At times bars
of intense white light, like flashes of lightning, would sweep along the
front, showing that the searchlights of either army still provided
illumination for the fighting. The note of the artillery came like a
distant and smothered groan, but it did not cease, and it would not
cease, since the searchlights would show it a way all through the night.
John sat down, looked at the faint flashes on the far horizon and
listened to that moaning which grew in volume as one paid close
attention to it. Europe or a great part of it had gone mad. He was
filled once more with wrath against kings and all their doings as he
looked upon the murderous aftermath of feudalism, the most gigantic of
all wars, made in a few hours by a few men sitting around a table. Then
he laughed at himself. What was he! A mere feather in a cyclone!
Certainly he had been blown about like one!
His nervous imagination now passed quickly and throwing himself upon the
ground he slept like those around him. All the Strangers were awakened
at early dawn by the signal of a trumpet, and when John opened his eyes
he found the air still quivering beneath the throb of the guns. As he
had foreseen they had never ceased in the darkness, and he could not
remember how many days and nights now they had been raining steel upon
human beings.
He was refreshed and strengthened by a night of good sleep, but his mind
was as sensitive as ever. In the morning no less bitterly than at night
he raged against the folly and ambition of the kings.
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