r on this side. Harry, do you know what I think? I think Germany
is beaten already!"

"How can you say that, Frank? We know now that they have pushed us back
everywhere--that they are all over Belgium, and are marching on Paris,
just as they did the last time--"

"No, not just as they did the last time, Harry. For then they marched on
Paris with the field armies of France beaten--one of them captured, the
other locked up in Metz. Now the armies of France are still in the
field. And I say that Germany is beaten because her one chance in this
war was to destroy France as she did in 1870--quickly. If she had done
that, she might have been able to turn back, away from France, and meet
Russia with her full strength."

"Oh, I see what you mean. But I'll feel better when we turn and fight,
instead of running away from them."

"So will I and everyone else, Harry. But the great thing for our side
now is to win delay. Every day is as important as a battle. Russia
moves slowly, but when she is fully in the field she will have as great
an army ready as France and Germany together."

"Well, I hope you are right. Ah, now we are out of the town. We can go a
little faster. En avant!"

In the fields women and young boys were working hard, getting in the
harvest that the men had abandoned. Never had a countryside looked more
peaceful, except that at every bridge they passed now was a sentry,
usually a man of the reserve, held back from the front for this sort of
duty, while the younger men were at the front to do the actual fighting.

For a long time they were not challenged. The sentries looked at them
idly, but decided that they were not at all likely to be Prussian spies,
and let them pass. But when they came to the railroad line leading from
Amiens to Arras, which they had to cross, it was different. Their
crossing was at a culvert, where the road passed under the tracks. Here
there was not one sentry, but a post, under the command of a one-legged
veteran.

To him they were forced to make explanations, which he received gravely,
studying Frank with particular attention.

"So you carry despatches," he said. "You have a word, a countersign,
perhaps?"

"Mezieres," said Henri, promptly.

"Very well. Pass, then, but keep an eye open. There were Uhlans here
before daybreak."

"Here?"

"They are beginning to show now. We hear they were in Arras yesterday.
Some stayed with us. They sought to blow up the culvert here."

The