“Unless Lannes returns soon I don’t think we’ll hear from him.  That blaze of the guns in front of us indicates close fighting again, and we’ll probably be ordered forward soon.”

“I don’t think so,” said Lord James Ivor.  “Our guns and the German guns will talk together for quite a while before the infantry advance.  You can spend a good two hours with us yet, and still have time to depart for the French army.”

It was evident that Lord James Ivor knew what he was talking about, since, as far as John could see, the khaki army lay outspread on the turf.  These men were too much exhausted and too much dulled to danger to stir merely because the cannon were blazing.  It took the sharp orders of their officers to move them.  Shells from the German guns began to fall along the fringe of the troops, but thousands slept heavily on.

John, after disposing of the excellent rations offered to him, sat down on the grass with Wharton, Carstairs and Lord James Ivor.  The sun was now waning, but the western sky was full of gold, and the yellow rays slanting across the hills and fields made them vivid with light.  Lord James handed his glasses to John with the remark: 

“Would you like to take a look there toward the east, Scott?”

John with the help of the glasses discerned the English batteries in action.  He saw the men working about them, the muzzles pointing upward, and then the flash.  Some of the guns were completely hidden in foliage, and he could detect their presence only by the heavy detonations coming from such points.  Yet, like many of the English soldiers about him, John’s mind did not respond to so much battle.  He looked at the flashes, and he listened to the reports without emotion.  His senses had become dulled by it, and registered no impressions.

“We’ve masked our batteries as much as possible,” said Lord James.  “The Germans are great fellows at hiding their big guns.  They use every clump of wood, hay stacks, stray stacks and anything else, behind which you could put a piece of artillery.  They trained harder before the war, but we’ll soon be able to match ’em.”

While Lord James was talking, John turned the glasses to the south and watched the sky.  He had observed two black dots, both of which grew fast into the shape of aeroplanes.  One, he knew, was the Arrow.  He had learned to recognize the plane at a vast distance.  It was something in the shape or a trick of motion perhaps, almost like that of a human being, with which he had become familiar and which he could not mistake.  The other plane, by the side of Lannes’ machine, bothered him.  It was much larger than the Arrow, but they seemed to be on terms of perfect friendship, each the consort of the other.

“Lannes is coming,” announced John.  “He’s four or five miles to the south and he’s about a quarter of a mile up, but he has company.  Will you have a look, Lord James?”