“It surely is, because I heard their yells when a shift came in the wind just then. Oh! shucks! there that smoke has to settle down again and shut off our view when it was getting so thrilling.”
“To think that the same kind of fierce fighting is going on along miles of territory. Do you think there’s a chance the Germans may break through at this point, Jack?”
“They may in small detachments while all the confusion is on, but not in great force,” Jack replied. “All these things have been anticipated and prepared for. A battle is like a game of chess, with every move having a meaning of its own. The general who can best guess the plan of the enemy, and lay his own to trip him up, is the one who’s bound to win.”
It continued to be fascinating work to watch the stirring events that were transpiring. That tower on the top of the wrecked country house proved a splendid lookout for the two deeply interested boys.
Jack in particular was making it a point to impress all the features of the action upon his memory. Later on at the first available chance he meant to incorporate what he had witnessed in a stirring letter that might thrill the hearts of all those in the home land who read it, even as his own pulses were quickened just then.
When the smoke pall chose to lift again after quite an interval, Amos gave a cry of mingled surprise and chagrin.
“Why, Jack, see, they’re gone!”
“You mean the Highlanders who were behind that stone wall, don’t you, Amos?”
“Yes, not a man of them is left. And, Jack, I don’t seem to see any stretched out on the ground. Do you think they had to retreat so soon?”
“Hardly that,” the other assured him. “Those Scots are the most stubborn fellows going. They don’t like to give up anything they’ve once had possession of. Of course I couldn’t say for certain, but the chances are they’ve charged out to meet the oncoming Germans face to face.”