s, a distant rumbling
growl, followed by a shuddering of the air, as if the night were
frightened, came up out of the west toward Paris, showing that the
projectiles were at the top of their flight and going into action. A
lake of yellow smoke formed in the pocket behind the hill where lay the
redoubt in which "Thanatos" was snoring.

On the great race track of Longchamps, in the Bois de Boulogne, the vast
herd of cows, sheep, horses, and goats, collected together by the city
government of Paris and attended by fifty or sixty shepherds especially
imported from _les Landes_, had long since ceased to browse and had
settled themselves down into the profound slumber of the animal world,
broken only by an occasional bleating or the restless whinnying of a
stallion. On the race course proper, in front of the grandstand and
between it and the judge's box, four of these shepherds had built a
small fire and by its light were throwing dice for coppers. They were
having an easy time of it, these shepherds, for their flocks did not
wander, and all that they had to do was to see that the animals were
properly driven to such parts of the Bois as would afford proper
nourishment.

"Well, _mes enfants_," exclaimed old Adrian Bannalec, pulling a
turnip-shaped watch from beneath his blouse and holding it up to the
firelight, "it's twelve o'clock and time to turn in. But what do you say
to a cup of chocolate first?"

The others greeted the suggestion with approval, and going somewhere
underneath the grandstand, Bannalec produced a pot filled with water,
which he suspended with much dexterity over the fire upon the end of a
pointed stick. The water began to boil almost immediately, and they were
on the point of breaking their chocolate into it when, from what
appeared to be an immense distance, through the air there came a curious
rumble.

"What was that?" muttered Bannalec. The sound was followed within a few
seconds by another, and after a similar interval by a third and fourth.

"There was going to be an armistice," suggested one of the younger
herdsmen. He had hardly spoken before a much louder and apparently
nearer detonation occurred.

"That must be one of our guns," said old Adrian proudly. "Do you hear
how much louder it speaks than those of the Germans?"

Other discharges now followed in rapid succession, some fainter, some
much louder. And then somewhere in the sky they saw a flash of flame,
followed by a thunderous concu