In the Claws of the German Eagle

erman Surp

! Three days at the outside, and not

ident of the Belgian Red Cross, so that now he had naught to do but to sit upon the lobby divan, of which he covered much, being of extensive girth. But no more extensive th

"Clicks his spurs to get attention! Wants you to look at him. Don't

native gentleness would return and a smile would rest upon his lips; I doubt not that in his dre

om his reverie. "Ah ha!" he exclaimed, clasping my arm, the artillery-"it's getting nearer all the time. They are

nt of the vanguard of the Blue and Red. Twice he did this and returned with confidence unsha

months that white- haired man peered daily down those Brussels streets, yearning for the advent of the Red and Blue Army of Deliverance. Red and Blue it was ever in his mind. If once it had come in its new uniform of somber hue, it would have been a disappointing shock I fear. He was an

gentleman to

confines of a captive city, from which all e

of celebrating this in utter boredom was a dismal prosp

ape my mind, I hastened into the hallway to meet a somewhat spare, tall, and extremely erect-appearin

"You're an Ame

ponded; "but I would

ld him it would be a great relief from

to talk to you in

ponded, stepping t

us on the fifth floor. The superdreadnaught sailed on into my room, which seemed a breach of propriety for an un-introduced stranger. He closed the door rudely be

ck sufficiently to say,

," he said, reaching for the piece of scribble-paper I

had none, as I real

e pretended not to he

with us, for we wil

t door. Finding nothing, he asked for the key

o good as to f

urope opened with the beginning of the war.

ng taken as a spy. Being just an average species of American, I exhale no particular air of mystery or villainy

ribing information was laid against me, and witnesses were at hand. In the third place, the leader of the party arrested me in civilian dress, but before examination and trial he changed to military uniform. In the fourth place, the officials we

bade me follo

ally. By accident or design, the time chosen for my taking off was

perhaps, when this is fixed

arette. It was a brand-new experience to ride away to prison in royal state like this. The almost pleasant attitude of my companion reassured me. "After all,"

At a word the sentries dropped back and my companion bade me walk down a long, dark corridor. I opened a door a

d itself to the official atmosphere of the headquarters. Anyhow, at once he froze up into the most rigid formality. Sitting down, he wrote out what I deemed was the report of

turned out according to pattern the German secret service man. He is a kind of spy-destroyer performing in his sphere the same service that the torpedo-boat destroyer does in its domain. This man was the German reincarnation of Javert, the police inspector who hung so

e contrary. Hitherto I have always felt that I, like the man in Oscar Wilde's play, could forgive anybody anything, any time, anywhere. One ca

I am hankering to get into the neighborhood of this fellow when he doesn't hold all the trump cards. In justice to Javert, I must say that he reciprocated my feeling magnificently, and, inasmuch as he was the cat and I the mouse, and a very small one at tha

and with him ahead and Javert behind, I was escorted into the courtyard. Here a double-door was opened, and I

vert and asked, somewhat frantically, I fear: "What is al

, especially a petty one, takes everything with such deadly seriousness that he can't u

nd said: "Your case will be settled in a little while-perhaps dire

ad and they were going to make short shrift of me. The grim humor of disposing of my case thus "directly" came home to me. But merely flicking the ashes from his cigarette, he glanced round the room without offering the slig

om well-groomed men of the city to artisans and peasants from the fields. The most interesting of the peasants was a young fellow charged with carrying dispatches through the lines to Antwerp. The most interesting of the well-dressed urban group was a theater manager charged with making his playhouse the center of dist

planted there to catch him in some unwary statement. Each man would have sought relief from the strain by unbosoming his hopes and fears to his neighbor, but he dared not. That is one fearful curse of any cause that is buttressed by a system of espionage. It scatters everywhere the seeds of suspicion. Al

the pay of the enemy. A large military establishment draws spies as certainly as a carcass draws ve

ar-then it was home again. The pictures show phalanxes of these men smiling as if they were glad to be captives. On the other hand there are no smiles in the pictures of the spies and francs-tireurs. They know tha

es on the door, wondering who would be the next guest to arrive, an

in gold. He spotted me, and, coming over to my corner, opened up a conversation in English. I thought at first that this was m

ussels for trial as a spy. He had a passionate devotion to his calling. No mystic could have been more consecrated to his Holy Church. I fully believe that he would have consented to be shot as a spy with a smile on his face if he could have got the story of the shooting to hi

She tried to smile, and succeeded admirably, for she was very pretty. A wretched-looking lad huddled up on a bag in the corner tried to reciprocate, but with the tears glistening in his eyes he made a sorry failure of it. We were a hard crowd to smile to, and growing tired of her attempts to appear light-hearted, she at last gave herself up t

hout we were ordered to our feet. As his exalted personage paraded by we stood, hats in hand, with bared heads, with such humble and respectful expression as may be outwardly assumed towards a fellow-being whom all s

own into prison, compelled to breathe foul air and sleep upon a floor, fed on black bread, and held day after day for sentence in nerve-racking suspense. Picture to yourself now the abject humiliation of being compelled to stand bare-headed in salute before these wreckers and spoilers of your land. Do you think you might keep back from your

d flood in the blasted cities and in the fields of the dead. But nothing can ever show the irrepara