"They can wait. There's a hot dinner ready, prepared by our kind friends the Belgians. They entertain us; afterwards we shall entertain them. Poor Rumpelmeyer has gone. But a dozen Belgians are waiting yonder to join him. A dozen Belgians are not worth one good German, but it's something to go on with. We shall find others; it would be a pity to leave too many to bother us when the country is ours."
Kenneth, under the hay, was squirming. Pariset, knowing no German, was not aware of what was coming, but his apprehension was all the greater for his ignorance. Kenneth whispered that the wagon was not to be unloaded yet; he dared not say more at the moment, with so many enemies within hearing.
The sky was becoming overclouded. The wagoner took the horses out, and led them to loose boxes in the stables. The trooper Schmidt had sprung down and entered the house, where all the Uhlans except three left on guard over the prisoners had assembled for the good dinner prepared by the women of the farm under the eye of their truculent visitors.
The wagon having been left standing at the gate, Kenneth ventured to repeat to Pariset the gist of the conversation he had heard. The Belgian swore under his breath.
"We must get out while they are at dinner," Kenneth whispered.
"Those three brutes would see us," said Pariset, eyeing the three Uhlans savagely through his peephole.
"I'm afraid they would," Kenneth agreed. "But we are bound to be discovered when they unload."
"Well, we'll get away if we see half a chance. We must wait. I wish we could do something for those poor wretches in the yard. These Germans have much to answer for, Ken; and they shall pay--they shall pay!"
They lay in their stuffy shelter, listening to the sounds of merriment--heavy-hoofed merriment--from within the house, the grumbles of the Uhlans who had been left outside and were losing the fun, the sobs of the women at the wall. The sky grew blacker and blacker, rain began to fall. The Uhlans on guard turned up their collars and swore.
Presently there was a diversion. The two Uhlans who had been out rounding up the missing farmer had caught him and a second man, and were bringing them along at a trot, prodding them with their lances to make them keep up with the horses. There were cries of dismay from the herded prisoners, and of pity from the women. The attention of the Uhlans on guard was somewhat diverted from the prisoners to the newcomers, as these were marched through the gate and across the farmyard to the hurdles within which their fellow villagers were confined.