Part 15 (2/2)

”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 a.s.sailed 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 a.s.sailed 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 G.o.d 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 gla.s.s. 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 gra.s.s in front of the house, where the elderly general and other generals were still standing and using their gla.s.ses.

”You are refreshed?” said the general to Lannes.

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