army, armed, and they joined the soldiers in barracks. The
younger boys, between thirteen and sixteen, were letter-carriers,
messengers in the different ministries, or orderlies in the hospitals
that were immediately organised. Those who could drive automobiles
were given that to do.

Others of the older boys, having been well trained in scouting, were
set to watch points of importance, or given carbines and attached to
the civic guard. During the siege of Liege between forty and fifty boy
scouts were constantly employed carrying food and ammunition to the
beleaguered troops.

The Germans finally realised that every boy scout was a potential spy,
working for his country. The uniform itself then became a menace,
since boys wearing it were frequently shot. The boys abandoned it, the
older ones assuming the Belgian uniform and the younger ones returning
to civilian dress. But although, in the chaos that followed the
invasion and particularly the fall of Liege, they were virtually
disbanded, they continued their work as spies, as dispatch riders, as
stretcher-bearers.

There are still nine boy scouts with the famous Ninth Regiment, which
has been decorated by the king.

One boy scout captured, single-handed, two German officers. Somewhere
or other he had got a revolver, and with it was patrolling a road. The
officers were lost and searching for their regiments. As they stepped
out of a wood the boy confronted them, with his revolver levelled.
This happened near Liege.

Trust a boy to use his wits in emergency! Here is another lad, aged
fifteen, who found himself in Liege after its surrender, and who
wanted to get back to the Belgian Army. He offered his services as
stretcher-bearer in the German Army, and was given a German Red Cross
pass. Armed with this pass he left Liege, passed successfully many
sentries, and at last got to Antwerp by a circuitous route. On the way
he found a dead German and, being only a small boy after all, he took
off the dead man's stained uniform and bore it in his arms into
Antwerp!

There is no use explaining about that uniform. If you do not know boys
you will never understand. If you do, it requires no explanation.

Here is a fourteen-year-old lad, intrusted with a message of the
utmost importance for military headquarters in Antwerp. He left
Brussels in civilian clothing, but he had neglected to take off his
boy scout shirt--boy-fashion! The Germans captured him and stripped
him, and