I will remember," said Henri.

Then they went to their room, laid away their newly acquired uniforms of
Boy Scouts, and, keeping not even their new badges of which they had
been so proud, especially Henri, dressed in their ordinary clothes.

"Let's start on bicycles, anyhow," proposed Frank. "We may not be able
to stick to them, but we can save a lot of time on our way to Le Cateau.
That's where we shall go first, isn't it?"

"Yes. We had better start for there. You're right about the bicycles,
too. Even if we lose them, that does not matter so much," said Harry.

"And, Harry, we've got to pretend to be pretty stupid, if we are caught.
You mustn't act as if you knew too much. Don't let the Germans see how
you really feel about them. Pretend to be terribly frightened, even if
you're not," instructed Frank.

"All right. I see what you mean. Come on, then. Let's be off!"

Already, as they rode through the streets of Amiens, the signs of what
was to come were multiplying. Troops were marching out of the town, but
they were going south, away from the battle line, it seemed. And the
townspeople were not slow in taking the hint. They were gathering such
things as they could carry with them, and all those with anything of
real value, and with a place to take it, were preparing to get away
before the coming of the Germans. The refugees from Belgium had told
them lurid tales of the German treatment of captured places; they had no
mind to share the fate of their unhappy neighbors in the plucky little
country to the north. And so the exodus was beginning.

Henri was very much depressed.

"And this is war!" he said, sadly. "So far, except for the wounded, we
have seen only the suffering of women and children. Where is the glory
of war of which history tells? I want to see some fighting! I want to
know that we are really resisting the invaders of the fatherland."

"You'll know it soon enough," said Frank, with a smile. "You are too
impatient, Harry. And you must remember this. While all this is going
on, Russia is advancing too. The Austrians have been well beaten all
along their front already. Soon it will be the turn of the Germans to
meet Russia. They cannot long devote all their energy to France and the
British."

"That is so, Frank. But the Russians won't fight here."

"Perhaps not. But it will be the same. For every army corps that Russia
sends into Prussia means that Germany can spare so many troops less for
the wa