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Page 47
No human being noticed his presence. A small brown bird, much like the
snowbird of his own land, hopped near, detected the human presence and
then hopped deliberately away. Nobody was in the snowy fields. They were
within range of the great German guns, and the peasants were gone. Had
John been willing to search longer he could easily have found an
abandoned house for shelter. As he had made mental notes before, Europe
was now full of abandoned houses. In some regions rents must be
extraordinarily low.
While he slept, firing was resumed at points on the long double line.
Rifles flashed, and incautious heads or hands were struck, and somewhere
or other the cannon were always muttering. But it was all in the day's
work. Months of it had made his whole system physical and mental so used
to it that it did not awaken him now.
Nevertheless the hosts of the air were uncommonly active while he slept.
The wireless, sputtering and crackling, was carrying the news from
general to general that a smart little action had been fought at
Chastel, where another smart little action had been fought not long
before, that the Germans had been overly daring and had paid for it.
Yet it was only an incident on a gigantic battle front that extended its
mighty curving line from Switzerland to the sea, and soon the wireless
and its older brother the telephone, and its oldest brother the
telegraph, talked of other plans which would cause a much greater
slaughter than at Chastel. Chastel itself, unless its beautiful Gothic
cathedral brooding unharmed over the ruins could win it a word or two,
would have no place at all in history. John himself was only one among
eight or ten million armed men, and not a single one of all those
millions knew that he lay there in the snow under the hedge.
The aeroplanes came out in the clear frosty blue, and both German and
French machines sauntered lazily up and down the air lanes, but they did
not risk encounters with one another. They were scouting with powerful
glasses, or directing the fire of the batteries. One French machine
circled directly over John, not more than two or three hundred feet
away, but the man in it, keen of eye though he was, did not dream that
one of the bravest of the Strangers lay asleep under the hedge beneath
him.
The fleets of flyers were larger than usual, as if they were anxious to
take the fresh air, after days of storm. But the most daring and
skillful of all the airmen, Philip Lannes, was not there. He still lay
in a hospital a hundred miles to the west, with a bullet wound in his
shoulder, and while the time was to come when the _Arrow_ under his
practiced hand would once more be queen of the heavens, it was yet many
days away.
The sun rose higher, suffusing the frosty blue heavens with a luminous
golden glow, but John slept heavily on. He had not known how near to
exhaustion was his nervous system. Perhaps it was less physical
exhaustion than emotion, which can make huge drains upon the system. Now
he was in the keeping of nature which was restoring all his powers of
both mind and body, and keeping him there until he should again have all
his strength and all the keenness of his faculties, needful for the
great work that lay before him.
It was halfway toward noon when he awakened, remembered dimly in the
first instant, and then comprehending everything in the second. He
unrolled the blankets, slipped out of his lair and knew by the height of
the sun that he had slept far beyond the time appointed for himself. But
he did not worry over it. Barring a little stiffness, which he removed
by flexing and tensing his muscles, he felt very strong and capable. The
fresh air pouring into his lungs was so different from the corruption of
the trenches that he seemed to be raised upon wings.
He resumed his walk toward the hills, and ate breakfast from his
knapsack as he went along. Presently he noticed a large aeroplane
circling over his head, and he felt sure that it was observing him. It
was bound to be French or other French machines would attack it, and,
after one glance, he walked slowly on. The machine followed him. He did
not look up again, but he saw a great shadow on the snow that moved with
his.
The knowledge that he was being watched and followed even by one of his
own army was uncomfortable, and he felt a sensation of relief when he
heard a swish and a swoop and the aeroplane alighted on the snow beside
him. The man in the machine stepped out and asked:
"Who are you and where are you going?"
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