Part 28 (1/2)

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 gla.s.ses 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 gla.s.ses, 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 gla.s.ses 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. h.e.l.lo, 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 fas.h.i.+on.

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.