The Germans were within a few yards when a German automobile
carrying a machine gun bore down on them and discovered their position,
but the English sharpshooters picked off the five men the car carried
before they could fire a shot, and after that it was every man for
himself--what the French call "sauve qui peut."
The Uhlans came back to my mind, and it seemed to me a good time to ask
him what he was doing here. Oddly enough, in spite of the several
shocks I had had, and perhaps because of his manner, I was able to do it
as if it was the sort of tea-table conversation to which I had always
been accustomed.
"What are you doing here?" I said.
"Waiting for orders," he answered.
"And for Uhlans?"
"Oh," replied he, "if incidentally while we are sitting down here to
rest, we could rout out a detachment of German cavalry, which our
aeroplane tells us crossed the Marne ahead of us, we would like to.
Whether this is one of those flying squads they are so fond of sending
ahead, just to do a little terrorizing, or whether they escaped from the
battle of La Fere, we don't know. I fancy the latter, as they do not
seem to have done any harm or to have been too anxious to be seen.
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