"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.
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