the same mind. They did not fancy taking any chance
of having that concealed six-pounder discharged point-blank at them.
Mistakes are hard to rectify after a fatal volley has been fired. The
best way is to avoid running any chances.

They found a way to leave the road and take to the fields, skirting
fences, and in every way possible managing to keep out of sight of the
German gunners who were lying concealed in that scrub on the little
elevation.

It was while they were pushing on some distance away that without the
least warning they caught a strange pulsating rattling sound from the
rear. All of them came to a stop, and wondering looks were quickly
changed to those of concern.

"Rob," exclaimed Merritt, "it comes from near where that gun lies hidden
back of the bushes; and that's the rattle of a Maxim, as sure as you
live. Those Belgians have turned the tables on the Germans; they've
managed to sneak around back of them, and must be pouring in a terrible
fire that will mow down every gunner in that bunch of brush!"

Rob was a little white in the face, as he continued to listen to the
significant discharge. He had seen what mischief one of those Maxim guns
could do at fairly close quarters, for they had witnessed them at work
during the battle of the preceding day.

"I feel bad about it in one way," he said, "because in saving the lives
of those three Belgians we have been the means of turning the trap on
those who set it. But I never dreamed they would try to surprise the men
in ambush."

The sounds died out, and silence followed; though the far-away grumble
of the conflict could be heard from time to time.

"They've launched their bolt," said Merritt, "and either skipped out
again, or else the German battery has been placed out of commission. We
didn't hear the six-pounder go off, so they had no chance to fire back."

They continued their walk in silence. All of them had been much sobered
by these thrilling and momentous events that were continually happening
around them. Much of the customary jolly humor that, as a rule,
characterized their intercourse with one another had been, by degrees,
crushed by the tragedies that they had seen happening everywhere among
the poor Belgians and amid the stricken soldiers whom they had so nobly
assisted on the field of battle.

Striking the little road again at some distance beyond, they continued
to follow it, under the belief that they could not now be very far away