The blaze, whiter and more intense than usual, played for a few minutes
over the French trenches, sweeping to right and left and back again and
then dying away at a far distant point. After it came the same white
gloom and deep silence.

"Just a way of greeting," said Carstairs.

"I think not," said John. "Papa Vaugirard makes few mistakes. To my mind
the intensity of the silence is sinister. Often we hear the Germans
singing in their trenches, but now we hear nothing."

Another half-hour of the long and trying waiting followed. Then the
white light flared again for a moment, and powerful lights behind the
French lines flared back, but did not go out. The great beams, shooting
through the white gloom, disclosed masses of men in gray uniforms and
spiked helmets rushing forward.




CHAPTER II

THE YOUNG AUSTRIAN


It seemed to John that the heavy German masses were almost upon them,
when they were revealed in the glare of the searchlights, sweeping
forward in solid masses, and uttering a tremendous hurrah. But the
French lights continued to throw an intense vivid white blaze over the