we
were able to give him quite a boost. He asked me to get word to his
father that he wanted to be given a place as chauffeur or aviator, and
in any other place that would not require so much foot work. There must
be a lot of this sort. We finally landed him in the bosom of his company
and waved him a good-bye.

By this time it was twilight, and the precautions of the guards were
redoubled. A short way out from Louvain, a little Walloon stepped out
from behind a tree about a hundred yards in front of us and barred the
way excitedly. We were going pretty fast and had to put on emergency
brakes, and skid up to him with a great smell of sizzling rubber. He
informed us that papers were no good any more; that we must know the
password, or go back to Louvain for the night. This he communicated to
us in his best Walloon, which we finally understood. Blount started to
tell him that we did not know, as the word had been changed since we
left; but in one of my rare bursts of resourcefulness I thought to try a
ruse, so leaned forward very confidently and gave him the password for
the morning--"_Belgique_." With a triumphant look, he shook his head and
countered: "No, _Haelen_!" He had shown the travellers from the outside
world that he knew more than they did, and he was without any misgivings
as to what he had done, and let us proceed without further loss of time.
We got all the way back to Tervueren with this password, which was all
that saved us from spending the night in Louvain and getting back nobody
knows when. Nearly opposite the Golf Club we were stopped with the
tidings that the word was no longer good, but that if we had
satisfactory papers we could get into town. For some reason the password
had evidently been changed since we left Louvain, so we got through with
rare luck all along the line.

We rolled up to the Legation a few minutes before eight o'clock, and
found that there was a great deal of anxiety about us. Cheerful people
had been spreading the news all day that if we fell into the hands of
the Germans they would hold us as hostages, as they did the Bishop and
Mayor of Liege. They probably would if they had caught us, but they did
not catch us.

Palmer was pleased at the amount we saw. It was by rare good luck that
we got through the lines and we were probably the last who will get so
far. To-day all _laisser-passers_ have been canceled, and nobody can set
foot out of town to the east. It gave us a pretty