“How about a little interdiction?” They spoke casually, as one would say, “The road is dusty,” and the other reply, “It might be well to sprinkle it.”
“It’ll be all right if we can get enough.... I’ll call up and ask for it.”
Then: “Hello!... Hello! Is this Hoboken?... They’re giving us more gas than we like ... at right and left and in front.... Yes.... Been coming twenty minutes.... Is it worth while to retaliate?... Orders to use gas have to come from you.”
“We’re in for beaucoup casualties,” somebody said out of a moment’s pause.
“Say, you were too mild with Hoboken. I’d ’a’ told him we was gettin’ gas to beat the devil, and we had to have some doin’s of our own. Them birds don’t worry about what we’re gettin’ unless we holler loud.” This from the draftsman-sergeant.
“There!” The adjutant looked up at the ceiling. “Listen!... Boche aeroplane. I’ve heard it quite a spell. Directing their fire by the flash of our batteries.... Gawd! Why don’t we get more aeroplanes of our own!”
The telephone again, and Jimmy reported with what Kendall conceived to be relief, “He says he’ll have the hundred and fifty-fives and gas going in ten minutes.”
“Say,” somebody complained, “that boche aeroplane must be mired in a cloud. It sounds like it was standing still in one spot.”
“Stuck or not, she’s up there without any friendly intentions.... Say, we ought to go over to the States and shoot them peace-talkin’ pups.” It was the sergeant speaking again. “Anybody that wants to make peace with the boche!... They hain’t got no right pollutin’ the atmosphere....”
There came a pause while all waited hopefully for the “big stuff” that had been promised them—and presently it came. Kendall had believed the ultimate in sound had been achieved before, but this—this was impossible. Such an extreme from silence could not be. It was cosmic. It was awful. He seemed to be standing in the very center of such an upheaval as might have created worlds.... It upreared to a very ultimate climax of sound, to a single note made up of a multitude of gigantic sub-tones. It was amazing, it was terrifying, it was gratifying....