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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33622-8.txt b/33622-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c09aac --- /dev/null +++ b/33622-8.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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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 VISÉ 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 maelström 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 employés 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. + +"Fräulein 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 +attachés 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-à-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 Liège," 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 _viâ_ 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 Liège, +and the imperishable laurels which that gallant city was about to +gather. They elected to go on! + +A station employé 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 +Liège 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 protégé 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.--Fräulein, 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, _gnädiges Fräulein_. 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 employé 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: "Liège, 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 Liège." + +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, über 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 Visé by daybreak. This cursed +war has kept me here a whole day. Who is fighting who, I'd like to +know?" + +"Visé!" 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, Visé." + +"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 protégé 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 Visé? 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 Liège. 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 Visé ran nearly parallel with, but some miles north of, the +main artery between Aix-la-Chapelle and Liège. 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 Visé?" 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. Visé lies below it." + +"But how far?" + +"Not more than two kilomètres." + +Two kilomètres! 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 Visé, +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 Visé," said the gruff Walloon. + +"What's in the cart?" + +"Oats." + +"_Almächtig!_ 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 Visé?" 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 +Visé 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 Visé, 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 Fräulein_ 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 Visé 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 +Visé 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 VISÉ + + +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 Visé. 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 Visé?" + +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, Léontine!" 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 Léontine 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 Liège respectively. All this meant that General Leman, the heroic +commander-in-chief at Liège, 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 Liège 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 Léontine's voice, +"Monsieur! Mademoiselle!" + +He pulled up the trap. Beneath stood Léontine, 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 Liège 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 Abbé 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! Léontine! 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 Léontine +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 Visé 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 Visé. + + + + +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 Abbé, 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. '_Almächtig!_' +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, Léontine 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 Liège. I asked the officer. He +said they would be in Liège 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!--Léontine, 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. Léontine, 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 Visé yet. You're a Liègeois whom +I hired to do Jan's work while he went to Aix. Everybody in Visé 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 Visé 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, Léontine," 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 rôles, 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, _gnädiges Fräulein_," 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. Liège 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. Visé, 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. +Liège 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 Visé, was destined to fare likewise. But rumour as to +the instant "capture" of Liège 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 Liège 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 kilomètre 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. Visé 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, "Liège 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 Evegnée 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." + +Liège 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 Visé 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 Léontine!" + +"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 Léontine +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 Léontine." + +"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. Léontine'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 Léontine 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 Léontine. +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. Léontine 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.--Léontine, 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.--Léontine, 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 Léontine, perhaps. +But I remain in Belgium. My friends are fighting yonder at Liège, 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 Léontine 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.--Léontine, 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 Visé and investigate matters there. + +Meanwhile the unforeseen resistance offered to the invaders along the +line of the Meuse and neighbourhood of Liège 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 Liège 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 Liège 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 Liège 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 Visé 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 employé; +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 confrère. "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 Léontine. + +"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 Léontine of dodging the rascals?" + +"_Caput!_" cried Maertz, scratching his head, "that settles it! I never +thought of that!" + +"Oh, look!" whispered Léontine. "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 Léontine 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 Visé. 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 Visé 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 +mètres 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 Léontine. 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 Léontine'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, Léontine'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 Visé, 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 'Visé.' +If it is I, I shall answer 'Liège.' 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 Visé 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, über 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 Visé. + +"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.--_Vorwärts!_" + +The column moved on. Schwartz, the treacherous barber of Visé, 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 Engländer_. And Joos's "safe retreat" had been guessed by the +spy who knew what every inhabitant of Visé did, who had watched and +noted even such a harmless occupation as Léontine'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 Liège. + +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. + +"Liège!" said Dalroy, speaking loudly enough for any one in the hut to +hear. There was no answer. "Liège!" 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 Café de la Régence 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 Visé 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, +"Visé!" + +"Liège, 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 Léontine'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. + +Léontine, 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, Léontine!" 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. + +"_Miséricorde!_" 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 Visé, 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 Léontine, 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 Léontine 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 Liège 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 Visé, 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. Léontine 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 kilomètre, 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 Léontine, +daughters, and the said daughters' fiancés, 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 Liège +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 Visé 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 "orbèd 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 Liège, 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 Liège. 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 kilomètres 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 Visé, one to Liège, 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. Léontine +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. Léontine 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! Liège 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 _déjeuner_, 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 Léontine. Madame was done +up; _cette course l'a excédé_, 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 Léontine. + +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 curé 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 curé, 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 curé. "Then what will become of my unhappy country? +Even to-day we are living on hope. Liège 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 curé 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 Würtemberg, +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 curé 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 curé'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 Liège. +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 curé, 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 Liège, 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 maelström 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, Liège 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 Béranger'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 Liège 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 Léontine likes to marry me first, I'm agreeable," put in Maertz +promptly. + +It was a naïve confession, and every one laughed except Joos. + +"Léontine 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 Liège 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 curé'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 Visé. 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, viâ Liège 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 Visé 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, Visé 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 Léontine. 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 mètres, _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. Léontine 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 Léontine; 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 Léontine 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. Léontine 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 Léontine! 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.--Léontine, 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 Léontine'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 Léontine 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 curé'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 Liège, Visé, +Flemelle Grande, Blagny Trembleur, and a score of other places?" + +"Visé!" broke in the cracked, piping voice of Joos. "What's that about +Visé?" + +"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. Léontine +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 Visé, 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 Léontine 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 Visé. 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, Léontine Joos, their daughter, and Jan Maertz, all +of Visé. 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, Léontine. 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 Brabançonne" 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 Léontine 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 Léontine 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 Blücher." + +"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 Cæsar 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 Brainé 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 kilomètre 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 Visé, +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, _Fräulein_--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 +Léontine 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 Liège 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. + +"_Gnädiges Fräulein_," 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. Léontine 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, +_Fräulein_. 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! _Almächtig!_" + +"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 Visé. 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, _Fräulein_," 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. "_Almächtig!_" 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 +Visé, 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 anæsthesia. 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'élite_, 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 Léontine, 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 là?_" + +"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 curés +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 Léontine, and Monsieur Pochard, and the +curé 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. Liège 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 +mailéd 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 Visé 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 33622-8.txt or 33622-8.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. 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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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 294px;"> +<img src="images/icover.jpg" width="294" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<div class="centerbox bbox"><h1> THE DAY OF WRATH</h1> + +<h2> A STORY OF 1914</h2> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>LOUIS TRACY</h2> + +<p class="center">Author of “The Wings of the Morning,” “Flower of the<br /> +Gorse,” etc., etc.</p> + +<p class="smallgap"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 61px;"> +<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="49" height="80" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="smallgap"> </p> + +<h3>NEW YORK</h3> +<h2>EDWARD J. CLODE</h2> +<h3>PUBLISHER</h3></div> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1916, by</span><br /> +EDWARD J. CLODE<br /> +All Rights Reserved</p> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 1.5em;">L. T.</span></p> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="2" summary="Contents"> + +<tr><td align="right"><small>CHAPTER</small></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">I</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Lava-Stream</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">II</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">In the Vortex</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">III</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">First Blood</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">IV</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Tragedy of Visé</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">V</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Billets</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VI</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Fight in the Mill</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VII</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Woodman’s Hut</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VIII</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Respite</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" class="top">IX</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">An Exposition of German</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Methods</span></td> +<td align="right" class="bottom"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">X</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Andenne</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_166">166</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XI</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Tramp Across Belgium</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XII</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">At the Gates of Death</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XIII</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Wooden Horse of Troy</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_226">226</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XIV</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Marne—and After</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_246">246</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XV</td> +<td align="left">“<span class="smcap">Carry On</span>”</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_264">264</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE LAVA-STREAM</h3> + +<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">“</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">F</span>or God’s sake, if you are an Englishman, help me!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>An officer’s uniform is a <i>passe-partout</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“What can I do for you?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Come along! quick!” he muttered. “You’re my cousin, Evelyn Fane!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Have you any luggage?” he said.</p> + +<p>“Nothing beyond this tiny bag. It was hopeless to think of——”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p><p>Von Halwig turned at the barrier to insure his English friend’s safe +passage.</p> + +<p>“Hallo!” he cried. Evidently he was taken aback by the unexpected +addition to the party.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Von Halwig laughed in a way which the Englishman would have resented at +any other moment.</p> + +<p>“Excellent!” he guffawed. “Beautifully contrived, my friend.—Hi, there, +sheep’s-head!”—this to the ticket-inspector—“let that porter with the +portmanteau pass!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 maelström of Berlin were almost rude. +They failed, however, at the outset. Every woman knows exactly how to +attract or repel a man’s admiration; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>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 +<i>wagon-lit</i> in Berlin had been commandeered by the staff.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>The platform-inspector had not exaggerated his services. The train was +literally besieged. Scores of important officials were storming at +railway employés 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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p><p>Meanwhile the two young men chatted amicably, using German and English +with equal ease.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“You are very confident,” said the Englishman pleasantly.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Confident! Why not? Those wretched little <i>piou-pious</i>”—a slang term +for the French infantry—“will run long before they see the whites of +our eyes.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>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. <i>You</i> are a soldier. You <i>know</i>. To-night’s papers say +England is wavering between peace and war. But I have no doubt she will +be wise. That <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>Channel is a great asset, a great safeguard, eh?”</p> + +<p>Again Dalroy changed the subject. “If it is a fair question, when do you +start for the front?”</p> + +<p>“To-morrow, at six in the morning.”</p> + +<p>“How very kind of you to spare such valuable time now!”</p> + +<p>“Not at all! Everything is ready. Germany is always ready. The Emperor +says ‘Mobilise,’ and, behold, we cross the frontier within the hour!”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“Ha! <i>Les braves Belges!</i>” 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!’”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>Dalroy himself, nearly as tall, was lean and lithe, hard as nails, yet +intellectual, a cavalry officer who had passed through the Oxford mint.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But Dalroy intervened. “I have your ticket,” he said, announcing a +singular fact in the most casual manner he could command.</p> + +<p>“Thank you,” she said instantly, trying to conceal her own surprise. But +her eyes met Von Halwig’s bold stare, and read therein not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>only a ready +appraisement of her good looks but a perplexed half-recognition.</p> + +<p>The railwayman raised a question. Contrary to the general custom, the +vouchers bore names, which he compared with a list.</p> + +<p>“These tickets are for Herren Fane and Dalroy, and I find a lady here,” +he said suspiciously.</p> + +<p>“Fräulein Evelyn Fane, my cousin,” explained Dalroy. “A mistake of the +issuing office.”</p> + +<p>“But——”</p> + +<p>“<i>Ach, was!</i>” broke in Von Halwig impatiently. “You hear. Some fool has +blundered. It is sufficient.”</p> + +<p>At any rate, his word sufficed. Dalroy entered the carriage, and the +door was closed and locked.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Well, to our next meeting!” he went on boisterously. “Run across to +Paris during the occupation.”</p> + +<p>“Good-bye! And accept my very grateful thanks,” said Dalroy, and the +train started.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p><p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“No miracle, but a piece of rare good-luck,” he said. “One of the +attachés 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.”</p> + +<p>“So you will forward the money to Mr. Fane with my compliments,” said +the girl, opening her purse.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“We have a long journey before us, and may as well get to know each +other by name,” he said.</p> + +<p>The girl smiled acquiescence. She read, “Captain Arthur Dalroy, 2nd +Bengal Lancers, Junior United Service Club.”</p> + +<p>“I haven’t a card in my bag,” she said simply, “but my name is +Beresford—Irene <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll be equally candid,” he replied. “I’m not married, nor likely to +be.”</p> + +<p>“Is that defiance, or merely self-defence?”</p> + +<p>“Neither. A bald fact. I hold with Kitchener that a soldier should +devote himself exclusively to his profession.”</p> + +<p>“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 <i>vis-à-vis</i> had deftly guided their chatter on to a more +sedate plane.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“The signals must be against us at Liège,” he laughed.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p><p>“But will England fight if Germany invades Belgium?”</p> + +<p>“Surely Germany will do no such thing. The integrity of Belgium is +guaranteed by treaty.”</p> + +<p>“Your friend the lieutenant, then, did not tell you that our army +crossed the frontier to-day?”</p> + +<p>“Is that possible?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>viâ</i> Brussels? Why not branch off at +Oberhausen, and go home by way of Flushing?”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>unmistakable look of a British officer.”</p> + +<p>“Have I?” he said, smiling. “That is just why I am going through, I +suppose.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>After a night of fitful sleep dawn found the travellers not yet +half-way. The four Germans <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>Newspapers bought <i>en route</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>girl that she was to come with him into the corridor on +the opposite side of the carriage.</p> + +<p>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 Liège, +and the imperishable laurels which that gallant city was about to +gather. They elected to go on!</p> + +<p>A station employé 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.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“Spies are not vouched for by Councillors of State,” was the calm reply. +“I have in my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>For a little while no one answered. Ultimately, the officer who regarded +Liège 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.”</p> + +<p>“Newspapers exaggerate such matters,” said Dalroy.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 protégé 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.</p> + +<p>Then his sky dropped, dropped with a bang.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p><p>The train had not quite halted when the door was torn open, and a +bespectacled, red-faced officer glared in.</p> + +<p>“It is reported from Cologne that there are English in this carriage,” +he shouted.</p> + +<p>“Correct, my friend. There they are!” said the man who had snarled at +Dalroy earlier.</p> + +<p>“You must descend,” commanded the new-comer. “You are both under +arrest.”</p> + +<p>“On what charge?” inquired Dalroy, bitterly conscious of a gasp of +terror which came involuntarily from the girl’s lips.</p> + +<p>“You are spies. A sentry heard you talking English, and saw you +examining troop-trains from the carriage window.”</p> + +<p>So that Bavarian lout had listened to the Prussian officer’s taunt, and +made a story of his discovery to prove his diligence.</p> + +<p>“We are not spies, nor have we done anything to warrant suspicion,” said +Dalroy quietly. “I have <span style="white-space: nowrap;">letters——”</span></p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“May I have my portmanteau?” said Dalroy. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>“You are acting in error, as +I shall prove when given an opportunity.”</p> + +<p>“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 +<span style="white-space: nowrap;">the——”</span></p> + +<p>A tall young lieutenant, in the uniform of the Prussian Imperial Guard, +dashed up breathlessly.</p> + +<p>“Ah, I was told the train had arrived!” he cried. “Yes, I am in search +of those two——”</p> + +<p>“Thank goodness you are here, Von Halwig!” began Dalroy.</p> + +<p>The Guardsman turned on him a face aflame with fury. “Silence!” he +bellowed. “I’ll soon settle <i>your</i> 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 <i>schwein-hund</i>, shoot him at the least +sign of resistance.”</p> + +<p>“But, Herr Lieutenant,” began the other, whose heavy paunch was a +measure of his self-importance, “I have <span style="white-space: nowrap;">orders——”</span></p> + +<p>“<i>Ach, was!</i> 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.—Fräulein, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>you are in safer hands. +You, I fancy, will be well treated.”</p> + +<p>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 +<i>volte-face</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>Von Halwig evidently resented the presence of a crowd of gaping +onlookers.</p> + +<p>“No more talk!” he ordered sharply. “Do as I bid you, Herr Lieutenant of +Reserves!”</p> + +<p>“Captain Dalroy!” cried the girl in a voice of utter dismay, “don’t let +them part us!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Don’t be a fool!” he hissed in English. “<i>I</i> can save you. He is done +with. A firing-party or a rope will account for him at daybreak. Ah! +calm yourself, <i>gnädiges Fräulein</i>. There are consolations, even in +war.”</p> + +<p>Dalroy contrived, out of the tail of his eye, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>And the fat man bustled away. The station was swarming with military +big-wigs. He must remain in evidence.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>between the wall and a covered van which stood there.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>IN THE VORTEX</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he 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 employé 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Hi, there!” he cried. “A word with you, <i>Freiherr</i>!” 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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>The engine-cleaner was not a quick-witted person. He scowled, but +allowed Dalroy to come near—too near.</p> + +<p>“I believe you’re a <i>verdammt</i> Engl——” he began.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<div class="centerbox2 bbox2"><p>In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man<br /> +As modest stillness and humility;<br /> +But when the blast of war blows in our ears<br /> +Then imitate the action of the tiger.</p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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: “Liège, baggage and fodder, cavalry division, 7th +Army Corps.” He learnt subsequently that this definite legend appeared +on front and rear and on both sides.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>None paid heed to him as he lumbered along, swinging the lamp.</p> + +<p>A small crowd of officers, among them the youthful prince in the silver +<i>Pickel-haube</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Kultur</i>.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The girl, who was seated, gave him a terrified glance when he entered, +but dropped her eyes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Jumping on to a chair, Dalroy promptly twisted an electric bulb out of +its socket, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 +<i>Kultur</i> which a jack-boot philosophy offers to the rest of the world.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“It is forbidden,” he said.</p> + +<p>“What is forbidden?” grinned Dalroy amiably, clipping his syllables, and +speaking in the roughest voice he could assume.</p> + +<p>“You cannot pass this way.”</p> + +<p>“Good! Then I can go home to bed. That will be better than cleaning +engines.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p><p>“Oh, is that it?” he inquired.</p> + +<p>“Yes. Look at my cap!”</p> + +<p>Dalroy held up the lantern. The official lettering was evidently +convincing.</p> + +<p>“But what about the lady?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“If you both stand chattering here neither of you will get any coffee,” +put in Irene emphatically.</p> + +<p>The Bavarian lowered his rifle. “I’m relieved at two o’clock,” he said +with a laugh. “Lose no time, <i>schœne Frau</i>. There won’t be much +coffee on the road to Liège.”</p> + +<p>The girl passed on, but Dalroy lingered. “Is that where you’re going?” +he asked.</p> + +<p>“Yes. We’re due in Paris in three weeks.”</p> + +<p>“Lucky dog!”</p> + +<p>“Hans, are you coming, or shall I go on alone?” demanded Irene.</p> + +<p>“Farewell, comrade, for a little ten minutes,” growled Dalroy, and he +followed.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p><p>“Isn’t this the easiest way?” she snapped.</p> + +<p>“Yes, if you want to get run over.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“That was clever of you!” she whispered breathlessly.</p> + +<p>“Speak German, even when you think we are alone,” he commanded.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Up you come,” he said, seating himself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>astride the coping-stones, and +holding the top of the ladder.</p> + +<p>Irene was soon perched there too. He pulled up the ladder, and lowered +it to a roof.</p> + +<p>“Now, you grab hard in case it slips,” he said.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“These men!” she gasped. “They saw me, and shouted.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“There’s nothing to be seen here,” he announced after a brief survey.</p> + +<p>The pair beneath must have answered, because he went on, evidently in +reply, “Oh, I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>Happily a train approached, and, in the resultant din Dalroy was enabled +to scramble down the roof unheard.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Now I ought to look raffish enough for anything,” she said cheerfully.</p> + +<p>Singularly enough, her confidence raised again in Dalroy’s mind a +lurking doubt which the success thus far achieved had not wholly +stilled.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p><p>“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 <span style="white-space: nowrap;">so——”</span></p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“No,” he answered shortly.</p> + +<p>“Why, then, are you so anxious to get rid of me, after risking your life +to save me a few minutes ago?”</p> + +<p>“I am going straight into Belgium. I deem it my duty. I may pick up +information of the utmost military value.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p><p>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 “<i>Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles</i>” or +“<i>Die Wacht am Rhine</i>” 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>girl belonged to the hated English race.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Thus it happened that Chance again took the wanderers under her wing.</p> + +<p>A short, thick-set Walloon had emptied a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>glass of schnapps at the +counter of a small drinking-bar which opened on to the street, and was +bidding the landlady farewell.</p> + +<p>“I must be off,” he said. “I have to be in Visé by daybreak. This cursed +war has kept me here a whole day. Who is fighting who, I’d like to +know?”</p> + +<p>“Visé!” guffawed a man seated at the bar. “You’ll never get there. The +army won’t let you pass.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>Dalroy was able to note the name on a small board affixed to the side of +the vehicle: “Henri Joos, miller, Visé.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“It sounds the very thing,” agreed the girl.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>And so it came to pass that Dalroy and his protégé 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.</p> + +<p>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 Visé? 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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>FIRST BLOOD</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>hough 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 Liège. 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.</p> + +<p>The road to Visé ran nearly parallel with, but some miles north of, the +main artery between Aix-la-Chapelle and Liège. 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.</p> + +<p>Dalroy and the girl were comfortably seated, and almost hidden, among +the sacks of oats; they were free to talk as they listed.</p> + +<p>Naturally, a soldier’s eyes took in details at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>once which would escape +a woman; but Irene Beresford soon noted signs of the erratic fighting +which had taken place along that very road.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Dalroy quietly, “we have been in Belgium fully an hour.”</p> + +<p>“And have the Germans actually attacked this dear little country?”</p> + +<p>“So it would seem.”</p> + +<p>“But why? I have always understood that Belgium was absolutely safe. All +the great nations of the world have guaranteed her integrity.”</p> + +<p>“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 manœuvres 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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><p>“What a crime! These poor, inoffensive people! Have they resisted, do +you think?”</p> + +<p>“That field hospital looked pretty busy,” was the grim answer.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p><p>“How far are we from Visé?” he asked the driver.</p> + +<p>The man pointed with his whip. “You see that black knob over there?” he +said.</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“That’s a clump of trees just above the Meuse. Visé lies below it.”</p> + +<p>“But how far?”</p> + +<p>“Not more than two kilomètres.”</p> + +<p>Two kilomètres! About a mile and a half! Dalroy was tortured by +indecision. “Shall we be there by daybreak?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“What bridge?”</p> + +<p>“The bridge across the Meuse, of course. Don’t you know these parts?”</p> + +<p>“Not very well.”</p> + +<p>“I wish I were safe at home; I’d get indoors and stop there,” growled +the driver, chirping his team into motion again.</p> + +<p>Dalroy’s doubts were stilled. Better leave this rustic philosopher to +work out their common salvation.</p> + +<p>A few hundred yards ahead the road bifurcated. One branch led to Visé, +the other to Argenteau. Here was stationed a picket, evidently intended +as a guide for the cavalry.</p> + +<p>Most fortunately Dalroy read aright the intention of an officer who came +forward with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>an electric torch. “Lie as flat as you can!” he whispered +to Irene. “If they find us, pretend to be asleep.”</p> + +<p>“Hi, you!” cried the officer to Maertz, “where the devil do you think +you’re going?”</p> + +<p>“To Joos’s mill at Visé,” said the gruff Walloon.</p> + +<p>“What’s in the cart?”</p> + +<p>“Oats.”</p> + +<p>“<i>Almächtig!</i> Where from?”</p> + +<p>“Aachen.”</p> + +<p>“You just pull ahead into that road there. I’ll attend to you and your +oats in a minute or two.”</p> + +<p>“But can’t I push on?”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>The officer, of course, spoke in German, the Walloon in the mixture of +Flemish and Low Dutch which forms the <i>patois</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 Visé?” he growled.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p><p>“Sheep’s-head! do as you’re told, or it will be bad for you,” was the +reply.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>again, moving, as Dalroy calculated, on the general line of the +Visé 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.</p> + +<p>“Remain here,” he murmured. “I’ll go ahead and investigate, and return +in a minute or so.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>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 +<i>camailleu gris</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“She’s pretty, too, for a Belgian,” agreed another voice.</p> + +<p>“So. But I couldn’t put up with her screeching <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>when you told her that a +bayonet had stopped her grandam’s nagging tongue.”</p> + +<p>“<i>Ach, was!</i> What matter, at eighty?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“You milk, Heinrich,” he said, “while I show a glim.”</p> + +<p>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 <i>Pickel-haube</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Miss Beresford!” he said, in a sibilant hiss which would carry easily +to the point where he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Pickel-haube</i>, 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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Visé, had made no material +drain on his resources.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>governesses and ladies’ +companions on the Continent. Nearly every German family of wealth and +social pretensions counted the <i>Englische Fräulein</i> as a member of the +household; even in autocratic Prussia, <i>Kultur</i> 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 a +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.</p> + +<p>These considerations did not crowd in on Dalroy while he was holding her +in close embrace in a field near Visé 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>Then, greatly daring, he milked the cow.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>right he +gripped the girl’s arm, and literally forced her into a walk.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“How did you get that?” she asked, wide-eyed with wonder.</p> + +<p>“I picked it up at the door of the shed,” he answered.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“What a bother I must have been. But the finding of a rifle doesn’t +explain a can of milk.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>cohorts already held the right bank of the Meuse at many points, +and their engineers were throwing pontoon bridges across the river at +Visé and Argenteau.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>to cross the enemy’s lines by hook or by +crook, or lose his life in the attempt.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was broad daylight when they entered the miller’s yard. They saw the +name Henri Joos on a cart.</p> + +<p>“Good egg!” cried Dalroy confidently. “I’m glad Joos spells his +Christian name in the French way. It shows that he means well, anyhow!”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE TRAGEDY OF VISÉ</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">E</span>arly 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.</p> + +<p>“What now?” he grunted, using the local argot.</p> + +<p>Dalroy, quick to read character, decided that this crabbed old Walloon +was to be won at once or not at all.</p> + +<p>“Shall I speak French or German?” he said quietly. The other spat.</p> + +<p>“<i>Qu’est-ce que tu veux que je te dise, moi?</i>” 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.</p> + +<p>Dalroy was reassured. “Are you Monsieur Henri Joos?” he said.</p> + +<p>“Ay.”</p> + +<p>“This lady and I have come from Aix-la-Chapelle with your man, Maertz.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p><p>“Oh, he’s alive, then?”</p> + +<p>“I hope so. But may we not enter?”</p> + +<p>Joos eyed the engine-cleaner’s official cap and soiled clothes, and his +suspicious gaze travelled to Dalroy’s well-fitting and expensive boots.</p> + +<p>“Who the deuce are you?” he snapped.</p> + +<p>“I’ll tell you if you let us come in.”</p> + +<p>“I can’t hinder you. It is an order, all doors must be left open.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“I, too, have crossed the frontier,” said Irene, a wan smile lending +pathos to her beauty. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>“I travelled with Germans from Berlin. If I saw a +German now I think I should die.”</p> + +<p>At that, Madame Joos rose. “Calm thyself, Henri,” she said. “These +people are friends.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>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——”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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 <i>do</i> ask you, +as Christian people, to safeguard this young English lady, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>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—<i>surgit amari aliquid</i>! 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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>took the pail. “This is fresh milk,” he said, examining the dregs.</p> + +<p>“Yes. I milked the cow. The poor animal was in pain, and my friend and I +wanted the milk.”</p> + +<p>“You milked the cow—before?”</p> + +<p>“No. After.”</p> + +<p><i>“Grand Dieu!</i> you’re English, without doubt.”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“Two.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>Dalroy guessed that Dupont was the iron-monger of Visé. He was gaining a +glimpse, too, of the indomitable soul of Belgium. Though itching for +information, he checked the impulse, because time pressed horribly.</p> + +<p>“Well,” he said, “will you do what you can <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>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 <span style="white-space: nowrap;">money——”</span></p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>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 Visé?”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“<i>Ciel!</i>” cackled the orator. “Not a fowl was fed overnight!”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>from the +roadway: “Hi, there, <i>dummer Esel</i>! whither goest thou? This is Joos’s +mill.”</p> + +<p>“Quick, Léontine!” cried Joos. “To the second loft with them! Sharp, +now!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Dalroy realised that it was best to obey.</p> + +<p>“Courage, mademoiselle!” he said. “God is still in heaven, and all will +be well with the world.”</p> + +<p>“Please, monsieur, what became of Jan Maertz?” she inquired timidly.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>The girl sobbed, and left them. Probably the gruff Walloon was her +lover.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>Therefore was he amazed when Irene laughed softly. “How readily you +translate Browning into French!” she said.</p> + +<p>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 Léontine Joos’s warning, Dalroy went to the window, +which commanded a fine view of the town, river, and opposite heights.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>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 Liège respectively. All this meant that General Leman, the heroic +commander-in-chief at Liège, 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 Liège in +accordance with the dastardly plan drawn up by the German staff.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Those men below may catch sight of you,” she said.</p> + +<p>He stepped back hurriedly. Two forage-carts had been brought into the +yard, and preparations were being made to load them <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>The forage-carts rumbled out of the yard. Dalroy noticed that the +soldiers wore linen covers over the somewhat showy <i>Pickel-hauben</i>, +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 <i>Pickel-haube</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>and listened. Then, during an +interval between the salvoes of artillery, he heard Léontine’s voice, +“Monsieur! Mademoiselle!”</p> + +<p>He pulled up the trap. Beneath stood Léontine, with a long pole in her +hands. Beside her, on the floor, was a laden tray.</p> + +<p>“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 Liège to-night.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Old Henri Joos came hurriedly into the yard. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>Joos’s shrill voice, raised in malediction of all Prussians, soon +decided that fact. He spoke in the local <i>patois</i>, but straightway +branched off into French interlarded with German when Dalroy appeared.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>this. One of +them yelled, ‘<i>Man hat geschossen</i>’ (‘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 Abbé Courvoisier, and Monsieur Philippe the +notary, and—<i>ah, mon Dieu</i>, I don’t know—all my old friends. The +Prussian beasts will come here soon.—Wife! Léontine! 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 Léontine +here and drown yourselves in the mill dam. Heaven help me, that is the +only advice a father can give!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>She was right. The mill was one of the places in Visé 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 Visé.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>BILLETS</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he 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.</p> + +<p>“Maybe the lady is right, Henri,” she said tenderly. “Young as she is, +she may understand these things better than countryfolk like us.”</p> + +<p>“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 Abbé, with +his white hair! Some animal of a Prussian fired at his face.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t talk about it,” urged his wife. “It is bad for you to get so +excited. Remember, the doctor warned <span style="white-space: nowrap;">you——”</span></p> + +<p>“The doctor! Dr. Lafarge! A soldier hammered on the surgery door with +the butt of his rifle, and, when the doctor came out, twirled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>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?”</p> + +<p>Madame Joos’s healthy red cheeks had turned a ghastly yellow, but she +contrived to stammer, “<i>Dieu!</i> The poor doctor! But how should I know?”</p> + +<p>“The barber, Karl Schwartz.”</p> + +<p>“Karl a soldier!”</p> + +<p>“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. ‘<i>Almächtig!</i>’ +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.”</p> + +<p>The two, to some extent, were using the local <i>patois</i>; but their +English hearers understood nearly every word, because these residents on +the Belgian border mingle French, German, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>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, Léontine Joos was young and fairly attractive.</p> + +<p>In a word, Dalroy was beginning to understand the psychology of the +German soldier in war-time.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“The west!” growled Joos, springing up again, “isn’t that where these +savages are going? That is the way to Liège. I asked the officer. He +said they would be in Liège to-night, and in Paris in three weeks.”</p> + +<p>“Is it true that England has declared war?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p><p>“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?”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“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 <span style="white-space: nowrap;">one-tenth——”</span></p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>The miller was spirited, and the implied taunt struck home.</p> + +<p>“It’s all very well talking in that way,” he cried; “but what’s going to +happen to you if a German sees you? <i>Que diable!</i> You look like an +Aachen carriage-cleaner, don’t you, with your officer air and commanding +voice, and your <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>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!—Léontine, take <span style="white-space: nowrap;">monsieur——”</span></p> + +<p>“Dalroy.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>He whirled round on Dalroy. “What became of Jan Maertz? Did the Germans +really kill him? Tell us the truth. Léontine, there, had better know.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“The Germans didn’t know, then, that you and the lady were in the cart?”</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p>“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 Visé yet. You’re a Liègeois whom +I hired to do Jan’s work while he went to Aix. Everybody in Visé knows +he went there four days ago. I can’t lift heavy sacks of grain at my +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>“One moment,” interrupted Irene. “I want your promise, Captain Dalroy, +that you will not go away without telling me.”</p> + +<p>She could not guess how completely old Joos’s broken story of the day’s +events in Visé had changed Dalroy’s intent.</p> + +<p>“I would as soon think of cutting off my right hand,” he said.</p> + +<p>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, Léontine,” she cried almost +gaily, “show me how to wear one of your frocks. I’ll do as much for you +some day in London.”</p> + +<p>“You be off, too,” growled Joos to Dalroy. “When the Germans come they +must see you about the place.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Thus it came about that both Dalroy and Irene were back in the kitchen, +and clothed in garments fully in keeping with their new rôles, when a +commissariat wagon entered the yard. A Bavarian corporal did not trouble +to open the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>door in the ordinary way. He smashed the latch with his +shoulder. “Why is this door closed?” he demanded fiercely.</p> + +<p>“Monsieur——” began Joos.</p> + +<p>“Speak German, you swine!”</p> + +<p>“I forgot the order, Herr Kaporal. As you see, it was only on the +latch.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“Everything will be put on the table, <i>mons</i>—Herr Kaporal.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Irene was “the pretty one” chosen as guide by this hulking connoisseur, +but she knew how to handle boors of his type.</p> + +<p>“You must not talk in that style to a girl from Berlin,” she said icily. +“You and your <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>men will take what is given you, or I’ll find your +<i>oberleutnant</i>, and hear what he has to say about it.”</p> + +<p>She spoke purposely in perfect German, and the corporal was vastly +surprised.</p> + +<p>“Pardon, <i>gnädiges Fräulein</i>,” 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Driblets of news were received. The passage of the Meuse had been +achieved, thanks to a flanking movement from Argenteau. Liège 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. Visé, having been sufficiently “punished” for a first +offence, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>would now be spared so long as the inhabitants “behaved +themselves.” If a second “lesson” were needed it would be something to +remember.</p> + +<p>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. +Liège 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 Visé, was destined to fare likewise. But rumour as to +the instant “capture” of Liège 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.</p> + +<p>The fact was that the overwhelming horde of invaders could not be kept +out of the city of Liège 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>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 kilomètre to the +west.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Possibly he meant to be civil, and there was a chance that the night +might pass without incident. Visé 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, “Liège is +making a deuce of a row after being taken.”</p> + +<p>“How many forts are there around the city?” inquired Dalroy.</p> + +<p>“Twelve, big and little. Pontisse and Barchon cover the Meuse on this +side, and Fleron and Evegnée bar the direct road from Aix. Unless I am +greatly in error, monsieur, the German <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>wolf is breaking his teeth on +some of them at this minute.”</p> + +<p>Liège 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>The corporal and his satellites sprang to attention.</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>“Herr Major, we are herein billeted,” stuttered the corporal.</p> + +<p>“Be off, I tell you, and take these Belgian swine with you! I make my +quarters here to-night.”</p> + +<p>Joos, of course, he recognised; and the miller <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>said, with some dignity, +that the gentlemen would be made as comfortable as his resources +permitted, but he must remain in his own house.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>The Bavarians had collected their rifles and sidearms, and were going +out sullenly. Each of the officers carried a sword and revolver.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Behave yourself, Fritz,” puffed the major. “Is that your idea of +keeping your word? <i>Mama</i>, 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?”</p> + +<p>Dalroy grabbed Joos, who was livid with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“March!” he said gruffly. “The <i>oberleutnant</i> doesn’t want us here.”</p> + +<p>“<i>Le brave Belge</i> knows when to clear out,” grinned one of the younger +men, giving Dalroy an odiously suggestive wink.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Dalroy shook him to quieten his tongue. “You must listen to me,” he said +sternly.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>Dalroy shook him again. “Stop talking, and listen,” he growled +wrathfully. “Not another <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>“I had nothing but a muzzle-loading gun, monsieur. I gave it up on the +advice of the burgomaster. They’ve killed him.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, yes, monsieur. Who could fail to know what they meant? Surely the +good God sent you to Visé to-day!”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“I promise. But, monsieur, <i>pour l’amour de Dieu</i>, let me stick that fat +Busch!”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>shikari</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Dalroy made after him, seized the fallen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>stick, and recognised—Jan +Maertz! “How now,” he said wrathfully, “are you, too, a Prussian?”</p> + +<p>Jan raised a hand to ward off the expected blow. “<i>Caput!</i>” he cried. +“I’m done! You must be the devil! But may the Lord help my poor master +and mistress, and the little Léontine!”</p> + +<p>“That is my wish also, sheep’s-head! What evil have I done you, then, +that you should want to brain me at sight?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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 Léontine +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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>opposite the kitchen door. You will find Joos there. He +will explain. Tell me, are you for Belgium or Germany in this war?”</p> + +<p>The Walloon might be slow-witted, but Dalroy’s words seemed to have +pierced his skin.</p> + +<p>“For Belgium, monsieur, to the death,” he answered.</p> + +<p>“So am I. I’m an Englishman. As you go, think what that means.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Is Maertz with you?” was his first question.</p> + +<p>“Yes, monsieur,” came a gruff voice out of the gloom of the stable.</p> + +<p>“Do you know now how nearly you blundered?”</p> + +<p>“Monsieur, I would have tackled St. Peter to save Léontine.”</p> + +<p>“Quick!” hissed Joos, “let us kill these hogs! We have no time to spare. +The others will be here soon.”</p> + +<p>“What others?”</p> + +<p>“Jan will tell you later. Come, now. Leave Busch to me!”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p><p>But there was no need for eavesdropping. Léontine’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?”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE FIGHT IN THE MILL</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>s 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>the younger men was +clasping Léontine to his breast with rascally intent to squeeze the +breath out of her until she was unable to struggle further.</p> + +<p>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 Léontine. +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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>Then he wheeled, and made for Irene’s assailant.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>even using a foot to +bury the fork to its shoulder.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>That despairing effort gave the miller a ghoulish satisfaction. “Aha!” +he chortled, “you laughed at Lafarge! Laugh now, you swine! <i>That’s</i> for +the doctor, and <i>that’s</i> for my wife, and <i>that’s</i> for my daughter, and +<i>that’s</i> for me!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>none +of the women fainted. Léontine 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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.—Léontine, 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.—Léontine, run +and get your own and your mother’s best shoes. You can change them in +the wood.”</p> + +<p>“What wood?” put in Maertz.</p> + +<p>“We can’t walk to Maestricht by the main road, you fool.”</p> + +<p>“That’s all right for you and madame here, and for Léontine, perhaps. +But I remain in Belgium. My friends are fighting yonder at Liège, 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.”</p> + +<p>“Jan!” cried Léontine indignantly.</p> + +<p>“It’s true. Why should I tell a lie? I didn’t <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>understand then the sort +of game the Prussians are playing. Now that I <span style="white-space: nowrap;">know——”</span></p> + +<p>“Miss Beresford,” broke in Dalroy emphatically, “if these good people +will not escape when they may we must leave them to their fate.”</p> + +<p>“Do come, Monsieur Joos,” said Irene, speaking for the first time since +the tragedy. “By remaining here you risk your life to no purpose.”</p> + +<p>“We are coming now, ma’m’selle.”</p> + +<p>Suddenly the miller’s alert eye was caught by a spasmodic movement in +the limbs of the last man whom Dalroy struck down. “<i>Tiens!</i>” he cried, +“that fellow isn’t finished with yet.”</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>Dalroy was profoundly relieved when the automatic pistols and ammunition +were collected, the lamp extinguished, the door closed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>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?</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“Why?” demanded Joos. “I know every inch of the way.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.—Léontine, cut some chunks of +beef and bread, and open one of these bottles of wine.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>So they ate as they talked.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In fact, a squad of soldiers had put the wagon <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>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 Visé and investigate matters there.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the unforeseen resistance offered to the invaders along the +line of the Meuse and neighbourhood of Liège 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 Liège 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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>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 Liège 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 Liège 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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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 Visé and make the necessary inquiries at +Joos’s mill.</p> + +<p>For Maertz’s benefit he gave the corporal precise instructions. “If this +fellow’s story is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“One moment,” he said imperatively, “what’s this about a man and a woman +brought from Aachen? Who brought them? And when?”</p> + +<p>The other explained, laying stress, of course, on the fractured skulls +of two of his best men.</p> + +<p>“Hi, you!” cried the Guardsman to Maertz, “describe these two.”</p> + +<p>Maertz did his best. Dalroy, to him, was literally a railway employé; +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.</p> + +<p>“Leave this matter entirely in my hands,” he advised his confrère. “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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>“Was the staff officer’s name Von Halwig?” inquired Dalroy.</p> + +<p>“Name of a pipe, that’s it, monsieur! I heard him tell it to the other +pig, but couldn’t recall it.”</p> + +<p>“And when were you to meet him?”</p> + +<p>“He had to report to some general at Argenteau, but reckoned to reach +the mill about nine o’clock.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, father dear, let us all be going!” pleaded Léontine.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p><p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“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.’”</p> + +<p>“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 Léontine of dodging the rascals?”</p> + +<p>“<i>Caput!</i>” cried Maertz, scratching his head, “that settles it! I never +thought of that!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, look!” whispered Léontine. “They’re searching the mill!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Joos took charge straight away, like the masterful old fellow that he +was. “This locality <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>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 Léontine sees in him I can’t guess.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE WOODMAN’S HUT</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he 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 Visé. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“That is our only real difficulty—the crossing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“What happens when we do reach the other side, Monsieur Joos?” he +inquired.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“From your description it seems to be a suitable post for a strong +picket watching the river.”</p> + +<p>“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 Visé and Argenteau; but +I saw their cursed Uhlans on the left bank many hours ago.”</p> + +<p>“Lead on, friend,” said Dalroy simply. “When we come within a hundred +mètres of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>main road let me do the scouting. I’ll tell you when and +how to advance.”</p> + +<p>“Is monsieur a soldier then?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“An officer perhaps?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, a thousand pardons if I presumed to lecture you. Yet I am certainly +in the right about the wood.”</p> + +<p>“I have never doubted you, Monsieur Joos. Do you know what time the moon +rises?”</p> + +<p>“Late. Eleven o’clock at the earliest.”</p> + +<p>“All the better, if you are sure of the way.”</p> + +<p>“I could find it blindfolded. So could Léontine. She goes there to pick +bilberries.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>of pure white light had pierced the lurid depths of a +volcano.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“The wood!” whispered Joos. “We are near the road now.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“Ah, that is the cavalry,” said Joos. “It stands on a rock by the +roadside.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Thenceforth progress was safe, though slow <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>and difficult, because the +gloom beneath the trees was that of a vault. Even the miller perforce +yielded place to Léontine’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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Dalroy resolved to sleep for two hours. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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 <span style="white-space: nowrap;">then——”</span></p> + +<p>“And then you risked six lives, Léontine’s among them!”</p> + +<p>“Monsieur, I have no excuse.”</p> + +<p>“Yet you have been a soldier, I suppose? And you gabble of serving your +country?”</p> + +<p>“It will not happen again, monsieur.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>The moon had risen, revealing a cleared space in front of the hut. A +dozen yards away a thin <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>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 Visé, 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.</p> + +<p>“Have you a piece of string in your pockets?” he demanded gruffly.</p> + +<p>Trust a carter to carry string, strong stuff warranted to mend +temporarily a broken strap. Maertz gave him a quantity.</p> + +<p>“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 ‘Visé.’ +If it is I, I shall answer ‘Liège.’ Do you understand?”</p> + +<p>“Perfectly, monsieur. A challenge and a countersign.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>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!</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>only when the white cliffs of England were +visible across the Channel.</p> + +<p>If his anxious thoughts wandered, however, and a gnawing doubt ate into +his soul lest the British fleet might, as the Germans in Visé claimed, +have been taken at a disadvantage, he did not allow his eyes and ears to +neglect the duties of the hour.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +“<i>Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles</i>.” The land was level +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.</p> + +<p>Because there could be no mistake now. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>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?</p> + +<p>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.’”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>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!</p> + +<p>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 Visé.</p> + +<p>“Sergeant Karl Schwartz, <i>Herr Hauptmann</i>,” 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.”</p> + +<p>“Killed three, you say? The fiend take all such <i>schwein-hunds</i> and +their helpers! Good luck to you.—<i>Vorwärts!</i>”</p> + +<p>The column moved on. Schwartz, the treacherous barber of Visé, 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 +<i>verdammt <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>Engländer</i>. And Joos’s “safe retreat” had been guessed by the +spy who knew what every inhabitant of Visé did, who had watched and +noted even such a harmless occupation as Léontine’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.</p> + +<p>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 Liège.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>when the party went on in Indian file, Schwartz leading, +because the enemy was acting just as he hoped the enemy would act.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Uncommon grit was needed to press on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Kultur</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>“Liège!” said Dalroy, speaking loudly enough for any one in the hut to +hear. There <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>was no answer. “Liège!” 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>A RESPITE</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">N</span>ever 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>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 Café de la Régence at +Brussels.</p> + +<p>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 Visé doctor had himself suffered from one of the many +infernal devices brought by <i>Kultur</i> 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>And a sweet voice replied, “Oh, Mr. Dalroy, they told me you were dead, +but I refused to believe them!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>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!”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>They had not gone twenty yards beneath the trees when some one hissed, +“Visé!”</p> + +<p>“Liège, you lump!” retorted Dalroy.</p> + +<p>“Monsieur, I——”</p> + +<p>“Shut up! Hold mademoiselle’s hand, and lead on.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Maertz, however, soon faltered and stopped in his tracks.</p> + +<p>“The devil take all woods at night-time!” he growled. “Give me the +highroad and a wagon-team, and I’ll face anything.”</p> + +<p>“Are you lost?” asked Dalroy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p><p>“I suppose so, monsieur. But they can’t be far. I told Joos——”</p> + +<p>“Jan, is that you?” cried Léontine’s voice.</p> + +<p>“<i>Ah, Dieu merci!</i> These infernal trees——”</p> + +<p>“Silence now!” growled Dalroy imperatively. “Go ahead as quickly as +possible.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Léontine, 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.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p><p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Dalroy, still holding Irene’s arm, pressed forward.</p> + +<p>“Are we near the tow-path?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“Oh, is that you, <i>Monsieur l’Anglais</i>?” chuckled the miller. “Name of a +pipe, I was positive those <i>sales Alboches</i> 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.”</p> + +<p>“Go on, Léontine!” 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?”</p> + +<p>“These are firs in front, monsieur. Once clear of them, we can see.”</p> + +<p>“Very well. Don’t lose another second. Only, before beginning the +descent, make certain that the river bank holds no Germans.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“<i>Miséricorde!</i>” he muttered. “They are burning our provisions, and may +set the forest ablaze!”</p> + +<p>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 Visé, which was, however, only an +intelligent anticipation of events, because the delightful old town was +completely <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>destroyed a week later in revenge for the defeats inflicted +on the invaders at Tirlemont and St. Trond during the first advance on +Antwerp.</p> + +<p>Once embarked on a somewhat perilous descent, the fugitives gave eyes or +thought to naught else. Jules, the pioneer quoted by Léontine, 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 Léontine 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Those cursed Prussians have made Belgium a shambles,” he added +bitterly. “Look at our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>river. It isn’t our dear, muddy Meuse. It’s a +stream in the infernal regions.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” gasped his wife. “And listen to those guns, Henri! They beat a +sort of <i>roulade</i>, like drums in hell!”</p> + +<p>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,”</p> + +<div class="centerbox2 bbox2"><p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">When Bellona storms</span><br /> +With all her battering engines, bent to raze<br /> +Some capital city.</p></div> + +<p>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 Liège 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,</p> + +<div class="centerbox3 bbox2"><p>Arm’d with Hell flames and fury, all at once,<br /> +O’er Heaven’s high towers to force resistless way.</p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p><p>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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>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 Visé, 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 <i>Kultur</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>stark records only the fulfilment of her vague fears.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“In with you, then,” agreed Dalroy, “but hand over your money to madame +before you take the dip. Léontine and Jan may need it later to start the +mill running.”</p> + +<p>Maertz laughed. The joke appealed strongly.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“How far is Argenteau?” put in Dalroy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p><p>“That’s it, where the house is on fire,” said the miller, pointing.</p> + +<p>“About a kilomètre, I take it?”</p> + +<p>“Something like that.”</p> + +<p>“Have you friends there?”</p> + +<p>“Ay, scores, if they’re alive.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>They walked on. The Englishman’s air of decision was a tonic in itself.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Nearing Argenteau they heard a feeble cry. They stopped, and listened. +Again it came, clearly this time: “Elsa! Elsa!”</p> + +<p>It was a man’s voice, and the name was that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>He seemed to become aware of the presence of some human being. Perhaps +his atrophied senses retained enough vitality to hear the passing +footsteps.</p> + +<p>“Elsa!” he moaned again, “give me water, for God’s sake!”</p> + +<p>“He’s done for,” reported Maertz to the waiting group. “He’s covered +with blood.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 <i>Pickel-haube</i>. It partially cleared his +wits.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p><p>“Where am I?” he asked faintly.</p> + +<p>Dalroy nodded to Joos, who answered, “On the Meuse bank, near +Argenteau.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Was there fighting here this morning?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. To-day is Tuesday, isn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“No, Wednesday midnight.”</p> + +<p>“<i>Ach, Gott!</i> That <i>verdammt</i> ambulance missed me! I have lain here two +days!”</p> + +<p>This time he swore without hesitation, since he was cursing his own men.</p> + +<p>Jan came with a hurdle. “This is lighter than a gate, monsieur,” he +explained.</p> + +<p>Dalroy nudged Joos sharply, and the miller took the cue. “Right,” he +said. “Now, you two, handle him carefully.”</p> + +<p>The German groaned piteously, and fainted.</p> + +<p>“Oh, he’s dead!” gasped Irene, when she saw his head drop.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“No,” he said bluntly, “I and my family have rescued your officer, and +we want a safe conduct.”</p> + +<p>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 <i>laisser passer</i>, in which they +figured as Wilhelm Schultz, farmer, and wife, Clementine and Léontine, +daughters, and the said daughters’ fiancés, Pierre Dampier and Georges +Lambert; residence Aubel; destination Andenne.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>said so. They’re a warm lot where a pretty woman is +concerned.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Liège +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 <i>laisser passer</i> granted to a party which closely resembled the +much-wanted miller of Visé 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.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile these things were in the lap of the gods. For the moment, the +six people were free, and actually under German protection.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>AN EXPOSITION OF GERMAN METHODS</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>hree large and powerful automobiles stood at rest in the tiny square of +Argenteau. Nearly every little town in Belgium and France possesses its +<i>place</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>“Look,” murmured Irene to Dalroy, “the high-shouldered, broadly-built +man, facing this way, is General von Emmich!”</p> + +<p>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 <i>Kommandantur</i>.</p> + +<p>Though the moon was high and clear, there was no other light, and the +diffused brilliance of the “orbèd 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>off in the direction of Aix. It was easy +to guess their errand. More cannon, more cannon-fodder!</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>Somehow, Dalroy sensed the actual text of the message. Von Emmich was +making the humiliating admission that Liège, 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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Why did you give Andenne as your destination?” he inquired.</p> + +<p>“My wife’s cousin lives there, monsieur. She is married to a man named +Alphonse Stauwaert. I <i>had</i> to say something. I remembered Madame +Stauwaert in the nick of time.”</p> + +<p>“But Andenne lies beyond Liège. To get there we shall have to traverse +the whole German <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>line, and pass some of the outlying forts, which is +impossible.”</p> + +<p>“We must go somewhere.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t say we were going there at once,” snapped the miller. “It’s +more than twenty-five kilomètres 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.”</p> + +<p>“Andenne lies down the valley of the Meuse too, doesn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“Ay.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“They talk mostly about England,” said Joos sapiently.</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>“<i>Saperlotte!</i> That isn’t the way you English are treating us. No, +monsieur, we sink or swim together.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p><p>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 Visé, one to Liège, 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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>Yet, despite the uncouth, harsh-sounding words on her lips, and the +coarse Flemish garments she wore, she was adorably English. Léontine +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. Léontine 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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>to the nearest hedge and flung herself down in utter +weariness.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Two officers, heedless who heard, were wrangling loudly.</p> + +<p>“There is nothing else for it, <i>Herr Hauptmann</i>,” 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.”</p> + +<p>“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. <i>Gott in himmel!</i> and I <i>must</i> be there by dawn!”</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>At this crisis Jan Maertz’s sluggish brain <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>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, <i>Herr General</i>,” 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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“You’ll guide me with the point of a lance close to your liver, you +Belgian swine-dog,” was the ungracious answer.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Joos went forward. Moved by contemptuous curiosity, the two officers +examined the miller’s <i>laisser passer</i> by the light of an electric +torch.</p> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>“Is this your party? The old man is Herr Schultz, I +suppose. Which are you?”</p> + +<p>“I’m Georges Lambert, <i>Herr General</i>.”</p> + +<p>“And what do you want?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>we cross the Meuse at +Andenne or elsewhere—it doesn’t matter where.”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“I—hope so. Their armies dare not advance so long as we hear those +guns.”</p> + +<p>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! Liège 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.</p> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>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 <i>everything</i> 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!</p> + +<p>He met Joos and Maertz at <i>déjeuner</i>, 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 Léontine. Madame was done +up; <i>cette course l’a excédé</i>, her husband put it; while mademoiselle’s +ankles were swollen and painful.</p> + +<p>These misfortunes were, perhaps, a blessing in disguise. An enforced +rest was better than no rest at all, and the constant vigil by night +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>and day was telling even on the apple-cheeked Léontine.</p> + +<p>Joos wanted to wander about the town and pick up news, but Dalroy +dissuaded him. The woman who kept the little <i>auberge</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When night fell Joos could not be kept in. It was understood that the +<i>Kommandantur</i> 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 <i>petit tour</i>. But he was not long absent. He had encountered a +friend, a curé whose church near Aubel had been blown to atoms by German +artillery during a frontier fight on the Monday afternoon.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>The curé, 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!”</p> + +<p>“Verviers seems to have escaped punishment. How do you account for it?” +inquired Dalroy.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“Months!” gasped the curé. “Then what will become of my unhappy country? +Even to-day we are living on hope. Liège 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.”</p> + +<p>“He must have been a fool to voice his views in the presence of German +troops.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>Though the curé was now on surer ground than when he spoke of a British +army on Belgian <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>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?”</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>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 Würtemberg, 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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p><p>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 curé had given a far-reaching +and sinister meaning to much that had seemed the mere froth of a +vigorous race fermenting in successful trade.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>were installing German plant under German supervisors. Your +<span style="white-space: nowrap;">banks——”</span></p> + +<p>The speaker paused dramatically.</p> + +<p>“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.’”</p> + +<p>The curé’s voice had unconsciously attained the pulpit pitch. The clear, +incisive accents reached other ears.</p> + +<p>The landlady crept in, with a face of scare. “Monsieur!” she whispered, +“the doors are wide open. It is an order!”</p> + +<p>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 +<i>verboten</i>. 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>guns on the anvil of Liège. +Staid old Europe might be dissolving even then in a cloud of +high-explosive gas.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>ANDENNE</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">M</span>adame 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 curé, 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 Liège, 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>elsewhere</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>Out of this maelström of “news” a level-headed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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, Liège was being <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 Béranger’s little +<i>auberge</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Irene was “Irene” to Dalroy ever since that night in the wood at +Argenteau, and the girl herself accepted the development with the +deftness <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>which is every woman’s legacy from Mother Eve.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>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 <i>sabots en cuir</i>, or clogs.</p> + +<p>Singularly enough, white-haired Monsieur Garnier nearly brought matters +to a climax as between these two.</p> + +<p>On the Wednesday evening, when the last forts of Liège were crumbling, +Madame Joos was reported convalescent and asleep, so both girls came to +the little <i>salon</i> for a supper of stewed veal.</p> + +<p>Naturally the war was discussed first; but the priest was learning to +agree with his English <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“If Léontine likes to marry me first, I’m agreeable,” put in Maertz +promptly.</p> + +<p>It was a naïve confession, and every one laughed except Joos.</p> + +<p>“Léontine marries neither you nor any other hulking loafer while there +is one German hoof left in Belgium,” vowed the little man warmly.</p> + +<p>The priest smiled. He knew where the shoe pinched. Maertz, if no loafer, +was not what is vulgarly described as “a good catch.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve lost my parish,” he said jestingly, “and, being an inveterate +match-maker, am on the <i>qui vive</i> for a job. But if father says ‘No’ we +must wait till mother has a word. Now for the other pair.—What of you?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p><p>Irene blushed scarlet, and dropped her serviette; Dalroy, though +flabbergasted, happily hit on a way out.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“I must refer that point to mademoiselle,” retorted the priest. “I don’t +think either of you would choose a book by the cover.”</p> + +<p>“Ah. At last I know the worst,” laughed Dalroy. “Who would believe that +I once posed as the Discobulus in a <i>tableau vivant</i>?”</p> + +<p>“What’s that?” demanded Joos.</p> + +<p>Dalroy hesitated. Neither his French nor German was equal to the +translation.</p> + +<p>“A quoit-thrower,” suggested Irene.</p> + +<p>“Quoits!” sniffed the miller. “I’ll take you on at that game any day you +like for twenty francs every ringer.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But graver issues soon dispersed that small cloud. On Saturday, 15th +August, the thunder <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>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 Liège lay the silence of death.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,—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.”</p></div> + +<p>Dalroy found Joos instantly.</p> + +<p>“What is our curé’s baptismal name?” he inquired.</p> + +<p>“Edouard, monsieur.”</p> + +<p>“He has sent us marching orders. Read that!”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>victory by the Allies. He swore roundly, but decided to follow +the priest’s bidding in every respect save one.</p> + +<p>“We can’t split up,” he declared. “We are all named in the <i>laisser +passer</i>. 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.”</p> + +<p>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 Visé. 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.</p> + +<p>Jan Maertz was summoned. He made a good suggestion. The direct road to +Andenne, viâ Liège 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>In a word, the orderliness of Verviers had already relegated the +excesses of Visé 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, Visé 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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Léontine. Until +Pepinster was reached, they took the main road, with its river of +troops. None gave them heed. Not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>a man addressed an uncivil word to +them. The soldiers were cheery and well-behaved.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>“Barely two hundred mètres, <i>tout droit</i>,” he was told.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>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. Léontine 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 Léontine; while +Dalroy, conscious that Irene was close behind, picked up the +<i>unteroffizier’s</i> sword.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Some of the troopers, seeing two of their men prone, were pulling up +when a gruff voice <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>cried, “<i>Achtung!</i> We’ll clear out these swine +later!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Léontine 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.</p> + +<p>Maertz was swearing horribly, with the incoherence <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“Are you hurt?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“No. And you?”</p> + +<p>“Untouched, thanks to you. But those brutes have killed poor Madame +Joos!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“<i>Oh, mon Dieu!</i>” he screamed. “<i>Oh, mon Dieu!</i>”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He glanced at the hapless body on the cart, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>and saw by the eyes that +life had departed. Léontine 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Henri Joos!” she gasped. “And Léontine! What, in Heaven’s name, are you +doing here?”</p> + +<p>It was Madame Stauwaert, the Andenne cousin with whom they hoped to find +sanctuary.</p> + +<p>The miller gazed at her in a curiously abstracted way. “Is that you, +Margot?” he said. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>“We were coming to you. But they have wounded Lise. +See! Here she is!”</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Come,” he said to Maertz, “get the dogs into a trot.—Léontine, look +after your father, and don’t lose sight of us!”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p><p>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.”</p> + +<p>“I’m glad,” said Dalroy. “It was your privilege. But you must run now, +for Léontine’s sake, as she will not leave you, and the Germans may be +on us at any moment.”</p> + +<p>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 Léontine 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Are those Belgian troops in Seilles?” he inquired.</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>Such was the refuge Andenne provided on Monday, 20th August. Hell—by +order!</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>A TRAMP ACROSS BELGIUM</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he 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.”</p> + +<p>“Why safer in Huy than here, or anywhere else where these brutes may +be?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Dalroy remembered the aged curé’s exposition of <i>Kultur</i> as a policy. +“Is this sort of thing going on generally, then?” he asked.</p> + +<p>Monsieur Pochard was a Frenchman. He raised his eyebrows. “Where can you +have been, monsieur, not to know what has happened at Liège, Visé, +Flemelle Grande, Blagny Trembleur, and a score of other places?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p><p>“Visé!” broke in the cracked, piping voice of Joos. “What’s that about +Visé?”</p> + +<p>“It is burnt to the ground, and nearly all the inhabitants killed.”</p> + +<p>“Is anything said of a fat major named Busch, whom Henri Joos the miller +stuck with a fork?”</p> + +<p>“A Prussian, do you mean?”</p> + +<p>“Ay. One of the same breed—a Westphalian.”</p> + +<p>“I haven’t heard.”</p> + +<p>“He tried to assault my daughter, so I got him. The second one, a Uhlan, +killed my wife, and I got <i>him</i> too. I cut his throat down there in the +main street. It’s easy to kill Germans. They’re soft, like pigs.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p><p>“Do you know for certain where the English are?” put in Dalroy eagerly.</p> + +<p>“Yes, at Charleroi. The French are in Namur. Come with me to Huy. A few +days, and the <i>sales Alboches</i> will be pelting back to the Rhine.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Dalroy was relieved to find that the Frenchman <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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. Léontine +sobbed afresh, and tried to stop him, but he grew quite angry.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Monsieur Pochard brought them to Huy by a rough road among the hills.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>round him rather than a stranger’s, supplied a tragic +chorus which ill beguiled that <i>Via Dolorosa</i> along the heights of the +Meuse.</p> + +<p>Irene insisted on taking the boy for a time, and the youngster ceased +his plaint at once.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“He is too heavy that you should carry him far,” he protested.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Which other way?”</p> + +<p>“In precisely the opposite direction.”</p> + +<p>“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 <span style="white-space: nowrap;">mill——”</span></p> + +<p>“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 Visé, but was brought up short by an imperative whisper from +Pochard. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>They were talking English, without realising it, and Huy was +near.</p> + +<p>“And why carry that sword?” added the Frenchman. “It is useless, and +most dangerous. Thrust it into a ditch.”</p> + +<p>Dalroy obeyed promptly. He had thoughtlessly disregarded the sinister +outcome if a patrol found him with such a weapon in his hand.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>Early next morning Monsieur Pochard interviewed an undertaker, and +Madame Joos was laid to rest in the nearest cemetery. Maertz, Madame +Stauwaert, and Léontine 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Visé. 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, Léontine Joos, their daughter, and Jan Maertz, all of +Visé. 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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p><p>“They may be willing to pay double the price for freedom,” said Dalroy.</p> + +<p>The Frenchman was not offended. He realised that this was not a +suggestion of a personal bribe.</p> + +<p>“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 <i>laisser passer</i> +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.”</p> + +<p>“But there is the record of Madame Joos’s burial,” put in Dalroy +instantly.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>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 <i>Kommandantur</i>, and is being read by the +multitude.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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, Léontine. 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>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?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Brabançonne” were +whistled at a distance. The air itself was a guarantee that no German +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>was near, because the Belgian national anthem is not pleasing to Hun +ears.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>“Namur has fallen after a day’s bombardment by a new and terrible +cannon.”</p> + +<p>“Brussels has capitulated without resistance.”</p> + +<p>“After a fierce battle, the French and English have retired from +Charleroi and Mons.”</p> + +<p>“The retreat continues. France is invaded. Valenciennes has fallen.”</p> + +<p>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 Léontine would contrive to meet Maertz, so the girl did not +know where her lover was hidden.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t blame you,” came the sorrowful reply. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>“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?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Do you want money?”</p> + +<p>“We have plenty.”</p> + +<p>“Farewell, then, and may God protect you!”</p> + +<p>“Is there no chance of nearing the British force?” was Dalroy’s final +and almost despairing question.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Good-bye, best of friends!”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 Léontine 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>shop or public place was scowled at if not absolutely forbidden.</p> + +<p>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 <i>that</i> +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.</p> + +<p>The man eyed them carefully. “Where are you from?” he demanded in true +Flemish.</p> + +<p>“What has that to do with it?” grinned Maertz, in the same <i>patois</i>.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“So,” guffawed Maertz, “the swine know where they are going then!”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>trucks, with their ghastly freight. Now, so long as they only +contained Germans, she surveyed them with interest.</p> + +<p>“Allowing forty bodies to one wagon,” she said, “there are over a +thousand dead men in that train alone.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Is the road to Nivelles fairly open?” Dalroy ventured to inquire.</p> + +<p>“One never knows. Anyhow, always give the next village as your +destination. If doubtful, travel by night.”</p> + +<p>This counsel was well meant. In the silent bitterness of hours yet to +come, Dalroy recalled it, and wished he had profited by it.</p> + +<p>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 <i>entrepreneurs</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>the unavoidable retreat to the +coast if Napoleon had beaten the British army at Waterloo.</p> + +<p>Dalroy explained the Iron Duke’s strategy to Irene as they paced a road +which provides an ideal walking tour.</p> + +<p>“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 Blücher.”</p> + +<p>“Let me see,” mused the girl aloud. “The Germans have never fought the +British in modern times until this war.”</p> + +<p>“That is correct.”</p> + +<p>“And how far away is Mons?”</p> + +<p>Dalroy smiled at the thought which had evidently occurred to her.</p> + +<p>“We are now just half-way between Mons and Waterloo. Each is about ten +miles distant.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“You mustn’t even hint treason against our present Allies,” he laughed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><p>“What are Allies? Of what avail are treaties? You men have mismanaged +things woefully. It is high time women took a lead in governing.”</p> + +<p>“Awful! I do verily believe you are a suffragette.”</p> + +<p>“I am. During what periods has England been greatest? In the reigns of +Elizabeth and Victoria.”</p> + +<p>“Why leave out poor Queen Anne?”</p> + +<p>“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.’”</p> + +<p>“Now I’m sure.”</p> + +<p>“Sure of what?”</p> + +<p>“You have never told me what you were doing in Berlin.”</p> + +<p>“You haven’t asked me,” she broke in.</p> + +<p>“Did it matter? I——”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“You must have been a governess-companion <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>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:</p> + +<div class="bbox2 centerbox4"><p>“In fifty-five and fifty-four<br /> +Came Cæsar o’er to Britain’s shore?</p></div> + +<p>“If I learn it, it may save me many a trip.”</p> + +<p>“Here, you two,” growled Jan Maertz, “talk a language a fellow can +understand.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“What is it now?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“I was thinking how difficult it is to see a wood for the trees,” she +replied.</p> + +<p>Maertz took her literally.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Yet they stopped that night at Brainé 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>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 kilomètre had to be +surveyed with caution.</p> + +<p>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 <i>chasseur</i>, says there is no sport like chasing +mounted Boches.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>AT THE GATES OF DEATH</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">H</span>ad 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 Visé, +Argenteau, Andenne, and Huy.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>movements +of armies in rear than in reconnoitring.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>They pretended not to hear, whereupon a bullet passed through Dalroy’s +smock between arm and ribs.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“You stop here, <i>Fräulein</i>—or, is it <i>Frau</i>?” 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.”</p> + +<p>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 +<i>argot</i> of the barrack-room, and she was far too frightened to see in +his satyr-like features a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>certain intellectuality. So, in her distress, +she blundered twice.</p> + +<p>“Leave me alone!” she said shrilly, trying in voice and manner to copy +Léontine Joos.</p> + +<p>“Now don’t be coy, pretty one,” chuckled the trooper, beginning to urge +her forcibly in the direction of the barn.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>some</i> daring expedient had been +devised on the spur of the moment, and gathered all her resources for an +effort to gain time.</p> + +<p>The corporal heard Jan break into a run. Letting go the girl, he swung +on his heel and raised the carbine.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>“He’s done a bunk!” he cried cheerfully. “You said he might go, <i>Herr +Unteroffizier</i>, so he hopped it without even saying ‘<i>Auf wieder +sehn</i>.’”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“You’ve got your hands full with the girl, Franz,” said one.</p> + +<p>“What’s she like?” bawled another. “I can only see a pair of slim ankles +and a dirty face.”</p> + +<p>“That’s all you <i>will</i> 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.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t know my aunt,” said Dalroy. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>“I’d sooner face a regiment of +soldiers than stand her tongue if I go home without her niece.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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, <span style="white-space: nowrap;">two——”</span></p> + +<p>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 Liège to the +high-sounding periods of Berlin society.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>blank +amazement, which soon gave place to a sinister smile.</p> + +<p>“<i>Gnädiges Fräulein</i>,” 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?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Never relaxing that glowering scrutiny, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>corporal shouted suddenly, +“Come here, Georg!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>Georg, a strongly-built, rather jovial-looking Hanoverian, grinned.</p> + +<p>“Better than leaving things to guess-work, I have it in my pocket,” he +said. “I copied it at the <i>Kommandantur</i>. A thousand marks are worth a +pencilled note, my boy. Halves, if these are they!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Georg was fumbling in the breast of his tunic, when he seemed to realise +that it was raining heavily.</p> + +<p>“Why the devil stand out here if we’re going to hold a court of +inquiry?” he cried. Evidently, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>the iron discipline of the German army +was somewhat relaxed in the Death’s-Head Hussars.</p> + +<p>“Go to the barn,” commanded Franz. “And, mind, you pig of an Englishman, +no talking till you’re spoken to!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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. Léontine 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>A couple of men answered.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Forgive me, dear!” she murmured. “I fear I am to blame. I was selfish. +I might have saved <span style="white-space: nowrap;"><i>you</i>——”</span></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p><p>“No, no, none of that!” interrupted the corporal. “You go inside, +<i>Fräulein</i>. 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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>which affected him. Probably this young +non-commissioned officer saw certain promotion ahead, and that, to a +German, is an all-sufficing inducement.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>the corporal. +Some of their horses were tethered in the barn, others were picketed +outside.</p> + +<p>Scraps of talk reached him.</p> + +<p>“This will be a plume in your cap, Franz.”</p> + +<p>“A thousand marks, picked up in a filthy hole like this! <i>Almächtig!</i>”</p> + +<p>“What are they? Spies?”</p> + +<p>“Didn’t you hear? They stabbed Major Busch with a stable fork. Jolly old +Busch—one of the best!”</p> + +<p>“And bayoneted two officers of the Westphalian commissariat, wounding a +third.”</p> + +<p>“The devil! Was there a fight?”</p> + +<p>“Some of the fellows said Busch and the others must have been drunk.”</p> + +<p>“Quite likely. I was drunk every day then.”</p> + +<p>A burst of laughter.</p> + +<p>“Lucky dog!”</p> + +<p>“<i>Ach, was!</i> what’s the good of having been drunk so long ago? There +isn’t a bottle of wine now within five miles.”</p> + +<p>“Tell us then, <i>Herr Kaporal</i>, do we remain here till dawn?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>much more importance than any ordinary +officer was interested in the girl being caught—she far more than the +man.”</p> + +<p>“Well, well! Tastes differ! A peasant like that!”</p> + +<p>“You silly ass, she’s no peasant. That’s the worst of living in a +suburb. You acquire no standard of comparison.”</p> + +<p>These men were Berliners, and were amused by a sly dig at some locality +which, like Koepenick, offered a butt for German humour.</p> + +<p>“Hello! isn’t that a car?” said one.</p> + +<p>There was silence. The thrumming of a powerful automobile could be heard +through the patter of the rain.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>A cloaked staff-officer alighted. The hussars stood stiff as so many +ramrods. The new-comer took their salute punctiliously, but his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>tone in +addressing the corporal was far from gracious.</p> + +<p>“What’s this unlikely tale you’ve sent in to headquarters?” he demanded +harshly.</p> + +<p>“I don’t think I’m mistaken, <i>Herr Hauptmann</i>,” was the answer. “I’ve +got that English captain and the lady wanted at Visé. They’ve +practically admitted it.”</p> + +<p>“Where are they?”</p> + +<p>“The man is sitting there against the wall. The lady is in the +barn.—Stand up, prisoner!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Von Halwig’s astonishment seemed to choke back any display of wrath.</p> + +<p>“Then it is really you?” he said quietly in English.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” replied Dalroy.</p> + +<p>The torch was switched off. Dalroy’s eyes were momentarily blinded by +the glare, but he heard an ugly chuckle.</p> + +<p>“Where is the female prisoner?” said Von Halwig, with a formality that +was as perplexing as his subdued manner.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p><p>“Here, <i>Herr Hauptmann</i>.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Von Halwig reappeared, seemed to ponder matters, and turned to the +corporal.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Two men have gone in pursuit of Jan Maertz, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Never mind. They’ll have sense enough to come on to headquarters if +they catch him. How is this Englishman secured?”</p> + +<p>The jubilant Franz explained.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“I have not searched her, <i>Herr Hauptmann</i>.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Irene was led out. She paused in the doorway, and the corporal thought +she did not know what she was wanted for.</p> + +<p>“You are to be conveyed in the automobile, <i>Fräulein</i>,” he said.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Damn the weather!” he grunted. “Come into the bar. You can walk, I +suppose?”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>met face to face on the platform at Aix-la-Chapelle.</p> + +<p>But the eyes were unalterable. They were still resolute, and strangely +calm, because he had nerved himself not to flinch before this strutting +popinjay.</p> + +<p>“You wonder why I have brought you in here, eh?” began Von Halwig, in +English.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps to gloat over me,” was the quiet reply.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“It all depends what you wish to talk about.”</p> + +<p>“About you and her ladyship, of course.”</p> + +<p>“May I ask whom you mean by ‘her ladyship’?”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t that correct English?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Governess the devil! With whom, then, have you been roaming Belgium?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p><p>“Miss Irene Beresford, of course.”</p> + +<p>“You’re not a fool, Captain Dalroy. Do you honestly tell me you don’t +<i>know</i>?”</p> + +<p>“Know what?”</p> + +<p>“That the girl you brought from Berlin is Lady Irene Beresford, daughter +of the Earl of Glastonbury.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“I did not know,” he said, and his voice was not so thoroughly under +control as he desired.</p> + +<p>Von Halwig laughed loudly. “<i>Almächtig!</i>” 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?”</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p><p>“Never hinted that a royal prince was wild about her?”</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you have my word for it. <i>Himmel!</i> women are queer.”</p> + +<p>“She has suffered much to escape from your royal prince.”</p> + +<p>“She’ll be returned to him now, slightly soiled, but nearly as good as +new.”</p> + +<p>“I wish my hands were not tied.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no heroics, please. We have no time for nonsense of that sort. Is +the light irritating you? I’ll put it here.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>THE WOODEN HORSE OF TROY</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he 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.</p> + +<p>“I am in no mood to discuss international politics,” he answered curtly.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“I only imagined that you might be interested in hearing what’s going to +happen to your damned country,” he said.</p> + +<p>“I know already. She will emerge from this struggle greater, more +renowned, more invincible than ever.”</p> + +<p>“<i>Dummes zeug!</i> 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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p><p>He paused, awaiting a reply perhaps. None came.</p> + +<p>“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 +Visé, three officers and a private in the mill, five soldiers in the +wood at <span style="white-space: nowrap;">Argenteau——”</span></p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“The credit was given to you,” was the dry retort. “But—<i>es ist mir +ganz einerlei</i>—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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>deserted Paris for Bordeaux. And, excuse me if I laugh, Lord Kitchener +has asked for a hundred thousand more men!”</p> + +<p>“He will get five millions if he needs them.”</p> + +<p>Von Halwig swept the retort aside with an impatient flourish.</p> + +<p>“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>I</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! <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>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 <i>know</i>. These +fellows in Parliament <i>don’t</i> 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.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 anæsthesia. 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>perdu</i> till +the cavalry were gone, but had been moved to action by a desire to +rescue the bound <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>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!</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“The <i>English</i> Channel!” scoffed Von Halwig. “The impudence of you +<i>verdammt</i>——No, it’s foolish to lose one’s temper. Well, I’ll explain. +The really important part of the <i>English</i> Channel is about to become +German. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>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 <span style="white-space: nowrap;">of——”</span></p> + +<p>A rat scampered across one of the speaker’s feet, and startled him.</p> + +<p>He swore, dropped the cigarette, and lighted another, the third. Like +every junior officer of the German <i>corps d’élite</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>“We can not only ruin and starve you,” he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>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 <span style="white-space: nowrap;">war——</span><i>Gott in</i> <span style="white-space: nowrap;"><i>Himm</i>——”</span></p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p><p>“’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 <i>that</i> cock won’t crow agine!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>fixed, and safety catches turned over +soundlessly.</p> + +<p>Conquering his blank amazement as best he could, Dalroy inquired of the +first sprite how many the party consisted of, all told.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Corporal Bates, sir, A Company, 2nd Battalion of the Buffs. That German +officer made out, sir, that you were in our army.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I am Captain Dalroy, of the 2nd Bengal Lancers.”</p> + +<p>Corporal Bates became, if possible, even more clear-eyed.</p> + +<p>“Stationed where last year, sir?”</p> + +<p>“At Lucknow, with your own battalion.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I’m—beg pardon, sir, but are you the Lieutenant Dalroy who rode +the winner of the Civil Service Cup?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, the Maharajah of Chutneypore’s Diwan.”</p> + +<p>“Good enough! You understand, sir, I <i>had</i> to ask. Will you take +command, sir?”</p> + +<p>“No indeed, corporal. I shall only humbly advise. But we must rescue the +lady.”</p> + +<p>“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. <i>You</i> might take care of the shuffer and the chap by +his side.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Right, sir.—Smithy, take the left half-section, and cut off the +retreat on the left.—Ready, sir?—Douse that glim!”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>shafts of polished steel in the two cones of +radiance cast by the acetylene lamps.</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>“Now, then, Smithy, show a light!” shouted Corporal Bates. “Ah! there +you are, sir! I meant to make sure of <i>this</i> chap. I got him straight +off.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Fall in!” growled Bates. “Any casualties?”</p> + +<p>“If there is, the blighters oughter be court-mawshalled,” chirped Smith.</p> + +<p>A momentary shuffling of grotesque forms, and a deep voice boomed, +“Half-time score—England twenty, Germany <i>nil</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Left section—look ’em over, and carry any wounded men likely to live +into the barn,” said <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>the corporal. “Give ’em first aid an’ +water-bottles. Step lively too! Right section—hold the horses.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Irene!” he said.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>“Yes, dear,” she contrived to murmur hoarsely.</p> + +<p>“It’s all over. A squad of British soldiers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>dropped from the skies. +Every German is laid out, Von Halwig with the rest.”</p> + +<p>“Von Halwig! Is he dead?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“I am glad. Arthur, they have not wounded you?”</p> + +<p>“Not a scratch.”</p> + +<p>“And Maertz?”</p> + +<p>“We must see to him. Will you come out? Never mind the rain.”</p> + +<p>“The rain! Ah, dear God, that I should feel the blessed rain beating on +my face once more in liberty!”</p> + +<p>She gave him her hand, and they stood for a moment, peering deep into +each other’s eyes.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“No need to talk of that,” he soothed her. “We have a splendid escort. +In two hours——”</p> + +<p>She caught him by both shoulders.</p> + +<p>“You <i>must</i> promise,” she cried vehemently.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p><p>“Yes,” he muttered savagely, “I promise.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Corporal Bates hurried up.</p> + +<p>“Her ladyship all right, sir?” he inquired briskly.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” replied Dalroy, conscious of a slight tremulousness in the arm he +was holding.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“I think, sir,” he rattled on, “that we ought to be moving. It’s quite +dark now, an’ we have our route marked out.”</p> + +<p>“How?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“I see. Do you follow the road to Oosterzeele?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p><p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Very well. Have you searched the enemy for papers?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir. We’re stuffed with note-books an’ other little souveeners.”</p> + +<p>“Do your men ride?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“What of the car?”</p> + +<p>“Smithy will attend to that with a bomb, sir.”</p> + +<p>Bates evidently knew his business, so evidently that Dalroy did not even +question him as to the true inwardness of Smithy’s attentions.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The corporal saluted.</p> + +<p>“We’re ready now, sir,” he said. “Perhaps her ladyship will march with +you behind the centre file?”</p> + +<p>“Do you head the column?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Then, for a little way, we’ll accompany you. There were three in our +party, corporal. One, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>THE MARNE—AND AFTER</h3> + +<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">“</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>hat’s awkward, sir,” said the corporal, as the detachment moved off +into the night, leaving the motor-car’s acetylene lamps still blazing +merrily.</p> + +<p>“Why ‘awkward’?” demanded Dalroy.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Quite right. How does that affect the present situation?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“What did the German officer say, sergeant?” put in Irene innocently.</p> + +<p>“Corporal, your ladyship. Corporal Bates, of the 2nd Buffs.”</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry to have to interrupt,” said Dalroy. “You must give Lady Irene +a full account <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>So Irene was left to tread the narrow path unaided. To her lasting +credit, she neither flinched nor faltered.</p> + +<p>“We may find it difficult to reach Gand, so I’ll wait for you in Ostend, +Arthur,” she said composedly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Dalroy, whose hearing was quickened by the training of Indian +<i>shikar</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>“Horses coming this way,” breathed Dalroy.</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>discernible only by a strip of skyline, itself merely a less dense +blackness.</p> + +<p>“Them two Yewlans,” explained the corporal, “probably bringing a +prisoner. Mind you don’t hurt him.”</p> + +<p>No more explicit instructions were given or needed. Of such material +were the First Hundred Thousand.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>Then came a cockney voice, “Cheer-o, mitey! We’re friends, ammies! Damn +it all, you ain’t tikin’ us for Boshes, are yer?”</p> + +<p>“<i>Hola!</i> Jan Maertz!” shouted Dalroy.</p> + +<p>“<i>Monsieur!</i>”</p> + +<p>Irene laughed—yes, laughed, though two men <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>had died before her +eyes!—at the amazement conveyed by the Walloon’s gruff yelp.</p> + +<p>“Don’t be alarmed! These are friends, British soldiers,” went on Dalroy.</p> + +<p>“I thought they were devils from hell,” was the candid answer.</p> + +<p>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 Léontine, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Can you sit a horse astride?” he asked her.</p> + +<p>“I prefer it,” she said promptly.</p> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>Jan +announced that he was good for another twenty miles provided he could +win clear of those <i>sales Alboches</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p><p>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: +“<i>Qui va là?</i>”</p> + +<p>“A party of English soldiers, a Belgian, and an English lady,” answered +Dalroy.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 curés +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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Is that what you were doing under the car outside the barn?” he +inquired, catching Smithy’s eye.</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir. I’ve on’y one left aht o’ six,” said Smithy, producing an +ominous-looking object from a pocket.</p> + +<p>“Is the detonator in position?”</p> + +<p>“Yus, sir.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p><p>“Will you kindly take it out, and lay it gently on the table?”</p> + +<p>Smithy obeyed, with reassuring deftness.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Have you still retained part of your uniform?” he inquired.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>The Belgian officers grew enthused. They insisted on providing a <i>vin +d’honneur</i>, which Irene escaped by pleading utter fatigue, and retiring +to rest.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>of a comfortable bed, interviewed the proprietor of the +“<i>Trois Couronnes</i>,” 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. <i>Monsieur le Patron</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Dalroy was shaving, for the first time in thirty-three days, when voices +reached him through the open window. He listened.</p> + +<p>Smithy had cornered Shiney Black in the hotel yard, and, in his own +phrase, was puttin’ ’im through the ’oop.</p> + +<p>“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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>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 <i>you</i> done, you’d like ter know? Wot +<i>’aven’t</i> you done? Aren’t you alive? Wot crime can ekal that when the +Keyser said, ‘Puff! aht—tallow-candle!’ <i>Ach</i>, pig-dorg, I shpit on +yer!”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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 +<span style="white-space: nowrap;">langwidge——”</span></p> + +<p>“I ’ave, indeed,” interrupted Shiney. “But <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>none o’ it ’ere, me lad. +There’s a reel born lydy in one o’ them bedrooms.”</p> + +<p>“I’m not torkin’ o’ the kind of tosh <i>you</i> 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 <i>Kultur</i>. 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?”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p><p>“What abart it?” agreed Smithy instantly.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<p>Somehow, on 7th September 1914, there was a hitch in the naval programme +devised by the <i>Deutscher Marineamt</i>. The Belgian packet-boat, <i>Princess +Clementine</i>, steamed from Ostend to Dover through a smiling sea unvexed +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>by Krupp or any other form of <i>Kultur</i>. Warships, big and little, were +there in squadrons; but gaunt super-Dreadnought and perky destroyer +alike was aggressively British.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>She ran in panic, her one thought being to join her sister in Brussels, +and reach home.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p><p>“You’ll dine with us, Arthur,” she said simply. “I’ll not tell them a +word of our adventures till you are present.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>A newsboy tore past, shouting in the vernacular, “Great Stand by Sir +John French.”</p> + +<p>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 Léontine, and Monsieur Pochard, and the +curé of Verviers.</p> + +<p>Another boy scampered by. He carried a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>contents bill. Heavy black type +announced that the British were “holding” Von Kluck on the Marne. +Dalroy’s eyes kindled. <i>His</i> work lay <i>there</i>. When the soldier’s task +was ended he would come back to Irene.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>“CARRY ON!”</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>fter 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 <i>sabots en cuir</i> the height of luxury, was +dressed <i>de rigueur</i> for luncheon at the Savoy.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p><p>“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 <i>that</i>, will +you?”</p> + +<p>Thus, all unconsciously, Irene started the great adventure for one of +Kitchener’s first half-million.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Well,” she inquired, “having picked your brains, are they going to +court-martial you for being absent without leave?”</p> + +<p>“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 <span style="white-space: nowrap;">rather——”</span></p> + +<p>Irene stopped, almost in the middle of the road.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“A man must not wear the staff insignia until he is gazetted,” he +reminded her.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” She was pathetically disappointed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p><p>“But, in my case,” he went on, “I am specifically ordered to travel in +staff uniform, so, as I leave London at seven <span style="white-space: nowrap;">o’clock——”</span></p> + +<p>“You can certainly lunch in all your glory,” she vowed. “There’s an +empty taxi!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In those early weeks of the war all England was agog with the belief +that Antwerp would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Surely you’ll admit that we should strengthen the defence of Antwerp?” +argued the sailor.</p> + +<p>“I think it impracticable. Liège only held out until the new siege +howitzers arrived. Namur fell at once. Why should we expect Antwerp to +be impregnable?”</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>September he took to Ostend “a chap on +the Staff who seemed to know a bit.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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 <i>Kultur</i> drew close, transport from Ostend.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>But, at the eleventh hour, Dalroy heard that a British Red Cross +Hospital party, which had extricated itself from the clutch of the +mailéd fist, was even then <i>en route</i> 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.</p> + +<p>A Belgian staff officer had assured him that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>the Germans could not +possibly occupy Ostend until late next day. The Belgian army, though +hopelessly outnumbered, had never been either disorganised nor +outmanœuvred. The retreat to the Yser, if swift, was orderly, and the +rearguard could be trusted to follow its time-table.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>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 Visé 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>Not even foothold was to be had for love or +money on that train at Blankenberge.</p> + +<p>Dalroy, who dared not let go his machine, contrived to get a word with +the Medical Officer in charge.</p> + +<p>As ever, the Briton made light of past troubles.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll ride on now, and meet you at Ostend,” said Dalroy. He had not the +heart to damp the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>spirits of the party by telling of the chaos awaiting +them. Sufficient for the next hour would be the evil thereof.</p> + +<p>“I say, it’s awfully good of you to take all this trouble,” said the +doctor.</p> + +<p>“I’ve lost my job with the departure of our troops, so I had to find +something to do,” smiled the other.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“The American Consul, who has worked hard all day, has had to give it +up,” added the man. “He is closing his office.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Dalroy recognised him, having had much <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>business with the port +authorities during the preceding week.</p> + +<p>“Is it true that a steamer is in sight?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Of course, as might be expected, there were hundreds of influential +people, both British subjects and Belgians, already inside. To them +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>Dalroy gave no immediate heed. Merely requesting the doctor to keep his +contingent together and distinct, he sought the harbour-master.</p> + +<p>No orders had been received as yet from the mayor, and the incoming +steamer, quite a small craft, was already in the channel.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“How many people can you carry?” was Dalroy’s first question to the +captain.</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was a long and tedious yet almost heart-breaking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>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 <i>Kultur</i>.</p> + +<p>In addition to her crew, she carried 739 passengers, mostly wounded +soldiers, women, and children!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Nothing very remarkable would have happened if the Earl of Glastonbury, +an elderly but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>most observant peer, had not created a rare commotion +one day at luncheon.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“What do you suggest, dad?” demanded Irene.</p> + +<p>“Why not have a war wedding?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, let’s!” cried the flapper sister ecstatically.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>speeding toward Devon in a fine +car on their honeymoon.</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h3><span class="smcap">Transcriber’s Note:</span></h3> + +<p>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.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +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-h.htm or 33622-h.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. 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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. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/33622-h/images/i001.jpg b/33622-h/images/i001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc89e71 --- /dev/null +++ b/33622-h/images/i001.jpg diff --git a/33622-h/images/icover.jpg b/33622-h/images/icover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..18bfac0 --- /dev/null +++ b/33622-h/images/icover.jpg 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. 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