the nearermost furrows of that truck field.  So far as we might tell it was utterly gone; and from that we deduced that the force of the explosion had been sufficient to pulverize the clay so finely and cast it so far and so wide that it fell upon the surface in a fine shower, leaving no traces unless one made a minute search for it.  Noting the wonder upon our faces, the officer was moved to speak further in a tone of sincere admiration, touching on the capabilities of the crowning achievement of the Krupp works: 

“Pretty strong medicine, eh?  Well, wait until I have shown you American gentlemen what remains of the fort; then you will better understand.  Even here, out in the open, for a radius of a hundred and fifty meters, any man, conceding he wasn’t killed outright, would be knocked senseless and after that for hours, even for days, perhaps, he would be entirely unnerved.  The force of the concussion appears to have that effect upon persons who are at a considerable distance—­it rips their nerves to tatters.  Some seem numbed and dazed; others develop an acute hysteria.

“Highly interesting, is it not?  Listen then; here is something even more interesting:  Within an inclosed space, where there is a roof to hold in the gas generated by the explosion or where there are reasonably high walls, the man who escapes being torn apart in the instant of impact, or who escapes being crushed to death by collapsing masonry, or killed by flying fragments, is exceedingly likely to choke to death as he lies temporarily paralyzed and helpless from the shock.  I was at Liege and again here, and I know from my own observations that this is true.  At Liege particularly many of the garrison were caught and penned up in underground casements, and there we found them afterward dead, but with no marks of wounds upon them—­they had been asphyxiated.”

I suppose in times of peace the speaker was a reasonably kind man and reasonably regardful of the rights of his fellowmen.  Certainly he was most courteous to us and most considerate; but he described this slaughter-pit scene with the enthusiasm of one who was a partner in a most creditable and worthy enterprise.

Immediately about Des Sarts stood many telegraph poles in a row, for here the road, which was the main road from Paris to Brussels, curved close up under the grass-covered bastions.  All the telegraph wires had been cut, and they dangled about the bases of the poles in snarled tangles like love vines.  The ditches paralleling the road were choked with felled trees, and, what with the naked limbs, were as spiky as shad spines.  Of the small cottages which once had stood in the vicinity of the fort not one remained standing.  Their sites were marked by flattened heaps of brick and plaster from which charred ends of rafters protruded.  It was as though a giant had sat himself down upon each little house in turn and squashed it to the foundation stones.