When Rob said this he did not dream how closely he was hitting the truth. It had not been discovered at that time how secret preparations along such lines had been made by the Germans, year after year, in close proximity to many of the leading cities in Belgium, France, and even over in England.
"Well, now for moving on, and entering the town," Merritt remarked, with a look on his face that told how he was summoning all his resolution so as not to appear too heartbroken should they meet with bitter disappointment.
"I hope we don't run across any German soldiers here," said Tubby.
"We want to keep on the constant watch for them," Rob gave warning. "If they saw us, they might think it their duty to have us arrested at once, and detained until our story could be investigated."
"And that would spell ruin for all our plans, wouldn't it?" Merritt asked, not as cheerfully as he might, because he had been fearful all along that something like this might come to pass just when he had discovered the object of his long search, and before he could proceed to relieve Steven Meredith of the old case in which he carried those splendid field-glasses.
They were now among the outer houses of the town. So far as they could see, Sempst did not differ to any degree from various other Belgian towns they had seen. It consisted of numerous small houses, a few more pretentious dwellings, possibly of Brussels business men, and some factories.
From only one of these stacks was smoke seen coming, and, having picked up a pointer, it was easy for the scouts to decide that this must be the German-owned chemical works with which Steven Meredith had been connected, between his foreign trips.
When thus entering the town that was so close to Brussels, where the Germans were in full charge, it was the policy of the three scouts to draw as little attention to themselves as possible. While thus far they had not chanced to notice any German soldiers, still there was always a possibility that some of them were around.
Besides, Rob figured that if a German-owned chemical factory had been in operation here for years, very naturally there would be many natives of the Rhine country employed there, and living in the town. If the German government were really back of this Belgian works, as seemed possible, they would want to have mostly reliable men on guard, who, in case of sudden emergency, could throw off their workmen's garb and show themselves in their true colors, as regularly enlisted soldiers, serving their superiors while plying their regular trade.
When, therefore, the boys heard loud outcries, after entering the town, and made the distressing discovery that there was a runaway approaching them, the first thought Rob had was that they must keep out of the way, and not interfere, lest by so doing they attract attention toward themselves.