"Yet
he is undoubtedly an exceptional person!"
By this time, they had entered into the main office, a vast room which
received its light through a horizontal window about ten feet wide and
only a palm and a half high, reminding one of the open space between the
slats of a Venetian blind. Below it was a pine table filled with papers
and surrounded by stools. When occupying one of these seats, one's eyes
could sweep the entire plain. On the walls were electric apparatus,
acoustic tubes and telephones--many telephones.
The Commandant sorted and piled up the papers, offering the stools with
drawing-room punctilio.
"Here, Senator Lacour."
Desnoyers, humble attendant, took a seat at his side. The Commandant
now appeared to be the manager of a theatre, preparing to exhibit an
extraordinary show. He spread upon the table an enormous paper which
reproduced all the features of the plain extended before them--roads,
towns, fields, heights and valleys. Upon this map was a triangular group
of red lines in the form of an open fan; the vertex represented the
place where they were, and the broad part of the triangle was the limit
of the horizon which they were sweeping with their eyes.
"We are going to fire at that grove," said the artilleryman, pointing
to one end of the map. "There it is," he continued, designating a little
dark line.
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