ly protected, because he could only be shot from
above. I expect we'll have a lot of use for these."

"Are there many of them?"

"Not so many here. We don't need them. But at Brussels, where the
field army is being mobilized now, there are a lot, and all through the
open country where there will probably be a good deal of fighting."

"Will the Germans get so far?"

"They're sure to. We'll hold Liege with a small force as long as we
can. But you must remember that they can send a million men against
us! We're not supposed to beat them--no one expects us to do that.
All we have to do is to hold them back as long as possible."

"But if there are so many of them, why can't they go right around us
here?"

"They can, and they probably will. But even so, they'll have to
account for the fortress of Liege and of Namur, as well, before they
can get so very far."

"That's what I don't quite understand," said Arthur. "It seems to me
that unless we have soldiers enough here to stop them they could go
right on without bothering about Liege at all."

"You haven't studied strategy yet, I can see, my scout!" said the
officer, with a laugh. "But I'll try to explain. You see, the Germans
want to reach France--to conquer the French army and capture Paris, as
they did in 1870. Then they went right through Alsace and
Lorraine--beat the French around Metz, locked up the beaten army in
that fortress, beat the only other army France had and captured it at
Sedan, and then walked right through to Paris."

"Yes, I've read of that," said Arthur. "They didn't go through Belgium
then, either."

"They didn't have to. But since then, you see, the French have learned
their lesson. They've got the most powerful fortified line in the
world, I suppose, all the way from Belfort to Verdun. It would take
the Germans weeks to break through there, and by that time the whole
French army would be mobilized behind that line of fortresses, and
ready for them. If they were only fighting France they might try it.
But now they've got to fight France and Russia too. And the only
chance they have is to beat France even more quickly than they did in
1870. I happen to know that their plans require them to capture Paris
within six weeks."

"Six weeks! Do you think they can do it?"

"No! Not if we do our part! And if they don't, they're likely to fail
altogether. Because then Russia will have had time to mobilize, and
more than half of