"Can't say," he replied.
"And the French?"
"No idea. We've not seen them--yet. We understood that we were to be
reinforced at Saint-Quentin by a French detachment at four o'clock.
They got there at eleven--the battle was over--and lost. But these boys
gave a wonderful account of themselves, and in spite of the disaster
retreated in perfect order."
Then he told me that at the last moment he ordered his company to lie
close in the trench and let the Germans come right up to them, and not
to budge until he ordered them to give them what they hate--the
bayonet. The Germans were within a few yards when a German automobile
carrying a machine gun bore down on them and discovered their position,
but the English sharpshooters picked off the five men the car carried
before they could fire a shot, and after that it was every man for
himself--what the French call "sauve qui peut."
The Uhlans came back to my mind, and it seemed to me a good time to ask
him what he was doing here. Oddly enough, in spite of the several
shocks I had had, and perhaps because of his manner, I was able to do it
as if it was the sort of tea-table conversation to which I had always
been accustomed.
"What are you doing here?" I said.
"Waiting for orders," he answered.
"And for Uhlans?"
"Oh," replied he, "if incidentally while we are sitting down here to
rest, we could rout out a detachment of German cavalry, which our
aeroplane tells us crossed the Marne ahead of us, we would like to.
Whether this is one of those flying squads they are so fond of sending
ahead, just to do a little terrorizing, or whether they escaped from the
battle of La Fere, we don't know. I fancy the latter, as they do not
seem to have done any harm or to have been too anxious to be seen."
I need not tell you that my mind was acting like lightning. I
remembered, in the pause, as I poured him another cup of tea, and pushed
the jam pot toward him, that Amelie had heard at Voisins last night that
there were horses in the woods near the canal; that they had been heard
neighing in the night; and that we had jumped to the conclusion that
there were English cavalry there. I mentioned this to the captain, but
for some reason it did not seem to make much impression on him; so I did
not insist, as there was something that seemed more important which I
had been getting up the courage to ask him. It had been on my lips all
day. I put it.
"Captain," I asked, "do you think there is any danger in my staying
here?"