The hum of the motor became a song that ate up miles. John worried about tires. A blowout before he reached the army post at Fort Crook might cost many lives. There was no time to waste.
Just as the roof-covered hills of Omaha appeared in the distance, two motorcycles dashed forward to meet the car and signalled a stop. The khaki clad police riders eyed the bloody radiator and nodded their heads together.
"You've been there?" they asked. John nodded.
"You've been there?" he queried in return.
"The telephone and telegraph wires are hot."
"They need help—," John began.
"Are you good for a trip back there in a plane, to guide an observer?" the officer asked. "We'll see the lady home."
So John found himself dashing to the landing field on a motorcycle, and then in an Army plane, a telephone on his ears connected with the lieutenant in front of him. It was all a mad, dizzy, confused dream. He had never been up in a plane before, and the novelty and anxiety of it fought with his tense observation of the sliding landscape below. But there was the galley on the river, and three more following it in the distance. There was an army marching along the top of the bluffs down the river, a countless string of densely packed companies with horsemen and chariots swarming around. There were the huge flat buildings in the walled enclosure where Rosalie had stood. Out of the buildings and out of the enclosures, marched more and more massed troops, all heading toward Omaha.
Then they were back in the City Hall, he and the lieutenant, and facing them were the chief of police and an Army colonel. There was talk of the Governor and General Paul of the State Militia due to arrive from Lincoln any moment in an airplane; and the National Guard mobilizing all over the state, and trucks and caissons and field guns already en route from Ashland with skeletonized personnel. Secretaries dashed out with scribbled messages and in with yellow telegrams. A terrific war was brewing, and what was it all about?
The lieutenant stepped up to the colonel and saluted.