“Another battery coming from Antwerp and hurrying to the front by this route,” speculated Allan, and indeed that seemed the most probable explanation of the disturbance.
“There, I heard what sounded like the clatter of horses’ hoofs then,” announced Giraffe, with his hand cupped at his ear to imitate the rabbit, which a kindly Nature has so constructed as to be able to throw its ears forward and catch the slightest sound that otherwise would be inaudible.
Thad listened, and as he did so his eyebrows went up as though a suspicion might be passing through his mind that Allan’s speculation was altogether wrong.
He too heard the clatter of hoofs now, for they were coming more heavily. To him it seemed as though there were many hundreds of them, and that they pounded the road more like a squadron of cavalry on the gallop.
Thad drew the car to one side of the road, and then stopped his engine. Until the mystery had been solved there was no use trying to proceed further. Perhaps this spot was to mark the high-water line of their advance on Antwerp.
“There, I can see them beginning to show up now!” cried Giraffe.
Moving figures came into view, constantly augmented until there must have been scores amidst the rising dust. No sooner had Thad noticed the fact that they were gray-coated, and that they carried what seemed to be lances, with small pennons fluttering at the ends, than he knew what it meant.
Giraffe voiced what all of them understood by that time when he ejaculated:
“Why, they’re German lancers, don’t you see, boys; the Uhlans we’ve heard so much about, the Rough Riders of the Kaiser, and raiding the country to cut off communications between the Belgian army and Brussels. Whew! now we’re in the soup!”