Page 71 - A Hero of Liége

"And the wall goes all round?"

"Yes, right down to the stream on each side, and along the bank, except
where the wheel juts out into the waterway. The old wheel is dropping to

pieces; it hasn't been used these twenty years."

"Couldn't we get in that way?"

"Ma foi! That's an idea, now. Many's the time I got in that way as a boy,

when the wheel was stopped--just a boy's devilry, you understand. You
could get in that way yet, if the woodwork isn't too rotten to bear your
weight. You would have to wade the stream, but that isn't deep or swift

except in winter. Old as I be I'll show you the way myself."

"We could get in without being heard?"

"To be sure, if the woodwork doesn't crack and give way. The kitchen is the

nearest room; old Jules, the handy man, is as deaf as a post, and his wife,
who does the cooking, isn't much better."

"And where is the entrance to the underground passages?"

"To the left of the kitchen, in the floor of the hoist."

As the miller answered his questions, Pariset sketched a rough plan of the
building.

"Is that something like it?" he asked, handing the paper over.

The old man put on his spectacles deliberately, and examined the sketch.

"Near enough," he said. "Ma foi! But I couldn't have done that myself."

"Now the question is, when shall we try to get in?" asked Pariset. "The best

time would be when the men are having a meal. The Germans take their
meals seriously; if they are ever to be caught off their guard it is when they