No good,
and he was literally dragged off the spot weeping with rage at his
failure--and the Germans came across.
All the time we had been talking I had heard the cannonade in the
distance--now at the north and now in the east. This seemed a proper
moment, inspired by the fact that he was talking war, of his own
initiative, to put a question or two, so I risked it.
"That cannonading seems much nearer than it did this morning," I
ventured.
"Possibly," he replied.
"What does that mean?" I persisted.
"Sorry I can't tell you. We men know absolutely nothing. Only three
men in this war know anything of its plans,--Kitchener, Joffre, and
French. The rest of us obey orders, and know only what we see. Not even
a brigade commander is any wiser. Once in a while the colonel makes a
remark, but he is never illuminating."
"How much risk am I running by remaining here?"
He looked at me a moment before he asked, "You want to know the truth?"
"Yes," I replied.
"Well, this is the situation as near as I can work it out. We infer
from the work we were given to do--destroying bridges, railroads,
telegraphic communications--that an effort is to be made here to stop
the march on Paris; in fact, that the Germans are not to be allowed to
cross the Marne at Meaux, and march on the city by the main road from
Rheims to the capital.
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