Page 176 - A Hero of Liége

"Twenty-five or so."

"Are they riding fast?"

"No; at a walking pace."

"Then we will capture them. I will ride on to the road and keep my eye on

them. You hurry along the lane and tell our men to hurry. There is no time
to be lost."

Willing enough to do something, even at this last moment, for the common
cause, Kenneth and Pariset hurried along the lane. In the course of a quarter

of an hour they met the Chasseurs. Pariset gave the message, and on
explaining that he was a Belgian officer and knew the country well was

invited to mount behind the captain and act as guide. Kenneth sprang up
behind a trooper, and they set off at a trot, riding across the fields in order
not to be heard.

Presently they heard, in the distance, a revolver shot. Immediately

afterwards came the crack of carbines. Quickening their pace, they galloped
in the direction of the sounds, expecting to find that the scout had been
killed.

At Pariset's instructions, they rode in a north-westerly direction, so as to

strike the Waremme road some miles west of the spot where he and
Kenneth had seen the Uhlans. The firing continued; the sound of the single
revolver was clearly distinguishable from the reports of the carbines.

Wondering what was happening, they came suddenly upon a remarkable
scene.

Dawn was stealing over the country. At a turn of the road, the cyclist was
standing behind a tree, resting his revolver against the trunk. No one was in

sight at the moment, but just as the Chasseurs, who had now reduced their
pace to a walk, came up behind the cyclist, he fired his revolver at a Uhlan

who had edged round the corner.