e part of workman to perfection, even if
questioned at length, but Dale was under the necessity of answering only
in monosyllables, as his knowledge of the language was at present not
very great. With Max at his elbow, however, this was not a serious
drawback, and neither anticipated any difficulty on that score.

Max was now a broad-shouldered, well-built young fellow of twenty. He
was not much above medium height, but his rowing and running at
Hawkesley and his hard work in the various shops of the Durend concern
had given him a muscular development that most of the real workmen might
have envied. His responsibilities as stroke at college, and, later, as
the future head of the firm, had given him a self-reliant attitude of
mind that was reflected in his bearing, and enabled him to maintain with
unconscious ease his sudden increase in years over his more
youthful-looking comrade.

Dale was still slim and boyish-looking. He was wiry enough, however, and
was, as we have seen, extremely cool and courageous in any tight corner.
He was quick, too, and the pair made an ideal couple to hunt together.
Had Schenk known that they were bending all their energies to the task
of hindering his use of the Durend workshops for the benefit of the
Germans he would probably have bestowed more than a passing thought upon
them. And had he had an inkling that they were at the bottom of the
shrewd blow already dealt him within the sacred precincts of his office
he would, no doubt, have spent a sleepless night or two.

The few days that had elapsed since Max and Dale left Liege had already
witnessed yet another development in the rapid conversion of the Durend
workshops into a first-class manufactory of war material for the German
army. A large building on the outskirts of the town had been taken over
and converted into a filling-shop, and the shells manufactured within
the works were conveyed thither on a miniature railway, and there filled
with high-explosive drawn from a factory situated about a mile and a
half away, well outside the limits of the town. This new shop was being
staffed with men drawn partly from Germany and partly from former
workmen of the less determined sort, who were gradually returning to
work under stress of hunger.

On Max and Dale applying for work they were promptly drafted to this
shop. Fortunately for them, perhaps, the foreman who was now engaging
fresh workmen was a man sent from Germany, a bullying, overbea