'
"The story was the German invasion of Brussels, and the train
mentioned was considered the forlorn hope of the correspondents
to connect with the outside world--that is, every
correspondent thought it to be the OTHER man's hope.
Secretly each had prepared to outwit the other, and secretly
Davis had already sent his story to Ostend. He meant to
emulate Archibald Forbes, who despatched a courier with his
real manuscript, and next day publicly dropped a bulky package
in the mail-bag. "Davis had sensed the news in the occupation
of Brussels long before it happened. With dawn he went out to
the Louvain road, where the German army stood, prepared to
smash the capital if negotiations failed. His observant eye
took in all the details. Before noon he had written a
comprehensive sketch of the occupation, and when word was
received that it was under way, he trusted his copy to an old
Flemish woman, who spoke not a word of English, and saw her
safely on board the train that pulled out under Belgian
auspices for Ostend."
With passes which the German commandant in Brussels gave us
the correspondents immediately started out to see how far
those passes would carry us. A number of us left on the
afternoon of August 23 for Waterloo, where it was expected
that the great clash between the German and the Anglo-French
forces would occur.
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