Part 14 (2/2)

”But it is more than likely that pickets will have been posted, so as to avoid a French surprise,” said Henri, ”and, although I cannot claim much acquaintance with German methods as yet, one can imagine that sentries also have been sent towards our positions. Let's go on in silence, listening every now and again.”

Stealing on through the darkness, they pa.s.sed on more than one occasion a ghostly figure standing erect and motionless, keeping guard against the surprise of his comrades digging those trenches lower down the slope. Once, also, a figure suddenly sprang up before them--the figure of a German scout--a diminutive individual, who, not unnaturally, took them for comrades instantly.

”What now?” he said, standing within five feet of them. ”Reliefs, or an advance-party in front of the main force? Surely not that, for it's time for us all to have a little rest, after the fighting we have experienced.”

”Reliefs!” Henri told him instantly. ”You are to return and report at the trenches. Go now, for we have fed, and no doubt you are hungry.”

”Hungry?” The man almost exploded at the words. ”Hungry? I am as empty as a drum,” he told them. ”But there, you have come to relieve me, so good-bye!”

He swung off at once into the darkness, and, waiting till he had gained perhaps a hundred yards, Henri and Jules sped on again towards the French lines, and, clambering up the steeper slopes of the Cote du Poivre, were finally challenged.

”Halte! Qui va la?”

”Friends!” they answered.

”Then advance one--without arms.”

It was with a shout of joy that their comrades welcomed them back to the trenches, and almost immediately they were sent along to report to the Commander, receiving his congratulations on their safe return.

”This is information of the greatest importance,” he told the two when he had listened to their story; ”though, to tell the truth, the movement the enemy are making has been expected and even antic.i.p.ated.

Go and get a meal at once, while I report what is pa.s.sing. But let me say that you have behaved wonderfully well, my Jules and my Henri, and your Commander will not forget to mention the matter. Adieu!

To-morrow we shall see something more of those movements.”

Yes, to-morrow! For as the 24th February dawned, and the grey light broke over the slopes of the Cote du Poivre, the Hill of Talou, and the winding Meuse gliding along between the hills which formed the main French positions to the west and to the east of it, the enemy guns, which had not rested for many hours since the outbreak of this gigantic conflict, broke out with terrific energy and commenced to deluge the French positions. Then, down on the lower slopes, on that plain and in the hollows, thousands and thousands of Germans sprang to their feet and dashed forward.

Henri and Jules and their comrades were, indeed, on this day, and upon those which followed, to experience fighting beside which that which had taken place on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd February had been almost child's play--a grim, furious struggle was about to open, in which hand-to-hand contests were to be almost general, and in which that st.u.r.dy handful of _poilus_ were to be called upon to make yet again the most gallant efforts.

CHAPTER XIII

Douaumont Fortress

”They come! See them, in their thousands! They are breaking from the trees and the hollows!”

”Thousands of them! Hordes of them! Swarms of the Boches!”

Amidst the storm of sh.e.l.ls which the German ma.s.sed guns were pouring upon that narrow front stretching from the Cote du Poivre past the Cote De Talou to the River Meuse, heads popped up from battered trenches, from sh.e.l.l craters, from fissures torn in the ground by high explosives, and hardy, bristly, dirty _poilus_, stared down the slopes through the wintry light and watched the enemy approaching. That gallant band indeed, sadly thinned since the opening of the Verdun battle--a battle destined to last longer than any recorded in all history--looked on grimly and waited. Waited expectantly, not in fear and terror lest they should be decimated, not even in doubt or trembling, for the desperate conflict which had been waged so far had taught the French one thing very thoroughly--man for man, they were as good as, nay better than the Germans; gun for gun, their own artillery was at least as dexterous and as exact in its ranging, and, so far as it went, gave wonderful support to the infantry. All then that remained was to withstand that terrible torrent of sh.e.l.ls, and wait.

To discover shelter of some sort which would protect their bodies and allow them to remain alive till that moment when those grey ma.s.ses down below got within reach of them.

”And then you shall see, my Henri and my Jules,” the sergeant who had spoken up for them on the previous day said, smiling grimly. ”These sh.e.l.ls that fall about us--pooh! What are they?”

At that moment a 15-inch sh.e.l.l plunged into the ground just behind the parapet--into ground already torn and plastered with sh.e.l.l fragments--and, burrowing at least ten feet deep, at last exploded with a m.u.f.fled roar, setting the earth trembling, shaking in the sides of the battered trench, and sending up tons of soil, which fell in a cascade all round them.

”Poof! What are they?” he said again, saluting in the direction of the exploded sh.e.l.l. ”But nothing! But something to snap one's fingers at!

To laugh at! To chortle over! Something to avoid, though, my Henri and my Jules! Not that a man is so careful of his body in these days.

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