shoe
protruded. The ribs of the plane were driven deep into the earth and he
looked away. But a hum and swish suddenly came once more, and a sleek
and graceful aeroplane, which he knew to be the _Arrow_, sank to the
earth close to him. Lannes, smiling and triumphant, stepped forth and
John hailed him eagerly.

"I met Caumartin in an aerial road," said Lannes, in his best dramatic
manner, "and he described this place, at which you were waiting. As it
was directly on my way I concluded to come by for you. I was delayed by
a skirmish overhead which you may have seen."

"Yes, I saw it, or at least part of it."

"I came in at the end only. The Taubes were too presuming. They came
over into our air, but we repelled the attack, and one, as I can see
here, will never come again. I found General Vaugirard, although he is
now two or three miles to your right, and when I deliver a message that
he has given me I return. But I take you with me now."

John was overjoyed, but he would part from Bougainville with regret.

"Philip," he said, "here is Pierre Louis Bougainville, whom I met that
day on Montmartre. All the officers of this regiment have been killed
and by grace of courage and intuition he now leads it better than it was
ever led before."

Lannes extended his hand. Bougainville's met it, and the two closed in
the clasp of those who knew, each, that the other was a man. Then a drum
began to beat, and Bougainville, waving his sword aloft, led his
regiment forward again with a rush. But the _Arrow_, with a hard push
from the last of the soldiers, was already rising, Lannes at the
steering rudder and John in his old place.

"You can find your cap and coat in the locker," said Lannes without
looking back, and John put them on quickly. His joy and eagerness were
not due to flight from the field of battle, because the heavens
themselves were not safe, but because he could look down upon this field
on which the nations struggled and, to some extent, behold and measure
it with his own eyes.

The _Arrow_ rose slowly, and John leaned back luxuriously in his seat.
He had a singular feeling that he had come back home again. The sharp,
acrid odor that assailed eye and nostril departed and the atmosphere
grew rapidly purer. The rolling waves of air from the concussion of the
guns became much less violent, and soon ceased entirely. All the smoke
floated below him, while above the heavens were a shining blue,
unsullied by the dust