tainly never expected a week ago to
be in the middle of a great war."

"And you expected least of all, Monsieur Jean the Scott, to be sailing
smoothly along in the air far above the clouds, and with a terrific
storm raging below."

"No, I didn't. If a man had predicted that for me I should have said he
was insane. But I think, Phil, the storm is leaving us or we've left it.
That big ball of darkness giving out thunder and fire is moving fast
toward the west."

"So it is, and there's clear air beneath us. And the Alps are
reappearing in the south."

"Right you are, Philip. I can see a half dozen peaks, and there is
another, and now another. See, their white heads coming out of the mists
and vapors, whole groups of them now!"

"Don't they look from here like a friendly lot of old fellows, John,
standing there and nodding their snowy pates to one another, just as
they've done for the last million years or more!"

"You hit the nail on the head, Phil. Understand that? It's one of our
phrases meaning that you've told the exact truth. There goes that wicked
storm, farther and farther to the west. Soon the horizon will swallow it
up."

"And then it will go on toward Central France. I hope it won't damage
the vineyards. But what a fool I am to be talking about storms of
weather, when the German storm of steel is about to sweep over us!"

"You don't talk very hopefully, when you speak of a German invasion at
once."

"But I am hopeful. I expect the invasion because we are not ready. They
accuse us French of planning a surprise attack upon Germany. What
nonsense, when we're not even prepared to defend ourselves! The first
sound of this war will show who was getting ready to attack. But John
we'll drive back that invasion, we and our allies. I repeat to you that
the French of 1914 are not the French of 1870. The Third Republic will
command the same valor and devotion that served the First. But here I am
talking like an old politician. Get the glasses, John, and look at our
field of battle, the heavens. It's all in the light now, and we can't
afford another encounter with the Taubes."

John took a long look. The passage of the storm had purified the air
which was now of dazzling clearness, a deep, silky blue, with a sun of
pure red gold that seemed to hang wonderfully near. Lannes permitted the
_Arrow_ to drop lower and lower, until the earth itself sprang up into
the light.

John saw again the green hills, the blue la