uld have a chance of returning to the English lines.

Nurse Ranger was a courageous, a fearless woman, who had rendered
valuable assistance to Belgians desirous of joining their comrades in
arms.

After some difficulty she procured Alan a permit to leave the city
under the name of Armand Roche. This she obtained through a German
officer she had nursed back to life and who, for once in a way, proved
grateful. Alan did not immediately make use of it.

The permit was countersigned by the Governor and therefore he
considered it would frank him anywhere. It expressly stated, however,
the limits in which it was available. At last he put it to the test,
and arrived as far as Bruges. He had been in the quaint old city
before and knew it well. What a contrast to the last time he was
there! He recalled it vividly. Now the old market-place was filled
with German troops and the hotel where he had formerly stayed tenanted
by German officers. It was lucky for him his permit was signed by the
Governor of Brussels; he soon found nothing less would have franked him.

The risk would come when he tried to return to his own lines and he
prepared for it. All went well. He had a horse provided for him, a
fast one that had once been a racer, and he must trust to luck once he
got clear of the German lines. How to get clear was, however, a puzzle
and he tried to solve it as best he could.

He met one or two German officers who spoke French, and seemed to get
on well with them. They were suspicious--he saw that--and of course he
did not trust them, but they proved useful as he went about with them.
They bragged about their conquests, and Alan urged them on until in
their boastfulness they gave him an account of the vast power of the
German Army on the Western front and he got valuable information as to
the best way to reach the scene of the fighting and the nearest
trenches.

He made his attempt to leave Bruges one dark night and had not much
trouble in getting out of the town. The danger began when he came to
the outskirts and had to pass the cordon drawn round the town to
prevent people from leaving in certain directions.

He made the attempt in several quarters and found it too risky; but on
this particular night fortune favored him.

It was dark. He rode up to the guard and was challenged. He handed
his permit, and when it was being examined he made a bolt into the more
open country. For a few precious moments the G