“What is it, Philip?” he whispered.  “You’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 against trees, and the members of the staff took their places beside them.  General Vaugirard walked a little distance up the road, climbed into an automobile and, standing up, looked a long time through his glasses.  Lannes, who had been resting on the grass, approached the general and John saw him take a note from him.  Then Lannes went away to the Arrow and sailed off into the heavens.  Many other planes were flying over the French army and far off in front John saw through his own glasses a fleet of them which he knew must be German.