"So I was," went on the man. "I wanted to know so that the good people of this stricken village could be prepared."
"How could the people of this village resist the Germans?" asked Ned wonderingly. "I don't see any fighting men about."
"That's just the point," pursued the other. "All the men and boys capable of carrying weapons or doing anything like a man's job at any kind of work have been drafted by the Germans."
"Then what's the excitement about?" put in Jack impatiently. "We can't see why you or the village people should worry if the Germans have taken everything that can be taken."
"You don't understand, I see," continued the other. "The Germans have left here only women and children and very old men. They even took away with them such food supplies as could be transported easily. Now there is very little grain left, and with it perhaps a few potatoes and other things. But all the cattle and other food supply has been removed. The villagers are on the point of starving."
"Won't the soldiers feed them when they come—that is, if they're actually coming?" inquired Jack, presenting his own solution of the case.
"We are afraid they will not," was the answer. "They have not a very savory reputation here. It is the intention of the remaining people to escape to the country, taking with them whatever they can carry, when they know the Germans are again moving in this direction."
"Why, then, don't they go now and be done with it?" asked Ned.
"Evidently you do not understand the characteristics of this people or their love of their home, no matter how humble it may be," was the answer. "If you only understood the fact that these good people have a gentler side to their nature and that their love of home and family is fully as great as you will find in your own country, you would not need to ask such a question. It is a most serious matter to most if not all of these people to go away from their homes."
"But I don't see that any information we can give you would be of the slightest assistance at this time," objected Ned.