But when he put
down the receiver the same moody look was invariably on his face, and
John was convinced as much by his expression as by the sound of the guns
that affairs were not going well with the Germans.
Another long hour passed and the sun moved on toward noon, but a German
army of perhaps a quarter of a million men lay idle in the forest of
Senouart, as John now called the whole region.
Presently the general walked down the line and John lost sight of him.
But Weber reappeared, coming from the other side of the hillock, and
John was glad to see him, since Fleury had gone back to attend to a
wounded friend.
"There doesn't seem to be as much action here as I expected," said
Weber, cheerfully, sitting down on the grass beside young Scott.
"But they're shaking the world there! and there!" said John, nodding to
right and to left.
"So they are. This is a most extraordinary reversal, Mr. Scott, and I
can't conceive how it was brought about. Some mysterious mind has made
and carried through a plan that was superbly Napoleonic. I'd give much
to know how it was done."
John shook his head.
"I know nothing of it," he said.
"But doubtless your friend Lannes does. What a wonderful thing it is to
carry through the heavens the dispatches which may move forward a
million armed men."
"I don't know anything about Lannes' dispatches."
"Nor do I, but I can make a close guess, just as you can. He's surely
hovering over the battle field today, and as I said last night he
certainly has some idea where you are, and sooner or later will come for
you.
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