“You have to do a lot of quick transporting?” I asked before saying
good-bye to Major von W------.

“Yes,” was the answer.  “They ’re at us from all sides.  Some of the men we are now transporting have been under fire in two countries, and now they will see service in a third.”  He knew that I had come from Ghent and from Antwerp, which the Germans were about to bombard, yet, to his credit, it should be said that he did not ask for information of Belgian activities.  Similarly, although the soldiers, as a rule, and one man high in the civil government of Brussels, asked what was going on in Antwerp, it was noticeable that German officers recognized the obligations of neutrality.

Of how we left Brussels and of the first part of the eastward trip, I am going to quote from the jottings in the log-book, which was written up at some length after we left Aix-la-Chapelle:—­

“Early on the morning of the 22d, I went up to Consul Watts’s office to get the mail pouch I had promised him to carry.  Luther and I then boarded a trolley car going northwest past the Gare du Nord and on to Schaerbeek, a junction on the outskirts of Brussels.  Although the Major Bayer passes, with von W------’s counter-signature, got us as far as Schaerbeek, we were challenged by the guards at the railroad station.  The stations were watched with the most astounding precaution.  Of course there was no such thing as a ticket; once inside the gate you could jump a troop train, ammunition car, or blow up the track if you felt like it.  Wherefore they guarded the stations carefully.

“At the gates had a terrible pow-wow with an officious Bavarian who called himself the Officer-of-the-Day.  I played all my best German cards, including Count von Bemstorffs letter.  At the end of half an hour our pig-headed officer shipped us back to Brussels.  We returned to von W------, then in Brussels, who vised our pass with a note to the effect that although we were civilians, exceptional circumstances demanded our hurried return to Aix by military train.

“When we eventually got into the Schaerbeek station we had two hours to wait.  Walked up and down the tracks or sat on the platform, keeping an eye on everything that was going on.  Luther says I spent most of my time trying not to look like an Englishman.  Occasionally, when we spoke a word of English, some officer would shoot us a 42 cm. glance and demand our papers.  We were undoubtedly marked figures, because in the first place no civilians were allowed along the railway line, especially foreigners.

“Watched several westbound loads go by until about two o’clock, when they made up a combination train consisting of Red Cross coaches and empty freight trucks going back to Aix for fresh loads of men and ammunition.  Aix is the great distributing center for the line of communication into northern Belgium.  Most of the open cars were empty, barring occasional gun carriages on the way home for repairs; in the