"Thoroughly in earnest. We know where we shall be at every hour of every day. There are at present living in France many Germans who are reservists in our army. Not one of these has been required to return to Germany. On the contrary, each of them has been instructed to report at a point near his place of residence at a certain hour of a certain day, where he will find his regiment awaiting him. For example, all German reservists living at Lille, or in the neighborhood, will report at noon of Wednesday next in the Place de la République in front of the prefecture, where the German administration will have been installed during the morning." Stewart opened his lips to say something, but no words came. He felt intimidated and overborne. But it was not at Stewart the officer was looking so triumphantly, it was at the girl. Perhaps he also, yielding to a subtle fascination, was telling things he had no right to tell in order to prove his importance! The girl returned his gaze with a look of astonishment and admiration. "How wonderful!" she breathed. "And it is really true?" "True in every detail, madame." "But this Lille of which you have spoken--is it a fortress?" "A great fortress, madame." "Will it not resist?" "Not for long--perhaps not at all. If it does resist, it will fall like a house of cards. The whole world will be astonished, madame, when it learns the details of that action. We have a great surprise in store for our enemies!" Stewart, glancing at his companion, noted with alarm the flash of excitement in her eyes. Would she push her questioning too far--would she be indiscreet; but the next instant he was reassured. "It is most fascinating,--this puzzle!" she laughed. "I shall watch the papers for the fall of Lille. But I am very ignorant--I do not even know where Lille is." "It is in the northwest corner of France, madame, just south of the Belgian frontier." The girl looked at him perplexedly. "But how can you reach it," she asked, slowly, "without crossing Belgium?" "We cannot reach it without crossing Belgium." From the expression of her face, she might have been a child shyly interrogating an indulgent senior. "I know I am stupid," she faltered, "but it seems to me I have read somewhere--perhaps in Baedeker--that all the Powers had agreed that Belgium should always be a neutral country." "So they did--Germany as well as the others. But such agreements are mere scraps of paper. The first blast of war blows them away. France has built along her eastern border a great chain of forts which are almost impregnable. Therefore it is necessary for us to strike her from the north through Belgium. Regretfully, but none the less firmly, we have warned Belgium to stand aside." "Will she stand aside?" The officer shrugged his shoulders.