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Page 35
The order was welcome to the commander of the guns, who was anxious to
go closer, and, limbering up, he advanced as rapidly as weapons of such
great weight could be dragged across the fields. John followed, that he
might report the result. They were now facing toward the east and the
whole horizon there was a blaze of fire. The shells were coming thicker
and thicker, and the air was filled with the screaming of the shrapnel.
The commander of the battery, a short, powerful Frenchman, was as cool
as ice, and John drew coolness from him. One can get used to almost
anything, and his nervous tremors were passing. Despite the terrible
fire of the German artillery the French army was still advancing. Many
thousands had fallen already before the shells and shrapnel of the
invisible foe, but there had been no check.
The cannon crossed a brook, and, unlimbering, again opened a tremendous
fire. To one side and on a hill here, a man whom the commander watched
closely was signaling. John knew that he was directing the aim of the
battery and the French, like the Germans, were killing by mathematics.
He rode his cycle to the crest of a little elevation behind the battery
and with his newfound coolness began to use his glasses again. Despite
the thin, whitish smoke, he saw men on the horizon, mere manikins moving
back and forth, apparently without meaning, but men nevertheless. He
caught, too, the outline of giant tubes, the huge guns that were sending
the ceaseless rain of death upon the French.
He also saw signs of hurry and confusion among those manikins, and he
knew that the French shells were striking them. He rode down to the
commander and told him. The swart Frenchman grinned.
"My children are biting," he said, glancing affectionately at his guns.
"They're brave lads, and their teeth are long and sharp."
He looked at his signal man, and the guns let loose again with a force
that sent the air rushing away in violent waves. Batteries farther on
were firing also with great rapidity. In most of these the gunners were
directed by field telephones strung hastily, but the one near John still
depended upon signal men. It was composed of eight five-inch guns, and
John believed that its fire was most accurate and deadly.
Using his glasses again, he saw that the disturbance among those
manikins was increasing. They were running here and there, and many
seemed to vanish suddenly--he knew that they were blown away by the
shells. To the right of the great French battery some lighter field guns
were advancing. One drawn by eight horses had not yet unlimbered, and he
saw a shell strike squarely upon it. In the following explosion pieces
of steel whizzed by him and when the smoke cleared away the gun, the
gunners and the horses were all gone. The monster shell had blown
everything to pieces. The other guns hurried on, took up their positions
and began to fire. John shuddered violently, but in a moment or two, he,
too, forgot the little tragedy in the far more gigantic one that was
being played before him.
He rode back to General Vaugirard and told him that his order had been
obeyed. The general nodded, but did not take his glasses from the
horizon, where a long gray line was beginning to appear against the
green of the earth. "It goes well so far," John heard him say in the
under note which was audible beneath the thunder of the battle.
In a quarter of an hour the great batteries limbered up again, and once
more the French army went forward, the troops to lie down and wait
again, while the artillery worked with ferocious energy. It was yet a
battle of big guns, at least in the center. The armies were not near
enough to each other for rifles; in truth not near enough yet to be
seen. John, even with his glasses, could only discern the gray line
advancing, he could make little of its form or order or of what it was
trying to do.
But a light wind was now bringing smoke from one flank where the battle
was far heavier than in the center, and the concussion of the artillery
at that point became so frightful that the air seemed to come in waves
of the utmost violence and to beat upon the drum of the ear with the
force of a hammer. Owing to the wind John could not hear the battle on
the other flank so well, but he believed that it was being fought there
with equal fury and determination.
He was watching with such intentness that he did not hear the sweep of
an aeroplane behind him, but he did see Lannes run to General
Vaugirard's car and give him a note.
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