I believe, is
contraband of war. Certainly in this instance it was. As we speedily
discovered, it was a very unlucky common soldier who did not have a swig
of rare Burgundy or ancient claret to wash down his black bread and
sausage that night at supper.

Unwittingly we had bumped into the headquarters of the whole army--not
of a single corps, but of an army. In the thickening twilight on the
little square gorgeous staff officers came and went, afoot, on horseback
and in automobiles; and through an open window we caught a glimpse of a
splendid-looking general, sitting booted and sword-belted at a table in
the Prince de Caraman-Chimay's library, with hunting trophies--skin and
horn and claw--looking down at him from the high-paneled oak
wainscotings, and spick-and-span aides waiting to take his orders and
discharge his commissions.

It dawned on us that, having accidentally slipped through a hole in the
German rear guard, we had reached a point close to the front of
operations. We felt uncomfortable.

It was not at all likely that a Herr Over-Commander would expedite us
with the graciousness that had marked his underlings back along the line
of communication. We remarked as much to one another; and it was a true
prophecy. A staff officer--a colonel who spoke good English--received
us at the door of the villa and examined our papers in the light which
streamed over his shoulder from a fine big hallway behind him. In
everything, both then and thereafter, he was most polite.

"I do not understand how you came here, you gentlemen," he said at
length. "We have no correspondents with our army."

"You have now," said one of us, seeking to brighten the growing
embarrassment of the situation with a small jape.

Perhaps he did not understand. Perhaps it was against the regulations
for a colonel, in full caparison of sword and shoulder straps, to laugh
at a joke from a dusty, wayworn, shabby stranger in a dented straw hat
and a wrinkled Yankee-made coat. At any rate this colonel did not
laugh.

"You did quite right to report yourselves here and explain your
purposes," he continued gravely; "but it is impossible that you may
proceed. To-morrow morning we shall give you escort and transportation
back to Brussels. I anticipate"--here he glanced quizzically at our
aged mare, drooping knee-sprung between the shafts of the lopsided
dogcart--"I anticipate that you will return more speedily than you
arrived.

"You wil