indow was open. I want
to size up the chances of the Belgians. Those are bigger guns which are
answering, and a duel between big guns and little ones can have only one
result."

Seemingly, the German battery of quick-firers had located its opponents,
because the din now became terrific. As though in response to Dalroy's
desire, three panes of glass fell out owing to atmospheric concussion,
and the watchers in the loft could follow with ease the central phase of
the struggle. The noise of the battle was redoubled by the accident to
the window, and the air-splitting snarl of the high-explosive shells
fired by the 5.9's in the effort to destroy the Belgian guns was
specially deafening. That sound, more than any other, seemed to affect
Irene's nerves. Involuntarily she clung to Dalroy's arm, and he, with no
other intent than to reassure her, drew her trembling form close.

It was evident that the assailants were suffering heavy losses. Scores
of men fell every few minutes among the bridge-builders, while
casualties were frequent among the troops lining the quays. Events on
the Belgian side of the river were not so marked; but even Irene could
make out the precise moment when the defenders' fire slackened, and the
line of pontoons began to reach out again toward the farther shore.

"Are the poor Belgians beaten, then?" she asked, with a tender sympathy
which showed how lightly she estimated her own troubles in comparison
with the agony of a whole nation.

"I think not," said Dalroy. "I imagine they have changed the position of
some, at least, of their guns, and will knock that bridge to smithereens
again just as soon as it nears completion."

The forage-carts rumbled out of the yard. Dalroy noticed that the
soldiers wore linen covers over the somewhat showy _Pickel-hauben_,
though the regiments he had seen in Aix-la-Chapelle swaggered through
the streets in their ordinary helmets. This was another instance of
German thoroughness. The invisibility of the gray-green uniform was not
so patent when the _Pickel-haube_ lent its glint, but no sooner had the
troops crossed the frontier than the linen cover was adjusted, and the
masses of men became almost merged in the browns and greens of the
landscape.

The two were so absorbed in the drama being fought out before their eyes
that they were quite startled by a series of knocks on the boarded
floor. Dalroy crept to the trap door and listened. Then, during an
interval between