Page:Storm Over Paris.pdf/259

Someone started a rumor that the region around Blois was safe, and immediately the roads leading there became packed, blocking the movements of the military and even the emergency squadrons whose job it was to clear the roads of the dead and the wounded. And all the while the winged enemy overhead continued his devastation.

For eight days Anna and the children tramped along the difficult back roads from Orleans to Blois. In the excitement of the automobile collision Anna had forgotten to take her bag from the wreckage, and now she was left without a Weakened by hunger and fatigue Robert could no longer walk. No matter how he wanted to keep up with his brother his reserves of strength were gone, and for most of the way Anna had to carry him in her arms.

One morning, not long after sunrise, they crept out from under a pile of rotten leaves and saw in the distance the fog-wrapped outlines of the Blois castle.

Overjoyed, she pressed the boys close to her. "Blois! Blois at last!" she sobbed, "Soon, my darlings, we'll have food! Fresh bread, fresh fragrant bread, and milk and wine! And we'll roast a chicken, and we'll have potatoes, all we want! And strawberries! And cream! We'll get our health back, and our strength! And then, when we go home again, we'll all be together... How happy we'll be!"

With the promise of so many good things, the children felt new energy flow into them. They began to clamber over the rocky hills which separated them from the main road. Here they were confronted with a new problem; how to cross against the thick current of people who streamed along, with- out beginning and without end.

Soldiers, packed close together, rode by, rocking gloomily in big covered transport trucks. Without any semblance of order, marched hordes of soldiers, motorcyclists, and a motley