"Those men below may catch sight of you," she said.
He stepped back hurriedly. Two forage-carts had been brought into the yard, and preparations were being made to load them with oats and hay. A truculent-looking sergeant actually lifted his eyes to that particular window. But he could not see through the dimmed panes, and was only estimating the mill's probable contents.
Dalroy laughed constrainedly. "You are the better soldier of the two," he said. "I nearly blundered. Still, I wish the window was open. I want to size up the chances of the Belgians. Those are bigger guns which are answering, and a duel between big guns and little ones can have only one result."
Seemingly, the German battery of quick-firers had located its opponents, because the din now became terrific. As though in response to Dalroy's desire, three panes of glass fell out owing to atmospheric concussion, and the watchers in the loft could follow with ease the central phase of the struggle. The noise of the battle was redoubled by the accident to the window, and the air-splitting snarl of the high-explosive shells fired by the 5.9's in the effort to destroy the Belgian guns was specially deafening. That sound, more than any other, seemed to affect Irene's nerves. Involuntarily she clung to Dalroy's arm, and he, with no other intent than to reassure her, drew her trembling form close.
It was evident that the assailants were suffering heavy losses. Scores of men fell every few minutes among the bridge-builders, while casualties were frequent among the troops lining the quays. Events on the Belgian side of the river were not so marked; but even Irene could make out the precise moment when the defenders' fire slackened, and the line of pontoons began to reach out again toward the farther shore.
"Are the poor Belgians beaten, then?" she asked, with a tender sympathy which showed how lightly she estimated her own troubles in comparison with the agony of a whole nation.
"I think not," said Dalroy. "I imagine they have changed the position of some, at least, of their guns, and will knock that bridge to smithereens again just as soon as it nears completion."
The forage-carts rumbled out of the yard. Dalroy noticed that the soldiers wore linen covers over the somewhat showy _Pickel-hauben_, though the regiments he had seen in Aix-la-Chapelle swaggered through the streets in their ordinary helmets. This was another instance of German thoroughness. The invisibility of the gray-green uniform was not so patent when the _Pickel-haube_ lent its glint, but no sooner had the troops crossed the frontier than the linen cover was adjusted, and the masses of men became almost merged in the browns and greens of the landscape.