prisoners, and on
their good behaviour their own treatment would absolutely depend. The
farmer, as soon as he could recover from his astonishment, passed the
order on to his family and domestics with a peremptoriness no doubt
considerably enhanced by his own lively fears. The Germans filed into
the farm-house, followed by all the band except two. These were set on
the watch on the roofs of two barns a little distance away on opposite
sides of the building.

Max then called upon the farmer to provide a meal for them all,
promising him in return fair payment. Soon the whole band, in high good
humour, were deep in enjoyment of the best meal they had had since the
retreat from Mons and Charleroi began.

During the day there were occasional alarms as bodies of German soldiers
were observed scouring the country in the distance, but none approached
the farm-house. Several labourers, evidently missing the presence of the
farmer, called, and these were promptly made prisoners. At nightfall
everything was made ready for the last march.

The women were sent to their rooms and locked securely in. Then the men,
seven in number, were marshalled in line and informed that any attempt
to give warning to German troops or the authorities would result in
instant death. The order to march was given, and, in single file, Max
and the farmer leading, with the remainder of the prisoners in the
centre, the band moved across country towards the Dutch frontier.

With the aid of the farmer, Max led the band to a point opposite
Maastricht, where the frontier ran through a little wood. He hoped that
here there would be no difficulty in getting unmolested through the
barbed-wire fences everywhere erected along the frontier by the Germans.
A road ran across the frontier close by the wood and a post had been
established there by the enemy, but Max believed that, favoured by night
and the darkness of the wood, there would be no difficulty in eluding
observation.

They entered the wood unobserved, and Max halted the band and went
forward with Dale and one of the English soldiers to silence the sentry
and cut the wire. The sentry was an oldish man, of the Landwehr, and
entirely unsuspicious. He was seized by the throat from behind, his
rifle snatched from his hand, and his arms and legs securely pinioned.
Then his throat was released and his mouth securely gagged. It was all
over in ten minutes, and, leaving the soldier and Dale at work upon the
wire