The two men walked silently some little space, each following the trend of his own ideas, until, where the road branched off to Chénée, two men joined them. "Have you any late news?" the master asked. "The Ninth Regiment has been ordered forward between Fléron and Chaudfontaine," said the older of the newcomers, "and the Fourteenth is to be sent here, to cover Embourg and Boncelles." "And you--where do you go?" "To report," the stranger answered; "there will be work enough for us all to do." "Have you any idea of what numbers we will have to face?" The other shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe one army corps, maybe two--maybe all Germany. Who knows?" Darkness closed down upon Liége, the darkness of that August Fourth, such as even that ancient city had never known, a somber pall of shadow pierced with vivid streaks from the flaming fortress guns. Powerful searchlights hunted the countryside with their malevolent eyes. Death screamed and screeched in the trees. The horrible and cruel work of war hid its unloveliness that first night in the shelter of the woods surrounding the eastern forts of Liége. The four men soon reached military headquarters. Already casualty cases had begun to arrive and Dr. Mallorbes was promptly assigned to one of the hospitals. The two reservists from Chénée were sent to the shallow trenches defending the approaches to Fort Chaudfontaine, and, at his earnest request, the master was allowed to join his battery at Boncelles. When, however, the master found himself actually in the fort and under military discipline, much of his pessimism passed away. He fell, naturally, into the fatalism of the soldier, and, as he remarked the extraordinarily powerful machinery and defenses of the fort, said to his neighbor, "They're counting on our not being ready. But everything here seems up to the minute!" His fellow-gunner, also an old reservist who had served with the battery before, chuckled as he answered, "Our silent general has fooled them. General Leman has reached here with the Third Division." "But the Third was at Diest, eighty miles away, the day before yesterday!" exclaimed the master. "It is here now, and taking up positions. And the Germans, for all their spies, don't know it. They'll try to rush the forts to-morrow, expecting to find them lightly held, and then we'll pepper them finely." "How many men does that give us here at Liége?" the master asked. "About twenty-two thousand." "And the Germans?" "Three army corps, probably; a hundred thousand men, at least,[4] and as many more as they like to bring." "And all confident of breaking through?" "Quite," said the other, nodding. "There was a young German officer captured yesterday at Visé who jeered at the mere idea of our daring to oppose them.