The aircraft officer lifted his head, pressing his headphones tightly against his ears, as if to hear mores clearly.
"The enemy, sir, has sent sixty fighting machines to attack our helicopters. We sent forty single-seaters as escort."
"Let them fight enough," said the general absently, "to cause the enemy to think us desperate for information. Then draw them off."
There was silence again. The steady fingers put pins here and there. An enemy tank destroyed here. An American tank encountered an enemy and ceased to report further. The enemy sent four helicopters in a wide sweep behind the American lines, escorted by fifty fighting planes. They uncovered a squadron of four tanks, which scattered like insects disturbed by the overturning of a stone. Instantly after their disclosure a hundred and fifty guns, four miles away, were pouring shells about the place where they had been seen. Two of the tanks ceased to report.
The general's attention was called to a telephone instrument with its call-light glowing.
"Ah," said the general absently. "They want publicity matter."
The telephone was connected to the rear, and from there to the Capital. A much-worried cabinet waited for news, and arrangements were made and had been used, to broadcast suitably arranged reports from the front, the voice of the commander-in-chief in the field going to every workshop, every gathering-place, and even being bellowed by loud-speakers in the city streets.
The general took the phone. The President of the United States was at the other end of the wire, this time.
"General?"