ONE:The road itself had prepared me already in some degree for the horrors I should find there. All the villages through which I passed, excepting Tongres and the townlets of St. Trond, Borgloon, and Tirlemont, were for the greater part burned down or shelled into ruins. The German troops, who had been stoutly resisted during their march through St. Trond and Tirlemont, had attacked in a great rage the civilian population. They set the houses on fire and aimed their rifles at the terror-stricken civilians who fled from them. The men were nearly all killed, but women and children were shot as well.
FORE:There was a general complaint in that district about the very arbitrary requisitions: for example, beds and blankets were extensively taken away from238 the convents, a thing against which the burgomaster of Bruges had already protested. Horses, cows, and other cattle were simply taken from the stables and the meadows, and paid for with paper promises.In cutting screws it is best not to refer to that mistaken convenience called a wheel list, usually stamped on some part of engine lathes to aid in selecting wheels. A screw to [127] be cut is to the lead screw on a lathe as the wheel on the screw is to the wheel on the spindle, and every workman should be familiar with so simple a matter as computing wheels for screw cutting, when there is but one train of wheels. Wheels for screw cutting may be computed not only quite as soon as read from an index, but the advantage of being familiar with wheel changes is very important in other cases, and frequently such combinations have to be made when there is not an index at hand.
FORE:"Not that I ever believed it," she said, "Never from the first. And now you'll have the finest practice in London. I'd quite forgot, sir, to say that there is a young lady waiting for you."
