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Page 25
"I believe you told me your machine was behind the cathedral, Antoine,"
he said. "We ought first to take a look at it, and see that it's all
right."
"That's very true, sir," replied Picard. "Shall we not go there and see
it, Mademoiselle Julie?"
She nodded and they passed to the rear of the cathedral, where the
machine stood under a shed. It was a small limousine with a powerful
body, and John, although knowing little of automobiles, liked its looks.
"How about the gasoline supply?" he asked Picard.
"Enough, sir, for a long journey."
"You've brought food?"
"Food and wine both, sir, under the seats."
"That's very good, but I knew you'd be far-seeing, Picard. If we don't
find a good place we can take the supplies and return to the cathedral."
"But we will find lodgings, Sir Jean the Scott," said Julie, catching
the trick of the name from her brother. "I command you to lead the way
and discover them."
Her dark red cloak was now white with the driven snow, and her face,
rosy with the cold, looked from a dark red hood, also turned white. John
saw that her eyes laughed. He realized suddenly that she felt neither
fear nor apprehension. He had discovered a new quality, the same heroic
soul that her brother Philip had, the unquenchable courage of the great
marshal. He realized that she found a certain enjoyment in the
situation, that the spirit of adventure was upon her. His own pulses
leaped and his soul responded.
"Come on," he said in a strong voice. "If there's a habitation in this
place fit for you I'll find it." John had resumed command, but Julie
walked at his elbow, a brave and strong lieutenant. The two Picards
followed close behind. Suzanne, at this moment, when the resources of
Scott were needed so much, had relaxed somewhat of her grimness. She and
Antoine said nothing as they bent their heads to the snow. Unconsciously
they had resigned decision and leadership to the young pair who walked
before them.
John glanced toward the river and the plain beyond, but he merely looked
into a wall, cold, white and impenetrable. No ray of light or life came
from it. The hospital camp had been blotted out completely. But from the
north came a faint sullen note, and he knew that it was the throb of a
great gun. Julie heard it too.
"They're still firing," she said.
"Yes, but it may not be snowing so hard a few miles away from here. I
discovered when I was up in the air with Philip that the air moves in
eddies and gusts and currents like the ocean, and that it has bays and
straits, and this may be a narrow strait of snow that envelops us here.
Hear that! Guns to the south, too! One side is shelling the other's
trenches. You remember how it was in all the long fighting that we call
the Battle of the Marne. Day and night, night and day the guns thundered
and crashed. I seemed when I slept to hear 'em in my dreams. They never
stopped."
"It makes me, too, think of that time, Mr. Scott, except that this is
winter and that was summer. The cloud of battle is just the same."
"But the results are much less. It's a deadlock, and has been a
deadlock for months. I don't expect anything decisive until spring, and
maybe not then. Here is a good house, Miss Julie. It looks as if the
mayor, or Chastel's banker might have lived here. Suppose we try it."
But the house had been stripped. All the rooms were cold and bare, and
in the rear a huge shell had exploded leaving yawning gaps in the walls,
through which the snow was driving fast. Julie shivered.
"Let's go away from it," she said. "I couldn't sleep in this house. It's
continually talking to us in a language I don't like to hear."
"I don't hear its talk," said John, "but I see its ghosts walking, and
I'm as anxious to get away from it as you are."
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