y murdered a gentle, kind-hearted,
and inoffensive woman. But he could not demean himself by becoming an
executioner. Richly as the criminal deserved to be sent with his victim
to the bar of Eternal Justice, the Englishman decided to leave him to
the avengers coming through the town.

The shooting drew nearer. A number of women and children, with a few
men, appeared. They were running and screaming. The first batch fled
past; but an elderly dame, spent with even a brief flurry, halted for a
few seconds when she saw the group near the dog-team.

"Henri Joos!" she gasped. "And Leontine! What, in Heaven's name, are you
doing here?"

It was Madame Stauwaert, the Andenne cousin with whom they hoped to find
sanctuary.

The miller gazed at her in a curiously abstracted way. "Is that you,
Margot?" he said. "We were coming to you. But they have wounded Lise.
See! Here she is!"

Madame Stauwaert looked at the corpse as though she did not understand
at first. Then she burst out hysterically, "She's dead, Henri! They've
killed her! They're killing all of us! They pulled Alphonse out of the
house and stabbed him with a bayonet. They're firing through the
openings into the cellars and into the ground-floor rooms of every
house. If they see a face at a bedroom window they shoot. Two Germans,
so drunk that they could hardly stand, shot at me as I ran. Ah, dear
God!"

She swayed and sank in a faint. The flying crowd increased in numbers.
Some one shouted, "Fools! Be off, for your lives! Make for the
quarries."

Dalroy decided to take this unknown friend's advice. The terrified
people of Andenne had, at least, some definite goal in view, whereas he
had none. He lifted Madame Stauwaert and placed her beside the dead body
on the cart.

"Come," he said to Maertz, "get the dogs into a trot.--Leontine, look
after your father, and don't lose sight of us!"

He grasped Irene by the arm. The tiny vehicle was flat and narrow, and
he was so intent on preventing the unconscious woman from falling off
into the road that he did not miss Joos and his daughter until Irene
called on Maertz to stop. "Where are the others?" she cried. "We must
not desert them."

In the midst of a scattered mob came the laggards. Joos was not
hurrying at all. He was smiling horribly. In his hand he held a large
pocket-knife open. "It was all I had," he explained calmly. "But Margot
said Lise was dead, so it did his business."

"I'm glad," said Dalroy. "It wa