CHAPTER XXXAN AUDACIOUS SCHEME
As soon as the dusk of evening was sufficient to obscure objects of any considerable size at a distance of a hundred yards, several scouting and foraging parties were sent out with instructions to report back in about two hours. The foraging parties were directed to gather in whatever vegetables and fruit they were able to discover in the darkness, and the scouts were instructed to travel due west for several miles and determine if the way were clear for a general advance toward the battle area.
In the course of the day, Phil, Evans, Tim and several other leading spirits had held half a dozen conferences and discussed plans for the following night. It was during these conferences that the scouting and foraging plans had been outlined. A bird-call code was also agreed upon and practiced in the course of the day for the purpose of enabling the scouts and foragers to locate one another or their hide-out in case any of them should lose his way.
The latter precaution proved to be of considerable service, as did also a check-up systemadopted to determine when all who were sent out on their several missions had reported back. By about ten o’clock (estimated), therefore, the checking proved all to have returned with a gratifying supply of raw food, including apples, vegetables, half a dozen chickens and a young pig. The fowl had been captured alive, and it was decided to carry these to their next stopping place, but the pig, which one of the men had slain with a heavy club without the provocation of a squeal, had to be left behind.
The scouts brought back information to the effect that there was a clear field between them and the next town, and that a careful inspection failed to disclose a sign of an occupant in the place. So far as they were able to determine, the village was abandoned by both inhabitants and invaders.
Accordingly a silent, ghost-like march was made to this place. On the way they passed a score or more of bodies of dead soldiers and a like number of guns were found lying near them. Most of these were boches, as was later discovered by examination of their rifles and cartridge belts by the Americans and French who took possession of them.
“The advance over this ground was so rapid that they didn’t have time even to pick up the arms of their own dead,” Tim observed to Phil.
“So much the better for us,” the latter replied. “And I’ve a suspicion that it will work to the benefit of the Allies in more ways than one. This is a drive of desperation, or I miss my guess, and the boches are going to find themselves in a trap. They can’t possibly have enough reserves to maintain such an advance as this. I bet you’ll find in the end that Marshal Foch is just leading them on.”
“I wish he’d have General Pershing throw in some of his troops at this point,” said Tim eagerly. “They’d drive these fellows back, and we could jump in and have some real fun as the Gray Coats came running past us.”
“I can hardly hope that things will turn out just the way our dreams picture them,” said Phil dubiously. “But it surely would be great if we could put over such a stunt as that. Anyway, when we pick our last hiding place we’ll pick it with that in view.”
“We don’t want to advance too close to the enemy’s lines,” Tim argued; “because they may take a notion to back up a little and establish some kind of headquarters right where we are stationed.”
“Yes, that’s another thing we want to keep in mind. And we must also try to pick buildings that are not likely to interest them for any purpose.”
These suggestions were communicated to the other escaped prisoners and were received with such favor that they were observed carefully in the selection of quarters not only for the following day, but for all the succeeding days that they remained in hiding behind the enemy’s lines. And these succeeding days were more than they at first reckoned on. They had no way of knowing that the Marines had saved the day at Chateau Thierry as well as at Belleau Wood, but there was not an American in this company of escaped prisoners who did not firmly believe that the advance of the enemy was cut short the instant the Yanks got into the front line.
And so as they advanced day by day, or night by night, nearer to the enemy’s lines, sometimes a mile, sometimes two or three miles, sometimes half a mile, they expected at any moment to discover evidence of a rapid boche retreat. However, more than five weeks elapsed before the hoped-for evidence of Allied victory appeared; after which events moved so rapidly that Phil felt like comparing his existence to life on the tail of a comet flying through space.