“Fire!” cried Chester, and a death-dealing volley was poured into the little knot of men huddled together in the street, surrounded by Belgian soldiers.

The fighting became desperate.  The conspirators were giving a good account of themselves, and here and there Belgian soldiers were falling.

Now the conspirators turned and made a dash toward their retreat.  But five Belgian troopers sprang forward and barred the door, firing as they did so.  The ranks of the conspirators were considerably thinner now, and to continue the fight would mean slaughter.  This fact the chief recognized.

He hurled his revolver at his foes with a fierce imprecation, and then raised his hands above his head.  His followers did the same.

“I surrender!” said the chief.

Chester went up to him.

“The tables are turned, I see,” the chief greeted him.  “Well, a man can’t be on top all the time.  But I was a fool not to have stayed and seen you properly shot.”

“I am glad you didn’t,” was Chester’s reply, “for I guess you would have made a good job of it.  But enough of this.  I am commanded to take you before General Givet.”

Surrounded by Belgian troopers, the conspirators were marched to the headquarters of the commanding general.  There a court-martial was called to sit at once.  Its work was brief.  The prisoners were ordered taken out and shot as spies and traitors to Belgium.

Upon orders issued by General Givet, the Belgian troops soon began to move in accordance with the plan by which the Belgian leader hoped to trap the Germans.  Their movements were such as to lead the German outposts to believe that they were retreating.

But instead of weakening his line where the Germans had planned to attack, General Givet strengthened it heavily.  The troops were ordered to fallback a short distance, so that the German leader might believe the force in front of him had been sent to another part of the field to repel an attack that was believed imminent.

But the expected fall of Louvain by this piece of treachery was to prove a bitter disappointment to the German commander.  Instead of the weak Belgian line he believed he was to encounter, he was sending his men against a force that had been heavily reinforced and that was determined to wipe out the insult.

As the Belgians gradually drew back, the Germans advanced, not too swiftly, so as to indicate an attack in force, but gradually and slowly.  But continually larger and still larger bodies of Germans were sent forward, until suddenly it was apparent to General Givet that the time for the German surprise had come.

But when it did come the Belgian commander was ready.  As the Teutons came forward in a headlong charge, the Belgians checked their backward movement and rushed forward.

A terrific volley greeted the charging Germans, and from the ambush, into which the enemy had been lured, the artillery opened upon them.  They wavered slightly, but still they came on.  But even as they sprang forward once more, the Belgian cavalry swooped down on them, dealing out death on every hand.