The battle deepened and thickened to an extraordinary degree, as the
space between the two fronts narrowed. John for the first time saw the
German troops without the aid of glasses. They were mere outlines
against a fiery horizon, reddened by the mouths of so many belching
cannon, but they seemed to him to stand there like a wall.
Another giant shell burst near them, and two more members of the staff
fell from their cycles, dead before they touched the ground. That
convulsive shudder seized John again, but the crash of tremendous events
was so rapid that fear and horror alike passed in an instant. A piece of
the same shell struck General Vaugirard's car and put it out of action
at once. But the general leaped lightly to the ground, then swung his
immense bulk across one of the riderless motor cycles and advanced with
the surviving members of his staff. Imperturbable, he still swept the
field with his glasses. Two aides were now sent to the right with
messages, and a third, John himself, was despatched to the left on a
similar errand.
It was John's duty to tell a regiment to bear in further to the left and
close up a vacant spot in the line. He wheeled his cycle into a field,
and then passed between rows of grapevines. The regiment, its ranks much
thinned, was now about a hundred yards away, but shell and bullets alike
were sweeping the distance between.
Nevertheless, he rode on, his wheel bumping over the rough ground, until
he heard a rushing sound, and then blank darkness enveloped him.
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