Of course what Anthony told them caused the boys more or less concern. They had no desire to fall into the hands of the Germans. While it could not be said that they were against the invaders, the terrible stories they had heard in Antwerp, even if only a small part were true, gave them an unpleasant feeling toward the Kaiser's men.
That word Uhlan was dreaded by every Belgian or native of Northern France. While it really stands for the cavalry arm of the German forces, still, ever since the Franco-Prussian war of more than forty years ago, it has possessed a terrible significance all its own. Humble peasants shivered when they pronounced it, and no doubt many an unruly child was threatened with the coming of the terrible Uhlans unless it mended its ways.
"If that's the case, then," Merritt voiced the opinion of himself and chums by saying hurriedly, "we want to get out of this. It's a case of either run or hide with us."
"But where could we hide?" asked Tubby, looking all around him helplessly. "Just now there isn't a single cottage in sight; and the bare fields around don't offer much shelter, seems to me."
"There's a bridge just ahead of us," said Rob.
"And we might manage to get our mounts down underneath," added Merritt instantly, grasping the idea that was in the patrol leader's mind. "The bank slopes easy enough to allow of it."
"Eet could be done, Messieurs!" allowed the guide, who was even more alarmed, it seemed, than Tubby himself, since the prospect of falling into the hands of the dreaded Uhlan raiders began to assume greater proportions, now that the peril no longer lay in the dim distance, but was close at hand.
"Then let's hurry and see what it looks like under the bridge," advised Rob.
Just as they figured, it proved easy enough to lead their horses down the bank, which was covered with grass and growing weeds, for since the war began all really unnecessary work on roads and railways had been stopped. And those horses would have willingly gone anywhere if there only seemed a prospect that they might rest a spell, for they seemed tired all of the time.
"Listen to them shouting, will you?" Tubby complained as they were going down amidst the bushes that promised to screen them from the party on the other side of the little stream across which the massive bridge had been built.
"I'm afraid they must have seen us," Merritt said, "and that will mean they'll soon be across the bridge again to find out what we're doing, and who we are. What's the program, Rob?"
"We must act as though our only object in coming down here was to water our horses," replied the patrol leader; this idea having possibly come into his mind as he noticed the way his mount put its ears forward, and commenced to whinny—as horses invariably do when they scent water, and are thirsty.
"Come on, here, what's ailing you, Dobbin?"demanded Tubby, jerking at the reins when his animal displayed an inclination to hold back.
"He acts kind of queer, doesn't he?" Merritt said when, after considerable fussing, Tubby managed to coax his horse to once more advance, though the animal seemed to be snorting, and trembling. "If we were on the cattle range right now I'd be half inclined to think he smelled a rattler near by."
"My stars! I hope they don't have such pests over here in Belgium!" exclaimed Tubby, beginning to himself show immediate signs of nervousness.
"Not the least danger," declared Rob. "But, all the same, my horse seems trying to hold back, just as yours did, Tubby."
"They're sure a cantankerous lot all through!" grumbled the fat scout, looking carefully where he expected to plant his foot next; for, in spite of Rob's assurance, he was not quite so certain that the undergrowth beneath the bridge might not harbor some poisonous reptile which might strike unexpectedly.
"They're still keeping up that shouting!" announced Merritt, listening. "Which I take it is a queer thing for them to do. If they're German raiders why don't they come across and interview us, I wonder? I thought I saw uniforms among the bunch. How about that, Rob?"
"The sun was in my eyes, and I couldn't say for certain," acknowledged the one spoken to, jerking at the bridle of his horse.
"One thing is sure," said Tubby, "the horses are not at all thirsty; else there's some thing they don't like about this place down here."
All of them were really puzzled by the strange actions of their horses. It was no longer simply Tubby's mount that acted so contrary, but the other three also.
"Guess my nag got cold feet about something; and it's catching as the measles," Tubby announced, as he shook his head in the manner of one who finds himself with too hard a nut to crack.
"Well, that water looks cool and clear," said Merritt, "and I think I could enjoy a few swallows myself, if the horses won't."
"Sure it ain't poisoned, are you, Merritt?" queried Tubby dubiously.
"Oh! get that crazy notion out of your poor head, Tubby. Germans don't make war that way. They face the music, and stand up before the guns. What makes you look at me like that, Rob?" and Merritt as he asked this question stopped short, for he had been in the act of putting his threat into deeds, and getting down beside the stream to take a drink.
"I smell it too, Rob!" exclaimed Tubby just then. "And, oh! let me tell you it's a rank odor. Isn't it in this country they make all that Limburger cheese; or over the border in Holland? Well, if you asked me I'd say it was something like that."
"Smells more like burnt powder to me!" snapped Rob, showing visible signs of increasing excitement.
With that he commenced looking hurriedly around. Perhaps a sudden tremendous suspicion may have flashed into his mind, and he was seeking to justify it by making some sort of discovery.
The gully was of considerable width, as hasbeen said before, though just at that time in the late summer the stream that flowed through it did not appear to be of any great depth, and could be easily forded.
There were bushes and grass and weeds growing all about, besides stray stones that may have fallen there when the solid masonry of the really fine bridge had been constructed years before.
Although he turned his eyes in this quarter and that, Rob failed to see anything that looked at all suspicious. Still that peculiar odor continued to strike his sense of smell, stronger than before, if anything.
"Must be something burning, fellows!" announced Tubby, as he held a hand up so that he could close his nose with thumb and finger against the offensive odor.
The guide had meanwhile thrown himself down at the brink of the stream and proceeded to drink his fill. Evidently he had no fear concerning the quality of the water. Typhoid germs were unknown to his lexicon; and so long as water looked fairly clear it suited him.
He was getting on his feet again as Tubbymade that last remark. His horse had been pulling more violently than ever at the rein, and the Belgian started to say something uncomplimentary to the animal in Flemish.
Rob had stopped examining the shore upon which they were standing. He turned his gaze across the stream to the opposite bank, for his scout training told him that since the breeze came from that quarter he would be apt to learn the cause of the odor, so like burnt powder, if he followed it up.
The others heard Rob give a half suppressed shout, as though he had made a sudden and startling discovery.
"Oh! what is it?" cried Tubby, straining to keep his horse from trying to start up the ascent again.
"Across the river, over there under the arch of the bridge, don't you see that little curl of blue-white rising?" exclaimed Rob. "Watch it and you'll find that it is creeping along over the ground. Come, we've got to get up out of this in a hurry! Turn your horses, and let them helpto drag you up! Quick, everybody; not a second to lose, I tell you!"
Tubby no longer tried to hold his horse back; on the contrary, he even urged the animal to climb the grade in frantic haste. He did not know what it all meant, but Rob acted as though there must be some terrible danger threatening them; and Tubby was no fool.
With cries and shouts they urged the animals to ascend. Several times a horse would slip, and come near falling headlong backward; then it was the one who held the reins found it necessary to encourage the struggling beast with word and act, so that the horse might regain his footing.
Tubby, chancing to glimpse Rob's face about the time they drew near the top was horrified to see how very white it seemed. Then more than ever did he realize that it must be something dreadful that had threatened them.
"Rob, tell us what it was all about?" Tubby managed to gasp, when, having reached the road again, they were hurrying back as rapidly asthey could go, the horses helping to drag them along.
"Just this," Rob told him briefly. "They've fixed a mine there under the bridge, so as to blow it up; and we've had the narrowest escape of our lives!"
"Hold on to your horses, everybody!" called out Merritt, as he looked back toward the bridge from which they had now managed to press quite a little distance.
Merritt somehow did not seem to be very much astonished at what Rob had said. It might be he himself had entertained suspicions along those same lines.
They had heard that the determined Belgians were engaged in throwing all the obstacles possible in the way of an advance in force on the part of the invaders. If only cavalry were to be dealt with, the defenders of the soil had faith in their ability to take care of all that could be sent against them; but it was known to be a fact that the artillery arm was what the Germans meant to depend on more than anything else in this war for conquest.
If bridges and culverts were destroyed in every direction before the enemy could take possession of the roads, it would be next to impossible to move the great siege guns until some sort of strong temporary structure had been built in place of the stone and steel fabrics that were blown up.
And so, for days, there had been reports drifting in to Antwerp that certain bridges had been marked for destruction. Those who sallied forth in armored cars to speed over the country, and play havoc with their Maxim guns, found it necessary to revise their map of the district every night so as to conform to the new changes that had been wrought.
It was hardly ten seconds after Merritt told them to keep a firm grip on the bridles of their horses that the boys on looking back saw the bridge suddenly rear itself in the air. Then came a terrifying boom that made the very ground under their feet quiver; and, in a moment later, in place of the fine bridge lay a horrible gap, from which smoke and dust was arising in sickening clouds.
Tubby was as white as a sheet. The others could hear the big sigh with which he drew in a gulp of air.
"I want to say right here," he started to remark solemnly, "that I'm thankful I've got such a cracking good nose for queer odors. Think what might have happened to us if I hadn't begun to sniff around, and made Rob take notice. All that pile of stuff would have buried us out of sight. And the horses knew, sure they did. That explains why they acted so funny all the while. But isn't it a shame to see how they had to smash that splendid bridge!"
"Don't forget that this is war, Tubby," Merritt told him, "and to hinder the enemy from coming up, anything is allowable."
"But that's going to block our going on, I take it," ventured Tubby, watching Anthony, who showed evidences of having been considerably excited by the explosion, though Tubby could not tell whether it was fear that influenced the man, or an overmastering desire to join the army, and engage in some of this obstructive work himself.
"Oh! that doesn't follow," Rob assured him. "I noticed that the river was shallow just now; and I imagined I could see the old ford that used to answer before this bridge was ever thought of. We can get across without swimming. You forded the Rio Grande once upon a time, Tubby, and such a little bug stream as this shouldn't phase you a bit."
"Oh! count on me going wherever the rest of you lead," retorted Tubby, with a blustering air, as though he did not want anyone to think him at all timid.
"We might as well go back now," remarked Rob, "and see about getting over. If the mine has been exploded, there shouldn't be any danger; I want to try that ford."
It was found that though the bridge was wrecked pretty badly, the greatest damage was to the span, and not so much to the anchorages or piers. In time another arch could be built—should peace ever come to this distracted land—when men would be able to once more "beat their swords into ploughshares," and start to rebuilding what had been destroyed.
"Follow after me," Rob told them, as he started to urge his horse across where he could see the old ford had been.
Little of the material from the wrecked bridge had been thrown to any distance, so the ford was not blocked. The horses still displayed more or less restlessness, as though they could not understand that, with such a smell of choking gases in the air, the danger was all over. The three boys, however, had had considerable experience in handling balky animals, and knew just how to urge them on.
Once on the other side, they started up the bank. As they arrived at the road, having crossed the abyss, they saw a crowd of men hurrying toward the spot. They were partly Belgian soldiers, it turned out, along with some civilians, possibly men versed in explosives or strategy to be employed to delay the advance of the German artillery.
Of course, they were very much excited at meeting the boys. The khaki uniforms seemed to soften their anger to some extent, but one whoappeared to be in authority started to scold them for walking so blindly into a trap.
Through the guide Rob hastened to explain how it came they had not suspected the truth. Then as questions began to follow, he also told who and what they were, even mentioning something concerning their self-imposed mission into the danger zone of the fighting.
When the precious passport, written out by the good burgomaster, was shown, it had an additional soothing effect. The man in charge of the squad of destruction smiled and nodded as he perused the document, written in French.
"He say burgomaster his uncle!" explained Antonio, after the other had handed the paper back, and made some remark.
"Well, now, that's what I call fine. Tell him we're glad we got out from under that bridge in time," said Rob, "and also that we think he made a clean sweep of the job."
This seemed to please the Belgian officer, for he insisted on shaking hands all around. Feeling that they were now free to proceed, the scouts resumed their journey along the road that ledto Brussels; probably, wholly in the hands of the invaders further on toward the capital, since rumor had it that immense numbers of German troops were daily being moved toward Ghent.
"All of which only goes to show how necessary it is to be constantly on the watch while you're in a country that's fighting for its life," Merritt remarked to his companions as they lost sight of the ruined bridge.
"If only we had eyes in the back of our heads, we might get along a heap better, I think," grumbled Tubby, as his horse awkwardly stumbled over some small object, and gave him a shock.
"It was a close call, all right," acknowledged Merritt, "and has sobered our guide a whole lot, I notice. He listens to every far-off boom now, as though something might be drawing him. But the morning is wearing away, so I suggest that we stop at the very first village we come to, and see if we can beg, buy, or steal something to eat. I'm hungry as a bear."
"Oh! bless you, Merritt, for those kind words!" called out Tubby. "I've felt a vacuum downaround my belt line for two hours back. Whoa! there!" he added, as his horse stumbled again. "Want to break my neck, you animated skeleton? He knocks his hoofs together every third step he takes. No wonder they didn't grab him for the cavalry; he'd have fallen all over himself in the first charge."
Coming to a little hamlet, the boys found a house where they could secure something in the way of a lunch. Even at this early stage in the war, however, prudent hotel keepers realized that times were going to be hard, and that it would be the part of wisdom to conceal all the stores possible against a rainy day, or the raids of such invaders who might be billeted upon the villagers.
Here the boys remained between one and two hours, since the day was unusually hot, and their mounts were not in the best of condition for standing hard service.
Some of the good people had left for safer quarters, which would mean Antwerp, of course,—deemed impossible of capture at that day on account of its wonderful defenses. A groupgathered in front of the little hotel, and questioned Anthony as to who the three boys in the uniform of scouts might be, and of the nature of their mission that tempted them to invade a region being made desolate by war.
Anthony himself knew very little on that score; but since it would not look well for him to admit this fact, it is possible he "drew the long bow" to some extent. He may even have told all sorts of fairy stories about the boys being English agents sent over to learn facts in connection with the movements of the German army, so that a strong force of the allies from across the Channel could be hastily dispatched to the scene, and chase the haughty Germans back across the Rhine.
Some idea like this the boys found very prevalent all through their journey. The Belgians seemed to believe the English were getting a wonderful surprise ready with which to stagger the enemy. If they could have only known how an army had to be built up step by step in the great island country, they might have felt less confidence, and perhaps shown more discretion in attacking the invaders.
Rob suspected something of this sort when he saw the way the villagers observed him and two chums, staring at them as though they were curiosities.
"Makes you feel like some punkins, to have all these people watch every little thing you do, and get out of your way so quick when you go to make a move, don't it?" remarked Tubby, evidently tickled over the attention shown them.
"I don't just like it, to tell you the truth," admitted Merritt.
"Oh! you're too modest by half, Merritt!" jeered the fat scout.
"It isn't that, Tubby," explained the other. "Rob here says he believes our guide is spreading the report that we're English messengers, sent ahead to pick up news about the Germans, so they can be smashed when the British army gets here."
"Well, what of that?" demanded his friend. "It isn't soverydreadful that I can see, to be mistaken for a Johnny Bull."
"You'll change your tune, my boy," Rob toldhim, "if the Germans should come along and nab us. We'll soon see how you begin to roar out that you're a Yankee, as true-blue as they make them."
"Oh! but they wouldn't know anything about that!" declared Tubby, though showing signs of increasing dismay at the same time.
"You never can tell," he was told by Rob. "The ways of these smart Germans are past finding out. They've got spies everywhere. Right now there may be some secret sympathizer with the Fatherland in that bunch close by, taking in all that silly Anthony has been saying."
"Gingersnaps and popguns!" gasped Tubby, "if that's really so I guess we'd better muzzle our guide in a hurry. Where's he gone to, do you think, Rob? It was all of half an hour ago that I saw him last, talking to the crowd."
"I was wondering about that myself," said Merritt. "If we expect to be getting along about this time, we ought to look Anthony up."
"You take a turn that way, and I'll step into the taproom of the inn, to see if he is there," remarked Rob, who had a slight frown on his faceas he spoke, as if he might not be wholly satisfied with the way in which their guide was acting.
Five minutes later Rob and Merritt joined Tubby at the same time.
"Nothing doing in my section," remarked Merritt, "except that I'm afraid somebody has swiped one of our nags, for I could only count three horses hitched there."
"Then, that settles it!" said Rob positively.
"Settles what?" piped up Tubby.
"Anthony has basely deserted us, and taken to the back road!" Rob told them. "I feared as much from what the little inn proprietor let out; but what you say clinches the thing. Our guide is a mile or more on the way back to Antwerp by now!"
"The miserable hound! Hanging would be too good for him!" exclaimed Merritt, who it appeared had not up to that instant suspected anything like the truth, and was therefore taken completely by surprise.
"That all depends on what his motive may have been," said Rob reflectively.
"Why, it's plain he got cold feet after that little experience at the bridge this morning!" Merritt hastened to declare. "I thought he was a man of more nerve than that. I hope all Belgians are not made of the same kind of stuff."
"Hold on a minute, Merritt," Rob cautioned him, "you are jumping to conclusions now without being sure of your ground. I've been watching Anthony from time to time and I've noticed that whenever he happened to speak of the gallant doings of his people on the battlefields hisface would beam with pride, and what I took to be a touch of envy."
"Oh!" said Tubby, grasping the idea, "then, Rob, you think our guide shook us just because he couldn't hold back any longer. He thought he ought to be on the firing line along with the rest, and get in a crack at the invaders of his country. Is that the stuff, Rob?"
"I'm thinking that way," Rob informed him gravely, "but we've got no time to look Anthony up. Whether he's gone to join the Belgian army or turned back to the city of Antwerp isn't going to cut any figure in our calculations."
"That's about the size of it, Rob," agreed Merritt, beginning to show signs of returning confidence, when the patrol leader spoke with such vim.
"What we've got to do is to figure out whether we want to call the whole thing off just because we haven't a guide to do the talking business for us and turn back to the city, or set our teeth together and push on."
Tubby and Merritt exchanged looks.
The latter even half opened his mouth as ifto indignantly protest against giving up the most cherished plan of his life for a little snag, such as the desertion of Anthony proved. Then he suddenly closed his lips firmly. He had remembered an important fact, which was that after all he should not be the one to make such a suggestion. Let one of these good chums, who were his side partners, express an opinion first of all. That was why Merritt remained silent.
"Oh! we just can't quit at the first puff!" remonstrated Tubby. "Fellows who have been through all we have shouldn't be built that way. Think of the battles we've been up against on the diamond and the gridiron; and did anybody ever hear us complain, or show a yellow streak? Well, I guess not! Tell him how you feel about it, Rob!"
"Just as you do, Tubby," responded the scout leader heartily. "I wasn't counting any too much on Anthony's services, come to speak of it. Nine-tenths of what we expected to accomplish would have to come from our own hard work. If you put it up to me to decide, I say every time, go ahead!"
Merritt looked almost joyous. Though he was not a demonstrative fellow as a rule, he could not help reaching out and squeezing a hand of each of his faithful chums. Indeed, no one ever knew more reliable allies than Merritt possessed in Rob and Tubby, who were ready to go through fire and water with him, if necessary.
"It may all turn out for the best," Tubby continued, with fine optimism, such as these chubby fellows nearly always show since life looks rosy to them. "And it's going to save you a little money in the bargain, too, Merritt. I must brush up my French and Flemish from now on. Already I can say as many as six words of the first, and I think I know how to almost pronounce one in Flemish."
"No trouble to tell what that one is," remarked Rob, laughing.
"It stands for grub!" added Merritt.
"Now, I consider it strange how you should guess so easily," Tubby shot back at them reproachfully. "I suppose I'll have to acknowledge the corn. We've got to eat to live, and so I thought I ought to know the right word thatwould produce results quickest. Don't blame me, boys; I was thinking of you as well as myself."
"Well, shall we get out of here?" asked Rob. "I don't altogether like the way we are being stared at by some of the people of the village. They say in Antwerp that there's a hidden sympathizer of the Germans in every city, town and hamlet through the whole of Belgium always trying to send information of value to the enemy."
"Huh! don't know just what to believe, and what to brand as big yarns," protested Tubby. "Since we've landed here I've heard stories that would make poor old Baron Munchausen hide his head in shame as a has-been. If one-tenth of the same turned out to be true, these Germans are the most remarkable people that ever lived for getting ready for a war against the whole world forty years ahead of the date. I'm beginning to use my own horse-sense, and figure things out."
Ten minutes later they turned their backs on the little hamlet where a fair meal had been procured, and which had also witnessed their first real misfortune in the base desertion of Anthony.
In many cases they found the roads occupied with throngs of fugitives. These poor peasants were flocking, in a general way, toward Antwerp, though possibly a few of them meant to cross the line into the Netherlands, where they hoped to be safe from the German armies of invasion that were gradually progressing further and further toward the coast.
A thousand-and-one sights greeted the eyes of the three scouts. More than a few times they stopped for some purpose or other that did their hearts credit. Once it was a limping boy whose condition excited the pity of Rob. He did not hesitate to put to some use the practical knowledge of surgery that he had picked up in company with all the other members of the Eagle Patrol.
Another time they saw a wretched woman trying to mend the wheel of a miserable old handcart, upon which she had some humble belongings, and three small children. That was more than the boys could stand. They stopped theirhorses, and giving the lines of their mounts into the keeping of Tubby, Rob and Merritt busied themselves with fixing up the disabled wheel.
Although they had next to no tools with which to work, their skill proved sufficient to surmount the difficulty. Inside of twenty minutes the woman was able to trudge along again. She thanked them volubly in Flemish, which they did not understand. Tubby listened eagerly, but owned up that it was beyond the range of his extremely limited vocabulary, consisting, as that did, of but one word.
"Well, that look on her face paid us for all our trouble," Rob remarked contentedly, as he once more remounted, and led the way along the highway.
"It's something fierce where all these forlorn people come from," said Tubby.
"To me the greatest puzzle is where they're all going," Merritt added.
"If you should ask them," Rob advanced as his opinion, "nine out of ten couldn't begin to tell you. Some have had their houses burned over their heads; others I expect have seen their homesdestroyed by bursting shells, where they happened to lie near the place where an artillery duel was going on. So they've just started on the road, hoping to reachsomewherethe fighting won't follow."
"It's a terrible sight," sighed Tubby. "I'll never forget it as long as I live. Every minute I'm telling myself we ought to be the happiest people going over in America, to know that we needn't get mixed up in all this butcher business."
Slowly the afternoon wore away. The three chums did not make very rapid progress, and for many reasons. In the first place their horses objected to putting forth any unusual exertion, and seemed to consider that they were doing their full duty by merely working their four weary legs in a machine-like fashion.
Then, again, the roads were cluttered in places with squads of the peasant population fleeing from the battle lines. Three times did the scouts come upon detachments of Belgian soldiers stationed behind temporary intrenchments, where they expected to harass the advance forces of the Germans whenever they appeared.
From these men they received many curious stares. Of course the soldiers could not understand why three boys in khaki, who were undoubtedly not Belgian scouts, should be heading so boldly toward the scene of carnage, when everybody else was fleeing madly the other way.
They were halted and questioned. At first Rob felt a qualm of anxiety, lest the fact that they no longer had an interpreter in their company to explain things might get them into trouble. That fear soon vanished, however. In every instance it was found that some man could either talk fair English, or else what little French the patrol leader was able to muster explained matters in a satisfactory manner.
The probability was that the message given them by the burgomaster of Antwerp was much more potent than anything else. The worthy official was a well known and highly respected man; and among these commands there were always those who knew him personally, so that his "passport," while hardly worth the paper upon which it was written, officially, acted magically with the Belgian officers.
As the afternoon sun began to draw near the western horizon they continued to be on the lookout for some haven of refuge. Another night was coming; they must not only have food but lodging, if this latter could possibly be obtained.
"Of course," explained Rob, as they walked their sorry looking horses on, "while we'd like to find some sort of respectable beds to-night, if the worst comes, we can always make shift with a haystack. It wouldn't be the first time we've curled up in the hay and snatched a few winks of sleep."
"I should say not," Tubby assured him. "Only I do hope we manage to strike a dinner-call somehow or other. I can do without a bed, but I must have eats or I'll collapse utterly, like a balloon with the gas let out."
"Please don't think of it, Tubby," Merritt implored him. "We promise to do everything in our power to find the grub. Brace up! We're coming to a village; and I think I can see an inn the first thing."
It proved to be as Merritt had said, and better still, the man who kept the modest little tavernassured Rob in fair English that he would be proud to serve the honored guests; also that he had once spent a year in the Birmingham machine shops himself.
"Just like all the rest, he takes us for Johnny Bulls," complained Tubby.
"Well, that's partly your fault," Rob told him.
"Just because I'm so well filled out, I suppose you mean, Rob? Well, if they keep on thinking that, I guess I'll have to get busy and cultivate a real cockney accent. 'Beg pawdon; thankyou; my word!' You see I've got a few of their favorite jabs spotted."
As before, they found themselves the object of more attention than any of them enjoyed. People kept peeping in through the open door of the room where the three strange young chaps in khaki were enjoying their really excellent supper.
"Don't mind them," advised Rob, when he saw that Tubby was posing, as if conscious of being in the lime-light. "Let's finish our supper, and then we can sit outside on the porch as the sungoes down, and talk over our plans for to-morrow."
"Yes," added Merritt quickly, "because to-morrow may take us so far on our journey that we'll either find our man, or meet with some bitter disappointment, something I hate to think about."
"Don't do it, then," advised Rob. "We must believe everything is bound to come out right, and that you'll not only run across Steven Meredith, but that the paper will be found under the lining of the cover to his field-glass case, where he's been carrying it all this while, without knowing it."
"One thing sure," said Merritt grimly, "if he's left that post and gone anywhere else, I'll follow him, hit or miss, if it takes me to the battle front."
"Listen!" exclaimed Tubby. "What's that man shouting, Rob?"
"As near as I can make out," replied Rob quickly, "he says the Uhlans are entering at one end of the town."
When Rob Blake made this startling explanation of the loud cries from without, his two companions started up from the table in dismay. They could easily understand that the coming of the German cavalrymen just then threatened them with unpleasant consequences.
If they were mistaken for English boys they might expect not only rough treatment, but possibly find themselves railroaded into Germany, with one of those terrible dungeons in a Rhine fortress as their destination.
Perhaps even Tubby began to deplore the fact that he chanced to be wearing a Boy Scout khaki suit, and a campaign hat besides; with the leggings that scouts in the States have adopted instead of the woolen stockings used by other branches of the organization abroad.
If pride must have a fall, Tubby began toexperience the first twinges of regret at that moment as he scrambled to his feet, and waited to hear what Rob or Merritt would say.
"It may be only a false alarm," Merritt suggested. "These poor people have been seeing imaginary regiments of Uhlans ever since war was declared."
"But they're making oodles of noise, anyhow!" Tubby protested.
"We can soon find out if it's so," said Rob, hurrying over to one of the windows, which were partly screened with flimsy curtains, through which any person from the inside could look out, but which would prevent scrutiny from the village street, except when the lamps were lighted later.
They quickly saw that their worst fears were realized. Down the street at least fifty horsemen were riding. The fact that they carried lances and wore the customary spiked helmets of the German troopers told Rob as well as words could have done that at last they were gazing on the far-famed Uhlans.
They were not at all the fierce-appearing warriors the boys may have pictured them, having the Russian Cossacks in mind at the time. Indeed, a number seemed to be laughing heartily, doubtless on account of the evident terror their presence had apparently inspired in the breasts of the villagers. And some of them were rosy-cheeked young fellows, who, shorn of their military accouterments, would have struck the scouts as good-natured German youths.
Others, however, were more grim and haughty, as though they thought it their duty to impress these stubborn Belgians with a due sense of their importance as factors to be dealt with.
It was a thrilling sight to see those hard-riding soldiers of the Kaiser coming along the village street, with people staring at them from open doors and windows, yet none daring to utter a word of protest. Fear was written largely on nearly every face, though doubtless there were also those who viewed the coming of the hated Uhlans with illy suppressed rage. Perhaps they had lost some dear one during the battles that had already been fought around Liège and other places; or in the destruction of Louvain.
"Rob, don't you see they're heading right this way?" whispered Tubby suddenly, after they had watched the stirring picture for a minute or so.
"Yes, that's a fact," replied Rob. "Let's hope they mean to only ride through the village, and leave by the other side."
"Gee! I hope now they won't fall in love with our horses, and run them off!" ventured Tubby, excited by his fears in that respect; for Tubby did not like to walk any more than he could possibly help.
"Not much danger in that line," scoffed Merritt. "But look at that officer in front of the column—he's pointing right this way, you notice, Rob, and is saying something to another rider close behind him."
"Oh! can he have seen us?" wailed Tubby, no doubt having very positive visions of prison life before him just then, with solitary confinement on a diet of bread and water, which was the worst punishment he could imagine.
"That's impossible," Rob instantly assured him. "The chances are he's discovered this inn, and is telling the other officer they may be ableto secure something to eat, and a bottle of wine here. Their men can pick up supper through the place, making the poor people furnish the meal, or have their houses knocked about their ears."
"But if they come in here do we want to stay and be arrested for English spies?" asked Merritt; whereat Tubby's lips could be seen to move, although no words came forth, while he anxiously waited for Rob to decide.
The other had already made up his mind.
"That would be foolish on our part," he told Merritt, "and unnecessary in the bargain. They may only stop for five minutes to drink wine, and then go on again, because they know they're in the enemy's country here. We must find a place to hide till they leave. Come along with me, fellows."
Now it happened that Rob had never forgotten one of the things all scouts are enjoined to impress upon their minds; which is to observe the most minute detail wherever they happen to be. In the woods this faculty for observation had often served the patrol leader a good turn, and the same thing happened now.
While sitting there and enjoying the warm supper which the keeper of the village inn had spread before them, Rob had taken note of his surroundings. Thus he knew just where the stairs leading to the upperetageor floor of the inn was located; and also that it could not be easily seen from the door leading to the street.
He led Tubby and Merritt over to the stairs.
"We'll slip up here," he told them, for a quick glance around had assured Rob that no one was watching them.
Most of those who had been around the tavern hurried outside at the first sign of alarm, and were now gaping at the coming troop. The proprietor, guessing that his establishment would be the first object of attention on the part of the invading enemy, was wildly striving to conceal certain valuables he possessed under a board in the floor, where, perhaps, he also kept his choicest wines.
Once the scouts had climbed aloft they managed to gain a sort of garret where broken furniture and hair-covered trunks seemed to be stored.
"This will answer us as well as any other place," Rob told them, as he closed the door, and managed to push a heavy trunk against it.
"And there are two little peephole windows, too, for all the world like eye-glasses, but big enough for us to see through," Tubby remarked, groping his way among the collection of riffraff with which the garret was encumbered, until he found himself able to kneel and look through the dusty glass of a window.
"They're spreading all over the place," he immediately announced, "and making the village people get supper ready for them. Chances are, too, they won't whack up a red cent for all they eat and drink. Whee! so this is war, is it? Well, all I can say is it's a mighty mean game."
"Some of them have come into the inn," ventured Merritt. "I can hear heavy voices below us, German voices, too. You know sound travels up walls like everything. And there's a heap of bustle going on below, as if the landlord, his wife and everybody else might be on the jump to wait on the Uhlan guests."
"Can you blame them?" said Tubby, "whenlike as not if they said no they'd find a torch put to their house? Rob, you don't think they'll come up here, do you?"
"Oh! hardly, unless they take to ransacking the house for valuables, or more wine. They must know time is too valuable for that, because there are Belgian forces all around this place who might drop in on them. No, they'll get a hurried bite and then be off again."
For some little time they continued to listen to the confused sounds that came to their ears. Considerable shouting from the street testified to the fact that some of the soldiers might be acting, as Tubby expressed it, "rough-house"; and although the light outside was commencing to grow rather dim, looking through the window they saw several instances where a soldier struck some half grown boy who may have acted in a sullen fashion, or declined to do what he was told.
All at once there was a shot!
This was followed by a great outcry, in which loud German voices could be heard giving orders. A scrambling downstairs announced thatthe officers who had been eating at the inn were hurriedly rejoining their command.
"Are the Belgian troops coming, Rob?" asked Tubby, finding it impossible to see what was going on, because he had been unable to open his window, as the others had done.
"No, it must have been some desperate villager sniping from a house," replied Rob; and a minute later he continued hastily: "Yes, they're carrying a Uhlan to his horse, and threatening the people with guns and lances."
"Oh! I hope now they don't start in to shooting the poor things down!" cried the sympathetic Tubby, wringing his hands, though hardly conscious of what he was doing.
"They've rushed into the house next to this," Merritt now exclaimed, "and seem to be searching it, which tells me the party who fired, man or boy, must have been concealed there!"
"Gee! that's getting pretty near home!" muttered Tubby.
"Rob, did you see that puff of smoke coming out of the house then?" Merritt presently demanded, almost bursting with the excitement.
"Yes, I'm sorry to say I do see it," replied the leader of the Eagle Patrol, as he continued to look downward. "They've set fire to the building; and what bothers me most of all is the wind coming straight this way. I'm afraid it means the inn will take fire too, and like as not be burned to the ground!"
"Gingersnaps and popguns! then we're in for a warm time of it!" Tubby burst out.
"Let's hope they manage to get the fire out; or that it doesn't spread to the inn," Merritt soothed him, after the manner of one who wished to throw oil on troubled waters.
"If only the Germans would pull out right away we could get down from here in good time," continued Tubby hopefully. "Look again, fellows, and see if they show any signs of skipping."
"They seem to be galloping all over the village, as far as I can see, and threatening to shoot if anybody dares take a crack at them," Rob announced, after making a hurried survey.
"Oh! my stars!" groaned Tubby, "little did I ever dream that I'd stand a chance of being cooked before I'd been in Belgium two days. Ialways said I liked cold weather best, and now I know it. Baked or stewed or even broiled doesn't suit my taste."
"The fire next door is beginning to rage fiercely," remarked Rob. "The people are just standing on, and sullenly watching it burn. They don't seem to dare to offer to help save a single thing, because they might be shot down."
"That house is doomed!" asserted Merritt, gloomily.
"Better keep back more," cautioned Rob. "The light grows stronger all the while, you notice, and we might be seen up here by some Uhlan, who'd think it fine sport to send a shot if only to frighten us. I thought I saw one man glance up. If he happened to see that we wore khaki and had on these military looking hats he'd pass the word along that there were Belgian soldiers hiding in the inn."
"Please don't start a riot," begged Tubby. "It's sure bad enough as it stands without that happening. If we had wings now we might sail away. What wouldn't I give for an aëroplaneto come along at this minute, and pick me up? Rob, has our house taken fire yet?"
At first Rob did not see fit to answer, upon which the suspicious Tubby pressed him to declare the truth.
"No matter how bad it is," he said soberly, "we should know the worst, instead of pulling the wool over our own eyes, and believing everything's lovely. How about it, Rob?"
"I'm afraid it's a bad job, Tubby."
"You mean we're on fire, do you?" questioned the other, with a hurried intake of his breath, as his heart possibly beat tumultuously with new apprehension.
"Yes, it's caught the end of the inn, and with that breeze blowing there isn't a chance for this house to be saved," Rob continued. "I'm sorry for the poor man who owns it; but then he'll be no worse off than tens of thousands of other Belgian sufferers."
"But think of us, will you?" the fat scout urged. "We're neutrals only, and it's a shame to make us stand for that foolish shot some sniping boy may have fired. Hadn't we better makeour way downstairs, Rob, and throw ourselves on the mercy of the Uhlans?"
"I'm in favor of sticking it out just as long as we can," said Merritt desperately; for only too well did he know that once they fell into the hands of the Germans, all chances of carrying out his well laid plans would be lost.
"Oh! so am I, when it comes to that," affirmed Tubby; "and I hope that neither of you think I'd be the one to scream before I'm hurt. But I do smell smoke, and that looks bad, as the plight of Bluebeard's wife."
There could be no questioning that what Tubby said was so, for little spirals of penetrating smoke had commenced to come under the door, so that they could already feel their eyes begin to smart.
Rob went back to the open window to watch. He knew that the thing calculated to help them most of all would be the flitting of the Uhlan troop. If the raiders would only gallop away from town there would be an opportunity for the three Boy Scouts to make their way from the garret of the doomed inn.
"Are they showing any signs of going yet?"asked Tubby, rubbing one hand continually over the other; and then he burst out into a half hysterical fit of laughter as he went on to add: "D'ye know, when I said that it made me think of Bluebeard, don't you remember where the wife was waiting to be called down to lose her head, and expected her brothers to come to the rescue, she had her sister watching out of the window for a cloud of dust on the road? And all the while she keeps on asking: 'Sister Ann, Sister Ann, do you see anyone coming?'"
"I guess you're not as badly rattled as you make out, Tubby," suggested Merritt, "when you can joke like that with the house on fire. In this case you're wanting to know whether there's anybody going. Well, they're here yet, I'm sorry to tell you."
"But I think they are getting together to ride away," Rob added.
"Did they shoot down many of the poor villagers on account of that sniper?" asked the fat scout anxiously.
"No, I couldn't see anything like that," Rob hastened to assure him. "There was some firing,but it looked to me as if it might be done for effect, just like cowpunchers ride into town, yelling, and shooting their guns in the air. But at the same time I think they must have got the person who did the sniping."
"Yes, I heard several shots that seemed to come from inside that next house," Merritt admitted. "It'll certainly be his funeral pyre. The house is all aflame, and burning fiercely."
"Poor chap! he must have been crazy to fire on Uhlans when they were in such force," Tubby declared. "They never refuse a dare, I've heard said. And believe me, I don't ever want to test them. I hope they hear the call soon now. That fire must be getting pretty close to us by this time, boys!"
Rob opened the door of the garret a trifle, after having pushed back the heavy trunk. Immediately a cloud of smoke entered, at which poor Tubby fell back in dismay.
"Oh! we're goners, I'm afraid!" he moaned, making his way through the pall in the direction of the one small window that was open, so that he might secure a breath of fresh air.
"If we can keep the smoke out a little while longer it's going to be all right," Rob informed them. "The Uhlans are all in the saddle, and seem to be only waiting for the order to leave. I can hear the captain in charge of the troop telling the villagers something or other, and he is speaking in French, too; so I reckon it must be a warning that if a single shot is fired as they ride away, they will turn back and not leave one stone unturned in the place."
"That seems to be the usual Uhlan way, I've heard," muttered Tubby, glad he could say anything; for at the time he was desperately clutching his nose with thumb and fingers, as though in hopes of keeping the pungent smoke from entering his lungs.
He had apparently gotten beyond the seeing stage, for both his eyes were kept tightly closed. At the same time Tubby was listening eagerly for good tidings. He knew that his chums were constantly on the lookout.
"There they go off!" he heard Rob say presently, when the situation had almost become unbearable.
The sound of many hoofs coming to their ears, even above the roaring of the fire, affirmed this statement. Tubby acted as though he wanted to cheer, and then reconsidered his intention, through fear that the sound might be heard by the Uhlans, and work them harm.
"Now, let's get out of here," said Rob briskly. "Take hold of my coat, Tubby. Merritt, bring up the rear. We'll find a room just below this where we can drop out of a window easily, if the stairs are ablaze, as I'm afraid may be the case."
Passing down from the garret in this fashion, through dense billows of smoke that struck terror to the soul of Tubby, they presently found themselves in one of the ordinary rooms, used perhaps for stray guests.
Looking from the window Rob saw that it would be easy for him and Merritt to drop down on the turf below. Tubby must be taken care of first, and so Rob snatched a sheet off a bed, and twisted it into the shape of a rope.
This he forced Tubby to take hold of, and then climb over the window sill.
"Keep a fast grip, and we'll lower you!" Rob told the fat scout, who had full confidence in his comrades since they had never failed him.
After all, it was an easy thing to let him down, because the distance was short. As for themselves, the other two boys scorned to make use of such means. Clambering out of the window, when Tubby reported himself safe below, they hung down as far as they were able, and then just let go. There was a little jar as they struck solid ground, and it was all over.
"Beautifully done, fellows," Tubby was saying, as he dug his fat knuckles into his still smarting eyes. "We'd pass muster for fire laddies, I tell you. After all, it takes scouts to know what ought to be done. But I think some of these people must have gone out of their minds to whoop it up so. What's that poor woman shouting now, Rob? Can you make it out? And look how they're holding her back, would you? It must be the wife of the inn keeper; the loss of her home has unsettled her reason, I'm afraid, poor thing!"
But Rob, who had been listening, knew better, as he immediately proved.
"It's a whole lot worse than that, I'm afraid," he told the others. "She keeps calling out for her baby; and I think the child's been left in the burning building!"
Tubby was dreadfully shocked when he heard the news.
"The poor thing!" he cried, "to be forgotten in all the row, and left to be smothered by the smoke, perhaps burned up in the bargain. Oh! Rob, I hope you're mistaken!"
"I wish I could believe so myself, Tubby, but if you look you can see them all staring up there at that window next to the one we jumped from. Some even point at it, and you notice more than a few of the women are crying like everything."
"But my stars! why doesn't somebody run up and get the child out, if that's so?" Tubby demanded,—forgetting that his eyes still smarted,—because this discovery, and the distress of the parents overwhelmed him.
"Because the lower floor is all afire, and the stairs can't be used," Merritt told him.
"If only we'd known about the child before we came out, we might have saved it," Tubby wailed. "If I could climb like some fellows I know, who can even go up a greased pole in the contests, I'd be for making my way up there right now. Hey! what are you going to do, Rob, Merritt? Let me help any way I can. Stand on my back if you want to; it's broad enough to do for a foundation! The poor little thing! We mustn't let it be burned if we can help it!"
Neither Rob nor Merritt had waited to give Tubby any answer when he made that really generous offer. They knew there would be no need of his back as a means for elevating one of them to the sill of the upper window. In fact, Rob had made a sudden discovery that must have been the main reason for his speedy actions.
"The tree is close to the house, Merritt!" he was saying as he sprang forward.
"Better still, Rob, one limb grows right alongside the window!" the other scout added, keeping in touch with the patrol leader.
They were quickly on the spot, Rob starting up the trunk of the tree at once.
"Don't follow me," he told his chum, as he climbed upward. "If I find the child I may want to drop it down to you. Get busy underneath, Merritt!"
"All right, Rob; I understand!" came the answer.
Tubby had also heard what was said. He came puffing forward, as though he did not mean to be left out entirely of the rescue.
"Let me help you, Merritt," he was saying, between his pants from his recent exertions.
"Sure I will, if there's any chance, Tubby."
"Can Rob reach that window from the limb?" the fat scout asked anxiously, as he tried to look straight upward, a task that was always a trying one with Tubby because of the odd shape of his chubby neck.
"He's about there now, you notice. There's something of a little ledge underneath and he's going to make it all right."
"There! He's clinging outside and starting to throw a leg over," Tubby exclaimed in evident rapture. "And if there is a child inside that room, our chum will find it. If it was me now,I'd be so blind with the smoke I'd have to just grope my way around, and p'raps get lost in the shuffle."
"But what's that you've got in your hand, Tubby?" pursued Merritt, becoming aware for the first time that the other was holding on to some white object.
"This? Why, what but that fine sheet you used to lower me with," he was told.
"I remember that Rob dropped it down after you landed," said Merritt, "but I never thought you'd want to take it along with you, Tubby."
"Oh! shucks! don't you see, I picked it up when I started over after you," the stout boy tried to explain.
"But why should you do that?" persisted Merritt, who was looking eagerly aloft just then, and possibly not fully paying heed to what he was saying.
"Why, you know how firemen stand and hold a blanket for people to jump into?" explained Tubby; "I thought that if it came to the worst, Rob might drop the baby into this sheet, which both of us could hold stretched out!"
"Well, youarea daisy, after all, Tubby!" cried Merritt, in sincere admiration. "That's as clever a scheme as anyone could think up. Here, give us a grip of an end, and we'll get ready for business!"
Quickly they clutched the four corners of the sheet. Fortunately, it appeared to be a fairly new bed-covering, and might be trusted to bear a certain weight without tearing.
Having reached the point where nothing more could be done in order to assist Rob, the other two scouts had to stand there and wait, as the precious seconds crept by, each seeming like an age to their anxious hearts.
Meanwhile, what of Rob, who had, without the least hesitation, risked his life in order to save the child forgotten in the excitement of the Uhlans' coming, and the strange events that had so soon followed?
When he reached that window, he found it closed, but, on his pressing against the sash, it had swung inward, allowing him free access to the room.
It was rather an appalling prospect that confronted Rob. The smoke seemed to be thick, and he could not see three feet away. For all he knew the fire that was raging in the lower part of the inn might by this time have eaten partly through the floor boards, so that, if he put his weight on them, he stood a chance of being precipitated into the midst of the flames.
Rob never hesitated a second. He had taken all these matters into consideration when making up his mind as to what he meant to attempt. More than this, he did not believe anything partaking of such a disaster threatened him in case he entered that apartment.
The most he feared was that he might be unable to discover where the child lay, for it was manifestly impossible to use one's eyes to any advantage, with all that veil of smoke interfering.
Over the window-sill he climbed, just as the two boys below witnessed. And, no sooner did Rob find himself in the room, than he started to cross it. He expected to find a bed somewhere, and toward this purpose he at once set himself.
He could hear the crackling of the flames below. Besides this, there came to him with painful distinctness the wails of the poor woman who was being restrained from trying to rush into the burning inn.
Rob was listening for something more. He had strong hopes that he might catch another sound, perhaps feeble, but enough to guide him to where the imperiled one lay in the bed or on the floor.
Groping as he advanced, and at the same time feeling with his feet, in case the object he sought should prove to be on the floor, Rob passed away from the vicinity of the open window. The smoke was pouring from the aperture now, as though it were in the nature of a funnel. This turned out to be of considerable help to the boy, for the draught served to thin the smoke that had filled the room to suffocation.
Now he had reached the farther wall, and, turning sharply to one side, started to comb this, every second expecting to come upon a bed of some sort.
It was about this time that Rob thought he heard a low, gasping cry just ahead of him. Though unable to use his eyes with any measureof success in locating the source of the sound, he was encouraged, and persisted in pushing forward. In this way he found himself bending over a cot.
His groping hand came in contact with something warm—something that moved ever so slightly at his touch. It was the forgotten child. Rob found that it was a mere baby, possibly not much more than a year old.
The smoke had not yet choked the little thing, though a short time longer would have certainly finished it.
Rob had no sooner clutched it in his arms than he tried to set himself right for the window by means of which he had reached the room. In this he was assisted by the light that came through the opening, and which served as his guide. By the time he reached it, he could no longer see a single thing, and, when he leaned out of the window, his first thought was to shout:
"Merritt, are you down below? I can't see a thing! The smoke has blinded me!"
To his great satisfaction there came an immediate response, and never had words from the lipsof his chum sounded sweeter than they did then.
"Yes, we're both here, Rob. Let the child drop straight down! We'll take good care of it!"
"But you might miss it," objected Rob, still unable to see a thing.
"We can't! We've got a sheet spread out to catch it in!" Merritt sent back. "You're all right just there! Let go! Leave the rest to us!"
So Rob did as he was told. Accustomed to giving orders himself, he at the same time could obey when the necessity arose. Perhaps it was with considerable fear that he allowed the child to leave his grip; but the joyful shout arising from his chums below assured him that all was well.
Then he heard a feminine shriek, and judged that the frantic mother had darted to where the boys were standing, to clasp her rescued offspring to her breast.
Rob crawled over the ledge. He could not see how to make that friendly limb again, but then there was no need of going to all that trouble. He had dropped in safety before, and felt able to do the same again; so down he came like a plummet.