try to reach Brussels, and after we
got to Huy, we were compelled to come this way."

The major nodded.

"Pfadfinder, hein?" he said. This, as both Paul and Arthur knew, was
what the Boy Scouts were called in Germany, just as in France and
Belgium they were called Eclaireurs Francais or Eclaireurs Belges, as
the case might be. "You can go no further this way. We shall take you
to Hannay, and there you will have to stay for a time. No civilians
are allowed at this time to leave their own villages. The whole
country beyond here is a battleground, for we shall soon be in touch
with the enemy on the way to Brussels. Still, you shall be safe
enough. I have a boy of my own, who is a Pfadfinder with a troop in
Eisenach."

CHAPTER XV

THE BUTCHER'S WIFE

Major Kellner was walking.

"I am saddle weary," he explained. "So I am walking for a time for a
rest and a change, while they lead my horse. Walk with me, you young
ones."

They found that Major Kellner, gruff as he was, was really an officer
of the same kindly type as Colonel Schmidt, whom it seemed he knew very
well.

"If Colonel Schmidt was satisfied to let you go, it is well," he said.
"Now tell me what you have seen."

There was not much, of course, that they could tell him. He was not
trying, it seemed, to extract military information from them, but
wanted to know how the Belgian people felt about the war.

"We have nothing against your people," he said. "It is the stupid
government that has caused all this trouble. Had King Albert submitted
to the inevitable, his country would not have suffered. We do not wish
to be harsh with the people."

"Then why are you burning their farmhouses and their villages
everywhere?" asked Arthur, boldly. "Standing on the hilltop, we could
see the smoke on all sides."

Major Kellner laughed.

"It is kind sometimes to be cruel," he said. "We have a great work to
do, and whoever stands in our way must suffer. We want the Belgians to
understand that if they do not oppose us, except with their armies,
they will be spared. But we must make an example of those who fire at
us treacherously, or who keep guns and other weapons after we have
ordered them to be given up. If we are severe with those who have
refused to heed the warning that we have given, it is so that the
others will pay more attention. It is better to burn a few villages
than to destroy your beautiful city of Brussels, is it not?"

"But