Then another monster dropped in their rear, and a gaping cavity appeared in the road just where they had passed. Apparently they had come too far to retreat now, and there seemed nothing for them to do but keep rushing on, hoping for the best.
CHAPTER XXI
AT JOFFRE’S HEADQUARTERS
It was worse than on the other occasion when, seated on those gun caissons with the French soldiers, they fled through a hurricane of bursting shells. In connection with that never-to-be-forgotten episode their backs were turned toward the place from which the unseen German gunners were bombarding the enemy lines; and consequently they had the comforting feeling that every yard they went the danger kept growing constantly less.
Now it was just the opposite, for a brief period, since the worst was yet to come. It required a vast amount of nerve to carry them through this crisis. Thad had his teeth tightly clinched, and his eyes were riveted straight on the road ahead. Nothing must be allowed to distract his attention. It was of vital importance that he keep the track, and reach that bend which would offer them possible safety.
Shells might burst with an appalling roar, and smaller missiles whirr through the air; but so long as none of them were struck he meant to keep everlastingly at his job of taking the car through the hurricane of iron.
The others, however, were allowed a chance to turn their eyes from right to left as they sped on. Consequently they saw some terrible things that were spared the driver. Here a tree was riven of its limbs as clean as though struck by lightning, leaving the bare trunk standing there like a telegraph pole. In another quarter a dreadful half-muffled burst of sound held their attention; and as they looked it was to see the whole section of ground rise in the air, burst into fragments, and then settle back again in a cloud of dust.
Bumpus hardly breathed, he was so thrilled by all these astonishing things that attested to the frightful power of the great shells hurled by the German military monster machines miles and miles away.
It seemed like a full hour to the stout boy before the reeling car finally arrived at that envied turn in the road, and yet instead of minutes seconds had hardly elapsed.
Thad knew there was serious danger of a spill if he attempted to make that swing around the bend at the reckless pace he had struck. This necessitated a holding up; and poor Bumpus, quick to notice the alteration in their speed, quivered with a new fear, really believing that something must have happened to Thad, who was in danger of collapsing at the wheel.
Indeed, Bumpus involuntarily half raised both hands as though with the idea of catching the chauffeur, and sustaining him; for it chanced that he was directly behind the other at the time.