he place, unknown to most people, these clever Germans
had long ago built a heavy concrete floor, to be used in their business;
but which would make the best kind of foundation for one of those big
siege guns they used to knock down the Liege and Namur forts."

When Rob said this he did not dream how closely he was hitting the
truth. It had not been discovered at that time how secret preparations
along such lines had been made by the Germans, year after year, in close
proximity to many of the leading cities in Belgium, France, and even
over in England.

"Well, now for moving on, and entering the town," Merritt remarked, with
a look on his face that told how he was summoning all his resolution so
as not to appear too heartbroken should they meet with bitter
disappointment.

"I hope we don't run across any German soldiers here," said Tubby.

"We want to keep on the constant watch for them," Rob gave warning. "If
they saw us, they might think it their duty to have us arrested at
once, and detained until our story could be investigated."

"And that would spell ruin for all our plans, wouldn't it?" Merritt
asked, not as cheerfully as he might, because he had been fearful all
along that something like this might come to pass just when he had
discovered the object of his long search, and before he could proceed to
relieve Steven Meredith of the old case in which he carried those
splendid field-glasses.

They were now among the outer houses of the town. So far as they could
see, Sempst did not differ to any degree from various other Belgian
towns they had seen. It consisted of numerous small houses, a few more
pretentious dwellings, possibly of Brussels business men, and some
factories.

From only one of these stacks was smoke seen coming, and, having picked
up a pointer, it was easy for the scouts to decide that this must be the
German-owned chemical works with which Steven Meredith had been
connected, between his foreign trips.

When thus entering the town that was so close to Brussels, where the
Germans were in full charge, it was the policy of the three scouts to
draw as little attention to themselves as possible. While thus far they
had not chanced to notice any German soldiers, still there was always a
possibility that some of them were around.

Besides, Rob figured that if a German-owned chemical factory had been in
operation here for years, very naturally there would be many natives of
the Rhine country emplo