"You will proceed with the dispatch to the officer commanding the outpost at Lierre," ordered Major Planchenoît. "This done, go on to Vremde. There you will find a detachment of the regiment. This packet is for the company officer. This done, proceed to the city, seek Commandant Fleurus, and deliver this dispatch. Await further instructions from him, and report to me." Kenneth and Rollo saluted, and hastened to the shed where their motor-cycles were stored. As they were giving them a final overhaul, Private Labori--formerly a diamond merchant and now a dispatch-rider--hailed them. "Are you going into the city, camarades? You are? Good! Bring me some cigars, and I will be eternally indebted to you. I smoked my last yesterday, and without cigars I am as a man doomed to perdition. Of your charity, camarades, do me this favour." Private Labori pressed a ten-franc piece into Kenneth's hand, and with a hurried expression of gratitude returned to his task of peeling potatoes for the midday meal. "He's taken it for granted that we get the cigars," remarked Kenneth. "I suppose it would not be a breach of discipline to get them." "Almost like old times," declared Rollo, as the riders sped side by side over the tree-lined road. "Pity we haven't our own motor-bikes, though." He spoke with the same sort of affection as the huntsman has for his favourite horse, but Kenneth was more practical and unimaginative. "We're lucky to be riding at all," he said. "After all, this jigger gets along pretty well. We're doing a good twenty-five." The three dispatches were delivered in quick time. Commandant Fleurus greeted the lads warmly, and questioned them at great length on the subject of their adventures. "It is not possible to give you a reply at once," he said at the close of the interview. "Come back at three o'clock, and the dispatch for Major Planchenoît will be handed you. Meanwhile it will not be necessary for you to return to Wavre Ste Catherine. You are at liberty to amuse yourselves until the hour named." "Jolly considerate of him," remarked Kenneth after the lads had withdrawn from the Commandant's presence. "We'll put up the bikes and have a stroll round. It wouldn't be half a bad idea to call at the post office. There may be something for us, but we had better not reckon too much on it." They were not disappointed, for on making application at the post office they were each handed quite a bulky packet of correspondence. There were letters from their respective parents and relatives, and a number from old school chums. These had been written when a part of their adventures in Belgium had been related by their proud parents to the head of St. Cyprian's. He, in turn, had passed on the news to the rest of the school, and the result was a swarm of congratulatory letters, sent to Mr. Everest and Colonel Harrington, who, upon receiving news of their sons' safety, had promptly forwarded the batch of correspondence.