Part 35 (2/2)
”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 s.h.i.+vered 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 s.h.i.+ne for him.”
”They're not s.h.i.+ning 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 pa.s.sed 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.
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