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Page 43
It was still an hour of dawn, but the night was light. Fires yet burned
here and there in Chastel, where not a single building now stood
unharmed, save the cathedral. The mutter of the cannon came from the
vast front both to east and to west.
John looked into the great misty world and his face was turned toward
the east. He had no doubt that Auersperg had gone in that direction with
Julie, and he meant to find her. But how? He prayed silently for the
coming of Lannes with the _Arrow._ For such a search as this the swift
aeroplane could serve while one might plod in vain over the ground.
Lannes would come before the next night! He must come! If he had made an
appointment for such a meeting nothing could delay him more than a day.
He did not have any great fear for Julie's present safety. The modern
civilized world had suddenly broken loose from many of its anchors, but
so conspicuous a man as Auersperg could not stain his name with a deed
that would brand him throughout Europe. Weber, however, had spoken of a
morganatic marriage, and fearful pressure might be brought to bear. A
country so energetic and advanced as Germany had clung, nevertheless, to
many repellent principles of medievalism. A nation listened with calm
acceptance and complacency, while its Kaiser claimed a partnership, and
not altogether a junior partnership either, with the Almighty. Much
could be forgiven to an Auersperg, the head of a house that had been
princely more than a thousand years. John shuddered.
He had not gone to the tent at once as he intended. His nerves were yet
leaping and he knew now that they must become quiet before he could
sleep. Men were moving about him, carrying the wounded or helping with
the camp, but they were only misty forms in the white gloom. Looking
again toward the east he saw a silver bar appear just below the horizon.
He knew it was the bright vanguard that heralded the coming sun, and his
imaginative, susceptible mind beheld in it once more an omen. It
beckoned him toward the east, and hope rose strong in his heart.
"Wharton," he said, "I suppose we'll stay awhile in Chastel."
"So I hear. Until noon at least."
"Then you wake me three hours from now. It will be enough sleep at such
a time, and I want to be up when Lannes comes. You promise?"
"Certainly, Scott, I'll do it, though you'll probably swear at me for
bothering you. Still, I'm ready to do any unpleasant duty for a friend
when he asks it."
John laughed, went into the tent, rolled himself in the blankets and in
a minute was fast asleep. In another minute, as it seemed, Wharton was
pulling vigorously at his shoulder.
"Get up, Scott!" exclaimed Wharton. "Your three hours, and a half hour's
grace that I allowed you, have passed. Didn't I tell you that you'd be
ungrateful and that you'd fight against me for fulfilling your request!
Open your eyes, man, and stand up!"
John sprang to his feet, shook his head violently several times, and
then was wide awake.
"Thanks, Wharton," he said. "You're a true friend but you're a wretched
reckoner of time."
"How so?"
"You said it was three hours and a half when in reality it was only
three minutes and a half."
But a clear wintry sun was shining in at the door of the tent, and he
saw its gold across the snow. Beyond was a kitchen automobile at which
men were obtaining coffee and food.
"Has Lannes come?" asked John.
"Not yet, but of course he'll be here soon; by noon, I fancy."
John went out and took his breakfast with his comrades of the Strangers.
The morning was uncommonly bright. There was not a trace of cloud in the
heavens, which had turned to the soft, velvety blue that one sometimes
sees in winter, and which can make a man fancy that it is summer when he
looks up, rather than winter when he looks down.
While John ate and drank, he continually scanned the skies looking for
the coming of the _Arrow._ He saw aeroplanes hovering here and there
over the French and German lines, but none coming toward Chastel.
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