CHAPTER VIII THE DANGEROUS CROSSING
The boys and the driver of the caisson cowered there and waited untilthe last fragment had fallen, either in the water or else ashore. Theyno longer had a way open for reaching the opposite bank of the stream,where possible safety awaited them.
“Oh! what did it, Thad?” broke in Bumpus, when he was able to find histongue and lift his shrill voice to a shriek. “Could it have been ashell, do you think?”
Thad had his suspicions. He found it hard to believe that a burstingbomb would do all that damage. It might injure the bridge in one sectionand render it unfit for safe passage; but some unseen powerful force hadapparently lifted the whole structure and scattered the remnants allaround.
“No, I believe it was blown up by a planted mine!” he called out inreply to the question Bumpus had asked.
“By the French, do you mean, Thad?” demanded Giraffe, lookingincredulous; “but why should they want to do that, when one of their ownbatteries was using the bridge to escape by?”
“I don’t know,” Thad went on to say hurriedly, as he looked around him;“like as not they had it fixed to destroy the bridge when the enemy camealong, and after the battery got across the men in charge of theelectric switch, hidden somewhere across there, thought the Germans mustbe in close pursuit, so they let her go.”
“And now we’re in a hole!” cried Bumpus, involuntarily ducking his headupon his fat shoulders as another shell burst not far distant.
“We’ve just got to get across, that’s all!” declared the energeticGiraffe. “If there isn’t any ford we’ll have to duck and run along thewater’s edge to look for some sort of a boat, because swimming would bea tough job for Bumpus, anyhow.”
“And no matter what we decide to do,” added Allan just then, “we’dbetter be getting a move on in a hurry, because I can see mounted mencoming away back there where the road rises a bit, and I guess they’resome of those hard-riding German cavalrymen they call Uhlans.”
All of them jumped to the ground. Even the driver knew that he could nothope to save his caisson with its contents, and, like the discreetsoldier that he was, he immediately commenced to throw the ammunitioninto the stream. If France might not have the benefit of those shells,he meant to keep her enemies from profiting through his misfortune, eventhough he lingered so long that he put his own life in peril.
Thad had turned an envious eye upon the stream. He saw instantly that itwas of considerable dimensions, far too wide to be crossed without aboat of some sort. It had the looks of a deep river in the bargain,which fact would prevent such a thing as their wading to the oppositebank.
On both sides bushes grew, together with scrubby willows. At a pinch,possibly, the boys might manage to find some sort of shelter amidstthese; but if anything of a hunt was inaugurated by the Germancavalrymen they must be routed out in short order. And perhaps the veryfact of their being in the company of the obliging French caisson drivermight cause the Uhlans to consider them foes.
Thad did not like to think of what might follow. Sometimes rough-ridingUhlans act first and investigate afterward. Plainly, then, it was muchto their advantage to get across that stream one way or another, if itcould be managed.
“Look for a boat, fellows!” was what he snapped out with hischaracteristic energy; “above, below, no matter where you can find one.It’s our best move, for we ought to get across here, you know!”
His words gave the others the clue. They commenced using their eyes,following the short up and down, and carefully scrutinizing every yardof the bank. Never before in all their existence had a boat seemed sucha desirable commodity as just then; new or old, big or small,round-bottom or flat, little they cared if only it would accommodatefour boys and hold water long enough for them to urge it to the oppositebank before the dreaded Uhlans arrived.
Of course Giraffe had the advantage of his three chums in such arivalry. That eagle eye of his was without its peer among the members ofthe Silver Fox Patrol, and it did not fail its owner now.
“Thad, I see one!” he whooped joyously. “Come on, everybody, follow me.It’s close by, in the bargain. I only hope and pray it isn’t aknocked-out affair with a big hole punched in the bottom, that’s what.”
“And—some—oars handy, too!” gasped Bumpus, already a little short ofbreath after all that riotous jolting while riding on the bouncingcaisson.
While they were racing toward the spot the determined Frenchman wascontinuing to carry the contents of the abandoned caisson toward thewater. He had to go a little distance each time, and this must havebothered him, for possibly he could not manage to empty the reservoirbefore the Uhlans arrived, which fact would break his heart.
Meanwhile, Giraffe, being the lightest of foot and most eager, hadmanaged to reach the spot where the boat lay, partly visible in theweeds and rushes. Bumpus, trailing in the rear, listened with his heartalmost in his throat, for he knew that the tall scout would immediatelyannounce the condition of his find. Nor was he mistaken in the leastwith regard to this, for Giraffe had let out a whoop that had a ring ofexultation in it.
“It’s all right, boys!” he shouted, “and here’s an oar and a push-poleall handy in the bargain. Now let’s get the old thing afloat!”
There was certainly no time to lose. Those hard-riding Uhlans must bebearing down on the spot with a swoop and apt to arrive within shootingdistance before the boys could manage to make the opposite side of thestream.
Thad and Allan swooped down, and with Giraffe handling at least half theburden, they made a combined rush for the border of the river. Littledid they care that their feet got wet, or that they stepped in almost totheir knees in the endeavor to launch the boat.
With a great splash it dropped and floated! Giraffe was in the act ofturning so as to speed back after the oar and pole when he discoveredBumpus tottering along, bearing them under his arm, while with the otherhand he clutched his grip, as though he did not mean to let that getaway from him if he could help it.
“Bully for you, Bumpus; you’re the goods, and a whole yard wide!” yelpedthe excited Giraffe, as he convoyed the fat chum to the end of the boatand almost lifted him aboard.
They embarked in a regular scramble. It was no time for ceremony. Thedanger was too menacing to allow of anything but actions based onintuition rather than careful figuring.
Thad seized the oar and commenced using it with desperate energy.Giraffe refused to relinquish the push-pole, although Allan had held outhis hand for the same and gave every evidence of being ready to devotehis surplus energy to the task of finding the bottom of the river.
So they were actually off at last, and perhaps the whole effort tookmuch less time than it has required to tell it. Whether the Uhlans weregetting close or not could only be guessed, because the low bank of theriver prevented them from seeing this fact for themselves.
Bumpus lay in the stern, just as he had fallen into the craft. OnceGiraffe called out sharply to the stout comrade and asked him to “trimthe boat” a little by rolling more to the right, which, of course,Bumpus only too willingly did. He was ever an obliging boy and ready toaccommodate his friends on all occasions. Besides, Bumpus realized thathe was having the easy end of the game, just lying there and letting theothers do all the work.
Allan was in the bow and had his face turned toward the shore from whichthey had just started. Hence he was in a position to see all that wenton there.
“Tell us when you glimpse ’em, Allan!” wheezed Giraffe between furiouspushes with his pole, while Thad kept pace by rapid urgings with theoar, which he was of course using in the nature of a paddle, since it isimpossible to row with only half a pair.
“Can’t see yet awhile, on account of that bank,” Allan called out; “butI seem to _hear_ something like the pounding of horses’ hoofs, now thatthe shells have about stopped coming!”
Just then his attention was taken up with something else. The excitedFrenchman at
the caisson had changed his mind evidently. He saw that hecould never empty the ammunition cart of all its contents before thecoming of the cavalrymen, and apparently a new scheme had struck him.
Even as Allan glanced that way he saw the horses running down along thestream as though they had been cut free from the caisson by a sharpknife and then jabbed with the same pointed blade more or less painfullyin order to cause them to dash off. And there was the driver unwindingsomething that looked like a thick black cord, backing away from thestranded ammunition chest at the same time.
Allan guessed what was in the wind. He did not need any one to tell himthat it was a fuse the driver handled, and that he meant to lay a trapso as to blow up the caisson with its valuable contents before sufferingit to fall into the hands of the enemy.
Well, that was no affair of the boys, so long as they were not struck byany fragment of the exploding ammunition depot. Allan felt a furthertouch of sincere admiration for the valiant French driver and thenturned his attention to their own condition, which was getting ratherdesperate, it seemed.
Despite all that Thad could do with his paddle, supplemented by theenergetic use of the push-pole in the hands of Giraffe, also workinglike a hero, the boat did not move along as fast as they would haveliked. It was a clumsy, flat-bottom contraption and never built forspeed. Water was oozing in through a number of small cracks, and whilethis did not threaten them with immediate disaster, at the same timeevery gallon that the boat took in added so much to the weight anddelayed their progress a fraction of time.
Then Allan sighted the oncoming Uhlans. The spectacle did not add to hishopes, for he could see that they were scores in number, and that thosein the lead promised to actually reach the shore of the stream beforethe boat, at their present rate of progress, could ever attain theopposite bank.
Allan shivered to think what would happen. His feelings grew even moreintense when he discovered, as he did just then, that some of the hardriders were already reaching back for the guns they carried alongsidetheir thighs. He knew from this that they would commence firing in shortorder. There was no time for any explanations, and even throwing uptheir arms in token of surrender might not count for anything.
What could be done? Allan was at his wits’ ends to know. His heartseemed to be in his throat as he surveyed the galloping soldiers, andthen, twisting his head around, contemplated the shore haven, still somelittle distance away.
Suddenly the water splashed up in a little jet not five feet on one sideof the clumsy boat. Bumpus gave a squeal.
“Oh! they’re shooting at us, as sure as anything!” he exclaimed indismay.
Allan knew this even before the other called out, for had he not seenthe little puff of smoke break out of the oncoming squad of Uhlans?Others would also be following suit just as soon as they found a chance,he knew very well.
Only one thing favored them, and this was the fact that it is a mostdifficult feat for any one mounted on a madly running horse to doaccurate shooting, no matter how much he may have practiced. Still, if anumber of the men started to give them a volley there must always be achance of a bullet striking home. Besides, at the present rate ofadvance the cavalrymen would be on the very brink of the river by thetime the boys reached the other shore, and then what could save them?
Allan wondered whether it would be of any use for them to jump overboardand dive. They might manage to make the bank, but only to be picked offby the Uhlan marksmen a minute later.
It was while he was worrying in this fashion that there came a quickexplosion close by that gave them all a rude shock, followed by minorcrashes, plainly the discharge of shells. The desperate driver had firedhis fuse and blown up the caisson with its contents.
Although there was considerable splashing in the water around them, ascertain portions of the wrecked wagon fell in the river, in some way orother the inmates of the boat escaped injury. Allan believed they werepartly protected by the jutting foundation of the destroyed bridge,which fortunately came between the exploding ammunition wagon and theboat.
Still Giraffe and Thad strove to reach the further bank, though justwhat they could do to save themselves after that had been accomplishedwas a conundrum for every one. Bumpus was turning his head to lookbehind now, consumed by a terrible curiosity that seemed to gnaw intohis very vitals. He stared at the oncoming riders and wondered whetherthe next volley they might fire would bring disaster to himself andcomrades. He could see that they were dead in earnest, and that whilethis fighting spirit moved them they were not inclined to show mercy tothose they believed to be their enemies.
Bumpus could not tear his eyes away from the terrible spectacle. Thosegalloping soldiers began to assume gigantic appearance to his wonderingand horrified eyes. And then, even as he looked again, he heard a loudroaring sound as if other caissons had taken up the challenge and werealso exploding in one, two, three order.
To his amazement he suddenly realized that the leading Uhlans hadvanished in a cloud of smoke—men and horses seemed to have beenenveloped in destruction, and those behind, panic-stricken, were drivingtheir animals this way and that, wild to get off the road. But Allanknew what it meant, and that the French battery had taken up a positionwhere the gunners could command the bridgehead!
The Boy Scouts Afoot in France; or, With the Red Cross Corps at the Marne Page 8