Part 24 (2/2)

”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 pa.s.sing 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 unb.u.t.toned 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 gla.s.ses 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.

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