Meanwhile Kenneth had seized the opportunity to take a careful look around. It was clear that it would not be easy to take the place by a rush without giving the inmates sufficient time to fire the mine beneath the bridge. The fact that the German had come to the door himself, instead of the deaf old countryman whom he was said to employ as a man-of-all-work, showed that he was on the alert. Nothing would be easier than to overpower the man himself; but if any noise were made in so doing his companions would instantly come to his assistance, and at the first sign that the plot had been discovered the bridge would be blown up. It seemed that the ruse would prove fruitless after all. In turning the horses for the journey back, Kenneth contrived to bring the dray close against the wall, so that from his high seat he was able to look over. Through the open window of a room giving on the yard he saw a party of four men playing cards at a table. Close to the right hand of each stood a tall beer glass. "That explains why they are such good customers of the brewery," he thought. Pariset, sitting at the back of the dray with his face to the door, began to hum a tune, and Kenneth caught the words "En avant!" He whipped up the horses, big Flemish beasts that were evidently unaccustomed to go above a walking pace, and the heavy vehicle lumbered away. "Why did you want me to hurry?" asked Kenneth, when they were some distance along the road. "Because that fellow was standing at the door watching us," Pariset replied. "I wonder if he is suspicious?" "I shouldn’t think so. You played your part quite naturally. But we are right, Remi: that’s the fellow I saw with Hellwig." "Ah!" was all that Pariset said then. CHAPTER VII--A HORNET’S NEST "I am not at all happy about this," said Pariset, after a brief silence. "We haven’t learnt very much, certainly," said Kenneth. "I don’t mean that. We have learnt enough if that is your man. But I see no means of preventing the destruction of the bridge." "We might fly to Charleroi and send a squadron of lancers back. There are only five men to deal with, apparently." "That’s not the difficulty. The point is that at the first sign of molestation they would fire the mine. You may depend upon it that they are picked men, with resolution enough to do their job, even at the cost of their lives. It would not be much use to capture them after the mischief was already done." "The mine is to be fired on receipt of a marconigram." "You didn’t tell me that. It may happen at any minute, then. They must have wireless rigged up in the mill-house. We might have cut a wire, but with wireless we are helpless." "Unless we could get into the mill," Kenneth suggested. "Ah, if we could! But there’s no chance of it. The fellow is on the qui vive: I don’t like the way he looked after us." "Wouldn’t the old miller, as the landlord, have a right to go in?"