite his immense bulk, like a Comanche, and occasionally putting his
+glasses to those fiery little red eyes. At length he turned and beckoned
+to John, who promptly drew up to his side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You speak good French?&quot; he said in his native tongue.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sir,&quot; replied John promptly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I understand that you came with the flying man, Lannes, who brought the
+message responsible for this march, and that it is not the only time
+you've done good service in our cause?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John bowed modestly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you see any German troops on the way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only a band of Uhlans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A mere scouting party. It occurred to me that you might have seen
+masses of troops belonging to the foe, indicating perhaps what is
+awaiting us at the end of our march.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know nothing, sir. The Uhlans were all the foes we saw from the air,
+save the man who shot Lannes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe you. You belong to the youngest of the great nations. Your
+people have not yet learned to say with the accents of truth the thing
+that is not. I am sixty years old, and yet I have the curiosity to know
+where I am going and what I am expected to do when I get there. Behold
+how I, an old man, speak so frankly to you, so young.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I saw your excellency leap into the saddle you did not seem to me
+to be more than twenty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John called him &quot;your excellency&quot; because he thought that in the absence
+of precise knowledge of what was fitting the term was as good as
+another.</p>
+
+<p>A smile twinkled in the eyes of General Vaugirard. Evidently he was
+pleased.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is flattery, flattery, young man,&quot; he said, &quot;but it pleases me.
+Since I've drawn from you all you know, which is but little, you may
+fall back with your comrades. But keep near; I fancy I shall have much
+for you to do before long. Meanwhile, we march on, in ignorance of what
+is awaiting us. Ah, well, such is life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to John a strange compound of age and youth, a mixture of the
+philosopher and the soldier. That he was a real leader John could no
+longer doubt. He saw the little red eyes watching everything, and he
+noticed that the regiments of Vaugirard had no superiors in trimness and
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p>They marched until sundown and stopped in some woods clear of
+undergrowth, like most of those in Europe. The camp kitchens went to
+work at once, and they received good food and coffee. As far as John
+could see men were at rest, but he could not tell whether the whole army
+was doing likewise. It spread out much further to both right and left
+than his eyes could reach.</p>
+
+<p>The members of the staff tethered their horses in the grove, and after
+supper stood together and talked, while the fat general paced back and
+forth, his brow wrinkled in deep thought.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good old Papa Vaugirard is studying how to make the best of us,&quot; said
+de Rougemont. &quot;We're all his children. They say that he knows nearly ten
+thousand men under his command by face if not by name, and we trust him
+as no other brigade commander in the army is trusted by his troops. He's
+thinking hard now, and General Vaugirard does not think for nothing. As
+soon as he arrives at what seems to him a solution of his problem he
+will begin to whistle. Then he will interrupt his whistling by saying:
+'Ah, well, such is life.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope he'll begin to whistle soon,&quot; said John, &quot;because his brow is
+wrinkling terribly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He watched the huge general with a sort of fascinated gaze. Seen now in
+the twilight, Vaugirard's very bulk was impressive. He was immense,
+strong, primeval. He walked back and forth over a line about thirty feet
+long, and the deep wrinkles remained on his brow. Every member of his
+staff was asking how long it would last.</p>
+
+<p>A sound, mellow and soft, but penetrating, suddenly arose. General
+Vaugirard was whistling, and John's heart gave a jump of joy. He did not
+in the least doubt de Rougemont's assertion that an answer to the
+problem had been found.</p>
+
+<p>General Vaugirard whistled to himself softly and happily. Then he said
+twice, and in very clear tones: &quot;Ah, well, such is life!&quot; He began to
+whistle again, stopped in a moment or two and called to de Rougemont,
+with whom he talked a while.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We're to march once more in a half-hour,&quot; said de Rougemont, when he
+returned to John and his comrades. &quot;It must be a great converging
+movement in which time is worth everything. At least, General Vaugirard
+thinks so, and he has a plan to get us into the very front of the
+action.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope so,&quot; said John. &quot;I'm not anxious to get killed, but I'd rather
+be in the battle than wait. I wonder if I'll meet anywhere on the front
+that company to which I belong, the Strangers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think I've heard of them,&quot; said de Rougemont, &quot;a body of Americans
+and Englishmen, volunteers in the French service, commanded by Captain
+Daniel Colton.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Right you are, and I've two particular friends in that company&mdash;I
+suppose they've rejoined it&mdash;Wharton, an American, and Carstairs, an
+Englishman. We went through a lot of dangers together before we reached
+the British army near Mons, and I'd like to see them again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe you will, but here comes an extraordinary procession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They heard many puffing sounds, uniting in one grand puffing chorus, and
+saw advancing down a white road toward them a long, ghostly train, as if
+a vast troop of extinct monsters had returned to earth and were marching
+this way. But John knew very well that it was a train of automobiles and
+raising the glasses that he now always carried he saw that they were
+empty except for the chauffeurs.</p>
+
+<p>General Vaugirard began to whistle his mellowest and most musical tune,
+stopping only at times to mutter a few words under his breath. John
+surmised that he was expressing deep satisfaction, and that he had been
+waiting for the motor train. War was now fought under new conditions.
+The Germans had thousands and scores of thousands of motors, and perhaps
+the French were provided almost as well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fancy,&quot; said de Rougemont, who was also watching the arrival of the
+machines, &quot;that we'll leave our horses now and travel by motor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>De Rougemont's supposition was correct. The line of automobiles began to
+mass in front, many rows deep, and all the chauffeurs, their great
+goggles shining through the darkness, were bent over their wheels ready
+to be off at once with their armed freight. It filled John with elation,
+and he saw the same spirit shining in the eyes of the young French
+officers.</p>
+
+<p>General Vaugirard began to puff like one of the machines. He threw out
+his great chest, pursed up his mouth and emitted his breath in little
+gusts between his lips, &quot;Very good! Very good, my children!&quot; he said,
+&quot;Oil and electricity will carry us now, and we go forward, not
+backward!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>True to de Rougemont's prediction, the horses were given to orderlies,
+and the staff and a great portion of the troops were taken into the
+cars. General Vaugirard and several of the older officers occupied a
+huge machine, and just behind him came de Rougemont, John and a
+half-dozen young lieutenants and captains in another. Before them
+stretched a great white road. Far overhead hovered many aeroplanes. John
+had no doubt that the <i>Arrow</i> was among them, or rather was the farthest
+one forward. Lannes' eager soul, wound or no wound, would keep him in
+front.</p>
+
+<p>They now moved rapidly, and John's spirits continued to rise. There was
+something wonderful in this swift march on wheels in the moonlight. As
+far back as he could see the machines came in a stream, and to the left
+and right he saw them proceeding on other roads also. All the country
+was strange to John. He could not remember having seen it from the
+aeroplane, and he was sure that the army, instead of going to Paris, was
+bound for some point where it would come in instant contact with the
+German forces.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know the road?&quot; he asked of de Rougemont.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all. I'm from the Gironde country. I've been in Paris, but I
+know little of the region about it. A good way to reach the front, is it
+not, Mr. Scott?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fine. I fancy that we're hurried forward to make a link in a chain, or
+at least to stop a gap.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And those large birds overhead are scouting for us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look! One of them is dropping down. I dare say it's making a report to
+some general higher in rank than ours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He pointed with a long forefinger, and John watched the aeroplane come
+down in its slanting course like a falling star. It was a beautiful
+night, a light blue sky, with a fine moon and hosts of clear stars. One
+could see far, and soon after the plane descended John saw it rise again
+from the same spot, ascend high in air, and shoot off toward the east.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That may have been Lannes,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Likely as not,&quot; said de Rougemont.</p>
+
+<p>John now observed General Vaugirard, who sat erect in the front of his
+automobile, with a pair of glasses, relatively as huge as himself, to
+his eyes. Occasionally he would purse his lips, and John knew that his
+favorite expression was coming forth. To the young American's
+imaginative mind his broad back expressed rigidity and strength.</p>
+
+<p>The great murmuring sound, the blended advance of so many men, made John
+sleepy by-and-by. In spite of himself his heavy eyelids drooped, and
+although he strove manfully against it, sleep took him. When he awoke he
+heard the same deep murmur, like the roll of the sea, and saw the army
+still advancing. It was yet night, though fine and clear, and there
+before him was the broad, powerful back of the general. Vaugirard was
+still using the glasses and John judged that he had not slept at all.
+But in his own machine everybody was asleep except the man at the wheel.</p>
+
+<p>The country had grown somewhat hillier, but its characteristics were the
+same, fertile, cultivated fields, a small wood here and there, clear
+brooks, and church spires shining in the dusk. Both horse and foot
+advanced across the fields, but the roads were occupied by the motors,
+which John judged were carrying at least twenty thousand men and maybe
+forty thousand.</p>
+
+<p>He was not sleepy now, and he watched the vast panorama wheel past. He
+knew without looking at his watch that the night was nearly over,
+because he could already smell the dawn. The wind was freshening a bit,
+and he heard its rustle in the leaves of a wood as they pushed through
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a hum and a whir, and a long line of men on motor cycles at
+the edge of the road crept up and then passed them. One checked his
+speed enough to run by the side of John's car, and the rider, raising
+his head a little, gazed intently at the young American. His cap closed
+over his face like a hood, but the man knew him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fortune puts us on the same road again, Mr. Scott,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't believe I know you,&quot; said John, although there was a familiar
+note in the voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet you've met me several times, and under exciting conditions. It
+seems to me that we're always pursuing similar things, or we wouldn't be
+together on the same road so often. You're acute enough. Don't you know
+me now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think I do. You're Fernand Weber, the Alsatian.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And so I am. I knew your memory would not fail you. It's a great
+movement that we've begun, Mr. Scott. France will be saved or destroyed
+within the next few days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've deserted your friend, Philip Lannes, the finest of our airmen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no, I haven't. He's deserted me. I couldn't afford to be a burden
+on his aeroplane at such a time as this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose not. I saw an aeroplane come down to earth a little while
+ago, and then rise again. I'm sure it was his machine, the <i>Arrow</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So am I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here's where he naturally would be. Good-bye, Mr. Scott, and good luck
+to you. I must go on with my company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-bye and good luck,&quot; repeated John, as the Alsatian shot forward.
+He liked Weber, who had a most pleasing manner, and he was glad to have
+seen him once more.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who was that?&quot; asked de Rougemont, waking from his sleep and catching
+the last words of farewell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An Alsatian, named Fernand Weber, who has risked his life more than
+once for France. He belongs to the motor-cycle corps that's just
+passing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May he and his comrades soon find the enemy, because here is the day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The leaves and grass rippled before the breeze and over the eastern
+hills the dawn broke.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" />CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE INVISIBLE HAND</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was a brilliant morning sun, deepening the green of the pleasant
+land, lighting up villages and glinting off church steeples. In a field
+a little distance to their right John saw two peasants at work already,
+bent over, their eyes upon the ground, apparently as indifferent to the
+troops as the troops were to them.</p>
+
+<p>It was very early, but the sun was rising fast, unfolding a splendid
+panorama. The French army with its blues and reds was more spectacular
+than the German, and hence afforded a more conspicuous target. John was
+sure that if the war went on the French would discard these vivid
+uniforms and betake themselves to gray or khaki. He saw clearly that the
+day of gorgeous raiment for the soldier had passed.</p>
+
+<p>The great puffing sound of primeval monsters which had blended into one
+rather harmonious note ceased, as if by signal, and the innumerable
+motors stopped. As far as John could see the army stretched to left and
+right over roads, hills and fields, but in the fields behind them the
+silent peasants went on with their work&mdash;in fields which the Republic
+had made their own.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think we take breakfast here,&quot; said Rougemont. &quot;War is what one of
+your famous American generals said it was, but for the present, at
+least, we are marching <i>de luxe</i>. Here comes one of those glorious
+camp-kitchens.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>An enormous motor vehicle, equipped with all the paraphernalia of a
+kitchen, stopped near them, and men, trim and neatly dressed, served hot
+food and steaming coffee. General Vaugirard had alighted also, and John
+noticed that his step was much more springy and alert than that of some
+officers half his age. His breath came in great gusts, and the small
+portion of his face not covered by thick beard was ruddy and glowing
+with health. He drank several cups of coffee with startling rapidity,
+draining each at a breath, and between times he whistled softly a
+pleasing little refrain.</p>
+
+<p>The march must be going well. Undoubtedly General Vaugirard had received
+satisfactory messages in the night, while his young American aide, and
+other Frenchmen as young, slept.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, my children,&quot; he said, rubbing his hands after his last cup of
+coffee had gone to its fate, &quot;the day dawns and behold the sun of France
+is rising. It's not the sun of Austerlitz, but a modest republican sun
+that can grow and grow. Behold we are at the appointed place, set forth
+in the message that came to us from the commander-in-chief through
+Paris, and then by way of the air! And, look, my children, the bird
+from the blue descends once more among us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There were flying machines of many kinds in the air, but John promptly
+picked out one which seemed to be coming with the flight of an eagle out
+of its uppermost heights. He seemed to know its slim, lithe shape, and
+the rapidity and decision of its approach. His heart thrilled, as it had
+thrilled when he saw the <i>Arrow</i> coming for the first time on that spur
+of the Alps near Salzburg.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's for me,&quot; said General Vaugirard, as he looked upward. &quot;This flying
+demon, this man without fear, was told to report directly to me, and he
+conies at the appointed hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Something of the mystery that belongs to the gulf of the infinite was
+reflected in the general's eyes. He, too, felt that man's flight in the
+heavens yet had in it a touch of the supernatural. Lannes' plane had
+seemed to shoot from white clouds, out of unknown spaces, and the
+general ceased to whistle or breathe gustily. His chest rose and fell
+more violently than usual, but the breath came softly.</p>
+
+<p>The plane descended rapidly and settled down on the grass very near
+them. Lannes saluted and presented a note to General Vaugirard, who
+started and then expelled the breath from his lungs in two or three
+prodigious puffs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good, my son, good!&quot; he exclaimed, patting Lannes repeatedly on the
+shoulder; &quot;and now a cup of coffee for you at once! Hurry with it, some
+of you idle children! Can't you see that he needs it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John was first with the coffee, which Lannes drank eagerly, although it
+was steaming hot. John saw that he needed it very much indeed, as he was
+white and shaky. He noticed, too, that there were spots of blood on
+Lannes' left sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it, Philip?&quot; he whispered. &quot;You've been attacked again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, truly. My movements seem to be observed by some mysterious eye. A
+shot was fired at me, and again it came from a French plane. That was
+all I could see. We were in a bank of mist at the time, and I just
+caught a glimpse of the plane itself. The man was a mere shapeless
+figure to me. I had no time to fight him, because I was due here with
+another message which made vengeance upon him at that time a matter of
+little moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He flecked the red drops off his sleeve, and added:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was but a scratch. My weary look comes from a long and hard flight
+and not from the mysterious bullet. I'm to rest here an hour, which will
+be sufficient to restore me, and then I'm off again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there any rule against your telling me what you've seen, Philip?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>De Rougemont and several other officers had approached, drawn by their
+curiosity, and interest in Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None at all,&quot; he replied in a tone all could hear, &quot;but I'm able to
+speak in general terms only. I can't give details, because I don't know
+'em. The Germans are not many miles ahead. They're in hundreds of
+thousands, and I hear that this is only one of a half-dozen armies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And our own force?&quot; said de Rougemont eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>Lannes' chest expanded. The dramatic impulse was strong upon him again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is another army on our right, and another on our left,&quot; he
+replied, &quot;and although I don't know surely, I think there are others
+still further on the line. The English are somewhere with us, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John felt his face tingle as the blood rose in it. He had left a Paris
+apparently lost. Within a day almost a tremendous transformation had
+occurred. A mighty but invisible intellect, to which he was yet scarcely
+able to attach a name, had been at work. The French armies, the beaten
+and the unbeaten, had become bound together like huge links in a chain,
+and the same invisible and all but nameless mind was drawing the chain
+forward with gigantic force.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A million Frenchmen must be advancing,&quot; he heard Lannes saying, and
+then he came out of his vision. General Vaugirard bustled up and gave
+orders to de Rougemont, who said presently to John:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you ride a motor cycle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've had some experience, and I'm willing to make it more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good. In this army, staff officers will no longer have horses shot
+under them. We're to take orders on motor cycles. They've been sent
+ahead for us, and here's yours waiting for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The cycles were leaning against trees, and the members of the staff took
+their places beside them. General Vaugirard walked a little distance up
+the road, climbed into an automobile and, standing up, looked a long
+time through his glasses. Lannes, who had been resting on the grass,
+approached the general and John saw him take a note from him. Then
+Lannes went away to the <i>Arrow</i> and sailed off into the heavens. Many
+other planes were flying over the French army and far off in front John
+saw through his own glasses a fleet of them which he knew must be
+German.</p>
+
+<p>Then he heard a sound, faint but deep, which came rolling like an echo,
+and he recognized it as the distant note of a big gun. He quivered a
+little, as he leaned against his motor cycle, but quickly stiffened
+again to attention. The faint rolling sound came again from their right
+and then many times. John, using his glasses, saw nothing there, and the
+giant general, still standing up in the car and also using his glasses,
+saw nothing there either.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the same quiver that affected John had gone through this whole army
+of two hundred thousand men, one of the huge links in the French chain.
+There was none among them who did not know that the far note was the
+herald of battle, not a mere battle of armies, but of nations face to
+face.</p>
+
+<p>General Vaugirard did not show any excitement. He leaped lightly from
+the car, and then began to pace up and down slowly, as if he were
+awaiting orders. The men moved restlessly on the meadows, looking like a
+vast sea of varied colors, as the sun glimmered on the red and blue of
+their uniforms.</p>
+
+<p>But no order came for them to advance. John thought that perhaps they
+were saved to be driven as a wedge into the German center and whispered
+his belief to de Rougemont, who agreed with him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are opening on the left, too,&quot; said the Frenchman. &quot;Can't you hear
+the growling of the guns there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John listened and soon he separated the note from other sounds. Beyond a
+doubt the battle had now begun on both flanks, though at distant points.
+He wondered where the English force was, though he had an idea that it
+was on the left then. Yet he was already thoroughly at home with the
+staff of General Vaugirard.</p>
+
+<p>The growling on either side of them seemed soon to come a little closer,
+but John knew nevertheless that it was many miles away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not an enemy in sight, not even a trace of smoke,&quot; said de Rougemont to
+him. &quot;We seem to be a great army here, merely resting in the fields, and
+yet we know that a huge battle is going on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that's about all we do know,&quot; said John. &quot;What has impressed me in
+this war is the fact that high officers even know so little. When cannon
+throw shells ten or twelve miles, eyesight doesn't get much chance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A wait for a full half-hour followed, a period of intense anxiety for
+all in the group, and for the whole army too. John used his glasses
+freely, and often he saw the French soldiers moving about in a restless
+manner, until they were checked by their officers. But most of them were
+lying down, their blue coats and red trousers making a vast and vivid
+blur against the green of the grass.</p>
+
+<p>All the while the sound of the cannon grew, but, despite the power of
+his glasses, John could not see a sign of war. Only that roaring sound
+came to tell him that battle, vast, gigantic, on a scale the world had
+never seen before, was joined, and the volume of the cannon fire, beyond
+a doubt, was growing. It pulsed heavily, and either he or his fancy
+noticed a steady jarring motion. A faint acrid taint crept into the air
+and he felt it in his nose and throat. He coughed now and then, and he
+observed that men around him coughed also. But, on the whole, the army
+was singularly still, the soldiers straining eye or ear to see something
+or hear more of the titanic struggle that was raging on either side of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>John again searched the horizon eagerly with his glasses, but it showed
+only green hills and bits of wood, bare of human activity. The French
+aeroplanes still hovered, but not in front of General Vaugirard. They
+were off to right and left, where the wings of the nations had closed in
+combat. He was ceasing to think of the foes as armies, but as nations in
+battle line. Here stood not a French army, but France, and there stood
+not a German army, but Germany.</p>
+
+<p>As he looked toward the left he picked out a narrow road, running
+between hedges, and showing but a strip of white even through the
+glasses. He saw something coming along this road. It was far away when
+he first noticed it, but it was coming with great speed, and he was soon
+able to tell that it was a man on a motor cycle. His pulse leaped
+again. He felt instinctively that the rider was for them and that he
+bore something of great import. The figure, man and cycle, molded into
+one, sped along the narrow road which led to the base of the hill on
+which General Vaugirard and his staff stood.</p>
+
+<p>The huge general saw the approaching figure too, and he began to whistle
+melodiously like the note of a piccolo, with the vast thunder of the
+guns accompanying him as an orchestra. John knew that the cyclist was a
+messenger, and that he was eagerly expected. An order of some kind was
+at hand! All the members of the staff had the same conviction.</p>
+
+<p>The cyclist stopped at the bottom of the hill, leaped from the machine
+and ran to General Vaugirard, to whom he handed a note. The general read
+it, expelled his breath in a mighty gust, and turning to his staff,
+said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My children, our time has come. The whole central army of which we are
+a part will advance. It will perhaps be known before night whether
+France is to remain a great nation or become the vassal of Germany. My
+children, if France ever had need for you to fight with all your hearts
+and souls, that need is here today.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His manner was simple and majestic, and his words touched the mind and
+feeling of every one who heard them. John was moved as much as if he had
+been a Frenchman too. He felt a profound sympathy for this devoted
+France, which had suffered so much, to which his own country still owed
+that great debt, and which had a right to her own soil, fertilized with
+so many centuries of labor.</p>
+
+<p>General Vaugirard, resting a pad on his knee, wrote rapid notes which he
+gave to the members of his staff in turn to be delivered. John's was to
+a Parisian regiment lying in a field, and expanding body and mind into
+instant action, he leaped upon the cycle and sped away. It was often
+hard for him now to separate fact from fancy. His imagination, vivid at
+all times, painted new pictures while such a tremendous drama passed
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he knew afterward that the sound of the battle did increase in
+volume as he flew over the short distance to the regiment. Both east and
+west were shaking with the tremendous concussion. One crash he heard
+distinctly above the others and he believed it was that of a forty-two
+centimeter.</p>
+
+<p>He reached the field, his cycle spun between the eager soldiers, and as
+he leaped off in the presence of the colonel he fairly thrust the note
+into his hand, exclaiming at the same time in his zeal, &quot;It's an order
+to advance! The whole Army of the Center is about to attack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He called it the Army of the Center at a guess, but names did not matter
+now. The colonel glanced at the note, waved his sword above his head and
+cried in a loud voice:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lads, up and forward!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The regiment arose with a roar of cheering and began to advance across
+the fields. John caught a glimpse of a petty officer, short and small,
+but as compact and fierce as a panther, driving on men who needed no
+driving. &quot;Geronimo is going to make good,&quot; he said to himself. &quot;He'll do
+or die today.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he raced back for new orders, if need be, he knew now that fact not
+fancy told him the battle was growing. The earth shook not only on right
+and left but in front also. A hasty look through the glasses showed
+little tongues of fire licking up on the horizon before them and he knew
+that they came from the monster cannon of the Germans who were surely
+advancing, while the French were advancing also to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>General Vaugirard sprang into his automobile, taking only two of his
+senior officers with him, while the rest followed on their motor cycles.
+As far as John could see on either side the vast rows of French swept
+across hills and fields. There was little shouting now and no sound of
+bands, but presently a shout arose behind them: &quot;Way for the artillery!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then he heard cries, the rumble of wheels and the rapid beat of hoofs.
+With an instinctive shudder, lest he be ground to pieces, he pulled from
+the road, and saw the motor of General Vaugirard turn out also. Then the
+great French batteries thundered past to seek positions soon in the
+fields behind low hills. He saw them a little later unlimbering and
+making ready.</p>
+
+<p>The French advance changed from a walk to a trot. John saw the Parisian
+regiment, not far away, but at the very front and he knew that among all
+those ardent souls there was none more ardent than that of the little
+Apache, Bougainville. Meanwhile, Vaugirard in his motor kept to the
+road and the staff on their motor cycles followed closely.</p>
+
+<p>On both flanks the thunder of massed cannon was deepening, and now John,
+who used his glasses occasionally, was able to see wisps and tendrils of
+smoke on the eastern and northern horizons. The tremor in the air was
+strong and continuous. It played incessantly upon the drums of his ears,
+and he found that he could not hear the words of the other aides so well
+as before. But there was no succession of crashes. The sound was more
+like the roaring of a distant storm.</p>
+
+<p>They advanced another mile, two hundred thousand men, afire with zeal, a
+whole vast army moved forward as the other French armies were by the
+hidden hand which they could not see, of which they knew nothing, but
+the touch of which they could feel.</p>
+
+<p>John heard a whizzing sound, he caught a glimpse of a dark object,
+rushing forward at frightful velocity, and then he and his wheel reeled
+beneath the force of a tremendous explosion. The shell coming from an
+invisible point, miles away, had burst some distance on his right,
+scattering death and wounds over a wide radius. But Vaugirard's brigades
+did not stop for one instant. They cheered loudly, closed up the gap in
+their line, and went on steadily as before. Some one began to sing the
+Marseillaise, and in an instant the song, like fire in dry grass, spread
+along a vast front. John had often wished that he could have heard the
+armies of the French Revolution singing their tremendous battle hymn as
+they marched to victory, and now he heard it on a scale far more
+gigantic than in the days of the First French Republic.</p>
+
+<p>The vast chorus rolled for miles and for all he knew other armies, far
+to right and left, might be singing it, too. The immense volume of the
+song drowned out everything, even that tremor in the air, caused by the
+big guns. John's heart beat so hard that it caused actual physical pain
+in his side, and presently, although he was unconscious of it, he was
+thundering out the verses with the others.</p>
+
+<p>He was riding by the side of de Rougemont, and he stopped singing long
+enough to shout, at the top of his voice:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No enemy in sight yet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; de Rougemont shouted back, &quot;but he doesn't need to be. The German
+guns have our range.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>From a line on the distant horizon, from positions behind hills, the
+German shells were falling fast, cutting down men by hundreds, tearing
+great holes in the earth, and filling the air with an awful shrieking
+and hissing. It was all the more terrible because the deadly missiles
+seemed to come from nowhere. It was like a mortal hail rained out of
+heaven. John had not yet seen a German, nothing but those tongues of
+fire licking up on the horizon, and some little whitish clouds of smoke,
+lifting themselves slowly above the trees, yet the thunder was no longer
+a rumble. It had a deep and angry note, whose burden was death.</p>
+
+<p>They must maintain their steady march directly toward the mouths of
+those guns. John comprehended in those awful moments that the task of
+the French was terrible, almost superhuman. If their nation was to live
+they must hurl back a victorious foe, practically numberless, armed and
+equipped with everything that a great race in a half-century of supreme
+thought and effort could prepare for war. It was spirit and patriotism
+against the monstrous machine of fire and steel, and he trembled lest
+the machine could overcome anything in the world.</p>
+
+<p>He was about to shout again to de Rougemont, but his words were lost in
+the rending crash of the French artillery. Their batteries were posted
+on both sides of him, and they, too, had found the range. All along the
+front hundreds of guns were opening and John hastily thrust portions
+that he tore from his handkerchief into his ear, lest he be deafened
+forever.</p>
+
+<p>The sight, at first magnificent, now became appalling. The shells came
+in showers and the French ranks were torn and mangled. Companies existed
+and then they were not. The explosions were like the crash of
+thunderbolts, but through it all the French continued to advance. Those
+whose knees grew weak beneath them were upborne and carried forward by
+the press of their comrades. The French gunners, too, were making
+prodigious efforts but with cannon of such long range neither side could
+see what its batteries were accomplishing. John was sure, though, that
+the great French artillery must be giving as good as it received.</p>
+
+<p>He was conscious that General Vaugirard was still going forward along
+the long white road, sweeping his glasses from left to right and from
+right to left in a continuous semi-circle, apparently undisturbed,
+apparently now without human emotion. He was no figure of romance, but
+he was a man, cool and powerful, ready to die with all his men, if death
+for them was needed.</p>
+
+<p>Still the invisible hand swept them on, the hand that a million men in
+action could not see, but which every one of the million, in his own
+way, felt. The crash of the guns on both sides had become fused together
+into one roar, so steady and continued so long that the sound seemed
+almost normal. Voices could now be heard under it and John spoke to de
+Rougemont.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you make anything of it?&quot; he asked. &quot;Do we win or do we lose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's too early yet to tell anything. The cannon only are speaking, but
+you'll note that our army is advancing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, I see it. Before I've only beheld it in retreat before
+overwhelming numbers. This is different.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>General Vaugirard beckoned to his aides, and again sent them out with
+messages. John's note was to the commander of a battery of field guns
+telling him to move further forward. He started at once through the
+fields on his motor cycle, but he could not go fast now. The ground had
+been cut deep by artillery and cavalry and torn by shells and he had to
+pick his way, while the shower of steel, sent by men who were firing by
+mathematics, swept over and about him.</p>
+
+<p>Shivers seized him more than once, as shrapnel and pieces of shell flew
+by. Now and then he covered his eyes with one hand to shut out the
+horror of dead and torn men lying on either side of his path, but in
+spite of the shells, in spite of the deadly nausea that assailed him at
+times, he went on. The rush of air from a shell threw him once from his
+motor cycle, but as he fell on soft clodded earth he was not hurt, and,
+springing quickly back on his wheel, he reached the battery.</p>
+
+<p>The order was welcome to the commander of the guns, who was anxious to
+go closer, and, limbering up, he advanced as rapidly as weapons of such
+great weight could be dragged across the fields. John followed, that he
+might report the result. They were now facing toward the east and the
+whole horizon there was a blaze of fire. The shells were coming thicker
+and thicker, and the air was filled with the screaming of the shrapnel.</p>
+
+<p>The commander of the battery, a short, powerful Frenchman, was as cool
+as ice, and John drew coolness from him. One can get used to almost
+anything, and his nervous tremors were passing. Despite the terrible
+fire of the German artillery the French army was still advancing. Many
+thousands had fallen already before the shells and shrapnel of the
+invisible foe, but there had been no check.</p>
+
+<p>The cannon crossed a brook, and, unlimbering, again opened a tremendous
+fire. To one side and on a hill here, a man whom the commander watched
+closely was signaling. John knew that he was directing the aim of the
+battery and the French, like the Germans, were killing by mathematics.</p>
+
+<p>He rode his cycle to the crest of a little elevation behind the battery
+and with his newfound coolness began to use his glasses again. Despite
+the thin, whitish smoke, he saw men on the horizon, mere manikins moving
+back and forth, apparently without meaning, but men nevertheless. He
+caught, too, the outline of giant tubes, the huge guns that were sending
+the ceaseless rain of death upon the French.</p>
+
+<p>He also saw signs of hurry and confusion among those manikins, and he
+knew that the French shells were striking them. He rode down to the
+commander and told him. The swart Frenchman grinned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My children are biting,&quot; he said, glancing affectionately at his guns.
+&quot;They're brave lads, and their teeth are long and sharp.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked at his signal man, and the guns let loose again with a force
+that sent the air rushing away in violent waves. Batteries farther on
+were firing also with great rapidity. In most of these the gunners were
+directed by field telephones strung hastily, but the one near John still
+depended upon signal men. It was composed of eight five-inch guns, and
+John believed that its fire was most accurate and deadly.</p>
+
+<p>Using his glasses again, he saw that the disturbance among those
+manikins was increasing. They were running here and there, and many
+seemed to vanish suddenly&mdash;he knew that they were blown away by the
+shells. To the right of the great French battery some lighter field guns
+were advancing. One drawn by eight horses had not yet unlimbered, and he
+saw a shell strike squarely upon it. In the following explosion pieces
+of steel whizzed by him and when the smoke cleared away the gun, the
+gunners and the horses were all gone. The monster shell had blown
+everything to pieces. The other guns hurried on, took up their positions
+and began to fire. John shuddered violently, but in a moment or two, he,
+too, forgot the little tragedy in the far more gigantic one that was
+being played before him.</p>
+
+<p>He rode back to General Vaugirard and told him that his order had been
+obeyed. The general nodded, but did not take his glasses from the
+horizon, where a long gray line was beginning to appear against the
+green of the earth. &quot;It goes well so far,&quot; John heard him say in the
+under note which was audible beneath the thunder of the battle.</p>
+
+<p>In a quarter of an hour the great batteries limbered up again, and once
+more the French army went forward, the troops to lie down and wait
+again, while the artillery worked with ferocious energy. It was yet a
+battle of big guns, at least in the center. The armies were not near
+enough to each other for rifles; in truth not near enough yet to be
+seen. John, even with his glasses, could only discern the gray line
+advancing, he could make little of its form or order or of what it was
+trying to do.</p>
+
+<p>But a light wind was now bringing smoke from one flank where the battle
+was far heavier than in the center, and the concussion of the artillery
+at that point became so frightful that the air seemed to come in waves
+of the utmost violence and to beat upon the drum of the ear with the
+force of a hammer. Owing to the wind John could not hear the battle on
+the other flank so well, but he believed that it was being fought there
+with equal fury and determination.</p>
+
+<p>He was watching with such intentness that he did not hear the sweep of
+an aeroplane behind him, but he did see Lannes run to General
+Vaugirard's car and give him a note.</p>
+
+<p>While the general read and pondered, Lannes turned toward the wheel on
+which John sat. Although he tried to preserve calm, John knew that he
+was tremendously excited. He had taken off his heavy glasses and his
+wonderful gray eyes were flashing. It was obvious to his friend, who now
+knew him so well, that he was moved by some tremendous emotion.</p>
+
+<p>John rode up by the side of Lannes and said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What have you seen, Philip? You can tell a little at least, can't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More than a little! A lot! The <i>Arrow</i> and I have looked over a great
+area, John! Miles and miles and yet more miles! and wherever we went we
+gazed down upon armies locked in battle, and beyond that were other
+armies locked in battle, too! The nations meet in wrath! You can't see
+it here, nor from anywhere on the earth! It's only in the air high
+overhead that one can get even a partial view of its immensity! The
+English army is off there on the flank, a full thirty miles away, and
+you're not likely to see it today!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He would have said more, but General Vaugirard beckoned to him, gave him
+a note which he had written hastily, and in a few more minutes Lannes
+was flitting like a swallow through the heavens. Then General
+Vaugirard's car moved forward and brigade after brigade of the French
+army resumed its advance also.</p>
+
+<p>John felt that the great German machine had been met by a French machine
+as great. Perhaps the master mind that thrills through an organism of
+steel no less than one of human flesh was on the French side. He did not
+know. The invisible hand thrusting forward the French armies was still
+invisible to him. Yet he felt with the certainty of conviction that the
+eye and the brain of one man were achieving a marvel. In some mysterious
+manner the French defense had become an offense. The Republican troops
+were now attacking and the Imperial troops were seeking to hold fast.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to comprehend it all in an instant, and a mighty joy surged
+over him. De Rougemont saw his glistening eye and he asked curiously:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it that you are feeling so strongly, Mr. Scott?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The thrill of the advance! The unknown plan, whatever it is, is
+working! Your nation is about to be saved! I feel it! I know it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>De Rougemont gazed at him, and then the light leaped into his own eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A prophet! A prophet!&quot; he cried. &quot;Inspired youth speaks!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A great crisis may call into being a great impulse, and de Rougemont's
+words were at once accepted as truth by all the young aides. Words of
+fire, words vital with life had gone forth, predicting their triumph,
+and as they rode among the troops carrying orders they communicated
+their burning zeal to the men who were already eager for closer battle.</p>
+
+<p>The storm of missiles from the cannon was increasing rapidly. John now
+distinctly saw the huge German masses, not advancing but standing firm
+to receive the French attack, their front a vast line of belching guns.
+He knew that they would soon be within the area of rifle fire and he
+knew with equal truth that it would take the valor of immense numbers,
+wielded by the supreme skill of leaders to drive back the Germans.</p>
+
+<p>The guns, some drawn by horses and others by motors, were moving forward
+with them. When the horses were swept away by a shell, men seized the
+guns and dragged them. Then they stopped again, took new positions and
+renewed the rain of death on the German army.</p>
+
+<p>They began to hear a whistle and hiss that they knew. It was that of the
+bullets, and along the vast front they were coming in millions. But the
+French were using their rifles, too, and at intervals the deep
+thundering chant of the Marseillaise swept through their ranks. In spite
+of shell, shrapnel and bullets, in spite of everything, the French army
+in the center was advancing and John believed that the armies on the
+other parts of the line were advancing, too.</p>
+
+<p>The bullets struck around them, and then among them. One aide fell from
+his cycle, and lay dead in the road, two more were wounded, but two
+hundred thousand men, their artillery blazing death over their heads,
+went on straight at the mouths of a thousand cannon.</p>
+
+<p>Companies and regiments were swept away, but there was no check. Nor did
+the other French armies, the huge links in the chain, stop. A feeling of
+victory had swept along the whole gigantic battle front. They were
+fighting for Paris, for their country, for the soil which they tended,
+alive, and in which they slept, dead, and just at the moment when
+everything seemed to have been lost they were saving all. The heroic age
+of France had come again, and the Third Republic was justifying the
+First.</p>
+
+<p>The battle deepened and thickened to an extraordinary degree, as the
+space between the two fronts narrowed. John for the first time saw the
+German troops without the aid of glasses. They were mere outlines
+against a fiery horizon, reddened by the mouths of so many belching
+cannon, but they seemed to him to stand there like a wall.</p>
+
+<p>Another giant shell burst near them, and two more members of the staff
+fell from their cycles, dead before they touched the ground. That
+convulsive shudder seized John again, but the crash of tremendous events
+was so rapid that fear and horror alike passed in an instant. A piece of
+the same shell struck General Vaugirard's car and put it out of action
+at once. But the general leaped lightly to the ground, then swung his
+immense bulk across one of the riderless motor cycles and advanced with
+the surviving members of his staff. Imperturbable, he still swept the
+field with his glasses. Two aides were now sent to the right with
+messages, and a third, John himself, was despatched to the left on a
+similar errand.</p>
+
+<p>It was John's duty to tell a regiment to bear in further to the left and
+close up a vacant spot in the line. He wheeled his cycle into a field,
+and then passed between rows of grapevines. The regiment, its ranks much
+thinned, was now about a hundred yards away, but shell and bullets alike
+were sweeping the distance between.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, he rode on, his wheel bumping over the rough ground, until
+he heard a rushing sound, and then blank darkness enveloped him. He fell
+one way, and the motor cycle fell another.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" />CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>SEEN FROM ABOVE</h3>
+
+
+<p>John's period of unconsciousness was brief. The sweep of air from a
+gigantic shell, passing close, had taken his senses for a minute or two,
+but he leaped to his feet to find his motor cycle broken and puffing out
+its last breath, and himself among the dead and wounded in the wake of
+the army which was advancing rapidly. The turmoil was so vast, and so
+much dust and burned gunpowder was floating about that he was not able
+to tell where the valiant Vaugirard with the remainder of his staff
+marched. In front of him a regiment, cut up terribly, was advancing at a
+swift pace, and acting under the impulse of the moment he ran forward to
+join them.</p>
+
+<p>When he overtook the regiment he saw that it had neither colonel, nor
+captains nor any other officers of high degree. A little man, scarcely
+more than a youth, his head bare, his eyes snapping fire, one hand
+holding aloft a red cap on the point of a sword, had taken command and
+was urging the soldiers on with every fierce shout that he knew. The
+men were responding. Command seemed natural to him. Here was a born
+leader in battle. John knew him, and he knew that his own prophecy had
+been fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Geronimo!&quot; he gasped.</p>
+
+<p>But young Bougainville did not see him. He was still shouting to the men
+whom he now led so well. The point of the sword, doubtless taken from
+the hand of some fallen officer, had pierced the red cap which was
+slowly sinking down the blade, but he did not notice it.</p>
+
+<p>John looked again for his commander, but not seeing him, and knowing how
+futile it was now to seek him in all the fiery crush, he resolved to
+stay with the young Apache.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Geronimo,&quot; he cried, and it was the last time he called him by that
+name, &quot;I go with you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In all the excitement of the moment young Bougainville recognized him
+and something droll flashed in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did I boast too much?&quot; he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You didn't!&quot; John shouted back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come on then! A big crowd of Germans is just over this hill, and we
+must smash 'em!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John kept by his side, but Bougainville, still waving his sword, while
+the red cap sank lower and lower on the blade, addressed his men in
+terms of encouragement and affection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Forward, my children!&quot; he shouted. &quot;Men, without fear, let us be the
+first to make the enemy feel our bayonets! Look, a regiment on the right
+is ahead of you, and another also on the left leads you! Faster!
+Faster, my children!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>An angle of the German line was thrust forward at this point where a
+hill afforded a strong position. Bullets were coming from it in showers,
+but the Bougainville regiment broke into a run, passed ahead of the
+others and rushed straight at the hill.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time that men had come face to face in the battle and
+now John saw the French fury, the enthusiasm and fire that Napoleon had
+capitalized and cultivated so sedulously. Shouting fiercely, they flung
+themselves upon the Germans and by sheer impact drove them back. They
+cleared the hill in a few moments, triumphantly seized four cannon and
+then, still shouting, swept on.</p>
+
+<p>John found himself shouting with the others. This was victory, the first
+real taste of it, and it was sweet to the lips. But the regiment was
+halted presently, lest it get too far forward and be cut off, and a
+general striding over to Bougainville uttered words of approval that
+John could not hear amid the terrific din of so many men in battle&mdash;a
+million, a million and a half or more, he never knew.</p>
+
+<p>They stood there panting, while the French line along a front of maybe
+fifty miles crept on and on. The French machine with the British wheels
+and springs co&ouml;perating, was working beautifully now. It was a match and
+more for their enemy. The Germans, witnessing the fire and dash of the
+French and feeling their tremendous impact, began to take alarm. It had
+not seemed possible to them in those last triumphant days that they
+could fail, but now Paris was receding farther and farther from their
+grasp.</p>
+
+<p>John recovered a certain degree of coolness. The fire of the foe was
+turned away from them for the present, and, finding that the glasses
+thrown over his shoulder, had not been injured by his fall, he examined
+the battle front as he stood by the side of Bougainville. The country
+was fairly open here and along a range of miles the cannon in hundreds
+and hundreds were pouring forth destruction. Yet the line, save where
+the angle had been crushed by the rush of Bougainville's regiment, stood
+fast, and John shuddered at thought of the frightful slaughter, needed
+to drive it back, if it could be driven back at all.</p>
+
+<p>Then he glanced at the fields across which they had come. For two or
+three miles they were sprinkled with the fallen, the red and blue of the
+French uniform showing vividly against the green grass. But there was
+little time for looking that way and again he turned his glasses in
+front. The regiment had taken cover behind a low ridge, and six rapid
+firers were sending a fierce hail on the German lines. But the men under
+orders from Bougainville, withheld the fire of their rifles for the
+present.</p>
+
+<p>Bougainville himself stood up as became a leader of men, and lowered his
+sword for the first time. The cap had sunk all the way down the blade
+and picking it off he put it back on his head. He had obtained glasses
+also, probably from some fallen officer, and he walked back and forth
+seeking a weak spot in the enemy's line, into which he could charge with
+his men.</p>
+
+<p>John admired him. His was no frenzied rage, but a courage, measured and
+stern. The springs of power hidden in him had been touched and he stood
+forth, a born leader.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How does it happen,&quot; said John, &quot;that you're in command?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our officers were all in front,&quot; replied Bougainville, &quot;when our
+regiment was swept by many shells. When they ceased bursting upon us and
+among us the officers were no longer there. The regiment was about to
+break. I could not bear to see that, and seizing the sword, I hoisted my
+cap upon it. The rest, perhaps, you saw. The men seem to trust me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They do,&quot; said John, with emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>Bougainville, for the time at least, was certainly the leader of the
+regiment. It was an incident that John believed possible only in his own
+country, or France, and he remembered once more the famous old saying of
+Napoleon that every French peasant carried a marshal's baton in his
+knapsack.</p>
+
+<p>Now he recalled, too, that Napoleon had fought some of his greatest
+defensive battles in the region they faced. Doubtless the mighty emperor
+and his marshals had trod the very soil on which Bougainville and he now
+stood. Surely the French must know it, and surely it would give them
+superhuman courage for battle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I belong to the command of General Vaugirard,&quot; he said to Bougainville.
+&quot;I'm serving on his staff, but I was knocked off my motor cycle by the
+rush of air from a shell. The cycle was ruined and I was unconscious
+for a moment or two. When I revived, my general and his command were
+gone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'd better stay with me a while,&quot; said Bougainville. &quot;We're going to
+advance again soon. When night comes, if you're still alive, then you
+can look for General Vaugirard. The fire of the artillery is increasing.
+How the earth shakes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So it does. I wish I knew what was happening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There comes one of those men in the air. He is going to drop down by
+us. Maybe you can learn something from him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John felt a sudden wild hope that it was Lannes, but his luck did not
+hold good enough for it. The plane was of another shape than the
+<i>Arrow</i>, and, when it descended to the ground, a man older than Lannes
+stepped out upon the grass. He glanced around as if he were looking for
+some general of division for whom he had an order, and John, unable to
+restrain himself, rushed to him and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;News! News! For Heaven's sake, give us news! Surely you've seen from
+above!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The man smiled and John knew that a bearer of bad news would not smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm the friend and comrade of Philip Lannes,&quot; continued John, feeling
+that all the flying men of France knew the name of Lannes, and that it
+would be a password to this man's good graces.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know him well,&quot; said the air scout. &quot;Who of our craft does not? My
+own name is Caumartin, and I have flown with Lannes more than once in
+the great meets at Rheims. In answer to your question I'm able to tell
+you that on the wings the soldiers of France are advancing. A wedge has
+been thrust between the German armies and the one nearest Paris is
+retreating, lest it be cut off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bougainville heard the words, and he ran among the men, telling them. A
+fierce shout arose and John himself quivered with feeling. It was
+better, far better than he had hoped. He realized now that his courage
+before had been the courage of despair. Lannes and he, as a last resort,
+had put faith in signs and omens, because there was nothing else to bear
+them up.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it true? Is it true beyond doubt! You've really seen it with your
+own eyes?&quot; he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>Caumartin smiled again. His were deep eyes, and the smile that came from
+them was reassuring.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw it myself,&quot; he replied. &quot;At the point nearest Paris the gray
+masses are withdrawing. I looked directly down upon them. And now, can
+you tell me where I can find General Vaugirard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish I could. I'm on his staff, but I've lost him. He's somewhere to
+the northward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I'll find him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Caumartin resumed his place in his machine. John looked longingly at the
+aeroplane. He would gladly have gone with Caumartin, but feeling that he
+would be only a burden at such a time, he would not suggest it.
+Nevertheless he called to the aviator:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you see Philip Lannes in the heavens tell him that his friend John
+Scott is here behind a low ridge crested with trees!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Caumartin nodded, and as some of the soldiers gave his plane a push he
+soared swiftly away in search of General Vaugirard. John watched him a
+moment or two and then turned his attention back to the German army in
+front of them.</p>
+
+<p>The thudding of the heavy guns to their left had become so violent that
+it affected his nerves. The waves of air beat upon his ears like
+storm-driven rollers, and he was glad when Bougainville's regiment moved
+forward again. The Germans seemed to have withdrawn some of their force
+in the center, and, for a little while, the regiment with which John now
+marched was not under fire.</p>
+
+<p>They heard reserves now coming up behind them, more trains of motor
+cars, bearing fresh troops, and batteries of field guns advancing as
+fast as they could. Men were busy also stringing telephone wires, and,
+presently, they passed a battery of guns of the largest caliber, the
+fire of which was directed entirely by telephone. Some distance beyond
+it the regiment stopped again. The huge shells were passing over their
+heads toward the German lines, and John believed that he could hear and
+count every one of them.</p>
+
+<p>The remains of the regiment now lay down in a dip, as they did not know
+anything to do, except to wait for the remainder of the French line to
+advance.</p>
+
+<p>Something struck near them presently and exploded with a crash. Steel
+splinters flew, but as they were prone only one man was injured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're reaching us again with their shell fire,&quot; said John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all,&quot; said Bougainville. &quot;Look up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John saw high in the heavens several black specks, which he knew at
+once were aeroplanes. Since the bomb had been dropped from one of them
+it was obvious that they were German flyers, and missiles of a like
+nature might be expected from the same source. Involuntarily he crouched
+close to the ground, and tried to press himself into it. He knew that
+such an effort would afford him no protection, but the body sought it
+nevertheless. All around him the young French soldiers too were clinging
+to Mother Earth. Only Bougainville stood erect.</p>
+
+<p>John had felt less apprehension under the artillery fire and in the
+charge than he did now. He was helpless here when death fell like hail
+from the skies, and he quivered in every muscle as he waited. A crash
+came again, but the bomb had struck farther away, then a third, and a
+fourth, each farther and farther in its turn, and Bougainville suddenly
+uttered a shout that was full of vengeance and exultation.</p>
+
+<p>John looked up. The group of black specks was still in the sky, but
+another group was hovering near, and clapping his glasses to his eyes he
+saw flashes of light passing between them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're right, Bougainville! you're right!&quot; he cried, although
+Bougainville had not said a word. &quot;The French flyers have come and
+there's a fight in the air!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He forgot all about the battle on earth, while he watched the combat in
+the heavens. Yet it was an affair of only a few moments. The Germans
+evidently feeling that they were too far away from their base, soon
+retreated. One of their machines turned over on its side and fell like a
+shot through space.</p>
+
+<p>John shuddered, took the glasses down, and, by impulse, closed his eyes.
+He heard a shock near him, and, opening his eyes again, saw a huddled
+mass of wreckage, from which a foot encased in a broad German shoe
+protruded. The ribs of the plane were driven deep into the earth and he
+looked away. But a hum and swish suddenly came once more, and a sleek
+and graceful aeroplane, which he knew to be the <i>Arrow</i>, sank to the
+earth close to him. Lannes, smiling and triumphant, stepped forth and
+John hailed him eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I met Caumartin in an aerial road,&quot; said Lannes, in his best dramatic
+manner, &quot;and he described this place, at which you were waiting. As it
+was directly on my way I concluded to come by for you. I was delayed by
+a skirmish overhead which you may have seen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, I saw it, or at least part of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came in at the end only. The Taubes were too presuming. They came
+over into our air, but we repelled the attack, and one, as I can see
+here, will never come again. I found General Vaugirard, although he is
+now two or three miles to your right, and when I deliver a message that
+he has given me I return. But I take you with me now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John was overjoyed, but he would part from Bougainville with regret.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Philip,&quot; he said, &quot;here is Pierre Louis Bougainville, whom I met that
+day on Montmartre. All the officers of this regiment have been killed
+and by grace of courage and intuition he now leads it better than it was
+ever led before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes extended his hand. Bougainville's met it, and the two closed in
+the clasp of those who knew, each, that the other was a man. Then a drum
+began to beat, and Bougainville, waving his sword aloft, led his
+regiment forward again with a rush. But the <i>Arrow</i>, with a hard push
+from the last of the soldiers, was already rising, Lannes at the
+steering rudder and John in his old place.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can find your cap and coat in the locker,&quot; said Lannes without
+looking back, and John put them on quickly. His joy and eagerness were
+not due to flight from the field of battle, because the heavens
+themselves were not safe, but because he could look down upon this field
+on which the nations struggled and, to some extent, behold and measure
+it with his own eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> rose slowly, and John leaned back luxuriously in his seat.
+He had a singular feeling that he had come back home again. The sharp,
+acrid odor that assailed eye and nostril departed and the atmosphere
+grew rapidly purer. The rolling waves of air from the concussion of the
+guns became much less violent, and soon ceased entirely. All the smoke
+floated below him, while above the heavens were a shining blue,
+unsullied by the dust and flame of the conflict.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you go far, Philip?&quot; John asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Forty miles. I could cover the distance quickly in the <i>Arrow</i>, but on
+such a day as this I can't be sure of finding at once the man for whom
+I'm looking. Besides, we may meet German planes. You've your automatic
+with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm never without it. I'm ready to help if they come at us. I've been
+through so much today that I've become blunted to fear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think we'll meet an enemy, but we must be armed and watchful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John had not yet looked down, but he knew that the <i>Arrow</i> was rising
+high. The thunder of the battle died so fast that it became a mere
+murmur, and the air was thin, pure and cold. When he felt that the
+<i>Arrow</i> had reached its zenith he put the glasses to his eyes and looked
+over.</p>
+
+<p>He saw a world spouting fire. Along a tremendous line curved and broken,
+thousands of cannon great and small were flashing, and for miles and
+miles a continuous coil of whitish smoke marked where the riflemen were
+at work. Near the center of the line he saw a vast mass of men advancing
+and he spoke of it to Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've seen it already,&quot; said the Frenchman. &quot;That's where a great force
+of ours is cutting in between the German armies. It's the movement that
+has saved France, and the mind that planned it was worth a million men
+to us today.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can well believe it. Now I see running between the hills a shining
+ribbon which I take to be a river.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's the Marne. If we can, we'll drive the Germans back across it.
+Search the skies that way and see if you can find any of the Taubes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see some black specks which I take to be the German planes, but they
+don't grow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which indicates that they're not coming any nearer. They've had enough
+of us for the present and it's to their interest too to keep over their
+own army now. What do you see beneath us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A great multitude of troops, French, as I can discern the uniform, and
+by Jove, Lannes, I can trace far beyond the towers and spires of Paris!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew you could. It marks how near the Germans have come to the
+capital, but they'll come no nearer. The great days of the French have
+returned, and we'll surely drive them upon the Marne.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Suppose we fly a little lower, Lannes. Then we can get a better view of
+the field as we go along.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll do as you say, John. I rose so high, because I thought attack here
+was less possible, but as no enemy is in sight we'll drop down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> sank gradually, and now both could get a splendid view of a
+spectacle, such as no man had ever beheld until that day. The sounds of
+battle were still unheard, but they clearly saw the fire of the cannon,
+the rapid-firers, and the rifles. It was like a red streak running in
+curves and zigzags across fifty or maybe a hundred miles of country.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We continue to cut in,&quot; said Lannes. &quot;You can see how our armies off
+there are marching into that great open space between the Germans.
+Unless the extreme German army hastens it will be separated entirely
+from the rest. Oh, what a day! What a glorious, magnificent day! A day
+unlike any other in the world's story! Our heads in the dust in the
+morning and high in the air by night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But we haven't won yet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, but we are winning enough to know that we will win.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How many men do you think are engaged in that battle below?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Along all its windings two millions, maybe, or at least a million and a
+half anyhow. Perhaps nobody will ever know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then they relapsed into silence for a little while. The <i>Arrow</i> flew
+fast and the motor drummed steadily in their ears. Lannes let the
+aeroplane sink a little lower, and John became conscious of a new sound,
+akin nevertheless to the throb of the motor. It was the concussion of
+the battle. The topmost and weakest waves of air hurled off in circles
+by countless cannon and rifles were reaching them. But they had been
+softened so much by distance that the sound was not unpleasant, and the
+<i>Arrow</i> rocked gently as if touched by a light wind.</p>
+
+<p>John never ceased to watch with his glasses, and in a few minutes he
+announced that men in gray were below.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I expected that,&quot; said Lannes. &quot;This battle line, as you know, is far
+from straight, and, in order to reach our destination in the quickest
+time possible, we must pass over a portion of the German army, an
+extended corner or angle as it were. What are they doing there, John?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Firing about fifty cannon as fast as they can. Back of the cannon is a
+great huddle of motors and of large automobile trucks, loaded, I should
+say, with ammunition.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're quite sure of what you say?&quot; asked Lannes, after a silence of a
+moment or two.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Absolutely sure. I fancy that it's an ammunition depot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then, John, you and I must take a risk. We are to deliver a message,
+but we can't let go an opportunity like this. You recall how you threw
+the bombs on the forty-two centimeter. I have more bombs here in the
+<i>Arrow</i>&mdash;I never fly now without 'em&mdash;little fellows, but tremendously
+powerful. I shall dip and when we're directly over the ammunition depot
+drop the bombs squarely into the middle of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm ready,&quot; said John, feeling alternate thrills of eagerness and
+horror, &quot;but Philip, don't you go so near that if the depot blows up it
+will blow us up too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never fear,&quot; said Lannes, laughing, not with amusement but with
+excitement, &quot;I've no more wish to be scattered through the firmament
+than you have. Besides, we've that message to deliver. Do you think the
+Germans have noticed us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, a lot of smoke from their cannon fire has gathered above them and
+perhaps it veils us. Besides, their whole attention must be absorbed by
+the French army, and I don't think it likely that they're looking up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But they're bound to see us soon. We have one great advantage, however.
+The target is much larger than the forty-two centimeter was, and there
+are no Taubes or dirigibles here to drive us off. Ready now, John, and
+when I touch the bottom of my loop you throw the bombs. Here they are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Four bombs were pushed to John's side and they lay ready to his grasp.
+Then as the <i>Arrow</i> began its downward curve, he laid his glasses aside
+and watched. The most advanced German batteries were placed in a pit,
+into which a telephone wire ran. Evidently these guns, like the French,
+were fired by order from some distant point. John longed to hurl a bomb
+at the pit, but the chances were ten to one that he would miss it, and
+he held to the ammunition depot, spread over a full acre, as his target.</p>
+
+<p>Now the Germans saw them. He knew it, as many of them looked up, and
+some began to fire at the <i>Arrow</i>, but the aeroplane was too high and
+swift for their bullets.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now!&quot; said Lannes in sudden, sharp tones.</p>
+
+<p>The aeroplane dipped with sickening velocity, but John steadied himself,
+and watching his chance he threw four bombs so fast that the fourth had
+left his hands before the first touched the ground. An awful, rending
+explosion followed, and for a minute the <i>Arrow</i> rocked violently, as if
+in a hurricane. Then, as the waves of air decreased in violence, it
+darted upward on an even keel.</p>
+
+<p>John saw far below a vast scene of wreckage, amid which lay many dead or
+wounded men. Motors were blown to pieces and cannon dismounted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Score heavily for us,&quot; said Lannes. &quot;I scarcely hoped for such a goodly
+blow as this while we were on our way!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John would not look down again. Despite the value of the deed, he
+shuddered and he was glad when the <i>Arrow</i> in its swift flight had left
+the area of devastation far behind.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We're flying over the French now,&quot; he said. &quot;So I expected,&quot; said
+Lannes. &quot;Can you see a hill crested with a low farm house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; replied John, after looking a little while. &quot;It's straight ahead.
+The house is partly hidden by trees.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then that's the place. You wouldn't think we'd come nearly fifty miles,
+would you, John?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fifty miles! It feels more like a thousand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes laughed, this time with satisfaction, not excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll find there the general to whom we reported first,&quot; he said, &quot;and
+he'll be glad to see us! I can't tell you how glad he will be. His joy
+will be far beyond our personal deserts. It will have little to do with
+the fact that you, John Scott, and I, Philip Lannes, have come back to
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The circling <i>Arrow</i> came down in a meadow just behind the house, and
+officers rushed forward to meet it. Lannes and John, stepping out, left
+it in charge of two of the younger men. Then, proudly waving the others
+aside, they walked to the low stone farmhouse, in front of which the
+elderly, spectacled general was standing. He looked at Lannes
+inquiringly, but the young Frenchman, without a word, handed him a note.</p>
+
+<p>John watched the general read, and he saw the transformation of the
+man's face. Doubting, anxious, worn, it was illumined suddenly. In a
+voice that trembled he said to the senior officers who clustered about
+him:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We're advancing in the center, and on the other flank. Already we've
+driven a huge wedge between the German armies, and Paris, nay, France
+herself, is saved!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The officers, mostly old men, did not cheer, but John had never before
+witnessed such relief expressed on human faces. It seemed to him that
+they had choked up, and could not speak. The commander held the note in
+a shaking hand and presently he turned to Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your fortune has been great. It's not often that one has a chance to
+bear such a message as this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My pride is so high I can't describe it,&quot; said Lannes in a dramatic but
+sincere tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go in the house and an orderly will give food and wine to you and your
+comrade. In a half hour, perhaps, I may have another message for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Both John and Lannes needed rest and food, and they obeyed gladly. The
+strain upon the two was far greater than they had realized at the time,
+and for a few moments they were threatened with collapse which very
+strong efforts of the will prevented. They were conscious, too, as they
+stood upon the ground, of a quivering, shaking motion. They were
+assailed once more by the violent waves of air coming from the
+concussion of cannon and rifles past counting. The thin, whitish film
+which was a compound of dust and burned gunpowder assailed them again
+and lay, bitter, in their mouths and nostrils.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The earth shakes too much,&quot; said Lannes in a droll tone. &quot;I think we'd
+better go back into the unchanging ether, where a man can be sure of
+himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm seasick,&quot; said John; &quot;who wouldn't be, with ten thousand cannon,
+more or less, and a million or two of rifles shaking the planet? I'm
+going into the house as fast as I can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a building, centuries old, of gray crumbling stone, with large,
+low rooms, and, to John's amazement, the peasant who inhabited it and
+his family were present. The farmer and his wife, both strong and dark,
+were about forty, and there were four children, the oldest a girl of
+about thirteen. What fear they may have felt in the morning was gone
+now, and, as they knew that the French army was advancing, a joy,
+reserved but none the less deep, had taken its place.</p>
+
+<p>John and Lannes sat down at a small table covered with a neat white
+cloth, and Madame, walking quickly and lightly, served them with bread,
+cold meat and light red wine. The smaller children hovered in the
+background and looked curiously at the young foreigner who wore the
+French uniform.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I ask your name, Madame?&quot; John asked politely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poiret,&quot; she said. &quot;My man is Jules Poiret, and this farm has been in
+his family since the great revolution. You and your comrade came from
+the air, as I saw, and you can tell us, can you not, whether the Poiret
+farm is to become German or remain French? The enemy has been pushed
+back today, but will he come so near to Paris again? Tell me truly, on
+your soul, Monsieur!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't believe the Germans will ever again be so near to Paris,&quot;
+replied John with sincerity. &quot;My friend, who is the great Philip Lannes,
+the flying man, and I, have looked down upon a battle line fifty, maybe
+a hundred miles long, and nearly everywhere the Germans are retreating.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She bent her head a little as she poured the coffee for them, but not
+enough to hide the glitter in her eye. &quot;Perhaps the good God intervened
+at the last moment, as Father Hansard promised he would,&quot; she said
+calmly. &quot;At any rate, the Germans are gone. I gathered as much from
+chance words of the generals&mdash;never before have so many generals
+gathered under the Poiret roof, and it will never happen again&mdash;but I
+wished to hear it from one who had seen with his own eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We saw them withdrawing, Madame, with these two pairs of eyes of ours,&quot;
+said Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And then Poiret can go back to his work with the vines. Whether it is
+war or peace, men must eat and drink, Monsieur.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But certainly, Madame, and women too.&quot; &quot;It is so. I trust that soon the
+Germans will be driven back much faster. The house quivers all the time.
+It is old and already several pieces of plaster have fallen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her anxiety was obvious. With the Germans driven back she thought now of
+the Poiret homestead. John, in the new strength that had come to him
+from food and drink, had forgotten for the moment that ceaseless quiver
+of the earth. He held the little bottle aloft and poured a thin stream
+of wine into his glass. The red thread swayed gently from side to side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You speak truly, Madame,&quot; he said. &quot;The rocking goes on, but I'm sure
+that the concussion of the guns will be too far away tonight for you to
+feel it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They offered her gold for the food and wine, but after one longing
+glance she steadfastly refused it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since you have come across the sea to fight for us,&quot; she said to John,
+&quot;how could I take your money?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes and John returned to the bit of grass in front of the house,
+where the elderly general and other generals were still standing and
+using their glasses.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are refreshed?&quot; said the general to Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Refreshed and ready to take your orders wherever you wish them to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John stepped aside, while the general talked briefly and in a low tone
+to his comrade. He looked upon himself merely as a passenger, or a sort
+of help to Lannes, and he would not pry into military secrets. But when
+the two rose again in the <i>Arrow</i>, the general and all his suite waved
+their caps to them. Beyond a doubt, Lannes had done magnificent work
+that day, and John was glad for his friend's sake.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> ascended at a sharp angle, and then hovered for a little
+while in curves and spirals. John saw the generals below, but they were
+no longer watching the aeroplane. Their glasses were turned once more to
+the battle front.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ultimately we're to reach the commander of the central army, if we
+can,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;but meanwhile we're to bend in toward the German
+lines, in search of your immediate chief, General Vaugirard, who is one
+of the staunchest and most daring fighters in the whole French Army. If
+we find him at all it's likely that we'll find him farther forward than
+any other general.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But not any farther than my friend of Montmartre, Bougainville. There's
+a remarkable fellow. I saw his military talent the first time I met him.
+Or I should better say I felt it rather than saw it. And he was making
+good in a wonderful manner today.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe with you, John, that he's a genius. But if we find General
+Vaugirard and then finish our errand we must hasten. It will be night in
+two hours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He increased the speed of the aeroplane and they flew eastward,
+searching all the hills and woods for the command of General Vaugirard.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" />CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>IN HOSTILE HANDS</h3>
+
+
+<p>The task that lay before the two young men was one of great difficulty.
+The battle line was shifting continually, although the Germans were
+being pressed steadily back toward the east and north, but among so many
+generals it would be hard to find the particular one to whom they were
+bearing orders. The commander of the central army was of high
+importance, but the fact did not bring him at once before the eye.</p>
+
+<p>They were to see General Vaugirard, too, but it was possible that he had
+fallen. John, though, could not look upon it as a probability. The
+general was so big, so vital, that he must be living, and he felt the
+same way about Bougainville. It was incredible that fate itself should
+snuff out in a day that spark of fire.</p>
+
+<p>Lannes, uncertain of his course, bore in again toward the German lines,
+and dropped as low as he could, compatible with safety from any kind of
+shot. John meanwhile scanned every hill and valley wood and field with
+his powerful glasses, and he was unable to see any diminution in the
+fury of the struggle. The cannon thundered, with all their might, along
+a line of scores of miles; rapid firers sent a deadly hail upon the
+opposing lines; rifles flashed by the hundred thousand, and here and
+there masses of troops closed with the bayonet.</p>
+
+<p>Seen from a height the battle was stripped of some of its horrors, but
+all its magnitude remained to awe those who looked down upon it. From
+the high, cold air John could not see pain and wounds, only the swaying
+back and forth of the battle lines. All the time he searched attentively
+for men who did not wear the red and blue of France, and at last he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've failed to find any sign of the British army.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're farther to the left,&quot; replied Lannes. &quot;I caught a glimpse of
+their khaki lines this morning. Their regular troops are great fighters,
+as our Napoleon himself admitted more than once, and they've never done
+better than they're doing today. When I saw them they were advancing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm glad of that. It's curious how I feel about the English, Philip.
+They've got such a conceit that they irritate me terribly at times, yet
+I don't want to see them beaten by any other Europeans. That's our
+American privilege.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A family feeling, perhaps,&quot; said Lannes, laughing, &quot;but we French and
+English have been compelled to be allies, and after fighting each other
+for a thousand years we're now the best of friends. I think, John, we'll
+have to go down and procure information from somebody about our
+general. Otherwise we'll never find him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must be near the center of our army, and that's where he's likely to
+be. Suppose we descend in the field a little to the east of us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes looked down, and, pronouncing the place suitable, began to drop
+in a series of spirals until they rested in a small field that had been
+devoted to the growth of vegetables. Here John at once felt the shaking
+of the earth, and tasted the bitter odor again. But woods on either side
+of them hid the sight of troops, although the sound of the battle was as
+great and violent as ever.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We seem to have landed on a desert island,&quot; said Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So we do,&quot; said John. &quot;Evidently there is nobody here to tell us where
+we can find our dear and long lost general. I'll go down to the edge of
+the nearest wood and see if any of our skirmishers are there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right, John, but hurry back. I'll hold the <i>Arrow</i> ready for
+instant flight, as we can't afford to linger here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John ran toward the wood, but before he reached the first trees he
+turned back with a shout of alarm. He had caught a glimpse of horses,
+helmets and the glittering heads of lances. Moreover, the Uhlans were
+coming directly toward him.</p>
+
+<p>In that moment of danger the young American showed the best that was in
+him. Forgetful of self and remembering the importance of Lannes'
+mission, he shouted:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Uhlans are upon us, Philip! I can't escape, but you must! Go! Go
+at once!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes gave one startled glance, and he understood in a flash. He too
+knew the vital nature of his errand, but his instant decision gave a
+wrench to his whole being. He saw the Uhlans breaking through the woods
+and John before them. He was standing beside the <i>Arrow</i>, and giving the
+machine a sharp push he sprang in and rose at a sharp angle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Up! Up, Philip!&quot; John continued to cry, until the cold edge of a lance
+lay against his throat and a brusque voice bade him to surrender.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right, I yield,&quot; said John, &quot;but kindly take your lance away. It's
+so sharp and cold it makes me feel uncomfortable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he continued to look upward. The <i>Arrow</i> was soaring higher
+and higher, and the Uhlans were firing at it, but they were not able to
+hit such a fleeting target. In another minute it was out of range.</p>
+
+<p>John felt the cold steel come away from his throat, and satisfied that
+Lannes with his precious message was safe, he looked at his captors.
+They were about thirty in number, Prussian Uhlans.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; said John to the one who seemed to be their leader, &quot;what do you
+want with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To hold you prisoner,&quot; replied the man, in excellent English&mdash;John was
+always surprised at the number of people on the continent who spoke
+English&mdash;&quot;and to ask you why we find an American here in French
+uniform.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The man who spoke was young, blond, ruddy, and his tone was rather
+humorous. John had been too much in Germany to hate Germans. He liked
+most of them personally, but for many of their ideas, ideas which he
+considered deadly to the world, he had an intense dislike.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You find me here because I didn't have time to get away,&quot; he replied,
+&quot;and I'm in a French uniform because it's my fighting suit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The young officer smiled. John rather liked him, and he saw, too, that
+he was no older than himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's lucky for you that you're in some kind of a uniform,&quot; the German
+said, &quot;or I should have you shot immediately. But I'm sorry we didn't
+take the man in the aeroplane instead of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John looked up again. The <i>Arrow</i> had become small in the distant blue.
+A whimsical impulse seized him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've a right to be sorry,&quot; he said. &quot;That was the greatest flying man
+in the world, and all day he has carried messages, heavy with the fate
+of nations. If you had taken him a few moments ago you might have saved
+the German army from defeat today. But your chance has gone. If you were
+to see him again you would not know him and his plane from others of
+their kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The officer's eyes dilated at first. Then he smiled again and stroked
+his young mustache.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be true, as you say,&quot; he replied, &quot;but meanwhile I'll have to
+take you to my chief, Captain von Boehlen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John's heart sank a little when he heard the name von Boehlen. Fortune,
+he thought, had played him a hard trick by bringing him face to face
+with the man who had least cause to like him. But he would not show it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well,&quot; he said; &quot;which way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Straight before you,&quot; said the officer. &quot;I'd give you a mount, but it
+isn't far. Remember as you walk that we're just behind you, and don't
+try to run away. You'd have no chance on earth. My own name is Arnheim,
+Wilhelm von Arnheim.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And mine's John Scott,&quot; said John, as he walked straight ahead.</p>
+
+<p>They passed through a wood and into another field, where a large body of
+Prussian cavalry was waiting. A tall man, built heavily, stood beside a
+horse, watching a distant corner of the battle through glasses. John
+knew that uncompromising figure at once. It was von Boehlen.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A prisoner, Captain,&quot; said von Arnheim, saluting respectfully.</p>
+
+<p>Von Boehlen turned slowly, and a malicious light leaped in his eyes when
+he saw John on foot before him, and wholly in his power.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And so,&quot; he said, &quot;it's young Scott of the hotel in Dresden and of the
+wireless station, and you've come straight into my hands!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The whimsical humor which sometimes seized John when he was in the most
+dangerous situation took hold of him again. It was not humor exactly,
+but it was the innate desire to make the best of a bad situation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm in your hands,&quot; he replied, &quot;but I didn't walk willingly into 'em.
+Your lieutenant, von Arnheim here, and his men brought me on the points
+of their lances. I'm quite willing to go away again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Von Boehlen recognized the spirit in the reply and the malice departed
+from his own eyes. Yet he asked sternly:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why do you put on a French uniform and meddle in a quarrel not your
+own?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've made it my own. I take the chances of war.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the rear with him, and put him with the other prisoners,&quot; said von
+Boehlen to von Arnheim, and the young Prussian and two Uhlans escorted
+him to the edge of the field where twenty or thirty French prisoners sat
+on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I take it,&quot; said von Arnheim, &quot;that you and our captain have met
+before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, and the last time it was under circumstances that did not endear
+me to him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it was in war it will not be to your harm. Captain von Boehlen is a
+stern but just man, and his conduct is strictly according to our
+military code. You will stay here with the other prisoners under guard.
+I hope to see you again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With these polite words the young officer rode back to his chief, and
+John's heart warmed to him because of his kindness. Then he sat down on
+the grass and looked at those who were prisoners with him. Most of them
+were wounded, but none seemed despondent. All were lying down, some
+propped on their elbows, and they were watching and listening with the
+closest attention. A half-dozen Germans, rifle in hand, stood near by.</p>
+
+<p>John took his place on the grass by the side of a fair, slim young man
+who carried his left arm in a bandage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Englishman?&quot; said the young man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, American.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you have been fighting for us, as your uniform shows. What
+command?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;General Vaugirard's, but I became separated from it earlier in the
+day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've heard of him. Great, fat man, as cool as ice and as brave as a
+lion. A good general to serve under. My own name is Fleury, Albert
+Fleury. I was wounded and taken early this morning, and the others and I
+have been herded here ever since by the Germans. They will not tell us a
+word, but I notice they have not advanced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The German army is retreating everywhere. For this day, at least, we're
+victorious. Somebody has made a great plan and has carried it through.
+The cavalry of the invader came within sight of Paris this morning, but
+they won't be able to see it tomorrow morning. Whisper it to the others.
+We'll take the good news quietly. We won't let the guards see that we
+know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The news was circulated in low tones and every one of the wounded forgot
+his wound. They spoke among themselves, but all the while the thunder of
+the hundred-mile battle went on with unremitting ferocity. John put his
+ear to the ground now, and the earth quivered incessantly like a ship
+shaken at sea by its machinery.</p>
+
+<p>The day was now waning fast and he looked at the mass of Uhlans who
+stood arrayed in the open space, as if they were awaiting an order.
+Lieutenant von Arnheim rode back and ordered the guards to march on with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>There was none too severely wounded to walk and they proceeded in a file
+through the fields, Uhlans on all sides, but the great mass behind them,
+where their commander, von Boehlen, himself rode.</p>
+
+<p>The night was almost at hand. Twilight was already coming over the
+eastern hills, and one of the most momentous days in the story of man
+was drawing to a close. People often do not know the magnitude of an
+event until it has passed long since and shows in perspective, but John
+felt to the full the result of the event, just as the old Greeks must
+have known at once what Salamis or Plat&aelig;a meant to them. The hosts of
+the world's greatest military empire were turned back, and he had all
+the certainty of conviction that they would be driven farther on the
+next day.</p>
+
+<p>The little band of prisoners who walked while their Prussian captors
+rode, were animated by feelings like those of John. It was the captured
+who exulted and the captors who were depressed, though neither expressed
+it in words, and the twilight was too deep now for faces to show either
+joy or sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>John and Fleury walked side by side. They were near the same age. Fleury
+was an Alpinist from the high mountain region of Savoy and he had
+arrived so recently in the main theater of conflict that he knew little
+of what had been passing. He and John talked in whispers and they spoke
+encouraging words to each other. Fleury listened in wonder to John's
+account of his flights with Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is marvelous to have looked down upon a battle a hundred miles
+long,&quot; he said. &quot;Have you any idea where these Uhlans intend to take
+us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't. Doubtless they don't know themselves. The night is here now,
+and I imagine they'll stop somewhere soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The twilight died in the west as well as the east, and darkness came
+over the field of gigantic strife. But the earth continued to quiver
+with the thunder of artillery, and John felt the waves of air pulsing in
+his ears. Now and then searchlights burned in a white blaze across the
+hills. Fields, trees and houses would stand out for a moment, and then
+be gone absolutely.</p>
+
+<p>John's vivid imagination turned the whole into a storm at night. The
+artillery was the thunder and the flare of the searchlights was the
+lightning. His mind created, for a little while, the illusion that the
+combat had passed out of the hands of man and that nature was at work.
+He and Fleury ceased to talk and he walked on, thinking little of his
+destination. He had no sense of weariness, nor of any physical need at
+all.</p>
+
+<p>Von Arnheim rode up by his side and said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll not have to walk much further, Mr. Scott. A camp of ours is just
+beyond a brook, not more than a few hundred yards away, and the
+prisoners will stay there for the night. I'm sorry to find you among
+the French fighting against us. We Germans expected American sympathy.
+There is so much German blood in the United States.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, as I told Captain von Boehlen, we're a republic, and we're
+democrats. In many of the big ideas there's a gulf between us and
+Germany so wide that it can never be bridged. This war has made clear
+the enormous difference.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Von Arnheim sighed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet, as a people, we like each other personally,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's so, but as nations we diverge absolutely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps, I can't dispute it. But here is our camp. You'll be treated
+well. We Germans are not barbarians, as our enemies allege.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John saw fires burning in an ancient wood, through which a clear brook
+ran. The ground was carpeted with bodies, which at first he thought were
+those of dead men. But they were merely sleepers. German troops in
+thousands had dropped in their tracks. It was scarcely sleep, but
+something deeper, a stupor of exhaustion so utter, both mental and
+physical, that it was like the effect of anesthesia. They lay in every
+imaginable position, and they stretched away through the forest in
+scores of thousands.</p>
+
+<p>John and Fleury saw their own place at once. Several hundred men in
+French uniforms were lying or sitting on the ground in a great group
+near the forest. A few slept, but the others, as well as John could see
+by the light of the fires, were wide awake.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of the brook gave John a burning thirst, and making a sign to
+the German guard, who nodded, he knelt and drank. He did not care
+whether the water was pure or not, most likely it was not, with armies
+treading their way across it, but as it cut through the dust and grime
+of his mouth and throat he felt as if a new and more vigorous life were
+flowing into his veins. After drinking once, twice, and thrice, he sat
+down on the bank with Fleury, but in a minute or two young von Arnheim
+came for him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our commander wishes to talk with you,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm honored,&quot; said John, &quot;but conversation is not one of my strong
+points.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The general will make the conversation,&quot; said von Arnheim, smiling. &quot;It
+will be your duty, as he sees it, to answer questions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John's liking for von Arnheim grew. He had seldom seen a finer young
+man. He was frank and open in manner, and bright blue eyes shone in a
+face that bore every sign of honesty. Official enemies he and von
+Arnheim were, but real enemies they never could be.</p>
+
+<p>He divined that he would be subjected to a cross-examination, but he had
+no objection. Moreover, he wanted to see a German general of high
+degree. Von Arnheim led the way through the woods to a little glade, in
+which about a dozen officers stood. One of them, the oldest man present,
+who was obviously in command, stood nearest the fire, holding his helmet
+in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>The general was past sixty, of medium height, but extremely broad and
+muscular. His head, bald save for a fringe of white hair, had been
+reddened by the sun, and his face, with its deep heavy lines and his
+corded neck, was red, too. He showed age but not weakness. His eyes,
+small, red and uncommonly keen, gazed from under a white bushy thatch.
+He looked like a fierce old dragon to John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The American prisoner, sir,&quot; said von Arnheim in English to the
+general.</p>
+
+<p>The old man concentrated the stare of his small red eyes upon John for
+many long seconds. The young American felt the weight and power of that
+gaze. He knew too instinctively that the man before him was a great
+fighter, a true representative of the German military caste and system.
+He longed to turn his own eyes away, but he resolutely held them steady.
+He would not be looked down, not even by an old Prussian general to whom
+the fate of a hundred thousand was nothing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, Your Highness, you may stand aside,&quot; said the general in a
+deep harsh voice.</p>
+
+<p>Out of the corner of his eye John saw that the man who stood aside was
+von Arnheim. &quot;Your Highness!&quot; Then this young lieutenant must be a
+prince. If so, some princes were likable. Wharton and Carstairs and he
+had outwitted a prince once, but it could not be von Arnheim. He turned
+his full gaze back to the general, who continued in his deep gruff
+voice, speaking perfect English:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I understand that you are an American and your name is John Scott.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And duly enrolled and uniformed in the French service,&quot; said John,
+&quot;You can't shoot me as a <i>franc tireur</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We could shoot you for anything, if we wished, but such is not our
+purpose. I have heard from a captain of Uhlans, Rudolf von Boehlen, a
+most able and valuable officer, that you are brave and alert.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thank Captain von Boehlen for his compliment. I did not expect it
+from him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, he bears you no malice. We Germans are large enough to admire skill
+and courage in others. He has spoken of the affair of the wireless. It
+cost us much, but it belongs to the past. We will achieve what we wish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John was silent. He believed that these preliminaries on the part of the
+old general were intended to create an atmosphere, a belief in his mind
+that German power was invincible.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have withdrawn a portion of our force today,&quot; continued the general,
+&quot;in order to rectify our line. Our army had advanced too far. Tomorrow
+we resume our march on Paris.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John felt that it was an extraordinary statement for an old man, one of
+such high rank, the commander of perhaps a quarter of a million
+soldiers, to be making to him, a young American, but he held his peace,
+awaiting what lay behind it all.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now you are a captive,&quot; continued the general, &quot;you will be sent to a
+prison, and you will be held there until the end of the war. You will
+necessarily suffer much. We cannot help it. Yet you might be sent to
+your own country. Americans and Germans are not enemies. I know from
+Captain von Boehlen who took you that you have been in an aeroplane with
+a Frenchman. Some account of what you saw from space might help your
+departure for America.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so that was it! Now the prisoner's eye steadily confronted that of
+the old general.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your Highness,&quot; he said, as he thought that the old man might be a
+prince as well as a general, &quot;you have read the history of the great
+civil war in my country, have you not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a part of my military duty to study it. It was a long and
+desperate struggle with many great battles, but what has it to do with
+the present?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you ever hear of any traitor on either side, North or South, in
+that struggle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The deep red veins in the old general's face stood out, but he gave no
+other sign.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You prefer, then,&quot; he said, &quot;to become a charge upon our German
+hospitality. But I can say that your refusal will not make terms harder
+for you. Lieutenant von Arnheim, take him back to the other prisoners.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you, sir,&quot; said John, and he gave the military salute. He could
+understand the old man's point of view, rough and gruff though he was,
+and he was not lacking in a certain respect for him. The general
+punctiliously returned the salute.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've made a good impression,&quot; said von Arnheim, as they walked away
+together.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I gather,&quot; said John, &quot;from a reference by the general, that you're a
+prince.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Von Arnheim looked embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In a way I am,&quot; he admitted, &quot;but ours is a mediatized house. Perhaps
+it doesn't count for much. Still, if it hadn't been for this war I might
+have gone to your country and married an heiress.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His eyes were twinkling. Here, John thought was a fine fellow beyond
+question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps you can come after the war and marry one,&quot; he said. &quot;Personally
+I hope you'll have the chance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thanks,&quot; said von Arnheim, a bit wistfully, &quot;but I'm afraid now it will
+be a long time, if ever. I need not seek to conceal from you that we
+were turned back today. You know it already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, I know it,&quot; said John, speaking without any trace of exultation,
+&quot;and I'm willing to tell you that it was one of the results I saw from
+the aeroplane. Can I ask what you intend to do with the prisoners you
+have here, including myself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not know. You are to sleep where you are tonight. Your bed, the
+earth, will be as good as ours, and perhaps in the morning we'll find an
+answer to your question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Von Arnheim bade him a pleasant good night and turned to duties
+elsewhere. John watched him as he strode away, a fine, straight young
+figure. He had found him a most likable man, and he was bound to admit
+that there was much in the German character to admire. But for the
+present it was&mdash;in his view&mdash;a Germany misled.</p>
+
+<p>The prisoners numbered perhaps six hundred, and at least half of them
+were wounded. John soon learned that the hurt usually suffered in
+stoical silence. It was so in the great American civil war, and it was
+true now in the great European war.</p>
+
+<p>Rough food was brought to them by German guards, and those who were able
+drank at the brook. Water was served to the severely wounded by their
+comrades in tin cups given to them by the Germans, and then all but a
+few lay on the grass and sought sleep.</p>
+
+<p>John and his new friend, Fleury, were among those who yet sat up and
+listened to the sounds of battle still in progress, although it was far
+in the night. It was an average night of late summer or early autumn,
+cool, fairly bright, and with but little wind. But the dull, moaning
+sound made by the distant cannonade came from both sides of them, and
+the earth yet quivered, though but faintly. Now and then, the
+searchlights gleamed against the background of darkness, but John felt
+that the combat must soon stop, at least until the next day. The German
+army in which he was a prisoner had ceased already, but other German
+armies along the vast line fought on, failing day, by the light which
+man himself had devised.</p>
+
+<p>Fleury was intelligent and educated. Although it was bitter to him to be
+a prisoner at such a time, he had some comprehension of what had
+occurred, and he knew that John had been in a position to see far more
+than he. He asked the young American many questions about his flight in
+the air, and about Philip Lannes, of whom he had heard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was wonderful,&quot; he said, &quot;to look down on a battle a hundred miles
+long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We didn't see all of it,&quot; said John, &quot;but we saw it in many places, and
+we don't know that it was a hundred miles long, but it must have been
+that or near it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the greatest day for France in her history! What mighty
+calculations must have been made and what tremendous marchings and
+combats must have been carried out to achieve such a result.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One of the decisive battles of history, like Plat&aelig;a, or the Metaurus or
+Gettysburg. There go the Uhlans with Captain von Boehlen at their head.
+Now I wonder what they mean to do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A thousand men, splendidly mounted and armed, rode through the forest.
+The moonlight fell on von Boehlen's face and showed it set and grim.
+John felt that he was bound to recognize in him a stern and resolute
+man, carrying out his own conceptions of duty. Nor had von Boehlen been
+discourteous to him, although he might have felt cause for much
+resentment. The Prussian glanced at him as he passed, but said nothing.
+Soon he and his horsemen passed out of sight in the dusk.</p>
+
+<p>John, wondering how late it might be, suddenly remembered that he had a
+watch and found it was eleven o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An hour of midnight,&quot; he said to Fleury.</p>
+
+<p>Most all the French stretched upon the ground were now in deep slumber,
+wounded and unwounded alike. The sounds of cannon fire were sinking
+away, but they did not die wholly. The faint thunder of the distant
+guns never ceased to come. But the campfire, where he knew the German
+generals slept or planned, went out, and darkness trailed its length
+over all this land which by night had become a wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>John was able to trace dimly the sleeping figures of Germans in the
+dusk, sunk down upon the ground and buried in the sleep or stupor of
+exhaustion. As they lay near him so they lay in the same way in hundreds
+of thousands along the vast line. Men and horses, strained to their last
+nerve and muscle, were too tired to move. It seemed as if more than a
+million men lay dead in the fields and woods of Northeastern France.</p>
+
+<p>John, who had been wide awake, suddenly dropped on the ground where the
+others were stretched. He collapsed all in a moment, as if every drop of
+blood had been drained suddenly from his body. Keyed high throughout the
+day, his whole system now gave way before the accumulated impact of
+events so tremendous. The silence save for the distant moaning that
+succeeded the roar of a million men or more in battle was like a
+powerful drug, and he slept like one dead, never moving hand or foot.</p>
+
+<p>He was roused shortly before morning by some one who shook him gently
+but persistently, and at last he sat up, looking around in the dim light
+for the person who had dragged him back from peace to a battle-mad
+world. He saw an unkempt, bearded man in a French uniform, one sleeve
+stained with blood, and he recognized Weber, the Alsatian.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Weber!&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;they've got you, too! This is bad! They
+may consider you, an Alsatian, a traitor, and execute you at once!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Weber smiled in rather melancholy fashion, and said in a low tone:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's bad enough to be captured, but I won't be shot Nobody here knows
+that I'm an Alsatian, and consequently they will think I'm a Frenchman.
+If you call me anything, call me Fernand, which is my first name, but
+which they will take for the last.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right, Fernand. I'll practice on it now, so I'll make no slip. How
+did you happen to be taken?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was in a motor car, a part of a train of about a hundred cars. There
+were seven in it besides myself. We were ordered to cross a field and
+join a line of advancing infantry. When we were in the middle of the
+field a masked German battery of rapid-firers opened on us at short
+range. It was an awful experience, like a stroke of lightning, and I
+don't think that more than a dozen of us escaped with our lives. I was
+wounded in the arm and taken before I could get out of the field. I was
+brought here with some other prisoners and I have been sleeping on the
+ground just beyond that hillock. I awoke early, and, walking the little
+distance our guards allow, I happened to recognize your figure lying
+here. I was sorry and yet glad to see you, sorry that you were a
+prisoner, and glad to find at least one whom I knew, a friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John gave Weber's hand a strong grasp.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can say the same about you,&quot; he said warmly. &quot;We're both prisoners,
+but yesterday was a magnificent day for France and democracy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was, and now it's to be seen what today will be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope and believe it will be no less magnificent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I learned that you were taken just after you alighted from an
+aeroplane, and that a man with you escaped in the plane. At least, I
+presume it was you, as I heard the Germans talking of such a person and
+I knew of your great friendship for Philip Lannes. Lannes, of course was
+the one who escaped.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A good surmise, Fernand. It was no less a man than he.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Weber's eyes sparkled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was sure of it,&quot; he said. &quot;A wonderful fellow, that Lannes, perhaps
+the most skillful and important bearer of dispatches that France has.
+But he will not forget you, Mr. Scott. He knows, of course, where you
+were taken, and doubtless from points high in the air he has traced the
+course of this German army. He will find time to come for you. He will
+surely do so. He has a feeling for you like that of a brother, and his
+skill in the air gives him a wonderful advantage. In all the history of
+the world there have never before been any scouts like the aeroplanes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's true, and that, I think, is their chief use.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Impulse made John look up. The skies were fast beginning to brighten
+with the first light in the east, and large objects would be visible
+there. But he saw nothing against the blue save two or three captive
+balloons which floated not far above the trees inside the German lines.
+He longed for a sight of the <i>Arrow</i>. He believed that he would know its
+shape even high in the heavens, but they were speckless.</p>
+
+<p>The Alsatian, whose eyes followed his, shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is not there, Mr. Scott,&quot; he said, &quot;and you will not see him today,
+but I have a conviction that he will come, by night doubtless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John lowered his eyes and his feeling of disappointment passed. It had
+been foolish of him to hope so soon, but it was only a momentary
+impulse, Lannes could not seek him now, and even if he were to come
+there would be no chance of rescue until circumstances changed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doubtless you and he were embarked on a long errand when you were
+taken,&quot; said Weber.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We were carrying a message to the commander of one of the French
+armies, but I don't know the name of the commander, I don't know which
+army it is, and I don't know where it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Weber laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Lannes knew all of those things,&quot; he said. &quot;Oh, he's a close one!
+He wouldn't trust such secrets not even to his brother-in-arms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor should he do so. I'd rather he'd never tell them to me unless he
+thought it necessary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I agree with you exactly, Mr. Scott. Hark! Did you hear it? The battle
+swells afresh, and it's not yet full day!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The roaring had not ceased, but out of the west rose a sound, louder
+yet, deep, rolling and heavy with menace. It was the discharge of a
+great gun and it came from a point several miles away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We don't know who fired that,&quot; said Weber, &quot;It may be French, English
+or German, but it's my opinion that we'll hear its like in our forest
+all day long, just as we did yesterday. However, it shall not keep me
+from bathing my face in this brook.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor me either,&quot; said John.</p>
+
+<p>The cold water refreshed and invigorated him, and as he stooped over the
+brook, he heard other cannon. They seemed to him fairly to spring into
+action, and, in a few moments, the whole earth was roaring again with
+the huge volume of their fire.</p>
+
+<p>Other prisoners, wounded and unwounded, awakened by the cannon, strolled
+down to the brook and dipped into its waters.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'd better slip back to my place beyond the hillock,&quot; said Weber.
+&quot;We're in two lots, we prisoners, and I belong in the other lot. I don't
+think our guards have noticed our presence here, and it will be safer
+for me to return. But it's likely that we'll all be gathered into one
+body soon, and I'll help you watch for Lannes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll be glad of your help,&quot; said John sincerely. &quot;We must escape. In
+all the confusion of so huge a battle there ought to be a chance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Weber slipped away in the crowd now hurrying down to the stream, and in
+a few moments John was joined by Fleury, whose attention was centered on
+the sounds of the distant battle. He deemed it best to say nothing to
+him of Weber, who did not wish to be known as an Alsatian. Fleury's
+heavy sleep had made him strong and fresh again, but he was in a fury at
+his helplessness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To think of our being tied here at such a time,&quot; he said. &quot;France and
+England are pushing the battle again! I know it, and we're helpless,
+mere prisoners!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Still,&quot; said John, &quot;while we can't fight we may see things worth
+seeing. Perhaps it's not altogether our loss to be inside the German
+army on such a day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Fleury could not reconcile himself to such a view, but he sought to make
+the best of it, and he was cheered, too, by the vast increase in the
+volume of the cannon fire. Before the full day had crossed from east to
+west the great guns were thundering again along the long battle line.
+But in their immediate vicinity there was no action. All the German
+troops here seemed to be resting on their arms. No Uhlans were visible
+and John judged that the detachment under von Boehlen, having gone forth
+chiefly for scouting purposes, had not yet returned.</p>
+
+<p>They received bread, sausage and coffee for breakfast from one of the
+huge kitchen automobiles, and nearly all ate with a good appetite. Their
+German captors did not treat them badly, but John, watching both
+officers and men, did not see any elation. He had no doubt that the
+officers were stunned by the terrible surprise of the day before, and as
+for the men, they would know nothing. He had seen early that the Germans
+were splendid troops, disciplined, brave and ingenious, but the habit of
+blind obedience would blind them also to the fact that fortune had
+turned her face away from them.</p>
+
+<p>He wished that his friend von Arnheim&mdash;friend he regarded him&mdash;would
+appear and tell him something about the battle, but his wish did not
+come true for an hour and meanwhile the whole heavens resounded with the
+roar of the battle, while distant flashes from the guns could be seen on
+either flank.</p>
+
+<p>The young German, glasses in hand, evidently seeking a good view, walked
+to the crest of the hillock behind which Weber had disappeared. John
+presumed enough on their brief friendship to call to him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you see anything of interest?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Von Arnheim nodded quickly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see the distant fringe of a battle,&quot; he replied amiably, &quot;but it's
+too early in the morning for me to pass my judgment upon it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless you can look for a day of most desperate struggle!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Von Arnheim nodded very gravely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Men by tens of thousands will fall before night,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>As if to confirm his words, the roar of the battle took a sudden and
+mighty increase, like a convulsion.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" />CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TWO PRINCES</h3>
+
+
+<p>John sat with the other prisoners for more than two hours listening to
+the thunder of the great battle or rather series of battles which were
+afterwards classified under the general head the Battle of the Marne. He
+was not a soldier, merely a civilian serving as a soldier, but he had
+learned already to interpret many of the signs of combat. There was an
+atmospheric feeling that registered on a sensitive mind the difference
+between victory and defeat, and he was firm in the belief that as
+yesterday had gone today was going. Certainly this great German army
+which he believed to be in the center was not advancing, and something
+of a character most menacing was happening to the wings of the German
+force. He read it in the serious, preoccupied faces of the officers who
+passed near. There was not a smile on the face of the youngest of them
+all, but deepest anxiety was written alike on young and old.</p>
+
+<p>John and Fleury sat together at the edge of the brook, and for a while
+forgot their chagrin at not being on the battle line. The battle itself
+which they could not see, but which they could hear, absorbed them so
+thoroughly that they had no time to think of regrets.</p>
+
+<p>John had thought that man's violence, his energy in destruction on the
+first day could not be equalled, but it seemed to him now that the
+second day surpassed the first. The cannon fire was distant, yet the
+waves of air beat heavily upon them, and the earth shook without
+ceasing. Wisps of smoke floated toward them and the air was tainted
+again with the acrid smell of burned gunpowder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're a mountaineer, Fleury, you told me,&quot; said Scott, &quot;and you should
+be able to judge how sound travels through gorges. I suppose you yodel,
+of course?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yodel, what's that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To make a long singing cry on a peak which is supposed to reach to
+somebody on another peak who sends back the same kind of a singing cry.
+We have a general impression in America that European mountaineers don't
+do much but stand in fancy costumes on crests and ridges and yodel to
+one another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may have been so once,&quot; said the young Savoyard, &quot;but this is a bad
+year for yodeling. The voice of the cannon carries so far that the voice
+of man doesn't amount to much. But what sound did you want me to
+interpret?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That of the cannon. Does its volume move eastward or westward? I should
+think it's much like your mountain storms and you know how they travel
+among the ridges.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The comparison is just, but I can't yet tell any shifting of the
+artillery fire. The wind brings the sound toward us, and if there's any
+great advance or retreat I should be able to detect it. I should say
+that as far as the second day is concerned nothing decisive has happened
+yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know this country?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A little. My regiment marched through here about three weeks ago and we
+made two camps not far from this spot. This is the wood of S&eacute;nouart, and
+the brook here runs down to the river Marne.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And we're not far from that river. Then we've pressed back the Germans
+farther than I thought. It's strange that the German army here does not
+move.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's waiting, and I fancy it doesn't know what to do. I've an idea that
+our victory yesterday was greater than the French and British have
+realized, but which the Germans, of course, understand. Why do they
+leave us here, almost neglected, and why do their officers walk about,
+looking so doubtful and anxious? I've heard that the Germans were
+approaching Paris with five armies. It may be that we've cut off at
+least one of those armies and that it's in mortal danger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be so. But have you thought, Fleury, of the extraordinary
+difference between this morning and yesterday morning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have. In conditions they're worlds apart. Hark! Listen now, Scott, my
+friend!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He lay on the grass and put his ear to the ground, just as John had
+often done. Listening intently for at least two minutes, he announced
+with conviction that the cannonade was moving eastward.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which means that the Germans are withdrawing again?&quot; said John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Undoubtedly,&quot; said Fleury, his face glowing.</p>
+
+<p>They listened a quarter of an hour longer, and John himself was then
+able to tell that the battle line was shifting. The Germans elsewhere
+must have fallen back several miles, but the army about him did not yet
+move. He caught a glimpse of the burly general walking back and forth in
+the forest, his hands clasped behind him, and a frown on his broad,
+fighting face. He would walk occasionally to a little telephone station,
+improvised under the trees&mdash;John could see the wires stretching away
+through the forest&mdash;and listen long and attentively. But when he put
+down the receiver the same moody look was invariably on his face, and
+John was convinced as much by his expression as by the sound of the guns
+that affairs were not going well with the Germans.</p>
+
+<p>Another long hour passed and the sun moved on toward noon, but a German
+army of perhaps a quarter of a million men lay idle in the forest of
+S&eacute;nouart, as John now called the whole region.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the general walked down the line and John lost sight of him.
+But Weber reappeared, coming from the other side of the hillock, and
+John was glad to see him, since Fleury had gone back to attend to a
+wounded friend.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There doesn't seem to be as much action here as I expected,&quot; said
+Weber, cheerfully, sitting down on the grass beside young Scott.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But they're shaking the world there! and there!&quot; said John, nodding to
+right and to left.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So they are. This is a most extraordinary reversal, Mr. Scott, and I
+can't conceive how it was brought about. Some mysterious mind has made
+and carried through a plan that was superbly Napoleonic. I'd give much
+to know how it was done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know nothing of it,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But doubtless your friend Lannes does. What a wonderful thing it is to
+carry through the heavens the dispatches which may move forward a
+million armed men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know anything about Lannes' dispatches.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor do I, but I can make a close guess, just as you can. He's surely
+hovering over the battle field today, and as I said last night he
+certainly has some idea where you are, and sooner or later will come for
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John looked up, but again the heavens were bare and clear. Then he
+looked down and saw walking near them a heavy, middle-aged, bearded man
+to whom all the German officers paid great deference. The man's manner
+was haughty and overbearing, and John understood at once that in the
+monarchical sense he was a personage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know the big fellow there?&quot; he said to Weber. &quot;Have you heard
+anyone speak of him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw him this morning, and one of the guards told us who he is. That
+is Prince Karl of Auersperg. The house of Auersperg is one of the
+oldest in Germany, much older than the Emperor's family, the
+Hohenzollerns. I don't suppose the world contains any royal blood more
+ancient than that of Prince Karl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Evidently he feels that it's so. I'm getting used to princes, but our
+heavy friend there must be something of a specialist in the princely
+line. I should judge from his manner that he is not only the oldest man
+on earth, speaking in terms of blood, but the owner of the earth as
+well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Auerspergs have an immense pride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can see it, but a lot of pride fell before Paris yesterday, and a lot
+more is falling among these hills and forests today. There seems to be a
+lot of difference between princes, the Arnheims and the Auerspergs, for
+instance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then a sudden thought struck John. It had the vaguest sort of basis, but
+it came home to him with all the power of conviction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder if Prince Karl of Auersperg once owned a magnificent armored
+automobile,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>Weber looked puzzled, and then his eyes lightened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, I know what you mean!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;The one in which we took that
+flight with Carstairs the Englishman and Wharton the American. It
+belonged to a prince, without doubt, yes. But no, it couldn't have been
+Prince Karl of Auersperg who owned the machine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not so sure. I've an intuition that it is he. Besides, he looks
+like just the kind of prince from whom I'd like to take his best
+automobile, also everything else good that he might happen to have. I
+shall feel much disappointed if this proves not to be our prince.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You Americans are such democrats.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't go so far as to say a man is necessarily bad because of his
+high rank, but as I reminded you a little while ago, there are princes
+and princes. The ancient house of Auersperg as it walks up and down,
+indicating its conviction of its own superiority to everything else on
+earth, does not please me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Uhlans are coming back!&quot; exclaimed Weber in tones of excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that's von Boehlen at their head! I'd know his figure as far as I
+could see it! And they've had a brush, too! Look at the empty saddles
+and the wounded men! As sure as we live they've run into the French
+cavalry and then they've run out again!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Uhlans were returning at a gallop, and the German officers of high
+rank were crowding forward to meet them. It was obvious to every one
+that they had received a terrible handling, but John knew that von
+Boehlen was not a man to come at a panicky gallop. Some powerful motive
+must send him so fast.</p>
+
+<p>He saw the Prussian captain spring from his horse and rush to a little
+group composed of the general, the prince and several others of high
+rank who had drawn closely together at his coming.</p>
+
+<p>Von Boehlen was wounded slightly, but he stood erect as he saluted the
+commander and talked with him briefly and rapidly. John's busy and
+imaginative mind was at work at once with surmises, and he settled upon
+one which he was sure must be the truth. The French advance in the
+center was coming, and this German army also must soon go into action.</p>
+
+<p>He was confirmed in his belief by a hurried order to the guards to go
+eastward with the prisoners. As the captives, the wounded and the
+unwounded, marched off through the forest of S&eacute;nouart they heard at a
+distance, but behind them, the opening of a huge artillery fire. It was
+so tremendous that they could feel the shaking of the earth as they
+walked, and despite the hurrying of their guards they stopped at the
+crest of a low ridge to look back.</p>
+
+<p>They gazed across a wide valley toward high green hills, along which
+they saw rapid and many flashes. John longed now for the glasses which
+had been taken from him when he was captured, but he was quite sure that
+the flashes were made by French guns. From a point perhaps a mile in
+front of the prisoners masked German batteries were replying. Fleury
+with his extraordinary power of judging sound was able to locate these
+guns with some degree of approximation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look! the aeroplanes!&quot; said John, pointing toward the hills which he
+now called to himself the French line.</p>
+
+<p>Numerous dark shapes, forty or fifty at least, appeared in the sky and
+hovered over the western edge of the wide, shallow basin. John was sure
+that they were the French scouts of the blue, appearing almost in line
+like troops on the ground, and his heart gave a great throb. No doubt
+could be left now, that this German army was being attacked in force
+and with the greatest violence. It followed then that the entire German
+line was being assailed, and that the French victory was continuing its
+advance. The Republic had rallied grandly and was hurling back the
+Empire in the most magnificent manner.</p>
+
+<p>All those emotions of joy and exultation that he had felt the day before
+returned with increased force. In daily contact he liked Germans as well
+as Frenchmen, but he thought that no punishment could ever be adequate
+for the gigantic crimes of kings. Napoleon himself had been the champion
+of democracy and freedom, until he became an emperor and his head
+swelled so much with success that he thought of God and himself
+together, just as the Kaiser was now thinking. It was a curious
+inversion that the French who were fighting then to dominate Europe were
+fighting now to prevent such a domination. But it was now a great French
+republican nation remade and reinvigorated, as any one could see.</p>
+
+<p>The guards hurried them on again. Another mile and they stopped once
+more on the crest of a low hill, where it seemed that they would remain
+some time, as the Germans were too busy with a vast battle to think much
+about a few prisoners. It was evident that the whole army was engaged.
+The old general, the other generals, the princes and perhaps dukes and
+barons too, were in the thick of it. John's heart was filled with an
+intense hatred of the very name of royalty. Kings and princes could be
+good men personally, but as he saw its work upon the huge battle fields
+of Europe he felt that the institution itself was the curse of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall win again today,&quot; said Fleury, rousing him from his
+absorption. &quot;Look across the fields, Scott, my friend, and see how those
+great masses of infantry charging our army have been repulsed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a far look, and at the distance the German brigades seemed to be
+blended together, but the great gray mass was coming back slowly. He
+forgot all about himself and his own fate in his desire to see every act
+of the gigantic drama as it passed before him. He took no thought of
+escape at present, nor did Fleury, who stood beside him. The fire of the
+guns great and small had now blended into the usual steady thunder,
+beneath which human voices could be heard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We don't have the forty-two centimeters, nor the great siege guns,&quot;
+said Fleury, &quot;but the French field artillery is the best in the world.
+It's undoubtedly holding back the German hosts and covering the French
+advance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's my opinion, too,&quot; said John. &quot;I saw its wonderful work in the
+retreat toward Paris. I think it saved the early French armies from
+destruction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The German army was made of stern material. Having planted its feet here
+it refused to be driven back. Its cannon was a line of flaming
+volcanoes, its cavalry charged again and again into the face of death,
+and its infantry perished in masses, but the stern old general spared
+nothing. Passing up and down the lines, listening at the telephone and
+receiving the reports of air scouts and land scouts, he always hurled
+in fresh troops at the critical points and Fritz and Karl and Wilhelm
+and August, sober and honest men, went forward willingly, sometimes
+singing and sometimes in silence, to die for a false and outworn system.
+John as a prisoner had a better view than he would have had if with the
+French army. In a country open now he could see a full mile to right and
+left, where the German hosts marched again and again to attack, and
+while the French troops were too far away for his eyes he beheld the
+continuous flare of their fire, like a broad red ribbon across the whole
+western horizon.</p>
+
+<p>The passing of time was nothing to him. He forgot all about it in his
+absorption. But the sun climbed on, afternoon came, and still the battle
+at this point raged, the French unable to drive the Germans farther and
+the Germans unable to stop the French attacks. John roused himself and
+endeavored to dissociate the thunder on their flanks from that in front,
+and, after long listening, he was able to make the separation, or at
+least he thought so. He knew now that the struggle there was no less
+fierce than the one before him.</p>
+
+<p>The Kaiser himself must be present with one or the other of these
+armies, and a man who had talked for more than twenty years of his
+divine right, his shining armor, his invincible sword and his mailed
+fist must be raging with the bitterness of death to find that he was
+only a mortal like other mortals, and that simple French republicans
+were defeating the War Lord, his Grand Army and the host of kings,
+princes, dukes, barons, high-born, very high-born, and all the other
+relics of medievalism. Dipped to the heel and beyond in the fountain of
+democracy, John could not keep from feeling a fierce joy as he saw with
+his own eyes the Germans fighting in the utmost desperation, not to take
+Paris and destroy France, but to save themselves from destruction.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon, slow and bright, save for the battle, dragged on. Scott
+and Fleury kept together. Weber appeared once more and spoke rather
+despondently. He believed that the Germans would hold fast, and might
+even resume the offensive toward Paris again, but Fleury shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Today is like yesterday,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can you tell?&quot; asked Weber.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because the fire on both flanks is slowly moving eastward, that is, the
+Germans there are yielding ground. My ears, trained to note such things,
+tell me so. My friend, I am not mistaken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He spoke gravely, without exultation, but John took fresh hope from his
+words. Toward night the fire in their front died somewhat, and after
+sunset it sank lower, but they still heard a prodigious volume of firing
+on both flanks. John remembered then that they had eaten nothing since
+morning, but when some of the prisoners who spoke German requested food
+it was served to them.</p>
+
+<p>Night came over what seemed to be a drawn battle at this point, and
+after eating his brief supper John saw the automobiles and stretchers
+bringing in the wounded. They passed him in thousands and thousands,
+hurt in every conceivable manner. At first he could scarcely bear to
+look at them, but it was astonishing how soon one hardened to such
+sights.</p>
+
+<p>The wounded were being carried to improvised hospitals in the rear, but
+so far as John knew the dead were left on the field. The Germans with
+their usual thorough system worked rapidly and smoothly, but he noticed
+that the fires were but very few. There was but little light in the wood
+of S&eacute;nouart or the hills beyond, and there was little, too, on the
+ridges that marked the French position.</p>
+
+<p>John kept near the edges of the space allotted to the prisoners, hoping
+that he might again see von Arnheim. He had discovered early that the
+Germans were unusually kind to Americans, and the fact that he had been
+taken fighting against them did not prevent them from showing generous
+treatment. The officer in charge of the guard even wanted to talk to him
+about the war and prove to him how jealousy had caused the other nations
+to set upon Germany. But John evaded him and continued to look for the
+young prince who was serving as a mere lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p>It was about an hour after dark when he caught his first glimpse of von
+Arnheim, and he was really glad to see that he was not wounded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've come to tell you, Mr. Scott,&quot; said von Arnheim, &quot;that all of you
+must march at once. You will cross the Marne, and then pass as prisoners
+into Germany. You will be well treated there and I think you can
+probably secure your release on condition that you return to your own
+country and take no further part in the war.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't expect any harshness from the Germans,&quot; he said, &quot;but I'm in
+this war to stay, if the bullets and shells will let me. I warn you now
+that I'm going to escape.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Von Arnheim laughed pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's fair of you to give us warning of your intentions,&quot; he said, &quot;but
+I don't think you'll have much chance. You must get ready to start at
+once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I take it,&quot; said John, &quot;that our departure means the departure of the
+German army also.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Von Arnheim opened his mouth to speak, but he closed it again suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's only a deduction of mine,&quot; said John.</p>
+
+<p>Von Arnheim nodded in farewell and hurried away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now I'm sure,&quot; said John to Fleury a few minutes later, &quot;that this army
+is going to withdraw.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so too,&quot; said Fleury. &quot;I can yet hear the fire of the cannon on
+either flank and it has certainly moved to the east. In my opinion, my
+friend, both German wings have been defeated, and this central army is
+compelled to fall back because it's left without supports. But we'll
+soon see. They can't hide from us the evidences of retreat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prisoners now marched in a long file in the moonlight across the
+fields, and John soon recognized the proof that Fleury was right. The
+German army was retreating. There were innumerable dull, rumbling
+sounds, made by the cannon and motors of all kinds passing along the
+roads, and at times also he heard the heavy tramp of scores of
+thousands marching in a direction that did not lead to Paris.</p>
+
+<p>John began to think now of Lannes. Would he come? Was Weber right when
+he credited to him a knowledge near to omniscience? How was it possible
+for him to pick out a friend in all that huge morass of battle! And yet
+he had a wonderful, almost an unreasoning faith in Philip, and, as
+always when he thought of him, he looked up at the heavens.</p>
+
+<p>It was an average night, one in which large objects should be visible in
+the skies, and he saw several aeroplanes almost over their heads, while
+the rattle of a dirigible came from a point further toward the east.</p>
+
+<p>The aeroplane was bound to be German, but as John looked he saw a sleek
+shape darting high over them all and flying eastward. Intuition, or
+perhaps it was something in the motion and shape of the machine, made
+him believe it was the <i>Arrow.</i> It must be the <i>Arrow!</i> And Lannes must
+be in it! High over the army and high over the German planes it darted
+forward like a swallow and disappeared in a cloud of white mist. His
+hair lifted a little, and a thrill ran down his spine.</p>
+
+<p>He still looked up as he walked along, and there was the sleek shape
+again! It had come back out of the white mist, and was circling over the
+German planes, flying with the speed and certainty of an eagle. He saw
+three of the German machines whirl about and begin to mount as if they
+would examine the stranger. But the solitary plane began to rise again
+in a series of dazzling circles. Up, up it went, as if it would
+penetrate the last and thinnest layer of air, until it reached the dark
+and empty void beyond.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i>&mdash;he was sure it could be no other&mdash;was quickly lost in the
+infinite heights, and then the German planes were lost, too, but they
+soon came back, although the <i>Arrow</i> did not. It had probably returned
+to some point over the French line or had gone eastward beyond the
+Germans.</p>
+
+<p>John felt that he had again seen a sign. He remembered how he and Lannes
+had drawn hope from omens when they were looking at the Arc de Triomphe,
+and a similar hope sprang up now. Weber was right! Lannes would come to
+his rescue. Some thought or impulse yet unknown would guide him.</p>
+
+<p>Light clouds now drifted up from the southwest, and all the aeroplanes
+were hidden, but the heavy murmur of the marching army went on. The
+puffing and clashing of innumerable automobiles came from the roads
+also, though John soon ceased to pay attention to them. As the hours
+passed, he felt an increased weariness. He had sat still almost the
+whole day, but the strain of the watching and waiting had been as great
+as that of the walking now was. He wondered if the guards would ever let
+them stop.</p>
+
+<p>They waded another brook, passed through another wood and then they were
+ordered to halt. The guards announced that they could sleep, as they
+would go no farther that night. The men did not lie down. They fell, and
+each lay where he fell, and in whatever position he had assumed when
+falling.</p>
+
+<p>John was conscious of hearing the order, of striking the grass full
+length, and he knew nothing more until the next morning when he was
+aroused by Fleury. He saw a whitish dawn with much mist floating over
+the fields, and he believed that a large river, probably the Marne, must
+be near.</p>
+
+<p>As far as he could see the ground was covered with German soldiers. They
+too had dropped at the command to stop, and had gone to sleep as they
+were falling. The majority of them still slept.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it, Fleury? Why did you wake me up?&quot; asked John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The river Marne is close by, and I'm sure that the Germans are going to
+retreat across it. I had an idea that possibly we might escape while
+there's so much mist. They can't watch us very closely while they have
+so much else to do, and doubtless they would care but little if some of
+us did escape.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll certainly look for the chance. Can you see any sign of the French
+pursuit?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not yet, but our people will surely follow. They're still at it already
+on the flanks!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The distant thunder of cannon came from both right and left.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A third day of fighting is at hand,&quot; said Fleury.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And it will be followed by a fourth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And a fifth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But we shall continue to drive the enemy away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Both spoke with the utmost confidence. Having seen their armies
+victorious for two days they had no doubt they would win again. All that
+morning they listened to the sounds of combat, although they saw much
+less than on the day before. The prisoners were in a little wood, where
+they lay down at times, and then, restless and anxious, would stand on
+tiptoe again, seeking to see at least a corner of the battle.</p>
+
+<p>John and Fleury were standing near noon at the edge of the wood, when a
+small body of Uhlans halted close by. Being not more than fifty in
+number, John judged that they were scouts, and the foaming mouths of
+their horses showing that they had been ridden hard, confirmed him in
+the opinion. They were only fifty or sixty yards from him, and although
+they were motionless for some time, their eager faces showed that they
+were waiting for some movement.</p>
+
+<p>It was pure chance, but John happened to be looking at a rather large
+man who sat his horse easily, his gloved hand resting on his thigh. He
+saw distinctly that his face was very ruddy and covered with beads of
+perspiration. Then man and horse together fell to the ground as if
+struck by a bolt of lightning. The man did not move at all, but the
+horse kicked for a few moments and lay still.</p>
+
+<p>There was a shout of mingled amazement and horror from the other Uhlans,
+and it found its echo in John's own mind. He saw one of the men look up,
+and he looked up also. A dark shape hovered overhead. Something small
+and black, and then another and another fell from it and shot downward
+into the group of Uhlans. A second man was hurled from his horse and lay
+still upon the ground. Again John felt that thrill of horror and
+amazement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it? What is it?&quot; he cried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think it's the steel arrow,&quot; said Fleury, pressing a little further
+forward and standing on tiptoe. &quot;As well as I can see, the first passed
+entirely through the head of the man and then broke the backbone of the
+horse beneath him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John saw one of the Uhlans, who had dismounted, holding up a short,
+heavy steel weapon, a dart rather than an arrow, its weight adjusted so
+that it was sure to fall point downward. Coming from such a height John
+did not wonder that it had pierced both horse and rider, and as he
+looked another, falling near the Uhlan, struck deep into the earth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There goes the aeroplane that did it,&quot; said John to Fleury, pointing
+upward.</p>
+
+<p>It hovered a minute or two longer and flew swiftly back toward the
+French lines, pursued vainly a portion of the distance by the German
+Taubes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A new weapon of death,&quot; said Fleury. &quot;The fighters move in the air,
+under the water, on the earth, everywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Uhlans are off again,&quot; said John. &quot;Whatever their duty was the
+steel arrows have sent them on it in a hurry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And we're about to move too. See, these batteries are limbering up
+preparatory to a withdrawal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Inside of fifteen minutes they were again marching eastward, though
+slowly and with the roar of battle going on as fiercely behind them as
+ever. John heard again from some of the talk of the guards that the
+Germans had five armies along their whole line, but whether the one with
+which he was now a prisoner was falling back with its whole force he
+had no way of knowing. Both he and Fleury were sure the prisoners
+themselves would soon cross the Marne, and that large detachments of the
+enemy would go with them.</p>
+
+<p>Thoughts of escape returned. Crossing a river in battle was a perilous
+operation, entailing much confusion, and the chance might come at the
+Marne. They could see too that the Germans were now being pressed
+harder. The French shells were coming faster and with more deadly
+precision. Now and then they exploded among the masses of German
+infantry, and once or twice they struck close to the captives.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would be a pity to be killed by our own people,&quot; said Fleury.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And at such a time as this,&quot; said John. &quot;Do you know, Fleury, that my
+greatest fear about getting killed is that then I wouldn't know how this
+war is going to end?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel that way myself sometimes. Look, there's the Marne! See its
+waters shining! It's the mark of the first great stage in the German
+retreat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder how we're going to cross. I suppose the bridges will be
+crowded with artillery and men. It might pay the Germans just to let us
+go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They won't do that. There's nothing in their rules about liberating
+prisoners, and they wouldn't hear of such a thing, anyhow, trouble or no
+trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see some boats, and I fancy we'll cross on them. I wonder if we
+couldn't make what we call in my country a get-away, while we're waiting
+for the embarkation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If our gunners become much more accurate our get-away, as you call it,
+will be into the next life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Two huge shells had burst near, and, although none of the flying metal
+struck them, their faces were stung by fine dirt. When John brushed the
+dust out of his eyes he saw that he was right in his surmise about the
+crossing in boats, but wrong about probable delays in embarkation. The
+German machine even in retreat worked with neatness and dispatch. There
+were three boats, and the first relay of prisoners, including John and
+Fleury, was hurried into them. A bridge farther down the stream rumbled
+heavily as the artillery crossed on it. But the French force was coming
+closer and closer. A shell struck in the river sixty or eighty feet from
+them and the water rose in a cataract. Some of the prisoners had been
+put at the oars and they, like the Germans, showed eagerness to reach
+the other side. John noted the landing, a narrow entrance between thick
+clumps of willows, and he confessed to himself that he too would feel
+better when they were on the farther bank.</p>
+
+<p>The Marne is not a wide river, and a few powerful pulls at the oars sent
+them near to the landing. But at that moment a shell whistled through
+the air, plunged into the water and exploded practically beneath the
+boat.</p>
+
+<p>John was hurled upward in a gush of foam and water, and then, when he
+dropped back, the Marne received him in its bosom.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" />CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SPORT OF KINGS</h3>
+
+
+<p>John Scott, who was suffering from his second immersion in a French
+river, came up with mouth, eyes and nose full of water. The stream
+around him was crowded with men swimming or with those who had reached
+water shallow enough to permit of wading. As well as he could see, the
+shell had done no damage besides giving them a huge bath, of which every
+one stood in much need.</p>
+
+<p>But he had a keen and active mind and it never worked quicker than it
+did now. He had thought his chance for escape might come in the
+confusion of a hurried crossing, and here it was. He dived and swam down
+the stream toward the willows that lined the bank. When he could hold
+his breath no longer he came up in one of the thickest clumps. The water
+reached to his waist there, and standing on the bottom in all the
+density of willows and bushes he was hidden thoroughly from all except
+watchful searchers. And who would miss him at such a time, and who, if
+missing, would take the trouble to look for him while the French cannon
+were thundering upon them and a perilous crossing was to be made?</p>
+
+<p>It was all so ridiculously easy. He knew that he had nothing to do but
+stand close while the men pulled themselves out of the river and the
+remaining boats made their passage. For further protection he moved into
+water deep enough to reach to his neck, while he still retained the
+cover of the willows and bushes. Here he watched the German troops pass
+over, and listened to the heavy cannonade. He soon noted that the
+Germans, after crossing, were taking up strong positions on the other
+side. He could tell it from the tremendous artillery fire that came from
+their side of the Marne.</p>
+
+<p>John now found that his position, while safe from observation, was far
+from comfortable. The chill of the water began to creep into his bones
+and more shells struck unpleasantly near. Another fell into the river
+and he was blinded for a moment by the violent showers of foam and
+spray. He began to feel uneasy. If the German and French armies were
+going to fight each other from the opposing sides of the Marne he would
+be held there indefinitely, either to be killed by a shell or bullet or
+to drown from cramp.</p>
+
+<p>But time passed and he saw no chance of leaving his watery lair. The
+chill went further into his bones. He was lonesome too. He longed for
+the companionship of Fleury, and he wondered what had become of him. He
+sincerely hoped that he too had reached a covert and that they should
+meet again.</p>
+
+<p>No rumbling came from the bridge below, and, glancing down the stream,
+John saw that it was empty. There must be many other bridges over the
+Marne, but he believed that the German armies had now crossed it, and
+would devote their energy to a new attack. He was squarely between the
+lines and he did not see any chance to escape until darkness.</p>
+
+<p>He looked up and saw a bright sun and blue skies. Night was distant, and
+so far as he was concerned it might be a year away. If two armies were
+firing shells directly at a man they must hit him in an hour or two, and
+if not, a polar stream such as the Marne had now become would certainly
+freeze him to death. He had no idea French rivers could be so cold. The
+Marne must be fed by a whole flock of glaciers.</p>
+
+<p>His teeth began to chatter violently, and then he took stern hold of
+himself. He felt that he was allowing his imagination to run away with
+him, and he rebuked John Scott sternly and often for such foolishness.
+He tried to get some warmth into his veins by jumping up and down in the
+water, but it was of little avail. Yet he stood it another hour. Then he
+made one more long and critical examination of the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Shells were now screaming high overhead, but nobody was in sight. He
+judged that it was now an artillery battle, with the foes perhaps three
+or four miles apart, and, leaving the willows, he crept out upon the
+bank. It was the side held by the Germans, but he knew that if he
+attempted to swim the river to the other bank he would be taken with
+cramps and would drown.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little patch of long grass about ten yards from the river,
+and, crawling to it, he lay down. The grass rose a foot high on either
+side of him, but the sun, bright and hot, shone directly down upon his
+face and body. It felt wonderfully good after that long submersion in
+the Marne. Removing all his heavy wet clothing, he wrung the water out
+of it as much as he could, and lay back in a state of nature, for both
+himself and his clothing to dry. Meanwhile, in order to avoid cold, he
+stretched and tensed his muscles for a quarter of an hour before he lay
+still again.</p>
+
+<p>A wonderful warmth and restfulness flowed back into his veins. He had
+feared chills and a serious illness, but he knew now that they would not
+come. Youth, wiry and seasoned by hard campaigning, would quickly
+recover, but knowing that, for the present, he could neither go forward
+nor backward, he luxuriated in the grass, while the sun sucked the damp
+out of his clothing.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the battle was raging over his head and he scarcely noticed
+it. The shells whistled and shrieked incessantly, but, midway between
+the contending lines, he felt that they were no longer likely to drop
+near. So he relaxed, and a dreamy feeling crept over him. He could hear
+the murmur of insects in the grass, and he reflected that the smaller
+one was, the safer one was. A shell was not likely to take any notice of
+a gnat.</p>
+
+<p>He felt of his clothing. It was not dry yet and he would wait a little
+longer. Anyhow, what was the use of hurrying? He turned over on his
+side and continued to luxuriate in the long grass.</p>
+
+<p>The warmth and dryness had sent the blood pulsing in a strong flood
+through his veins once more, and the mental rebound came too. Although
+he lay immediately between two gigantic armies which were sending
+showers of metal at each other along a line of many miles, he considered
+his escape sure and the thought of personal danger disappeared. If one
+only had something to eat! It is curious how the normal instincts and
+wants of man assert themselves even under the most dangerous conditions.
+He began to think of the good German brown bread and the hot sausage
+that he had devoured, and the hot coffee that he had drunk. One could
+eat the food of an enemy without compunction.</p>
+
+<p>But it was folly to move, even to seek dinner or supper, while the
+shells were flying in such quantities over his head. As he turned once
+more and lay on his back he caught glimpses as of swift shadows passing
+high above, and the whistling and screaming of shells and shrapnel was
+continuous. It was true that a missile might fall short and find him in
+the grass, but he considered the possibility remote and it did not give
+him a tremor. As he was sure now that he would suffer no bodily ill from
+his long bath in the Marne he might remain in the grass until night and
+then creep away. Blessed night! It was the kindly veil for all
+fugitives, and no one ever awaited it with more eagerness than John
+Scott.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was now well beyond the zenith, and its golden darts came
+indirectly. His clothing was thoroughly dry at last, and he put it on
+again. Clad anew he was tempted to seek escape at once, but the sound of
+a footstep caused him to lie down in the shelter of the grass again.</p>
+
+<p>His ear was now against the earth and the footsteps were much more
+distinct. He was sure that they were made by a horse, and he believed
+that a Uhlan was riding near. He remembered how long and sharp their
+lances were, and he was grateful that the grass was so thick and tall.
+He longed for the automatic revolver that had been such a trusty friend,
+but the Germans had taken it long since, and he was wholly unarmed.</p>
+
+<p>He was afraid to raise his head high enough to see the horseman, lest he
+be seen, but the footsteps, as if fate had a grudge against him, were
+coming nearer. His blood grew hot in a kind of rebellion against chance,
+or the power that directed the universe. It was really a grim joke that,
+after having escaped so much, a mere wandering scout of a Uhlan should
+pick him up, so to speak, on the point of his lance.</p>
+
+<p>He pressed hard against the earth. He would have pressed himself into it
+if he could, and imagination, the deceiver, made him think that he was
+doing so. The temptation to raise his head above the grass and look
+became more violent, but will held him firm and he still lay flat.</p>
+
+<p>Then he noticed that the hoofbeats wandered about in an irregular,
+aimless fashion. Not even a scout hunting a good position for
+observation would ride in such a way, and becoming more daring he
+raised his head slowly, until he could peep over the grass stems. He saw
+a horse, fifteen or twenty feet from him, but without rider, bridle or
+saddle. It was a black horse of gigantic build like a Percheron, with
+feet as large as a half-bushel measure, and a huge rough mane.</p>
+
+<p>The horse saw John and gazed at him out of great, mild, limpid eyes. The
+young American thought he beheld fright there and the desire for
+companionship. The animal, probably belonging to some farmer who had
+fled before the armies, had wandered into the battle area, seeking the
+human friends to whom he was so used, and nothing living was more
+harmless than he. He reminded John in some ways of those stalwart and
+honest peasants who were so ruthlessly made into cannon food by the
+gigantic and infinitely more dangerous Tammany that rules the seventy
+million Germans.</p>
+
+<p>The horse walked nearer and the look in his eyes became so full of
+terror and the need of man's support that for the time he stood as a
+human being in John's imagination.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor old horse!&quot; he called, &quot;I'm sorry for you, but your case is no
+worse than mine. Here we both are, wishing harm to nobody, but with a
+million men shooting over our backs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The horse, emboldened by the friendly voice, came nearer and nuzzled at
+the human friend whom he had found so opportunely, and who, although so
+much smaller than himself, was, as he knew, so much more powerful. This
+human comrade would show him what to do and protect him from all harm.
+But John took alarm. He too found pleasure in having a comrade, even if
+it were only a horse, but the animal would probably attract the
+attention of scouts or skirmishers. He tried to shoo him away, but for a
+long time the horse would not move. At last he pulled a heavy bunch of
+grass, wadded it together and threw it in his face.</p>
+
+<p>The horse, staring at him reproachfully, turned and walked away. John's
+lively fancy saw a tear in the huge, luminous eye, and his conscience
+smote him hard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had to do it, Marne, old fellow,&quot; he called. &quot;You're so big and you
+stick up so high that you arouse attention, and that's just what I don't
+want.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had decided to call the horse Marne, after the river near by, and he
+noticed that he did not go far. The animal, reassured by John's friendly
+after-word, began to crop the grass about twenty feet away. He had a
+human friend after all, one on whom he could rely. Man did not want to
+be bothered by him just then, but that was the way of man, and he did
+not mind, since the grass was so plentiful and good. He would be there,
+close at hand, when he was needed.</p>
+
+<p>John was really moved by the interlude. The loneliness, and then the
+friendliness of the horse appealed to him. He too needed a comrade, and
+here he was. He forgot, for a time, the moaning of the shells over his
+head, and began to think again about his escape. So thinking, the horse
+came once more into his mind. He showed every sign of grazing there
+until dark came. Then why not ride away on him? It was true that a
+horse was larger and made more noise than a fugitive man slipping
+through the grass, but there were times when strength and speed,
+especially speed, counted for a lot.</p>
+
+<p>The last hours of the afternoon waned, trailing their slow length,
+minute by minute, and throughout that time the roar of the battle was as
+steady as the fall of Niagara. It even came to the point that John paid
+little attention to it, but the sport of kings, in which thousands of
+men were ground up, they knew not why, went merrily on. None of the
+shells struck near John, and with infinite joy he saw the coming of the
+long shadows betokening the twilight. The horse, still grazing near by,
+raised his head more than once and looked at him, as if it were time to
+go. As the sun sank and the dusk grew John stood up. He saw that the
+night was going to be dark and he was thankful. The Marne was merely a
+silver streak in the shadow, and in the wood near by the trees were
+fusing into a single clump of darkness.</p>
+
+<p>He stood erect, stretching his muscles and feeling that it was glorious
+to be a man with his head in the air, instead of a creature that
+grovelled on the ground. Then he walked over to the horse and patted him
+on the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Marne, old boy,&quot; he said, &quot;I think it's about time for you and me to
+go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The horse rubbed his great head against John's arm, signifying that he
+was ready to obey any command his new master might give him. John knew
+from his build that he was a draught horse, but there were times in
+which one could not choose a particular horse for a particular need.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Marne, old fellow,&quot; he said, stroking the animal's mane, &quot;you're not to
+be a menial cart horse tonight. I am an Arabian genie and I hereby turn
+you into a light, smooth, beautifully built automobile for one passenger
+only, and I'm that passenger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Holding fast to the thick mane he sprang upon the horse's back, and
+urged him down the stream, keeping close to the water where there was
+shelter among the willows and bushes. He had no definite idea in his
+head, but he felt that if he kept on going he must arrive somewhere. He
+was afraid to make the horse swim the river in an effort to reach the
+French army. Appearing on the surface of the water he felt that he would
+almost certainly be seen and some good rifleman or other would be sure
+to pick him off.</p>
+
+<p>He concluded at last that if no German troops came in sight he would let
+the horse take him where he would. Marne must have a home and a master
+somewhere and habit would send him to them. So he ceased to push at his
+neck and try to direct him, and the horse continued a slow and peaceful
+progress down the stream in the shadow of small trees. The night was
+darker than those just before it, and the dampness of the air indicated
+possible flurries of rain. Cannon still rumbled on the horizon like the
+thunder of a summer night.</p>
+
+<p>While trusting to the horse to lead him to some destination, John kept a
+wary watch, with eyes now growing used to the darkness. If German
+troops appeared and speed to escape were lacking, he would jump from
+Marne's back and hunt a new covert. But he saw nobody. The evidences of
+man's work were present continually in the cannonade, but man himself
+was absent.</p>
+
+<p>The horse went on with ponderous and sure tread. Evidently he had
+wandered far under the influence of the firing, but it was equally
+evident that his certain instinct was guiding him back again. He crossed
+a brook flowing down into the Marne, passed through a wheat field, and
+entered a little valley, where grew a number of oaks, clear of
+undergrowth.</p>
+
+<p>When he saw what was lying under the oaks he pulled hard at the rough
+mane, until the horse stopped. He had distinctly made out the figures of
+men, stretched upon the ground, apparently asleep, and sure to be
+Germans. He stared hard at them, but the horse snorted and tried to pull
+away. The action of the animal rather than his own eyesight made him
+reckon aright.</p>
+
+<p>A horse would not be afraid of living men, and, slipping from the back
+of Marne, John approached cautiously. A few rays of wan moonlight
+filtered through the trees, and when he had come close he shuddered over
+and over again. About a dozen men lay on the ground and all were stone
+dead. The torn earth and their own torn figures showed that a shell had
+burst among them. Doubtless it had been an infantry patrol, and the
+survivors had hurried away.</p>
+
+<p>John, still shuddering, was about to turn back to his horse, when he
+remembered that he needed much and that in war one must not be too
+scrupulous. Force of will made him return to the group and he sought for
+what he wanted. Evidently the firing had been hot there and the rest of
+the patrol had not lingered in their flight.</p>
+
+<p>He took from one man a pair of blankets. He could have had his choice of
+two or three good rifles, but he passed them by in favor of a large
+automatic pistol which would not be in the way. This had been carried by
+a young man whom he took to be an officer, and he also found on him many
+cartridges for the pistol. Then he searched their knapsacks for food,
+finding plenty of bread and sausage and filling with it one knapsack
+which he put over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>He returned hastily to his horse, guided him around the fatal spot, and
+when he was some distance on the other side dismounted and ate as only a
+half-starved man can eat. Water was obtained from a convenient brook and
+carefully storing the remainder of the food in the knapsack he remounted
+the horse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now go on, my good and gallant beast,&quot; he said, &quot;and I feel sure that
+your journey is nearly at an end. A draught horse like you, bulky and
+slow, would not wander any great distance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The horse himself immediately justified his prediction by raising his
+head, neighing and advancing at a swifter pace. John saw, standing among
+some trees, a low and small house, built of stone and evidently very
+old, its humble nature indicating that it belonged to a peasant. Behind
+it was a tiny vineyard, and there was a stable and another outhouse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Marne, my lad, here's your home, beyond a doubt,&quot; said John. But
+no answer came to the neigh. The house remained silent and dark. It
+confirmed John's first belief that the horse belonged to some peasant
+who had fled with his family from the armies. He stroked the animal's
+neck, and felt real pity for him, as if he had been a child abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that while I'm a friend I'm almost a stranger to you, but come,
+we'll examine things,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>He sprang off the horse, and drew his automatic. The possession of the
+pistol gave him an immense amount of courage and confidence, but he did
+not anticipate any trouble at the house as he was sure that it was
+abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>He pushed open the door and saw a dark inside. Staring a little he made
+out a plainly furnished room, from which all the lighter articles had
+been taken. There was a hearth, but with no fire on it, and John decided
+that he would sleep in the house. It was in a lonely place, but he would
+take the risk.</p>
+
+<p>The horse had already gone to the stable and was pushing the door with
+his nose. John let him in, and found some oat straw which he gave him.
+Then he left him munching in content, and as he departed he struck him a
+resounding blow of friendliness on the flank.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good old Marne,&quot; he said, &quot;you're certainly one of the best friends
+I've found in Europe. In fact, you're about the only living being I've
+associated with that doesn't want to kill somebody.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He entered the house and closed the door. In addition to the
+sitting-room there was a bedroom and a kitchen, all bearing the signs of
+recent occupancy. He found a small petroleum lamp, but he concluded not
+to light it. Instead he sat on a wooden bench in the main room beside a
+small window, ate a little more from the knapsack, and watched a while
+lest friend or enemy should come.</p>
+
+<p>It had grown somewhat darker and the clouds were driving across the sky.
+The wind was rising and the threatened flurries of rain came, beating
+against the cottage. John was devoutly glad that he had found the little
+house. Having spent many hours immersed to his neck in a river he felt
+that he had had enough water for one day. Moreover, his escape, his snug
+shelter and the abundance of food at hand, gave him an extraordinary
+sense of ease and rest. He noticed that in the darkness and rain one
+might pass within fifty feet of the cottage without seeing it.</p>
+
+<p>The wind increased and moaned among the oaks that grew around the house,
+but above the moaning the sounds of battle, the distant thunder of the
+artillery yet came. The sport of kings was going merrily on. Neither
+night nor storm stopped it and men were still being ground by thousands
+into cannon food. But John had now a feeling of detachment. Three days
+of continuous battle had dulled his senses. They might fight on as they
+pleased. It did not concern him, for tonight at least. He was going to
+look out for himself.</p>
+
+<p>He fastened the door securely, but, as he left the window open,
+currents of fresh cool air poured into the room. He was now fully
+revived in both mind and body, and he took present ease and comfort,
+thinking but little of the future. The flurries of rain melted into a
+steady pour. The cold deepened, and as he wrapped the two blankets
+around him his sense of comfort increased. Lightning flared at
+infrequent intervals and now and then real thunder mingled with that of
+the artillery.</p>
+
+<p>He felt that he might have been back at home. It was like some snug
+little place in the high hills of Pennsylvania or New York. Like many
+other Americans, he often felt surprise that Europe should be so much
+like America. The trees and the grass and the rivers were just the same.
+Nothing was different but the ancient buildings. He knew now that
+history and a long literature merely created the illusion of difference.</p>
+
+<p>He wondered why the artillery fire did not die, with the wind sweeping
+such gusts of rain before it. Then he remembered that the sound of so
+many great cannon could travel a long distance, and there might be no
+rain at the points from which the firing came. The cottage might stand
+in a long narrow valley up which the clouds would travel.</p>
+
+<p>Not feeling sleepy yet he decided to have another look about the house.
+A search revealed a small box of matches near the lamp on the shelf.
+Then he closed the window in order to shut in the flame, and, lighting
+the lamp, pursued his investigation.</p>
+
+<p>He found in the kitchen a jar of honey that he had overlooked, and he
+resolved to use a part of it for breakfast. Europeans did not seem able
+to live without jam or honey in the mornings, and he would follow the
+custom. Not much was left in the other rooms, besides some old articles
+of clothing, including two or three blue blouses of the kind worn by
+French peasants or workmen, but on one of the walls he saw an excellent
+engraving of the young Napoleon, conqueror of Italy.</p>
+
+<p>It showed him, horseback, on a high road looking down upon troops in
+battle, Castiglione or Rivoli, perhaps, his face thin and gaunt, his
+hair long and cut squarely across his forehead, the eyes deep, burning
+and unfathomable. It was so thoroughly alive that he believed it must be
+a reproduction of some great painting. He stood a long time, fascinated
+by this picture of the young republican general who rose like a meteor
+over Europe and who changed the world.</p>
+
+<p>John, like nearly all young men, viewed the Napoleonic cycle with a
+certain awe and wonder. A student, he had considered Napoleon the great
+democratic champion and mainly in the right as far as Austerlitz. Then
+swollen ambition had ruined everything and, in his opinion, another
+swollen ambition, though for far less cause, was now bringing equal
+disaster upon Europe. A belief in one's infallibility might come from
+achievement or birth, but only the former could win any respect from
+thinking men.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to John presently that the deep, inscrutable eyes were gazing
+at him, and he felt a quivering at the roots of his hair. It was young
+Bonaparte, the republican general, and not Napoleon, the emperor, who
+was looking into his heart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; said John, in a sort of defiance, &quot;if you had stuck to your
+early principles we wouldn't have all this now. First Consul you might
+have been, but you shouldn't have gone any further.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned away with a sigh of regret that so great a warrior and
+statesman, in the end, should have misused his energies.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to the room below, blew out the lamp and opened the window
+again. The cool fresh air once more poured into the room, and he took
+long deep breaths of it. It was still raining, though lightly, and the
+pattering of the drops on the leaves made a pleasant sound. The thunder
+and the lightning had ceased, though not the far rumble of artillery.
+John knew that the sport of kings was still going on under the
+searchlights, and all his intense horror of the murderous monarchies
+returned. He was not sleepy yet, and he listened a long time. The sound
+seemed to come from both sides of him, and he felt that the abandoned
+cottage among the trees was merely a little oasis in the sea of war.</p>
+
+<p>The rain ceased and he concluded to scout about the house to see if any
+one was near, or if any farm animals besides the horse had been left.
+But Marne was alone. There was not even a fowl of any kind. He concluded
+that the horse had probably wandered away before the peasant left, as so
+valuable an animal would not have been abandoned otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>His scouting&mdash;he was learning to be very cautious&mdash;took him some
+distance from the house and he came to a narrow road, but smooth and
+hard, a road which troops were almost sure to use, while such great
+movements were going on. He waited behind a hedge a little while, and
+then he heard the hum of motors.</p>
+
+<p>He had grown familiar with the throbbing, grinding sound made by many
+military automobiles on the march, but he waited calmly, merely
+loosening his automatic for the sake of precaution. He felt sure that
+while he stood behind a hedge he would never be seen on a dark night by
+men traveling in haste. The automobiles came quickly into view and in
+those in front he saw elderly men in uniforms of high rank. Nearly all
+the German generals seemed to him to be old men who for forty or fifty
+years had studied nothing but how to conquer, men too old and hardened
+to think much of the rights of others or ever to give way to generous
+emotions.</p>
+
+<p>He also saw sitting erect in one of the motors the man for whom he had
+felt at first sight an invincible repulsion. Prince Karl of Auersperg.
+Young von Arnheim had represented the good prince to him, but here was
+the medieval type, the believer in divine right, and in his own
+superiority, decreed even before birth. John noted in the moonlight his
+air of ownership, his insolent eyes and his heavy, arrogant face. He
+hoped that the present war would sweep away all such as Auersperg.</p>
+
+<p>He watched nearly an hour while the automobiles, cyclists, a column of
+infantry, and then several batteries of heavy guns drawn by motors,
+passed. He judged that the Germans were executing a change of front
+somewhere, and that the Franco-British forces were still pressing hard.
+The far thunder of the guns had not ceased for an instant, although it
+must be nearly midnight. He wished he knew what this movement on the
+part of the Germans meant, but, even if he had known, he had no way of
+reaching his own army, and he turned back to the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>Having fastened the door securely again he spread the blankets on the
+bench by the window and lay down to sleep. The tension was gone from his
+nerves now, and he felt that he could fall asleep at once, but he did
+not. A shift in the wind brought the sound of the artillery more
+plainly. His imagination again came into vivid play. He believed that
+the bench beneath him, the whole cottage, in fact, was quivering before
+the waves of the air, set in such violent motion by so many great guns.</p>
+
+<p>It annoyed him intensely. He felt a sort of personal anger against
+everybody. It was past midnight of the third day and it was time for the
+killing to stop. At least they might rest until morning, and give his
+nerves a chance. He moved restlessly on the bench a half hour or more,
+but at last he sank gradually to sleep. As his eyes closed the thunder
+of the cannonade was as loud and steady as ever. He slept, but the
+murderous sport of kings went on.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" />CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PUZZLING SIGNAL</h3>
+
+
+<p>When John awoke a bright sun was shining in at the window, bringing with
+it the distant mutter of cannon, a small fire was burning on the hearth
+on the opposite side of the room, a man was bending over the coals, and
+the pleasant odor of boiling coffee came to his nostrils. He sat up in
+amazement and looked at the man who, not turning around, went on
+placidly with his work of preparing breakfast. But he recognized the
+figure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Weber!&quot; he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None other!&quot; said the Alsatian, facing about, and showing a cheery
+countenance. &quot;I was in the boat just behind you when your own was
+demolished by the shell. In all the spray and foam and confusion I saw
+my chance, and dropping overboard from ours I floated with the stream. I
+had an idea that you might escape, and since you must come down the
+river between the two armies I also, for the same reasons, chose the
+same path. I came upon this cottage several hours ago, picked the
+fastenings of the door and to my astonishment and delight found you, my
+friend, unharmed, but sound asleep upon the bench there. I slept a while
+in the corner, then I undertook to make breakfast with provisions and
+utensils that I found in the forest. Ah, it was easy enough last night
+to find almost anything one wished. The fields and forest were full of
+dead men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I provided myself in the same way, but I'm delighted to see you. I was
+never before in my life so lonely. How chance seems to throw us together
+so often!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And we've both profited by it. The coffee is boiling now, Mr. Scott.
+I've a good German coffee pot and two cups that I took from the fallen.
+God rest their souls, they'll need them no more, while we do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The battle goes on,&quot; said John, listening a moment at the window.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Somewhere on the hundred mile line it has continued without a break of
+an instant, and it may go on this way for a week or a month. Ah, it's a
+fearful war, Mr. Scott, and we've seen only the beginning! But drink the
+coffee now, while it's hot. And I've warmed too, some of the cold food
+from the knapsacks. German sausage is good at any time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And just now it's heavenly. I'm glad we have such a plentiful supply of
+sausage and bread, even if we did have to take it from the dead. I want
+to tell you again how pleasant it is to see you here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel that way too. We're like comrades united. Now if we only had
+your English friend Carstairs, your American friend Wharton, and Lannes
+we'd be quite a family group.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fancy that we'll see Lannes before we do Carstairs and Wharton.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so too. He'll certainly be hovering today somewhere over the
+ground between the two armies&mdash;either to observe the Germans or more
+likely to carry messages between the French generals. I tell you, Mr.
+Scott, that Philip Lannes is perhaps the most wonderful young man in
+Europe. In addition to his extraordinary ability in the air he has
+courage, coolness, perception and quickness almost without equal.
+There's something Napoleonic about him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know he's descended from the family of the famous Marshal, Lannes,
+not from Lannes himself, but from a close relative, and the blood's the
+same. They say that blood will tell, and don't you think that the spirit
+of the great Lannes may have reappeared in Philip?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's altogether likely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've been thinking a lot about Napoleon. There's a wonderful picture of
+him as a young republican general in a room here. Perhaps it's the
+conditions around us, but at times I am sure the heroic days of the
+First Republic have returned to France. The spirit that animated Hoche
+and Marceau and Kleber and Bonaparte, before he became spoiled, seems to
+have descended upon the French. And there were Murat, Lannes and
+Lefebvre, and Berthier and the others. Think of that wonderful crowd of
+boys leading the republican armies to victories over all the kings! It
+seems to me the most marvelous thing in the history of war, since the
+Greeks turned back the Persians.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Weber refilled his coffee cup, drank a portion of it, and said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have thought of it, Mr. Scott, I have thought of it more than once.
+It may be that the Gallic fury has been aroused. It has seemed so to me
+since the German armies were turned back from Paris. The French have
+burned more gunpowder than any other nation in Europe, and they're a
+fighting race. It would appear now that the Terrible Year, 1870, was
+merely an aggregation of mistakes, and did not represent either the
+wisdom or natural genius of the nation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is, the French were then far below normal, as we would say, but
+have now returned to their best, and that the two Kaisers made the
+mistake of thinking the French in their lowest form were the French in
+their usual form?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be so,&quot; said Weber, thoughtfully. &quot;Nations reckon their strength
+in peace, but only war itself discloses the fact. Evidently tremendous
+miscalculations have been made by somebody.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By somebody? By whom? That's why I'm against the Kaisers and all the
+secret business of the military monarchies. War made over night by a
+dozen men! a third of the world's population plunged into battle! and
+the rest drawn into the suffering some way or other! I don't like a lot
+of your European ways.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Weber shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We've inherited kings,&quot; he said. &quot;But how did you find this place?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Accident. Stumbled on it, and mighty grateful I was, too. It kept me
+warm and dry after standing so long in the Marne I thought I was bound
+to turn into a fish. Isolated little place, but the Germans have been
+passing near. Before sleeping last night, I went out scouting and as I
+stood behind a hedge I saw a lot of them. I recognized in a motor the
+Very High Born, his High Mightiness, the owner of the earth, the Prince
+of Auersperg.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Weber took another drink of coffee.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An able man and one of our most bitter enemies,&quot; he said. &quot;A foe of
+democracy everywhere. I think he was to have been made governor of
+Paris, and then Paris would have known that it had a governor. I've seen
+him in Alsace, and I've heard a lot about him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But all that's off now. I fancy that the next governor of Paris, if it
+should have a governor, will be a Frenchman. But the day is advancing,
+Weber; what do you think we ought to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've been thinking of your friend Lannes. I've an idea that he'll come
+for you, if he finds an interval in his duties.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how could he possibly find me? Why, it's the old needle in the
+haystack business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He couldn't unless we made some sort of signal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's no signal that I can make.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But there's one that I can. Look, Mr. Scott.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He unbuttoned his long French coat, and took from his breast a roll of
+red, white and blue. He opened it and disclosed a French flag about four
+feet long.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that were put in a conspicuous place,&quot; he said, &quot;an aviator with
+glasses could see it a long way, and he would come to find out what it
+meant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The top of a tree is the place for it!&quot; exclaimed John. &quot;Now if you
+only had around here a real tree, or two, in place of what we call
+saplings in my country, we might do some fine signaling with the flag.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll try it, but I think we should go a considerable distance from the
+cottage. If Germans instead of French should come then we'd have a
+better chance of escaping among the hedges and vineyards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John agreed with him and they quickly made ready, each taking his
+automatic and knapsack, and leaving the fire to die of itself on the
+hearth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm telling that cottage good-bye with regret,&quot; said John, as they
+walked away. &quot;I spent some normal and peaceful hours there last night
+and it's a neat little place. I hope its owners will be able to come
+back to it. As soon as I open the stable door, in order that the horse
+may go where he will, I'll be ready.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He gave the big animal a friendly pat as he left and Marne gazed after
+him with envious sorrowful eyes.</p>
+
+<p>They walked a full mile, keeping close to the Marne, where the trees and
+bushes were thickest, and listened meanwhile to the fourth day's
+swelling roar of the battle. Its long continuance had made it even more
+depressing and terrifying than in its earlier stages. To John's mind, at
+least, it took on the form of a cataclysm, of some huge paroxysm of the
+earth. He ate to it, he slept to it, he woke to it, and now he was
+walking to it. The illusion was deepened by the fact that no human being
+save Weber was visible to him. The country between the two monstrous
+battle lines was silent and deserted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Apparently,&quot; said Weber, &quot;we're in no danger of human interference as
+we walk here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not unless a shell coming from a point fifteen miles or so beyond the
+hills should drop on us, or we should be pierced by an arrow from one of
+our Frenchmen in the clouds. But so far as I can see there's nothing
+above us, although I can make out one or two aeroplanes far toward the
+east.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The air is heavy and cloudy and that's against them, but they'll be out
+before long. You'll see. I think, Mr. Scott, that we'll find a good tree
+in that little grove of beeches there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The tall one in the center. Yes, that'll suit us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They inspected the tree and then made a long circuit about it, finding
+nobody near. John, full of zeal and enthusiasm, volunteered to climb the
+tree and fasten the flag to its topmost stem, and Weber, after some
+claims on his own behalf, agreed. John was a good climber, alert, agile
+and full of strength, and he went up the trunk like an expert. It was an
+uncommonly tall tree for France, much more than a sapling, and when he
+reached the last bough that would support him he found that he could see
+over all the other trees and some of the low hills. At a little distance
+ran the Marne, a silver sheet, and he thought he could discern faint
+puffs of smoke on the hills beyond. No human being was in sight, but
+although high in the tree he could still feel the vibrations of the air
+beneath the throb of so many great guns. Several aeroplanes hovered at
+points far distant, and he knew that others would be on the long battle
+line.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching as high as he could he tied the flag with a piece of twine that
+Weber had given him&mdash;the Alsation seemed to have provided for
+everything&mdash;and then watched it as it unfolded and fluttered in the
+light breeze. He felt a certain pride, as he had done his part of the
+task well. The flag waved above the green leaves and any watcher of the
+skies could see it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How does it show?&quot; he called to Weber.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, indeed. You'd better climb down now. If the Germans come from the
+air they'll get you there, and if they come on land they'll have you in
+the tree. You'll be caught between air and earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That being the case I'll come down at once,&quot; said John, and he
+descended the tree rapidly. At Weber's advice they withdrew to a cluster
+of vines growing near, where they would be well hidden, since their
+signal was as likely to draw enemies as friends.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think Lannes will surely see that flag,&quot; said Weber.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why do you have such great confidence in his coming?&quot; asked John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He inspires confidence, when you see him, and there's his reputation.
+I've an idea that he'll be carrying dispatches between the two wings of
+the French army, dispatches of vast importance, since the different
+French forces have to cooperate now along a line of four or five score
+miles. Of course the telephone and the telegraph are at work, too, but
+the value of the aeroplane as a scout and dispatch bearer cannot be over
+estimated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One is coming now,&quot; said John, &quot;and I think it has been attracted by
+our flag. I take it to be German.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then we'd better keep very close. Still, there's little chance of our
+being seen here, and the aviators, even if they suspect a presence,
+can't afford to descend, leave their planes and search for anybody.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I agree with you there. One can remain here in comparative safety and
+watch the results of our signal. That machine is coming fast and I'm
+quite sure it's German.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An armored machine with two men and a light rapid fire gun in it.
+Beyond a doubt it will circle about our tree.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The plane was very near now, and assuredly it was German. John could
+discern the Teutonic cast of their countenances, as the two men in it
+leaned over and looked at the flag. They dropped lower and lower and
+then flew in circles about the tree. John, despite his anxiety and
+suspense, could not fail to notice the humorous phase of it. The plane
+certainly could not effect a landing in the boughs, and if it descended
+to the ground in order that one of their number might get out, climb the
+tree and capture the flag, they would incur the danger of a sudden swoop
+from French machines. Besides, the flag would be of no value to them,
+unless they knew who put it there and why.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Germans, of course, see that it's a French flag,&quot; he said to
+Weber. &quot;I wonder what they're going to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think they'll have to leave it,&quot; said Weber, &quot;because I can now see
+other aeroplanes to the west, aeroplanes which may be French, and they
+dare not linger too long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And our little flag may make a big disturbance in the heavens.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So it seems.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The German plane made circle after circle around the tree, finally drew
+off to some distance, and then, as it wavered back and forth, its
+machine gun began to spit fire. Little boughs and leaves cut from the
+tree fell to the ground, but the flag, untouched, fluttered defiantly in
+the light breeze.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're trying to shoot it down,&quot; said John, &quot;and with such an unsteady
+gun platform they've missed every time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I doubt whether they'll continue firing,&quot; said Weber. &quot;An aeroplane
+doesn't carry any great amount of ammunition and they can't afford to
+waste much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're through now,&quot; said John. &quot;See, they're flying away toward the
+east, and unless my imagination deceives me, their machine actually
+looks crestfallen, while our flag is snapping away in the wind, haughty
+and defiant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A vivid fancy yours, Mr. Scott, but it's easy to imagine that German
+machine looking cheap, because that's just the way the men on board it
+must feel. Suppose we sit down here and take our ease. No flying man
+can see through those vines over our heads, and we can watch in safety.
+We're sure to draw other scouts of the air, while for us it's an
+interesting and comparatively safe experience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our flag is certainly an attraction,&quot; said John, making himself
+comfortable on the ground. &quot;There's a bird of passage now, coming down
+from the north as swift as a swallow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a little monoplane,&quot; said Weber, &quot;and it certainly resembles a
+swallow, as it comes like a flash toward this tree. I thought at first
+it might be Lannes in the <i>Arrow,</i> but the plane is too small, and it's
+of German make.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fancy it won't linger long. This is not a healthy bit of space for
+lone fellows in monoplanes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little plane slackened its speed, as it approached the tree, and
+then sailed by it at a moderate rate. When it was opposite the flag a
+spurt of flame came from the pistol of the man in it, and John actually
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That was sheer spite,&quot; he said. &quot;Did he think he could shoot our flag
+away with a single bullet from a pistol when a machine gun has just
+failed? That's right, turn about and make off as fast as you can, you
+poor little mono!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monoplane also curved around the tree, but did not make a series of
+circles. Instead, when its prow was turned northward it darted off again
+in that direction, going even more swiftly than it had come, as if the
+aviator were ashamed of himself and wished to get away as soon as
+possible from the scene of his disgrace. Away and away it flew,
+dwindling to a black speck and then to nothing.</p>
+
+<p>John's shoulders shook, and Weber, looking at him, was forced to smile
+too.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, it was funny,&quot; he said. &quot;Our flag is certainly making a stir in
+the heavens.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder what will come next,&quot; said John. &quot;It's like bait drawing birds
+of prey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The heavens were now beautifully clear, a vault of blue velvet, against
+which anything would show. Far away the cannon groaned and thundered,
+and the waves of air pulsed heavily, but John noticed neither now. His
+whole attention was centered upon the flag, and what it might call from
+the air.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In such a brilliant atmosphere we can certainly see our visitors from
+afar,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So we can,&quot; said Weber, &quot;and lo! another appears out of the east!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The dark speck showed on the horizon and grew fast, coming apparently
+straight in their direction. John did not believe it had seen their flag
+at first, owing to the great distance, but was either a messenger or a
+scout. As it soon began to descend from its great height in the air,
+although still preserving a straight course for the tree, he felt sure
+that the flag had now come into its view. It grew very fast in size and
+was outlined with startling clearness against the burning blue of the
+sky.</p>
+
+<p>The approaching machine consisted of two planes alike in shape and size,
+superimposed and about six feet apart, the whole with a stabilizing tail
+about ten feet long and six feet broad. John saw as it approached that
+the aviator sat before the motor and screw, but that the elevating and
+steering rudders were placed in front of him. There were three men
+besides the aviator in the machine.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A biplane,&quot; said John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; said Weber, &quot;I recognize the type of the machine. It's originally
+a French model.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But in this case, undoubtedly a German imitation. They've seen our
+flag, because I can make out one of the men with glasses to his eyes.
+They hover about as if in uncertainty. No wonder they can't make up
+their minds, because there's the tricolor floating from the top of that
+tall tree, and not a thing in the world to explain why it's in such a
+place. A man with a rifle is about to take a shot at it. Bang! There it
+goes! But I can't see that the bullet has damaged our flag. Look, how it
+whips about and snaps defiance! Now, all the men except the aviator
+himself have out glasses and are studying the phenomenon of our signal.
+They come above the tree, and I think they're going to make a swoop
+around the grove near the ground. Lie close, Weber! As I found out once
+before, a thick forest is the best defense against aeroplanes. They
+can't get through the screen of boughs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They heard a whirring and drumming, and the biplane not more than fifty
+feet above the earth made several circles about the little wood. John
+saw the men in it very clearly. He could even discern the German cast of
+countenance where all except the one at the wheel that controlled the
+two rudders had thrown back their hoods and taken off their glasses.
+The three carried rifles which they held ready for use, in case they
+detected an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Whirling around like a vast primeval bird of prey the biplane began to
+rise, as if disappointed of a victim, and winding upward was soon above
+the trees. Then John heard the rapid crackle of rifles.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shooting at our flag again!&quot; he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>But the whizz of a bullet that buried itself in the earth near him told
+him better.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It isn't possible that they've seen us!&quot; he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; said Weber, &quot;they're merely peppering the woods and vines in the
+hope that they'll hit a concealed enemy, if such there should be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That being the case,&quot; said John, &quot;I'm going to make my body as small as
+possible, and push myself into the ground if I can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He lay very close, but the rifle fire quickly passed to other portions
+of the wood, and then died away entirely. John straightened himself out
+and saw the biplane becoming smaller, as it flew off in the direction
+whence it had come.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope you'll come to no good,&quot; he said, shaking his fist at the
+disappearing plane. &quot;You've scared me half to death with your shots, and
+I hope that both your rudders will get out of gear and stay out of gear!
+I hope that the wheel controlling them will be smashed up! I hope that
+the top plane will crash into the bottom one! I hope that a French shell
+will shoot your tail off! And I hope that you'll tumble to the earth and
+lie there, nothing but a heap of rotting wood and rusty old metal!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well done, Mr. Scott!&quot; said Weber. &quot;That was quite a curse, but I think
+it will take something more solid to disable the biplane.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so too, but I've relieved my feelings, and after a man has done
+so he can work a lot better. What are we to look for now, Weber? We
+don't seem to have success in attracting anything but Germans. If Lannes
+is coming at all, as you think he will, he'll get a pretty late ticket
+of admission to our reserved section of the air.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must remember that the sky above us is a pretty large place, and at
+any rate we're a drawing power. We're always pulling something out of
+the ether.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And our biggest catch is coming now! Look, Weber, look I If that isn't
+one of Herr Zeppelin's railroad trains of the air then I'll eat it when
+it gets here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're right, Mr. Scott. There the monster comes. It can't be anything
+but a Zeppelin! They must have one of their big sheds not far east of
+us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll hear its rattling soon. Like the others it will surely see our
+flag and make for it. But if they take a notion to shoot up the wood, as
+the men on that biplane did, we'd better hunt holes. A Zeppelin can
+carry a lot of soldiers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Zeppelin was not moving fast. It had none of the quick graceful
+movements of the aeroplanes, but came on slowly like some huge monster
+of the air, looking about for prey. It turned southeast for a moment or
+two, then some one on board saw the flag and coming back it lumbered
+toward the tree.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ugly things,&quot; said John. &quot;Lannes and I blew up one once, and I wish I
+had the same chance against that fellow up there. But they're in the
+same puzzled state that the other fellows were. Men on both platforms
+are examining the flag through glasses, and the flag doesn't give a rap
+for them. It's standing out in the wind, now, straight and stiff. It
+seems to know that old Noah's ark can't make it out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The huge Zeppelin drew its length along the grove, coming as close to
+the trees as it dared, then passed above, and after some circling
+lumbered away to the south.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-bye, old Mr. Curiosity,&quot; exclaimed John. &quot;You weren't invited
+here, and I don't care whether you ever come again. Besides, you're
+nothing but a big bluff, anyway. There's our flag, still standing
+straight out in the wind, so you can see every stripe on it, and yet you
+haven't, despite your visit, the remotest idea why it was put there!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Weber smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They've all gone away as ignorant as they were when they came,&quot; he
+said, &quot;but we must be due for a French visitor or two. After so long a
+run of Germans we should have Frenchmen soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I begin to believe with you that Lannes will arrive some time or other.
+He flies fast and far and in time he must see our signal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've never doubted it. Meanwhile I think I'll take a little luncheon,
+and I'd advise you to do the same. We haven't had such a bad time here,
+saving those random rifle shots from the biplane.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all. It's like watching a play, and you certainly have a clear
+field for observation, when you look up at the heavens. The stage is
+always in full view.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John was feeling uncommonly good. Their concealment while they watched
+the scouts and messengers from the skies coming to see the meaning of
+the flag had been easy and restful. Much of his long and painful tension
+had relaxed. The hum of distant artillery was in his ears as ever, like
+a moaning of the wind, but he was growing so used to it that he would
+now have noticed its absence rather than its presence. So he ate his
+share of bread and sausage with a good appetite, meanwhile keeping a
+watchful eye upon the heavens which burned in the same brilliant blue.</p>
+
+<p>It was now about noon. The rain the night before had given fresh tints
+to the green of grass and foliage. The whole earth, indifferent to the
+puny millions that struggled on its vast bosom, seemed refreshed and
+revitalized. A modest little bird in brown plumage perched on a bough
+near them, and, indifferent too, to war, poured forth a brilliant volume
+of song.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Happy little fellow,&quot; John said. &quot;Nothing to do but eat and sleep and
+sing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unless he's snapped up by some bigger bird,&quot; said Weber, &quot;but having
+been an hour without callers we're now about to have a new one. And as
+this comes from the west it's likely to be French.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John felt excitement, and stood up. Yes, there was the machine coming
+out of the blue haze in the west, soaring beautifully and fast. It was
+very high, but his eye, trained now, saw that it was descending
+gradually. He felt an intense hope that it was Lannes, but he soon knew
+that it was not lie. The approaching machine could not possibly be the
+<i>Arrow.</i></p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a Bleriot monoplane,&quot; said Weber. &quot;I can tell the type almost as
+far as I can see it. It's much like a gigantic bird, with powerful
+parchment wings mounted upon a strong body. The wings as you see now
+present a concave surface to the earth. They always do that. The flyer
+sits between the two wings and has in front of him the lever with which
+he controls the whole affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You seem to know a good deal about flying machines, Weber.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes, I've observed them a lot. I've always been curious about them
+and I've attended the great flying meets at Rheims, but personally I'm a
+coward about heights. I study the types of these wonderful machines, but
+I don't go up in 'em. That's a little fellow coming now and he's seen
+the flag.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's only one man in the plane, but as he's undoubtedly French what
+do you think we ought to do? He can't carry us away with him in the
+machine, it's too small. Do you think we should signal him to come to
+the ground and have a talk?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps we'd better let him pass, Mr. Scott. We have no real
+information to give. He might suspect that we are Germans and a lot of
+time would be lost maneuvering. Suppose we remain in hiding, and say
+nothing until Lannes himself appears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You still feel sure that he will come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a conviction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Same way with me, and I agree with you that we'd better let our friend
+in the Bleriot go by. He's descending fast now. The plane certainly does
+look like a bird. Reminds me somewhat of a German Taube, though this
+machine is much smaller.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The pilot will take only a look or two at the flag. Then, if we don't
+hail him, he'll sail swiftly back to the west.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For good reasons too. The air here is chiefly in the German sphere of
+influence, and if I were in his place I'd take to my heels too at a
+single glance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's what he's doing now. He's flying past the flag just as one of
+the Germans did. He leans over to take a look at it, can't make out what
+it means, glances back apprehensively toward the German quarter of the
+heavens, and now he's sliding like a streak through the blue for French
+air.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So near and yet so far! A friend in the air just over our heads, and we
+had to let him go. Well, he couldn't have done us any good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, he couldn't, and he's gone back so fast that he's out of sight
+already, but another and different inhabitant of the air is coming out
+of the south. See, the shape off there, Mr. Scott. Wait until it comes
+nearer, and I think I can tell you what it is. Now it's made out the
+flag and is steering for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What class of plane is it, Weber? Can you tell that yet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. It's an Esnault-Pelterie, an invention of a young Frenchman. It's
+a monoplane with flexible, warped wings. It's made of steel tubes,
+welded together, and it has two wheels, one behind the other for contact
+with the ground.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I noticed something queer in its appearance. It's the wheels. I don't
+call this machine any great beauty, but it seems to cut the air well. I
+suppose we'd better treat it as we did the Bleriot&mdash;let it go as it
+came, none the worse and none the wiser?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so. But we have no other choice! That flyer is a suspicious
+fellow and he isn't taking any chances. He's come fairly close to the
+flag, and now he's sheering off at an angle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't blame him. He probably has something more important to do than
+to unravel the meaning of a flag in a tree top.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor I either. But whatever comes we'll wait for Lannes, always for
+Lannes. The heavens here, Mr. Scott, are peopled with strange birds, but
+of all the lot there is one particular bird for which we are looking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Right again. My eyes have grown a little weary of watching the skies.
+For a long stare, blue isn't as soft and easy a sight as green, and I
+think I'll look at the grass and leaves for a little while.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then while you rest I'll keep an outlook and when I'm tired you can
+relieve me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John lay down in the grass and rested his body while he eased his worn
+eyes. Weber commented now and then on the new birds in the heavens,
+aeroplanes of all kinds, but they kept their distance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The air over us is not held now by either French or Germans,&quot; said
+Weber, &quot;and I imagine that only the more daring make incursions into it.
+Perhaps, too, they are kept busy elsewhere, because, as my ears
+distinctly tell me, the battle is increasing in volume.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I noticed the swelling fire when I lay down here,&quot; said John. &quot;It seems
+a strange thing, but for a while I had forgotten all about the battle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Presently Weber took his eyes from the heavens, moved about and looked
+uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I'm not mistaken,&quot; he said, &quot;I caught a glimpse of steel down the
+river. I think it was a lance head glittering in the sun, and Uhlans may
+be near.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How far away do you think it was.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A half-mile or more. I must take a look in that direction. I'm a good
+scout, Mr. Scott, and I'll see what's up. Watch here will you, until I
+come back? It may be some time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right, but don't get yourself captured, Weber. I'd be mighty
+lonesome without you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't fear for me. Of course, as I told you, I'll be gone for some
+time, and if I may suggest, Mr. Scott, I wouldn't move from among the
+vines.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Catch me doing it! I'll say here in my green bower and as my eyes are
+back in form I'll watch the heavens.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-bye, then, for a while.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Weber slipped away. His tread was so light that he vanished, as if he
+had melted into air.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That man would certainly have made a good scout in our old Indian
+days,&quot; thought John, and with the thought came the conviction that Weber
+was too clever to let himself be caught. Then he turned his attention
+back to the heavens.</p>
+
+<p>They were now well on into the afternoon, and the sun was at the zenith.
+A haze of gold shimmered against the vast blue vault. A wind perfumed
+with grass and green leaves, brought also the ceaseless roar of the
+guns, and now and then the bitter taste of burned gunpowder. The faint
+trembling of the earth, or rather of the air just above it, went on, and
+John, turning about in his little bower, surveyed the heavens from all
+quarters.</p>
+
+<p>He saw shapes, faint, dark and floating on every horizon, but none of
+them came near until a full half-hour had elapsed. Then one shot out of
+the west, sailed toward the northeast, but curving suddenly, came back
+in the direction of the tree. As the shape grew larger and more defined
+John's heart began to throb. He had seen many aeroplanes that day, and
+most of them had been swift and graceful, but none was as swift and
+graceful as the one that was now coming.</p>
+
+<p>It was a machine, beautiful in shape, and as lithe and fast as the
+darting swallow. There could be none other like it in the heavens, and
+his heart throbbed harder. Intuition, perhaps, was back of knowledge and
+he never for a moment doubted that it was he for whom they had looked so
+long.</p>
+
+<p>The aeroplane seemed fairly to shoot out of space. First its outlines
+became visible, and then the man at the rudder. He came straight toward
+the tree, dropped low and circled about it, while John rushed from the
+vines and cried as loud as he could:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lannes! Lannes, it's me! John Scott! I've been waiting for you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> dropped further, barely touched the earth, and Lannes,
+leaning over, shouted to John in tones, tense and sharp with command:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give the plane a shove with all your might, and jump in. For God's sake
+don't linger, man! Jump!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The impulse communicated by Lannes was so powerful that before he knew
+what he was doing John pushed the <i>Arrow</i> violently and sprang into the
+extra seat, just as it was leaving the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Lannes gave the rudder a strong twist and the aeroplane shot up like a
+mounting bird. John got back his breath and presence of mind.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait, Philip! Wait!&quot; he cried. &quot;We're leaving behind our friend Weber!
+He's down there, somewhere by the river!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes made no reply. The <i>Arrow</i> continued its rise, sharp and swift,
+and John heard a crackling sound below. Little missiles, steel and
+deadly, shot by them. One passed so close to his face that his breath
+went again. When he recovered it once more the <i>Arrow,</i> its inmates,
+unharmed, was far above the range of rifles, flying in a circle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look down, John,&quot; said Lannes.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" />CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>OLD FRIENDS</h3>
+
+
+<p>John, obeying Lannes' command, glanced down, as one looks over the side
+of a ship toward the sea, and he saw many horsemen galloping across the
+field. He recognized at once the Uhlans, and, for all he knew; they
+might be von Boehlen's own command.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hand me your glasses, will you?&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>When Lannes passed them to him he looked long and well, but he did not
+see any sign of a prisoner among the Prussians. He also searched the
+woods and other fields near by, but they were empty. The whole Prussian
+force was gathered beneath them. John breathed a deep sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's evident that Weber has escaped,&quot; he said. &quot;Doubtless this was the
+very troop of Uhlans of which the Alsatian had caught a glimpse. He is
+clever and swift and I've no doubt he found a covert.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sorry we had to leave him,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;but there was no other
+choice. I came to the tree to examine the flag, and being above I saw
+the Uhlans nearby before you did. Then I heard your shout and dropped
+down. But as I knew the Uhlans were coming for us I made you jump almost
+before you knew it, and we got away by a hair. The <i>Arrow</i> was struck
+twice, but the bullets glanced off its polished sides. There are two
+slight scars, but I can have them removed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Philip,&quot; he said, &quot;I believe you love the <i>Arrow</i> as a fellow loves his
+best girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well spoken, Monsieur Jean the Scott, and the <i>Arrow</i> never fails me.
+And so you've been with Weber?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a long tale. I was in a boat crossing the Marne. It was sunk by
+one of the French shells, and I escaped. I reached the deserted cottage
+of a peasant, and Weber, who was wandering around, happened to come
+there, too. We've been trying to escape today, and we put that flag up
+in the tree as a sort of signal, while we hid among the vines below,
+until you should come, as he believed you would. He was right, but he
+was unlucky enough to be absent when you arrived.&quot; &quot;Maybe it couldn't
+have happened in a better way. The <i>Arrow</i> can carry only two, and I
+don't know what we'd have done with him. He's a clever fellow and he'll
+make his way back to the army.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope so, in fact I feel so. But, Philip, it's glorious to be with you
+again, and to be up here, where the bullets can't reach you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is, so long as the German flyers don't come near enough to take
+shots at us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see any in sight, and meanwhile I intend to be comfortable.
+Good old <i>Arrow!</i> The best little rescuer in the world! Lannes, I
+believe it's a large part of your business to fly about over fields of
+battle and rescue me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You certainly give me plenty of opportunities,&quot; laughed Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's been happening? I fancy that a lot of water has flowed under the
+bridges of the Marne since I left you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We continue to gain,&quot; replied Lannes, with quiet satisfaction. &quot;We
+press the German armies back everywhere. Our supreme chief is a silent
+man, but he has delivered a master stroke. We've emerged from the very
+gulf of defeat and despair to the heights of victory. We're not only
+driving the Germans across the Marne, but we're driving them further.
+Moreover, their armies are cut apart, and one is fighting for its
+existence, just as the French and English were fighting for theirs in
+that terrible retreat from Mons and Charleroi.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's glorious, but we mustn't be too sanguine, Lannes. The powers that
+overcome the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires will not forget for a
+hundred years that they had a war.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not telling me any news, Monsieur Jean the Scott. I've been in
+Germany often, and like you I've seen what they have and what they are.
+We're only beginning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where are you going now, Philip?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Toward the end of our line. I've some dispatches for the commander of
+the British force. Your friends, Carstairs and Wharton, are there, and
+you may see them. But I understand that the Strangers are to remain with
+the French, so you, Carstairs and Wharton will have to consider
+yourselves Frenchmen and stay under our banner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's all right. I hope we'll be under the command of General
+Vaugirard. Do you know anything of him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not today, but he was alive yesterday. Take the glasses now, John, will
+you, and be my eyes as you have been before. One needs to watch the
+heavens all the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John took Lannes' powerful glasses, and objects invisible before leaped
+into view.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see two or three rivers, a dozen villages, and troops,&quot; he said. &quot;The
+troops are to the west, and although they are this side of the Marne, I
+should judge that they are ours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ours undoubtedly,&quot; said Lannes, glancing the way John's glasses
+pointed. &quot;Not less than a hundred thousand of our men have crossed the
+Marne at that point, and more will soon be coming. It's a part of the
+great wedge thrust forward by our chief. But keep your eye on the air,
+John. What do you see there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing that's near. In the east I barely catch seven or eight black
+dots that I take to be German aeroplanes, but they seem to be content
+with hovering over their own lines. They don't approach.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doubtless they don't, because they're beginning to watch the air over
+the Marne as a danger zone. That pretty little signal of yours may have
+scared them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes laughed. It was evident that he was in a most excellent humor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right, have your fun,&quot; said John, showing his own teeth in a smile.
+&quot;If our flag didn't frighten away the German army it at least achieved
+what we wanted, that is, it brought you. The whole episode would be
+perfect if it were not for the fact that we lost sight of Weber.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell you again not to worry about him. That man has shown uncommon
+ability to take care of himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right. I'll let him go for the present. Hello, here we are crossing
+the Marne again, and without getting our feet wet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We're a good half mile above it, but we'll cross it once more soon. I'm
+following the shortest road to the British army and that takes us over a
+loop of the river.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, here we are recrossing, and now we're coming to a region of
+chequered fields, green and brown and yellow. I always like these varied
+colors of the French country. It's a beautiful land down there, Philip.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So it is, but see if it isn't defaced by sixty or seventy thousand
+sunburnt men in khaki, the khaki often stained with blood. The men, too,
+should be tired to death, but you can't tell that from this height.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The British army you mean? Yes, by all that's glorious, I see them, or
+at least a part of them! I see thousands of men lying down in the
+fields as if they were dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're not dead, though. They just drop in their tracks and sleep in
+any position.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw the Germans doing that, too. I suppose we'll land soon, Philip,
+won't we? They've sighted us and a plane is coming forward to meet us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll make for the meadow over there just beyond the little stream. I
+think I can discern the general's marquee, and I must deliver my message
+as soon as possible. Wave to that fellow that we're friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>An English aeroplane was now very near them and John, leaning over, made
+gestures of amity. Although the aviator's head was almost completely
+enshrouded in a hood, he discerned a typically British face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kings of the air, with dispatches for your general!&quot; John cried. He
+knew that the man would not hear him, but he was so exultant that he
+wanted to say something, to shout to him, or in the slang of his own
+land, to let off steam.</p>
+
+<p>But while the English aviator could not understand the words the
+gestures were clear to him, and he waved a hand in friendly fashion.
+Then, wheeling in a fine circle, he came back by their side as an
+escort.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i>, like a bird, folding its wings, sank gracefully into the
+meadow, and Lannes, hastily jumping out, asked John to look after the
+aeroplane. Then he rushed toward a group of officers, among whom he
+recognized the chief of the army.</p>
+
+<p>John himself disembarked stiffly, and stretched his limbs, while several
+young Englishmen looked at him curiously. He had learned long since how
+to deal with Englishmen, that is to take no notice of them until they
+made their presence known, and then to acquiesce slowly and reluctantly
+in their existence. So, he took short steps back and forth on the grass,
+flexing and tensing his muscles, as abstractedly as if he were alone on
+a desert island.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I say,&quot; said a handsome fair young man at last, &quot;would you mind telling
+us, old chap, where you come from?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John continued to stretch his muscles and took several long and deep
+breaths. After the delay he turned to the fair young man and said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Beg pardon, but did you speak to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Englishman flushed a little and pulled at his yellow mustache. An
+older man said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't press His Highness, Lord James. Don't you see that he's an
+American and therefore privileged?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm privileged,&quot; said John, &quot;because I was with you fellows from
+Belgium to Paris, and since then I've been away saving you from the
+Germans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord James laughed. He had a fine face and all embarrassment disappeared
+from it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We want to be friends,&quot; he said. &quot;Shake hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John shook. He also shook the hand of the older man and several others.
+Then he explained who he was, and told who had come with him, none less
+than the famous young French aviator, Philip Lannes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lannes,&quot; said Mr. Yellow Mustache, who, John soon learned, was Lord
+James Ivor. &quot;Why, we've all heard of him. He's come to the chief with
+messages a half-dozen times since this battle began, and I judge from
+the way he rushed to him just now that he has another, that can't be
+delayed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so, too,&quot; said John, &quot;although I don't know anything about it
+myself. He's a close-mouthed fellow. But do any of you happen to have
+heard of an Englishman, Carstairs, and an American, Wharton, who belong
+to a company called the Strangers in the French army, but who must be at
+present with you&mdash;that is, if they're alive?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John's voice dropped a little, as he added the last words, but Lord
+James Ivor walked to the brow of a low hill, called to somebody beyond,
+and then walked back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a happy chance that I can tell you what you want to know,&quot; he
+said. &quot;Those two men have been serving in my own company, and they're
+both alive and well. But they were lying on the grass there, dead to the
+world, that is, sleeping, as if they were two of the original seven
+sleepers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Two figures appeared on the brow of the hill, gazed at first in a
+puzzled manner at John and then, uttering shouts of welcome, rushed
+toward him. Carstairs seized him by one hand and Wharton by the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not killed, I see,&quot; said Carstairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor is he going to be killed,&quot; said Wharton.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, where have you been?&quot; asked Carstairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, where have you been?&quot; asked Wharton.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've been taking a couple of pleasure trips with my friend, Lannes,&quot;
+replied John. &quot;Between trips I was a prisoner of the Germans, and I've
+seen a lot of the great battle. Has the British army suffered much?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A shade flitted over the face of Carstairs as he replied:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We haven't been shot up so much since Waterloo. It's been appalling.
+For days and nights we've been fighting and marching. Whenever we
+stopped even for a moment we fell on the ground and were asleep before
+we touched it. Half the fellows I knew have been killed. I think as long
+as I live I'll hear the drumming of those guns in my ears, and, confound
+'em, I still hear 'em in reality now. If you turn your attention to it
+you can hear the confounded business quite plainly! But what I do know,
+Scott, is that we've been winning! I don't know where I am and I haven't
+a clear idea of what I've been doing all the time, but as sure as we're
+in France the victory is ours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But won by the French chiefly&quot; John could not keep from saying.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite true. Our own army is not large, but it has done as much per
+man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the moral support,&quot; added John. &quot;The French have felt the presence
+of a friend, a friend, too, who in six months will be ten times as
+strong as he is now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where is Lannes?&quot; asked Wharton.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's got your job, Wharton,&quot; replied John with a smile. &quot;He's Envoy
+Extraordinary and Bearer of Messages concerning Life and Death between
+the armies. As soon as he landed he went directly to the British
+commander, and they're now conferring in a tent. That will never happen
+to you. You will never be closeted with the leader of a great army.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know. I may not be able to fly like the Frenchman, but he can't
+handle the wireless as I can, and he isn't the chain-lightning chauffeur
+that Carstairs is. Please to remember those facts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do. But here comes Lannes, the man of mystery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes seemed preoccupied, but he greeted Carstairs and Wharton warmly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm about to take another flight,&quot; he said. &quot;No, thank you so much, but
+I've time neither to eat nor to drink. I must fly at once, though it's
+to be a short flight. Take care of my friend, Monsieur Jean the Scott,
+while I'm gone, won't you? Don't let him wander into German hands again,
+because I won't have time to go for him once more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We won't!&quot; said Carstairs and Wharton with one voice. &quot;Having got him
+back we're going to keep him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes smiling sprang into the <i>Arrow</i>. The willing young Englishmen
+gave it a mighty push, and rising into the blue afternoon sky he sailed
+away toward the south.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He'll be back all right,&quot; said Carstairs. &quot;I've come to the conclusion
+that nothing can ever catch that fellow. He's a wonder, he is. One of
+the most difficult jobs I have, Scott, is to give the French all the
+credit that's due 'em. I've been trained, as all other Englishmen were,
+to consider 'em pretty poor stuff that we've licked regularly for a
+thousand years, and here we suddenly find 'em heroes and
+brothers-in-arms. It's all the fault of the writers. Was it Shakespeare
+who said: 'Methinks that five Frenchmen on one pair of English legs did
+walk?'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; said Lord James Ivor, &quot;It was the other way around. 'Methinks that
+one Englishman on five pairs of French legs did walk.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not so sure about the number, either,&quot; interjected Wharton. &quot;Are
+you positive it was five?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whatever it was,&quot; said Carstairs, &quot;the Frenchman was slandered, and by
+our own great bard, too. But come and take something with us, if Lord
+James, our immediate chief, is willing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's willing, and he'll go with you,&quot; said Lord James Ivor. &quot;I need a
+bite myself and in war like this a man can't afford to neglect food and
+drink, when the chance is offered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The habits of you Europeans are strong,&quot; said John, whose spirits were
+still exuberant. &quot;If you didn't have to stop now and then to work or to
+fight you'd eat all the time. One meal would merge into another, making
+a beautiful, savory chain linked together. I know the Englishman's
+heaven perfectly well. It's made of lakes of ale, beer, porter and
+Scotch highballs, surrounded by high banks of cheese, mutton and roast
+beef.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There could be worse heavens,&quot; said Carstairs, &quot;and if it should happen
+that way it wouldn't be long before you Yankees would be trying to break
+out of your heaven and into ours. But here's a taste of it now, the
+cheese, for instance, and the beer, although it's in bottles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A spry Tommy Atkins served them, and John, thankful at heart, ate and
+drank with the best of them. And while they ate the pulsing waves of air
+from the battle beat upon their ears. It seemed to these young men to
+have been beating that way for weeks.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lannes will be back soon,&quot; said John to Carstairs and Wharton, &quot;and
+he'll tear you away from your friends here. You think, Carstairs, that
+you're an Englishman, and you're convinced, Wharton, that you're an
+American, but you're both wrong. You're Frenchmen, and you're going back
+to the French army, where you belong. Then Captain Daniel Colton of the
+Strangers will want to know from you why you haven't returned sooner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how are we to go?&quot; said Carstairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And where are we to go?&quot; said Wharton.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'd go in a minute,&quot; added Carstairs, &quot;if the German army would let
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So would I,&quot; said Wharton, &quot;but the Germans fight so hard that we can't
+get away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lannes will attend to all those matters,&quot; said John. &quot;I'll rest until
+he comes, if I have the chance. Is that your artillery firing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's our big guns out in front,&quot; said Lord James Ivor. &quot;Jove, but what
+work they've done! A lot of our guns have been smashed, one half of our
+gunners maybe have been smashed with 'em, but they've never flinched.
+They covered our retreat from Belgium, and they've been the heralds of
+our advance here on the Marne! Listen to 'em! How they talk!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The heavy crash of guns far in front and the thunder of the German guns
+replying came back to their ears. It was a louder note in the general
+and ceaseless murmur of the battle, but the young men paid it only a
+passing moment of attention. Carstairs presently added as an
+afterthought:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unless Lannes returns soon I don't think we'll hear from him. That
+blaze of the guns in front of us indicates close fighting again, and
+we'll probably be ordered forward soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think so,&quot; said Lord James Ivor. &quot;Our guns and the German guns
+will talk together for quite a while before the infantry advance. You
+can spend a good two hours with us yet, and still have time to depart
+for the French army.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that Lord James Ivor knew what he was talking about,
+since, as far as John could see, the khaki army lay outspread on the
+turf. These men were too much exhausted and too much dulled to danger to
+stir merely because the cannon were blazing. It took the sharp orders of
+their officers to move them. Shells from the German guns began to fall
+along the fringe of the troops, but thousands slept heavily on.</p>
+
+<p>John, after disposing of the excellent rations offered to him, sat down
+on the grass with Wharton, Carstairs and Lord James Ivor. The sun was
+now waning, but the western sky was full of gold, and the yellow rays
+slanting across the hills and fields made them vivid with light. Lord
+James handed his glasses to John with the remark:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would you like to take a look there toward the east, Scott?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John with the help of the glasses discerned the English batteries in
+action. He saw the men working about them, the muzzles pointing upward,
+and then the flash. Some of the guns were completely hidden in foliage,
+and he could detect their presence only by the heavy detonations coming
+from such points. Yet, like many of the English soldiers about him,
+John's mind did not respond to so much battle. He looked at the flashes,
+and he listened to the reports without emotion. His senses had become
+dulled by it, and registered no impressions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We've masked our batteries as much as possible,&quot; said Lord James. &quot;The
+Germans are great fellows at hiding their big guns. They use every clump
+of wood, hay stacks, stray stacks and anything else, behind which you
+could put a piece of artillery. They trained harder before the war, but
+we'll soon be able to match 'em.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While Lord James was talking, John turned the glasses to the south and
+watched the sky. He had observed two black dots, both of which grew fast
+into the shape of aeroplanes. One, he knew, was the <i>Arrow</i>. He had
+learned to recognize the plane at a vast distance. It was something in
+the shape or a trick of motion perhaps, almost like that of a human
+being, with which he had become familiar and which he could not mistake.
+The other plane, by the side of Lannes' machine, bothered him. It was
+much larger than the <i>Arrow</i>, but they seemed to be on terms of perfect
+friendship, each the consort of the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lannes is coming,&quot; announced John. &quot;He's four or five miles to the
+south and he's about a quarter of a mile up, but he has company. Will
+you have a look, Lord James?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord James Ivor, taking back his own glasses, studied the two
+approaching planes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The small one looks like your friend's plane,&quot; he said, &quot;and the other,
+although much bigger, has only one man in it too. But they fly along
+like twins. We'll soon know all about them because they're coming
+straight to us. They're descending now into this field.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> slanted gently to the earth and the larger machine descended
+near by. Lannes stepped out of one, and an older man, whom John
+recognized as the aviator Caumartin, alighted from the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My friends,&quot; said Lannes, cheerily, &quot;here we are again. You see I've
+brought with me a friend, Monsieur Caumartin, a brave man, and a great
+aviator.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He paused to introduce Caumartin to Wharton and the Englishmen, and then
+went on:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This flying machine in which our friend Caumartin comes is not so swift
+and so graceful as the <i>Arrow</i>&mdash;few aeroplanes are&mdash;but it is strong and
+it has the capacity. It is what you might call an excursion steamer of
+the air. It can take several people and our good Caumartin has come in
+it for Lieutenant Wharton and Lieutenant Carstairs. So! he has an order
+for them written by the brave Captain Colton of the Strangers. Produce
+the order, Monsieur Caumartin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The aviator took a note from a pocket in his jacket and handed it to
+Lord James Ivor, who announced that it was in truth such an order.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're to be delivered to the Strangers F.O.B.,&quot; said John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's F.O.B.?&quot; exclaimed Carstairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a shipping term of my country,&quot; replied John. &quot;It means Free on
+Board, and you'll arrive among the Strangers without charge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,&quot; said Carstairs, looking dubiously at the big, ugly machine,
+&quot;automobiles are my specialty!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the wireless is mine!&quot; said Wharton in the same doubting tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, it's easy,&quot; said John lightly. &quot;Easiest thing in the world. You
+have nothing to do but sit still and look calm and wise. If you're
+attacked by a Zeppelin, throw bombs&mdash;no doubt Caumartin has them on
+board&mdash;but if a flock of Taubes assail you use your automatics. I
+congratulate you both on making your first flight under such auspices,
+with two armies of a million men each, more or less, looking at you, and
+with the chance to dodge the shells from four or five thousand cannon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your trouble, Scott, is talking too much,&quot; said Wharton, &quot;because you
+went up in the air when you had no other way to go, you think you're a
+bird.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So I am at times,&quot; laughed John. &quot;A bird without the feathers. Come
+now, brace up! Remember that the solid earth is always below you, a long
+way below, perhaps, but it's there, and Friend Caumartin is bound to
+deliver you soon to your rightful master, Captain Daniel Colton, who
+will talk to you like an affectionate but stern parent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For Heaven's sake, let's start and get away from this wild Yankee,&quot;
+said Carstairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you won't get away from me,&quot; rejoined John. &quot;Lannes and I in the
+<i>Arrow</i> will watch over you all the way, and, if we can, rescue you,
+should your plane break down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Caumartin supplied Wharton and Carstairs with suitable coats and caps,
+and they took their places unflinchingly in the big plane. Their hearts
+may have been beating hard, but they would not let their hands tremble.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose the <i>Omnibus</i> starts first, Philip, doesn't it?&quot; asked John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; replied Lannes, smiling, &quot;and we can overtake it. <i>Omnibus</i> is a
+good name for it. We'll call it that. It looks awkward, John, but it's
+one of the safest machines built.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Plenty of willing hands gave the <i>Omnibus</i> a lift and then did a like
+service for the <i>Arrow</i>. As they rose, aviators and passengers alike
+waved a farewell to Lord James Ivor, and he and the Englishmen about him
+waved back. But the thousands lying on the grass slept heavily on, while
+the cannon on their utmost fringe thundered and crashed and the German
+cannon crashed and thundered, replying.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> kept close to the <i>Omnibus</i>, so close that John could see
+the white faces of Wharton and Carstairs and their hands clenching the
+sides. But he remembered his own original experience, and he was not
+disposed to jest at them now.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're air-sick&mdash;as I was,&quot; he said to Lannes. &quot;Call to them to look
+westward at the troops,&quot; said Lannes. &quot;Great portions of the French and
+English armies are now visible, and such a sight will make them forget
+their natural apprehensions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes was right. When they beheld the magnificent panorama spread out
+for them the color came back into the faces of Carstairs and Wharton,
+and their clenched fingers relaxed. The spectacle was indeed grand and
+gorgeous as they looked up at the sky, down at the earth, and at the
+line where they met. The sun was now low, but mighty terraces of red and
+gold rose in the west, making it a blaze of varied colors. In the east
+the terraces were silver and silver gray, and the light there was
+softer. The green earth beneath was mottled with the red and silver and
+gold from the skies.</p>
+
+<p>The German army was yet invisible beyond the hills, although the cannon
+were flashing there, but to the west they saw vast masses of infantry,
+some stationary, while others moved slowly forward. Looking upon this
+wonderful sight, Wharton and Carstairs forgot that they were high in the
+air. Their hearts beat fast, and their eyes became brilliant with
+enthusiasm. They waved hands at the <i>Arrow</i> which flew near like a
+guiding friend.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wonderful, isn't it?&quot; shouted John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never expect to see its like again,&quot; Carstairs shouted back, and
+then, lest he should not be true to his faith, he added:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I won't desert the automobile. It's my best friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;British obstinacy!&quot; shouted John.</p>
+
+<p>Carstairs shouted back something, but the planes were now too far apart
+for him to hear. John saw that the <i>Omnibus</i>, despite her awkward look,
+was flying well and he also saw through Lannes' glasses four aeroplanes
+bearing up from the east. He did not say much until he had examined them
+well and had concluded that they were Taubes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lannes,&quot; he said, &quot;German machines are trespassing on our air, and
+unless I'm mistaken they're making for us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's likely. Just under the locker there you'll find a rifle, and a
+belt of cartridges. It's a good weapon, and if the pinch comes you'll
+have to use it. Are your friends good shots?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think they are, and I know they're as brave as lions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then they'll have a chance to show it. The <i>Omnibus</i> carries several
+rifles and an abundance of ammunition. She might be called a cargo boat,
+as there's a lot of room on her. I'm going to bear in close, and you
+tell Caumartin and the others of the danger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> swerved, came near to the <i>Omnibus</i>, and John shouted the
+warning. Carstairs and Wharton instantly seized rifles and he saw them
+lay two others loaded at their feet. With the prospect of a battle for
+life air-sickness disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can rely on them, Philip,&quot; said John as the <i>Arrow</i> bore away a
+little, &quot;but I don't like the looks of one of those German machines.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's odd about it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's bigger than the others. Ah, now I see! It carries a machine gun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's bad. It can send a hail of metal at us. It's lucky that
+aeroplanes are such unstable gun-platforms. When platforms and targets
+are alike swerving it's hard to hit anything. We're going to rise and
+dive, and rise and dive and swerve and swerve, John, so be ready. I'll
+signal to Caumartin to do the same, and maybe the machine gun won't get
+us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John was quite sure that the <i>Arrow</i> could escape by immediate flight,
+but he knew that Lannes would never desert the <i>Omnibus</i>, and its
+passengers, and he felt the same way. The subject was not even mentioned
+by either.</p>
+
+<p>The German machines, approaching rapidly, spread out like a fan, the
+heavier one with the machine gun in the center. John could see the man
+at the rapid firer, but he did not yet open with it. The <i>Arrow</i> and the
+<i>Omnibus</i> were wavering like feathers in a storm and closer range was
+needed. John sat with his own rifle across his knee and then looked at
+Wharton in the <i>Omnibus</i> scarcely a hundred yards away. The figure of
+Wharton was tense and rigid. His rifle was raised and his eyes never
+left the man at the machine gun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I forgot to tell you, Philip,&quot; said John, &quot;that Wharton is a great
+sharpshooter. It's natural to him, and I don't believe the shifting
+platform will interfere with his aim.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I hope that he never has done better sharp-shooting than he will
+do today. Ah, there goes the machine gun!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a rapid rat-a-tat, not so clear and distinct as it would have
+been at the same distance on ground, and a stream of bullets poured from
+the machine gun. But they passed between the <i>Arrow</i> and the <i>Omnibus</i>,
+and only cut the unoffending air. Meanwhile Wharton was watching. A
+wrath, cold but consuming, had taken hold of him. The fact that he was
+high above the earth, perched in a swaying unstable seat was forgotten.
+He had eyes and thought only for the murderous machine gun and the man
+who worked it. An instinctive marksman, he and his rifle were now as
+one, and of all the birds of prey in the air at that moment Wharton was
+the most dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>The machine gun was silent for a minute. The riflemen in the Taubes on
+the wings of the attacking force fired a few shots, but all of them went
+wild. John, tense and silent, sat with his own rifle raised, but half of
+the time he watched Wharton.</p>
+
+<p>The two forces came a little nearer. Again the machine gun poured forth
+its stream of bullets. Two glanced off the sides of the <i>Omnibus</i>, and
+then John saw Wharton's rifle leap to his shoulder. The movement and the
+flash of the weapon were so near together that be seemed to take no aim.
+Yet his bullet sped true. The man at the machine gun, who was standing
+in a stooped position, threw up his hands, fell backward and out of the
+plane. A thrill of horror shot through John, and he shut his eyes a
+moment to keep from seeing that falling body.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What has happened?&quot; asked Lannes, who had not looked around.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wharton has shot the man at the machine gun clean out of the aeroplane.
+He must be falling yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ghastly, but necessary. Has anybody taken the slain man's place?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, another has sprung to the gun! But he's gone! Wharton has shot him
+too! He's fallen on the floor of the car, and he lies quite still.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your friend is indeed a sharpshooter. How many men are left in the
+plane?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only one! No, good God, there's none! Wharton has shot the third man
+also, and now the machine goes whirling and falling through space!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I said that friend of yours must be a sharpshooter,&quot; said Lannes, in a
+tone of awe, &quot;but he must be more! He must be the king of all riflemen.
+It's evident that the <i>Omnibus</i> knows how to defend herself. I'll swing
+in a little, and you can take a shot or two.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John fired once, without hitting anything but the air, which made no
+complaint, but the battle was over. Horrified by the fate that had
+overtaken their comrades and seeing help for their enemy at hand the
+Taubes withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> and the <i>Omnibus</i> flew on toward the French lines, whence
+other machines were coming to meet them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" />CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CONTINUING BATTLE</h3>
+
+
+<p>The <i>Arrow</i> bore in toward the <i>Omnibus</i>. Wharton had put his rifle
+aside and was staring downward as if he would see the wreck that he had
+made. Lannes called to him loudly:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've saved us all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Wharton looked rather white, but he shouted back:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had no other choice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The French aeroplanes were around them now, their motors drumming
+steadily and the aviators shouting congratulations to Lannes and
+Caumartin, whom they knew well. It was a friendly group, full of pride
+and exultation, and the <i>Arrow</i> and the <i>Omnibus</i> had a triumphant
+escort. Soon they were directly over the French, and then they began
+their descent. As usual, when they reached the army they made it amid
+cheers, and the first man who greeted John was short and young but with
+a face of pride.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have come back to us out of the air, Monsieur Scott,&quot; he said, &quot;and
+I salute you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was Pierre Louis Bougainville, made a colonel already for
+extraordinary, almost unprecedented, valor and ability in so young a
+man. John recognized his rank by his uniform, and he acknowledged it
+gladly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's true, I have come back, Colonel Bougainville,&quot; he said, &quot;and right
+glad I am to come. I see that your country has had no cause to complain
+of you in the last week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor of hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen,&quot; said Bougainville. &quot;Your
+company, the Strangers, is close at hand, and here is your captain now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Captain Daniel Colton, thin and ascetic, walked forward. John gave him
+his best salute and said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Captain Colton, I beg to report to you for duty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A light smile passed swiftly over Cotton's face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're a little late, Lieutenant Scott,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it, sir, but I've brought Lieutenant Carstairs and Lieutenant
+Wharton with me. There have been obstacles which prevented our speedy
+return. We've done our best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can well believe it. You left on horseback, and you return by air.
+But I'm most heartily glad to see all three of you again. I feared that
+you were dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you, sir,&quot; said John. &quot;But we don't mean to die.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless,&quot; said Captain Colton, gravely, &quot;death has been all about
+us for days and nights. Many of the Strangers are gone. You will find
+the living lying in the little valley just beyond us, and you can resume
+your duties.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes, after a word or two, left them, and Caumartin took the
+<i>Omnibus</i> to another part of the field. Lannes' importance was
+continually growing in John's eyes, nor was it the effect of
+imagination. He saw that under the new conditions of warfare the ability
+of the young Frenchman to carry messages between generals separated
+widely could not be overrated. He might depart that very night on
+another flight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I ask, sir,&quot; he said to Captain Colton, &quot;to what command or
+division the Strangers are now attached?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To that of General Vaugirard, a very able man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm glad to hear it, sir. I know him. I was with him before I was taken
+by the Germans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It seems that you're about to have a general reunion,&quot; said Carstairs
+to young Scott, as they walked away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am, and I'm mighty happy over it. I'll admit that I was rather glad
+to see you, you blooming Britisher.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>About one-third of the Strangers were gone forever, and the rest, except
+the higher officers, were prostrate in the glade. White, worn and
+motionless they lay in the same stupor that John had seen overtake the
+German troops. Some were flat upon their backs, with arms outstretched,
+looking like crosses, others lay on their faces, and others were curled
+up on their sides. Few were over twenty-five. Nearly all had mothers in
+America or Great Britain.</p>
+
+<p>While they slept the guns yet grumbled at many points. The sound on the
+horizon had gone on so long now that it seemed normal to John. He knew
+that it would continue so throughout the night, and maybe for many more
+days and nights. Unless it came near and made him a direct personal
+menace he would pay no attention to it.</p>
+
+<p>It was growing late. Night was spreading once more over the vast battle
+field, stretching over thirty leagues maybe. The common soldier knew
+nothing, majors and colonels knew little more, but the silent man whose
+invisible hand had swept the gigantic German army back from Paris knew
+much. While the fire of the artillery continued under the searchlights
+the exhausted infantry sank down. Then the telephones began to talk over
+a vast stretch of space, dazzling white lights made signals, the
+sputtering wireless sent messages in the air, and the flying machines
+shot through the heavens. Commanders talked to one another in many ways
+now, and they would talk all through the night.</p>
+
+<p>John and his comrades ate supper, while most of the Strangers slept
+around them. Those who were awake recognized them, shook hands and said
+a few words. They were a taciturn lot. After supper Carstairs and
+Wharton dropped upon the grass and were soon sound asleep. Scott was
+inclined to be wakeful and he walked along the edge of the glade,
+looking anxiously at the sleeping forms.</p>
+
+<p>He saw the loom of a fire just beyond the ridge and going to the crest
+to look at it he beheld outlined before it a gigantic figure that he
+recognized at once. It was General Vaugirard, and John would have been
+glad to speak to him, but he hesitated to approach a general. While he
+stood doubting a hand fell upon his shoulder and a glad voice said in
+his ear:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And our young American has come back! Ah, my friend, let me shake your
+hand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was Captain de Rougemont, trim, erect and without a wound. John
+gladly let him shake. Then in reply to de Rougemont's eager questions he
+told briefly of all that had happened since they parted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The general has asked twice if we had any news of you,&quot; said de
+Rougemont. &quot;He does not forget. A great mind in a vast body.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Could I speak to him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of a certainty, my friend; come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They advanced toward the fire. General Vaugirard was walking up and
+down, his hands clasped behind his back, and whistling softly. His huge
+figure looked yet more huge outlined against the flames. He heard the
+tread of the two young men and looking up recognized John instantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Risen from the dead!&quot; he exclaimed with warmth, clasping the young
+man's hand in his own gigantic palm. &quot;I had despaired of ever seeing you
+again! There are so many more gallant lads whom I will certainly never
+see! Ah, well, such is life! The roll of our brave young dead is long,
+very long!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He reclasped his hands behind his back and walking up and down began to
+whistle again softly. His emotion over the holocaust had passed, and
+once more he was the general planning for victory. But he stopped
+presently and said to John:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Strangers, to whom you belong, have come under my command. You are
+one of my children now. I have my eye on all of you. You are brave lads.
+Go and seek rest with them while you can. You may not have another
+chance in a month. We have driven the German, but he will turn, and then
+we may fight weeks, months, no one knows how long. Ah, well, such is
+life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John saluted respectfully, and withdrew to the little open glade in
+which the Strangers were lying, sleeping a great sleep. Captain Colton
+himself, wrapped in a blanket, was now a-slumber under a tree, and
+Wharton and Carstairs near by, stretched on their sides, were deep in
+slumber too. Fires were burning on the long line, but they were not
+numerous, and in the distance they seemed mere pin points. At times bars
+of intense white light, like flashes of lightning, would sweep along the
+front, showing that the searchlights of either army still provided
+illumination for the fighting. The note of the artillery came like a
+distant and smothered groan, but it did not cease, and it would not
+cease, since the searchlights would show it a way all through the night.</p>
+
+<p>John sat down, looked at the faint flashes on the far horizon and
+listened to that moaning which grew in volume as one paid close
+attention to it. Europe or a great part of it had gone mad. He was
+filled once more with wrath against kings and all their doings as he
+looked upon the murderous aftermath of feudalism, the most gigantic of
+all wars, made in a few hours by a few men sitting around a table. Then
+he laughed at himself. What was he! A mere feather in a cyclone!
+Certainly he had been blown about like one!</p>
+
+<p>His nervous imagination now passed quickly and throwing himself upon the
+ground he slept like those around him. All the Strangers were awakened
+at early dawn by the signal of a trumpet, and when John opened his eyes
+he found the air still quivering beneath the throb of the guns. As he
+had foreseen they had never ceased in the darkness, and he could not
+remember how many days and nights now they had been raining steel upon
+human beings.</p>
+
+<p>He was refreshed and strengthened by a night of good sleep, but his mind
+was as sensitive as ever. In the morning no less bitterly than at night
+he raged against the folly and ambition of the kings. But the others
+paid no attention to the cannon. They were light of heart and easy of
+tongue. They chaffed one another in the cool dawn, and cried to the
+cooks for breakfast, which was soon brought to them, hot and plentiful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose it's forward again,&quot; said Carstairs between drinks of coffee.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fancy you're right,&quot; said Wharton. &quot;Since we've been put in the
+brigade of that giant of a general, Vaugirard, we're always going
+forward. He seems to have an uncommon love of fighting for a fat man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's an illusion,&quot; said John, &quot;that a fat man is more peaceful than a
+thin one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How are you going to prove it?&quot; asked Wharton.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look at Napoleon. When he was thin he was a great fighter, and when he
+became stout he was just as great a fighter as ever. Fat didn't take
+away his belligerency.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hear that the whole German army has been driven across the Marne,&quot;
+said Carstairs, &quot;and that the force we hoped to cut off has either
+escaped or is about to escape. If that's so they won't retreat much
+further. The pride of the Germans is too great, and their army is too
+powerful for them to yield much more ground to us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think you're right, or about as near right as an Englishman can be,
+Carstairs,&quot; said John. &quot;What must be the feelings of the Emperor and the
+kings and the princes and the grand dukes and the dukes and the martial
+professors to know that the German army has been turned back from Paris,
+just when the City of Light seemed ready to fall into their hands?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pretty bitter, I think,&quot; said Carstairs, &quot;but it's not pleasant to have
+the capital of a country fall into the hands of hostile armies. I don't
+read of such things with delight. It wouldn't give me any such
+overwhelming joy for us to march into Berlin. To beat the Germans is
+enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Another trumpet blew and the Strangers rose for battle again with an
+invisible enemy. All the officers, like the men, were on foot, their
+horses having been killed in the earlier fighting, and they advanced
+slowly across the stubble of a wheat field. The morning was still cool,
+although the sun was bright, and the air was full of vigor. The rumbling
+of the artillery grew with the day, but the Strangers said little.
+Battle had ceased to be a novelty. They would fight somewhere and with
+somebody, but they would wait patiently and without curiosity until the
+time came.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose Lannes didn't come back,&quot; said Carstairs. &quot;I haven't heard
+anyone speak of seeing him this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He may have returned before we awoke,&quot; said John. &quot;The <i>Arrow</i> flies
+very fast. Like as not he delivered his message, whatever it was, and
+was off again with another in a few minutes. He may be sixty or eighty
+miles from here now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Odd fellow that Lannes,&quot; said Carstairs. &quot;Do you know anything about
+his people, Scott?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not much except that he has a mother and sister. I spent a night with
+them at their house in Paris. I've heard that French family ties are
+strong, but they seemed to look upon him as the weak would regard a
+great champion, a knight, in their own phrase, without fear and without
+reproach.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That speaks well for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John's mind traveled back to that modest house across the Seine. It had
+done so often during all the days and nights of fighting, and he thought
+of Julie Lannes in her simple white dress, Julie with the golden hair
+and the bluest of blue eyes. She had not seemed at all foreign to him.
+In her simplicity and openness she was like one of the young girls of
+his own country. French custom might have compelled a difference at
+other times, but war was a great leveler of manners. She and her mother
+must have suffered agonies of suspense, when the guns were thundering
+almost within hearing of Paris, suspense for Philip, suspense for their
+country, and suspense in a less degree for themselves. Maybe Lannes had
+gone back once in the <i>Arrow</i> to show them that he was safe, and to tell
+them that, for the time at least, the great German invasion had been
+rolled back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A penny for your dream!&quot; said Carstairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not for a penny, nor for a pound, nor for anything else,&quot; said John.
+&quot;This dream of mine had something brilliant and beautiful and pure at
+the very core of it, and I'm not selling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Carstairs looked curiously at him, and a light smile played across his
+face. But the smile was sympathetic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll wager you that with two guesses I can tell the nature of your
+dream,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>John shook his head, and he, too, smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As we say at home,&quot; he said, &quot;you may guess right the very first time,
+but I won't tell you whether you're right or wrong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I take only one guess. That coruscating core of your dream was a girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I told you I wouldn't say whether you were right or wrong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is she blonde or dark?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I repeat that I'm answering no questions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does she live in one of your Northern or one of your Southern States?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose you haven't heard from her in a long time, as mail from
+across the water isn't coming with much regularity to this battle
+field.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John smiled again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now I'll conclude,&quot; said Carstairs, speaking very seriously. &quot;If
+it is a girl, and I know it is, I hope that she'll smile when she thinks
+of you, as you've been smiling when you think of her. I hope, too, that
+you'll go through this war without getting killed, although the chances
+are three or four to one against it, and go back home and win her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John smiled once more and was silent, but when Carstairs held out his
+hand he could not keep from shaking it. Then Paris, the modest house
+beyond the Seine, and the girl within it, floated away like an illusion,
+driven from thought in an instant by a giant shell that struck within a
+few hundred yards of them, exploding with a terrible crash and filling
+the air with deadly bits of flying shell.</p>
+
+<p>There was such a whistling in his ears that John thought at first he had
+been hit, but when he shook himself a little he found he was unhurt, and
+his heart resumed its normal beat. Other shells coming out of space
+began to strike, but none so near, and the Strangers went calmly on. On
+their right was a Paris regiment made up mostly of short, but
+thick-chested men, all very dark. Its numbers were only one-third what
+they had been a week before, and its colonel was Pierre Louis
+Bougainville, late Apache, late of the Butte Montmartre. All the
+colonels, majors and captains of this regiment had been killed and he
+now led it, earning his promotion by the divine right of genius. He, at
+least, could look into his knapsack and see there the shadow of a
+marshal's baton, a shadow that might grow more material.</p>
+
+<p>John watched him and he wondered at this transformation of a rat of
+Montmartre into a man. And yet there had been many such transformations
+in the French Revolution. What had happened once could always happen
+again. Napoleon himself had been the son of a poor little lawyer in a
+distant and half-savage island, not even French in blood, but an Italian
+and an alien.</p>
+
+<p>Crash! Another shell burst near, and told him to quit thinking of old
+times and attend to the business before him. The past had nothing more
+mighty than the present. The speed of the Strangers was increased a
+little, and the French regiments on either side kept pace with them.
+More shells fell. They came, shrieking through the air like hideous
+birds of remote ages. Some passed entirely over the advancing troops,
+but one fell among the French on John's right, and the column opening
+out, passed shudderingly around the spot where death had struck.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three of the Strangers were blown away presently. It seemed to
+John's horrified eyes that one of them entirely vanished in minute
+fragments. He knew now what annihilation meant.</p>
+
+<p>The heavy French field guns behind them were firing over their heads,
+but there was still nothing in front, merely the low green hills and not
+even a flash of flame nor a puff of smoke. The whistling death came out
+of space.</p>
+
+<p>The French went on, a wide shallow valley opened out before them, and
+they descended by the easy slope into it. Here the German shells and
+shrapnel ceased to fall among them, but, as the heavy thunder
+continued, John knew the guns had merely turned aside their fire for
+other points on the French line. Carstairs by his side gave an immense
+sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can never get used to the horrible roaring and groaning of those
+shells,&quot; he said. &quot;If I get killed I'd like it to be done without the
+thing that does it shrieking and gloating over me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were well in the valley now, and John noticed that along its right
+ran a dense wood, fresh and green despite the lateness of the season.
+But as he looked he heard the shrill snarling of many trumpets, and, for
+a moment or two, his heart stood still, as a vast body of German cavalry
+burst from the screen of the wood and rushed down upon them.</p>
+
+<p>It was not often in this war that cavalry had a great chance, but here
+it had come. The ambush was complete. The German signals, either from
+the sky or the hills, had told when the French were in the valley, and
+then the German guns had turned aside their fire for the very good
+reason that they did not wish to send shells among their own men.</p>
+
+<p>John's feeling was one of horrified surprise. The German cavalry
+extending across a mile of front seemed countless. Imagination in that
+terrific moment magnified them into millions. He saw the foaming mouths,
+the white teeth and the flashing eyes of the horses, and then the tense
+faces and eyes of their riders. Lances and sabers were held aloft, and
+the earth thundered with the tread of the mounted legions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good God!&quot; cried Wharton.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wheel, men, wheel!&quot; shouted Captain Colton.</p>
+
+<p>As they turned to face the rushing tide of steel, the regiment of
+Bougainville whirled on their flank and then Bougainville was almost at
+his side. He saw fire leap from the little man's eye. He saw him shout
+commands, rapid incisive, and correct and he saw clearly that if this
+were Napoleon's day that marshal's baton in the knapsack would indeed
+become a reality.</p>
+
+<p>The Paris regiment, kneeling, was the first to fire, and the next
+instant flame burst from the rifles of the Strangers. It was not a
+moment too soon. It seemed to many of the young Americans and Englishmen
+that they had been ridden down already, but sheet after sheet of bullets
+fired by men, fighting for their lives, formed a wall of death.</p>
+
+<p>The Uhlans, the hussars and the cuirassiers reeled back in the very
+moment of triumph. Horses with their riders crashed to the ground, and
+others, mad with terror, rushed wildly through the French ranks.</p>
+
+<p>John, Carstairs and Wharton snatched up rifles, all three, and began to
+fire with the men as fast as they could. A vast turmoil, frightful in
+its fury, followed. The German cavalry reeled back, but it did not
+retreat. The shrill clamor of many trumpets came again, and once more
+the horsemen charged. The sheet of death blazed in their faces again,
+and then the French met them with bayonet.</p>
+
+<p>The Strangers had closed in to meet the shock. John felt rather than saw
+Carstairs and Wharton on either side of him, and the three of them were
+firing cartridge after cartridge into the light whitish smoke that hung
+between them and the charging horsemen. He was devoutly thankful that
+the Paris regiment was immediately on their right, and that it was led
+by such a man as Bougainville. General Vaugirard, he knew, was farther
+to their left, and now he began to hear the rapid firers, pouring a rain
+of death upon the cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We win! we win!&quot; cried Carstairs. &quot;If they couldn't beat us down in the
+first rush they can't beat us down at all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Carstairs was right. The French had broken into no panic, and, when,
+infantry standing firm, pour forth the incessant and deadly stream of
+death, that modern arms make possible, no cavalry can live before them.
+Yet the Germans charged again and again into the hurricane of fire and
+steel. The tumult of the battle face to face became terrific.</p>
+
+<p>John could no longer hear the words of his comrades. He saw dimly
+through the whitish smoke in front, but he continued to fire. Once he
+leaped aside to let a wounded and riderless horse gallop past, and
+thrice he sprang over the bodies of the dead.</p>
+
+<p>The infantry were advancing now, driving the cavalry before them, and
+the French were able to bring their lighter field guns into action. John
+heard the rapid crashes, and he saw the line of cavalry drawing back.
+He, too, was shouting with triumph, although nobody heard him. But all
+the Strangers were filled with fiery zeal. Without orders they rushed
+forward, driving the horsemen yet further. John saw through the whitish
+mist a fierce face and a powerful arm swinging aloft a saber.</p>
+
+<p>He recognized von Boehlen and von Boehlen recognized him. Shouting, the
+Prussian urged his horse at him and struck him with the saber. John,
+under impulse, dropped to his knees, and the heavy blade whistled above
+him. But something else struck him on the head and he fell senseless to
+the earth.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII" />CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>JULIE LANNES</h3>
+
+
+<p>John Scott came slowly out of the darkness and hovered for a while
+between dusk and light. It was not an unpleasant world in which he
+lingered. It seemed full of rest and peace. His mind and body were
+relaxed, and there was no urgent call for him to march and to fight. The
+insistent drumming of the great guns which could play upon the nervous
+system until it was wholly out of tune was gone. The only sound he heard
+was that of a voice, a fresh young voice, singing a French song in a
+tone low and soft. He had always liked these little love songs of the
+kind that were sung in a subdued way. They were pathetic and pure as a
+rose leaf.</p>
+
+<p>He might have opened his eyes and looked for the singer, but he did not.
+The twilight region between sleep and consciousness was too pleasant. He
+had no responsibilities, nothing to do. He had a dim memory that he had
+belonged to an army, that it was his business to try to kill some one,
+and to try to keep from getting killed, but all that was gone now. He
+could lie there, without pain of body or anxiety of mind, and let vague
+but bright visions pass through his soul.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes still closed, he listened to the voice. It was very low,
+scarcely more than a murmur, yet it was thrillingly sweet. It might not
+be a human voice, after all, just the distant note of a bird in the
+forest, or the murmur of a brave little stream, or a summer wind among
+green leaves.</p>
+
+<p>He moved a little and became conscious that he was not going back into
+that winter region of dusk. His soul instead was steadily moving toward
+the light. The beat of his heart grew normal, and then memory in a full
+tide rushed upon him. He saw the great cavalry battle with all its red
+turmoil, the savage swing of von Boehlen's saber and himself drifting
+out into the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>He opened his eyes, the battle vanished, and he saw himself lying upon a
+low, wooden platform. His head rested upon a small pillow, a blanket was
+under him, and another above him. Turning slowly he saw other men
+wrapped in blankets like himself on the platform in a row that stretched
+far to right and left. Above was a low roof, but both sides of the
+structure were open.</p>
+
+<p>He understood it all in a moment. He had come back to a world of battle
+and wounds, and he was one of the wounded. But he listened for the soft,
+musical note which he believed now, in his imaginative state, had drawn
+him from the mid-region between life and death.</p>
+
+<p>The stalwart figure of a woman in a somber dress with a red cross sewed
+upon it passed between him and the light, but he knew that it was not
+she who had been singing. He closed his eyes in disappointment, but
+reopened them. A man wearing a white jacket and radiating an atmosphere
+of drugs now walked before him. He must be a surgeon. At home, surgeons
+wore white jackets. Beyond doubt he was one and maybe he was going to
+stop at John's cot to treat some terrible wound of which he was not yet
+conscious. He shivered a little, but the man passed on, and his heart
+beat its relief.</p>
+
+<p>Then a soldier took his place in the bar of light. He was a short, thick
+man in a ridiculous, long blue coat, and equally ridiculous, baggy, red
+trousers. An obscure cap was cocked in an obscure manner over his ears,
+and his face was covered with a beard, black, thick and untrimmed. He
+carried a rifle over his shoulder and nobody could mistake him for
+anything but a Frenchman. Then he was not a prisoner again, but was in
+French hands. That, at least, was a consolation.</p>
+
+<p>It was amusing to lie there and see the people, one by one, pass between
+him and the light. He could easily imagine that he was an inspection
+officer and that they walked by under orders from him. Two more women in
+those somber dresses with the red crosses embroidered upon them, were
+silhouetted for a moment against the glow and then were gone. Then a man
+with his arm in a sling and his face very pale walked slowly by. A
+wounded soldier! There must be many, very many of them!</p>
+
+<p>The musical murmur ceased and he was growing weary. He closed his eyes
+and then he opened them again because he felt for a moment on his face a
+fragrant breath, fleeting and very light. He looked up into the eyes of
+Julie Lannes. They were blue, very blue, but with infinite wistful
+depths in them, and he noticed that her golden hair had faint touches of
+the sun in it. It was a crown of glory. He remembered that he had seen
+something like it in the best pictures of the old masters.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mademoiselle Julie!&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have come back,&quot; she said gently. &quot;We have been anxious about you.
+Philip has been to see you three times.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He noticed that she, too, wore the somber dress with the red cross, and
+he began to comprehend.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A nurse,&quot; he said. &quot;Why, you are too young for such work!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I am strong, and the wounded are so many, hundreds of thousands,
+they say. Is it not a time for the women of France to help as much as
+they can?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose so. I've heard that in our civil war the women passed over
+the battle fields, seeking the wounded and nursed them afterward. But
+you didn't come here alone, did you, Mademoiselle Julie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antoine Picard&mdash;you remember him&mdash;and his daughter Suzanne, are with
+me. My mother would have come too, but she is ill. She will come later.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How long have I been here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Four days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John thought a little. Many and mighty events had happened in four days
+before he was wounded and many and mighty events may have occurred
+since.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would you mind telling me where we are, Mademoiselle Julie?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not know exactly myself, but we are somewhere near the river,
+Aisne. The German army has turned and is fortifying against us. When the
+wind blows this way you can hear the rumble of the guns. Ah, there it is
+now, Mr. Scott!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John distinctly heard that low, sinister menace, coming from the east,
+and he knew what it was. Why should he not? He had listened to it for
+days and days. It was easy enough now to tell the thunder of the
+artillery from real thunder. He was quite sure that it had never ceased
+while he was unconscious. It had been going on so long now, as steady as
+the flowing of a river.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've been asking you a lot of questions, Mademoiselle Julie, but I want
+to ask you one more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it, Mr. Scott?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What happened to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They say that you were knocked down by a horse, and that when you were
+falling his knee struck your head. There was a concussion but the
+surgeon says that when you come out of it you will recover very fast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the man who says it a good surgeon, one upon whom a fellow can rely,
+one of the very best surgeons that ever worked on a hurt head?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, Mr. Scott. But why do you ask such a question? Is it your odd
+American way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all. Mademoiselle Julie. I merely wanted to satisfy myself. He
+knows that I'm not likely to be insane or weak-minded or anything of the
+kind, because I got in the way of that horse's knee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no, Mr. Scott, there is not the least danger in the world. Your
+mind will be as sound as your body. Don't trouble yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She laughed and now John knew that it was she whom he had heard singing
+the chansonette in that low murmuring tone. What was that little song?
+Well, it did not matter about the words. The music was that of a soft
+breeze from the south blowing among roses. John's imaginings were
+growing poetical. Perhaps there were yet some lingering effects from the
+concussion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here is the surgeon now,&quot; said Mademoiselle Julie. &quot;He will take a look
+at you and he will be glad to find that what he has predicted has come
+true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was the man in the white jacket, and with that wonderful tangle of
+black whiskers, like a patch cut out of a scrub forest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, my young Yankee,&quot; he said, &quot;I see that you've come around. You've
+raised an interesting question in my mind. Since a cavalry horse wasn't
+able to break it, is the American skull thicker than the skulls of other
+people?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A lot of you Europeans don't seem to think we're civilized.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But when you fight for us we do. Isn't that so, Mademoiselle Lannes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;War is a curious thing. While it drives people apart it also brings
+them together. We learn in battle, and its aftermath, that we're very
+much alike. And now, my young Yankee, I'll be here again in two hours to
+change that bandage for the last time. I'll be through with you then,
+and in another day you can go forward to meet the German shells.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I prefer to run against a horse's knee,&quot; said John with spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Surgeon Lucien Delorme laughed heartily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm confirmed in my opinion that you won't need me after another change
+of bandages,&quot; he said. &quot;We've a couple of hundred thousand cases much
+worse than yours to tend, and Mademoiselle Lannes will look after you
+today. She has watched over you, I understand, because you're a friend
+of her brother, the great flying man, Philip Lannes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; said John, &quot;that's it, of course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Julie herself said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Surgeon Delorme passed through the bar of brilliant light and
+disappeared, his place being taken by a gigantic figure with grizzled
+hair, and the stern face of the thoughtful peasant, the same Antoine
+Picard who had been left as a guardian over the little house beyond the
+Seine. John closed his eyes, that is nearly, and caught the glance that
+the big man gave to Julie. It was protecting and fatherly, and he knew
+that Antoine would answer for her at any time with his life. It was one
+remnant of feudalism to which he did not object. He opened his eyes wide
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, my good Picard, perhaps you thought you were going to look at a
+dead American, but you are not. Behold me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He sat up and doubled up his arm to show his muscle and power. Picard
+smiled and offered to shake hands in the American fashion. He seemed
+genuinely glad that John had returned to the real world, and John
+ascribed it to Picard's knowledge that he was Lannes' friend.</p>
+
+<p>Julie said some words to Picard, and with a little <i>au revoir</i> to John,
+went away. John watched her until she was out of sight. He realized
+again that young French girls were kept secluded from the world, immured
+almost. But the world had changed. Since a few men met around a table
+six or seven weeks before and sent a few dispatches a revolution had
+come. Old customs, old ideas and old barriers were going fast, and might
+be going faster. War, the leveler, was prodigiously at work.</p>
+
+<p>These were tremendous things, but he had himself to think about too, and
+personality can often outweigh the universe. Julie was gone, taking a
+lot of the light with her, but Picard was still there, and while he was
+grizzled and stern he was a friend.</p>
+
+<p>John sat up quite straight and Picard did not try to keep him from it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Picard,&quot; he said, &quot;you see me, don't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do, sir, with these two good eyes of mine, as good as those in the
+head of any young man, and fifty is behind me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's because you're not intellectual, Picard, but we'll return to our
+lamb chops. I am here, I, a soldier of France, though an American&mdash;for
+which I am grateful&mdash;laid four days upon my back by a wound. And was
+that wound inflicted by a shell, shrapnel, bomb, lance, saber, bullet or
+any of the other noble weapons of warfare? No, sir, it was done by a
+horse, and not by a kick, either, he jostled me with his knee when he
+wasn't looking. Would you call that an honorable wound?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All wounds received in the service of one's country or adopted country
+are honorable, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You give me comfort, Picard. But spread the story that I was not hit by
+a horse's knee but by a piece of shell, a very large and wicked piece of
+shell. I want it to get into the histories that way. The greatest of
+Frenchmen, though he was an Italian, said that history was a fable
+agreed upon, and you and I want to make an agreement about myself and a
+shell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand you at all, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, never mind. Tell me how long Mademoiselle Julie is going to stay
+here. I'm a great friend of her brother, Lieutenant Philip Lannes. Oh,
+we're such wonderful friends! And we've been through such terrible
+dangers together!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then, perhaps it's Lieutenant Lannes and not his sister, Mademoiselle
+Julie, that you wish to inquire about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't be ironical, Picard. I was merely digressing, which I admit is
+wrong, as you're apt to distract the attention of your hearer from the
+real subject. We'll return to Mademoiselle Julie. Do you think she's
+going to remain here long?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would tell you if I could, sir, but no one knows. I think it depends
+upon many circumstances. The young lady is most brave, as becomes one of
+her blood, and the changes in France are great. All of us who may not
+fight can serve otherwise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why is it that you're not fighting, Picard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The great peasant flung up his arms angrily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because I am beyond the age. Because I am too old, they said. Think of
+it! I, Antoine Picard, could take two of these little officers and crush
+them to death at once in my arms! There is not in all this army a man
+who could walk farther than I can! There is not one who could lift the
+wheel of a cannon out of the mud more quickly than I can, and they would
+not take me! What do a few years mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing in your case, Antoine, but they'll take you, later on. Never
+fear. Before this war is over every country in it will need all the men
+it can get, whether old or young.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear that it is so,&quot; said the gigantic peasant, a shadow crossing his
+stern face, &quot;but, sir, one thing is decided. France, the France of the
+Revolution, the France that belongs to its people, will not fall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John looked at him with a new interest. Here was a peasant, but a
+thinking peasant, and there were millions like him in France. They were
+not really peasants in the old sense of the word, but workingmen with a
+stake in the country, and the mind and courage to defend it. It might be
+possible to beat the army of a nation, but not a nation in arms.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, Picard,&quot; said John, &quot;France will not fall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that being settled, sir,&quot; said Picard, with grim humor, &quot;I think
+you'd better lie down again. You've talked a lot for a man who has been
+unconscious four days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're right, my good Picard, as I've no doubt you usually are. Was I
+troublesome, much, when I was out in the dark?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But little, sir. I've lifted much heavier men, and that Dr. Delorme is
+strong himself, not afraid, either, to use the knife. Ah, sir, you
+should have seen how beautifully he worked right under the fire of the
+German guns! Psst! if need be he'd have taken a leg off you in five
+minutes, as neatly as if he had been in a hospital in Paris!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John felt apprehensively for his legs. Both were there, and in good
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that man ever comes near me with the intention of cutting off one of
+my legs I'll shoot him, good fellow and good doctor though he may be,&quot;
+he said. &quot;Help me up a little higher, will you, Picard? I want to see
+what kind of a place we're in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Picard built up a little pyramid of saddles and knapsacks behind him and
+John drew himself up with his back against them. The rows and rows of
+wounded stretched as far as he could see, and there was a powerful odor
+of drugs. Around him was a forest, of the kind with which he had become
+familiar in Europe, that is, of small trees, free from underbrush. He
+saw some distance away soldiers walking up and down and beyond them the
+vague outline of an earthwork.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What place is this, anyway, Picard?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It has no name, sir. It's a hospital. It was built in the forest in a
+day. More than five thousand wounded lie here. The army itself is
+further on. You were found and brought in by some young officers of that
+most singular company composed of Americans and English who are always
+quarreling among one another, but who unite and fight like demons
+against anybody else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A dollar to a cent it was Wharton and Carstairs who brought me here,&quot;
+said John, smiling to himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What does Monsieur say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Merely commenting on some absent friends of mine. But this isn't a bad
+place, Picard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The shed was of immense length and breadth and just beyond it were some
+small buildings, evidently of hasty construction. John inferred that
+they were for the nurses and doctors, and he wondered which one
+sheltered Julie Lannes. The forest seemed to be largely of young pines,
+and the breeze that blew through it was fresh and wholesome. As he
+breathed it young Scott felt that he was inhaling new life and strength.
+But the wind also brought upon its edge that far faint murmur which he
+knew was the throbbing of the great guns, miles and miles away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps, Monsieur had better lie down again now and sleep awhile,&quot; said
+Picard insinuatingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sleep! I need sleep! Why, Picard, by your own account I've just
+awakened from a sleep four days and four nights long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, sir, that was not sleep. It was the stupor of unconsciousness.
+Now your sleep will be easy and natural.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well,&quot; said John, who had really begun to feel a little weary,
+&quot;I'll go to sleep, since, in a way, you order it, but if Mademoiselle
+Julie Lannes should happen to pass my cot again, will you kindly wake me
+up?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If possible, sir,&quot; said Picard, the faintest smile passing over his
+iron features, and forced to be content with that reply, John soon slept
+again. Julie passed by him twice, but Picard did not awaken him, nor
+try. The first time she was alone. Trained and educated like most young
+French girls, she had seen little of the world until she was projected
+into the very heart of it by an immense and appalling war. But its
+effect upon her had been like that upon John. Old manners and customs
+crumbled away, an era vanished, and a new one with new ideas came to
+take its place. She shuddered often at what she had seen in this great
+hospital in the woods, but she was glad that she had come. French
+courage was as strong in the hearts of women as in the hearts of men,
+and the brusque but good Dr. Delorme had said that she learned fast. She
+had more courage, yes, and more skill, than many nurses older and
+stronger than she, and there was the stalwart Suzanne, who worked with
+her.</p>
+
+<p>She was alone the first time and she stopped by John's cot, where he
+slept so peacefully. He was undeniably handsome, this young American who
+had come to their house in Paris with Philip. And her brother, that
+wonderful man of the air, who was almost a demi-god to her, had spoken
+so well of him, had praised so much his skill, his courage, and his
+honesty. And he had received his wound fighting so gallantly for France,
+her country. Her beautiful color deepened a little as she walked away.</p>
+
+<p>John awoke again in the afternoon, and the first sound he heard was that
+same far rumble of the guns, now apparently a part of nature, but he did
+not linger in any twilight land between dark and light. All the mists of
+sleep cleared away at once and he sat up, healthy, strong and hungry.
+Demanding food from an orderly he received it, and when he had eaten it
+he asked for Surgeon Delorme.</p>
+
+<p>The surgeon did not come for a half hour and then he demanded brusquely
+what John wanted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None of your drugs,&quot; replied happy young Scott, &quot;but my uniform and my
+arms. I don't know your procedure here, but I want you to certify to the
+whole world that I'm entirely well and ready to return to the ranks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Surgeon Delorme critically examined the bandage which he had changed
+that morning, and then felt of John's head at various points.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A fine strong skull,&quot; he said, smiling, &quot;and quite undamaged. When this
+war is over I shall go to America and make an exhaustive study of the
+Yankee skull. Has bone, through the influence of climate or of more
+plentiful food, acquired a more tenacious quality there than it has
+here? It is a most interesting and complicated question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But it's solution will have to be deferred, my good Monsieur Delorme,
+and so you'd better quit thumping my head so hard. Give me that
+certificate, because if you don't I'll get up and go without it. Don't
+you hear those guns out there, doctor? Why, they're calling to me all
+the time. They tell me, strong and well, again, to come at once and join
+my comrades of the Strangers, who are fighting the enemy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall go in the morning,&quot; said Surgeon Delorme, putting his broad
+hand upon young Scott's head. &quot;The effects of the concussion will have
+vanished then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I want to get up now and put on my uniform; can't I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know no reason why you shouldn't. There's a huge fellow named Picard
+around here who has been watching over you, and who has your uniform.
+I'll call him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When John was dressed he walked with Picard into the edge of the forest.
+His first steps were wavering, and his head swam a little, but in a few
+minutes the dizziness disappeared and his walk became steady and
+elastic. He was his old self again, strong in every fiber. He would
+certainly be with the Strangers the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>Many more of the wounded, thousands of them, were lying or sitting on
+the short grass in the forest. They were the less seriously hurt, and
+they were cheerful. Some of them sang.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They'll be going back to the army fast,&quot; said Picard. &quot;Unless they're
+torn by shrapnel nearly all the wounded get well again and quickly. The
+bullet with the great power is merciful. It goes through so fast that it
+does not tear either flesh or bone. If you're healthy, if your blood is
+good, psst! you're well again in a week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know if Lieutenant Lannes is expected here?&quot; asked John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I heard from Mademoiselle Julie that he would come at set of sun. He
+has been on another perilous errand. Ah, his is a strange and terrible
+life, sir. Up there in the sky, a half mile, maybe a mile, above the
+earth. All the dangers of the earth and those, too, of the air to fight!
+Nothing above you and nothing below you. It's a new world in which
+Monsieur Philip Lannes moves, but I would not go in it with him, not for
+all the treasures of the Louvre!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked up at the calm and benevolent blue sky and shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>John laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Some of us feel that way,&quot; he said. &quot;Many men as brave as any that ever
+lived can't bear to look down from a height. But sunset is approaching,
+my gallant Picard, and Lannes should soon be here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The rays of the sun fell in showers of red gold where they stood, but a
+narrow band of gray under the eastern horizon showed that twilight was
+not far away. The two stood side by side staring up at the heavens,
+where they felt with absolute certainty the black dot would appear at
+the appointed time. It was a singular tribute to the courage and
+character of Lannes that all who knew him had implicit faith in his
+promises, not alone in his honesty of purpose, but in his ability to
+carry it out in the face of difficulty and danger. The band of gray in
+the east broadened, but they still watched with the utmost faith.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see something to the eastward,&quot; said John, &quot;or is it merely a shadow
+in the sky?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think it's a shadow. It must be one of those terrible machines,
+and perhaps it's that of our brave Monsieur Philip.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're right, Picard, it's no shadow, nor is it a bit of black cloud.
+It's an aeroplane, flying very fast. The skies over Europe hold many
+aeroplanes these days, but I know all the tricks of the <i>Arrow</i>, all its
+pretty little ways, its manner of curving, looping and dropping, and I
+should say that the <i>Arrow</i>, Philip Lannes aboard, is coming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I pray, sir, that you are right. I always hold my breath until he is on
+the ground again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you'll have to make a record in holding breath, my brave Picard.
+He is still far, very far, from us, and it will be a good ten minutes
+before he arrives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But John knew beyond a doubt, after a little more watching, that it was
+really the <i>Arrow</i>, and with eager eyes he watched the gallant little
+machine as it descended in many a graceful loop and spiral to the earth.
+They hurried forward to meet it, and Lannes, bright-eyed and trim,
+sprang out, greeting John with a welcome cry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Up again,&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;and, as I see with these two eyes of mine,
+as well as ever! And you too, my brave Picard, here to meet me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He hastened away with a report, but came back to them in a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; he said, &quot;We'll go and see my sister.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John was not at all unwilling.</p>
+
+<p>They found her in one of the new houses of pine boards, and the faithful
+and stalwart Suzanne was with her. It was the plainest of plain places,
+inhabited by at least twenty other Red Cross nurses, and John stood on
+one side until the first greeting of brother and sister was over. Then
+Lannes, by a word and a gesture, included him in what was practically a
+family group, although he was conscious that the stalwart Suzanne was
+watching him with a wary eye.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Julie and Suzanne,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;are going tomorrow with other nurses
+to the little town of M&eacute;nouville, where also many wounded lie. They are
+less well supplied with doctors and nurses than we are here. Dr. Delorme
+goes also with a small detachment as escort. I have asked that you,
+Monsieur Jean the Scott, be sent with them. Our brave Picard goes too.
+M&eacute;nouville is about eight miles from here, and it's not much out of the
+way to the front. So you will not be kept long from your Strangers,
+John.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I go willingly,&quot; said John, &quot;and I'm glad, Philip, that you've seen fit
+to consider me worth while as a part of the escort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He spoke quietly, but his glance wandered to Julie Lannes. It may have
+been a chance, but hers turned toward him at the same time, and the
+eyes, the blue and the gray, met. Again the girl's brilliant color
+deepened a little, and she looked quickly away. Only the watchful and
+grim Suzanne saw.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you have to go away at once, Philip?&quot; asked Julie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In one hour, my sister. There is not much rest for the <i>Arrow</i> and me
+these days, but they are such days as happen perhaps only once in a
+thousand years, and one must do his best to be worthy. I'm not
+preaching, little sister, don't think that, but I must answer to every
+call.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The twilight had spread from east to west. The heavy shadows in the east
+promised a dark night, but out of the shadows, as always, came that
+sullen mutter of the ruthless guns. Julie shivered a little, and glanced
+at the dim sky.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Must you go up there in the cold dark?&quot; she said. &quot;It's like leaving
+the world. It's dangerous enough in the day, but you have a bright sky
+then. In the night it's terrible!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you fear for me, little sister,&quot; said Lannes. &quot;Why, I like the
+night for some reasons. You can slip by your enemies in the dark, and if
+you're flying low the cannon don't have half the chance at you. Besides,
+I've the air over these regions all mapped and graded now. I know all
+the roads and paths, the meeting places of the clouds, points suitable
+for ambush, aerial fields, meadows and forests. Oh, it's home up there!
+Don't you worry, and do you write, too, to Madame, my mother, in Paris,
+that I'm perfectly safe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lannes kissed her and went away abruptly. John was sure that an attempt
+to hide emotion caused his brusque departure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Believe everything he tells you, Mademoiselle Julie,&quot; he said. &quot;I've
+come to the conclusion that nothing can ever trap your brother. Besides
+courage and skill he has luck. The stars always shine for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're not shining tonight,&quot; said Picard, looking up at the dusky sky.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I believe, Mr. Scott, that you are right,&quot; said Julie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He'll certainly come to us at M&eacute;nouville tomorrow night,&quot; said John,
+speaking in English&mdash;all the conversation hitherto had been in French,
+&quot;and I think we'll have a pleasant ride through the forest in the
+morning, Miss Lannes. You'll let me call you Miss Lannes, once or twice,
+in my language, won't you? I like to hear the sound of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've no objection, Mr. Scott,&quot; she replied also in English. She did not
+blush, but looked directly at him with bright eyes. John was conscious
+of something cool and strong. She was very young, she was French, and
+she had lived a sheltered life, but he realized once more that human
+beings are the same everywhere and that war, the leveler, had broken
+down all barriers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've not heard who is to be our commander, Miss Lannes,&quot; he continued
+in English, &quot;but I'll be here early in the morning. May I wish you happy
+dreams and a pleasant awakening, as they say at home?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you have two homes now, France and America.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's so, and I'm beginning to love one as much as the other. Any
+way, to the re-seeing, Miss Lannes, which I believe is equivalent to <i>au
+revoir</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He made a very fine bow, one that would have done credit to a trained
+old courtier, and withdrew. The fierce and watchful eyes of Suzanne
+followed him.</p>
+
+<p>John was up at dawn, as strong and well as he had ever been in his life.
+As he was putting on his uniform an orderly arrived with a note from
+Lieutenant Hector Legar&eacute;, telling him to report at once for duty with a
+party that was going to M&eacute;nouville.</p>
+
+<p>The start was made quickly. John found that the women with surgical
+supplies were traveling in carts. The soldiers, about twenty in number,
+walked. John and the doctor walked with them. All the automobiles were
+in use carrying troops to the front, but the carts were strong and
+comfortable and John did not mind. It ought to be a pleasant trip.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII" />CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MIDDLE AGES</h3>
+
+
+<p>The little party moved away without attracting notice. In a time of such
+prodigious movement the going or coming of a few individuals was a
+matter of no concern. The hood that Julie Lannes had drawn over her hair
+and face, and her plain brown dress might have been those of a nun. She
+too passed before unseeing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Legar&eacute; was a neutral person, arousing no interest in John who
+walked by the side of the gigantic Picard, the stalwart Suzanne being in
+one of the carts beside Julie. The faint throbbing of the guns, now a
+distinct part of nature, came to them from a line many miles away, but
+John took no notice of it. He had returned to the world among pleasant
+people, and this was one of the finest mornings in early autumn that he
+had ever seen.</p>
+
+<p>The country was much more heavily forested than usual. At points, the
+woods turned into what John would almost have called a real forest. Then
+they could not see very far ahead or to either side, but the road was
+good and the carts moved forward, though not at a pace too great for the
+walkers.</p>
+
+<p>Picard carried a rifle over his shoulders, and John had secured an
+automatic. All the soldiers were well armed. John felt a singular
+lightness of heart, and, despite the forbidding glare of Suzanne, who
+was in the last cart, he spoke to Julie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's too fine a morning for battle,&quot; he said in English. &quot;Let's pretend
+that we're a company of troubadours, minnesingers, jongleurs, acrobats
+and what not, going from one great castle to another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose Antoine there is the chief acrobat?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He might do a flip-flap, but if he did the earth would shake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you are the chief troubadour. Where is your harp or viol, Sir
+Knight of the Tuneful Road?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm merely imagining character, not action. I haven't a harp or a viol,
+and if I had them I couldn't play on either.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think it right to talk In English to the strange young American,
+Mademoiselle? Would Madame your mother approve?&quot; said Suzanne in a
+fierce whisper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is sometimes necessary in war, Suzanne, to talk where one would not
+do so in peace,&quot; replied Julie gravely, and then she said to John again
+in English:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We cannot carry out the pretense, Mr. Scott. The tuneful or merry folk
+of the Middle Ages did not travel with arms. They had no enemies, and
+they were welcome everywhere. Nor did they travel as we do to the
+accompaniment of war. The sound of the guns grows louder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So it does,&quot; said John, bending an ear&mdash;he had forgotten that a battle
+was raging somewhere, &quot;but we're behind the French lines and it cannot
+touch us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a wonderful victory. Our soldiers are the bravest in the world
+are they not, Mr. Scott?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John smiled. They were still talking English. He liked to hear her
+piquant pronunciation of it, and he surmised too that the bravest of
+hearts beat in the bosom of this young girl whom war had suddenly made a
+woman. How could the sister of such a man as Lannes be otherwise than
+brave? The sober brown dress, and the hood equally sober, failed to hide
+her youthful beauty. The strands of hair escaping from the hood showed
+pure gold in the sunshine, and in the same sunshine the blue of her eyes
+seemed deeper than ever.</p>
+
+<p>John was often impressed by the weakness of generalities, and one of
+them was the fact that so many of the French were so fair, and so many
+of the English so dark. He did not remember the origin of the Lannes
+family, but he was sure that through her mother's line, at least, she
+must be largely of Norman blood.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you thinking of so gravely, Mr. Scott?&quot; she asked, still in
+English, to the deep dissatisfaction of Suzanne, who never relaxed her
+grim glare.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know. Perhaps it was the contrast of our peaceful journey to
+what is going on twelve or fifteen miles away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is beautiful here!&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>Truly it was. The road, smooth and white, ran along the slopes of hills,
+crested with open forest, yet fresh and green. Below them were fields of
+chequered brown and green. Four or five clear brooks flowed down the
+slopes, and the sheen of a little river showed in the distance. Three
+small villages were in sight, and, clean white smoke rising from their
+chimneys, blended harmoniously into the blue of the skies. It reminded
+John of pictures by the great French landscape painters. It was all so
+beautiful and peaceful, nor was the impression marred by the distant
+mutter of the guns which he had forgotten again.</p>
+
+<p>Julie and Suzanne, her menacing shadow, dismounted from the wagon
+presently and walked with John and Picard. Lieutenant Legar&eacute; was stirred
+enough from his customary phlegm to offer some gallant words, but war,
+the great leveler, had not quite leveled all barriers, so far as he was
+concerned, and, after her polite reply, he returned to his martial
+duties. John had become the friend of the Lannes family through his
+association with Philip in dangerous service, and his position was
+recognized.</p>
+
+<p>The road ascended and the forest became deeper. No houses were now in
+sight. As the morning advanced it had grown warmer under a brilliant
+sun, but it was pleasant here in the shade. Julie still walked, showing
+no sign of a wish for the cart again. John noticed that she was very
+strong, or at least very enduring. Suddenly he felt a great obligation
+to take care of her for the sake of Lannes. The sister of his
+comrade-in-arms was a precious trust in his hands, and he must not
+fail.</p>
+
+<p>The wind shifted and blew toward the east, no longer bringing the sound
+of guns. Instead they heard a bird now and then, chattering or singing
+in a tree. The illusion of the Middle Ages returned to John. They were a
+peaceful troupe, going upon a peaceful errand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't tell me there isn't a castle at M&eacute;nouville,&quot; he said. &quot;I know
+there is, although I've never been there, and I never heard of the place
+before. When we arrive the drawbridge will be down and the portcullis
+up. All the men-at-arms will have burnished their armor brightly and
+will wait respectfully in parallel rows to welcome us as we pass
+between. His Grace, the Duke of Light Heart, in a suit of red velvet
+will be standing on the steps, and Her Graciousness, the Duchess, in a
+red brocade dress, with her hair powdered and very high on her head,
+will be by his side to greet our merry troupe. Behind them will be all
+the ducal children, and the knights and squires and pages, and ladies. I
+think they will all be very glad to see us, because in these Middle Ages
+of ours, life, even in a great ducal castle, is somewhat lonely.
+Visitors are too rare, and there is not the variety of interest that
+even the poor will have in a later time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You make believe well, Mr. Scott,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is inspiration,&quot; he said, glancing at her. &quot;We are here in the
+deeps of an ancient wood, and perhaps the stories and legends of these
+old lands move the Americans more than they do the people who live here.
+We're the children of Europe and when we look back to the land of our
+fathers we often see it through a kind of glorified mist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The wind is shifting again,&quot; she said. &quot;I hear the cannon once more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So do I, and I hear something else too! Was that the sound of hoofs?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John turned in sudden alarm to Legar&eacute;, who heard also and stiffened at
+once to attention. They were not alone on the road. The rapid beat of
+hoofs came, and around a corner galloped a mass of Uhlans, helmets and
+lances glittering. Picard with a shout of warning fired his rifle into
+the thick of them. Legar&eacute; snatched out his revolver and fired also.</p>
+
+<p>But they had no chance. The little detachment was ridden down in an
+instant. Legar&eacute; and half of the men died gallantly. The rest were taken.
+Picard had been brought to his knees by a tremendous blow from the butt
+of a lance, and John, who had instinctively sprung before Julie, was
+overpowered. Suzanne, who endeavored to reach a weapon, fought like a
+tigress, but two Uhlans finally subdued her.</p>
+
+<p>It was so swift and sudden that it scarcely seemed real to John, but
+there were the dead bodies lying ghastly in the road, and there stood
+Julie, as pale as death, but not trembling. The leader of the Uhlans
+pushed his helmet back a little from his forehead, and looked down at
+John, who had been disarmed but who stood erect and defiant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is odd, Mr. Scott,&quot; said Captain von Boehlen, &quot;how often the
+fortunes of this war have caused us to meet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is, and sometimes fortune favors one, sometimes the other. You're
+in favor now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Von Boehlen looked steadily at his prisoner. John thought that the
+strength and heaviness of the jaw were even more pronounced than when he
+had first seen the Prussian in Dresden. The face was tanned deeply, and
+face and figure alike seemed the embodiment of strength. One might
+dislike him, but one could not despise him. John even found it in his
+heart to respect him, as he returned the steady gaze of the blue eyes
+with a look equally as firm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope,&quot; said John, &quot;that you will send back Mademoiselle Lannes and
+the nurses with her to her people. I take it that you're not making war
+upon women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Von Boehlen gave Julie a quick glance of curiosity and admiration. But
+the eyes flashed for only a moment and then were expressionless.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know of one Lannes,&quot; he said, &quot;Philip Lannes, the aviator, a name
+that fame has brought to us Germans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am his sister,&quot; said Julie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can wish, Mademoiselle Lannes,&quot; said von Boehlen, politely in French,
+&quot;that we had captured your brother instead of his sister.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But as I said, you will send them back to their own people? You don't
+make war upon women?&quot; repeated John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, we do not make war upon women. We are making war upon Frenchmen,
+and I do not hesitate to say in the presence of Mademoiselle Lannes that
+this war is made upon very brave Frenchmen. Yet we cannot send the
+ladies back. The presence of our cavalry here within the French lines
+must not be known to our enemies. Moreover, I obey the orders of
+another, and I am compelled to hold them as prisoners&mdash;for a while at
+least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Von Boehlen's tone was not lacking in the least in courtesy. It was more
+than respectful when he spoke directly to Julie Lannes, and John's
+feeling of repugnance to him underwent a further abatement&mdash;he was a
+creation of his conditions, and he believed in his teachings.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will at least keep us all as prisoners together?&quot; said John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know of no reason to the contrary,&quot; replied von Boehlen briefly. Then
+he acted with the decision that characterized all the German officers
+whom John had seen. The women and the prisoners were put in the carts.
+Dismounted Uhlans took the place of the drivers and the little
+procession with an escort of about fifty cavalry turned from the road
+into the woods, von Boehlen and the rest, about five hundred in number,
+rode on down the road.</p>
+
+<p>John was in the last cart with Julie, Suzanne and Picard, and his soul
+was full of bitter chagrin. He had just been taking mental resolutions
+to protect, no matter what came, Philip Lannes' sister, and, within a
+half hour, both she and he were prisoners. But when he saw the face of
+Antoine Picard he knew that one, at least, in the cart was suffering as
+much as he. The gigantic peasant was the only one whose arms were bound,
+and perhaps it was as well. His face expressed the most ferocious anger
+and hate, and now and then he pulled hard upon his bonds. John could see
+that they were cutting into the flesh. He remembered also that Picard
+was not in uniform. He was in German eyes only a <i>franc tireur</i>, subject
+to instant execution, and he wondered why von Boehlen had delayed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Save your strength, Antoine,&quot; he whispered soothingly. &quot;We'll need it
+later. I've been a prisoner before and I escaped. What's been done once
+can be done again. In such a huge and confused war as this there's
+always a good chance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, you're right, Monsieur,&quot; said Antoine, and he ceased to struggle.</p>
+
+<p>Julie had heard the whisper, and she looked at John confidently. She was
+the youngest of all the women in the carts, but she was the coolest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They cannot do anything with us but hold us a few days,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>John was silent, turning away his somber face. He did not like this
+carrying away of the women as captives, and to him the women were
+embodied in Julie. They were following a little path through the woods,
+the German drivers and German guards seeming to know well the way. John,
+calculating the course by the sun, was sure that they were now going
+directly toward the German army and that they would pass unobserved
+beyond the French outposts. The path was leading into a narrow gorge and
+the banks and trees would hide them from all observation. He was
+confirmed in his opinion by the action of their guards. The leader rode
+beside the carts and said in very good French that any one making the
+least outcry would be shot instantly. No exception would be made in the
+case of a woman.</p>
+
+<p>John knew that the threat would be kept. Julie Lannes paled a little,
+and the faithful Suzanne by her side was darkly menacing, but they
+showed no other emotion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't risk anything,&quot; said John in the lowest of whispers. &quot;It would be
+useless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Julie nodded. The carts moved on down the gorge, their wheels and the
+hoofs of the horses making but little noise on the soft turf. The crash
+of the guns was now distinctly louder and far ahead they saw wisps of
+smoke floating above the trees. John was sure that the German batteries
+were there, but he was equally sure that even had he glasses he could
+not have seen them. They would certainly be masked in some adroit
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>The roaring also grew on their right and left. That must be the French
+cannon, and soon they would be beyond the French lines. His bitterness
+increased. Nothing could be more galling than to be carried in this
+manner through one's own forces and into the camp of the enemy. And
+there was Julie, sitting quiet and pale, apparently without fear.</p>
+
+<p>He reckoned that they rode at least three miles in the gorge. Then they
+came into a shallow stream about twenty feet wide that would have been
+called a creek at home. Its banks were fairly high, lined on one side by
+a hedge and on the other by willows. Instead of following the path any
+further the Germans turned into the bed of the stream and drove down it
+two or three miles. The roar of the artillery from both armies was now
+very great, and the earth shook. Once John caught the shadow of a huge
+shell passing high over their heads.</p>
+
+<p>All the prisoners knew that they were well beyond hope of rescue for the
+present. The French line was far behind them and they were within the
+German zone. It was better to be resigned, until they saw cause for
+hope.</p>
+
+<p>When they came to a low point in the eastern bank of the stream the
+carts turned out, reached a narrow road between lines of poplars and
+continued their journey eastward. In the fields on either side John saw
+detachments of German infantry, skirmishers probably, as they had not
+yet reached the line of cannon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Officer,&quot; said John to the German leader, &quot;couldn't you unbind the arms
+of my friend in the cart here? Ropes around one's wrists for a long time
+are painful, and since we're within your lines he has no chance of
+escape now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The officer looked at Picard and shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Giants are strong,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But a little bullet can lay low the greatest of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He leaned from his horse, inserted the point of his sword between
+Picard's wrists and deftly cut the rope without breaking the skin.
+Picard clenched and unclenched his hands and drew several mighty breaths
+of relief. But he was a peasant of fine manners and he did not forget
+them. Turning to the officer, he said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did not think I'd ever thank a German for anything, but I owe you
+gratitude. It's unnatural and painful to remain trussed up like a fowl
+going to market.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The officer gave Picard a glance of pity and rode to the head of the
+column, which turned off at a sharp angle toward the north. The great
+roar and crash now came from the south and John inferred that they would
+soon pass beyond the zone of fire. But for a long time the thunder of
+the battle was undiminished.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know this country at all?&quot; John asked Picard.</p>
+
+<p>The giant shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was never here before, sir,&quot; he said, &quot;and I never thought I should
+come into any part of France in this fashion. Ah, Mademoiselle Julie,
+how can I ever tell the tale of this to your mother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No harm will come to me, Antoine,&quot; said Julie. &quot;I shall be back in
+Paris before long. Suzanne and you are with me&mdash;and Mr. Scott.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Suzanne again frowned darkly, but John gave Julie a grateful glance.
+Wisdom, however, told him to say nothing. The officer in command came
+back to the cart and said, pointing ahead:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Behold your destination! The large house on the hill. It is the
+headquarters of a person of importance, and you will find quarters there
+also. I trust that the ladies will hold no ill will against me. I've
+done only what my orders have compelled me to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We do not, sir,&quot; said Julie.</p>
+
+<p>The officer bowed low and rode back to the head of the column. He was a
+gallant man and John liked him. But his attention was directed now to
+the house, an old French ch&acirc;teau standing among oaks. The German flag
+flew over it and sentinels rode back and forth on the lawn. John
+remembered the officer's words that a &quot;person of importance&quot; was making
+his headquarters there. It must be one of the five German army
+commanders, at least.</p>
+
+<p>He looked long at the ch&acirc;teau. It was much such a place as that in which
+Carstairs, Wharton and he had once found refuge, and from the roof of
+which Wharton had worked the wireless with so much effect. But houses of
+this type were numerous throughout Western Europe.</p>
+
+<p>It was only two stories in height, large, with long low windows, and the
+lawn was more like a park in size. It as now the scene of abundant life,
+although, as John knew instinctively, not the life of those to whom it
+belonged. A number of young officers sat on the grass reading, and at
+the edge of the grounds stood a group of horses with their riders lying
+on the ground near them. Not far away were a score of high powered
+automobiles, several of which were armored. John also saw beyond them a
+battery of eight field guns, idle now and with their gunners asleep
+beside them. He had no doubt that other troops in thousands were not far
+away and that, in truth, they were in the very thick of the German army.</p>
+
+<p>The ch&acirc;teau and its grounds were enclosed by a high iron fence and the
+little procession of carts stopped at the great central gate. A group
+of officers who had been sitting on the grass, reading a newspaper, came
+forward to meet them and John, to his amazement and delight, recognized
+the young prince, von Arnheim. It was impossible for him to regard von
+Arnheim as other than a friend, and springing impulsively from the cart
+he said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had to leave you for a while. It had become irksome to be a prisoner,
+but you see I've come back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Von Arnheim stared, then recognition came.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, it's Scott, the American! I speak truth when I say that I'm sorry
+to see you here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sorry to come,&quot; said John, &quot;but I'd rather be your prisoner than
+anybody else's, and I wish to ask your courtesy and kindness for the
+young lady, sitting in the rear of the cart, Mademoiselle Julie Lannes,
+the sister of that great French aviator of whom everybody has heard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll do what I can, but you're mistaken in assuming that I'm in command
+here. There's a higher personage&mdash;but pardon me, I must speak to the
+lieutenant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The officer in charge was saluting, obviously anxious to make his report
+and have done with an unpleasant duty. Von Arnheim gave him rapid
+directions in German and then asked Julie and the two Picards to
+dismount from the cart, while the others were carried through the gate
+and down a drive toward some distant out-buildings.</p>
+
+<p>John saw von Arnheim's eyes gleam a little, when he noticed the beauty
+of young Julie, but the Prussian was a man of heart and manner. He
+lifted his helmet, and bowed with the greatest courtesy, saying:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's an unhappy chance for you, but not for us, that has made you our
+prisoner, Mademoiselle Lannes. In this ch&acirc;teau you must consider
+yourself a guest, and not a captive. It would not become us to treat
+otherwise the sister of one so famous as your brother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John noticed that he paid her no direct compliment. It was indirect,
+coming through her brother, and he liked von Arnheim better than ever,
+because the young captive was, in truth, very beautiful. The brown dress
+and the sober hood could not hide it as she stood there, the warm red
+light from the setting sun glancing across her rosy face and the
+tendrils of golden hair that fell from beneath the hood. She was
+beautiful beyond compare, John repeated to himself, but scarcely more
+than a child, and she had come into strange places. The stalwart Suzanne
+also took note, and she moved a little nearer, while her grim look
+deepened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will give you the best hospitality the house affords,&quot; continued von
+Arnheim. &quot;It's scarcely equipped for ladies, although the former owners
+left&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He paused and reddened. John knew his embarrassment was due to the fact
+that the house to which he was inviting Julie belonged to one of her own
+countrymen. But she did not seem to notice it. The manner and appearance
+of von Arnheim inspired confidence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll be put with the other prisoners, of course,&quot; said John
+tentatively.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know,&quot; replied von Arnheim. &quot;That rests with my superior, whom
+you shall soon see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were walking along the gravel toward a heavy bronze door, that told
+little of what the house contained. Officers and soldiers saluted the
+young prince as he passed. John saw discipline and attention everywhere.
+The German note was discipline and obedience, obedience and discipline.
+A nation, with wonderful powers of thinking, it was a nation that ceased
+to think when the call of the drill sergeant came. Discipline and
+obedience had made it terrible and unparalleled in war, to a certain
+point, but beyond that point the nations that did think in spite of
+their sergeants, could summon up reserves of strength and courage which
+the powers of the trained militarists could not create. At least John
+thought so.</p>
+
+<p>The long windows of the house threw back the last rays of the setting
+sun, and it was twilight when von Arnheim and his four captives entered
+the ch&acirc;teau. A large man, middle-aged, heavy and bearded, wearing the
+uniform of a German general rose, and a staff of several officers rose
+with him. It was Auersperg, the medieval prince, and John's heart was
+troubled.</p>
+
+<p>Von Arnheim saluted, bowing deeply. He stood not only in the presence of
+his general, but of royalty also. It was something in the German blood,
+even in one so brave and of such high rank as von Arnheim himself, that
+compelled humility, and John, like the fierce democrat he was, did not
+like it at all. The belief was too firmly imbedded in his mind ever to
+be removed that men like Auersperg and the mad power for which they
+stood had set the torch to Europe.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Captain von Boehlen took some prisoners, Your Highness,&quot; said von
+Arnheim, &quot;and as he was compelled to continue on his expedition he has
+sent them here under the escort of Lieutenant Puttkamer. The young lady
+is Mademoiselle Julie Lannes, the sister of the aviator, of whom we all
+know, the woman and the peasant are her servants, and the young man,
+whom we have seen before, is an American, John Scott in the French
+service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He spoke in French, with intention, John thought, and the heavy-lidded
+eyes of Auersperg dwelt an instant on the fresh and beautiful face of
+Julie. And that momentary glance was wholly medieval. John saw it and
+understood it. A rage against Auersperg that would never die flamed up
+in his heart. He already hated everything for which the man stood.
+Auersperg's glance passed on, and slowly measured the gigantic figure of
+Picard. Then he smiled in a slow and ugly fashion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, a peasant in civilian's dress, captured fighting our brave armies!
+Our orders are very strict upon that point. Von Arnheim, take this
+<i>franc tireur</i> behind the ch&acirc;teau and have him shot at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He too had spoken in French, and doubtless with intention also. John
+felt a thrill of horror, but Julie Lannes, turning white, sprang before
+Picard:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No! No!&quot; she cried to Auersperg. &quot;You cannot do such a thing! He is not
+a soldier! They would not take him because he is too old! He is my
+mother's servant! It would be barbarous to have him shot!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Auersperg looked again at Julie, and smiled, but it was the slow, cold
+smile of a master.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You beg very prettily, Mademoiselle,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>She flushed, but stood firm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would be murder,&quot; she said. &quot;You cannot do it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know little of war. This man is a <i>franc tireur</i>, a civilian in
+civilian's garb, fighting against us. It is our law that all such who
+are caught be shot immediately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your Highness,&quot; said von Arnheim, &quot;I have reason to think that the
+lady's story is correct. This man's daughter is her maid, and he is
+obviously a servant of her house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Auersperg turned his slow, heavy look upon the young Prussian, but John
+noticed that von Arnheim met it without flinching, although Picard had
+really fired upon the Germans. He surmised that von Arnheim was fully as
+high-born as Auersperg, and perhaps more so. John knew that these things
+counted for a lot in Germany, however ridiculous they might seem to a
+democratic people. Nevertheless Auersperg spoke with irony:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your heart is overworking, von Arnheim,&quot; he said &quot;Sometimes I fear that
+it is too soft for a Prussian. Our Emperor and our Fatherland demand
+that we shall turn hearts of steel to our enemies, and never spare them.
+But it may be, my brave Wilhelm, that your sympathy is less for this
+hulking peasant and more for the fair face of the lady whom he serves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John saw Julie's face flush a deep red, and his hand stole down to his
+belt, but no weapon was there. Von Arnheim's face reddened also, but he
+stood at attention before his superior officer and replied with dignity:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I admire Mademoiselle Lannes, although I have known her only ten
+minutes, but I think, Your Highness, that my admiration is warranted,
+and also that it is not lacking in respect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good for you, von Arnheim,&quot; said John, under his breath. But the
+medieval mind of Auersperg was not disturbed. The slow, cruel smile
+passed across his face again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are brave my Wilhelm,&quot; he said, &quot;but I am confirmed in my opinion
+that some of our princely houses have become tainted. The harm that was
+done when Napoleon smashed his way through Europe has never been undone.
+The touch of the democracy was defilement, and it does not pass. Do you
+think our ancestors would have wasted so much time over a miserable
+French peasant?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This was a long speech, much too long for the circumstances, John
+thought, but von Arnheim still standing stiffly at attention, merely
+said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your Highness I ask this man's life of you. He is not a <i>franc tireur</i>
+in the real sense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since you make it a personal matter, my brave young Wilhelm, I yield.
+Let him be held a prisoner, but no more requests of the same kind. This
+is positively the last time I shall yield to such a weakness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you, Your Highness,&quot; said von Arnheim. Julie gave him one
+flashing look of gratitude and stepped away from Picard, who had stood,
+his arms folded across his chest, refusing to utter a single word for
+mercy. &quot;This indeed,&quot; thought John &quot;is a man.&quot; Suzanne was near, and now
+both he and his daughter turned away relaxing in no wise their looks of
+grim resolution. &quot;Here also is a woman as well as a man,&quot; thought John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope, Your Highness, that I may assign Mademoiselle Lannes and her
+maid to one of the upper rooms,&quot; said von Arnheim in tones respectful,
+but very firm. &quot;Here also is another man,&quot; thought John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You may,&quot; said Auersperg shortly, &quot;but let the peasant be sent to the
+stables, where the other prisoners are kept.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Two soldiers were called and they took Picard away. Julie and Suzanne
+followed von Arnheim to a stairway, and John was left alone with
+medievalism. The man wore no armor, but when only they two stood in the
+room his feeling that he was back in the Middle Ages was overpowering.
+Here was the baron, and here was he, untitled and unknown.</p>
+
+<p>Auersperg glanced at Julie, disappearing up the stairway, and then
+glanced back at John. Over his heavy face passed the same slow cruel
+smile that set all John's nerves to jumping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why have you, an American, come so far to fight against us?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't come for that purpose. I was here, visiting, and I was caught
+in the whirl of the war, an accident, perhaps. But my sympathies are
+wholly with France. I fight in her ranks from choice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Auersperg laughed unpleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A republic!&quot; he said. &quot;Millions of the ignorant, led by demagogues!
+Bah! The Hohenzollerns will scatter them like chaff!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't positively say that I saw any Hohenzollern, but I did see their
+armies turned back from Paris by those ignorant people, led by their
+demagogues. I'm not even sure of the name of the French general who did
+it, but God gave him a better brain for war, though he may have been
+born a peasant for all I know, than he did to your Kaiser, or any king,
+prince, grand duke or duke in all the German armies!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John had been tried beyond endurance and he knew that he had spoken with
+impulsive passion, but he knew also that he had spoken with truth. The
+face of Auersperg darkened. The medieval baron, full of power, without
+responsibility, believing implicitly in what he chose to call his order,
+but which was merely the chance of birth, was here. And while the Middle
+Ages in reality had passed, war could hide many a dark tale. John was
+unable to read the intent in the cruel eyes, but they heard the
+footsteps of von Arnheim on the stairs, and the clenched hand that had
+been raised fell back by Auersperg's side. Nevertheless medievalism did
+not relax its gaze.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What to you is this girl who seems to have charmed von Arnheim?&quot; he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Her brother has become my best friend. She has charmed me as she has
+charmed von Arnheim, and as she charms all others whom she meets. And I
+am pleased to tell Your Highness that the spell she casts is not alone
+her beauty, but even more her pure soul.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Auersperg laughed in an ugly fashion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Youth! Youth!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;I see that the spell is upon you, even
+more than it is upon von Arnheim. But dismiss her from your thoughts.
+You go a prisoner into Germany, and it's not likely that you'll ever see
+her again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Young Scott felt a sinking of the heart, but he was not one to show it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prisoners may escape,&quot; he said boldly, &quot;and what has been done once can
+always be done again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall see that it does not happen a second time in your case. Von
+Arnheim will dispose of you for the night, and even if you should
+succeed in stealing from the ch&acirc;teau there is around it a ring of German
+sentinels through which you could not possibly break.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Some strange kink appeared suddenly in John's brain&mdash;he was never able
+to account for it afterward, though Auersperg's manner rasped him
+terribly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I mean to escape,&quot; he said, &quot;and I wager you two to one that I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Auersperg sat down and laughed, laughed in a way that made John's face
+turn red. Then he beckoned to von Arnheim.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take him away,&quot; he said. &quot;He is characteristic of his frivolous
+democracy, frivolous and perhaps amusing, but it is a time for serious
+not trifling things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John was glad enough to go with von Arnheim, who was silent and
+depressed. Yet the thought came to him once more that there were princes
+and princes. Von Arnheim led the way to a small bare room under the
+roof. John saw that there were soldiers in the upper halls as well as
+the lower, and he was sorry that he had made such a boast to Auersperg.
+As he now saw it his chance of escape glimmered into nothing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You should not have spoken so to His Highness,&quot; said von Arnheim. &quot;I
+could not help but hear. He is our commander here, and it is not well to
+infuriate one who holds all power over you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am but human,&quot; replied John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And being human, you should have had complete control over yourself at
+such a time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I admit it,&quot; said John, taking the rebuke in the right spirit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're to spend the night here. I've been able to secure this much
+lenity for you, but it's for one night only. Tomorrow you go with the
+other prisoners in the stables. Your door will be locked, but even if
+you should succeed in forcing it don't try to escape. The halls swarm
+with sentinels, and you would be shot instantly. I'll have food sent to
+you presently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He spoke brusquely but kindly. When he went out John heard a huge key
+rumbling in the lock.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV" />CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>A PROMISE KEPT</h3>
+
+
+<p>The room in which John was confined contained only a bed, a chair and a
+table. It was lighted by a single window, from which he could see
+numerous soldiers below. He also heard the distant mutter of the cannon,
+which seemed now to have become a part of nature. There were periods of
+excitement or of mental detachment, when he did not notice it, but it
+was always there. Now the soldiers in the grounds were moving but
+little, and the air pulsed with the thud of the great guns.</p>
+
+<p>He recalled again his promise, or rather threat, to Auersperg that he
+would escape. Instinctively he went to the narrow but tall window and
+glanced at the heavens. Then he knew that impulse had made him look for
+Lannes and the <i>Arrow</i>, and he laughed at his own folly. Even if Lannes
+knew where they were he could not slip prisoners out of a house,
+surrounded by watchful German troops.</p>
+
+<p>He heard the heavy key turning in the lock, and a silent soldier brought
+him food, which he put upon the table. The man remained beside the door
+until John had eaten his supper, when he took the dishes and withdrew.
+He had not spoken a word while he was in the room, but as he was passing
+out John said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-bye, Pickelbaube! Let's have no ill feeling between you and me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The German&mdash;honest peasant that he was&mdash;grinned and nodded. He could not
+understand the English words, but he gathered from John's tone that they
+were friendly, and he responded at once. But when he closed the door
+behind him John heard the heavy key turning in the lock again. He knew
+there was little natural hostility between the people of different
+nations. It was instilled into them from above.</p>
+
+<p>Food brought back new strength and new courage. He took his place again
+at the window which was narrow and high, cut through a deep wall. The
+illusion of the Middle Ages, which Auersperg had created so completely,
+returned. This was the dungeon in a castle and he was a prisoner doomed
+to death by its lord. Some dismounted Uhlans who were walking across the
+grounds with their long lances over their shoulders gave another touch
+to this return of the past, as the first rays of the moonlight glittered
+on helmet and lance-head.</p>
+
+<p>He was not sleepy at all, and staying by the window he kept a strange
+watch. He saw white flares appear often on a long line in the west. He
+knew it was the flashing of the searchlights, and he surmised that what
+he saw was meant for signals. The fighting would go on under steady
+light continued long, and that it would continue admitted of no doubt.
+He could hear the mutter of the guns, ceaseless like the flowing of a
+river.</p>
+
+<p>He saw the battery drive out of the grounds, then turn into the road
+before the ch&acirc;teau and disappear. He concluded that the cannon were
+needed at some weak point where the Franco-British army was pressing
+hard.</p>
+
+<p>Then a company of hussars came from the forest and rode quietly into the
+grounds, where they dismounted. John saw that many, obviously the
+wounded, were helped from their horses. In battle, he concluded, and not
+so far off. Perhaps not more than two or three miles. Rifle-fire, with
+the wind blowing the wrong way, would not be heard that distance.</p>
+
+<p>The hussars, leading their horses, disappeared in a wood behind the
+house, and they were followed presently by a long train of automobiles,
+moving rather slowly. The moonlight was very bright now and John saw
+that they were filled with wounded who stirred but little and who made
+no outcry. The line of motors turned into the place and they too
+disappeared behind the ch&acirc;teau, following the hussars.</p>
+
+<p>Two aeroplanes alighted on the grass and their drivers entered the
+house. Bearers of dispatches, John felt sure, and while he watched he
+saw both return, spring into their machines and fly away. Their
+departure caused him to search the heavens once more, and he knew that
+he was looking for Lannes, who could not come.</p>
+
+<p>Now von Arnheim passed down the graveled walk that led to the great
+central gate, but, half way, turned from it and began to talk to some
+sentinels who stood on the grass. He was certainly a fine fellow, tall,
+well built, and yet free from the German stoutness of figure. He wore a
+close uniform of blue-gray which fitted him admirably, and the moonlight
+fell in a flood on his handsome, ruddy face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope you won't be killed,&quot; murmured John. &quot;If there is any French
+shell or shrapnel that is labeled specially for a prince and that must
+have a prince, I pray it will take Auersperg in place of von Arnheim.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a serious prayer and he felt that it was without a trace of
+wickedness or sacrilege. Evidently von Arnheim was giving orders of
+importance, as two of the men, to whom he was talking, hurried to
+horses, mounted and galloped down the road. Then the young prince walked
+slowly back to the house and John could see that he was very thoughtful.
+He passed his hand in a troubled way two or three times across his
+forehead. Perhaps the medieval prince inside was putting upon the modern
+prince outside labors that he was far from liking.</p>
+
+<p>John's unformed plan of escape included Julie Lannes. He could not go
+away without her. If he did he could never face Lannes again, and what
+was more, he could never face himself. It was in reality this thought
+that made his resolve to escape seem so difficult. It had been lurking
+continuously in the back of his head. To go away without Julie was
+impossible. Under ordinary circumstances her situation as a prisoner
+would not be alarming. Germans regarded women with respect. They had
+done so from the earliest times, as he had learned from the painful
+study of Tacitus. Von Arnheim had received a deep impression from
+Julie's beauty and grace. John could tell it by his looks, but those
+looks were honest. They came from the eyes and heart of one who could do
+no wrong. But the other! The man of the Middle Ages, the older prince.
+He was different. War re-created ancient passions and gave to them
+opportunities. No, he could not think of leaving without Julie!</p>
+
+<p>He kept his place at the tall, narrow window, and the night was steadily
+growing brighter. A full, silver moon was swinging high in the heavens.
+The stars were out in myriads in that sky of dusky, infinite blue, and
+danced regardless of the tiny planet, Earth, shaken by battle. From the
+hills came the relentless groaning which he knew was the sound of the
+guns, fighting one another under the searchlights.</p>
+
+<p>Then he heard the clatter of hoofs, and another company of Uhlans rode
+up to the ch&acirc;teau. Their leader dismounted and entered the great gate.
+John recognized von Boehlen, who had taken off his helmet to let the
+cool air blow upon his close-cropped head. He stood on the graveled walk
+for a few minutes directly in a flood of silver rays, every feature
+showing clearly. He had been arrogant and domineering, but John liked
+him far better than Auersperg. His cruelty would be the cruelty of
+battle, and there might be a streak of sentimentalism hidden under the
+stiff and harsh German manner, like a vein of gold in rock. As von
+Boehlen resumed his approach to the house he passed from John's range of
+vision, and then the prisoner watched the horizon for anything that he
+might see. Twice he beheld the far flare of searchlights, but nobody
+else came to the ch&acirc;teau, and the night darkened somewhat. No rattle of
+arms or stamp of hoofs came from the hussars in the grounds, and he
+judged that all but the sentinels slept. Nor was there any sound of
+movement in the house, and in the peaceful silence he at last began to
+feel sleepy. The problems of his position were too great for him to
+solve&mdash;at least for the present&mdash;and lying down on the cot he was fast
+asleep before he knew it.</p>
+
+<p>Youth does not always sleep soundly, and the tension of John's nerves
+continued long after he lapsed into unconsciousness. That, perhaps, was
+the reason why he awoke at once when the heavy key began to turn again
+in the lock. He sat up on the cot&mdash;he had not undressed&mdash;and his hand
+instinctively slipped to his belt, where there was no weapon.</p>
+
+<p>The key was certainly turning in the lock, and then the door was
+opening! A shadow appeared in the space between door and wall, and
+John's first feeling was of apprehension. An atmosphere of suspicion had
+been created about him and he considered his life in much more danger
+there than it had been when he was first a prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>The door closed again quickly and softly, but somebody was inside the
+room, somebody who had a light, feline step, and John felt the prickling
+of the hair at the back of his neck. He longed for a weapon, something
+better than only his two hands, but he was reassured when the intruder,
+speaking French, called in a whisper:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you awake, Mr. Scott?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was surely not the voice and words of one who had come to do murder,
+and John felt a thrill of recognition.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Weber!&quot; he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, it's Weber, Mr. Scott.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How under the sun did you get here, Weber?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By pretending to be a German. I'm an Alsatian, you know, and it's not
+difficult. I'm doing work for France. It's terribly dangerous. My life
+is on the turn of a hair every moment, but I'm willing to take the risk.
+I did not know you were here until late tonight, when I came to the
+ch&acirc;teau to see if I could discover anything further about the numbers
+and movements of the enemy. You must get away now. I think I can help
+you to escape.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a tone in Weber's voice that aroused John's curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's good of you, Weber,&quot; he said, &quot;to take such a risk for me, but why
+is it so urgent that I escape tonight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've learned since I came to the ch&acirc;teau that the Prince of Auersperg
+is much inflamed against you. Perhaps you spoke to him in a way that
+gave offense to his dignity. Ah, sir, the members of these ancient royal
+houses, those of the old type, consider themselves above and beyond the
+other people of the earth. In Germany you cannot offend them without
+risk, and it may be, too, that you stand in his way in regard to
+something that he very much desires!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Although Weber spoke in a whisper his voice was full of energy and
+earnestness. His words sank with the weight of truth into John's heart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you really help me to escape?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so. I'm sure of it. The guards in the house are relaxed at this
+late hour, and they would seem needless anyhow with so many sentinels
+outside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, Weber, Julie Lannes, the sister of Philip Lannes, is here a
+prisoner also. She was taken when I was. She is a Red Cross nurse, and
+although the Germans would not harm a woman, I do not like to leave her
+in this ch&acirc;teau. Your Prince of Auersperg does not seem to belong to our
+later age.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps not. He holds strongly for the old order, but the young von
+Arnheim is here also. His is a devoted German heart, but his German eyes
+have looked with admiration, nay more, upon a French face. He will
+protect that beautiful young Mademoiselle Julie with his life against
+anybody, against his senior in military rank, the Prince of Auersperg
+himself. Sir, you must come! If you wish to help Philip Lannes' sister
+you can be of more help to her living than dead. If you linger here you
+surely disappear from men tomorrow!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How do you know these things, Weber?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been in the house three or four hours and there is talk among
+the soldiers. I pray you, don't hesitate longer!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can you find a way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait a minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He slipped back to the door, opened it and looked into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The path is clear,&quot; he said, when he returned. &quot;There is no sentinel
+near your door, and I've found a way leading out of the ch&acirc;teau at the
+back. Most of these old houses have crooked, disused passages.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But suppose we succeed in reaching the outside, Weber, what then? The
+place is surrounded by an army.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A way is there, too. One man in the darkness can pass through a
+multitude. We can't delay, because another chance may not come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John was overborne. Weber was half pulling him toward the door.
+Moreover, there was much sense in what the Alsatian said. It was a
+commonplace that he could be of more service to Julie alive than dead,
+and the man's insistence deciding him, he crept with the Alsatian into
+the hall. They stood a few minutes in the dark, listening, but no sound
+came. Evidently the house slept well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This way, Mr. Scott,&quot; whispered Weber, and he led toward the rear of
+the house. Turning the corner of the hall he opened a small door in the
+wall, which John would have passed even in the daylight without
+noticing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Put a hand on my coat and follow me,&quot; said Weber.</p>
+
+<p>John obeyed without hesitation, and they ascended a half dozen steps
+along a passage so narrow that his shoulders touched the walls. It was
+very dark there, but at the top they entered a room into which some
+moonlight came, enough for John to see barrels, boxes and bags heaped on
+the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A storeroom,&quot; said Weber. &quot;The French are thrifty. The owner of this
+house had splendor below, and he has kept provision for it above, almost
+concealed by the narrowness of the door and stair. But we'll find a
+broader stair on the other side, and then we'll descend through the
+kitchen and beyond.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This looks promising. You're a clever man, Weber, and my debt to you is
+too big for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't think about it. Be careful and don't make any noise. Here's the
+other stair. You'd better hold to my coat again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They stole softly down the stair, crossed an unused room, went down
+another narrow, unused passage, and then, when Weber opened a door, John
+felt the cool air of the night blowing upon his face. When the attempt
+at escape began, he had not been so enthusiastic, because he was leaving
+Julie behind, but with every step his eagerness grew and the free wind
+brought with it a sort of intoxication. He did not doubt now that he
+would make good his flight. Weber, that fast friend of his, was a
+wonderful man. He worked miracles. Everything came out as he predicted
+it would, and he would work more miracles.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where are we now?&quot; asked John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This door is by the side of the kitchens. A little to the left is an
+extensive conservatory, nearly all the glass of which has been shattered
+by a shell, but that fact makes it all the more useful as a path for
+us. If we reach it unobserved we can creep through the mass of flowers
+and shrubbery to a large fishpond which lies just beyond it. You're a
+good swimmer, as I know&mdash;and you can swim along its edge until you reach
+the shrubbery on the other side. Then you ought to find an opening by
+which you can reach the French army.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you, Weber?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I? Oh, I must stay here. The Prince of Auersperg is a man of great
+importance. He is high in the confidence of the Kaiser. Besides his
+royal rank he commands one of the German armies. If I am to secure
+precious information for France it must be done in this house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come away with me, Weber. You've risked enough already. They'll catch
+you and you know the fate of spies. I feel like a criminal or coward
+abandoning you to so much danger, after all that you've done for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you for your good words, Mr. Scott, but it's impossible for me to
+go. Keep in the shadow of the wall, and a dozen steps will take you to
+the conservatory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John wrung the Alsatian's hand, stepped out, and pressed himself against
+the side of the house. The breeze still blew upon his face, revivifying
+and intoxicating. The lazy, feathery clouds were yet drifting before the
+moon and stars.</p>
+
+<p>He saw to his right the gleam of a bayonet as a sentinel walked back and
+forth and he saw another to his left. His heart beat high with hope. He
+was merely a mote in infinite night, and surely they could not see him.</p>
+
+<p>He walked swiftly along in the shadow of the house, and then sprang into
+the conservatory, where he crouched between two tall rose bushes. He
+waited there a little while, breathing hard, but he had not been
+observed. From his rosy shelter he could still see the sentinels on
+either side, walking up and down, undisturbed. Around him was a
+frightful litter. The shell, the history of which he would never know,
+had struck fairly in the center of the place, and it must have burst in
+a thousand fragments. Scarcely a pane of glass had been left unbroken,
+and the great pots, containing rare fruits and flowers, were mingled
+mostly in shattered heaps. It was a pitiable wreck, and it stirred John,
+although he had seen so many things so much worse.</p>
+
+<p>He walked a little distance in a stooping position, and then stood up
+among some shrubs, tall enough to hide him. He noticed a slight dampness
+in the air, and he saw, too, that the feathery clouds were growing
+darker. The faint quiver in the air brought with it, as always, the
+rumble of the guns, but he believed that it was not a blended sound.
+There was real thunder on the horizon, where the French lay, and then he
+saw a distant flash, not white like that of a searchlight, but like
+yellow lightning. Rain, a storm perhaps, must be at hand. He had read
+that nearly all the great battles in the civil war in his own country
+had been followed at once by violent storms of thunder, lightning and
+rain. Then why not here, where immense artillery combats never ceased?</p>
+
+<p>Near the end of the conservatory he paused and looked back at the house.
+Every window was dark. There must be light inside, but shutters were
+closed. His heart throbbed with intense gratitude to Weber. Without him
+escape would have been impossible. He would make his way to the French.
+He would find Lannes and together in some way they would rescue Julie,
+Julie so young and so beautiful, held in the castle of the medieval
+baron. In the lowering shadows the house became a castle and Auersperg
+had always been of the Middle Ages.</p>
+
+<p>The wind freshened and a few drops of rain struck his face. He stood
+boldly erect now, unafraid of observation, and picked a way through the
+mass of broken glass and overturned shrubbery toward the end of the
+conservatory, seeing beyond it a gleam of water which must be the big
+fishpond.</p>
+
+<p>He turned to the left and reached the edge of the pond just as four
+figures stepped from the dusk, their raised rifles pointing at him. The
+shock was so great that, driven by some unknown but saving impulse, he
+threw himself forward into the water just as the soldiers fired. He
+heard the four rifles roaring together. Then he swam below water to the
+far edge of the pond and came up under the shelter of its circling
+shrubbery, raising above its surface only enough of his face for breath.</p>
+
+<p>As his eyes cleared he saw the four soldiers standing at the far edge of
+the pond, looking at the water. Doubtless they were waiting for his
+body to reappear, as his action, half fall, half spring, and the roaring
+of the rifles had been so close together that they seemed a blended
+movement.</p>
+
+<p>He was trembling all over from intense nervous exertion and excitement,
+but his mind steadied enough for him to observe the soldiers.
+Undoubtedly they were talking together, as he saw them making the
+gestures of men who speak, but, even had he heard them, he could not
+have understood their German. They were watching for his body, and as it
+did not reappear they might make the circle of the pond looking for it.
+He intended, in such an event, to leap out and run, but the elements
+were intereceding in his favor. Thunder now preponderated greatly in
+that rumble on the western horizon, and a blaze of yellow lightning
+played across the surface of the pond. It was followed by a rush of rain
+and the soldiers turned back toward the house, evidently sure that they
+had not missed.</p>
+
+<p>John drew himself out of the water and climbed up the bank. His knees
+gave way under him and he sank to the ground. Excitement and emotion had
+been so violent that he was robbed of strength, but the condition lasted
+only a minute or two. Then he rose and began to pick a way.</p>
+
+<p>The rain was driving hard, and it had grown so dark that one could not
+see far. But he felt that the German sentinels now would seek a little
+shelter from the wrath of the skies, and keeping in the shelter of a
+hedge he passed by the stables, where many of the hussars and Uhlans
+slept, through an orchard, the far side of which was packed with
+automobiles, and thence into a wood, where he believed at last that he
+was safe.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped here a little while in the lee of a great oak to protect
+himself from the driving rain, and he noticed then that it was but a
+passing shower, sent, it seemed then to him, as a providential aid. The
+part of the rumble that was real thunder was dying. The yellow flare of
+the lightning stopped and the rain swept off to the east. The moon and
+stars were coming out again.</p>
+
+<p>John tried to see the ch&acirc;teau, but it was hidden from him by trees. They
+would miss him there, and then they would know that it was he whom the
+soldiers had fired upon at the edge of the pond. All of them would
+believe that he was dead, and he remembered suddenly that Julie, who was
+there among them, would believe it, too. Would she grieve? Or would he
+merely be one of the human beings passing through her life, fleeting and
+forgotten, like the shower that had just gone? It was true that he had
+escaped, but he might be killed in some battle before she was rescued
+from Auersperg&mdash;if she was rescued.</p>
+
+<p>These thoughts were hateful, and turning into the road by which they had
+come to the ch&acirc;teau he ran down it. He ran because he wanted motion,
+because he wished to reach the French army as quickly as he could, and
+help Lannes organize for the rescue of Julie.</p>
+
+<p>He ran a long distance, because his excitement waned slowly, and because
+the severe exercise made the blood course rapidly through his veins,
+counteracting the effects of his cold and wetting. When he began to feel
+weary he turned out of the road, knowing that it was safer in the
+fields. He had the curious belief or impression now that the black
+shower was all arranged for his benefit. Providence was merely making
+things even. The soldiers had been brought upon him when the chances
+were a hundred to one against him, and then the shower had been sent to
+cover him, when the chances were a hundred to one against that, too.</p>
+
+<p>He saw far to the south a sudden faint radiance and he knew that it was
+the last of the lightning. The little feathery clouds, which looked so
+friendly and pleasant against the blue of the sky, came back and the
+moaning on the western horizon toward which he was traveling was wholly
+that of the guns.</p>
+
+<p>He heard a noise over his head, a mixture of a whistle and a scream, and
+he knew that a shell was passing high. He walked on, and heard another.
+But they could not be firing at him. He was still that mere mote in the
+infinite darkness, but, looking back for the bursting of the shells, he
+saw a blaze leap up near the point from which he had come.</p>
+
+<p>A cold shiver seized him. The range was that of the ch&acirc;teau, and Julie
+was there. The French gunners could have no knowledge that their own
+people were prisoners in the building, and if one of those huge shells
+burst in it, ruin and destruction would follow. The conservatory had
+been a silent witness of what flying metal could do. He stopped,
+appalled. He had been wrong to leave without Julie, and yet he could
+have done nothing else. It was impossible to foresee a shelling of the
+ch&acirc;teau by the French themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The screaming and whistling came again, but he did not see any
+explosion near the ch&acirc;teau. One could not tell much from such a swift
+and passing sound, but he concluded that it was a German shell replying.
+He had seen a German battery near the house and it would not remain
+quiet under bombardment.</p>
+
+<p>He had no doubt that the French gunners, having got the range, would
+keep it. Somebody, perhaps an aeroplane or an officer with flags in a
+tree, was signaling. It was horrible, this murderous mechanism by which
+men fired at targets miles away, targets which they could not see, but
+which they hit nevertheless. Every pulse beating hard, John shook his
+fist at the invisible German guns and the invisible French guns alike.</p>
+
+<p>Then he recovered himself with an angry shake and began to run again. He
+knew now that he must go forward and secure a French force for rescue.
+But no matter how much he urged himself on, a great power was pulling at
+him, and it was Julie Lannes, a prisoner of the Germans in the ch&acirc;teau.
+Often he stopped and looked back, always in the same direction. Twice
+more he saw shells burst in the neighborhood of the house, and then his
+heart would beat hard, but after brief hesitation he would always pursue
+his course once more toward the French army.</p>
+
+<p>He did not know the time, but he believed it to be well past midnight.
+He had his watch, but his immersion in the fish pond had caused it to
+stop. Still, the feel of the air made him believe that he was in the
+morning hours. Shells continued to pass over his head, and now they
+came from many points. He had seen or heard so much firing in the last
+eight or ten days that the world, he felt, must be turned into a huge
+ammunition factory to feed all the guns. He laughed to himself at his
+own grim joke. He was overstrained and he began to see everything
+through a red mist.</p>
+
+<p>His clothing was drying fast, but his throat was very hot from
+excitement and exertion. He came to a little brook, and kneeling down,
+drank greedily. Then he bathed his face and felt stronger and better.
+His nerves also grew steadier. There was not so much luminous mist in
+the atmosphere. Ahead of him the crash of the guns was much louder, and
+he knew that he had already come a long distance. It seemed that the
+passing of the storm had renewed the activity of the gunners. The mutter
+had become rolling thunder, and both to north and south the searchlights
+flared repeatedly.</p>
+
+<p>He heard the beat of hoofs, and he hoped that they were French cavalry
+on patrol, but they proved to be German Hussars, Bavarians he judged by
+the light blue uniforms, and they were coming from the direction of the
+French lines. They had been scouting there, he had no doubt, but they
+passed in a few moments, and, leaving his hedge, he resumed his own
+rapid flight, continually hoping that he would meet some French force,
+scouting also.</p>
+
+<p>But he was doomed to a long trial of patience. Twice he saw Germans and
+hid until they had gone by. They seemed to be scouting in the night
+almost to the mouths of the French guns, and he admired their energy
+although it stood in the way of his own plans. He came to a second
+brook, drank again, and then took a short cut through a small wood. He
+had marked the reports of guns from a hill about two miles in front of
+him, and he was sure that a French battery must be posted there. He
+reckoned that he could reach it in a half hour, if he exerted himself.</p>
+
+<p>Half way through the wood and human figures rose up all about him.
+Strong hands seized his arms and an electric torch flashed in his face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who are you?&quot; came the fierce question in French.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not necessary for John to answer. The man who held the torch
+was short, but very muscular and strong, his face cut in the antique
+mold, his eyes penetrating and eager. It was Bougainville and John gave
+a gasp of joy. Then he straightened up and saluted:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Colonel Bougainville,&quot; he said, &quot;I see that you know me! I have just
+escaped from the enemy for the second time. There is a house in that
+direction, and it is occupied by the Prince of Auersperg, one of the
+German generals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He pointed where the ch&acirc;teau lay, and Bougainville uttered a shout:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He holds there a prisoner, Mademoiselle Julie Lannes, the sister of the
+great Philip Lannes, the aviator; and other Frenchwomen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah!&quot; said Bougainville again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will help rescue them, will you not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bougainville smiled slightly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An army can't turn aside for the rescue of women,&quot; he replied, &quot;but it
+happens that this brigade, under General Vaugirard is marching forward
+now to find, if possible, an opening between the German armies, and
+you're the very man to lead it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John's heart bounded with joy. He would be again with the general whom
+he admired and trusted, and he would certainly guide the brigade
+straight to the ch&acirc;teau.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is General Vaugirard near?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just over the brow of this hill, down there where the dim light is
+visible among the trees.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then take me to him at once.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV" />CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE RESCUE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Escorted by Bougainville, John went down a little slope to a point where
+several officers stood talking earnestly. The central figure was that of
+a huge man who puffed out his cheeks as he spoke, and whose words and
+movements were alive with energy. Even had he seen but a dim outline,
+John would have recognized him with no difficulty as General Vaugirard,
+and beside him stood de Rougemont.</p>
+
+<p>Bougainville saluted and said;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The American, John Scott, sir. He has just escaped from the enemy and
+he brings important information.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Vaugirard puffed out his great cheeks and whistled with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, my young Yankee!&quot; he said. &quot;They cannot hold you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, my general,&quot; replied John, &quot;I've come back again to fight for
+France.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>General Vaugirard looked at him keenly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're exhausted,&quot; he said. &quot;You've been under tremendous pressure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I can guide you. I want neither sleep nor rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You need both, as I can see with these two old eyes of mine. Sleep you
+can't have now, but rest is yours. You go with me in my automobile,
+which this war has trained to climb mountains, jump rivers, and crash
+through forests. The motor has become a wonderful weapon of battle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I ask one question, General?&quot; said John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A dozen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know where the aviator, Philip Lannes, is? His sister is held a
+prisoner by a German general in a ch&acirc;teau toward which we will march,
+and doubtless he would wish to go at once to her rescue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is not here, but his friend, Caumartin, is only a half-mile away.
+I'll send a man at once with a message to him to find Lannes, who will
+surely follow us, if he can be found. And now, my brave young Yankee,
+here is my machine. Into it, and we'll lead the way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John sprang into the automobile, and sank down upon the cushions. He had
+a vast sense of ease and luxury. He had not known until then, the extent
+of his mental and physical overstrain, but de Rougemont, who was also in
+the machine, observed it and gave him a drink from a flask, which
+revived him greatly.</p>
+
+<p>Then the automobile turned into the road and moved forward at a slow
+gait, puffing gently like a monster trying to hold in his breath. From
+the wood and the fields came the tread of many thousand men, marching
+to the night attack. Behind their own automobile rose the hum of
+motors, bearing troops also, and dragging cannon.</p>
+
+<p>John felt that he was going back in state, riding by the side of a
+general and at the head of an army. He found both pride and exultation
+in it. Sleep was far from his eyes. How could one think of sleep at such
+a moment? But youth, the restorer, was bringing fresh strength to his
+tired muscles and he was never more alert.</p>
+
+<p>At one point they stopped while the general examined the dusky horizon
+through his glasses, and a company of men with faces not French marched
+past them. They were John's own Strangers, and despite the presence of
+General Vaugirard both Wharton and Carstairs reached up and shook his
+hand as they went by.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Welcome home,&quot; said Wharton.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;See you again in the morning,&quot; said Carstairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God bless you both,&quot; said John with some emotion.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Daniel Colton nodded to him. They were not effusive, these men
+of the Strangers, but their feelings were strong. When the automobile in
+its turn passed them again and resumed its place at the head of the
+column, they seemed to take no notice.</p>
+
+<p>No more shells passed over John's head. He knew that General Vaugirard
+had sent back word for the batteries to cease firing in that direction,
+but both to south and north of them the sullen thunder went on. The
+night remained light, adorned rather than obscured by the little white
+clouds floating against the sky. The only sound that John could hear was
+the great hum and murmur of a moving army, a sound in which the puffing
+of automobiles had introduced a new element. He wondered why they had
+not roused up German skirmishers, but perhaps those vigilant gentlemen,
+had grown weary at last.</p>
+
+<p>They reached the first brook, and, as they were crossing it, the rifle
+fire expected so long began to crackle in front. Then the French
+trumpets shrilled, and the whole force marched rapidly, rifles and field
+guns opening in full volume. But the French had the advantage of
+surprise. Their infantry advanced at the double quick, a powerful force
+of cavalry on their right flank galloped to the charge, and
+Bougainville's Paris regiment and the Strangers swept over the field.</p>
+
+<p>A heavy fire met them, but the general's automobile kept in front
+puffing along the main road. General Vaugirard puffed with it, but now
+and then he ceased his puffing to whistle. John knew that he was pleased
+and that all was going well. The battle increased in volume, and their
+whole front blazed with fire. The dark was thinning away in the east and
+dawn was coming.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The ch&acirc;teau! The ch&acirc;teau!&quot; cried John as a dark shape rose on the
+horizon. Even as he looked a shell burst over it and it leaped into
+flames. He cried aloud in fear, not for himself, but for those who were
+there. But General Vaugirard was calmly examining the field and the
+house through powerful glasses.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're pouring from the building,&quot; he said, &quot;and it's full time. Look
+how the fire gains! What a pity that we should destroy the home of some
+good Frenchman in order to drive out the enemy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Faster, sir! Faster! Ah, I pray you go faster!&quot; exclaimed John, whose
+heart was eaten up with anxiety as he saw the ch&acirc;teau roaring with
+flames. But he did not need the general's glasses now to see the people
+stream from it, and then rush for refuge from the fire of the French.
+The surprise had been so thorough that at this point the enemy was able
+to offer little resistance, and, in a few moments more, the automobile
+reached the grounds surrounding the burning ch&acirc;teau.</p>
+
+<p>John, reckless of commands and of everything else, leaped out of the
+machine and ran forward. A gigantic man bearing a slender figure in his
+arms emerged from the shrubbery. Behind him came a stalwart young woman,
+grim of face. John shouted with joy. It was Picard, carrying Julie, and
+the woman who followed was the faithful Suzanne.</p>
+
+<p>Picard put Julie down. She stood erect, pale as death. But the color
+flooded into her face when she saw John, and uttering a cry of joy she
+ran forward to meet him. She put her hands in his and said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew that you would save me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Time and place were extraordinary, and war, the great leveler, was once
+more at work.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The ch&acirc;teau was set on fire by shells, Monsieur Scott,&quot; Picard said,
+&quot;and when the enemy saw the French force appearing across the fields
+they took to flight. That dog of a prince, the Auersperg, tried to carry
+off Mademoiselle Julie in his automobile, but the young prince
+interfered and while they were quarreling I seized her and took her
+away. All the other women have escaped too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank God, Picard,&quot; exclaimed John, wringing the huge hand of the
+peasant, who was at once a peasant and a prince too.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And look,&quot; said Carstairs, who with Wharton had approached unnoticed.
+&quot;An aeroplane comes like the flight of an eagle, and my guess is poor if
+it is not our friend, the great Lannes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Caumartin in truth had found Philip, and he came like the lightning,
+circling and swooping until he touched the ground almost at Julie's
+feet. Brother and sister were united in a close embrace, and Lannes
+turned to John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard from Caumartin that it was you who brought the word. We
+can never repay you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll wait and see,&quot; said John.</p>
+
+<p>Her brother did not see Julie flush rosily, as she turned her face away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now,&quot; said Lannes, &quot;we go to Paris. My duties allow me enough time
+for the flight. No, John, my friend, don't object. She's been up in the
+<i>Arrow</i> with me before. Picard, you and Suzanne can come later.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The thunder of the battle rolling toward the east still reached them,
+but Lannes quickly threw a coat around Julie, gave her a cap and huge
+glasses to put on, and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now we go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I must first thank Mr. Scott himself for saving me,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand, small and warm, in his, American fashion, and the two
+palms met in a strong clasp.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-bye, Mr. Scott,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-bye, but not forever. I'm coming back to Paris.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And it's my hope, too, that it's not forever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She and her brother took their seats in the <i>Arrow</i>. Carstairs, Wharton
+and the others gave it a push, and it soared up into the fresh blue of
+the dawn. An ungloved hand, white and small, reached over the side and
+waved farewell, a farewell which John felt was for him.</p>
+
+<p>To the east the battle still rolled, but John had forgotten its
+existence. Higher and higher rose the <i>Arrow</i>, flying toward Paris,
+until it diminished to a mere dot in the sky, and then was gone.</p>
+
+
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER</h2>
+
+
+<p style='text-align: center;'><i><b>The Civil War Series</b></i></p>
+
+<p><i>In this series of stories Mr. Altsheler covers the principal battles of
+the Civil War. In four of the volumes Dick Mason, who fights for the
+North, is the leading character, and in the others, his cousin, Harry
+Kenton, who joins the Confederate forces, takes the principal part.</i></p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p><b>The Guns of Bull Run</b></p>
+
+<p>Harry Kenton follows the lead of his father and joins the Southern
+forces. His cousin, Dick Mason, the hero, fights with the North.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Guns of Shiloh</b></p>
+
+<p>Dick takes part in the battle of Mill Spring, is captured but escapes.
+The story gives a vivid account of the first defeat of the South.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Scouts of Stonewall</b></p>
+
+<p>Harry and some friends become aides of Stonewall Jackson. They follow
+him through the campaign in the Valley of Virginia.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Sword of Antietam</b></p>
+
+<p>After engaging in the Battle of Shiloh, Dick gets into three big fights.
+Antietam is the big battle described, with McClellan always in the
+foreground.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Star of Gettysburg</b></p>
+
+<p>In this book Harry and his friends take part in the battles of
+Fredericksburg, The Wilderness and finally Gettysburg. General Lee is a
+central figure.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Rock of Chickamauga</b></p>
+
+<p>This volume deals with the crisis of the Union during the siege of
+Vicksburg and the Battle of Chickamauga. Dick takes an active part.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Shades of the Wilderness</b></p>
+
+<p>The story opens with Lee's retreat after Gettysburg. Harry is sent to
+Richmond and becomes involved in a dangerous situation with a spy.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Tree of Appomattox</b></p>
+
+<p>This description of the Battle of Appomattox has been written from the
+account of an eyewitness. Dick plays an important part. The volume
+closes with the blue and the gray turning toward a new day.</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p style='text-align: center;'><b>These Are Appleton Books<br />
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, New York</b></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER</h2>
+
+<p style='text-align: center;'><i><b>The Texan Series</b></i></p>
+
+<p><i>Three stories telling of the Texan struggle for independence and the
+events culminating in the capture of the erratic Santa Anna.</i></p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p><b>The Texan Star</b></p>
+
+<p>Ned Fulton, the hero, is a prisoner in the city of Mexico. He makes an
+exciting escape and sees the capture of San Antonio.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Texan Scouts</b></p>
+
+<p>Ned Fulton and his friends are right in the midst of exciting events
+that keep the reader continually on edge. The battle of the Alamo is the
+climax of the story.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Texan Triumph</b></p>
+
+<p>The duel of skill and courage between Ned and Urrea, his young Mexican
+enemy, furnishes pages of excitement. The battle of San Jacinto, which
+secured Texan Independence, and the capture of Santa Anna by five Texans
+is vividly described.</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p style='text-align: center;'><i><b>The World War Series</b></i></p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Altsheler, who was in Vienna the day war was declared on Servia, in
+Munich when war was declared against Russia, and in England when the
+British forces were mobilising, has given in three volumes the
+impressions he gained at the places of action during the world crisis.</i></p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p><b>The Guns of Europe</b></p>
+
+<p>A young American, unable to reach home, enlists with the Allies where he
+sees active service from the beginning. The story closes with the fierce
+fighting which preceded the retreat of the Germans from Paris.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Forest of Swords</b></p>
+
+<p>The hero finds himself in Paris with Phillip Lannes, his friend, and the
+Germans only fifteen miles away. Finally the enemy is turned back at the
+Marne, a battle in which John and Phillip are actively engaged.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Hosts of the Air</b></p>
+
+<p>The pretty young sister of Phillip is seized by the enemy and carried
+into Austria. John resolves to get her back and his adventures make a
+wonderfully exciting story.</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p style='text-align: center;'><b>These Are Appleton Books<br />
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, New York</b></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Forest of Swords, by Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST OF SWORDS ***
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forest of Swords, by Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Forest of Swords
+       A Story of Paris and the Marne
+
+Author: Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+Release Date: May 3, 2005 [EBook #15760]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST OF SWORDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Jon King and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FOREST OF SWORDS
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
+
+
+THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR SERIES
+
+The Hunters of the Hills           The Shadow of the North
+The Rulers of the Lakes            The Masters of the Peaks
+The Lords of the Wild              The Sun of Quebec
+
+
+THE YOUNG TRAILERS SERIES
+
+The Young Trailers                 The Free Rangers
+The Forest Runners                 The Riflemen of the Ohio
+The Keepers of the Trail           The Scouts of the Valley
+The Eyes of the Woods              The Border Watch
+
+
+THE TEXAN SERIES
+
+The Texan Star                     The Texan Triumph
+The Texan Scouts
+
+
+THE CIVIL WAR SERIES
+
+The Guns of Bull Run               The Star of Gettysburg
+The Guns of Shiloh                 The Rock of Chickamauga
+The Scouts of Stonewall            The Shades of the Wilderness
+The Sword of Antietam              The Tree of Appomattox
+
+
+THE GREAT WEST SERIES
+
+The Lost Hunters                   The Great Sioux Trail
+
+
+THE WORLD WAR SERIES
+
+The Guns of Europe                 The Hosts of the Air
+The Forest of Swords
+
+
+BOOKS NOT IN SERIES
+
+Apache Gold                        A Soldier of Manhattan
+The Quest of the Four              The Sun of Saratoga
+The Last of the Chiefs             A Herald of the West
+In Circling Camps                  The Wilderness Road
+The Last Rebel                     My Captive
+The Candidate
+
+
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+New York          London
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "He heard a shock near him and, ... saw a huddled mass
+of wreckage."]
+
+
+
+
+WORLD WAR SERIES
+
+
+THE FOREST
+OF SWORDS
+
+A STORY OF PARIS
+AND THE MARNE
+
+
+BY
+
+
+JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE GUNS OF EUROPE,"
+"THE STAR OF GETTYSBURG," ETC.
+
+
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+1928
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+Printed in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+"The Forest of Swords," while an independent story, based upon the World
+War, continues the fortunes of John Scott, Philip Lannes, and their
+friends who have appeared already in "The Guns of Europe." As was stated
+in the first volume, the author was in Austria and Germany for a month
+after the war began, and then went to England. He saw the arrival of the
+Emperor, Francis Joseph, in Vienna, the first striking event in the
+gigantic struggle, and witnessed the mobilization of their armies by
+three great nations.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                PAGE
+
+   I. IN PARIS                            1
+  II. THE MESSAGE                        30
+ III. IN THE FRENCH CAMP                 53
+  IV. THE INVISIBLE HAND                 76
+   V. SEEN FROM ABOVE                    99
+  VI. IN HOSTILE HANDS                  121
+ VII. THE TWO PRINCES                   146
+VIII. THE SPORT OF KINGS                167
+  IX. THE PUZZLING SIGNAL               186
+   X. OLD FRIENDS                       209
+  XI. THE CONTINUING BATTLE             231
+ XII. JULIE LANNES                      247
+XIII. THE MIDDLE AGES                   268
+ XIV. A PROMISE KEPT                    291
+  XV. THE RESCUE                        311
+
+
+
+
+THE FOREST OF SWORDS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+IN PARIS
+
+
+John Scott and Philip Lannes walked together down a great boulevard of
+Paris. The young American's heart was filled with grief and anger. The
+Frenchman felt the same grief, but mingled with it was a fierce, burning
+passion, so deep and bitter that it took a much stronger word than anger
+to describe it.
+
+Both had heard that morning the mutter of cannon on the horizon, and
+they knew the German conquerors were advancing. They were always
+advancing. Nothing had stopped them. The metal and masonry of the
+defenses at Liege had crumbled before their huge guns like china
+breaking under stone. The giant shells had scooped out the forts at
+Maubeuge, Maubeuge the untakable, as if they had been mere eggshells,
+and the mighty Teutonic host came on, almost without a check.
+
+John had read of the German march on Paris, nearly a half-century
+before, how everything had been made complete by the genius of Bismarck
+and von Moltke, how the ready had sprung upon and crushed the unready,
+but the present swoop of the imperial eagle seemed far more vast and
+terrible than the earlier rush could have been.
+
+A month and the legions were already before the City of Light. Men with
+glasses could see from the top of the Eiffel Tower the gray ranks that
+were to hem in devoted Paris once more, and the government had fled
+already to Bordeaux. It seemed that everything was lost before the war
+was fairly begun. The coming of the English army, far too small in
+numbers, had availed nothing. It had been swept up with the others,
+escaping from capture or destruction only by a hair, and was now driven
+back with the French on the capital.
+
+John had witnessed two battles, and in neither had the Germans stopped
+long. Disregarding their own losses they drove forward, immense,
+overwhelming, triumphant. He felt yet their very physical weight,
+pressing upon him, crushing him, giving him no time to breathe. The
+German war machine was magnificent, invincible, and for the fourth time
+in a century the Germans, the exulting Kaiser at their head, might enter
+Paris.
+
+The Emperor himself might be nothing, mere sound and glitter, but back
+of him was the greatest army that ever trod the planet, taught for half
+a century to believe in the divine right of kings, and assured now that
+might and right were the same.
+
+Every instinct in him revolted at the thought that Paris should be
+trodden under foot once more by the conqueror. The great capital had
+truly deserved its claim to be the city of light and leading, and if
+Paris and France were lost the whole world would lose. He could never
+forget the unpaid debt that his own America owed to France, and he felt
+how closely interwoven the two republics were in their beliefs and
+aspirations.
+
+"Why are you so silent?" asked Lannes, half angrily, although John knew
+that the anger was not for him.
+
+"I've said as much as you have," he replied with an attempt at humor.
+
+"You notice the sunlight falling on it?" said Lannes, pointing to the
+Arc de Triomphe, rising before them.
+
+"Yes, and I believe I know what you are thinking."
+
+"You are right. I wish he was here now."
+
+John gazed at the great arch which the sun was gilding with glory and he
+shared with Lannes his wish that the mighty man who had built it to
+commemorate his triumphs was back with France--for a while at least. He
+was never able to make up his mind whether Napoleon was good or evil.
+Perhaps he was a mixture of both, highly magnified, but now of all
+times, with the German millions at the gates, he was needed most.
+
+"I think France could afford to take him back," he said, "and risk any
+demands he might make or enforce."
+
+"John," said Lannes, "you've fought with us and suffered with us, and so
+you're one of us. You understand what I felt this morning when on the
+edge of Paris I heard the German guns. They say that we can fight on,
+after our foes have taken the capital, and that the English will come in
+greater force to help us. But if victorious Germans march once through
+the Arc de Triomphe I shall feel that we can never again win back all
+that we have lost."
+
+A note, low but deep and menacing, came from the far horizon. It might
+be a German gun or it might be a French gun, but the effect was the
+same. The threat was there. A shudder shook the frame of Lannes, but
+John saw a sudden flame of sunlight shoot like a glittering lance from
+the Arc de Triomphe.
+
+"A sign! a sign!" he exclaimed, his imaginative mind on fire in an
+instant. "I saw a flash from the arch! It was the soul of the Great
+Captain speaking! I tell you, Philip, the Republic is not yet lost! I've
+read somewhere, and so have you, that the Romans sold at auction at a
+high price the land on which Hannibal's victorious army was camped, when
+it lay before Rome!"
+
+"It's so! And France has her glorious traditions, too! We won't give up
+until we're beaten--and not then!"
+
+The gray eyes of Lannes flamed, and his figure seemed to swell. All the
+wonderful French vitality was personified in him. He put his hand
+affectionately upon the shoulder of his comrade.
+
+"It's odd, John," he said, "but you, a foreigner, have lighted the spark
+anew in me."
+
+"Maybe it's because I _am_ a foreigner, though, in reality, I'm now no
+foreigner at all, as you've just said. I've become one of you."
+
+"It's true, John, and I won't forget it. I'm never going to give up hope
+again. Maybe somebody will arrive to save us at the last. Whatever the
+great one, whose greatest monument stands there, may have been, he loved
+France, and his spirit may descend upon Frenchmen."
+
+"I believe it. He had the strength and courage created by a republic,
+and you have them again, the product of another republic. Look at the
+flying men, Lannes!"
+
+Lannes glanced up where the aeroplanes hovered thick over Paris, and
+toward the horizon where the invisible German host with its huge guns
+was advancing. The look of despair came into his eyes again, but it
+rested there only a moment. He remembered his new courage and banished
+it.
+
+"Perhaps I ought to be in the sky myself with the others," he said, "but
+I'd only see what I don't like to see. The _Arrow_ and I can't be of any
+help now."
+
+"You brought me here in the _Arrow_, Lannes," said John, seeking to
+assume a light tone. "Now what do you intend to do with me? As everybody
+is leaving Paris you ought to get me out of it."
+
+"I hardly know what to do. There are no orders. I've lost touch with the
+commander of our flying corps, but you're right in concluding that we
+shouldn't remain in Paris. Now where are we to go?"
+
+"We'll make no mistake if we seek the battle front. You know I'm bound
+to rejoin my company, the Strangers, if I can. I must report as soon as
+possible to Captain Colton."
+
+"That's true, John, but I can't leave Paris until tomorrow. I may have
+orders to carry, I must obtain supplies for the _Arrow_, and I wish to
+visit once more my people on the other side of the Seine."
+
+"Suppose you go now, and I'll meet you this afternoon in the Place de
+l'Opera."
+
+"Good. Say three o'clock. The first to arrive will await the other
+before the steps of the Opera House?"
+
+John nodded assent and Lannes hurried away. Young Scott followed his
+figure with his eyes until it disappeared in the crowd. A back may be an
+index to a man's strength of mind, and he saw that Lannes, head erect
+and shoulders thrown back, was walking with a rapid and springy step.
+Courage was obviously there.
+
+But John, despite his own strong heart, could not keep from feeling an
+infinite sadness and pity, not for Lannes, but for all the three million
+people who inhabited the City of Light, most of whom were fleeing now
+before the advance of the victorious invader. He could put himself in
+their place. France held his deepest sympathy. He felt that a great
+nation, sedulously minding its own business, trampled upon and robbed
+once before, was now about to be trampled upon and robbed again. He
+could not subscribe to the doctrine, that might was right.
+
+He watched the fugitives a long time. They were crowding the railway
+stations, and they were departing by motor, by cart and on foot. Many of
+the poorer people, both men and women, carried packs on their backs. The
+boulevards and the streets were filled with the retreating masses.
+
+It was an amazing and stupefying sight, the abandonment by its
+inhabitants of a great city, a city in many ways the first in the world,
+and it gave John a mighty shock. He had been there with his uncle and
+Mr. Anson in the spring, and he had seen nothing but peace and
+brightness. The sun had glittered then, as it glittered now over the Arc
+de Triomphe, the gleaming dome of the Invalides and the golden waters of
+the Seine. It was Paris, soft, beautiful and bright, the Paris that
+wished no harm to anybody.
+
+But the people were going. He could see them going everywhere. The
+cruel, ancient times when cities were destroyed or enslaved by the
+conqueror had come back, and the great Paris that the world had known so
+long might become lost forever.
+
+The stream of fugitives, rich and poor, mingled, poured on without
+ceasing. He did not know where they were going. Most of them did not
+know themselves. He saw a great motor, filled high with people and
+goods, break down in the streets, and he watched them while they worked
+desperately to restore the mechanism. And yet there was no panic. The
+sound of voices was not high. The Republic was justifying itself once
+more. Silent and somberly defiant, the inhabitants were leaving Paris
+before the giant German guns could rain shells upon the unarmed.
+
+It was three or four hours until the time to meet Lannes, and drawn by
+an overwhelming curiosity and anxiety he began the climb of the Butte
+Montmartre. If observers on the Eiffel Tower could see the German forces
+approaching, then with the powerful glasses he carried over his shoulder
+he might discern them from the dome of the Basilica of the Sacred
+Heart.
+
+As he made his way up the ascent through the crooked and narrow little
+streets he saw many eyes, mostly black and quick, watching him. This by
+night was old Paris, dark and dangerous, where the Apache dwelled, and
+by day in a fleeing city, with none to restrain, he might be no less
+ruthless.
+
+But John felt only friendliness for them all. He believed that common
+danger would knit all Frenchmen together, and he nodded and smiled at
+the watchers. More than one pretty Parisian, not of the upper classes,
+smiled back at the American with the frank and open face.
+
+Before he reached the Basilica a little rat of a young man stepped
+before him and asked:
+
+"Which way, Monsieur?"
+
+He was three or four years older than John, wearing uncommonly tight
+fitting clothes of blue, a red cap with a tassel, and he was about five
+feet four inches tall. But small as he was he seemed to be made of
+steel, and he stood, poised on his little feet, ready to spring like a
+leopard when he chose.
+
+The blue eyes of the tall American looked steadily into the black eyes
+of the short Frenchman, and the black eyes looked back as steadily. John
+was fast learning to read the hearts and minds of men through their
+eyes, and what he saw in the dark depths pleased him. Here were cunning
+and yet courage; impudence and yet truth; caprice and yet honor. Apache
+or not, he decided to like him.
+
+"I'm going up into the lantern of the Basilica," he said, "to see if I
+can see the Germans, who are my enemies as well as yours."
+
+"And will not Monsieur take me, too, and let me have look for look with
+him through those glasses at the Germans, some of whom I'm going to
+shoot?"
+
+John smiled.
+
+"If you're going out potting Germans," he said, "you'd better get
+yourself into a uniform as soon as you can. They have no mercy on _franc
+tireurs_."
+
+"I'll chance that. But you'll take me with you into the dome?"
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"Pierre Louis Bougainville."
+
+"Bougainville! Bougainville! It sounds noble and also historical. I've
+read of it, but I don't recall where."
+
+The little Frenchman drew himself up, and his black eyes glittered.
+
+"There is a legend among us that it was noble once," he said, "but we
+don't know when. I feel within me the spirit to make it great again.
+There was a time when the mighty Napoleon said that every soldier
+carried a marshal's baton in his knapsack. Perhaps that time has come
+again. And the great emperor was a little man like me."
+
+John began to laugh and then he stopped suddenly. Pierre Louis
+Bougainville, so small and so insignificant, was not looking at him. He
+was looking over and beyond him, dreaming perhaps of a glittering
+future. The funny little red cap with the tassel might shelter a great
+brain. Respect took the place of the wish to laugh.
+
+"Monsieur Bougainville," he said in his excellent French, "my name is
+John Scott. I am from America, but I am serving in the allied
+Franco-British army. My heart like yours beats for France."
+
+"Then, Monsieur Jean, you and I are brothers," said the little man, his
+eyes still gleaming. "It may be that we shall fight side by side in the
+hour of victory. But you will take me into the lantern will you not?
+Father Pelletier does not know, as you do, that I'm going to be a great
+man, and he will not admit me."
+
+"If I secure entrance you will, too. Come."
+
+They reached side by side the Basilique de Sacre-Coeur, which crowns the
+summit of the Butte Montmartre, and bought tickets from the porter,
+whose calm the proximity of untold Germans did not disturb. John saw the
+little Apache make the sign of the cross and bear himself with dignity.
+In some curious way Bougainville impressed him once more with a sense of
+power. Perhaps there was a spark of genius under the red cap. He knew
+from his reading that there was no rule about genius. It passed kings
+by, and chose the child of a peasant in a hovel.
+
+"You're what they call an Apache, are you not?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, Monsieur."
+
+"Well, for the present, that is until you win a greater name, I'm going
+to call you Geronimo."
+
+"And why Zhay-ro-nee-mo, Monsieur?"
+
+"Because that was the name of a great Apache chief. According to our
+white standards he was not all that a man should be. He had perhaps a
+certain insensibility to the sufferings of others, but in the Apache
+view that was not a fault. He was wholly great to them."
+
+"Very well then, Monsieur Scott, I shall be flattered to be called
+Zhay-ro-nee-mo, until I win a name yet greater."
+
+"Where is the Father Pelletier, the priest, who you said would bar your
+way unless I came with you?"
+
+"He is on the second platform where you look out over Paris before going
+into the lantern. It may be that he has against me what you would call
+the prejudice. I am young. Youth must have its day, and I have done some
+small deeds in the quarter which perhaps do not please Father Pelletier,
+a strict, a very strict man. But our country is in danger, and I am
+willing to forgive and forget."
+
+He spoke with so much magnanimity that John was compelled to laugh.
+Geronimo laughed, too, showing splendid white teeth. The understanding
+between them was now perfect.
+
+"I must talk with Father Pelletier," said John. "Until you're a great
+man, as you're going to be, Geronimo, I suppose I can be spokesman.
+After that it will be your part to befriend me."
+
+On the second platform they found Father Pelletier, a tall young priest
+with a fine but severe face, who looked with curiosity at John, and with
+disapproval at the Apache.
+
+"You are Father Pelletier, I believe," said John with his disarming
+smile. "These are unusual times, but I wish to go up into the lantern. I
+am an American, though, as you can see by my uniform, I am a soldier of
+France."
+
+"But your companion, sir? He has a bad reputation in the quarter. When
+he should come to the church he does not, and now when he should not he
+does."
+
+"That reputation of which you speak, Father Pelletier, will soon pass.
+Another, better and greater will take its place. Our friend here, and
+perhaps both of us will be proud to call him so some day, leaves soon to
+fight for France."
+
+The priest looked again at Bougainville, and his face softened. The
+little Apache met his glance with a firm and open gaze, and his figure
+seemed to swell again, and to radiate strength. Perhaps the priest saw
+in his eyes the same spark that John had noticed there.
+
+"It is a time when France needs all of her sons," he said, "and even
+those who have not deserved well of her before may do great deeds for
+her now. You can pass."
+
+Bougainville walked close to Father Pelletier, and John heard him say in
+low tones:
+
+"I feel within me the power to achieve, and when you see me again you
+will recognize it."
+
+The priest nodded and his friendly hand lay for a moment on the other's
+shoulder.
+
+"Come on, Geronimo," said John cheerfully. "As I remember it's nearly a
+hundred steps into the lantern, and that's quite a climb."
+
+"Not for youth like ours," exclaimed Bougainville, and he ran upward so
+lightly that the American had some difficulty in following him. John was
+impressed once more by his extraordinary strength and agility, despite
+his smallness. He seemed to be a mass of highly wrought steel spring.
+But unwilling to be beaten by anybody, John raced with him and the two
+stood at the same time upon the utmost crest of the Basilique du
+Sacre-Coeur.
+
+They paused a few moments for fresh breath and then John put the glasses
+to his eye, sweeping them in a slow curve. Through the powerful lenses
+he saw the vast circle of Paris, and all the long story of the past that
+it called up. Two thousand years of history rolled beneath his feet, and
+the spectacle was wholly magnificent.
+
+He beheld the great green valley with its hills, green, too, the line of
+the Seine cutting the city apart like the flash of a sword blade, the
+golden dome of the Hotel des Invalides, the grinning gargoyles of Notre
+Dame, the arches and statues and fountains and the long green ribbons
+that marked the boulevards.
+
+Although the city stood wholly in the sunlight a light haze formed on
+the rim of the circling horizon. He now moved the glasses slowly over a
+segment there and sought diligently for something. From so high a point
+and with such strong aid one could see many miles. He was sure that he
+would find what he sought and yet did not wish to see. Presently he
+picked out intermittent flashes which he believed were made by sunlight
+falling on steel. Then he drew a long and deep breath that was almost
+like a sigh.
+
+"What is it?" asked Bougainville who had stood patiently by his side.
+
+"I fear it is the glitter of lances, my friend, lances carried by German
+Uhlans. Will you look?"
+
+Bougainville held out his hands eagerly for the glasses, and then drew
+them back a little. In his new dignity he would not show sudden emotion.
+
+"It will give me gladness to see," he said. "I do not fear the Prussian
+lances."
+
+John handed him the glasses and he looked long and intently, at times
+sweeping them slowly back and forth, but gazing chiefly at the point
+under the horizon that had drawn his companion's attention.
+
+John meanwhile looked down at the city glittering in the sun, but from
+which its people were fleeing, as if its last day had come. It still
+seemed impossible that Europe should be wrapped in so great a war and
+that the German host should be at the gates of Paris.
+
+His eyes turned back toward the point where he had seen the gleam of the
+lances and he fancied now that he heard the far throb of the German
+guns. The huge howitzers like the one Lannes and he had blown up might
+soon be throwing shells a ton or more in weight from a range of a dozen
+miles into the very heart of the French capital. An acute depression
+seized him. He had strengthened the heart of Lannes, and now his own
+heart needed strengthening. How was it possible to stop the German army
+which had come so far and so fast that its Uhlans could already see
+Paris? The unprepared French had been defeated already, and the slow
+English, arriving to find France under the iron heel, must go back and
+defend their own island.
+
+"The Germans are there. I have not a doubt of it, and I thank you,
+Monsieur Scott, for the use of these," said Bougainville, handing the
+glasses back to him.
+
+"Well, Geronimo," he said, "having seen, what do you say?"
+
+"The sight is unpleasant, but it is not hopeless. They call us decadent.
+I read, Monsieur Scott, more than you think! Ah, it has been the
+bitterness of death for Frenchmen to hear all the world say we are a
+dying race, and it has been said so often that some of us ourselves had
+begun to believe it! But it is not so! I tell you it is not so, and
+we'll soon prove to the Germans who come that it isn't! I have looked
+for a sign. I sought for it in all the skies through your glasses, but I
+did not find it there. Yet I have found it."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In my heart. Every beat tells me that this Paris of ours is not for the
+Germans. We will yet turn them back!"
+
+He reminded John of Lannes in his dramatic intensity, real and not
+affected, a true part of his nature. Its effect, too, upon the American
+was powerful. He had given courage to Lannes, and now Bougainville, that
+little Apache of the Butte Montmartre, was giving new strength to his
+own weakening heart. Fresh life flowed back into his veins and he
+remembered that he, too, had beheld a sign, the flash of light on the
+Arc de Triomphe.
+
+"I think we have seen enough here, Geronimo," he said lightly, "and
+we'll descend. I've a friend to meet later. Which way do you go from the
+church?"
+
+"To the army. I shall be in a uniform tonight, and tomorrow maybe I
+shall meet the Germans."
+
+John held out his hand and the Apache seized it in a firm clasp.
+
+"I believe in you, as I hope you believe in me," said young Scott. "I
+belong to a company called the Strangers, made up chiefly of Americans
+and English, and commanded by Captain Daniel Colton. If you're on the
+battle line and hear of the Strangers there too I should like for you to
+hunt me up if you can. I'd do the same for you, but I don't yet know to
+what force you will belong."
+
+Bougainville promised and they walked down to the second platform, where
+Father Pelletier was still standing.
+
+"What did you see?" he asked of John, unable to hide the eagerness in
+his eyes.
+
+"Uhlans, Father Pelletier, and I fancied that I heard the echo of a
+German forty-two centimeter. Would you care to use the glasses? The view
+from this floor is almost as good as it is from the lantern."
+
+John distinctly saw the priest shudder.
+
+"No," he replied. "I could not bear it. I shall pray today that our
+enemies may be confounded; tomorrow I shall throw off the gown of a
+priest and put on the coat of a soldier."
+
+"Another sign," said John to himself, as they continued the descent.
+"Even the priests will fight."
+
+When they were once more in the narrow streets of Montmartre, John said
+farewell to Bougainville.
+
+"Geronimo," he said, "I expect to see you leading a victorious charge
+directly into the heart of the German army."
+
+"If I can meet your hopes I will, Monsieur Scott," said the young
+Frenchman gayly, "and now, _au revoir_, I depart for my uniform and
+arms, which must be of the best."
+
+John smiled as he walked down the hill. His heart had warmed toward the
+little Apache who might not be any Apache at all. Nevertheless the name
+Geronimo seemed to suit him, and he meant to think of him by it until
+his valor won him a better.
+
+He saw from the slopes the same endless stream of people leaving Paris.
+They knew that the Germans were near, and report brought them yet
+nearer. The tale of the monster guns had traveled fast, and the shells
+might be falling among them at any moment. Aeroplanes dotted the skies,
+but they paid little attention to them. They still thought of war under
+the old conditions, and to the great mass of the people flying machines
+were mere toys.
+
+But John knew better. Those journeys of his with Lannes through the
+heavens and their battles in the air for their lives were unforgettable.
+Stopping on the last slope of Montmartre he studied space with his
+glasses. He was sure that he saw captive balloons on the horizon where
+the German army lay, and one shape larger than the rest looked like a
+Zeppelin, but he did not believe those monsters had come so far to the
+south and west. They must have an available base.
+
+His heart suddenly increased its beat. He saw a darting figure and he
+recognized the shape of the German Taube. Then something black shot
+downward from it, and there was a crash in the streets of Paris,
+followed by terrible cries.
+
+He knew what had happened. He caught another glimpse of the Taube
+rushing away like a huge carnivorous bird that had already seized its
+prey, and then he ran swiftly down the street. The bomb had burst in a
+swarm of fugitives and a woman was killed. Several people were wounded,
+and a panic had threatened, but the soldiers had restored order already
+and ambulances soon took the wounded to hospitals.
+
+John went on, shocked to the core. It was a new kind of war. The flying
+men might rain death from the air upon a helpless city, but their
+victims were more likely to be women and children than armed men. For
+the first time the clean blue sky became a sinister blanket from which
+dropped destruction.
+
+The confusion created by the bomb soon disappeared. The multitude of
+Parisians still poured from the city, and long lines of soldiers took
+their place. John wondered what the French commanders would do. Surely
+theirs was a desperate problem. Would they try to defend Paris, or would
+they let it go rather than risk its destruction by bombardment? Yet its
+fall was bound to be a terrible blow.
+
+Lannes was on the steps of the Opera House at the appointed time,
+coming with a brisk manner and a cheerful face.
+
+"I want you to go with me to our house beyond the Seine," he said. "It
+is a quaint old place hidden away, as so many happy homes are in this
+city. You will find nobody there but my mother, my sister Julie, and a
+faithful old servant, Antoine Picard, and his daughter, Suzanne."
+
+"But I will be a trespasser?"
+
+"Not at all. There will be a warm welcome for you. I have told them of
+you, how you were my comrade in the air, and how you fought."
+
+"Pshaw, Lannes, it was you who did most of the fighting. You've given me
+a reputation that I can't carry."
+
+"Never mind about the reputation. What have you been doing since I left
+you this morning?"
+
+"I spent a part of the time in the lantern of the Basilica on
+Montmartre, and I had with me a most interesting friend."
+
+Lannes looked at him curiously.
+
+"You did not speak of any friend in Paris at this time," he said.
+
+"I didn't because I never heard of him until a few hours ago. I made his
+acquaintance while I was going up Montmartre, but I already consider
+him, next to you, the best friend I have in France."
+
+"Acquaintanceship seems to grow rapidly with you, Monsieur Jean the
+Scott."
+
+"It has, but you must remember that our own friendship was pretty
+sudden. It developed in a few minutes of flight from soldiers at the
+German border."
+
+"That is so, but it was soon sealed by great common dangers. Who is your
+new friend, John?"
+
+"A little Apache named Pierre Louis Bougainville, whom I have nicknamed
+Geronimo, after a famous Indian chief of my country. He has already gone
+to fight for France, and, Philip, he made an extraordinary impression
+upon me, although I don't know just why. He is short like Napoleon, he
+has the same large and beautifully shaped head, and the same penetrating
+eyes that seem able to look you through and through. Maybe it was a
+spark of genius in him that impressed me."
+
+"It may be so," said Lannes thoughtfully. "It was said, and said truly
+that the First Republic meant the open career to all the talents, and
+the Third offers the same chance. One never can tell where military
+genius is going to appear and God knows we need it now in whatever shape
+or form it may come. Did you hear of the bomb?"
+
+"I saw it fall. But, Phil, I don't see the object in such attacks. They
+may kill a few people, nearly always the unarmed, but that has no real
+effect on a war."
+
+"They wish to spread terror, I suppose. Lend me your glasses, John."
+
+Lannes studied the heavens a long time, minutely examining every black
+speck against the blue, and John stood beside him, waiting patiently.
+Meanwhile the throng of fleeing people moved on as before, silent and
+somber, even the children saying little. John was again stirred by the
+deepest emotion of sympathy and pity. What a tremendous tragedy it would
+be if New York were being abandoned thus to a victorious foe! Lannes
+himself had seemed to take no notice of the flight, but John judged he
+had made a powerful effort of the will to hide the grief and anger that
+surely filled his heart.
+
+"I don't see anything in the air but our own machines," said Lannes, as
+he returned the glasses. "It was evidently a dash by the Taube that
+threw the bomb. But we've stayed here long enough. They're waiting for
+us at home."
+
+He led the way through the multitude, relapsing into silence, but
+casting a glance now and then at his own peculiar field, the heavens.
+They reached the Place de la Concorde, and stopped there a moment or
+two. Lannes looked sadly at the black drapery hanging from the stone
+figure that typified the lost city of Strassburg, but John glanced up
+the great sweep of the Place to the Arc de Triomphe, where he caught
+again the glittering shaft of sunlight that he had accepted as a sign.
+
+"We may be looking upon all this for the last time," said Lannes, in a
+voice of grief. "Oh, Paris, City of Light, City of the Heart! You may
+not understand me, John, but I couldn't bear to come back to Paris
+again, much as I love it, if it is to be despoiled and ruled by
+Germans."
+
+"I do understand you, Philip," said John cheerfully, "but you mustn't
+count a city yours until you've taken it. The Germans are near, but
+they're not here. Now, lead on. It's not like you to despair!"
+
+Lannes shook himself, as if he had laid violent hands upon his own body,
+and his face cleared.
+
+"That was the last time, John," he said. "I made that promise before,
+but I keep it this time. You won't see me gloomy again. Henceforward
+it's hope only. Now, we must hurry. My mother and Julie will be growing
+anxious, for we are overdue."
+
+They crossed the Seine by one of the beautiful stone bridges and entered
+a region of narrow and crooked streets, which John thought must be a
+part of old Paris. In an American city it would necessarily have been a
+quarter of the poor, but John knew that here wealth and distinction were
+often hidden behind these modest doors.
+
+He began to feel very curious about Lannes' family, but he was careful
+to ask no questions. He knew that the young Frenchman was showing great
+trust and faith in him by taking him into his home. They stopped
+presently before a door, and Lannes rang a bell. The door was opened
+cautiously in a few moments, and a great head surmounted by thick, gray
+hair was thrust out. A powerful neck and a pair of immense shoulders
+followed the head. Sharp eyes under heavy lashes peered forth, but in an
+instant, when the man saw who was before him, he threw open the door and
+said:
+
+"Welcome, Monsieur."
+
+John had no doubt that this was the Antoine Picard of whom Lannes had
+spoken, and he knew at the first glance that he beheld a real man. Many
+people have the idea that all Frenchmen are little, but John knew
+better.
+
+Antoine Picard was a giant, much over six feet, and with the limbs and
+chest of a piano-mover. He was about sixty, but age evidently had made
+no impression upon his strength. John judged from his fair complexion
+that he was from Normandy. "Here," young Scott said to himself, "is one
+of those devoted European family servants of whom I've heard so often."
+
+He regarded the man with interest, and Picard, in return, measured and
+weighed him with a lightning glance.
+
+Lannes laughed.
+
+"It's all right, Antoine," he said. "He's the young man from that far
+barbarian country called America, who escaped from Germany with me, only
+he's no barbarian, but a highly civilized being who not only likes
+France, but who fights for her. John, this is Antoine Picard, who rules
+and protects this house."
+
+John held out his hand, American fashion, and it was engulfed in the
+mighty grasp of the Norseman, as he always thought of him afterward.
+
+"Madame, your mother, and Mademoiselle, your sister, have been anxious,"
+said Picard.
+
+"We were delayed," said Lannes.
+
+They stepped into a narrow hall, and Picard shut the door behind them,
+shooting into place a heavy bolt which sank into its socket with a click
+like the closing of the entrance to a fortress. In truth, the whole
+aspect of the house reminded John of a stronghold. The narrow hall was
+floored with stone, the walls were stone and the light was dim. Lannes
+divined John's thoughts.
+
+"You'll find it more cheerful, presently," he said. "As for us, we're
+used to it, and we love it, although it's so old and cold and dark. It
+goes back at least five centuries."
+
+"I suppose some king must have slept here once," said John. "In England
+they point out every very old house as a place where a king passed the
+night, and make reverence accordingly."
+
+Lannes laughed gayly.
+
+"No king ever slept here so far as I know," he said, "but the great
+Marshal Lannes, whose name I am so proud to bear, was in this house more
+than once, and to me, a staunch republican, that is greater than having
+had a king for a tenant. The Marshal, as you may know, although he took
+a title and served an Emperor, was always a republican and in the early
+days of the empire often offended Napoleon by his frankness and brusque
+truths. But enough of old things; we'll see my mother."
+
+He led the way up the steps, of solid stone, between walls thick enough
+for a fortress, and knocked at a door. A deep, full voice responded
+"Enter!" and pushing open the door Lannes went in, followed by John.
+
+It was a large room, with long, low windows, looking out over a sea of
+roofs toward the dome of the Invalides and Napoleon's arch of triumph. A
+tall woman rose from a chair, and saying "My son!" put her hands upon
+Lannes shoulders and kissed him on the forehead. She was fair like her
+son, and much less than fifty years of age. There was no stoop in her
+shoulders and but little gray in her hair. Her eyes were anxious, but
+John saw in them the Spartan determination that marked the women of
+France.
+
+"My friend, John Scott, of whom I have already spoken to you, Madame my
+mother," said Lannes.
+
+John bowed. He knew little of French customs, particularly in the heart
+of a French family, and he was afraid to extend his hand, but she gave
+him hers, and let it rest in his palm a moment.
+
+"Philip has told me much of you," she said in her deep, bell-like voice,
+"and although I know little of your far America, I can believe the best
+of it, if its sons are like you."
+
+John flushed at the compliment, which he knew to be so sincere.
+
+"Thank you, Madame," he said. "While my country can take no part in this
+war, many of my countrymen will fight with you. France helped us once,
+and some of us, at least, will help France now."
+
+She smiled gravely, and John knew that he was welcome in her house.
+Lannes would see to that anyhow, but he wished to make a good impression
+on his own account.
+
+"I know that Philip risks his life daily," she said. "He has chosen the
+most dangerous of all paths, the air, but perhaps in that way he can
+serve us most."
+
+She spoke with neither complaint nor reproach, merely as if she were
+stating a fact, and her son added briefly:
+
+"You are right, mother. In the air I can work best for our people. Ah,
+John, here is my sister, who is quite curious about the stranger from
+across the sea."
+
+A young girl came into the room. She was tall and slender, not more than
+seventeen, very fair, with blue eyes and hair of pure gold. John was
+continually observing that while many of the French were dark and small,
+in accordance with foreign opinion that made them all so, many more were
+blonde and tall. Lannes' sister was scarcely more than a lovely child,
+but his heart beat more quickly.
+
+Lannes kissed her on the forehead, just as he kissed his mother.
+
+"Julie," he said lightly and yet proudly, "this is the young American
+hero of whom I was telling you, my comrade in arms, or rather in the
+air, and adopted brother. Mr. John Scott, my sister, Mademoiselle Julie
+Lannes."
+
+She made a shy curtsey and John bowed. It was the first time that he was
+ever in the heart of an old French home, and he did not know the rules,
+but he felt that he ought not to offer his hand. Young girls, he had
+always heard, were kept in strict seclusion in France, but the great war
+and the approach of the German army might make a difference. In any
+event, he felt bold enough to talk to her a little, and she responded, a
+beautiful color coming into her face.
+
+"Dinner is ready for our guest and you," said Madame Lannes, and she led
+the way into another apartment, also with long, low windows, where the
+table was set. The curtains were drawn from the windows, and John caught
+through one of them a glimpse of the Seine, of marching troops in long
+blue coats and red trousers, and of the great city, massing up beyond
+like a wall.
+
+He felt that he had never before sat down to so strange a table. The
+world without was shaking beneath the tread of the mightiest of all
+wars, but within this room was peace and quiet. Madame was like a Roman
+matron, and the young Julie, though shy, had ample dignity. John liked
+Lannes' manner toward them both, his fine subordination to his mother
+and his protective air toward his sister. He was glad to be there with
+them, a welcome guest in the family.
+
+The dinner was served by a tall young woman. Picard's daughter Suzanne,
+to whom Lannes had referred, and she served in silence and with
+extraordinary dexterity one of the best dinners that he ever ate.
+
+As the dinner proceeded John admired the extraordinary composure of the
+Lannes family. Surely a woman and a girl of only seventeen would feel
+consternation at the knowledge that an overwhelming enemy was almost
+within sight of the city they must love so much. Yet they did not refer
+to it, until nearly the close of the dinner, and it was Madame who
+introduced the subject.
+
+"I hear, Philip," she said, "that a bomb was thrown today from a German
+aeroplane into the Place de l'Opera, killing a woman and injuring
+several other people."
+
+"It is true, mother."
+
+John glanced covertly at Julie, and saw her face pale. But she did not
+tremble.
+
+"Is it true also that the German army is near?" asked Madame Lannes,
+with just the faintest quiver in her voice.
+
+"Yes, mother. John, standing in the lantern of the Basilique du
+Sacre-Coeur, saw through his glasses the flash of sunlight on the lances
+of their Uhlans. A shell from one of their great guns could fall in the
+suburbs of Paris."
+
+John's covert glance was now for Madame Lannes. How would the matron who
+was cast in the antique mold of Rome take such news? But she veiled her
+eyes a little with her long lashes, and he could not catch the
+expression there.
+
+"I believe it is not generally known in Paris that the enemy is so very
+near," said Philip, "and while I have not hesitated to tell you the full
+truth, mother, I ask you and Julie not to speak of it to others."
+
+"Of course, Philip, we would add nothing to the general alarm, which is
+great enough already, and with cause. But what do you wish us to do?
+Shall we remain here, or go while it is yet time to our cousins, the
+Menards, at Lyons?"
+
+Now it was the mother who, in this question of physical peril, was
+showing deference to her son, the masculine head of the family. John
+liked it. He remembered an old saying, and he felt it to be true, that
+they did many things well in France.
+
+Lannes glanced at young Scott before replying.
+
+"Mother," he said, "the danger is great. I do not try to conceal it from
+you. It was my intention this morning to see you and Julie safe on the
+Lyons train, but John and I have beheld signs, not military, perhaps,
+but of the soul, and we are firm in the belief that at the eleventh hour
+we shall be saved. The German host will not enter Paris."
+
+Madame Lannes looked fixedly at John and he felt her gaze resting like a
+weight upon his face. But he responded. His faith had merely grown
+stronger with the hours.
+
+"I cannot tell why, Madame," he said, "but I believe as surely as I am
+sitting here that the enemy will not enter the capital."
+
+Then she said decisively, "Julie and I remain in our own home in Paris."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MESSENGER
+
+
+There was little more talk. The dignified quiet of the Lannes family
+remained unchanged, and John imitated it. If they could be so calm in
+the face of overwhelming disaster it should be no effort for him to
+remain unmoved. Yet he glanced often, though covertly, at Julie Lannes,
+admiring her lovely color.
+
+When dinner was over they returned to the room in which Madame Lannes
+had received them. The dark had come already, and Suzanne had lighted
+four tall candles. There was neither gas nor electricity.
+
+"Mr. Scott will be our guest tonight, mother," said Lannes, "and
+tomorrow he and I go together to the army."
+
+John raised his hand in protest. It had not been his intention when he
+came to remain until morning, but Lannes would listen to no objection;
+nor would his mother.
+
+"Since you fight for our country," she said, "you must let us give you
+shelter for at least one night."
+
+He acquiesced, and they sat a little while, talking of the things
+furthest from their hearts. Julie Lannes withdrew presently, and before
+long her mother followed. Lannes went to the window, and looked out over
+Paris, where the diminished lights twinkled. John stood at the other
+window and saw the great blur of the capital. All sounds were fused into
+one steady murmur, rather soothing, like the flowing of a river.
+
+He seemed to hear presently the distant thunder of German guns, but
+reason told him it was only a trick of the imagination. Nerves keyed
+high often created the illusion of reality.
+
+"What are you thinking about, Lannes?" he asked.
+
+"Of my mother and sister. Only the French know the French. The family
+tie is powerful with us."
+
+"I know that, Phil."
+
+"So you do. You're an adopted child of France. Madame Lannes is a woman
+of great heart, John. I am proud to be her son. I have read of your
+civil war. I have read how the mothers of your young soldiers suffered
+and yet were brave. None can know how much Madame, my mother, has
+suffered tonight, with the Germans at the gates of Paris, and yet she
+has shown no sign of it."
+
+John was silent. He did not know what to say, but Lannes did not pursue
+the subject, remaining a full five minutes at the window, and not
+speaking again, until he turned away.
+
+"John," he said then, "let's go outside and take a look about the
+quarter. It's important now to watch for everything."
+
+John was full willing. He recognized the truth of Lannes' words and he
+wanted air and exercise also. A fortress was a fortress, whether one
+called it a home or not, Lannes led the way and they descended to the
+lower hall, where the gigantic porter was on watch.
+
+"My friend and I are going to take a look in the streets, Antoine," said
+Lannes. "Guard the house well while we are gone."
+
+"I will," replied the man, "but will you tell me one thing, Monsieur
+Philip? Do Madame Lannes and Mademoiselle Julie remain in Paris?"
+
+"They do, Antoine, and since I leave tomorrow it will be the duty of you
+and Suzanne to protect them."
+
+"I am gratified, sir, that they do not leave the capital. I have never
+known a Lannes to flee at the mere rumor of the enemy's coming."
+
+"And I hope you never will, Antoine. I think we'll be back in an hour."
+
+"I shall be here, sir."
+
+He unbolted the door and Lannes and John stepped out, the cool night air
+pouring in a grateful flood upon their faces. Antoine fastened the door
+behind them, and John again heard the massive bolt sink into its place.
+
+"The quarter is uncommonly quiet," said Lannes. "I suppose it has a
+right to be after such a day."
+
+Then be looked up, scanning the heavens, after the manner that had
+become natural to him, a flying man.
+
+"What do you see, Philip?" asked John.
+
+"A sky of dark blue, plenty of stars, but no aeroplanes, Taubes or other
+machines of man's making."
+
+"I fancy that some of them are on the horizon, but too far away to be
+seen by us."
+
+"Likely as not. The Germans are daring enough and we can expect more
+bombs to be dropped on Paris. Our flying corps must organize to meet
+theirs. I feel the call of the air, John."
+
+Young Scott laughed.
+
+"I believe the earth has ceased to be your natural element," he said.
+"You're happiest when you're in the _Arrow_ about a mile above our
+planet."
+
+Lannes laughed also, and with appreciation. The friendship between the
+two young men was very strong, and it had in it all the quality of
+permanence. Their very unlikeness in character and temperament made them
+all the better comrades. What one could not do the other could.
+
+As they walked along now they said but little. Each was striving to read
+what he could in that great book, the streets of Paris. John believed
+Lannes had not yet told him his whole mission. He knew that in their
+short stay in Paris Philip had spent an hour in the office of the
+military governor of the city, and his business must be of great
+importance to require an hour from a man who carried such a fearful
+weight of responsibility. But whatever Lannes' secret might be, it was
+his own and he had no right to pry into it. If the time came for his
+comrade to tell it he would do so.
+
+When they reached the Seine the city did not seem so quiet. They heard
+the continuous sound of marching troops and people were still departing
+through the streets toward the country or the provincial cities. The
+flight went on by night as well as day, and John again felt the
+overwhelming pity of it.
+
+He wondered what the French generals and their English allies would do?
+Did they have any possible way of averting this terrible crisis? They
+had met nothing but defeat, and the vast German army had crashed,
+unchecked, through everything from the border almost to the suburbs of
+Paris.
+
+They stood in the Place Valhubert at the entrance to the Pont
+d'Austerlitz, and watched a regiment crossing the river, the long blue
+coats and red trousers of the men outlined against the white body of the
+bridge. The soldiers were short, they looked little to John, but they
+were broad of chest and they marched splendidly with a powerful swinging
+stride.
+
+"From the Midi," said Lannes. "Look how dark they are! France is called
+a Latin nation, but I doubt whether the term is correct. These men of
+the Midi though are the real Latins. We of northern France, I suspect,
+are more Teutonic than anything else, but we are all knitted together in
+one race, heart and soul, which are stronger ties than blood."
+
+"We are to go early in the morning, are we not, Philip?"
+
+"Yes, early. The _Arrow_ is at the hangar, all primed and eager for a
+flight, fearful of growing rusty from a long rest."
+
+"I believe you actually look upon your plane as a human being."
+
+"A human being, yes, and more. No human being could carry me above the
+clouds. No human being could obey absolutely and without question the
+simplest touch of my hand. The _Arrow_ is not human, John, it is
+superhuman. You have seen its exploits."
+
+The dark emitted a figure that advanced toward them, and took the shape
+of a man with black hair, a short close beard and an intelligent face.
+He approached John and Lannes and looked at them closely.
+
+"Mr. Scott!" he exclaimed, with eagerness, "I did not know what had
+become of you. I was afraid you were lost in one of the battles!"
+
+"Why, it's Weber!" said John, "our comrade of the flight in the
+automobile! And I was afraid that you too, were dead!"
+
+The two shook hands with great heartiness and Lannes joined in the
+reunion. He too at once liked Weber, who always made the impression of
+courage and quickness. He wore a new uniform, olive in color with dark
+blue threads through it, and it became him, setting off his trim,
+compact figure.
+
+"How did you get here, Mr. Weber?" asked John.
+
+"I scarcely know," he replied. "My duties are to a certain extent those
+of a messenger, but I was caught in the last battle, wounded slightly,
+and separated from the main French force. The little company which I had
+formed tried to break through the German columns, but they were all
+killed or captured except myself, and maybe two or three others. I hid
+in a wood, slept a night there, and then reached Paris to see what is
+going to happen. Ah, it is terrible! terrible! my comrades! The Germans
+are advancing in five great armies, a million and a half strong, and no
+troops were ever before equipped so magnificently."
+
+"Do you know positively that they have a million and a half?" asked
+Lannes.
+
+"I did not count them," replied Weber, smiling a little, "but I have
+heard from many certain sources that such are their numbers. I fear,
+gentlemen, that Paris is doomed."
+
+"Scott and I don't think so," said Lannes firmly. "We've gained new
+courage today."
+
+Weber was silent for a few moments. Then he said, giving Lannes his
+title as an officer:
+
+"I've heard of you, Lieutenant Lannes. Who does not know the name of
+France's most daring aviator? And doubtless you have information which
+is unknown to me. It is altogether likely that one who pierces the air
+like an eagle should bear messages between generals of the first rank."
+
+Lannes did not answer, but looked at Weber, who smiled.
+
+"Perhaps our trades are not so very different," said the Alsatian, "but
+you shoot through clouds while I crawl on the ground. You have a great
+advantage of me in method."
+
+Lannes smiled back. The little tribute was pleasing to the dramatic
+instinct so strong in him.
+
+"You and I, Mr. Weber," he said, "know enough never to speak of what
+we're going to do. Now, we'll bid you good night and wish you good luck.
+I'd like to be a prophet, even for a day only, and tell what the morrow
+would bring."
+
+"So do I," said Weber, "and I must hurry on my own errand. It may not
+be of great importance, but is vital to me that I do it."
+
+He slid away in the darkness and both John and Lannes spoke well of him
+as they returned to the house. Picard admitted them.
+
+"May I ask, sir, if there is any news that favors France?" he said to
+Philip.
+
+"Not yet, my good Antoine, but it is surely coming."
+
+John heard the giant Frenchman smother a sigh, but he made no comment,
+and walked softly with Lannes to the little room high up that had been
+assigned to him. Here when he was alone with his candle he looked around
+curiously.
+
+The room was quite simple, not containing much furniture, in truth,
+nothing of any note save on the wall a fine picture of the great Marshal
+Lannes, Napoleon's dauntless fighter, and stern republican, despite the
+ducal title that he took. It was a good portrait, painted perhaps by
+some great artist, and John holding up the candle, looked at it a long
+time.
+
+He thought he could trace some likeness to Philip. Lannes' face was
+always stern, in repose, far beyond his years, although when he became
+animated it had all the sunniness of youth. But he noticed now that he
+had the same tight lips of the Marshal, and the same unfaltering eyes.
+
+"Duke of Montebello!" said John to himself. "Well, you won that title
+grandly, and while the younger Lannes may do as well, if the chance
+comes to him, the new heroes of France will be neither dukes nor
+princes."
+
+Then, after removing all the stiff pillows, inclines, foot pieces and
+head pieces that make European beds so uncomfortable, he slipped between
+the covers, and slid quickly into a long and soothing sleep, from which
+he was awakened apparently about a minute later by Lannes himself, who
+stood over him, dressed fully, tall and serious.
+
+"Why, I just got into bed!" exclaimed John.
+
+"You came in here a full seven hours ago. Open your window and you'll
+see the dawn creeping over Paris."
+
+"Thank you, but you can open it yourself. I never fool with a European
+window. I haven't time to master all the mechanism, inside, outside and
+between, to say nothing of the various layers of curtains, full length,
+half length and otherwise. Nothing that I can conceive of is better
+fitted than the European window to keep out light and air."
+
+Lannes smiled.
+
+"I see that you're in fine feather this morning," he said, "I'll open it
+for you."
+
+John jumped up and dressed quickly, while Lannes, with accustomed hand,
+laid back shutters and curtains.
+
+"Now, shove up the window," exclaimed John as he wielded towel and
+brush. "A little fresh air in a house won't hurt you; it won't hurt
+anybody. We're a young people, we Americans, but we can teach you that.
+Why, in the German hotels they'd seal up the smoking-rooms and lounges
+in the evenings, and then boys would go around shooting clouds of
+perfume against the ceilings. Ugh! I can taste now that awful mixture of
+smoke, perfume and thrice-breathed air! Ah! that feels better! It's like
+a breath from heaven!"
+
+"Ready now? We're going down to breakfast with my mother and sister."
+
+"Yes. How do I look in this uniform, Lannes?"
+
+"Very well. But, Oh, you Americans! we French are charged with vanity,
+but you have it."
+
+John had thought little of his raiment until he came to the house of
+Lannes, but now there was a difference. He gave the last touch to his
+coat, and he and Philip went down together. Madame Lannes and Julie
+received them. They were dressed very simply, Julie in white and Madame
+Lannes in plain gray. Their good-morning to John was quiet, but he saw
+that it came from the heart. They recognized in him the faithful comrade
+in danger, of the son and brother, and he saw once more that French
+family affection was very powerful.
+
+It was early, far earlier than the ordinary time for the European
+breakfast, and he knew that it had been served so, because he and Lannes
+were to depart. He sat facing a window, and he saw the dawn come over
+Paris in a vast silver haze that soon turned to a cloud of gold. He
+again stole glances at Julie Lannes. In all her beautiful fairness of
+hair and complexion she was like one of the blonde American girls of his
+own country.
+
+When breakfast was over and the two young men rose to go John said the
+first farewell. He still did not know the French custom, but, bending
+over suddenly, he kissed the still smooth and handsome hand of Madame
+Lannes. As she flushed and looked pleased, he judged that he had made no
+mistake. Then he touched lightly the hand of the young girl, and said:
+
+"Mademoiselle Julie, I hope to return soon to this house with your
+brother."
+
+"May it be so," she said, in a voice that trembled, "and may you come
+back to a Paris still French!"
+
+John bowed to them both and with tact and delicacy withdrew from the
+room. He felt that there should be no witness of Philip's farewell to
+his mother and sister, before going on a journey from which the chances
+were that he would never return.
+
+He strolled down the hall, pretending to look at an old picture or two,
+and in a few minutes Lannes came out and joined him. John saw tears in
+his eyes, but his face was set and stern. Neither spoke until they
+reached the front door, which the giant, Picard, opened for them.
+
+"If the worst should happen, Antoine," said Lannes, "and you must be the
+judge of it when it comes, take them to Lyons, to our cousins the
+Menards."
+
+"I answer with my life," said the man, shutting together his great
+teeth, and John felt that it was well for the two women to have such a
+guardian. Under impulse, he said:
+
+"I should like to shake the hand of a man who is worth two of most men."
+
+Whether the French often shake hands or not, his fingers were enclosed
+in the mighty grasp of Picard, and he knew that he had a friend for
+life. When they went out Lannes would not look back and was silent for a
+long time. The day was warm and beautiful, and the stream of fugitives,
+the sad procession, was still flowing from the city. Troops too were
+moving, and it seemed to John that they passed in heavier masses than on
+the day before.
+
+"I went out last night while you slept," said Lannes, when they were
+nearly at the hangar, "and I will tell you that I bear a message to one
+of our most important generals. I carry it in writing, and also in
+memory in case I lose the written word. That is all I feel at liberty to
+tell you, and in truth I know but little more. The message comes from
+our leader to the commander of the army at Paris, who in turn orders me
+to deliver it to the general whom we're going to seek. It directs him
+with his whole force to move forward to a certain point and hold fast
+there. Beyond that I know nothing. Its whole significance is hidden from
+me. I feel that I can tell you this, John, as we're about to start upon
+a journey which has a far better prospect of death than of life."
+
+"I'm not afraid," said John, and he told the truth. "I feel, Philip,
+that great events are impending and that your dispatch or the effect of
+it will be a part in some gigantic plan."
+
+"I feel that way, too. What an awful crisis! The Germans moved nearer in
+the dark. I didn't sleep a minute last night. I couldn't. If the signs
+that you and I saw are to be fulfilled they must be fulfilled soon,
+because when a thing is done it's done, and when Paris falls it falls."
+
+"Well, here we are at the hangar, and the _Arrow_ will make you feel
+better. You're like the born horseman whose spirits return when he's on
+the back of his best runner."
+
+"I suppose I am. The air is now my proper medium, and anyway, John, my
+gallant Yankee, for a man like me the best tonic is always action,
+action, and once more action."
+
+The _Arrow_ was in beautiful condition, smooth, polished and fitted with
+everything that was needed. They put on their flying clothes, drew down
+their visors, stowed their automatics in handy pockets, and took their
+seats in the aeroplane. Then, as he put his hand on the steering rudder
+and the attendants gave the _Arrow_ a mighty shove, the soul of Lannes
+swelled within him.
+
+They rose slowly and then swiftly over Paris, and his troubles were left
+behind him on the earth. Up, up they went, in a series of graceful
+spirals, and although John, at first, felt the old uneasy feeling, it
+soon departed. He too exulted in their mounting flight and the rush of
+cold air.
+
+"Use your glasses, John," said Lannes, "and tell me what you can see."
+
+"Some captive balloons, five other planes, all our own, and on the
+horizon, where the German army lies, several black specks too vague and
+indefinite for me to make out what they are, although I've no doubt
+they're German flyers."
+
+"I'd like to have a look at the Germans, but our way leads elsewhere.
+What else do you see, John?"
+
+"I look downward and I see the most magnificent and glittering city in
+the world."
+
+"And that's Paris, our glorious Paris, which you and I and a million
+others are going to save. I suppose it's hope, John, that makes me feel
+we'll do something. Did you know that the Germans dropped two more bombs
+on the city last night? One, luckily, fell in the Seine. The other
+struck near the Madeleine, close to a group of soldiers, killing two and
+wounding four more."
+
+"Bombs from the air can't do any great damage to a city."
+
+"No, but they can spread alarm, and it's an insult, too. We feel as the
+Germans would if we were dropping bombs on Berlin. I wish you'd keep
+those glasses to your eyes all the time, John, and watch the skies. Let
+me know at once, if you see anything suspicious."
+
+John, continually turning in his seat, swept the whole curve of the
+world with the powerful glasses. Paris was now far below, a blur of
+white and gray. Above, the heavens were of the silkiest blue, beautiful
+in their infinite depths, with tiny clouds floating here and there like
+whitecaps on an ocean.
+
+"What do you see now, John?"
+
+"Nothing but one of the most beautiful days that ever was. It's a fine
+sun, that you've got over here, Philip. I can see through these glasses
+that it's made out of pure reddish gold."
+
+"Never mind about that sun, John. America is a full partner in its
+ownership and you're used to it. I've heard that you have more sunshine
+than we do. Watch for our companions of the air, friend or foe."
+
+"I see them flying; over Paris, but none is going in our direction. How
+far is our port of entry, Lannes?"
+
+"We should be there in two hours, if nothing happens. Do we still have
+the course to ourselves or is anything coming our way now?"
+
+"No company at all, unless you'd call a machine about three miles off
+and much lower down, a comrade."
+
+"What does it look like?"
+
+"A French aeroplane, much resembling the _Arrow_."
+
+"Is it following us?"
+
+"Not exactly. Yes, it is coming our way now, although it keeps much
+lower! A scout, I dare say."
+
+Lannes was silent for a little while, his eyes fixed on his pathway
+through the blue. Then he said:
+
+"What has become of that machine, John?"
+
+"It has risen a little, but it's on our private course, that is, if we
+can claim the right of way all down to the ground."
+
+Lannes glanced backward and downward, as well as his position would
+allow.
+
+"A French plane, yes," he said thoughtfully. "There can be no doubt of
+it, but why should it follow us in this manner? You do think it's
+following us, don't you, John?"
+
+"It begins to look like it, Phil. It's rising a little now, and is
+directly in our wake."
+
+"Take a long look through those glasses of yours."
+
+John obeyed, and the following aeroplane at once increased in size
+tenfold and came much nearer.
+
+"It's French. There cannot be any doubt of it," he said, "and only one
+man is in it. As he's hidden by his flying-suit I can't tell anything
+about him."
+
+"Watch him closely, John, and keep your hand on the butt of your
+automatic. I don't like that fellow's actions. Still, he may be a
+Frenchman on an errand like ours. We've no right to think we're the only
+people carrying important messages today."
+
+"He's gaining pretty fast. Although he keeps below us, it looks as if he
+wanted to communicate with us."
+
+The second aeroplane suddenly shot forward and upward at a much greater
+rate of speed. John, still watching through his glasses, saw the man
+release the steering rudder for an instant, snatch a rifle from the
+floor of his plane, and fire directly at Lannes.
+
+John uttered a shout of anger, and in action, too, he was as quick as a
+flash. His automatic was out at once and he rained bullets upon the
+treacherous machine. It was hard to take aim, firing from one flying
+target, at another, but he saw the man flinch, turn suddenly, and then
+go rocketing away at a sharp angle.
+
+Blazing with wrath John watched him, now far out of range, and then
+reloaded his automatic.
+
+"Did you get him, John?" asked Lannes.
+
+"I know one bullet found him, because I saw him shiver and shrink, but
+it couldn't have been mortal, as he was able to fly away."
+
+"I'm glad that you at least hit him, because he hit me."
+
+"What!" exclaimed John. Then he looked at his comrade and saw to his
+intense horror that black blood was flowing slowly down a face deadly
+pale.
+
+"His bullet went through my cap and then through my head," said Lannes.
+"Oh, not through my skull, or I wouldn't be talking to you now. I think
+it glanced off the bone, as I know it's gone out on the other side. But
+I'm losing much blood, John, and I seem to be growing numb."
+
+His voice trailed off in weakness and the _Arrow_ began to move in an
+eccentric manner. John saw that Lannes' hand on the rudder was uncertain
+and that he had been hard hit. He was aghast, first for his friend, to
+whom he had become so strongly attached, and then for the _Arrow_, their
+mission and himself. Lannes would soon become unconscious and he, no
+flying man at all, would be left high in air with a terrible weight of
+responsibility.
+
+"We must change seats," said Lannes, struggling against the dimness that
+was coming over his eyes and the weakness permeating his whole body. "Be
+careful, Oh, be careful as you can, and then, in your American language,
+a lot more. Slowly! Slowly! Yes, I can move alone. Drag yourself over
+me, and I can slide under you. Careful! Careful!"
+
+The _Arrow_ fluttered like a wounded bird, dropping, darting upward, and
+careering to one side. John was sick to his soul, both physically and
+mentally. His head became giddy and the wind roared in his ears, but the
+exchange of seats was at last, successfully accomplished.
+
+"Now," said Lannes, "you're a close observer. Remember all that you've
+seen me do with the plane. Resolve to yourself that you do know how to
+fly the _Arrow_. Fear nothing and fly straight for our destination.
+Don't bother about the bleeding of my wound. My thick hair and thick cap
+acting together as a heavy bandage will stop it. Now, John, our fate
+rests with you."
+
+The last words were almost inaudible, and John from the corner of his
+eye saw his comrade's head droop. He knew that Lannes had become
+unconscious and now, appalling though the situation was, he rose to the
+crisis.
+
+He knew the immensity of their danger. A sudden movement of the rudder
+and the aeroplane might be wrecked. And in such a position the nerves of
+a novice were subject at any time to a jerk. They might be assailed by
+another treacherous machine, the dangers, in truth, were uncountable,
+but he was upborne by a tremendous desire to carry the word and to save
+Lannes and himself.
+
+In the face of intense resolve all obstacles became as nothing and his
+hand steadied on the rudder. He knew that when it came to the air he was
+no Lannes and never could be. The solid earth, no matter how much it
+rolled around the sun or around itself, was his favorite field of
+action, but he felt that he must make one flight, when he carried with
+him perhaps the fate of a nation.
+
+The _Arrow_ was still rocking from side to side and dipping and jumping.
+Slowly he steadied it, handling the rudder as if it were a loaded
+weapon, and gradually his heart began to pound with triumph. It was no
+such flying as the hand of Lannes drew from the _Arrow_, but to John it
+seemed splendid for a first trial. He let the machine drop a little
+until it was only six or seven hundred yards above the earth, and took
+wary glances from side to side. He feared another pursuer, but the air
+seemed clear.
+
+Lannes had sunk a little further forward. John saw that the
+bleeding from his head had ceased. There was a dark stain down either
+cheek, but it was drying there, and as Lannes had foreseen, his hair and
+the cap had acted as a bandage, at last checking the flow effectively.
+His breathing was heavy and jerky, but John believed that he would
+revive before long. It was not possible that one so vital as Lannes, so
+eager for great action, could die thus.
+
+Now he looked ahead. Their landmarks as Lannes had told him before the
+fight, were to be a high hill, a low hill, and a small stream flowing
+between. Just behind it they would find a great French army marching
+northward and their errand would be over. He did not yet see the hills,
+but he was sure that he was still in the pathway of the air.
+
+He had left Paris far behind, but when he looked down he saw a beautiful
+country, a fertile land upon which man had worked for two thousand
+years, too beautiful to be trodden to pieces by armies. He saw the
+cultivated fields, varying in color like a checker board, and the neat
+villages with trees about them. Here and there the spire of a church
+rose high above everything. Churches and wars were so numerous in
+Europe!
+
+John checked the speed of the _Arrow_. He was afraid, despite all his
+high resolve, to fly fast, and then he must not go beyond the army for
+which he was looking. He dropped a little lower as he was passing over a
+wood, and then he heard the crack of rifles beneath him. Bullets whizzed
+and sang past his ears and he took one fearful glance downward.
+
+He saw men, spiked helmets on their heads, galloping among the trees,
+and he knew that they were a daring band of Uhlans, actually scouting
+inside the French lines. They were shooting at the _Arrow_ and firing
+fast.
+
+He attempted to rise so suddenly that the plane gave a violent jerk and
+quivered in every fiber. He thought for a moment they were going to
+fall, and the sickening sensation at his heart was overpowering. But the
+trusty _Arrow_ ceased quivering, and then rose swiftly at an angle not
+too great.
+
+Bullets still whizzed around the plane, and one glanced off its polished
+side, but John's first nervous jerkiness in handling the machine had
+probably saved him. The target had been so high in air, and of such a
+shifting nature that the Uhlans had little chance to hit it.
+
+He was now beyond the range of any rifle, and he drew a long breath of
+relief that was like a deep sigh. Then he took a single downward glance,
+and caught a fleeting glimpse of the Uhlans galloping away. Doubtless
+they were making all speed back to their own army.
+
+He flew on for a minute or two, searching the horizon eagerly, and at
+last, he saw a tall hill, a low hill and a flash of water between. He
+felt so much joy that he uttered a cry, and an echo of it came from a
+point almost by his side.
+
+"Did I hear firing, John?"
+
+It was Lannes' voice, feeble, but showing all the signs of returning
+strength, and again John uttered a joyous shout.
+
+"You did," he replied. "It was Uhlans in a grove. I was flying low and
+their bullets whistled around us. But the _Arrow_ has taken no harm. I
+see, too, the hills and the stream which are our landmarks. We're about
+to arrive, Philip, with our message, but there's been treachery
+somewhere. I wish I knew who was in that French plane."
+
+"So do I, John. It certainly came out of Paris. In my opinion it meant
+to destroy us and keep our message from reaching the one for whom it was
+intended. Who could it have been and how could he have known!"
+
+"Feeling better now, aren't you, Phil?"
+
+"A lot better. My head aches tremendously, but the dimness has gone from
+before my eyes, and I'm able to think, in a poor and feeble way,
+perhaps, but I'm not exactly a dumb animal. Where are the hills?"
+
+John pointed.
+
+"I can see them," said Lannes exultantly. "Since they did no harm I'm
+glad the Uhlans fired at the _Arrow_. Their shots aroused me from stupor
+and as we're to reach the army I want to be in possession of my five
+senses when I get there."
+
+John understood perfectly.
+
+"It's your message and you deliver it," he said.
+
+Lannes' strength continued to increase, and his mind cleared rapidly.
+His head ached frightfully, but he could think with all his usual
+swiftness and precision. He sat erect in his seat.
+
+"Pass me your glasses, John," he said.
+
+"Now I see the troops," he said, after a long look. "Frenchmen,
+Frenchmen, Frenchmen, infantry in thousands and scores of thousands, big
+guns in scores and hundreds, cuirassiers, hussars, cannoneers! Ah! It's
+a sight to kindle a dead heart back to life! John, this is one of the
+great wheels in the mighty machine that is to move forward! Here come
+two aeroplanes, scouts sent forward to see who and what we are."
+
+"You are sure they contain genuine Frenchmen? Remember the fellow who
+shot you."
+
+"Frenchmen, good and true. I can see them for myself."
+
+He moved his hand, and in a few moments John heard hissing and purring
+near, as if great birds were flying to meet him. The outlines of the
+hovering planes showed by his side, and Lannes called in a loud voice to
+shrouded and visored men.
+
+"Philip Lannes and his comrade, John Scott, with a message from Paris
+to the commander!" he exclaimed.
+
+He was his old self again, erect, intense, dramatic. He evidently
+expected the name Philip Lannes to be known well to them, and it was, as
+a cheer followed high in air.
+
+"Now, John," said Lannes, "Be careful! Your hardest task is before you,
+to land. But I've noticed that with you the harder the task the better
+you do it. Make for that wide green space to the left of the stream and
+come down as slowly and gently as you can. Just slide down."
+
+John had a fleeting glimpse of thousands of faces looking upward, but he
+held a true course for the grassy area, and with a multitude looking on
+his nerve was never steadier. Amid great cheering the _Arrow_ came
+safely to rest at her appointed place. John and Lannes stepped forth, as
+an elderly man in a quiet uniform came forward to meet them.
+
+Lannes, holding himself stiffly erect, drew a paper from his pocket and
+extended it to the general.
+
+"A letter, sir, from the commander-in-chief of all our armies," he said,
+saluting proudly.
+
+As the general took the letter, Lannes' knees bent beneath him, and he
+sank down on his face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+IN THE FRENCH CAMP
+
+
+John rushed forward and grasped his comrade. The sympathetic hands of
+others seized him also, and they raised him to his feet, while an
+officer gave him stimulant out of a flask, John meanwhile telling who
+his comrade was. Lannes' eyes opened and he flushed through the tan of
+his face.
+
+"Pardon," he said, "it was a momentary weakness. I am ashamed of myself,
+but I shall not faint again."
+
+"You've been shot," said the officer, looking at his sanguinary cap and
+face.
+
+"So I have, but I ask your pardon for it. I won't let it occur again."
+
+Lannes was now standing stiffly erect, and his eyes shone with pride, as
+the general, a tall, elderly man, rapidly read the letter that Philip
+had delivered with his own hand. The officer who had spoken of his wound
+looked at him with approval.
+
+"I've heard of you, Philip Lannes," he said, "you're the greatest flying
+man in the world."
+
+Lannes' eyes flashed now.
+
+"You do me too much honor," he said, "but it was not I who brought our
+aeroplane here. It was my American friend, John Scott, now standing
+beside me, who beat off an attack upon us and who then, although he had
+had no practical experience in flying, guided the machine to this spot.
+Born an American, he is one of us and France already owes him much."
+
+John raised his hand in protest, but he saw that Lannes was enjoying
+himself. His dramatic instinct was finding full expression. He had not
+only achieved a great triumph, but his best friend had an important
+share in it. There was honor for both, and his generous soul rejoiced.
+
+Both John and Lannes stood at attention until the general had read the
+letter not once but twice and thrice. Then he took off his glasses,
+rubbed them thoughtfully a moment or two, replaced them and looked
+keenly at the two. He was a quiet man and he made no gestures, but John
+met his gaze serenely, read his eyes and saw the tremendous weight of
+responsibility back of them.
+
+"You have done well, you two, perhaps far better than you know," said
+the general, "and now, since you are wounded, Philip Lannes, you must
+have attention. De Rougemont, take care of them."
+
+De Rougemont, a captain, was the man to whom they had been talking, and
+he gladly received the charge. He was a fine, well built officer, under
+thirty, and it was obvious that he already took a deep interest in the
+two young aviators. Noticing Lannes' anxious glances toward his precious
+machine, he promptly detailed two men to take care of the _Arrow_ and
+then he led John and Lannes toward the group of tents.
+
+"First I'll get a surgeon for you," he said to the Frenchman, "and after
+that there's food for you both."
+
+"I hope you'll tell the surgeon to be careful how he takes off my cap,"
+said Lannes, "because it's fastened to my head now by my own dried
+blood."
+
+"Trust me for that," said de Rougemont. "I'll bring one of our best
+men."
+
+Then, unable to suppress his curiosity any longer, he added:
+
+"I suppose the message you brought was one of life or death for France."
+
+"I think so," said Lannes, "but I know little of its nature, myself."
+
+"I would not ask you to say any more. I know that you cannot speak of
+it. But you can tell me this. Are the Germans before Paris?"
+
+"As nearly as I could tell, their vanguard was within fifteen miles of
+the capital."
+
+"Then if we strike at all we must strike quickly. I think we're going to
+strike."
+
+Lannes was silent, and they entered the tent, where blankets were spread
+for him. A surgeon, young and skillful, came promptly, carefully removed
+the cap and bound up his head. John stood by and handed the surgeon the
+bandages.
+
+"You're not much hurt," he said to Lannes as he finished. "Your chief
+injury was shock, and that has passed. I can keep down the fever and
+you'll be ready for work very soon. The high powered bullet makes a
+small and clean wound. It tears scarcely at all. Nor will your beauty be
+spoiled in the slightest, young sir. Both orifices are under the full
+thickness of your hair."
+
+"I'm grateful for all your assurances," said Lannes, his old indomitable
+smile appearing in his eyes, "but you'll have to cure me fast, faster
+than you ever cured anybody before, because I'm a flying man, and I fly
+again tomorrow."
+
+"Not tomorrow. In two or three days, perhaps--"
+
+"Yes, tomorrow, I tell you! Nothing can keep me from it! This army will
+march tonight! I know it! and do you think such a wound as this can keep
+me here, when the fate of Europe is being decided? I'd rise from these
+blankets and go with the army even if I knew that it would make me fall
+dead the next day!"
+
+He spoke with such fierce energy that the surgeon who at first sternly
+forbade, looked doubtful and then acquiescent.
+
+"Go, then," he said, "if you can. The fact that we have so many heroes
+may save us."
+
+He left John alone in the tent with Lannes. The Frenchman regarded his
+comrade with a cool, assured gaze.
+
+"John," he said, "I shall be up in the _Arrow_ tomorrow. I'm not nervous
+and excited now, and I'll not cause any fever in my wound. Somebody will
+come in five minutes with food. I shall eat a good supper, fall quietly
+to sleep, sleep soundly until night, then rise, refreshed and strong,
+and go about the work for which I'm best fitted. My mind shall rule over
+my body."
+
+"I see you're what we would call at home a Christian Scientist, and in
+your case when a mind like yours is brought to bear there's something in
+it."
+
+The food appeared within the prescribed time, and both ate heartily.
+John watched Lannes. He knew that he would suffer agonies of
+mortification if he were not able to share in the great movement which
+so obviously was about to take place, and, as he looked, he felt a
+growing admiration for Philip's immense power of self-control.
+
+Mind had truly taken command of body. Lannes ate slowly and with evident
+relish. From without came many noises of a great army, but he refused to
+be disturbed or excited by them. He spoke lightly of his life before the
+war, and of a little country home that the Lannes family had in
+Normandy.
+
+"We own the two places, that and the home in the city," he said. "The
+house in Normandy is small, but it's beautiful, hidden by flower gardens
+and orchards, with a tiny river just back of the last orchard. Julie has
+spent most of her life there. She and my mother would go there now, but
+it's safer at Lyons or in the Midi. A wonderful girl, Julie! I hope,
+John, that you'll come for a long stay with us after the war, among the
+Normandy orchards and roses."
+
+"I hope so," said John. He was dreaming a little then, and he saw young
+Julie sitting at the table with them back in Paris. Truly, her golden
+hair was the purest gold he had ever seen, and there was no other blue
+like the blue of her blue eyes.
+
+"Now, John," said Lannes, "I'll resume my place on the blankets and in
+ten minutes I'll be asleep."
+
+He lay down, closed his eyes and three minutes short of the appointed
+time slept soundly. John gazed at him for a moment in wonder and
+admiration. The triumph of will over body had been complete. He touched
+Lannes' head. It was normally cool. Either the surgeon's skill had been
+great or the very strength of his resolve had been so immense that he
+had kept nerves and blood too quiet for fever to rise.
+
+John left the tent, feeling for the time a personal detachment from
+everything. He had no position in this army, and no orders had been
+given to him by anybody. But he knew that he was among friends, and
+while he stood looking about in uncertainty Captain de Rougemont
+appeared.
+
+"How is young Lannes?" he asked.
+
+"Sleeping and free from fever. He will move with the army, or rather he
+will be hovering over it in his aeroplane. I never before saw such
+extraordinary power of will."
+
+"He's a wonderful fellow. Of course, most of us have heard of him
+through his marvelous flying exploits, but it's the first time that I've
+ever seen him. What are you going to do?"
+
+"I don't know. I seem to be left high and dry for the present, at least.
+My company is with one of the armies, but where that army is now is more
+than I can tell."
+
+"Nor do I know either. We're all in the dark here, but any young strong
+man can certainly get a chance to fight in this war. I'm on the staff of
+General Vaugirard, a brigade commander, and he needs active young
+officers. You speak good French, and the fact that you came with Lannes
+will be a great recommendation, I'll provide you with a horse and all
+else necessary."
+
+John thanked him with great sincerity. The offer was in truth most
+welcome. He knew that Lannes would willingly take him in the _Arrow_,
+but he felt that he would be in the way there and, as he had said to his
+friend, the rolling earth rather than the air around it was his true
+field of action. His first enrollment in the French army had been
+hurried and without due forms, but war had made it good.
+
+"I'll not come back for you until afternoon," said de Rougemont,
+"because we're already making preparations to advance, and I shall have
+much to do meanwhile. You can watch over Lannes and see that he's not
+interrupted in his sleep. He'll need it."
+
+"Yes, I have reason to know that he did not sleep at all last night, and
+he must be in a state of complete exhaustion. But, just as he predicted,
+he'll rise, his old self again."
+
+Captain de Rougemont hurried away, and John was left alone in the midst
+of a great army. He stood before Lannes' tent, which was in the midst of
+a grassy and rather elevated opening, and he heard once more the
+infinite sounds made by two hundred thousand armed men, blending into
+one vast, fused note.
+
+The army, too, was moving, or getting ready to move. Batteries of the
+splendid French artillery passed before him, squadrons of horsemen
+galloped by, and regiments of infantry followed. It all seemed confused,
+aimless to the eye, but John knew that nevertheless it was proceeding
+with order and method, directed by a master mind.
+
+Often trumpets sounded and the motion of the troops seemed to quicken.
+Now he beheld men from the lands of the sun, the short, dark, fierce
+soldiers of the Midi, youths of Marseilles and youths of the first Roman
+province, whose native language was Provencal and not French. He
+remembered the men of the famous battalion who had marched from
+Marseilles to Paris singing Rouget de Lisle's famous song, and giving it
+their name, while they tore down an ancient kingdom. Doubtless, spirits
+no less ardent and fearless than theirs were here now.
+
+He saw the Arabs in turbans and flowing robes, and black soldiers from
+Senegal, and seeing these men from far African deserts he knew that
+France was rallying her strength for a supreme effort. The German
+Empire, with the flush of unbroken victory in war after war, could
+command the complete devotion of its sons, but the French Republic,
+without such triumphs as yet, could do as well. John felt an immense
+pride because he, too, was republican to the core, and often there was a
+lot in a name.
+
+It was about noon now, and the sun was shining with dazzling brilliancy.
+The tall hill and the low hill were clothed in deep green, and the
+waters of the little river that ran between, sparkled in the light. The
+air was crisp with a cool wind that blew from the west, and John felt
+that the omens were good for the great mysterious movement which he
+believed to be at hand.
+
+He looked into the tent and saw that Lannes was sleeping soundly, with a
+good color in his face. A powerful constitution aided by a strong will
+had done its work and he was sure that on the morrow Lannes would again
+be the most daring French scout of the air.
+
+John found the waiting hard work. There was so much movement and action
+that he wanted to be a part of it. He had thrown in his lot with this
+army and he wanted to share its work at once. Yet much time passed, and
+de Rougemont did not return. The evidences that the great French army
+was marching to the point designated in the note brought by Lannes
+multiplied. From the crest of the hill he already saw large bodies of
+troops marching forward steadily, their long blue coats flapping
+awkwardly about their legs. He wondered once more why they wore such an
+inharmonious and conspicuous uniform as blue frock coats and baggy red
+trousers.
+
+He heard presently the martial sounds of the Marseillaise, and the
+regiment singing it passed very close to him. The men were nearly all
+short, dark, and very young. But the spring and fire with which they
+marched were magnificent. As they thundered out the grand old tune their
+feet seemed scarcely to touch the earth, and fierce eyes glowed in dark
+faces.
+
+John, with a start, recognized one, a petty officer, a sergeant it
+seemed, who marched beside the line. He was the most eager of them all,
+and his face was tense and wrapt. It was Geronimo, the little Apache, in
+whom the spark of patriotism had lit the fire of genius. His call had
+come and it had drawn him from a half savage life into one of glorious
+deeds for his country.
+
+"He'll be a general if he isn't killed first," murmured John, with
+absolute conviction.
+
+Geronimo, at that moment, looked his way and recognized him. His hand
+flew to his head in a military salute, which John returned in kind, and
+his eyes plainly showed pleasure at sight of this new friend whom he had
+made in a few minutes on the Butte Montmartre.
+
+"We meet again," he said, "and before the week is out it will be victory
+or death."
+
+"I think so, too," said John.
+
+"I know it," said Geronimo, and, saluting once more, he marched on with
+his regiment. John saw them pass across the valley and join the great
+mass of troops that filled the whole northern horizon. About an hour
+later a cheerful voice called to him, and he beheld Lannes standing in
+the door of the tent, his head well bandaged, but his eyes clear and
+strong and the natural color in his face.
+
+"What has happened, John?" he asked.
+
+"You've slept six or seven hours."
+
+"And while I slept, the army, as I can see, has begun its march
+according to the order we brought. I'm sorry I had to miss any of it,
+but I was bound to sleep."
+
+"You're a marvel."
+
+"No marvel at all. I'm merely one of a million Frenchmen molded on the
+same model. An army can't move fast and tonight the _Arrow_ and I will
+be hovering over its front. There's your old place for you in the
+plane."
+
+"I'd only be in your way, Philip. But can't you wait until tomorrow?
+Don't rush yourself while you've got a new wound."
+
+"The wound is nothing. I'm bound to go tonight with the _Arrow_. But
+what are you going to do if you don't go with me?"
+
+"A new friend whom I've made while you slept has found a place for me
+with him, on the staff of General Vaugirard, a brigade commander. I
+shall serve there until I'm able to rejoin the Strangers."
+
+"General Vaugirard! I've seen him. An able man, and a most noticeable
+figure. You've fared well."
+
+"I hope so. Here comes Captain de Rougemont."
+
+The captain showed much pleasure at seeing Lannes up and apparently
+well.
+
+"What! Has our king of the air revived so soon!" he exclaimed.
+
+"The dead themselves would rise when we're about to strike for the life
+of France," said Lannes, his dramatic quality again coming to the front.
+
+"Well spoken," said de Rougemont, the color flushing into his face.
+
+"I return to my aeroplane within two hours," said Lannes. "I hold a
+commission from our government which allows me to operate somewhat as a
+free lance, but, of course, I shall conform for the present to the
+wishes of the man who commands the flying corps of this army. Meanwhile,
+I leave with you my young Yankee friend here, John Scott. For some
+strange reason I've conceived for him a strong brotherly affection.
+Kindly see that he doesn't get killed unless it's necessary for our
+country, and this, I think, is a long enough speech for me to make now."
+
+"I'll do my best for him," said de Rougemont earnestly. "I've come for
+you, Scott."
+
+"Good-bye, Philip," said John, extending his hand.
+
+"Good-bye, John," said Lannes, "and do as I tell you. Don't get yourself
+killed unless it's absolutely necessary."
+
+Usually so stoical, his voice showed emotion, and he turned away after
+the strong pressure of the two hands. John and de Rougemont walked down
+the valley, where they joined General Vaugirard and the rest of his
+staff.
+
+As soon as John saw the general he knew what Lannes meant by his phrase
+"a noticeable figure." General Vaugirard was a man of about sixty, so
+enormously fat that he must have weighed three hundred pounds. His face
+was covered with thick white beard, out of which looked small, sharp red
+eyes. He reminded John of a great white bear. The little red eyes bored
+him through for an instant, and then their owner said briefly:
+
+"De Rougemont has vouched for you. Stay with him. An orderly has your
+horse."
+
+A French soldier held for him a horse bearing all the proper equipment,
+and John, saluting the general, sprang into the saddle. He was a good
+horseman, and now he felt thoroughly sure of himself. If it came to the
+worst, and he was unseated, the earth was not far away, but if he were
+thrown out of the _Arrow_ he would have a long and terrible time in
+falling.
+
+General Vaugirard had not yet mounted, but stood beside a huge black
+horse, fit to carry such a weight. He was listening and looking with the
+deepest attention and his staff was silent around him. John saw from
+their manner that these men liked and respected their immense general.
+
+More trumpets sounded, much nearer now, and a messenger galloped up,
+handing a note to General Vaugirard, who glanced at it hastily, uttered
+a deep Ah! of relief and joy and thrust it into his pocket.
+
+Then saying to his staff, "Gentlemen, we march at once," he put one hand
+on his horse's shoulder, and, to John's immense surprise, leaped as
+lightly into the saddle as if he had been a riding master. He settled
+himself easily into his seat, spoke a word to his staff, and then he
+rode with his regiments toward that great mass of men on the horizon who
+were steadily marching forward.
+
+John kept by the side of de Rougemont. There were brief introductions to
+some of the young officers nearest him, and he felt an air of
+friendliness about him. As de Rougemont told them he had already given
+ample proof of his devotion to the cause, and he was accepted promptly
+as one of them.
+
+John was now conscious how strongly he had projected himself into the
+life of the French. He was an American for generations back and his
+blood by descent was British. He had been among the Germans and he liked
+them personally, he had served already with the English, and their point
+of view was more nearly like the American than any other. But he was
+here with the French and he felt for them the deepest sympathy of all.
+He was conscious of a tie like that of blood brotherhood.
+
+He knew it was due to the old and yet unpaid help France had given to
+his own country, and above all to the conviction that France, minding
+her own business, had been set upon by a greater power, with intent to
+crush and destroy. France was attacked by a dragon, and the old similes
+of mythology floated through his mind, but, oftenest, that of Andromeda
+chained to the rock. And the figure that typified France always had the
+golden hair and dark blue eyes of slim, young Julie Lannes.
+
+They advanced several hours almost in silence, as far as talk was
+concerned, but two hundred thousand men marching made a deep and steady
+murmur. General Vaugirard kept well in front of his staff, riding,
+despite his immense bulk, like a Comanche, and occasionally putting his
+glasses to those fiery little red eyes. At length he turned and beckoned
+to John, who promptly drew up to his side.
+
+"You speak good French?" he said in his native tongue.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied John promptly.
+
+"I understand that you came with the flying man, Lannes, who brought the
+message responsible for this march, and that it is not the only time
+you've done good service in our cause?"
+
+John bowed modestly.
+
+"Did you see any German troops on the way?"
+
+"Only a band of Uhlans."
+
+"A mere scouting party. It occurred to me that you might have seen
+masses of troops belonging to the foe, indicating perhaps what is
+awaiting us at the end of our march."
+
+"I know nothing, sir. The Uhlans were all the foes we saw from the air,
+save the man who shot Lannes."
+
+"I believe you. You belong to the youngest of the great nations. Your
+people have not yet learned to say with the accents of truth the thing
+that is not. I am sixty years old, and yet I have the curiosity to know
+where I am going and what I am expected to do when I get there. Behold
+how I, an old man, speak so frankly to you, so young."
+
+"When I saw your excellency leap into the saddle you did not seem to me
+to be more than twenty."
+
+John called him "your excellency" because he thought that in the absence
+of precise knowledge of what was fitting the term was as good as
+another.
+
+A smile twinkled in the eyes of General Vaugirard. Evidently he was
+pleased.
+
+"That is flattery, flattery, young man," he said, "but it pleases me.
+Since I've drawn from you all you know, which is but little, you may
+fall back with your comrades. But keep near; I fancy I shall have much
+for you to do before long. Meanwhile, we march on, in ignorance of what
+is awaiting us. Ah, well, such is life!"
+
+He seemed to John a strange compound of age and youth, a mixture of the
+philosopher and the soldier. That he was a real leader John could no
+longer doubt. He saw the little red eyes watching everything, and he
+noticed that the regiments of Vaugirard had no superiors in trimness and
+spirit.
+
+They marched until sundown and stopped in some woods clear of
+undergrowth, like most of those in Europe. The camp kitchens went to
+work at once, and they received good food and coffee. As far as John
+could see men were at rest, but he could not tell whether the whole army
+was doing likewise. It spread out much further to both right and left
+than his eyes could reach.
+
+The members of the staff tethered their horses in the grove, and after
+supper stood together and talked, while the fat general paced back and
+forth, his brow wrinkled in deep thought.
+
+"Good old Papa Vaugirard is studying how to make the best of us," said
+de Rougemont. "We're all his children. They say that he knows nearly ten
+thousand men under his command by face if not by name, and we trust him
+as no other brigade commander in the army is trusted by his troops. He's
+thinking hard now, and General Vaugirard does not think for nothing. As
+soon as he arrives at what seems to him a solution of his problem he
+will begin to whistle. Then he will interrupt his whistling by saying:
+'Ah, well, such is life.'"
+
+"I hope he'll begin to whistle soon," said John, "because his brow is
+wrinkling terribly."
+
+He watched the huge general with a sort of fascinated gaze. Seen now in
+the twilight, Vaugirard's very bulk was impressive. He was immense,
+strong, primeval. He walked back and forth over a line about thirty feet
+long, and the deep wrinkles remained on his brow. Every member of his
+staff was asking how long it would last.
+
+A sound, mellow and soft, but penetrating, suddenly arose. General
+Vaugirard was whistling, and John's heart gave a jump of joy. He did not
+in the least doubt de Rougemont's assertion that an answer to the
+problem had been found.
+
+General Vaugirard whistled to himself softly and happily. Then he said
+twice, and in very clear tones: "Ah, well, such is life!" He began to
+whistle again, stopped in a moment or two and called to de Rougemont,
+with whom he talked a while.
+
+"We're to march once more in a half-hour," said de Rougemont, when he
+returned to John and his comrades. "It must be a great converging
+movement in which time is worth everything. At least, General Vaugirard
+thinks so, and he has a plan to get us into the very front of the
+action."
+
+"I hope so," said John. "I'm not anxious to get killed, but I'd rather
+be in the battle than wait. I wonder if I'll meet anywhere on the front
+that company to which I belong, the Strangers."
+
+"I think I've heard of them," said de Rougemont, "a body of Americans
+and Englishmen, volunteers in the French service, commanded by Captain
+Daniel Colton."
+
+"Right you are, and I've two particular friends in that company--I
+suppose they've rejoined it--Wharton, an American, and Carstairs, an
+Englishman. We went through a lot of dangers together before we reached
+the British army near Mons, and I'd like to see them again."
+
+"Maybe you will, but here comes an extraordinary procession."
+
+They heard many puffing sounds, uniting in one grand puffing chorus, and
+saw advancing down a white road toward them a long, ghostly train, as if
+a vast troop of extinct monsters had returned to earth and were marching
+this way. But John knew very well that it was a train of automobiles and
+raising the glasses that he now always carried he saw that they were
+empty except for the chauffeurs.
+
+General Vaugirard began to whistle his mellowest and most musical tune,
+stopping only at times to mutter a few words under his breath. John
+surmised that he was expressing deep satisfaction, and that he had been
+waiting for the motor train. War was now fought under new conditions.
+The Germans had thousands and scores of thousands of motors, and perhaps
+the French were provided almost as well.
+
+"I fancy," said de Rougemont, who was also watching the arrival of the
+machines, "that we'll leave our horses now and travel by motor."
+
+De Rougemont's supposition was correct. The line of automobiles began to
+mass in front, many rows deep, and all the chauffeurs, their great
+goggles shining through the darkness, were bent over their wheels ready
+to be off at once with their armed freight. It filled John with elation,
+and he saw the same spirit shining in the eyes of the young French
+officers.
+
+General Vaugirard began to puff like one of the machines. He threw out
+his great chest, pursed up his mouth and emitted his breath in little
+gusts between his lips, "Very good! Very good, my children!" he said,
+"Oil and electricity will carry us now, and we go forward, not
+backward!"
+
+True to de Rougemont's prediction, the horses were given to orderlies,
+and the staff and a great portion of the troops were taken into the
+cars. General Vaugirard and several of the older officers occupied a
+huge machine, and just behind him came de Rougemont, John and a
+half-dozen young lieutenants and captains in another. Before them
+stretched a great white road. Far overhead hovered many aeroplanes. John
+had no doubt that the _Arrow_ was among them, or rather was the farthest
+one forward. Lannes' eager soul, wound or no wound, would keep him in
+front.
+
+They now moved rapidly, and John's spirits continued to rise. There was
+something wonderful in this swift march on wheels in the moonlight. As
+far back as he could see the machines came in a stream, and to the left
+and right he saw them proceeding on other roads also. All the country
+was strange to John. He could not remember having seen it from the
+aeroplane, and he was sure that the army, instead of going to Paris, was
+bound for some point where it would come in instant contact with the
+German forces.
+
+"Do you know the road?" he asked of de Rougemont.
+
+"Not at all. I'm from the Gironde country. I've been in Paris, but I
+know little of the region about it. A good way to reach the front, is it
+not, Mr. Scott?"
+
+"Fine. I fancy that we're hurried forward to make a link in a chain, or
+at least to stop a gap."
+
+"And those large birds overhead are scouting for us."
+
+"Look! One of them is dropping down. I dare say it's making a report to
+some general higher in rank than ours."
+
+He pointed with a long forefinger, and John watched the aeroplane come
+down in its slanting course like a falling star. It was a beautiful
+night, a light blue sky, with a fine moon and hosts of clear stars. One
+could see far, and soon after the plane descended John saw it rise again
+from the same spot, ascend high in air, and shoot off toward the east.
+
+"That may have been Lannes," he said.
+
+"Likely as not," said de Rougemont.
+
+John now observed General Vaugirard, who sat erect in the front of his
+automobile, with a pair of glasses, relatively as huge as himself, to
+his eyes. Occasionally he would purse his lips, and John knew that his
+favorite expression was coming forth. To the young American's
+imaginative mind his broad back expressed rigidity and strength.
+
+The great murmuring sound, the blended advance of so many men, made John
+sleepy by-and-by. In spite of himself his heavy eyelids drooped, and
+although he strove manfully against it, sleep took him. When he awoke he
+heard the same deep murmur, like the roll of the sea, and saw the army
+still advancing. It was yet night, though fine and clear, and there
+before him was the broad, powerful back of the general. Vaugirard was
+still using the glasses and John judged that he had not slept at all.
+But in his own machine everybody was asleep except the man at the wheel.
+
+The country had grown somewhat hillier, but its characteristics were the
+same, fertile, cultivated fields, a small wood here and there, clear
+brooks, and church spires shining in the dusk. Both horse and foot
+advanced across the fields, but the roads were occupied by the motors,
+which John judged were carrying at least twenty thousand men and maybe
+forty thousand.
+
+He was not sleepy now, and he watched the vast panorama wheel past. He
+knew without looking at his watch that the night was nearly over,
+because he could already smell the dawn. The wind was freshening a bit,
+and he heard its rustle in the leaves of a wood as they pushed through
+it.
+
+Then came a hum and a whir, and a long line of men on motor cycles at
+the edge of the road crept up and then passed them. One checked his
+speed enough to run by the side of John's car, and the rider, raising
+his head a little, gazed intently at the young American. His cap closed
+over his face like a hood, but the man knew him.
+
+"Fortune puts us on the same road again, Mr. Scott," he said.
+
+"I don't believe I know you," said John, although there was a familiar
+note in the voice.
+
+"And yet you've met me several times, and under exciting conditions. It
+seems to me that we're always pursuing similar things, or we wouldn't be
+together on the same road so often. You're acute enough. Don't you know
+me now?"
+
+"I think I do. You're Fernand Weber, the Alsatian."
+
+"And so I am. I knew your memory would not fail you. It's a great
+movement that we've begun, Mr. Scott. France will be saved or destroyed
+within the next few days."
+
+"I think so."
+
+"You've deserted your friend, Philip Lannes, the finest of our airmen."
+
+"Oh, no, I haven't. He's deserted me. I couldn't afford to be a burden
+on his aeroplane at such a time as this."
+
+"I suppose not. I saw an aeroplane come down to earth a little while
+ago, and then rise again. I'm sure it was his machine, the _Arrow_."
+
+"So am I."
+
+"Here's where he naturally would be. Good-bye, Mr. Scott, and good luck
+to you. I must go on with my company."
+
+"Good-bye and good luck," repeated John, as the Alsatian shot forward.
+He liked Weber, who had a most pleasing manner, and he was glad to have
+seen him once more.
+
+"Who was that?" asked de Rougemont, waking from his sleep and catching
+the last words of farewell.
+
+"An Alsatian, named Fernand Weber, who has risked his life more than
+once for France. He belongs to the motor-cycle corps that's just
+passing."
+
+"May he and his comrades soon find the enemy, because here is the day."
+
+The leaves and grass rippled before the breeze and over the eastern
+hills the dawn broke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE INVISIBLE HAND
+
+
+It was a brilliant morning sun, deepening the green of the pleasant
+land, lighting up villages and glinting off church steeples. In a field
+a little distance to their right John saw two peasants at work already,
+bent over, their eyes upon the ground, apparently as indifferent to the
+troops as the troops were to them.
+
+It was very early, but the sun was rising fast, unfolding a splendid
+panorama. The French army with its blues and reds was more spectacular
+than the German, and hence afforded a more conspicuous target. John was
+sure that if the war went on the French would discard these vivid
+uniforms and betake themselves to gray or khaki. He saw clearly that the
+day of gorgeous raiment for the soldier had passed.
+
+The great puffing sound of primeval monsters which had blended into one
+rather harmonious note ceased, as if by signal, and the innumerable
+motors stopped. As far as John could see the army stretched to left and
+right over roads, hills and fields, but in the fields behind them the
+silent peasants went on with their work--in fields which the Republic
+had made their own.
+
+"I think we take breakfast here," said Rougemont. "War is what one of
+your famous American generals said it was, but for the present, at
+least, we are marching _de luxe_. Here comes one of those glorious
+camp-kitchens."
+
+An enormous motor vehicle, equipped with all the paraphernalia of a
+kitchen, stopped near them, and men, trim and neatly dressed, served hot
+food and steaming coffee. General Vaugirard had alighted also, and John
+noticed that his step was much more springy and alert than that of some
+officers half his age. His breath came in great gusts, and the small
+portion of his face not covered by thick beard was ruddy and glowing
+with health. He drank several cups of coffee with startling rapidity,
+draining each at a breath, and between times he whistled softly a
+pleasing little refrain.
+
+The march must be going well. Undoubtedly General Vaugirard had received
+satisfactory messages in the night, while his young American aide, and
+other Frenchmen as young, slept.
+
+"Well, my children," he said, rubbing his hands after his last cup of
+coffee had gone to its fate, "the day dawns and behold the sun of France
+is rising. It's not the sun of Austerlitz, but a modest republican sun
+that can grow and grow. Behold we are at the appointed place, set forth
+in the message that came to us from the commander-in-chief through
+Paris, and then by way of the air! And, look, my children, the bird
+from the blue descends once more among us!"
+
+There were flying machines of many kinds in the air, but John promptly
+picked out one which seemed to be coming with the flight of an eagle out
+of its uppermost heights. He seemed to know its slim, lithe shape, and
+the rapidity and decision of its approach. His heart thrilled, as it had
+thrilled when he saw the _Arrow_ coming for the first time on that spur
+of the Alps near Salzburg.
+
+"It's for me," said General Vaugirard, as he looked upward. "This flying
+demon, this man without fear, was told to report directly to me, and he
+conies at the appointed hour."
+
+Something of the mystery that belongs to the gulf of the infinite was
+reflected in the general's eyes. He, too, felt that man's flight in the
+heavens yet had in it a touch of the supernatural. Lannes' plane had
+seemed to shoot from white clouds, out of unknown spaces, and the
+general ceased to whistle or breathe gustily. His chest rose and fell
+more violently than usual, but the breath came softly.
+
+The plane descended rapidly and settled down on the grass very near
+them. Lannes saluted and presented a note to General Vaugirard, who
+started and then expelled the breath from his lungs in two or three
+prodigious puffs.
+
+"Good, my son, good!" he exclaimed, patting Lannes repeatedly on the
+shoulder; "and now a cup of coffee for you at once! Hurry with it, some
+of you idle children! Can't you see that he needs it!"
+
+John was first with the coffee, which Lannes drank eagerly, although it
+was steaming hot. John saw that he needed it very much indeed, as he was
+white and shaky. He noticed, too, that there were spots of blood on
+Lannes' left sleeve.
+
+"What is it, Philip?" he whispered. "You've been attacked again?"
+
+"Aye, truly. My movements seem to be observed by some mysterious eye. A
+shot was fired at me, and again it came from a French plane. That was
+all I could see. We were in a bank of mist at the time, and I just
+caught a glimpse of the plane itself. The man was a mere shapeless
+figure to me. I had no time to fight him, because I was due here with
+another message which made vengeance upon him at that time a matter of
+little moment."
+
+He flecked the red drops off his sleeve, and added:
+
+"It was but a scratch. My weary look comes from a long and hard flight
+and not from the mysterious bullet. I'm to rest here an hour, which will
+be sufficient to restore me, and then I'm off again."
+
+"Is there any rule against your telling me what you've seen, Philip?"
+
+De Rougemont and several other officers had approached, drawn by their
+curiosity, and interest in Lannes.
+
+"None at all," he replied in a tone all could hear, "but I'm able to
+speak in general terms only. I can't give details, because I don't know
+'em. The Germans are not many miles ahead. They're in hundreds of
+thousands, and I hear that this is only one of a half-dozen armies."
+
+"And our own force?" said de Rougemont eagerly.
+
+Lannes' chest expanded. The dramatic impulse was strong upon him again.
+
+"There is another army on our right, and another on our left," he
+replied, "and although I don't know surely, I think there are others
+still further on the line. The English are somewhere with us, too."
+
+John felt his face tingle as the blood rose in it. He had left a Paris
+apparently lost. Within a day almost a tremendous transformation had
+occurred. A mighty but invisible intellect, to which he was yet scarcely
+able to attach a name, had been at work. The French armies, the beaten
+and the unbeaten, had become bound together like huge links in a chain,
+and the same invisible and all but nameless mind was drawing the chain
+forward with gigantic force.
+
+"A million Frenchmen must be advancing," he heard Lannes saying, and
+then he came out of his vision. General Vaugirard bustled up and gave
+orders to de Rougemont, who said presently to John:
+
+"Can you ride a motor cycle?"
+
+"I've had some experience, and I'm willing to make it more."
+
+"Good. In this army, staff officers will no longer have horses shot
+under them. We're to take orders on motor cycles. They've been sent
+ahead for us, and here's yours waiting for you."
+
+The cycles were leaning against trees, and the members of the staff took
+their places beside them. General Vaugirard walked a little distance up
+the road, climbed into an automobile and, standing up, looked a long
+time through his glasses. Lannes, who had been resting on the grass,
+approached the general and John saw him take a note from him. Then
+Lannes went away to the _Arrow_ and sailed off into the heavens. Many
+other planes were flying over the French army and far off in front John
+saw through his own glasses a fleet of them which he knew must be
+German.
+
+Then he heard a sound, faint but deep, which came rolling like an echo,
+and he recognized it as the distant note of a big gun. He quivered a
+little, as he leaned against his motor cycle, but quickly stiffened
+again to attention. The faint rolling sound came again from their right
+and then many times. John, using his glasses, saw nothing there, and the
+giant general, still standing up in the car and also using his glasses,
+saw nothing there either.
+
+Yet the same quiver that affected John had gone through this whole army
+of two hundred thousand men, one of the huge links in the French chain.
+There was none among them who did not know that the far note was the
+herald of battle, not a mere battle of armies, but of nations face to
+face.
+
+General Vaugirard did not show any excitement. He leaped lightly from
+the car, and then began to pace up and down slowly, as if he were
+awaiting orders. The men moved restlessly on the meadows, looking like a
+vast sea of varied colors, as the sun glimmered on the red and blue of
+their uniforms.
+
+But no order came for them to advance. John thought that perhaps they
+were saved to be driven as a wedge into the German center and whispered
+his belief to de Rougemont, who agreed with him.
+
+"They are opening on the left, too," said the Frenchman. "Can't you hear
+the growling of the guns there?"
+
+John listened and soon he separated the note from other sounds. Beyond a
+doubt the battle had now begun on both flanks, though at distant points.
+He wondered where the English force was, though he had an idea that it
+was on the left then. Yet he was already thoroughly at home with the
+staff of General Vaugirard.
+
+The growling on either side of them seemed soon to come a little closer,
+but John knew nevertheless that it was many miles away.
+
+"Not an enemy in sight, not even a trace of smoke," said de Rougemont to
+him. "We seem to be a great army here, merely resting in the fields, and
+yet we know that a huge battle is going on."
+
+"And that's about all we do know," said John. "What has impressed me in
+this war is the fact that high officers even know so little. When cannon
+throw shells ten or twelve miles, eyesight doesn't get much chance."
+
+A wait for a full half-hour followed, a period of intense anxiety for
+all in the group, and for the whole army too. John used his glasses
+freely, and often he saw the French soldiers moving about in a restless
+manner, until they were checked by their officers. But most of them were
+lying down, their blue coats and red trousers making a vast and vivid
+blur against the green of the grass.
+
+All the while the sound of the cannon grew, but, despite the power of
+his glasses, John could not see a sign of war. Only that roaring sound
+came to tell him that battle, vast, gigantic, on a scale the world had
+never seen before, was joined, and the volume of the cannon fire, beyond
+a doubt, was growing. It pulsed heavily, and either he or his fancy
+noticed a steady jarring motion. A faint acrid taint crept into the air
+and he felt it in his nose and throat. He coughed now and then, and he
+observed that men around him coughed also. But, on the whole, the army
+was singularly still, the soldiers straining eye or ear to see something
+or hear more of the titanic struggle that was raging on either side of
+them.
+
+John again searched the horizon eagerly with his glasses, but it showed
+only green hills and bits of wood, bare of human activity. The French
+aeroplanes still hovered, but not in front of General Vaugirard. They
+were off to right and left, where the wings of the nations had closed in
+combat. He was ceasing to think of the foes as armies, but as nations in
+battle line. Here stood not a French army, but France, and there stood
+not a German army, but Germany.
+
+As he looked toward the left he picked out a narrow road, running
+between hedges, and showing but a strip of white even through the
+glasses. He saw something coming along this road. It was far away when
+he first noticed it, but it was coming with great speed, and he was soon
+able to tell that it was a man on a motor cycle. His pulse leaped
+again. He felt instinctively that the rider was for them and that he
+bore something of great import. The figure, man and cycle, molded into
+one, sped along the narrow road which led to the base of the hill on
+which General Vaugirard and his staff stood.
+
+The huge general saw the approaching figure too, and he began to whistle
+melodiously like the note of a piccolo, with the vast thunder of the
+guns accompanying him as an orchestra. John knew that the cyclist was a
+messenger, and that he was eagerly expected. An order of some kind was
+at hand! All the members of the staff had the same conviction.
+
+The cyclist stopped at the bottom of the hill, leaped from the machine
+and ran to General Vaugirard, to whom he handed a note. The general read
+it, expelled his breath in a mighty gust, and turning to his staff,
+said:
+
+"My children, our time has come. The whole central army of which we are
+a part will advance. It will perhaps be known before night whether
+France is to remain a great nation or become the vassal of Germany. My
+children, if France ever had need for you to fight with all your hearts
+and souls, that need is here today."
+
+His manner was simple and majestic, and his words touched the mind and
+feeling of every one who heard them. John was moved as much as if he had
+been a Frenchman too. He felt a profound sympathy for this devoted
+France, which had suffered so much, to which his own country still owed
+that great debt, and which had a right to her own soil, fertilized with
+so many centuries of labor.
+
+General Vaugirard, resting a pad on his knee, wrote rapid notes which he
+gave to the members of his staff in turn to be delivered. John's was to
+a Parisian regiment lying in a field, and expanding body and mind into
+instant action, he leaped upon the cycle and sped away. It was often
+hard for him now to separate fact from fancy. His imagination, vivid at
+all times, painted new pictures while such a tremendous drama passed
+before him.
+
+Yet he knew afterward that the sound of the battle did increase in
+volume as he flew over the short distance to the regiment. Both east and
+west were shaking with the tremendous concussion. One crash he heard
+distinctly above the others and he believed it was that of a forty-two
+centimeter.
+
+He reached the field, his cycle spun between the eager soldiers, and as
+he leaped off in the presence of the colonel he fairly thrust the note
+into his hand, exclaiming at the same time in his zeal, "It's an order
+to advance! The whole Army of the Center is about to attack."
+
+He called it the Army of the Center at a guess, but names did not matter
+now. The colonel glanced at the note, waved his sword above his head and
+cried in a loud voice:
+
+"My lads, up and forward!"
+
+The regiment arose with a roar of cheering and began to advance across
+the fields. John caught a glimpse of a petty officer, short and small,
+but as compact and fierce as a panther, driving on men who needed no
+driving. "Geronimo is going to make good," he said to himself. "He'll do
+or die today."
+
+As he raced back for new orders, if need be, he knew now that fact not
+fancy told him the battle was growing. The earth shook not only on right
+and left but in front also. A hasty look through the glasses showed
+little tongues of fire licking up on the horizon before them and he knew
+that they came from the monster cannon of the Germans who were surely
+advancing, while the French were advancing also to meet them.
+
+General Vaugirard sprang into his automobile, taking only two of his
+senior officers with him, while the rest followed on their motor cycles.
+As far as John could see on either side the vast rows of French swept
+across hills and fields. There was little shouting now and no sound of
+bands, but presently a shout arose behind them: "Way for the artillery!"
+
+Then he heard cries, the rumble of wheels and the rapid beat of hoofs.
+With an instinctive shudder, lest he be ground to pieces, he pulled from
+the road, and saw the motor of General Vaugirard turn out also. Then the
+great French batteries thundered past to seek positions soon in the
+fields behind low hills. He saw them a little later unlimbering and
+making ready.
+
+The French advance changed from a walk to a trot. John saw the Parisian
+regiment, not far away, but at the very front and he knew that among all
+those ardent souls there was none more ardent than that of the little
+Apache, Bougainville. Meanwhile, Vaugirard in his motor kept to the
+road and the staff on their motor cycles followed closely.
+
+On both flanks the thunder of massed cannon was deepening, and now John,
+who used his glasses occasionally, was able to see wisps and tendrils of
+smoke on the eastern and northern horizons. The tremor in the air was
+strong and continuous. It played incessantly upon the drums of his ears,
+and he found that he could not hear the words of the other aides so well
+as before. But there was no succession of crashes. The sound was more
+like the roaring of a distant storm.
+
+They advanced another mile, two hundred thousand men, afire with zeal, a
+whole vast army moved forward as the other French armies were by the
+hidden hand which they could not see, of which they knew nothing, but
+the touch of which they could feel.
+
+John heard a whizzing sound, he caught a glimpse of a dark object,
+rushing forward at frightful velocity, and then he and his wheel reeled
+beneath the force of a tremendous explosion. The shell coming from an
+invisible point, miles away, had burst some distance on his right,
+scattering death and wounds over a wide radius. But Vaugirard's brigades
+did not stop for one instant. They cheered loudly, closed up the gap in
+their line, and went on steadily as before. Some one began to sing the
+Marseillaise, and in an instant the song, like fire in dry grass, spread
+along a vast front. John had often wished that he could have heard the
+armies of the French Revolution singing their tremendous battle hymn as
+they marched to victory, and now he heard it on a scale far more
+gigantic than in the days of the First French Republic.
+
+The vast chorus rolled for miles and for all he knew other armies, far
+to right and left, might be singing it, too. The immense volume of the
+song drowned out everything, even that tremor in the air, caused by the
+big guns. John's heart beat so hard that it caused actual physical pain
+in his side, and presently, although he was unconscious of it, he was
+thundering out the verses with the others.
+
+He was riding by the side of de Rougemont, and he stopped singing long
+enough to shout, at the top of his voice:
+
+"No enemy in sight yet?"
+
+"No," de Rougemont shouted back, "but he doesn't need to be. The German
+guns have our range."
+
+From a line on the distant horizon, from positions behind hills, the
+German shells were falling fast, cutting down men by hundreds, tearing
+great holes in the earth, and filling the air with an awful shrieking
+and hissing. It was all the more terrible because the deadly missiles
+seemed to come from nowhere. It was like a mortal hail rained out of
+heaven. John had not yet seen a German, nothing but those tongues of
+fire licking up on the horizon, and some little whitish clouds of smoke,
+lifting themselves slowly above the trees, yet the thunder was no longer
+a rumble. It had a deep and angry note, whose burden was death.
+
+They must maintain their steady march directly toward the mouths of
+those guns. John comprehended in those awful moments that the task of
+the French was terrible, almost superhuman. If their nation was to live
+they must hurl back a victorious foe, practically numberless, armed and
+equipped with everything that a great race in a half-century of supreme
+thought and effort could prepare for war. It was spirit and patriotism
+against the monstrous machine of fire and steel, and he trembled lest
+the machine could overcome anything in the world.
+
+He was about to shout again to de Rougemont, but his words were lost in
+the rending crash of the French artillery. Their batteries were posted
+on both sides of him, and they, too, had found the range. All along the
+front hundreds of guns were opening and John hastily thrust portions
+that he tore from his handkerchief into his ear, lest he be deafened
+forever.
+
+The sight, at first magnificent, now became appalling. The shells came
+in showers and the French ranks were torn and mangled. Companies existed
+and then they were not. The explosions were like the crash of
+thunderbolts, but through it all the French continued to advance. Those
+whose knees grew weak beneath them were upborne and carried forward by
+the press of their comrades. The French gunners, too, were making
+prodigious efforts but with cannon of such long range neither side could
+see what its batteries were accomplishing. John was sure, though, that
+the great French artillery must be giving as good as it received.
+
+He was conscious that General Vaugirard was still going forward along
+the long white road, sweeping his glasses from left to right and from
+right to left in a continuous semi-circle, apparently undisturbed,
+apparently now without human emotion. He was no figure of romance, but
+he was a man, cool and powerful, ready to die with all his men, if death
+for them was needed.
+
+Still the invisible hand swept them on, the hand that a million men in
+action could not see, but which every one of the million, in his own
+way, felt. The crash of the guns on both sides had become fused together
+into one roar, so steady and continued so long that the sound seemed
+almost normal. Voices could now be heard under it and John spoke to de
+Rougemont.
+
+"Can you make anything of it?" he asked. "Do we win or do we lose?"
+
+"It's too early yet to tell anything. The cannon only are speaking, but
+you'll note that our army is advancing."
+
+"Yes, I see it. Before I've only beheld it in retreat before
+overwhelming numbers. This is different."
+
+General Vaugirard beckoned to his aides, and again sent them out with
+messages. John's note was to the commander of a battery of field guns
+telling him to move further forward. He started at once through the
+fields on his motor cycle, but he could not go fast now. The ground had
+been cut deep by artillery and cavalry and torn by shells and he had to
+pick his way, while the shower of steel, sent by men who were firing by
+mathematics, swept over and about him.
+
+Shivers seized him more than once, as shrapnel and pieces of shell flew
+by. Now and then he covered his eyes with one hand to shut out the
+horror of dead and torn men lying on either side of his path, but in
+spite of the shells, in spite of the deadly nausea that assailed him at
+times, he went on. The rush of air from a shell threw him once from his
+motor cycle, but as he fell on soft clodded earth he was not hurt, and,
+springing quickly back on his wheel, he reached the battery.
+
+The order was welcome to the commander of the guns, who was anxious to
+go closer, and, limbering up, he advanced as rapidly as weapons of such
+great weight could be dragged across the fields. John followed, that he
+might report the result. They were now facing toward the east and the
+whole horizon there was a blaze of fire. The shells were coming thicker
+and thicker, and the air was filled with the screaming of the shrapnel.
+
+The commander of the battery, a short, powerful Frenchman, was as cool
+as ice, and John drew coolness from him. One can get used to almost
+anything, and his nervous tremors were passing. Despite the terrible
+fire of the German artillery the French army was still advancing. Many
+thousands had fallen already before the shells and shrapnel of the
+invisible foe, but there had been no check.
+
+The cannon crossed a brook, and, unlimbering, again opened a tremendous
+fire. To one side and on a hill here, a man whom the commander watched
+closely was signaling. John knew that he was directing the aim of the
+battery and the French, like the Germans, were killing by mathematics.
+
+He rode his cycle to the crest of a little elevation behind the battery
+and with his newfound coolness began to use his glasses again. Despite
+the thin, whitish smoke, he saw men on the horizon, mere manikins moving
+back and forth, apparently without meaning, but men nevertheless. He
+caught, too, the outline of giant tubes, the huge guns that were sending
+the ceaseless rain of death upon the French.
+
+He also saw signs of hurry and confusion among those manikins, and he
+knew that the French shells were striking them. He rode down to the
+commander and told him. The swart Frenchman grinned.
+
+"My children are biting," he said, glancing affectionately at his guns.
+"They're brave lads, and their teeth are long and sharp."
+
+He looked at his signal man, and the guns let loose again with a force
+that sent the air rushing away in violent waves. Batteries farther on
+were firing also with great rapidity. In most of these the gunners were
+directed by field telephones strung hastily, but the one near John still
+depended upon signal men. It was composed of eight five-inch guns, and
+John believed that its fire was most accurate and deadly.
+
+Using his glasses again, he saw that the disturbance among those
+manikins was increasing. They were running here and there, and many
+seemed to vanish suddenly--he knew that they were blown away by the
+shells. To the right of the great French battery some lighter field guns
+were advancing. One drawn by eight horses had not yet unlimbered, and he
+saw a shell strike squarely upon it. In the following explosion pieces
+of steel whizzed by him and when the smoke cleared away the gun, the
+gunners and the horses were all gone. The monster shell had blown
+everything to pieces. The other guns hurried on, took up their positions
+and began to fire. John shuddered violently, but in a moment or two, he,
+too, forgot the little tragedy in the far more gigantic one that was
+being played before him.
+
+He rode back to General Vaugirard and told him that his order had been
+obeyed. The general nodded, but did not take his glasses from the
+horizon, where a long gray line was beginning to appear against the
+green of the earth. "It goes well so far," John heard him say in the
+under note which was audible beneath the thunder of the battle.
+
+In a quarter of an hour the great batteries limbered up again, and once
+more the French army went forward, the troops to lie down and wait
+again, while the artillery worked with ferocious energy. It was yet a
+battle of big guns, at least in the center. The armies were not near
+enough to each other for rifles; in truth not near enough yet to be
+seen. John, even with his glasses, could only discern the gray line
+advancing, he could make little of its form or order or of what it was
+trying to do.
+
+But a light wind was now bringing smoke from one flank where the battle
+was far heavier than in the center, and the concussion of the artillery
+at that point became so frightful that the air seemed to come in waves
+of the utmost violence and to beat upon the drum of the ear with the
+force of a hammer. Owing to the wind John could not hear the battle on
+the other flank so well, but he believed that it was being fought there
+with equal fury and determination.
+
+He was watching with such intentness that he did not hear the sweep of
+an aeroplane behind him, but he did see Lannes run to General
+Vaugirard's car and give him a note.
+
+While the general read and pondered, Lannes turned toward the wheel on
+which John sat. Although he tried to preserve calm, John knew that he
+was tremendously excited. He had taken off his heavy glasses and his
+wonderful gray eyes were flashing. It was obvious to his friend, who now
+knew him so well, that he was moved by some tremendous emotion.
+
+John rode up by the side of Lannes and said:
+
+"What have you seen, Philip? You can tell a little at least, can't you?"
+
+"More than a little! A lot! The _Arrow_ and I have looked over a great
+area, John! Miles and miles and yet more miles! and wherever we went we
+gazed down upon armies locked in battle, and beyond that were other
+armies locked in battle, too! The nations meet in wrath! You can't see
+it here, nor from anywhere on the earth! It's only in the air high
+overhead that one can get even a partial view of its immensity! The
+English army is off there on the flank, a full thirty miles away, and
+you're not likely to see it today!"
+
+He would have said more, but General Vaugirard beckoned to him, gave him
+a note which he had written hastily, and in a few more minutes Lannes
+was flitting like a swallow through the heavens. Then General
+Vaugirard's car moved forward and brigade after brigade of the French
+army resumed its advance also.
+
+John felt that the great German machine had been met by a French machine
+as great. Perhaps the master mind that thrills through an organism of
+steel no less than one of human flesh was on the French side. He did not
+know. The invisible hand thrusting forward the French armies was still
+invisible to him. Yet he felt with the certainty of conviction that the
+eye and the brain of one man were achieving a marvel. In some mysterious
+manner the French defense had become an offense. The Republican troops
+were now attacking and the Imperial troops were seeking to hold fast.
+
+He seemed to comprehend it all in an instant, and a mighty joy surged
+over him. De Rougemont saw his glistening eye and he asked curiously:
+
+"What is it that you are feeling so strongly, Mr. Scott?"
+
+"The thrill of the advance! The unknown plan, whatever it is, is
+working! Your nation is about to be saved! I feel it! I know it!"
+
+De Rougemont gazed at him, and then the light leaped into his own eyes.
+
+"A prophet! A prophet!" he cried. "Inspired youth speaks!"
+
+A great crisis may call into being a great impulse, and de Rougemont's
+words were at once accepted as truth by all the young aides. Words of
+fire, words vital with life had gone forth, predicting their triumph,
+and as they rode among the troops carrying orders they communicated
+their burning zeal to the men who were already eager for closer battle.
+
+The storm of missiles from the cannon was increasing rapidly. John now
+distinctly saw the huge German masses, not advancing but standing firm
+to receive the French attack, their front a vast line of belching guns.
+He knew that they would soon be within the area of rifle fire and he
+knew with equal truth that it would take the valor of immense numbers,
+wielded by the supreme skill of leaders to drive back the Germans.
+
+The guns, some drawn by horses and others by motors, were moving forward
+with them. When the horses were swept away by a shell, men seized the
+guns and dragged them. Then they stopped again, took new positions and
+renewed the rain of death on the German army.
+
+They began to hear a whistle and hiss that they knew. It was that of the
+bullets, and along the vast front they were coming in millions. But the
+French were using their rifles, too, and at intervals the deep
+thundering chant of the Marseillaise swept through their ranks. In spite
+of shell, shrapnel and bullets, in spite of everything, the French army
+in the center was advancing and John believed that the armies on the
+other parts of the line were advancing, too.
+
+The bullets struck around them, and then among them. One aide fell from
+his cycle, and lay dead in the road, two more were wounded, but two
+hundred thousand men, their artillery blazing death over their heads,
+went on straight at the mouths of a thousand cannon.
+
+Companies and regiments were swept away, but there was no check. Nor did
+the other French armies, the huge links in the chain, stop. A feeling of
+victory had swept along the whole gigantic battle front. They were
+fighting for Paris, for their country, for the soil which they tended,
+alive, and in which they slept, dead, and just at the moment when
+everything seemed to have been lost they were saving all. The heroic age
+of France had come again, and the Third Republic was justifying the
+First.
+
+The battle deepened and thickened to an extraordinary degree, as the
+space between the two fronts narrowed. John for the first time saw the
+German troops without the aid of glasses. They were mere outlines
+against a fiery horizon, reddened by the mouths of so many belching
+cannon, but they seemed to him to stand there like a wall.
+
+Another giant shell burst near them, and two more members of the staff
+fell from their cycles, dead before they touched the ground. That
+convulsive shudder seized John again, but the crash of tremendous events
+was so rapid that fear and horror alike passed in an instant. A piece of
+the same shell struck General Vaugirard's car and put it out of action
+at once. But the general leaped lightly to the ground, then swung his
+immense bulk across one of the riderless motor cycles and advanced with
+the surviving members of his staff. Imperturbable, he still swept the
+field with his glasses. Two aides were now sent to the right with
+messages, and a third, John himself, was despatched to the left on a
+similar errand.
+
+It was John's duty to tell a regiment to bear in further to the left and
+close up a vacant spot in the line. He wheeled his cycle into a field,
+and then passed between rows of grapevines. The regiment, its ranks much
+thinned, was now about a hundred yards away, but shell and bullets alike
+were sweeping the distance between.
+
+Nevertheless, he rode on, his wheel bumping over the rough ground, until
+he heard a rushing sound, and then blank darkness enveloped him. He fell
+one way, and the motor cycle fell another.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SEEN FROM ABOVE
+
+
+John's period of unconsciousness was brief. The sweep of air from a
+gigantic shell, passing close, had taken his senses for a minute or two,
+but he leaped to his feet to find his motor cycle broken and puffing out
+its last breath, and himself among the dead and wounded in the wake of
+the army which was advancing rapidly. The turmoil was so vast, and so
+much dust and burned gunpowder was floating about that he was not able
+to tell where the valiant Vaugirard with the remainder of his staff
+marched. In front of him a regiment, cut up terribly, was advancing at a
+swift pace, and acting under the impulse of the moment he ran forward to
+join them.
+
+When he overtook the regiment he saw that it had neither colonel, nor
+captains nor any other officers of high degree. A little man, scarcely
+more than a youth, his head bare, his eyes snapping fire, one hand
+holding aloft a red cap on the point of a sword, had taken command and
+was urging the soldiers on with every fierce shout that he knew. The
+men were responding. Command seemed natural to him. Here was a born
+leader in battle. John knew him, and he knew that his own prophecy had
+been fulfilled.
+
+"Geronimo!" he gasped.
+
+But young Bougainville did not see him. He was still shouting to the men
+whom he now led so well. The point of the sword, doubtless taken from
+the hand of some fallen officer, had pierced the red cap which was
+slowly sinking down the blade, but he did not notice it.
+
+John looked again for his commander, but not seeing him, and knowing how
+futile it was now to seek him in all the fiery crush, he resolved to
+stay with the young Apache.
+
+"Geronimo," he cried, and it was the last time he called him by that
+name, "I go with you!"
+
+In all the excitement of the moment young Bougainville recognized him
+and something droll flashed in his eyes.
+
+"Did I boast too much?" he shouted.
+
+"You didn't!" John shouted back.
+
+"Come on then! A big crowd of Germans is just over this hill, and we
+must smash 'em!"
+
+John kept by his side, but Bougainville, still waving his sword, while
+the red cap sank lower and lower on the blade, addressed his men in
+terms of encouragement and affection.
+
+"Forward, my children!" he shouted. "Men, without fear, let us be the
+first to make the enemy feel our bayonets! Look, a regiment on the right
+is ahead of you, and another also on the left leads you! Faster!
+Faster, my children!"
+
+An angle of the German line was thrust forward at this point where a
+hill afforded a strong position. Bullets were coming from it in showers,
+but the Bougainville regiment broke into a run, passed ahead of the
+others and rushed straight at the hill.
+
+It was the first time that men had come face to face in the battle and
+now John saw the French fury, the enthusiasm and fire that Napoleon had
+capitalized and cultivated so sedulously. Shouting fiercely, they flung
+themselves upon the Germans and by sheer impact drove them back. They
+cleared the hill in a few moments, triumphantly seized four cannon and
+then, still shouting, swept on.
+
+John found himself shouting with the others. This was victory, the first
+real taste of it, and it was sweet to the lips. But the regiment was
+halted presently, lest it get too far forward and be cut off, and a
+general striding over to Bougainville uttered words of approval that
+John could not hear amid the terrific din of so many men in battle--a
+million, a million and a half or more, he never knew.
+
+They stood there panting, while the French line along a front of maybe
+fifty miles crept on and on. The French machine with the British wheels
+and springs cooeperating, was working beautifully now. It was a match and
+more for their enemy. The Germans, witnessing the fire and dash of the
+French and feeling their tremendous impact, began to take alarm. It had
+not seemed possible to them in those last triumphant days that they
+could fail, but now Paris was receding farther and farther from their
+grasp.
+
+John recovered a certain degree of coolness. The fire of the foe was
+turned away from them for the present, and, finding that the glasses
+thrown over his shoulder, had not been injured by his fall, he examined
+the battle front as he stood by the side of Bougainville. The country
+was fairly open here and along a range of miles the cannon in hundreds
+and hundreds were pouring forth destruction. Yet the line, save where
+the angle had been crushed by the rush of Bougainville's regiment, stood
+fast, and John shuddered at thought of the frightful slaughter, needed
+to drive it back, if it could be driven back at all.
+
+Then he glanced at the fields across which they had come. For two or
+three miles they were sprinkled with the fallen, the red and blue of the
+French uniform showing vividly against the green grass. But there was
+little time for looking that way and again he turned his glasses in
+front. The regiment had taken cover behind a low ridge, and six rapid
+firers were sending a fierce hail on the German lines. But the men under
+orders from Bougainville, withheld the fire of their rifles for the
+present.
+
+Bougainville himself stood up as became a leader of men, and lowered his
+sword for the first time. The cap had sunk all the way down the blade
+and picking it off he put it back on his head. He had obtained glasses
+also, probably from some fallen officer, and he walked back and forth
+seeking a weak spot in the enemy's line, into which he could charge with
+his men.
+
+John admired him. His was no frenzied rage, but a courage, measured and
+stern. The springs of power hidden in him had been touched and he stood
+forth, a born leader.
+
+"How does it happen," said John, "that you're in command?"
+
+"Our officers were all in front," replied Bougainville, "when our
+regiment was swept by many shells. When they ceased bursting upon us and
+among us the officers were no longer there. The regiment was about to
+break. I could not bear to see that, and seizing the sword, I hoisted my
+cap upon it. The rest, perhaps, you saw. The men seem to trust me."
+
+"They do," said John, with emphasis.
+
+Bougainville, for the time at least, was certainly the leader of the
+regiment. It was an incident that John believed possible only in his own
+country, or France, and he remembered once more the famous old saying of
+Napoleon that every French peasant carried a marshal's baton in his
+knapsack.
+
+Now he recalled, too, that Napoleon had fought some of his greatest
+defensive battles in the region they faced. Doubtless the mighty emperor
+and his marshals had trod the very soil on which Bougainville and he now
+stood. Surely the French must know it, and surely it would give them
+superhuman courage for battle.
+
+"I belong to the command of General Vaugirard," he said to Bougainville.
+"I'm serving on his staff, but I was knocked off my motor cycle by the
+rush of air from a shell. The cycle was ruined and I was unconscious
+for a moment or two. When I revived, my general and his command were
+gone."
+
+"You'd better stay with me a while," said Bougainville. "We're going to
+advance again soon. When night comes, if you're still alive, then you
+can look for General Vaugirard. The fire of the artillery is increasing.
+How the earth shakes!"
+
+"So it does. I wish I knew what was happening."
+
+"There comes one of those men in the air. He is going to drop down by
+us. Maybe you can learn something from him."
+
+John felt a sudden wild hope that it was Lannes, but his luck did not
+hold good enough for it. The plane was of another shape than the
+_Arrow_, and, when it descended to the ground, a man older than Lannes
+stepped out upon the grass. He glanced around as if he were looking for
+some general of division for whom he had an order, and John, unable to
+restrain himself, rushed to him and exclaimed:
+
+"News! News! For Heaven's sake, give us news! Surely you've seen from
+above!"
+
+The man smiled and John knew that a bearer of bad news would not smile.
+
+"I'm the friend and comrade of Philip Lannes," continued John, feeling
+that all the flying men of France knew the name of Lannes, and that it
+would be a password to this man's good graces.
+
+"I know him well," said the air scout. "Who of our craft does not? My
+own name is Caumartin, and I have flown with Lannes more than once in
+the great meets at Rheims. In answer to your question I'm able to tell
+you that on the wings the soldiers of France are advancing. A wedge has
+been thrust between the German armies and the one nearest Paris is
+retreating, lest it be cut off."
+
+Bougainville heard the words, and he ran among the men, telling them. A
+fierce shout arose and John himself quivered with feeling. It was
+better, far better than he had hoped. He realized now that his courage
+before had been the courage of despair. Lannes and he, as a last resort,
+had put faith in signs and omens, because there was nothing else to bear
+them up.
+
+"Is it true? Is it true beyond doubt! You've really seen it with your
+own eyes?" he exclaimed.
+
+Caumartin smiled again. His were deep eyes, and the smile that came from
+them was reassuring.
+
+"I saw it myself," he replied. "At the point nearest Paris the gray
+masses are withdrawing. I looked directly down upon them. And now, can
+you tell me where I can find General Vaugirard?"
+
+"I wish I could. I'm on his staff, but I've lost him. He's somewhere to
+the northward."
+
+"Then I'll find him."
+
+Caumartin resumed his place in his machine. John looked longingly at the
+aeroplane. He would gladly have gone with Caumartin, but feeling that he
+would be only a burden at such a time, he would not suggest it.
+Nevertheless he called to the aviator:
+
+"If you see Philip Lannes in the heavens tell him that his friend John
+Scott is here behind a low ridge crested with trees!"
+
+Caumartin nodded, and as some of the soldiers gave his plane a push he
+soared swiftly away in search of General Vaugirard. John watched him a
+moment or two and then turned his attention back to the German army in
+front of them.
+
+The thudding of the heavy guns to their left had become so violent that
+it affected his nerves. The waves of air beat upon his ears like
+storm-driven rollers, and he was glad when Bougainville's regiment moved
+forward again. The Germans seemed to have withdrawn some of their force
+in the center, and, for a little while, the regiment with which John now
+marched was not under fire.
+
+They heard reserves now coming up behind them, more trains of motor
+cars, bearing fresh troops, and batteries of field guns advancing as
+fast as they could. Men were busy also stringing telephone wires, and,
+presently, they passed a battery of guns of the largest caliber, the
+fire of which was directed entirely by telephone. Some distance beyond
+it the regiment stopped again. The huge shells were passing over their
+heads toward the German lines, and John believed that he could hear and
+count every one of them.
+
+The remains of the regiment now lay down in a dip, as they did not know
+anything to do, except to wait for the remainder of the French line to
+advance.
+
+Something struck near them presently and exploded with a crash. Steel
+splinters flew, but as they were prone only one man was injured.
+
+"They're reaching us again with their shell fire," said John.
+
+"Not at all," said Bougainville. "Look up."
+
+John saw high in the heavens several black specks, which he knew at
+once were aeroplanes. Since the bomb had been dropped from one of them
+it was obvious that they were German flyers, and missiles of a like
+nature might be expected from the same source. Involuntarily he crouched
+close to the ground, and tried to press himself into it. He knew that
+such an effort would afford him no protection, but the body sought it
+nevertheless. All around him the young French soldiers too were clinging
+to Mother Earth. Only Bougainville stood erect.
+
+John had felt less apprehension under the artillery fire and in the
+charge than he did now. He was helpless here when death fell like hail
+from the skies, and he quivered in every muscle as he waited. A crash
+came again, but the bomb had struck farther away, then a third, and a
+fourth, each farther and farther in its turn, and Bougainville suddenly
+uttered a shout that was full of vengeance and exultation.
+
+John looked up. The group of black specks was still in the sky, but
+another group was hovering near, and clapping his glasses to his eyes he
+saw flashes of light passing between them.
+
+"You're right, Bougainville! you're right!" he cried, although
+Bougainville had not said a word. "The French flyers have come and
+there's a fight in the air!"
+
+He forgot all about the battle on earth, while he watched the combat in
+the heavens. Yet it was an affair of only a few moments. The Germans
+evidently feeling that they were too far away from their base, soon
+retreated. One of their machines turned over on its side and fell like a
+shot through space.
+
+John shuddered, took the glasses down, and, by impulse, closed his eyes.
+He heard a shock near him, and, opening his eyes again, saw a huddled
+mass of wreckage, from which a foot encased in a broad German shoe
+protruded. The ribs of the plane were driven deep into the earth and he
+looked away. But a hum and swish suddenly came once more, and a sleek
+and graceful aeroplane, which he knew to be the _Arrow_, sank to the
+earth close to him. Lannes, smiling and triumphant, stepped forth and
+John hailed him eagerly.
+
+"I met Caumartin in an aerial road," said Lannes, in his best dramatic
+manner, "and he described this place, at which you were waiting. As it
+was directly on my way I concluded to come by for you. I was delayed by
+a skirmish overhead which you may have seen."
+
+"Yes, I saw it, or at least part of it."
+
+"I came in at the end only. The Taubes were too presuming. They came
+over into our air, but we repelled the attack, and one, as I can see
+here, will never come again. I found General Vaugirard, although he is
+now two or three miles to your right, and when I deliver a message that
+he has given me I return. But I take you with me now."
+
+John was overjoyed, but he would part from Bougainville with regret.
+
+"Philip," he said, "here is Pierre Louis Bougainville, whom I met that
+day on Montmartre. All the officers of this regiment have been killed
+and by grace of courage and intuition he now leads it better than it was
+ever led before."
+
+Lannes extended his hand. Bougainville's met it, and the two closed in
+the clasp of those who knew, each, that the other was a man. Then a drum
+began to beat, and Bougainville, waving his sword aloft, led his
+regiment forward again with a rush. But the _Arrow_, with a hard push
+from the last of the soldiers, was already rising, Lannes at the
+steering rudder and John in his old place.
+
+"You can find your cap and coat in the locker," said Lannes without
+looking back, and John put them on quickly. His joy and eagerness were
+not due to flight from the field of battle, because the heavens
+themselves were not safe, but because he could look down upon this field
+on which the nations struggled and, to some extent, behold and measure
+it with his own eyes.
+
+The _Arrow_ rose slowly, and John leaned back luxuriously in his seat.
+He had a singular feeling that he had come back home again. The sharp,
+acrid odor that assailed eye and nostril departed and the atmosphere
+grew rapidly purer. The rolling waves of air from the concussion of the
+guns became much less violent, and soon ceased entirely. All the smoke
+floated below him, while above the heavens were a shining blue,
+unsullied by the dust and flame of the conflict.
+
+"Do you go far, Philip?" John asked.
+
+"Forty miles. I could cover the distance quickly in the _Arrow_, but on
+such a day as this I can't be sure of finding at once the man for whom
+I'm looking. Besides, we may meet German planes. You've your automatic
+with you?"
+
+"I'm never without it. I'm ready to help if they come at us. I've been
+through so much today that I've become blunted to fear."
+
+"I don't think we'll meet an enemy, but we must be armed and watchful."
+
+John had not yet looked down, but he knew that the _Arrow_ was rising
+high. The thunder of the battle died so fast that it became a mere
+murmur, and the air was thin, pure and cold. When he felt that the
+_Arrow_ had reached its zenith he put the glasses to his eyes and looked
+over.
+
+He saw a world spouting fire. Along a tremendous line curved and broken,
+thousands of cannon great and small were flashing, and for miles and
+miles a continuous coil of whitish smoke marked where the riflemen were
+at work. Near the center of the line he saw a vast mass of men advancing
+and he spoke of it to Lannes.
+
+"I've seen it already," said the Frenchman. "That's where a great force
+of ours is cutting in between the German armies. It's the movement that
+has saved France, and the mind that planned it was worth a million men
+to us today."
+
+"I can well believe it. Now I see running between the hills a shining
+ribbon which I take to be a river."
+
+"That's the Marne. If we can, we'll drive the Germans back across it.
+Search the skies that way and see if you can find any of the Taubes."
+
+"I see some black specks which I take to be the German planes, but they
+don't grow."
+
+"Which indicates that they're not coming any nearer. They've had enough
+of us for the present and it's to their interest too to keep over their
+own army now. What do you see beneath us?"
+
+"A great multitude of troops, French, as I can discern the uniform, and
+by Jove, Lannes, I can trace far beyond the towers and spires of Paris!"
+
+"I knew you could. It marks how near the Germans have come to the
+capital, but they'll come no nearer. The great days of the French have
+returned, and we'll surely drive them upon the Marne."
+
+"Suppose we fly a little lower, Lannes. Then we can get a better view of
+the field as we go along."
+
+"I'll do as you say, John. I rose so high, because I thought attack here
+was less possible, but as no enemy is in sight we'll drop down."
+
+The _Arrow_ sank gradually, and now both could get a splendid view of a
+spectacle, such as no man had ever beheld until that day. The sounds of
+battle were still unheard, but they clearly saw the fire of the cannon,
+the rapid-firers, and the rifles. It was like a red streak running in
+curves and zigzags across fifty or maybe a hundred miles of country.
+
+"We continue to cut in," said Lannes. "You can see how our armies off
+there are marching into that great open space between the Germans.
+Unless the extreme German army hastens it will be separated entirely
+from the rest. Oh, what a day! What a glorious, magnificent day! A day
+unlike any other in the world's story! Our heads in the dust in the
+morning and high in the air by night!"
+
+"But we haven't won yet?"
+
+"No, but we are winning enough to know that we will win."
+
+"How many men do you think are engaged in that battle below?"
+
+"Along all its windings two millions, maybe, or at least a million and a
+half anyhow. Perhaps nobody will ever know."
+
+Then they relapsed into silence for a little while. The _Arrow_ flew
+fast and the motor drummed steadily in their ears. Lannes let the
+aeroplane sink a little lower, and John became conscious of a new sound,
+akin nevertheless to the throb of the motor. It was the concussion of
+the battle. The topmost and weakest waves of air hurled off in circles
+by countless cannon and rifles were reaching them. But they had been
+softened so much by distance that the sound was not unpleasant, and the
+_Arrow_ rocked gently as if touched by a light wind.
+
+John never ceased to watch with his glasses, and in a few minutes he
+announced that men in gray were below.
+
+"I expected that," said Lannes. "This battle line, as you know, is far
+from straight, and, in order to reach our destination in the quickest
+time possible, we must pass over a portion of the German army, an
+extended corner or angle as it were. What are they doing there, John?"
+
+"Firing about fifty cannon as fast as they can. Back of the cannon is a
+great huddle of motors and of large automobile trucks, loaded, I should
+say, with ammunition."
+
+"You're quite sure of what you say?" asked Lannes, after a silence of a
+moment or two.
+
+"Absolutely sure. I fancy that it's an ammunition depot."
+
+"Then, John, you and I must take a risk. We are to deliver a message,
+but we can't let go an opportunity like this. You recall how you threw
+the bombs on the forty-two centimeter. I have more bombs here in the
+_Arrow_--I never fly now without 'em--little fellows, but tremendously
+powerful. I shall dip and when we're directly over the ammunition depot
+drop the bombs squarely into the middle of it."
+
+"I'm ready," said John, feeling alternate thrills of eagerness and
+horror, "but Philip, don't you go so near that if the depot blows up it
+will blow us up too."
+
+"Never fear," said Lannes, laughing, not with amusement but with
+excitement, "I've no more wish to be scattered through the firmament
+than you have. Besides, we've that message to deliver. Do you think the
+Germans have noticed us?"
+
+"No, a lot of smoke from their cannon fire has gathered above them and
+perhaps it veils us. Besides, their whole attention must be absorbed by
+the French army, and I don't think it likely that they're looking up."
+
+"But they're bound to see us soon. We have one great advantage, however.
+The target is much larger than the forty-two centimeter was, and there
+are no Taubes or dirigibles here to drive us off. Ready now, John, and
+when I touch the bottom of my loop you throw the bombs. Here they are!"
+
+Four bombs were pushed to John's side and they lay ready to his grasp.
+Then as the _Arrow_ began its downward curve, he laid his glasses aside
+and watched. The most advanced German batteries were placed in a pit,
+into which a telephone wire ran. Evidently these guns, like the French,
+were fired by order from some distant point. John longed to hurl a bomb
+at the pit, but the chances were ten to one that he would miss it, and
+he held to the ammunition depot, spread over a full acre, as his target.
+
+Now the Germans saw them. He knew it, as many of them looked up, and
+some began to fire at the _Arrow_, but the aeroplane was too high and
+swift for their bullets.
+
+"Now!" said Lannes in sudden, sharp tones.
+
+The aeroplane dipped with sickening velocity, but John steadied himself,
+and watching his chance he threw four bombs so fast that the fourth had
+left his hands before the first touched the ground. An awful, rending
+explosion followed, and for a minute the _Arrow_ rocked violently, as if
+in a hurricane. Then, as the waves of air decreased in violence, it
+darted upward on an even keel.
+
+John saw far below a vast scene of wreckage, amid which lay many dead or
+wounded men. Motors were blown to pieces and cannon dismounted.
+
+"Score heavily for us," said Lannes. "I scarcely hoped for such a goodly
+blow as this while we were on our way!"
+
+John would not look down again. Despite the value of the deed, he
+shuddered and he was glad when the _Arrow_ in its swift flight had left
+the area of devastation far behind.
+
+"We're flying over the French now," he said. "So I expected," said
+Lannes. "Can you see a hill crested with a low farm house?"
+
+"Yes," replied John, after looking a little while. "It's straight ahead.
+The house is partly hidden by trees."
+
+"Then that's the place. You wouldn't think we'd come nearly fifty miles,
+would you, John?"
+
+"Fifty miles! It feels more like a thousand!"
+
+Lannes laughed, this time with satisfaction, not excitement.
+
+"You'll find there the general to whom we reported first," he said, "and
+he'll be glad to see us! I can't tell you how glad he will be. His joy
+will be far beyond our personal deserts. It will have little to do with
+the fact that you, John Scott, and I, Philip Lannes, have come back to
+him."
+
+The circling _Arrow_ came down in a meadow just behind the house, and
+officers rushed forward to meet it. Lannes and John, stepping out, left
+it in charge of two of the younger men. Then, proudly waving the others
+aside, they walked to the low stone farmhouse, in front of which the
+elderly, spectacled general was standing. He looked at Lannes
+inquiringly, but the young Frenchman, without a word, handed him a note.
+
+John watched the general read, and he saw the transformation of the
+man's face. Doubting, anxious, worn, it was illumined suddenly. In a
+voice that trembled he said to the senior officers who clustered about
+him:
+
+"We're advancing in the center, and on the other flank. Already we've
+driven a huge wedge between the German armies, and Paris, nay, France
+herself, is saved!"
+
+The officers, mostly old men, did not cheer, but John had never before
+witnessed such relief expressed on human faces. It seemed to him that
+they had choked up, and could not speak. The commander held the note in
+a shaking hand and presently he turned to Lannes.
+
+"Your fortune has been great. It's not often that one has a chance to
+bear such a message as this."
+
+"My pride is so high I can't describe it," said Lannes in a dramatic but
+sincere tone.
+
+"Go in the house and an orderly will give food and wine to you and your
+comrade. In a half hour, perhaps, I may have another message for you."
+
+Both John and Lannes needed rest and food, and they obeyed gladly. The
+strain upon the two was far greater than they had realized at the time,
+and for a few moments they were threatened with collapse which very
+strong efforts of the will prevented. They were conscious, too, as they
+stood upon the ground, of a quivering, shaking motion. They were
+assailed once more by the violent waves of air coming from the
+concussion of cannon and rifles past counting. The thin, whitish film
+which was a compound of dust and burned gunpowder assailed them again
+and lay, bitter, in their mouths and nostrils.
+
+"The earth shakes too much," said Lannes in a droll tone. "I think we'd
+better go back into the unchanging ether, where a man can be sure of
+himself."
+
+"I'm seasick," said John; "who wouldn't be, with ten thousand cannon,
+more or less, and a million or two of rifles shaking the planet? I'm
+going into the house as fast as I can."
+
+It was a building, centuries old, of gray crumbling stone, with large,
+low rooms, and, to John's amazement, the peasant who inhabited it and
+his family were present. The farmer and his wife, both strong and dark,
+were about forty, and there were four children, the oldest a girl of
+about thirteen. What fear they may have felt in the morning was gone
+now, and, as they knew that the French army was advancing, a joy,
+reserved but none the less deep, had taken its place.
+
+John and Lannes sat down at a small table covered with a neat white
+cloth, and Madame, walking quickly and lightly, served them with bread,
+cold meat and light red wine. The smaller children hovered in the
+background and looked curiously at the young foreigner who wore the
+French uniform.
+
+"May I ask your name, Madame?" John asked politely.
+
+"Poiret," she said. "My man is Jules Poiret, and this farm has been in
+his family since the great revolution. You and your comrade came from
+the air, as I saw, and you can tell us, can you not, whether the Poiret
+farm is to become German or remain French? The enemy has been pushed
+back today, but will he come so near to Paris again? Tell me truly, on
+your soul, Monsieur!"
+
+"I don't believe the Germans will ever again be so near to Paris,"
+replied John with sincerity. "My friend, who is the great Philip Lannes,
+the flying man, and I, have looked down upon a battle line fifty, maybe
+a hundred miles long, and nearly everywhere the Germans are retreating."
+
+She bent her head a little as she poured the coffee for them, but not
+enough to hide the glitter in her eye. "Perhaps the good God intervened
+at the last moment, as Father Hansard promised he would," she said
+calmly. "At any rate, the Germans are gone. I gathered as much from
+chance words of the generals--never before have so many generals
+gathered under the Poiret roof, and it will never happen again--but I
+wished to hear it from one who had seen with his own eyes."
+
+"We saw them withdrawing, Madame, with these two pairs of eyes of ours,"
+said Lannes.
+
+"And then Poiret can go back to his work with the vines. Whether it is
+war or peace, men must eat and drink, Monsieur."
+
+"But certainly, Madame, and women too." "It is so. I trust that soon the
+Germans will be driven back much faster. The house quivers all the time.
+It is old and already several pieces of plaster have fallen."
+
+Her anxiety was obvious. With the Germans driven back she thought now of
+the Poiret homestead. John, in the new strength that had come to him
+from food and drink, had forgotten for the moment that ceaseless quiver
+of the earth. He held the little bottle aloft and poured a thin stream
+of wine into his glass. The red thread swayed gently from side to side.
+
+"You speak truly, Madame," he said. "The rocking goes on, but I'm sure
+that the concussion of the guns will be too far away tonight for you to
+feel it."
+
+They offered her gold for the food and wine, but after one longing
+glance she steadfastly refused it.
+
+"Since you have come across the sea to fight for us," she said to John,
+"how could I take your money?"
+
+Lannes and John returned to the bit of grass in front of the house,
+where the elderly general and other generals were still standing and
+using their glasses.
+
+"You are refreshed?" said the general to Lannes.
+
+"Refreshed and ready to take your orders wherever you wish them to go."
+
+John stepped aside, while the general talked briefly and in a low tone
+to his comrade. He looked upon himself merely as a passenger, or a sort
+of help to Lannes, and he would not pry into military secrets. But when
+the two rose again in the _Arrow_, the general and all his suite waved
+their caps to them. Beyond a doubt, Lannes had done magnificent work
+that day, and John was glad for his friend's sake.
+
+The _Arrow_ ascended at a sharp angle, and then hovered for a little
+while in curves and spirals. John saw the generals below, but they were
+no longer watching the aeroplane. Their glasses were turned once more to
+the battle front.
+
+"Ultimately we're to reach the commander of the central army, if we
+can," said Lannes, "but meanwhile we're to bend in toward the German
+lines, in search of your immediate chief, General Vaugirard, who is one
+of the staunchest and most daring fighters in the whole French Army. If
+we find him at all it's likely that we'll find him farther forward than
+any other general."
+
+"But not any farther than my friend of Montmartre, Bougainville. There's
+a remarkable fellow. I saw his military talent the first time I met him.
+Or I should better say I felt it rather than saw it. And he was making
+good in a wonderful manner today."
+
+"I believe with you, John, that he's a genius. But if we find General
+Vaugirard and then finish our errand we must hasten. It will be night in
+two hours."
+
+He increased the speed of the aeroplane and they flew eastward,
+searching all the hills and woods for the command of General Vaugirard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+IN HOSTILE HANDS
+
+
+The task that lay before the two young men was one of great difficulty.
+The battle line was shifting continually, although the Germans were
+being pressed steadily back toward the east and north, but among so many
+generals it would be hard to find the particular one to whom they were
+bearing orders. The commander of the central army was of high
+importance, but the fact did not bring him at once before the eye.
+
+They were to see General Vaugirard, too, but it was possible that he had
+fallen. John, though, could not look upon it as a probability. The
+general was so big, so vital, that he must be living, and he felt the
+same way about Bougainville. It was incredible that fate itself should
+snuff out in a day that spark of fire.
+
+Lannes, uncertain of his course, bore in again toward the German lines,
+and dropped as low as he could, compatible with safety from any kind of
+shot. John meanwhile scanned every hill and valley wood and field with
+his powerful glasses, and he was unable to see any diminution in the
+fury of the struggle. The cannon thundered, with all their might, along
+a line of scores of miles; rapid firers sent a deadly hail upon the
+opposing lines; rifles flashed by the hundred thousand, and here and
+there masses of troops closed with the bayonet.
+
+Seen from a height the battle was stripped of some of its horrors, but
+all its magnitude remained to awe those who looked down upon it. From
+the high, cold air John could not see pain and wounds, only the swaying
+back and forth of the battle lines. All the time he searched attentively
+for men who did not wear the red and blue of France, and at last he
+said:
+
+"I've failed to find any sign of the British army."
+
+"They're farther to the left," replied Lannes. "I caught a glimpse of
+their khaki lines this morning. Their regular troops are great fighters,
+as our Napoleon himself admitted more than once, and they've never done
+better than they're doing today. When I saw them they were advancing."
+
+"I'm glad of that. It's curious how I feel about the English, Philip.
+They've got such a conceit that they irritate me terribly at times, yet
+I don't want to see them beaten by any other Europeans. That's our
+American privilege."
+
+"A family feeling, perhaps," said Lannes, laughing, "but we French and
+English have been compelled to be allies, and after fighting each other
+for a thousand years we're now the best of friends. I think, John, we'll
+have to go down and procure information from somebody about our
+general. Otherwise we'll never find him."
+
+"We must be near the center of our army, and that's where he's likely to
+be. Suppose we descend in the field a little to the east of us."
+
+Lannes looked down, and, pronouncing the place suitable, began to drop
+in a series of spirals until they rested in a small field that had been
+devoted to the growth of vegetables. Here John at once felt the shaking
+of the earth, and tasted the bitter odor again. But woods on either side
+of them hid the sight of troops, although the sound of the battle was as
+great and violent as ever.
+
+"We seem to have landed on a desert island," said Lannes.
+
+"So we do," said John. "Evidently there is nobody here to tell us where
+we can find our dear and long lost general. I'll go down to the edge of
+the nearest wood and see if any of our skirmishers are there."
+
+"All right, John, but hurry back. I'll hold the _Arrow_ ready for
+instant flight, as we can't afford to linger here."
+
+John ran toward the wood, but before he reached the first trees he
+turned back with a shout of alarm. He had caught a glimpse of horses,
+helmets and the glittering heads of lances. Moreover, the Uhlans were
+coming directly toward him.
+
+In that moment of danger the young American showed the best that was in
+him. Forgetful of self and remembering the importance of Lannes'
+mission, he shouted:
+
+"The Uhlans are upon us, Philip! I can't escape, but you must! Go! Go
+at once!"
+
+Lannes gave one startled glance, and he understood in a flash. He too
+knew the vital nature of his errand, but his instant decision gave a
+wrench to his whole being. He saw the Uhlans breaking through the woods
+and John before them. He was standing beside the _Arrow_, and giving the
+machine a sharp push he sprang in and rose at a sharp angle.
+
+"Up! Up, Philip!" John continued to cry, until the cold edge of a lance
+lay against his throat and a brusque voice bade him to surrender.
+
+"All right, I yield," said John, "but kindly take your lance away. It's
+so sharp and cold it makes me feel uncomfortable."
+
+As he spoke he continued to look upward. The _Arrow_ was soaring higher
+and higher, and the Uhlans were firing at it, but they were not able to
+hit such a fleeting target. In another minute it was out of range.
+
+John felt the cold steel come away from his throat, and satisfied that
+Lannes with his precious message was safe, he looked at his captors.
+They were about thirty in number, Prussian Uhlans.
+
+"Well," said John to the one who seemed to be their leader, "what do you
+want with me?"
+
+"To hold you prisoner," replied the man, in excellent English--John was
+always surprised at the number of people on the continent who spoke
+English--"and to ask you why we find an American here in French
+uniform."
+
+The man who spoke was young, blond, ruddy, and his tone was rather
+humorous. John had been too much in Germany to hate Germans. He liked
+most of them personally, but for many of their ideas, ideas which he
+considered deadly to the world, he had an intense dislike.
+
+"You find me here because I didn't have time to get away," he replied,
+"and I'm in a French uniform because it's my fighting suit."
+
+The young officer smiled. John rather liked him, and he saw, too, that
+he was no older than himself.
+
+"It's lucky for you that you're in some kind of a uniform," the German
+said, "or I should have you shot immediately. But I'm sorry we didn't
+take the man in the aeroplane instead of you."
+
+John looked up again. The _Arrow_ had become small in the distant blue.
+A whimsical impulse seized him.
+
+"You've a right to be sorry," he said. "That was the greatest flying man
+in the world, and all day he has carried messages, heavy with the fate
+of nations. If you had taken him a few moments ago you might have saved
+the German army from defeat today. But your chance has gone. If you were
+to see him again you would not know him and his plane from others of
+their kind."
+
+The officer's eyes dilated at first. Then he smiled again and stroked
+his young mustache.
+
+"It may be true, as you say," he replied, "but meanwhile I'll have to
+take you to my chief, Captain von Boehlen."
+
+John's heart sank a little when he heard the name von Boehlen. Fortune,
+he thought, had played him a hard trick by bringing him face to face
+with the man who had least cause to like him. But he would not show it.
+
+"Very well," he said; "which way?"
+
+"Straight before you," said the officer. "I'd give you a mount, but it
+isn't far. Remember as you walk that we're just behind you, and don't
+try to run away. You'd have no chance on earth. My own name is Arnheim,
+Wilhelm von Arnheim."
+
+"And mine's John Scott," said John, as he walked straight ahead.
+
+They passed through a wood and into another field, where a large body of
+Prussian cavalry was waiting. A tall man, built heavily, stood beside a
+horse, watching a distant corner of the battle through glasses. John
+knew that uncompromising figure at once. It was von Boehlen.
+
+"A prisoner, Captain," said von Arnheim, saluting respectfully.
+
+Von Boehlen turned slowly, and a malicious light leaped in his eyes when
+he saw John on foot before him, and wholly in his power.
+
+"And so," he said, "it's young Scott of the hotel in Dresden and of the
+wireless station, and you've come straight into my hands!"
+
+The whimsical humor which sometimes seized John when he was in the most
+dangerous situation took hold of him again. It was not humor exactly,
+but it was the innate desire to make the best of a bad situation.
+
+"I'm in your hands," he replied, "but I didn't walk willingly into 'em.
+Your lieutenant, von Arnheim here, and his men brought me on the points
+of their lances. I'm quite willing to go away again."
+
+Von Boehlen recognized the spirit in the reply and the malice departed
+from his own eyes. Yet he asked sternly:
+
+"Why do you put on a French uniform and meddle in a quarrel not your
+own?"
+
+"I've made it my own. I take the chances of war."
+
+"To the rear with him, and put him with the other prisoners," said von
+Boehlen to von Arnheim, and the young Prussian and two Uhlans escorted
+him to the edge of the field where twenty or thirty French prisoners sat
+on the ground.
+
+"I take it," said von Arnheim, "that you and our captain have met
+before."
+
+"Yes, and the last time it was under circumstances that did not endear
+me to him."
+
+"If it was in war it will not be to your harm. Captain von Boehlen is a
+stern but just man, and his conduct is strictly according to our
+military code. You will stay here with the other prisoners under guard.
+I hope to see you again."
+
+With these polite words the young officer rode back to his chief, and
+John's heart warmed to him because of his kindness. Then he sat down on
+the grass and looked at those who were prisoners with him. Most of them
+were wounded, but none seemed despondent. All were lying down, some
+propped on their elbows, and they were watching and listening with the
+closest attention. A half-dozen Germans, rifle in hand, stood near by.
+
+John took his place on the grass by the side of a fair, slim young man
+who carried his left arm in a bandage.
+
+"Englishman?" said the young man.
+
+"No, American."
+
+"But you have been fighting for us, as your uniform shows. What
+command?"
+
+"General Vaugirard's, but I became separated from it earlier in the
+day."
+
+"I've heard of him. Great, fat man, as cool as ice and as brave as a
+lion. A good general to serve under. My own name is Fleury, Albert
+Fleury. I was wounded and taken early this morning, and the others and I
+have been herded here ever since by the Germans. They will not tell us a
+word, but I notice they have not advanced."
+
+"The German army is retreating everywhere. For this day, at least, we're
+victorious. Somebody has made a great plan and has carried it through.
+The cavalry of the invader came within sight of Paris this morning, but
+they won't be able to see it tomorrow morning. Whisper it to the others.
+We'll take the good news quietly. We won't let the guards see that we
+know."
+
+The news was circulated in low tones and every one of the wounded forgot
+his wound. They spoke among themselves, but all the while the thunder of
+the hundred-mile battle went on with unremitting ferocity. John put his
+ear to the ground now, and the earth quivered incessantly like a ship
+shaken at sea by its machinery.
+
+The day was now waning fast and he looked at the mass of Uhlans who
+stood arrayed in the open space, as if they were awaiting an order.
+Lieutenant von Arnheim rode back and ordered the guards to march on with
+them.
+
+There was none too severely wounded to walk and they proceeded in a file
+through the fields, Uhlans on all sides, but the great mass behind them,
+where their commander, von Boehlen, himself rode.
+
+The night was almost at hand. Twilight was already coming over the
+eastern hills, and one of the most momentous days in the story of man
+was drawing to a close. People often do not know the magnitude of an
+event until it has passed long since and shows in perspective, but John
+felt to the full the result of the event, just as the old Greeks must
+have known at once what Salamis or Plataea meant to them. The hosts of
+the world's greatest military empire were turned back, and he had all
+the certainty of conviction that they would be driven farther on the
+next day.
+
+The little band of prisoners who walked while their Prussian captors
+rode, were animated by feelings like those of John. It was the captured
+who exulted and the captors who were depressed, though neither expressed
+it in words, and the twilight was too deep now for faces to show either
+joy or sorrow.
+
+John and Fleury walked side by side. They were near the same age. Fleury
+was an Alpinist from the high mountain region of Savoy and he had
+arrived so recently in the main theater of conflict that he knew little
+of what had been passing. He and John talked in whispers and they spoke
+encouraging words to each other. Fleury listened in wonder to John's
+account of his flights with Lannes.
+
+"It is marvelous to have looked down upon a battle a hundred miles
+long," he said. "Have you any idea where these Uhlans intend to take
+us?"
+
+"I haven't. Doubtless they don't know themselves. The night is here now,
+and I imagine they'll stop somewhere soon."
+
+The twilight died in the west as well as the east, and darkness came
+over the field of gigantic strife. But the earth continued to quiver
+with the thunder of artillery, and John felt the waves of air pulsing in
+his ears. Now and then searchlights burned in a white blaze across the
+hills. Fields, trees and houses would stand out for a moment, and then
+be gone absolutely.
+
+John's vivid imagination turned the whole into a storm at night. The
+artillery was the thunder and the flare of the searchlights was the
+lightning. His mind created, for a little while, the illusion that the
+combat had passed out of the hands of man and that nature was at work.
+He and Fleury ceased to talk and he walked on, thinking little of his
+destination. He had no sense of weariness, nor of any physical need at
+all.
+
+Von Arnheim rode up by his side and said:
+
+"You'll not have to walk much further, Mr. Scott. A camp of ours is just
+beyond a brook, not more than a few hundred yards away, and the
+prisoners will stay there for the night. I'm sorry to find you among
+the French fighting against us. We Germans expected American sympathy.
+There is so much German blood in the United States."
+
+"But, as I told Captain von Boehlen, we're a republic, and we're
+democrats. In many of the big ideas there's a gulf between us and
+Germany so wide that it can never be bridged. This war has made clear
+the enormous difference."
+
+Von Arnheim sighed.
+
+"And yet, as a people, we like each other personally," he said.
+
+"That's so, but as nations we diverge absolutely."
+
+"Perhaps, I can't dispute it. But here is our camp. You'll be treated
+well. We Germans are not barbarians, as our enemies allege."
+
+John saw fires burning in an ancient wood, through which a clear brook
+ran. The ground was carpeted with bodies, which at first he thought were
+those of dead men. But they were merely sleepers. German troops in
+thousands had dropped in their tracks. It was scarcely sleep, but
+something deeper, a stupor of exhaustion so utter, both mental and
+physical, that it was like the effect of anesthesia. They lay in every
+imaginable position, and they stretched away through the forest in
+scores of thousands.
+
+John and Fleury saw their own place at once. Several hundred men in
+French uniforms were lying or sitting on the ground in a great group
+near the forest. A few slept, but the others, as well as John could see
+by the light of the fires, were wide awake.
+
+The sight of the brook gave John a burning thirst, and making a sign to
+the German guard, who nodded, he knelt and drank. He did not care
+whether the water was pure or not, most likely it was not, with armies
+treading their way across it, but as it cut through the dust and grime
+of his mouth and throat he felt as if a new and more vigorous life were
+flowing into his veins. After drinking once, twice, and thrice, he sat
+down on the bank with Fleury, but in a minute or two young von Arnheim
+came for him.
+
+"Our commander wishes to talk with you," he said.
+
+"I'm honored," said John, "but conversation is not one of my strong
+points."
+
+"The general will make the conversation," said von Arnheim, smiling. "It
+will be your duty, as he sees it, to answer questions."
+
+John's liking for von Arnheim grew. He had seldom seen a finer young
+man. He was frank and open in manner, and bright blue eyes shone in a
+face that bore every sign of honesty. Official enemies he and von
+Arnheim were, but real enemies they never could be.
+
+He divined that he would be subjected to a cross-examination, but he had
+no objection. Moreover, he wanted to see a German general of high
+degree. Von Arnheim led the way through the woods to a little glade, in
+which about a dozen officers stood. One of them, the oldest man present,
+who was obviously in command, stood nearest the fire, holding his helmet
+in his hand.
+
+The general was past sixty, of medium height, but extremely broad and
+muscular. His head, bald save for a fringe of white hair, had been
+reddened by the sun, and his face, with its deep heavy lines and his
+corded neck, was red, too. He showed age but not weakness. His eyes,
+small, red and uncommonly keen, gazed from under a white bushy thatch.
+He looked like a fierce old dragon to John.
+
+"The American prisoner, sir," said von Arnheim in English to the
+general.
+
+The old man concentrated the stare of his small red eyes upon John for
+many long seconds. The young American felt the weight and power of that
+gaze. He knew too instinctively that the man before him was a great
+fighter, a true representative of the German military caste and system.
+He longed to turn his own eyes away, but he resolutely held them steady.
+He would not be looked down, not even by an old Prussian general to whom
+the fate of a hundred thousand was nothing.
+
+"Very well, Your Highness, you may stand aside," said the general in a
+deep harsh voice.
+
+Out of the corner of his eye John saw that the man who stood aside was
+von Arnheim. "Your Highness!" Then this young lieutenant must be a
+prince. If so, some princes were likable. Wharton and Carstairs and he
+had outwitted a prince once, but it could not be von Arnheim. He turned
+his full gaze back to the general, who continued in his deep gruff
+voice, speaking perfect English:
+
+"I understand that you are an American and your name is John Scott."
+
+"And duly enrolled and uniformed in the French service," said John,
+"You can't shoot me as a _franc tireur_."
+
+"We could shoot you for anything, if we wished, but such is not our
+purpose. I have heard from a captain of Uhlans, Rudolf von Boehlen, a
+most able and valuable officer, that you are brave and alert."
+
+"I thank Captain von Boehlen for his compliment. I did not expect it
+from him."
+
+"Ah, he bears you no malice. We Germans are large enough to admire skill
+and courage in others. He has spoken of the affair of the wireless. It
+cost us much, but it belongs to the past. We will achieve what we wish."
+
+John was silent. He believed that these preliminaries on the part of the
+old general were intended to create an atmosphere, a belief in his mind
+that German power was invincible.
+
+"We have withdrawn a portion of our force today," continued the general,
+"in order to rectify our line. Our army had advanced too far. Tomorrow
+we resume our march on Paris."
+
+John felt that it was an extraordinary statement for an old man, one of
+such high rank, the commander of perhaps a quarter of a million
+soldiers, to be making to him, a young American, but he held his peace,
+awaiting what lay behind it all.
+
+"Now you are a captive," continued the general, "you will be sent to a
+prison, and you will be held there until the end of the war. You will
+necessarily suffer much. We cannot help it. Yet you might be sent to
+your own country. Americans and Germans are not enemies. I know from
+Captain von Boehlen who took you that you have been in an aeroplane with
+a Frenchman. Some account of what you saw from space might help your
+departure for America."
+
+And so that was it! Now the prisoner's eye steadily confronted that of
+the old general.
+
+"Your Highness," he said, as he thought that the old man might be a
+prince as well as a general, "you have read the history of the great
+civil war in my country, have you not?"
+
+"It was a part of my military duty to study it. It was a long and
+desperate struggle with many great battles, but what has it to do with
+the present?"
+
+"Did you ever hear of any traitor on either side, North or South, in
+that struggle?"
+
+The deep red veins in the old general's face stood out, but he gave no
+other sign.
+
+"You prefer, then," he said, "to become a charge upon our German
+hospitality. But I can say that your refusal will not make terms harder
+for you. Lieutenant von Arnheim, take him back to the other prisoners."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said John, and he gave the military salute. He could
+understand the old man's point of view, rough and gruff though he was,
+and he was not lacking in a certain respect for him. The general
+punctiliously returned the salute.
+
+"You've made a good impression," said von Arnheim, as they walked away
+together.
+
+"I gather," said John, "from a reference by the general, that you're a
+prince."
+
+Von Arnheim looked embarrassed.
+
+"In a way I am," he admitted, "but ours is a mediatized house. Perhaps
+it doesn't count for much. Still, if it hadn't been for this war I might
+have gone to your country and married an heiress."
+
+His eyes were twinkling. Here, John thought was a fine fellow beyond
+question.
+
+"Perhaps you can come after the war and marry one," he said. "Personally
+I hope you'll have the chance."
+
+"Thanks," said von Arnheim, a bit wistfully, "but I'm afraid now it will
+be a long time, if ever. I need not seek to conceal from you that we
+were turned back today. You know it already."
+
+"Yes, I know it," said John, speaking without any trace of exultation,
+"and I'm willing to tell you that it was one of the results I saw from
+the aeroplane. Can I ask what you intend to do with the prisoners you
+have here, including myself?"
+
+"I do not know. You are to sleep where you are tonight. Your bed, the
+earth, will be as good as ours, and perhaps in the morning we'll find an
+answer to your question."
+
+Von Arnheim bade him a pleasant good night and turned to duties
+elsewhere. John watched him as he strode away, a fine, straight young
+figure. He had found him a most likable man, and he was bound to admit
+that there was much in the German character to admire. But for the
+present it was--in his view--a Germany misled.
+
+The prisoners numbered perhaps six hundred, and at least half of them
+were wounded. John soon learned that the hurt usually suffered in
+stoical silence. It was so in the great American civil war, and it was
+true now in the great European war.
+
+Rough food was brought to them by German guards, and those who were able
+drank at the brook. Water was served to the severely wounded by their
+comrades in tin cups given to them by the Germans, and then all but a
+few lay on the grass and sought sleep.
+
+John and his new friend, Fleury, were among those who yet sat up and
+listened to the sounds of battle still in progress, although it was far
+in the night. It was an average night of late summer or early autumn,
+cool, fairly bright, and with but little wind. But the dull, moaning
+sound made by the distant cannonade came from both sides of them, and
+the earth yet quivered, though but faintly. Now and then, the
+searchlights gleamed against the background of darkness, but John felt
+that the combat must soon stop, at least until the next day. The German
+army in which he was a prisoner had ceased already, but other German
+armies along the vast line fought on, failing day, by the light which
+man himself had devised.
+
+Fleury was intelligent and educated. Although it was bitter to him to be
+a prisoner at such a time, he had some comprehension of what had
+occurred, and he knew that John had been in a position to see far more
+than he. He asked the young American many questions about his flight in
+the air, and about Philip Lannes, of whom he had heard.
+
+"It was wonderful," he said, "to look down on a battle a hundred miles
+long."
+
+"We didn't see all of it," said John, "but we saw it in many places, and
+we don't know that it was a hundred miles long, but it must have been
+that or near it."
+
+"And the greatest day for France in her history! What mighty
+calculations must have been made and what tremendous marchings and
+combats must have been carried out to achieve such a result."
+
+"One of the decisive battles of history, like Plataea, or the Metaurus or
+Gettysburg. There go the Uhlans with Captain von Boehlen at their head.
+Now I wonder what they mean to do!"
+
+A thousand men, splendidly mounted and armed, rode through the forest.
+The moonlight fell on von Boehlen's face and showed it set and grim.
+John felt that he was bound to recognize in him a stern and resolute
+man, carrying out his own conceptions of duty. Nor had von Boehlen been
+discourteous to him, although he might have felt cause for much
+resentment. The Prussian glanced at him as he passed, but said nothing.
+Soon he and his horsemen passed out of sight in the dusk.
+
+John, wondering how late it might be, suddenly remembered that he had a
+watch and found it was eleven o'clock.
+
+"An hour of midnight," he said to Fleury.
+
+Most all the French stretched upon the ground were now in deep slumber,
+wounded and unwounded alike. The sounds of cannon fire were sinking
+away, but they did not die wholly. The faint thunder of the distant
+guns never ceased to come. But the campfire, where he knew the German
+generals slept or planned, went out, and darkness trailed its length
+over all this land which by night had become a wilderness.
+
+John was able to trace dimly the sleeping figures of Germans in the
+dusk, sunk down upon the ground and buried in the sleep or stupor of
+exhaustion. As they lay near him so they lay in the same way in hundreds
+of thousands along the vast line. Men and horses, strained to their last
+nerve and muscle, were too tired to move. It seemed as if more than a
+million men lay dead in the fields and woods of Northeastern France.
+
+John, who had been wide awake, suddenly dropped on the ground where the
+others were stretched. He collapsed all in a moment, as if every drop of
+blood had been drained suddenly from his body. Keyed high throughout the
+day, his whole system now gave way before the accumulated impact of
+events so tremendous. The silence save for the distant moaning that
+succeeded the roar of a million men or more in battle was like a
+powerful drug, and he slept like one dead, never moving hand or foot.
+
+He was roused shortly before morning by some one who shook him gently
+but persistently, and at last he sat up, looking around in the dim light
+for the person who had dragged him back from peace to a battle-mad
+world. He saw an unkempt, bearded man in a French uniform, one sleeve
+stained with blood, and he recognized Weber, the Alsatian.
+
+"Why, Weber!" he exclaimed, "they've got you, too! This is bad! They
+may consider you, an Alsatian, a traitor, and execute you at once!"
+
+Weber smiled in rather melancholy fashion, and said in a low tone:
+
+"It's bad enough to be captured, but I won't be shot Nobody here knows
+that I'm an Alsatian, and consequently they will think I'm a Frenchman.
+If you call me anything, call me Fernand, which is my first name, but
+which they will take for the last."
+
+"All right, Fernand. I'll practice on it now, so I'll make no slip. How
+did you happen to be taken?"
+
+"I was in a motor car, a part of a train of about a hundred cars. There
+were seven in it besides myself. We were ordered to cross a field and
+join a line of advancing infantry. When we were in the middle of the
+field a masked German battery of rapid-firers opened on us at short
+range. It was an awful experience, like a stroke of lightning, and I
+don't think that more than a dozen of us escaped with our lives. I was
+wounded in the arm and taken before I could get out of the field. I was
+brought here with some other prisoners and I have been sleeping on the
+ground just beyond that hillock. I awoke early, and, walking the little
+distance our guards allow, I happened to recognize your figure lying
+here. I was sorry and yet glad to see you, sorry that you were a
+prisoner, and glad to find at least one whom I knew, a friend."
+
+John gave Weber's hand a strong grasp.
+
+"I can say the same about you," he said warmly. "We're both prisoners,
+but yesterday was a magnificent day for France and democracy."
+
+"It was, and now it's to be seen what today will be."
+
+"I hope and believe it will be no less magnificent."
+
+"I learned that you were taken just after you alighted from an
+aeroplane, and that a man with you escaped in the plane. At least, I
+presume it was you, as I heard the Germans talking of such a person and
+I knew of your great friendship for Philip Lannes. Lannes, of course was
+the one who escaped."
+
+"A good surmise, Fernand. It was no less a man than he."
+
+Weber's eyes sparkled.
+
+"I was sure of it," he said. "A wonderful fellow, that Lannes, perhaps
+the most skillful and important bearer of dispatches that France has.
+But he will not forget you, Mr. Scott. He knows, of course, where you
+were taken, and doubtless from points high in the air he has traced the
+course of this German army. He will find time to come for you. He will
+surely do so. He has a feeling for you like that of a brother, and his
+skill in the air gives him a wonderful advantage. In all the history of
+the world there have never before been any scouts like the aeroplanes."
+
+"That's true, and that, I think, is their chief use."
+
+Impulse made John look up. The skies were fast beginning to brighten
+with the first light in the east, and large objects would be visible
+there. But he saw nothing against the blue save two or three captive
+balloons which floated not far above the trees inside the German lines.
+He longed for a sight of the _Arrow_. He believed that he would know its
+shape even high in the heavens, but they were speckless.
+
+The Alsatian, whose eyes followed his, shook his head.
+
+"He is not there, Mr. Scott," he said, "and you will not see him today,
+but I have a conviction that he will come, by night doubtless."
+
+John lowered his eyes and his feeling of disappointment passed. It had
+been foolish of him to hope so soon, but it was only a momentary
+impulse, Lannes could not seek him now, and even if he were to come
+there would be no chance of rescue until circumstances changed.
+
+"Doubtless you and he were embarked on a long errand when you were
+taken," said Weber.
+
+"We were carrying a message to the commander of one of the French
+armies, but I don't know the name of the commander, I don't know which
+army it is, and I don't know where it is."
+
+Weber laughed.
+
+"But Lannes knew all of those things," he said. "Oh, he's a close one!
+He wouldn't trust such secrets not even to his brother-in-arms."
+
+"Nor should he do so. I'd rather he'd never tell them to me unless he
+thought it necessary."
+
+"I agree with you exactly, Mr. Scott. Hark! Did you hear it? The battle
+swells afresh, and it's not yet full day!"
+
+The roaring had not ceased, but out of the west rose a sound, louder
+yet, deep, rolling and heavy with menace. It was the discharge of a
+great gun and it came from a point several miles away.
+
+"We don't know who fired that," said Weber, "It may be French, English
+or German, but it's my opinion that we'll hear its like in our forest
+all day long, just as we did yesterday. However, it shall not keep me
+from bathing my face in this brook."
+
+"Nor me either," said John.
+
+The cold water refreshed and invigorated him, and as he stooped over the
+brook, he heard other cannon. They seemed to him fairly to spring into
+action, and, in a few moments, the whole earth was roaring again with
+the huge volume of their fire.
+
+Other prisoners, wounded and unwounded, awakened by the cannon, strolled
+down to the brook and dipped into its waters.
+
+"I'd better slip back to my place beyond the hillock," said Weber.
+"We're in two lots, we prisoners, and I belong in the other lot. I don't
+think our guards have noticed our presence here, and it will be safer
+for me to return. But it's likely that we'll all be gathered into one
+body soon, and I'll help you watch for Lannes."
+
+"I'll be glad of your help," said John sincerely. "We must escape. In
+all the confusion of so huge a battle there ought to be a chance."
+
+Weber slipped away in the crowd now hurrying down to the stream, and in
+a few moments John was joined by Fleury, whose attention was centered on
+the sounds of the distant battle. He deemed it best to say nothing to
+him of Weber, who did not wish to be known as an Alsatian. Fleury's
+heavy sleep had made him strong and fresh again, but he was in a fury at
+his helplessness.
+
+"To think of our being tied here at such a time," he said. "France and
+England are pushing the battle again! I know it, and we're helpless,
+mere prisoners!"
+
+"Still," said John, "while we can't fight we may see things worth
+seeing. Perhaps it's not altogether our loss to be inside the German
+army on such a day."
+
+Fleury could not reconcile himself to such a view, but he sought to make
+the best of it, and he was cheered, too, by the vast increase in the
+volume of the cannon fire. Before the full day had crossed from east to
+west the great guns were thundering again along the long battle line.
+But in their immediate vicinity there was no action. All the German
+troops here seemed to be resting on their arms. No Uhlans were visible
+and John judged that the detachment under von Boehlen, having gone forth
+chiefly for scouting purposes, had not yet returned.
+
+They received bread, sausage and coffee for breakfast from one of the
+huge kitchen automobiles, and nearly all ate with a good appetite. Their
+German captors did not treat them badly, but John, watching both
+officers and men, did not see any elation. He had no doubt that the
+officers were stunned by the terrible surprise of the day before, and as
+for the men, they would know nothing. He had seen early that the Germans
+were splendid troops, disciplined, brave and ingenious, but the habit of
+blind obedience would blind them also to the fact that fortune had
+turned her face away from them.
+
+He wished that his friend von Arnheim--friend he regarded him--would
+appear and tell him something about the battle, but his wish did not
+come true for an hour and meanwhile the whole heavens resounded with the
+roar of the battle, while distant flashes from the guns could be seen on
+either flank.
+
+The young German, glasses in hand, evidently seeking a good view, walked
+to the crest of the hillock behind which Weber had disappeared. John
+presumed enough on their brief friendship to call to him.
+
+"Do you see anything of interest?" he asked.
+
+Von Arnheim nodded quickly.
+
+"I see the distant fringe of a battle," he replied amiably, "but it's
+too early in the morning for me to pass my judgment upon it."
+
+"Nevertheless you can look for a day of most desperate struggle!"
+
+Von Arnheim nodded very gravely.
+
+"Men by tens of thousands will fall before night," he said.
+
+As if to confirm his words, the roar of the battle took a sudden and
+mighty increase, like a convulsion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE TWO PRINCES
+
+
+John sat with the other prisoners for more than two hours listening to
+the thunder of the great battle or rather series of battles which were
+afterwards classified under the general head the Battle of the Marne. He
+was not a soldier, merely a civilian serving as a soldier, but he had
+learned already to interpret many of the signs of combat. There was an
+atmospheric feeling that registered on a sensitive mind the difference
+between victory and defeat, and he was firm in the belief that as
+yesterday had gone today was going. Certainly this great German army
+which he believed to be in the center was not advancing, and something
+of a character most menacing was happening to the wings of the German
+force. He read it in the serious, preoccupied faces of the officers who
+passed near. There was not a smile on the face of the youngest of them
+all, but deepest anxiety was written alike on young and old.
+
+John and Fleury sat together at the edge of the brook, and for a while
+forgot their chagrin at not being on the battle line. The battle itself
+which they could not see, but which they could hear, absorbed them so
+thoroughly that they had no time to think of regrets.
+
+John had thought that man's violence, his energy in destruction on the
+first day could not be equalled, but it seemed to him now that the
+second day surpassed the first. The cannon fire was distant, yet the
+waves of air beat heavily upon them, and the earth shook without
+ceasing. Wisps of smoke floated toward them and the air was tainted
+again with the acrid smell of burned gunpowder.
+
+"You're a mountaineer, Fleury, you told me," said Scott, "and you should
+be able to judge how sound travels through gorges. I suppose you yodel,
+of course?"
+
+"Yodel, what's that?"
+
+"To make a long singing cry on a peak which is supposed to reach to
+somebody on another peak who sends back the same kind of a singing cry.
+We have a general impression in America that European mountaineers don't
+do much but stand in fancy costumes on crests and ridges and yodel to
+one another."
+
+"It may have been so once," said the young Savoyard, "but this is a bad
+year for yodeling. The voice of the cannon carries so far that the voice
+of man doesn't amount to much. But what sound did you want me to
+interpret?"
+
+"That of the cannon. Does its volume move eastward or westward? I should
+think it's much like your mountain storms and you know how they travel
+among the ridges."
+
+"The comparison is just, but I can't yet tell any shifting of the
+artillery fire. The wind brings the sound toward us, and if there's any
+great advance or retreat I should be able to detect it. I should say
+that as far as the second day is concerned nothing decisive has happened
+yet."
+
+"Do you know this country?"
+
+"A little. My regiment marched through here about three weeks ago and we
+made two camps not far from this spot. This is the wood of Senouart, and
+the brook here runs down to the river Marne."
+
+"And we're not far from that river. Then we've pressed back the Germans
+farther than I thought. It's strange that the German army here does not
+move."
+
+"It's waiting, and I fancy it doesn't know what to do. I've an idea that
+our victory yesterday was greater than the French and British have
+realized, but which the Germans, of course, understand. Why do they
+leave us here, almost neglected, and why do their officers walk about,
+looking so doubtful and anxious? I've heard that the Germans were
+approaching Paris with five armies. It may be that we've cut off at
+least one of those armies and that it's in mortal danger."
+
+"It may be so. But have you thought, Fleury, of the extraordinary
+difference between this morning and yesterday morning?"
+
+"I have. In conditions they're worlds apart. Hark! Listen now, Scott, my
+friend!"
+
+He lay on the grass and put his ear to the ground, just as John had
+often done. Listening intently for at least two minutes, he announced
+with conviction that the cannonade was moving eastward.
+
+"Which means that the Germans are withdrawing again?" said John.
+
+"Undoubtedly," said Fleury, his face glowing.
+
+They listened a quarter of an hour longer, and John himself was then
+able to tell that the battle line was shifting. The Germans elsewhere
+must have fallen back several miles, but the army about him did not yet
+move. He caught a glimpse of the burly general walking back and forth in
+the forest, his hands clasped behind him, and a frown on his broad,
+fighting face. He would walk occasionally to a little telephone station,
+improvised under the trees--John could see the wires stretching away
+through the forest--and listen long and attentively. But when he put
+down the receiver the same moody look was invariably on his face, and
+John was convinced as much by his expression as by the sound of the guns
+that affairs were not going well with the Germans.
+
+Another long hour passed and the sun moved on toward noon, but a German
+army of perhaps a quarter of a million men lay idle in the forest of
+Senouart, as John now called the whole region.
+
+Presently the general walked down the line and John lost sight of him.
+But Weber reappeared, coming from the other side of the hillock, and
+John was glad to see him, since Fleury had gone back to attend to a
+wounded friend.
+
+"There doesn't seem to be as much action here as I expected," said
+Weber, cheerfully, sitting down on the grass beside young Scott.
+
+"But they're shaking the world there! and there!" said John, nodding to
+right and to left.
+
+"So they are. This is a most extraordinary reversal, Mr. Scott, and I
+can't conceive how it was brought about. Some mysterious mind has made
+and carried through a plan that was superbly Napoleonic. I'd give much
+to know how it was done."
+
+John shook his head.
+
+"I know nothing of it," he said.
+
+"But doubtless your friend Lannes does. What a wonderful thing it is to
+carry through the heavens the dispatches which may move forward a
+million armed men."
+
+"I don't know anything about Lannes' dispatches."
+
+"Nor do I, but I can make a close guess, just as you can. He's surely
+hovering over the battle field today, and as I said last night he
+certainly has some idea where you are, and sooner or later will come for
+you."
+
+John looked up, but again the heavens were bare and clear. Then he
+looked down and saw walking near them a heavy, middle-aged, bearded man
+to whom all the German officers paid great deference. The man's manner
+was haughty and overbearing, and John understood at once that in the
+monarchical sense he was a personage.
+
+"Do you know the big fellow there?" he said to Weber. "Have you heard
+anyone speak of him?"
+
+"I saw him this morning, and one of the guards told us who he is. That
+is Prince Karl of Auersperg. The house of Auersperg is one of the
+oldest in Germany, much older than the Emperor's family, the
+Hohenzollerns. I don't suppose the world contains any royal blood more
+ancient than that of Prince Karl."
+
+"Evidently he feels that it's so. I'm getting used to princes, but our
+heavy friend there must be something of a specialist in the princely
+line. I should judge from his manner that he is not only the oldest man
+on earth, speaking in terms of blood, but the owner of the earth as
+well."
+
+"The Auerspergs have an immense pride."
+
+"I can see it, but a lot of pride fell before Paris yesterday, and a lot
+more is falling among these hills and forests today. There seems to be a
+lot of difference between princes, the Arnheims and the Auerspergs, for
+instance."
+
+Then a sudden thought struck John. It had the vaguest sort of basis, but
+it came home to him with all the power of conviction.
+
+"I wonder if Prince Karl of Auersperg once owned a magnificent armored
+automobile," he said.
+
+Weber looked puzzled, and then his eyes lightened.
+
+"Ah, I know what you mean!" he exclaimed. "The one in which we took that
+flight with Carstairs the Englishman and Wharton the American. It
+belonged to a prince, without doubt, yes. But no, it couldn't have been
+Prince Karl of Auersperg who owned the machine."
+
+"I'm not so sure. I've an intuition that it is he. Besides, he looks
+like just the kind of prince from whom I'd like to take his best
+automobile, also everything else good that he might happen to have. I
+shall feel much disappointed if this proves not to be our prince."
+
+"You Americans are such democrats."
+
+"I don't go so far as to say a man is necessarily bad because of his
+high rank, but as I reminded you a little while ago, there are princes
+and princes. The ancient house of Auersperg as it walks up and down,
+indicating its conviction of its own superiority to everything else on
+earth, does not please me."
+
+"The Uhlans are coming back!" exclaimed Weber in tones of excitement.
+
+"And that's von Boehlen at their head! I'd know his figure as far as I
+could see it! And they've had a brush, too! Look at the empty saddles
+and the wounded men! As sure as we live they've run into the French
+cavalry and then they've run out again!"
+
+The Uhlans were returning at a gallop, and the German officers of high
+rank were crowding forward to meet them. It was obvious to every one
+that they had received a terrible handling, but John knew that von
+Boehlen was not a man to come at a panicky gallop. Some powerful motive
+must send him so fast.
+
+He saw the Prussian captain spring from his horse and rush to a little
+group composed of the general, the prince and several others of high
+rank who had drawn closely together at his coming.
+
+Von Boehlen was wounded slightly, but he stood erect as he saluted the
+commander and talked with him briefly and rapidly. John's busy and
+imaginative mind was at work at once with surmises, and he settled upon
+one which he was sure must be the truth. The French advance in the
+center was coming, and this German army also must soon go into action.
+
+He was confirmed in his belief by a hurried order to the guards to go
+eastward with the prisoners. As the captives, the wounded and the
+unwounded, marched off through the forest of Senouart they heard at a
+distance, but behind them, the opening of a huge artillery fire. It was
+so tremendous that they could feel the shaking of the earth as they
+walked, and despite the hurrying of their guards they stopped at the
+crest of a low ridge to look back.
+
+They gazed across a wide valley toward high green hills, along which
+they saw rapid and many flashes. John longed now for the glasses which
+had been taken from him when he was captured, but he was quite sure that
+the flashes were made by French guns. From a point perhaps a mile in
+front of the prisoners masked German batteries were replying. Fleury
+with his extraordinary power of judging sound was able to locate these
+guns with some degree of approximation.
+
+"Look! the aeroplanes!" said John, pointing toward the hills which he
+now called to himself the French line.
+
+Numerous dark shapes, forty or fifty at least, appeared in the sky and
+hovered over the western edge of the wide, shallow basin. John was sure
+that they were the French scouts of the blue, appearing almost in line
+like troops on the ground, and his heart gave a great throb. No doubt
+could be left now, that this German army was being attacked in force
+and with the greatest violence. It followed then that the entire German
+line was being assailed, and that the French victory was continuing its
+advance. The Republic had rallied grandly and was hurling back the
+Empire in the most magnificent manner.
+
+All those emotions of joy and exultation that he had felt the day before
+returned with increased force. In daily contact he liked Germans as well
+as Frenchmen, but he thought that no punishment could ever be adequate
+for the gigantic crimes of kings. Napoleon himself had been the champion
+of democracy and freedom, until he became an emperor and his head
+swelled so much with success that he thought of God and himself
+together, just as the Kaiser was now thinking. It was a curious
+inversion that the French who were fighting then to dominate Europe were
+fighting now to prevent such a domination. But it was now a great French
+republican nation remade and reinvigorated, as any one could see.
+
+The guards hurried them on again. Another mile and they stopped once
+more on the crest of a low hill, where it seemed that they would remain
+some time, as the Germans were too busy with a vast battle to think much
+about a few prisoners. It was evident that the whole army was engaged.
+The old general, the other generals, the princes and perhaps dukes and
+barons too, were in the thick of it. John's heart was filled with an
+intense hatred of the very name of royalty. Kings and princes could be
+good men personally, but as he saw its work upon the huge battle fields
+of Europe he felt that the institution itself was the curse of the
+earth.
+
+"We shall win again today," said Fleury, rousing him from his
+absorption. "Look across the fields, Scott, my friend, and see how those
+great masses of infantry charging our army have been repulsed."
+
+It was a far look, and at the distance the German brigades seemed to be
+blended together, but the great gray mass was coming back slowly. He
+forgot all about himself and his own fate in his desire to see every act
+of the gigantic drama as it passed before him. He took no thought of
+escape at present, nor did Fleury, who stood beside him. The fire of the
+guns great and small had now blended into the usual steady thunder,
+beneath which human voices could be heard.
+
+"We don't have the forty-two centimeters, nor the great siege guns,"
+said Fleury, "but the French field artillery is the best in the world.
+It's undoubtedly holding back the German hosts and covering the French
+advance."
+
+"That's my opinion, too," said John. "I saw its wonderful work in the
+retreat toward Paris. I think it saved the early French armies from
+destruction."
+
+The German army was made of stern material. Having planted its feet here
+it refused to be driven back. Its cannon was a line of flaming
+volcanoes, its cavalry charged again and again into the face of death,
+and its infantry perished in masses, but the stern old general spared
+nothing. Passing up and down the lines, listening at the telephone and
+receiving the reports of air scouts and land scouts, he always hurled
+in fresh troops at the critical points and Fritz and Karl and Wilhelm
+and August, sober and honest men, went forward willingly, sometimes
+singing and sometimes in silence, to die for a false and outworn system.
+John as a prisoner had a better view than he would have had if with the
+French army. In a country open now he could see a full mile to right and
+left, where the German hosts marched again and again to attack, and
+while the French troops were too far away for his eyes he beheld the
+continuous flare of their fire, like a broad red ribbon across the whole
+western horizon.
+
+The passing of time was nothing to him. He forgot all about it in his
+absorption. But the sun climbed on, afternoon came, and still the battle
+at this point raged, the French unable to drive the Germans farther and
+the Germans unable to stop the French attacks. John roused himself and
+endeavored to dissociate the thunder on their flanks from that in front,
+and, after long listening, he was able to make the separation, or at
+least he thought so. He knew now that the struggle there was no less
+fierce than the one before him.
+
+The Kaiser himself must be present with one or the other of these
+armies, and a man who had talked for more than twenty years of his
+divine right, his shining armor, his invincible sword and his mailed
+fist must be raging with the bitterness of death to find that he was
+only a mortal like other mortals, and that simple French republicans
+were defeating the War Lord, his Grand Army and the host of kings,
+princes, dukes, barons, high-born, very high-born, and all the other
+relics of medievalism. Dipped to the heel and beyond in the fountain of
+democracy, John could not keep from feeling a fierce joy as he saw with
+his own eyes the Germans fighting in the utmost desperation, not to take
+Paris and destroy France, but to save themselves from destruction.
+
+The afternoon, slow and bright, save for the battle, dragged on. Scott
+and Fleury kept together. Weber appeared once more and spoke rather
+despondently. He believed that the Germans would hold fast, and might
+even resume the offensive toward Paris again, but Fleury shook his head.
+
+"Today is like yesterday," he said.
+
+"How can you tell?" asked Weber.
+
+"Because the fire on both flanks is slowly moving eastward, that is, the
+Germans there are yielding ground. My ears, trained to note such things,
+tell me so. My friend, I am not mistaken."
+
+He spoke gravely, without exultation, but John took fresh hope from his
+words. Toward night the fire in their front died somewhat, and after
+sunset it sank lower, but they still heard a prodigious volume of firing
+on both flanks. John remembered then that they had eaten nothing since
+morning, but when some of the prisoners who spoke German requested food
+it was served to them.
+
+Night came over what seemed to be a drawn battle at this point, and
+after eating his brief supper John saw the automobiles and stretchers
+bringing in the wounded. They passed him in thousands and thousands,
+hurt in every conceivable manner. At first he could scarcely bear to
+look at them, but it was astonishing how soon one hardened to such
+sights.
+
+The wounded were being carried to improvised hospitals in the rear, but
+so far as John knew the dead were left on the field. The Germans with
+their usual thorough system worked rapidly and smoothly, but he noticed
+that the fires were but very few. There was but little light in the wood
+of Senouart or the hills beyond, and there was little, too, on the
+ridges that marked the French position.
+
+John kept near the edges of the space allotted to the prisoners, hoping
+that he might again see von Arnheim. He had discovered early that the
+Germans were unusually kind to Americans, and the fact that he had been
+taken fighting against them did not prevent them from showing generous
+treatment. The officer in charge of the guard even wanted to talk to him
+about the war and prove to him how jealousy had caused the other nations
+to set upon Germany. But John evaded him and continued to look for the
+young prince who was serving as a mere lieutenant.
+
+It was about an hour after dark when he caught his first glimpse of von
+Arnheim, and he was really glad to see that he was not wounded.
+
+"I've come to tell you, Mr. Scott," said von Arnheim, "that all of you
+must march at once. You will cross the Marne, and then pass as prisoners
+into Germany. You will be well treated there and I think you can
+probably secure your release on condition that you return to your own
+country and take no further part in the war."
+
+John shook his head.
+
+"I don't expect any harshness from the Germans," he said, "but I'm in
+this war to stay, if the bullets and shells will let me. I warn you now
+that I'm going to escape."
+
+Von Arnheim laughed pleasantly.
+
+"It's fair of you to give us warning of your intentions," he said, "but
+I don't think you'll have much chance. You must get ready to start at
+once."
+
+"I take it," said John, "that our departure means the departure of the
+German army also."
+
+Von Arnheim opened his mouth to speak, but he closed it again suddenly.
+
+"It's only a deduction of mine," said John.
+
+Von Arnheim nodded in farewell and hurried away.
+
+"Now I'm sure," said John to Fleury a few minutes later, "that this army
+is going to withdraw."
+
+"I think so too," said Fleury. "I can yet hear the fire of the cannon on
+either flank and it has certainly moved to the east. In my opinion, my
+friend, both German wings have been defeated, and this central army is
+compelled to fall back because it's left without supports. But we'll
+soon see. They can't hide from us the evidences of retreat."
+
+The prisoners now marched in a long file in the moonlight across the
+fields, and John soon recognized the proof that Fleury was right. The
+German army was retreating. There were innumerable dull, rumbling
+sounds, made by the cannon and motors of all kinds passing along the
+roads, and at times also he heard the heavy tramp of scores of
+thousands marching in a direction that did not lead to Paris.
+
+John began to think now of Lannes. Would he come? Was Weber right when
+he credited to him a knowledge near to omniscience? How was it possible
+for him to pick out a friend in all that huge morass of battle! And yet
+he had a wonderful, almost an unreasoning faith in Philip, and, as
+always when he thought of him, he looked up at the heavens.
+
+It was an average night, one in which large objects should be visible in
+the skies, and he saw several aeroplanes almost over their heads, while
+the rattle of a dirigible came from a point further toward the east.
+
+The aeroplane was bound to be German, but as John looked he saw a sleek
+shape darting high over them all and flying eastward. Intuition, or
+perhaps it was something in the motion and shape of the machine, made
+him believe it was the _Arrow_. It must be the _Arrow_! And Lannes must
+be in it! High over the army and high over the German planes it darted
+forward like a swallow and disappeared in a cloud of white mist. His
+hair lifted a little, and a thrill ran down his spine.
+
+He still looked up as he walked along, and there was the sleek shape
+again! It had come back out of the white mist, and was circling over the
+German planes, flying with the speed and certainty of an eagle. He saw
+three of the German machines whirl about and begin to mount as if they
+would examine the stranger. But the solitary plane began to rise again
+in a series of dazzling circles. Up, up it went, as if it would
+penetrate the last and thinnest layer of air, until it reached the dark
+and empty void beyond.
+
+The _Arrow_--he was sure it could be no other--was quickly lost in the
+infinite heights, and then the German planes were lost, too, but they
+soon came back, although the _Arrow_ did not. It had probably returned
+to some point over the French line or had gone eastward beyond the
+Germans.
+
+John felt that he had again seen a sign. He remembered how he and Lannes
+had drawn hope from omens when they were looking at the Arc de Triomphe,
+and a similar hope sprang up now. Weber was right! Lannes would come to
+his rescue. Some thought or impulse yet unknown would guide him.
+
+Light clouds now drifted up from the southwest, and all the aeroplanes
+were hidden, but the heavy murmur of the marching army went on. The
+puffing and clashing of innumerable automobiles came from the roads
+also, though John soon ceased to pay attention to them. As the hours
+passed, he felt an increased weariness. He had sat still almost the
+whole day, but the strain of the watching and waiting had been as great
+as that of the walking now was. He wondered if the guards would ever let
+them stop.
+
+They waded another brook, passed through another wood and then they were
+ordered to halt. The guards announced that they could sleep, as they
+would go no farther that night. The men did not lie down. They fell, and
+each lay where he fell, and in whatever position he had assumed when
+falling.
+
+John was conscious of hearing the order, of striking the grass full
+length, and he knew nothing more until the next morning when he was
+aroused by Fleury. He saw a whitish dawn with much mist floating over
+the fields, and he believed that a large river, probably the Marne, must
+be near.
+
+As far as he could see the ground was covered with German soldiers. They
+too had dropped at the command to stop, and had gone to sleep as they
+were falling. The majority of them still slept.
+
+"What is it, Fleury? Why did you wake me up?" asked John.
+
+"The river Marne is close by, and I'm sure that the Germans are going to
+retreat across it. I had an idea that possibly we might escape while
+there's so much mist. They can't watch us very closely while they have
+so much else to do, and doubtless they would care but little if some of
+us did escape."
+
+"We'll certainly look for the chance. Can you see any sign of the French
+pursuit?"
+
+"Not yet, but our people will surely follow. They're still at it already
+on the flanks!"
+
+The distant thunder of cannon came from both right and left.
+
+"A third day of fighting is at hand," said Fleury.
+
+"And it will be followed by a fourth."
+
+"And a fifth."
+
+"But we shall continue to drive the enemy away."
+
+Both spoke with the utmost confidence. Having seen their armies
+victorious for two days they had no doubt they would win again. All that
+morning they listened to the sounds of combat, although they saw much
+less than on the day before. The prisoners were in a little wood, where
+they lay down at times, and then, restless and anxious, would stand on
+tiptoe again, seeking to see at least a corner of the battle.
+
+John and Fleury were standing near noon at the edge of the wood, when a
+small body of Uhlans halted close by. Being not more than fifty in
+number, John judged that they were scouts, and the foaming mouths of
+their horses showing that they had been ridden hard, confirmed him in
+the opinion. They were only fifty or sixty yards from him, and although
+they were motionless for some time, their eager faces showed that they
+were waiting for some movement.
+
+It was pure chance, but John happened to be looking at a rather large
+man who sat his horse easily, his gloved hand resting on his thigh. He
+saw distinctly that his face was very ruddy and covered with beads of
+perspiration. Then man and horse together fell to the ground as if
+struck by a bolt of lightning. The man did not move at all, but the
+horse kicked for a few moments and lay still.
+
+There was a shout of mingled amazement and horror from the other Uhlans,
+and it found its echo in John's own mind. He saw one of the men look up,
+and he looked up also. A dark shape hovered overhead. Something small
+and black, and then another and another fell from it and shot downward
+into the group of Uhlans. A second man was hurled from his horse and lay
+still upon the ground. Again John felt that thrill of horror and
+amazement.
+
+"What is it? What is it?" he cried.
+
+"I think it's the steel arrow," said Fleury, pressing a little further
+forward and standing on tiptoe. "As well as I can see, the first passed
+entirely through the head of the man and then broke the backbone of the
+horse beneath him."
+
+John saw one of the Uhlans, who had dismounted, holding up a short,
+heavy steel weapon, a dart rather than an arrow, its weight adjusted so
+that it was sure to fall point downward. Coming from such a height John
+did not wonder that it had pierced both horse and rider, and as he
+looked another, falling near the Uhlan, struck deep into the earth.
+
+"There goes the aeroplane that did it," said John to Fleury, pointing
+upward.
+
+It hovered a minute or two longer and flew swiftly back toward the
+French lines, pursued vainly a portion of the distance by the German
+Taubes.
+
+"A new weapon of death," said Fleury. "The fighters move in the air,
+under the water, on the earth, everywhere."
+
+"The Uhlans are off again," said John. "Whatever their duty was the
+steel arrows have sent them on it in a hurry."
+
+"And we're about to move too. See, these batteries are limbering up
+preparatory to a withdrawal."
+
+Inside of fifteen minutes they were again marching eastward, though
+slowly and with the roar of battle going on as fiercely behind them as
+ever. John heard again from some of the talk of the guards that the
+Germans had five armies along their whole line, but whether the one with
+which he was now a prisoner was falling back with its whole force he
+had no way of knowing. Both he and Fleury were sure the prisoners
+themselves would soon cross the Marne, and that large detachments of the
+enemy would go with them.
+
+Thoughts of escape returned. Crossing a river in battle was a perilous
+operation, entailing much confusion, and the chance might come at the
+Marne. They could see too that the Germans were now being pressed
+harder. The French shells were coming faster and with more deadly
+precision. Now and then they exploded among the masses of German
+infantry, and once or twice they struck close to the captives.
+
+"It would be a pity to be killed by our own people," said Fleury.
+
+"And at such a time as this," said John. "Do you know, Fleury, that my
+greatest fear about getting killed is that then I wouldn't know how this
+war is going to end?"
+
+"I feel that way myself sometimes. Look, there's the Marne! See its
+waters shining! It's the mark of the first great stage in the German
+retreat."
+
+"I wonder how we're going to cross. I suppose the bridges will be
+crowded with artillery and men. It might pay the Germans just to let us
+go."
+
+"They won't do that. There's nothing in their rules about liberating
+prisoners, and they wouldn't hear of such a thing, anyhow, trouble or no
+trouble."
+
+"I see some boats, and I fancy we'll cross on them. I wonder if we
+couldn't make what we call in my country a get-away, while we're waiting
+for the embarkation."
+
+"If our gunners become much more accurate our get-away, as you call it,
+will be into the next life."
+
+Two huge shells had burst near, and, although none of the flying metal
+struck them, their faces were stung by fine dirt. When John brushed the
+dust out of his eyes he saw that he was right in his surmise about the
+crossing in boats, but wrong about probable delays in embarkation. The
+German machine even in retreat worked with neatness and dispatch. There
+were three boats, and the first relay of prisoners, including John and
+Fleury, was hurried into them. A bridge farther down the stream rumbled
+heavily as the artillery crossed on it. But the French force was coming
+closer and closer. A shell struck in the river sixty or eighty feet from
+them and the water rose in a cataract. Some of the prisoners had been
+put at the oars and they, like the Germans, showed eagerness to reach
+the other side. John noted the landing, a narrow entrance between thick
+clumps of willows, and he confessed to himself that he too would feel
+better when they were on the farther bank.
+
+The Marne is not a wide river, and a few powerful pulls at the oars sent
+them near to the landing. But at that moment a shell whistled through
+the air, plunged into the water and exploded practically beneath the
+boat.
+
+John was hurled upward in a gush of foam and water, and then, when he
+dropped back, the Marne received him in its bosom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE SPORT OF KINGS
+
+
+John Scott, who was suffering from his second immersion in a French
+river, came up with mouth, eyes and nose full of water. The stream
+around him was crowded with men swimming or with those who had reached
+water shallow enough to permit of wading. As well as he could see, the
+shell had done no damage besides giving them a huge bath, of which every
+one stood in much need.
+
+But he had a keen and active mind and it never worked quicker than it
+did now. He had thought his chance for escape might come in the
+confusion of a hurried crossing, and here it was. He dived and swam down
+the stream toward the willows that lined the bank. When he could hold
+his breath no longer he came up in one of the thickest clumps. The water
+reached to his waist there, and standing on the bottom in all the
+density of willows and bushes he was hidden thoroughly from all except
+watchful searchers. And who would miss him at such a time, and who, if
+missing, would take the trouble to look for him while the French cannon
+were thundering upon them and a perilous crossing was to be made?
+
+It was all so ridiculously easy. He knew that he had nothing to do but
+stand close while the men pulled themselves out of the river and the
+remaining boats made their passage. For further protection he moved into
+water deep enough to reach to his neck, while he still retained the
+cover of the willows and bushes. Here he watched the German troops pass
+over, and listened to the heavy cannonade. He soon noted that the
+Germans, after crossing, were taking up strong positions on the other
+side. He could tell it from the tremendous artillery fire that came from
+their side of the Marne.
+
+John now found that his position, while safe from observation, was far
+from comfortable. The chill of the water began to creep into his bones
+and more shells struck unpleasantly near. Another fell into the river
+and he was blinded for a moment by the violent showers of foam and
+spray. He began to feel uneasy. If the German and French armies were
+going to fight each other from the opposing sides of the Marne he would
+be held there indefinitely, either to be killed by a shell or bullet or
+to drown from cramp.
+
+But time passed and he saw no chance of leaving his watery lair. The
+chill went further into his bones. He was lonesome too. He longed for
+the companionship of Fleury, and he wondered what had become of him. He
+sincerely hoped that he too had reached a covert and that they should
+meet again.
+
+No rumbling came from the bridge below, and, glancing down the stream,
+John saw that it was empty. There must be many other bridges over the
+Marne, but he believed that the German armies had now crossed it, and
+would devote their energy to a new attack. He was squarely between the
+lines and he did not see any chance to escape until darkness.
+
+He looked up and saw a bright sun and blue skies. Night was distant, and
+so far as he was concerned it might be a year away. If two armies were
+firing shells directly at a man they must hit him in an hour or two, and
+if not, a polar stream such as the Marne had now become would certainly
+freeze him to death. He had no idea French rivers could be so cold. The
+Marne must be fed by a whole flock of glaciers.
+
+His teeth began to chatter violently, and then he took stern hold of
+himself. He felt that he was allowing his imagination to run away with
+him, and he rebuked John Scott sternly and often for such foolishness.
+He tried to get some warmth into his veins by jumping up and down in the
+water, but it was of little avail. Yet he stood it another hour. Then he
+made one more long and critical examination of the ground.
+
+Shells were now screaming high overhead, but nobody was in sight. He
+judged that it was now an artillery battle, with the foes perhaps three
+or four miles apart, and, leaving the willows, he crept out upon the
+bank. It was the side held by the Germans, but he knew that if he
+attempted to swim the river to the other bank he would be taken with
+cramps and would drown.
+
+There was a little patch of long grass about ten yards from the river,
+and, crawling to it, he lay down. The grass rose a foot high on either
+side of him, but the sun, bright and hot, shone directly down upon his
+face and body. It felt wonderfully good after that long submersion in
+the Marne. Removing all his heavy wet clothing, he wrung the water out
+of it as much as he could, and lay back in a state of nature, for both
+himself and his clothing to dry. Meanwhile, in order to avoid cold, he
+stretched and tensed his muscles for a quarter of an hour before he lay
+still again.
+
+A wonderful warmth and restfulness flowed back into his veins. He had
+feared chills and a serious illness, but he knew now that they would not
+come. Youth, wiry and seasoned by hard campaigning, would quickly
+recover, but knowing that, for the present, he could neither go forward
+nor backward, he luxuriated in the grass, while the sun sucked the damp
+out of his clothing.
+
+Meanwhile the battle was raging over his head and he scarcely noticed
+it. The shells whistled and shrieked incessantly, but, midway between
+the contending lines, he felt that they were no longer likely to drop
+near. So he relaxed, and a dreamy feeling crept over him. He could hear
+the murmur of insects in the grass, and he reflected that the smaller
+one was, the safer one was. A shell was not likely to take any notice of
+a gnat.
+
+He felt of his clothing. It was not dry yet and he would wait a little
+longer. Anyhow, what was the use of hurrying? He turned over on his
+side and continued to luxuriate in the long grass.
+
+The warmth and dryness had sent the blood pulsing in a strong flood
+through his veins once more, and the mental rebound came too. Although
+he lay immediately between two gigantic armies which were sending
+showers of metal at each other along a line of many miles, he considered
+his escape sure and the thought of personal danger disappeared. If one
+only had something to eat! It is curious how the normal instincts and
+wants of man assert themselves even under the most dangerous conditions.
+He began to think of the good German brown bread and the hot sausage
+that he had devoured, and the hot coffee that he had drunk. One could
+eat the food of an enemy without compunction.
+
+But it was folly to move, even to seek dinner or supper, while the
+shells were flying in such quantities over his head. As he turned once
+more and lay on his back he caught glimpses as of swift shadows passing
+high above, and the whistling and screaming of shells and shrapnel was
+continuous. It was true that a missile might fall short and find him in
+the grass, but he considered the possibility remote and it did not give
+him a tremor. As he was sure now that he would suffer no bodily ill from
+his long bath in the Marne he might remain in the grass until night and
+then creep away. Blessed night! It was the kindly veil for all
+fugitives, and no one ever awaited it with more eagerness than John
+Scott.
+
+The sun was now well beyond the zenith, and its golden darts came
+indirectly. His clothing was thoroughly dry at last, and he put it on
+again. Clad anew he was tempted to seek escape at once, but the sound of
+a footstep caused him to lie down in the shelter of the grass again.
+
+His ear was now against the earth and the footsteps were much more
+distinct. He was sure that they were made by a horse, and he believed
+that a Uhlan was riding near. He remembered how long and sharp their
+lances were, and he was grateful that the grass was so thick and tall.
+He longed for the automatic revolver that had been such a trusty friend,
+but the Germans had taken it long since, and he was wholly unarmed.
+
+He was afraid to raise his head high enough to see the horseman, lest he
+be seen, but the footsteps, as if fate had a grudge against him, were
+coming nearer. His blood grew hot in a kind of rebellion against chance,
+or the power that directed the universe. It was really a grim joke that,
+after having escaped so much, a mere wandering scout of a Uhlan should
+pick him up, so to speak, on the point of his lance.
+
+He pressed hard against the earth. He would have pressed himself into it
+if he could, and imagination, the deceiver, made him think that he was
+doing so. The temptation to raise his head above the grass and look
+became more violent, but will held him firm and he still lay flat.
+
+Then he noticed that the hoofbeats wandered about in an irregular,
+aimless fashion. Not even a scout hunting a good position for
+observation would ride in such a way, and becoming more daring he
+raised his head slowly, until he could peep over the grass stems. He saw
+a horse, fifteen or twenty feet from him, but without rider, bridle or
+saddle. It was a black horse of gigantic build like a Percheron, with
+feet as large as a half-bushel measure, and a huge rough mane.
+
+The horse saw John and gazed at him out of great, mild, limpid eyes. The
+young American thought he beheld fright there and the desire for
+companionship. The animal, probably belonging to some farmer who had
+fled before the armies, had wandered into the battle area, seeking the
+human friends to whom he was so used, and nothing living was more
+harmless than he. He reminded John in some ways of those stalwart and
+honest peasants who were so ruthlessly made into cannon food by the
+gigantic and infinitely more dangerous Tammany that rules the seventy
+million Germans.
+
+The horse walked nearer and the look in his eyes became so full of
+terror and the need of man's support that for the time he stood as a
+human being in John's imagination.
+
+"Poor old horse!" he called, "I'm sorry for you, but your case is no
+worse than mine. Here we both are, wishing harm to nobody, but with a
+million men shooting over our backs."
+
+The horse, emboldened by the friendly voice, came nearer and nuzzled at
+the human friend whom he had found so opportunely, and who, although so
+much smaller than himself, was, as he knew, so much more powerful. This
+human comrade would show him what to do and protect him from all harm.
+But John took alarm. He too found pleasure in having a comrade, even if
+it were only a horse, but the animal would probably attract the
+attention of scouts or skirmishers. He tried to shoo him away, but for a
+long time the horse would not move. At last he pulled a heavy bunch of
+grass, wadded it together and threw it in his face.
+
+The horse, staring at him reproachfully, turned and walked away. John's
+lively fancy saw a tear in the huge, luminous eye, and his conscience
+smote him hard.
+
+"I had to do it, Marne, old fellow," he called. "You're so big and you
+stick up so high that you arouse attention, and that's just what I don't
+want."
+
+He had decided to call the horse Marne, after the river near by, and he
+noticed that he did not go far. The animal, reassured by John's friendly
+after-word, began to crop the grass about twenty feet away. He had a
+human friend after all, one on whom he could rely. Man did not want to
+be bothered by him just then, but that was the way of man, and he did
+not mind, since the grass was so plentiful and good. He would be there,
+close at hand, when he was needed.
+
+John was really moved by the interlude. The loneliness, and then the
+friendliness of the horse appealed to him. He too needed a comrade, and
+here he was. He forgot, for a time, the moaning of the shells over his
+head, and began to think again about his escape. So thinking, the horse
+came once more into his mind. He showed every sign of grazing there
+until dark came. Then why not ride away on him? It was true that a
+horse was larger and made more noise than a fugitive man slipping
+through the grass, but there were times when strength and speed,
+especially speed, counted for a lot.
+
+The last hours of the afternoon waned, trailing their slow length,
+minute by minute, and throughout that time the roar of the battle was as
+steady as the fall of Niagara. It even came to the point that John paid
+little attention to it, but the sport of kings, in which thousands of
+men were ground up, they knew not why, went merrily on. None of the
+shells struck near John, and with infinite joy he saw the coming of the
+long shadows betokening the twilight. The horse, still grazing near by,
+raised his head more than once and looked at him, as if it were time to
+go. As the sun sank and the dusk grew John stood up. He saw that the
+night was going to be dark and he was thankful. The Marne was merely a
+silver streak in the shadow, and in the wood near by the trees were
+fusing into a single clump of darkness.
+
+He stood erect, stretching his muscles and feeling that it was glorious
+to be a man with his head in the air, instead of a creature that
+grovelled on the ground. Then he walked over to the horse and patted him
+on the shoulder.
+
+"Marne, old boy," he said, "I think it's about time for you and me to
+go."
+
+The horse rubbed his great head against John's arm, signifying that he
+was ready to obey any command his new master might give him. John knew
+from his build that he was a draught horse, but there were times in
+which one could not choose a particular horse for a particular need.
+
+"Marne, old fellow," he said, stroking the animal's mane, "you're not to
+be a menial cart horse tonight. I am an Arabian genie and I hereby turn
+you into a light, smooth, beautifully built automobile for one passenger
+only, and I'm that passenger."
+
+Holding fast to the thick mane he sprang upon the horse's back, and
+urged him down the stream, keeping close to the water where there was
+shelter among the willows and bushes. He had no definite idea in his
+head, but he felt that if he kept on going he must arrive somewhere. He
+was afraid to make the horse swim the river in an effort to reach the
+French army. Appearing on the surface of the water he felt that he would
+almost certainly be seen and some good rifleman or other would be sure
+to pick him off.
+
+He concluded at last that if no German troops came in sight he would let
+the horse take him where he would. Marne must have a home and a master
+somewhere and habit would send him to them. So he ceased to push at his
+neck and try to direct him, and the horse continued a slow and peaceful
+progress down the stream in the shadow of small trees. The night was
+darker than those just before it, and the dampness of the air indicated
+possible flurries of rain. Cannon still rumbled on the horizon like the
+thunder of a summer night.
+
+While trusting to the horse to lead him to some destination, John kept a
+wary watch, with eyes now growing used to the darkness. If German
+troops appeared and speed to escape were lacking, he would jump from
+Marne's back and hunt a new covert. But he saw nobody. The evidences of
+man's work were present continually in the cannonade, but man himself
+was absent.
+
+The horse went on with ponderous and sure tread. Evidently he had
+wandered far under the influence of the firing, but it was equally
+evident that his certain instinct was guiding him back again. He crossed
+a brook flowing down into the Marne, passed through a wheat field, and
+entered a little valley, where grew a number of oaks, clear of
+undergrowth.
+
+When he saw what was lying under the oaks he pulled hard at the rough
+mane, until the horse stopped. He had distinctly made out the figures of
+men, stretched upon the ground, apparently asleep, and sure to be
+Germans. He stared hard at them, but the horse snorted and tried to pull
+away. The action of the animal rather than his own eyesight made him
+reckon aright.
+
+A horse would not be afraid of living men, and, slipping from the back
+of Marne, John approached cautiously. A few rays of wan moonlight
+filtered through the trees, and when he had come close he shuddered over
+and over again. About a dozen men lay on the ground and all were stone
+dead. The torn earth and their own torn figures showed that a shell had
+burst among them. Doubtless it had been an infantry patrol, and the
+survivors had hurried away.
+
+John, still shuddering, was about to turn back to his horse, when he
+remembered that he needed much and that in war one must not be too
+scrupulous. Force of will made him return to the group and he sought for
+what he wanted. Evidently the firing had been hot there and the rest of
+the patrol had not lingered in their flight.
+
+He took from one man a pair of blankets. He could have had his choice of
+two or three good rifles, but he passed them by in favor of a large
+automatic pistol which would not be in the way. This had been carried by
+a young man whom he took to be an officer, and he also found on him many
+cartridges for the pistol. Then he searched their knapsacks for food,
+finding plenty of bread and sausage and filling with it one knapsack
+which he put over his shoulder.
+
+He returned hastily to his horse, guided him around the fatal spot, and
+when he was some distance on the other side dismounted and ate as only a
+half-starved man can eat. Water was obtained from a convenient brook and
+carefully storing the remainder of the food in the knapsack he remounted
+the horse.
+
+"Now go on, my good and gallant beast," he said, "and I feel sure that
+your journey is nearly at an end. A draught horse like you, bulky and
+slow, would not wander any great distance."
+
+The horse himself immediately justified his prediction by raising his
+head, neighing and advancing at a swifter pace. John saw, standing among
+some trees, a low and small house, built of stone and evidently very
+old, its humble nature indicating that it belonged to a peasant. Behind
+it was a tiny vineyard, and there was a stable and another outhouse.
+
+"Well, Marne, my lad, here's your home, beyond a doubt," said John. But
+no answer came to the neigh. The house remained silent and dark. It
+confirmed John's first belief that the horse belonged to some peasant
+who had fled with his family from the armies. He stroked the animal's
+neck, and felt real pity for him, as if he had been a child abandoned.
+
+"I know that while I'm a friend I'm almost a stranger to you, but come,
+we'll examine things," he said.
+
+He sprang off the horse, and drew his automatic. The possession of the
+pistol gave him an immense amount of courage and confidence, but he did
+not anticipate any trouble at the house as he was sure that it was
+abandoned.
+
+He pushed open the door and saw a dark inside. Staring a little he made
+out a plainly furnished room, from which all the lighter articles had
+been taken. There was a hearth, but with no fire on it, and John decided
+that he would sleep in the house. It was in a lonely place, but he would
+take the risk.
+
+The horse had already gone to the stable and was pushing the door with
+his nose. John let him in, and found some oat straw which he gave him.
+Then he left him munching in content, and as he departed he struck him a
+resounding blow of friendliness on the flank.
+
+"Good old Marne," he said, "you're certainly one of the best friends
+I've found in Europe. In fact, you're about the only living being I've
+associated with that doesn't want to kill somebody."
+
+He entered the house and closed the door. In addition to the
+sitting-room there was a bedroom and a kitchen, all bearing the signs of
+recent occupancy. He found a small petroleum lamp, but he concluded not
+to light it. Instead he sat on a wooden bench in the main room beside a
+small window, ate a little more from the knapsack, and watched a while
+lest friend or enemy should come.
+
+It had grown somewhat darker and the clouds were driving across the sky.
+The wind was rising and the threatened flurries of rain came, beating
+against the cottage. John was devoutly glad that he had found the little
+house. Having spent many hours immersed to his neck in a river he felt
+that he had had enough water for one day. Moreover, his escape, his snug
+shelter and the abundance of food at hand, gave him an extraordinary
+sense of ease and rest. He noticed that in the darkness and rain one
+might pass within fifty feet of the cottage without seeing it.
+
+The wind increased and moaned among the oaks that grew around the house,
+but above the moaning the sounds of battle, the distant thunder of the
+artillery yet came. The sport of kings was going merrily on. Neither
+night nor storm stopped it and men were still being ground by thousands
+into cannon food. But John had now a feeling of detachment. Three days
+of continuous battle had dulled his senses. They might fight on as they
+pleased. It did not concern him, for tonight at least. He was going to
+look out for himself.
+
+He fastened the door securely, but, as he left the window open,
+currents of fresh cool air poured into the room. He was now fully
+revived in both mind and body, and he took present ease and comfort,
+thinking but little of the future. The flurries of rain melted into a
+steady pour. The cold deepened, and as he wrapped the two blankets
+around him his sense of comfort increased. Lightning flared at
+infrequent intervals and now and then real thunder mingled with that of
+the artillery.
+
+He felt that he might have been back at home. It was like some snug
+little place in the high hills of Pennsylvania or New York. Like many
+other Americans, he often felt surprise that Europe should be so much
+like America. The trees and the grass and the rivers were just the same.
+Nothing was different but the ancient buildings. He knew now that
+history and a long literature merely created the illusion of difference.
+
+He wondered why the artillery fire did not die, with the wind sweeping
+such gusts of rain before it. Then he remembered that the sound of so
+many great cannon could travel a long distance, and there might be no
+rain at the points from which the firing came. The cottage might stand
+in a long narrow valley up which the clouds would travel.
+
+Not feeling sleepy yet he decided to have another look about the house.
+A search revealed a small box of matches near the lamp on the shelf.
+Then he closed the window in order to shut in the flame, and, lighting
+the lamp, pursued his investigation.
+
+He found in the kitchen a jar of honey that he had overlooked, and he
+resolved to use a part of it for breakfast. Europeans did not seem able
+to live without jam or honey in the mornings, and he would follow the
+custom. Not much was left in the other rooms, besides some old articles
+of clothing, including two or three blue blouses of the kind worn by
+French peasants or workmen, but on one of the walls he saw an excellent
+engraving of the young Napoleon, conqueror of Italy.
+
+It showed him, horseback, on a high road looking down upon troops in
+battle, Castiglione or Rivoli, perhaps, his face thin and gaunt, his
+hair long and cut squarely across his forehead, the eyes deep, burning
+and unfathomable. It was so thoroughly alive that he believed it must be
+a reproduction of some great painting. He stood a long time, fascinated
+by this picture of the young republican general who rose like a meteor
+over Europe and who changed the world.
+
+John, like nearly all young men, viewed the Napoleonic cycle with a
+certain awe and wonder. A student, he had considered Napoleon the great
+democratic champion and mainly in the right as far as Austerlitz. Then
+swollen ambition had ruined everything and, in his opinion, another
+swollen ambition, though for far less cause, was now bringing equal
+disaster upon Europe. A belief in one's infallibility might come from
+achievement or birth, but only the former could win any respect from
+thinking men.
+
+It seemed to John presently that the deep, inscrutable eyes were gazing
+at him, and he felt a quivering at the roots of his hair. It was young
+Bonaparte, the republican general, and not Napoleon, the emperor, who
+was looking into his heart.
+
+"Well," said John, in a sort of defiance, "if you had stuck to your
+early principles we wouldn't have all this now. First Consul you might
+have been, but you shouldn't have gone any further."
+
+He turned away with a sigh of regret that so great a warrior and
+statesman, in the end, should have misused his energies.
+
+He returned to the room below, blew out the lamp and opened the window
+again. The cool fresh air once more poured into the room, and he took
+long deep breaths of it. It was still raining, though lightly, and the
+pattering of the drops on the leaves made a pleasant sound. The thunder
+and the lightning had ceased, though not the far rumble of artillery.
+John knew that the sport of kings was still going on under the
+searchlights, and all his intense horror of the murderous monarchies
+returned. He was not sleepy yet, and he listened a long time. The sound
+seemed to come from both sides of him, and he felt that the abandoned
+cottage among the trees was merely a little oasis in the sea of war.
+
+The rain ceased and he concluded to scout about the house to see if any
+one was near, or if any farm animals besides the horse had been left.
+But Marne was alone. There was not even a fowl of any kind. He concluded
+that the horse had probably wandered away before the peasant left, as so
+valuable an animal would not have been abandoned otherwise.
+
+His scouting--he was learning to be very cautious--took him some
+distance from the house and he came to a narrow road, but smooth and
+hard, a road which troops were almost sure to use, while such great
+movements were going on. He waited behind a hedge a little while, and
+then he heard the hum of motors.
+
+He had grown familiar with the throbbing, grinding sound made by many
+military automobiles on the march, but he waited calmly, merely
+loosening his automatic for the sake of precaution. He felt sure that
+while he stood behind a hedge he would never be seen on a dark night by
+men traveling in haste. The automobiles came quickly into view and in
+those in front he saw elderly men in uniforms of high rank. Nearly all
+the German generals seemed to him to be old men who for forty or fifty
+years had studied nothing but how to conquer, men too old and hardened
+to think much of the rights of others or ever to give way to generous
+emotions.
+
+He also saw sitting erect in one of the motors the man for whom he had
+felt at first sight an invincible repulsion. Prince Karl of Auersperg.
+Young von Arnheim had represented the good prince to him, but here was
+the medieval type, the believer in divine right, and in his own
+superiority, decreed even before birth. John noted in the moonlight his
+air of ownership, his insolent eyes and his heavy, arrogant face. He
+hoped that the present war would sweep away all such as Auersperg.
+
+He watched nearly an hour while the automobiles, cyclists, a column of
+infantry, and then several batteries of heavy guns drawn by motors,
+passed. He judged that the Germans were executing a change of front
+somewhere, and that the Franco-British forces were still pressing hard.
+The far thunder of the guns had not ceased for an instant, although it
+must be nearly midnight. He wished he knew what this movement on the
+part of the Germans meant, but, even if he had known, he had no way of
+reaching his own army, and he turned back to the cottage.
+
+Having fastened the door securely again he spread the blankets on the
+bench by the window and lay down to sleep. The tension was gone from his
+nerves now, and he felt that he could fall asleep at once, but he did
+not. A shift in the wind brought the sound of the artillery more
+plainly. His imagination again came into vivid play. He believed that
+the bench beneath him, the whole cottage, in fact, was quivering before
+the waves of the air, set in such violent motion by so many great guns.
+
+It annoyed him intensely. He felt a sort of personal anger against
+everybody. It was past midnight of the third day and it was time for the
+killing to stop. At least they might rest until morning, and give his
+nerves a chance. He moved restlessly on the bench a half hour or more,
+but at last he sank gradually to sleep. As his eyes closed the thunder
+of the cannonade was as loud and steady as ever. He slept, but the
+murderous sport of kings went on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE PUZZLING SIGNAL
+
+
+When John awoke a bright sun was shining in at the window, bringing with
+it the distant mutter of cannon, a small fire was burning on the hearth
+on the opposite side of the room, a man was bending over the coals, and
+the pleasant odor of boiling coffee came to his nostrils. He sat up in
+amazement and looked at the man who, not turning around, went on
+placidly with his work of preparing breakfast. But he recognized the
+figure.
+
+"Weber!" he exclaimed.
+
+"None other!" said the Alsatian, facing about, and showing a cheery
+countenance. "I was in the boat just behind you when your own was
+demolished by the shell. In all the spray and foam and confusion I saw
+my chance, and dropping overboard from ours I floated with the stream. I
+had an idea that you might escape, and since you must come down the
+river between the two armies I also, for the same reasons, chose the
+same path. I came upon this cottage several hours ago, picked the
+fastenings of the door and to my astonishment and delight found you, my
+friend, unharmed, but sound asleep upon the bench there. I slept a while
+in the corner, then I undertook to make breakfast with provisions and
+utensils that I found in the forest. Ah, it was easy enough last night
+to find almost anything one wished. The fields and forest were full of
+dead men."
+
+"I provided myself in the same way, but I'm delighted to see you. I was
+never before in my life so lonely. How chance seems to throw us together
+so often!"
+
+"And we've both profited by it. The coffee is boiling now, Mr. Scott.
+I've a good German coffee pot and two cups that I took from the fallen.
+God rest their souls, they'll need them no more, while we do."
+
+"The battle goes on," said John, listening a moment at the window.
+
+"Somewhere on the hundred mile line it has continued without a break of
+an instant, and it may go on this way for a week or a month. Ah, it's a
+fearful war, Mr. Scott, and we've seen only the beginning! But drink the
+coffee now, while it's hot. And I've warmed too, some of the cold food
+from the knapsacks. German sausage is good at any time."
+
+"And just now it's heavenly. I'm glad we have such a plentiful supply of
+sausage and bread, even if we did have to take it from the dead. I want
+to tell you again how pleasant it is to see you here."
+
+"I feel that way too. We're like comrades united. Now if we only had
+your English friend Carstairs, your American friend Wharton, and Lannes
+we'd be quite a family group."
+
+"I fancy that we'll see Lannes before we do Carstairs and Wharton."
+
+"I think so too. He'll certainly be hovering today somewhere over the
+ground between the two armies--either to observe the Germans or more
+likely to carry messages between the French generals. I tell you, Mr.
+Scott, that Philip Lannes is perhaps the most wonderful young man in
+Europe. In addition to his extraordinary ability in the air he has
+courage, coolness, perception and quickness almost without equal.
+There's something Napoleonic about him."
+
+"You know he's descended from the family of the famous Marshal, Lannes,
+not from Lannes himself, but from a close relative, and the blood's the
+same. They say that blood will tell, and don't you think that the spirit
+of the great Lannes may have reappeared in Philip?"
+
+"It's altogether likely."
+
+"I've been thinking a lot about Napoleon. There's a wonderful picture of
+him as a young republican general in a room here. Perhaps it's the
+conditions around us, but at times I am sure the heroic days of the
+First Republic have returned to France. The spirit that animated Hoche
+and Marceau and Kleber and Bonaparte, before he became spoiled, seems to
+have descended upon the French. And there were Murat, Lannes and
+Lefebvre, and Berthier and the others. Think of that wonderful crowd of
+boys leading the republican armies to victories over all the kings! It
+seems to me the most marvelous thing in the history of war, since the
+Greeks turned back the Persians."
+
+Weber refilled his coffee cup, drank a portion of it, and said:
+
+"I have thought of it, Mr. Scott, I have thought of it more than once.
+It may be that the Gallic fury has been aroused. It has seemed so to me
+since the German armies were turned back from Paris. The French have
+burned more gunpowder than any other nation in Europe, and they're a
+fighting race. It would appear now that the Terrible Year, 1870, was
+merely an aggregation of mistakes, and did not represent either the
+wisdom or natural genius of the nation."
+
+"That is, the French were then far below normal, as we would say, but
+have now returned to their best, and that the two Kaisers made the
+mistake of thinking the French in their lowest form were the French in
+their usual form?"
+
+"It may be so," said Weber, thoughtfully. "Nations reckon their strength
+in peace, but only war itself discloses the fact. Evidently tremendous
+miscalculations have been made by somebody."
+
+"By somebody? By whom? That's why I'm against the Kaisers and all the
+secret business of the military monarchies. War made over night by a
+dozen men! a third of the world's population plunged into battle! and
+the rest drawn into the suffering some way or other! I don't like a lot
+of your European ways."
+
+Weber shook his head.
+
+"We've inherited kings," he said. "But how did you find this place?"
+
+"Accident. Stumbled on it, and mighty grateful I was, too. It kept me
+warm and dry after standing so long in the Marne I thought I was bound
+to turn into a fish. Isolated little place, but the Germans have been
+passing near. Before sleeping last night, I went out scouting and as I
+stood behind a hedge I saw a lot of them. I recognized in a motor the
+Very High Born, his High Mightiness, the owner of the earth, the Prince
+of Auersperg."
+
+Weber took another drink of coffee.
+
+"An able man and one of our most bitter enemies," he said. "A foe of
+democracy everywhere. I think he was to have been made governor of
+Paris, and then Paris would have known that it had a governor. I've seen
+him in Alsace, and I've heard a lot about him."
+
+"But all that's off now. I fancy that the next governor of Paris, if it
+should have a governor, will be a Frenchman. But the day is advancing,
+Weber; what do you think we ought to do?"
+
+"I've been thinking of your friend Lannes. I've an idea that he'll come
+for you, if he finds an interval in his duties."
+
+"But how could he possibly find me? Why, it's the old needle in the
+haystack business."
+
+"He couldn't unless we made some sort of signal."
+
+"There's no signal that I can make."
+
+"But there's one that I can. Look, Mr. Scott."
+
+He unbuttoned his long French coat, and took from his breast a roll of
+red, white and blue. He opened it and disclosed a French flag about four
+feet long.
+
+"If that were put in a conspicuous place," he said, "an aviator with
+glasses could see it a long way, and he would come to find out what it
+meant."
+
+"The top of a tree is the place for it!" exclaimed John. "Now if you
+only had around here a real tree, or two, in place of what we call
+saplings in my country, we might do some fine signaling with the flag."
+
+"We'll try it, but I think we should go a considerable distance from the
+cottage. If Germans instead of French should come then we'd have a
+better chance of escaping among the hedges and vineyards."
+
+John agreed with him and they quickly made ready, each taking his
+automatic and knapsack, and leaving the fire to die of itself on the
+hearth.
+
+"I'm telling that cottage good-bye with regret," said John, as they
+walked away. "I spent some normal and peaceful hours there last night
+and it's a neat little place. I hope its owners will be able to come
+back to it. As soon as I open the stable door, in order that the horse
+may go where he will, I'll be ready."
+
+He gave the big animal a friendly pat as he left and Marne gazed after
+him with envious sorrowful eyes.
+
+They walked a full mile, keeping close to the Marne, where the trees and
+bushes were thickest, and listened meanwhile to the fourth day's
+swelling roar of the battle. Its long continuance had made it even more
+depressing and terrifying than in its earlier stages. To John's mind, at
+least, it took on the form of a cataclysm, of some huge paroxysm of the
+earth. He ate to it, he slept to it, he woke to it, and now he was
+walking to it. The illusion was deepened by the fact that no human being
+save Weber was visible to him. The country between the two monstrous
+battle lines was silent and deserted.
+
+"Apparently," said Weber, "we're in no danger of human interference as
+we walk here."
+
+"Not unless a shell coming from a point fifteen miles or so beyond the
+hills should drop on us, or we should be pierced by an arrow from one of
+our Frenchmen in the clouds. But so far as I can see there's nothing
+above us, although I can make out one or two aeroplanes far toward the
+east."
+
+"The air is heavy and cloudy and that's against them, but they'll be out
+before long. You'll see. I think, Mr. Scott, that we'll find a good tree
+in that little grove of beeches there."
+
+"The tall one in the center. Yes, that'll suit us."
+
+They inspected the tree and then made a long circuit about it, finding
+nobody near. John, full of zeal and enthusiasm, volunteered to climb the
+tree and fasten the flag to its topmost stem, and Weber, after some
+claims on his own behalf, agreed. John was a good climber, alert, agile
+and full of strength, and he went up the trunk like an expert. It was an
+uncommonly tall tree for France, much more than a sapling, and when he
+reached the last bough that would support him he found that he could see
+over all the other trees and some of the low hills. At a little distance
+ran the Marne, a silver sheet, and he thought he could discern faint
+puffs of smoke on the hills beyond. No human being was in sight, but
+although high in the tree he could still feel the vibrations of the air
+beneath the throb of so many great guns. Several aeroplanes hovered at
+points far distant, and he knew that others would be on the long battle
+line.
+
+Reaching as high as he could he tied the flag with a piece of twine that
+Weber had given him--the Alsation seemed to have provided for
+everything--and then watched it as it unfolded and fluttered in the
+light breeze. He felt a certain pride, as he had done his part of the
+task well. The flag waved above the green leaves and any watcher of the
+skies could see it.
+
+"How does it show?" he called to Weber.
+
+"Well, indeed. You'd better climb down now. If the Germans come from the
+air they'll get you there, and if they come on land they'll have you in
+the tree. You'll be caught between air and earth."
+
+"That being the case I'll come down at once," said John, and he
+descended the tree rapidly. At Weber's advice they withdrew to a cluster
+of vines growing near, where they would be well hidden, since their
+signal was as likely to draw enemies as friends.
+
+"I think Lannes will surely see that flag," said Weber.
+
+"Why do you have such great confidence in his coming?" asked John.
+
+"He inspires confidence, when you see him, and there's his reputation.
+I've an idea that he'll be carrying dispatches between the two wings of
+the French army, dispatches of vast importance, since the different
+French forces have to cooperate now along a line of four or five score
+miles. Of course the telephone and the telegraph are at work, too, but
+the value of the aeroplane as a scout and dispatch bearer cannot be over
+estimated."
+
+"One is coming now," said John, "and I think it has been attracted by
+our flag. I take it to be German."
+
+"Then we'd better keep very close. Still, there's little chance of our
+being seen here, and the aviators, even if they suspect a presence,
+can't afford to descend, leave their planes and search for anybody."
+
+"I agree with you there. One can remain here in comparative safety and
+watch the results of our signal. That machine is coming fast and I'm
+quite sure it's German."
+
+"An armored machine with two men and a light rapid fire gun in it.
+Beyond a doubt it will circle about our tree."
+
+The plane was very near now, and assuredly it was German. John could
+discern the Teutonic cast of their countenances, as the two men in it
+leaned over and looked at the flag. They dropped lower and lower and
+then flew in circles about the tree. John, despite his anxiety and
+suspense, could not fail to notice the humorous phase of it. The plane
+certainly could not effect a landing in the boughs, and if it descended
+to the ground in order that one of their number might get out, climb the
+tree and capture the flag, they would incur the danger of a sudden swoop
+from French machines. Besides, the flag would be of no value to them,
+unless they knew who put it there and why.
+
+"The Germans, of course, see that it's a French flag," he said to
+Weber. "I wonder what they're going to do."
+
+"I think they'll have to leave it," said Weber, "because I can now see
+other aeroplanes to the west, aeroplanes which may be French, and they
+dare not linger too long."
+
+"And our little flag may make a big disturbance in the heavens."
+
+"So it seems."
+
+The German plane made circle after circle around the tree, finally drew
+off to some distance, and then, as it wavered back and forth, its
+machine gun began to spit fire. Little boughs and leaves cut from the
+tree fell to the ground, but the flag, untouched, fluttered defiantly in
+the light breeze.
+
+"They're trying to shoot it down," said John, "and with such an unsteady
+gun platform they've missed every time."
+
+"I doubt whether they'll continue firing," said Weber. "An aeroplane
+doesn't carry any great amount of ammunition and they can't afford to
+waste much."
+
+"They're through now," said John. "See, they're flying away toward the
+east, and unless my imagination deceives me, their machine actually
+looks crestfallen, while our flag is snapping away in the wind, haughty
+and defiant."
+
+"A vivid fancy yours, Mr. Scott, but it's easy to imagine that German
+machine looking cheap, because that's just the way the men on board it
+must feel. Suppose we sit down here and take our ease. No flying man
+can see through those vines over our heads, and we can watch in safety.
+We're sure to draw other scouts of the air, while for us it's an
+interesting and comparatively safe experience."
+
+"Our flag is certainly an attraction," said John, making himself
+comfortable on the ground. "There's a bird of passage now, coming down
+from the north as swift as a swallow."
+
+"It's a little monoplane," said Weber, "and it certainly resembles a
+swallow, as it comes like a flash toward this tree. I thought at first
+it might be Lannes in the _Arrow_, but the plane is too small, and it's
+of German make."
+
+"I fancy it won't linger long. This is not a healthy bit of space for
+lone fellows in monoplanes."
+
+The little plane slackened its speed, as it approached the tree, and
+then sailed by it at a moderate rate. When it was opposite the flag a
+spurt of flame came from the pistol of the man in it, and John actually
+laughed.
+
+"That was sheer spite," he said. "Did he think he could shoot our flag
+away with a single bullet from a pistol when a machine gun has just
+failed? That's right, turn about and make off as fast as you can, you
+poor little mono!"
+
+The monoplane also curved around the tree, but did not make a series of
+circles. Instead, when its prow was turned northward it darted off again
+in that direction, going even more swiftly than it had come, as if the
+aviator were ashamed of himself and wished to get away as soon as
+possible from the scene of his disgrace. Away and away it flew,
+dwindling to a black speck and then to nothing.
+
+John's shoulders shook, and Weber, looking at him, was forced to smile
+too.
+
+"Well, it was funny," he said. "Our flag is certainly making a stir in
+the heavens."
+
+"I wonder what will come next," said John. "It's like bait drawing birds
+of prey."
+
+The heavens were now beautifully clear, a vault of blue velvet, against
+which anything would show. Far away the cannon groaned and thundered,
+and the waves of air pulsed heavily, but John noticed neither now. His
+whole attention was centered upon the flag, and what it might call from
+the air.
+
+"In such a brilliant atmosphere we can certainly see our visitors from
+afar," he said.
+
+"So we can," said Weber, "and lo! another appears out of the east!"
+
+The dark speck showed on the horizon and grew fast, coming apparently
+straight in their direction. John did not believe it had seen their flag
+at first, owing to the great distance, but was either a messenger or a
+scout. As it soon began to descend from its great height in the air,
+although still preserving a straight course for the tree, he felt sure
+that the flag had now come into its view. It grew very fast in size and
+was outlined with startling clearness against the burning blue of the
+sky.
+
+The approaching machine consisted of two planes alike in shape and size,
+superimposed and about six feet apart, the whole with a stabilizing tail
+about ten feet long and six feet broad. John saw as it approached that
+the aviator sat before the motor and screw, but that the elevating and
+steering rudders were placed in front of him. There were three men
+besides the aviator in the machine.
+
+"A biplane," said John.
+
+"Yes," said Weber, "I recognize the type of the machine. It's originally
+a French model."
+
+"But in this case, undoubtedly a German imitation. They've seen our
+flag, because I can make out one of the men with glasses to his eyes.
+They hover about as if in uncertainty. No wonder they can't make up
+their minds, because there's the tricolor floating from the top of that
+tall tree, and not a thing in the world to explain why it's in such a
+place. A man with a rifle is about to take a shot at it. Bang! There it
+goes! But I can't see that the bullet has damaged our flag. Look, how it
+whips about and snaps defiance! Now, all the men except the aviator
+himself have out glasses and are studying the phenomenon of our signal.
+They come above the tree, and I think they're going to make a swoop
+around the grove near the ground. Lie close, Weber! As I found out once
+before, a thick forest is the best defense against aeroplanes. They
+can't get through the screen of boughs."
+
+They heard a whirring and drumming, and the biplane not more than fifty
+feet above the earth made several circles about the little wood. John
+saw the men in it very clearly. He could even discern the German cast of
+countenance where all except the one at the wheel that controlled the
+two rudders had thrown back their hoods and taken off their glasses.
+The three carried rifles which they held ready for use, in case they
+detected an enemy.
+
+Whirling around like a vast primeval bird of prey the biplane began to
+rise, as if disappointed of a victim, and winding upward was soon above
+the trees. Then John heard the rapid crackle of rifles.
+
+"Shooting at our flag again!" he exclaimed.
+
+But the whizz of a bullet that buried itself in the earth near him told
+him better.
+
+"It isn't possible that they've seen us!" he exclaimed.
+
+"No," said Weber, "they're merely peppering the woods and vines in the
+hope that they'll hit a concealed enemy, if such there should be."
+
+"That being the case," said John, "I'm going to make my body as small as
+possible, and push myself into the ground if I can."
+
+He lay very close, but the rifle fire quickly passed to other portions
+of the wood, and then died away entirely. John straightened himself out
+and saw the biplane becoming smaller, as it flew off in the direction
+whence it had come.
+
+"I hope you'll come to no good," he said, shaking his fist at the
+disappearing plane. "You've scared me half to death with your shots, and
+I hope that both your rudders will get out of gear and stay out of gear!
+I hope that the wheel controlling them will be smashed up! I hope that
+the top plane will crash into the bottom one! I hope that a French shell
+will shoot your tail off! And I hope that you'll tumble to the earth and
+lie there, nothing but a heap of rotting wood and rusty old metal!"
+
+"Well done, Mr. Scott!" said Weber. "That was quite a curse, but I think
+it will take something more solid to disable the biplane."
+
+"I think so too, but I've relieved my feelings, and after a man has done
+so he can work a lot better. What are we to look for now, Weber? We
+don't seem to have success in attracting anything but Germans. If Lannes
+is coming at all, as you think he will, he'll get a pretty late ticket
+of admission to our reserved section of the air."
+
+"You must remember that the sky above us is a pretty large place, and at
+any rate we're a drawing power. We're always pulling something out of
+the ether."
+
+"And our biggest catch is coming now! Look, Weber, look I If that isn't
+one of Herr Zeppelin's railroad trains of the air then I'll eat it when
+it gets here!"
+
+"You're right, Mr. Scott. There the monster comes. It can't be anything
+but a Zeppelin! They must have one of their big sheds not far east of
+us."
+
+"We'll hear its rattling soon. Like the others it will surely see our
+flag and make for it. But if they take a notion to shoot up the wood, as
+the men on that biplane did, we'd better hunt holes. A Zeppelin can
+carry a lot of soldiers."
+
+The Zeppelin was not moving fast. It had none of the quick graceful
+movements of the aeroplanes, but came on slowly like some huge monster
+of the air, looking about for prey. It turned southeast for a moment or
+two, then some one on board saw the flag and coming back it lumbered
+toward the tree.
+
+"Ugly things," said John. "Lannes and I blew up one once, and I wish I
+had the same chance against that fellow up there. But they're in the
+same puzzled state that the other fellows were. Men on both platforms
+are examining the flag through glasses, and the flag doesn't give a rap
+for them. It's standing out in the wind, now, straight and stiff. It
+seems to know that old Noah's ark can't make it out."
+
+The huge Zeppelin drew its length along the grove, coming as close to
+the trees as it dared, then passed above, and after some circling
+lumbered away to the south.
+
+"Good-bye, old Mr. Curiosity," exclaimed John. "You weren't invited
+here, and I don't care whether you ever come again. Besides, you're
+nothing but a big bluff, anyway. There's our flag, still standing
+straight out in the wind, so you can see every stripe on it, and yet you
+haven't, despite your visit, the remotest idea why it was put there!"
+
+Weber smiled.
+
+"They've all gone away as ignorant as they were when they came," he
+said, "but we must be due for a French visitor or two. After so long a
+run of Germans we should have Frenchmen soon."
+
+"I begin to believe with you that Lannes will arrive some time or other.
+He flies fast and far and in time he must see our signal."
+
+"I've never doubted it. Meanwhile I think I'll take a little luncheon,
+and I'd advise you to do the same. We haven't had such a bad time here,
+saving those random rifle shots from the biplane."
+
+"Not at all. It's like watching a play, and you certainly have a clear
+field for observation, when you look up at the heavens. The stage is
+always in full view."
+
+John was feeling uncommonly good. Their concealment while they watched
+the scouts and messengers from the skies coming to see the meaning of
+the flag had been easy and restful. Much of his long and painful tension
+had relaxed. The hum of distant artillery was in his ears as ever, like
+a moaning of the wind, but he was growing so used to it that he would
+now have noticed its absence rather than its presence. So he ate his
+share of bread and sausage with a good appetite, meanwhile keeping a
+watchful eye upon the heavens which burned in the same brilliant blue.
+
+It was now about noon. The rain the night before had given fresh tints
+to the green of grass and foliage. The whole earth, indifferent to the
+puny millions that struggled on its vast bosom, seemed refreshed and
+revitalized. A modest little bird in brown plumage perched on a bough
+near them, and, indifferent too, to war, poured forth a brilliant volume
+of song.
+
+"Happy little fellow," John said. "Nothing to do but eat and sleep and
+sing."
+
+"Unless he's snapped up by some bigger bird," said Weber, "but having
+been an hour without callers we're now about to have a new one. And as
+this comes from the west it's likely to be French."
+
+John felt excitement, and stood up. Yes, there was the machine coming
+out of the blue haze in the west, soaring beautifully and fast. It was
+very high, but his eye, trained now, saw that it was descending
+gradually. He felt an intense hope that it was Lannes, but he soon knew
+that it was not lie. The approaching machine could not possibly be the
+_Arrow_.
+
+"It's a Bleriot monoplane," said Weber. "I can tell the type almost as
+far as I can see it. It's much like a gigantic bird, with powerful
+parchment wings mounted upon a strong body. The wings as you see now
+present a concave surface to the earth. They always do that. The flyer
+sits between the two wings and has in front of him the lever with which
+he controls the whole affair."
+
+"You seem to know a good deal about flying machines, Weber."
+
+"Oh, yes, I've observed them a lot. I've always been curious about them
+and I've attended the great flying meets at Rheims, but personally I'm a
+coward about heights. I study the types of these wonderful machines, but
+I don't go up in 'em. That's a little fellow coming now and he's seen
+the flag."
+
+"There's only one man in the plane, but as he's undoubtedly French what
+do you think we ought to do? He can't carry us away with him in the
+machine, it's too small. Do you think we should signal him to come to
+the ground and have a talk?"
+
+"Perhaps we'd better let him pass, Mr. Scott. We have no real
+information to give. He might suspect that we are Germans and a lot of
+time would be lost maneuvering. Suppose we remain in hiding, and say
+nothing until Lannes himself appears."
+
+"You still feel sure that he will come?"
+
+"It's a conviction."
+
+"Same way with me, and I agree with you that we'd better let our friend
+in the Bleriot go by. He's descending fast now. The plane certainly does
+look like a bird. Reminds me somewhat of a German Taube, though this
+machine is much smaller."
+
+"The pilot will take only a look or two at the flag. Then, if we don't
+hail him, he'll sail swiftly back to the west."
+
+"For good reasons too. The air here is chiefly in the German sphere of
+influence, and if I were in his place I'd take to my heels too at a
+single glance."
+
+"That's what he's doing now. He's flying past the flag just as one of
+the Germans did. He leans over to take a look at it, can't make out what
+it means, glances back apprehensively toward the German quarter of the
+heavens, and now he's sliding like a streak through the blue for French
+air."
+
+"So near and yet so far! A friend in the air just over our heads, and we
+had to let him go. Well, he couldn't have done us any good."
+
+"No, he couldn't, and he's gone back so fast that he's out of sight
+already, but another and different inhabitant of the air is coming out
+of the south. See, the shape off there, Mr. Scott. Wait until it comes
+nearer, and I think I can tell you what it is. Now it's made out the
+flag and is steering for it."
+
+"What class of plane is it, Weber? Can you tell that yet?"
+
+"Yes. It's an Esnault-Pelterie, an invention of a young Frenchman. It's
+a monoplane with flexible, warped wings. It's made of steel tubes,
+welded together, and it has two wheels, one behind the other for contact
+with the ground."
+
+"I noticed something queer in its appearance. It's the wheels. I don't
+call this machine any great beauty, but it seems to cut the air well. I
+suppose we'd better treat it as we did the Bleriot--let it go as it
+came, none the worse and none the wiser?"
+
+"I think so. But we have no other choice! That flyer is a suspicious
+fellow and he isn't taking any chances. He's come fairly close to the
+flag, and now he's sheering off at an angle."
+
+"I don't blame him. He probably has something more important to do than
+to unravel the meaning of a flag in a tree top."
+
+"Nor I either. But whatever comes we'll wait for Lannes, always for
+Lannes. The heavens here, Mr. Scott, are peopled with strange birds, but
+of all the lot there is one particular bird for which we are looking."
+
+"Right again. My eyes have grown a little weary of watching the skies.
+For a long stare, blue isn't as soft and easy a sight as green, and I
+think I'll look at the grass and leaves for a little while."
+
+"Then while you rest I'll keep an outlook and when I'm tired you can
+relieve me."
+
+"Good enough."
+
+John lay down in the grass and rested his body while he eased his worn
+eyes. Weber commented now and then on the new birds in the heavens,
+aeroplanes of all kinds, but they kept their distance.
+
+"The air over us is not held now by either French or Germans," said
+Weber, "and I imagine that only the more daring make incursions into it.
+Perhaps, too, they are kept busy elsewhere, because, as my ears
+distinctly tell me, the battle is increasing in volume."
+
+"I noticed the swelling fire when I lay down here," said John. "It seems
+a strange thing, but for a while I had forgotten all about the battle."
+
+Presently Weber took his eyes from the heavens, moved about and looked
+uneasy.
+
+"If I'm not mistaken," he said, "I caught a glimpse of steel down the
+river. I think it was a lance head glittering in the sun, and Uhlans may
+be near."
+
+"How far away do you think it was."
+
+"A half-mile or more. I must take a look in that direction. I'm a good
+scout, Mr. Scott, and I'll see what's up. Watch here will you, until I
+come back? It may be some time."
+
+"All right, but don't get yourself captured, Weber. I'd be mighty
+lonesome without you."
+
+"Don't fear for me. Of course, as I told you, I'll be gone for some
+time, and if I may suggest, Mr. Scott, I wouldn't move from among the
+vines."
+
+"Catch me doing it! I'll say here in my green bower and as my eyes are
+back in form I'll watch the heavens."
+
+"Good-bye, then, for a while."
+
+Weber slipped away. His tread was so light that he vanished, as if he
+had melted into air.
+
+"That man would certainly have made a good scout in our old Indian
+days," thought John, and with the thought came the conviction that Weber
+was too clever to let himself be caught. Then he turned his attention
+back to the heavens.
+
+They were now well on into the afternoon, and the sun was at the zenith.
+A haze of gold shimmered against the vast blue vault. A wind perfumed
+with grass and green leaves, brought also the ceaseless roar of the
+guns, and now and then the bitter taste of burned gunpowder. The faint
+trembling of the earth, or rather of the air just above it, went on, and
+John, turning about in his little bower, surveyed the heavens from all
+quarters.
+
+He saw shapes, faint, dark and floating on every horizon, but none of
+them came near until a full half-hour had elapsed. Then one shot out of
+the west, sailed toward the northeast, but curving suddenly, came back
+in the direction of the tree. As the shape grew larger and more defined
+John's heart began to throb. He had seen many aeroplanes that day, and
+most of them had been swift and graceful, but none was as swift and
+graceful as the one that was now coming.
+
+It was a machine, beautiful in shape, and as lithe and fast as the
+darting swallow. There could be none other like it in the heavens, and
+his heart throbbed harder. Intuition, perhaps, was back of knowledge and
+he never for a moment doubted that it was he for whom they had looked so
+long.
+
+The aeroplane seemed fairly to shoot out of space. First its outlines
+became visible, and then the man at the rudder. He came straight toward
+the tree, dropped low and circled about it, while John rushed from the
+vines and cried as loud as he could:
+
+"Lannes! Lannes, it's me! John Scott! I've been waiting for you!"
+
+The _Arrow_ dropped further, barely touched the earth, and Lannes,
+leaning over, shouted to John in tones, tense and sharp with command:
+
+"Give the plane a shove with all your might, and jump in. For God's sake
+don't linger, man! Jump!"
+
+The impulse communicated by Lannes was so powerful that before he knew
+what he was doing John pushed the _Arrow_ violently and sprang into the
+extra seat, just as it was leaving the earth.
+
+Lannes gave the rudder a strong twist and the aeroplane shot up like a
+mounting bird. John got back his breath and presence of mind.
+
+"Wait, Philip! Wait!" he cried. "We're leaving behind our friend Weber!
+He's down there, somewhere by the river!"
+
+Lannes made no reply. The _Arrow_ continued its rise, sharp and swift,
+and John heard a crackling sound below. Little missiles, steel and
+deadly, shot by them. One passed so close to his face that his breath
+went again. When he recovered it once more the _Arrow_, its inmates,
+unharmed, was far above the range of rifles, flying in a circle.
+
+"Look down, John," said Lannes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+OLD FRIENDS
+
+
+John, obeying Lannes' command, glanced down, as one looks over the side
+of a ship toward the sea, and he saw many horsemen galloping across the
+field. He recognized at once the Uhlans, and, for all he knew; they
+might be von Boehlen's own command.
+
+"Hand me your glasses, will you?" he said.
+
+When Lannes passed them to him he looked long and well, but he did not
+see any sign of a prisoner among the Prussians. He also searched the
+woods and other fields near by, but they were empty. The whole Prussian
+force was gathered beneath them. John breathed a deep sigh of relief.
+
+"It's evident that Weber has escaped," he said. "Doubtless this was the
+very troop of Uhlans of which the Alsatian had caught a glimpse. He is
+clever and swift and I've no doubt he found a covert."
+
+"I'm sorry we had to leave him," said Lannes, "but there was no other
+choice. I came to the tree to examine the flag, and being above I saw
+the Uhlans nearby before you did. Then I heard your shout and dropped
+down. But as I knew the Uhlans were coming for us I made you jump almost
+before you knew it, and we got away by a hair. The _Arrow_ was struck
+twice, but the bullets glanced off its polished sides. There are two
+slight scars, but I can have them removed."
+
+John laughed.
+
+"Philip," he said, "I believe you love the _Arrow_ as a fellow loves his
+best girl."
+
+"Well spoken, Monsieur Jean the Scott, and the _Arrow_ never fails me.
+And so you've been with Weber?"
+
+"It's a long tale. I was in a boat crossing the Marne. It was sunk by
+one of the French shells, and I escaped. I reached the deserted cottage
+of a peasant, and Weber, who was wandering around, happened to come
+there, too. We've been trying to escape today, and we put that flag up
+in the tree as a sort of signal, while we hid among the vines below,
+until you should come, as he believed you would. He was right, but he
+was unlucky enough to be absent when you arrived." "Maybe it couldn't
+have happened in a better way. The _Arrow_ can carry only two, and I
+don't know what we'd have done with him. He's a clever fellow and he'll
+make his way back to the army."
+
+"I hope so, in fact I feel so. But, Philip, it's glorious to be with you
+again, and to be up here, where the bullets can't reach you."
+
+"That is, so long as the German flyers don't come near enough to take
+shots at us."
+
+"I don't see any in sight, and meanwhile I intend to be comfortable.
+Good old _Arrow_! The best little rescuer in the world! Lannes, I
+believe it's a large part of your business to fly about over fields of
+battle and rescue me."
+
+"You certainly give me plenty of opportunities," laughed Lannes.
+
+"What's been happening? I fancy that a lot of water has flowed under the
+bridges of the Marne since I left you."
+
+"We continue to gain," replied Lannes, with quiet satisfaction. "We
+press the German armies back everywhere. Our supreme chief is a silent
+man, but he has delivered a master stroke. We've emerged from the very
+gulf of defeat and despair to the heights of victory. We're not only
+driving the Germans across the Marne, but we're driving them further.
+Moreover, their armies are cut apart, and one is fighting for its
+existence, just as the French and English were fighting for theirs in
+that terrible retreat from Mons and Charleroi."
+
+"It's glorious, but we mustn't be too sanguine, Lannes. The powers that
+overcome the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires will not forget for a
+hundred years that they had a war."
+
+"You're not telling me any news, Monsieur Jean the Scott. I've been in
+Germany often, and like you I've seen what they have and what they are.
+We're only beginning."
+
+"Where are you going now, Philip?"
+
+"Toward the end of our line. I've some dispatches for the commander of
+the British force. Your friends, Carstairs and Wharton, are there, and
+you may see them. But I understand that the Strangers are to remain with
+the French, so you, Carstairs and Wharton will have to consider
+yourselves Frenchmen and stay under our banner."
+
+"That's all right. I hope we'll be under the command of General
+Vaugirard. Do you know anything of him?"
+
+"Not today, but he was alive yesterday. Take the glasses now, John, will
+you, and be my eyes as you have been before. One needs to watch the
+heavens all the time."
+
+John took Lannes' powerful glasses, and objects invisible before leaped
+into view.
+
+"I see two or three rivers, a dozen villages, and troops," he said. "The
+troops are to the west, and although they are this side of the Marne, I
+should judge that they are ours."
+
+"Ours undoubtedly," said Lannes, glancing the way John's glasses
+pointed. "Not less than a hundred thousand of our men have crossed the
+Marne at that point, and more will soon be coming. It's a part of the
+great wedge thrust forward by our chief. But keep your eye on the air,
+John. What do you see there?"
+
+"Nothing that's near. In the east I barely catch seven or eight black
+dots that I take to be German aeroplanes, but they seem to be content
+with hovering over their own lines. They don't approach."
+
+"Doubtless they don't, because they're beginning to watch the air over
+the Marne as a danger zone. That pretty little signal of yours may have
+scared them."
+
+Lannes laughed. It was evident that he was in a most excellent humor.
+
+"All right, have your fun," said John, showing his own teeth in a smile.
+"If our flag didn't frighten away the German army it at least achieved
+what we wanted, that is, it brought you. The whole episode would be
+perfect if it were not for the fact that we lost sight of Weber."
+
+"I tell you again not to worry about him. That man has shown uncommon
+ability to take care of himself."
+
+"All right. I'll let him go for the present. Hello, here we are crossing
+the Marne again, and without getting our feet wet."
+
+"We're a good half mile above it, but we'll cross it once more soon. I'm
+following the shortest road to the British army and that takes us over a
+loop of the river."
+
+"Yes, here we are recrossing, and now we're coming to a region of
+chequered fields, green and brown and yellow. I always like these varied
+colors of the French country. It's a beautiful land down there, Philip."
+
+"So it is, but see if it isn't defaced by sixty or seventy thousand
+sunburnt men in khaki, the khaki often stained with blood. The men, too,
+should be tired to death, but you can't tell that from this height."
+
+"The British army you mean? Yes, by all that's glorious, I see them, or
+at least a part of them! I see thousands of men lying down in the
+fields as if they were dead."
+
+"They're not dead, though. They just drop in their tracks and sleep in
+any position."
+
+"I saw the Germans doing that, too. I suppose we'll land soon, Philip,
+won't we? They've sighted us and a plane is coming forward to meet us."
+
+"We'll make for the meadow over there just beyond the little stream. I
+think I can discern the general's marquee, and I must deliver my message
+as soon as possible. Wave to that fellow that we're friends."
+
+An English aeroplane was now very near them and John, leaning over, made
+gestures of amity. Although the aviator's head was almost completely
+enshrouded in a hood, he discerned a typically British face.
+
+"Kings of the air, with dispatches for your general!" John cried. He
+knew that the man would not hear him, but he was so exultant that he
+wanted to say something, to shout to him, or in the slang of his own
+land, to let off steam.
+
+But while the English aviator could not understand the words the
+gestures were clear to him, and he waved a hand in friendly fashion.
+Then, wheeling in a fine circle, he came back by their side as an
+escort.
+
+The _Arrow_, like a bird, folding its wings, sank gracefully into the
+meadow, and Lannes, hastily jumping out, asked John to look after the
+aeroplane. Then he rushed toward a group of officers, among whom he
+recognized the chief of the army.
+
+John himself disembarked stiffly, and stretched his limbs, while several
+young Englishmen looked at him curiously. He had learned long since how
+to deal with Englishmen, that is to take no notice of them until they
+made their presence known, and then to acquiesce slowly and reluctantly
+in their existence. So, he took short steps back and forth on the grass,
+flexing and tensing his muscles, as abstractedly as if he were alone on
+a desert island.
+
+"I say," said a handsome fair young man at last, "would you mind telling
+us, old chap, where you come from?"
+
+John continued to stretch his muscles and took several long and deep
+breaths. After the delay he turned to the fair young man and said:
+
+"Beg pardon, but did you speak to me?"
+
+The Englishman flushed a little and pulled at his yellow mustache. An
+older man said:
+
+"Don't press His Highness, Lord James. Don't you see that he's an
+American and therefore privileged?"
+
+"I'm privileged," said John, "because I was with you fellows from
+Belgium to Paris, and since then I've been away saving you from the
+Germans."
+
+Lord James laughed. He had a fine face and all embarrassment disappeared
+from it.
+
+"We want to be friends," he said. "Shake hands."
+
+John shook. He also shook the hand of the older man and several others.
+Then he explained who he was, and told who had come with him, none less
+than the famous young French aviator, Philip Lannes.
+
+"Lannes," said Mr. Yellow Mustache, who, John soon learned, was Lord
+James Ivor. "Why, we've all heard of him. He's come to the chief with
+messages a half-dozen times since this battle began, and I judge from
+the way he rushed to him just now that he has another, that can't be
+delayed."
+
+"I think so, too," said John, "although I don't know anything about it
+myself. He's a close-mouthed fellow. But do any of you happen to have
+heard of an Englishman, Carstairs, and an American, Wharton, who belong
+to a company called the Strangers in the French army, but who must be at
+present with you--that is, if they're alive?"
+
+John's voice dropped a little, as he added the last words, but Lord
+James Ivor walked to the brow of a low hill, called to somebody beyond,
+and then walked back.
+
+"It's a happy chance that I can tell you what you want to know," he
+said. "Those two men have been serving in my own company, and they're
+both alive and well. But they were lying on the grass there, dead to the
+world, that is, sleeping, as if they were two of the original seven
+sleepers."
+
+Two figures appeared on the brow of the hill, gazed at first in a
+puzzled manner at John and then, uttering shouts of welcome, rushed
+toward him. Carstairs seized him by one hand and Wharton by the other.
+
+"Not killed, I see," said Carstairs.
+
+"Nor is he going to be killed," said Wharton.
+
+"Now, where have you been?" asked Carstairs.
+
+"Yes, where have you been?" asked Wharton.
+
+"I've been taking a couple of pleasure trips with my friend, Lannes,"
+replied John. "Between trips I was a prisoner of the Germans, and I've
+seen a lot of the great battle. Has the British army suffered much?"
+
+A shade flitted over the face of Carstairs as he replied:
+
+"We haven't been shot up so much since Waterloo. It's been appalling.
+For days and nights we've been fighting and marching. Whenever we
+stopped even for a moment we fell on the ground and were asleep before
+we touched it. Half the fellows I knew have been killed. I think as long
+as I live I'll hear the drumming of those guns in my ears, and, confound
+'em, I still hear 'em in reality now. If you turn your attention to it
+you can hear the confounded business quite plainly! But what I do know,
+Scott, is that we've been winning! I don't know where I am and I haven't
+a clear idea of what I've been doing all the time, but as sure as we're
+in France the victory is ours."
+
+"But won by the French chiefly" John could not keep from saying.
+
+"Quite true. Our own army is not large, but it has done as much per
+man."
+
+"And the moral support," added John. "The French have felt the presence
+of a friend, a friend, too, who in six months will be ten times as
+strong as he is now."
+
+"Where is Lannes?" asked Wharton.
+
+"He's got your job, Wharton," replied John with a smile. "He's Envoy
+Extraordinary and Bearer of Messages concerning Life and Death between
+the armies. As soon as he landed he went directly to the British
+commander, and they're now conferring in a tent. That will never happen
+to you. You will never be closeted with the leader of a great army."
+
+"I don't know. I may not be able to fly like the Frenchman, but he can't
+handle the wireless as I can, and he isn't the chain-lightning chauffeur
+that Carstairs is. Please to remember those facts."
+
+"I do. But here comes Lannes, the man of mystery."
+
+Lannes seemed preoccupied, but he greeted Carstairs and Wharton warmly.
+
+"I'm about to take another flight," he said. "No, thank you so much, but
+I've time neither to eat nor to drink. I must fly at once, though it's
+to be a short flight. Take care of my friend, Monsieur Jean the Scott,
+while I'm gone, won't you? Don't let him wander into German hands again,
+because I won't have time to go for him once more."
+
+"We won't!" said Carstairs and Wharton with one voice. "Having got him
+back we're going to keep him."
+
+Lannes smiling sprang into the _Arrow_. The willing young Englishmen
+gave it a mighty push, and rising into the blue afternoon sky he sailed
+away toward the south.
+
+"He'll be back all right," said Carstairs. "I've come to the conclusion
+that nothing can ever catch that fellow. He's a wonder, he is. One of
+the most difficult jobs I have, Scott, is to give the French all the
+credit that's due 'em. I've been trained, as all other Englishmen were,
+to consider 'em pretty poor stuff that we've licked regularly for a
+thousand years, and here we suddenly find 'em heroes and
+brothers-in-arms. It's all the fault of the writers. Was it Shakespeare
+who said: 'Methinks that five Frenchmen on one pair of English legs did
+walk?'"
+
+"No," said Lord James Ivor, "It was the other way around. 'Methinks that
+one Englishman on five pairs of French legs did walk.'"
+
+"I'm not so sure about the number, either," interjected Wharton. "Are
+you positive it was five?"
+
+"Whatever it was," said Carstairs, "the Frenchman was slandered, and by
+our own great bard, too. But come and take something with us, if Lord
+James, our immediate chief, is willing."
+
+"He's willing, and he'll go with you," said Lord James Ivor. "I need a
+bite myself and in war like this a man can't afford to neglect food and
+drink, when the chance is offered."
+
+"The habits of you Europeans are strong," said John, whose spirits were
+still exuberant. "If you didn't have to stop now and then to work or to
+fight you'd eat all the time. One meal would merge into another, making
+a beautiful, savory chain linked together. I know the Englishman's
+heaven perfectly well. It's made of lakes of ale, beer, porter and
+Scotch highballs, surrounded by high banks of cheese, mutton and roast
+beef."
+
+"There could be worse heavens," said Carstairs, "and if it should happen
+that way it wouldn't be long before you Yankees would be trying to break
+out of your heaven and into ours. But here's a taste of it now, the
+cheese, for instance, and the beer, although it's in bottles."
+
+A spry Tommy Atkins served them, and John, thankful at heart, ate and
+drank with the best of them. And while they ate the pulsing waves of air
+from the battle beat upon their ears. It seemed to these young men to
+have been beating that way for weeks.
+
+"Lannes will be back soon," said John to Carstairs and Wharton, "and
+he'll tear you away from your friends here. You think, Carstairs, that
+you're an Englishman, and you're convinced, Wharton, that you're an
+American, but you're both wrong. You're Frenchmen, and you're going back
+to the French army, where you belong. Then Captain Daniel Colton of the
+Strangers will want to know from you why you haven't returned sooner."
+
+"But how are we to go?" said Carstairs.
+
+"And where are we to go?" said Wharton.
+
+"I'd go in a minute," added Carstairs, "if the German army would let
+me."
+
+"So would I," said Wharton, "but the Germans fight so hard that we can't
+get away."
+
+"Lannes will attend to all those matters," said John. "I'll rest until
+he comes, if I have the chance. Is that your artillery firing?"
+
+"It's our big guns out in front," said Lord James Ivor. "Jove, but what
+work they've done! A lot of our guns have been smashed, one half of our
+gunners maybe have been smashed with 'em, but they've never flinched.
+They covered our retreat from Belgium, and they've been the heralds of
+our advance here on the Marne! Listen to 'em! How they talk!"
+
+The heavy crash of guns far in front and the thunder of the German guns
+replying came back to their ears. It was a louder note in the general
+and ceaseless murmur of the battle, but the young men paid it only a
+passing moment of attention. Carstairs presently added as an
+afterthought:
+
+"Unless Lannes returns soon I don't think we'll hear from him. That
+blaze of the guns in front of us indicates close fighting again, and
+we'll probably be ordered forward soon."
+
+"I don't think so," said Lord James Ivor. "Our guns and the German guns
+will talk together for quite a while before the infantry advance. You
+can spend a good two hours with us yet, and still have time to depart
+for the French army."
+
+It was evident that Lord James Ivor knew what he was talking about,
+since, as far as John could see, the khaki army lay outspread on the
+turf. These men were too much exhausted and too much dulled to danger to
+stir merely because the cannon were blazing. It took the sharp orders of
+their officers to move them. Shells from the German guns began to fall
+along the fringe of the troops, but thousands slept heavily on.
+
+John, after disposing of the excellent rations offered to him, sat down
+on the grass with Wharton, Carstairs and Lord James Ivor. The sun was
+now waning, but the western sky was full of gold, and the yellow rays
+slanting across the hills and fields made them vivid with light. Lord
+James handed his glasses to John with the remark:
+
+"Would you like to take a look there toward the east, Scott?"
+
+John with the help of the glasses discerned the English batteries in
+action. He saw the men working about them, the muzzles pointing upward,
+and then the flash. Some of the guns were completely hidden in foliage,
+and he could detect their presence only by the heavy detonations coming
+from such points. Yet, like many of the English soldiers about him,
+John's mind did not respond to so much battle. He looked at the flashes,
+and he listened to the reports without emotion. His senses had become
+dulled by it, and registered no impressions.
+
+"We've masked our batteries as much as possible," said Lord James. "The
+Germans are great fellows at hiding their big guns. They use every clump
+of wood, hay stacks, stray stacks and anything else, behind which you
+could put a piece of artillery. They trained harder before the war, but
+we'll soon be able to match 'em."
+
+While Lord James was talking, John turned the glasses to the south and
+watched the sky. He had observed two black dots, both of which grew fast
+into the shape of aeroplanes. One, he knew, was the _Arrow_. He had
+learned to recognize the plane at a vast distance. It was something in
+the shape or a trick of motion perhaps, almost like that of a human
+being, with which he had become familiar and which he could not mistake.
+The other plane, by the side of Lannes' machine, bothered him. It was
+much larger than the _Arrow_, but they seemed to be on terms of perfect
+friendship, each the consort of the other.
+
+"Lannes is coming," announced John. "He's four or five miles to the
+south and he's about a quarter of a mile up, but he has company. Will
+you have a look, Lord James?"
+
+Lord James Ivor, taking back his own glasses, studied the two
+approaching planes.
+
+"The small one looks like your friend's plane," he said, "and the other,
+although much bigger, has only one man in it too. But they fly along
+like twins. We'll soon know all about them because they're coming
+straight to us. They're descending now into this field."
+
+The _Arrow_ slanted gently to the earth and the larger machine descended
+near by. Lannes stepped out of one, and an older man, whom John
+recognized as the aviator Caumartin, alighted from the other.
+
+"My friends," said Lannes, cheerily, "here we are again. You see I've
+brought with me a friend, Monsieur Caumartin, a brave man, and a great
+aviator."
+
+He paused to introduce Caumartin to Wharton and the Englishmen, and then
+went on:
+
+"This flying machine in which our friend Caumartin comes is not so swift
+and so graceful as the _Arrow_--few aeroplanes are--but it is strong and
+it has the capacity. It is what you might call an excursion steamer of
+the air. It can take several people and our good Caumartin has come in
+it for Lieutenant Wharton and Lieutenant Carstairs. So! he has an order
+for them written by the brave Captain Colton of the Strangers. Produce
+the order, Monsieur Caumartin."
+
+The aviator took a note from a pocket in his jacket and handed it to
+Lord James Ivor, who announced that it was in truth such an order.
+
+"You're to be delivered to the Strangers F.O.B.," said John.
+
+"What's F.O.B.?" exclaimed Carstairs.
+
+"It's a shipping term of my country," replied John. "It means Free on
+Board, and you'll arrive among the Strangers without charge."
+
+"But," said Carstairs, looking dubiously at the big, ugly machine,
+"automobiles are my specialty!"
+
+"And the wireless is mine!" said Wharton in the same doubting tone.
+
+"Oh, it's easy," said John lightly. "Easiest thing in the world. You
+have nothing to do but sit still and look calm and wise. If you're
+attacked by a Zeppelin, throw bombs--no doubt Caumartin has them on
+board--but if a flock of Taubes assail you use your automatics. I
+congratulate you both on making your first flight under such auspices,
+with two armies of a million men each, more or less, looking at you, and
+with the chance to dodge the shells from four or five thousand cannon."
+
+"Your trouble, Scott, is talking too much," said Wharton, "because you
+went up in the air when you had no other way to go, you think you're a
+bird."
+
+"So I am at times," laughed John. "A bird without the feathers. Come
+now, brace up! Remember that the solid earth is always below you, a long
+way below, perhaps, but it's there, and Friend Caumartin is bound to
+deliver you soon to your rightful master, Captain Daniel Colton, who
+will talk to you like an affectionate but stern parent."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, let's start and get away from this wild Yankee,"
+said Carstairs.
+
+"But you won't get away from me," rejoined John. "Lannes and I in the
+_Arrow_ will watch over you all the way, and, if we can, rescue you,
+should your plane break down."
+
+Caumartin supplied Wharton and Carstairs with suitable coats and caps,
+and they took their places unflinchingly in the big plane. Their hearts
+may have been beating hard, but they would not let their hands tremble.
+
+"I suppose the _Omnibus_ starts first, Philip, doesn't it?" asked John.
+
+"Yes," replied Lannes, smiling, "and we can overtake it. _Omnibus_ is a
+good name for it. We'll call it that. It looks awkward, John, but it's
+one of the safest machines built."
+
+Plenty of willing hands gave the _Omnibus_ a lift and then did a like
+service for the _Arrow_. As they rose, aviators and passengers alike
+waved a farewell to Lord James Ivor, and he and the Englishmen about him
+waved back. But the thousands lying on the grass slept heavily on, while
+the cannon on their utmost fringe thundered and crashed and the German
+cannon crashed and thundered, replying.
+
+The _Arrow_ kept close to the _Omnibus_, so close that John could see
+the white faces of Wharton and Carstairs and their hands clenching the
+sides. But he remembered his own original experience, and he was not
+disposed to jest at them now.
+
+"They're air-sick--as I was," he said to Lannes. "Call to them to look
+westward at the troops," said Lannes. "Great portions of the French and
+English armies are now visible, and such a sight will make them forget
+their natural apprehensions."
+
+Lannes was right. When they beheld the magnificent panorama spread out
+for them the color came back into the faces of Carstairs and Wharton,
+and their clenched fingers relaxed. The spectacle was indeed grand and
+gorgeous as they looked up at the sky, down at the earth, and at the
+line where they met. The sun was now low, but mighty terraces of red and
+gold rose in the west, making it a blaze of varied colors. In the east
+the terraces were silver and silver gray, and the light there was
+softer. The green earth beneath was mottled with the red and silver and
+gold from the skies.
+
+The German army was yet invisible beyond the hills, although the cannon
+were flashing there, but to the west they saw vast masses of infantry,
+some stationary, while others moved slowly forward. Looking upon this
+wonderful sight, Wharton and Carstairs forgot that they were high in the
+air. Their hearts beat fast, and their eyes became brilliant with
+enthusiasm. They waved hands at the _Arrow_ which flew near like a
+guiding friend.
+
+"Wonderful, isn't it?" shouted John.
+
+"I never expect to see its like again," Carstairs shouted back, and
+then, lest he should not be true to his faith, he added:
+
+"But I won't desert the automobile. It's my best friend."
+
+"British obstinacy!" shouted John.
+
+Carstairs shouted back something, but the planes were now too far apart
+for him to hear. John saw that the _Omnibus_, despite her awkward look,
+was flying well and he also saw through Lannes' glasses four aeroplanes
+bearing up from the east. He did not say much until he had examined them
+well and had concluded that they were Taubes.
+
+"Lannes," he said, "German machines are trespassing on our air, and
+unless I'm mistaken they're making for us."
+
+"It's likely. Just under the locker there you'll find a rifle, and a
+belt of cartridges. It's a good weapon, and if the pinch comes you'll
+have to use it. Are your friends good shots?"
+
+"I think they are, and I know they're as brave as lions."
+
+"Then they'll have a chance to show it. The _Omnibus_ carries several
+rifles and an abundance of ammunition. She might be called a cargo boat,
+as there's a lot of room on her. I'm going to bear in close, and you
+tell Caumartin and the others of the danger."
+
+The _Arrow_ swerved, came near to the _Omnibus_, and John shouted the
+warning. Carstairs and Wharton instantly seized rifles and he saw them
+lay two others loaded at their feet. With the prospect of a battle for
+life air-sickness disappeared.
+
+"You can rely on them, Philip," said John as the _Arrow_ bore away a
+little, "but I don't like the looks of one of those German machines."
+
+"What's odd about it?"
+
+"It's bigger than the others. Ah, now I see! It carries a machine gun."
+
+"That's bad. It can send a hail of metal at us. It's lucky that
+aeroplanes are such unstable gun-platforms. When platforms and targets
+are alike swerving it's hard to hit anything. We're going to rise and
+dive, and rise and dive and swerve and swerve, John, so be ready. I'll
+signal to Caumartin to do the same, and maybe the machine gun won't get
+us."
+
+John was quite sure that the _Arrow_ could escape by immediate flight,
+but he knew that Lannes would never desert the _Omnibus_, and its
+passengers, and he felt the same way. The subject was not even mentioned
+by either.
+
+The German machines, approaching rapidly, spread out like a fan, the
+heavier one with the machine gun in the center. John could see the man
+at the rapid firer, but he did not yet open with it. The _Arrow_ and the
+_Omnibus_ were wavering like feathers in a storm and closer range was
+needed. John sat with his own rifle across his knee and then looked at
+Wharton in the _Omnibus_ scarcely a hundred yards away. The figure of
+Wharton was tense and rigid. His rifle was raised and his eyes never
+left the man at the machine gun.
+
+"I forgot to tell you, Philip," said John, "that Wharton is a great
+sharpshooter. It's natural to him, and I don't believe the shifting
+platform will interfere with his aim."
+
+"Then I hope that he never has done better sharp-shooting than he will
+do today. Ah, there goes the machine gun!"
+
+There was a rapid rat-a-tat, not so clear and distinct as it would have
+been at the same distance on ground, and a stream of bullets poured from
+the machine gun. But they passed between the _Arrow_ and the _Omnibus_,
+and only cut the unoffending air. Meanwhile Wharton was watching. A
+wrath, cold but consuming, had taken hold of him. The fact that he was
+high above the earth, perched in a swaying unstable seat was forgotten.
+He had eyes and thought only for the murderous machine gun and the man
+who worked it. An instinctive marksman, he and his rifle were now as
+one, and of all the birds of prey in the air at that moment Wharton was
+the most dangerous.
+
+The machine gun was silent for a minute. The riflemen in the Taubes on
+the wings of the attacking force fired a few shots, but all of them went
+wild. John, tense and silent, sat with his own rifle raised, but half of
+the time he watched Wharton.
+
+The two forces came a little nearer. Again the machine gun poured forth
+its stream of bullets. Two glanced off the sides of the _Omnibus_, and
+then John saw Wharton's rifle leap to his shoulder. The movement and the
+flash of the weapon were so near together that be seemed to take no aim.
+Yet his bullet sped true. The man at the machine gun, who was standing
+in a stooped position, threw up his hands, fell backward and out of the
+plane. A thrill of horror shot through John, and he shut his eyes a
+moment to keep from seeing that falling body.
+
+"What has happened?" asked Lannes, who had not looked around.
+
+"Wharton has shot the man at the machine gun clean out of the aeroplane.
+He must be falling yet."
+
+"Ghastly, but necessary. Has anybody taken the slain man's place?"
+
+"Yes, another has sprung to the gun! But he's gone! Wharton has shot him
+too! He's fallen on the floor of the car, and he lies quite still."
+
+"Your friend is indeed a sharpshooter. How many men are left in the
+plane?"
+
+"Only one! No, good God, there's none! Wharton has shot the third man
+also, and now the machine goes whirling and falling through space!"
+
+"I said that friend of yours must be a sharpshooter," said Lannes, in a
+tone of awe, "but he must be more! He must be the king of all riflemen.
+It's evident that the _Omnibus_ knows how to defend herself. I'll swing
+in a little, and you can take a shot or two."
+
+John fired once, without hitting anything but the air, which made no
+complaint, but the battle was over. Horrified by the fate that had
+overtaken their comrades and seeing help for their enemy at hand the
+Taubes withdrew.
+
+The _Arrow_ and the _Omnibus_ flew on toward the French lines, whence
+other machines were coming to meet them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE CONTINUING BATTLE
+
+
+The _Arrow_ bore in toward the _Omnibus_. Wharton had put his rifle
+aside and was staring downward as if he would see the wreck that he had
+made. Lannes called to him loudly:
+
+"You've saved us all!"
+
+Wharton looked rather white, but he shouted back:
+
+"I had no other choice."
+
+The French aeroplanes were around them now, their motors drumming
+steadily and the aviators shouting congratulations to Lannes and
+Caumartin, whom they knew well. It was a friendly group, full of pride
+and exultation, and the _Arrow_ and the _Omnibus_ had a triumphant
+escort. Soon they were directly over the French, and then they began
+their descent. As usual, when they reached the army they made it amid
+cheers, and the first man who greeted John was short and young but with
+a face of pride.
+
+"You have come back to us out of the air, Monsieur Scott," he said, "and
+I salute you."
+
+It was Pierre Louis Bougainville, made a colonel already for
+extraordinary, almost unprecedented, valor and ability in so young a
+man. John recognized his rank by his uniform, and he acknowledged it
+gladly.
+
+"It's true, I have come back, Colonel Bougainville," he said, "and right
+glad I am to come. I see that your country has had no cause to complain
+of you in the last week."
+
+"Nor of hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen," said Bougainville. "Your
+company, the Strangers, is close at hand, and here is your captain now."
+
+Captain Daniel Colton, thin and ascetic, walked forward. John gave him
+his best salute and said:
+
+"Captain Colton, I beg to report to you for duty."
+
+A light smile passed swiftly over Cotton's face.
+
+"You're a little late, Lieutenant Scott," he said.
+
+"I know it, sir, but I've brought Lieutenant Carstairs and Lieutenant
+Wharton with me. There have been obstacles which prevented our speedy
+return. We've done our best."
+
+"I can well believe it. You left on horseback, and you return by air.
+But I'm most heartily glad to see all three of you again. I feared that
+you were dead."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said John. "But we don't mean to die."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Captain Colton, gravely, "death has been all about
+us for days and nights. Many of the Strangers are gone. You will find
+the living lying in the little valley just beyond us, and you can resume
+your duties."
+
+Lannes, after a word or two, left them, and Caumartin took the
+_Omnibus_ to another part of the field. Lannes' importance was
+continually growing in John's eyes, nor was it the effect of
+imagination. He saw that under the new conditions of warfare the ability
+of the young Frenchman to carry messages between generals separated
+widely could not be overrated. He might depart that very night on
+another flight.
+
+"May I ask, sir," he said to Captain Colton, "to what command or
+division the Strangers are now attached?"
+
+"To that of General Vaugirard, a very able man."
+
+"I'm glad to hear it, sir. I know him. I was with him before I was taken
+by the Germans."
+
+"It seems that you're about to have a general reunion," said Carstairs
+to young Scott, as they walked away.
+
+"I am, and I'm mighty happy over it. I'll admit that I was rather glad
+to see you, you blooming Britisher."
+
+About one-third of the Strangers were gone forever, and the rest, except
+the higher officers, were prostrate in the glade. White, worn and
+motionless they lay in the same stupor that John had seen overtake the
+German troops. Some were flat upon their backs, with arms outstretched,
+looking like crosses, others lay on their faces, and others were curled
+up on their sides. Few were over twenty-five. Nearly all had mothers in
+America or Great Britain.
+
+While they slept the guns yet grumbled at many points. The sound on the
+horizon had gone on so long now that it seemed normal to John. He knew
+that it would continue so throughout the night, and maybe for many more
+days and nights. Unless it came near and made him a direct personal
+menace he would pay no attention to it.
+
+It was growing late. Night was spreading once more over the vast battle
+field, stretching over thirty leagues maybe. The common soldier knew
+nothing, majors and colonels knew little more, but the silent man whose
+invisible hand had swept the gigantic German army back from Paris knew
+much. While the fire of the artillery continued under the searchlights
+the exhausted infantry sank down. Then the telephones began to talk over
+a vast stretch of space, dazzling white lights made signals, the
+sputtering wireless sent messages in the air, and the flying machines
+shot through the heavens. Commanders talked to one another in many ways
+now, and they would talk all through the night.
+
+John and his comrades ate supper, while most of the Strangers slept
+around them. Those who were awake recognized them, shook hands and said
+a few words. They were a taciturn lot. After supper Carstairs and
+Wharton dropped upon the grass and were soon sound asleep. Scott was
+inclined to be wakeful and he walked along the edge of the glade,
+looking anxiously at the sleeping forms.
+
+He saw the loom of a fire just beyond the ridge and going to the crest
+to look at it he beheld outlined before it a gigantic figure that he
+recognized at once. It was General Vaugirard, and John would have been
+glad to speak to him, but he hesitated to approach a general. While he
+stood doubting a hand fell upon his shoulder and a glad voice said in
+his ear:
+
+"And our young American has come back! Ah, my friend, let me shake your
+hand!"
+
+It was Captain de Rougemont, trim, erect and without a wound. John
+gladly let him shake. Then in reply to de Rougemont's eager questions he
+told briefly of all that had happened since they parted.
+
+"The general has asked twice if we had any news of you," said de
+Rougemont. "He does not forget. A great mind in a vast body."
+
+"Could I speak to him?"
+
+"Of a certainty, my friend; come."
+
+They advanced toward the fire. General Vaugirard was walking up and
+down, his hands clasped behind his back, and whistling softly. His huge
+figure looked yet more huge outlined against the flames. He heard the
+tread of the two young men and looking up recognized John instantly.
+
+"Risen from the dead!" he exclaimed with warmth, clasping the young
+man's hand in his own gigantic palm. "I had despaired of ever seeing you
+again! There are so many more gallant lads whom I will certainly never
+see! Ah, well, such is life! The roll of our brave young dead is long,
+very long!"
+
+He reclasped his hands behind his back and walking up and down began to
+whistle again softly. His emotion over the holocaust had passed, and
+once more he was the general planning for victory. But he stopped
+presently and said to John:
+
+"The Strangers, to whom you belong, have come under my command. You are
+one of my children now. I have my eye on all of you. You are brave lads.
+Go and seek rest with them while you can. You may not have another
+chance in a month. We have driven the German, but he will turn, and then
+we may fight weeks, months, no one knows how long. Ah, well, such is
+life!"
+
+John saluted respectfully, and withdrew to the little open glade in
+which the Strangers were lying, sleeping a great sleep. Captain Colton
+himself, wrapped in a blanket, was now a-slumber under a tree, and
+Wharton and Carstairs near by, stretched on their sides, were deep in
+slumber too. Fires were burning on the long line, but they were not
+numerous, and in the distance they seemed mere pin points. At times bars
+of intense white light, like flashes of lightning, would sweep along the
+front, showing that the searchlights of either army still provided
+illumination for the fighting. The note of the artillery came like a
+distant and smothered groan, but it did not cease, and it would not
+cease, since the searchlights would show it a way all through the night.
+
+John sat down, looked at the faint flashes on the far horizon and
+listened to that moaning which grew in volume as one paid close
+attention to it. Europe or a great part of it had gone mad. He was
+filled once more with wrath against kings and all their doings as he
+looked upon the murderous aftermath of feudalism, the most gigantic of
+all wars, made in a few hours by a few men sitting around a table. Then
+he laughed at himself. What was he! A mere feather in a cyclone!
+Certainly he had been blown about like one!
+
+His nervous imagination now passed quickly and throwing himself upon the
+ground he slept like those around him. All the Strangers were awakened
+at early dawn by the signal of a trumpet, and when John opened his eyes
+he found the air still quivering beneath the throb of the guns. As he
+had foreseen they had never ceased in the darkness, and he could not
+remember how many days and nights now they had been raining steel upon
+human beings.
+
+He was refreshed and strengthened by a night of good sleep, but his mind
+was as sensitive as ever. In the morning no less bitterly than at night
+he raged against the folly and ambition of the kings. But the others
+paid no attention to the cannon. They were light of heart and easy of
+tongue. They chaffed one another in the cool dawn, and cried to the
+cooks for breakfast, which was soon brought to them, hot and plentiful.
+
+"I suppose it's forward again," said Carstairs between drinks of coffee.
+
+"I fancy you're right," said Wharton. "Since we've been put in the
+brigade of that giant of a general, Vaugirard, we're always going
+forward. He seems to have an uncommon love of fighting for a fat man."
+
+"It's an illusion," said John, "that a fat man is more peaceful than a
+thin one."
+
+"How are you going to prove it?" asked Wharton.
+
+"Look at Napoleon. When he was thin he was a great fighter, and when he
+became stout he was just as great a fighter as ever. Fat didn't take
+away his belligerency."
+
+"I hear that the whole German army has been driven across the Marne,"
+said Carstairs, "and that the force we hoped to cut off has either
+escaped or is about to escape. If that's so they won't retreat much
+further. The pride of the Germans is too great, and their army is too
+powerful for them to yield much more ground to us."
+
+"I think you're right, or about as near right as an Englishman can be,
+Carstairs," said John. "What must be the feelings of the Emperor and the
+kings and the princes and the grand dukes and the dukes and the martial
+professors to know that the German army has been turned back from Paris,
+just when the City of Light seemed ready to fall into their hands?"
+
+"Pretty bitter, I think," said Carstairs, "but it's not pleasant to have
+the capital of a country fall into the hands of hostile armies. I don't
+read of such things with delight. It wouldn't give me any such
+overwhelming joy for us to march into Berlin. To beat the Germans is
+enough."
+
+Another trumpet blew and the Strangers rose for battle again with an
+invisible enemy. All the officers, like the men, were on foot, their
+horses having been killed in the earlier fighting, and they advanced
+slowly across the stubble of a wheat field. The morning was still cool,
+although the sun was bright, and the air was full of vigor. The rumbling
+of the artillery grew with the day, but the Strangers said little.
+Battle had ceased to be a novelty. They would fight somewhere and with
+somebody, but they would wait patiently and without curiosity until the
+time came.
+
+"I suppose Lannes didn't come back," said Carstairs. "I haven't heard
+anyone speak of seeing him this morning."
+
+"He may have returned before we awoke," said John. "The _Arrow_ flies
+very fast. Like as not he delivered his message, whatever it was, and
+was off again with another in a few minutes. He may be sixty or eighty
+miles from here now."
+
+"Odd fellow that Lannes," said Carstairs. "Do you know anything about
+his people, Scott?"
+
+"Not much except that he has a mother and sister. I spent a night with
+them at their house in Paris. I've heard that French family ties are
+strong, but they seemed to look upon him as the weak would regard a
+great champion, a knight, in their own phrase, without fear and without
+reproach."
+
+"That speaks well for him."
+
+John's mind traveled back to that modest house across the Seine. It had
+done so often during all the days and nights of fighting, and he thought
+of Julie Lannes in her simple white dress, Julie with the golden hair
+and the bluest of blue eyes. She had not seemed at all foreign to him.
+In her simplicity and openness she was like one of the young girls of
+his own country. French custom might have compelled a difference at
+other times, but war was a great leveler of manners. She and her mother
+must have suffered agonies of suspense, when the guns were thundering
+almost within hearing of Paris, suspense for Philip, suspense for their
+country, and suspense in a less degree for themselves. Maybe Lannes had
+gone back once in the _Arrow_ to show them that he was safe, and to tell
+them that, for the time at least, the great German invasion had been
+rolled back.
+
+"A penny for your dream!" said Carstairs.
+
+"Not for a penny, nor for a pound, nor for anything else," said John.
+"This dream of mine had something brilliant and beautiful and pure at
+the very core of it, and I'm not selling."
+
+Carstairs looked curiously at him, and a light smile played across his
+face. But the smile was sympathetic.
+
+"I'll wager you that with two guesses I can tell the nature of your
+dream," he said.
+
+John shook his head, and he, too, smiled.
+
+"As we say at home," he said, "you may guess right the very first time,
+but I won't tell you whether you're right or wrong."
+
+"I take only one guess. That coruscating core of your dream was a girl."
+
+"I told you I wouldn't say whether you were right or wrong."
+
+"Is she blonde or dark?"
+
+"I repeat that I'm answering no questions."
+
+"Does she live in one of your Northern or one of your Southern States?"
+
+John smiled.
+
+"I suppose you haven't heard from her in a long time, as mail from
+across the water isn't coming with much regularity to this battle
+field."
+
+John smiled again.
+
+"And now I'll conclude," said Carstairs, speaking very seriously. "If
+it is a girl, and I know it is, I hope that she'll smile when she thinks
+of you, as you've been smiling when you think of her. I hope, too, that
+you'll go through this war without getting killed, although the chances
+are three or four to one against it, and go back home and win her."
+
+John smiled once more and was silent, but when Carstairs held out his
+hand he could not keep from shaking it. Then Paris, the modest house
+beyond the Seine, and the girl within it, floated away like an illusion,
+driven from thought in an instant by a giant shell that struck within a
+few hundred yards of them, exploding with a terrible crash and filling
+the air with deadly bits of flying shell.
+
+There was such a whistling in his ears that John thought at first he had
+been hit, but when he shook himself a little he found he was unhurt, and
+his heart resumed its normal beat. Other shells coming out of space
+began to strike, but none so near, and the Strangers went calmly on. On
+their right was a Paris regiment made up mostly of short, but
+thick-chested men, all very dark. Its numbers were only one-third what
+they had been a week before, and its colonel was Pierre Louis
+Bougainville, late Apache, late of the Butte Montmartre. All the
+colonels, majors and captains of this regiment had been killed and he
+now led it, earning his promotion by the divine right of genius. He, at
+least, could look into his knapsack and see there the shadow of a
+marshal's baton, a shadow that might grow more material.
+
+John watched him and he wondered at this transformation of a rat of
+Montmartre into a man. And yet there had been many such transformations
+in the French Revolution. What had happened once could always happen
+again. Napoleon himself had been the son of a poor little lawyer in a
+distant and half-savage island, not even French in blood, but an Italian
+and an alien.
+
+Crash! Another shell burst near, and told him to quit thinking of old
+times and attend to the business before him. The past had nothing more
+mighty than the present. The speed of the Strangers was increased a
+little, and the French regiments on either side kept pace with them.
+More shells fell. They came, shrieking through the air like hideous
+birds of remote ages. Some passed entirely over the advancing troops,
+but one fell among the French on John's right, and the column opening
+out, passed shudderingly around the spot where death had struck.
+
+Two or three of the Strangers were blown away presently. It seemed to
+John's horrified eyes that one of them entirely vanished in minute
+fragments. He knew now what annihilation meant.
+
+The heavy French field guns behind them were firing over their heads,
+but there was still nothing in front, merely the low green hills and not
+even a flash of flame nor a puff of smoke. The whistling death came out
+of space.
+
+The French went on, a wide shallow valley opened out before them, and
+they descended by the easy slope into it. Here the German shells and
+shrapnel ceased to fall among them, but, as the heavy thunder
+continued, John knew the guns had merely turned aside their fire for
+other points on the French line. Carstairs by his side gave an immense
+sigh of relief.
+
+"I can never get used to the horrible roaring and groaning of those
+shells," he said. "If I get killed I'd like it to be done without the
+thing that does it shrieking and gloating over me."
+
+They were well in the valley now, and John noticed that along its right
+ran a dense wood, fresh and green despite the lateness of the season.
+But as he looked he heard the shrill snarling of many trumpets, and, for
+a moment or two, his heart stood still, as a vast body of German cavalry
+burst from the screen of the wood and rushed down upon them.
+
+It was not often in this war that cavalry had a great chance, but here
+it had come. The ambush was complete. The German signals, either from
+the sky or the hills, had told when the French were in the valley, and
+then the German guns had turned aside their fire for the very good
+reason that they did not wish to send shells among their own men.
+
+John's feeling was one of horrified surprise. The German cavalry
+extending across a mile of front seemed countless. Imagination in that
+terrific moment magnified them into millions. He saw the foaming mouths,
+the white teeth and the flashing eyes of the horses, and then the tense
+faces and eyes of their riders. Lances and sabers were held aloft, and
+the earth thundered with the tread of the mounted legions.
+
+"Good God!" cried Wharton.
+
+"Wheel, men, wheel!" shouted Captain Colton.
+
+As they turned to face the rushing tide of steel, the regiment of
+Bougainville whirled on their flank and then Bougainville was almost at
+his side. He saw fire leap from the little man's eye. He saw him shout
+commands, rapid incisive, and correct and he saw clearly that if this
+were Napoleon's day that marshal's baton in the knapsack would indeed
+become a reality.
+
+The Paris regiment, kneeling, was the first to fire, and the next
+instant flame burst from the rifles of the Strangers. It was not a
+moment too soon. It seemed to many of the young Americans and Englishmen
+that they had been ridden down already, but sheet after sheet of bullets
+fired by men, fighting for their lives, formed a wall of death.
+
+The Uhlans, the hussars and the cuirassiers reeled back in the very
+moment of triumph. Horses with their riders crashed to the ground, and
+others, mad with terror, rushed wildly through the French ranks.
+
+John, Carstairs and Wharton snatched up rifles, all three, and began to
+fire with the men as fast as they could. A vast turmoil, frightful in
+its fury, followed. The German cavalry reeled back, but it did not
+retreat. The shrill clamor of many trumpets came again, and once more
+the horsemen charged. The sheet of death blazed in their faces again,
+and then the French met them with bayonet.
+
+The Strangers had closed in to meet the shock. John felt rather than saw
+Carstairs and Wharton on either side of him, and the three of them were
+firing cartridge after cartridge into the light whitish smoke that hung
+between them and the charging horsemen. He was devoutly thankful that
+the Paris regiment was immediately on their right, and that it was led
+by such a man as Bougainville. General Vaugirard, he knew, was farther
+to their left, and now he began to hear the rapid firers, pouring a rain
+of death upon the cavalry.
+
+"We win! we win!" cried Carstairs. "If they couldn't beat us down in the
+first rush they can't beat us down at all!"
+
+Carstairs was right. The French had broken into no panic, and, when,
+infantry standing firm, pour forth the incessant and deadly stream of
+death, that modern arms make possible, no cavalry can live before them.
+Yet the Germans charged again and again into the hurricane of fire and
+steel. The tumult of the battle face to face became terrific.
+
+John could no longer hear the words of his comrades. He saw dimly
+through the whitish smoke in front, but he continued to fire. Once he
+leaped aside to let a wounded and riderless horse gallop past, and
+thrice he sprang over the bodies of the dead.
+
+The infantry were advancing now, driving the cavalry before them, and
+the French were able to bring their lighter field guns into action. John
+heard the rapid crashes, and he saw the line of cavalry drawing back.
+He, too, was shouting with triumph, although nobody heard him. But all
+the Strangers were filled with fiery zeal. Without orders they rushed
+forward, driving the horsemen yet further. John saw through the whitish
+mist a fierce face and a powerful arm swinging aloft a saber.
+
+He recognized von Boehlen and von Boehlen recognized him. Shouting, the
+Prussian urged his horse at him and struck him with the saber. John,
+under impulse, dropped to his knees, and the heavy blade whistled above
+him. But something else struck him on the head and he fell senseless to
+the earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+JULIE LANNES
+
+
+John Scott came slowly out of the darkness and hovered for a while
+between dusk and light. It was not an unpleasant world in which he
+lingered. It seemed full of rest and peace. His mind and body were
+relaxed, and there was no urgent call for him to march and to fight. The
+insistent drumming of the great guns which could play upon the nervous
+system until it was wholly out of tune was gone. The only sound he heard
+was that of a voice, a fresh young voice, singing a French song in a
+tone low and soft. He had always liked these little love songs of the
+kind that were sung in a subdued way. They were pathetic and pure as a
+rose leaf.
+
+He might have opened his eyes and looked for the singer, but he did not.
+The twilight region between sleep and consciousness was too pleasant. He
+had no responsibilities, nothing to do. He had a dim memory that he had
+belonged to an army, that it was his business to try to kill some one,
+and to try to keep from getting killed, but all that was gone now. He
+could lie there, without pain of body or anxiety of mind, and let vague
+but bright visions pass through his soul.
+
+His eyes still closed, he listened to the voice. It was very low,
+scarcely more than a murmur, yet it was thrillingly sweet. It might not
+be a human voice, after all, just the distant note of a bird in the
+forest, or the murmur of a brave little stream, or a summer wind among
+green leaves.
+
+He moved a little and became conscious that he was not going back into
+that winter region of dusk. His soul instead was steadily moving toward
+the light. The beat of his heart grew normal, and then memory in a full
+tide rushed upon him. He saw the great cavalry battle with all its red
+turmoil, the savage swing of von Boehlen's saber and himself drifting
+out into the darkness.
+
+He opened his eyes, the battle vanished, and he saw himself lying upon a
+low, wooden platform. His head rested upon a small pillow, a blanket was
+under him, and another above him. Turning slowly he saw other men
+wrapped in blankets like himself on the platform in a row that stretched
+far to right and left. Above was a low roof, but both sides of the
+structure were open.
+
+He understood it all in a moment. He had come back to a world of battle
+and wounds, and he was one of the wounded. But he listened for the soft,
+musical note which he believed now, in his imaginative state, had drawn
+him from the mid-region between life and death.
+
+The stalwart figure of a woman in a somber dress with a red cross sewed
+upon it passed between him and the light, but he knew that it was not
+she who had been singing. He closed his eyes in disappointment, but
+reopened them. A man wearing a white jacket and radiating an atmosphere
+of drugs now walked before him. He must be a surgeon. At home, surgeons
+wore white jackets. Beyond doubt he was one and maybe he was going to
+stop at John's cot to treat some terrible wound of which he was not yet
+conscious. He shivered a little, but the man passed on, and his heart
+beat its relief.
+
+Then a soldier took his place in the bar of light. He was a short, thick
+man in a ridiculous, long blue coat, and equally ridiculous, baggy, red
+trousers. An obscure cap was cocked in an obscure manner over his ears,
+and his face was covered with a beard, black, thick and untrimmed. He
+carried a rifle over his shoulder and nobody could mistake him for
+anything but a Frenchman. Then he was not a prisoner again, but was in
+French hands. That, at least, was a consolation.
+
+It was amusing to lie there and see the people, one by one, pass between
+him and the light. He could easily imagine that he was an inspection
+officer and that they walked by under orders from him. Two more women in
+those somber dresses with the red crosses embroidered upon them, were
+silhouetted for a moment against the glow and then were gone. Then a man
+with his arm in a sling and his face very pale walked slowly by. A
+wounded soldier! There must be many, very many of them!
+
+The musical murmur ceased and he was growing weary. He closed his eyes
+and then he opened them again because he felt for a moment on his face a
+fragrant breath, fleeting and very light. He looked up into the eyes of
+Julie Lannes. They were blue, very blue, but with infinite wistful
+depths in them, and he noticed that her golden hair had faint touches of
+the sun in it. It was a crown of glory. He remembered that he had seen
+something like it in the best pictures of the old masters.
+
+"Mademoiselle Julie!" he said.
+
+"You have come back," she said gently. "We have been anxious about you.
+Philip has been to see you three times."
+
+He noticed that she, too, wore the somber dress with the red cross, and
+he began to comprehend.
+
+"A nurse," he said. "Why, you are too young for such work!"
+
+"But I am strong, and the wounded are so many, hundreds of thousands,
+they say. Is it not a time for the women of France to help as much as
+they can?"
+
+"I suppose so. I've heard that in our civil war the women passed over
+the battle fields, seeking the wounded and nursed them afterward. But
+you didn't come here alone, did you, Mademoiselle Julie?"
+
+"Antoine Picard--you remember him--and his daughter Suzanne, are with
+me. My mother would have come too, but she is ill. She will come later."
+
+"How long have I been here?"
+
+"Four days."
+
+John thought a little. Many and mighty events had happened in four days
+before he was wounded and many and mighty events may have occurred
+since.
+
+"Would you mind telling me where we are, Mademoiselle Julie?" he asked.
+
+"I do not know exactly myself, but we are somewhere near the river,
+Aisne. The German army has turned and is fortifying against us. When the
+wind blows this way you can hear the rumble of the guns. Ah, there it is
+now, Mr. Scott!"
+
+John distinctly heard that low, sinister menace, coming from the east,
+and he knew what it was. Why should he not? He had listened to it for
+days and days. It was easy enough now to tell the thunder of the
+artillery from real thunder. He was quite sure that it had never ceased
+while he was unconscious. It had been going on so long now, as steady as
+the flowing of a river.
+
+"I've been asking you a lot of questions, Mademoiselle Julie, but I want
+to ask you one more."
+
+"What is it, Mr. Scott?"
+
+"What happened to me?"
+
+"They say that you were knocked down by a horse, and that when you were
+falling his knee struck your head. There was a concussion but the
+surgeon says that when you come out of it you will recover very fast."
+
+"Is the man who says it a good surgeon, one upon whom a fellow can rely,
+one of the very best surgeons that ever worked on a hurt head?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Scott. But why do you ask such a question? Is it your odd
+American way?"
+
+"Not at all. Mademoiselle Julie. I merely wanted to satisfy myself. He
+knows that I'm not likely to be insane or weak-minded or anything of the
+kind, because I got in the way of that horse's knee?"
+
+"Oh, no, Mr. Scott, there is not the least danger in the world. Your
+mind will be as sound as your body. Don't trouble yourself."
+
+She laughed and now John knew that it was she whom he had heard singing
+the chansonette in that low murmuring tone. What was that little song?
+Well, it did not matter about the words. The music was that of a soft
+breeze from the south blowing among roses. John's imaginings were
+growing poetical. Perhaps there were yet some lingering effects from the
+concussion.
+
+"Here is the surgeon now," said Mademoiselle Julie. "He will take a look
+at you and he will be glad to find that what he has predicted has come
+true."
+
+It was the man in the white jacket, and with that wonderful tangle of
+black whiskers, like a patch cut out of a scrub forest.
+
+"Well, my young Yankee," he said, "I see that you've come around. You've
+raised an interesting question in my mind. Since a cavalry horse wasn't
+able to break it, is the American skull thicker than the skulls of other
+people?"
+
+"A lot of you Europeans don't seem to think we're civilized."
+
+"But when you fight for us we do. Isn't that so, Mademoiselle Lannes?"
+
+"I think it is."
+
+"War is a curious thing. While it drives people apart it also brings
+them together. We learn in battle, and its aftermath, that we're very
+much alike. And now, my young Yankee, I'll be here again in two hours to
+change that bandage for the last time. I'll be through with you then,
+and in another day you can go forward to meet the German shells."
+
+"I prefer to run against a horse's knee," said John with spirit.
+
+Surgeon Lucien Delorme laughed heartily.
+
+"I'm confirmed in my opinion that you won't need me after another change
+of bandages," he said. "We've a couple of hundred thousand cases much
+worse than yours to tend, and Mademoiselle Lannes will look after you
+today. She has watched over you, I understand, because you're a friend
+of her brother, the great flying man, Philip Lannes."
+
+"Yes," said John, "that's it, of course."
+
+Julie herself said nothing.
+
+Surgeon Delorme passed through the bar of brilliant light and
+disappeared, his place being taken by a gigantic figure with grizzled
+hair, and the stern face of the thoughtful peasant, the same Antoine
+Picard who had been left as a guardian over the little house beyond the
+Seine. John closed his eyes, that is nearly, and caught the glance that
+the big man gave to Julie. It was protecting and fatherly, and he knew
+that Antoine would answer for her at any time with his life. It was one
+remnant of feudalism to which he did not object. He opened his eyes wide
+and said:
+
+"Well, my good Picard, perhaps you thought you were going to look at a
+dead American, but you are not. Behold me!"
+
+He sat up and doubled up his arm to show his muscle and power. Picard
+smiled and offered to shake hands in the American fashion. He seemed
+genuinely glad that John had returned to the real world, and John
+ascribed it to Picard's knowledge that he was Lannes' friend.
+
+Julie said some words to Picard, and with a little _au revoir_ to John,
+went away. John watched her until she was out of sight. He realized
+again that young French girls were kept secluded from the world, immured
+almost. But the world had changed. Since a few men met around a table
+six or seven weeks before and sent a few dispatches a revolution had
+come. Old customs, old ideas and old barriers were going fast, and might
+be going faster. War, the leveler, was prodigiously at work.
+
+These were tremendous things, but he had himself to think about too, and
+personality can often outweigh the universe. Julie was gone, taking a
+lot of the light with her, but Picard was still there, and while he was
+grizzled and stern he was a friend.
+
+John sat up quite straight and Picard did not try to keep him from it.
+
+"Picard," he said, "you see me, don't you?"
+
+"I do, sir, with these two good eyes of mine, as good as those in the
+head of any young man, and fifty is behind me."
+
+"That's because you're not intellectual, Picard, but we'll return to our
+lamb chops. I am here, I, a soldier of France, though an American--for
+which I am grateful--laid four days upon my back by a wound. And was
+that wound inflicted by a shell, shrapnel, bomb, lance, saber, bullet or
+any of the other noble weapons of warfare? No, sir, it was done by a
+horse, and not by a kick, either, he jostled me with his knee when he
+wasn't looking. Would you call that an honorable wound?"
+
+"All wounds received in the service of one's country or adopted country
+are honorable, sir."
+
+"You give me comfort, Picard. But spread the story that I was not hit by
+a horse's knee but by a piece of shell, a very large and wicked piece of
+shell. I want it to get into the histories that way. The greatest of
+Frenchmen, though he was an Italian, said that history was a fable
+agreed upon, and you and I want to make an agreement about myself and a
+shell."
+
+"I don't understand you at all, sir."
+
+"Well, never mind. Tell me how long Mademoiselle Julie is going to stay
+here. I'm a great friend of her brother, Lieutenant Philip Lannes. Oh,
+we're such wonderful friends! And we've been through such terrible
+dangers together!"
+
+"Then, perhaps it's Lieutenant Lannes and not his sister, Mademoiselle
+Julie, that you wish to inquire about."
+
+"Don't be ironical, Picard. I was merely digressing, which I admit is
+wrong, as you're apt to distract the attention of your hearer from the
+real subject. We'll return to Mademoiselle Julie. Do you think she's
+going to remain here long?"
+
+"I would tell you if I could, sir, but no one knows. I think it depends
+upon many circumstances. The young lady is most brave, as becomes one of
+her blood, and the changes in France are great. All of us who may not
+fight can serve otherwise."
+
+"Why is it that you're not fighting, Picard?"
+
+The great peasant flung up his arms angrily.
+
+"Because I am beyond the age. Because I am too old, they said. Think of
+it! I, Antoine Picard, could take two of these little officers and crush
+them to death at once in my arms! There is not in all this army a man
+who could walk farther than I can! There is not one who could lift the
+wheel of a cannon out of the mud more quickly than I can, and they would
+not take me! What do a few years mean?"
+
+"Nothing in your case, Antoine, but they'll take you, later on. Never
+fear. Before this war is over every country in it will need all the men
+it can get, whether old or young."
+
+"I fear that it is so," said the gigantic peasant, a shadow crossing his
+stern face, "but, sir, one thing is decided. France, the France of the
+Revolution, the France that belongs to its people, will not fall."
+
+John looked at him with a new interest. Here was a peasant, but a
+thinking peasant, and there were millions like him in France. They were
+not really peasants in the old sense of the word, but workingmen with a
+stake in the country, and the mind and courage to defend it. It might be
+possible to beat the army of a nation, but not a nation in arms.
+
+"No, Picard," said John, "France will not fall."
+
+"And that being settled, sir," said Picard, with grim humor, "I think
+you'd better lie down again. You've talked a lot for a man who has been
+unconscious four days."
+
+"You're right, my good Picard, as I've no doubt you usually are. Was I
+troublesome, much, when I was out in the dark?"
+
+"But little, sir. I've lifted much heavier men, and that Dr. Delorme is
+strong himself, not afraid, either, to use the knife. Ah, sir, you
+should have seen how beautifully he worked right under the fire of the
+German guns! Psst! if need be he'd have taken a leg off you in five
+minutes, as neatly as if he had been in a hospital in Paris!"
+
+John felt apprehensively for his legs. Both were there, and in good
+condition.
+
+"If that man ever comes near me with the intention of cutting off one of
+my legs I'll shoot him, good fellow and good doctor though he may be,"
+he said. "Help me up a little higher, will you, Picard? I want to see
+what kind of a place we're in."
+
+Picard built up a little pyramid of saddles and knapsacks behind him and
+John drew himself up with his back against them. The rows and rows of
+wounded stretched as far as he could see, and there was a powerful odor
+of drugs. Around him was a forest, of the kind with which he had become
+familiar in Europe, that is, of small trees, free from underbrush. He
+saw some distance away soldiers walking up and down and beyond them the
+vague outline of an earthwork.
+
+"What place is this, anyway, Picard?" he asked.
+
+"It has no name, sir. It's a hospital. It was built in the forest in a
+day. More than five thousand wounded lie here. The army itself is
+further on. You were found and brought in by some young officers of that
+most singular company composed of Americans and English who are always
+quarreling among one another, but who unite and fight like demons
+against anybody else."
+
+"A dollar to a cent it was Wharton and Carstairs who brought me here,"
+said John, smiling to himself.
+
+"What does Monsieur say?"
+
+"Merely commenting on some absent friends of mine. But this isn't a bad
+place, Picard."
+
+The shed was of immense length and breadth and just beyond it were some
+small buildings, evidently of hasty construction. John inferred that
+they were for the nurses and doctors, and he wondered which one
+sheltered Julie Lannes. The forest seemed to be largely of young pines,
+and the breeze that blew through it was fresh and wholesome. As he
+breathed it young Scott felt that he was inhaling new life and strength.
+But the wind also brought upon its edge that far faint murmur which he
+knew was the throbbing of the great guns, miles and miles away.
+
+"Perhaps, Monsieur had better lie down again now and sleep awhile," said
+Picard insinuatingly.
+
+"Sleep! I need sleep! Why, Picard, by your own account I've just
+awakened from a sleep four days and four nights long."
+
+"But, sir, that was not sleep. It was the stupor of unconsciousness.
+Now your sleep will be easy and natural."
+
+"Very well," said John, who had really begun to feel a little weary,
+"I'll go to sleep, since, in a way, you order it, but if Mademoiselle
+Julie Lannes should happen to pass my cot again, will you kindly wake me
+up?"
+
+"If possible, sir," said Picard, the faintest smile passing over his
+iron features, and forced to be content with that reply, John soon slept
+again. Julie passed by him twice, but Picard did not awaken him, nor
+try. The first time she was alone. Trained and educated like most young
+French girls, she had seen little of the world until she was projected
+into the very heart of it by an immense and appalling war. But its
+effect upon her had been like that upon John. Old manners and customs
+crumbled away, an era vanished, and a new one with new ideas came to
+take its place. She shuddered often at what she had seen in this great
+hospital in the woods, but she was glad that she had come. French
+courage was as strong in the hearts of women as in the hearts of men,
+and the brusque but good Dr. Delorme had said that she learned fast. She
+had more courage, yes, and more skill, than many nurses older and
+stronger than she, and there was the stalwart Suzanne, who worked with
+her.
+
+She was alone the first time and she stopped by John's cot, where he
+slept so peacefully. He was undeniably handsome, this young American who
+had come to their house in Paris with Philip. And her brother, that
+wonderful man of the air, who was almost a demi-god to her, had spoken
+so well of him, had praised so much his skill, his courage, and his
+honesty. And he had received his wound fighting so gallantly for France,
+her country. Her beautiful color deepened a little as she walked away.
+
+John awoke again in the afternoon, and the first sound he heard was that
+same far rumble of the guns, now apparently a part of nature, but he did
+not linger in any twilight land between dark and light. All the mists of
+sleep cleared away at once and he sat up, healthy, strong and hungry.
+Demanding food from an orderly he received it, and when he had eaten it
+he asked for Surgeon Delorme.
+
+The surgeon did not come for a half hour and then he demanded brusquely
+what John wanted.
+
+"None of your drugs," replied happy young Scott, "but my uniform and my
+arms. I don't know your procedure here, but I want you to certify to the
+whole world that I'm entirely well and ready to return to the ranks."
+
+Surgeon Delorme critically examined the bandage which he had changed
+that morning, and then felt of John's head at various points.
+
+"A fine strong skull," he said, smiling, "and quite undamaged. When this
+war is over I shall go to America and make an exhaustive study of the
+Yankee skull. Has bone, through the influence of climate or of more
+plentiful food, acquired a more tenacious quality there than it has
+here? It is a most interesting and complicated question."
+
+"But it's solution will have to be deferred, my good Monsieur Delorme,
+and so you'd better quit thumping my head so hard. Give me that
+certificate, because if you don't I'll get up and go without it. Don't
+you hear those guns out there, doctor? Why, they're calling to me all
+the time. They tell me, strong and well, again, to come at once and join
+my comrades of the Strangers, who are fighting the enemy."
+
+"You shall go in the morning," said Surgeon Delorme, putting his broad
+hand upon young Scott's head. "The effects of the concussion will have
+vanished then."
+
+"But I want to get up now and put on my uniform; can't I?"
+
+"I know no reason why you shouldn't. There's a huge fellow named Picard
+around here who has been watching over you, and who has your uniform.
+I'll call him."
+
+When John was dressed he walked with Picard into the edge of the forest.
+His first steps were wavering, and his head swam a little, but in a few
+minutes the dizziness disappeared and his walk became steady and
+elastic. He was his old self again, strong in every fiber. He would
+certainly be with the Strangers the next morning.
+
+Many more of the wounded, thousands of them, were lying or sitting on
+the short grass in the forest. They were the less seriously hurt, and
+they were cheerful. Some of them sang.
+
+"They'll be going back to the army fast," said Picard. "Unless they're
+torn by shrapnel nearly all the wounded get well again and quickly. The
+bullet with the great power is merciful. It goes through so fast that it
+does not tear either flesh or bone. If you're healthy, if your blood is
+good, psst! you're well again in a week."
+
+"Do you know if Lieutenant Lannes is expected here?" asked John.
+
+"I heard from Mademoiselle Julie that he would come at set of sun. He
+has been on another perilous errand. Ah, his is a strange and terrible
+life, sir. Up there in the sky, a half mile, maybe a mile, above the
+earth. All the dangers of the earth and those, too, of the air to fight!
+Nothing above you and nothing below you. It's a new world in which
+Monsieur Philip Lannes moves, but I would not go in it with him, not for
+all the treasures of the Louvre!"
+
+He looked up at the calm and benevolent blue sky and shuddered.
+
+John laughed.
+
+"Some of us feel that way," he said. "Many men as brave as any that ever
+lived can't bear to look down from a height. But sunset is approaching,
+my gallant Picard, and Lannes should soon be here."
+
+The rays of the sun fell in showers of red gold where they stood, but a
+narrow band of gray under the eastern horizon showed that twilight was
+not far away. The two stood side by side staring up at the heavens,
+where they felt with absolute certainty the black dot would appear at
+the appointed time. It was a singular tribute to the courage and
+character of Lannes that all who knew him had implicit faith in his
+promises, not alone in his honesty of purpose, but in his ability to
+carry it out in the face of difficulty and danger. The band of gray in
+the east broadened, but they still watched with the utmost faith.
+
+"I see something to the eastward," said John, "or is it merely a shadow
+in the sky?"
+
+"I don't think it's a shadow. It must be one of those terrible machines,
+and perhaps it's that of our brave Monsieur Philip."
+
+"You're right, Picard, it's no shadow, nor is it a bit of black cloud.
+It's an aeroplane, flying very fast. The skies over Europe hold many
+aeroplanes these days, but I know all the tricks of the _Arrow_, all its
+pretty little ways, its manner of curving, looping and dropping, and I
+should say that the _Arrow_, Philip Lannes aboard, is coming."
+
+"I pray, sir, that you are right. I always hold my breath until he is on
+the ground again."
+
+"Then you'll have to make a record in holding breath, my brave Picard.
+He is still far, very far, from us, and it will be a good ten minutes
+before he arrives."
+
+But John knew beyond a doubt, after a little more watching, that it was
+really the _Arrow_, and with eager eyes he watched the gallant little
+machine as it descended in many a graceful loop and spiral to the earth.
+They hurried forward to meet it, and Lannes, bright-eyed and trim,
+sprang out, greeting John with a welcome cry.
+
+"Up again," he exclaimed, "and, as I see with these two eyes of mine,
+as well as ever! And you too, my brave Picard, here to meet me!"
+
+He hastened away with a report, but came back to them in a few minutes.
+
+"Now," he said, "We'll go and see my sister."
+
+John was not at all unwilling.
+
+They found her in one of the new houses of pine boards, and the faithful
+and stalwart Suzanne was with her. It was the plainest of plain places,
+inhabited by at least twenty other Red Cross nurses, and John stood on
+one side until the first greeting of brother and sister was over. Then
+Lannes, by a word and a gesture, included him in what was practically a
+family group, although he was conscious that the stalwart Suzanne was
+watching him with a wary eye.
+
+"Julie and Suzanne," said Lannes, "are going tomorrow with other nurses
+to the little town of Menouville, where also many wounded lie. They are
+less well supplied with doctors and nurses than we are here. Dr. Delorme
+goes also with a small detachment as escort. I have asked that you,
+Monsieur Jean the Scott, be sent with them. Our brave Picard goes too.
+Menouville is about eight miles from here, and it's not much out of the
+way to the front. So you will not be kept long from your Strangers,
+John."
+
+"I go willingly," said John, "and I'm glad, Philip, that you've seen fit
+to consider me worth while as a part of the escort."
+
+He spoke quietly, but his glance wandered to Julie Lannes. It may have
+been a chance, but hers turned toward him at the same time, and the
+eyes, the blue and the gray, met. Again the girl's brilliant color
+deepened a little, and she looked quickly away. Only the watchful and
+grim Suzanne saw.
+
+"Do you have to go away at once, Philip?" asked Julie.
+
+"In one hour, my sister. There is not much rest for the _Arrow_ and me
+these days, but they are such days as happen perhaps only once in a
+thousand years, and one must do his best to be worthy. I'm not
+preaching, little sister, don't think that, but I must answer to every
+call."
+
+The twilight had spread from east to west. The heavy shadows in the east
+promised a dark night, but out of the shadows, as always, came that
+sullen mutter of the ruthless guns. Julie shivered a little, and glanced
+at the dim sky.
+
+"Must you go up there in the cold dark?" she said. "It's like leaving
+the world. It's dangerous enough in the day, but you have a bright sky
+then. In the night it's terrible!"
+
+"Don't you fear for me, little sister," said Lannes. "Why, I like the
+night for some reasons. You can slip by your enemies in the dark, and if
+you're flying low the cannon don't have half the chance at you. Besides,
+I've the air over these regions all mapped and graded now. I know all
+the roads and paths, the meeting places of the clouds, points suitable
+for ambush, aerial fields, meadows and forests. Oh, it's home up there!
+Don't you worry, and do you write, too, to Madame, my mother, in Paris,
+that I'm perfectly safe."
+
+Lannes kissed her and went away abruptly. John was sure that an attempt
+to hide emotion caused his brusque departure.
+
+"Believe everything he tells you, Mademoiselle Julie," he said. "I've
+come to the conclusion that nothing can ever trap your brother. Besides
+courage and skill he has luck. The stars always shine for him."
+
+"They're not shining tonight," said Picard, looking up at the dusky sky.
+
+"But I believe, Mr. Scott, that you are right," said Julie.
+
+"He'll certainly come to us at Menouville tomorrow night," said John,
+speaking in English--all the conversation hitherto had been in French,
+"and I think we'll have a pleasant ride through the forest in the
+morning, Miss Lannes. You'll let me call you Miss Lannes, once or twice,
+in my language, won't you? I like to hear the sound of it."
+
+"I've no objection, Mr. Scott," she replied also in English. She did not
+blush, but looked directly at him with bright eyes. John was conscious
+of something cool and strong. She was very young, she was French, and
+she had lived a sheltered life, but he realized once more that human
+beings are the same everywhere and that war, the leveler, had broken
+down all barriers.
+
+"I've not heard who is to be our commander, Miss Lannes," he continued
+in English, "but I'll be here early in the morning. May I wish you happy
+dreams and a pleasant awakening, as they say at home?"
+
+"But you have two homes now, France and America."
+
+"That's so, and I'm beginning to love one as much as the other. Any
+way, to the re-seeing, Miss Lannes, which I believe is equivalent to _au
+revoir_."
+
+He made a very fine bow, one that would have done credit to a trained
+old courtier, and withdrew. The fierce and watchful eyes of Suzanne
+followed him.
+
+John was up at dawn, as strong and well as he had ever been in his life.
+As he was putting on his uniform an orderly arrived with a note from
+Lieutenant Hector Legare, telling him to report at once for duty with a
+party that was going to Menouville.
+
+The start was made quickly. John found that the women with surgical
+supplies were traveling in carts. The soldiers, about twenty in number,
+walked. John and the doctor walked with them. All the automobiles were
+in use carrying troops to the front, but the carts were strong and
+comfortable and John did not mind. It ought to be a pleasant trip.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE MIDDLE AGES
+
+
+The little party moved away without attracting notice. In a time of such
+prodigious movement the going or coming of a few individuals was a
+matter of no concern. The hood that Julie Lannes had drawn over her hair
+and face, and her plain brown dress might have been those of a nun. She
+too passed before unseeing eyes.
+
+Lieutenant Legare was a neutral person, arousing no interest in John who
+walked by the side of the gigantic Picard, the stalwart Suzanne being in
+one of the carts beside Julie. The faint throbbing of the guns, now a
+distinct part of nature, came to them from a line many miles away, but
+John took no notice of it. He had returned to the world among pleasant
+people, and this was one of the finest mornings in early autumn that he
+had ever seen.
+
+The country was much more heavily forested than usual. At points, the
+woods turned into what John would almost have called a real forest. Then
+they could not see very far ahead or to either side, but the road was
+good and the carts moved forward, though not at a pace too great for the
+walkers.
+
+Picard carried a rifle over his shoulders, and John had secured an
+automatic. All the soldiers were well armed. John felt a singular
+lightness of heart, and, despite the forbidding glare of Suzanne, who
+was in the last cart, he spoke to Julie.
+
+"It's too fine a morning for battle," he said in English. "Let's pretend
+that we're a company of troubadours, minnesingers, jongleurs, acrobats
+and what not, going from one great castle to another."
+
+"I suppose Antoine there is the chief acrobat?"
+
+"He might do a flip-flap, but if he did the earth would shake."
+
+"Then you are the chief troubadour. Where is your harp or viol, Sir
+Knight of the Tuneful Road?"
+
+"I'm merely imagining character, not action. I haven't a harp or a viol,
+and if I had them I couldn't play on either."
+
+"Do you think it right to talk In English to the strange young American,
+Mademoiselle? Would Madame your mother approve?" said Suzanne in a
+fierce whisper.
+
+"It is sometimes necessary in war, Suzanne, to talk where one would not
+do so in peace," replied Julie gravely, and then she said to John again
+in English:
+
+"We cannot carry out the pretense, Mr. Scott. The tuneful or merry folk
+of the Middle Ages did not travel with arms. They had no enemies, and
+they were welcome everywhere. Nor did they travel as we do to the
+accompaniment of war. The sound of the guns grows louder."
+
+"So it does," said John, bending an ear--he had forgotten that a battle
+was raging somewhere, "but we're behind the French lines and it cannot
+touch us."
+
+"It was a wonderful victory. Our soldiers are the bravest in the world
+are they not, Mr. Scott?"
+
+John smiled. They were still talking English. He liked to hear her
+piquant pronunciation of it, and he surmised too that the bravest of
+hearts beat in the bosom of this young girl whom war had suddenly made a
+woman. How could the sister of such a man as Lannes be otherwise than
+brave? The sober brown dress, and the hood equally sober, failed to hide
+her youthful beauty. The strands of hair escaping from the hood showed
+pure gold in the sunshine, and in the same sunshine the blue of her eyes
+seemed deeper than ever.
+
+John was often impressed by the weakness of generalities, and one of
+them was the fact that so many of the French were so fair, and so many
+of the English so dark. He did not remember the origin of the Lannes
+family, but he was sure that through her mother's line, at least, she
+must be largely of Norman blood.
+
+"What are you thinking of so gravely, Mr. Scott?" she asked, still in
+English, to the deep dissatisfaction of Suzanne, who never relaxed her
+grim glare.
+
+"I don't know. Perhaps it was the contrast of our peaceful journey to
+what is going on twelve or fifteen miles away."
+
+"It is beautiful here!" she said.
+
+Truly it was. The road, smooth and white, ran along the slopes of hills,
+crested with open forest, yet fresh and green. Below them were fields of
+chequered brown and green. Four or five clear brooks flowed down the
+slopes, and the sheen of a little river showed in the distance. Three
+small villages were in sight, and, clean white smoke rising from their
+chimneys, blended harmoniously into the blue of the skies. It reminded
+John of pictures by the great French landscape painters. It was all so
+beautiful and peaceful, nor was the impression marred by the distant
+mutter of the guns which he had forgotten again.
+
+Julie and Suzanne, her menacing shadow, dismounted from the wagon
+presently and walked with John and Picard. Lieutenant Legare was stirred
+enough from his customary phlegm to offer some gallant words, but war,
+the great leveler, had not quite leveled all barriers, so far as he was
+concerned, and, after her polite reply, he returned to his martial
+duties. John had become the friend of the Lannes family through his
+association with Philip in dangerous service, and his position was
+recognized.
+
+The road ascended and the forest became deeper. No houses were now in
+sight. As the morning advanced it had grown warmer under a brilliant
+sun, but it was pleasant here in the shade. Julie still walked, showing
+no sign of a wish for the cart again. John noticed that she was very
+strong, or at least very enduring. Suddenly he felt a great obligation
+to take care of her for the sake of Lannes. The sister of his
+comrade-in-arms was a precious trust in his hands, and he must not
+fail.
+
+The wind shifted and blew toward the east, no longer bringing the sound
+of guns. Instead they heard a bird now and then, chattering or singing
+in a tree. The illusion of the Middle Ages returned to John. They were a
+peaceful troupe, going upon a peaceful errand.
+
+"Don't tell me there isn't a castle at Menouville," he said. "I know
+there is, although I've never been there, and I never heard of the place
+before. When we arrive the drawbridge will be down and the portcullis
+up. All the men-at-arms will have burnished their armor brightly and
+will wait respectfully in parallel rows to welcome us as we pass
+between. His Grace, the Duke of Light Heart, in a suit of red velvet
+will be standing on the steps, and Her Graciousness, the Duchess, in a
+red brocade dress, with her hair powdered and very high on her head,
+will be by his side to greet our merry troupe. Behind them will be all
+the ducal children, and the knights and squires and pages, and ladies. I
+think they will all be very glad to see us, because in these Middle Ages
+of ours, life, even in a great ducal castle, is somewhat lonely.
+Visitors are too rare, and there is not the variety of interest that
+even the poor will have in a later time."
+
+"You make believe well, Mr. Scott," she said.
+
+"There is inspiration," he said, glancing at her. "We are here in the
+deeps of an ancient wood, and perhaps the stories and legends of these
+old lands move the Americans more than they do the people who live here.
+We're the children of Europe and when we look back to the land of our
+fathers we often see it through a kind of glorified mist."
+
+"The wind is shifting again," she said. "I hear the cannon once more."
+
+"So do I, and I hear something else too! Was that the sound of hoofs?"
+
+John turned in sudden alarm to Legare, who heard also and stiffened at
+once to attention. They were not alone on the road. The rapid beat of
+hoofs came, and around a corner galloped a mass of Uhlans, helmets and
+lances glittering. Picard with a shout of warning fired his rifle into
+the thick of them. Legare snatched out his revolver and fired also.
+
+But they had no chance. The little detachment was ridden down in an
+instant. Legare and half of the men died gallantly. The rest were taken.
+Picard had been brought to his knees by a tremendous blow from the butt
+of a lance, and John, who had instinctively sprung before Julie, was
+overpowered. Suzanne, who endeavored to reach a weapon, fought like a
+tigress, but two Uhlans finally subdued her.
+
+It was so swift and sudden that it scarcely seemed real to John, but
+there were the dead bodies lying ghastly in the road, and there stood
+Julie, as pale as death, but not trembling. The leader of the Uhlans
+pushed his helmet back a little from his forehead, and looked down at
+John, who had been disarmed but who stood erect and defiant.
+
+"It is odd, Mr. Scott," said Captain von Boehlen, "how often the
+fortunes of this war have caused us to meet."
+
+"It is, and sometimes fortune favors one, sometimes the other. You're
+in favor now."
+
+Von Boehlen looked steadily at his prisoner. John thought that the
+strength and heaviness of the jaw were even more pronounced than when he
+had first seen the Prussian in Dresden. The face was tanned deeply, and
+face and figure alike seemed the embodiment of strength. One might
+dislike him, but one could not despise him. John even found it in his
+heart to respect him, as he returned the steady gaze of the blue eyes
+with a look equally as firm.
+
+"I hope," said John, "that you will send back Mademoiselle Lannes and
+the nurses with her to her people. I take it that you're not making war
+upon women."
+
+Von Boehlen gave Julie a quick glance of curiosity and admiration. But
+the eyes flashed for only a moment and then were expressionless.
+
+"I know of one Lannes," he said, "Philip Lannes, the aviator, a name
+that fame has brought to us Germans."
+
+"I am his sister," said Julie.
+
+"I can wish, Mademoiselle Lannes," said von Boehlen, politely in French,
+"that we had captured your brother instead of his sister."
+
+"But as I said, you will send them back to their own people? You don't
+make war upon women?" repeated John.
+
+"No, we do not make war upon women. We are making war upon Frenchmen,
+and I do not hesitate to say in the presence of Mademoiselle Lannes that
+this war is made upon very brave Frenchmen. Yet we cannot send the
+ladies back. The presence of our cavalry here within the French lines
+must not be known to our enemies. Moreover, I obey the orders of
+another, and I am compelled to hold them as prisoners--for a while at
+least."
+
+Von Boehlen's tone was not lacking in the least in courtesy. It was more
+than respectful when he spoke directly to Julie Lannes, and John's
+feeling of repugnance to him underwent a further abatement--he was a
+creation of his conditions, and he believed in his teachings.
+
+"You will at least keep us all as prisoners together?" said John.
+
+"I know of no reason to the contrary," replied von Boehlen briefly. Then
+he acted with the decision that characterized all the German officers
+whom John had seen. The women and the prisoners were put in the carts.
+Dismounted Uhlans took the place of the drivers and the little
+procession with an escort of about fifty cavalry turned from the road
+into the woods, von Boehlen and the rest, about five hundred in number,
+rode on down the road.
+
+John was in the last cart with Julie, Suzanne and Picard, and his soul
+was full of bitter chagrin. He had just been taking mental resolutions
+to protect, no matter what came, Philip Lannes' sister, and, within a
+half hour, both she and he were prisoners. But when he saw the face of
+Antoine Picard he knew that one, at least, in the cart was suffering as
+much as he. The gigantic peasant was the only one whose arms were bound,
+and perhaps it was as well. His face expressed the most ferocious anger
+and hate, and now and then he pulled hard upon his bonds. John could see
+that they were cutting into the flesh. He remembered also that Picard
+was not in uniform. He was in German eyes only a _franc tireur_, subject
+to instant execution, and he wondered why von Boehlen had delayed.
+
+"Save your strength, Antoine," he whispered soothingly. "We'll need it
+later. I've been a prisoner before and I escaped. What's been done once
+can be done again. In such a huge and confused war as this there's
+always a good chance."
+
+"Ah, you're right, Monsieur," said Antoine, and he ceased to struggle.
+
+Julie had heard the whisper, and she looked at John confidently. She was
+the youngest of all the women in the carts, but she was the coolest.
+
+"They cannot do anything with us but hold us a few days," she said.
+
+John was silent, turning away his somber face. He did not like this
+carrying away of the women as captives, and to him the women were
+embodied in Julie. They were following a little path through the woods,
+the German drivers and German guards seeming to know well the way. John,
+calculating the course by the sun, was sure that they were now going
+directly toward the German army and that they would pass unobserved
+beyond the French outposts. The path was leading into a narrow gorge and
+the banks and trees would hide them from all observation. He was
+confirmed in his opinion by the action of their guards. The leader rode
+beside the carts and said in very good French that any one making the
+least outcry would be shot instantly. No exception would be made in the
+case of a woman.
+
+John knew that the threat would be kept. Julie Lannes paled a little,
+and the faithful Suzanne by her side was darkly menacing, but they
+showed no other emotion.
+
+"Don't risk anything," said John in the lowest of whispers. "It would be
+useless."
+
+Julie nodded. The carts moved on down the gorge, their wheels and the
+hoofs of the horses making but little noise on the soft turf. The crash
+of the guns was now distinctly louder and far ahead they saw wisps of
+smoke floating above the trees. John was sure that the German batteries
+were there, but he was equally sure that even had he glasses he could
+not have seen them. They would certainly be masked in some adroit
+fashion.
+
+The roaring also grew on their right and left. That must be the French
+cannon, and soon they would be beyond the French lines. His bitterness
+increased. Nothing could be more galling than to be carried in this
+manner through one's own forces and into the camp of the enemy. And
+there was Julie, sitting quiet and pale, apparently without fear.
+
+He reckoned that they rode at least three miles in the gorge. Then they
+came into a shallow stream about twenty feet wide that would have been
+called a creek at home. Its banks were fairly high, lined on one side by
+a hedge and on the other by willows. Instead of following the path any
+further the Germans turned into the bed of the stream and drove down it
+two or three miles. The roar of the artillery from both armies was now
+very great, and the earth shook. Once John caught the shadow of a huge
+shell passing high over their heads.
+
+All the prisoners knew that they were well beyond hope of rescue for the
+present. The French line was far behind them and they were within the
+German zone. It was better to be resigned, until they saw cause for
+hope.
+
+When they came to a low point in the eastern bank of the stream the
+carts turned out, reached a narrow road between lines of poplars and
+continued their journey eastward. In the fields on either side John saw
+detachments of German infantry, skirmishers probably, as they had not
+yet reached the line of cannon.
+
+"Officer," said John to the German leader, "couldn't you unbind the arms
+of my friend in the cart here? Ropes around one's wrists for a long time
+are painful, and since we're within your lines he has no chance of
+escape now."
+
+The officer looked at Picard and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Giants are strong," he said.
+
+"But a little bullet can lay low the greatest of them."
+
+"That is so."
+
+He leaned from his horse, inserted the point of his sword between
+Picard's wrists and deftly cut the rope without breaking the skin.
+Picard clenched and unclenched his hands and drew several mighty breaths
+of relief. But he was a peasant of fine manners and he did not forget
+them. Turning to the officer, he said:
+
+"I did not think I'd ever thank a German for anything, but I owe you
+gratitude. It's unnatural and painful to remain trussed up like a fowl
+going to market."
+
+The officer gave Picard a glance of pity and rode to the head of the
+column, which turned off at a sharp angle toward the north. The great
+roar and crash now came from the south and John inferred that they would
+soon pass beyond the zone of fire. But for a long time the thunder of
+the battle was undiminished.
+
+"Do you know this country at all?" John asked Picard.
+
+The giant shook his head.
+
+"I was never here before, sir," he said, "and I never thought I should
+come into any part of France in this fashion. Ah, Mademoiselle Julie,
+how can I ever tell the tale of this to your mother?"
+
+"No harm will come to me, Antoine," said Julie. "I shall be back in
+Paris before long. Suzanne and you are with me--and Mr. Scott."
+
+Suzanne again frowned darkly, but John gave Julie a grateful glance.
+Wisdom, however, told him to say nothing. The officer in command came
+back to the cart and said, pointing ahead:
+
+"Behold your destination! The large house on the hill. It is the
+headquarters of a person of importance, and you will find quarters there
+also. I trust that the ladies will hold no ill will against me. I've
+done only what my orders have compelled me to do."
+
+"We do not, sir," said Julie.
+
+The officer bowed low and rode back to the head of the column. He was a
+gallant man and John liked him. But his attention was directed now to
+the house, an old French chateau standing among oaks. The German flag
+flew over it and sentinels rode back and forth on the lawn. John
+remembered the officer's words that a "person of importance" was making
+his headquarters there. It must be one of the five German army
+commanders, at least.
+
+He looked long at the chateau. It was much such a place as that in which
+Carstairs, Wharton and he had once found refuge, and from the roof of
+which Wharton had worked the wireless with so much effect. But houses of
+this type were numerous throughout Western Europe.
+
+It was only two stories in height, large, with long low windows, and the
+lawn was more like a park in size. It as now the scene of abundant life,
+although, as John knew instinctively, not the life of those to whom it
+belonged. A number of young officers sat on the grass reading, and at
+the edge of the grounds stood a group of horses with their riders lying
+on the ground near them. Not far away were a score of high powered
+automobiles, several of which were armored. John also saw beyond them a
+battery of eight field guns, idle now and with their gunners asleep
+beside them. He had no doubt that other troops in thousands were not far
+away and that, in truth, they were in the very thick of the German army.
+
+The chateau and its grounds were enclosed by a high iron fence and the
+little procession of carts stopped at the great central gate. A group
+of officers who had been sitting on the grass, reading a newspaper, came
+forward to meet them and John, to his amazement and delight, recognized
+the young prince, von Arnheim. It was impossible for him to regard von
+Arnheim as other than a friend, and springing impulsively from the cart
+he said:
+
+"I had to leave you for a while. It had become irksome to be a prisoner,
+but you see I've come back."
+
+Von Arnheim stared, then recognition came.
+
+"Ah, it's Scott, the American! I speak truth when I say that I'm sorry
+to see you here."
+
+"I'm sorry to come," said John, "but I'd rather be your prisoner than
+anybody else's, and I wish to ask your courtesy and kindness for the
+young lady, sitting in the rear of the cart, Mademoiselle Julie Lannes,
+the sister of that great French aviator of whom everybody has heard."
+
+"I'll do what I can, but you're mistaken in assuming that I'm in command
+here. There's a higher personage--but pardon me, I must speak to the
+lieutenant."
+
+The officer in charge was saluting, obviously anxious to make his report
+and have done with an unpleasant duty. Von Arnheim gave him rapid
+directions in German and then asked Julie and the two Picards to
+dismount from the cart, while the others were carried through the gate
+and down a drive toward some distant out-buildings.
+
+John saw von Arnheim's eyes gleam a little, when he noticed the beauty
+of young Julie, but the Prussian was a man of heart and manner. He
+lifted his helmet, and bowed with the greatest courtesy, saying:
+
+"It's an unhappy chance for you, but not for us, that has made you our
+prisoner, Mademoiselle Lannes. In this chateau you must consider
+yourself a guest, and not a captive. It would not become us to treat
+otherwise the sister of one so famous as your brother."
+
+John noticed that he paid her no direct compliment. It was indirect,
+coming through her brother, and he liked von Arnheim better than ever,
+because the young captive was, in truth, very beautiful. The brown dress
+and the sober hood could not hide it as she stood there, the warm red
+light from the setting sun glancing across her rosy face and the
+tendrils of golden hair that fell from beneath the hood. She was
+beautiful beyond compare, John repeated to himself, but scarcely more
+than a child, and she had come into strange places. The stalwart Suzanne
+also took note, and she moved a little nearer, while her grim look
+deepened.
+
+"We will give you the best hospitality the house affords," continued von
+Arnheim. "It's scarcely equipped for ladies, although the former owners
+left--"
+
+He paused and reddened. John knew his embarrassment was due to the fact
+that the house to which he was inviting Julie belonged to one of her own
+countrymen. But she did not seem to notice it. The manner and appearance
+of von Arnheim inspired confidence.
+
+"We'll be put with the other prisoners, of course," said John
+tentatively.
+
+"I don't know," replied von Arnheim. "That rests with my superior, whom
+you shall soon see."
+
+They were walking along the gravel toward a heavy bronze door, that told
+little of what the house contained. Officers and soldiers saluted the
+young prince as he passed. John saw discipline and attention everywhere.
+The German note was discipline and obedience, obedience and discipline.
+A nation, with wonderful powers of thinking, it was a nation that ceased
+to think when the call of the drill sergeant came. Discipline and
+obedience had made it terrible and unparalleled in war, to a certain
+point, but beyond that point the nations that did think in spite of
+their sergeants, could summon up reserves of strength and courage which
+the powers of the trained militarists could not create. At least John
+thought so.
+
+The long windows of the house threw back the last rays of the setting
+sun, and it was twilight when von Arnheim and his four captives entered
+the chateau. A large man, middle-aged, heavy and bearded, wearing the
+uniform of a German general rose, and a staff of several officers rose
+with him. It was Auersperg, the medieval prince, and John's heart was
+troubled.
+
+Von Arnheim saluted, bowing deeply. He stood not only in the presence of
+his general, but of royalty also. It was something in the German blood,
+even in one so brave and of such high rank as von Arnheim himself, that
+compelled humility, and John, like the fierce democrat he was, did not
+like it at all. The belief was too firmly imbedded in his mind ever to
+be removed that men like Auersperg and the mad power for which they
+stood had set the torch to Europe.
+
+"Captain von Boehlen took some prisoners, Your Highness," said von
+Arnheim, "and as he was compelled to continue on his expedition he has
+sent them here under the escort of Lieutenant Puttkamer. The young lady
+is Mademoiselle Julie Lannes, the sister of the aviator, of whom we all
+know, the woman and the peasant are her servants, and the young man,
+whom we have seen before, is an American, John Scott in the French
+service."
+
+He spoke in French, with intention, John thought, and the heavy-lidded
+eyes of Auersperg dwelt an instant on the fresh and beautiful face of
+Julie. And that momentary glance was wholly medieval. John saw it and
+understood it. A rage against Auersperg that would never die flamed up
+in his heart. He already hated everything for which the man stood.
+Auersperg's glance passed on, and slowly measured the gigantic figure of
+Picard. Then he smiled in a slow and ugly fashion.
+
+"Ah, a peasant in civilian's dress, captured fighting our brave armies!
+Our orders are very strict upon that point. Von Arnheim, take this
+_franc tireur_ behind the chateau and have him shot at once."
+
+He too had spoken in French, and doubtless with intention also. John
+felt a thrill of horror, but Julie Lannes, turning white, sprang before
+Picard:
+
+"No! No!" she cried to Auersperg. "You cannot do such a thing! He is not
+a soldier! They would not take him because he is too old! He is my
+mother's servant! It would be barbarous to have him shot!"
+
+Auersperg looked again at Julie, and smiled, but it was the slow, cold
+smile of a master.
+
+"You beg very prettily, Mademoiselle," he said.
+
+She flushed, but stood firm.
+
+"It would be murder," she said. "You cannot do it!"
+
+"You know little of war. This man is a _franc tireur_, a civilian in
+civilian's garb, fighting against us. It is our law that all such who
+are caught be shot immediately."
+
+"Your Highness," said von Arnheim, "I have reason to think that the
+lady's story is correct. This man's daughter is her maid, and he is
+obviously a servant of her house."
+
+Auersperg turned his slow, heavy look upon the young Prussian, but John
+noticed that von Arnheim met it without flinching, although Picard had
+really fired upon the Germans. He surmised that von Arnheim was fully as
+high-born as Auersperg, and perhaps more so. John knew that these things
+counted for a lot in Germany, however ridiculous they might seem to a
+democratic people. Nevertheless Auersperg spoke with irony:
+
+"Your heart is overworking, von Arnheim," he said "Sometimes I fear that
+it is too soft for a Prussian. Our Emperor and our Fatherland demand
+that we shall turn hearts of steel to our enemies, and never spare them.
+But it may be, my brave Wilhelm, that your sympathy is less for this
+hulking peasant and more for the fair face of the lady whom he serves."
+
+John saw Julie's face flush a deep red, and his hand stole down to his
+belt, but no weapon was there. Von Arnheim's face reddened also, but he
+stood at attention before his superior officer and replied with dignity:
+
+"I admire Mademoiselle Lannes, although I have known her only ten
+minutes, but I think, Your Highness, that my admiration is warranted,
+and also that it is not lacking in respect."
+
+"Good for you, von Arnheim," said John, under his breath. But the
+medieval mind of Auersperg was not disturbed. The slow, cruel smile
+passed across his face again.
+
+"You are brave my Wilhelm," he said, "but I am confirmed in my opinion
+that some of our princely houses have become tainted. The harm that was
+done when Napoleon smashed his way through Europe has never been undone.
+The touch of the democracy was defilement, and it does not pass. Do you
+think our ancestors would have wasted so much time over a miserable
+French peasant?"
+
+This was a long speech, much too long for the circumstances, John
+thought, but von Arnheim still standing stiffly at attention, merely
+said:
+
+"Your Highness I ask this man's life of you. He is not a _franc tireur_
+in the real sense."
+
+"Since you make it a personal matter, my brave young Wilhelm, I yield.
+Let him be held a prisoner, but no more requests of the same kind. This
+is positively the last time I shall yield to such a weakness."
+
+"Thank you, Your Highness," said von Arnheim. Julie gave him one
+flashing look of gratitude and stepped away from Picard, who had stood,
+his arms folded across his chest, refusing to utter a single word for
+mercy. "This indeed," thought John "is a man." Suzanne was near, and now
+both he and his daughter turned away relaxing in no wise their looks of
+grim resolution. "Here also is a woman as well as a man," thought John.
+
+"I hope, Your Highness, that I may assign Mademoiselle Lannes and her
+maid to one of the upper rooms," said von Arnheim in tones respectful,
+but very firm. "Here also is another man," thought John.
+
+"You may," said Auersperg shortly, "but let the peasant be sent to the
+stables, where the other prisoners are kept."
+
+Two soldiers were called and they took Picard away. Julie and Suzanne
+followed von Arnheim to a stairway, and John was left alone with
+medievalism. The man wore no armor, but when only they two stood in the
+room his feeling that he was back in the Middle Ages was overpowering.
+Here was the baron, and here was he, untitled and unknown.
+
+Auersperg glanced at Julie, disappearing up the stairway, and then
+glanced back at John. Over his heavy face passed the same slow cruel
+smile that set all John's nerves to jumping.
+
+"Why have you, an American, come so far to fight against us?" he asked.
+
+"I didn't come for that purpose. I was here, visiting, and I was caught
+in the whirl of the war, an accident, perhaps. But my sympathies are
+wholly with France. I fight in her ranks from choice."
+
+Auersperg laughed unpleasantly.
+
+"A republic!" he said. "Millions of the ignorant, led by demagogues!
+Bah! The Hohenzollerns will scatter them like chaff!"
+
+"I can't positively say that I saw any Hohenzollern, but I did see their
+armies turned back from Paris by those ignorant people, led by their
+demagogues. I'm not even sure of the name of the French general who did
+it, but God gave him a better brain for war, though he may have been
+born a peasant for all I know, than he did to your Kaiser, or any king,
+prince, grand duke or duke in all the German armies!"
+
+John had been tried beyond endurance and he knew that he had spoken with
+impulsive passion, but he knew also that he had spoken with truth. The
+face of Auersperg darkened. The medieval baron, full of power, without
+responsibility, believing implicitly in what he chose to call his order,
+but which was merely the chance of birth, was here. And while the Middle
+Ages in reality had passed, war could hide many a dark tale. John was
+unable to read the intent in the cruel eyes, but they heard the
+footsteps of von Arnheim on the stairs, and the clenched hand that had
+been raised fell back by Auersperg's side. Nevertheless medievalism did
+not relax its gaze.
+
+"What to you is this girl who seems to have charmed von Arnheim?" he
+asked.
+
+"Her brother has become my best friend. She has charmed me as she has
+charmed von Arnheim, and as she charms all others whom she meets. And I
+am pleased to tell Your Highness that the spell she casts is not alone
+her beauty, but even more her pure soul."
+
+Auersperg laughed in an ugly fashion.
+
+"Youth! Youth!" he exclaimed. "I see that the spell is upon you, even
+more than it is upon von Arnheim. But dismiss her from your thoughts.
+You go a prisoner into Germany, and it's not likely that you'll ever see
+her again."
+
+Young Scott felt a sinking of the heart, but he was not one to show it.
+
+"Prisoners may escape," he said boldly, "and what has been done once can
+always be done again."
+
+"We shall see that it does not happen a second time in your case. Von
+Arnheim will dispose of you for the night, and even if you should
+succeed in stealing from the chateau there is around it a ring of German
+sentinels through which you could not possibly break."
+
+Some strange kink appeared suddenly in John's brain--he was never able
+to account for it afterward, though Auersperg's manner rasped him
+terribly.
+
+"I mean to escape," he said, "and I wager you two to one that I do."
+
+Auersperg sat down and laughed, laughed in a way that made John's face
+turn red. Then he beckoned to von Arnheim.
+
+"Take him away," he said. "He is characteristic of his frivolous
+democracy, frivolous and perhaps amusing, but it is a time for serious
+not trifling things."
+
+John was glad enough to go with von Arnheim, who was silent and
+depressed. Yet the thought came to him once more that there were princes
+and princes. Von Arnheim led the way to a small bare room under the
+roof. John saw that there were soldiers in the upper halls as well as
+the lower, and he was sorry that he had made such a boast to Auersperg.
+As he now saw it his chance of escape glimmered into nothing.
+
+"You should not have spoken so to His Highness," said von Arnheim. "I
+could not help but hear. He is our commander here, and it is not well to
+infuriate one who holds all power over you?"
+
+"I am but human," replied John.
+
+"And being human, you should have had complete control over yourself at
+such a time."
+
+"I admit it," said John, taking the rebuke in the right spirit.
+
+"You're to spend the night here. I've been able to secure this much
+lenity for you, but it's for one night only. Tomorrow you go with the
+other prisoners in the stables. Your door will be locked, but even if
+you should succeed in forcing it don't try to escape. The halls swarm
+with sentinels, and you would be shot instantly. I'll have food sent to
+you presently."
+
+He spoke brusquely but kindly. When he went out John heard a huge key
+rumbling in the lock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A PROMISE KEPT
+
+
+The room in which John was confined contained only a bed, a chair and a
+table. It was lighted by a single window, from which he could see
+numerous soldiers below. He also heard the distant mutter of the cannon,
+which seemed now to have become a part of nature. There were periods of
+excitement or of mental detachment, when he did not notice it, but it
+was always there. Now the soldiers in the grounds were moving but
+little, and the air pulsed with the thud of the great guns.
+
+He recalled again his promise, or rather threat, to Auersperg that he
+would escape. Instinctively he went to the narrow but tall window and
+glanced at the heavens. Then he knew that impulse had made him look for
+Lannes and the _Arrow_, and he laughed at his own folly. Even if Lannes
+knew where they were he could not slip prisoners out of a house,
+surrounded by watchful German troops.
+
+He heard the heavy key turning in the lock, and a silent soldier brought
+him food, which he put upon the table. The man remained beside the door
+until John had eaten his supper, when he took the dishes and withdrew.
+He had not spoken a word while he was in the room, but as he was passing
+out John said:
+
+"Good-bye, Pickelbaube! Let's have no ill feeling between you and me."
+
+The German--honest peasant that he was--grinned and nodded. He could not
+understand the English words, but he gathered from John's tone that they
+were friendly, and he responded at once. But when he closed the door
+behind him John heard the heavy key turning in the lock again. He knew
+there was little natural hostility between the people of different
+nations. It was instilled into them from above.
+
+Food brought back new strength and new courage. He took his place again
+at the window which was narrow and high, cut through a deep wall. The
+illusion of the Middle Ages, which Auersperg had created so completely,
+returned. This was the dungeon in a castle and he was a prisoner doomed
+to death by its lord. Some dismounted Uhlans who were walking across the
+grounds with their long lances over their shoulders gave another touch
+to this return of the past, as the first rays of the moonlight glittered
+on helmet and lance-head.
+
+He was not sleepy at all, and staying by the window he kept a strange
+watch. He saw white flares appear often on a long line in the west. He
+knew it was the flashing of the searchlights, and he surmised that what
+he saw was meant for signals. The fighting would go on under steady
+light continued long, and that it would continue admitted of no doubt.
+He could hear the mutter of the guns, ceaseless like the flowing of a
+river.
+
+He saw the battery drive out of the grounds, then turn into the road
+before the chateau and disappear. He concluded that the cannon were
+needed at some weak point where the Franco-British army was pressing
+hard.
+
+Then a company of hussars came from the forest and rode quietly into the
+grounds, where they dismounted. John saw that many, obviously the
+wounded, were helped from their horses. In battle, he concluded, and not
+so far off. Perhaps not more than two or three miles. Rifle-fire, with
+the wind blowing the wrong way, would not be heard that distance.
+
+The hussars, leading their horses, disappeared in a wood behind the
+house, and they were followed presently by a long train of automobiles,
+moving rather slowly. The moonlight was very bright now and John saw
+that they were filled with wounded who stirred but little and who made
+no outcry. The line of motors turned into the place and they too
+disappeared behind the chateau, following the hussars.
+
+Two aeroplanes alighted on the grass and their drivers entered the
+house. Bearers of dispatches, John felt sure, and while he watched he
+saw both return, spring into their machines and fly away. Their
+departure caused him to search the heavens once more, and he knew that
+he was looking for Lannes, who could not come.
+
+Now von Arnheim passed down the graveled walk that led to the great
+central gate, but, half way, turned from it and began to talk to some
+sentinels who stood on the grass. He was certainly a fine fellow, tall,
+well built, and yet free from the German stoutness of figure. He wore a
+close uniform of blue-gray which fitted him admirably, and the moonlight
+fell in a flood on his handsome, ruddy face.
+
+"I hope you won't be killed," murmured John. "If there is any French
+shell or shrapnel that is labeled specially for a prince and that must
+have a prince, I pray it will take Auersperg in place of von Arnheim."
+
+It was a serious prayer and he felt that it was without a trace of
+wickedness or sacrilege. Evidently von Arnheim was giving orders of
+importance, as two of the men, to whom he was talking, hurried to
+horses, mounted and galloped down the road. Then the young prince walked
+slowly back to the house and John could see that he was very thoughtful.
+He passed his hand in a troubled way two or three times across his
+forehead. Perhaps the medieval prince inside was putting upon the modern
+prince outside labors that he was far from liking.
+
+John's unformed plan of escape included Julie Lannes. He could not go
+away without her. If he did he could never face Lannes again, and what
+was more, he could never face himself. It was in reality this thought
+that made his resolve to escape seem so difficult. It had been lurking
+continuously in the back of his head. To go away without Julie was
+impossible. Under ordinary circumstances her situation as a prisoner
+would not be alarming. Germans regarded women with respect. They had
+done so from the earliest times, as he had learned from the painful
+study of Tacitus. Von Arnheim had received a deep impression from
+Julie's beauty and grace. John could tell it by his looks, but those
+looks were honest. They came from the eyes and heart of one who could do
+no wrong. But the other! The man of the Middle Ages, the older prince.
+He was different. War re-created ancient passions and gave to them
+opportunities. No, he could not think of leaving without Julie!
+
+He kept his place at the tall, narrow window, and the night was steadily
+growing brighter. A full, silver moon was swinging high in the heavens.
+The stars were out in myriads in that sky of dusky, infinite blue, and
+danced regardless of the tiny planet, Earth, shaken by battle. From the
+hills came the relentless groaning which he knew was the sound of the
+guns, fighting one another under the searchlights.
+
+Then he heard the clatter of hoofs, and another company of Uhlans rode
+up to the chateau. Their leader dismounted and entered the great gate.
+John recognized von Boehlen, who had taken off his helmet to let the
+cool air blow upon his close-cropped head. He stood on the graveled walk
+for a few minutes directly in a flood of silver rays, every feature
+showing clearly. He had been arrogant and domineering, but John liked
+him far better than Auersperg. His cruelty would be the cruelty of
+battle, and there might be a streak of sentimentalism hidden under the
+stiff and harsh German manner, like a vein of gold in rock. As von
+Boehlen resumed his approach to the house he passed from John's range of
+vision, and then the prisoner watched the horizon for anything that he
+might see. Twice he beheld the far flare of searchlights, but nobody
+else came to the chateau, and the night darkened somewhat. No rattle of
+arms or stamp of hoofs came from the hussars in the grounds, and he
+judged that all but the sentinels slept. Nor was there any sound of
+movement in the house, and in the peaceful silence he at last began to
+feel sleepy. The problems of his position were too great for him to
+solve--at least for the present--and lying down on the cot he was fast
+asleep before he knew it.
+
+Youth does not always sleep soundly, and the tension of John's nerves
+continued long after he lapsed into unconsciousness. That, perhaps, was
+the reason why he awoke at once when the heavy key began to turn again
+in the lock. He sat up on the cot--he had not undressed--and his hand
+instinctively slipped to his belt, where there was no weapon.
+
+The key was certainly turning in the lock, and then the door was
+opening! A shadow appeared in the space between door and wall, and
+John's first feeling was of apprehension. An atmosphere of suspicion had
+been created about him and he considered his life in much more danger
+there than it had been when he was first a prisoner.
+
+The door closed again quickly and softly, but somebody was inside the
+room, somebody who had a light, feline step, and John felt the prickling
+of the hair at the back of his neck. He longed for a weapon, something
+better than only his two hands, but he was reassured when the intruder,
+speaking French, called in a whisper:
+
+"Are you awake, Mr. Scott?"
+
+It was surely not the voice and words of one who had come to do murder,
+and John felt a thrill of recognition.
+
+"Weber!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, it's Weber, Mr. Scott."
+
+"How under the sun did you get here, Weber?"
+
+"By pretending to be a German. I'm an Alsatian, you know, and it's not
+difficult. I'm doing work for France. It's terribly dangerous. My life
+is on the turn of a hair every moment, but I'm willing to take the risk.
+I did not know you were here until late tonight, when I came to the
+chateau to see if I could discover anything further about the numbers
+and movements of the enemy. You must get away now. I think I can help
+you to escape."
+
+There was a tone in Weber's voice that aroused John's curiosity.
+
+"It's good of you, Weber," he said, "to take such a risk for me, but why
+is it so urgent that I escape tonight?"
+
+"I've learned since I came to the chateau that the Prince of Auersperg
+is much inflamed against you. Perhaps you spoke to him in a way that
+gave offense to his dignity. Ah, sir, the members of these ancient royal
+houses, those of the old type, consider themselves above and beyond the
+other people of the earth. In Germany you cannot offend them without
+risk, and it may be, too, that you stand in his way in regard to
+something that he very much desires!"
+
+Although Weber spoke in a whisper his voice was full of energy and
+earnestness. His words sank with the weight of truth into John's heart.
+
+"Can you really help me to escape?" he asked.
+
+"I think so. I'm sure of it. The guards in the house are relaxed at this
+late hour, and they would seem needless anyhow with so many sentinels
+outside."
+
+"But, Weber, Julie Lannes, the sister of Philip Lannes, is here a
+prisoner also. She was taken when I was. She is a Red Cross nurse, and
+although the Germans would not harm a woman, I do not like to leave her
+in this chateau. Your Prince of Auersperg does not seem to belong to our
+later age."
+
+"Perhaps not. He holds strongly for the old order, but the young von
+Arnheim is here also. His is a devoted German heart, but his German eyes
+have looked with admiration, nay more, upon a French face. He will
+protect that beautiful young Mademoiselle Julie with his life against
+anybody, against his senior in military rank, the Prince of Auersperg
+himself. Sir, you must come! If you wish to help Philip Lannes' sister
+you can be of more help to her living than dead. If you linger here you
+surely disappear from men tomorrow!"
+
+"How do you know these things, Weber?"
+
+"I have been in the house three or four hours and there is talk among
+the soldiers. I pray you, don't hesitate longer!"
+
+"How can you find a way?"
+
+"Wait a minute."
+
+He slipped back to the door, opened it and looked into the hall.
+
+"The path is clear," he said, when he returned. "There is no sentinel
+near your door, and I've found a way leading out of the chateau at the
+back. Most of these old houses have crooked, disused passages."
+
+"But suppose we succeed in reaching the outside, Weber, what then? The
+place is surrounded by an army."
+
+"A way is there, too. One man in the darkness can pass through a
+multitude. We can't delay, because another chance may not come!"
+
+John was overborne. Weber was half pulling him toward the door.
+Moreover, there was much sense in what the Alsatian said. It was a
+commonplace that he could be of more service to Julie alive than dead,
+and the man's insistence deciding him, he crept with the Alsatian into
+the hall. They stood a few minutes in the dark, listening, but no sound
+came. Evidently the house slept well.
+
+"This way, Mr. Scott," whispered Weber, and he led toward the rear of
+the house. Turning the corner of the hall he opened a small door in the
+wall, which John would have passed even in the daylight without
+noticing.
+
+"Put a hand on my coat and follow me," said Weber.
+
+John obeyed without hesitation, and they ascended a half dozen steps
+along a passage so narrow that his shoulders touched the walls. It was
+very dark there, but at the top they entered a room into which some
+moonlight came, enough for John to see barrels, boxes and bags heaped on
+the floor.
+
+"A storeroom," said Weber. "The French are thrifty. The owner of this
+house had splendor below, and he has kept provision for it above, almost
+concealed by the narrowness of the door and stair. But we'll find a
+broader stair on the other side, and then we'll descend through the
+kitchen and beyond."
+
+"This looks promising. You're a clever man, Weber, and my debt to you is
+too big for me."
+
+"Don't think about it. Be careful and don't make any noise. Here's the
+other stair. You'd better hold to my coat again."
+
+They stole softly down the stair, crossed an unused room, went down
+another narrow, unused passage, and then, when Weber opened a door, John
+felt the cool air of the night blowing upon his face. When the attempt
+at escape began, he had not been so enthusiastic, because he was leaving
+Julie behind, but with every step his eagerness grew and the free wind
+brought with it a sort of intoxication. He did not doubt now that he
+would make good his flight. Weber, that fast friend of his, was a
+wonderful man. He worked miracles. Everything came out as he predicted
+it would, and he would work more miracles.
+
+"Where are we now?" asked John.
+
+"This door is by the side of the kitchens. A little to the left is an
+extensive conservatory, nearly all the glass of which has been shattered
+by a shell, but that fact makes it all the more useful as a path for
+us. If we reach it unobserved we can creep through the mass of flowers
+and shrubbery to a large fishpond which lies just beyond it. You're a
+good swimmer, as I know--and you can swim along its edge until you reach
+the shrubbery on the other side. Then you ought to find an opening by
+which you can reach the French army."
+
+"And you, Weber?"
+
+"I? Oh, I must stay here. The Prince of Auersperg is a man of great
+importance. He is high in the confidence of the Kaiser. Besides his
+royal rank he commands one of the German armies. If I am to secure
+precious information for France it must be done in this house."
+
+"Come away with me, Weber. You've risked enough already. They'll catch
+you and you know the fate of spies. I feel like a criminal or coward
+abandoning you to so much danger, after all that you've done for me."
+
+"Thank you for your good words, Mr. Scott, but it's impossible for me to
+go. Keep in the shadow of the wall, and a dozen steps will take you to
+the conservatory."
+
+John wrung the Alsatian's hand, stepped out, and pressed himself against
+the side of the house. The breeze still blew upon his face, revivifying
+and intoxicating. The lazy, feathery clouds were yet drifting before the
+moon and stars.
+
+He saw to his right the gleam of a bayonet as a sentinel walked back and
+forth and he saw another to his left. His heart beat high with hope. He
+was merely a mote in infinite night, and surely they could not see him.
+
+He walked swiftly along in the shadow of the house, and then sprang into
+the conservatory, where he crouched between two tall rose bushes. He
+waited there a little while, breathing hard, but he had not been
+observed. From his rosy shelter he could still see the sentinels on
+either side, walking up and down, undisturbed. Around him was a
+frightful litter. The shell, the history of which he would never know,
+had struck fairly in the center of the place, and it must have burst in
+a thousand fragments. Scarcely a pane of glass had been left unbroken,
+and the great pots, containing rare fruits and flowers, were mingled
+mostly in shattered heaps. It was a pitiable wreck, and it stirred John,
+although he had seen so many things so much worse.
+
+He walked a little distance in a stooping position, and then stood up
+among some shrubs, tall enough to hide him. He noticed a slight dampness
+in the air, and he saw, too, that the feathery clouds were growing
+darker. The faint quiver in the air brought with it, as always, the
+rumble of the guns, but he believed that it was not a blended sound.
+There was real thunder on the horizon, where the French lay, and then he
+saw a distant flash, not white like that of a searchlight, but like
+yellow lightning. Rain, a storm perhaps, must be at hand. He had read
+that nearly all the great battles in the civil war in his own country
+had been followed at once by violent storms of thunder, lightning and
+rain. Then why not here, where immense artillery combats never ceased?
+
+Near the end of the conservatory he paused and looked back at the house.
+Every window was dark. There must be light inside, but shutters were
+closed. His heart throbbed with intense gratitude to Weber. Without him
+escape would have been impossible. He would make his way to the French.
+He would find Lannes and together in some way they would rescue Julie,
+Julie so young and so beautiful, held in the castle of the medieval
+baron. In the lowering shadows the house became a castle and Auersperg
+had always been of the Middle Ages.
+
+The wind freshened and a few drops of rain struck his face. He stood
+boldly erect now, unafraid of observation, and picked a way through the
+mass of broken glass and overturned shrubbery toward the end of the
+conservatory, seeing beyond it a gleam of water which must be the big
+fishpond.
+
+He turned to the left and reached the edge of the pond just as four
+figures stepped from the dusk, their raised rifles pointing at him. The
+shock was so great that, driven by some unknown but saving impulse, he
+threw himself forward into the water just as the soldiers fired. He
+heard the four rifles roaring together. Then he swam below water to the
+far edge of the pond and came up under the shelter of its circling
+shrubbery, raising above its surface only enough of his face for breath.
+
+As his eyes cleared he saw the four soldiers standing at the far edge of
+the pond, looking at the water. Doubtless they were waiting for his
+body to reappear, as his action, half fall, half spring, and the roaring
+of the rifles had been so close together that they seemed a blended
+movement.
+
+He was trembling all over from intense nervous exertion and excitement,
+but his mind steadied enough for him to observe the soldiers.
+Undoubtedly they were talking together, as he saw them making the
+gestures of men who speak, but, even had he heard them, he could not
+have understood their German. They were watching for his body, and as it
+did not reappear they might make the circle of the pond looking for it.
+He intended, in such an event, to leap out and run, but the elements
+were intereceding in his favor. Thunder now preponderated greatly in
+that rumble on the western horizon, and a blaze of yellow lightning
+played across the surface of the pond. It was followed by a rush of rain
+and the soldiers turned back toward the house, evidently sure that they
+had not missed.
+
+John drew himself out of the water and climbed up the bank. His knees
+gave way under him and he sank to the ground. Excitement and emotion had
+been so violent that he was robbed of strength, but the condition lasted
+only a minute or two. Then he rose and began to pick a way.
+
+The rain was driving hard, and it had grown so dark that one could not
+see far. But he felt that the German sentinels now would seek a little
+shelter from the wrath of the skies, and keeping in the shelter of a
+hedge he passed by the stables, where many of the hussars and Uhlans
+slept, through an orchard, the far side of which was packed with
+automobiles, and thence into a wood, where he believed at last that he
+was safe.
+
+He stopped here a little while in the lee of a great oak to protect
+himself from the driving rain, and he noticed then that it was but a
+passing shower, sent, it seemed then to him, as a providential aid. The
+part of the rumble that was real thunder was dying. The yellow flare of
+the lightning stopped and the rain swept off to the east. The moon and
+stars were coming out again.
+
+John tried to see the chateau, but it was hidden from him by trees. They
+would miss him there, and then they would know that it was he whom the
+soldiers had fired upon at the edge of the pond. All of them would
+believe that he was dead, and he remembered suddenly that Julie, who was
+there among them, would believe it, too. Would she grieve? Or would he
+merely be one of the human beings passing through her life, fleeting and
+forgotten, like the shower that had just gone? It was true that he had
+escaped, but he might be killed in some battle before she was rescued
+from Auersperg--if she was rescued.
+
+These thoughts were hateful, and turning into the road by which they had
+come to the chateau he ran down it. He ran because he wanted motion,
+because he wished to reach the French army as quickly as he could, and
+help Lannes organize for the rescue of Julie.
+
+He ran a long distance, because his excitement waned slowly, and because
+the severe exercise made the blood course rapidly through his veins,
+counteracting the effects of his cold and wetting. When he began to feel
+weary he turned out of the road, knowing that it was safer in the
+fields. He had the curious belief or impression now that the black
+shower was all arranged for his benefit. Providence was merely making
+things even. The soldiers had been brought upon him when the chances
+were a hundred to one against him, and then the shower had been sent to
+cover him, when the chances were a hundred to one against that, too.
+
+He saw far to the south a sudden faint radiance and he knew that it was
+the last of the lightning. The little feathery clouds, which looked so
+friendly and pleasant against the blue of the sky, came back and the
+moaning on the western horizon toward which he was traveling was wholly
+that of the guns.
+
+He heard a noise over his head, a mixture of a whistle and a scream, and
+he knew that a shell was passing high. He walked on, and heard another.
+But they could not be firing at him. He was still that mere mote in the
+infinite darkness, but, looking back for the bursting of the shells, he
+saw a blaze leap up near the point from which he had come.
+
+A cold shiver seized him. The range was that of the chateau, and Julie
+was there. The French gunners could have no knowledge that their own
+people were prisoners in the building, and if one of those huge shells
+burst in it, ruin and destruction would follow. The conservatory had
+been a silent witness of what flying metal could do. He stopped,
+appalled. He had been wrong to leave without Julie, and yet he could
+have done nothing else. It was impossible to foresee a shelling of the
+chateau by the French themselves.
+
+The screaming and whistling came again, but he did not see any
+explosion near the chateau. One could not tell much from such a swift
+and passing sound, but he concluded that it was a German shell replying.
+He had seen a German battery near the house and it would not remain
+quiet under bombardment.
+
+He had no doubt that the French gunners, having got the range, would
+keep it. Somebody, perhaps an aeroplane or an officer with flags in a
+tree, was signaling. It was horrible, this murderous mechanism by which
+men fired at targets miles away, targets which they could not see, but
+which they hit nevertheless. Every pulse beating hard, John shook his
+fist at the invisible German guns and the invisible French guns alike.
+
+Then he recovered himself with an angry shake and began to run again. He
+knew now that he must go forward and secure a French force for rescue.
+But no matter how much he urged himself on, a great power was pulling at
+him, and it was Julie Lannes, a prisoner of the Germans in the chateau.
+Often he stopped and looked back, always in the same direction. Twice
+more he saw shells burst in the neighborhood of the house, and then his
+heart would beat hard, but after brief hesitation he would always pursue
+his course once more toward the French army.
+
+He did not know the time, but he believed it to be well past midnight.
+He had his watch, but his immersion in the fish pond had caused it to
+stop. Still, the feel of the air made him believe that he was in the
+morning hours. Shells continued to pass over his head, and now they
+came from many points. He had seen or heard so much firing in the last
+eight or ten days that the world, he felt, must be turned into a huge
+ammunition factory to feed all the guns. He laughed to himself at his
+own grim joke. He was overstrained and he began to see everything
+through a red mist.
+
+His clothing was drying fast, but his throat was very hot from
+excitement and exertion. He came to a little brook, and kneeling down,
+drank greedily. Then he bathed his face and felt stronger and better.
+His nerves also grew steadier. There was not so much luminous mist in
+the atmosphere. Ahead of him the crash of the guns was much louder, and
+he knew that he had already come a long distance. It seemed that the
+passing of the storm had renewed the activity of the gunners. The mutter
+had become rolling thunder, and both to north and south the searchlights
+flared repeatedly.
+
+He heard the beat of hoofs, and he hoped that they were French cavalry
+on patrol, but they proved to be German Hussars, Bavarians he judged by
+the light blue uniforms, and they were coming from the direction of the
+French lines. They had been scouting there, he had no doubt, but they
+passed in a few moments, and, leaving his hedge, he resumed his own
+rapid flight, continually hoping that he would meet some French force,
+scouting also.
+
+But he was doomed to a long trial of patience. Twice he saw Germans and
+hid until they had gone by. They seemed to be scouting in the night
+almost to the mouths of the French guns, and he admired their energy
+although it stood in the way of his own plans. He came to a second
+brook, drank again, and then took a short cut through a small wood. He
+had marked the reports of guns from a hill about two miles in front of
+him, and he was sure that a French battery must be posted there. He
+reckoned that he could reach it in a half hour, if he exerted himself.
+
+Half way through the wood and human figures rose up all about him.
+Strong hands seized his arms and an electric torch flashed in his face.
+
+"Who are you?" came the fierce question in French.
+
+But it was not necessary for John to answer. The man who held the torch
+was short, but very muscular and strong, his face cut in the antique
+mold, his eyes penetrating and eager. It was Bougainville and John gave
+a gasp of joy. Then he straightened up and saluted:
+
+"Colonel Bougainville," he said, "I see that you know me! I have just
+escaped from the enemy for the second time. There is a house in that
+direction, and it is occupied by the Prince of Auersperg, one of the
+German generals."
+
+He pointed where the chateau lay, and Bougainville uttered a shout:
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"He holds there a prisoner, Mademoiselle Julie Lannes, the sister of the
+great Philip Lannes, the aviator; and other Frenchwomen."
+
+"Ah!" said Bougainville again.
+
+"You will help rescue them, will you not?"
+
+Bougainville smiled slightly.
+
+"An army can't turn aside for the rescue of women," he replied, "but it
+happens that this brigade, under General Vaugirard is marching forward
+now to find, if possible, an opening between the German armies, and
+you're the very man to lead it."
+
+John's heart bounded with joy. He would be again with the general whom
+he admired and trusted, and he would certainly guide the brigade
+straight to the chateau.
+
+"Is General Vaugirard near?" he asked.
+
+"Just over the brow of this hill, down there where the dim light is
+visible among the trees."
+
+"Then take me to him at once."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE RESCUE
+
+
+Escorted by Bougainville, John went down a little slope to a point where
+several officers stood talking earnestly. The central figure was that of
+a huge man who puffed out his cheeks as he spoke, and whose words and
+movements were alive with energy. Even had he seen but a dim outline,
+John would have recognized him with no difficulty as General Vaugirard,
+and beside him stood de Rougemont.
+
+Bougainville saluted and said;
+
+"The American, John Scott, sir. He has just escaped from the enemy and
+he brings important information."
+
+Vaugirard puffed out his great cheeks and whistled with satisfaction.
+
+"Ah, my young Yankee!" he said. "They cannot hold you!"
+
+"No, my general," replied John, "I've come back again to fight for
+France."
+
+General Vaugirard looked at him keenly.
+
+"You're exhausted," he said. "You've been under tremendous pressure."
+
+"But I can guide you. I want neither sleep nor rest."
+
+"You need both, as I can see with these two old eyes of mine. Sleep you
+can't have now, but rest is yours. You go with me in my automobile,
+which this war has trained to climb mountains, jump rivers, and crash
+through forests. The motor has become a wonderful weapon of battle."
+
+"May I ask one question, General?" said John.
+
+"A dozen."
+
+"Do you know where the aviator, Philip Lannes, is? His sister is held a
+prisoner by a German general in a chateau toward which we will march,
+and doubtless he would wish to go at once to her rescue."
+
+"He is not here, but his friend, Caumartin, is only a half-mile away.
+I'll send a man at once with a message to him to find Lannes, who will
+surely follow us, if he can be found. And now, my brave young Yankee,
+here is my machine. Into it, and we'll lead the way."
+
+John sprang into the automobile, and sank down upon the cushions. He had
+a vast sense of ease and luxury. He had not known until then, the extent
+of his mental and physical overstrain, but de Rougemont, who was also in
+the machine, observed it and gave him a drink from a flask, which
+revived him greatly.
+
+Then the automobile turned into the road and moved forward at a slow
+gait, puffing gently like a monster trying to hold in his breath. From
+the wood and the fields came the tread of many thousand men, marching
+to the night attack. Behind their own automobile rose the hum of
+motors, bearing troops also, and dragging cannon.
+
+John felt that he was going back in state, riding by the side of a
+general and at the head of an army. He found both pride and exultation
+in it. Sleep was far from his eyes. How could one think of sleep at such
+a moment? But youth, the restorer, was bringing fresh strength to his
+tired muscles and he was never more alert.
+
+At one point they stopped while the general examined the dusky horizon
+through his glasses, and a company of men with faces not French marched
+past them. They were John's own Strangers, and despite the presence of
+General Vaugirard both Wharton and Carstairs reached up and shook his
+hand as they went by.
+
+"Welcome home," said Wharton.
+
+"See you again in the morning," said Carstairs.
+
+"God bless you both," said John with some emotion.
+
+Captain Daniel Colton nodded to him. They were not effusive, these men
+of the Strangers, but their feelings were strong. When the automobile in
+its turn passed them again and resumed its place at the head of the
+column, they seemed to take no notice.
+
+No more shells passed over John's head. He knew that General Vaugirard
+had sent back word for the batteries to cease firing in that direction,
+but both to south and north of them the sullen thunder went on. The
+night remained light, adorned rather than obscured by the little white
+clouds floating against the sky. The only sound that John could hear was
+the great hum and murmur of a moving army, a sound in which the puffing
+of automobiles had introduced a new element. He wondered why they had
+not roused up German skirmishers, but perhaps those vigilant gentlemen,
+had grown weary at last.
+
+They reached the first brook, and, as they were crossing it, the rifle
+fire expected so long began to crackle in front. Then the French
+trumpets shrilled, and the whole force marched rapidly, rifles and field
+guns opening in full volume. But the French had the advantage of
+surprise. Their infantry advanced at the double quick, a powerful force
+of cavalry on their right flank galloped to the charge, and
+Bougainville's Paris regiment and the Strangers swept over the field.
+
+A heavy fire met them, but the general's automobile kept in front
+puffing along the main road. General Vaugirard puffed with it, but now
+and then he ceased his puffing to whistle. John knew that he was pleased
+and that all was going well. The battle increased in volume, and their
+whole front blazed with fire. The dark was thinning away in the east and
+dawn was coming.
+
+"The chateau! The chateau!" cried John as a dark shape rose on the
+horizon. Even as he looked a shell burst over it and it leaped into
+flames. He cried aloud in fear, not for himself, but for those who were
+there. But General Vaugirard was calmly examining the field and the
+house through powerful glasses.
+
+"They're pouring from the building," he said, "and it's full time. Look
+how the fire gains! What a pity that we should destroy the home of some
+good Frenchman in order to drive out the enemy."
+
+"Faster, sir! Faster! Ah, I pray you go faster!" exclaimed John, whose
+heart was eaten up with anxiety as he saw the chateau roaring with
+flames. But he did not need the general's glasses now to see the people
+stream from it, and then rush for refuge from the fire of the French.
+The surprise had been so thorough that at this point the enemy was able
+to offer little resistance, and, in a few moments more, the automobile
+reached the grounds surrounding the burning chateau.
+
+John, reckless of commands and of everything else, leaped out of the
+machine and ran forward. A gigantic man bearing a slender figure in his
+arms emerged from the shrubbery. Behind him came a stalwart young woman,
+grim of face. John shouted with joy. It was Picard, carrying Julie, and
+the woman who followed was the faithful Suzanne.
+
+Picard put Julie down. She stood erect, pale as death. But the color
+flooded into her face when she saw John, and uttering a cry of joy she
+ran forward to meet him. She put her hands in his and said:
+
+"I knew that you would save me!"
+
+Time and place were extraordinary, and war, the great leveler, was once
+more at work.
+
+"The chateau was set on fire by shells, Monsieur Scott," Picard said,
+"and when the enemy saw the French force appearing across the fields
+they took to flight. That dog of a prince, the Auersperg, tried to carry
+off Mademoiselle Julie in his automobile, but the young prince
+interfered and while they were quarreling I seized her and took her
+away. All the other women have escaped too."
+
+"Thank God, Picard," exclaimed John, wringing the huge hand of the
+peasant, who was at once a peasant and a prince too.
+
+"And look," said Carstairs, who with Wharton had approached unnoticed.
+"An aeroplane comes like the flight of an eagle, and my guess is poor if
+it is not our friend, the great Lannes."
+
+Caumartin in truth had found Philip, and he came like the lightning,
+circling and swooping until he touched the ground almost at Julie's
+feet. Brother and sister were united in a close embrace, and Lannes
+turned to John.
+
+"I have heard from Caumartin that it was you who brought the word. We
+can never repay you."
+
+"We'll wait and see," said John.
+
+Her brother did not see Julie flush rosily, as she turned her face away.
+
+"And now," said Lannes, "we go to Paris. My duties allow me enough time
+for the flight. No, John, my friend, don't object. She's been up in the
+_Arrow_ with me before. Picard, you and Suzanne can come later."
+
+The thunder of the battle rolling toward the east still reached them,
+but Lannes quickly threw a coat around Julie, gave her a cap and huge
+glasses to put on, and exclaimed:
+
+"Now we go."
+
+"But I must first thank Mr. Scott himself for saving me," she said.
+
+She put her hand, small and warm, in his, American fashion, and the two
+palms met in a strong clasp.
+
+"Good-bye, Mr. Scott," she said.
+
+"Good-bye, but not forever. I'm coming back to Paris."
+
+"And it's my hope, too, that it's not forever."
+
+She and her brother took their seats in the _Arrow_. Carstairs, Wharton
+and the others gave it a push, and it soared up into the fresh blue of
+the dawn. An ungloved hand, white and small, reached over the side and
+waved farewell, a farewell which John felt was for him.
+
+To the east the battle still rolled, but John had forgotten its
+existence. Higher and higher rose the _Arrow_, flying toward Paris,
+until it diminished to a mere dot in the sky, and then was gone.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
+
+
+_The Civil War Series_
+
+In this series of stories Mr. Altsheler covers the principal battles of
+the Civil War. In four of the volumes Dick Mason, who fights for the
+North, is the leading character, and in the others, his cousin, Harry
+Kenton, who joins the Confederate forces, takes the principal part.
+
+The Guns of Bull Run
+
+Harry Kenton follows the lead of his father and joins the Southern
+forces. His cousin, Dick Mason, the hero, fights with the North.
+
+The Guns of Shiloh
+
+Dick takes part in the battle of Mill Spring, is captured but escapes.
+The story gives a vivid account of the first defeat of the South.
+
+The Scouts of Stonewall
+
+Harry and some friends become aides of Stonewall Jackson. They follow
+him through the campaign in the Valley of Virginia.
+
+The Sword of Antietam
+
+After engaging in the Battle of Shiloh, Dick gets into three big fights.
+Antietam is the big battle described, with McClellan always in the
+foreground.
+
+The Star of Gettysburg
+
+In this book Harry and his friends take part in the battles of
+Fredericksburg, The Wilderness and finally Gettysburg. General Lee is a
+central figure.
+
+The Rock of Chickamauga
+
+This volume deals with the crisis of the Union during the siege of
+Vicksburg and the Battle of Chickamauga. Dick takes an active part.
+
+The Shades of the Wilderness
+
+The story opens with Lee's retreat after Gettysburg. Harry is sent to
+Richmond and becomes involved in a dangerous situation with a spy.
+
+The Tree of Appomattox
+
+This description of the Battle of Appomattox has been written from the
+account of an eyewitness. Dick plays an important part. The volume
+closes with the blue and the gray turning toward a new day.
+
+
+These Are Appleton Books
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, New York
+
+
+
+
+BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
+
+
+_The Texan Series_
+
+Three stories telling of the Texan struggle for independence and the
+events culminating in the capture of the erratic Santa Anna.
+
+The Texan Star
+
+Ned Fulton, the hero, is a prisoner in the city of Mexico. He makes an
+exciting escape and sees the capture of San Antonio.
+
+The Texan Scouts
+
+Ned Fulton and his friends are right in the midst of exciting events
+that keep the reader continually on edge. The battle of the Alamo is the
+climax of the story.
+
+The Texan Triumph
+
+The duel of skill and courage between Ned and Urrea, his young Mexican
+enemy, furnishes pages of excitement. The battle of San Jacinto, which
+secured Texan Independence, and the capture of Santa Anna by five Texans
+is vividly described.
+
+
+_The World War Series_
+
+Mr. Altsheler, who was in Vienna the day war was declared on Servia, in
+Munich when war was declared against Russia, and in England when the
+British forces were mobilising, has given in three volumes the
+impressions he gained at the places of action during the world crisis.
+
+The Guns of Europe
+
+A young American, unable to reach home, enlists with the Allies where he
+sees active service from the beginning. The story closes with the fierce
+fighting which preceded the retreat of the Germans from Paris.
+
+The Forest of Swords
+
+The hero finds himself in Paris with Phillip Lannes, his friend, and the
+Germans only fifteen miles away. Finally the enemy is turned back at the
+Marne, a battle in which John and Phillip are actively engaged.
+
+The Hosts of the Air
+
+The pretty young sister of Phillip is seized by the enemy and carried
+into Austria. John resolves to get her back and his adventures make a
+wonderfully exciting story.
+
+
+These Are Appleton Books
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, New York
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Forest of Swords, by Joseph A. Altsheler
+
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