CHAPTER VI.
IN HOSTILE HANDS The task that lay before the two young men was one of great difficulty.
The battle line was shifting continually, although the Germans were being pressed steadily back toward the east and north, but among so many generals it would be hard to find the particular one to whom they were bearing orders.

The commander of the central army was of high importance, but the fact did not bring him at once before the eye.
They were to see General Vaugirard, too, but it was possible that he had fallen.

John, though, could not look upon it as a probability.

The general was so big, so vital, that he must be living, and he felt the same way about Bougainville.

It was incredible that fate itself should snuff out in a day that spark of fire.
Lannes, uncertain of his course, bore in again toward the German lines, and dropped as low as he could, compatible with safety from any kind of shot.