initial commit of ebook 33622HEADmain

1 files changed, 7727 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/33622.txt b/33622.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2d870d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/33622.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7727 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Day of Wrath, by Louis Tracy
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Day of Wrath
+       A Story of 1914
+
+Author: Louis Tracy
+
+Release Date: September 3, 2010 [EBook #33622]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAY OF WRATH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ THE DAY OF WRATH
+
+ A STORY OF 1914
+
+ BY
+ LOUIS TRACY
+
+ Author of "The Wings of the Morning," "Flower of the
+ Gorse," etc., etc.
+
+ NEW YORK
+ EDWARD J. CLODE
+ PUBLISHER
+
+
+
+
+ COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY
+ EDWARD J. CLODE
+ All Rights Reserved
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+This book demands no explanatory word. But I do wish to assure the
+reader that every incident in its pages casting discredit on the
+invaders of Belgium is founded on actual fact. I refer those who may
+doubt the truth of this sweeping statement to the official records
+published by the Governments of Great Britain, France, and Belgium.
+
+                         L. T.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+
+    I THE LAVA-STREAM                               1
+   II IN THE VORTEX                                23
+  III FIRST BLOOD                                  39
+   IV THE TRAGEDY OF VISE                          58
+    V BILLETS                                      75
+   VI THE FIGHT IN THE MILL                        94
+  VII THE WOODMAN'S HUT                           111
+ VIII A RESPITE                                   129
+   IX AN EXPOSITION OF GERMAN
+      METHODS                                     147
+    X ANDENNE                                     166
+   XI A TRAMP ACROSS BELGIUM                      186
+  XII AT THE GATES OF DEATH                       206
+ XIII THE WOODEN HORSE OF TROY                    226
+  XIV THE MARNE--AND AFTER                        246
+   XV "CARRY ON!"                                 264
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE LAVA-STREAM
+
+
+"For God's sake, if you are an Englishman, help me!"
+
+That cry of despair, so subdued yet piercing in its intensity, reached
+Arthur Dalroy as he pressed close on the heels of an all-powerful escort
+in Lieutenant Karl von Halwig, of the Prussian Imperial Guard, at the
+ticket-barrier of the Friedrich Strasse Station on the night of Monday,
+3rd August 1914.
+
+An officer's uniform is a _passe-partout_ in Germany; the showy uniform
+of the Imperial Guard adds awe to authority. It may well be doubted if
+any other insignia of rank could have passed a companion in civilian
+attire so easily through the official cordon which barred the chief
+railway station at Berlin that night to all unauthorised persons.
+
+Von Halwig was in front, impartially cursing and shoving aside the crowd
+of police and railway men. A gigantic ticket-inspector, catching sight
+of the Guardsman, bellowed an order to "clear the way;" but a general
+officer created a momentary diversion by choosing that forbidden exit.
+Von Halwig's heels clicked, and his right hand was raised in a salute,
+so Dalroy was given a few seconds wherein to scrutinise the face of the
+terrified woman who had addressed him. He saw that she was young, an
+Englishwoman, and undoubtedly a lady by her speech and garb.
+
+"What can I do for you?" he asked.
+
+"Get me into a train for the Belgian frontier. I have plenty of money,
+but these idiots will not even allow me to enter the station."
+
+He had to decide in an instant. He had every reason to believe that a
+woman friendless and alone, especially a young and good-looking one,
+was far safer in Berlin--where some thousands of Britons and Americans
+had been caught in the lava-wave of red war now flowing unrestrained
+from the Danube to the North Sea--than in the train which would start
+for Belgium within half-an-hour. But the tearful indignation in the
+girl's voice--even her folly in describing as "idiots" the hectoring
+jacks-in-office, any one of whom might have understood her--led impulse
+to triumph over saner judgment.
+
+"Come along! quick!" he muttered. "You're my cousin, Evelyn Fane!"
+
+With a self-control that was highly creditable, the young lady thrust
+a hand through his arm. In the other hand she carried a reticule. The
+action surprised Dalroy, though feminine intuition had only displayed
+common-sense.
+
+"Have you any luggage?" he said.
+
+"Nothing beyond this tiny bag. It was hopeless to think of----"
+
+Von Halwig turned at the barrier to insure his English friend's safe
+passage.
+
+"Hallo!" he cried. Evidently he was taken aback by the unexpected
+addition to the party.
+
+"A fellow-countrywoman in distress," smiled Dalroy, speaking in German.
+Then he added, in English, "It's all right. As it happens, two places
+are reserved."
+
+Von Halwig laughed in a way which the Englishman would have resented at
+any other moment.
+
+"Excellent!" he guffawed. "Beautifully contrived, my friend.--Hi, there,
+sheep's-head!"--this to the ticket-inspector--"let that porter with the
+portmanteau pass!"
+
+Thus did Captain Arthur Dalroy find himself inside the Friedrich Strasse
+Station on the night when Germany was already at war with Russia and
+France. With him was the stout leather bag into which he had thrown
+hurriedly such few articles as were indispensable--an ironic distinction
+when viewed in the light of subsequent events; with him, too, was a
+charming and trustful and utterly unknown travelling companion.
+
+Von Halwig was not only vastly amused but intensely curious; his
+endeavours to scrutinise the face of a girl whom the Englishman had
+apparently conjured up out of the maelstroem of Berlin were almost rude.
+They failed, however, at the outset. Every woman knows exactly how to
+attract or repel a man's admiration; this young lady was evidently
+determined that only the vaguest hint of her features should be
+vouchsafed to the Guardsman. A fairly large hat and a veil, assisted
+by the angle at which she held her head, defeated his intent. She
+still clung to Dalroy's arm, and relinquished it only when a perspiring
+platform-inspector, armed with a list, brought the party to a
+first-class carriage. There were no sleeping-cars on the train. Every
+_wagon-lit_ in Berlin had been commandeered by the staff.
+
+"I have had a not-to-be-described-in-words difficulty in retaining these
+corner places," he said, whereupon Dalroy gave him a five-mark piece,
+and the girl was installed in the seat facing the engine.
+
+The platform-inspector had not exaggerated his services. The train was
+literally besieged. Scores of important officials were storming at
+railway employes because accommodation could not be found. Dalroy,
+wishful at first that Von Halwig would take himself off instead of
+standing near the open door and peering at the girl, soon changed his
+mind. There could not be the slightest doubt that were it not for the
+presence of an officer of the Imperial Guard he and his "cousin" would
+have been unceremoniously bundled out on to the platform to make room
+for some many-syllabled functionary who "simply must get to the front."
+As for the lady, she was the sole representative of her sex travelling
+west that night.
+
+Meanwhile the two young men chatted amicably, using German and English
+with equal ease.
+
+"I think you are making a mistake in going by this route," said Von
+Halwig. "The frontier lines will be horribly congested during the next
+few days. You see, we have to be in Paris in three weeks, so we must
+hurry."
+
+"You are very confident," said the Englishman pleasantly.
+
+He purposely avoided any discussion of his reasons for choosing the
+Cologne-Brussels-Ostend line. As an officer of the British army, he was
+particularly anxious to watch the vaunted German mobilisation in its
+early phases.
+
+"Confident! Why not? Those wretched little _piou-pious_"--a slang term
+for the French infantry--"will run long before they see the whites of
+our eyes."
+
+"I haven't met any French regiments since I was a youngster; but I
+believe France is far better organised now than in 1870," was the
+noncommittal reply.
+
+Von Halwig threw out his right arm in a wide sweep. "We shall brush them
+aside--so," he cried. "The German army was strong in those days; now it
+is irresistible. _You_ are a soldier. You _know_. To-night's papers say
+England is wavering between peace and war. But I have no doubt she will
+be wise. That Channel is a great asset, a great safeguard, eh?"
+
+Again Dalroy changed the subject. "If it is a fair question, when do you
+start for the front?"
+
+"To-morrow, at six in the morning."
+
+"How very kind of you to spare such valuable time now!"
+
+"Not at all! Everything is ready. Germany is always ready. The Emperor
+says 'Mobilise,' and, behold, we cross the frontier within the hour!"
+
+"War is a rotten business," commented Dalroy thoughtfully. "I've seen
+something of it in India, where, when all is said and done, a scrap in
+the hills brings the fighting men alone into line. But I'm sorry for the
+unfortunate peasants and townspeople who will suffer. What of Belgium,
+for instance?"
+
+"Ha! _Les braves Belges!_" laughed the other. "They will do as we tell
+them. What else is possible? To adapt one of your own proverbs: 'Needs
+must when the German drives!'"
+
+Dalroy understood quite well that Von Halwig's bumptious tone was not
+assumed. The Prussian Junker could hardly think otherwise. But the
+glances cast by the Guardsman at the silent figure seated near the
+window showed that some part of his vapouring was meant to impress the
+feminine heart. A gallant figure he cut, too, as he stood there,
+caressing his Kaiser-fashioned moustaches with one hand while the other
+rested on the hilt of his sword. He was tall, fully six feet, and,
+according to Dalroy's standard of physical fitness, at least a stone too
+heavy. The personification of Nietzsche's Teutonic "overman," the "big
+blonde brute" who is the German military ideal, Dalroy classed him, in
+the expressive phrase of the regimental mess, as "a good bit of a
+bounder." Yet he was a patrician by birth, or he could not hold a
+commission in the Imperial Guard, and he had been most helpful and
+painstaking that night, so perforce one must be civil to him.
+
+Dalroy himself, nearly as tall, was lean and lithe, hard as nails, yet
+intellectual, a cavalry officer who had passed through the Oxford mint.
+
+By this time four other occupants of the compartment were in evidence,
+and a ticket-examiner came along. Dalroy produced a number of vouchers.
+The girl, who obviously spoke German, leaned out, purse in hand, and was
+about to explain that the crush in the booking-hall had prevented her
+from obtaining a ticket.
+
+But Dalroy intervened. "I have your ticket," he said, announcing a
+singular fact in the most casual manner he could command.
+
+"Thank you," she said instantly, trying to conceal her own surprise. But
+her eyes met Von Halwig's bold stare, and read therein not only a ready
+appraisement of her good looks but a perplexed half-recognition.
+
+The railwayman raised a question. Contrary to the general custom, the
+vouchers bore names, which he compared with a list.
+
+"These tickets are for Herren Fane and Dalroy, and I find a lady here,"
+he said suspiciously.
+
+"Fraeulein Evelyn Fane, my cousin," explained Dalroy. "A mistake of the
+issuing office."
+
+"But----"
+
+"_Ach, was!_" broke in Von Halwig impatiently. "You hear. Some fool has
+blundered. It is sufficient."
+
+At any rate, his word sufficed. Dalroy entered the carriage, and the
+door was closed and locked.
+
+"Never say I haven't done you a good turn," grinned the Prussian. "A
+pleasant journey, though it may be a slow one. Don't be surprised if I
+am in Aachen before you."
+
+Then he coloured. He had said too much. One of the men in the
+compartment gave him a sharp glance. Aachen, better known to travelling
+Britons as Aix-la-Chapelle, lay on the road to Belgium, not to France.
+
+"Well, to our next meeting!" he went on boisterously. "Run across to
+Paris during the occupation."
+
+"Good-bye! And accept my very grateful thanks," said Dalroy, and the
+train started.
+
+"I cannot tell you how much obliged I am," said a sweet voice as he
+settled down into his seat. "Please, may I pay you now for the ticket
+which you supplied so miraculously?"
+
+"No miracle, but a piece of rare good-luck," he said. "One of the
+attaches at our Embassy arranged to travel to England to-night,
+or I would never have got away, even with the support of the State
+Councillor who requested Lieutenant von Halwig to befriend me. Then,
+at the last moment, Fane couldn't come. I meant asking Von Halwig to
+send a messenger to the Embassy with the spare ticket."
+
+"So you will forward the money to Mr. Fane with my compliments," said
+the girl, opening her purse.
+
+Dalroy agreed. There was no other way out of the difficulty.
+Incidentally, he could not help noticing that the lady was well
+supplied with gold and notes.
+
+As they were fellow-travellers by force of circumstances, Dalroy took a
+card from the pocket-book in which he was securing a one-hundred-mark
+note.
+
+"We have a long journey before us, and may as well get to know each
+other by name," he said.
+
+The girl smiled acquiescence. She read, "Captain Arthur Dalroy, 2nd
+Bengal Lancers, Junior United Service Club."
+
+"I haven't a card in my bag," she said simply, "but my name is
+Beresford--Irene Beresford--Miss Beresford," and she coloured prettily.
+"I have made an effort of the explanation," she went on; "but I think it
+is stupid of women not to let people know at once whether they are
+married or single."
+
+"I'll be equally candid," he replied. "I'm not married, nor likely to
+be."
+
+"Is that defiance, or merely self-defence?"
+
+"Neither. A bald fact. I hold with Kitchener that a soldier should
+devote himself exclusively to his profession."
+
+"It would certainly be well for many a heart-broken woman in Europe
+to-day if all soldiers shared your opinion," was the answer; and Dalroy
+knew that his _vis-a-vis_ had deftly guided their chatter on to a more
+sedate plane.
+
+The train halted an unconscionable time at a suburban station, and again
+at Charlottenburg. The four Germans in the compartment, all Prussian
+officers, commented on the delay, and one of them made a joke of it.
+
+"The signals must be against us at Liege," he laughed.
+
+"Perhaps England has sent a regiment of Territorials across by the
+Ostend boat," chimed in another. Then he turned to Dalroy, and said
+civilly, "You are English. Your country will not be so mad as to join
+in this adventure, will she?"
+
+"This is a war of diplomats," said Dalroy, resolved to keep a guard
+on his tongue. "I am quite sure that no one in England wants war."
+
+"But will England fight if Germany invades Belgium?"
+
+"Surely Germany will do no such thing. The integrity of Belgium is
+guaranteed by treaty."
+
+"Your friend the lieutenant, then, did not tell you that our army
+crossed the frontier to-day?"
+
+"Is that possible?"
+
+"Yes. It is no secret now. Didn't you realise what he meant when he said
+his regiment was going to Aachen? But, what does it matter? Belgium
+cannot resist. She must give free passage to our troops. She will
+protest, of course, just to save her face."
+
+The talk became general among the men. At the moment there was a fixed
+belief in Germany that Britain would stand aloof from the quarrel. So
+convinced was Austria of the British attitude that the Viennese mob
+gathered outside the English ambassador's residence that same evening,
+and cheered enthusiastically.
+
+During another long wait Dalroy took advantage of the clamour and bustle
+of a crowded platform to say to Miss Beresford in a low tone, "Are you
+well advised to proceed _via_ Brussels? Why not branch off at
+Oberhausen, and go home by way of Flushing?"
+
+"I must meet my sister in Brussels," said the girl. "She is younger than
+I, and at school there. I am not afraid--now. They will not interfere
+with any one in this train, especially a woman. But how about you? You
+have the unmistakable look of a British officer."
+
+"Have I?" he said, smiling. "That is just why I am going through, I
+suppose."
+
+Neither could guess the immense significance of those few words. There
+was a reasonable chance of escape through Holland during the next day.
+By remaining in the Belgium-bound train they were, all unknowing,
+entering the crater of a volcano.
+
+The ten-hours' run to Cologne was drawn out to twenty. Time and again
+they were shunted into sidings to make way for troop trains and
+supplies. At a wayside station a bright moon enabled Dalroy to take
+stock of two monster howitzers mounted on specially constructed bogie
+trucks. He estimated their bore at sixteen or seventeen inches; the
+fittings and accessories of each gun filled nine or ten trucks. How
+prepared Germany was! How thorough her organisation! Yet the hurrying
+forward of these giant siege-guns was premature, to put it mildly? Or
+were the German generals really convinced that they would sweep every
+obstacle from their path, and hammer their way into Paris on a fixed
+date? Dalroy thought of England, and sighed, because his mind turned
+first to the army--barely one hundred thousand trained men. Then he
+remembered the British fleet, and the outlook was more reassuring!
+
+After a night of fitful sleep dawn found the travellers not yet
+half-way. The four Germans were furious. They held staff appointments,
+and had been assured in Berlin that the clock-work regularity of
+mobilisation arrangements would permit this particular train to cover
+the journey according to schedule. Meals were irregular and scanty. At
+one small town, in the early morning, Dalroy secured a quantity of rolls
+and fruit, and all benefited later by his forethought.
+
+Newspapers bought _en route_ contained dark forebodings of England's
+growing hostility. A special edition of a Hanover journal spoke of an
+ultimatum, a word which evoked harsh denunciations of "British
+treachery" from the Germans. The comparative friendliness induced by
+Dalroy's prevision as a caterer vanished at once. When the train rolled
+wearily across the Rhine into Cologne, ten hours late, both Dalroy and
+the girl were fully aware that their fellow-passengers regarded them as
+potential enemies.
+
+It was then about six o'clock on the Tuesday evening, and a loud-voiced
+official announced that the train would not proceed to Aix-la-Chapelle
+until eight. The German officers went out, no doubt to seek a meal; but
+took the precaution of asking an officer in charge of some Bavarian
+troops on the platform to station a sentry at the carriage door.
+Probably they had no other intent, and merely wished to safeguard their
+places; but Dalroy realised now the imprudence of talking English, and
+signed to the girl that she was to come with him into the corridor on
+the opposite side of the carriage.
+
+There they held counsel. Miss Beresford was firmly resolved to reach
+Brussels, and flinched from no difficulties. It must be remembered that
+war was not formally declared between Great Britain and Germany until
+that evening. Indeed, the tremendous decision was made while the pair
+so curiously allied by fate were discussing their programme. Had they
+even quitted the train at Cologne they had a fair prospect of reaching
+neutral territory by hook or by crook. But they knew nothing of Liege,
+and the imperishable laurels which that gallant city was about to
+gather. They elected to go on!
+
+A station employe brought them some unpalatable food, which they made a
+pretence of eating. Irene Beresford's Hanoverian German was perfect, so
+Dalroy did not air his less accurate accent, and the presence of the
+sentry was helpful at this crisis. Though sharp-eyed and rabbit-eared,
+the man was quite civil.
+
+At last the Prussian officers returned. He who had been chatty overnight
+was now brusque, even overbearing. "You have no right here!" he
+vociferated at Dalroy. "Why should a damned Englishman travel with
+Germans? Your country is perfidious as ever. How do I know that you are
+not a spy?"
+
+"Spies are not vouched for by Councillors of State," was the calm reply.
+"I have in my pocket a letter from his Excellency Staatsrath von
+Auschenbaum authorising my journey, and you yourself must perceive that
+I am escorting a lady to her home."
+
+The other snorted, but subsided into his seat. Not yet had Teutonic
+hatred of all things British burst its barriers. But the pressure was
+increasing. Soon it would leap forth like the pent-up flood of some
+mighty reservoir whose retaining wall had crumbled into ruin.
+
+"Is there any news?" went on Dalroy civilly. At any hazard, he was
+determined, for the sake of the girl, to maintain the semblance of
+good-fellowship. She, he saw, was cool and collected. Evidently, she
+had complete trust in him.
+
+For a little while no one answered. Ultimately, the officer who regarded
+Liege as a joke said shortly, "Your Sir Grey has made some impudent
+suggestions. I suppose it is what the Americans call 'bluff'; but
+bluffing Germany is a dangerous game."
+
+"Newspapers exaggerate such matters," said Dalroy.
+
+"It may be so. Still, you'll be lucky if you get beyond Aachen," was the
+ungracious retort. The speaker refused to give the town its French name.
+
+An hour passed, the third in Cologne, before the train rumbled away into
+the darkness. The girl pretended to sleep. Indeed, she may have dozed
+fitfully. Dalroy did not attempt to engage her in talk. The Germans
+gossiped in low tones. They knew that their nation had spied on the
+whole world. Naturally, they held every foreigner in their midst as
+tainted in the same vile way.
+
+From Cologne to Aix-la-Chapelle is only a two hours' run. That night
+the journey consumed four. Dalroy no longer dared look out when the
+train stood in a siding. He knew by the sounds that all the dread
+paraphernalia of war was speeding toward the frontier; but any display
+of interest on his part would be positively dangerous now; so he, too,
+closed his eyes.
+
+By this time he was well aware that his real trials would begin at Aix;
+but he had the philosopher's temperament, and never leaped fences till
+he reached them.
+
+At one in the morning they entered the station of the last important
+town in Germany. Holland lay barely three miles away, Belgium a little
+farther. The goal was near. Dalroy felt that by calmness and quiet
+determination he and his charming protege might win through. He was very
+much taken by Irene Beresford. He had never met any girl who attracted
+him so strongly. He found himself wondering whether he might contrive to
+cultivate this strangely formed friendship when they reached England. In
+a word, the self-denying ordinance popularly attributed to Lord
+Kitchener was weakening in Captain Arthur Dalroy.
+
+Then his sky dropped, dropped with a bang.
+
+The train had not quite halted when the door was torn open, and a
+bespectacled, red-faced officer glared in.
+
+"It is reported from Cologne that there are English in this carriage,"
+he shouted.
+
+"Correct, my friend. There they are!" said the man who had snarled at
+Dalroy earlier.
+
+"You must descend," commanded the new-comer. "You are both under
+arrest."
+
+"On what charge?" inquired Dalroy, bitterly conscious of a gasp of
+terror which came involuntarily from the girl's lips.
+
+"You are spies. A sentry heard you talking English, and saw you
+examining troop-trains from the carriage window."
+
+So that Bavarian lout had listened to the Prussian officer's taunt, and
+made a story of his discovery to prove his diligence.
+
+"We are not spies, nor have we done anything to warrant suspicion," said
+Dalroy quietly. "I have letters----"
+
+"No talk. Out you come!" and he was dragged forth by a bloated fellow
+whom he could have broken with his hands. It was folly to resist, so he
+merely contrived to keep on his feet, whereas the fat bully meant to
+trip him ignominiously on to the platform.
+
+"Now you!" was the order to Irene, and she followed. Half-a-dozen
+soldiers closed around. There could be no doubting that preparations had
+been made for their reception.
+
+"May I have my portmanteau?" said Dalroy. "You are acting in error, as
+I shall prove when given an opportunity."
+
+"Shut your mouth, you damned Englishman"--that was a favourite phrase on
+German lips apparently--"would you dare to argue with me?--Here, one of
+you, take his bag. Has the woman any baggage? No. Then march them to
+the----"
+
+A tall young lieutenant, in the uniform of the Prussian Imperial Guard,
+dashed up breathlessly.
+
+"Ah, I was told the train had arrived!" he cried. "Yes, I am in search
+of those two----"
+
+"Thank goodness you are here, Von Halwig!" began Dalroy.
+
+The Guardsman turned on him a face aflame with fury. "Silence!" he
+bellowed. "I'll soon settle _your_ affair.--Take his papers and money,
+and put him in a waiting-room till I return," he added, speaking to the
+officer of reserves who had affected the arrest. "Place the lady in
+another waiting-room, and lock her in. I'll see that she is not
+molested. As for this English _schwein-hund_, shoot him at the least
+sign of resistance."
+
+"But, Herr Lieutenant," began the other, whose heavy paunch was a
+measure of his self-importance, "I have orders----"
+
+"_Ach, was!_ I know! This Englishman is not an ordinary spy. He is a
+cavalry captain, and speaks our language fluently. Do as I tell you. I
+shall come back in half-an-hour.--Fraeulein, you are in safer hands.
+You, I fancy, will be well treated."
+
+Dalroy said not a word. He saw at once that some virus had changed Von
+Halwig's urbanity to bitter hatred. He was sure the Guardsman had been
+drinking, but that fact alone would not account for such an amazing
+_volte-face_. Could it be that Britain had thrown in her lot with
+France? In his heart of hearts he hoped passionately that the rumour was
+true. And he blazed, too, into a fierce if silent resentment of the
+Prussian's satyr-like smile at Irene Beresford. But what could he do?
+Protest was worse than useless. He felt that he would be shot or
+bayoneted on the slightest pretext.
+
+Von Halwig evidently resented the presence of a crowd of gaping
+onlookers.
+
+"No more talk!" he ordered sharply. "Do as I bid you, Herr Lieutenant of
+Reserves!"
+
+"Captain Dalroy!" cried the girl in a voice of utter dismay, "don't let
+them part us!"
+
+Von Halwig pointed to a door. "In there with him!" he growled, and
+Dalroy was hustled away. Irene screamed, and tried to avoid the
+Prussian's outstretched hand. He grasped her determinedly.
+
+"Don't be a fool!" he hissed in English. "_I_ can save you. He is done
+with. A firing-party or a rope will account for him at daybreak. Ah!
+calm yourself, _gnaediges Fraeulein_. There are consolations, even in
+war."
+
+Dalroy contrived, out of the tail of his eye, to see that the
+distraught girl was led toward a ladies' waiting-room, two doors from
+the apartment into which he was thrust. There he was searched by the
+lieutenant of reserves, not skilfully, because the man missed nearly the
+whole of his money, which he carried in a pocket in the lining of his
+waistcoat. All else was taken--tickets, papers, loose cash, even a
+cigarette-case and favourite pipe.
+
+The instructions to the sentry were emphatic: "Don't close the door!
+Admit no one without sending for me! Shoot or stab the prisoner if he
+moves!"
+
+And the fat man bustled away. The station was swarming with military
+big-wigs. He must remain in evidence.
+
+During five long minutes Dalroy reviewed the situation. Probably he
+would be executed as a spy. At best, he could not avoid internment in a
+fortress till the end of the war. He preferred to die in a struggle for
+life and liberty. Men had escaped in conditions quite as desperate. Why
+not he? The surge of impotent anger subsided in his veins, and he took
+thought.
+
+Outside the open door stood the sentry, holding his rifle, with fixed
+bayonet, in the attitude of a sportsman who expects a covey of
+partridges to rise from the stubble. A window of plain glass gave on to
+the platform. Seemingly, it had not been opened since the station was
+built. Three windows of frosted glass in the opposite wall were, to all
+appearance, practicable. Judging by the sounds, the station square lay
+without. Was there a lock and key on the door? Or a bolt? He could not
+tell from his present position. The sentry had orders to kill him if he
+moved. Perhaps the man would not interpret the command literally. At any
+rate, that was a risk he must take. With head sunk, and hands behind his
+back, obviously in a state of deep dejection, he began to stroll to and
+fro. Well, he had a fighting chance. He was not shot forthwith.
+
+A slight commotion on the platform caught his eye, the sentry's as well.
+A tall young officer, wearing a silver helmet, and accompanied by a
+glittering staff, clanked past; with him the lieutenant of reserves,
+gesticulating. Dalroy recognised one of the Emperor's sons; but the
+sentry had probably never seen the princeling before, and was agape. And
+there was not only a key but a bolt!
+
+With three noiseless strides, Dalroy was at the door and had slammed it.
+The key turned easily, and the bolt shot home. Then he raced to the
+middle window, unfastened the hasp, and raised the lower sash. He
+counted on the thick-headed sentry wasting some precious seconds in
+trying to force the door, and he was right. As it happened, before the
+man thought of looking in through the platform window Dalroy had not
+only lowered the other window behind him but dropped from the sill to
+the pavement between the wall and a covered van which stood there.
+
+Now he was free--free as any Briton could be deemed free in
+Aix-la-Chapelle at that hour, one man among three army corps, an unarmed
+Englishman among a bitterly hostile population which recked naught of
+France or Belgium or Russia, but hated England already with an almost
+maniacal malevolence.
+
+And Irene Beresford, that sweet-voiced, sweet-faced English girl, was a
+prisoner at the mercy of a "big blonde brute," a half-drunken, wholly
+enraged Prussian Junker. The thought rankled and stung. It was not to be
+borne. For the first time that night Dalroy knew what fear was, and in a
+girl's behalf, not in his own.
+
+Could he save her? Heaven had befriended him thus far; would a kindly
+Providence clear his brain and nerve his spirit to achieve an almost
+impossible rescue?
+
+The prayer was formless and unspoken, yet it was answered. He had barely
+gathered his wits after that long drop of nearly twelve feet into the
+station yard before he was given a vague glimpse of a means of
+delivering the girl from her immediate peril.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IN THE VORTEX
+
+
+The van, one among a score of similar vehicles, was backed against the
+curb of a raised path. At the instant Dalroy quitted the window-ledge a
+railway employe appeared from behind another van on the left, and was
+clearly bewildered by seeing a well-dressed man springing from such an
+unusual and precarious perch.
+
+The new-comer, a big, burly fellow, who wore a peaked and lettered cap,
+a blouse, baggy breeches, and sabots, and carried a lighted hand-lamp,
+looked what, in fact, he was--an engine-cleaner. In all likelihood he
+guessed that any one choosing such a curious exit from a waiting-room
+was avoiding official scrutiny. He hurried forward at once, holding the
+lamp above his head, because it was dark behind the row of vans.
+
+"Hi, there!" he cried. "A word with you, _Freiherr_!" The title, of
+course, was a bit of German humour. Obviously, he was bent on
+investigating matters. Dalroy did not run. In the street without he
+heard the tramp of marching troops, the jolting of wagons, the clatter
+of horses. He knew that a hue and cry could have only one result--he
+would be pulled down by a score of hands. Moreover, with the sight of
+that suspicious Teuton face, its customary boorish leer now replaced by
+a surly inquisitiveness, came the first glimmer of a fantastically
+daring way of rescuing Irene Beresford.
+
+He advanced, smiling pleasantly. "It's all right, Heinrich," he said.
+"I've arrived by train from Berlin, and the station was crowded. Being
+an acrobat, I took a bounce. What?"
+
+The engine-cleaner was not a quick-witted person. He scowled, but
+allowed Dalroy to come near--too near.
+
+"I believe you're a _verdammt_ Engl----" he began.
+
+But the popular German description of a Briton died on his lips, because
+Dalroy put a good deal of science and no small leaven of brute force
+into a straight punch which reached that cluster of nerves known to
+pugilism as "the point." The German fell as though he had been
+pole-axed, and his thick skull rattled on the pavement.
+
+Dalroy grabbed the lamp before the oil could gush out, placed it upright
+on the ground, and divested the man of blouse, baggy breeches, and
+sabots. Luckily, since every second was precious, he found that he was
+able to wedge his boots into the sabots, which he could not have kept on
+his feet otherwise. His training as a soldier had taught him the
+exceeding value of our Fifth Henry's advice to the British army gathered
+before Harfleur:
+
+     In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
+     As modest stillness and humility;
+     But when the blast of war blows in our ears
+     Then imitate the action of the tiger.
+
+The warring tiger does not move slowly. Half-a-minute after his would-be
+captor had crashed headlong to the hard cobbles of Aix-la-Chapelle,
+Dalroy was creeping between two wagons, completing a hasty toilet by
+tearing off collar and tie, and smearing his face and hands with oil and
+grease from lamp and cap. Even as he went he heard a window of the
+waiting-room being flung open, and the excited cries which announced the
+discovery of a half-naked body lying beneath in the gloom.
+
+He saw now that to every van was harnessed a pair of horses, their heads
+deep in nose-bags, while men in the uniform of the Commissariat Corps
+were grouped around an officer who was reading orders. The vans were
+sheeted in black tarpaulins. With German attention to detail, their
+destination, contents, and particular allotment were stencilled on the
+covers in white paint: "Liege, baggage and fodder, cavalry division, 7th
+Army Corps." He learnt subsequently that this definite legend appeared
+on front and rear and on both sides.
+
+Thinking quickly, he decided that the burly person whose outer garments
+he was now wearing had probably been taking a short cut to the station
+entrance when he received the surprise of his life. Somewhat higher up
+on the right, therefore, Dalroy went back to the narrow pavement close
+to the wall, and saw some soldiers coming through a doorway a little
+ahead. He made for this, growled a husky "Good-morning" to a sentry
+stationed there, entered, and mounted a staircase. Soon he found himself
+on the main platform; he actually passed a sergeant and some Bavarian
+soldiers, bent on recapturing the escaped prisoner, rushing wildly for
+the same stairs.
+
+None paid heed to him as he lumbered along, swinging the lamp.
+
+A small crowd of officers, among them the youthful prince in the silver
+_Pickel-haube_, had collected near the broken window and now open door
+of the waiting-room from which the "spy" had vanished. Within was the
+fat lieutenant of reserves, gesticulating violently at a pallid sentry.
+
+The prince was laughing. "He can't get away," he was saying. "A bold
+rascal. He must be quieted with a bayonet-thrust. That's the best way to
+inoculate an Englishman with German _Kultur_."
+
+Of course this stroke of rare wit evoked much mirth. Meanwhile, Dalroy
+was turning the key in the lock which held Irene Beresford in safe
+keeping until Von Halwig had discharged certain pressing duties as a
+staff officer.
+
+The girl, who was seated, gave him a terrified glance when he entered,
+but dropped her eyes immediately until she became aware that this
+rough-looking visitor was altering the key. Dalroy then realised by her
+startled movement that his appearance had brought fresh terror to an
+already overburthened heart. Hitherto, so absorbed was he in his
+project, he had not given a thought to the fact that he would offer a
+sinister apparition.
+
+"Don't scream, or change your position, Miss Beresford," he said quietly
+in English. "It is I, Captain Dalroy. We have a chance of escape. Will
+you take the risk?"
+
+The answer came, brokenly it is true, but with the girl's very soul in
+the words. "Thank God!" she murmured. "Risk? I would sacrifice ten
+lives, if I had them, rather than remain here."
+
+Somehow, that was the sort of answer Dalroy expected from her. She
+sought no explanation of his bizarre and extraordinary garb. It was
+all-sufficient for her that he should have come back. She trusted him
+implicitly, and the low, earnest words thrilled him to the core.
+
+He saw through the window that no one was paying any attention to this
+apartment. Possibly, the only people who knew that it contained an
+Englishwoman as a prisoner were Von Halwig and the infuriated lieutenant
+of reserves.
+
+Jumping on to a chair, Dalroy promptly twisted an electric bulb out of
+its socket, and plunged the room in semi-darkness, which he increased
+by hiding the hand-lamp in the folds of his blouse. Given time, no
+doubt, a dim light would be borrowed from the platform and the windows
+overlooking the square; in the sudden gloom, however, the two could
+hardly distinguish each other.
+
+"I have contrived to escape, in a sense," said Dalroy; "but I could not
+bear the notion of leaving you to your fate. You can either stop here
+and take your chance, or come with me. If we are caught together a
+second time these brutes will show you no mercy. On the other hand, by
+remaining, you may be fairly well treated, and even sent home soon."
+
+He deemed himself in honour bound to put what seemed then a reasonable
+alternative before her. He did truly believe, in that hour, that Germany
+might, indeed, wage war inflexibly, but with clean hands, as befitted a
+nation which prided itself on its ideals and warrior spirit. He was
+destined soon to be enlightened as to the true significance of the
+_Kultur_ which a jack-boot philosophy offers to the rest of the world.
+
+But Irene Beresford's womanly intuition did not err. One baleful gleam
+from Von Halwig's eyes had given her a glimpse of infernal depths to
+which Dalroy was blind as yet. "Not only will I come with you; but, if
+you have a pistol or a knife, I implore you to kill me before I am
+captured again," she said.
+
+Here, then, was no waste of words, but rather the ring of
+finely-tempered steel. Dalroy unlocked the door, and looked out. To the
+right and in front the platform was nearly empty. On the left the group
+of officers was crowding into the waiting-room, since some hint of
+unfathomable mystery had been wafted up from the Bavarians in the
+courtyard, and the slim young prince, curious as a street lounger, had
+gone to the window to investigate.
+
+Dalroy stood in the doorway. "Pull down your veil, turn to the right,
+and keep close to the wall," he said. "Don't run! Don't even hurry! If I
+seem to lag behind, speak sharply to me in German."
+
+She obeyed without hesitation. They had reached the end of the
+covered-in portion of the station when a sentry barred the way. He
+brought his rifle with fixed bayonet to the "engage."
+
+"It is forbidden," he said.
+
+"What is forbidden?" grinned Dalroy amiably, clipping his syllables, and
+speaking in the roughest voice he could assume.
+
+"You cannot pass this way."
+
+"Good! Then I can go home to bed. That will be better than cleaning
+engines."
+
+Fortunately, a Bavarian regiment was detailed for duty at
+Aix-la-Chapelle that night; the sentry knew where the engine-sheds were
+situated no more than Dalroy. Further, he was not familiar with the
+Aachen accent.
+
+"Oh, is that it?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes. Look at my cap!"
+
+Dalroy held up the lantern. The official lettering was evidently
+convincing.
+
+"But what about the lady?"
+
+"She's my wife. If you're here in half-an-hour she'll bring you some
+coffee. One doesn't leave a young wife at home with so many soldiers
+about."
+
+"If you both stand chattering here neither of you will get any coffee,"
+put in Irene emphatically.
+
+The Bavarian lowered his rifle. "I'm relieved at two o'clock," he said
+with a laugh. "Lose no time, _schoene Frau_. There won't be much
+coffee on the road to Liege."
+
+The girl passed on, but Dalroy lingered. "Is that where you're going?"
+he asked.
+
+"Yes. We're due in Paris in three weeks."
+
+"Lucky dog!"
+
+"Hans, are you coming, or shall I go on alone?" demanded Irene.
+
+"Farewell, comrade, for a little ten minutes," growled Dalroy, and he
+followed.
+
+An empty train stood in a bay on the right, and Dalroy espied a
+window-cleaner's ladder in a corner. "Where are you going, woman?" he
+cried.
+
+His "wife" was walking down the main platform which ended against the
+wall of a signal-cabin, and there might be insuperable difficulties in
+that direction.
+
+"Isn't this the easiest way?" she snapped.
+
+"Yes, if you want to get run over."
+
+Without waiting for her, he turned, shouldered the ladder, and made for
+a platform on the inner side of the bay. A ten-foot wall indicated the
+station's boundary. Irene ran after him. Within a few yards they were
+hidden by the train from the sentry's sight.
+
+"That was clever of you!" she whispered breathlessly.
+
+"Speak German, even when you think we are alone," he commanded.
+
+The platform curved sharply, and the train was a long one. When they
+neared the engine they saw three men standing there. Dalroy at once
+wrapped the lamp in a fold of his blouse, and leaped into the black
+shadow cast by the wall, which lay athwart the flood of moonlight
+pouring into the open part of the station. Quick to take the cue, it
+being suicidal to think of bamboozling local railway officials, Irene
+followed. Kicking off the clumsy sabots, Dalroy bade his companion pick
+them up, ran back some thirty yards, and placed the ladder against the
+wall. Mounting swiftly, he found, to his great relief, that some sheds
+with low-pitched roofs were ranged beneath; otherwise, the height of the
+wall, if added to the elevation of the station generally above the
+external ground level, might well have proved disastrous.
+
+"Up you come," he said, seating himself astride the coping-stones, and
+holding the top of the ladder.
+
+Irene was soon perched there too. He pulled up the ladder, and lowered
+it to a roof.
+
+"Now, you grab hard in case it slips," he said.
+
+Disdaining the rungs, he slid down. He had hardly gathered his poise
+before the girl tumbled into his arms, one of the heavy wooden shoes she
+was carrying giving him a smart tap on the head.
+
+"These men!" she gasped. "They saw me, and shouted."
+
+Dalroy imagined that the trio near the engine must have noted the
+swinging lantern and its sudden disappearance. With the instant decision
+born of polo and pig-sticking in India, he elected now not to essay the
+slanting roof just where they stood. Shouldering the ladder again, he
+made off toward a strip of shadow which seemed to indicate the end of a
+somewhat higher shed. He was right. Irene followed, and they crouched
+there in panting silence.
+
+Nearly every German is a gymnast, and it was no surprise to Dalroy when
+one of their pursuers mounted on the shoulders of a friend and gained
+the top of the wall.
+
+"There's nothing to be seen here," he announced after a brief survey.
+
+The pair beneath must have answered, because he went on, evidently in
+reply, "Oh, I saw it myself. And I'm sure there was some one up here.
+There's a sentry on No. 5. Run, Fritz, and ask him if a man with a
+lantern has passed recently. I'll mount guard till you return."
+
+Happily a train approached, and, in the resultant din Dalroy was enabled
+to scramble down the roof unheard.
+
+The ladder just reached the ground; so, before Fritz and the sentry
+began to suspect that some trickery was afoot in that part of the
+station, the two fugitives were speeding through a dark lane hemmed in
+by warehouses. At the first opportunity, Dalroy extinguished the
+lantern. Then he bethought him of his companion's appearance. He halted
+suddenly ere they entered a lighted thoroughfare.
+
+"I had better put on these clogs again," he said. "But what about you?
+It will never do for a lady in smart attire to be seen walking through
+the streets with a ruffian like me at one o'clock in the morning."
+
+For answer, the girl took off her hat and tore away a cluster of roses
+and a coquettish bow of ribbon. Then she discarded her jacket, which she
+adjusted loosely across her shoulders.
+
+"Now I ought to look raffish enough for anything," she said cheerfully.
+
+Singularly enough, her confidence raised again in Dalroy's mind a
+lurking doubt which the success thus far achieved had not wholly
+stilled.
+
+"My candid advice to you now, Miss Beresford, is that you leave me," he
+said. "You will come to no harm in the main streets, and you speak
+German so well that you should have little difficulty in reaching the
+Dutch frontier. Once in Holland you can travel to Brussels by way of
+Antwerp. I believe England has declared war against Germany. The
+behaviour of Von Halwig and those other Prussians is most convincing on
+that point. If so----"
+
+"Does my presence imperil you, Captain Dalroy?" she broke in. She could
+have said nothing more unwise, nothing so subtly calculated to stir a
+man's pride.
+
+"No," he answered shortly.
+
+"Why, then, are you so anxious to get rid of me, after risking your life
+to save me a few minutes ago?"
+
+"I am going straight into Belgium. I deem it my duty. I may pick up
+information of the utmost military value."
+
+"Then I go into Belgium too, unless you positively refuse to be bothered
+with my company. I simply must reach my sister without a moment of
+unnecessary delay. And is it really sensible to stand here arguing, so
+close to the station?"
+
+They went on without another word. Dalroy was ruffled by the suggestion
+that he might be seeking his own safety. Trust any woman to find the
+joint in any man's armour when it suits her purpose.
+
+Aix-la-Chapelle was more awake on that Wednesday morning at one o'clock
+than on any ordinary day at the same hour in the afternoon. The streets
+were alive with excited people, the taverns and smaller shops open, the
+main avenues crammed with torrents of troops streaming westward.
+Regimental bands struck up martial airs as column after column debouched
+from the various stations. When the musicians paused for sheer lack of
+breath the soldiers bawled "_Deutschland, Deutschland, ueber alles_" or
+"_Die Wacht am Rhine_" at the top of their voices. The uproar was, as
+the Germans love to say, colossal. The enthusiasm was colossal too.
+Aix-la-Chapelle might have been celebrating a great national festival.
+It seemed ludicrous to regard the community as in the throes of war. The
+populace, the officers, even the heavy-jowled peasants who formed the
+majority of the regiments then hurrying to the front, seemed to be
+intoxicated with joy. Dalroy was surprised at first. He was not prepared
+for the savage exultation with which German militarism leaped to its
+long-dreamed-of task of conquering Europe.
+
+Irene Beresford, momentarily more alive than he to the exigencies of
+their position, bought a common shawl at a shop in a side street, and
+threw away her tattered hat with a careless laugh. She was an excellent
+actress. The woman who served her had not the remotest notion that this
+bright-eyed girl belonged to the hated English race.
+
+The incident brought back Dalroy's vagrom thoughts from German methods
+of making war to the serious business which was his own particular
+concern. The shop was only a couple of doors removed from the Franz
+Strasse; he waited for Irene at the corner, buying some cheap cigars and
+a box of matches at a tobacconist's kiosk. He still retained the
+lantern, which lent a touch of character. The carriage-cleaner's
+breeches were wide and loose at the ankles, and concealed his boots.
+Between the sabots and his own heels he had added some inches to his
+height, so he could look easily over the heads of the crowd; he was
+watching the passing of a battery of artillery when an open automobile
+was jerked to a standstill directly in front of him. In the car was
+seated Von Halwig.
+
+That sprig of Prussian nobility was in a mighty hurry, but even he dared
+not interfere too actively with troops in motion, so, to pass the time
+as it were, he rolled his eyes in anger at the crowd on the pavement.
+
+It was just possible that Irene might appear inopportunely, so Dalroy
+rejoined her, and led her to the opposite side of the cross street,
+where a wagon and horses hid her from the Guardsman's sharp eyes.
+
+Thus it happened that Chance again took the wanderers under her wing.
+
+A short, thick-set Walloon had emptied a glass of schnapps at the
+counter of a small drinking-bar which opened on to the street, and was
+bidding the landlady farewell.
+
+"I must be off," he said. "I have to be in Vise by daybreak. This cursed
+war has kept me here a whole day. Who is fighting who, I'd like to
+know?"
+
+"Vise!" guffawed a man seated at the bar. "You'll never get there. The
+army won't let you pass."
+
+"That's the army's affair, not mine," was the typically Flemish answer,
+and the other came out, mounted the wagon, chirped to his horses, and
+made away.
+
+Dalroy was able to note the name on a small board affixed to the side of
+the vehicle: "Henri Joos, miller, Vise."
+
+"That fellow lives in Belgium," he whispered to Irene, who had draped
+the shawl over her head and neck, and now carried the jacket rolled into
+a bundle. "He is just the sort of dogged countryman who will tackle and
+overcome all obstacles. I fancy he is carrying oats to a mill, and will
+be known to the frontier officials. Shall we bargain with him for a
+lift?"
+
+"It sounds the very thing," agreed the girl.
+
+In their eagerness, neither took the precaution of buying something to
+eat. They overtook the wagon before it passed the market. The driver was
+not Joos, but Joos's man. He was quite ready to earn a few francs, or
+marks--he did not care which--by conveying a couple of passengers to
+the placid little town of whose mere existence the wide world outside
+Belgium was unaware until that awful first week in August 1914.
+
+And so it came to pass that Dalroy and his protege passed out of
+Aix-la-Chapelle without let or hindrance, because the driver, spurred to
+an effort of the imagination by promise of largesse, described Irene to
+the Customs men as Henri Joos's niece, and Dalroy as one deputed by the
+railway to see that a belated consignment of oats was duly delivered to
+the miller.
+
+Neither rural Germany nor rural Belgium was yet really at war. The
+monstrous shadow had darkened the chancelleries, but it was hardly
+perceptible to the common people. Moreover, how could red-fanged war
+affect a remote place like Vise? The notion was nonsensical. Even Dalroy
+allowed himself to assure his companion that there was now a reasonable
+prospect of reaching Belgian soil without incurring real danger. Yet, in
+truth, he was taking her to an inferno of which the like is scarce known
+to history. The gate which opened at the Customs barrier gave access
+apparently to a good road leading through an undulating country. In
+sober truth, it led to an earthly hell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FIRST BLOOD
+
+
+Though none of the three in the wagon might even hazard a guess at the
+tremendous facts, the German wolf had already made his spring and been
+foiled. Not only had he missed his real quarry, France, he had also
+broken his fangs on the tough armour of Liege. These things Dalroy and
+Irene Beresford were to learn soon. The first intimation that the
+Belgian army had met and actually fought some portion of the invading
+host came before dawn.
+
+The road to Vise ran nearly parallel with, but some miles north of, the
+main artery between Aix-la-Chapelle and Liege. During the small hours of
+the night it held a locust flight of German cavalry. Squadron after
+squadron, mostly Uhlans, trotted past the slow-moving cart; but Joos's
+man, Maertz, if stolid and heavy-witted, had the sense to pull well out
+of the way of these hurrying troopers; beyond evoking an occasional
+curse, he was not molested. The brilliant moon, though waning, helped
+the riders to avoid him.
+
+Dalroy and the girl were comfortably seated, and almost hidden, among
+the sacks of oats; they were free to talk as they listed.
+
+Naturally, a soldier's eyes took in details at once which would escape
+a woman; but Irene Beresford soon noted signs of the erratic fighting
+which had taken place along that very road.
+
+"Surely we are in Belgium now?" she whispered, after an awed glance at
+the lights and bustling activity of a field hospital established near
+the hamlet of Aubel.
+
+"Yes," said Dalroy quietly, "we have been in Belgium fully an hour."
+
+"And have the Germans actually attacked this dear little country?"
+
+"So it would seem."
+
+"But why? I have always understood that Belgium was absolutely safe. All
+the great nations of the world have guaranteed her integrity."
+
+"That has been the main argument of every spouter at International Peace
+Congresses for many a year," said Dalroy bitterly. "If Belgium and
+Holland can be preserved by agreement, they contended, why should not
+all other vexed questions be settled by arbitration? Yet one of our
+chaps in the Berlin Embassy, the man whose ticket you travelled with,
+told me that the Kaiser could be bluntly outspoken when that very
+question was raised during the autumn manoeuvres last year. 'I shall
+sweep through Belgium thus,' he said, swinging his arm as though
+brushing aside a feeble old crone who barred his way. And he was talking
+to a British officer too."
+
+"What a crime! These poor, inoffensive people! Have they resisted, do
+you think?"
+
+"That field hospital looked pretty busy," was the grim answer.
+
+A little farther on, at a cross-road, there could no longer be any doubt
+as to what had happened. The remains of a barricade littered the
+ditches. Broken carts, ploughs, harrows, and hurdles lay in heaps. The
+carcasses of scores of dead horses had been hastily thrust aside so as
+to clear a passage. In a meadow, working by the light of lanterns, gangs
+of soldiers and peasants were digging long pits, while row after row of
+prone figures could be glimpsed when the light carried by those
+directing the operations chanced to fall on them.
+
+Dalroy knew, of course, that all the indications pointed to a
+successful, if costly, German advance, which was the last thing he had
+counted on in this remote countryside. If the tide of war was rolling
+into Belgium it should, by his reckoning, have passed to the south-west,
+engulfing the upper valley of the Meuse and the two Luxembourgs perhaps,
+but leaving untouched the placid land on the frontier of Holland. For a
+time he feared that Holland, too, was being attacked. Understanding
+something of German pride, though far as yet from plumbing the depths of
+German infamy, he imagined that the Teutonic host had burst all
+barriers, and was bent on making the Rhine a German river from source to
+sea.
+
+Naturally he did not fail to realise that the lumbering wagon was taking
+him into a country already securely held by the assailants. There were
+no guards at the cross-roads, no indications of military precautions.
+The hospital, the grave-diggers, the successive troops of cavalry, felt
+themselves safe even in the semi-darkness, and this was the prerogative
+of a conquering army. In the conditions, he did not regard his life as
+worth much more than an hour's purchase, and he tortured his wits in
+vain for some means of freeing the girl, who reposed such implicit
+confidence in him, from the meshes of a net which he felt to be
+tightening every minute. He simply dreaded the coming of daylight,
+heralded already by tints of heliotrope and pink in the eastern sky.
+Certain undulating contours were becoming suspiciously clear in that
+part of the horizon. It might be only what Hafiz describes as the false
+dawn; but, false or true, the new day was at hand. He was on the verge
+of advising Irene to seek shelter in some remote hovel which their guide
+could surely recommend when Fate took control of affairs.
+
+Maertz had now pulled up in obedience to an unusually threatening order
+from a Uhlan officer whose horse had been incommoded in passing. Above
+the clatter of hoofs and accoutrements Dalroy's trained ear had detected
+the sounds of a heavy and continuous cannonade toward the south-west.
+
+"How far are we from Vise?" he asked the driver.
+
+The man pointed with his whip. "You see that black knob over there?" he
+said.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That's a clump of trees just above the Meuse. Vise lies below it."
+
+"But how far?"
+
+"Not more than two kilometres."
+
+Two kilometres! About a mile and a half! Dalroy was tortured by
+indecision. "Shall we be there by daybreak?"
+
+"With luck. I don't know what's been happening here. These damned
+Germans are swarming all over the place. They must be making for the
+bridge."
+
+"What bridge?"
+
+"The bridge across the Meuse, of course. Don't you know these parts?"
+
+"Not very well."
+
+"I wish I were safe at home; I'd get indoors and stop there," growled
+the driver, chirping his team into motion again.
+
+Dalroy's doubts were stilled. Better leave this rustic philosopher to
+work out their common salvation.
+
+A few hundred yards ahead the road bifurcated. One branch led to Vise,
+the other to Argenteau. Here was stationed a picket, evidently intended
+as a guide for the cavalry.
+
+Most fortunately Dalroy read aright the intention of an officer who came
+forward with an electric torch. "Lie as flat as you can!" he whispered
+to Irene. "If they find us, pretend to be asleep."
+
+"Hi, you!" cried the officer to Maertz, "where the devil do you think
+you're going?"
+
+"To Joos's mill at Vise," said the gruff Walloon.
+
+"What's in the cart?"
+
+"Oats."
+
+"_Almaechtig!_ Where from?"
+
+"Aachen."
+
+"You just pull ahead into that road there. I'll attend to you and your
+oats in a minute or two."
+
+"But can't I push on?"
+
+The officer called to a soldier. "See that this fellow halts twenty
+yards up the road," he said. "If he stirs then, put your bayonet through
+him. These Belgian swine don't seem to understand that they are Germans
+now, and must obey orders."
+
+The officer, of course, spoke in German, the Walloon in the mixture of
+Flemish and Low Dutch which forms the _patois_ of the district. But each
+could follow the other's meaning, and the quaking listeners in the
+middle of the wagon had no difficulty at all in comprehending the
+gravity of this new peril.
+
+Maertz was swearing softly to himself; they heard him address a question
+to the sentry when the wagon stopped again. "Why won't your officer let
+us go to Vise?" he growled.
+
+"Sheep's-head! do as you're told, or it will be bad for you," was the
+reply.
+
+The words were hardly out of the soldier's mouth before a string of
+motor lorries, heavy vehicles with very powerful engines, thundered up
+from the rear. The leaders passed without difficulty, as there was
+plenty of room. But their broad flat tires sucked up clouds of dust, and
+the moon had sunk behind a wooded height. One of the hindermost
+transports, taking too wide a bend, crashed into the wagon. The startled
+horses plunged, pulled Maertz off his perch, and dragged the wagon into
+a deep ditch. It fell on its side, and Dalroy and his companion were
+thrown into a field amid a swirl of laden sacks, some of which burst.
+
+Dalroy was unhurt, and he could only hope that the girl also had escaped
+injury. Ere he rose he clasped her around the neck and clapped a hand
+over her mouth lest she should scream. "Not a word!" he breathed into
+her ear. "Can you manage to crawl on all-fours straight on by the side
+of the hedge? Never mind thorns or nettles. It's our only chance."
+
+In a few seconds they were free of the hubbub which sprang up around the
+overturned wagon and the transport, the latter having shattered a wheel.
+Soon they were able to rise, crouching behind the hedge as they ran.
+They turned at an angle, and struck off into the country, following the
+line of another hedge which trended slightly uphill. At a gateway they
+turned again, moving, as Dalroy calculated, on the general line of the
+Vise road. A low-roofed shanty loomed up suddenly against the sky. It
+was just the place to house an outpost, and Dalroy was minded to avoid
+it when the lowing of a cow in pain revealed to his trained intelligence
+the practical certainty that the animal had been left there unattended,
+and needed milking. Still, he took no unnecessary risks.
+
+"Remain here," he murmured. "I'll go ahead and investigate, and return
+in a minute or so."
+
+He did not notice that the girl sank beneath the hedge with a suspicious
+alacrity. He was a man, a fighter, with the hot breath of war in his
+nostrils. Not yet had he sensed the cruel strain which war places on
+women. Moreover, his faculties were centred in the task of the moment.
+The soldier is warned not to take his eyes off the enemy while reloading
+his rifle lest the target be lost; similarly, Dalroy knew that
+concentration was the prime essential of scout-craft.
+
+Thus he was deaf to the distant thunder of guns, but alive to the least
+rustle inside the building; blind to certain ominous gleams on the
+horizon, but quick to detect any moving object close at hand. He made
+out that a door stood open; so, after a few seconds' pause, he slipped
+rapidly within, and stood near the wall on the side opposite the hinges.
+An animal stirred uneasily, and the plaintive lowing ceased. He had
+dropped the sabots long since, and the lamp was lost in the spill out of
+the wagon, but most fortunately he had matches in his pocket. He closed
+the door softly, struck a match, guarding the flame with both hands, and
+looked round. He found himself in a ramshackle shed, half-barn,
+half-stable. In a stall was tethered a black-and-white cow, her udder
+distended with milk. Huddled up against the wall was the corpse of a
+woman, an old peasant, whose wizened features had that waxen tint of
+_camailleu gris_ with which, in their illuminated missals of the Middle
+Ages, the monks loved to portray the sufferings of the early Christian
+martyrs. She had been stabbed twice through the breast. An overturned
+pail and milking-stool showed how and where death had surprised her.
+
+The match flickered out, and Dalroy was left in the darkness of the
+tomb. He had a second match in his hand, and was on the verge of
+striking it when he heard a man's voice and the swish of feet through
+the grass of the pasture without.
+
+"This is the place, Heinrich," came the words in guttural German, and
+breathlessly. Then, with certain foulnesses of expression, the speaker
+added, "I'm puffed. That girl fought like a wild cat."
+
+"She's pretty, too, for a Belgian," agreed another voice.
+
+"So. But I couldn't put up with her screeching when you told her that a
+bayonet had stopped her grandam's nagging tongue."
+
+"_Ach, was!_ What matter, at eighty?"
+
+Dalroy had pulled the door open. Stooping, he sought for and found the
+milking-stool, a solid article of sound oak. Through a chink he saw two
+dark forms; glints of the dawn on fixed bayonets showed that the men
+were carrying their rifles slung. At the door the foremost switched on
+an electric torch.
+
+"You milk, Heinrich," he said, "while I show a glim."
+
+He advanced a pace, as Dalroy expected he would, so the swing of the
+stool caught him on the right side of the head, partly on the ear and
+partly on the rim of his _Pickel-haube_. But his skull was fractured for
+all that. Heinrich fared no better, though the torch was shattered on
+the rough paving of the stable. A thrust floored him, and he fell with a
+fearsome clatter of accoutrements. A second blow on the temple stilled
+the startled oath on his lips. Dalroy divested him of the rifle, and
+stuffed a few clips of cartridges into his own pockets.
+
+Then, ready for any others of a cut-throat crew, he listened. One of the
+pair on the ground was gasping for breath. The cow began lowing again.
+That was all. There was neither sight nor sound of Irene, though she
+must have heard enough to frighten her badly.
+
+"Miss Beresford!" he said, in a sibilant hiss which would carry easily
+to the point where he had left her. No answer. Nature was still. It was
+as though inanimate things were awake, but quaking. The breathing of the
+unnamed German changed abruptly into a gurgling croak. Heinrich had
+traversed that stage swiftly under the second blow. From the roads came
+the sharp rattle of horses' feet, the panting of motors. The thud of
+gun-fire smote the air incessantly. It suggested the monstrous
+pulse-beat of an alarmed world. Over a hilltop the beam of a searchlight
+hovered for an instant, and vanished. Belgium, little Belgium, was in a
+death-grapple with mighty Germany. Even in her agony she was crying,
+"What of England? Will England help?" Well, one Englishman had lessened
+by two the swarm of her enemies that night.
+
+Dalroy was only vaguely conscious of the scope and magnitude of events
+in which he was bearing so small a part. He knew enough of German
+methods in his immediate surroundings, however, to reck as little of
+having killed two men as though they were rats. His sole and very real
+concern was for the girl who answered not. Before going in search of her
+he was tempted to don a _Pickel-haube_, which, with the rifle and
+bayonet, would, in the misty light, deceive any new-comers. But the
+field appeared to be untenanted, and it occurred to him that his
+companion might actually endeavour to hide if she took him for a German
+soldier. So he did not even carry the weapon.
+
+He found Irene at once. She had simply fainted, and the man who now
+lifted her limp form tenderly in his arms was vexed at his own
+forgetfulness. The girl had slept but little during two nights. Meals
+were irregular and scanty. She had lived in a constant and increasing
+strain, while the real danger and great physical exertion of the past
+few minutes had provided a climax beyond her powers.
+
+Like the mass of young officers in the British army, Dalroy kept himself
+fit, even during furlough, by long walks, daily exercises, and
+systematic abstention from sleep, food, and drink. If a bed was too
+comfortable he changed it. If an undertaking could be accomplished
+equally well in conditions of hardship or luxury he chose hardship.
+Soldiering was his profession, and he held the theory that a soldier
+must always be ready to withstand the severest tax on brain and
+physique. Therefore the minor privations of the journey from Berlin,
+with its decidedly strenuous sequel at Aix-la-Chapelle, and this
+D'Artagnan episode in the neighbourhood of Vise, had made no material
+drain on his resources.
+
+A girl like Irene Beresford, swept into the sirocco of war from
+the ordered and sheltered life of a young Englishwoman of the
+middle-classes, was an altogether different case. He believed her one
+of the small army of British-born women who find independence and fair
+remuneration for their services by acting as governesses and ladies'
+companions on the Continent. Nearly every German family of wealth and
+social pretensions counted the _Englische Fraeulein_ as a member of the
+household; even in autocratic Prussia, _Kultur_ is not always spelt
+with a "K." She was well-dressed, and supplied with ample means for
+travelling; but plenty of such girls owned secured incomes, treating
+a salary as an "extra." Moreover, she spoke German like a native, had
+
+small sister in Brussels, and had evidently met Von Halwig in one of the
+great houses of the capital. Undoubtedly, she was a superior type of
+governess, or, it might be, English mistress in a girls' high school.
+
+These considerations did not crowd in on Dalroy while he was holding her
+in close embrace in a field near Vise at dawn on the morning of
+Wednesday, 5th August. They were the outcome of nebulous ideas formed in
+the train. At present, his one thought was the welfare of a hapless
+woman of his own race, be she a peer's daughter or a postman's.
+
+Now, skilled leader of men though he was, he had little knowledge of the
+orthodox remedies for a fainting woman. Like most people, he was aware
+that a loosening of bodices and corsets, a chafing of hands, a vigorous
+massage of the feet and ankles, tended to restore circulation, and
+therefore consciousness. But none of these simple methods was
+practicable when a party of German soldiers might be hunting for both
+of them, while another batch might be minded to follow "Heinrich" and
+his fellow-butcher. So he carried her to the stable and laid her on a
+truss of straw noted during that first vivid glimpse of the interior.
+
+Then, greatly daring, he milked the cow.
+
+Not only did the poor creature's suffering make an irresistible appeal,
+but in relieving her distress he was providing the best of nourishment
+for Irene and himself. The cow gave no trouble. Soon the milk was
+flowing steadily into the pail. The darkness was abysmal. On one hand
+lay a dead woman, on the other an unconscious one, and two dead men
+guarded the doorway. Once, in Paris, Dalroy had seen one of the lurid
+playlets staged at the Grand Guignol, wherein a woman served a meal for
+a friend and chatted cheerfully during its progress, though the body of
+her murdered husband was stowed behind a couch and a window-curtain. He
+recalled the horrid little tragedy now; but that was make-believe, this
+was grim reality.
+
+Yet he had ever an eye for the rectangle of the doorway. When a quality
+of grayness sharpened its outlines he knew it was high time to be on the
+move. Happily, at that instant, Irene sighed deeply and stirred. Ere she
+had any definite sense of her surroundings she was yielding to Dalroy's
+earnest appeal, and allowing him to guide her faltering steps. He
+carried the pail and the rifle in his left hand. With the right he
+gripped the girl's arm, and literally forced her into a walk.
+
+The wood indicated by Maertz was plainly visible now, and close at hand,
+and the first rays of daylight gave colour to the landscape. The hour,
+as Dalroy ascertained later, was about a quarter to four.
+
+It was vitally essential that they should reach cover within the next
+five minutes; but his companion was so manifestly unequal to sustained
+effort that he was on the point of carrying her in order to gain the
+protection of the first hedgerow when he noticed that a slight
+depression in the hillside curved in the direction of the wood. Here,
+too, were shrubs and tufts of long grass. Indeed, the shallow trough
+proved to be one of the many heads of a ravine. The discovery of a
+hidden way at that moment contributed as greatly as any other
+circumstance to their escape. They soon learnt that the German
+hell-hounds were in full cry on their track.
+
+At the first bend Dalroy called a halt. He told Irene to sit down, and
+she obeyed so willingly that, rendered wiser by events, he feared lest
+she should faint again.
+
+When travelling he made it a habit to carry two handkerchiefs, one for
+use and one in case of emergency, such as a bandage being in sudden
+demand, so he was able to produce a square of clean cambric, which he
+folded cup-shape and partly filled with milk. It was the best
+substitute he could devise for a strainer, and it served admirably. By
+this means they drank nearly all the milk he had secured, and, with each
+mouthful, Irene felt a new eichor in her veins. For the first time she
+gave heed to the rifle.
+
+"How did you get that?" she asked, wide-eyed with wonder.
+
+"I picked it up at the door of the shed," he answered.
+
+"I remember now," she murmured. "You left me under a hedge while you
+crept forward to investigate, and I was silly enough to go off in a dead
+faint. Did you carry me to the shed?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What a bother I must have been. But the finding of a rifle doesn't
+explain a can of milk."
+
+"The really important factor was the cow," he said lightly. "Now, young
+lady, if you can talk you can walk. We have a little farther to go."
+
+"Have we?" she retorted, bravely emulating his self-control. "I am glad
+you have fixed on our destination. It's quite a relief to be in charge
+of a man who really knows what he wants, and sees that he gets it."
+
+He led the way, she followed. He had an eye for all quarters, because
+daylight was coming now with the flying feet of Aurora. But this tiny
+section of Belgium was free from Germans, for the very good reason that
+their cohorts already held the right bank of the Meuse at many points,
+and their engineers were throwing pontoon bridges across the river at
+Vise and Argenteau.
+
+From the edge of the wood Dalroy looked down on the river, the railway,
+and the little town itself. He saw instantly that the whole district
+south of the Meuse was strongly held by the invaders. Three arches of a
+fine stone bridge had been destroyed, evidently by the retreating
+Belgians; but pontoons were in position to take its place. Twice already
+had Belgian artillery destroyed the enemy's work, and not even a
+professional soldier could guess that the guns of the defence were only
+awaiting a better light to smash the pontoons a third time. In fact,
+barely half-a-mile to the right of the wood, a battery of four 5.9's was
+posted on high ground, in the hope that the Belgian guns of smaller
+calibre might be located and crushed at once. Even while the two stood
+looking down into the valley, a sputtering rifle-fire broke out across
+the river, three hundred yards wide at the bridge, and the volume of
+musketry steadily increased. Men, horses, wagons, and motors swarmed on
+the roadway or sheltered behind warehouses on the quays.
+
+As a soldier, Dalroy was amazed at the speed and annihilating
+completeness of the German mobilisation. Indeed, he was chagrined by it,
+it seemed so admirable, so thoroughly thought-out in each detail, so
+unapproachable by any other nation in its pitiless efficiency. He did
+not know then that the vaunted Prussian-made military machine depended
+for its motive-power largely on treachery and espionage. Toward the
+close of July, many days before war was declared, Germany had secretly
+massed nine hundred thousand men on the frontiers of Belgium and the
+Duchy of Luxembourg. Her armies, therefore, had gathered like felons,
+and were led by master-thieves in the persons of thousands of German
+officers domiciled in both countries in the guise of peaceful traders.
+
+Single-minded person that he was, Dalroy at once focused his thoughts on
+the immediate problem. A small stream leaped down from the wood to the
+Meuse. Short of a main road bridge its turbulent course was checked by a
+mill-dam, and there was some reason to believe that the mill might be
+Joos's. The building seemed a prosperous place, with its two giant
+wheels on different levels, its ample granaries, and a substantial
+house. It was intact, too, and somewhat apart from the actual line of
+battle. At any rate, though the transition was the time-honoured one
+from the frying-pan to the fire, in that direction lay food, shelter,
+and human beings other than Germans, so he determined to go there
+without further delay. His main purpose now was to lodge his companion
+with some Belgian family until the tide of war had swept far to the
+west. For himself, he meant to cross the enemy's lines by hook or by
+crook, or lose his life in the attempt.
+
+"One more effort," he said, smiling confidently into Irene's somewhat
+pallid face. "Your uncle lives below there, I fancy. We're about to
+claim his hospitality."
+
+He hid the rifle, bayonet, and cartridges in a thicket. The milk-pail he
+took with him. If they met a German patrol the pail might serve as an
+excuse for being out and about, whereas the weapons would have been a
+sure passport to the next world.
+
+It was broad daylight when they entered the miller's yard. They saw the
+name Henri Joos on a cart.
+
+"Good egg!" cried Dalroy confidently. "I'm glad Joos spells his
+Christian name in the French way. It shows that he means well, anyhow!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF VISE
+
+
+Early as was the hour, a door leading to the dwelling-house stood open.
+The sound of feet on the cobbled pavement of the mill-yard brought a
+squat, beetle-browed old man to the threshold. He surveyed the strangers
+with a curiously haphazard yet piercing underlook. His black eyes held a
+glint of red. Here was one in a subdued torment of rage, or, it might
+be, of ill-controlled panic.
+
+"What now?" he grunted, using the local argot.
+
+Dalroy, quick to read character, decided that this crabbed old Walloon
+was to be won at once or not at all.
+
+"Shall I speak French or German?" he said quietly. The other spat.
+
+"_Qu'est-ce que tu veux que je te dise, moi?_" he demanded. Now, the
+plain English of that question is, "What do you wish me to say?" But the
+expectoration, no less than the biting tone, lent the words a far deeper
+meaning.
+
+Dalroy was reassured. "Are you Monsieur Henri Joos?" he said.
+
+"Ay."
+
+"This lady and I have come from Aix-la-Chapelle with your man, Maertz."
+
+"Oh, he's alive, then?"
+
+"I hope so. But may we not enter?"
+
+Joos eyed the engine-cleaner's official cap and soiled clothes, and his
+suspicious gaze travelled to Dalroy's well-fitting and expensive boots.
+
+"Who the deuce are you?" he snapped.
+
+"I'll tell you if you let us come in."
+
+"I can't hinder you. It is an order, all doors must be left open."
+
+Still, he made way, though ungraciously. The refugees found themselves
+in a spacious kitchen, a comfortable and cleanly place, Dutch in its
+colourings and generally spick and span aspect. A comely woman of middle
+age, and a plump, good-looking girl about as old as Irene, were seated
+on an oak bench beneath a window. They were clinging to each other, and
+had evidently listened fearfully to the brief conversation without.
+
+The only signs of disorder in the room were supplied by a quantity of
+empty wine-bottles, drinking-mugs, soiled plates, and cutlery, spread on
+a broad table. Irene sank into one of half-a-dozen chairs which had
+apparently been used by the feasters.
+
+Joos chuckled. His laugh had an ugly sound. "Pity you weren't twenty
+minutes sooner," he guffawed. "You'd have had company, pleasant company,
+visitors from across the frontier."
+
+"I, too, have crossed the frontier," said Irene, a wan smile lending
+pathos to her beauty. "I travelled with Germans from Berlin. If I saw a
+German now I think I should die."
+
+At that, Madame Joos rose. "Calm thyself, Henri," she said. "These
+people are friends."
+
+"Maybe," retorted her husband. He turned on Dalroy with surprising
+energy, seeing that he was some twenty years older than his wife. "You
+say that you came with Maertz," he went on. "Where is he? He has been
+absent four days."
+
+By this time Dalroy thought he had taken the measure of his man. No
+matter what the outcome to himself personally, Miss Beresford must
+be helped. She could go no farther without food and rest. He risked
+everything on the spin of a coin. "We are English," he said, speaking
+very slowly and distinctly, so that each syllable should penetrate
+the combined brains of the Joos family. "We were only trying to
+leave Germany, meaning harm to none, but were arrested as spies at
+Aix-la-Chapelle. We escaped by a ruse. I knocked a man silly, and took
+some of his clothes. Then we happened on Maertz at a corner of Franz
+Strasse, and persuaded him to give us a lift. We jogged along all right
+until we reached the cross-roads beyond the hill there," and he pointed
+in the direction of the wood. "A German officer refused to allow us to
+pass, but a motor transport knocked the wagon over, and this lady and I
+were thrown into a field. We got away in the confusion, and made for a
+cowshed lying well back from the road and on the slope of the hill. At
+that point my friend fainted, luckily for herself, because, when I
+examined the shed, I found the corpse of an old woman there. She had
+evidently been about to milk a black-and-white cow when she was
+bayoneted by a German soldier----"
+
+He was interrupted by a choking sob from Madame Joos, who leaned a hand
+on the table for support. In pose and features she would have served as
+a model for Hans Memling's "portrait" of Saint Elizabeth, which in
+happier days used to adorn the hospital at Bruges. "The Widow Jaquinot,"
+she gasped.
+
+"Of course, madame, I don't know the poor creature's name. I was
+wondering how to act for the best when two soldiers came to the stable.
+I heard what they were saying. One of them admitted that he had stabbed
+the old woman; his words also implied that he and his comrade had
+violated her granddaughter. So I picked up a milking-stool and killed
+both of them. I took one of their rifles, which, with its bayonet and a
+number of cartridges, I hid at the top of the ravine. This is the pail
+which I found in the shed. No doubt it belongs to the Jaquinot
+household. Now, I have told you the actual truth. I ask nothing for
+myself. If I stay here, even though you permit it, my presence will
+certainly bring ruin on you. So I shall go at once. But I _do_ ask you,
+as Christian people, to safeguard this young English lady, and, when
+conditions permit, and she has recovered her strength, to guide her into
+Holland, unless, that is, these German beasts are attacking the Dutch
+too."
+
+For a brief space there was silence. Dalroy looked fixedly at Joos,
+trying to read Irene Beresford's fate in those black, glowing eyes. The
+womenfolk were won already; but well he knew that in this Belgian nook
+the patriarchal principle that a man is lord and master in his own house
+would find unquestioned acceptance. He was aware that Irene's gaze was
+riveted on him in a strangely magnetic way. It was one thing that he
+should say calmly, "So I picked up a milking-stool, and killed both of
+them," but quite another that Irene should visualise in the light of her
+rare intelligence the epic force of the tragedy enacted while she lay
+unconscious in the depths of a hedgerow. Dalroy could tell, Heaven knows
+how, that her very soul was peering at him. In that tense moment he knew
+that he was her man for ever. But--_surgit amari aliquid_! A wave of
+bitterness welled up from heart to brain because of the conviction that
+if he would, indeed, be her true knight he must leave her within the
+next few seconds. Yet his resolution did not waver. Not once did his
+glance swerve from Joos's wizened face.
+
+It was the miller himself who first broke the spell cast on the
+curiously assorted group by Dalroy's story. He stretched out a hand and
+took the pail. "This is fresh milk," he said, examining the dregs.
+
+"Yes. I milked the cow. The poor animal was in pain, and my friend and I
+wanted the milk."
+
+"You milked the cow--before?"
+
+"No. After."
+
+_"Grand Dieu!_ you're English, without doubt."
+
+Joos turned the pail upside down, appraising it critically. "Yes," he
+said, "it's one of Dupont's. I remember her buying it. She gave him
+fifty kilos of potatoes for it. She stuck him, he said. Half the
+potatoes were black. A rare hand at a bargain, the Veuve Jaquinot. And
+she's dead you tell me. A bayonet thrust?"
+
+"Two."
+
+Madame Joos burst into hysterical sobbing. Her husband whisked round on
+her with that singular alertness of movement which was one of his most
+marked characteristics.
+
+"Peace, wife!" he snapped. "Isn't that what we're all coming to? What
+matter to Dupont now whether the potatoes were black or sound?"
+
+Dalroy guessed that Dupont was the iron-monger of Vise. He was gaining a
+glimpse, too, of the indomitable soul of Belgium. Though itching for
+information, he checked the impulse, because time pressed horribly.
+
+"Well," he said, "will you do what you can for the lady? The Germans
+have spared you. You have fed them. They may treat you decently. I'll
+make it worth while. I have plenty of money----"
+
+Irene stood up. "Monsieur," she said, and her voice was sweet as the
+song of a robin, "it is idle to speak of saving one without the other.
+Where Monsieur Dalroy goes I go. If he dies, I die."
+
+For the first time since entering the mill Dalroy dared to look at her.
+In the sharp, crisp light of advancing day her blue eyes held a tint of
+violet. Tear-drops glistened in the long lashes; but she smiled
+wistfully, as though pleading for forgiveness.
+
+"That is sheer nonsense," he cried in English, making a miserable
+failure of the anger he tried to assume. "You ought to be reasonably
+safe here. By insisting on remaining with me you deliberately sacrifice
+both our lives. That is, I mean," he added hastily, aware of a slip,
+"you prevent me too from taking the chance of escape that offers."
+
+"If that were so I would not thrust myself on you," she answered. "But I
+know the Germans. I know how they mean to wage war. They make no secret
+of it. They intend to strike terror into every heart at the outset. They
+are not men, but super-brutes. You saw Von Halwig at Berlin, and again
+at Aix-la-Chapelle. If a titled Prussian can change his superficial
+manners--not his nature, which remains invariably bestial--to that
+extent in a day, before he has even the excuse of actual war, what will
+the same man become when roused to fury by resistance? But we must not
+talk English." She turned to Joos. "Tell us, then, monsieur," she said,
+grave and serious as Pallas Athena questioning Perseus, "have not the
+Prussians already ravaged and destroyed Vise?"
+
+The old man's face suddenly lost its bronze, and became ivory white. His
+features grew convulsed. He resembled one of those grotesque masks
+carved by Japanese artists to simulate a demon. "Curse them!" he
+shrilled. "Curse them in life and in death--man, woman, and child! What
+has Belgium done that she should be harried by a pack of wolves? Who can
+say what wolves will do?"
+
+Joos was aboil with vitriolic passion. There was no knowing how long
+this tirade might have gone on had not a speckled hen stalked firmly in
+through the open door with obvious and settled intent to breakfast on
+crumbs.
+
+"_Ciel!_" cackled the orator. "Not a fowl was fed overnight!"
+
+In real life, as on the stage, comedy and tragedy oft go hand in hand.
+But the speckled hen deserved a good meal. Her entrance undoubtedly
+stemmed the floodtide of her owner's patriotic wrath, and thus enabled
+the five people in the kitchen to overhear a hoarse cry from the
+roadway: "Hi, there, _dummer Esel_! whither goest thou? This is Joos's
+mill."
+
+"Quick, Leontine!" cried Joos. "To the second loft with them! Sharp,
+now!"
+
+In this unexpected crisis, Dalroy could neither protest nor refuse to
+accompany the girl, who led him and Irene up a back stair and through a
+well-stored granary to a ladder which communicated with a trap-door.
+
+"I'll bring you some coffee and eggs as soon as I can," she whispered.
+"Draw up the ladder, and close the door. It's not so bad up there.
+There's a window, but take care you aren't seen. Maybe," she added
+tremulously, "you are safer than we now."
+
+Dalroy realised that it was best to obey.
+
+"Courage, mademoiselle!" he said. "God is still in heaven, and all will
+be well with the world."
+
+"Please, monsieur, what became of Jan Maertz?" she inquired timidly.
+
+"I'm not quite certain, but I think he fell clear of the wagon. The
+Germans should not have ill-treated him. The collision was not his
+fault."
+
+The girl sobbed, and left them. Probably the gruff Walloon was her
+lover.
+
+Irene climbed first. Dalroy followed, raised the ladder noiselessly, and
+lowered the trap. His brow was seamed with foreboding, as, despite his
+desire to leave his companion in the care of the miller's household, he
+had an instinctive feeling that he was acting unwisely. Moreover, like
+every free man, he preferred to seek the open when in peril. Now he felt
+himself caged.
+
+Therefore was he amazed when Irene laughed softly. "How readily you
+translate Browning into French!" she said.
+
+He gazed at her in wonderment. Less than an hour ago she had fainted
+under the stress of hunger and dread, yet here was she talking as though
+they had met in the breakfast-room of an English country house. He would
+have said something, but the ancient mill trembled under the sudden
+crash of artillery. The roof creaked, the panes of glass in the dormer
+window rattled, and fragments of mortar fell from the walls. Unmindful,
+for the moment, of Leontine Joos's warning, Dalroy went to the window,
+which commanded a fine view of the town, river, and opposite heights.
+
+The pontoon bridge was broken. Several pontoons were in splinters. The
+others were swinging with the current toward each bank. Six Belgian
+field-pieces had undone the night's labour, and a lively rat-tat of
+rifles, mixed with the stutter of machine guns, proved that the
+defenders were busy among the Germans trapped on the north bank. The
+heavier ordnance brought to the front by the enemy soon took up the
+challenge; troops occupying the town, which, for the most part, lies on
+the south bank, began to cover the efforts of the engineers, instantly
+renewed. History was being written in blood that morning on both sides
+of the Meuse. The splendid defence offered by a small Belgian force was
+thwarting the advance of the 9th German Army Corps. Similarly, the 10th
+and 7th were being held up at Verviers and on the direct road from Aix
+to Liege respectively. All this meant that General Leman, the heroic
+commander-in-chief at Liege, was given most precious time to garrison
+that strong fortress, construct wire entanglements, lay mines, and
+destroy roads and railways, which again meant that Von Emmich's
+sledge-hammer blows with three army corps failed to overwhelm Liege in
+accordance with the dastardly plan drawn up by the German staff.
+
+Dalroy, though he might not realise the marvellous fact then, was in
+truth a spectator of a serious German defeat. Even in the conditions, he
+was aglow with admiration for the pluck of the Belgians in standing up
+so valiantly against the merciless might of Germany. The window was
+dust-laden as the outcome of earlier gun-fire, and he was actually on
+the point of opening it when Irene stopped him.
+
+"Those men below may catch sight of you," she said.
+
+He stepped back hurriedly. Two forage-carts had been brought into the
+yard, and preparations were being made to load them with oats and hay.
+A truculent-looking sergeant actually lifted his eyes to that particular
+window. But he could not see through the dimmed panes, and was only
+estimating the mill's probable contents.
+
+Dalroy laughed constrainedly. "You are the better soldier of the two,"
+he said. "I nearly blundered. Still, I wish the window was open. I want
+to size up the chances of the Belgians. Those are bigger guns which are
+answering, and a duel between big guns and little ones can have only one
+result."
+
+Seemingly, the German battery of quick-firers had located its opponents,
+because the din now became terrific. As though in response to Dalroy's
+desire, three panes of glass fell out owing to atmospheric concussion,
+and the watchers in the loft could follow with ease the central phase of
+the struggle. The noise of the battle was redoubled by the accident to
+the window, and the air-splitting snarl of the high-explosive shells
+fired by the 5.9's in the effort to destroy the Belgian guns was
+specially deafening. That sound, more than any other, seemed to affect
+Irene's nerves. Involuntarily she clung to Dalroy's arm, and he, with no
+other intent than to reassure her, drew her trembling form close.
+
+It was evident that the assailants were suffering heavy losses. Scores
+of men fell every few minutes among the bridge-builders, while
+casualties were frequent among the troops lining the quays. Events on
+the Belgian side of the river were not so marked; but even Irene could
+make out the precise moment when the defenders' fire slackened, and the
+line of pontoons began to reach out again toward the farther shore.
+
+"Are the poor Belgians beaten, then?" she asked, with a tender sympathy
+which showed how lightly she estimated her own troubles in comparison
+with the agony of a whole nation.
+
+"I think not," said Dalroy. "I imagine they have changed the position of
+some, at least, of their guns, and will knock that bridge to smithereens
+again just as soon as it nears completion."
+
+The forage-carts rumbled out of the yard. Dalroy noticed that the
+soldiers wore linen covers over the somewhat showy _Pickel-hauben_,
+though the regiments he had seen in Aix-la-Chapelle swaggered through
+the streets in their ordinary helmets. This was another instance of
+German thoroughness. The invisibility of the gray-green uniform was not
+so patent when the _Pickel-haube_ lent its glint, but no sooner had the
+troops crossed the frontier than the linen cover was adjusted, and the
+masses of men became almost merged in the browns and greens of the
+landscape.
+
+The two were so absorbed in the drama being fought out before their eyes
+that they were quite startled by a series of knocks on the boarded
+floor. Dalroy crept to the trap door and listened. Then, during an
+interval between the salvoes of artillery, he heard Leontine's voice,
+"Monsieur! Mademoiselle!"
+
+He pulled up the trap. Beneath stood Leontine, with a long pole in her
+hands. Beside her, on the floor, was a laden tray.
+
+"I've brought you something to eat," she said. "Father thinks you had
+better remain there at present. The Germans say they will soon cross the
+river, as they intend taking Liege to-night."
+
+Not until they had eaten some excellent rolls and butter, with boiled
+eggs, and drank two cups of hot coffee, did they realise how ravenously
+hungry they were. Then Dalroy persuaded Irene to lie down on a pile of
+sacks, and, amid all the racket of a fierce engagement, she slept the
+sleep of sheer exhaustion. Thus he was left on guard, as it were, and
+saw the pontoons once more demolished.
+
+After that he, too, curled up against the wall and slept. The sound of
+rifle shots close at hand awoke him. His first care was for the girl,
+but she lay motionless. Then he looked out. There was renewed excitement
+in the main road, but only a few feet of it was visible from the attic.
+A number of women and children ran past, all screaming, and evidently in
+a state of terror. Several houses in the town were on fire, and the
+smoke hung over the river in such clouds as to obscure the north bank.
+
+Old Henri Joos came hurriedly into the yard. He was gesticulating
+wildly, and Dalroy heard a door bang as he vanished. Refusing to be
+penned up any longer without news of what was happening, Dalroy lowered
+the ladder, and, after ascertaining that Irene was still asleep,
+descended. He made his way to the kitchen, pausing only to find out
+whether or not it held any German soldiers.
+
+Joos's shrill voice, raised in malediction of all Prussians, soon
+decided that fact. He spoke in the local _patois_, but straightway
+branched off into French interlarded with German when Dalroy appeared.
+
+"Those hogs!" he almost screamed. "Those swine-dogs! They can't beat our
+brave boys of the 3rd Regiment, so what do you think they're doing now?
+Murdering men, women, and children out of mere spite. The devils from
+hell pretended that the townsfolk were shooting at them, so they began
+to stab, and shoot, and burn in all directions. The officers are worse
+than the men. Three came here in an automobile, and marked on the gate
+that the mill was not to be burnt--they want my grain, you see--and, as
+they were driving off again, young Jan Smit ran by. Poor lad, he was
+breathless with fear. They asked him if he had seen another car like
+theirs, but he could only stutter. One of them laughed, and said, 'I'll
+work a miracle, and cure him.' Then he whipped out a revolver and shot
+the boy dead. Some soldiers with badges on their arms saw this. One of
+them yelled, '_Man hat geschossen_' ('The people have been shooting'),
+though it was their own officer who fired, and he and the others threw
+little bombs into the nearest cottages, and squirted petrol in through
+the windows. Madame Didier, who has been bedridden for years, was burnt
+alive in that way. They have a regular corps of men for the job. Then,
+'to punish the town,' as they said, they took twenty of our chief
+citizens, lined them up in the market-place, and fired volleys at them.
+There was Dupont, and the Abbe Courvoisier, and Monsieur Philippe the
+notary, and--_ah, mon Dieu_, I don't know--all my old friends. The
+Prussian beasts will come here soon.--Wife! Leontine! how can I save
+you? They are devils--devils, I tell you--devils mad with drink and
+anger. A few scratches in chalk on our gate won't hold them back. They
+may be here any moment. You, mademoiselle, had better go with Leontine
+here and drown yourselves in the mill dam. Heaven help me, that is the
+only advice a father can give!"
+
+Dalroy turned. Irene stood close behind. She knew when he left the
+garret, and had followed swiftly. She confessed afterwards that she
+thought he meant to carry out his self-denying project, and leave her.
+
+"You are mistaken, Monsieur Joos," she said now, speaking with an
+aristocratic calm which had an immediate effect on the miller and his
+distraught womenfolk. "You do not know the German soldier. He is a
+machine that obeys orders. He will kill, or not kill, exactly as he is
+bidden. If your house has been excepted it is absolutely safe."
+
+She was right. The mill was one of the places in Vise spared by German
+malice that day. A well-defined section of the little town was given up
+to murder, and loot, and fire, and rapine. Scenes were enacted which are
+indescribable. A brutal soldiery glutted its worst passions on an
+unarmed and defenceless population. The hour was near when some
+hysterical folk would tell of the apparition of angels at Mons; but old
+Henri Joos was unquestionably right when he spoke of the presence of
+devils in Vise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BILLETS
+
+
+The miller's volcanic outburst seemed to have exhausted itself; he
+subsided to the oaken bench, leaned forward, elbows on knees, and thrust
+his clenched fists against his ears as though he would shut out the
+deafening clamour of the guns. This attitude of dejection evidently
+alarmed Madame Joos. She forgot her own fears in solicitude for her
+husband. Bending over him, she patted his shoulder with a maternal hand,
+since every woman is at heart a mother--a mother first and essentially.
+
+"Maybe the lady is right, Henri," she said tenderly. "Young as she is,
+she may understand these things better than countryfolk like us."
+
+"Ah, Lise," he moaned, "you would have dropped dead had you seen poor
+Dupont. He wriggled for a long minute after he fell. And the Abbe, with
+his white hair! Some animal of a Prussian fired at his face."
+
+"Don't talk about it," urged his wife. "It is bad for you to get so
+excited. Remember, the doctor warned you----"
+
+"The doctor! Dr. Lafarge! A soldier hammered on the surgery door with
+the butt of his rifle, and, when the doctor came out, twirled the rifle
+and stabbed him right through the body. I saw it. It was like a
+conjuring trick. I was giving an officer some figures about the contents
+of the mill. The doctor screamed, and clutched at the bayonet with both
+hands. And who do you think the murderer was?"
+
+Madame Joos's healthy red cheeks had turned a ghastly yellow, but she
+contrived to stammer, "_Dieu!_ The poor doctor! But how should I know?"
+
+"The barber, Karl Schwartz."
+
+"Karl a soldier!"
+
+"More, a sergeant. He lived and worked among us ten years--a spy. It was
+the doctor who got him fined for beating his wife. No wonder Monsieur
+Lafarge used to say there were too many Germans in Belgium. The officer
+I was talking to watched the whole thing. He was a fat man, and wore
+spectacles for writing. He lifted them, and screwed up his eyes, so,
+like a pig, to read the letters on the brass door-plate. '_Almaechtig!_'
+he said, grinning, 'a successful operation on a doctor by a patient.' I
+saw red. I felt in my pocket for a knife. I meant to rip open his
+paunch. Then one of our shells burst near us, and he scuttled. The wind
+of the explosion knocked me over, so I came home."
+
+The two, to some extent, were using the local _patois_; but their
+English hearers understood nearly every word, because these residents on
+the Belgian border mingle French, German, and a Low Dutch dialect
+almost indiscriminately. Dalroy at once endeavoured to divert the old
+man's thoughts. The massacre which had been actually permitted, or even
+organised, in the town by daylight would probably develop into an orgy
+that night. Not one woman now, but three, required protection. He must
+evolve some definite plan which could be carried out during the day,
+because the hordes of cavalry pressing toward the Meuse would soon
+deplete Joos's mill; and when the place ceased to be of value to the
+commissariat the protecting order would almost certainly be revoked.
+Moreover, Leontine Joos was young and fairly attractive.
+
+In a word, Dalroy was beginning to understand the psychology of the
+German soldier in war-time.
+
+"Let us think of the immediate future," he struck in boldly. "You have a
+wife and daughter to safeguard, Monsieur Joos, while I have Mademoiselle
+Beresford on my hands. Your mill is on the outskirts of the town. Is
+there no village to the west, somewhere out of the direct line, to which
+they could be taken for safety?"
+
+"The west!" growled Joos, springing up again, "isn't that where these
+savages are going? That is the way to Liege. I asked the officer. He
+said they would be in Liege to-night, and in Paris in three weeks."
+
+"Is it true that England has declared war?"
+
+"So they say. But the Prussians laugh. You have no soldiers, they tell
+us, and their fleet is nearly as strong as yours. They think they have
+caught you napping, and that is why they are coming through Belgium.
+Paris first, then the coast, and they've got you. For the love of
+Heaven, monsieur, is it true that you have no army?"
+
+Dalroy was stung into putting Britain's case in the best possible light.
+"Not only have we an army, every man of which is worth three Germans at
+a fair estimate; but if England has come into this war she will not
+cease fighting until Prussia grovels in the mud at her feet. How can
+you, a Belgian, doubt England's good faith? Hasn't England maintained
+your nation in freedom for eighty years?"
+
+"True, true! But the Prussians are sure of victory, and one's heart
+aches when one sees them sweep over the land like a pestilence. I
+haven't told you one-tenth----"
+
+"Why frighten these ladies needlessly? The gun-fire is bad enough. You
+and I are men, Monsieur Joos. We must try and save our women."
+
+The miller was spirited, and the implied taunt struck home.
+
+"It's all very well talking in that way," he cried; "but what's going to
+happen to you if a German sees you? _Que diable!_ You look like an
+Aachen carriage-cleaner, don't you, with your officer air and commanding
+voice, and your dandy boots, and your fine clothes showing when the
+workman's smock opens! The lady, too, in a cheap shawl, wearing a blouse
+and skirt that cost hundreds of francs!--Leontine, take monsieur----"
+
+"Dalroy."
+
+"Take Monsieur Dalroy to Jan Maertz's room, and let him put on Jan's
+oldest clothes and a pair of sabots. Jan's clogs will just about fit
+him. And give mademoiselle one of your old dresses."
+
+He whirled round on Dalroy. "What became of Jan Maertz? Did the Germans
+really kill him? Tell us the truth. Leontine, there, had better know."
+
+"I think he is safe," said Dalroy. "I have already explained to your
+daughter how the accident came about which separated us. Maertz was
+pulled out of the driver's seat by the reins when the horses plunged and
+upset the wagon. He may arrive any hour."
+
+"The Germans didn't know, then, that you and the lady were in the cart?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I hope Jan hasn't told them. That would be awkward. But what matter?
+You talk like a true man, and I'll do my best for you. It's nothing but
+nonsense to think of getting away from Vise yet. You're a Liegeois whom
+I hired to do Jan's work while he went to Aix. Everybody in Vise knows
+he went there four days ago. I can't lift heavy sacks of grain at my
+age, and I must have a man's help. You see? Sharp, now. When that fat
+fellow gets his puff again he'll be here for more supplies. And mind you
+don't wash your face and hands. You're far too much of a gentleman as it
+is."
+
+"One moment," interrupted Irene. "I want your promise, Captain Dalroy,
+that you will not go away without telling me."
+
+She could not guess how completely old Joos's broken story of the day's
+events in Vise had changed Dalroy's intent.
+
+"I would as soon think of cutting off my right hand," he said.
+
+Their eyes met and clashed. It was dark in the mill's kitchen, even at
+midday; but the girl felt that the tan of travel and exposure on her
+face was yielding to a deep crimson. "Come, Leontine," she cried almost
+gaily, "show me how to wear one of your frocks. I'll do as much for you
+some day in London."
+
+"You be off, too," growled Joos to Dalroy. "When the Germans come they
+must see you about the place."
+
+The old man was shrewd in his way. The sooner these strangers became
+members of the household the less likely were they to attract attention.
+
+Thus it came about that both Dalroy and Irene were back in the kitchen,
+and clothed in garments fully in keeping with their new roles, when a
+commissariat wagon entered the yard. A Bavarian corporal did not trouble
+to open the door in the ordinary way. He smashed the latch with his
+shoulder. "Why is this door closed?" he demanded fiercely.
+
+"Monsieur----" began Joos.
+
+"Speak German, you swine!"
+
+"I forgot the order, Herr Kaporal. As you see, it was only on the
+latch."
+
+"Don't let it happen again. Load the first wagon with hay and the second
+with flour. While you're at it, these women can cook us a meal. Where do
+you keep your wine?"
+
+"Everything will be put on the table, _mons_--Herr Kaporal."
+
+"None of your lip!--Here, you, the pretty one, show me the
+wine-cupboard. I'll make my own selection. We Bavarians are famous
+judges of good wine and pretty women, let me tell you."
+
+The corporal's wit was highly appreciated by the squad of four men who
+accompanied him. They had all been drinking. It is a notable fact that
+during the early days of the invasion of Belgium and France--in effect,
+while wine and brandy were procurable by theft--the army which boasts
+the strictest discipline of any in the world was unquestionably the most
+drunken that has ever waged successful war.
+
+Irene was "the pretty one" chosen as guide by this hulking connoisseur,
+but she knew how to handle boors of his type.
+
+"You must not talk in that style to a girl from Berlin," she said icily.
+"You and your men will take what is given you, or I'll find your
+_oberleutnant_, and hear what he has to say about it."
+
+She spoke purposely in perfect German, and the corporal was vastly
+surprised.
+
+"Pardon, _gnaediges Fraeulein_," he mumbled with a clumsy bow. "I no
+offence meant. We will within come when the meal is ready. About--turn!"
+The enemy was routed.
+
+The miller and his man worked hard until dusk. The fat officer turned
+up, and lost no opportunity of ogling the two girls. He handed Joos a
+payment docket, which, he explained grandiloquently, would be honoured
+by the military authorities in due course. Joos pocketed the document
+with a sardonic grin. There was some fifteen thousand francs' worth of
+grain and forage stored on the premises, and he did not expect to see a
+centime of hard cash from the Germans, unless, as he whispered grimly to
+Dalroy, they were forced to pay double after the war. Meanwhile the
+place was gutted. Wagon after wagon came empty and went away loaded.
+
+Driblets of news were received. The passage of the Meuse had been
+achieved, thanks to a flanking movement from Argenteau. Liege had fallen
+at the first attack. The German High Sea Fleet was escorting an army in
+transports to invade England, where, meanwhile, Zeppelins were
+destroying London. Vise, having been sufficiently "punished" for a first
+offence, would now be spared so long as the inhabitants "behaved
+themselves." If a second "lesson" were needed it would be something to
+remember.
+
+The first and last of these items were correct, inasmuch as they
+represented events and definite orders affecting the immediate
+neighbourhood. Otherwise, the budget consisted of ever more daring
+flights of Teutonic imagination, the crescendo swelling by distance.
+Liege was so far from having fallen that the 7th Division, deprived of
+the support of the 9th and 10th Divisions, had been beaten back
+disastrously from the shallow trenches in front of the outer girdle of
+forts. The 10th was about to share the same fate; and the 9th, after
+being delayed nearly three days by the glorious resistance offered by
+the Belgians at Vise, was destined to fare likewise. But rumour as to
+the instant "capture" of Liege was not rife among the lower ranks alone
+of the German army. The commander-in-chief actually telegraphed the news
+to the All-Highest at Aix; when the All-Highest discovered the truth the
+commander-in-chief decided that he had better blow his brains out, and
+did.
+
+The fact was that the overwhelming horde of invaders could not be kept
+out of the city of Liege by the hastily mobilised Belgian army; but the
+heroic governor, General Leman, held the ring of forts intact until they
+were pulverised by the heavy ordnance of which Dalroy had seen two
+specimens during the journey to Cologne. Many days were destined to
+elapse before the last of the strongholds, Fort Loncin, crumbled into
+ruins by the explosion of its own magazine; and until that was achieved
+the mighty army of Germany dared not advance another kilometre to the
+west.
+
+When the Bavarian corporal had gone through every part of the house and
+outbuildings, and satisfied himself that the only stores left were some
+potatoes and a half-bag of flour, he informed the miller that he and his
+squad would be billeted there that evening.
+
+"Your pantry is bare," he said, "but the wine is all right, so we'll
+bring a joint which we 'planted' this morning. Be decent about the wine,
+and your folk can have a cut in, too."
+
+Possibly he meant to be civil, and there was a chance that the night
+might pass without incident. Vise itself was certainly quiet save for
+the unceasing stream of troops making for the pontoon bridge. The
+fighting seemed to have shifted to the west and south-west, and Joos put
+an unerring finger on the situation when he said pithily, "Liege is
+making a deuce of a row after being taken."
+
+"How many forts are there around the city?" inquired Dalroy.
+
+"Twelve, big and little. Pontisse and Barchon cover the Meuse on this
+side, and Fleron and Evegnee bar the direct road from Aix. Unless I am
+greatly in error, monsieur, the German wolf is breaking his teeth on
+some of them at this minute."
+
+Liege itself was ten miles distant; Pontisse, the nearest fort, though
+on the left bank of the river, barely six. The evening was still, there
+being only a slight breeze from the south-west, which brought the loud
+thunder of the guns and the crackle of rifle-fire. It was the voice of
+Belgium proclaiming to the high gods that she was worthy of life.
+
+The Bavarians came with their "joint," a noble piece of beef hacked off
+a whole side looted from a butcher's shop. Madame Joos cut off an ample
+quantity, some ten pounds, and put it in the oven. The girls peeled
+potatoes and prepared cabbages. In half-an-hour the kitchen had an
+appetising smell of food being cooked, the men were smoking, and a
+casual visitor would never have resolved the gathering into its
+constituent elements of irreconcilable national hatreds.
+
+The corporal even tried to make amends for having damaged the
+door. He examined the broken latch. "It's a small matter," he said
+apologetically. "You can repair it for a trifle; and, in any case,
+you will sleep all the better that we are here."
+
+Though somewhat maudlin with liquor, he was very much afraid of the
+"girl from Berlin." He could not sum her up, but meant to behave
+himself; while his men, of course, followed his lead unquestioningly.
+
+Dalroy kept in the background. He listened, but said hardly anything.
+The turn of fortune's wheel was distinctly favourable. If the night
+ended as it had begun there was a chance that he and Irene might slip
+away to the Dutch frontier next morning, since he had ascertained
+definitely that Holland was secure for the time, and was impartially
+interning all combatants, either Germans or Belgians, who crossed the
+border. At this time he was inclined to abandon his own project of
+striving to steal through the German lines. He was somewhat weary, too,
+after the unusual labour of carrying heavy sacks of grain and flour down
+steep ladders or lowering them by a pulley. Thus, he dozed off in a
+corner, but was aroused suddenly by the entry of the commissariat
+officer and three subalterns. With them came an orderly, who dumped a
+laden basket and a case of champagne on the floor.
+
+The corporal and his satellites sprang to attention.
+
+The fat man took the salute, and glanced around the kitchen. Then he
+sniffed. "What! roast beef?" he said. "The men fare better than the
+officers, it would seem.--Be off, you!"
+
+"Herr Major, we are herein billeted," stuttered the corporal.
+
+"Be off, I tell you, and take these Belgian swine with you! I make my
+quarters here to-night."
+
+Joos, of course, he recognised; and the miller said, with some dignity,
+that the gentlemen would be made as comfortable as his resources
+permitted, but he must remain in his own house.
+
+The fat man stared at him, as though such insolence were unheard-of.
+"Here," he roared to the corporal, "pitch this old hog into the Meuse.
+He annoys me."
+
+Meanwhile, one of the younger officers, a strapping Westphalian, lurched
+toward Irene. She did not try to avoid him, thinking, perhaps, that a
+passive attitude was advisable. He caught her by the waist, and guffawed
+to his companions, "Didn't I offer to bet you fellows that Busch never
+made a mistake about a woman? Who'd have dreamed of finding a beauty
+like this one in a rotten old mill?"
+
+The Bavarians had collected their rifles and sidearms, and were going
+out sullenly. Each of the officers carried a sword and revolver.
+
+Irene saw that Dalroy had risen in his corner. She wrenched herself
+free. "How am I to prepare supper for you gentlemen if you bother me in
+this way?" she demanded tartly.
+
+"Behave yourself, Fritz," puffed the major. "Is that your idea of
+keeping your word? _Mama_, if she is discreet, will go to bed, and the
+young ones will eat with us.--Open that case of wine, orderly. I'm
+thirsty.--The girls will have a drink too. Cooking is warm work.--Hallo!
+What the devil! Kaporal, didn't you hear my order?"
+
+Dalroy grabbed Joos, who was livid with rage. The two girls were safe
+for the hour, and must endure the leering of four tipsy scoundrels. A
+row at the moment would be the wildest folly.
+
+"March!" he said gruffly. "The _oberleutnant_ doesn't want us here."
+
+"_Le brave Belge_ knows when to clear out," grinned one of the younger
+men, giving Dalroy an odiously suggestive wink.
+
+Somehow, the fact that Dalroy took command abated the women's terror;
+even the intractable Joos yielded. Soon the two were in the yard with
+the dispossessed Bavarians, these latter being in the worst of temper,
+as they had now to search for both bed and supper. They strode away
+without giving the least heed to their presumed prisoners.
+
+Joos, like most men of choleric disposition, was useless in a crisis of
+this sort. He gibbered with rage. He wanted to attack the intruders at
+once with a pitchfork.
+
+Dalroy shook him to quieten his tongue. "You must listen to me," he said
+sternly.
+
+The old man's eyes gleamed up into his. In the half-light of the
+gloaming they had the sheen of polished gold. "Monsieur," he whimpered,
+"save my little girl! Save her, I implore you. You English are lions in
+battle. You are big and strong. I'll help. Between us we can stick the
+four of them."
+
+Dalroy shook him again. "Stop talking, and listen," he growled
+wrathfully. "Not another word here! Come this way!" He drew the miller
+into an empty stable, whence the kitchen door and the window were in
+view. "Now," he muttered, "gather your wits, and answer my questions.
+Have you any hidden weapons? A pitchfork is too awkward for a fight in a
+room."
+
+"I had nothing but a muzzle-loading gun, monsieur. I gave it up on the
+advice of the burgomaster. They've killed him."
+
+"Very well. Remain here on guard. I'll go and fetch a rifle and bayonet.
+Nothing will happen to the women till these brutes have eaten, and have
+more wine in them. Don't you understand? The younger men have made a
+hellish compact with their senior. You heard that, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, yes, monsieur. Who could fail to know what they meant? Surely the
+good God sent you to Vise to-day!"
+
+"Promise, now! No interference till I return, even though the women are
+frightened. You'll only lose your life to no purpose. I'll not be long
+away."
+
+"I promise. But, monsieur, _pour l'amour de Dieu_, let me stick that fat
+Busch!"
+
+Dalroy was in such a fume to secure a reliable arm that he rather
+neglected the precautions of a soldier moving through the enemy's
+country. It was still possible to see clearly for some distance ahead.
+Although the right bank of the Meuse that night was overrun with the
+Kaiser's troops along a front of nearly twenty miles, the ravine, with
+its gurgling rivulet, was one of those peaceful oases which will occur
+in the centre of the most congested battlefield. Now that the crash of
+the guns had passed sullenly to a distance, white-tailed rabbits
+scurried across the path; some stray sheep, driven from the uplands by
+the day's tumult, gathered in a group and looked inquiringly at the
+intruder; a weasel, stalking a selected rabbit as is his piratical way,
+elected to abandon the chase and leap for a tree.
+
+These very signs showed that none other had breasted the slope recently,
+so Dalroy strode out somewhat carelessly. Nevertheless, he was endowed
+with no small measure of that sixth sense which every _shikari_ must
+possess who would hunt either his fellowmen or the beasts of the jungle.
+He was passing a dense clump of brambles and briars when a man sprang at
+him. He had trained himself to act promptly in such circumstances, and
+had decided long ago that to remain on the same ground, or even try to
+retreat, was courting disaster. His plan was to jump sideways, and, if
+practicable, a little nearer an assailant. The sabots rendered him less
+nimble than usual, but the dodge quite disconcerted an awkward opponent.
+The vicious downward sweep of a heavy cudgel just missed his left
+shoulder, and he got home with the right in a half-arm jab which sent
+the recipient sprawling and nearly into the stream.
+
+Dalroy made after him, seized the fallen stick, and recognised--Jan
+Maertz! "How now," he said wrathfully, "are you, too, a Prussian?"
+
+Jan raised a hand to ward off the expected blow. "_Caput!_" he cried.
+"I'm done! You must be the devil! But may the Lord help my poor master
+and mistress, and the little Leontine!"
+
+"That is my wish also, sheep's-head! What evil have I done you, then,
+that you should want to brain me at sight?"
+
+"They're after you--the Germans. They mean to catch you, dead or
+alive. A lieutenant of the Guard pulled me away from in front of a
+firing-party, and gave me my life on condition that I ran you down."
+
+Here was an extraordinary development. It was vitally important that
+Dalroy should get to know the exact meaning of the Walloon's disjointed
+utterances, yet how could he wait and question the man while the
+Prussian sultans were feasting in the mill?
+
+Dalroy stooped over Maertz, who had risen to his knees, and caught him
+by the shoulder. "Jan Maertz," he said, "do you hope to marry Leontine
+Joos? If so, Heaven has just prevented you from committing a great
+crime. She, and her mother, and the lady who came with me from Aix, are
+in the mill with four German officers--a set of foul, drunken brutes who
+will stop at no excess. I'm going now to get a rifle. You make quietly
+for the stable opposite the kitchen door. You will find Joos there. He
+will explain. Tell me, are you for Belgium or Germany in this war?"
+
+The Walloon might be slow-witted, but Dalroy's words seemed to have
+pierced his skin.
+
+"For Belgium, monsieur, to the death," he answered.
+
+"So am I. I'm an Englishman. As you go, think what that means."
+
+Leaving Maertz to regain his feet and the stick, Dalroy rushed on up the
+hill. The unexpected struggle had cost him but little delay; yet it was
+dark, and the miller was nearly frantic with anxiety, when he returned.
+
+"Is Maertz with you?" was his first question.
+
+"Yes, monsieur," came a gruff voice out of the gloom of the stable.
+
+"Do you know now how nearly you blundered?"
+
+"Monsieur, I would have tackled St. Peter to save Leontine."
+
+"Quick!" hissed Joos, "let us kill these hogs! We have no time to spare.
+The others will be here soon."
+
+"What others?"
+
+"Jan will tell you later. Come, now. Leave Busch to me!"
+
+"Keep quiet!" ordered Dalroy sternly. "We cannot murder four men in cold
+blood. I'll listen over there by the window. You two remain here till I
+call you."
+
+But there was no need for eavesdropping. Leontine's voice was raised
+shrilly above the loud-clanging talk and laughter of the uninvited
+guests. "No, no, my mother must stay!" she was shrieking. "Monsieur, for
+God's sake, leave my mother alone! Ah, you are hurting her.--Father!
+father!--Oh, what shall we do? Is there no one to help us?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE FIGHT IN THE MILL
+
+
+As Dalroy burst open the door, which was locked, the heartrending
+screams of the three women mingled with the vile oaths of their
+assailants. He had foreseen that the door would probably be fastened,
+and put his whole strength into the determination to force the bolt
+without warning. The scene which met his eyes as he rushed into the room
+was etched in Rembrandt lights and shadows by a lamp placed in the
+centre of the table.
+
+Near a staircase--not that which led to the lofts, but the main stairway
+of the domestic part of the dwelling--Madame Joos was struggling in
+the grip of the orderly and one of the lieutenants. Another of
+these heroes--they all belonged to a Westphalian detachment of the
+commissariat--was endeavouring to overpower Irene. His left arm pinned
+her left arm to her waist; his right arm had probably missed a similar
+hold, because the girl's right arm was free. She had seized his wrist,
+and was striving to ward off a brutal effort to prevent her from
+shrieking. Busch, that stout satyr, was seated. Dalroy learnt
+subsequently that the sudden hubbub arose because Irene resisted his
+attempt to pull her on to his knee. The last of the younger men was
+clasping Leontine to his breast with rascally intent to squeeze the
+breath out of her until she was unable to struggle further.
+
+Now Dalroy had to decide in the fifth part of a second whence danger
+would first come, and begin the attack there. The four officers had laid
+aside their swords, but the lieutenants had retained belts and
+revolvers. Busch, as might be expected, was only too pleased to get rid
+of his equipment. His tunic was unbuttoned, so that he might gorge at
+ease. Somehow, Dalroy knew that Irene would not free the hand which was
+now closing on her mouth. The two Walloons carried short forks with four
+prongs--Joos had taken to heart the Englishman's comment on the
+disadvantage of a pitchfork for close fighting--and Jan Maertz might be
+trusted to deal with the ruffian who was nearly strangling Leontine.
+There remained the gallant lieutenant whose sense of humour permitted
+the belief that the best way to force onward a terrified elderly woman
+was to plant a knee against the small of her back. He had looked around
+at once when the door flew open, and his right hand was already on the
+butt of an automatic pistol. Him, therefore, Dalroy bayoneted so
+effectually that a startled oath changed into a dreadful howl ere the
+words left his lips. The orderly happened to be nearer than the officer,
+so, as the bayonet did its work, Dalroy kicked the lout's feet from
+under him, and thrust him through the body while on the floor. A man
+who had once won the Dholepur Cup, which is competed for by the most
+famous pig-stickers in India, knew how to put every ounce of weight
+behind the keen point of a lance, because an enraged boar is the
+quickest and most courageous fighter among all the fierce creatures of
+the jungle. But he was slightly too near his quarry; the bayonet reached
+the stone floor through the man's body, and snapped at the forte.
+
+Then he wheeled, and made for Irene's assailant.
+
+The instant Dalroy appeared at the door the girl had caught the
+Prussian's thumb in her strong teeth, and not only bit him to the bone
+but held on. With a loud bellow of "Help! Come quickly!" he released
+her, and struck fiercely with his left hand. Yet this gentle girl, who
+had never taken part in any more violent struggle than a school romp,
+had the presence of mind to throw herself backward, and thus discount
+the blow, while upsetting her adversary's balance. But her clenched
+teeth did not let go. It came out long afterwards that she was a
+first-rate gymnast. One day, moved by curiosity on seeing some
+performance in a circus, she had essayed the stage trick of hanging head
+downward from a cross-bar, and twirling around another girl's body
+girdled by a strap working on a swivel attached to a strong pad which
+she bit resolutely. Then she discovered a scientific fact which very
+few people are aware of. The jaw is, perhaps, the strongest part of the
+human frame, and can exercise a power relatively far greater than that
+of the hands. Of course, she could not have held out for long, but she
+did thwart and delay the maddened Prussian during two precious seconds.
+Even when he essayed to choke her she still contrived to save herself by
+seizing his free hand.
+
+By that time Dalroy had leaped to the rescue. Shortening the rifle in
+the way familiar to all who have practised the bayonet exercise, he
+drove it against the Prussian's neck. The jagged stump inflicted a wound
+which looked worse than it was; but the mere shock of the blow robbed
+the man of his senses, and he fell like a log.
+
+In order to come within striking distance, Dalroy had to jump over
+Busch. Old Joos, piping in a weird falsetto, had sprung at the fat major
+and spitted him in the stomach with all four prongs of the fork. Busch
+toppled over backward with a fearsome howl, the chair breaking under his
+weight combined with a frantic effort to escape. The miller went with
+him, and dug the terrible weapon into his soft body as though driving it
+into a truss of straw. Maertz, a lusty fellow, had made shorter work of
+his man, because one prong had reached the German's heart, and he was
+stilled at once. But Joos thrust and thrust again, even using a foot to
+bury the fork to its shoulder.
+
+This was the most ghastly part of a thrilling episode. Busch writhed on
+the floor, screaming shrilly for mercy, and striving vainly to stay with
+his hands the deadly implement from eating into his vitals.
+
+That despairing effort gave the miller a ghoulish satisfaction. "Aha!"
+he chortled, "you laughed at Lafarge! Laugh now, you swine! _That's_ for
+the doctor, and _that's_ for my wife, and _that's_ for my daughter, and
+_that's_ for me!"
+
+Dalroy did not attempt to stop him. These men must die. They had come to
+the mill to destroy; it was just retribution that they themselves should
+be destroyed. His coolness in this crisis was not the least important
+factor in a situation rife with peril. His method of attack had
+converted a fight against heavy odds into a speedy and most effectual
+slaughter. But that was only the beginning. Even while the frenzied
+yelling of the squirming Busch was subsiding into a frothy gurgle he
+went to the door and listened. A battery of artillery was passing at a
+trot, and creating din enough to drown the cries of a hundred Busches.
+
+He looked back over his shoulder. Madame Joos was on her knees, praying.
+The poor woman had no thought but that her last hour had come. Happily,
+she was spared the sight of her husband's vengeance. Happily, too, none
+of the women fainted. Leontine was panting and sobbing in Maertz's
+arms. Irene, leaning against the wall near the fireplace, was gazing
+now at Joos, now at the fallen man at her feet, now at Dalroy. But
+her very soul was on fire. She, too, had yielded to the madness of a
+life-and-death struggle. Her eyes were dilated. Her bosom rose and fell
+with laboured breathing. Her teeth were still clenched, her lips parted
+as though she dreaded to find some loathsome taste on them.
+
+Maertz seemed to have retained his senses, so Dalroy appealed to him.
+"Jan," he said quietly, "we must go at once. Get your master and the
+others outside. Then extinguish the lamp. Hurry! We haven't a second
+to spare."
+
+Joos heard. Satisfied now that the fork had been effective, he
+straightened his small body and said shrilly, "You go, if you like. I'll
+not leave my money to be burnt with my house.--Now, wife, stir yourself.
+Where's that key?"
+
+The familiar voice roused Madame Joos from a stupor of fear. She fumbled
+in her bodice, and produced a key attached to a chain of fine silver.
+Her husband mounted nimbly on a chair, ran a finger along one of the
+heavy beams which roofed the kitchen, found a cunningly hidden keyhole,
+and unlocked a long, narrow receptacle which had been scooped out of the
+wood. A more ingenious, accessible, yet unlikely hiding-place for
+treasure could not readily be imagined. He took out a considerable sum
+of money in notes, gold, and silver. Though a man of wealth, with a
+substantial account in the state bank, he still retained the peasant's
+love of a personal hoard.
+
+Stowing away the money in various pockets, Joos got down off the chair.
+Busch was dying, but he was not unconscious. He had even watched the
+miller's actions with a certain detached curiosity, and the old fellow
+seemed to become aware of the fact. "So," he cackled, "you saw, did
+you? That should annoy you in your last hour, you fat thief.--Yes, yes,
+monsieur, I'll come now.--Leontine, stop blubbing, and tie up that piece
+of beef and some bread in a napkin. We fighting men must eat.--Jan, put
+the bottles of champagne and the pork-pie in a basket.--Leontine, run
+and get your own and your mother's best shoes. You can change them in
+the wood."
+
+"What wood?" put in Maertz.
+
+"We can't walk to Maestricht by the main road, you fool."
+
+"That's all right for you and madame here, and for Leontine, perhaps.
+But I remain in Belgium. My friends are fighting yonder at Liege, and
+I'm going to join them. And these others mustn't try it. The frontier is
+closed for them. I was offered my life only two hours ago if I arrested
+them."
+
+"Jan!" cried Leontine indignantly.
+
+"It's true. Why should I tell a lie? I didn't understand then the sort
+of game the Prussians are playing. Now that I know----"
+
+"Miss Beresford," broke in Dalroy emphatically, "if these good people
+will not escape when they may we must leave them to their fate."
+
+"Do come, Monsieur Joos," said Irene, speaking for the first time since
+the tragedy. "By remaining here you risk your life to no purpose."
+
+"We are coming now, ma'm'selle."
+
+Suddenly the miller's alert eye was caught by a spasmodic movement in
+the limbs of the last man whom Dalroy struck down. "_Tiens!_" he cried,
+"that fellow isn't finished with yet."
+
+He was making for the prostrate form with that terrible fork when Dalroy
+ran swiftly, and collared him. "Stop that!" came the angry command. "A
+fair fight must not degenerate into murder. Out you get now, or I'll
+throw you out!"
+
+Joos laughed. "You're making a mistake, monsieur," he said. "These
+Prussians don't fight that way. They'd kill you just for the fun of the
+thing if you were tied hand and foot. But let the rascal live if it
+pleases you. As for this one," and he spurned Busch's body with his
+foot, "he's done. Did you hear him? He squealed like a pig."
+
+Dalroy was profoundly relieved when the automatic pistols and ammunition
+were collected, the lamp extinguished, the door closed, and the whole
+party had passed through a garden and orchard to the gloom of the
+ravine. The hour was about half-past eight o'clock. Twenty-four hours
+earlier he and Irene were about to leave Cologne by train, believing
+with some degree of confidence that they might be allowed to cross the
+frontier without let or hindrance! Life was then conventional, with a
+spice of danger. Now it had descended in the social scale until they
+ranked on a par with the dog that had gone mad and must be slain at
+sight. The German code of war is a legal paraphrase of the trickster's
+formula, "Heads I win, tails you lose." The armies of the Fatherland
+are ordered to practise "frightfulness," and so terrorise the civil
+population that the inhabitants of the stricken country will compel
+their rulers to sue for peace on any terms. But woe to that same civil
+population if some small section of its members resists or avenges any
+act of "frightfulness." Soldiers might murder the Widow Jaquinot and
+ravish her granddaughter, officers might plan a bestial orgy in the
+miller's house; but Dalroy and Joos and Maertz, in punishing the one set
+of crimes and preventing another, had placed themselves outside the law.
+Neither Joos nor Maertz cared a farthing rushlight about the moral
+consequences of that deadly struggle in the kitchen, but Dalroy was in
+different case. He knew the certain outcome. Small wonder if his heart
+was heavy and his brow seamed. His own fate was of slight concern,
+since he had ceased to regard life as worth more than an hour's purchase
+at any time from the moment he leaped down into the station yard at
+Aix-la-Chapelle. But it was hard luck that the accident of mere
+association should have bound up Irene Beresford's fortunes so
+irrevocably with his. Was there no way out of the maze in which they
+were wandering? What, for instance, had Jan Maertz meant by his cryptic
+statements?
+
+"We must halt here," Dalroy said authoritatively, stopping short in the
+shadow of a small clump of trees on the edge of the ravine, a place
+whence there was a fair field of view, yet so close to dense brushwood
+that the best of cover was available instantly if needed.
+
+"Why?" demanded Joos. "I know every inch of the way."
+
+"I want to question Maertz," said Dalroy shortly. "But don't let me
+delay you on that account. Indeed, I advise you to go ahead, and
+safeguard Madame Joos and your daughter. I would even persuade, if
+I can, Mademoiselle Beresford to go with you."
+
+"I don't mind listening to Jan's yarn myself," grunted the miller. "And
+isn't it time we had some supper? Killing Prussians is hungry work. Did
+you hear Busch? He squealed like a pig.--Leontine, cut some chunks of
+beef and bread, and open one of these bottles of wine."
+
+There was solid sense in the old man's crude rejoinder. Criminals about
+to suffer the death penalty often enjoy a good meal. These six people,
+who had just escaped death, or--where the women were concerned--a
+degradation worse than death, and before whose feet the grave might yawn
+wide and deep at once and without warning, were nevertheless greatly in
+want of food.
+
+So they ate as they talked.
+
+Maertz's story was coherent enough when set forth in detail. He was
+dazed and shaken by the fall from the wagon; but, helped by the sentry,
+who bore witness that the collision was no fault of his, being the
+outcome of obedience to the officer's order, he contrived to calm the
+startled horses. The officer even offered to find a few men later who
+would help to pull the wagon out of the ditch, so Jan was told to "stand
+by" until the column had passed. Meaning no harm, he asked what had
+become of his passengers. This naturally evoked other questions, and a
+search was made, with the result that the lamp and Dalroy's discarded
+sabots were found. The lamp, of course, was numbered, and carried the
+initials of a German state railway; but this "exhibit" only bore out
+Maertz's statement that a man from Aix had come in the wagon to explain
+to Joos why the consignment of oats had been so long held up in the
+goods yard.
+
+In fact, a squad of soldiers had put the wagon right, and were
+reloading it, when the bodies of Heinrich and his companion were
+discovered in the stable. Suspicion fell at once on the missing pair.
+Maertz would have been shot out of hand if an infuriated officer had not
+recollected that by killing the Walloon he would probably destroy all
+chance of tracing the man who had "murdered" two of his warriors. So
+Maertz was arrested, and dumped into a cellar until such time as a
+patrol could take him to Vise and investigate matters there.
+
+Meanwhile the unforeseen resistance offered to the invaders along the
+line of the Meuse and neighbourhood of Liege was throwing the German
+military machine out of gear. In this initial stage of the campaign "the
+best organised army in the world" was like a powerful locomotive engine
+fitted with every mechanical device for rapid advance, but devoid of
+either brakes or reversing gear. As the 7th and 10th Divisions recoiled
+from the forts of Liege in something akin to disastrous defeat,
+congestion and confusion spread backward to the advanced base at Aix.
+Hospital trains from the front compelled other trains laden with
+reserves and munitions to remain in sidings. The roads became blocked.
+Brigades of infantry and cavalry, long lines of guns and wagons, were
+halted during many hours. Frantic staff-officers in powerful cars were
+alternately urging columns to advance and demanding a clear passage to
+the rear and the headquarters staff. No regimental commandant dared
+think and act for himself. He was merely a cog in the machine, and the
+machine had broken down. Actually, the defenders of Liege held up the
+Kaiser's legions only a few days, but it is no figure of speech to say
+that when General Leman dropped stupefied by an explosion in Fort Loncin
+he had established a double claim to immortality. Not only had he
+shattered the proud German legend of invincibility in the field, but he
+had also struck a deadly blow at German strategy. With Liege and Leman
+out of the way, it would seem to the student of war that the invaders
+must have reached Paris early in September. They made tremendous strides
+later in the effort to maintain their "time-table," but they could never
+overtake the days lost in the valley of the Meuse.
+
+What a tiny pawn was Jan Maertz in this game of giants! How little could
+he realise that his very existence depended on the shock of opposing
+empires!
+
+The communications officer at the cross-roads had not a moment to spare
+for many an hour after Jan's execution was deferred. At last, about
+nightfall, when the 9th Division got into motion again, he snatched a
+slight breathing-space. Remembering the prisoner, he detailed a corporal
+and four men to march him to Vise and make the necessary inquiries at
+Joos's mill.
+
+For Maertz's benefit he gave the corporal precise instructions. "If this
+fellow's story is proved true, and you find the man and the woman he
+says he brought from Aachen, return here with the three of them, and
+full investigation will be made. If no such man and woman have arrived
+at the mill, and the prisoner is shown to be a liar, shoot him out of
+hand."
+
+A young staff-officer, a lieutenant of the Guards, stretching his legs
+while his chauffeur was refilling the petrol-tank, overheard the
+loud-voiced order, and took a sudden and keen interest in the
+proceedings.
+
+"One moment," he said imperatively, "what's this about a man and a woman
+brought from Aachen? Who brought them? And when?"
+
+The other explained, laying stress, of course, on the fractured skulls
+of two of his best men.
+
+"Hi, you!" cried the Guardsman to Maertz, "describe these two."
+
+Maertz did his best. Dalroy, to him, was literally a railway employe;
+but his recollection of Irene's appearance was fairly exact. Moreover,
+he was quite reasonably irritated and alarmed by the trouble they had
+caused. Then the lamp and sabots were produced, and the questioner swore
+mightily.
+
+"Leave this matter entirely in my hands," he advised his confrere. "It
+is most important that these people should be captured, and this is the
+very fellow to do it. I'll promise him his life, and the safety of his
+friends, and pay him well into the bargain, if he helps me to get hold
+of that precious pair. You see, we shall have no difficulty in catching
+and identifying him again if need be. Personally, I believe he is
+telling the absolute truth, and is no more responsible for the killing
+of your men than you are."
+
+Lieutenant Karl von Halwig's comparison erred only in its sheer
+inadequacy. The communications officer's responsibility was great. He
+had failed to control his underlings. He was blind and deaf to their
+excesses. What matter how they treated the wretched Belgians if the road
+was kept clear? It was nothing to him that an old woman should be
+murdered and a girl outraged so long as he kept his squad intact.
+
+"So now you know all about it, monsieur," concluded Maertz. "When I met
+you in the ravine I thought you were escaping, and let out at you. God
+be praised, you got the better of me!"
+
+"Was the staff officer's name Von Halwig?" inquired Dalroy.
+
+"Name of a pipe, that's it, monsieur! I heard him tell it to the other
+pig, but couldn't recall it."
+
+"And when were you to meet him?"
+
+"He had to report to some general at Argenteau, but reckoned to reach
+the mill about nine o'clock."
+
+"Oh, father dear, let us all be going!" pleaded Leontine.
+
+"One more word, and I have finished," put in Dalroy. He turned again to
+Maertz. "What did you mean by saying a little while ago that the
+frontier is closed?"
+
+"The lieutenant--Von Halwig, is it?--sent some Uhlans to the major of a
+regiment guarding the line opposite Holland. He wrote a message, but I
+know what was in it because he told the other officer. 'They're making
+for the frontier,' he said, 'and if they haven't slipped through already
+we'll catch them now without fail. They mustn't get away this time if we
+have to arrest and examine every ---- Belgian in this part of the
+country.'"
+
+"Ho! ho!" piped Joos, who had listened intently to Jan's recital, "why
+didn't you tell us that sooner, animal? What chance, then, have I and
+madame and Leontine of dodging the rascals?"
+
+"_Caput!_" cried Maertz, scratching his head, "that settles it! I never
+thought of that!"
+
+"Oh, look!" whispered Leontine. "They're searching the mill!"
+
+So earnest and vital was the talk that none of the others had chanced to
+look down the ravine. They saw now that lights were moving in the upper
+rooms of the mill. Either Von Halwig had arrived before time, or some
+messenger had tried to find the commissariat officers, and had raised an
+alarm.
+
+Joos took charge straight away, like the masterful old fellow that he
+was. "This locality isn't good for our health," he said. "The night is
+young yet, but we must leg it to a safer place before we begin planning.
+Leave nothing behind. We may need all that food.--Come, Lise," and he
+grabbed his wife's arm, "you and I will lead the way to the Argenteau
+wood. The devil himself can't track me once I get there.--Trust me,
+monsieur, I'll pull you through. That lout, Jan Maertz, is all muscle
+and no brain. What Leontine sees in him I can't guess."
+
+For the time being, Dalroy believed that the miller might prove a
+resourceful guide. Before deciding the course he personally would pursue
+it was absolutely essential that he should learn the lay of the land and
+weigh the probabilities of success or failure attached to such
+alternatives as were suggested.
+
+"We had better go with our friends," he said to Irene. "They know the
+country, and I must have time for consideration before striking out a
+line of my own."
+
+"I think it would be fatal to separate," she agreed. "When all is said
+and done, what can they hope to accomplish without your help?"
+
+Joos's voice came to them in eager if subdued accents. He was telling
+his wife how accounts were squared with Busch. "I stuck him with the
+fork," he chortled, "and he squealed like a pig!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE WOODMAN'S HUT
+
+
+The miller was cunning as a fox. He argued, subtly enough, that if a man
+just arrived from Argenteau was the first to discover the dead
+Prussians, the neighbourhood of Argenteau itself might be the last to
+undergo close search for the "criminals" who had dared punish these
+demi-gods. Following a cattle-path through a series of fields, he
+entered a country lane about a mile from Vise. It was a narrow,
+deep-rutted, winding way--a shallow trench cut into the soil by many
+generations of pack animals and heavy carts. The long interregnum
+between the solid pavement of Rome and the broken rubble of Macadam
+covered Europe with a network of such roads. An unchecked growth of
+briars, brambles, and every species of prolific weed made this
+particular track an ideal hiding-place.
+
+Gathering the party under the two irregular lines of pollard oaks which
+marked the otherwise hardly discernible hedgerows, Joos explained that,
+at a point nearly half-a-mile distant, the lane joined the main road
+which winds along the right bank of the Meuse.
+
+"That is our only real difficulty--the crossing of the road," he said.
+"It is sure to be full of Germans; but if we watch our chance we should
+contrive to scurry from one side to the other without being seen."
+
+Such confidence was unquestionably cheering. Even Dalroy, though he put
+a somewhat sceptical question, did not really doubt that the old man was
+adopting what might, in the circumstances, prove the best plan.
+
+"What happens when we do reach the other side, Monsieur Joos?" he
+inquired.
+
+"Then we enter a disused quarry in the depths of a wood. The Meuse
+nearly surrounds the wood, and there is barely room for a tow-path
+between the river's edge and a steep cliff. The quarry forms the
+landward face, as one may say, and among the trees is a woodman's hut. I
+shall be surprised if we find any Germans there."
+
+"From your description it seems to be a suitable post for a strong
+picket watching the river."
+
+"No, monsieur. The slope falls away from the river, while the opposite
+bank is flat and open. I have been a soldier in my time, and I
+understand these things. It would be all right for observation purposes
+if these pigs hadn't seized the bridge-heads at Vise and Argenteau; but
+I saw their cursed Uhlans on the left bank many hours ago."
+
+"Lead on, friend," said Dalroy simply. "When we come within a hundred
+metres of the main road let me do the scouting. I'll tell you when and
+how to advance."
+
+"Is monsieur a soldier then?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"An officer perhaps?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Ah, a thousand pardons if I presumed to lecture you. Yet I am certainly
+in the right about the wood."
+
+"I have never doubted you, Monsieur Joos. Do you know what time the moon
+rises?"
+
+"Late. Eleven o'clock at the earliest."
+
+"All the better, if you are sure of the way."
+
+"I could find it blindfolded. So could Leontine. She goes there to pick
+bilberries."
+
+The homely phrase was unconsciously dramatic. From the highroad came the
+raucous singing of German soldiers, the falsetto of drunkards with an
+ear for music. In the distance heavy artillery was growling, and high
+explosive shells were bursting with a violence that seemed to rend the
+sky. Over an area of many miles to the west the sharp tapping of
+musketry and the staccato splutter of machine guns told of hundreds of
+thousands of men engaged in a fierce struggle for supremacy. On every
+hand the horizon was red with the glare of burning houses. The thought
+of a village girl picking bilberries in a land so scarred by war and
+rapine produced an effect at once striking and fantastic. It was as
+though a ray of pure white light had pierced the lurid depths of a
+volcano.
+
+Dalroy advised the women to take off their linen aprons, and Madame Joos
+to remove as well a coif of the same material. He unfastened and threw
+away the stump of the bayonet. Then they moved on in Indian file, the
+miller leading.
+
+A definite quality of blackness loomed above the low-lying shroud of
+mist which at night in still weather always marks the course of a great
+river.
+
+"The wood!" whispered Joos. "We are near the road now."
+
+Dalroy went forward to spy out the conditions. A column of infantry was
+passing. These fellows were silent, and therefore sinister. They marched
+like tired men, and their shuffling feet raised a cloud of dust.
+
+An officer lighted a cigarette. "Those guzzling Prussians would empty
+the Meuse if it ran with wine," he growled, evidently in response to a
+remark from a companion.
+
+"Our brigadier was very angry about the broken bottles in the streets of
+Argenteau," said the other. "Two tires were ruined before the chauffeur
+realised that the place was littered with glass."
+
+These were Saxons, cleaner-minded, manlier fellows than the Prussians.
+Behind them Dalroy heard the rumble of commissariat wagons. He failed
+utterly to understand the why and wherefore of the direction the troops
+were taking. According to his reckoning, they should have been going the
+opposite way. But that was no concern of his at the moment. He knew the
+Saxon by repute, and hurried back to the two men and three women
+crouching under a hedge, having already noted a little mound on the left
+of the cross-roads where cover was available. He explained what they
+were to do--steal forward, one by one, hide behind the mound, and dart
+across when a longer space than usual separated one wagon from another,
+as the mounted escort would probably be grouped in front and in rear of
+the convoy.
+
+"Ah, that is the cavalry," said Joos. "It stands on a rock by the
+roadside."
+
+"It is hard to distinguish anything owing to mist and dust," said
+Dalroy. "Of course, the darkness is all to the good.--If you ladies do
+not scream, whatever happens, and you run quickly when I give the word,
+I don't think there will be any real danger."
+
+In the event, they were able to cross the road in a body, and without
+needless haste. A horse stumbled and fell, and had to be unharnessed
+before being got on to its feet again. The incident held up the column
+during some minutes, so Dalroy was not compelled to abandon the rifle,
+which it would have been foolish in the extreme to carry if there was
+the slightest chance of being seen.
+
+Thenceforth progress was safe, though slow and difficult, because the
+gloom beneath the trees was that of a vault. Even the miller perforce
+yielded place to Leontine's young eyes and sureness of foot. There were
+times, during the ascent of one side of the quarry, when whispered
+directions were necessary, while Madame Joos had to be hauled up a few
+awkward places bodily.
+
+Still, they reached the hut, a mere logger's shed, but a veritable haven
+for people so manifestly in peril. They were weary, too. No member of
+the Joos household had slept throughout the whole of Tuesday night, and
+the women especially were flagging under the strain.
+
+The little cabin held an abundant store of shavings, because its normal
+tenant rough-hewed his logs into sabots. Here, then, was a soft, warm,
+and fragrant resting-place. Dalroy took command. He forbade talking,
+even in whispers. Maertz, who promised to keep awake, was put on guard
+outside till the moon rose.
+
+The wisdom of preventing excited conversation was shown by the fact that
+the five people huddled together on the shavings were soon asleep. There
+was nothing strange in this. Humanity, when surfeited with emotion,
+becomes calm, almost phlegmatic. Were it otherwise, after a week of war
+soldiers would not be sane men, but maniacs.
+
+Dalroy resolved to sleep for two hours. About eleven o'clock he got up,
+went quietly to the door, and found Maertz seated on the ground, his
+back propped against the wall, and his head sunk on his breast. As a
+consequence, he was snoring melodiously.
+
+He woke quickly enough when the Englishman's hand was clapped over his
+mouth and held there until his torpid wits were sufficiently clear that
+he should understand the stern words muttered in his ear.
+
+"Pardon, monsieur," he said shamefacedly. "I thought there was no harm
+in sitting down. I listened to the guns, and began counting them. I
+counted one hundred and ninety-nine shots, I think, and then----"
+
+"And then you risked six lives, Leontine's among them!"
+
+"Monsieur, I have no excuse."
+
+"Yet you have been a soldier, I suppose? And you gabble of serving your
+country?"
+
+"It will not happen again, monsieur."
+
+Dalroy pretended an anger he did not really feel. He wanted this stolid
+Walloon to remain awake now, at any rate, so turned away with an
+ejaculation of contempt.
+
+Maertz rose. He endured an eloquent silence for nearly a minute. Then he
+murmured, "Monsieur, I shall not offend a second time. Counting guns is
+worse than watching sheep jumping a fence."
+
+The moon had risen, revealing a cleared space in front of the hut. A
+dozen yards away a thin fringe of brushwood and small trees marked the
+edge of the quarry, while the woodcutter's path was discernible on the
+left. A slight breeze had called into being the myriad tongues of the
+wood, and Dalroy realised that the unceasing cannonade, joined to the
+rustling of the leaves, would drown any sound of an approaching enemy
+until it was too late to retreat. He knew that Von Halwig, not to
+mention the military authorities at Vise, would spare no effort to hunt
+out and destroy the man who had dared to flout the might of Germany, so
+he was far from satisfied with the apparent safety of even this secluded
+refuge.
+
+"Have you a piece of string in your pockets?" he demanded gruffly.
+
+Trust a carter to carry string, strong stuff warranted to mend
+temporarily a broken strap. Maertz gave him a quantity.
+
+"I am going to the cross-road," he continued. "Keep a close watch till I
+return. When you hear any movement, or see any one, say clearly 'Vise.'
+If it is I, I shall answer 'Liege.' Do you understand?"
+
+"Perfectly, monsieur. A challenge and a countersign."
+
+Dalroy believed the man might be trusted now. Taking the rifle, he made
+off along the path, treading as softly as the cumbrous sabots would
+permit. He was tempted to go bare-footed, but dreaded the lameness which
+might result from a thorn or a sharp rock. At a suitable place,
+half-way down the steep path by the side of the quarry, he tied a pistol
+to a stout sapling, and, having fastened a cord to the trigger, arranged
+it in such fashion that it must catch the feet of any one coming that
+way. The weapon was at full cock, and in all likelihood the unwary
+passer-by would get a bullet in his body.
+
+It was dark under the trees, of course, but the moon was momentarily
+increasing its light, and the way was not hard to find. He memorised
+each awkward turn and twist in case he had to retreat in a hurry. Once
+the lower level was reached there was no difficulty, and, with due
+precautions, he gained the shelter of a hedge close to the main road.
+
+The stream of troops still continued. Few things could be more ominous
+than this unending torrent of armed men. By how many similar roads, he
+wondered, was Germany pouring her legions into tiny Belgium? Was she
+forcing the French frontier in the same remorseless way? And what of
+Russia? When he left Berlin the talk was only of marching against the
+two great allies. If Germany could spare such a host of horse, foot, and
+artillery for the overrunning of Belgium, while moving the enormous
+forces needed on both flanks, what millions of men she must have placed
+under arms long before the mobilisation order was announced publicly!
+And what was England doing and saying? England! the home of liberty and
+a free press, where demagogues spouted platitudes about the "curse of
+militarism," and encouraged that very monster by leaving the richest
+country in the world open to just such a sudden and merciless attack as
+Belgium was undergoing before his eyes!
+
+Lying there among the undergrowth, listening to the tramp of an
+army corps, and watching the flicker of countless rifle-barrels in
+the moonlight, he forgot his own plight, and thought only of the
+unpreparedness of Britain. He was a soldier by training and inclination.
+He harboured no delusions. Man for man, the alert, intelligent, and
+chivalrous British army was far superior to the cannon-fodder of the
+German machine. But of what avail was the hundred thousand Britain could
+put in the field in the west of Europe against the four millions of
+Germany? Here was no combat of a David and a Goliath, but of one man
+against forty. Naturally, France and Russia came into the picture, yet
+he feared that France would break at the outset of the campaign, while
+Austria might hold Russia in check long enough to enable Germany to work
+her murderous design. Be it remembered, he could not possibly estimate
+the fine and fierce valour of the resistance offered by Belgium. It
+seemed to him that the Teuton hordes must already be hacking their way
+to the coast, leaving sufficient men and guns to contain the Belgian
+fortresses, and halting only when the white cliffs of England were
+visible across the Channel.
+
+If his anxious thoughts wandered, however, and a gnawing doubt ate into
+his soul lest the British fleet might, as the Germans in Vise claimed,
+have been taken at a disadvantage, he did not allow his eyes and ears to
+neglect the duties of the hour.
+
+A fall in the temperature had condensed the river mist, and the air near
+the ground was much clearer now than at eight o'clock. The breeze, too,
+gathered the dust into wraiths and scurrying wisps through which
+glimpses of the sloping uplands toward Aix were obtainable. During one
+of these unhampered moments he caught sight of something so weird and
+uncanny that he was positively startled.
+
+A sorrow-laden, waxen-hued face seemed to peer at him for an instant,
+and then vanish. But there could be no face so high in the air,
+twenty feet or more above the heads of a Prussian regiment bawling
+"_Deutschland, Deutschland, ueber alles_." The land was level XXXX
+thereabouts. The apparition, consequently, must be a mere trick of the
+imagination. Yet he saw, or fancied he saw, that same spectral face
+twice again at intervals of a few seconds, and was vexed with himself
+for allowing his bemused senses to yield to some supernatural influence.
+Then the vision came a fourth time, and a thrill ran through every fibre
+in his body.
+
+Because there could be no mistake now. The face, so mournful, so
+benign, so pitying, bore on the forehead a crown of thorns! Even while
+the blood coursed in Dalroy's veins with the awe of it, he knew that he
+was looking at the figure of Christ on the Cross. This, then, was the
+calvary spoken of by Joos, and invisible in the earlier murk. The beams
+of the risen moon etched the painted carving in most realistic lights
+and shadows. The pallid skin glistened as though in agony. The big,
+piercing eyes gazed down at the passing soldiers as the Man of Sorrows
+might have looked at the heedless legionaries of Rome.
+
+The travelled Briton, to whom the wayside calvary is a familiar object
+in many a continental landscape, can seldom pass the twisted, tortured
+figure on the Cross without a feeling of awe, tempered by insular
+non-comprehension of the religious motive which thrusts into prominence
+the most solemn emblem of Christianity in unexpected and often
+incongruous places. Seen as Dalroy saw it, a hunted fugitive crouching
+in a ditch, while the Huns who would again destroy Europe were lurching
+past in thousands within a few feet of where he lay, the image of Christ
+crucified had a new and overwhelming significance. It induced a vague
+uneasiness of spirit, almost a doubt. That very day he had killed four
+men and gravely wounded a fifth, and there was no shred of compunction
+in his soul. Yet, in body and mind, he was worthy of his class, and this
+gray old world has failed to evolve any finer human type than that
+which is summed up in the phrase, an officer and a gentleman. For the
+foulest of crimes, either committed or contemplated, he had been forced
+to use both the scales and the sword of justice; but there was something
+wholly disturbing and abhorrent in the knowledge that two thousand years
+after the Great Atonement men professedly Christian should so wantonly
+disregard every principle that Christ taught and practised and died for.
+He reflected bitterly that the German soldier, whether officer or
+private, is enjoined to keep a diary. What sort of record would
+"Heinrich," or Busch, or the three Westphalian lieutenants have left of
+that day's doings if they had lived and told the truth?
+
+The answer to these vexed questionings came with the swift clarity of a
+lightning flash. Another rift in the dust-clouds revealed the upper part
+of the Cross, and the moonbeams shone on a gilded scroll. Dalroy knew
+his Bible. "And a superscription also was written over Him in letters of
+Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew: 'This is the King of the Jews.' And one of
+the malefactors which were hanged railed on Him, saying, 'If Thou be
+Christ, save Thyself and us.'"
+
+From that instant one God-fearing Briton, at least, never again allowed
+the shadow of a doubt to darken his faith in the divine if inscrutable
+purpose. He had passed already through dark and deadly hours, while
+others were then near at hand; but he was steadfast in doing what he
+conceived his duty without seeking to interpret the ways of Providence.
+"If Thou be Christ?" It was the last taunt of the unbeliever, though the
+veil of the temple would be rent in twain, and the earth would quake,
+and the graves be opened, and the bodies of the saints arise and be seen
+by many!
+
+A harsh command silenced the singing. An officer had reined in his
+horse, and was demanding the nature of the errand which brought a squad
+of men from Vise.
+
+"Sergeant Karl Schwartz, _Herr Hauptmann_," reported the leader of the
+party. "An Englishman, assisted by a miller named Joos and his man,
+Maertz, has killed three of our officers. He also wounded Herr Leutnant
+von Huntzel, of the 7th Westphalian regiment, who has recovered
+sufficiently to say what happened. The general-major has ordered a
+strict search. I, being acquainted with the district, am bringing these
+men to a wood where the rascals may be hiding."
+
+"Killed three, you say? The fiend take all such _schwein-hunds_ and
+their helpers! Good luck to you.--_Vorwaerts!_"
+
+The column moved on. Schwartz, the treacherous barber of Vise, led his
+men into the lane. There were eleven, all told--hopeless odds--because
+this gang of hunters was ready for a fight and itching to capture a
+_verdammt Englaender_. And Joos's "safe retreat" had been guessed by the
+spy who knew what every inhabitant of Vise did, who had watched and
+noted even such a harmless occupation as Leontine's bilberry-picking,
+who was acquainted with each footpath for miles around, from whose
+crafty eyes not a cow-byre on any remote farm in the whole countryside
+was concealed.
+
+This misfortune marked the end, Dalroy thought. But there was a chance
+of escape, if only for the few remaining hours of the night, and he took
+it with the same high courage he displayed in going back to the rescue
+of Irene Beresford in the railway station at Aix. He had a rifle with
+five rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber. At the worst, he
+might be able to add another couple of casualties to the formidable
+total already piled up during the German advance on Liege.
+
+The sabots offered a serious handicap to rapid and silent movement, but
+he dared not dispense with them, and made shift to follow Schwartz and
+the others as quietly as might be. He was helped, of course, by the din
+of the guns and the rustling of the leaves; but there was an open space
+in the narrow road before it merged in the wood which he could not cross
+until the Germans were among the trees, and precisely in that locality
+Schwartz halted his men to explain his project. Try as he might, Dalroy,
+crouched behind a pollard oak, could not overhear the spy's words. But
+he smiled when the party went on in Indian file, Schwartz leading,
+because the enemy was acting just as he hoped the enemy would act.
+
+He did not press close on their heels now, but remained deliberately at
+the foot of the hill and on the edge of the quarry. Standing erect, with
+the rifle at the ready, he waited. He could hear nothing, but judged
+time and distance by counting fifty slow steps. He was right to a fifth
+of a second. A shot rang out, and was followed instantly by a yell of
+agony. He saw the flash, and, taking aim somewhat below it, fired six
+rounds rapidly. A fusillade broke out in the wood, the Germans, like
+himself, firing at the one flash above and the six beneath. A bullet cut
+through his blouse on the left shoulder and scorched his skin; but when
+the magazine was empty he ran straight on for a few yards, turned to the
+right, stepping with great caution, and threw himself flat behind a
+rock. As he ran, he had refilled the magazine, but now meant using the
+rifle as a last resource only.
+
+In effect, matters had fallen out exactly as he calculated. Schwartz had
+blundered into the man-trap set on the path half-way up the cliff, and
+was shot. The others, lacking a leader, and stupefied by the firing and
+the darkness, bolted like so many rabbits to the open road and the
+moonlight as soon as the seeming attack from the rear ceased.
+
+Uncommon grit was needed to press on through a strange wood at night,
+up a difficult path bordering a precipice when each tree might vomit the
+flame of a gunshot. And these fellows were not cast in heroic mould.
+Their one thought was to get back the way they came. They were received
+warmly, too. The passing regiment, hearing the hubbub and seeing the
+flashes, very reasonably supposed they were being taken in flank by a
+Belgian force, and blazed away merrily at the first moving objects in
+sight in that direction.
+
+Dalroy does not know to this day exactly how the battle ended in rear,
+nor did he care then. He had routed the enemy in his own neighbourhood,
+and that must suffice. Regaining the path, he sped upward, pausing only
+to retrieve the pistol which had proved so efficient a sentinel. Judging
+by the groans and the stertorous breathing which came from among the
+undergrowth close to the path, Karl Schwartz's services as a spy and
+guide were lost to the great cause of _Kultur_. Dalroy did not bother
+about the wretch. He pressed on, and reached the plateau above the
+quarry. The clearing was now flooded with moonlight, and the doorway of
+the hut was plainly visible. Jan Maertz was not at his post, but this
+was not surprising, as he would surely have joined old Joos and the
+terrified women at the first sounds of the firing.
+
+"Liege!" said Dalroy, speaking loudly enough for any one in the hut to
+hear. There was no answer. "Liege!" he cried again, with a certain
+foreboding that things had gone awry, and dreading lest the precious
+respite he had secured might be wasted irretrievably.
+
+But the hut was empty, and he realised that he might grope like a blind
+man for hours in the depths of the wood. The one-sided battle which had
+broken out in the front of the calvary had died down. He guessed what
+had happened, the blunder, the frenzied explanations, and their sequel
+in a quick decision to detach a company and surround the wood.
+
+In his exasperation he forgot the silent figure surveying the scene at
+the cross-roads, and swore like a very natural man, for he was now
+utterly at a loss what to do or where to go.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A RESPITE
+
+
+Never before in the course of a somewhat varied life had Dalroy felt so
+irresolute, so helplessly the victim of circumstances. Bereft of the
+local knowledge possessed by Joos and the other Belgians, any scheme he
+adopted must depend wholly on blind chance. The miller had described the
+wood as occupying a promontory in a bend of the Meuse, with steep cliffs
+forming the southern bank of the river. There was a tow-path; possibly,
+a series of narrow ravines or clefts gave precarious access from the
+plateau to this lower level. Probably, too, in the first shock of
+fright, the people in the hut had made for one of these cuttings, taking
+Irene with them. They believed, no doubt, that the Englishman had been
+shot or captured, and after that spurt of musketry so alarmingly near at
+hand the lower part of the wood would seem alive with enemies.
+
+Dalroy blamed himself, not the others, for this fatal bungling. Before
+snatching a much-needed rest he ought to have arranged with Joos a
+practicable line of retreat in the event of a night alarm. Of course he
+had imposed silence on all as a sort of compulsory relief from the
+tension of the earlier hours, but he saw now that he was only too ready
+to share the miller's confidence. Not without reason had poor Dr.
+Lafarge warned his fellow-countrymen that "there were far too many
+Germans in Belgium." Schwartz and his like were to be found in every
+walk of life, from the merchant princes who controlled the trade of
+Antwerp to the youngest brush-haired waiter in the Cafe de la Regence at
+Brussels.
+
+Dalroy was aware of a grim appropriateness in the fate of Schwartz. The
+German automatic pistols carried soft-nosed bullets, so the arch-traitor
+who murdered the Vise doctor had himself suffered from one of the many
+infernal devices brought by _Kultur_ to the battlefields of Flanders.
+But the punishment of Schwartz could not undo the mischief the wretch
+had caused. The men he led knew the nature and purpose of their errand.
+They would report to the first officer met on the main road, who might
+be expected to detail instantly a sufficient force for the task of
+clearing the wood. In fact, the operation had become a military
+necessity. There was no telling to what extent the locality was held by
+Belgian troops, as, of course, the runaway warriors would magnify the
+firing a hundredfold, and no soldier worth his salt would permit the
+uninterrupted march of an army corps along a road flanked by such a
+danger-point. In effect, Dalroy conceived a hundred reasons why he might
+anticipate a sudden and violent end, but not one offering a fair
+prospect of escape. At any rate, he refused to be guilty of the folly of
+plunging into an unknown jungle of brambles, rocks, and trees, and
+elected to go back by the path to the foot of the quarry, whence he
+might, with plenty of luck, break through on a flank before the Germans
+spread their net too wide.
+
+He had actually crossed some part of the clearing in front of the hut
+when his gorge rose at the thought that, win or lose in this game of
+life and death, he might never again see Irene Beresford. The notion was
+intolerable. He halted, and turned toward the black wall of the wood.
+Mad though it was to risk revealing his whereabouts, since he had no
+means of knowing how close the nearest pursuers might be, he shouted
+loudly, "Miss Beresford!"
+
+And a sweet voice replied, "Oh, Mr. Dalroy, they told me you were dead,
+but I refused to believe them!"
+
+Dalroy had staked everything on that last despairing call, little
+dreaming that it would be answered. It was as though an angel had spoken
+from out of the black portals of death. He was so taken aback, his
+spirit was so shaken, that for a few seconds he was tongue-tied, and
+Irene appeared in the moonlit space before he stirred an inch. She came
+from an unexpected quarter, from the west, or Argenteau, side.
+
+"The others said I was a lunatic to return," she explained simply; "but,
+when I came to my full senses after being aroused from a sound sleep,
+and told to fly at once because the Germans were on us, I realised that
+you might have outwitted them again, and would be looking for us in
+vain. So, here I am!"
+
+He ran to her. Now that they were together again he was swift in
+decision and resolute as ever. "Irene," he said, "you're a dear. Where
+are our friends? Is there a path? Can you guide me?"
+
+"Take my hand," she replied. "We turn by a big tree in the corner. I
+think Jan Maertz followed me a little way when he saw I was determined
+to go back."
+
+"I suppose I had unconscious faith in you, Irene," he whispered, "and
+that is why I cried your name. But no more talking now. Rapid, silent
+movement alone can save us."
+
+They had not gone twenty yards beneath the trees when some one hissed,
+"Vise!"
+
+"Liege, you lump!" retorted Dalroy.
+
+"Monsieur, I----"
+
+"Shut up! Hold mademoiselle's hand, and lead on."
+
+He did not ask whither they were going. The path led diagonally to the
+left, and that was what he wanted--a way to a flank.
+
+Maertz, however, soon faltered and stopped in his tracks.
+
+"The devil take all woods at night-time!" he growled. "Give me the
+highroad and a wagon-team, and I'll face anything."
+
+"Are you lost?" asked Dalroy.
+
+"I suppose so, monsieur. But they can't be far. I told Joos----"
+
+"Jan, is that you?" cried Leontine's voice.
+
+"_Ah, Dieu merci!_ These infernal trees----"
+
+"Silence now!" growled Dalroy imperatively. "Go ahead as quickly as
+possible."
+
+The semblance of a path existed; even so, they stumbled over gnarled
+roots, collided with tree-trunks which stood directly in the way, and
+had to fend many a low branch off their faces. They created an appalling
+noise; but were favoured by the fact that the footpath led to the west,
+whereas the pursuers must climb the cliff on the east.
+
+Leontine, however, led them with the quiet certainty of a country-born
+girl moving in a familiar environment. She could guess to a yard just
+where the track was diverted by some huge-limbed elm or far-spreading
+chestnut, and invariably picked up the right line again, for the
+excellent reason, no doubt, that the dense undergrowth stood breast high
+elsewhere at that season of the year.
+
+After a walk that seemed much longer than it really was--the radius of
+the wood from the hut being never more than two hundred yards in any
+direction--the others heard her say anxiously, "Are you there, father?"
+
+"Where the deuce do you think I'd be?" came the irritated demand. "Do
+you imagine that your mother and I are skipping down these rocks like a
+couple of weasels?"
+
+"It is quite safe," said the girl. "I and Marie Lafarge went down only
+last Thursday. Jules always goes that way to Argenteau. He has cut steps
+in the bad places. Jan and I will lead. We can help mother and you."
+
+Dalroy, still holding Irene's arm, pressed forward.
+
+"Are we near the tow-path?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, is that you, _Monsieur l'Anglais_?" chuckled the miller. "Name of a
+pipe, I was positive those _sales Alboches_ had got you twenty minutes
+since. Yes, if you trip in the next few yards you'll find yourself on
+the tow-path after falling sixty feet."
+
+"Go on, Leontine!" commanded Dalroy. "What you and your friend did for
+amusement we can surely do to save our lives. But there should be
+moonlight on this side. Have any clouds come up?"
+
+"These are firs in front, monsieur. Once clear of them, we can see."
+
+"Very well. Don't lose another second. Only, before beginning the
+descent, make certain that the river bank holds no Germans."
+
+Joos grumbled, but his wife silenced him. That good lady, it appeared,
+had given up hope when the struggle broke out in the kitchen. She had
+been snatched from the jaws of death by a seeming miracle, and regarded
+Dalroy as a very Paladin. She attributed her rescue entirely to him, and
+was almost inclined to be sceptical of Joos's sensational story about
+the killing of Busch. "There never was such a man for arguing," she
+said sharply. "I do believe you'd contradict an archbishop. Do as the
+gentleman bids you. He knows best."
+
+Now, seeing that madame herself, after one look, had refused point-blank
+to tackle the supposed path, and had even insisted on retreating to the
+cover of the wood, Joos was entitled to protest. Being a choleric little
+man, he would assuredly have done so fully and freely had not a red
+light illumined the tree-tops, while the crackle of a fire was
+distinctly audible. The Germans had reached the top of the quarry, and,
+in order to dissipate the impenetrable gloom, had converted the hut into
+a beacon.
+
+"_Misericorde!_" he muttered. "They are burning our provisions, and may
+set the forest ablaze!"
+
+And that is what actually happened. The vegetation was dry, as no rain
+had fallen for many a day. The shavings and store of logs in the hut
+burned like tinder, promptly creating a raging furnace wholly beyond the
+control of the unthinking dolts who started it. The breeze which had
+sprung up earlier became a roaring tornado among the trees, and some
+acres of woodland were soon in flames. The light of that fire was seen
+over an area of hundreds of miles. Spectators in Holland wrongly
+attributed it to the burning of Vise, which was, however, only an
+intelligent anticipation of events, because the delightful old town was
+completely destroyed a week later in revenge for the defeats inflicted
+on the invaders at Tirlemont and St. Trond during the first advance on
+Antwerp.
+
+Once embarked on a somewhat perilous descent, the fugitives gave eyes or
+thought to naught else. Jules, the pioneer quoted by Leontine, who was
+the owner of the hut and maker of sabots, had rough-hewed a sort of
+stairway out of a narrow cleft in the rock face. To young people, steady
+in nerve and sure of foot, the passage was dangerous enough, but to Joos
+and his wife it offered real hazard. However, they were allowed no time
+for hesitancy. With Leontine in front, guiding her father, and Maertz
+next, telling Madame Joos where to put her feet, while Dalroy grasped
+her broad shoulders and gave an occasional eye to Irene, they all
+reached the level tow-path without the least accident. Irene, by the
+way, carried the rifle, so that Dalroy should have both hands at
+liberty.
+
+Without a moment's delay he took the weapon and readjusted the magazine,
+which he had removed for the climb. Bidding the others follow at such a
+distance that they would not lose sight of him, yet be able to retire if
+he found the way disputed by soldiers, he set off in the direction of
+Argenteau.
+
+In his opinion the next ten minutes would decide whether or not they had
+even a remote chance of winning through to a place of comparative
+safety. He had made up his own mind what to do if he met any Germans.
+He would advise the Joos family and Maertz to hide in the cleft they had
+just descended, while he would take to the Meuse with Irene--provided,
+that is, she agreed to dare the long swim by night. Happily there was no
+need to adopt this counsel of despair. The fire, instead of assisting
+the flanking party on the western side, only delayed them. Sheer
+curiosity as to what was happening in the wood drew all eyes there
+rather than to the river bank, so the three men and three women passed
+along the tow-path unseen and unchallenged.
+
+After a half-mile of rapid progress Dalroy judged that they were safe
+for the time, and allowed Madame Joos to take a much-needed rest. Though
+breathless and nearly spent, she, like the others, found an irresistible
+fascination in the scene lighted by the burning trees. The whole
+countryside was resplendent in crimson and silver, because the landscape
+was now steeped in moonshine, and the deep glow of the fire was most
+perceptible in the patches where ordinarily there would be black
+shadows. The Meuse resembled a river of blood, the movement of its
+sluggish current suggesting the onward roll of some fluid denser than
+water. Old Joos, whose tongue was seldom at rest, used that very simile.
+
+"Those cursed Prussians have made Belgium a shambles," he added
+bitterly. "Look at our river. It isn't our dear, muddy Meuse. It's a
+stream in the infernal regions."
+
+"Yes," gasped his wife. "And listen to those guns, Henri! They beat a
+sort of _roulade_, like drums in hell!"
+
+This stout Walloon matron had never heard of Milton. Her ears were not
+tuned to the music of Parnassus. She would have gazed in mild wonder at
+one who told of "noises loud and ruinous,"
+
+                   When Bellona storms
+     With all her battering engines, bent to raze
+     Some capital city.
+
+But in her distress of body and soul she had coined a phrase which two,
+at least, of her hearers would never forget. The siege of Liege did,
+indeed, roar and rumble with the din of a demoniac orchestra. Its
+clamour mounted to the firmament. It was as though the nether fiends,
+following Moloch's advice, were striving,
+
+     Arm'd with Hell flames and fury, all at once,
+     O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way.
+
+Dalroy himself yielded to the spell of the moment. Here was red war such
+as the soldier dreams of. His warrior spirit did not quail. He longed
+only for the hour, if ever the privilege was vouchsafed, when he would
+stand shoulder to shoulder with the men of his own race, and watch with
+unflinching eye those same dread tokens of a far-flung battle line.
+
+Irene Beresford seemed to read his passing mood. "War has some elements
+of greatness," she said quietly. "The pity is that while it ennobles a
+few it degrades the multitude."
+
+With a woman's intuition, she had gone straight to the heart of the
+problem propounded by Teutonism to an amazed world. The "degradation" of
+a whole people was already Germany's greatest and unforgivable offence.
+Few, even the most cynical, among the students of European politics
+could have believed that the Kaiser's troops would sully their country's
+repute by the inhuman excesses committed during those first days in
+Belgium. At the best, "war is hell"; but the great American leader who
+summed up its attributes in that pithy phrase thought only of the
+mangled men, the ruined homesteads, the bereaved families which mark its
+devastating trail. He had seen nothing of German "frightfulness." The
+men he led would have scorned to ravage peaceful villages, impale babies
+on bayonets and lances, set fire to houses containing old and bedridden
+people, murder hostages, rape every woman in a community, torture
+wounded enemies, and shoot harmless citizens in drunken sport. Yet the
+German armies did all these things before they were a fortnight in the
+field. They are not impeached on isolated counts, attributable, perhaps,
+to the criminal instincts of a small minority. They carried out bestial
+orgies in battalions and brigades acting under word of command. The
+jolly, good-humoured fellows who used to tramp in droves through the
+Swiss passes every summer, each man with a rucksack on his back, and
+beguiling the road in lusty song, seemed to cast aside all their
+cheerful camaraderie, all their exuberant kindliness of nature, when
+garbed in the "field gray" livery of the State, and let loose among the
+pleasant vales and well-tilled fields of Flanders. That will ever remain
+Germany's gravest sin. When "the thunder of the captains and the
+shouting" is stilled, when time has healed the wounds of victor and
+vanquished, the memories of Vise, of Louvain, of Aershot, of nearly
+every town and hamlet in Belgium and Northern France once occupied by
+the savages from beyond the Rhine, will remain imperishable in their
+horror. German _Kultur_ was a highly polished veneer. Exposed to the hot
+blast of war it peeled and shrivelled, leaving bare a diseased,
+worm-eaten structure, in which the honest fibre of humanity had been
+rotted by vile influences, both social and political.
+
+Women seldom err when they sum up the characteristics of the men of a
+race, and the women of every other civilised nation were united in their
+dislike of German men long before the first week in August, 1914. Irene
+Beresford had yet to peer into the foulest depths of Teutonic
+"degradation"; but she had sensed it as a latent menace, and found in
+its stark records only the fulfilment of her vague fears.
+
+Dalroy read into her words much that she had left unsaid. "At best it's
+a terrible necessity," he replied; "at worst it's what we have seen and
+heard of during the past twenty-four hours. I shall never understand why
+a people which prided itself on being above all else intellectual should
+imagine that atrocity is a means toward conquest. Such a theory is so
+untrue historically that Germany might have learnt its folly."
+
+Joos grew uneasy when his English friends spoke in their own language.
+The suspicious temperament of the peasant is always doubtful of things
+outside its comprehension. He would have been astounded if told they
+were discussing the ethics of warfare.
+
+"Well, have you two settled where we're to go?" he demanded gruffly. "In
+my opinion, the Meuse is the best place for the lot of us."
+
+"In with you, then," agreed Dalroy, "but hand over your money to madame
+before you take the dip. Leontine and Jan may need it later to start the
+mill running."
+
+Maertz laughed. The joke appealed strongly.
+
+Madame Joos turned on her husband. "How you do chatter, Henri!" she
+said. "We all owe our lives to this gentleman, yet you aren't satisfied.
+The Meuse indeed! What will you be saying next?"
+
+"How far is Argenteau?" put in Dalroy.
+
+"That's it, where the house is on fire," said the miller, pointing.
+
+"About a kilometre, I take it?"
+
+"Something like that."
+
+"Have you friends there?"
+
+"Ay, scores, if they're alive."
+
+"I hear no shooting in that direction. Moreover, an army corps is
+passing through. Let us go there. Something may turn up. We shall be
+safer among thousands of Germans than here."
+
+They walked on. The Englishman's air of decision was a tonic in itself.
+
+The fire on the promontory was now at its height, but a curve in the
+river hid the fugitives from possible observation. Dalroy was confident
+as to two favourable factors--the men of the marching column would not
+search far along the way they had come, and their commander would recall
+them when the wood yielded no trace of its supposed occupants.
+
+There had been fighting along the right bank of the Meuse during the
+previous day. German helmets, red and yellow Belgian caps, portions of
+accoutrements and broken weapons, littered the tow-path. But no bodies
+were in evidence. The river had claimed the dead and the wounded
+Belgians; the enemy's wounded had been transferred to Aix-la-Chapelle.
+
+Nearing Argenteau they heard a feeble cry. They stopped, and listened.
+Again it came, clearly this time: "Elsa! Elsa!"
+
+It was a man's voice, and the name was that of a German woman. Maertz
+searched in a thicket, and found a young German officer lying there. He
+was delirious, calling for the help of one powerless to aid.
+
+He seemed to become aware of the presence of some human being. Perhaps
+his atrophied senses retained enough vitality to hear the passing
+footsteps.
+
+"Elsa!" he moaned again, "give me water, for God's sake!"
+
+"He's done for," reported Maertz to the waiting group. "He's covered
+with blood."
+
+"For all that he may prove our salvation," said Dalroy quickly. "Sharp,
+now! Pitch our firearms and ammunition into the river. We must lift a
+gate off its hinges, and carry that fellow into Argenteau."
+
+Joos grinned. He saw the astuteness of the scheme. A number of Belgian
+peasants bringing a wounded officer to the ambulance would probably be
+allowed to proceed scot-free. But he was loath to part with the precious
+fork on which the blood of "that fat Busch" was congealing. He thrust it
+into a ditch, and if ever he was able to retrieve it no more valued
+souvenir of the great war will adorn his dwelling. They possessed
+neither wine nor water; but a tiny rivulet flowing into the Meuse under
+a neighbouring bridge supplied the latter, and the wounded man gulped
+down great mouthfuls out of a _Pickel-haube_. It partially cleared his
+wits.
+
+"Where am I?" he asked faintly.
+
+Dalroy nodded to Joos, who answered, "On the Meuse bank, near
+Argenteau."
+
+"Ah, I remember. Those cursed----" Some dim perception of his
+surroundings choked the word on his lips. "I was hit," he went on, "and
+crawled among the bushes."
+
+"Was there fighting here this morning?"
+
+"Yes. To-day is Tuesday, isn't it?"
+
+"No, Wednesday midnight."
+
+"_Ach, Gott!_ That _verdammt_ ambulance missed me! I have lain here two
+days!"
+
+This time he swore without hesitation, since he was cursing his own men.
+
+Jan came with a hurdle. "This is lighter than a gate, monsieur," he
+explained.
+
+Dalroy nudged Joos sharply, and the miller took the cue. "Right," he
+said. "Now, you two, handle him carefully."
+
+The German groaned piteously, and fainted.
+
+"Oh, he's dead!" gasped Irene, when she saw his head drop.
+
+"No, he will recover. But don't speak English.--As for you, Jan Maertz,
+no more of your 'monsieur' and 'madame.' I am Pierre, and this lady is
+Clementine. You understand?"
+
+Dalroy spoke emphatically. Had the German retained his wits their
+project might be undone. In the event, the pain of movement on the
+hurdle revived the wounded man, and he asked for more water. They were
+then entering the outskirts of Argenteau, so they kept on. Soon they
+gained the main road, and Joos inquired of an officer the whereabouts of
+a field hospital. He directed them quite civilly, and offered to detail
+men to act as bearers. But the miller was now his own shrewd self again.
+
+"No," he said bluntly, "I and my family have rescued your officer, and
+we want a safe conduct."
+
+Off they went with their living passport. The field hospital was
+established in the village school, and here the patient was turned over
+to a surgeon. As it happened, the latter recognised a friend, and was
+grateful. He sent an orderly with them to find the major in charge of
+the lines of communication, and they had not been in Argenteau five
+minutes before they were supplied with a _laisser passer_, in which they
+figured as Wilhelm Schultz, farmer, and wife, Clementine and Leontine,
+daughters, and the said daughters' fiances, Pierre Dampier and Georges
+Lambert; residence Aubel; destination Andenne.
+
+There was not the least hitch in the matter. The major was, in his way,
+courteous. Joos gave his own Christian name as "Guillaume," but the
+German laughed.
+
+"You're a good citizen of the Fatherland now, my friend," he guffawed,
+"so we'll make it 'Wilhelm.' As for this pair of doves," and he eyed the
+two girls, "warn off any of our lads. Tell them that I, Major von
+Arnheim, said so. They're a warm lot where a pretty woman is
+concerned."
+
+Von Arnheim was a stout man, a not uncommon quality in German majors.
+Perhaps he wondered why Joos looked fixedly at the pit of his stomach.
+
+But a motor cyclist dashed up with a despatch, and he forgot all about
+"Schultz" and his family. As it happened, he was a man of some ability,
+and the hopeless block at Aix caused by the stubborn defence of Liege
+had brought about the summary dismissal of a General by the wrathful
+Kaiser. Hence, the Argenteau major was promoted and recalled to the
+base. His next in rank, summoned to the post an hour later, knew nothing
+of the _laisser passer_ granted to a party which closely resembled the
+much-wanted miller of Vise and his companions; he read an "urgent
+general order" for their arrest without the least suspicion that they
+had slipped through the net in that very place.
+
+Meanwhile these things were in the lap of the gods. For the moment, the
+six people were free, and actually under German protection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AN EXPOSITION OF GERMAN METHODS
+
+
+Three large and powerful automobiles stood at rest in the tiny square of
+Argenteau. Nearly every little town in Belgium and France possesses its
+_place_, the hub of social and business life, the centre where roads
+converge and markets are held. In the roadway, near the cars, were
+several officers, deep in conversation.
+
+"Look," murmured Irene to Dalroy, "the high-shouldered, broadly-built
+man, facing this way, is General von Emmich!"
+
+By this time Dalroy was acquainted with the name of the German
+commander-in-chief. He found a fleeting interest in watching him now,
+while Joos and the others loitered irresolutely on the pavement outside
+the improvised office of the _Kommandantur_.
+
+Though the moon was high and clear, there was no other light, and the
+diffused brilliance of the "orbed maiden, with white fire laden," is not
+favourable to close observation. But Von Emmich's bearing and gestures
+were significant. He put an abrupt end to the conclave by an emphatic
+sweep of his right arm, and the larger number of his staff disposed
+themselves in two of the cars, in which the chauffeurs and armed escorts
+were already seated. They made off in the direction of Aix. It was easy
+to guess their errand. More cannon, more cannon-fodder!
+
+The generalissimo himself remained apart from the colonel and captain
+who apparently formed his personal suite. He strode to and fro,
+evidently in deep thought. Once he halted quite close to the little
+company of peasants, and Dalroy believed he saw tears in his eyes, tears
+instantly brushed away by an angry hand. Whatever the cause of this
+emotion, the General quickly mastered a momentary weakness. Indeed, that
+spasmodic yielding seemed to have braced his will to a fixed purpose,
+because he walked to the waiting car, wrote something by the light of an
+electric torch, and said to the younger of the staff officers, "Take
+that to the field telegraph. It must have priority."
+
+Somehow, Dalroy sensed the actual text of the message. Von Emmich was
+making the humiliating admission that Liege, far from having fallen, as
+he had announced during the first hours of the advance, was still an
+immovable barrier against a living torrent of men. So the heart of this
+middle-aged warrior, whose repute was good when measured by the Prussian
+standard, had not melted because of the misery and desolation he and his
+armed ruffians had brought into one of the most peaceful, industrious,
+and law-abiding communities in the world. His tears flowed because of
+failure, not of regret. His withers were wrung by mortification, not
+pity. He would have waded knee-deep in the blood of Belgium if only he
+could have gained his ends and substantiated by literal fact that first
+vainglorious telegram to the War Lord of Potsdam. Now he had to ask for
+time, reinforcements, siege guns, while the clock ticked inexorably, and
+England, France, and Russia were mobilising. Perhaps it was in that hour
+that his morbid thoughts first turned to a suicide's death as the only
+reparation for what he conceived to be a personal blunder. Yet his
+generalship was marked by no grave strategical fault. If aught erred, it
+was the German State machine, which counted only on mankind having a
+body and a brain, but denied it a soul.
+
+Von Emmich's troubles were no concern of Dalroy's, save in their
+reaction on his own difficulties. He was conscious of a certain surprise
+that Irene Beresford should recognise one of the leaders of modern
+Germany so promptly; but this feeling, in its turn, yielded to the vital
+things of the moment. "Let us be moving," he said quietly, and led the
+way with Joos.
+
+"Why did you give Andenne as your destination?" he inquired.
+
+"My wife's cousin lives there, monsieur. She is married to a man named
+Alphonse Stauwaert. I _had_ to say something. I remembered Madame
+Stauwaert in the nick of time."
+
+"But Andenne lies beyond Liege. To get there we shall have to traverse
+the whole German line, and pass some of the outlying forts, which is
+impossible."
+
+"We must go somewhere."
+
+"True. But why not make for a place that is attainable? Heaven--or
+Purgatory, at any rate--is far more easily reached to-night than
+Andenne."
+
+"I didn't say we were going there at once," snapped the miller. "It's
+more than twenty-five kilometres from here, and is far enough away to be
+safe when I'm asked where I am bound for. My wife couldn't walk it
+to-morrow, let alone to-night."
+
+"Andenne lies down the valley of the Meuse too, doesn't it?"
+
+"Ay."
+
+"Well, isn't that simply falling off a rock into a whirlpool? The
+Germans must pass that way to France, and it is France they are aiming
+at, not Belgium."
+
+"They talk mostly about England," said Joos sapiently.
+
+"Yes, because they fear her. But let us avoid politics, my friend. Our
+present problem is how and where to bestow these women for the night.
+After that, the sooner we three men leave them the better. I, at least,
+must go. I may be detected any minute, and then--God help you others!"
+
+"_Saperlotte!_ That isn't the way you English are treating us. No,
+monsieur, we sink or swim together."
+
+That ready disavowal of any clash of interests was cheering. The little
+man's heart was sound, though his temper might be short. Good faith,
+however, was not such a prime essential now as good judgment, and Dalroy
+halted again at a corner of the square. To stay in Argenteau was
+madness. But--there were three roads. One led to Vise, one to Liege, and
+one to the German frontier! The first two were closed hopelessly. The
+third, open in a sense, was fantastic when regarded as a possible avenue
+of escape. Yet that third road offered the only path toward comparative
+security and rest.
+
+"I wish you wouldn't look so dejected," whispered Irene, peeping up into
+Dalroy's downcast face with the winsome smile which had so taken his
+fancy during the long journey from Berlin. "I've been counting our gains
+and losses. Surely the balance is heavy on our side. We--you, that
+is--have defeated the whole German army. We've lost some sleep and some
+clothes, but have secured a safe-conduct from our enemies, after
+knocking a good many of them on the head. Some men, I know, look
+miserable when most successful; but I don't put you in that category."
+
+She was careful to talk German, not that there was much chance of being
+actually overheard, but to prevent the sibilant accents of English
+speech reaching suspicious ears. Britons who have no language but their
+own are often surprised when abroad at hearing children mimicking them
+by hissing. Curiously enough, such is the effect of our island tongue on
+foreign ears. Monosyllables like "yes," "this," "it's," and scores of
+others in constant use, no less than the almost invariable plural form
+of nouns, lead to the illusion, which Irene was aware of, and guarded
+against.
+
+Yet, despite the uncouth, harsh-sounding words on her lips, and the
+coarse Flemish garments she wore, she was adorably English. Leontine
+Joos was a pretty girl; but, in true feminine parlance, "lumpy." Some
+three inches less in height than her "sister," she probably weighed a
+stone more. Leontine trudged when she walked, Irene moved with a grace
+which not even a pair of clumsy sabots could hide. Luckily they were
+alike in one important particular. Their faces and hands were soiled,
+their hair untidy, and the passage through the wood had scratched
+foreheads and cheeks until the skin was broken, and little patches of
+congealed blood disfigured them.
+
+"I may look more dejected than I feel," Dalroy reassured her. "I'm
+playing a part, remember. I've kept my head down and my knees bent until
+my joints ache."
+
+"Oh, is that it?" she cooed, with a relieved air. How could he know then
+that the sabots were chafing her ankles until the pain had become
+well-nigh unbearable. If she could have gratified her own wishes she
+would have crept to the nearest hedge and flung herself down in utter
+weariness.
+
+Joos, having pondered the Englishman's views on Andenne as an
+unattainable refuge, scratched his head perplexedly. "I think we had
+better go toward Herve," he said at last. "This is the road," and he
+pointed to the left. "On the way we can branch off to a farm I know of,
+if it happens to be clear of soldiers."
+
+Any goal was preferable to none. They entered the eastward-bound road,
+but had not advanced twenty yards along it before the way was blocked by
+a mass of commissariat wagons and scores of Uhlans standing by their
+horses.
+
+Two officers, heedless who heard, were wrangling loudly.
+
+"There is nothing else for it, _Herr Hauptmann_," said one. "It doesn't
+matter who is actually to blame. You have taken the wrong road, and must
+turn back. Every yard farther in this direction puts you deeper in the
+mire."
+
+"But I was misdirected as far away as Bleyberg," protested the other.
+"Some never-to-be-forgotten hound of hell told me that this was the
+Verviers road. _Gott in himmel!_ and I _must_ be there by dawn!"
+
+Dalroy was gazing at the wagons. They seemed oddly familiar. The painted
+legend on the tarpaulins placed the matter beyond doubt. These were the
+very vehicles he had seen in the station-yard at Aix-la-Chapelle!
+
+At this crisis Jan Maertz's sluggish brain evolved a really clever
+notion. The Germans wanted a guide, and who so well qualified for the
+post as a carter to whom each turn and twist in every road in the
+province was familiar? Without consulting any one, he pushed forward.
+"Pardon, _Herr General_," he said in his offhand way. "Give me and my
+friends a lift, and I'll have you and your wagons in Verviers in three
+hours."
+
+Brutality is so engrained in the Prussian that an offer which a man of
+another race would have accepted civilly was treated almost as an insult
+by the angry leader of the convoy.
+
+"You'll guide me with the point of a lance close to your liver, you
+Belgian swine-dog," was the ungracious answer.
+
+"Not me!" retorted Maertz. "Here, papa!" he cried to Joos, "show this
+gentleman your paper. He can't go about sticking people as he likes,
+even in war-time."
+
+Joos went forward. Moved by contemptuous curiosity, the two officers
+examined the miller's _laisser passer_ by the light of an electric
+torch.
+
+The commissariat officer changed his tone when he saw the signature. The
+virtue of military obedience becomes a grovelling servitude in the
+German army, and a man who was ready to act with the utmost unfairness
+if left to his own instincts grew almost courteous at sight of the
+communications officer's name. "Your case is different," he admitted
+grudgingly. "Is this your party? The old man is Herr Schultz, I
+suppose. Which are you?"
+
+"I'm Georges Lambert, _Herr General_."
+
+"And what do you want?"
+
+"We're all going to Andenne. It's on the paper. This infernal fighting
+has smashed up our place at Aubel, and the women are footsore and
+frightened. So is papa. Put them in a wagon. Dampier and I can leg it."
+
+The Prussian was becoming more civil each moment. He realised, too, that
+this gruff fellow who moved about the country under such powerful
+protection was a veritable godsend to him and his tired men.
+
+"No, no," he cried, grown suddenly complaisant, "we can do better than
+that. I'll dump a few trusses of hay, and put you all in the same wagon,
+which can then take the lead."
+
+Thus, by a mere turn of fortune's wheel, the enemy was changed into a
+friend, and a dangerous road made safe and comfort-giving. Jan sat in
+front with the driver, and cracked jokes with him, while the others
+nestled into a load of sweet-smelling hay.
+
+"For the first time in my life," whispered Dalroy to Irene, "I
+understand the precise significance of Samson's riddle about the honey
+extracted from the lion's mouth. Our heavy-witted Jan has saved the
+situation. We enter Verviers in triumph, and reach the left of the
+German lines. Just another slice of luck, and we cross the Meuse at
+Andenne or elsewhere--it doesn't matter where."
+
+Irene had kicked off those cruel sabots. She bit her lip in the darkness
+to stifle a sob before answering coolly, "Shall we be clear of the
+Germans then?"
+
+"I--hope so. Their armies dare not advance so long as we hear those
+guns."
+
+The girl could not reason in the soldier's way. She thought she would
+"hear those guns" during the rest of her life. Never had she dreamed of
+anything so horrific as that drumming of cannon. She believed, as women
+do, that every shell tore hundreds of human beings limb from limb. In
+silent revolt against the frenzy which seemed to possess the world, she
+closed her eyes and buried her head in the hay; and once again exhausted
+nature was its own best healer. When the convoy rumbled into Verviers in
+the early morning, having followed a by-road through Julemont and Herve,
+Irene had to be awaked out of deep sleep. Yet the boom of the guns
+continued! Liege was still holding out, a paranoiac despot was frantic
+with wrath, and civilised Europe had yet another day to prepare for the
+caging of the beast which threatened its very existence.
+
+The leader of the convoy was greeted by a furious staff officer in such
+terms that Dalroy judged it expedient he and the others should slip away
+quietly. This they contrived to do. Maertz recommended an inn in a side
+street, where they would be welcomed if accommodation were available.
+And it was. There were no troops billeted in Verviers. Every available
+man was being hurried to the front. Dalroy watched two infantry
+regiments passing while Maertz and Joos were securing rooms. Though the
+soldiers were sturdy fellows, and they could not have made an
+excessively long march, many of them limped badly, and only maintained
+their places in the ranks by force of an iron discipline. He was puzzled
+to account for their jaded aspect. An hour later, while lying awake in a
+fairly comfortable bed, and trying to frame some definite programme for
+the day which had already dawned, he solved the mystery. The soldiers
+were wearing new boots! Germany had _everything_ ready for her millions.
+He learnt subsequently that when the German armies entered the field
+they were followed by ammunition trains carrying four thousand million
+rounds of small-arm cartridges alone!
+
+He met Joos and Maertz at _dejeuner_, a rough but satisfying meal, and
+was faced by the disquieting fact that neither Madame Joos nor Irene
+could leave the bedroom which they shared with Leontine. Madame was done
+up; _cette course l'a excede_, her husband put it; while mademoiselle's
+ankles were swollen and painful.
+
+These misfortunes were, perhaps, a blessing in disguise. An enforced
+rest was better than no rest at all, and the constant vigil by night
+and day was telling even on the apple-cheeked Leontine.
+
+Joos wanted to wander about the town and pick up news, but Dalroy
+dissuaded him. The woman who kept the little _auberge_ was thoroughly
+trustworthy, and hardly another soul in Verviers knew of their presence
+in the town. News they could do without, whereas recognition might be
+fatal.
+
+Irene put in an appearance late in the day. She had borrowed a pair of
+slippers, and the landlady had promised to buy her a pair of strong
+boots. Sabots she would never wear again, she vowed. They might be
+comfortable and watertight when one was accustomed to them, but life was
+too strenuous in Belgium just then to permit of experiments in footgear.
+
+When night fell Joos could not be kept in. It was understood that the
+_Kommandantur_ had ordered all inhabitants to remain indoors after nine
+o'clock, so the old man had hardly an hour at his disposal for what he
+called a _petit tour_. But he was not long absent. He had encountered a
+friend, a cure whose church near Aubel had been blown to atoms by German
+artillery during a frontier fight on the Monday afternoon.
+
+This gentleman, a venerable ecclesiastic, discovered Dalroy's
+nationality after five minutes' chat. He had in his possession a copy of
+a proclamation issued by Von Emmich. It began: "I regret very much to
+find that German troops are compelled to cross the frontier of Belgium.
+They are constrained to do so by sheer necessity, the neutrality of
+Belgium having already been violated by French officers, who, in
+disguise, have passed through Belgian territory in an automobile in
+order to penetrate Germany."
+
+The cure, whose name was Garnier, laughed sarcastically at the
+childishness of the pretext put forward by the commander-in-chief of the
+Army of the Meuse. "Was war waged for such a flimsy reason ever before
+in the history of the world?" he said. "What fire-eaters these
+'disguised' French officers must have been! Imagine the hardihood of the
+braves who would 'penetrate' mighty Germany in one automobile! This
+silly lie bears the date of 4th August, yet my beloved church was then
+in ruins, and a large part of the village in flames!"
+
+"Verviers seems to have escaped punishment. How do you account for it?"
+inquired Dalroy.
+
+"It seems to be a deliberate policy on the part of the Germans to spare
+one town and destroy another. Both serve as examples, the one as typical
+of the excellent treatment meted out to those communities which welcome
+the invaders, the other as a warning of the fate attending resistance.
+Both instances are absolutely untrue. Every burgomaster in Belgium has
+issued notices calling on non-combatants to avoid hostile acts, and
+Verviers is exactly on a par with the other unfortified towns in this
+part of the country. The truth is, monsieur, that the Germans are
+furious because of the delay our gallant soldiers have imposed on them.
+It is bearing fruit too. I hear that England has already landed an army
+at Ostend."
+
+Dalroy shook his head. "I wish I might credit that," he said sadly. "I
+am a soldier, monsieur, and you may take it from me that such a feat is
+quite impossible in the time. We might send twenty or thirty thousand
+men by the end of this week, and another similar contingent by the end
+of next week. But months must elapse before we can put in the field an
+army big enough to make headway against the swarms of Germans I have
+seen with my own eyes."
+
+"Months!" gasped the cure. "Then what will become of my unhappy country?
+Even to-day we are living on hope. Liege still holds out, and the people
+are saying, 'The English are coming, all will be well!' A man was shot
+to-day in this very town for making that statement."
+
+"He must have been a fool to voice his views in the presence of German
+troops."
+
+The priest spread wide his hands in sorrowful gesture. "You don't
+understand," he said. "Belgium is overrun with spies. It is positively
+dangerous to utter an opinion in any mixed company. One or two of the
+bystanders will certainly be in the pay of the enemy."
+
+Though the cure was now on surer ground than when he spoke of a British
+army on Belgian soil, Dalroy egged him on to talk. "My chief difficulty
+is to know how the money was raised to support all these agencies," he
+said. "Consider, monsieur. Germany maintains an enormous army. She has a
+fleet second only to that of Britain. She finances her traders and
+subsidises her merchant ships as no other nation does. How is it
+credible that she should also find means to keep up a secret service
+which must have cost millions sterling a year?"
+
+"Yes, you are certainly English," said the priest, with a sad smile.
+"You don't begin to estimate the peculiarities of the German character.
+We Belgians, living, so to speak, within arm's-length of Germany, have
+long seen the danger, and feared it. Every German is taught that the
+world is his for the taking. Every German is encouraged in the belief
+that the national virtue of organised effort is the one and only means
+of commanding success. Thus, the State is everything, the individual
+nothing. But the State rewards the individual for services rendered. The
+German dotes on titles and decorations, and what easier way of earning
+both than to supply information deemed valuable by the various State
+departments? Plenty of wealthy Germans in Belgium paid their own spies,
+and used the knowledge so gained for their private ends as well as for
+the benefit of the State. During the past twenty years the whole German
+race has become a most efficient secret society, its members being
+banded together for their common good, and leagued against the rest of
+the world. The German never loses his nationality, no matter how long he
+may dwell in a foreign country. My own church claims to be Catholic and
+universal, yet I would not trust a German colleague in any matter where
+the interests of his country were at stake. The Germans are a race
+apart, and believe themselves superior to all others. There was a time,
+in my youth, when Prussia was distinct from Saxony, or Wuertemberg,
+or Bavaria. That feeling is dead. The present Emperor has welded his
+people into one tremendous machine, partly by playing upon their vanity,
+partly by banging the German drum during his travels, but mainly by
+dangling before their eyes the reward that men have always found
+irresistible--the spoliation of other lands, the prospect of sudden
+enrichment. Every soldier marching past this house at the present
+moment hopes to rob Belgium and France. And now England is added to the
+enticing list of well-stocked properties that may be lawfully burgled.
+I am no prophet, monsieur. I am only an old man who has watched the
+upspringing of a new and terrible force in European politics. I may live
+an hour or ten years; but if God spares me for the latter period I shall
+see Germany either laid in the dust by an enraged world or dominating
+the earth by brutal conquest."
+
+But for the outbreak of the war Dalroy would have passed the
+"interpreter" test in German some few weeks later. He had spent his
+"language leave" in Berlin, and was necessarily familiar with German
+thought and literature. Often had he smiled at Teutonic boastfulness.
+Now the simple words of an aged village cure had given a far-reaching
+and sinister meaning to much that had seemed the mere froth of a
+vigorous race fermenting in successful trade.
+
+"Do you believe that the German colony in England pursues the same
+methods?" he asked, and his heart sank as he recalled the wealth and
+social standing of the horde of Germans in the British Isles.
+
+"Can the leopard change his spots?" quoted the other. "A year ago one of
+my friends, a maker of automobiles, thought I needed a holiday. He took
+me to England. God has been good to Britain, monsieur! He has given you
+riches and power. But you are grown careless. I stayed in five big
+hotels, two in London and three in the provinces. They were all run by
+Germans. I made inquiries, thinking I might benefit some of my village
+lads; but the German managers would employ none save German waiters,
+German cooks, German reception clerks. Your hall porters were Germans.
+You never cared to reflect, I suppose, that hotels are the main arteries
+of a country's life. But the canker did not end there. Your mills and
+collieries were installing German plant under German supervisors. Your
+banks----"
+
+The speaker paused dramatically.
+
+"But our God is not a German God!" he cried, and his sunken eyes seemed
+to shoot fire. "Last night, listening to the guns that were murdering
+Belgium, I asked myself, why does Heaven permit this crime? And the
+answer came swiftly: German influences were poisoning the world. They
+had to be eradicated, or mankind would sink into the bottomless pit. So
+God has sent this war. Be of good heart. Remember the words of Saint
+Paul: 'So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in
+corruption; it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonour; it is
+raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.'"
+
+The cure's voice had unconsciously attained the pulpit pitch. The clear,
+incisive accents reached other ears.
+
+The landlady crept in, with a face of scare. "Monsieur!" she whispered,
+"the doors are wide open. It is an order!"
+
+Dalroy went rapidly into the street. No loiterer was visible. Not even a
+crowd of five persons might gather to watch the military pageant; it was
+_verboten_. And ever the dim shapes flitted by in the night--horse,
+foot, and artillery, automobiles, ambulance and transport wagons. There
+seemed no end to this flux of gray-green gnomes. The air was tremulous
+with the unceasing hammer-strokes of heavy guns on the anvil of Liege.
+Staid old Europe might be dissolving even then in a cloud of
+high-explosive gas.
+
+The scheme of things was all awry. One Englishman gave up the riddle. He
+turned on his heel, and lit one of the cheap cigars purchased in
+Aix-la-Chapelle less than forty-eight hours ago!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ANDENNE
+
+
+Madame Joos was old for her fifty years, and heavy withal. Hers was not
+the finer quality of human clay which hardens in the fire of adversity.
+She became ill, almost seriously ill, and had to be nursed back into
+good health again during nine long days. And long these days were, the
+longest Dalroy had ever known. To a man of his temperament, enforced
+inactivity was anathema in any conditions; a gnawing doubt that he was
+not justified in remaining in Verviers at all did not improve matters.
+Monsieur Garnier, the cure, was a frequent though unobtrusive visitor.
+He doctored the invalid, and brought scraps of accurate information
+which filtered through the far-flung screen of Uhlans and the dense
+lines of German infantry and guns. Thus the fugitives knew when and
+where the British Expeditionary Force actually landed on the Continent.
+They heard of the gradual sapping of the defences of Liege, until Fort
+Loncin fell, and, with it, as events were to prove, the shield which had
+protected Belgium for nearly a fortnight. The respite did not avail King
+Albert and his heroic people in so far as the occupation and ravaging of
+their beautiful country was concerned; but calm-eyed historians in
+years to come will appraise at its true value the breathing-space,
+slight though it was, thus secured for France and England.
+
+Dalroy found it extraordinarily difficult to sift the true from the
+false in the crop of conflicting rumours. In the first instance, German
+legends had to be discounted. From the outset of the campaign the
+Kaiser's armies were steadily regaled with accounts of phenomenal
+successes _elsewhere_. Thus, when four army corps, commanded now by Von
+Kluck, were nearly demoralised by the steadfast valour of General Leman
+and his stalwarts, the men were rallied by being told that the Crown
+Prince was smashing his way to Paris through Nancy and Verdun. Prodigies
+were being performed in Poland and the North Sea, and London was burnt
+by Zeppelins almost daily. Nor did Belgian imagination lag far behind in
+this contest of unveracity. British and French troops were marching to
+the Meuse by a dozen roads; the French raid into Alsace was magnified
+into a great military feat; the British fleet had squelched the German
+navy by sinking nineteen battleships; the Kaiser, haggard and
+blear-eyed, was alternately degrading and shooting Generals and issuing
+flamboyant proclamations. Finally, Russia was flattening out East
+Prussia and Galicia with the slow crunching of a steam roller.
+
+Out of this maelstroem of "news" a level-headed soldier might, and did,
+extract certain hard facts. The landing of Sir John French's force took
+place exactly at the time and place and in the numbers Dalroy himself
+had estimated. To throw a small army into Flanders would have been
+folly. Obviously, the British must join hands with the French before
+offering battle. For the rest--though he went out very little, and
+alone, as being less risky--he recognised the hour when the German
+machine recovered its momentum after the first unexpected collapse. He
+saw order replace chaos. He watched the dragon crawling ever onward, and
+understood then that no act of man could save Belgium. Verviers was the
+best possible site for an observer who knew how to use his eyes. He
+assumed that what was occurring there was going on with equal precision
+in Luxembourg and along the line of the Vosges Mountains.
+
+Gradually, too, he reconciled his conscience to these days of waiting.
+He believed now that his services would be immensely more useful to the
+British commander-in-chief in the field if he could cross the French
+frontier rather than reach London and the War Office by way of the
+Belgian coast. This decision lightened his heart. He was beginning to
+fear that the welfare of Irene Beresford was conflicting with duty. It
+was cheering to feel convinced that the odds and ends of information
+picked up in Verviers might prove of inestimable value to the allied
+cause. For instance, Liege was being laid low by eleven-inch howitzers,
+but he had seen seventeen-inch howitzers, each in three parts, each part
+drawn by forty horses or a dozen traction-engines, moving slowly toward
+the south-west. There lay Namur and France. No need to doubt now where
+the chief theatre of the war would find its habitat. The German staff
+had blundered in its initial strategy, but the defect was being
+repaired. All that had gone before was a mere prelude to the grim
+business which would be transacted beyond the Meuse.
+
+During that period of quiescence, certain minor and personal elements
+affecting the future passed from a nebulous stage to a state of
+quasi-acceptance. There was not, there could not be, any pronounced
+love-making between two people so situated as Dalroy and Irene
+Beresford. But eyes can exchange messages which the lips dare not utter,
+and these two began to realise that they were designed the one for the
+other by a wise Providence. As that is precisely the right sentiment of
+young folk in love, romance throve finely in Madame Beranger's little
+_auberge_ in the Rue de Nivers at Verviers. A tender glance, a touch of
+the hand, a lighting of a troubled face when the dear one appears--these
+things are excellent substitutes for the spoken word.
+
+Irene was "Irene" to Dalroy ever since that night in the wood at
+Argenteau, and the girl herself accepted the development with the
+deftness which is every woman's legacy from Mother Eve.
+
+"If you make free with my Christian name I must retort by using yours,"
+she said one day on coming down to breakfast. "So, 'Good-morning,
+Arthur.' Where did you get that hat?"
+
+The hat in question was a purchase, a wide-brimmed felt such as is
+common in Flanders. Its Apache slouch, in conjunction with Jan Maertz's
+oldest clothes and a week's stubble of beard, made Dalroy quite
+villainous-looking. Except in the details of height and physique, it
+would, indeed, be difficult for any stranger to associate this
+loose-limbed Belgian labourer with the well-groomed cavalry officer who
+entered the Friedrich Strasse Station in Berlin on the night of 3rd
+August. That was as it should be, though the alteration was none the
+less displeasing to its victim. Irene adopted a huge sun-bonnet, and
+compromised as to boots by wearing _sabots en cuir_, or clogs.
+
+Singularly enough, white-haired Monsieur Garnier nearly brought matters
+to a climax as between these two.
+
+On the Wednesday evening, when the last forts of Liege were crumbling,
+Madame Joos was reported convalescent and asleep, so both girls came to
+the little _salon_ for a supper of stewed veal.
+
+Naturally the war was discussed first; but the priest was learning to
+agree with his English friend about its main features. In sheer dismay
+at the black outlook before his country, he suddenly turned the talk
+into a more intimate channel.
+
+"What plans have you youngsters made?" he asked. "Monsieur Joos and I
+can only look back through the years. The places we know and love are
+abodes of ghosts. The milestones are tombstones. We can surely count
+more friends dead than living. For you it is different. The world will
+go on, war or no war; but Verviers will not become your residence, I
+take it."
+
+"Jan and I mean to join our respective armies as soon as Monsieur Joos
+and the ladies are taken care of, and that means, I suppose, safely
+lodged in England," said Dalroy.
+
+"If Leontine likes to marry me first, I'm agreeable," put in Maertz
+promptly.
+
+It was a naive confession, and every one laughed except Joos.
+
+"Leontine marries neither you nor any other hulking loafer while there
+is one German hoof left in Belgium," vowed the little man warmly.
+
+The priest smiled. He knew where the shoe pinched. Maertz, if no loafer,
+was not what is vulgarly described as "a good catch."
+
+"I've lost my parish," he said jestingly, "and, being an inveterate
+match-maker, am on the _qui vive_ for a job. But if father says 'No' we
+must wait till mother has a word. Now for the other pair.--What of you?"
+
+Irene blushed scarlet, and dropped her serviette; Dalroy, though
+flabbergasted, happily hit on a way out.
+
+"I'm surprised at you, monsieur!" he cried. "Look at mademoiselle, and
+then run your eye over me. Did ever pretty maid wed such a scarecrow?"
+
+"I must refer that point to mademoiselle," retorted the priest. "I don't
+think either of you would choose a book by the cover."
+
+"Ah. At last I know the worst," laughed Dalroy. "Who would believe that
+I once posed as the Discobulus in a _tableau vivant_?"
+
+"What's that?" demanded Joos.
+
+Dalroy hesitated. Neither his French nor German was equal to the
+translation.
+
+"A quoit-thrower," suggested Irene.
+
+"Quoits!" sniffed the miller. "I'll take you on at that game any day you
+like for twenty francs every ringer."
+
+It was a safe offer. Old Joos was a noted player. He gave details of his
+prowess. Dalroy, though modestly declining a contest, led him on, and
+steered the conversation clear of rocks.
+
+Thenceforth, for a whole day, Irene's manner stiffened perceptibly, and
+Dalroy was miserable. Inexperienced in the ways of the sex, he little
+dreamed that Irene felt she had been literally thrown at his head.
+
+But graver issues soon dispersed that small cloud. On Saturday, 15th
+August, the thunder of the guns lessened and died down, being replaced
+by the far more distant and fitful barking of field batteries. But the
+rumble on the cobbles of the main road continued. What need to ask what
+had happened? Around Liege lay the silence of death.
+
+Late that afternoon a woman brought a note to Dalroy. It bore no
+address. She merely handed it to him, and hurried off, with the furtive
+air of one afraid of being asked for an explanation. It ran:
+
+    "DEAR FRIEND,--Save yourself and the others. Lose not a moment.
+    I have seen a handbill. A big reward is offered. My advice is:
+    go west separately. The messenger I employ is a Christian, but I
+    doubt the faith of many. May God guard you! I shall accompany
+    you in my thoughts and prayers.--E. G."
+
+Dalroy found Joos instantly.
+
+"What is our cure's baptismal name?" he inquired.
+
+"Edouard, monsieur."
+
+"He has sent us marching orders. Read that!"
+
+The miller's wizened face blanched. He had counted on remaining in
+Verviers till the war was over. At that date no self-respecting Belgian
+could bring himself to believe that the fighting would continue into the
+winter. The first comparative successes of the small Belgian army,
+combined with the meteoric French advance into Alsace, seemed to assure
+speedy victory by the Allies. He swore roundly, but decided to follow
+the priest's bidding in every respect save one.
+
+"We can't split up," he declared. "We are all named in the _laisser
+passer_. You understand what dull pigs these Germans are. They'll count
+heads. If one is missing, or there's one too many, they'll inquire about
+it for a week."
+
+Sound common-sense and no small knowledge of Teuton character lurked in
+the old man's comment. Monsieur Garnier, of course, had not been told
+why this queerly assorted group clung together, nor was he aware of the
+exact cause of their flight from Vise. Probably the handbill he
+mentioned was explicit in names and descriptions. At any rate, he must
+have the strongest reasons for supposing that Verviers no longer
+provided a safe retreat.
+
+Jan Maertz was summoned. He made a good suggestion. The direct road to
+Andenne, via Liege and Huy, was impracticable, being crowded with troops
+and transports. Why not use the country lanes from Pepinster through
+Louveigne, Hamoir, and Maffe? It was a hilly country, and probably clear
+of soldiers. He would buy a dog-team, and thus save Madame Joos the
+fatigue of walking.
+
+Dalroy agreed at once. Even though Irene still insisted on sharing his
+effort to cross the German lines, two routes opened from Andenne, one to
+Brussels and the west, the other to Dinant and the south. Moreover, he
+counted on the Allies occupying the Mons-Charleroi-Namur terrain, and
+one night's march from Andenne, with Maertz as guide, should bring the
+three of them through, as the Joos family, in all likelihood, would
+elect to remain with their relatives.
+
+In a word, the orderliness of Verviers had already relegated the
+excesses of Vise to the obscurity of an evil but half-forgotten dream.
+The horrors of Louvain, of Malines, of the whole Belgian valley of the
+Meuse, had yet to come. An officer of the British army simply could not
+allow his mind to conceive the purposeful criminality of German methods.
+Little did he imagine that, on the very day the fugitives set out for
+Andenne, Vise was completely sacked and burned by command of the German
+authorities. And why? Not because of any fault committed by the
+unfortunate inhabitants, who had suffered so much at the outbreak of
+hostilities. This second avalanche was let loose out of sheer spite. By
+this time the enemy was commencing to estimate the fearful toll which
+the Belgian army had taken of the Uhlans who provided the famous
+"cavalry screen." Over and over again the vaunted light horsemen of
+Germany were ambuscaded and cut up or captured. They proved to be
+extraordinarily poor fighters when in small numbers, but naturally those
+who got away made a fine tale of the dangers they had escaped. These
+constant defeats stung the pride of the headquarters staff, and
+"frightfulness" was prescribed as the remedy. The fact cannot be
+disputed. The invaders' earliest offences might be explained, if not
+condoned, as the deeds of men brutalised by drink, but the wholesale
+ravaging of communities by regiments and brigades was the outcome of a
+deliberate policy of reprisal. The Hun argument was convincing--to the
+Hun intellect. How dared these puny Belgians fight for their hearths and
+homes? It was their place to grovel at the feet of the conqueror. If any
+worn-out notions of honour and manhood and the sanctity of woman
+inspired them to take the field, they must be taught wisdom by being
+ground beneath the heel of the Prussian jack-boot.
+
+If the dead mouths of five thousand murdered Belgians did not bear
+testimony against these disciplined marauders, the mere journey of the
+little party of men and women who set out from Verviers that Saturday
+afternoon would itself dispose of any attempt to cloak the high-placed
+offenders.
+
+They arranged a rendezvous at Pepinster. Dalroy went alone. He insisted
+that this was advisable. Maertz brought Madame Joos and Irene. Joos,
+having been besought to curb his tongue, convoyed Leontine. Until
+Pepinster was reached, they took the main road, with its river of
+troops. None gave them heed. Not a man addressed an uncivil word to
+them. The soldiers were cheery and well-behaved.
+
+They halted that night at Louveigne, which was absolutely unscathed.
+Next day they passed through Hamoir and Maffe, and the peasants were
+gathering the harvest!
+
+Huy and Andenne, a villager told them, were occupied by the Germans, but
+all was quiet. They pushed on, turning north-west from Maffe, and
+descended into the Meuse valley about six o'clock in the evening. It was
+ominous that the bridge was destroyed and a cluster of houses burning in
+Seilles, a town on the opposite, or left, bank of the river. But Andenne
+itself, a peaceful and industrious place, seemed to be undisturbed.
+While passing a farm known as Dermine they fell in with a priest and a
+few Belgians who were carrying a mortally wounded Prussian officer on a
+stretcher.
+
+Then, to his real chagrin, Dalroy heard that the Belgian outposts had
+been driven south and west only that morning. One day less in Verviers,
+and he and the others would have been out of their present difficulties.
+However, he made the best of it. Surely they could either cross the
+Meuse or reach Namur next day; while the fact that some local residents
+were attending to the injured officer would supply the fugitives with an
+excellent safe-conduct into Andenne, just as a similar incident had been
+their salvation at Argenteau.
+
+The stretcher was taken into the villa of a well-to-do resident; and, it
+being still broad daylight, Joos asked to be directed to the house of
+Monsieur Alphonse Stauwaert. The miller was acquainted with the
+topography of the town, but the Stauwaert family had moved recently to a
+new abode.
+
+"Barely two hundred metres, _tout droit_," he was told.
+
+They had gone part of the way when a troop of Uhlans came at the gallop
+along the Namur road. The soldiers advanced in a pack, and were
+evidently in a hurry. Madame Joos was seated in the low-built, flat
+cart, drawn by two strong dogs, which had brought her from Verviers.
+Maertz was leading the animals. The other four were disposed on both
+sides of the cart. At the moment, no other person was nearer than some
+thirty yards ahead. Three men were standing there in the roadway, and
+they moved closer to the houses on the left. Maertz, too, pulled his
+team on to the pavement on the same side.
+
+The Uhlans came on. Suddenly, without the slightest provocation, their
+leader swerved his horse and cut down one of the men, who dropped with a
+shriek of mingled fear and agony.
+
+Retribution came swiftly, because the charger slipped on some rounded
+cobbles, crossed its forelegs, and turned a complete somersault. The
+rider, a burly non-commissioned officer, pitched clean on his head, and
+either fractured his skull or broke his neck, perhaps achieving both
+laudable results, while his blood-stained sabre clattered on the stones
+at Dalroy's feet. The nearest Uhlans drove their lances through the
+other two civilians, who were already running for their lives. In order
+to avoid the plunging horse and their fallen leader, the two ruffians
+reined on to the pavement. They swung their weapons, evidently meaning
+to transfix some of the six people clustered around the cart. The women
+screamed shrilly. Leontine cowered near the wall; Joos, valiant soul in
+an aged body, put himself in front of his wife; Maertz, hauling at the
+dogs, tried to convert the vehicle into a shield for Leontine; while
+Dalroy, conscious that Irene was close behind, picked up the
+_unteroffizier's_ sword.
+
+Much to the surprise of the trooper, who selected this tall peasant as
+an easy prey, he parried the lance-thrust in such wise that the blade
+entered the horse's off foreleg and brought the animal down. At the same
+instant Maertz ducked, and dodged a wild lunge, which missed because the
+Uhlan was trying to avoid crashing into the cart. But the vengeful steel
+found another victim. By mischance it transfixed Madame Joos, while the
+horse's shoulder caught Dalroy a glancing blow in the back and sent him
+sprawling.
+
+Some of the troopers, seeing two of their men prone, were pulling up
+when a gruff voice cried, "_Achtung!_ We'll clear out these swine
+later!"
+
+Irene, who saw all that had passed with an extraordinary vividness, was
+the only one who understood why the order which undoubtedly saved five
+lives was given. A stout staff officer, wearing a blue uniform with red
+facings, rode with the Uhlans, and she was certain that he was in a
+state of abject terror. His funk was probably explained by an irregular
+volley lower down the street, though, in the event, the shooting proved
+to be that of his own men. Two miles away, at Solayn, these same Uhlans
+had been badly bitten by a Belgian patrol, and the fat man, prospecting
+the Namur road with a cavalry escort, wanted no more unpleasant
+surprises that evening. Ostensibly, of course, he was anxious to report
+to a brigade headquarters at Huy. At any rate, the Uhlans swept on.
+
+They were gone when Dalroy regained his feet. A riderless horse was
+clattering after them; another with a broken leg was vainly trying to
+rise. Close at hand lay two Uhlans, one dead and one insensible. Joos
+and Leontine were bending over the dying woman in the cart, making
+frantic efforts to stanch the blood welling forth from mouth and breast.
+The lance had pierced her lungs, but she was conscious for a minute or
+so, and actually smiled the farewell she could not utter.
+
+Maertz was swearing horribly, with the incoherence of a man just
+aroused from drunken sleep. Irene moved a few steps to meet Dalroy. Her
+face was marble white, her eyes strangely dilated.
+
+"Are you hurt?" she asked.
+
+"No. And you?"
+
+"Untouched, thanks to you. But those brutes have killed poor Madame
+Joos!"
+
+The wounded Uhlan was stretched between them. He stirred convulsively,
+and groaned. Dalroy looked at the sword which he still held. He resisted
+a great temptation, and sprang over the prostrate body. He was about to
+say something when a ghastly object staggered past. It was the man who
+received the sabre-cut, which had gashed his shoulder deeply.
+
+"_Oh, mon Dieu!_" he screamed. "_Oh, mon Dieu!_"
+
+He may have been making for some burrow. They never knew. He wailed that
+frenzied appeal as he shambled on--always the same words. He could think
+of nothing else but the last cry of despairing humanity to the
+All-Powerful.
+
+Owing to the flight of the cavalry, Dalroy imagined that some body of
+allied troops, Belgian or French, was advancing from Namur, so he did
+not obey his first impulse, which was to enter the nearest house and
+endeavour to get away through the gardens or other enclosures in rear.
+
+He glanced at the hapless body on the cart, and saw by the eyes that
+life had departed. Leontine was sobbing pitifully. Maertz, having
+recovered his senses, was striving to calm her. But Joos remained
+silent; he held his wife's limp hand, and it was as though he awaited
+some reassuring clasp which should tell him that she still lived.
+
+Dalroy had no words to console the bereaved old man. He turned aside,
+and a mist obscured his vision for a little while. Then he heard the
+wounded German hiccoughing, and he looked again at the sword, because
+this was the assassin who had foully murdered a gentle, kind-hearted,
+and inoffensive woman. But he could not demean himself by becoming an
+executioner. Richly as the criminal deserved to be sent with his victim
+to the bar of Eternal Justice, the Englishman decided to leave him to
+the avengers coming through the town.
+
+The shooting drew nearer. A number of women and children, with a few
+men, appeared. They were running and screaming. The first batch fled
+past; but an elderly dame, spent with even a brief flurry, halted for a
+few seconds when she saw the group near the dog-team.
+
+"Henri Joos!" she gasped. "And Leontine! What, in Heaven's name, are you
+doing here?"
+
+It was Madame Stauwaert, the Andenne cousin with whom they hoped to find
+sanctuary.
+
+The miller gazed at her in a curiously abstracted way. "Is that you,
+Margot?" he said. "We were coming to you. But they have wounded Lise.
+See! Here she is!"
+
+Madame Stauwaert looked at the corpse as though she did not understand
+at first. Then she burst out hysterically, "She's dead, Henri! They've
+killed her! They're killing all of us! They pulled Alphonse out of the
+house and stabbed him with a bayonet. They're firing through the
+openings into the cellars and into the ground-floor rooms of every
+house. If they see a face at a bedroom window they shoot. Two Germans,
+so drunk that they could hardly stand, shot at me as I ran. Ah, dear
+God!"
+
+She swayed and sank in a faint. The flying crowd increased in numbers.
+Some one shouted, "Fools! Be off, for your lives! Make for the
+quarries."
+
+Dalroy decided to take this unknown friend's advice. The terrified
+people of Andenne had, at least, some definite goal in view, whereas he
+had none. He lifted Madame Stauwaert and placed her beside the dead body
+on the cart.
+
+"Come," he said to Maertz, "get the dogs into a trot.--Leontine, look
+after your father, and don't lose sight of us!"
+
+He grasped Irene by the arm. The tiny vehicle was flat and narrow, and
+he was so intent on preventing the unconscious woman from falling off
+into the road that he did not miss Joos and his daughter until Irene
+called on Maertz to stop. "Where are the others?" she cried. "We must
+not desert them."
+
+In the midst of a scattered mob came the laggards. Joos was not
+hurrying at all. He was smiling horribly. In his hand he held a large
+pocket-knife open. "It was all I had," he explained calmly. "But Margot
+said Lise was dead, so it did his business."
+
+"I'm glad," said Dalroy. "It was your privilege. But you must run now,
+for Leontine's sake, as she will not leave you, and the Germans may be
+on us at any moment."
+
+Luckily, the stream of people swerved into a by-road; the "quarries"
+of which some man had spoken opened up in the hillside close at hand.
+On top were woods, and a cart-track led that way at a sharp gradient.
+Dalroy assisted the dogs by pushing the cart, and they reached the
+summit. Pausing there, while Irene and the weeping Leontine endeavoured
+to revive Madame Stauwaert, to whom they must look for some sort of
+guidance as to their next move, he went to the lip of the excavation,
+and surveyed the scene.
+
+Dusk was creeping over the picturesque valley, but the light still
+sufficed to reveal distances. The railway station, with all the houses
+in the vicinity, was on fire. Nearly every dwelling along the Namur road
+was ablaze; while the trim little farms which rise, one above the other,
+on the terraced heights of the right bank of the Meuse seemed to have
+burst into flame spontaneously. Seilles, too, on the opposite bank, was
+undergoing the same process of wanton destruction; but, a puzzling
+thing, rifles and machine-guns were busy on both sides of the river, and
+the flashes showed that a sharp engagement was taking place.
+
+A man, carrying a child in his arms, who had come with them, was
+standing at Dalroy's elbow. He appeared self-possessed enough, so the
+Englishman sought information.
+
+"Are those Belgian troops in Seilles?" he inquired.
+
+The man snorted. "Belgians? No! They retreated to Namur this morning.
+That is a Bavarian regiment shooting at Brandenburgers in Andenne. They
+are all mad drunk, officers and men. They've been here since eleven
+o'clock, first Uhlans, then infantry. The burgomaster met them fairly,
+not a shot was fired, and we thought we were over the worst. Then, as
+you see, hell broke loose!"
+
+Such was the refuge Andenne provided on Monday, 20th August. Hell--by
+order!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A TRAMP ACROSS BELGIUM
+
+
+The stranger, a Monsieur Jules Pochard, proved a most useful friend. In
+the first instance, he was a cool-headed person, who did not allow
+imagination to run riot. "No," he said, when questioned as to the chance
+of reaching Namur by a forced march along country lanes, "every road in
+that section of the province is closed by cavalry patrols. You cannot
+avoid them, monsieur. Come with me to Huy, and you'll be reasonably
+safe."
+
+"Why safer in Huy than here, or anywhere else where these brutes may
+be?"
+
+"Huy has been occupied by the Germans since the 12th, and is their
+temporary headquarters. From what I gather, they usually spare such
+towns. That is why we never dreamed of Andenne being sacked."
+
+Dalroy remembered the aged cure's exposition of _Kultur_ as a policy.
+"Is this sort of thing going on generally, then?" he asked.
+
+Monsieur Pochard was a Frenchman. He raised his eyebrows. "Where can you
+have been, monsieur, not to know what has happened at Liege, Vise,
+Flemelle Grande, Blagny Trembleur, and a score of other places?"
+
+"Vise!" broke in the cracked, piping voice of Joos. "What's that about
+Vise?"
+
+"It is burnt to the ground, and nearly all the inhabitants killed."
+
+"Is anything said of a fat major named Busch, whom Henri Joos the miller
+stuck with a fork?"
+
+"A Prussian, do you mean?"
+
+"Ay. One of the same breed--a Westphalian."
+
+"I haven't heard."
+
+"He tried to assault my daughter, so I got him. The second one, a Uhlan,
+killed my wife, and I got _him_ too. I cut his throat down there in the
+main street. It's easy to kill Germans. They're soft, like pigs."
+
+Though Joos's half-demented boasting was highly injudicious, Dalroy did
+not interfere. He was in a mood to let matters drift. They could not
+well be worse. He had tried to control the course of events in so far as
+they affected his own and Irene Beresford's fortunes, but had failed
+lamentably. Now, fate must take charge.
+
+Pochard's comment was to the point, at any rate. "I congratulate you,
+monsieur," he said. "I'll do a bit in that line myself when this little
+one is lodged with his aunt in Huy. If every Belgian accounts for two
+Prussians, you'll hold them till the French and English join up."
+
+"Do you know for certain where the English are?" put in Dalroy eagerly.
+
+"Yes, at Charleroi. The French are in Namur. Come with me to Huy. A few
+days, and the _sales Alboches_ will be pelting back to the Rhine."
+
+For the second time Dalroy heard a slang epithet new to him applied to
+the Germans. He little guessed how familiar the abbreviated French form
+of the word would become in his ears. Briton, Frenchman, Slav, and
+Italian have cordially adopted "Boche" as a suitable term for the common
+enemy. It has no meaning, yet conveys a sense of contemptuous dislike.
+Stricken France had no heart for humour in 1870. The merciless foe was
+then a "Prussian"; in 1914 he became a "Boche," and the change held a
+comforting significance.
+
+Dalroy, of course, did not share the Frenchman's opinion as to the
+speedy discomfiture of the invader; but night was falling, the offer of
+shelter was too good to be refused. Nevertheless, he was careful to
+reveal a real difficulty. "Unfortunately, we have a dead woman in the
+cart," he said. "Madame Stauwaert, too, is ill, but she has recovered
+from a fainting fit, I see."
+
+"Ah, poor Stauwaert!" murmured the other. "A decent fellow. I saw them
+kill him. And that's his wife, of course. I didn't recognise her
+before."
+
+Dalroy was relieved to find that the Frenchman and the bereaved woman
+were friends. He had not forgotten the priest's statement that there
+would be a spy in every group in that part of Belgium. Later he
+ascertained that Monsieur Pochard was a well-to-do leather merchant in
+Andenne, who, like many others, refused to abandon a long-established
+business for fear of the Germans; doubtless he was destined to pay a
+heavy price for his tenacity ere the war ended. He behaved now as a true
+Samaritan, urging an immediate move, and promising even to arrange for
+Madame Joos's burial. Dalroy helped him to carry the child, a
+three-year-old boy, who was very sleepy and peevish, and did not
+understand why he should not be at home and in bed.
+
+Joos suffered them to lead him where they listed. He walked by the side
+of the cart, and told "Lise" how he had dealt with the Uhlan. Leontine
+sobbed afresh, and tried to stop him, but he grew quite angry.
+
+"Why shouldn't she know?" he snapped. "It is her affair, and mine. You
+screamed, and turned away, but I hacked at him till his wind-pipe
+hissed."
+
+Monsieur Pochard brought them to Huy by a rough road among the hills.
+
+It was a dreadful journey in the gloaming of a perfect summer's evening.
+The old man's ghoulish jabbering, the sobs of the women, the panting of
+two exhausted dogs, and the wailing of the child, who wanted his
+father's arms round him rather than a stranger's, supplied a tragic
+chorus which ill beguiled that _Via Dolorosa_ along the heights of the
+Meuse.
+
+Irene insisted on taking the boy for a time, and the youngster ceased
+his plaint at once.
+
+"That's a blessed relief," she confided to Dalroy. "I'm not afflicted
+with nerves, but this poor little chap's crying was more than I could
+bear."
+
+"He is too heavy that you should carry him far," he protested.
+
+"You're very much of a man, Arthur," she said quietly. "You don't
+realise, I suppose, that nature gives us women strong arms for this very
+purpose."
+
+"I hadn't thought of that. The fact is, I'm worried. I have a doubt at
+the back of my head that we ought to be going the other way."
+
+"Which other way?"
+
+"In precisely the opposite direction."
+
+"But what can we do? At what stage in our wanderings up to this very
+moment could we have parted company with our friends? Do you know, I
+have a horrible feeling that we have brought a good deal of avoidable
+misery on their heads? If we hadn't gone to the mill----"
+
+"They would probably all have been dead by this time, and certainly both
+homeless and friendless," he interrupted. Then he began telling her the
+fate of Vise, but was brought up short by an imperative whisper from
+Pochard. They were talking English, without realising it, and Huy was
+near.
+
+"And why carry that sword?" added the Frenchman. "It is useless, and
+most dangerous. Thrust it into a ditch."
+
+Dalroy obeyed promptly. He had thoughtlessly disregarded the sinister
+outcome if a patrol found him with such a weapon in his hand.
+
+They came to Huy by a winding road through a suburb, meeting plenty of
+soldiers strolling to and from billets. Luck befriended them at this
+ticklish moment. None saw a little party turning into a lane which led
+to the back of the villa tenanted by Monsieur Pochard's married sister.
+This lady proved both sympathetic and helpful. The cart, with its sad
+freight, was housed in a wood-shed at the bottom of the garden, and the
+dogs were stabled in the gardener's potting-shed.
+
+"The ladies can share my bedroom and my daughter's," she said. "You men
+must sleep in the greenhouse, as every remaining room is filled with
+Uhlans. Their supper is ready now, but there is plenty. Come and eat
+before they arrive. They left on patrol duty early this morning."
+
+And that is where the fugitives experienced a stroke of amazing good
+fortune. That particular batch of Uhlans never returned. It was supposed
+that they were cut off while scouting along the Tirlemont road.
+Apparently their absence only contributed to an evening of quiet talk
+and a night of undisturbed rest. In reality, it saved the lives of the
+whole party, including the hostess and her family.
+
+Early next morning Monsieur Pochard interviewed an undertaker, and
+Madame Joos was laid to rest in the nearest cemetery. Maertz, Madame
+Stauwaert, and Leontine attended the funeral. Joos showed signs of
+collapse. His mind wandered. He thought his wife was living, and in
+Verviers. They encouraged the delirium, and dosed him with a narcotic.
+
+Irene helped in the kitchen, and Dalroy dug the garden. Thus, the
+confederacy remained split up during the morning, and was not noticed by
+an officer who came to inquire about the missing Uhlans.
+
+About noon Monsieur Pochard drew Dalroy aside. "Monsieur," he said, and
+his face wore anxious lines, "last night the old man implied that he was
+Henri Joos, of Vise. No, please listen. I don't want to be told. I can
+only give you certain facts, and leave you to draw your own conclusions.
+Active inquiries are being made by the authorities for Henri Joos,
+Elisabeth Joos, Leontine Joos, their daughter, and Jan Maertz, all
+of Vise. With them are an Englishwoman aged twenty, and an English
+officer named Dalroy, both dressed as Belgian peasants. The appended
+descriptions seem to be remarkably accurate, and a reward of one
+thousand marks is offered for their capture."
+
+"They may be willing to pay double the price for freedom," said Dalroy.
+
+The Frenchman was not offended. He realised that this was not a
+suggestion of a personal bribe.
+
+"You have not heard all," he continued. "These people were traced to
+Verviers, but the trail was lost after Maertz bought a cart and a
+dog-team in that town three days ago. Unfortunately, some Uhlans,
+passing through Andenne last night, have reported the presence of just
+such a party on the main road. Other soldiers believe they saw a similar
+lot entering Huy after dark, and the burgomaster is warned that the
+strictest search must be made among refugees at Huy. To make sure, a
+German escort will assist. It is estimated that Joos and the others will
+be caught, because they will probably depend on a _laisser passer_
+issued in Argenteau under false names, which are known. Joos figures as
+Wilhelm Schultz, for instance. Don't look so surprised, monsieur. The
+burgomaster is my brother-in-law's partner. He will not reach this
+quarter of Huy till half-past three or four o'clock."
+
+"But there is the record of Madame Joos's burial," put in Dalroy
+instantly.
+
+"No. The poor creature remains a 'woman unknown, found dead.' The
+Germans don't worry about such trifles. But, by a strange coincidence,
+Madame Stauwaert practically takes her place for identification
+purposes. By the mercy of Providence, no German soldier was in this
+house last night, or he would now be the richer by a thousand marks. The
+notice is placarded at the _Kommandantur_, and is being read by the
+multitude."
+
+"We shall not bring further trouble on a family which has already run
+grave risk in our behalf," vowed Dalroy warmly. "We must scatter at
+once, and, if caught, suffer individually."
+
+"I was sure you would say that, monsieur; but sworn allies carry
+friendship to greater lengths. Now, let us take counsel. Madame
+Stauwaert can remain here. Fifty people in Huy will answer for her. My
+sister can hire a servant, Leontine. If Joos is tractable he can lodge
+in safety with some cottagers I know. Maertz wishes to join the Belgian
+army, and you the British; while that charming young lady will want to
+get to England. Well, we may be able to contrive all these things. I
+happen to be a bit of an antiquary, and Huy owns more ruined castles and
+monasteries than any other town of similar size in Belgium, or in the
+world, I imagine. Follow my instructions to the letter, and you will
+cheat the Germans yet. They are animals of habit and cast-iron rule.
+When searching for six people they will never look for one or two. Yet
+it would be folly if you and mademoiselle wandered off by yourselves in
+a strange country. Then, indeed, even German official obtuseness might
+show a spark of real intelligence; whereas, by gaining a few days, who
+knows whether your armies may not come to you, rather than you go to
+them?"
+
+The good-hearted Frenchman's scheme worked without a hitch. The cart was
+broken up for firewood, the harness burnt, and the dogs taken a mile
+into the country by Maertz, who sold them for a couple of francs, and
+came back to a certain ruined priory by a roundabout road.
+
+Irene and Dalroy had gone there already. The place lay deep in trees and
+brushwood, and was approachable by a dozen hidden ways. Although given
+over to bats and owls, its tumbledown walls contained one complete room,
+situated some twenty feet above the ground level, and reached by a
+winding staircase of stone slabs, which looked most precarious, but
+proved quite sound if used by a sure-footed climber.
+
+Here, then, the three dwelt eleven weary days. During daylight their
+only diversion was the flight of hosts of aeroplanes toward the French
+frontier. Twice they saw Zeppelins. For warmth at night they depended on
+horse-rugs and bundles of a species of bracken which throve among the
+piles of stones. They were well supplied with food, deposited at dusk in
+a fosse, and obtained when the opening bars of "La Brabanconne" were
+whistled at a distance. The air itself was a guarantee that no German
+was near, because the Belgian national anthem is not pleasing to Hun
+ears.
+
+A typed note in the basket formed their sole link with the outer world.
+And what momentous issues were conveyed in the briefest of sentences!
+
+"Namur has fallen after a day's bombardment by a new and terrible
+cannon."
+
+"Brussels has capitulated without resistance."
+
+"After a fierce battle, the French and English have retired from
+Charleroi and Mons."
+
+"The retreat continues. France is invaded. Valenciennes has fallen."
+
+On the eleventh morning Dalroy hid among the bushes until the daily
+basket was brought. Monsieur Pochard himself was the go-between. He
+feared lest Leontine would contrive to meet Maertz, so the girl did not
+know where her lover was hidden.
+
+The Frenchman started visibly when Dalroy's voice reached him; but the
+latter spoke in a tone which would not carry far. "I'm sorry to seem
+ungrateful," he said, "but we are growing desperate. Do us one last
+favour, monsieur, and we impose no more on your goodness. Tell me
+where and when we can cross the Meuse, and the best route to take
+subsequently. Sink or swim, I, at any rate, must endeavour to reach
+England, and mademoiselle is equally resolved to make the attempt."
+
+"I don't blame you," came the sorrowful reply. "This is going to be a
+long war. Twenty years of deadly preparation are bearing fruit. I am
+sick with anxiety. But I dare not loiter in this neighbourhood, so, as
+to your affair, my advice is that you cross the Meuse to-morrow in broad
+daylight. The bridge is repaired, and no very strict watch is kept.
+Make for Nivelles, Enghien, and Oudenarde. The Belgians hold the
+Antwerp-Gand-Roulers line, but are being driven back daily. I have
+been thinking of you. If you delay longer you will--at the best--be
+imprisoned in Belgium for many months. Are you determined?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you want money?"
+
+"We have plenty."
+
+"Farewell, then, and may God protect you!"
+
+"Is there no chance of nearing the British force?" was Dalroy's final
+and almost despairing question.
+
+"Not the least. You would be following on the heels of a quick-moving
+and victorious army. Progress is slower toward the coast. You have a
+fighting chance that way, none the other. Good-bye, monsieur."
+
+"Good-bye, best of friends!"
+
+The sudden collapse of Namur, and the consequent failure of the
+Anglo-French army's initial scheme, had served to alter this shrewd
+man's opinion completely. His confidence was gone, his nerve shaken. The
+pressure of the jack-boot was heavy upon him. Dalroy was certain that
+he walked away with a furtive haste, being in mortal fear lest the
+people he had helped so greatly might put forth some additional request
+which he dared not grant.
+
+Next morning they left the priory grounds separately, and strolled into
+the town, keeping some fifty yards apart. It was only after a struggle
+that Jan Maertz relinquished the notion of trying to see Leontine before
+going from Huy, but the others convinced him that he might imperil both
+the girl and their benefactors. As matters stood, her greatest danger
+must have nearly vanished by this time; it would be a lamentable thing
+if her lover were arrested, and it became known that he had visited the
+villa.
+
+They crossed the river on pontoons. The Germans were already rebuilding
+the stone bridge. They seemed to have men to spare for everything. That
+the bridge was being actually rebuilt, and not made practicable by
+timber-work only, impressed Dalroy more forcibly than any other fact
+gleaned during his Odyssey in a Belgium under German rule. There was no
+thought of relinquishing the occupied territory, no hint of doubt that
+it might be wrested from their clutch in the near future. He noticed
+that the post-office, the railway station, the parcels vans, even the
+street names, were Germanised. He learnt subsequently that the schools
+had been taken over by German teachers, while the mere sound of French
+in a shop or public place was scowled at if not absolutely forbidden.
+
+There were not many troops on the roads, but crowded troop-trains passed
+on both sides of the Meuse, and ever in the same direction. Two long
+hospital trains came from the south-west, and Dalroy knew what _that_
+meant. Another long train of closed wagons, heavily laden, as a panting
+engine testified, perplexed him, however. He spoke of it to Maertz, the
+three being on the road in company as they climbed the hill to Heron,
+and the carter promptly sought information from a farmer.
+
+The man eyed them carefully. "Where are you from?" he demanded in true
+Flemish.
+
+"What has that to do with it?" grinned Maertz, in the same _patois_.
+
+The questioner was satisfied. He jerked a thumb toward the French
+frontier. "Dead uns!" he said. "They're killing Germans like flies down
+yonder. They can't bury them--haven't time--so they tie the corpses
+together, slinging four on a pole for easy handling, ship them to
+Germany, and chuck them into furnaces."
+
+"So," guffawed Maertz, "the swine know where they are going then!"
+
+To Dalroy's secret amazement, Irene, who understood each word, laughed
+with the others. Campaigning had not coarsened, but it had undeniably
+hardened her nature. A month ago she would have shuddered at sight of
+these dun trucks, with their ghastly freight. Now, so long as they only
+contained Germans, she surveyed them with interest.
+
+"Allowing forty bodies to one wagon," she said, "there are over a
+thousand dead men in that train alone."
+
+The farmer spat approval. "I've been busy, and have missed some; but
+that's the tenth lot which has gone east this morning," he remarked
+cheerfully.
+
+"Is the road to Nivelles fairly open?" Dalroy ventured to inquire.
+
+"One never knows. Anyhow, always give the next village as your
+destination. If doubtful, travel by night."
+
+This counsel was well meant. In the silent bitterness of hours yet to
+come, Dalroy recalled it, and wished he had profited by it.
+
+Roughly speaking, they had set out on a fifty miles' tramp, which the
+men could have tackled in two days, or less. But the presence of Irene
+lowered the scale, and Dalroy apportioned matters so that twelve miles
+daily formed their programme, with, as the _entrepreneurs_ say, power to
+increase or curtail. Thus, that first afternoon, the date being
+September 2nd, they pulled up at Gembloux, quite a small place, finding
+supper and beds in a farm beyond the village.
+
+Next day they pushed ahead through Nivelles, and entered the forest of
+Soignies, that undulating woodland on which Wellington depended for the
+protection of a dangerous flank during the unavoidable retreat to the
+coast if Napoleon had beaten the British army at Waterloo.
+
+Dalroy explained the Iron Duke's strategy to Irene as they paced a road
+which provides an ideal walking tour.
+
+"That a General was not worth his salt who did not secure the track of
+his army if defeated was one of his fixed principles," he said. "He
+would never depart from it, and his dispositions at Waterloo were based
+on it. In fact, his solicitude in that respect nearly caused a row
+between him and Bluecher."
+
+"Let me see," mused the girl aloud. "The Germans have never fought the
+British in modern times until this war."
+
+"That is correct."
+
+"And how far away is Mons?"
+
+Dalroy smiled at the thought which had evidently occurred to her.
+
+"We are now just half-way between Mons and Waterloo. Each is about ten
+miles distant."
+
+"We were allied then with the Belgians, Germans, and Russians against
+the French. Now we have joined the Belgians, French, and Russians
+against the Germans. It sounds like counting in a game of cribbage. A
+hundred years from to-day our combination may be with the Belgians,
+Germans, and French against the Russians."
+
+"You mustn't even hint treason against our present Allies," he laughed.
+
+"What are Allies? Of what avail are treaties? You men have mismanaged
+things woefully. It is high time women took a lead in governing."
+
+"Awful! I do verily believe you are a suffragette."
+
+"I am. During what periods has England been greatest? In the reigns of
+Elizabeth and Victoria."
+
+"Why leave out poor Queen Anne?"
+
+"She was a very excellent woman. As soon as she came to the throne she
+declared her resolution 'not to follow the example of her predecessors
+in making use of a few of her subjects to oppress the rest.' The common
+people don't err in their estimate of rulers, and they knew what they
+were about in christening her 'Good Queen Anne.'"
+
+"Now I'm sure."
+
+"Sure of what?"
+
+"You have never told me what you were doing in Berlin."
+
+"You haven't asked me," she broke in.
+
+"Did it matter? I----"
+
+Irene's intuition warned her that this harmless chatter had swung round
+with lightning rapidity to a personal issue. Sad to relate, she had not
+washed her face or hands for eleven days, so a blush told no tales; but
+she interrupted again rather nervously, "What is it you are sure of?"
+
+"You must have been a governess-companion in some German family of
+position. I can foresee a trying future. I must brush up my dates, or
+lose caste forever. Isn't there a doggerel jingle beginning:
+
+     "In fifty-five and fifty-four
+     Came Caesar o'er to Britain's shore?
+
+"If I learn it, it may save me many a trip."
+
+"Here, you two," growled Jan Maertz, "talk a language a fellow can
+understand."
+
+The road was deserted save for themselves, and the others had
+unconsciously spoken English. Dalroy turned to apologise to their rough
+but trusty friend, and thus missed the quizzical and affectionate glance
+which Irene darted at him. She was still smiling when next he caught her
+eye.
+
+"What is it now?" he asked.
+
+"I was thinking how difficult it is to see a wood for the trees," she
+replied.
+
+Maertz took her literally.
+
+"I'll be glad when we're in the open country again, mademoiselle," he
+said. "I don't like this forest. One can't guess what may be hiding
+round the corner."
+
+Yet they stopped that night at Braine le Comte, and crossed Enghien next
+day without incident. It is a pity that such a glorious ramble should be
+described so baldly. In happier times, when Robert Louis Stevenson took
+that blithe journey through the Cevennes with a donkey, a similar
+excursion produced a book which will be read when the German madness
+has long been relegated to a detested oblivion. But Uhlan pickets and
+"square-head" sentries supply wretched sign-posts in a land of romance,
+and the wanderers were now in a region where each kilometre had to be
+surveyed with caution.
+
+Maertz owned an aunt in every village, and careful inquiry had, of
+course, located one of these numerous relatives in Lierde, a hamlet on
+the Grammont-Gand road. Oudenarde was strongly held by the enemy, but
+the roads leading to Gand were the scene of magnificent exploits by the
+armoured cars of the Belgian army. Certain Belgian motorists had become
+national heroes during the past fortnight. An innkeeper in Grammont told
+with bated breath how one famous driver, helped by a machine-gun crew,
+was accounting for scores of marauding cavalrymen. "The English and
+French are beaten, but our fellows are holding them," he said with a
+fine air. "When you boys get through you'll enjoy life. My nephew, who
+used to be a great _chasseur_, says there is no sport like chasing
+mounted Boches."
+
+This frank recognition of Dalroy as one of the innumerable young
+Belgians then engaged in crossing the enemy's lines in order to serve
+with their brothers was an unwitting compliment to a student who had
+picked up the colloquial phrases and Walloon words in Maertz's uncouth
+speech. A man who looked like an unkempt peasant should speak like one,
+and Dalroy was an apt scholar. He never trod on doubtful ground.
+Strangers regarded him as a taciturn person, solely because of this
+linguistic restraint. Maertz made nearly all inquiries, and never erred
+in selecting an informant. The truth was that German spies were rare in
+this district. They were common as crows in the cities, and on the
+frontiers of Belgium and France, but rural Brabant harboured few, and
+that simple fact accounts for the comparatively slow progress of the
+invaders as they neared the coast.
+
+It was at a place called Oombergen, midway between Oudenarde and Alost,
+that the fugitives met the Death's-Head Hussars. And with that
+ill-omened crew came the great adventure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AT THE GATES OF DEATH
+
+
+Had Dalroy followed his own plans, supported as they were by the
+well-meant advice tendered by the farmer of the Meuse valley, he might
+have led his companions through the final barrier without incurring any
+risk at all comparable with the hair's-breadth escapes of Vise,
+Argenteau, Andenne, and Huy.
+
+But the weather broke. Rain fell in torrents, and Irene's presence was a
+real deterrent to spending a night in a ditch or lurking in the depths
+of a wood till dawn. Maertz, too, jubilant in the certainty that the
+Belgian outposts were hardly six miles distant, advocated the bold
+policy of a daylight march. Still, there was no excuse for Dalroy, who
+knew that patrols in an enemy's country are content to stand fast by
+night, and scout during the day. Unluckily, Irene was eager as their
+Belgian friend to rush the last stage. She was infected by the prevalent
+spirit of the people. Throughout the whole of September these valiant
+folk in the real Flanders held the Germans rather cheap. They did not
+realise that outpost affairs are not battles--that a cavalry screen, as
+its very name implies, is actually of more value in cloaking movements
+of armies in rear than in reconnoitring.
+
+Be that as it may, in the late afternoon of 5th September the three were
+hurrying past some lounging troopers who had taken shelter from the
+pouring rain in the spacious doorway of a ruined barn, when one man
+called to them, "Hi! where are you off to?"
+
+They pretended not to hear, whereupon a bullet passed through Dalroy's
+smock between arm and ribs.
+
+It was useless to think of bolting from cavalry. They turned at once,
+hoping that a bold front might serve. This occurred a mile or more from
+Oombergen. Maertz had "an aunt" in Oosterzeele, the next village, and
+said so.
+
+"If she's anything like you, you're welcome to her; but let's have a
+look at your cousin," grinned the German, striding forward, carbine in
+hand, and grasping Irene by the shoulder.
+
+"You stop here, _Fraeulein_--or, is it _Frau_?" he said, with a vilely
+suggestive leer. "Anyhow, it doesn't matter. If one of these pig-heads
+is your husband we can soon make you a widow."
+
+Now to Irene every German soldier was a boor, with a boor's vices and
+limitations. The man, a corporal, spoke and acted coarsely, using the
+_argot_ of the barrack-room, and she was far too frightened to see in
+his satyr-like features a certain intellectuality. So, in her distress,
+she blundered twice.
+
+"Leave me alone!" she said shrilly, trying in voice and manner to copy
+Leontine Joos.
+
+"Now don't be coy, pretty one," chuckled the trooper, beginning to urge
+her forcibly in the direction of the barn.
+
+Dalroy and Jan Maertz had remained stock-still when the hussar came up.
+Suddenly the Belgian sheered off, and ran like a hare into the dense
+wood surrounding the small cleared space in which stood the barn. The
+building had evidently been meant to house stock only. There was no
+dwelling attached. It had served, too, as a rallying-point during some
+recent scrimmage. The outer walls were chipped with bullets; the doors
+had been torn off and burnt; it was typical of Belgium under German
+rule--a husk given fictitious life by the conqueror's horses and men.
+
+Irene had seen Jan make off, while Dalroy lurched slowly nearer. She
+could not hear the fierce whisper which bade their sturdy ally bolt for
+the trees, and, if he got away, implore a strong Belgian patrol to come
+to the rescue. But she knew that _some_ daring expedient had been
+devised on the spur of the moment, and gathered all her resources for an
+effort to gain time.
+
+The corporal heard Jan break into a run. Letting go the girl, he swung
+on his heel and raised the carbine.
+
+Dalroy had foreseen that this might happen. With a calm courage that was
+superb because of its apparent lack of thought, he had placed himself in
+the direct line of fire. Standing with his hands in his pockets and
+laughing loudly, he first glanced over his shoulder at the vanishing
+Maertz, and then guffawed into the hussar's face.
+
+"He's done a bunk!" he cried cheerfully. "You said he might go, _Herr
+Unteroffizier_, so he hopped it without even saying '_Auf wieder
+sehn_.'"
+
+Meanwhile, as he was steadily masking the German's aim, he might have
+been shot without warning. But the ready comment baffled the other for a
+few precious seconds, and the men in the barn helped unconsciously by
+chaffing their comrade.
+
+"You've got your hands full with the girl, Franz," said one.
+
+"What's she like?" bawled another. "I can only see a pair of slim ankles
+and a dirty face."
+
+"That's all you _will_ see, Georg," said Franz, believing that a scared
+Belgian peasant had merely bolted in panic. "This little bit is mine by
+the laws of war.--Here, you," he added, surveying Dalroy quite amicably,
+"be off to your aunt! You'll probably be shot at Oosterzeele; but that's
+your affair, not mine."
+
+"You don't know my aunt," said Dalroy. "I'd sooner face a regiment of
+soldiers than stand her tongue if I go home without her niece."
+
+If he hoped to placate this swaggering scoundrel by a display of
+good-humour he failed lamentably. An ugly glint shone in the man's eyes,
+and he handled the carbine again threateningly.
+
+"To hell with you and your aunt!" he snarled. "Perhaps you don't know
+it, you Flemish fool, but you're a German now and must obey orders. Cut
+after your pal before I count three, or I'll put daylight through you!
+One, two----"
+
+Then the hapless Irene committed a second and fatal error, though it was
+pardonable in the frenzy of a tragic dilemma, since the next moment
+might see her lover ruthlessly murdered. To lump all German soldiers
+into one category was a bad mistake; it was far worse to change her
+accent from the crude speech of the province of Liege to the
+high-sounding periods of Berlin society.
+
+"How dare you threaten unoffending people in this way?" she almost
+screamed. "I demand that you send for an officer, and I ask the other
+men of your regiment to bear witness we have done nothing whatsoever to
+warrant your brutal behaviour."
+
+The hussar stood as though he, and not Dalroy, had been silenced by a
+bullet. He listened to the girl's outburst with an expression of blank
+amazement, which soon gave place to a sinister smile.
+
+"_Gnaediges Fraeulein_," he answered, springing to "attention," and
+affecting a conscience-stricken tone, "I cry your pardon. But is it not
+your own fault? Why should such a charming young lady masquerade as a
+Belgian peasant?"
+
+On hearing the man speak as a well-educated Berliner, Irene became
+deathly white under the tan and grime of so many days and nights of
+exposure. She nearly fainted, and might have fallen had not Dalroy
+caught her. Even then, when their position was all but hopeless, he made
+one last attempt to throw dust in the crafty eyes which were now
+piercing both Irene and himself with the baneful glare of a tiger about
+to spring.
+
+"My cousin has been a governess in Berlin," he said deferentially. "She
+isn't afraid of soldiers as a rule, but you have nearly frightened her
+to death."
+
+Their captor still examined them in a way that chilled even the
+Englishman's dauntless heart. He was summing them up, much as a
+detective might scan the features of a pair of half-recognised criminals
+to whom he could not altogether allot their proper places in the Rogues'
+Gallery.
+
+"You see, she's ill," urged Dalroy. "Mayn't we go? My aunt keeps a
+decent cellar. I'll come back with some good wine."
+
+Never relaxing that glowering scrutiny, the corporal shouted suddenly,
+"Come here, Georg!"
+
+The man thus hailed by name strode forward. With him came three others,
+Irene's fluent German and the parade attitude assumed by Franz having
+aroused their curiosity.
+
+"You used to have a good memory for descriptions of 'wanteds,' Georg.
+Can you recall the names and appearance of the English captain and the
+girl there was such a fuss about at Argenteau a month ago?"
+
+Georg, a strongly-built, rather jovial-looking Hanoverian, grinned.
+
+"Better than leaving things to guess-work, I have it in my pocket," he
+said. "I copied it at the _Kommandantur_. A thousand marks are worth a
+pencilled note, my boy. Halves, if these are they!"
+
+Dalroy knew then that he, and possibly Irene, were doomed. A struggle
+was impossible. Franz's reference to Oosterzeele being in German
+occupation forbade the least hope of succour by a Belgian force. There
+was a hundred to one chance that Irene's life might be spared, and he
+resolved to take it. It was pitiful to feel the girl trembling, and he
+gave her arm an encouraging squeeze.
+
+Georg was fumbling in the breast of his tunic, when he seemed to realise
+that it was raining heavily.
+
+"Why the devil stand out here if we're going to hold a court of
+inquiry?" he cried. Evidently, the iron discipline of the German army
+was somewhat relaxed in the Death's-Head Hussars.
+
+"Go to the barn," commanded Franz. "And, mind, you pig of an Englishman,
+no talking till you're spoken to!"
+
+Dalroy wondered why the man allowed him to assist Irene; but such
+passing thoughts were as straws in a whirlwind. He bent his wits to the
+one problem. He was lost. Could he save her? Heaven alone would decide.
+A poor mortal might only pray for guidance as to the right course.
+
+Inside the tumbledown barn the light was bad, so the prisoners were
+halted in the doorway, and a score of troopers gathered around. They
+were not, on the whole, a ruffianly set. Every man bore the stamp of a
+trained soldier; the device of a skull and cross-bones worked in white
+braid on their hussar caps gave them an imposing and martial aspect.
+
+"Here you are!" announced the burly Georg, producing a frayed sheet of
+paper. "Let's see--there's six of 'em. Henri Joos, miller, aged
+sixty-five, five feet three inches. Elizabeth Joos, his wife, aged
+forty-five. Leontine Joos, daughter, aged nineteen, plump, good-looking,
+black eyes and hair, clear complexion, red cheeks. Jan Maertz, carter,
+aged twenty-six, height five feet eight inches, a Walloon, strongly
+built. Arthur Dalroy, captain in British army, about six feet in height,
+of athletic physique, blue eyes, brown hair, very good teeth, regular
+features. An English girl, name unknown, aged about twenty, very
+good-looking, and of elegant appearance and carriage. Eyes believed
+brown, and hair dark brown. Fairly tall and slight, but well-formed.
+These latter (the English) speak German and French. The girl, in
+particular, uses good German fluently."
+
+"Click!" ejaculated Franz, imitating the snapping of a pair of
+handcuffs. "Shave that fellow, and rig out the lady in her ordinary
+togs, and you've got them to the dots on the i's. Who are the first two
+for patrol?"
+
+A couple of men answered.
+
+"Sorry, boys," went on Franz briskly, "but you must hoof it to
+Oosterzeele, and lay Jan Maertz by the heels. You saw him, I suppose?
+You may even pick him up on the road. If you do, bring him back
+here.--Georg, ride into Oombergen, show an officer that extract from the
+Argenteau notice, and get hold of a transport. These prisoners are of
+the utmost importance."
+
+Irene, who lost no syllable of this direful investigation, had recovered
+her self-control. She turned to Dalroy. Her eyes were shining with the
+light which, in a woman, could have only one meaning.
+
+"Forgive me, dear!" she murmured. "I fear I am to blame. I was selfish.
+I might have saved _you_----"
+
+"No, no, none of that!" interrupted the corporal. "You go inside,
+_Fraeulein_. You can sit on a broken ladder near the door. The horses
+won't hurt you.--As for you, Mr. Captain, you're a slippery fellow, so
+we'll hobble you."
+
+Dalroy knew it was useless to do other than fall in with the orders
+given. He did not try to answer Irene, but merely looked at her and
+smiled. Was ever smile more eloquent? It was at once a message of
+undying love and farewell. Possibly, he might never see her again. But
+the bitterness of approaching death, enhanced as it was by the knowledge
+that he should not have allowed himself to drift blindly into this open
+net, was assuaged in one vital particular. The woman he loved was
+absolutely safe now from a set of licentious brutes. She might be given
+life and liberty. When brought before some responsible military court he
+would tell the plain truth, suppressing only such facts as would tend to
+incriminate their good friends in Verviers and Huy. Not even a board of
+German officers could find the girl guilty of killing Busch and his
+companions, and this, he imagined, was the active cause of the hue and
+cry raised by the authorities. How determined the hunt had been was
+shown by the changed demeanour of the corporal. The man was almost
+oppressed by the magnitude of the capture. Dalroy was convinced that it
+was not the monetary reward which affected him. Probably this young
+non-commissioned officer saw certain promotion ahead, and that, to a
+German, is an all-sufficing inducement.
+
+The prisoner's hands were tied behind his back, and the same rope was
+adjusted around waist and ankles in such wise that movement was limited
+to moderately short steps. But Herr Franz did not hurt him needlessly.
+Rather was he bent on taking care of him. Throwing a cavalry cloak over
+the Englishman's shoulders, he said, "You can squat against the wall and
+keep out of the rain, if you wish."
+
+Dalroy obeyed without a word. He felt inexplicably weary. In that
+unhappy hour body and soul alike were crushed. But the cloud lifted
+soon. His spirit was the spirit of the immortals; it raised itself out
+of the slough of despond.
+
+The day was closing in rapidly; lowering clouds and steady rain
+conspired to rob the sun of some part of his prerogatives. At seven
+o'clock it would be dark, whereas the almanac fixed the close of day at
+eight. It was then about half-past six.
+
+Resolutely casting off the torpor which had benumbed his brain after
+parting from the woman he loved, Dalroy looked about him. The hussars,
+some twenty all told, reduced now to seventeen, since the messengers had
+ridden off without delay, were gathered in a knot around the corporal.
+Some of their horses were tethered in the barn, others were picketed
+outside.
+
+Scraps of talk reached him.
+
+"This will be a plume in your cap, Franz."
+
+"A thousand marks, picked up in a filthy hole like this! _Almaechtig!_"
+
+"What are they? Spies?"
+
+"Didn't you hear? They stabbed Major Busch with a stable fork. Jolly old
+Busch--one of the best!"
+
+"And bayoneted two officers of the Westphalian commissariat, wounding a
+third."
+
+"The devil! Was there a fight?"
+
+"Some of the fellows said Busch and the others must have been drunk."
+
+"Quite likely. I was drunk every day then."
+
+A burst of laughter.
+
+"Lucky dog!"
+
+"_Ach, was!_ what's the good of having been drunk so long ago? There
+isn't a bottle of wine now within five miles."
+
+"Tell us then, _Herr Kaporal_, do we remain here till dawn?"
+
+Dalroy grew faintly interested. It was absurd to harbour the slightest
+expectation of Jan Maertz bringing succour, but one might at least
+analyse the position, though the only visible road led straight to a
+firing-party.
+
+"Those were our orders," answered Franz. "Things may be altered now. You
+fellows haven't grasped the real value of this cop. It wasn't stated on
+the notice, but somebody of much more importance than any ordinary
+officer was interested in the girl being caught--she far more than the
+man."
+
+"Well, well! Tastes differ! A peasant like that!"
+
+"You silly ass, she's no peasant. That's the worst of living in a
+suburb. You acquire no standard of comparison."
+
+These men were Berliners, and were amused by a sly dig at some locality
+which, like Koepenick, offered a butt for German humour.
+
+"Hello! isn't that a car?" said one.
+
+There was silence. The thrumming of a powerful automobile could be heard
+through the patter of the rain.
+
+"Attention!" growled Franz. A few troopers went to the picketed horses.
+The others lined up. A closed motor-car arrived. Its brilliant
+head-lights proclaimed the certain fact that the presence of Belgian
+troops in that locality was not feared. Dalroy recognised this at once,
+and forthwith dismissed from his mind the last shred of hope.
+
+The chauffeur was a soldier. By his side sat the usual armed escort.
+Georg galloped up. Oombergen was only a mile and a half distant, and the
+road through the wood was in such a condition that the car was compelled
+to travel slowly.
+
+A cloaked staff-officer alighted. The hussars stood stiff as so many
+ramrods. The new-comer took their salute punctiliously, but his tone in
+addressing the corporal was far from gracious.
+
+"What's this unlikely tale you've sent in to headquarters?" he demanded
+harshly.
+
+"I don't think I'm mistaken, _Herr Hauptmann_," was the answer. "I've
+got that English captain and the lady wanted at Vise. They've
+practically admitted it."
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"The man is sitting there against the wall. The lady is in the
+barn.--Stand up, prisoner!"
+
+Franz snatched away the cloak. Dalroy rose to his feet. He was smiling
+at the ruthlessness of Fate. He was still smiling when Captain von
+Halwig, of the Prussian Imperial Guard, flashed an electric torch in his
+face. It was unnecessary, perhaps, to render thus easy the task of
+recognition. But what did it matter? That lynx of a corporal was sure of
+his ground, and would refuse to be gainsaid even by a staff-officer and
+a Guardsman.
+
+Von Halwig's astonishment seemed to choke back any display of wrath.
+
+"Then it is really you?" he said quietly in English.
+
+"Yes," replied Dalroy.
+
+The torch was switched off. Dalroy's eyes were momentarily blinded by
+the glare, but he heard an ugly chuckle.
+
+"Where is the female prisoner?" said Von Halwig, with a formality that
+was as perplexing as his subdued manner.
+
+"Here, _Herr Hauptmann_."
+
+The two entered the barn. So far as Dalroy could judge, no word was
+spoken. The torch flared again, remained lighted a full half-minute, and
+was extinguished.
+
+Von Halwig reappeared, seemed to ponder matters, and turned to the
+corporal.
+
+"Put the woman in my car," he said. "Fall in your men, and be ready to
+escort me back to the village. You've done a good day's work, corporal."
+
+"Two men have gone in pursuit of Jan Maertz, sir."
+
+"Never mind. They'll have sense enough to come on to headquarters if
+they catch him. How is this Englishman secured?"
+
+The jubilant Franz explained.
+
+"Mount him on one of your horses. The trooper can squeeze in in front of
+the car. Has the female prisoner a dagger or a pistol?"
+
+"I have not searched her, _Herr Hauptmann_."
+
+"Make sure, but offer no violence or discourtesy. No, leave this fellow
+here at present. I want a few words with him in private. Assemble your
+men around the car, and take the woman there now."
+
+Irene was led out. She paused in the doorway, and the corporal thought
+she did not know what she was wanted for.
+
+"You are to be conveyed in the automobile, _Fraeulein_," he said.
+
+But she was looking for Dalroy in the gloom. Before anyone could
+interfere, she ran and threw her arms around him, kissing him on the
+lips.
+
+"Good-bye, my dear one!" she wailed in a heart-broken way. "We may not
+meet again on this earth, but I am yours to all eternity."
+
+"With these words in my ears I shall die happy," said Dalroy. Her
+embrace thrilled him with a strange ecstasy, yet the pain of that
+parting was worse than death. Were ever lovers' vows plighted in such
+conditions in the history of this gray old world?
+
+Franz seized the girl's arm. She knew it would be undignified to resist.
+Kissing Dalroy again, she whispered a last choking farewell, and
+suffered her guide to take her where he willed. She walked with
+stumbling feet. Her eyes were dimmed with tears; but, sustained by the
+pride of her race, she refused to sob, and bit her lower lip in
+dauntless resolve not to yield.
+
+The rain was beating down now in heavy gusts. Von Halwig, if he had no
+concern for the comfort of the troopers, had a good deal for his own.
+
+"Damn the weather!" he grunted. "Come into the bar. You can walk, I
+suppose?"
+
+He turned on the torch, which was controlled by a sliding button, and
+saw how the prisoner was secured. Then he flashed the light into the
+interior of the barn. It was a ramshackle place at the best, and looked
+peculiarly forlorn after the rummaging it had undergone since the fight,
+a recent picket having evidently torn down stalls and mangers to provide
+materials for a fire. Part of a long sloping ladder had been consumed
+for that purpose, so that an open trap-door in the boarded floor of an
+upper storey was inaccessible. The barn itself was unusually lofty,
+running to a height of twenty feet or more. There were no windows. Some
+rats, tempted out already by the oats spilled from the horses'
+nose-bags, scuttled away from the light. Through the trap-door the noise
+of the rain pounding on a shingle roof came with a curious hollowness.
+
+Von Halwig did not extinguish the lamp, but tucked it under his left
+arm. He lighted a cigarette. With each movement of his body the beam of
+light shifted. Now it played on the wall, against which Dalroy leaned,
+because the cramped state of his arms was already becoming irksome; now
+it shone through the doorway, forming a sort of luminous blur in the
+rain, now it dwelt on the Englishman, standing there in his worn blouse,
+baggy breeches, and sabots, an old flannel shirt open at the neck, and a
+month's growth of beard on cheeks and chin. The hat which Irene made fun
+of had been tilted at a rakish angle when the corporal removed the
+cloak. Certainly he was changed in essentials since he and the Guardsman
+last met face to face on the platform at Aix-la-Chapelle.
+
+But the eyes were unalterable. They were still resolute, and strangely
+calm, because he had nerved himself not to flinch before this strutting
+popinjay.
+
+"You wonder why I have brought you in here, eh?" began Von Halwig, in
+English.
+
+"Perhaps to gloat over me," was the quiet reply.
+
+"No. Is it necessary? At Aix I was excited. The Day had come. The Day of
+which we Germans have dreamed for many a year. I am young, but I have
+already won promotion. I belong to an irresistible army. War steadies a
+man. But when we reach Oombergen you will be paraded before a crusty old
+General, and even I, Von Halwig of the staff, and a friend of the
+Emperor, may not converse with a spy and a murderer. So we shall have a
+little chat now. What say you?"
+
+"It all depends what you wish to talk about."
+
+"About you and her ladyship, of course."
+
+"May I ask whom you mean by 'her ladyship'?"
+
+"Isn't that correct English?"
+
+"It can be, if applied to a lady of title. But when used with reference
+presumably to a young lady who is a governess, it sounds like clumsy
+sarcasm."
+
+"Governess the devil! With whom, then, have you been roaming Belgium?"
+
+"Miss Irene Beresford, of course."
+
+"You're not a fool, Captain Dalroy. Do you honestly tell me you don't
+_know_?"
+
+"Know what?"
+
+"That the girl you brought from Berlin is Lady Irene Beresford, daughter
+of the Earl of Glastonbury."
+
+There was a moment of intense silence. In some ways it was immaterial to
+Dalroy what social position had been filled by the woman he loved. But,
+in others, the discovery that Irene was actually the aristocrat she
+looked was a very vital and serious thing. It made clear the meaning of
+certain references to distinguished people, both in Germany and in
+England, which had puzzled him at times. Transcending all else in
+importance, it might even safeguard her from German malevolence, since
+the Teuton pays an absurd homage to mere rank.
+
+"I did not know," he said, and his voice was not so thoroughly under
+control as he desired.
+
+Von Halwig laughed loudly. "_Almaechtig!_" he spluttered, "our smart
+corporal of hussars seems to have spoiled a romance. What a pity! You'll
+be shot before midnight, my gallant captain, but the lady will be sent
+to Berlin with the utmost care. Even I, who have an educated taste in
+the female line, daren't wink at her. Has she never told you why she
+bolted in such a hurry?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Never hinted that a royal prince was wild about her?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, you have my word for it. _Himmel!_ women are queer."
+
+"She has suffered much to escape from your royal prince."
+
+"She'll be returned to him now, slightly soiled, but nearly as good as
+new."
+
+"I wish my hands were not tied."
+
+"Oh, no heroics, please. We have no time for nonsense of that sort. Is
+the light irritating you? I'll put it here."
+
+Von Halwig stooped, and placed the torch on the broken ladder. Its
+radiance illumined an oval of the rough, square stones with which the
+barn was paved. Thenceforth, the vivid glare remained stationary. The
+two men, facing each other at a distance of about six feet, were in
+shadow. They could see each other quite well, however, in the dim
+borrowed light, and the Guardsman flicked the ash from his cigarette.
+
+"You're English, I'm German," he said. "We represent the positive and
+negative poles of thought. If it hurts your feelings that I should speak
+of Lady Irene, let's forget her. What I really want to ask you is
+this--why has England been so mad as to fight Germany?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE WOODEN HORSE OF TROY
+
+
+The question struck Dalroy as so bizarre--in the conditions so
+ludicrous--that, despite the cold fury evoked by Von Halwig's innuendoes
+with regard to Irene, he nearly laughed.
+
+"I am in no mood to discuss international politics," he answered curtly.
+
+The other, who seemed to have his temper well under control, merely
+nodded. Indeed, he was obviously, if unconsciously, modelling his
+behaviour on that of his prisoner.
+
+"I only imagined that you might be interested in hearing what's going to
+happen to your damned country," he said.
+
+"I know already. She will emerge from this struggle greater, more
+renowned, more invincible than ever."
+
+"_Dummes zeug!_ All rubbish! That's your House of Commons and music-hall
+patter, meant to tickle the ears of the British working-man. England is
+going to be wiped off the map. We're obliterating her now. You've been
+in Belgium a month, and must have seen things which your stupid John
+Bulls at home can't even comprehend, which they never will comprehend
+till too late."
+
+He paused, awaiting a reply perhaps. None came.
+
+"It's rough luck that you, a soldier like myself, may not share in the
+game, even on the losing side," went on Von Halwig. "But you would be a
+particularly dangerous sort of spy if you contrived to reach England,
+especially with the information I'm now going to give you. You can't
+possibly escape, of course. You will be executed, not as a spy, but as a
+murderer. You left a rather heavy mark on us. Two soldiers in a hut near
+Vise, three officers and a private in the mill, five soldiers in the
+wood at Argenteau----"
+
+"You flatter me," put in Dalroy. "I may have shot one fellow in the
+wood, a real spy, named Schwartz. But that is all. Your men killed one
+another there."
+
+"The credit was given to you," was the dry retort. "But--_es ist mir
+ganz einerlei_--what does it matter? You're an intelligent Englishman,
+and that is why I am taking the trouble to tell you exactly why Great
+Britain will soon be Little Britain. Understand, I'm supplying facts,
+not war bulletins. On land you're beaten already. Our armies are near
+Paris. German cavalry entered Chantilly to-day. Your men made a great
+stand, and fought a four days' rearguard action which will figure in the
+text-books for the next fifty years. But the French are broken, the
+English Expeditionary Force nearly destroyed. The French Government has
+deserted Paris for Bordeaux. And, excuse me if I laugh, Lord Kitchener
+has asked for a hundred thousand more men!"
+
+"He will get five millions if he needs them."
+
+Von Halwig swept the retort aside with an impatient flourish.
+
+"Too late! Too late! I'll prove it to you. Turkey is joining us.
+Bulgaria will come in when wanted. Greece won't lift a finger in the
+Balkans, and a great army of Turks led by Germans will march on Egypt.
+South Africa will rise in rebellion. Ireland is quiet for the time, but
+who knows what will happen when she sees England on her knees? Italy is
+sitting on the fence. The United States are snivelling, but German
+influence is too strong out there to permit of active interference. And,
+in any event, what can America do except look on, shivering at the
+prospect of her own turn coming next? Russia is making a stir in East
+Prussia and along the Austrian frontier, so poor Old England is
+chortling because the Slav is fighting her battles. It is to laugh.
+We'll pen the Bear long before he becomes dangerous. I am not boasting,
+my friend. Why should _I_, Captain von Halwig of the Imperial Guard, be
+messing about in a wretched Flemish village when our men are about to
+storm Paris in the west and tackle Russia in the east? I'll explain. I'm
+here because I know England so well. My job is to help in organising the
+invading force which will gather at Calais. Ah! that amuses you, does
+it? The British fleet is the obstacle, eh? Not it. Seriously now, do you
+regard us Germans as idiots? No; I'm sure you don't. You _know_. These
+fellows in Parliament _don't_ know. I assure you, on my honour, our
+general staff is confident that a German army will land on British
+soil--in Britain itself I mean--before Christmas."
+
+The speaker interrupted this flood of dire prophecy in order to light a
+fresh cigarette. Then clasping his hands behind his back, and strutting
+with feet well apart, he said quite affably, "Why don't you put a
+question or two? If you believe I'm reciting a fairy tale, say so, and
+point out the stupidities."
+
+Now, Dalroy had not been "amused" by the statement that the Germans
+might occupy Calais. He had already discounted even worse reverses as
+lying well within the bounds of possibility. He was certain, too, that
+the Prussian was saying that which he really believed. But his nerves of
+steel were undoubtedly tried almost beyond endurance at the instant Von
+Halwig noticed the involuntary movement which elicited that uninvited
+comment on the British fleet.
+
+As the word "Calais" quitted the Guardsman's lips, a rope, with a noose
+at the end, dropped with swift stealth through the open trap-door. Its
+descent was checked when the noose dangled slightly higher than his
+head, and whoever was manipulating it began at once to swing it slowly
+forward and backward. Von Halwig stood some six or seven feet nearer the
+wall than the point which the rope would have touched if lowered to the
+floor, so the objective aimed at by that pendulum action was not
+difficult to grasp, being nothing else than his speedy and noiseless
+extinction by hanging.
+
+It is an oft-repeated though far-fetched assertion that a drowning man
+reviews the whole of his life during the few seconds which separate the
+last conscious struggle from complete anaesthesia. That may or may not be
+true, but Dalroy now experienced a brain-storm not lacking many of the
+essentials of some such mental kinema.
+
+Think what that swinging rope, with its unseen human agency, meant to a
+captive in his hapless position! It was simply incredible that one man
+alone would attempt so daring an expedient. Not only, then, were a
+number of plucky and resourceful allies concealed in the loft, but they
+must have been hidden there before the detachment of Death's-Head
+Hussars occupied the barn beneath. Therefore, they knew the enemy's
+strength, yet were not afraid. That they were ready-witted was shown by
+the method evolved for the suppression of that blatant Teuton, Von
+Halwig. It was evident, too, that they had intended to lie _perdu_ till
+the cavalry were gone, but had been moved to action by a desire to
+rescue the bound Englishman who was being twitted so outrageously on
+his own and his country's supposed misfortunes. Who could they be? Were
+they armed, and sufficiently numerous to rout the Germans? In any event,
+how could they deliver an effective attack? He, Dalroy, took it for
+granted that the imminent strangulation of the Guardsman, if successful,
+was but the prelude to a sharp fight, since Von Halwig's death, though
+supremely dramatic as an isolated incident, would neither benefit the
+prisoners nor conduce to the well-being of the people in the loft. How,
+then, did they purpose dealing with a score of trained soldiers, who
+must already be fidgeting in the rain, and whose leader, the corporal,
+might look in at any moment to ascertain what was delaying the young
+staff captain. Discipline was all very well, but these hussars belonged
+to a crack regiment, and their colonel would resent strongly the
+needless exposure of his men and horses to inclement weather. Moreover,
+how easy it was for the corporal to convey a polite hint to Von Halwig
+by asking if the chauffeur should not turn the car in readiness for his
+departure!
+
+All this, and more, cascaded through Dalroy's brain while his enemy was
+lighting the second cigarette. He was in the plight of a shipwrecked
+sailor clinging to a sinking craft, who saw a lifeboat approaching, yet
+dared neither look at nor signal to it. He must bend all his energies
+now to the task of keeping Von Halwig occupied. What would happen when
+the noose coiled around the orator's neck? Would it tighten with
+sufficient rapidity to choke a cry for help? Would it fall awkwardly,
+and warn him? Were any of the troopers so placed that they could see
+into that section of the barn, and thus witness their officer's
+extraordinary predicament? Who could tell? How might a man form any sort
+of opinion as to the yea or nay of a juggler's feat which savoured of
+black magic?
+
+Dalroy gave up the effort to guess what the next half-minute might bring
+forth. Those mysterious beings up there needed the best help he could
+offer, and his powers in that respect were strictly limited to two
+channels--he must egg on the talker--he must not watch that rope.
+
+"I am ready to admit Germany's strength on land," he said, resolutely
+fixing his eyes on an iron cross attached to the Prussian's tunic above
+the top button. "That is a reasonable claim. How futile otherwise would
+have been your twenty years of preparation for this very war! But my
+mind is far too dense to understand how you can disregard the English
+Channel."
+
+"The _English_ Channel!" scoffed Von Halwig. "The impudence of you
+_verdammt_----No, it's foolish to lose one's temper. Well, I'll explain.
+The really important part of the _English_ Channel is about to become
+German. For a little time we leave you the surface, but Germany will
+own the rest. Your navy is about to receive a horrible surprise. We've
+caught you napping. While Britain was ruling the sea we Germans have
+been experimenting with it. Our visible fleet is good, but not good
+enough, so we allowed your naval superiority to keep you quiet until we
+had perfected our invisible fleet. We are ready now. We possess three
+submarines to your one; and can build more, and bigger, and better
+under-sea boats than you. Do you realise what that means? Already we
+have sunk four of your best cruisers, and they never saw the vessel that
+destroyed them. We are playing havoc with your mercantile marine.
+Britain is girdled with mines and torpedoes. No ship can enter or leave
+any of your ports without incurring the almost unavoidable risk of----"
+
+A rat scampered across one of the speaker's feet, and startled him.
+
+He swore, dropped the cigarette, and lighted another, the third. Like
+every junior officer of the German _corps d'elite_, he had sedulously
+copied the manners and bearing of the commissioned ranks in the British
+army. But your true German is neurotic; the rat had scratched the
+veneer. Meanwhile the rope rose quickly half-way to the trap-door; it
+fell again when Von Halwig donned the prophet's mantle once more.
+
+"We can not only ruin and starve you," he said exultantly, "but we have
+guns which will beat a way for our troops from Calais to Dover against
+all the ships you dare mass in those waters. We have you bested in every
+way. Each German company takes the field with more machine-guns than a
+British regiment. We have high explosives you never heard of. While you
+were playing polo and golf our chemists were busy in their
+laboratories."
+
+His voice rose as he reeled off this litany of war. His perfect command
+of English was not proof against the guttural clank and crash of
+German. He became a veritable German talking English, rather than an
+accomplished linguist using a foreign tongue. Oddly enough, his next
+tirade showed that he was half-aware of the change. "Old England is
+done, Captain Dalroy," he chanted. "Young Germany is about to take her
+place. The world must learn to speak German, not English. Six months
+from now I'll begin to forget your makeshift language. Six months from
+now the German Eagle will flaunt in the breeze as securely in London as
+it flies to-day in Berlin and Brussels, and, it may be, in Paris. If I'm
+lucky, and get through the war----_Gott in Himm_----"
+
+With a sudden vicious swoop the noose settled on Von Halwig's shoulders,
+and was jerked taut. A master-hand made that cast. No American cowboy
+ever placed lasso more neatly on the horns of unruly steer. At one
+instant the rope was swinging back and forth noiselessly; at the
+next, rising under the impetus of a gentle flick, it whirled over the
+Prussian's head and tightened around his neck. He tore madly at it with
+both hands, but was already lifted off his feet, and in process of being
+hauled upward with an almost incredible rapidity. There was a momentary
+delay when his head reached the level of the trap-door; but Dalroy
+distinctly saw two hands grasp the struggling arms and heave the
+Guardsman's long body out of sight.
+
+An astounding feature of this tragic episode was the absence of any
+outcry on the victim's part. He uttered no sound other than a stifled
+gurgle after that half-completed exclamation was stilled. Possibly, his
+dazed wits concentrated on the one frantic endeavour--to get rid of that
+horrible choking thing which had clutched at him from out of the
+surrounding obscurity.
+
+And now a thick knotted rope plumped down until its end lay on the
+floor, and a rough-looking fellow, clothed like Maertz or Dalroy
+himself, descended with the ease and agility of a monkey. He was just
+the kind of shaggy goblin one might expect to emerge from any such
+hiding-place; but he carried a slung rifle, and the bewildered prisoner,
+taking a few steps forward to greet his rescuer, realised that the
+weapon was a Lee-Enfield of the latest British army pattern.
+
+"'Arf a mo', sir," gurgled the new-comer in a husky and cheerful
+whisper. "I'll 'old the rope till the next of ahr little knot 'as
+shinned dahn. Then I'll cut yer loose, an' we'll get the wind up
+ahtside. Didjever 'ear such a gas-bag as that bloomin' Jarman? Lord luv'
+a duck, 'e couldn't 'arf tork! But Shiney Black, one of ahrs, 'as just
+shoved a bynit through 'is gizzard, so _that_ cock won't crow agine!"
+
+Dalroy owned only a reader's knowledge of colloquial cockney. He
+inferred, rather than actually understood, that several British soldiers
+were secreted in the loft, and that one of them, named "Shiney Black,"
+had closed Von Halwig's career in the twinkling of an eye.
+
+By this time another man had reached the ground. He seized the rope and
+steadied it, and a third appeared. The first gnome whipped out a knife,
+freed Dalroy, unslung his rifle, and picked up the electric torch, which
+he held so that its beam filled the doorway. Man after man came down.
+Each was armed with a regulation rifle; Dalroy, for once thrown
+completely off his balance, became dimly aware that in every instance
+the equipment included bayonet, bandolier, and haversack.
+
+The cohort formed up, too, as though they had rehearsed the procedure in
+the gymnasium at Aldershot. There was no muttered order, no uncertainty.
+Rifles were unslung, bayonets fixed, and safety catches turned over
+soundlessly.
+
+Conquering his blank amazement as best he could, Dalroy inquired of the
+first sprite how many the party consisted of, all told.
+
+"Twelve an' the corp'ral, sir," came the prompt answer. "The lucky
+thirteen we calls ahrselves. An' we wanted a bit o' luck ter leg it all
+the w'y from Monze to this 'ole. Not that we 'adn't ter kill any Gord's
+quantity o' Yewlans when they troied ter be funny, an' stop us----Here's
+the corp'ral, sir."
+
+Dalroy was confronted by a clear-eyed man, whose square-shouldered
+erectness was not concealed by the unkempt clothes of a Belgian peasant.
+Carrying the rifle at "the slope," and bringing his right hand smartly
+across to the small of the butt, the leader of this lost legion
+announced himself.
+
+"Corporal Bates, sir, A Company, 2nd Battalion of the Buffs. That German
+officer made out, sir, that you were in our army."
+
+"Yes, I am Captain Dalroy, of the 2nd Bengal Lancers."
+
+Corporal Bates became, if possible, even more clear-eyed.
+
+"Stationed where last year, sir?"
+
+"At Lucknow, with your own battalion."
+
+"Well, I'm--beg pardon, sir, but are you the Lieutenant Dalroy who rode
+the winner of the Civil Service Cup?"
+
+"Yes, the Maharajah of Chutneypore's Diwan."
+
+"Good enough! You understand, sir, I _had_ to ask. Will you take
+command, sir?"
+
+"No indeed, corporal. I shall only humbly advise. But we must rescue the
+lady."
+
+"I heard and saw all that passed, sir. The Germans are mounted. The
+lady's in the car. We were watching through a hole in the roof. The last
+man remained there so as to warn us if any of 'em came this way. As you
+know their lingo, sir, I recommend that when we creep out you tell 'em
+to dismount. They'll do it like a shot. Then we'll rush 'em. Here's the
+officer's pistol. _You_ might take care of the shuffer and the chap by
+his side."
+
+"Excellent, corporal. Just one suggestion. Let half of your men steal
+round to the rear, whether or not the troopers dismount. They should be
+headed off from Oombergen, the village near here, where they have two
+squadrons."
+
+"Right, sir.--Smithy, take the left half-section, and cut off the
+retreat on the left.--Ready, sir?--Douse that glim!"
+
+Out went the torch. Fourteen shadows flitted forth into the darkness and
+rain. The car, with its staring head-lights, was drawn up about thirty
+yards away, and somewhat to the left. On both sides and in rear were
+grouped the hussars, men and horses looming up in spectral shapes. The
+raindrops shone like tiny shafts of polished steel in the two cones of
+radiance cast by the acetylene lamps.
+
+Dalroy, miraculously become a soldier again, saw instantly that the
+troopers were cloaked, and their carbines in the buckets. He waited a
+few seconds while "Smithy" and his band crept swiftly along the wall of
+the barn. Then, copying to the best of his ability the shrill yell of a
+German officer giving a command, he shouted, "Squad--dismount!"
+
+He was obeyed with a clatter of accoutrements. He ran forward. Not
+knowing the "system" perfected by the "lucky thirteen," he looked for an
+irregular volley at close range, throwing the hussars into inextricable
+confusion. But not a rifle was fired until some seconds after he himself
+had shot and killed or seriously wounded the chauffeur and the escort.
+For all that, thirteen hussars were already out of action. The men who
+had crossed Belgium from Mons had learnt to depend on the bayonet, which
+never missed, and was silent and efficacious.
+
+The affair seemed to end ere it had well begun. Only two troopers
+succeeded in mounting their plunging horses, and they, finding the road
+to Oombergen barred, tried to bolt westward, whereupon they were bowled
+over like rabbits. Their terrified chargers, after scampering wildly a
+few paces, trotted back to the others. Not one of the twenty got away.
+Hampered by their heavy cloaks, and taken completely by surprise, the
+hussars offered hardly any resistance, but fell cursing and howling. As
+for the pair seated in front of the car, they never knew why or how
+death came.
+
+"Now, then, Smithy, show a light!" shouted Corporal Bates. "Ah! there
+you are, sir! I meant to make sure of _this_ chap. I got him straight
+off."
+
+The torch revealed Corporal Franz stretched on his back, and frothing
+blood, Bates's bayonet having pierced his lungs. It were better for the
+shrewd Berliner if his wits had been duller and his mind cleaner. Not
+soldierly zeal but a gross animalism led him in the first instance to
+make a really important arrest. His ghoulish intent was requited now in
+full measure, and the life wheezed out of him speedily as he lay there
+quivering in the gloom and mire of that rain-swept woodland road.
+Seldom, even when successfully ambushed, has any small detachment of
+troops been destroyed so quickly and thoroughly. This killing was almost
+an artistic triumph.
+
+"Fall in!" growled Bates. "Any casualties?"
+
+"If there is, the blighters oughter be court-mawshalled," chirped Smith.
+
+A momentary shuffling of grotesque forms, and a deep voice boomed,
+"Half-time score--England twenty, Germany _nil_."
+
+"Left section--look 'em over, and carry any wounded men likely to
+live into the barn," said the corporal. "Give 'em first aid an'
+water-bottles. Step lively too! Right section--hold the horses."
+
+This leader and his men were as skilled in the business of slaying an
+enemy as Robin Hood and his band of poachers in the taking of the king's
+venison. Dalroy knew they needed no guidance from him. He opened the
+door of the car.
+
+"Irene!" he said.
+
+She was sitting there, a forlorn figure huddled up in a corner. The
+windows were closed. Each sheet of glass was so blurred by the swirling
+rain that she could not possibly make out the actual cause of the
+external hubbub. After the hard schooling of the past month she
+realised, of course, that a rescue was being attempted. Naturally, too,
+she put it down to the escape of Maertz. Although her heart was
+thrumming wildly, her soul on fire with a hope almost dangerous in its
+frenzy, she resolved not to stir from her prison until the one man she
+longed to see again in this world came to free her.
+
+Yet when she heard his voice the tension snapped so suddenly that there
+was peril in the other extreme. She sat so still that Dalroy said a
+second time, with a curious sharpness of tone, "Irene!"
+
+"Yes, dear," she contrived to murmur hoarsely.
+
+"It's all over. A squad of British soldiers dropped from the skies.
+Every German is laid out, Von Halwig with the rest."
+
+"Von Halwig! Is he dead?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I am glad. Arthur, they have not wounded you?"
+
+"Not a scratch."
+
+"And Maertz?"
+
+"We must see to him. Will you come out? Never mind the rain."
+
+"The rain! Ah, dear God, that I should feel the blessed rain beating on
+my face once more in liberty!"
+
+She gave him her hand, and they stood for a moment, peering deep into
+each other's eyes.
+
+"Arthur," she said, so quietly now that the storm seemed to have passed
+from her spirit, "you have work to do. I shall not keep you. Tell me
+where to wait, and there you shall find me. But, before you go, promise
+me one thing. If we fall again into the hands of the Germans, shoot me
+before I become their prisoner."
+
+"No need to talk of that," he soothed her. "We have a splendid escort.
+In two hours----"
+
+She caught him by both shoulders.
+
+"You _must_ promise," she cried vehemently.
+
+He was startled by the vibrant passion in her voice. He began then
+to understand the real horrors of Irene's vigil, whether in the
+rat-infested darkness of the barn or the cushioned luxury of the
+limousine.
+
+"Yes," he muttered savagely, "I promise."
+
+Taking her by the arm, he led her to the front of the car, where,
+clearly visible herself, she would see little if aught of the shambles
+in rear.
+
+Corporal Bates hurried up.
+
+"Her ladyship all right, sir?" he inquired briskly.
+
+"Yes," replied Dalroy, conscious of a slight tremulousness in the arm
+he was holding.
+
+Corporal Bates, though in all probability he had never even heard of
+Bacon's somewhat trite aphorism, was essentially an "exact" man. He
+never erred as to distinctions of rank or title. His salute was the
+pride of the Buffs. Blithely regardless of the fact that not more than
+five minutes earlier Captain Dalroy had confessed himself ignorant of
+Lady Irene Beresford's actual social status, he alluded to her
+"correctly."
+
+"I think, sir," he rattled on, "that we ought to be moving. It's quite
+dark now, an' we have our route marked out."
+
+"How?"
+
+"We've been directed by a priest, sir. The Belgian priests have done us
+a treat. In every village they showed us the safest roads. Even when
+they couldn't make us understand their lingo they could always pencil a
+map."
+
+"I see. Do you follow the road to Oosterzeele?"
+
+"For about a mile, sir. Then we branch off into a lane leading west to
+the river Schelde, which we cross by a ferry. Once past that ferry, an'
+there's no more Germans."
+
+"Very well. Have you searched the enemy for papers?"
+
+"Yes, sir. We're stuffed with note-books an' other little souveeners."
+
+"Do your men ride?"
+
+"Some of 'em, sir, but they'll foot it, if you don't mind. They hate
+killing horses, so we turn 'em loose generally. This lot should be tied
+up."
+
+"What of the car?"
+
+"Smithy will attend to that with a bomb, sir."
+
+Bates evidently knew his business, so evidently that Dalroy did not even
+question him as to the true inwardness of Smithy's attentions.
+
+The squad cleared up their tasks with an extraordinary celerity. Smithy
+crawled under the automobile with the flashlight, remained there exactly
+thirty seconds, and reappeared.
+
+The corporal saluted.
+
+"We're ready now, sir," he said. "Perhaps her ladyship will march with
+you behind the centre file?"
+
+"Do you head the column?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then, for a little way, we'll accompany you. There were three in our
+party, corporal. One, a Belgian named Jan Maertz, risked death to get
+away and bring help. I'm afraid he has been captured on the Oosterzeele
+road by two hussars detailed for the job. So, you see, I must try and
+save him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE MARNE--AND AFTER
+
+
+"That's awkward, sir," said the corporal, as the detachment moved off
+into the night, leaving the motor-car's acetylene lamps still blazing
+merrily.
+
+"Why 'awkward'?" demanded Dalroy.
+
+"Because, when we fellows met in a wood near Monze, we agreed that we'd
+stick together, and fight to a finish; but if any man strayed by
+accident, or got hit so badly that he couldn't march, he took his
+chances, and the rest went on."
+
+"Quite right. How does that affect the present situation?"
+
+"Well, sir," said Bates, after a pause, "there's you an' the lady. Our
+chaps are interested, if I may say it. You ought to have heard their
+langwidge, even in whispers, when that--well, I can't call him anything
+much worse than what he was, a German officer--when he was telling you
+off, sir."
+
+"What did the German officer say, sergeant?" put in Irene innocently.
+
+"Corporal, your ladyship. Corporal Bates, of the 2nd Buffs."
+
+"I'm sorry to have to interrupt," said Dalroy. "You must give Lady Irene
+a full account some other time. If you are planning to cross the
+Schelde to-night there is a long march before you. We part company at
+the lane you spoke of. I leave her ladyship in the care of you and your
+men with the greatest confidence. I make for Oosterzeele. If Jan Maertz
+is a prisoner, I must do what lies in my power to rescue him. If I fail,
+I'll follow on and report at Gand in the morning."
+
+For a little while none spoke. The other men marched in silence, a
+safeguard which they had made a rigid rule while piercing their way by
+night through an unknown country held by an enemy who would not have
+given quarter to any English soldier.
+
+Bates was really a very sharp fellow. He had sense enough to know that
+he had said enough already. Dalroy's use of Irene's title conveyed a
+hint of complications rather beyond the ken of one whose acquaintance
+with the facts was limited to an overheard conversation between
+strangers. Moreover, soldier that he was, the corporal realised that one
+of his own officers was not only deliberately risking his life in order
+to save that of a Belgian peasant, but felt in honour bound to do no
+less.
+
+So Irene was left to tread the narrow path unaided. To her lasting
+credit, she neither flinched nor faltered.
+
+"We may find it difficult to reach Gand, so I'll wait for you in Ostend,
+Arthur," she said composedly.
+
+Now, these two young people had just been snatched from death, or worse,
+in a manner which, a few weeks earlier, the least critical reader of
+romantic fiction would have denounced as so wildly improbable that
+imagination boggled at it. Irene, too, had unmistakably told the man who
+had never uttered a word of the love that was consuming him that neither
+rank nor wealth could interpose any barrier between them. It was hard,
+almost unbearable, that they should be parted in the very hour when
+freedom might truly come with the dawn.
+
+Dalroy trudged a good twenty paces before he dared trust his voice. Even
+then, he blurted out, not the measured agreement which his brain
+dictated, but a prayer from his very heart. "May God bless and guard
+you, dear!" was what he said, and Irene's response was choked by a
+pitiful little sob.
+
+Suddenly Dalroy, whose hearing was quickened by the training of Indian
+_shikar_, touched the corporal's arm, and stood fast. Bates gave a
+peculiar click in his throat, and the squad halted, each man's feet
+remaining in whatever position they happened to be at the moment.
+
+"Horses coming this way," breathed Dalroy.
+
+"Right, sir. This'll be your two, with Jan wot's-his-name, I hope. Leave
+them to us, sir.--Smithy, Macdonald, and Shiner--forward!"
+
+Three shapes materialised close to the trio in front. The rain was still
+pelting down, and the trees nearly met overhead, so the road was
+discernible only by a strip of skyline, itself merely a less dense
+blackness.
+
+"Them two Yewlans," explained the corporal, "probably bringing a
+prisoner. Mind you don't hurt him."
+
+No more explicit instructions were given or needed. Of such material
+were the First Hundred Thousand.
+
+"Take her ladyship back a few yards, sir," gurgled Bates. "The horses
+may bolt. If they do we must stop 'em before they gallop over us."
+
+Every other consideration was banished instantly by the thrill of
+approaching combat. By this time, Dalroy was steeped in admiration for
+his escort's methods, and he awaited developments now with keen
+professional curiosity. And this is what he saw, after a breathless
+interval. A flash in the gloom, and the vague silhouettes of two hussars
+on horseback. One horse reared, the other swerved. One man never spoke.
+The other rapped out an oath which merged into a frantic squeal. By an
+odd trick of memory, Dalroy recalled old Joos's description of the death
+of Busch: "He squealed like a pig."
+
+Then came a cockney voice, "Cheer-o, mitey! We're friends, ammies! Damn
+it all, you ain't tikin' us for Boshes, are yer?"
+
+"_Hola!_ Jan Maertz!" shouted Dalroy.
+
+"_Monsieur!_"
+
+Irene laughed--yes, laughed, though two men had died before her
+eyes!--at the amazement conveyed by the Walloon's gruff yelp.
+
+"Don't be alarmed! These are friends, British soldiers," went on Dalroy.
+
+"I thought they were devils from hell," was the candid answer.
+
+Jan was unquestionably frightened. For one thing, his hands were tied
+behind his back, and he was being led by a halter fashioned out of a
+heel-rope, a plight in which the Chevalier Bayard himself might have
+quaked. For another, he had been plodding along at the side of one of
+the horses, thinking bitterly of the fair Leontine, whose buxom waist he
+would never squeeze again, when a beam of dazzling light revealed a
+crouching, nondescript being which flung itself upward in a panther-like
+spring, and buried a bayonet to the socket in the body of the nearest
+trooper. No wonder Jan was scared.
+
+The soldiers had caught both horses. Dalroy, a cavalryman, had abandoned
+the earlier remounts with a twinge of regret. He thought now there was
+no reason why he and Irene should not ride, as the day's tramp, not to
+speak of the strain of the past hour, might prove a drawback before
+morning.
+
+"Can you sit a horse astride?" he asked her.
+
+"I prefer it," she said promptly.
+
+Bates offered no objection, as long as they followed in rear. The
+hussar's cloaks came in useful, and Dalroy buckled on a sword-belt. Jan
+announced that he was good for another twenty miles provided he could
+win clear of those _sales Alboches_. He was eager to relate his
+adventures, but Dalroy quieted him by the downright statement that if
+his tongue wagged he might soon be either a prisoner again or dead.
+
+A night so rife with hazard could hardly close tamely. The rain cleared
+off, and the stars came out ere they reached the ferry on the Schelde,
+and a scout sent ahead came back with the disquieting news that a strong
+cavalry picket, evidently on the alert, held the right bank. But the
+thirteen had made a specialty of disposing of German pickets in the
+dark. In those early days of the war, and particularly in Flanders,
+Teuton nerves were notoriously jumpy, so the little band crept forward
+resolutely, dodging from tree to tree, and into and out of ditches,
+until they could see the stars reflected in the river. Dalroy and Irene
+had dismounted at the first tidings of the enemy, turning a pair of
+contented horses into a meadow. They and Maertz, of course, had to keep
+well behind the main body.
+
+The troopers, veritable Uhlans this time, had posted neither sentry nor
+vedette in the lane. Behind them, they thought, lay Germany. In front,
+across the river, the small army of Belgium held the last strip of
+Belgian territory, which then ran in an irregular line from Antwerp
+through Gand to Nieuport. So the picket watched the black smudge of the
+opposite bank, and talked of the Kron-Prinz's stalwarts hacking their
+way into Paris, and never dreamed of being assailed from the rear, until
+a number of sturdy demons pounced on them, and did some pretty
+bayonet-work.
+
+Fight there was none. Those Uhlans able to run ran for their lives. One
+fellow, who happened to be mounted, clapped spurs to his charger, and
+would have got away had not Dalroy delivered a most satisfactory lunge
+with the hussar sabre.
+
+No sooner had Bates collected and counted sixteen people than the
+tactics were changed. Five rounds rapid rattled up the road and along
+the banks.
+
+"I find that a bit of noise always helps after we get the windup with
+the bayonet, sir," he explained to Dalroy. "If any of 'em think of
+stopping they move on again when they hear a hefty row."
+
+A Belgian picket, guarding the ferry, and, what was of vast importance
+to the fugitives, the ferry-boat, wondered, no doubt, what was causing
+such a commotion among the enemy. Luckily, the officer in charge
+recognised a new ring in the rifles. He could not identify it, but was
+certain it came from neither a Belgian nor a German weapon.
+
+Thus, in a sense, he was prepared for Jan Maertz's hail, and was even
+more reassured by Irene's clear voice urging him to send the boat.
+
+Two volunteers manned the oars. In a couple of minutes the unwieldy
+craft bumped into a pontoon, and was soon crowded with passengers. Never
+was sweeter music in the ears of a little company of Britons than the
+placid lap of the current, followed by the sharp challenge of a sentry:
+"_Qui va la?_"
+
+"A party of English soldiers, a Belgian, and an English lady," answered
+Dalroy.
+
+An officer hurried forward. He dared not use a light, and, in the
+semi-obscurity of the river bank, found himself confronted by a
+sinister-looking crew. He was cautious, and exceedingly sceptical when
+told briefly the exact truth. His demand that all arms and ammunition
+should be surrendered before he would agree to send them under escort to
+the village of Aspen was met by a blank refusal from Bates and his
+myrmidons. Dalroy toned down this cartel into a graceful plea that
+thirteen soldiers, belonging to eight different regiments of the British
+army, ought not to be disarmed by their gallant Belgian allies, after
+having fought all the way from Mons to the Schelde.
+
+Irene joined in, but Jan Maertz's rugged speech probably carried greater
+conviction. After a prolonged argument, which the infuriated Germans
+might easily have interrupted by close-range volleys, the difficulty was
+adjusted by the unfixing of bayonets and the slinging of rifles. A
+strong guard took them to Aspen, where they arrived about eleven
+o'clock. They were marshalled in the kitchen of a comfortable inn, and
+interviewed by a colonel and a major.
+
+Oddly enough, Corporal Bates was the first to gain credence by producing
+his map, and describing the villages he and his mates had passed
+through, the woods in which they hid for days together, and the cures
+who had helped them. Bates's story was an epic in itself. His men
+crowded around, and grinned approvingly when he rounded off each curt
+account of a "scrap" by saying, "Then the Yewlans did a bunk, an' we
+pushed on."
+
+Dalroy, acting as interpreter, happened to glance at the circle of
+cheerful faces during a burst of merriment aroused by a reference to
+Smithy's ingenuity in stealing a box of hand grenades from an ammunition
+wagon, and destroying a General's motor-car by fixing an infernal
+machine in the gear-box. The mere cranking-up of the engine, it
+appeared, exploded the detonator.
+
+"Is that what you were doing under the car outside the barn?" he
+inquired, catching Smithy's eye.
+
+"Yes, sir. I've on'y one left aht o' six," said Smithy, producing an
+ominous-looking object from a pocket.
+
+"Is the detonator in position?"
+
+"Yus, sir."
+
+"Will you kindly take it out, and lay it gently on the table?"
+
+Smithy obeyed, with reassuring deftness.
+
+Dalroy was about to comment on the phenomenal risk of carrying such a
+destructive bomb so carelessly when he happened to notice the roll
+collar of a khaki tunic beneath Smithy's blue linen blouse.
+
+"Have you still retained part of your uniform?" he inquired.
+
+"Oh, yus, sir. We all 'ave. We weren't goin' to strip fer fear of any
+bally Germans--beg pawdon, miss--an' if it kime to a reel show-dahn we
+meant ter see it through in reggelation kit."
+
+Every man of twelve had retained his tunic, trousers, and puttees, which
+were completely covered by the loose-fitting garments supplied by the
+priest of a hamlet near Louvignies, who concealed them in a loft during
+four days until the mass of German troops had surged over the French
+frontier. The thirteenth, a Highlander, actually wore his kilt!
+
+The Belgian officers grew enthused. They insisted on providing a _vin
+d'honneur_, which Irene escaped by pleading utter fatigue, and retiring
+to rest.
+
+Dalroy opened his eyes next morning on a bright and sunlit world. It
+might reasonably be expected that his thoughts would dwell on the
+astounding incidents of the past month. They did nothing of the sort. He
+tumbled out of a comfortable bed, interviewed the proprietor of the
+"_Trois Couronnes_," and asked that worthy man if he understood the
+significance of a Bank of England five-pound note. During his many and
+varied 'scapes, Dalroy's store of money, carried in an inner pocket of
+his waistcoat, had never been touched. _Monsieur le Patron_ knew all
+that was necessary about five-pound notes. Very quickly a serviceable
+cloth suit, a pair of boots, some clean linen, a tin bath, and a razor
+were staged in the bedroom, while the proprietor's wife was instructed
+to attend to mademoiselle's requirements.
+
+Dalroy was shaving, for the first time in thirty-three days, when voices
+reached him through the open window. He listened.
+
+Smithy had cornered Shiney Black in the hotel yard, and, in his own
+phrase, was puttin' 'im through the 'oop.
+
+"You don't know it, Shiney, but you're reely a verdamd Henglishman," he
+said, with an accurate reproduction of Von Halwig's manner if not his
+accent. "The grite German nytion is abart ter roll yer in the mud, an'
+wipe its big feet on yer tummy. You've awsked fer it long enough, an'
+nah yer goin' ter git it in the neck. Blood an' sausage! The cheek o' a
+silly little josser like you tellin' the Lord-'Igh-Cock-a-doodle-doo
+that 'e can't boss everybody as 'e dam well likes! Shiney, you're done
+in! The Keyser sez so, an' 'e ought ter know. W'y? That shows yer
+miserable hignorance! The Keyser sez so, I tell yer, so none o' yer lip,
+or I, Von Schmit, o' the Dirty 'Alf-Hundredth, will biff you on the
+boko. But no! I must keep me 'air on. As you an' hevery hother verdamd
+Henglishman will be snuffed aht before closin'-time, I shall grashiously
+tell thee wot's wot an' 'oo's 'oo. Germany, the friend o' peace--no, you
+blighter, not Chawlie Peace, the burglar, but the lydy in a nightie, wiv
+a dove in one 'and an' a holive-branch in the other--Germany will wide
+knee-deep in Belgian an' French ber-lud so as to 'and you the double
+Nelson. By land an' sea an' pawcels post she'll rine fire an' brimstone
+on your pore thick 'ead. What 'ave _you_ done, you'd like ter know? Wot
+_'aven't_ you done? Aren't you alive? Wot crime can ekal that when the
+Keyser said, 'Puff! aht--tallow-candle!' _Ach_, pig-dorg, I shpit on
+yer!"
+
+"You go an' wash yer fice once more, Smithy," said Shiney, forcing a
+word in edgeways. "It'll improve your looks, per'aps. I dunno."
+
+"That's done it," yelped Smithy, warming to his theme. "That's just yer
+narsty, scoffin' British w'y o' speakin' to quiet, respectable Germans.
+That's wot gets us mad. I'm surprised at yer, Shiney! Yer hattitude
+brings tears to me heyes. Time an' agine you've 'eard ahr bee-utiful
+langwidge----"
+
+"I 'ave, indeed," interrupted Shiney. "But none o' it 'ere, me lad.
+There's a reel born lydy in one o' them bedrooms."
+
+"I'm not torkin' o' the kind of tosh _you_ hunderstand," retorted
+Smithy. "I'm alludin' to the sweet-sahndin' langwidge o' our conquerors.
+You've 'eard it hoffen enuf from the sorft mowves o' Yewlans. On'y larst
+night you 'eard it spoke by that stawr hactor, Von 'Allwig, of the
+Potsdam Busters. Yet you can git nothink orf yer chest but a low-dahn
+cockney wheeze w'en a benefactor's givin' yer the strite tip. Pore
+Shiney! Ye think yer goin' back to Hengland, 'ome, an' beauty--to the
+barrick-square, bully-beef an' booze, an' plenty o' it. Dontcher believe
+it! Wot you're in fer is a dose o' German _Kultur_. W'en yer ship's
+been torpedoed fourteen times between Hostend an' Dover, w'en yer
+sarth-eastern trine 'as bumped inter a biker's dozen o' different sorts
+o' mines, w'en you're Zepped the minnit you crorse the Strend to the
+nearest pub, you'll begin ter twig wot the Hemperor of All the 'Uns is
+ackshally a-doin' of. It's hall hup wiv yer, Shiney! You've ether got
+ter lie dahn an' doi, er learn German. Nah, w'ich is it ter be? Go west
+wiv yer benighted country, or go nap on the Keyser?"
+
+"Torkin' o' pubs reminds me," yawned Shiney. "I couldn't get any
+forrarder on that ginger-pop the Belgian horficers gev us. In one o'
+them Yewlans' pawket-books there was five French quid. Wot abart a
+bottle o' beer?"
+
+"What abart it?" agreed Smithy instantly.
+
+The soap was drying on Dalroy's face, but he thrust his head out of the
+window to look at two of Britain's first line swaggering through the
+gateway of the inn, and whistling, "It's a long, long way to Tipperary."
+Smith and Shiney were true types of the somewhat cynical but ever
+ready-witted and laughter-loving Londoner, who makes such a first-rate
+fighting man. They were just a couple of ordinary "Tommies." The deadly
+fury of Mons, the daily and nightly peril of the march through a land
+stricken by a brutal enemy, the score of little battles which they
+had conducted with an amazing skill and hardihood--these phases of
+immortality troubled them not at all. An eye-rolling and sabre-rattling
+emperor might rock the social foundations of half the world, his
+braggart henchmen destroy that which they could never rebuild,
+his frantic gang of poets and professors indite Hymns of Hate and
+blasphemous catch-words like "Gott strafe England"; but the Smithies
+and Shinies of the British army would never fail to cock a humorous
+eye at the vapourers, and say sarcastically, "Well, an' wot abart it?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Somehow, on 7th September 1914, there was a hitch in the naval programme
+devised by the _Deutscher Marineamt_. The Belgian packet-boat, _Princess
+Clementine_, steamed from Ostend to Dover through a smiling sea unvexed
+by Krupp or any other form of _Kultur_. Warships, big and little, were
+there in squadrons; but gaunt super-Dreadnought and perky destroyer
+alike was aggressively British.
+
+England, too, looked strangely unperturbed. There had been sad scenes on
+the quay at the Belgian port, but a policeman on duty at the shore end
+of the gangway at Dover seemed to indicate by a majestic calm that any
+person causing an uproar would be given the alternative of paying ten
+shillings and costs or "doing" seven days.
+
+The boat was crowded with refugees; but Dalroy, knowing the wiliness
+of stewards, had experienced slight difficulty in securing two chairs
+already loaded with portmanteaus and wraps. He heard then, for the first
+time, why Irene fled so precipitately from Berlin. She was a guest
+in the house of a Minister of State, and one of the Hohenzollern
+princelings came there to luncheon on that fateful Monday, 3rd August.
+
+He had invited himself, though he must have been aware that his presence
+was an insult and an annoyance to the English girl, whom he had pestered
+with his attentions many times already. He was excited, drank heavily,
+and talked much. Irene had arranged to travel home next day, but the
+wholly unforeseen and swift developments in international affairs, no
+less than the thinly-veiled threats of a royal admirer, alarmed her into
+an immediate departure. At the twelfth hour she found that her host,
+father of two girls of her own age--the school friends, in fact, to whom
+she was returning a visit--was actually in league with her persecutor to
+keep her in Berlin.
+
+She ran in panic, her one thought being to join her sister in Brussels,
+and reach home.
+
+"So you see, dear," she said, with one of those delightfully shy glances
+which Dalroy loved to provoke, "I was quite as much sought after as you,
+and I would certainly have been stopped on the Dutch frontier had I
+travelled by any other train."
+
+The two were packed into a carriage filled to excess. They had no
+luggage other than a small parcel apiece, containing certain articles of
+clothing which might fetch sixpence in a rag-shop, but were of great and
+lasting value to the present owners.
+
+At Charing Cross, while they were walking side by side down the
+platform, Irene shrieked, "There they are!" She darted forward and flung
+herself into the arms of two elderly people, a brother in khaki, with
+the badges of a Guard regiment, and a sister of the flapper order.
+
+Dalroy had been told at Dover to report at once to the War Office, as he
+carried much valuable information in his head and Von Halwig's
+well-filled note-book in his pocket. He hung back while the embracing
+was in progress. Then Irene introduced him to her family.
+
+"You'll dine with us, Arthur," she said simply. "I'll not tell them a
+word of our adventures till you are present."
+
+"You could have heard a pin drop," was the excited comment of the
+flapper sister when endeavouring subsequently to thrill another girl
+with the sensation created by Irene's quiet words. Literally, this trope
+was not accurate, because the station was noisier than usual.
+Figuratively, it met the case exactly.
+
+Lady Glastonbury, a gray-haired woman with wise eyes, promptly emulated
+the action of the British army during the retreat from Mons, and "saved
+the situation."
+
+"Of course you'll stay with us, too, Captain Dalroy," she said with
+pleasant insistence. "Like Irene, you must have lost everything, and
+need time to refit."
+
+Dalroy murmured some platitude, lifted his hat, and only regained his
+composure after two narrow escapes from being run over by taxis while
+crossing Northumberland Avenue.
+
+A newsboy tore past, shouting in the vernacular, "Great Stand by Sir
+John French."
+
+Dalroy was reminded of Smithy, and Shiney, and Corporal Bates. He saw
+again Jan Maertz waving a farewell from the quai at Ostend. He wondered
+how old Joos was faring, and Leontine, and Monsieur Pochard, and the
+cure of Verviers.
+
+Another boy scampered by. He carried a contents bill. Heavy black type
+announced that the British were "holding" Von Kluck on the Marne.
+Dalroy's eyes kindled. _His_ work lay _there_. When the soldier's task
+was ended he would come back to Irene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+"CARRY ON!"
+
+
+After a few delightful days in London, Dalroy walked down Whitehall one
+fine morning to call at the War Office for orders. Irene went with him.
+He expected to be packed off to France that very evening, so the two
+meant making the utmost of the fast-speeding hours. The Intelligence
+Department had assimilated all the information Dalroy could give, had
+found it good, and had complimented him. As a Bengal Lancer, whose
+regiment was presumably in India, he would probably be attached to some
+cavalry unit of the Expeditionary Force; from being an hunted outlaw,
+with a price on his head, he would be quietly absorbed by the military
+machine. Very smart he looked in his khaki and brown leather; Irene, who
+one short week earlier deemed _sabots en cuir_ the height of luxury, was
+dressed _de rigueur_ for luncheon at the Savoy.
+
+Many eyes followed them as they crossed Trafalgar Square and dodged the
+traffic flowing around the base of King Charles's statue. An alert
+recruiting-sergeant, clinching the argument, pointed out the tall,
+well-groomed officer to a lanky youth whose soul was almost afire with
+martial decision.
+
+"There y'are," he said, with emphatic thumb-jerk, "that's wot the
+British army will make of you in a couple of months. An' just twig the
+sort o' girl you can sort out of the bunch. Cock yer eye at _that_, will
+you?"
+
+Thus, all unconsciously, Irene started the great adventure for one of
+Kitchener's first half-million.
+
+She was not kept waiting many minutes in an ante-room. Dalroy
+reappeared, smiling mysteriously, yet, as Irene quickly saw, not quite
+so content with life as when he entered those magic portals, wherein a
+man wrestles with an algebraical formula before he finds the department
+he wants.
+
+"Well," she inquired, "having picked your brains, are they going to
+court-martial you for being absent without leave?"
+
+"I cross to-night," he said, leading her toward the Horse Guards'
+Parade. "It's Belgium, not France. I'm on the staff. My appointment will
+appear in the gazette to-morrow. That's fine, but I'd rather----"
+
+Irene stopped, almost in the middle of the road.
+
+"And you'll wear a cap with a red band and a golden lion, and those
+ducky little red tabs on the collar! Come at once, and buy them! I
+refuse to lunch with you otherwise."
+
+"A man must not wear the staff insignia until he is gazetted," he
+reminded her.
+
+"Oh!" She was pathetically disappointed.
+
+"But, in my case," he went on, "I am specifically ordered to travel in
+staff uniform, so, as I leave London at seven o'clock----"
+
+"You can certainly lunch in all your glory," she vowed. "There's an
+empty taxi!"
+
+Of course, it was pleasant to be on the staff, and thus become even more
+admired by Irene, if there is a degree surpassing that which is already
+superlative; but the fly in the ointment of Dalroy's new career lay in
+the fact that the battle of the Aisne was just beginning, and every
+British heart throbbed with the hope that the Teuton hordes might be
+chased back to the frontier as speedily as they had rushed on Paris.
+Dalroy himself, an experienced soldier, though he had watched those grim
+columns pouring through the valley of the Meuse, yielded momentarily to
+the vision splendid. He longed to be there, taking part in the drive.
+Instead, he was being sent to Belgium, some shrewd head in the War
+Office having decided that his linguistic powers, joined to a recent
+first-hand knowledge of local conditions, would be far more profitably
+employed in Flanders than as a squadron leader in France.
+
+Thus, when that day of mellow autumn had sped all too swiftly, and he
+had said his last good-bye to Irene, it was to Dover he went, being
+ferried thence to Ostend in a destroyer.
+
+In those early weeks of the war all England was agog with the belief
+that Antwerp would prove a rankling thorn in the ribs of the Germans,
+while men in high places cherished the delusion that a flank attack was
+possible along the Ostend-Bruges-Brussels line.
+
+But Dalroy was an eminently sane person. Two hours of clear thinking in
+the train re-established his poise. When the Lieutenant-Commander in
+charge of the destroyer took him below in mid-Channel for a smoke and a
+drink, and the talk turned on strategy, the soldier dispelled an
+alluring mirage with a breath of common sense.
+
+"The scheme is nothing short of rank lunacy," he said. "We haven't the
+men, France can spare none of hers, and Belgium must be crushed when the
+big battalions meet. Germany has at least three millions in the field
+already. Paris has been saved by a miracle. By some other miracle we may
+check the on-rush in France, but, if we start dividing our forces, even
+Heaven won't help us."
+
+"Surely you'll admit that we should strengthen the defence of Antwerp?"
+argued the sailor.
+
+"I think it impracticable. Liege only held out until the new siege
+howitzers arrived. Namur fell at once. Why should we expect Antwerp to
+be impregnable?"
+
+The navy deemed the army pessimistic, but, exactly a month later, the
+Lieutenant-Commander remembered that conversation, and remarked to a
+friend that about the middle of September he took to Ostend "a chap on
+the Staff who seemed to know a bit."
+
+It is now a matter of historical fact when Von Kluck and Sir John French
+began their famous race to the north, the Belgian army only escaped from
+Antwerp by the skin of its teeth. The city itself was occupied by the
+Germans on October 9th, Bruges was entered on the 13th, Von Bessler's
+army reached the coast on the 15th, and the British and Belgians were
+attacked on the line of the Yser next day.
+
+Thus, fate decreed that Dalroy should witness the beginning and the end
+of Germany's shameless outrage on a peaceful and peace-loving country.
+On August 2nd, 1914, King Albert ruled over the most prosperous and
+contented small kingdom in Europe. Within eleven weeks he had become, as
+Emile Cammaerts finely puts it, "lord of a hundred fields and a few
+spires."
+
+Though Dalroy should live far beyond the alloted span of man's life, he
+will never forget the strain, the misery, the sheer hopelessness of the
+second month he spent in Belgium. The climax came when he found himself
+literally overwhelmed by the host of refugees, wounded men, and
+scattered military units which sought succour in, and, as the iron ring
+of _Kultur_ drew close, transport from Ostend.
+
+With the retreat of the Belgian army towards Dunkirk, and the return to
+England of such portion of the ill-fated Naval Division as was not
+interned in Holland, his military duties ceased. In his own and the
+country's interests he ought to have made certain of a berth on the last
+passenger steamer to leave Ostend for England. He, at least, could have
+done so, though there were sixty thousand frenzied people crowding the
+quays, and hundreds, if not thousands, of comparatively wealthy men
+offering fabulous sums for the use of any type of vessel which would
+take them and their families to safety.
+
+But, at the eleventh hour, Dalroy heard that a British Red Cross
+Hospital party, which had extricated itself from the clutch of the
+mailed fist, was even then _en route_ from Bruges to Ostend by way of
+Zeebrugge. Knowing they would be in dire need of help, he resolved to
+stay, though his action was quixotic, since no mercy would be shown him
+if he fell into the hands of the Germans. He took one precaution,
+therefore. Some service rendered to a tradesman had enabled him to buy a
+reliable and speedy motor bicycle, on which, as a last resource, he
+might scurry to Dunkirk. His field service baggage was reposing in a
+small hotel near the harbour. For all he can tell, it is reposing there
+yet; he never saw it again after he leaped into the saddle of the Ariel,
+and sped through the cobbled streets which led to the north road along
+the coast. The hour was then about six o'clock on the evening of
+October 13th.
+
+A Belgian staff officer had assured him that the Germans could not
+possibly occupy Ostend until late next day. The Belgian army, though
+hopelessly outnumbered, had never been either disorganised nor
+outmanoeuvred. The retreat to the Yser, if swift, was orderly, and the
+rearguard could be trusted to follow its time-table.
+
+Hence, before it was dark, Dalroy determined to cover the sixteen miles
+to Zeebrugge. The Hospital, which was convoying British and Belgian
+wounded, would travel thence by the quaint steam-tramway which links up
+the towns on the littoral. It might experience almost insuperable
+difficulties at Zeebrugge or Ostend, and he was one of the few aware of
+the actual time-limit at disposal, while a field hospital bereft of
+transport is a peculiarly impotent organisation.
+
+Road and rail ran almost parallel among the sand dunes. At various
+crossings he could ascertain whether or not any train had passed
+recently in the direction of Ostend, thus making assurance doubly sure,
+though the station-master at the town terminus was positive that the
+next tram would not arrive until half-past seven. Dalroy meant
+intercepting that tram at Blankenberge.
+
+Naturally, the train was late in reaching the latter place, but the only
+practicable course was to wait there, rather than risk missing it. A
+crowd of terrified people gathered around the calm-eyed, quiet-mannered
+Briton, and appealed for advice. Poor creatures! they imposed a cruel
+dilemma. On the one hand, it was monstrous to send a whole community
+flying for their lives along the Ostend road; on the other, he had
+witnessed the fate of Vise and Huy. Yet, by remaining in their homes,
+they had some prospect of life and ultimate liberty, while their lot
+would be far worse the instant they were plunged into the panic and
+miseries of Ostend. So he comforted the unhappy folk as best he might,
+though his heart was wrung with pity at sight of the common faith
+in the Red Cross brassard. Men, women, and children wore the badge
+indiscriminately. They regarded it as a shield against the Uhlan's
+lance! Most fortunately for that strip of Belgium, the policy of
+"frightfulness" was moderated once the country was overrun. So far as
+local occurrences have been permitted to become known, the coast towns
+have been spared the fate of those in the interior.
+
+To Dalroy's great relief, the incoming tram from Zeebrugge brought the
+British hospital. There were four doctors, eight nurses, and fifty-three
+wounded men, including a sergeant and ten privates of the Gordon
+Highlanders, who, like Bates, Smithy, and the rest, had scrambled across
+Belgium after Mons.
+
+The train offered an extraordinary spectacle. Soldiers and civilians
+were packed in it and on it. Men and women sat precariously on the roofs
+of the ramshackle carriages, stood on the buffers and couplings, or
+clung to door-handles. Not even foothold was to be had for love or
+money on that train at Blankenberge.
+
+Dalroy, who dared not let go his machine, contrived to get a word with
+the Medical Officer in charge.
+
+As ever, the Briton made light of past troubles.
+
+"We've had the time of our lives!" was the cheery comment. "After Mons
+we were left in a field hospital with a mixed crowd of British, French,
+and Germans. Of course, we looked after all alike, and that saved our
+bacon, because even a German general had to try and behave decently when
+he found a thousand of his own men in our care. So he sent us to
+Brussels with a safe conduct, and from Brussels we were allowed to make
+for Ostend--had to leg it, though, the last twenty miles to the Belgian
+outposts. Then we refitted, and started for Bruges, where we've been at
+work in a convent for five weeks. The remnant of the Belgian army passed
+through Bruges yesterday and the day before, so we cleared out all
+possible cases, and started away with the crocks early this morning. At
+the last minute we were hustled a bit by a Taube dropping bombs on the
+station. One bomb took from us a van-load of kit. We haven't a thing
+except the stretchers and what we're wearing."
+
+"I'll ride on now, and meet you at Ostend," said Dalroy. He had not the
+heart to damp the spirits of the party by telling of the chaos awaiting
+them. Sufficient for the next hour would be the evil thereof.
+
+"I say, it's awfully good of you to take all this trouble," said the
+doctor.
+
+"I've lost my job with the departure of our troops, so I had to find
+something to do," smiled the other.
+
+A fleet of Belgian armoured cars cleared a road through the stream of
+fugitives, and Dalroy kept close in rear, so he made a fast return
+journey. Dashing past the town station, near which the steam-tram would
+disgorge its freight, he headed straight for the Gare Maritime. It was
+now dusk, but he saw at once that the crowd besieging the entrance was
+denser and more frantic than ever, though the last steamer whose
+departure was announced officially had left early in the day.
+
+He ascertained from a helpless policeman that the rumour had gone round
+of a vessel coming in; the sullen, apathetic multitude, waiting there
+for it knew not what chance of rescue, had suddenly become dangerous.
+
+"The American Consul, who has worked hard all day, has had to give it
+up," added the man. "He is closing his office."
+
+Just then a harbour official, minus his cap, and with coat badly torn
+during a violent passage through the mob, strode by, breathless but
+hurried.
+
+Dalroy recognised him, having had much business with the port
+authorities during the preceding week.
+
+"Is it true that a steamer is in sight?" he asked.
+
+"Monsieur, what am I to say?" and the accompanying gesture was eloquent.
+"It is only a little cargo boat, an English coaster. If she nears the
+quay there will be a riot, and perhaps thousands of lives lost. The
+harbour-master has sent me to ask the mayor if he should not signal her
+to anchor outside until daylight."
+
+Prompt decision and steadfast action were Dalroy's chief qualities. If
+luck favoured him he might set his own project on foot before the
+mayor's messenger burked it by a civic order. He thanked the man and
+rode off.
+
+Happily the tram came from Blankenberge without undue delay. He had only
+dismounted when the engine clanked into the station square. Already his
+soldier's eye had noted that the Gordons and some of the Belgian
+soldiers had retained their rifles and bayonets.
+
+"Get your crowd into motion at once," he said to the doctor, as soon as
+the latter alighted. "Nothing you have gone through during the last two
+months will equal the excitement of the next quarter of an hour. But, if
+your cripples can fix bayonets and show a bold front, we have a fighting
+chance--no more. And unless we leave Ostend before to-morrow morning
+it'll be a German prison for you and a firing party for me."
+
+Men who have smelt war and death, not once but many times, do not
+hesitate and argue when a staff officer talks in that strain.
+
+With an almost marvellous rapidity the members of the mission and the
+wounded able to walk were formed up, stretchers were lifted, and the
+march began. Dalroy and the doctor headed the procession with the
+Gordons, and the mere appearance of a Highlander enforces awe in any
+part of Europe.
+
+Dalroy explained matters as they went, and impressed on the escort the
+absolute necessity of showing a determined front. On nearing the packed
+mass of people clamouring outside the Gare Maritime he vociferated some
+sharp orders, the rifles came from the "slope" to the "ready," and those
+on the outskirts of the throng saw a number of war-stained kilties
+advancing on them with threatening mien.
+
+By some magic a way was opened out. The vanguard knew exactly how to
+act, and faced about when the main gates were reached. Here there was a
+hitch, but a threat to fire a volley through the bars was effectual, and
+the whole party got through, though even the hardened doctors looked
+grave when they heard the wail of anguish that went up from the
+multitude without as the gates clashed against further ingress.
+
+Of course, as might be expected, there were hundreds of influential
+people, both British subjects and Belgians, already inside. To them
+Dalroy gave no immediate heed. Merely requesting the doctor to keep his
+contingent together and distinct, he sought the harbour-master.
+
+No orders had been received as yet from the mayor, and the incoming
+steamer, quite a small craft, was already in the channel.
+
+The harbour-master, a decent fellow, whose sole anxiety was to act for
+the best, readily agreed to Dalroy's plan, so the vessel, whose skipper
+had actually brought her to Ostend that evening "on spec," as he put it,
+was moored at a distance of some ten feet from the quay.
+
+"How many people can you carry?" was Dalroy's first question to the
+captain.
+
+"Well, sir," came the surprising answer, "we're licensed by the Board of
+Trade to carry forty-five passengers in summer, but, in a pinch like
+this, I'll try and stow away two hundred!"
+
+After that there was no hitch. A gangway was fixed in position, the
+armed guard were disposed around it, and the doctors and Dalroy, with a
+representative of the burgomaster who arrived later, constituted
+themselves a committee of selection. The hospital staff and their
+patients were placed on board first. Wounded soldiers picked up in
+Ostend itself were given the next claim. Then British subjects, and,
+finally, Belgian refugees, were admitted.
+
+It was a long and tedious yet almost heart-breaking business, but the
+order of priority established a method whereby claims might be tested
+with some show of equity. At last, at some hour, none knew or cared
+exactly when, the steamer forged slowly out into the channel, backed,
+and swung, amid the shrieks and lamentations of the thousands who were
+left to the tender mercies of _Kultur_.
+
+In addition to her crew, she carried 739 passengers, mostly wounded
+soldiers, women, and children!
+
+There was no room to lie down, save in the space rigidly preserved for
+the stretcher cases. The decks, the cabins, the holds, were packed tight
+with a living freight. Surely never before has vessel put to sea so
+loaded with human beings.
+
+The captain decided not to attempt the crossing by night and lay to till
+morning. The ship's boats returned to the quay, and brought off some
+food and water.
+
+Meanwhile, leaders of sections were chosen, the people were instructed
+as to the danger of lurching, and ropes were arranged so that any
+unexpected movement of the hull might be counteracted.
+
+At eight o'clock next morning the engines were started; at ten o'clock
+that night the ship was berthed at Dover. By the mercy of Providence the
+sea remained smooth all day, though the mid-channel tidal swell caused
+dangerous and anxious moments. Of course, there were mine-fields to be
+avoided, and strong tides to be cheated, but, allowing for these
+hindrances, the trip occupied fourteen hours, whereas the Belgian
+mail-packets employed on the same journey used to adhere steadily to a
+schedule of three hours and three-quarters!
+
+On the way, death took his dread toll among the wounded, but to nothing
+like the extent that might well have been feared. The bringing of that
+great company of people from the horrors of the German occupation of
+Belgium to the safe harbourage of the United Kingdom was a magnificent
+achievement, worthy of high place in the crowded and glorious annals of
+British seamanship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So Irene and her true knight met once more, only to part again after
+three blissful days. This time, Dalroy went to France, and took his
+place in the fighting line. He endured the drudgery of that first winter
+in the trenches, shared in the gain and loss of Neuve Chapelle, earned
+his majority, and seemed to lead a charmed life until a high explosive
+shell burst a little too close during the second day at Loos.
+
+He was borne off the field as one nearly dead. But his wounds were
+slight, and he had only been stunned by the concussion. By the time this
+diagnosis was confirmed, however, he was at home and enjoying six weeks'
+leave.
+
+Nothing very remarkable would have happened if the Earl of Glastonbury,
+an elderly but most observant peer, had not created a rare commotion
+one day at luncheon.
+
+Dalroy was up in town after a few days' rest at his uncle's vicarage in
+the Midlands; he and the younger members of the household were planning
+a round of theatres and suchlike dissipations, when the Earl said
+quietly:
+
+"You people seem to be singularly devoid of original ideas. George
+Alexander, Charlie Hawtrey, and the latest revue star provide a sure and
+certain refuge for every country cousin who comes to London for a
+fortnight's mild dissipation."
+
+"What do you suggest, dad?" demanded Irene.
+
+"Why not have a war wedding?"
+
+"Oh, let's!" cried the flapper sister ecstatically.
+
+Dalroy swallowed whole some article of food, and Irene blushed scarlet.
+But "father" had said the thing, and "mother" had smiled, so Dalroy,
+whose wildest dreams hitherto had dwelt on marriage at the close of the
+war as a remote possibility, bestirred himself like a good soldier-man,
+rushing all fences at top speed.
+
+The brother in the Guards secured five days' leave, a wounded but
+exceedingly good-looking Bengal Lancer was empanelled as "best man" (to
+the joy and torment of the flapper, who pined during a whole week after
+his departure), and, almost before they well knew what was happening,
+Dalroy and his bride found themselves speeding toward Devon in a fine
+car on their honeymoon.
+
+"And why not?" growled the Earl, striving to comfort his wife when she
+wept a little at the thought that her beautiful daughter, her
+eldest-born, would henceforth have a nest of her own. "Dash it all,
+Mollie, they'll only be young once, and this rotten war looks like
+lasting a decade! Had we searched the British Isles we couldn't have
+found a better mate for our girl. He's just the sort of chap who will
+worship Irene all his life, and he has in him the makings of a future
+commander-in-chief, or I'm a Dutchman!"
+
+As his lordship is certainly not a Dutchman, but unmistakably English,
+aristocratic, and county, it is permissible to hope that his prophecy
+may be fulfilled. Let us hope, too, if Dalroy ever leads the armed
+manhood of Britain, it will be a cohort formed to render aggressive war
+impossible. That, at least, is no idle dream. It should be the sure and
+only outcome of the world's greatest agony.
+
+                         THE END
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and
+intent.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Day of Wrath, by Louis Tracy
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAY OF WRATH ***
+
+***** This file should be named 33622.txt or 33622.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/6/2/33622/
+
+Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.