With Haig on the Somme Part 14

"Then get ahead," decided Dennis. "We can always return." And opening out the magnificent little car, they tore along the white ribbon of road at terrific speed.

"Peste!" cried an officer to whom they made known the object of their search when they reached Bar. "Only one hour ago Father Joffre pa.s.sed through here. How unfortunate! But I can tell you where you will find him. He has gone to Saint Die to present medals to a battalion of the 'Little Blue Devils' at that place. Lose no time, and you may a.s.sist at the very interesting ceremony."

"Allons!" said the chauffeur, using the stump of his nineteenth cigarette to light the twentieth. "If we finish up on two wheels we will reach him." And reach him they did in a small village half a dozen leagues farther on, where they pulled up, white with dust from head to foot, after a fine run.

The well-known figure of the famous general paced backwards and forwards under the shade of a row of lime trees, in earnest conversation with another officer with three silver stars on his cuffs, and Dennis paused a moment as he got out of the car.

"I am going to put on two fresh front tyres," said his driver. "But I shall be ready in half an hour, and if you are going back we have still two hours of daylight left."

Dennis nodded, and stepped forward, saluting as the two generals turned towards him, and a genial smile widened Father Joffre's good-humoured visage.

"At your service, monsieur," he said, unable to distinguish the officer's rank for the white chalk dust that hid his solitary star.

"I have come straight from Sir Douglas Haig, mon General," said Dennis, presenting his dispatches, which General Joffre instantly opened and perused intently.

"There are matters here," he said to his companion, "which will require some consideration. You are the Lieutenant Dashwood whom Sir Douglas mentions?" And he turned to Dennis: "I am going forward now, but I shall be back in this place at eight o'clock to-morrow morning. Our officers here will amuse you, mon lieutenant, in the meantime, and find you a bed. I am greatly indebted to you for the rapidity with which you have carried this most important doc.u.ment." And he walked quickly to the powerful car which was waiting by the side of the road. He was gone in a moment in a whirl of dust, the dispatch still in his hand, and the young Frenchman followed the general's automobile with an envious look in his eyes.

"That is a beauty," he said. "One could get seventy or eighty miles an hour out of her. But here comes an interesting personality, monsieur.

This man who is approaching is Claude Laval, one of our most famous aviators, who has brought down sixteen German machines already, and killed fifteen enemy pilots. Something has vexed him too. He looks like a bear with a sore ear."

A tall man approached, clad in leather flying costume, with a close-fitting helmet on his head, and his thin, good-looking face bore an expression of extreme annoyance.

"Ah, Martique, my friend, is that you?" he said, nodding curtly to the chauffeur. "It is easy to see you have come from the other end of everywhere. I suppose it is not possible that you have any news of my brother?"

"If monsieur's brother is the Capitaine Felix Laval, _officier de liaison_, with the --th Division, I can give you some news of him," said Dennis, who had been struck by the strong resemblance between the aviator and the man who had saved his own life.

"It is the same," said the aviator, all trace of ill-humour vanis.h.i.+ng as they shook hands. "Well, well," he continued after Dennis had told him of his adventure and how he came to be acquainted with his brother. "Yon will dine with me, and, _ma foi_, I want a good comrade to put me in a better temper."

"Might I inquire what it is that troubles you?" said Dennis, as they walked towards the door of a little restaurant with green-painted chairs and tables outside it.

"Oh, it is too bad!" exclaimed his new acquaintance with a despairing shrug of his shoulders. "I brought down a German Aviatik this afternoon, and by the greatest good luck in the world it is absolutely unhurt.

To-night I had planned a little expedition across into the enemy's country, a friendly visit to a Zeppelin shed, whose existence none of our fellows are aware of. I have overhauled the engines myself; I have got ten beautiful bombs all ready, and now my observer has broken his arm, and I cannot find anyone to a.s.sist me."

Dennis looked at him with a pair of twinkling eyes.

"Could you be certain of returning to this village by eight o'clock in the morning?" he said eagerly, "for I am to meet General Joffre here at that hour. I hold an English pilot's certificate from the Hendon school."

"_Embra.s.sons nous!_ (let us embrace), my dear friend!" exclaimed Claude Laval. "I am now the happiest man in all France. Listen! The machine is at the edge of the wood not a kilometre from this spot, and the Zeppelin hangar is in the centre of the Black Forest. Come, let us eat something and drink a bottle of the good red wine. We will give the Boche a fine surprise, and I swear to bring you back in plenty of time for Father Joffre in the morning. Martique, remember, not a word to a living soul, and come you to the cafe with us; you can attend to that sewing-machine of yours after monsieur and I have gone on our little trip."

They dined in the open air, and the meal was a joyous one, Lieutenant Claude Laval keeping a keen eye on the sinking sun at the same time.

As the red rim dipped into the jagged line of dark poplars on a low ridge to westward Laval called for the bill, lit his pipe, and rose with an air of supreme indifference for the benefit of the groups of other officers at the adjoining tables, but his eyes spoke to Dennis as they walked away into the shadow of the trees.

"Now, lieutenant," he said, with a fierce thrill of exultation in his voice, "you know, of course, that old scoundrel, Count Zeppelin, stole the idea of his invention during the war of '70. We will see if we can't get a little of our own back to-night!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Dennis flung his bombs into the s.p.a.ce, and tremendous explosions ensued"]

CHAPTER XI

A Daring Dash

As they left the village the two companions, who seemed quite old friends already, quickened their pace to a run.

"My observer is in there," said the French _pilote aviateur_, pointing to an isolated cottage as they pa.s.sed it. "It would be cruel to tell him that I have already found a fresh comrade. The good news shall keep until we return. And now, _cher ami_, we have no time to lose, as we have only something like four hours of darkness before us, and we must be well on the way back when daylight breaks."

"How far is it to the Zeppelin den?" inquired Dennis, as they turned aside through a cornfield.

"About two hundred kilometres," replied the pilot. "A trifle more than a hundred of your English miles. _Voila_, there she lies--a brand-new Aviatik, and that is my machine over there."

"How did you succeed in bringing the German down without injury?" asked Dennis, as they reached the biplane, which loomed large and weird in the twilight.

"More by good fortune than anything else," said Lieutenant Laval modestly. "You see, first of all I killed his observer with a lucky shot from my mitrailleuse and wounded the pilot himself. It was death or capture for him--it proved to be both. My machine--a Voisin--was one of the best, and, finding it impossible to escape, the Hun certainly made a very fine descent. He must have died at the moment the 'plane came to ground. And that reminds me--our success will depend on our masquerading as Germans, and we must use their clothing; they are both here."

There was a tinge of gravity in his voice as he led the way to some bushes a few yards off, where, stretched out side by side, lay two dead men with a mackintosh spread over them.

"They were brave, although they were Boches," said Laval. "And you will see that one of them is wearing an Iron Cross; I have not disturbed it."

In a few minutes they had removed the leather jackets lined with sheepskin from the two aviators.

"Henceforward we had better speak entirely in German, you and I; it will be good practice in case we require to use it," said Laval. And when they had equipped themselves they climbed up, and the Frenchman explained the compressed-air starting-gear and the various methods of control to Dennis.

"You must know these things," he said, with a smile, "so that you can take charge if anything happens to me; but these are first-rate machines, and with their dual ignition and the two separate carburettors they tell me there is very little engine trouble with them. However, my friend, we are about to see what we are about to see."

He glanced at his watch in the rapidly fading light.

"For some reason observer and pilot sit back to back," said Laval. "But you can slue your seat round and work your gun from the right if you like. You will find everything ready for use, signalling lamp and a fine map." And with a blue pencil he marked off the course they were about to take and the various landmarks, for which a sharp look out must be kept.

Then the whir of machinery cut off all possibility of further conversation; Dennis gazed round at the darkening landscape as Laval released her, and after a short run forward over the gra.s.sland the Aviatik began to rise.

So far, Dennis had not counted the cost of his adventurous expedition, or the by no means remote possibilities of his being captured and sent to terrible Ruhleben. He had only seen the dash and daring of it all, and now he could only see the velvety blackness that lay thousands of feet beneath, where the earth was.

Once from very far below them the boom of guns made itself heard, even above the flogging of the engines and the whir of the tractor in front of him, and his pilot handed back a sc.r.a.p of paper on which he had scrawled some words.

Switching on his torch Dennis read: "We are crossing our own lines now.

That light away to my left is Metz. We are over Lorraine, and I am going to turn south-east."

Through his gla.s.ses Dennis could see a dull glow in the distance, which was soon left behind as Laval altered the course, and for some time their flight was through cloud-banks which hid everything.

After a while the pilot pa.s.sed him another message. "Look down; we cannot be far from the Rhine now, and it is important to know when we cross it. Keep a sharp look out."

The depression of the point of the _nacelle_ told Dennis that the Aviatik was planing down to a lower alt.i.tude, and when, some distance ahead, he saw the milky gleam of a river winding away to right and left, he hung over the side with the powerful German gla.s.ses glued to his eyes.

The moment it pa.s.sed beneath them he touched Laval on the shoulder, and, swinging round again to the right, they flew almost due south, still coming down lower and lower.