nly too well what his cellar
contained beside wine and beer, was staring at them with a white,
panic-stricken gaze. But he turned to obey, none the less; he was in
deadly fear, it was plain, of the boyish soldiers. They might be
willing to jest now, but he knew that they were the same men who fought
like devils, and if reports were true (which they were not!) cut off
the hands of women and children.

He brought food, and one of the soldiers handed Paul a glass of wine.

"Now, then!" cried the German. "You shall drink a toast to the good
Kaiser Wilhelm, who is now King of Belgium as well as of Prussia, and
who will eat the first course of his Christmas dinner in Paris and fly
to London in a Zeppelin for the second! Skoal!"

"Ja! Ja wohl! A toast to the Kaiser by the young Belgian!" cried some
of the others.

Paul got up, the glass held firmly in his hand. His cheeks were
blazing.

"I will give you a toast!" he cried. "To Kaiser Wilhelm! May he eat
his Christmas dinner in Saint Helena, with the ghost of Napoleon to
keep him company! And may King Albert and King George and the Czar and
the president of France enjoy a dinner that shall be served to them in
the palace of Potsdam!"

And then he flung down the glass, so that it was shattered on the stone
floor, and the red wine ran over the white flags.

"And so say I and every other good Belgian!" echoed Arthur.

For a moment there was a stunned silence in the room. The German
soldiers, aghast at such daring, stared with open mouths and wide eyes.
And then there was an angry murmur, spreading from one man to another,
as the enormity of Paul's daring sank in.

"He has insulted the Kaiser! He has dared to be disrespectful toward
our Emperor! He has refused to drink to his health!"

"Do what you like!" cried Paul, thoroughly aroused now, as Arthur had
seen him roused only once or twice before, and utterly indifferent to
what might happen to him. "I am not afraid of you! Come, stop us if
you like!"

And then while the angry muttering continued, and each of the German
soldiers seemed to wait for one of the others to make the first move,
Paul and Arthur, side by side, without looking to right or left, walked
out of the place and into the open air of the single street of Hannay.
For a moment, after they passed outside, they heard nothing, though
they had expected to be pursued and brought back. And then suddenly
from behind them there came the last soun