CHAPTER I
AN INTERRUPTED JOURNEY
"Give it more gas; more gas, Pierre; they are coming up the cross road!" exclaimed Ralph excitedly, as he leaned forward.
Pierre the chauffeur looked straight ahead and nodded, as he answered: "Oui, oui!"
Before he had gone a hundred feet farther the occupants of the machine heard something like a shot, and Pierre turned his head slightly.
"Two kilometers more and we shall be in Belgium," he said.
This information did not seem to appease the two boys in the tonneau. Of the two, Alfred was the more excited, but Ralph kept up a constant flow of talk as he leaned out and gazed across the valley along which the machine was now shooting with tremendous speed.
Several more gunshots were heard as they passed an open stretch and ascended a hill.
"Are they firing at us?" inquired Ralph.