d at a village standing as a solitary outpost on the edge of a
great unknown wilderness. Beyond this point the railroad, even
civilization, had been paralyzed by the dragon that fed upon humanity.
If Jeb expected the villagers to be out in force to greet Barrow's unit,
he was disappointed; for, with the exception of a crippled man
laboriously pushing a cart, a nun who with bowed head came from one
doorway and hurried into another, and a bent old woman struggling to
take down the night shutters from her shop window, the place might have
been deserted. On the far side of his train, however, where he had not
looked, a group of soldiers lounged about their wagons waiting to take
these passengers of mercy forward; unshaven chaps they were, well
meriting the nickname of _poilus_--"the hairy ones."

Now that the train had stopped he could hear the far-off growling of
guns; deep-voiced monsters which his imagination pictured straining on
their leashes while snarling at each other across the space of
miles--truly dogs of war! He drew farther back in the seat, dreading to
get out; but the moment had come, the fellows and nurses were moving to
the door, the great task was at hand! He tried, while standing, to
simulate indifference, but his legs were weak and his teeth chattered,
just a little, in spite of his effort to control himself. It seemed as
if he were forever wanting to yawn, conscious of the heaviness upon his
chest.

With Dr. Barrow and a lieutenant on the first creaking wagon, the others
followed, but there was no road. A morass was there, that formerly had
been a road--a ditch sloshy with mud which, in some places, made it
necessary for all hands to climb down and put their shoulders to the
wheels.

"It is trying, this traveling in limbers," the lieutenant smiled
apologetically. "The incessant hauling up of shells from our bases
destroys the best of roads in a few days. But what would you?" he
shrugged, smiling again. "If the ammunition dumps are constantly
depleted, they must be fed!"

The far-off French artillery, in skillfully emplaced positions to right
and left, seeming to enfilade on a point immediately ahead, was so
vigorously directed that the German guns must have been dazed, since
their counter-battery work sounded spasmodic and--so far as distance
permitted Jeb to guess--never effective. Yet he was moving toward that
tumult; as inexorably as death, he approached it. With eyes feeding upon
this new world