Curiosity," exclaimed John. "You weren't invited
here, and I don't care whether you ever come again. Besides, you're
nothing but a big bluff, anyway. There's our flag, still standing
straight out in the wind, so you can see every stripe on it, and yet you
haven't, despite your visit, the remotest idea why it was put there!"
Weber smiled.
"They've all gone away as ignorant as they were when they came," he
said, "but we must be due for a French visitor or two. After so long a
run of Germans we should have Frenchmen soon."
"I begin to believe with you that Lannes will arrive some time or other.
He flies fast and far and in time he must see our signal."
"I've never doubted it. Meanwhile I think I'll take a little luncheon,
and I'd advise you to do the same. We haven't had such a bad time here,
saving those random rifle shots from the biplane."
"Not at all. It's like watching a play, and you certainly have a clear
field for observation, when you look up at the heavens. The stage is
always in full view."
John was feeling uncommonly good. Their concealment while they watched
the scouts and messengers from the skies coming to see the meaning of
the flag had been easy and restful. Much of his long and painful tension
had relaxed. The hum of distant artillery was in his ears as ever, like
a moaning of the wind, but he was growing so used to it that he would
now have noticed its absence rather than its presence. So he ate his
share of bread and sausage with a good appetite, meanwhile keeping a
watchful eye upon the heavens which burned in the same brilliant blue.
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