But we'll
soon see. They can't hide from us the evidences of retreat."
The prisoners now marched in a long file in the moonlight across the
fields, and John soon recognized the proof that Fleury was right. The
German army was retreating. There were innumerable dull, rumbling
sounds, made by the cannon and motors of all kinds passing along the
roads, and at times also he heard the heavy tramp of scores of
thousands marching in a direction that did not lead to Paris.
John began to think now of Lannes. Would he come? Was Weber right when
he credited to him a knowledge near to omniscience? How was it possible
for him to pick out a friend in all that huge morass of battle! And yet
he had a wonderful, almost an unreasoning faith in Philip, and, as
always when he thought of him, he looked up at the heavens.
It was an average night, one in which large objects should be visible in
the skies, and he saw several aeroplanes almost over their heads, while
the rattle of a dirigible came from a point further toward the east.
The aeroplane was bound to be German, but as John looked he saw a sleek
shape darting high over them all and flying eastward. Intuition, or
perhaps it was something in the motion and shape of the machine, made
him believe it was the _Arrow_. It must be the _Arrow_! And Lannes must
be in it! High over the army and high over the German planes it darted
forward like a swallow and disappeared in a cloud of white mist.
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