"Oh, no; it is a part of the plan of the German General Staff. How many times have I heard Prussian officers boast that a war would cost Germany nothing--that her enemies would be made to bear the whole burden! It has all been arranged--the indemnity which each village, even the smallest, must pay--the amount of supplies which each must furnish, the ransom which will be assessed on each individual. This lieutenant of Uhlans is merely carrying out his instructions!" "Who is the old man?" "The burgomaster, doubtless. He and the priest are always the most influential men in a village." The conference was waxing warmer, the lieutenant was talking in a loud voice, and once he shook his fist menacingly; again there was a wail of protest from the crowd--women were wringing their hands---- "He is demanding more than the village can supply," remarked the girl. "That is not surprising," she added, with a bitter smile. "They will always demand more than can be supplied. But come; we must be getting on." Stewart would have liked to see the end of the drama, but he followed his companion over the wall at the side of the road, and then around the village and along the rough hillside. Suddenly from the houses below arose a hideous tumult--shouts, curses, the smashing of glass--and in a moment, a flood of people, wailing, screaming, shaking their fists in the air, burst from the town and swept along the road in the direction of Herve. "They would better have given all that was demanded," said the girl, looking down at them. "Now they will be made to serve as an example to other villages--they will lose everything--even their houses--see!" Following the direction of her pointing finger, Stewart saw a black cloud of smoke bulging up from one end of the village. "But surely," he gasped, "they're not burning it! They wouldn't dare do that!" "Why not?" "Isn't looting prohibited by the rules of war?" "Certainly--looting and the destruction of property of non-combatants." "Well, then----" But he stopped, staring helplessly. The cloud of smoke grew in volume, and below it could be seen red tongues of flame. There before him was the hideous reality--and he suddenly realized how futile it was to make laws for anything so essentially lawless as war, or to expect niceties of conduct from men thrown back into a state of barbarism. "What do the rules of war matter to a nation which considers treaties mere scraps of paper?" asked the girl, in a hard voice. "Their very presence here in Belgium is a violation of the rules of war. Besides, it is the German theory that war should be ruthless--that the enemy must be intimidated, ravaged, despoiled in every possible way. They say that the more merciless it is, the briefer it will be. It is possible that they are not altogether wrong." "True," muttered Stewart. "But it is a heartless theory."