Although he tried to preserve calm, John knew that he
was tremendously excited. He had taken off his heavy glasses and his
wonderful gray eyes were flashing. It was obvious to his friend, who now
knew him so well, that he was moved by some tremendous emotion.
John rode up by the side of Lannes and said:
"What have you seen, Philip? You can tell a little at least, can't you?"
"More than a little! A lot! The _Arrow_ and I have looked over a great
area, John! Miles and miles and yet more miles! and wherever we went we
gazed down upon armies locked in battle, and beyond that were other
armies locked in battle, too! The nations meet in wrath! You can't see
it here, nor from anywhere on the earth! It's only in the air high
overhead that one can get even a partial view of its immensity! The
English army is off there on the flank, a full thirty miles away, and
you're not likely to see it today!"
He would have said more, but General Vaugirard beckoned to him, gave him
a note which he had written hastily, and in a few more minutes Lannes
was flitting like a swallow through the heavens. Then General
Vaugirard's car moved forward and brigade after brigade of the French
army resumed its advance also.
John felt that the great German machine had been met by a French machine
as great. Perhaps the master mind that thrills through an organism of
steel no less than one of human flesh was on the French side. He did not
know. The invisible hand thrusting forward the French armies was still
invisible to him.
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