He was coming straight toward their pits and so they awaited him with some curiosity.
John presently caught the shimmer of sun on bayonets, and he knew now that he would soon reach the German earthworks.

His first care after Delaunois left him, had been to destroy the passport that General Vaugirard had given him and there was not a scratch of writing about him to identify him as John Scott.
Whistling louder than ever, and looking vacant of countenance, he walked boldly toward the first rifle pit, and, when the sharp hail of the German sentry came, he promptly threw up his hands.

An officer whom he took to be a lieutenant and four or five men came toward him.

All wore heavy gray overcoats and they were really boys rather than men; not one of them, including the officers, seeming to be more than twenty.

But they were large and muscular, heavily tanned by wind and snow and rain.
John had learned to read character, and as he walked carelessly toward them he nevertheless watched them keenly.