ere is a bridge there, too. I don't believe we could
cross the Meuse anywhere else between Huy and Namur."

Twice they passed roadside patrols of Germans, but Paul's appearance
was deceptive, and the soldiers simply sprang to attention as the
flying car swept by, standing with their hands raised in salute. Paul
knew that at any moment he might run into a patrol less easily
satisfied, but that was a chance that had to be taken.

Now he was picking his way carefully, having reduced his speed a
little. Twice he boldly left the road and drove the car across the
soft ground of fields, for he had to follow a semicircle, and the road,
had he stuck to it, would have brought him right up to one of the camps
each time. But at last he was heading north and west again, and he
heaved a sigh of great relief.

He had to sacrifice speed now for a time to certainty. To have taken a
false turn would have spelled disaster, and, though he knew the map of
the country well enough, he had never traveled these roads himself.
But soon all danger seemed to be over. They were coming nearer to the
sounds of the battle again. These had died away for a time, and the
fight had seemed to be over. But whichever side had been losing had
brought up reenforcements, and as the first faint streaks of light in
the east that foretold the dawn began to spread in the sky the din was
louder than ever.

"Where are you trying to go?" asked Arthur.

"To Eghezee," said Paul. "That is a fair sized town and we ought to
find a telephone exchange still working there, with wires into Brussels
that haven't been cut. There is its smoke--do you see it right ahead?"

Arthur raised his head to look. And he saw something else. To the
right of the town, which was still two miles away, there was a moving
mass of grey.

"There come the Germans, too!" he groaned. "And they're nearer than we
are!"

Paul's answer was to urge the car to still greater speed. Arthur was
right. Heavy masses of Germans--Paul guessed there was a full division
of twenty thousand men--were advancing toward the town. They were
still some distance away, but they were moving fairly fast.

"It's the railway they're after, that line runs between Namur and
Tirlemont," said Paul. "Well, we've got to risk it now. Perhaps they
will catch us, but if we have any luck we'll get our messages through."

They came into a town that was almost wholly deserted, as it seemed.
The Germans had give