"But you haven't been in the thick of it," objected Barkleigh. ["When] the danger is so close you can see it, a woman's nerve isn't as good as a man's. It can't be. She isn't built that way."
"That's the very point," retorted Hilda, "we're going to show you."
"Damn quick," muttered Smith.
In the pleasant heat of their discussion, they hadn't been noticing the roadway. It was full of soldiers, trudging south. The rumble had become a series of reports. The look of the peaceful day was changing. Barkleigh turned from his concentration on the girl, and glanced up the road.
"These troops are all turning," he said.
"You are right," Hilda admitted.
"Can't you see," he urged, "they're all marching back. That means they've given the place up."
"Oh, hardly that," corrected Hilda; "it simply means that Nieuport is hot for the present moment."
"You're not going in?" continued Barkleigh. "It is foolish to go into the town, when the troops are coming out of it."