go forward, not
backward!"

True to de Rougemont's prediction, the horses were given to orderlies,
and the staff and a great portion of the troops were taken into the
cars. General Vaugirard and several of the older officers occupied a
huge machine, and just behind him came de Rougemont, John and a
half-dozen young lieutenants and captains in another. Before them
stretched a great white road. Far overhead hovered many aeroplanes. John
had no doubt that the _Arrow_ was among them, or rather was the farthest
one forward. Lannes' eager soul, wound or no wound, would keep him in
front.

They now moved rapidly, and John's spirits continued to rise. There was
something wonderful in this swift march on wheels in the moonlight. As
far back as he could see the machines came in a stream, and to the left
and right he saw them proceeding on other roads also. All the country
was strange to John. He could not remember having seen it from the
aeroplane, and he was sure that the army, instead of going to Paris, was
bound for some point where it would come in instant contact with the
German forces.

"Do you know the road?" he asked of de Rougemont.

"Not at all. I'm from the Gironde country. I've been in Paris, but I
know little of the region about it. A good way to reach the front, is it
not, Mr. Scott?"

"Fine. I fancy that we're hurried forward to make a link in a chain, or
at least to stop a gap."

"And those large birds overhead are scouting for us."

"Look! One of them is dropping down. I dare say it's making a report to
some general higher in rank than ours."

He pointed with a long forefinger, and John watched the aeroplane come
down in its slanting course like a falling star. It was a beautiful
night, a light blue sky, with a fine moon and hosts of clear stars. One
could see far, and soon after the plane descended John saw it rise again
from the same spot, ascend high in air, and shoot off toward the east.

"That may have been Lannes," he said.

"Likely as not," said de Rougemont.

John now observed General Vaugirard, who sat erect in the front of his
automobile, with a pair of glasses, relatively as huge as himself, to
his eyes. Occasionally he would purse his lips, and John knew that his
favorite expression was coming forth. To the young American's
imaginative mind his broad back expressed rigidity and strength.

The great murmuring sound, the blended advance of so many men, made John
sleepy by-and-by. In spi