"Ah! Of course. And they will not let anyone leave the town to give the soldiers information of their coming?" "No, Monsieur. They are making a special effort this time. They have caught one or two, but the rest seem to grow in numbers, and are getting more audacious owing to hunger. I have heard that they stopped and plundered two army wagons full of provisions only a week ago. It is this that has made the commandant at Marche determined to kill them all this time." "Well, I think we will dress, in case they come here and want to search the house." "You must not hide here, Monsieur, if that is what you want," replied the innkeeper quickly. "I could not have that, for if they found anyone in hiding they would burn the house down." "What for?" asked Max in some astonishment. "I know not, but they have done so. No doubt it is to make us all afraid of harbouring fugitives. But you are a Belgian, Monsieur? You speak like a Walloon." "Aye; but I do not want to have aught to do with Uhlans if I can help it. They so often make mistakes, and then it is too late to explain. I think we will leave your house, Monsieur, and then you will run no risks." Max called Dale, and they put together their very slender belongings and sallied out into the night. The innkeeper was certainly pleased to see them go, and gave them as much help in the shape of information as it was in his power to bestow. He told them, with a warning to them to be careful to avoid the locality, the general position of the fugitive soldiers and the villages in which cavalry patrols had lately taken up their positions. "It seems to me, Dale," remarked Max, as they left the inn and crept along in the shadow of the houses towards the little bridge which spanned the Ourthe, "that in leaving Liege we have jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire. There we could hide in the lower quarters of the town and pass as Walloon workmen easily enough, but here we are strangers, and strangers are always objects of suspicion." "Yes; we did not bargain for all this chasing around by German cavalry. However, it will be good fun while it lasts, old man." "Yes, but how long will it last? Here's the bridge. We can't cross it in this moonlight; we should be sure to be seen and challenged. We must get into the river and cross in the shadow of the bridge." "What's the game, Max? Why cross at all? Why not cut straight away into the open country?" "Wrong direction. The innkeeper was so careful that we should get away from the district on which the Uhlans were closing in that he told me exactly where it was. And that's where we are going, of course. We can't let these Germans make a grand sweep of English and French fugitive soldiers without at least giving them warning, can we, old man?" "You beggar!" cried Dale, with a note of admiration in his voice. "No, of course not. Won't it be jolly if we find some English soldiers, and manage to pilot them away to a safe place?"