Savagely the fugitives fought their way upward, over rocks, through briars--scratched, torn, bleeding, panting for breath. Even in the daytime it would have been a desperate scramble; now it soon became a sort of horrid nightmare, which might end at any instant at the bottom of a cliff. More than once Stewart told himself that he could not go on, that his heart would burst if he took another step--and yet he _did_ go on, up and up, close behind his comrade, who seemed borne on invisible wings. At last she stopped and pressed close against him. He could feel how her heart was thumping. "Wait!" she panted. "Listen!" Not a sound broke the stillness of the wood. "I think we are safe," she said. "Let us rest a while." They sat down, side by side, on a great rock. Gradually their gasping breath slackened and the pounding of their hearts grew quieter. "I have lost my cap," she said, at last. "A branch snatched it off and I did not dare to stop." Stewart put his hand to his head and found that his hat also was gone. Until that instant he had not missed it. "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. Evidently a countless host lay camped below them, but no sound reached them, save the occasional rumble of a train along some distant track. The Kaiser's legions were sleeping until the dawn should give the signal for the advance--an advance which would be as the sweep of an avalanche, hideous, irresistible, remorseless, crushing everything in its path. "Oh, look, look!" cried the girl, and caught him by the arm.