"Please, General, do not let them go until I have a few moments' start. I don't know what they will do to me." Stubbs looked nervous.
"Very well," said General Petain with a smile. "Then hurry and take your departure, Mr. Stubbs."
Stubbs needed no urging and he disappeared from the general's tent with agility; and Hal called after him:
"Better hunt a hole, Mr. Stubbs; we'll be on your trail in a few minutes!"
CHAPTER XXI
THE TURNING OF THE TIDE
In the days immediately following their interview with General Petain, the lads saw much fighting; and with the close of each day there came bitterness to them, to the French troops, their officers and to the people of France and of all the allied nations.
For the armies of the German Crown Prince continued to advance steadily in spite of the heroic resistance of the French; and it began to appear that the "Gateway to France" must ere long fall into alien hands.
Day after day the Germans hurled themselves forward in herculean efforts to break the French lines; and most every day found them fighting a little nearer to Verdun. In vain the French attempted to stem the onslaught of the invading forces; the Germans were not to be denied.
On the days when the fiercest of the German assaults were made, it was learned that the Emperor of Germany had directed the assaults in person. From the top of a small hill, surrounded by his staff, the Kaiser looked down upon the battlefield for days at a time, showing no signs of emotion as his countrymen fell right and left, that the German flag might be planted a few yards—sometimes only a few feet—farther westward.