Off they went with their living passport. The field hospital was established in the village school, and here the patient was turned over to a surgeon. As it happened, the latter recognised a friend, and was grateful. He sent an orderly with them to find the major in charge of the lines of communication, and they had not been in Argenteau five minutes before they were supplied with a _laisser passer_, in which they figured as Wilhelm Schultz, farmer, and wife, Clementine and Léontine, daughters, and the said daughters' fiancés, Pierre Dampier and Georges Lambert; residence Aubel; destination Andenne. There was not the least hitch in the matter. The major was, in his way, courteous. Joos gave his own Christian name as "Guillaume," but the German laughed. "You're a good citizen of the Fatherland now, my friend," he guffawed, "so we'll make it 'Wilhelm.' As for this pair of doves," and he eyed the two girls, "warn off any of our lads. Tell them that I, Major von Arnheim, said so. They're a warm lot where a pretty woman is concerned." Von Arnheim was a stout man, a not uncommon quality in German majors. Perhaps he wondered why Joos looked fixedly at the pit of his stomach. But a motor cyclist dashed up with a despatch, and he forgot all about "Schultz" and his family. As it happened, he was a man of some ability, and the hopeless block at Aix caused by the stubborn defence of Liège had brought about the summary dismissal of a General by the wrathful Kaiser. Hence, the Argenteau major was promoted and recalled to the base. His next in rank, summoned to the post an hour later, knew nothing of the _laisser passer_ granted to a party which closely resembled the much-wanted miller of Visé and his companions; he read an "urgent general order" for their arrest without the least suspicion that they had slipped through the net in that very place. Meanwhile these things were in the lap of the gods. For the moment, the six people were free, and actually under German protection. CHAPTER IX AN EXPOSITION OF GERMAN METHODS Three large and powerful automobiles stood at rest in the tiny square of Argenteau. Nearly every little town in Belgium and France possesses its _place_, the hub of social and business life, the centre where roads converge and markets are held. In the roadway, near the cars, were several officers, deep in conversation. "Look," murmured Irene to Dalroy, "the high-shouldered, broadly-built man, facing this way, is General von Emmich!" By this time Dalroy was acquainted with the name of the German commander-in-chief. He found a fleeting interest in watching him now, while Joos and the others loitered irresolutely on the pavement outside the improvised office of the _Kommandantur_.