e
trees. The short, sharp barking of the guns, the deeper rumble of the
bombs that were beginning to fall on the town, and the earth-shaking
explosions terrified them beyond endurance.

"I'm going to shut my eyes," said one, "it's easier like that."

"My God," exclaimed another, "I can't move my legs an inch!"

"Fear," said the doctor, "shows itself in hereditary reflexes. Man,
when in danger, seeks the pack, and fright makes his flesh creep,
because his furred ancestors bristled all over when in combat, in
order to appear enormous and terrible."

A terrific explosion shook the hill, and flames arose over the town.

"They're aiming at the station," said the colonel. "Those
searchlights do more harm than good. They simply frame the target and
show it up."

"When I was at Havre," Aurelle remarked, "a gunner went to ask the
Engineers for some searchlights that were rotting away in some store
or other. 'Quite impossible,' said the engineer; 'they're the war
reserve; we're forbidden to touch them.' He could never be brought to
understand that the war we were carrying on over here was the one
that was specified in his schedule."

The great panting and throbbing of an aeroplane was coming nearer,
and the whole sky was quivering with the noise of machinery like a
huge factory.

"My God," exclaimed the doctor, "we're in for it this time!"

But the stars twinkled gently on, and above the din they heard the
clear, delicate notes of a bird's song--just as though the throbbing
motors, the whizzing shells and the frightened wailing of the women
were nothing but the harmonies devised by the divine composer of some
military-pastoral symphony to sustain the slender melody of a bird.

"Listen," whispered Colonel Parker, "listen--a nightingale!"

CHAPTER VII

LOVE AND THE INFANT DUNDAS

"... Of which, if thou be a severe sour-complexion'd man, then I
hereby disallow thee to be a competent judge."--_The Compleat
Angler._

The Infant Dundas struck up a rag-time on the sergeant-major's
typewriter, did a juggling turn with the army list, and let forth a
few hunting yells; then, seeing that the interpreter had reached the
required state of exasperation, he said:

"Aurelle, why should we stay in this camp? Let's go into the town;
I'll get hold of the Intelligence car, and we'll go and see
Germaine."

Germaine was a pretty, friendly girl who sold novels, chocolates and
electric lamps at Abbeville. Dundas, wh