"I have more than that on my mind, Tom. There are mighty serious times all about us, and it's terrible to think of those poor women and girls being killed like rats in a trap. I'd just like to be in my plane, and with a full gun, and then have a go at the Hun who did this."
"So would I," agreed Tom, as they made their way out of the crowd and in the direction in which many of the populace were hurrying to go to the scene of the second explosion. "But, Jack, do you know I shouldn't be surprised to learn that the shell was not from an airship at all."
"Where would it be from then?"
"The Germans may have massed such a lot of troops at some point opposite the French lines, that they have broken through and have brought up some of their heavy guns."
Jack shook his head.
"I don't believe they could do it," he said. "You know the nearest German line is about seventy miles from Paris. If they had started to break through, and had any success at all, the news would have reached here before this. And reinforcements would be on the way. No, it can't be. There must be some other explanation."
"But what is it?" asked Tom. "They've got to get nearer than seventy miles to bombard Paris. You know that."
"I don't think I really know anything about this war," said Jack simply. "So many strange, things have happened, so many old theories have been discarded, and so many new things have been done that we don't know where we are."
"Well that's true. And yet how could the Germans get near enough to bombard Paris without some word of it coming in?"
"I don't know. But the fact remains. Now let's get to where the second shell fell. Maybe we can see a fragment of it and—"