embarrassment of the situation with a small jape.

Perhaps he did not understand. Perhaps it was against the regulations
for a colonel, in full caparison of sword and shoulder straps, to laugh
at a joke from a dusty, wayworn, shabby stranger in a dented straw hat
and a wrinkled Yankee-made coat. At any rate this colonel did not
laugh.

"You did quite right to report yourselves here and explain your
purposes," he continued gravely; "but it is impossible that you may
proceed. To-morrow morning we shall give you escort and transportation
back to Brussels. I anticipate"--here he glanced quizzically at our
aged mare, drooping knee-sprung between the shafts of the lopsided
dogcart--"I anticipate that you will return more speedily than you
arrived.

"You will kindly report to me here in the morning at eleven. Meantime
remember, gentlemen, that you are not prisoners--by no means, not. You
may consider yourselves for the time being as--shall we say?--guests of
the German Army, temporarily detained. You are at perfect liberty to
come and go--only I should advise you not to go too far, because if you
should try to leave town tonight our soldiers would certainly shoot you
quite dead. It is not agreeable to be shot; and, besides, your great
Government might object. So, then, I shall have the pleasure of seeing
you in the morning, shall I not? Yes? Good night, gentlemen!"

He clicked his neat heels so that his spurs jangled, and bowed us out
into the dark. The question of securing lodgings loomed large and
imminent before us. Officers filled the few small inns and hotels;
soldiers, as we could see, were quartered thickly in all the houses in