for three days, as most of the vessels were being impressed into the cross channel service just then, heading for England.

Realizing that there was no help for it, Thad suggested that they give up the scheme of going by sea. That long delay was terrible to even think of, and Bumpus could never stand idling his time away when he wanted so much to be on the move.

It was thereupon decided that they seek the railway gare and board the first train that left for Paris. Of course this meant they would have to take great risks, for it could be understood that there was no telling what delays they were likely to face. Still, they had no choice in the matter, unless they chose to cross to London and take chances of being able to reach France in that roundabout way.

Shortly afterward they drove up to the railway gare and dismissed their driver. Here, as everywhere, they found things in the utmost confusion. Every uniformed man was being besieged by a score of wild-eyed persons all wanting to know how soon their train would start, and if there was any hope that it might reach the destination for which it was billed. They had the poor servants of the company almost frantic with trying to pacify them and be civil at the same time.

Thad went about the business in his customary cool, deliberate fashion. First, he learned that a train would actually start for Paris within the hour, though the official who gave him this information merely shrugged his shoulders in an eloquent way when asked whether there was any chance of its reaching the French capital.

Next Thad booked himself and three chums for the journey. They would have to share the third-class compartment with a number of other fugitives, all wild to shake the dust of Belgium off their shoes before those terrible Germans overran the whole country. This, however, did not bother the boys, for they were accustomed to camping out and taking things as they found them. A little crowding was to be expected under such remarkable conditions as prevailed at such a time as this. All of them said they could stand it if the other people were able to endure the crush.

When, later on, the signal was given for the heavily laden train to start, there were numerous persons who had not been able to find accommodations aboard. This came through the ever-growing desire to get away from the city which undoubtedly sooner or later would hear the crashing detonations of the monster mortars that had already smashed the steel-domed defenses of Liege and Namur.

“Well, this is what I call rushing things some,” observed Giraffe, as he looked out from the window near his elbow and saw that they were already leaving the environs of the Belgian seaport behind them. “It isn’t as much as two hours ago that we landed here expecting to pick up Bumpus’ mother and then take passage across the English Channel to London, yet here we are heading right into trouble again, and like as not with a good chance of seeing more fighting than fell to our share before.”

As the minutes continued to glide by and they kept going at a good pace the boys began to hope they might by great luck manage to get by the scene of hostilities without being held up. Bumpus looked at his little nickel watch ever so often. No doubt the time dragged with him as never before, for his faithful heart must be filled with misgivings concerning his sick mother.

Thad, always observing, saw how the boy was worrying, and he several times uttered words of cheer that were calculated to buoy the other’s hopes up more or less.

“Take courage, Bumpus,” he told him, “and look back at our record when you feel despondent. We have always managed, somehow or other, to accomplish whatever we set out to do, you’ll remember. No matter how difficult the task may have seemed, we have been highly favored by good fortune. And we’ll come through this time with colors flying.”

“I ought to be ashamed to let myself have a single doubt, Thad,” Bumpus frankly admitted, as he turned his eyes upon the leader in whom he had such implicit faith, “when right now I’ve got the backing of the best pards that ever donned the khaki. Yes, I’m going to shut my teeth hard together, and tell myself that we’ve got to get to Paris, no matter if a whole German army corps stands in the way.”

“Shucks! I should say so,” Giraffe hastened to remark, for he had been listening to all that went on in spite of the jabbering of other inmates of the compartment, mostly French people hastening back home. “And, say, a railway train isn’t the only means of travel in these enlightened days; there are cars, and even aeroplanes, if you must come to it; though it’d have to be a buster of a heavier-than-air machine that could tote Bumpus fifty miles across country, I reckon.”

They talked from time to time as they continued to progress over the low country that lies toward the border from Antwerp, where canals seemed to predominate; and the boys were often reminded of the Dutch lands that had been reclaimed from the sea by the erection of the great dikes to shut the water out of Flanders.

They knew that as the minutes passed they were undoubtedly drawing closer to that region where trouble would possibly be lying in wait for them, if it came about that they were fated to be held up on their journey to the French capital.

Hence every time the train slackened speed Bumpus would glue his eyes on the landscape as seen through the open window, just as if he more than half-expected to discover a horde of Uhlans, with their lances and pennons and prancing horses, waiting to take the fugitives into camp as prisoners.

Finally as the afternoon began to wear away they did come to a halt in a small town. Thad announced that he believed they must now be on the border between Belgium and France. Here, if anywhere, they ought to be able to learn what the immediate future held in store for them.

A guard unlocked the door of their carriage. Thad could see that the man was looking displeased, as he made gestures with his hand to indicate that they must all get out.

“Of course they mean to search us for prohibited articles, such as tobacco and spirits,” Allan went on to say, as they hastened to comply with the order.

“I hope that’s the extent of the trouble,” ventured the doubting Bumpus; “but I’m awfully afraid this means we’re going to find ourselves in the soup. I wish we could coax that fellow to give us a little information; try him, won’t you, Thad?”

There was only one way of making the guard talk, and Thad understood the value of a generous tip; so he managed to slip a coin in the willing palm of the uniformed man, and then asked him something.

Thad had picked up a little French and could manage to make himself understood. Then again the guard would readily guess just what each and every passenger aboard the detained train must be anxious about, for it concerned their chances of continuing the journey into France.

While their leader was holding this animated talk with the guard, supplemented on the part of the native with sundry expressive shrugs that spoke more eloquently than words, the other three boys stood near by, holding their luggage, and wondering what fortune had in store for them next. So many strange things had happened to the party since coming across the sea that they were rapidly getting to a point where nothing surprised them very much.

Presently Thad joined them. His face looked grave, and poor Bumpus groaned as he anticipated the worst.

“This train is going to be abandoned right here, boys,” Thad told them. “They had information that the Germans have overrun the country it must pass