it can't go any faster than it is going,"
the vice-chief continued, rather incoherently. He and the others no less
felt the news as a personal blow. Though absent in person, Marta had
become in spirit an intimate of their hopes and councils.

"She is helpless--in their power!" Lanstron said. "There is no telling
what they might do to her in the rage of their discovery. I must go to
her! I am going to the front!"

The announcement started a storm of protest.

"But you are the chief of staff! You cannot leave the staff!"

"You've no right to expose yourself!"

"A chance shell or bullet--"

"You do not seem to realize what this victory means to you. You might be
killed at the very moment of triumph."

"I haven't had any triumph. But if I had, could there be a better time?"
Lanstron asked with a half-bantering smile.

"You couldn't reach there before the 53d Regiment anyway!" declared the
vice-chief, having in mind the fact that the staff was fifteen miles to
the rear, where it could be at the wire focus. "You will find the roads
blocked with the advance. You'll have to ride, you can't go all the way
in a car."

"Terrible hardship!" replied Lanstron. "Still, I'm going. Things are
well in hand. I can keep in touch by the wire as I proceed. If I get out
of touch then you," with a nod to the vice-chief, "know as well as I how
to meet any sudden emergency. Yes, you all know how to act--we're so
used to working together. The staff will follow as soon as the Galland
house is taken. We shall make our headquarters there. I'm free now. I
can be my own man for a little while--I can be human!"

A certain awe of him and of his position, born of the prestige of
victory, hushed further protest. Who if not he had the right to go where
he pleased in the Brown lines now? They noted the eagerness in his eyes,
the eagerness of one off the leash, shot with a suspense which was not
for the fate of the army, as he left headquarters.

* * * * *

A young officer of the Grays who was with a signal-corps section, trying
to keep a brigade headquarters in touch with the staff during the
retreat, two or three miles from the Galland house, had seen what looked
like an insulated telephone wire at the bottom of a crater in the earth
made by the explosion of a heavy shell. The instructions to all
subordinates from the chief of intelligence to look for the source of
the leak in information to the Browns made him