It was impossible to foresee a shelling of the chateau by the French themselves.
The screaming and whistling came again, but he did not see any explosion near the chateau.

One could not tell much from such a swift and passing sound, but he concluded that it was a German shell replying.
He had seen a German battery near the house and it would not remain quiet under bombardment.
He had no doubt that the French gunners, having got the range, would keep it.

Somebody, perhaps an aeroplane or an officer with flags in a tree, was signaling.

It was horrible, this murderous mechanism by which men fired at targets miles away, targets which they could not see, but which they hit nevertheless.

Every pulse beating hard, John shook his fist at the invisible German guns and the invisible French guns alike.
Then he recovered himself with an angry shake and began to run again.