Page 115 - A Hero of Liége

"It did not look like that, Herr Captain. I walked over to see. But I could not
guess what it was, for it was covered all over with tarpaulin."

"Lend me a horse; I'll ride over. Perhaps there's some petrol in the baggage

train."

"I am sorry, Herr Captain; all the horses are taken."

"I must walk then. This boy can come and show me the way, and carry

back the petrol."

"Surely, mein Herr."

"Keep a look-out, will you? If you see any one approaching, warn the Herr

Lieutenant. There may be spies about."

He set off behind the boy. The causeway, he remembered, ran beside the

little river Roer, that fell into the Meuse farther west at Roermond. He
needed no guide, and indeed did not intend to go right up to the scene of the

breakdown; but the boy was useful as a cloak to his real design.

Half an hour's walk across the fields brought him to a hayrick something

less than a mile from the spot.

"I ought to be able to get a view from the top of that," he thought.

Bidding the boy wait below, he climbed a ladder set against the side of the

rick, raised his field-glasses to his eyes, and adjusted the focus. Meanwhile
two old farm labourers had slouched across the field and asked a question

of the boy, which he answered in a word.

Kenneth had reason to congratulate himself on having gone no farther.

Between him and the causeway a half-troop of cavalry had off saddled, and
were smoking near the broken traction engine, which had apparently

swerved over the edge, and completely blocked the road. Behind it were
two huge lorries, carrying between them a large mass of indefinite shape