to work the relief of the far more acute distress of those from
the countryside to the north and east. Always the stories of those who
had fled before the German hosts were the same.

"The Germans haven't got an army!" cried Henri, bitterly. "It's a war
machine they send against us! They do not fight like men, but like
railroad trains!"

They were learning more in this task of escorting the refugees than all
the bulletins had been able to tell them. No censors could close the
mouths of these poor people, and they were not only willing to
talk--they craved listeners.

"It makes it easier to bear what we have suffered when we know that
others know what the Germans have done," said the woman with the baby.
"We women--we gave our husbands, and those who had sons gave their sons.
Now we have given all to France. Let the men win back enough for us to
live--that is all that we ask."

They did not know the meaning of the military movements they had seen.
Indeed, they had not seen military movements in the strict sense of the
word. All they knew was that soldiers, first in one uniform, then in
another, had passed through their villages, first going north and east,
then south and west. They had heard firing, dim and in the distance at
first, but coming always nearer. Then the tide of battle had rolled by.
That was all they knew.

But to boys who from the beginning of the war had followed every move on
the great chessboard of the struggle, these things meant knowledge for
which the editors of newspapers would have given fortunes. In Paris they
had had a great map, and every day they had shifted the tiny flags that
showed where the troops were. They had flags for each of the allies and
for the Austrians and Germans at first. Later they had become more
particular. They had worked out as well as they could the different
armies, even to the army corps, and had marked their flags accordingly.
And so this exact knowledge of where troops of particular commands had
been, made it possible for them, when there was time for them to go
home, to make changes in the positions of the little flags that dotted
their map.

When they had finished doing that they looked at one another.

"The French and the English are retreating," said Henri, soberly. "You
were right, Frank. They fought on the line of Mons to Charleroi in
Belgium, and then they began running away."

"Not exactly that, either," said Frank. "Look here--look at the map,
Henri