A faint acrid taint crept into the air and he felt it in his nose and throat.

He coughed now and then, and he observed that men around him coughed also.

But, on the whole, the army was singularly still, the soldiers straining eye or ear to see something or hear more of the titanic struggle that was raging on either side of them.
John again searched the horizon eagerly with his glasses, but it showed only green hills and bits of wood, bare of human activity.

The French aeroplanes still hovered, but not in front of General Vaugirard.

They were off to right and left, where the wings of the nations had closed in combat.