hs 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 t