Explore "At the Sign of the Sword" by William le Queux on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"The position is a very grave one, Henri," Rigaux explained when, a few minutes later, they were alone together in a small, circular, book-lined room, that room below one of the high round towers of the chateau, which the Baron used as a bureau. "I hesitated to speak very openly before your wife, because it would cause her undue alarm. There is no doubt -- indeed, there has been abundant proof in these last four days -- that Belgium swarms with German spies. They are everywhere. Our enemies have been most crafty and cunning in their preparations for our undoing. They have arrested and shot sixteen German agents in Antwerp alone. They had carrier-pigeons, secret wireless, code-books, German ammunition, secret stores of petrol, and other things, which showed, only too plainly, their intentions. Now your telephone was cut at noon to-day, was it not, and you are wondering? Well, the truth is that the Germans occupied Brussels at eleven o'clock this morning?"
"_They are in Brussels_! " gasped the Baron, starting up. "You must be joking!"