CHAPTER XV
A DECISIVE MOVEMENT
Pete Stubbs was secretly glad that the scouting trip toward FessendenJunction had been ordered. He was terribly afraid of the consequences toJack should he accept Broom's defiance and meet him that night, and hedid not know whether Durland and Dick Crawford would share his views. Sohe hoped that the work in the scout car would distract Jack's mind andlead him to forget his promise to Broom to see what the Scout-Master andhis assistant thought of the plan.
As the car made its swift way along the roads towards FessendenJunction, the sound of firing constantly came to them.
"I thought Jim Burroughs said the fighting had been stopped," said TomBinns.
"The main bodies were stopped, but that doesn't mean the whole fight isover," explained Jack. "Bean's brigade, you see, probably hasn't been inaction at all yet. His troops were not among those sent to Tryon Creek,and he has to cover the roads leading in this direction. It's justbecause General Harkness is afraid that some of the Blue troops may havebeen detached to make a raid by a roundabout route that we are comingover here."
"Suppose we ran into them, Jack? Would we be able to get word back intime to be of any use?"
"Why not? This is our own country. We have the telegraph and thetelephone wires, and the railroad is within a mile of General Harkness'squarters at Tryon Creek. All he needs to do is to pack troops aboard thetrains he undoubtedly has waiting there and send them on to FessendenJunction. We have the same advantage here that the enemy had when theyheld Hardport. Then we had to move our troops entirely on foot whilethey could use the railroad, and move ten miles to our one. Now thatposition is reversed--as long as we hold the key of the railroadsituation, Fessenden Junction."
The road to Fessenden Junction was perfectly clear. They rolled into thebusy railroad centre without having seen a sign of troops of eitherarmy. A single company was stationed at the depot in Fessenden Junction,impatient at the duty that held it there while the other companies ofthe same regiment were at the front, getting a chance to take part inall the thrilling moves of the war game.
Jack told the officers all he knew as they crowded around his car whilehe stopped to replenish his stock of gasoline. There was little in hisnarrative that had not come to them already over the wires, but theywere interested in him and in the scouting car.
"We've heard all about you," said a lieutenant. "You've certainly doneyourself proud in this war! They tell me that the car will surely beadopted as a result of your success with it. Do you know if that's so?"
"I hadn't heard, Lieutenant," said Jack, his face lighting up. "But Icertainly hope it's true. It's a dandy car!"
"You didn't expect to see anything of the enemy the way we came, didyou, Jack?" asked Pete Stubbs, when they were in motion once more.
"No, I didn't, Pete. But it was a good chance to study a road we didn'tknow. We may have considerable work in this section before we getthrough, and I want to know the roads. That road, of course, is guardedthis morning by General Bean's brigade. It would take more than araiding cavalry brigade to break through his line and make for theJunction this way, and if General Bliss sent troops to Fessenden, theywouldn't stop to fight on the way. They would choose a road that wasopen, if they could, or very weakly defended, at least. Otherwise they'dbe beaten before they got here. Even a couple of regiments would be ableto hold up a brigade, no matter how well it was led, long enough forGeneral Harkness to find out what was going on and occupy FessendenJunction in force."
"Where are you going now, then?"
"East of Bremerton, on the way back. I know that isn't exactly orders,but it seems to me it's common sense. General Bliss had a long line thismorning, and Mardean was practically its centre. Hardport had become hisbase again. He's held Hardport now for two days, practically, and he'shad time to repair all the damage we did. Why shouldn't he have thrownhis brigade, if he planned a raid on the Junction at all, thirty mileseast from Hardport, to swing across the State line at about Freeport,cut the railroad east of Fessenden Junction, and so approach it from theeast, when everyone expects an attack to be made from the west?"
"That would be pretty risky, wouldn't it, Jack?"
"Certainly it would--and yet, if he could fool everyone into thinking hewas going to do just the opposite, it would be the safest thing he coulddo. You see, all the fighting to-day has been well west of Bremerton andFessenden Junction. Our orders were to do our scouting on the westernside of the Junction. I've obeyed those orders, and I haven't found outa thing. Now I think I've a right to use my own discretion, and see ifthere are signs of danger on this side."
"Gee, that certainly sounds reasonable, Jack! They've been doing thething that wasn't expected ever since the business started. I guessthey're just as likely as not to keep on doing it, too."
"We ought to know in a little while, anyhow, Pete. I'm going to circlearound here, strike a road that runs parallel to the railroad as it runseast of the Junction, and see what's doing."
Jack hurried along then for a time, and none of those in the car hadanything to say, since, when Jack was pushing her, the noise was toogreat to make conversation pleasant or easy in any sense of the words.
They were in the road now that ran along parallel with the railroadthat, running east from Fessenden Junction and away from the Statecapital, which lay southwest of that important point, approachedgradually a junction with the main line of the railroad from Hardport atFreeport.
Jack was keeping his eyes open. He hardly knew what he expected to see,but he had an idea that there would be something to repay their trip.
And, about fifteen miles from Fessenden Junction, the soundness of hisjudgment was proved once more.
"Look up there!" cried Pete, suddenly. The eyes of three Scouts wereturned upward in a moment, and there, perhaps two miles away, and threehundred feet above them, they saw a biplane hovering.
"Gee!" cried Jack. "That's the first we've seen in the air--a Bluebiplane! None of our machines would be in this direction."
Swiftly he looked along the fence until he saw an opening.
"Here, jump out and let those bars down!" he cried, stopping the car.
The others obeyed at once, and in a moment he ran the car gently intothe field and stopped beside a hayrick.
"Sorry to disturb the farmer's hayrick," said he, then, jumping out inhis turn, "but this is important!"
And a moment later the three Scouts, following his example, were as busyas bees, covering the grey automobile with new hay, that hid iteffectually from any spying eyes that might be looking down on them fromabove.
"Now we'll make ourselves look small," said Jack.
He looked around the field.
"I shouldn't wonder if they picked this out for a landing spot, if theydecide to land at all," said he. "We want to see them if they doanything like that, and hear them, too, if we can. We may want to findout something from them."
Swiftly, then, they burrowed into the hay. They could look out and seeanything that went on about them, but unless an enemy came very close,they themselves were entirely safe from detection.
"Now we'll know what they're up to, I guess," said Jack, with a gooddeal of satisfaction. "It's a good thing I sort of half disobeyed ordersand came this way, isn't it?"
"You didn't really disobey orders, did you, Jack?" asked Tom.
"No, I didn't, really, Tom. I did what I was ordered to do, but I didsomething more, too, as there was no special time limit set for the jobthey gave us. But a scout is supposed to use his own judgment a gooddeal, anyhow. Otherwise he wouldn't be any use as a scout, so far as Ican see."
It was very quiet in the hay. But above them, and sounding all the moreclearly and distinctly for the silence that was everywhere else, theycould hear the great hum of the motor of the aeroplane. With no muffler,the engine of the flying-machine kicked up a lot of noise, and, as itgradually grew louder, Jack was able to tell, even without looking up,that it was coming down.
"By George
," said he, "I think they are going to land! They're gettingmore cautious, you see. They scout ahead now, and they're using theirwar aeroplane the way we have been using this car of ours."
"What are our flying-machines doing, Jack? I haven't seen them on thejob at all."
"General Harkness is using them in the actual battles. They go up tospot concealed bodies of the enemy, so that our gunners can get therange and drive the enemy, theoretically, out of any cover they havefound. That's one of the ways in which flying machines are expected tobe most useful in the next war. You see, as it is now, with smokelesspowder and practically invisible uniforms, ten thousand men can do a lotof damage before anyone on the other side can locate them at all. Butwith a flying-machine, they won't be able to hide themselves. A man athousand feet above them can see them, and direct the fire of artilleryby signals so that the troops that were in entire security until hediscovered them can be cut to pieces by heavy shell fire."
"That's what our men have been doing, eh?"
"Yes--and theirs, too, mostly. This is the first time I've seen one oftheir machines scouting. Look out now--keep quiet! They're landing, andthey're not more than a hundred feet away!"
The scraping of the flying-machine, as it came to rest in the field, wasplainly audible as the Scouts stopped talking and devoted themselves tolistening intently. Also, by craning their necks a little, though theywere in no danger of being seen themselves, they could make out what thetwo men in the aeroplane were doing.
"Pretty lucky, Bill!" said one of them. "This is a good landing-place,and we can get an idea of the situation and cut the telegraph wire tosend back word."
"Right, Harry!" said the other. "I guess the coast is clear. The brigadeisn't more than five miles back, and with three train loads, they'll beable to make that Fessenden Junction look like a desert beforenight--theoretically."
"It's all theory, Bill, but it's pretty good fun, at that. I tell you,we would be in a tight place if they'd guarded this approach at all.That brigade of ours would be cut off in a minute. But if we can mess upFessenden Junction for them, they'll be so busy trying to cover theirline of retreat that they won't have any time to bother about ourfellows."
"What's the matter with that engine, anyhow?"
"Nothing much, I guess. But sometimes, if she starts missing, the wayshe did when we were up there, you can fix things and avoid a lot oftrouble by a little timely tinkering. I was up once when my engine beganmissing that way, and I didn't pay any attention to it. Then, abouttwenty minutes later, she went dead on me while I was over the water,and I had to drop, whether I wanted to or not. The water was cold, too,I don't mind saying."
"You hear that?" said Jack, in a tense whisper. "Now, as soon as theygo, we've got to destroy that railroad track, right across the road. Wemay have half an hour; we may have only a few minutes. And while two ofus do that--you and Tom, Pete--the other will have to cut the telegraphwire and send word to Fessenden Junction. General Bean is in the bestposition to get over there. I don't think we can hold them up more thanan hour or so, but that ought to be enough. At least, if there's nothingelse to be done, the fellows at Fessenden Junction can tear up a lot oftrack."
For five breathless minutes they watched the two aviators tinkering withtheir engine. Then the big bird rose in the air again, and winged itsway eastward. In a moment Jack was out of the hay and calling to hiscompanions to follow him.
"Get your tools from the car, now," he said. "Mark a rail torn up forevery ten minutes you spend there. I'll get busy with the telegraphwire."
It took Jack twenty minutes to finish his task, which was exceedinglyquick work. But he had had practice in it, and he worked feverishly,since he did not know at what minute they would be surprised and forcedto abandon the task by the on-coming enemy.
Ten minutes after he had completed his part of the task, when,theoretically, the others had been able to destroy three lengths ofrail, and had left a pile of smouldering brushwood as proof that theyhad had time to build a fire of the ties, they heard the hum ofapproaching trains along the rails.
"All right!" cried Jack. "This is as far as they can go now until theymake repairs. It's time for us to be off!"
And he led the way swiftly toward the car, still hidden in the field.
Swiftly he adjusted the spark plug, which he had carried with him, and,just as the first of the trains from the east appeared in sight, the carwas ready to move. But Jack, instead of returning to the road, andretracing his course toward Fessenden Junction, headed north across thefield, toward the State line.
"I'm going to take a short cut to General Bean's brigade and get himword of the chance he has to end things right now," he cried. "If he cancapture this brigade of the enemy, the war will be as good as over. It'sthe best chance we've had yet."
Jack knew the country perfectly, and soon he was on a country road,which, while it would have been hard on the tires of an ordinary car,was easy for the big scouting machine. They made splendid time, and inan hour they were in touch with the outposts of General Bean's troops,waiting, since the attack of the enemy in front had ceased, for any newsthat might come.
"I've just heard that the enemy is threatening Fessenden Junction fromthe east," the general told Jack, when the Boy Scout made his report.
"Yes, General," said Jack, eagerly. "And the roads are open in thisdirection. They will not be able to get very far along the railroad. Thetroops in Fessenden Junction will undoubtedly cut the tracks, just as wedid, somewhere near the village of Bridgeton, and that will be asplendid place to make a flank attack. They won't be expecting that atall, and I think you can finish them up."
General Bean reached at once for a field map.
"You've got it!" he cried. "That's just what I'll do!"
And in a moment he had given his orders accordingly. Ten minutes laterthe troops were on the march, and Jack was scouting ahead, to make surethat no shift of the enemy's plan had made it impossible for his idea tobe carried out successfully.
Bean's troops marched quickly and well, and within two hours they werein touch with the enemy, near Bridgeton. Jack and his companions, in therear, heard the sound of firing, which soon became general. And then,unhampered, Jack sped for the place where he had already cut therailroad, and, in two hours theoretically destroyed nearly half a mileof track.
"They're in a trap, now," he cried. "They'll never get by here!"
Boy Scout Automobilists; Or, Jack Danby in the Woods Page 15