re not spies.
I didn't intend to have you understand that you would be acting the
part of spies in giving me the trifle of information I wanted. You
failed to understand me, that's all."

"Well, then," replied Ned, "I apologize. I thought you were asking me
about the German troops and their movements."

"So I was," went on the man. "I wanted to know so that the good people
of this stricken village could be prepared."

"How could the people of this village resist the Germans?" asked Ned
wonderingly. "I don't see any fighting men about."

"That's just the point," pursued the other. "All the men and boys
capable of carrying weapons or doing anything like a man's job at any
kind of work have been drafted by the Germans."

"Then what's the excitement about?" put in Jack impatiently. "We can't
see why you or the village people should worry if the Germans have
taken everything that can be taken."

"You don't understand, I see," continued the other. "The Germans have
left here only women and children and very old men. They even took
away with them such food supplies as could be transported easily. Now
there is very little grain left, and with it perhaps a few potatoes and
other things. But all the cattle and other food supply has been
removed. The villagers are on the point of starving."

"Won't the soldiers feed them when they come--that is, if they're
actually coming?" inquired Jack, presenting his own solution of the
case.

"We are afraid they will not," was the answer. "They have not a very
savory reputation here. It is the intention of the remaining people to
escape to the country, taking with them whatever they can carry, when
they know the Germans are again moving in this direction."

"Why, then, don't they go now and be done with it?" asked Ned.

"Evidently you do not understand the characteristics of this people or
their love of their home, no matter how humble it may be," was the
answer. "If you only understood the fact that these good people have a
gentler side to their nature and that their love of home and family is
fully as great as you will find in your own country, you would not need
to ask such a question. It is a most serious matter to most if not all
of these people to go away from their homes."

"But I don't see that any information we can give you would be of the
slightest assistance at this time," objected Ned.

"It would give us time to prepare for the intended flight."

"I