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.
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