r
end of the street they could see a group of men in the grey-green
uniform surging to and fro before a house from which the screams seemed
to issue.

"The Germans--doing the same dirty work as they did at Vise!" gasped
Max, turning away his head and clenching his fists in his pockets. "I
hardly know how to keep from rushing down there, utterly useless though
it is."

"It is women they are ill-treating--how can we walk away?" cried Dale in
acute distress. "Let us go down, and if we cannot fight, let us beg them
to desist. Perhaps if we offered them money----?"

"Useless," muttered Max, though he stopped and gazed down the road in
irresolution. "And yet how _can_ we pass by, Dale?" he went on with a
groan. "I know I shall always call myself a coward if I do nothing.
Let's walk a little closer, and see if we can do anything."

Dale eagerly agreed, and they walked quickly down the road towards the
group of soldiers and their victims. As they drew nearer, and could see
something of what was happening, their anger increased, until they were
almost ready to throw themselves upon the soldiers and oppose their
bayonets with their bare fists.

The house before which the outrage was taking place seemed, for some
reason, to have been singled out from the others which lined both sides
of the street, possibly because the head of the house was well known as
an opponent of the Germans or because of some act of hostility committed
against the soldiers. At any rate, an elderly man, evidently dragged
from the house, had been tied to the front railings, and was being
subjected to treatment so cruel that it almost amounted to torture.

The womenfolk of the house had apparently rushed out and endeavoured to
intervene, but had been forcibly held back, and were at that moment
being subjected to brutal indignities that angered Max and Dale even
more than the cold-blooded cruelty to the man himself.

The two had arrived within some forty yards of the scene, and were still
pressing on as though drawn by a magnet, although neither knew what he
was going to do, when one of the soldiers drew the attention of his
fellows to the two young men advancing towards them. At the same time he
picked up his rifle, took quick aim, and discharged it directly at them.

The bullet whizzed between them, and, on the impulse, Max seized Dale by
the arm and dragged him through the open doorway of the nearest house. A
roar of laughter from the soldiers at th