The Boy Scouts on the Trail
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George Durston >> The Boy Scouts on the Trail
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"All right. We'll be getting on," he said. "Ride along, now. I'm going
back. Don't get out of touch. And if I'm not around when we get to the
road where we are to turn off for Guise, stop them. They know you're
guiding us."
He went off, with a great sputtering of his engine, and Frank and Harry
rode along quietly. But Frank felt a strange uneasiness.
"I feel as if there was something wrong around here," he said.
"What do you mean, Frank? Everything's quiet now. Even the firing is not
as heavy as it was."
"I know, but just the same, that's how I feel. As if there was something
in the air. What's this--a village we're coming to?"
"Yes, and the crossroads where the 'buses must turn, for Guise is just
beyond here, too."
"Doesn't look much like war, does it?" said Frank. "Look at that church.
I suppose it's been there for centuries. But the clock looks new,
doesn't it?"
"Yes, and it's stopped, too," said Henri, with a laugh. "I suppose they
are so excited about the war that they've forgotten to wind it
properly."
"The time of day doesn't matter much just now," said Frank. "I think--"
He stopped short, staring as if fascinated at the clock. Then with a cry
to Henri to wait for him, he turned and pedalled furiously back in the
direction the officer had taken.
"Who is the commander?" he called to the soldier driver of one of the
'buses.
"Capting 'Ardy," replied the man.
"Thanks," Frank called, and went on as fast as he could. He met Captain
Hardy coming toward him. Swiftly he told him what he had seen, and
Hardy, tugging at his revolver, sped on. Frank followed but was left far
behind, naturally, by the speed of the motorcycle. When he reached the
church he looked up at the clock again. Captain Hardy's motorcycle was
lying in the street, and Henri was staring at the church door greatly
puzzled.
"What is the matter?" cried Henri. "The officer came back, jumped off
his machine and tore into the church as if his life depended on it. He
was pulling out his pistol, too. What--"
The sharp bark of a revolver interrupted him. It spoke three times and
there was a cry from above. They looked up, to see the figure of a man
dropping from the opening of the clock. A moment later Captain Hardy
came down, reloading his revolver.
"Good work, youngster!" he said. "Your eyes were sharp that time! If you
hadn't seen the hands of that clock moving we might have been caught in
a nice trap! Wait here--I'm going to make a barricade of the omnibuses."
"What does he mean?" cried Henri, almost frantic with curiosity.
"Why, I saw that the hands of the clock had moved! You said it had
stopped, and I looked up. Then the next time I looked, the hands had
moved around--two or three hours!"
"But how--and why--if the clock had stopped?"
"That's just it! That clock must be visible for some distance around,
Harry. Suppose a German was there? He could be signalling, couldn't he?"
"Oh, a spy! I never thought of that! You mean he would tell other
Germans to come here--that there was work for them to do?"
"Yes. I only hope Captain Hardy stopped him in time."
But Hardy was taking no more chances than he could help. He had guessed
as quickly as Frank the probable reason for the strange antics of the
clock's face. And now he made his dispositions quickly. Counting the
armed drivers of each omnibus, and the extra man each carried, he had
less than thirty men. But he drew up several of the omnibuses in a
square formation in the central square of the village, and thus had an
improvised fort. When he had done that he called sharply to the two
boys.
"Get along with you--get away from here!" he said. "If we're going to
have a fight it's no place for you. You've done us a mighty good turn--I
don't want you running into danger because of it."
Even as he spoke a shot rang out. It was from the direction in which
they had come!
"Just in time, too," he said, coolly.
A soldier came up to report.
"Uhlans, sir--a sight of them, too. Coming from the road we were taking.
I think we got one of them, sir. Toppled him off his horse, anyhow,
sir."
"All right. Let them come," said Captain Hardy. "Go along now, boys. If
you see the cavalry sent to escort us, tell them to hurry! We'll try to
beat them off until we get help."
He turned away, and Frank picked up his wheel.
CHAPTER IX
A GLIMPSE OF THE ENEMY
Other ears than theirs had heard that firing, too. As they rode along
they saw a cloud of dust before them, and soon men and horses emerged
from the dust.
"Let's hide in the hedge along the road," said Frank. "Come on--they'll
never see us."
"But they won't hurt us, Frank. They're English--our friends."
"Probably they are. But how do we know? They may be more Germans."
"Oh, I never thought of that! If they are--"
"Yes, if they are, it's good-bye to Captain Hardy and his supplies. But
we can't help it. We've already done all we could for him."
They watched the oncoming cavalry, but even at a little distance, what
with their speed and the dust, it was impossible to tell to which army
they belonged. They were either English or German; that was all that
could be certain. And that could be deduced from their khaki uniforms.
There were no colors to emerge, bright and vivid, from their dun mass;
no points of steel, on which the rays of the sun might shine and be
reflected.
"If they were French we could tell," said Henri, proudly. "We could see
their red and blue uniforms and, if they were cuirassiers, their
breastplates!"
"Yes. The French are far behind the times in that," said Frank, a little
impatiently. "Nowadays armies don't try to act as if they were on dress
parade. They wear uniforms that can't be seen any great distance away."
"The French army fights in the uniform in which its famous victories
were won," said Henri.
"And it gets killed in them, too," said Frank. "Gets killed when it
doesn't do any good. But that doesn't matter now. Ah, they're English! I
can see that now. We needn't tell them to hurry--they're going for all
they're worth now. They've heard the firing and are hastening."
The English horsemen swept by. They were riding low in the saddle,
urging their horses on. Each man carried a carbine, ready to dismount at
any moment and give battle as seemed best. In five minutes they had
swept by.
"Two troops," said Frank. "Well, that ought to be enough, though there's
no telling how many Uhlans there were. Ah, here come some more!"
This time it was a battery of light artillery--four guns, going along
almost as quickly as the cavalry had done.
"That ought to settle it," said Frank, with satisfaction. "Even if they
run into a brigade of Uhlans, the guns ought to do the trick. I don't
believe they had any guns or we'd have heard them by this time."
"They're still fighting back there," said Henri, as they wheeled their
bicycles back to the road. "I can hear the firing."
"Yes, and I think it must be a pretty lively skirmish, too," said Frank.
"Captain Hardy would keep them at it. Listen! The Uhlans must outnumber
them three or four to one. I hope the others get up in time."
A few minutes gave assurance that they had. They heard the firing still
more loudly; then, a few minutes later, the heavier sound of the guns
chimed in. And then there was silence behind them.
"Score one for our side," said Frank. "We know a little more than we did
before, too. I think it's a safe guess that the Germans aren't in this
direction. We can go along without worrying about them."
As he said that they were coasting down a little hill, at the bottom of
which, Henri had said, another road crossed the one on which they were
riding just around a little turn in the road. And as they took that
turn, their feet off the pedals, they almost fell off their wheels in
astonishment. For the transverse road was gray-green with soldiers;
soldiers with spiked helmets, marching south!
A moment later they did fall off their wheels, deliberately, and at a
common impulse, because it was the only way there was of stopping before
they were in the midst of the German infantry. There was just a chance
that they had not been seen and they took it, and fled to the hedge
again, leaving their bicycles behind. There was no time to bother about
such trifles now. The thing to do was to make good their escape, if they
could.
"Whew!" said Frank, whistling. "That was a close shave, if you like!
Where on earth did they come from? And how is it they didn't see the
English cavalry?"
"Perhaps they didn't care, if they did see them," said Henri, wide-eyed
with astonishment. "Look, Frank, there must be thousands of them! Where
can they be going?"
"Where did they come from? That's more to the point!" said Frank, vastly
excited. "I know! They got the railway--that's what they did! They must
have come through Arras. Jove, though, they took a terrible risk, Harry!
Because, no matter how many of them there are, they can't even begin to
compare with the allies in numbers--not around here. But how can they be
here without being seen? What are our aeroplanes doing?"
"I haven't seen one all day--not since we left Amiens, at least," said
Henri. "But I know where they are--flying over the enemy's lines, trying
to locate the guns exactly. That's what they try to do, you know. They
decide just where a masked battery is, and then our fellows can drop
their shells right among their guns. The gunners can't get the range
properly any other way. There isn't any powder smoke to help them any
more, you know. So I suppose that's where they are."
"Then I tell you what I think happened. I think they cut the railroad,
or, rather, they didn't cut it. I bet they ran those fellows down there
through on trains--right through our army."
"How could they do that?"
"Easily--no, not easily. It wouldn't be easy at all. But it's possible.
They've caught a lot of our men, haven't they? Well, couldn't they use
their uniforms so that it would look as if it was a French or an English
train? Let me have your field glass. It's better than mine."
They were sheltered now and safe from observation. They could,
nevertheless, see the German column strung out along the road. It seemed
to cover at least two or three miles of the road, and there was no way
of being sure that there were not more men.
"I think they've got pretty nearly five thousand men," Frank decided
finally. "They're in light marching order, for Germans, too. No camp
kitchens--nothing. Only what the men themselves are carrying. They're
making a forced march to get to some particular place. Queer to use
infantry, though, but I suppose they couldn't get horses through with
whatever trick it was they played."
"They're beginning to turn off," said Henri. "See, the head of the
column is slipping through that field over there. They must know this
country as well as I do or better. That's a short cut that will take
them to Hierville."
"I don't believe they're going to Hierville or any other village now,"
said Frank. "Tell me, are those woods I can see in front of them at all
thick?"
"Yes, they're old, too. They've been preserved for a long time. That's
the oldest part of the old park of the Chateau d'Avriere. It was one of
the castles that wasn't destroyed in the revolution."
"Well, they're going to take cover in those woods. This is all a part of
a mighty careful plan, Harry. I think they have turned a real trick. If
the French or the English knew that the Germans were in any such force
as this so far south and west as this they would be acting very
differently, I believe. Their aeroplanes have certainly failed them
here."
"They're on the line of retreat, if we were beaten again in that battle
we've been hearing all afternoon."
"I don't think it was a real battle at all, Harry. I think it was just
rear guard fighting. But I tell you what we've got to do. We've got to
get through and tell about these troops. Of course, they may know all
about them at headquarters, but it doesn't look so. We had better wait
here until we make fairly sure of what they're going to do and until
there isn't any more danger of our being seen, too. They'll have scouts
out all around them. We were mighty lucky to get through so long as we
have. But it's going to get dark pretty soon, and then we ought to be
safe."
They lay in their improvised shelter. It took the Germans a long time to
pass, but at last the road below was free of them, and the last of them
slipped into the sheltering obscurity of the woods.
"We ought to find out if they're staying there, or if they are still
moving on," said Frank. "It's risky, but I think we ought to take the
risk. You stay here, Henri. I'll try to get around, and come back."
"Why should I stay here? If there's a risk, why shouldn't I take it
just as well as you?"
"Because one of us has got to get through. If I'm caught, you'll still
be here and able to get through to headquarters with what we've found
out already. And the reason I'd better go is that I'm an American. If
they catch me they're not so likely to hold me."
"But I don't think it's fair for you to take the risk. I ought to do
it," said Henri, stubbornly.
"I don't care what you think," said Frank, "I'm going. Au revoir,
Harry!"
"Wait a minute! How are you going to find out?"
"I'll try to skirt the wood."
"You needn't do that. Keep straight on the road we were taking, instead
of turning off at the foot of the hill. About half a mile beyond the
crossroads the road rises again, and you'll find a windmill. If you
climb to the top of that you can see beyond the woods, and you ought to
be able to tell if the Germans are moving out of the woods."
"Splendid!" said Frank. He admired Henri's readiness, once he had made
up his mind that Frank was going alone, to help him with his greater
knowledge of the countryside. Some boys would have been sullen, and
would not have volunteered that information, he was sure.
Before Frank started on his lonely errand, he carried Henri's bicycle
back of the hedge. Then he mounted his own, and coasted down the hill.
His object was to seem entirely indifferent, should some German scout or
straggler spy him, but plainly the Germans had decided to leave the road
uncovered.
"I guess they decided it was better to risk being surprised than to give
themselves away," he said to himself. "Otherwise they'd have been pretty
sure to leave an outpost of some sort here because this road looks like
just the place for troop movements. It looks more and more as if they
had really managed to make a secret of this column."
It did not take him long to find the windmill of which Henri had told
him. The place was deserted; there was no one to oppose his entry. And,
when he reached the top, he found that there was an excellent view of
the country for several miles, a much better one than they had had from
their shelter on the hillside above the Germans.
He could see the woods into which the invading troops had disappeared,
looking dark and mysterious in the deepening twilight. There was no sign
of life about them; no smoke rose above the treetops. And no Germans
were beyond them. Then his guess had been right, he decided. They had
made for those woods to obtain shelter, and they relied upon the fact
that the allies did not know of their presence. It was a daring move; it
might well have been successful, save for the accident of the two boys
who had observed it. Indeed, even now there was a chance, and something
more than a chance, that the German object, whatever it was, might be
attained. Frank and Henri were a long way yet from having reached the
British headquarters. Unknown dangers and obstacles lay between them and
their destination.
"With the German attack developing so quickly as this, we don't know
where we may not run into them," mused Frank, as he descended from the
windmill and mounted his wheel, preparing to start back to join Henri.
"They may be anywhere. I don't want to see them win, but they certainly
are wonderfully good fighters. They have good leaders, too."
When he reached Henri he found that his French comrade was lighting the
lamp of his bicycle. With a laugh he blew out the flame.
"But it's dark and we'll be arrested if we ride without a light," said
Henri, protestingly.
"That law was made for peace, not for war," said Frank. "When we know as
little about where the Germans are as we do, I'm not going to take any
chances. We'll ride with lights out, thank you. Come on!"
As they rode along in the growing dusk, close together, Frank told what
he had seen.
"That was a good guess, then," said Henri. "But, Frank, how can they
know so well what to do? You would think that they had been brought up
in this country, those German officers!"
"They might as well have been," said Frank. "I've heard stories of how
they prepare for war. They have maps that show every inch of land in
this part of France. They know the roads, the hills, even the fields and
the houses. They have officers with every regiment who know where
ditches are that they can use as trenches, and who have studied the land
so that they recognize places they have never seen, just from the maps
that they have studied until they know them by heart. And it isn't only
France that they know that way, but England, and some parts of Russia,
too. Why, I've even heard that they've studied parts of America, around
New York and Boston, almost as thoroughly."
Henri cried out in anger.
"That is how they have behaved!" he cried. "They have been planning, all
these years, then, to crush France!"
"Oh, cheer up, Harry," said Frank. "I guess you'll find that your French
staff officers have returned the compliment. Unless I'm very much
mistaken, any one of them could tell you just as much about the country
in Alsace and Lorraine, and all through the Rhine Province, as the
Germans could of this section. It wasn't so in the last war. Then French
officers were losing their way in French territory. That was one reason
why the battle at the Speichern was lost--because French reinforcements
lost their way. But this time France got ready, too."
"Shall we still make for Le Cateau?"
"There's nothing else to do, until we find out that the staff has
changed its location."
Riding along in a light that made men out of the shadows of trees and
regiments of the shocked corn in the fields was eerie work. But neither
of them was afraid. They were fired by a purpose to serve the cause in
which they had enlisted. And they were thrilled, too, by the knowledge
of the German force upon which they had spied, themselves unseen.
And then all at once, out of a dark spot in the road, appeared a man,
holding a horse.
"Halt!" he cried, in a guttural voice.
They obeyed, perforce. And when they were close enough, they saw that he
was a German cavalryman, one of the dreaded Uhlans.
CHAPTER X
THROUGH THE LINES
For a moment Frank's heart sank, but suddenly, a hoarse laugh surprised
him and revived his spirits. It was the Uhlan. He was laughing at them.
"Kinder!" he said, deep down in his throat.
"Nothing so alarming in this," thought Frank, experiencing quick relief,
and awaiting the Uhlan's next words.
"I have my way lost," he said, in a guttural English. "Kannst du
Englisch sprechen?"
"I am an American," said Frank, at the same time nudging Henri, and
hoping that he would understand it as a signal to keep still. "Where do
you want to go?"
"That matters not," said the German, cautiously. "Only tell me, which
way from here is Amiens?"
They told him.
"And where does the road to St. Quentin turn off from this one?"
"It is the next turn, to your left," said Frank, truthfully.
"Good! Then I will be going. Go home, kinder. You will get into trouble
if you stay hereabout."
He vaulted upon his horse, and the next moment they heard hoofs
clattering along the hard road, and, looking after him, could see the
sparks as the iron clashed with the flint of the road's surface.
"That was easy!" said Frank, with a gasp of relief.
"He was alone," said Henri.
"Carrying despatches, I expect," said Frank. "He wouldn't tell us where
he was going, naturally, but I bet he's looking for those other troops
we saw. Dangerous work, too. But I wonder where he came from. If there
are more Uhlans in front, we may get into trouble."
"Suppose we hide the bicycles near here and go along through the
fields? Don't you think that will be better, Frank?" was Henri's
cautious suggestion.
"Yes, I suppose it will, though it will be slower, too."
"Of course. But if we are going to be stopped all the time along this
road, we'll really save time in the end by doing it."
So they made a cache, as Frank told Henri it should be called, hiding
their wheels so that they would have a chance of recovering them if they
came back this way. They marked the spot not only by landmarks, but by
the stars, which were beginning to dot the sky now.
"There may be fighting here," said Frank. "And if there is, this place
may look very different before we see it again. If there is a battle the
trees will go, and the fences, and all the houses for if they are not
burned deliberately, the shells will destroy them."
"Look, Frank, what is that?"
Henri had turned and was pointing now to the north. There a stream of
white light shot into the air, then dropped, and left only its
reflection. But in a moment others joined it, and the whole sky to the
north was brilliantly lighted. It was like a display of Northern Lights,
only nearer and even more brilliant.
"Searchlights, of course," said Frank. "They can throw them on the
trenches--and they're good to guard against aeroplanes and dirigibles,
too. At night, you see, there'd be a chance for aeroplanes to fly very
low and do a lot of damage."
"Can't they hear the engines from the ground?"
"Not always. They have mufflers on a good many aeroplane motors now, so
that they don't make any more noise than a quiet automobile."
"I didn't know that. Well, there's one good thing about the
searchlights. We know which way to go. Come on."
"All right. The more I think of it, the better it is not to be on the
roads. Here in the fields we're a lot less likely to run into stray
parties. And I'd just about as soon meet Germans as allies. If they're
retreating and having trouble, they might hold us up as long as the
Germans would. They wouldn't believe we really had despatches."
For a time they made good, steady progress. The roar of artillery fire
in front of them had been resumed, and now it filled the air, proving
that they were much closer to the battle. The great waves of sound beat
against their ears, making their heads swim at first, but gradually they
grew used to it, and could hear other and more trivial sounds--the
chirping of night insects and the occasional hooting of owls.
"I don't hear the rifle fire," said Henri, after a time. "Only once in a
while, that is. Why is that, I wonder? Are the big guns drowning it?"
"No. Because if that were the reason, we wouldn't hear it at all. I
think they don't do that at night. It's just a case of trying to find
the places where the enemy's troops are massed, and keeping up a steady
fire of shells to drive them out. Maybe the searchlights help. They've
been fighting all day, you know, and even soldiers have to have some
rest. They have to eat and sleep or they can't keep up the work."
They crossed more than one road, but stuck to the fields, travelling in
a straight line as nearly as they could figure their course. When they
had decided to join the Boy Scouts, both had studied the stars, since a
knowledge of the heavens is one of the most important things about
scouting, and they found what they had learned very valuable now. Thus
they could keep their bearings, though owing to their desertion of the
roads, Henri confessed that he had very little idea of where they were.
"Along the roads one has landmarks," he said. "I have gone all through
here, over and over again. My father used to drive this way very often
in our automobile."
"Well, we can't go very far wrong," said Frank, cheerfully. "All we've
got to do is to follow the old German maxim, 'March on the cannon
thunder!' That was their one rule in 1870, you know and a very good
rule it proved too."
So they went on. And they still seemed to be a long way from the seat of
the heavy artillery firing when a challenge halted them, as they were
about to cross a road.
"'Alt! 'Oo goes there?" called a cockney voice sharply.
"Friends," cried Frank, instantly.
"'Alt, friends, while I 'as a look at you," said the sentry.
"Call your officer, please. We are carrying despatches," said Frank.
"I'll call 'im, all right. My word! You ain't nothin' but kiddies, you
ain't! 'Ere! Corporal of the guard! I sye! Corporal of the guard!"
He raised his voice in the shout, and a minute or so later a corporal
appeared.
"Came up to me, sir," said the sentry. "Said as 'ow they wanted me to
call the officer of the guard. Carryin' despatches, they sye they is."
"All right," said the corporal, briskly. "Come with me, my lads. Step
smartly when you're told or you may be shot," in a genial voice.
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