ve been attacked again?"

"Aye, truly. My movements seem to be observed by some mysterious eye. A
shot was fired at me, and again it came from a French plane. That was
all I could see. We were in a bank of mist at the time, and I just
caught a glimpse of the plane itself. The man was a mere shapeless
figure to me. I had no time to fight him, because I was due here with
another message which made vengeance upon him at that time a matter of
little moment."

He flecked the red drops off his sleeve, and added:

"It was but a scratch. My weary look comes from a long and hard flight
and not from the mysterious bullet. I'm to rest here an hour, which will
be sufficient to restore me, and then I'm off again."

"Is there any rule against your telling me what you've seen, Philip?"

De Rougemont and several other officers had approached, drawn by their
curiosity, and interest in Lannes.

"None at all," he replied in a tone all could hear, "but I'm able to
speak in general terms only. I can't give details, because I don't know
'em. The Germans are not many miles ahead. They're in hundreds of
thousands, and I hear that this is only one of a half-dozen armies."

"And our own force?" said de Rougemont eagerly.

Lannes' chest expanded. The dramatic impulse was strong upon him again.

"There is another army on our right, and another on our left," he
replied, "and although I don't know surely, I think there are others
still further on the line. The English are somewhere with us, too."

John felt his face tingle as the blood rose in it. He had left a Paris
apparently lost. Within a day almost a tremendous transformation had
occurred. A mighty but invisible intellect, to which he was yet scarcely
able to attach a name, had been at work. The French armies, the beaten
and the unbeaten, had become bound together like huge links in a chain,
and the same invisible and all but nameless mind was drawing the chain
forward with gigantic force.

"A million Frenchmen must be advancing," he heard Lannes saying, and
then he came out of his vision. General Vaugirard bustled up and gave
orders to de Rougemont, who said presently to John:

"Can you ride a motor cycle?"

"I've had some experience, and I'm willing to make it more."

"Good. In this army, staff officers will no longer have horses shot
under them. We're to take orders on motor cycles. They've been sent
ahead for us, and here's yours waiting for you."

The cycles were leaning a