ront,' I said.

'Good fortune to you. You do not give body or mind much rest, my
general.'

After that I went to the _Mission Anglaise_, but they had nothing
beyond Haig's communique and a telephone message from G.H.Q. that the
critical sector was likely to be that between St Quentin and the Oise.
The northern pillar of our defence, south of Arras, which they had been
nervous about, had stood like a rock. That pleased me, for my old
battalion of the Lennox Highlanders was there.

Crossing the Place de la Concorde, we fell in with a British staff
officer of my acquaintance, who was just starting to motor back to
G.H.Q. from Paris leave. He had a longer face than the people at the
Invalides.

'I don't like it, I tell you,' he said. 'It's this mist that worries
me. I went down the whole line from Arras to the Oise ten days ago. It
was beautifully sited, the cleverest thing you ever saw. The outpost
line was mostly a chain of blobs--redoubts, you know, with
machine-guns--so arranged as to bring flanking fire to bear on the
advancing enemy. But mist would play the devil with that scheme, for
the enemy would be past the place for flanking fire before we knew
it... Oh, I know we had good warning, and had the battle-zone manned in
time, but the outpost line was meant to hold out long enough to get
everything behind in apple-pie order, and I can't see but how big
chunks of it must have gone in the first rush.... Mind you, we've
banked everything on that battle-zone. It's damned good, but if it's
gone--'He flung up his hands.

'Have we good reserves?' I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders.

'Have we positions prepared behind the battle-zone?'

'I didn't notice any,' he said dryly, and was off before I could get
more out of him.

'You look rattled, Dick,' said Blenkiron as we walked to the hotel.

'I seem to have got the needle. It's silly, but I feel worse about this
show than I've ever felt since the war started. Look at this city here.
The papers take it easily, and the people are walking about as if
nothing was happening. Even the soldiers aren't worried. You may call
me a fool to take it so hard, but I've a sense in my bones that we're
in for the bloodiest and darkest fight of our lives, and that soon
Paris will be hearing the Boche guns as she did in 1914.'

'You're a cheerful old Jeremiah. Well, I'm glad Miss Mary's going to be
in England soon. Seems to me she's right and that this game of ours
isn't quite play