ect."
The officer hesitated. The _maire_ looked out on the _place_; it was
full of armed men, but he did not flinch. "You see, monsieur," he went
on suavely, "there are such things as receipts, and they have to be
authenticated." The officer turned his back on him, took out his field
note-book, scribbled something on a page, and, having torn it out,
handed it to one of his men with a curt instruction.

The _maire_ resumed his dictation to the hypnotised clerk, while the
officer sat astride a chair and executed an impatient _pas seul_ with
his heels upon the parquet floor. Once or twice he spat demonstratively,
but the _maire_ took no notice. In a few minutes the soldier returned
with a written order, which the officer threw upon the desk without a
word.

The _maire_ scrutinised it carefully. "Ten thousand kilos of bread!
Monsieur, we provide five thousand a day for the refugees, and this will
tax us to the uttermost. The bakers of the town are nearly all _sous les
drapeaux_. Very well, monsieur," he added in reply to an impatient
exclamation from the officer, "we shall do our best. But many a poor
soul in this town will go hungry to-night. And the receipts?" "The
requisitioning officer will go with you and give receipts," retorted the
officer, who had apparently forgotten that he had placed the _maire_
under arrest.

* * * * *

Subdued lights twinkled like glow-worms in the streets as the _maire_
returned across the square to the Hotel de Ville. He threaded his way
through groups of infantry, narrowly escaped a collision with three
drunken soldiers, who were singing "Die Wacht am Rhein" with laborious
unction, skirted the park of ammunition waggons, and reached the main
entrance. He had been on his feet for hours visiting the _boulangeries_,
the _patisseries_, the hay and corn merchants, persuading,
expostulating, beseeching, until at last he had wrung from their
exiguous stores the apportionment of the stupendous tribute. It was a
heavy task, nor were his importunities made appreciably easier by the
receipt-forms tendered, readily enough, by the requisitioning officer
who accompanied him, for the inhabitants seemed to view with terror the
possession of these German documents, suspecting they knew not what. But
the task was done, and the _maire_ wearily mounted the stairs.

The officer greeted him curtly. The _maire_ now had leisure to study his
appearance more closely. He had high c