urrender. All manner of fearful stories were going the rounds, and
many timid people had even left the city on the Scheldt for the more
hospitable shores of England, just on account of the threatening peril
from the clouds.

"So, that's a real Zeppelin, is it?" Tubby remarked, as they stood there
with their eyes riveted on the flittering monster of the air.

"No question about it," Merritt told him, "because the poor Belgians
don't own such an expensive airship, though they have some aeroplanes, I
was told."

"But what do you reckon they're doing up there?" asked Tubby, still
seeking to increase his limited stock of knowledge.

"Why," Rob replied, "don't you see there's a battle going on below, and
from that height men with glasses can see every little thing that's
happening. They are able to tell how the Belgian forces are intrenched;
and by means of signals let their gunners know where to drop shells so
as to do the most harm."

"Whee! what won't they do next in modern, up-to-date fighting?"
exclaimed Tubby.

"There have been lots of remarkable surprises sprung in this war
already," Merritt observed thoughtfully, "but I'm thinking the worst is
yet to come. There never was such a war before in the history of the
world, and it's to be hoped this one ends in a peace that will last
forever."

"Yes," added Rob, greatly impressed by what he was seeing, "war's going
to cost so much after this that the nations will have to fix up some
other way to settle their differences. About that Zeppelin, Tubby; don't
you see how they might be able to drop a few bombs on the enemy's
trenches; or where the Belgians have fixed barbed-wire entanglements to
stop the rush of the charging German troops? Just to think that here we
are really watching a battle that isn't like one of the sham rights they
have every summer at home. It's hard to believe, boys!"

They were all agreed as to this, and every little while one of them
might be detected actually rubbing his eyes, as though suspecting he
were asleep and all this were but a feverish dream.

The cannonading grew more and more furious as the morning advanced. Huge
billows of smoke covered sections of the country, some of it not more
than a mile away from the village where Rob and his chums had stopped.

"And just to think," said Tubby, with a touch of sorrow in his voice.
"While all this sounds like a Fourth of July celebration to us, safe as
we are, it spells lots of terrible wou