Page 140 - A Hero of Liége

discontented Uhlans, who uttered guttural exclamations of pleasure when
the girl Katrinka gave the message with which Pariset had primed her.

Behind them slouched the wagoner, lifting his bottle to his lips with
ostentatious enjoyment. Within the shadow of the door Pariset and Kenneth

stood with levelled rifles, their eyes fixed on the scene in front, their ears
alert for sounds in the rear.

The women had given the Uhlans a bottle each. The good wife had a
second in reserve. Turning their backs upon the prisoners, the guard broke

the necks of the bottles, and drank with great gulps. Unnoticed, the
wagoner slipped round behind them, cut the cords that bound the nearest
prisoner, handed him the knife, and edged towards the Uhlans, still taking

pulls at his bottle.

Five of the prisoners had been released by their companion before one of
the guards, half-turning, noticed a commotion within the pens, and at a
second glance saw with amazement what was happening. Dropping his

bottle with a furious oath, he seized his rifle, but before it reached his
shoulder the wagoner swung his uncorked bottle with all his force and

broke it on the Uhlan's head, stretching him on the ground in a crimson
pool of wine. He caught the man's rifle as it fell, and bayoneted the second
German, who had turned at his comrade's cry. The third, evading a blow

aimed at him with her bottle by the sturdy housewife, shouted for help, and
was lifting his rifle when it was wrenched from his hands by the villager

who had been first released, and he fell beside the others, stunned by a
blow from the butt end.

Kenneth and Pariset, who had followed every movement with breathless
anxiety, felt that the party outside would give no trouble for a time, at any

rate. They turned sharply round on hearing a commotion from the inner
room, where the guzzling Uhlans had heard, through their own noise, the
shout from the farmyard. Jumping to their feet, they crowded towards the

rifles in the corner, and had just discovered that the weapons would not go
round, when the door was thrown open, and they saw standing in the

doorway two German officers.