admitted that our
pass was good. All the time he talked with us, and told us of the
skirmishing ahead, he kept waving that large blunderbuss in our faces. I
tried a little humour on him by saying, as nearly as the unwieldy
structure of the German tongue would permit: "Please point that thing
the other way; you can never tell when it may go off and hurt somebody."
He was quite solemn about it, however, and assured us that he had
perfect control over it, emphasising his remarks by shaking it under our
noses. I was glad to get out of his range, for I verily believe that if
somebody had shouted _boo!_ he would have let that gun off with a bang.

The German officers we talked with from time to time said that the
Belgians were advancing, and that several skirmishes had taken place;
that a big engagement was expected during the night or in the morning.
We passed the last of the German outposts about two miles this side of
Malines, but for fear we might tell on them, they would not tell us
whether we had any more of their kind ahead of us. We shot along through
the open country, between the last Germans and the edge of Malines, at a
fairly good rate, and kept a lookout for the English flag, which we had
been given to understand was flying from the tower of the Cathedral.
That is what we had been given to understand in Brussels, but along the
road they were very noncommittal about the whereabouts of the British
troops. When we finally did get a clear view of the Cathedral spires, we
saw the Belgian flag standing straight out in the good breeze that was
blowing, and while that showed that the English troops had not taken
over the place, it at least convinced us that the Germans were behind
us; As we drove through the little suburb on this side of the canal
which runs through the edge of the town, we found that all the houses
were battened up tight. One lone man, who came out from a little cafe,
told us that the Germans had been through about fifteen minutes before,
and had shot up the town, until they were driven off by a small force of
Belgian cavalry which had appeared from nowhere and had as quickly gone
back to the same place. Not knowing what forces were ready to start in
again on short notice, all the inhabitants who were fortunate enough to
have cellars were hiding in them, and the rest were trying to get into
town as best they could, leaving their belongings.

When we reached the canal, we found that the drawbridge had be