Page 143 - A Hero of Liége

Pariset bandaged his head again; then they started, Kenneth riding ahead,
the captive Uhlans between him and Pariset.

They were under no illusion as to the danger they were incurring. If they

should meet any considerable body of Germans, a word from one of the
prisoners would be their undoing. But what with the rain and the approach
of darkness they hoped to avoid any such contretemps. The direction of

their march was westward, their intention being to approach Liege from the
south-west. So far as they knew the Germans had not pushed their way in

force farther west than Stoumont, so that they were unlikely to encounter
anything more serious than patrols and outposts. Such were formidable
enough.

Marching across fields, by by-ways, through woods, they arrived by

nightfall in the neighbourhood of the river Ourthe. Some few miles beyond
that river they believed that the French army was in line. As they were
passing a cluster of cottages a voice in German called upon them to halt.

Pariset moved up to the front of the prisoners, and pointing his revolver
threatened to shoot if any man spoke a word. Kenneth meanwhile,

answering in German, had ridden a few paces ahead, and explained to the
sentry who had challenged that he was escorting some Belgian civilians as
prisoners to Erezee, and asked in his turn for news. To his surprise and

alarm he learnt that the Germans were in force a few miles to the south, and
expected next day to force the passage of the Ourthe. At the hamlet at

which he had arrived a small infantry outpost had quartered itself that
afternoon.

Getting from the sentry the direction of Erezee, he rode back and led the
party away from the hamlet to the south-west.

"That was a near thing, Remi," he said. "We shall never be able to get these
fellows to our own lines."

"Pity we didn't let the farmer's men shoot them," returned Pariset. "They'll

be our ruin."