But it created a tremendous effect, none the less. At once the German officers came running from the doctor's house where they were quartered, and, as more shells burst nearby, bugles sounded, and the German soldiers came running to the centre of the village, gathering rapidly from the houses where they had been enjoying their brief respite from war. Sentries and all were called in, and within three minutes the troops were off, at the double quick, going in the direction whence they had come to enter the village of Hannay.
And now the comparative silence of the night, that had been broken before then only by the dull and intermittent thunder of the guns around Liege, was shattered in a thousand ways. Heavy firing by infantry rifles, as well as by field guns, came from the north. It was plain that Belgian or French troops must have been advancing with great rapidity to interfere with the German raid on the country between Liege and Brussels. Flashes of fire marked the bursting shells less than a mile away, and occasional spurts of flame showed where the German guns were replying to the sudden attack. In a moment Hannay was deserted by the Germans. And before the villagers, led by Raymond, had collected their scattered wits, Paul had seen the chance of escape.
"Come on!" he cried, to Arthur.
They ran as fast as they could after the Germans.
CHAPTER XVII
THE BATTLE
They had not gone more than a hundred yards when a wild outburst of shouting behind them told them that their flight had been discovered. At least there seemed to be no reason for the people in Hannay to raise such a din. And the cries showed them, too, that they were being pursued. But such a pursuit did not frighten them. They had taken to the fields almost at once, deserting the road, and with such a start as they had it was practically impossible for them to be overtaken, especially by such stupid pursuers as Raymond and his men.
So, before they had gone any great distance toward the sounds of firing, which had now increased to a point that showed that they were in the neighborhood of something very like a pitched battle, a general engagement, they slowed down to a walk and waited to see what would happen. In the road the pursuit stormed past them, but that did not last long. In a few minutes they heard the voices of the returning villagers, who had evidently decided that to keep on was too likely to bring them into the field of operations.
And so for the time at least, the two scouts were free and safe.