"Liege fallen!" gasped both mother and daughter. "Yes. It seems that several days ago the Germans brought up some big Krupp howitzers, the secret of which has been so admirably kept, and--"
"Why do you say so admirably, M"sieur Rigaux?" interrupted Aimee quickly. "Such words would make it appear that you admire the Germans."
The man started. His eyes narrowed, and his face a.s.sumed a sinister look. But only for a second. He saw the slip he had made, and hastily corrected it.
"My dear Mademoiselle," he laughed. "Surely you cannot suspect me of pro-German sympathies? I hate the Kaiser, and all his abominable works.
I used the words `admirably kept" because in Germany they really know how to keep a secret. They are not like the English, for example, who will show any foreigner of distinction over their latest Dreadnoughts, or their strongest defences."
"Well, the tone in which you spoke was certainly as though you entertained pro-German tendencies," said the girl frankly, adding "but what about these wonderful guns?"
"Ah! Mademoiselle. They are wonderful, alas! As soon as they got these fearful engines of destruction into position they simply pulverised the forts. Poor General Leman was taken out of the ruins, unconscious, and is now a prisoner in Germany."
"Leman a prisoner?" gasped the Baron. "Why, it was only a month ago that he dined here with us."
"Poor fellow!" exclaimed the Baroness. "But why was he unconscious?"
"Owing to the deadly fumes from the explosion. One of the big sh.e.l.ls from the German howitzer penetrated to the magazine, and it blew up."
"Ah! But Leman did not surrender."
"Certainly not," said Rigaux, who was, in secret, very well informed of all that was in progress along the front. His wireless--worked by a German naval wireless operator who lived in seclusion in his house at Brussels--had, for days been picking up all the official messages, the operator having in his pocket the key to the war-cipher.
Not a move on land or on sea on the part of the Germans but was known at once to Arnaud Rigaux, who daily handed to the fair-haired young operator a brief report of what was in progress in Brussels. This the young man reduced to code and transmitted it, after having called up the German station at Nauen. Other stations heard it, but the message being in a code specially supplied for the purpose, it conveyed to them no meaning.
Arnaud Rigaux, the most clever and most dangerous spy which Germany possessed on Belgian soil, was, because of his high position as a financier, still unsuspected.
From his manner the Baron could see that his friend had come out from Brussels hastily, in order to tell him something which he hesitated to do in the presence of the ladies.
"So an advance is really being made towards Brussels and the Government has moved to Antwerp?" Aimee asked anxiously. "The papers are so vague about it all."
"I fear that is so," was Rigaux"s reply. "It seems, too, that the British are moving uncommonly slowly. They have not yet, it is said, embarked their expeditionary force, as we fully expected they would have done days ago."
"The British, if they move slowly, always move very surely," was the girl"s reply. "I was at school in England, you know, and I am quite aware of their slowness."
"It is fatal in war, Mademoiselle. Why are they not here to help us-- eh? We have relied upon them."
"They will be here soon, and when they come they will give a good account of themselves, never fear. They are tried soldiers. The Germans have never seen a modern war. They are only swaggerers."
"True. But they are at least scientific in their campaign. The English are not."
"Well, Arnaud, if you continue to talk like that I shall begin to agree with Aimee, and accuse you of taking the German side," laughed her father.
"_Diable_! I hate them too much. Look what I have lost--what I stand to further lose--eh?" protested the thin-faced man, with a quick gesture of the hands. "All I hope is that the English army will be in Belgium before the enemy enters Brussels."
"But the French," suggested the Baron. "What are they doing? One hears so very little of General Joffre and his army!"
"Ah! he, too, is moving slowly. At Verdun, and along the line of Alsace-Lorraine, there has been some fierce fighting, I hear."
"How do you know?" asked the girl.
"By the papers."
"But the papers have published no reports," she said in surprise. "What journal has given the news? We have them all, and I read them very carefully."
Again Rigaux was, for a second, nonplussed.
"Oh! I think it was in the Antwerp _Matin_--the day before yesterday-- if I recollect aright."
The truth was that he had heard it over his secret wireless only that morning.
"Who won?"
"Unfortunately, the Germans."
"Ah!" sighed the girl. "It is always so. When shall we ever have a victory?"
"Who knows, Mademoiselle? Let us hope it will be very soon. Belgium will never be crushed."
"Not so long as a single man remains alive who can carry a gun,"
declared the Baron fiercely. "I wish I were younger. I"d go to the front at once and do my share."
"As Edmond Valentin has gone," Aimee remarked, more in order to spite Arnaud Rigaux than anything else.
In a second the spy"s face was wreathed in smiles.
"Ah, how is M"sieur Valentin? where is he, Mademoiselle?" he inquired.
"He is with the Eighth Cha.s.seurs-a-pied, somewhere near Liege."
"He is not near Liege now," their visitor said. "The whole country, up to Louvain, is now held by the enemy. His brigade has, I expect, been thrown back to somewhere near Brussels--unless, of course, it has come south, towards Namur."
In an instant the girl was eager and anxious. Namur, with its great forts, believed to be impregnable, was only a few miles away.
"Would they come across in this direction, do you think?" she asked eagerly.
"Certainly. If they were in the Meuse Valley they might follow it up towards Huy, and onward."
"But there has been no sign of the enemy along there."
"There will be soon, I fear, Mademoiselle. We are not sufficiently strong to keep them back."
As a matter of fact, he knew that Uhlan patrols were in the woods within fifteen miles of them, and that very soon the whole Meuse Valley would probably run with blood. The Potsdam plan of campaign was to sweep every part of Belgium, from the frontier to the sea, with the fire of war.
"What shall we do if they come?" asked the pale-faced girl, dismayed.
"Is it best to stay here?"
"I believe so. You are far safer here in your chateau than in Brussels."
"But what will happen to us?"