There were only a few people present, and they appeared to be merely scared townsfolk. Buck dropped into a chair at one of the greasy tables, and a slatternly servant-maid took his order for something to eat.
While she was serving him a little later on, she said:
“I do not recognize you as one of our regular customers, goodman. Are you a stranger in Muhlbruck?”
“Yes,” replied Buck, “I was a farmer near Dinant before this war broke out, but since then—well, you know how it is!”
“We here in Muhlbruck should know if anybody does,” grumbled the girl. “The Germans have overrun the town, taken all the best for themselves, half of the time without paying for it, and treat us honest people as if we were born their servants. Now, old General Haberkampf, who is in command of the division stationed here, is throwing all of our best citizens into prison on trumped-up charges of one kind or another.”
“Ah!” said Buck. “Is he doing such an outrageous thing as that? But then, maybe he thinks that they are playing him double—are spies, in other words.”
“Bah! Spies nothing!” exclaimed the girl indignantly. “That is an old yarn! There is that young American newspaper correspondent now! The Germans have thrown him into prison too and claim that papers were found upon him. And now they are going to shoot him at sunrise to-morrow.”
“To shoot him at sunrise?” ejaculated Buck, with difficulty restraining himself from showing his agitation. “Surely you cannot mean that!”
“Oh, but I do,” replied the girl. “They tried him before a military tribunal in the Hotel de Ville this afternoon. No outsiders were admitted, and that beast of a General Haberkampf wastes no time in carrying out his decisions. The poor young man will be taken out and shot at sunrise in the fields just west of the town. That is where all these ‘acts of justice’ have been taking place since the terrible Germans came to Muhlbruck.
“They back the condemned man up against the remaining wall of the old church there; the firing squad stands off at a distance of thirty paces; ‘Ready! Aim! Fire!’ says the corporal in charge, and pouff! another life is snuffed out.”