Directly below them
the land had become black again, specked only by little points of
light, yellow, ruddy, white; some of these, like the lights behind the
French lines, perhaps marked hamlets, encampments; others were mere
decoy-lights; others -- they showed but for the briefest second when
the biplane passed overhead were the guiding lights for the French and
American pilots. These were set in chimneys by the French behind the
German lines; any light, if seen by Germans and recognized, might cost
the annihilation of a family, or a neighborhood; many times such lights
had cost such savage penalty. Still, they were set.
Hal and Chester warmed at sight of them this night as never before.
They were going to the people who had set those lights.
The biplane banked and circled. Below was the square where the
airplane was to be shot down. Troops were moving through those fields,
undoubtedly, advancing in single file through communication trenches or
dashing from shell hole to shell hole; other troops lingered in dugouts
underground. The French batteries played all over those fields,
spraying down shrapnel, detonating the frightful charges of high
explosives.
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