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Page 7
His tone was reassuring, but his words left John still troubled.
"My object in telling you of Mademoiselle Lannes' movements, Mr. Scott,"
continued Weber, "was to enable you to notify Lieutenant Lannes of her
exact location in case you should see him. Knowing your great friendship
I thought it inevitable that you two should soon meet once more. If so,
tell him that his sister is at Chastel. He will be glad to know of her
arrival and, work permitting, will hurry to her there."
"Gladly I'll do it," said John. "I wish I could see Philip now."
But when he said "Philip" he was thinking of Julie, although the bond of
friendship between him and young Lannes had not diminished one whit.
"And now," said Weber, "with Captain Colton's permission I'll go. My
duties take me southward, and night is coming fast."
"And it will be dark, cold and snowy," said John, shivering a little.
"These trenches are not exactly palace halls, but I'd rather be in them
now than out there on such a night."
The dusk had come and the French fire was dying. In a few more minutes
it would cease entirely, and then the French hour with the guns having
matched the German hour, the night would be without battle.
But the silence that succeeded the thunder of the guns was somber. In
all that terrible winter John had not seen a more forbidding night. The
snow increased and with it came a strong wind that reached them despite
their shelter. The muddy trenches began to freeze lightly, but the men's
feet broke through the film of ice and they walked in an awful slush. It
seemed impossible that the earth could ever have been green and warm and
sunny, and that Death was not always sitting at one's elbow.
The darkness was heavy, but nevertheless as they talked they did not
dare to raise their heads above the trenches. The German searchlights
might blaze upon them at any moment, showing the mark for the
sharpshooters. But Captain Colton pressed his electric torch and the
three in the earthy alcove saw one another well.
"Will you go to Chastel yourself?" asked John of Weber.
"Not at present. I bear a message which takes me in the Forest of
Argonne, but I shall return along this line in a day or two, and it may
be that I can reach the village. If so, I shall tell Mademoiselle Julie
and the Picards that I have seen you here, and perhaps I can communicate
also with Lannes."
"I thank you for your kindness in coming to tell me this."
"It was no more than I should have done. I knew you would be glad to
hear, and now, with your permission, Captain Colton, I'll go."
"Take narrow, transverse trench, leading south. Good of you to see us,"
said the captain of the Strangers.
The Alsatian shook hands with John and disappeared in the cut which led
a long distance from the front. Colton extinguished the torch and the
two sat a little while in the darkness. Although vast armies faced one
another along a front of four hundred miles, little could be heard where
John and his captain sat, save the sighing of the wind and the faint
sound made by the steady fall of the snow, which was heaping up at their
feet.
Not a light shone in the trench. John knew that innumerable sentinels
were on guard, striving to see and hear, but a million or two million
men lay buried alive there, while the snow drifted down continually. The
illusion that the days of primeval man had come back was strong upon him
again. They had become, in effect, cave-dwellers once more, and their
chief object was to kill. He listened to the light swish of the snow,
and thought of the blue heights into which he had often soared with
Lannes.
Captain Colton lighted another cigarette and it glowed in the dark.
"Uncanny," he said.
"I find it more so than usual tonight," said John. "Maybe it's the visit
of Weber that makes me feel that way, recalling to me that I was once a
man, a civilized human being who bathed regularly and who put on clean
clothes at frequent intervals."
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