t. Both Fred and
Boris had driven cars, but they were not familiar with this one, and it
seemed a good idea to learn the controls before they started. But in a
few moments they were off. The car rode easily, and the motor was very
powerful. It was a silent one, too, considering its great power. Fred
took the wheel first.

"We can take it in turns," he said. "Get some sleep, if you can, Boris.
I'll rouse you if there is any need of that. And I'll be glad to rest
myself, after a time. Just now I'm too excited to sleep, even if there
were no especial reason for keeping awake."

There was something so wonderful, so weird that it was almost ghostly,
about that ride in its beginning. Behind them was the din of the heavy
fighting between them and Gumbinnen. The sky was streaked with the
flashes of searchlights, and the vibration of the cannon beat against
their ears incessantly. Yet the road before them, as it lay like a
white ribbon in the path of the great headlight, was absolutely empty.
They passed houses, went through villages. And in none of the houses was
there a light or a sign of life. The whole countryside had been
abandoned.

"It reminds me of things I've read about the plague in olden times,"
thought Fred. "People used to run away like that then, and leave a dead
countryside behind them. It would almost look more natural if there were
signs of fighting."

There were to be plenty all about here soon. But that night there was
nothing, save the inferno of noise and the dazzling points of light in
the sky behind them, to suggest anything save the deepest peace. Grain
stood in some of the fields. In others, where the harvesting had begun,
there were reaping machines. But despite the noise, there was a strange
and unearthly silence. Fred had driven at night through lonely country
before, and he could remember the way dogs at almost every house had
burst into furious barking as the car approached. Now there were no
dogs! It was a trifling thing to think of now, but just then it seemed
to Fred that the absence of the dogs meant even more than the dark,
silent houses themselves.

The houses did look as if their owners might be asleep within, but the
dogs would have barked their alarm. And so that came to be the symbol of
the flight of the people to him.

They had many miles to go. After a couple of hours Fred changed seats
with Boris, and for a time dozed, though he scarcely slept. However, he
did get a good rest, a