"My, how safe I feel!" chirped Don.
"The life of an artilleryman is not so dangerous," admitted the officer; "for the moment things begin to get a bit too hot they can desert the gun pits, and in so doing are not obliged to cross any open spaces. One dive into the tunnel, and the cannoneers are safe! Passageways connect the various underground chambers, and telephones are installed wherever necessary."
Just as the concluding words fell from the officer's lips a terrific booming report made both of the ambulanciers give a perceptible start, though the gun crew about them gave no indication of even having beard it.
"A few high-explosives being dispatched without our compliments!" remarked the lieutenant. "Come, mes Americaines, and you can see one of the big guns in action."
One after another the three climbed nimbly up the ladder, and on emerging into the open saw a cloud of smoke hovering in the still air some twenty-five yards away.
"No wonder it made such an awful crack!" cried Don.
"Better stuff some of this in your ears," counseled Lieutenant D'Arraing. He presented to each a wad of raw cotton. "The concussions are pretty severe on ear-drums."
The Red Cross men thanked him and promptly followed his advice. In a moment they came to a hedge, behind which a gun crew, with remarkable precision and swiftness, was loading an enormous howitzer mounted on tractor-wheels.
"It takes seven cannoneers and a corporal to fire this gun," explained Lieutenant D'Arraing. "Each has a particular duty to perform, and when the projectile is ready for its long journey, the corporal gives the signal to fire, the lanyard is pulled, and what happens you will presently witness with your own eyes. Give her all the room you can, boys."
Don and Dunstan, highly interested, stepped back. It was a very wonderful thing, the ambulanciers thought, to be actual eye-witnesses of such a proceeding—indeed it made Don Hale almost feel as if he himself was an actual participant in the greatest war history has ever known. How many times had he heard the terrifying screech and scream of approaching shells and the frightful concussion which brought them to an end! And here was a projectile about to be launched off into space toward some point which none of them could see, but where, undoubtedly, were human beings who might be destroyed by its withering blast.