Part 17 (2/2)
”And we're flying fast toward the north. We'll soon part company with the storm, and then we'll drop lower. But John, you must take the gla.s.ses and watch the skies all the time.”
”Which means that we'll fly near the French border, and that I've got to be on the lookout for the Taubes and the dirigibles.”
”And he guessed right the very first time. That's more of your American slang. Yes, John, the hosts of the air are abroad, and we must not have another encounter with the Germans. Before night we'll be approaching the battle lines, and the air will be full of scouts. Perhaps it will be better to do the rest of our traveling at night. We might drop down in a wood somewhere, and wait for the twilight.”
”That's true Philip, but there's one question I'd like to ask you.”
”Go ahead.”
”Just how do you cla.s.sify me? I belong to America, which has nothing to do with your gigantic war, and yet here I am scouting through the air with you, and exposed to just as much danger as you are.”
”I don't think I could have answered that question about cla.s.sification yesterday, John, but I can without hesitation today. You're an Ally. And you're an Ally because you can't help it. Germany represents autocracy and France democracy. So does England who is going to help us. You've risked your life over and over again with me, a Frenchman, one who would look upon the defeat of the German empire as almost the millennium. You may like the German people, but all your principles, all your heart-beats are on our side. When we get to some convenient place you'll write to your uncle and friend at Munich that you've joined England and France in the fight against German militarism. Oh, you needn't protest!
It's true. I know you. You're quiet and scholarly, but your soul is the soul of adventure. I've seen how you responded to the thrill of the Arrow, how you're responding at this very moment I know with absolute certainty, Monsieur Jean the Scott, that you'll be fighting on the side of England and France. So you'd better make up your mind to stick to me, until we reach the French army.”
John was silent a moment or two. Then he reached out and grasped Lannes'
free hand.
”I was thinking of doing the things you predict,” he said, ”and to keep you from being a false prophet, Phil, old man, I'll do them.”
Lannes returned his strong grasp.
”But if the English come into the war on your side,” continued John, ”I think I'll join them. Not that I'm overwhelmingly in love with the English, but they speak our American language, or at least variations of it. In the heat of battle I might forget the French word for, retreat, but never the English.”
Lannes smiled.
”You won't be running, old fellow,” he said. ”You're right of course to join the English since they're close kin to you, but I have a feeling, John Scott, that you and I will see much of each other before this war is over.”
”It may be so. I'm beginning to think, Phil, that lots of things we don't dream about happen to us. I certainly never expected a week ago to be in the middle of a great war.”
”And you expected least of all, Monsieur Jean the Scott, to be sailing smoothly along in the air far above the clouds, and with a terrific storm raging below.”
”No, I didn't. If a man had predicted that for me I should have said he was insane. But I think, Phil, the storm is leaving us or we've left it.
That big ball of darkness giving out thunder and fire is moving fast toward the west.”
”So it is, and there's clear air beneath us. And the Alps are reappearing in the south.”
”Right you are, Philip. I can see a half dozen peaks, and there is another, and now another. See, their white heads coming out of the mists and vapors, whole groups of them now!”
”Don't they look from here like a friendly lot of old fellows, John, standing there and nodding their snowy pates to one another, just as they've done for the last million years or more!”
”You hit the nail on the head, Phil. Understand that? It's one of our phrases meaning that you've told the exact truth. There goes that wicked storm, farther and farther to the west. Soon the horizon will swallow it up.”
”And then it will go on toward Central France. I hope it won't damage the vineyards. But what a fool I am to be talking about storms of weather, when the German storm of steel is about to sweep over us!”
”You don't talk very hopefully, when you speak of a German invasion at once.”
”But I am hopeful. I expect the invasion because we are not ready. They accuse us French of planning a surprise attack upon Germany. What nonsense, when we're not even prepared to defend ourselves! The first sound of this war will show who was getting ready to attack. But John we'll drive back that invasion, we and our allies. I repeat to you that the French of 1914 are not the French of 1870. The Third Republic will command the same valor and devotion that served the First. But here I am talking like an old politician. Get the gla.s.ses, John, and look at our field of battle, the heavens. It's all in the light now, and we can't afford another encounter with the Taubes.”
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