A Belgian captain was threading his way across the room, looking quickly from table to table, here and there acknowledging or returning a greeting, but briefly, in the manner of one preoccupied. His glance suddenly falling on Pariset, he smiled, and came directly towards him.
"I heard that you were here," he said. "Have you finished?"
His eyes rested for a moment on Kenneth and Granger, whom he did not know.
"Certainly," said Pariset. "Let me introduce my friends."
The introduction made, the officer’s manner changed.
"Let us all go into the smoking-room together," he said. "The matter I’ve to speak about need be no secret among us four."
"You’ll excuse me," said Granger, whose tact never failed. "I have one or two things to attend to; I hope I may have the pleasure some other time."
He left the others, and they made their way to the smoking-room.
"You know the railway bridge over the Ourthe, at Sy, just south of Hamoir?" the captain began, lighting a cigarette.
"A section of our sappers were told off to blow it up this morning. Their work was only half done when they were surprised and cut up by a patrol of Uhlans. The Germans very quickly repaired the damage, and are now using the line to bring up troops and material against the Boncelles and Embourg forts."
"Well?" said Pariset, as the officer paused.
"It occurred to the Chief that you who had saved one bridge might perhaps destroy another. It is a mere suggestion, not a command. The work would be very risky; it is not your job, and all that part of the country is in German hands. But when the matter was mentioned I said I thought you would at least make a reconnaissance and learn what prospect there is of a successful attempt."
"Of course," said Pariset at once. "You don’t know exactly how much damage was done?"
"No. Perhaps a bomb or two would complete it."
"That is rather doubtful," said Pariset musingly. "The chances of hitting the bridge at the right spot from an aeroplane flying very high at speed are slight, and we should have to fly high to escape the German shot."
"Unless we flew in the Taube," suggested Kenneth. "In that we might get low enough to smash the bridge before they suspected us."
"The objection to that is that you would be in almost as great danger from our own guns as from the German," said the captain. "The forts would certainly fire on you. But stay: if you decide on that, I will ’phone the southern forts to pass a Taube showing the Russian flag. That would protect you until you are clear of our lines."