“I feel as if I had been flayed,” he said. “Those briars were downright savage. It was lucky we didn’t break a leg—or stop a bullet.”
“We must not run such risks again. We must keep clear of roads—the Germans seem to be everywhere. Let us keep on until we reach the crest of this hill, and then we can rest till daylight.”
“All right,” agreed Stewart. “Where thou goest, I will go. But please remember I don’t travel on angelic wings as you do, but on very human legs! And they are very tired!”
“So are mine!” she laughed. “But we cannot remain here, can we?”
“No,” said Stewart, “I suppose not,” and he arose and followed her.
The ground grew less rough as they proceeded, and at last they came to the end of the wood. Overhead, a full moon was sinking toward the west—a moon which lighted every rock and crevice of the rolling meadow before them, and which seemed to them, after the darkness of the woods and the valleys, as brilliant as the sun.
“We must be nearly at the top,” said the girl. “These hills almost all have meadows on their summits where the peasants pasture their flocks.”
And so it proved, for beyond the meadow was another narrow strip of woodland, and as they came to its farther edge, the fugitives stopped with a gasp of astonishment.
Below them stretched a broad valley, and as far as the eye could reach, it was dotted with flaring fires.
“The German army!” said the girl, and the two stood staring.