Next morning the two friends flew into Charleroi. The town was seething with excitement. People were laughing and singing, cheering every soldier who passed along the street, congratulating each other on the good news. It had become known that the fierce German assaults of the previous day on Liége had been beaten back by the guns of the forts and the steady rifle fire of the men in the trenches, and that the Germans had asked for an armistice.
"Splendid!" said Pariset, when he learnt the news from a brother officer: "though we mustn't crow too soon. The cessation of the attack gives us the chance I wanted, then. We can take advantage of it to get into Liége. I should like to report our little coup in person."
"There will be no difficulty in my getting away, I suppose?" asked Kenneth.
"What do you wish to do?"
"Get to England and join the Flying Corps."
"They would take you?"
"Well, my chest measures thirty-six inches, my teeth are sound, and I've no varicose veins. The only doubt is about my sight: my right eye is a trifle astigmatic. But I think I should pass the doctor."
"I wish you could stay with us. But I understand your wish to serve with your own army. As soon as we get back I'll ask the commandant if I can be spared to carry you to Ostend."
Kenneth agreed to this, and they started eastward. It was nearing midday when they swooped down from a great height on to an open space some three miles west of Liége. Pariset had pointed out the positions of the forts as they descended; but Kenneth had been able barely to distinguish them while in the air, and when he came to the ground they were quite out of sight.
But the intervening space had been carefully prepared for infantry. Trenches had been dug, barbed wire entanglements stretched from point to point, every natural feature adapted to the purposes of defence. At the present moment the trenches were not manned. Pariset learnt from a comrade in the flying corps that though the armistice had been refused, the Germans had not as yet renewed the attack. Their losses on the previous day had been very heavy, and the garrison were confident of their ability to repulse any further assaults if the Germans persisted in attacking in the same dense masses, and were not supported by heavier artillery than that which they had employed hitherto.
Kenneth listened eagerly to the conversation between the two airmen. He learnt how the German infantry, covered by artillery, had advanced again and again in close formation, only to be hurled back by the fire from the forts and the trenches, followed up with the bayonet. The Belgians were amazed at the doggedness with which their enemy had pressed on, careless of cover, though great gaps were torn in their packed columns. Such a wastage of men pointed to a vast confidence in the ultimate superiority of numbers, the crushing of the defence by sheer weight rather than skill.
Pariset explained, when Kenneth questioned him, the importance to the enemy of the capture of Liége. Encircled by its twelve forts, constructed by the engineering genius of General Brialmont, the town stood as a formidable obstacle to the advance of the Germans through the valley of the Meuse, the easiest way into France. Every day it could be held was a day's delay in the prosecution of the enemy's plan of campaign, which, as everybody knew, was to crush France before Russia had time to threaten Germany on her eastern border.
"The Germans have, they think, a very perfect military machine," Pariset continued; "I daresay they have, though perhaps they are a little too cocksure about it. They've had no experience of war for forty years, and their easy victory in 1870 has possibly produced what you call swelled head. Anyhow, the most perfect machine may be dislocated by a little grit, and Liége, we hope, will be the little grit for the occasion. Now we had better get some lunch; then we'll fly north. I'll report myself to my commandant, and ask for leave to carry you to Ostend."
They walked away to the rear of the lines, towards a cottage on which the canteen flag was flying. Before they reached it they met a general officer on horseback, cantering along accompanied by an aide-de-camp. Pariset saluted, the officers touched their hats and passed.
"General Leman, commanding the forts," said Pariset.
"He looked just like an Englishman," Kenneth replied.
Pariset smiled, and was beginning a chaffing remark when he was hailed from behind. Turning, he saw that the officers had reined up, and turned their horses' flanks towards him. He hurried back, Kenneth taking a step or two in the same direction.
"Lieutenant Pariset, I understand?" he heard the general say. "I compliment you on your little exploit. You did very well; thank you!"
Pariset murmured something, saluted again, and the officers rode off.
"He didn't give me time to tell him about you," said Pariset, rejoining his friend. "He is evidently in a hurry to get back to Fort Loncin."
"It doesn't matter about me," said Kenneth. "How did he know about it at all?"
"He must have got the news by telegram or wireless from Charleroi. But really it was your doing, you know. I must make that clear."
"Don't talk rubbish! I only gave you the information. I liked the look of him. What keen eyes he has!"
"He's a splendid fellow. But come along! Our men are a hungry lot, and I don't want to find the board cleared."
They were sitting at lunch among a group of cheery young officers when a bugle rang out. The officers sprang up, seized their arms, and rushed out of the cottage.
"The Germans are coming on again," cried Pariset. "Come and see."
They ran back towards the trenches, which were already filling with riflemen. A deep boom sounded from some distant spot.
"A German gun!" said Pariset.
"I don't see the shell," said Kenneth, looking round.
"My dear fellow, it had fallen somewhere before we heard the sound. Ah! the forts are replying."
In a few minutes the silence of the summer noon was shattered by the continuous thunder of artillery. With the deep slow booms of the big guns was mingled the quicker, sharper bang of machine guns somewhere out of sight.
"Get down, you asses!" cried an officer, as they drew near to the trenches. "Do you want to be marked?"
They took cover behind a hedge. Kenneth tingled from top to toe as he heard the crash of the guns, and felt the earth and the very air shake with the concussion. Presently a shrill whistle sounded; it was followed almost instantaneously by a prolonged crackle, which had hardly died away when from above them came a zip, zip, zip, like the notes of some tuneless bird.
"The Germans are firing anyhow," said Pariset in an involuntary whisper.
Round the hedge came swiftly two men in blue coats with the red cross on their sleeves, carrying an ambulance. A groan rose from it.
"I can't stand this," said Pariset.
He dashed along the hedge and into the open. Kenneth instinctively followed him, not doubting for a moment what it was that Pariset could not stand. Pariset, with Kenneth close at his heels, made straight for the nearest trench, heedless of the shot and shell whistling, singing, crashing around them. They flung themselves into the trench, and Kenneth, without understanding how it had happened, found himself leaning forward, rifle in hand, listening to a droning monotone from Pariset a yard to the left of him.
"Mark your man.... Don't be in a hurry.... Keep your head as low as possible.... You'll soon get used to the noise."
It was a minute or two before Kenneth realised that the rifle had been thrust into his hand for use. Looking over the parapet of the trench he was still confused and bewildered. Pariset expected him to fire, but where was the enemy? He saw the long grass waving in the breeze, a few scattered trees in the field beyond, wisps and cloudlets of smoke--and then, as the range of his vision increased, in the far distance a bluish-grey mass rolling like a billow towards him.
At last he understood. That bluish-grey mass was the enemy. It represented brute force, broken faith, merciless tyranny. It was the devastating flood which these brave soldiers about him were giving their lives to check.
Presently he distinguished individuals in the mass.
"Mark your man!"
The words, coolly spoken by Pariset on his left, set his imagination on fire. It was his privilege to have a share in their fight for freedom. He laid the rifle to his shoulder, marked his man along the sight, and a touch of his finger sped a bullet on its way.
For the next half-hour Kenneth lost account of everything but the task so suddenly thrust upon him. The deafening din of bursting shells and rifle fire, the quick silent activity of the ambulance bearers, the shouts and groans of men, were unnoticed by him in his constant preoccupation. He learnt afterwards how the Germans had pressed on with marvellous passive courage under the hail of lead and shell from the forts and trenches; how the gaps cleft in their close-packed ranks had been instantly filled up, as if men had sprung out of the earth. He fired until the chamber was empty, refilled and fired again, every now and again hearing Pariset's monotonous cry, "Mark your man!"
Presently there was a shrill whistle. Instantly, in the trench on either side of him, the men who had been lying flat sprang to their feet and dashed forward with a joyous shout. He was up and after them, running across the field, with bayonet out-thrust, towards the stalwart men in blue-grey, who had hitherto come nearer and nearer like the irresistible tide. But now he became suddenly conscious that the tide was receding. These stout warriors whom shot and shell had failed to daunt had turned tail at the sight of gleaming steel. Their ranks broke; they wavered, spun round, and fled in panic disorder across the field.
As Kenneth, with parched lips and trembling limbs, returned with Pariset from that victorious charge, an officer of the general's staff met them.
"This will never do, lieutenant," he said to Pariset; "we have plenty of brave fellows to man the trenches, but we haven't too many airmen, and we can't afford to risk them in field operations. You have no business here, you know."
"But wasn't it glorious, colonel?" said Pariset, glowing.
"They are men to be proud of. But I am quite serious; get back to your corps; there will be plenty of work for you. Has this man no uniform, by the way?"
"They have run short, colonel," said Pariset instantly. "We will rig him up in a day or two."
"See to it. If the Germans capture a man in civilian dress they will shoot him at sight. Now, get back at once."
"I thought it better not to go into particulars," Pariset remarked to Kenneth as they went on. "There might have been a row."
"It's just as well," said Kenneth. "But, I say, I think I'll go into the infantry after all."