CHAPTER III

Major Resimont

"I vote we get off this main road with its wretched _pave_," exclaimed Rollo prior to resuming their ride on the following day. "There's a road shown on the map which ought to be a jolly sight better. At any rate we'll miss most of the heavy traffic."

"Right-o," assented Kenneth; "anything so long as we can have a speed-burst. I'm tired of crawling along at ten miles an hour."

The road, which turned out to be little better than a cart-track, led a considerable distance from the left bank of the Meuse, and with the exception of an occasional farm wagon laden with hay, very little traffic was met with.

At the end of an hour's steady riding, the lads found themselves at the junction of two forked roads, where, contrary to the usual custom, there was no signpost to indicate the direction. On either side was a steep bank.

"Now, which way?" asked Rollo. "Neither of the roads looks particularly inviting."

"It's one of the sunken roads of Belgium, I suppose," said Kenneth. "We'll climb up this bank. Perhaps we shall be able to see where we are. It will be awkward for our bikes if a motor-car comes tearing along."

The incline was nearly fifteen feet in height and fairly steep. When the lads reached the summit they found, to their surprise, that they were on a slightly undulating grass field liberally guarded with barbed wire. About four hundred yards off was a rounded hillock. Even as the two looked they saw a huge cylindrical turret, from which projected the muzzle of a large gun, rise from the ground. For a few seconds the giant weapon moved horizontally and vertically, as if seeking a target, then as swiftly as it had appeared it disappeared into the ground.

"I say, we've stumbled across one of the frontier forts," exclaimed Kenneth. "Let's go a bit closer and have a look. I'd like to find out how they work."

"Thanks, I'm not having any," objected Rollo. "There's too much barbed wire knocking about. Besides, there are our bikes."

"We needn't wriggle under the wire, this road on our right evidently leads to the fort. We'll get a bit closer; but hold on a minute, we'll see if that gun pops up again."

They waited for at least five minutes, but without the expected result. As they turned to retrace their steps, they were confronted by a tall Belgian soldier wearing the blue uniform of the artillery.

"C'est defendu: marchez!" he ordered sternly.

"All right, monsieur," replied Kenneth. "We've lost our way. Which is the Liege road?"

"You are foreigners," exclaimed the soldier, bringing his bayonet to the "ready".

"Yes, English."

"You must come with me."

"We have motor-bicycles."

"No matter. They will be attended to. Forward!"

Realizing the uselessness of attempting to argue the point the lads obeyed, the soldier following three paces in the rear with his rifle and bayonet at the slope.

After covering a distance of about a hundred yards between the edge of the barbed-wire entanglements and the dip formed by the sunken road, the arrested lads found themselves in the presence of a corporal and a file of men.

"You must be taken before the major. I am sorry, but these are my orders," declared the corporal civilly, after ascertaining that the two chums were English. "No doubt you will be permitted to go with but little delay."

"Will our motor-bicycles be all right?" asked Rollo anxiously. "We left them a little way down the lane."

"I will send a man to look after them," was the reply. "We must take you into Fort Loncine, and you must be blindfolded. These are my orders whenever we find strangers in the vicinity of the defences."

"Very well," replied Kenneth with as good a grace as he could command, at the same time producing his handkerchief.

Guided by soldiers, the two blindfolded youths were led into the fort. Kenneth kept count of the number of paces before crossing the drawbridge; they totalled four hundred and eighty-five, which, allowing thirty inches for his long stride, meant that the glacis, or level grassy ground surrounding the fort, was a little over four hundred yards in breadth.

When the handkerchiefs were removed from their eyes the lads found themselves in a large vaulted room lighted by electricity. On three sides were several low-arched doorways, on the fourth a fairly broad gateway through which they had been brought. Although it was impossible to see straight into the open air, a distant glimpse of diffused daylight showed that this entrance communicated either with the glacis or else an enclosed portion of the fort that was exposed to the rays of the sun.

Seated on benches or lolling against the walls were quite a hundred soldiers, yet the place was by no means crowded. Beyond looking with evident curiosity at the two lads under arrest, they took no further interest in them.

Presently a sergeant approached and questioned the guards concerning their prisoners.

"English? Perhaps they are sent ... but, no; they are but youths. Bring them along. I will inform Major Resimont."

The sergeant knocked at one of the doors, and in reply to a muffled "Entrez!" he passed through. The lads noticed that the door was of steel, and required considerable effort on the part of the non-commissioned officer to open it.

"Englishmen found in the vicinity of the fort, mon major," announced the sergeant, saluting and standing stiffly at attention.

"Let them enter. Ah, my young friends, this, then, is the manner in which you come to Liege?"

The two chums could well express astonishment, for their questioner was none other than the officer who in Namur had advised them to abandon their proposed visit to the Birmingham of Belgium.

"Well, what have you to say?" proceeded the major.

"We lost our way and scrambled on to the bank to see where we were. We happened to catch sight of one of the guns, with disappearing mountings, and we were curious to see what happened," replied Kenneth.

"Your curiosity might lead you into trouble," said the Belgian officer gravely. "How am I to know that you are not German spies?"

Kenneth bridled indignantly.

"We give you our word that we are not."

"Your word will hardly do, monsieur, at a time like this. Can you produce proofs? Have you anyone in the district who can identify you?"

The lads produced their permits.

"This will hardly do," continued the major as he scanned Kenneth's document. "These are only too easy to obtain. Ha! Your name is Barrington?" he asked, turning to the owner of that patronymic.

"Yes, sir," replied Rollo. "My father is a retired colonel in the British army."

"His Christian name?"

Rollo told him.

"Then I know your father; not intimately, perhaps, yet I am acquainted with him. I met him at your great manoeuvres at Aldershot, to which I was sent as attache in 1904. But, tell me, why are you both so anxious to go to Liege?"

"My sister is at a boarding-school near Vise," replied Kenneth. "I want to see her, as she is not returning home for the holidays."

"She is at the institution of Madame de la Barre?"

"Yes, sir; how did you know that?" asked Kenneth eagerly.

"I have the pleasure of Mademoiselle Everest's acquaintance," replied the major with a deep bow. "In fact, she is a great friend of my daughter, Yvonne. You are free to depart, messieurs, but perhaps you will do me a favour. Convey my compliments to Madame de la Barre, and say that it is advisable that she should remove her school from Vise as soon as possible. Should you find it inconvenient to take your sister to England, please inform her that she may find a temporary home with Yvonne at my house in the Rue de la Tribune in Brussels."

"That we will gladly do, and let you know the result."

Major Resimont smiled.

"My duty prevents me from being my own messenger," he said. "I was on the point of sending one of my men with a letter, but you will, according to your English proverb, kill two birds with one stone. To-night, if you wish to see me, I hope to be at the Cafe Royal, in the Rue Breidel at Liege, from eight till eleven. Will you, before you depart, honour me by taking a glass of wine?"

"What do you think of the situation, sir?" asked Rollo.

Major Resimont shook his head.

"Serious," he said solemnly. "At any moment these pigs of Prussians may cross the frontier. Only one thing will hold them back: the fear of your English fleet. You are fortunate, you English, in having the sea around your country, yet I think you do not give sufficient thought towards the significance of the fact."

"But Great Britain has not declared war on Germany."

"No, not yet, but perhaps soon. Your country would do incalculable service to France and Belgium simply by holding the sea; yet in addition she has generously pledged herself to send almost the whole of her army to Belgium if the Germans attack us. Then the rest will be a question of time. We in Liege will do our utmost to keep the invaders at bay until your brave army arrives. Then, with the French, to say nothing of the Russians on the east, Germany will be assailed and conquered, and the vile spectre of Teutonic militarism will be for ever laid low."

The Belgian major spoke with conviction. His earnestness in the hope of British aid was intense.

"And we are ready," continued the major. "Already the bridges across the Meuse are mined; our armoured forts will defy the heaviest of the German artillery. We will keep the Germans at bay for a month if need be. Meanwhile you two messieurs journey through Belgium as calmly as if you were on an English country road. You English are brave, but you are enigmas. But take this and show it if you are challenged," and he wrote out a pass on an official form.

The major accompanied his involuntary guests as far as the edge of the glacis. This time they were not blindfolded; yet there was very little to be seen, except to the practised eye of a trained man. There were mountings for quick-firing guns, and just discernible above the turf the rounded tops of the steel cupolas. Beyond that the fort looked nothing more than an earthworked enclosure.

Somewhat to the lads' astonishment they found their motor-cycles placed on a trolley. The Belgian soldiers, not understanding the action of the exhaust lever, had been unable to wheel the heavy mounts; and since their orders had to be obeyed, they had first resorted to the toilsome task of carrying the mounts. This, owing to the heat of the day and the thickness of their clothing, was eventually abandoned, and a trolley procured.

"You have a clear road," announced Major Resimont. "When you re-enter the lane, keep to the left; that will bring you speedily upon the highway. Au revoir, messieurs!"

Somewhat to the wonderment of the Belgian soldiers, who could not understand how the unwieldy machines could be moved by manual power, the lads took a running start. Both engines fired easily, and soon the tourists were speeding along through the outskirts of the city of Liege.