"By the way," he said, holding the match clear, "have our machine-shops and supply-tanks ready to move. Every plane is, of course, ready to take the air on signal. But get the aircraft ground personnel in their traveling tanks immediately."
Voices began to murmur orders as the general puffed. He watched the board steadily.
"Let me know if anything is heard from these infantrymen...."
There was a definite air of strain within the tank that was headquarters. It was a sort of tensity that seemed to emanate from the general himself.
Where Coffee and Wallis and the prisoner squatted on the ground, however, there was no sign of strain at all. There was a steady gabble of voices.
"What kinda rations they give you?" asked Coffee interestedly.
The enemy prisoner listed them, with profane side-comments.
"h.e.l.l," said Wallis gloomily. "Y"ought to see what we get! Las" week they fed us worse"n dogs. An" th" canteen stuff-"
"Your tank men, they get treated fancy?" asked the prisoner.
Coffee made a reply consisting almost exclusively of high powered expletives.
"-and the infantry gets it in the neck every time," he finished savagely. "We do the work-"
Guns began to boom, far away. Wallis c.o.c.ked his ears.
"Tanks gettin" together," he judged, gloomily. "If they"d all blow each other to h.e.l.l an" let us infantry fight this battle-"
"d.a.m.n the tanks!" said the enemy prisoner viciously. "Look here, you fellers. Look at me. They sent a battalion of us out, in two waves. We hike along by compa.s.s through the fog, supposed to be five paces apart. We come on a pill-box or listenin" post, we gas it an" go on. We try not to make a noise. We try not to get seen before we use our gas. We go on, deep in your lines as we can. We hear one of your tanks, we dodge it if we can, so we don"t get seen at all. O"course we give it a dose of gas in pa.s.sing, just in case. But we don"t get any orders about how far to go or how to come back. We ask for recognition signals for our own tanks, an" they grin an" say we won"t see none of our tanks till the battle"s over. They say "Re-form an" march back when the fog is out." Ain"t that pretty for you?"
"You second wave?" asked Coffee, with interest.
The prisoner nodded.
"Mopping up," he said bitterly, "what the first wave left. No fun in that! We go along ga.s.sin" dead men, an" all the time your tanks is ravin" around to find out what"s happenin" to their listenin"-posts. They run into us-"
Coffee nodded sympathetically.
"The infantry always gets the dirty end of the stick," said Wallis morosely.
Somewhere, something blew up with a violent explosion. The noise of battle in the distance became heavier and heavier.
"Goin" it strong," said the prisoner, listening.
"Yeh," said Coffee. He looked at his wrist-watch. "Say, that twenty minutes is up. You go down in there first, big boy."
They stood beside the little pill-box. The prisoner"s knees shook.
"Say, fellers," he said pleadingly, "they told us that stuff would scatter in twenty minutes, but you busted my mask. Yours ain"t any good against this gas. I"ll have to go down in there if you fellers make me, but-"
Coffee lighted another of the prisoner"s tailor-made cigarettes.
"Give you five minutes more," he said graciously. "I don"t suppose it"ll ruin the war."
They sat down relievedly again, while the fog-gas made all the earth invisible behind a pall of grayness, a grayness from which the noises of battle came.
In the tank that was headquarters, the air of strain was p.r.o.nounced. The maneuver-board showed the situation as close to desperation, now. The reserve-tank positions had been switched on the board, dim orange glows, ma.s.sed in curiously precise blocks. And little squares of green showed there that the supply and machine-shop tanks were ma.s.sed. They were moving slowly across the maneuver-board. But the princ.i.p.al change lay in the front-line indications.
The red glows that showed where tank battles were in progress formed an irregularly curved line, now. There were twenty or more such isolated battles in progress, varying from single combats between single tanks to greater conflicts where twenty to thirty tanks to a side were engaged. And the positions of those conflicts were changing constantly, and invariably the American tanks were being pushed back.
The two staff officers behind the general were nearly silent. There were few sparks crawling within the American lines now. Nearly every one had been diverted into the front-line battles. The two men watched the board with feverish intensity, watching the red glows moving back, and back....
The chief of staff was shaking like a leaf, watching the American line stretched, and stretched....
The general looked at him with a twisted smile.
"I know my opponent," he said suddenly. "I had lunch with him once in Vienna. We were attending a disarmament conference." He seemed to be amused at the ironic statement. "We talked war and battles, of course. And he showed me, drawing on the tablecloth, the tactical scheme that should have been used at Cambrai, back in 1917. It was a singularly perfect plan. It was a beautiful one."
"General," burst out one of the two staff officers behind him. "I need twenty tanks from the reserves."
"Take them," said the general. He went on, addressing his chief of staff. "It was an utterly flawless plan. I talked to other men. We were all pretty busy estimating each other there, we soldiers. We discussed each other with some freedom, I may say. And I formed the opinion that the man who is in command of the enemy is an artist: a soldier with the spirit of an amateur. He"s a very skilful fencer, by the way. Doesn"t that suggest anything?"
The chief of staff had his eyes glued to the board.
"That is a feint, sir. A strong feint, yes, but he has his force concentrated in the dead area."
"You are not listening, sir," said the general, reprovingly. "I am saying that my opponent is an artist, an amateur, the sort of person who delights in the delicate work of fencing. I, sir, would thank G.o.d for the chance to defeat my enemy. He has twice my force, but he will not be content merely to defeat me. He will want to defeat me by a plan of consummate artistry, which will arouse admiration among soldiers for years to come."
"But General, every minute, every second-"
"We are losing men, of whom we have plenty, and tanks, of which we have not enough. True, very true," conceded the general. "But I am waiting to hear from two strayed infantrymen. When they report, I will speak to them myself."
"But, sir," cried the chief of staff, withheld only by the iron habit of discipline from violent action and the taking over of command himself, "they may be dead! You can"t risk this battle waiting for them! You can"t risk it, sir! You can"t!"
"They are not dead," said the general coolly. "They cannot be dead. Sometimes, sir, we must obey the motto on our coins. Our country needs this battle to be won. We have got to win it, sir! And the only way to win it-"
The signal-light at his telephone glowed. The general s.n.a.t.c.hed it up, his hands quivering. But his voice, was steady and deliberate as he spoke.
"h.e.l.lo, Sergeant-Sergeant Coffee, is it?... Very well, Sergeant. Tell me what you"ve found out.... Your prisoner objects to his rations, eh? Very well, go on.... How did he gas our listening-posts?... He did, eh? He got turned around and you caught him wandering about?... Oh, he was second wave! They weren"t taking any chances on any of our listening-posts reporting their tanks, eh?... Say that again, Sergeant Coffee!" The general"s tone had changed indescribably. "Your prisoner has no recognition signals for his own tanks? They told him he wouldn"t see any of them until the battle was over?... Thank you, Sergeant. One of our tanks will stop for you. This is the commanding general speaking."
He rang off, his eyes blazing. Relaxation was gone. He was a dynamo, snapping orders.
"Supply tanks, machine-shop tanks, ground forces of the air service, concentrate here!" His finger rested on a spot in the middle of the dead area. "Reserve tanks take position behind them. Draw off every tank we"ve got-take "em out of action!-and ma.s.s them in front, on a line with our former first line of outposts. Every airplane and helicopter take the air and engage in general combat with the enemy, wherever the enemy may be found and in whatever force. And our tanks move straight through here!"
Orders were snapping into telephone transmitters. The commands had been relayed before their import was fully realized. Then there was a gasp.
"General!" cried the chief of staff. "If the enemy is ma.s.sed there, he"ll destroy our forces in detail as they take position!"
"He isn"t ma.s.sed there," said the general, his eyes blazing. "The infantrymen who were ga.s.sing our listening-posts were given no recognition signals for their tanks. Sergeant Coffee"s prisoner has his gas-mask broken and is in deadly fear. The enemy commander is foolish in many ways, perhaps, but not foolish enough to break down morale by refusing recognition signals to his own men who will need them. And look at the beautiful plan he"s got."
He sketched half a dozen lines with his fingers, moving them in lightning gestures as his orders took effect.