e with their glasses, but the
level plains gave nothing to their sight. They saw only the ashes of
Termonde, the river, and the straight stretch of sandy roads and
stucco hamlets beyond.

They did not notice a valley of covered ground and a quarter-mile
stretch of trees and shrubbery, where three squads of Belgian field
artillery were neatly hidden. Here the men took cover at the first
sound of cannonade. Quietly in their retreat the Belgian artillery
officers had figured the range and elevation of the cathedral tower,
not over fifteen hundred yards away. Just as darkness was setting in
and the figures in the belfry were clearly visible, the battery sergeant
sharply dropped his arm.

"C-r-r-m-p-h!" coughed the field pieces as the gunners drew the
levers home. There were four sharp reports, four flashes of flame and
smoke, the crescendo moan of tons of flying steel--and the church
tower, the bells, and the German officers came crashing to the
ground.

Chapter III

Captive

Up to the day that Luther and I went through the Belgian trenches
near Alost and got into the hands of the German outposts north of
Brussels, we had not seen nearly as much fighting as we wished. We
had looked upon the ear-marks and horrible results of battles; had
heard guns, smelt the blood and ether of wounded, and seen the
ruins over which had rolled the wave of battle. We knew that ahead of
us there had been much fighting in the Sempst-Alost-Vilvorde-
Tirlemont region. The Germans at that moment, if not actually
advancing toward Antwerp, were skirmishing and making feints in
every direction, with the ultimate disposition of their forces carefully
concealed. Of course, we had no official permission to be at the front
with either army; in fact, up to that point we had received nothing but
official threats on the subject of what would happen to us in case we
went ahead. But as no one did more than threaten, we kept on going,
since we preferred that mode of procedure to sitting around in Paris
or Berlin on the chance of one of those "personally conducted" tours
of inspection, whose purpose is to show the correspondent
everything except actual fighting. It was our hope during that early
part of the war to see as much as possible of the German army,
realizing that, if captured, we should undoubtedly be sent either
backward or forward along the German line of communication in
conquered Belgium. Once within the German outpost