“If this keeps up we’ll be reduced to Adam and Eve garments before we get through,” laughed Jack.
Far in the distance, on the outskirts of the city and on the chain of forts, the white fingers of the searchlights were sweeping the sky questioningly, looking for the sky-destroyer to deal out death to him in his turn. The guns boomed and cracked incessantly, sending a rain of missiles upward.
But flying high, and favored by a misty sky, the Zeppelin escaped without injury, leaving a panic-stricken city in its wake. There was no more sleep for any one in Antwerp that night. Vigilance against spies increased ten-fold, and it was bruited about that the real object of the aviators had been to blow up the royal palace, and by destroying the king and queen to terrify the Belgians into submission.
Naturally, sleep was out of the question for the boys. They spent the rest of the night wandering about the city and visiting the ruins of the house that had been struck just before the hotel. Its entire front was torn out by the force of the explosion, and just as they arrived, three bodies had been found in the ruins.
The sight of the shrouded, still forms brought home to them with still greater force the horror of it all.
“Tell you what, Bill,” said Jack, as they returned to the hotel to breakfast, and found that the fire had been extinguished and the panic quieted down, “war is a pretty thing on paper, and uniforms, and bands, and fluttering flags, and all that to make a fellow feel martial and war-like, but it’s little realities like these that make you feel the world would be a heap better off without soldiers or sailors whose places could be taken by a few wise diplomats in black tail coats. It wouldn’t be so pretty but it would be a lot more like horse sense.”
“Gracious, you’re developing into a regular orator,” laughed Bill.
“Well, the sight of these poor dead folks and all this useless wreckage got under my skin,” said Jack, flushing a little, for he was not a boy much given to “chin music,” as Bill called oratorical flights.
During the morning they secured new clothes for the second time since landing in the city, and then paid their appointed call on M. La Farge.
“I have good news for you, boys,” he said as they came into his office. “Your man was last heard from at Louvain. I suspect he is rather given to adventure, for I understand that he has been quite active in aiding our people. It’s strange that his people have not heard from him, though.”