From a hillside the boys looked upon and over the great battlefield where the German army was then trying to break through the line of barrier forts between Verdun and Toul and the opposing French forces. In front lay the level valley of the Meuse, with the towns of St. Mihiel and Bannoncour nestling upon the green landscape.
Beyond and behind the valley rose a tier of hills on which the French were then striving with all their might to hold an intrenched position.
Bursting shells were throwing up columns of white or black fog, and cloudlets of white smoke here and there showed where a position was under shrapnel fire.
The sergeant had presented the boys with a high-powered field glass, and to their delight they picked out an occasional a?roplane hovering over the lines.
“Look at that little snapper,” cried Billy; “that’s[79] a French wasp; it’s smaller and lighter than our kind; they call it the ‘peasant’s terror.’ Gee! Seventy-five miles an hour is nothing to that plane.”
“The aviator is giving signals!”
Henri had his eyes glued to the glass.
“Looks like a hawk circling around a chick.”
Billy was again taking his turn.
“He’d better climb quick.”
Henri noted that some of the big mortars were trying for the airman, and he had learned that these mortars could throw a shell a mile or more in the air.
The aviator evidently was aware of the fact, too, for he went higher and higher, until the machine looked like a mere scratch in the sky.
The boys returned to the trenches with Rene Granger, a lad of eighteen, who had enlisted, he said, at Lorraine, and who had already won the rank of corporal in a French regiment.
The three were together when the colonel of Rene’s regiment called for a volunteer to carry the orders of the staff to the different companies. The colonel did not conceal the fact that the mission was one of great danger. The young corporal stepped forward, and offered his service. He listened attentively to the colonel’s instructions. Then with a quiet c’est bien (it is well), he started.
The boys saw him reach the first trench in safety and deliver his message.
[80]
The next stage of his journey was a dangerous one, for he had to pass over an open space of 300 yards, swept by the enemy’s fire. He went down on his hands and knees and crawled, only lifting his head in order to see his way.
Within a few yards of the trenches a bullet struck him in the thigh. He crept behind a tree, hastily dressed the wound, then dragged himself to the trench, where he delivered his message to the commander.
They tried to stop him there, but the boy r............