CHAPTER XXII
A PROMISE OF HELP
There was a gratified exclamation from Colonel Pavet, and a new lightcame into his eyes. The magic name of France had abolished for themoment all distinctions of rank. The officer reached out his hand andtook Frank's in a hearty grasp.
"Then you are fighting for two countries," he ejaculated.
"Yes," laughed Frank. "I'm luckier than most of the fellows."
"In what part of the country was your mother born?" asked the colonelwith interest.
"In Auvergne," Frank replied.
"In Auvergne," repeated the officer, with vivacity. "Why I come fromthat part of the country myself. What was your mother's family name?"
"De Latour," said Frank.
"There is another coincidence," cried the colonel. "I know the familywell. Their estate was only a few miles south of ours. Her father wasan old comrade in arms and served in the same regiment with me when wewere stationed in Algiers.
"Many's the time we've ridden and messed and fought together againstthe Bedouins. He's dead now," he continued, a slight shade crossinghis face. "How proud he would have been were he alive to know that hisgrandson was fighting for France.
"Let me see," he went on. "I've been a long time away from Auvergnebut it seems to me that when I was last there, I heard some talk oftrouble in settling his estate--some lawsuit or other, that tied theproperty up. Do you know anything about it?"
"Yes," replied Frank. "My mother has been worrying over it for sometime past. She was just about to sail for France to see about it whenthe war broke out."
He rapidly sketched the details of the legal trouble with which hismother had made him familiar. The officer listened attentively andwith marked sympathy.
"It is too bad," said Colonel Pavet. "I will see what I can do. Ihave a good many friends in Auvergne and there are many, too, who honorthe name and memory of De Latour and would do all in their power tohelp his daughter.
"And when I tell them that their daughter's son is fighting on our soilthey will redouble their efforts. Count on me, my boy. This terriblewar may delay matters but I will not forget."
The too parted then, leaving Frank with his heart beating faster at thethought of what might come from this most unexpected meeting.
Now he would have something to write home to his mother that wouldthrill her heart. That very night the letter should be written, theletter that was so eagerly awaited, always, in that lonely house atCamport, but that this time would receive even a more joyous welcomethan usual.
What a strange twist of fate it would prove if this trip to France,undertaken in a spirit of pure patriotism, should reap a double rewardin lifting the burden that had weighed upon his mother's heart foryears!
One day a sham battle had been planned that embraced a front severalmiles in length and Frank's company was detailed to take up a positionin a wood at the extreme left of the line.
The boys welcomed the assignment, for it was to carry them into asection of the country that had up to now been unfamiliar to them, andit afforded a diversion from the ordinary drill of the training camp.
They set off in high spirits after a hearty breakfast, and after a hikeof four miles reached the bit of woodland where they were supposed toawait the attack of the enemy.
"Gee!" exclaimed Frank, as he filled his lungs with the balsam of thewoods, "this is great. It's enough just to be alive on a gloriousmorning like this."
"It's a little bit of Eden," declared Bart, as he looked about him."Listen to those birds singing. If it weren't for the boom of cannonoff there you wouldn't know there was such a thing as war in the world."
"Yes," chimed in Tom, "but there was a snake in Eden, and there'sanother one in the world now, that's got to be scotched before theworld can rest in peace."
"Well, these woods have escaped so far," said Billy, as he lookedaround at the noble elms and birches.
"Yes," assented Bart, "and I guess they're safe. The German tide hascome a good way into France, but I have a hunch that it's about spentits force."
"If the Huns get here they'll have to come over our dead bodies," saidTom.
It was some time before, in the plan for the sham battle, the enemy wasexpected to approach this copse of woods, and, with sentries posted, todetect and give warning of an approach, the rest of the men had beenpermitted to break ranks and do as they pleased. Some had thrownthemselves on the ground in all sorts of sprawling attitudes, otherswere smoking and chatting together, while still others wandered to theedge of the woods and gazed over the broad plateau that stretched formore than a mile to the left of the woods. The sky was cloudless andthe sun was shining brightly.
The monotonous boom of the distant guns, sounding like the roar ofwaves upon a beach, kept up unceasingly, but the boys had got so usedto it that they scarcely noticed it.
But suddenly, among these bass notes came another sound, or series ofsounds, sharp, shrill, metallic, which they had already learned toidentify as the popping of anti-aircraft guns.
"That sounds as though they had sighted one of the Hun aeroplanes,"commented Frank.
"More likely it's part of the practice," remarked Tom, carelessly.
"Look at those shrapnel puffs over there," cried Bart, pointing towardthe sky.
High up in the air, following one another in quick succession, werelight, bluish streaks, that after reaching an enormous height, suddenlyburst in a cloud of white.
"They're certainly firing at something," remarked Billy, "but for thelife of me I don't see what it is."
"I do," cried Bart. "Look! just at the edge of that fleecy cloud.It's so white you can hardly tell it from the cloud itself."
They strained their eyes in the direction where Bart was pointing.High up in the air, miles, it seemed, was a long, silver streak, shapedlike an immense cigar. At that height it seemed almost to hang in theatmosphere, so gliding and imperceptible was its motion. And yet theboys knew that it was really shooting along with the speed of anexpress train.
"A Zeppelin!" they shouted, in chorus.
"A super-Zeppelin, or I miss my guess," observed Frank. "Look at thesize of it."
"Oh, if the guns could only reach it!" exclaimed Bob.
"No such luck," groaned Billy, "it's too far up. See! the shrapnelpuffs are half a mile below it."
"It's on its way back to the German lines," remarked Frank, "and Iguess there's nothing to stop its getting there."
"Been on a baby killing trip to Paris, I suppose," said Tom, bitterly.
"More likely London, judging from the direction," estimated Billy.
They watched the monster as it sailed swiftly on, until it was lost tosight.
"I'd have given a year of my life to have seen that thing broughtdown," said Bart. "Can't you see the crew of it gloating over thewomen and children they've killed, and boasting about it when they getback to their lines?"
"Well, you know the Indians used to scalp women and children just aseagerly as they did men," remarked Billy, "and those Boches can givethe Indians cards and spades and beat them out."
They were about to go back to the grove, with one last regretful lookat the sky, when an exclamation from Frank brought them to a suddenhalt.
"There's another one," he cried, pointing to the distant horizon. Evenas he spoke a second Zeppelin came plainly into view, following in thewake of the first, but with greatly diminished speed.
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Bart, "there must be a fleet of them!"
"That one hasn't got off scot free, either," said Frank, his keen eyenoting the apparent distress of the giant airship, as it moveduncertainly and unevenly, like a ship laboring in a storm. "By Jove,fellows, I believe it's coming down! Quick! get under the cover ofthese trees!"
Lower and lower, like a bird with a broken wing, the Zeppelin cametoward the earth, while the boys watched it in breathless excitement.
Whether the Zeppelin could go no further, and sank despite itself, orwhe
ther its commander, looking at that broad plateau, and seeing nosign of life upon it, had decided to make a landing, quickly repair hisinjured machinery, and then rise again to seek refuge behind his ownlines, the boys could not tell. But whatever the reason, not manyminutes had passed before it became apparent that the airship wascoming down, inevitably, right in front of them.
The word had been passed quickly all through the woods, and the wholecompany was on the alert.
"Ready for action, men," commanded the lieutenant.
With rifles in hand, and all their senses keenly on the alert, thesoldiers waited for the coming of their prey.
With a perceptible jar the airship struck the ground, and at the sameinstant her crew swarmed out and dropped over the sides.
"Charge!" shouted the American lieutenant, and out from the woods thearmy boys went with a rush.
The astounded Germans were taken so utterly by surprise that they stoodfor a moment as though paralyzed. Then their commander barked out asharp order, and two of the men leaped on board and made for theengines.
Crack! went the lieutenant's revolver, and as the bullet whistled pastthe ears of the foremost man both Germans came to a stop.
"Forward, men, and surround them, but don't shoot unless you have to,"was the next order, and an instant later the German crew were ringedabout with rifles whose ominous muzzles threatened to mow them down atthe first false move.
The German officer had started to draw a pistol, but seeing theuselessness of this, he shoved it back into its holster and shruggedhis shoulders. He was trapped. The game was up. He raised his handsin signal of surrender.
Another command from the lieutenant, and the crew were disarmed. Acertain number of the men were detailed to guard them, and others wereplaced in charge of the airship.
The boys were wild with delight at the rich prize that had fallen sounexpectedly into their hands.
"We've had two great days, boys!" exclaimed Frank, "if we never haveany others. The day we saw the submarine potted, and the day we nabbedthe Zeppelin."
"Glory, hallelujah!" crowed Bart. "And to think we've got it in suchgood shape. The Allies have been crazy for a long time to find outjust what new wrinkles the Germans have got in the way of machinery andother features in their latest Zeppelins. Maybe the engineers won'tcome running when they learn of this!"
"And maybe there won't be joy in Paris and London and Washington!"jubilated Tom.
"And perhaps the Huns won't gnash their teeth and tear their hair!"chuckled Billy. "Oh, boy, we sure had luck when they sent us out herethis morning."
"That German officer is a hard loser," remarked Frank. "See that scowlon his face. A thundercloud has nothing on him. He's sore through andthrough."
The boys would have liked nothing better than to have had a chance toexplore the Zeppelin and see the many interesting and novel featuresembodied in it, but their hopes in this direction were doomed to bedisappointed. The lieutenant was inflexible in his resolve to haveabsolutely nothing on the captured airship disturbed until thegovernment experts arrived to inspect it, and sorely against theirwills the boys were forced to content themselves with an exterior viewof the wonderful fabric.
The German officer, being utterly without means of escape, had not beenput under the custody to which his crew had been subjected. He stoodstiffly by the side of the American lieutenant, awaiting thedisposition that the latter might choose to make of him.
The American officer sought to question him, but found his prisoner,although able to speak English, inclined to reply only inmonosyllables. The courteous persistence of the American, however, hadits effect, and the German became more communicative, but he balked attelling where he had been, or what his raid had accomplished. Afteranswering a number of questions of lesser importance, the Germanhimself became the questioner.
"To what enemy have I surrendered?" he queried.
"To a regiment of the United States Army," replied the lieutenant.
A bewildered look came into the prisoner's eyes.
"You mean British Army," he suggested, by way of correction.
"I said United States," said the lieutenant, briefly.
The puzzled look deepened.
"Impossible!" he exclaimed. "There is no United States Army in France."
Despite himself, the American officer could hardly suppress a smile.
"Just listen to him!" exclaimed Frank, who was within hearing distance.
"Didn't I tell you the Germans would believe anything their generalstold them?" replied Bart.
"My, but this is rich!" chortled Tom.
"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it," chuckled Billy, ina tone too subdued for the lieutenant to notice.
"I assure you," said the lieutenant, "that there is an army of theUnited States in France, despite your unbelief. Why should it seem sostrange?"
"But you couldn't possibly have gotten over here," persisted theprisoner.
"Why not?" asked the American.
"Because our U-boats would have stopped you," was the reply.
"No use," murmured Frank to Bart. "Nobody home."
"Padded cell number nine hundred and ninety-nine," whispered Billy.
It was of no use to argue against such credulity, and the lieutenantgave it up.
The prisoners were marched back to camp, where the news of their cominghad preceded them. It created a great sensation, and was the maintopic of conversation for many days thereafter.
"It's been a red letter day," remarked Bart that night, as he preparedto climb into his bunk.
"You bet it has," agreed Frank. "We bagged a Zeppelin!"
Two days after these momentous events, a stir of expectation ranthrough the camp. Evidently some important move was in prospect. Whatit was, the rank and file did not know, but rumors and conjectures ranriot.
"There's something big coming, boys," said Frank, one night aftersupper.
"That's plain enough," agreed Bart. "But I'd give a lot to know justwhat it is."
"The corporal gave me a private tip," replied Frank. "He didn't govery far into it, but from what he hinted I have a hunch that none ofus will go to bed to-night."
"What?" they cried, in chorus.
"That's what," returned Frank. "But of course it may be a false alarm.Wilson himself wasn't any too sure."
An hour later the bugle blew, but this call was not for "lights out."It was the command to "fall in."
Sudden as it was, the high state of discipline the men had reached wasshown by the fact that there was no confusion. As precisely as veteransoldiers they fell into line by companies and platoons and waited forthe order "Forward, march!"
The order was not long in coming, and as quietly as ghosts, with noband to lead them, the regiment swung into step and started off.
"We're on our way to the front," whispered Frank to Bart, who marchedon his right.
"Off to the trenches!" agreed Bart. "Well, I'm glad the waiting timeis over. Now, we'll have a chance to show what kind of soldiers weare."
For three whole hours the march went on without a halt. The night wasclear although there was no moon. As the ground was dry and springythe going was good.
During that last hour the signs had multiplied that they wereapproaching the scene of battle. They passed by bits of woodland whereevery leaf and twig had been stripped from the trees by shell fire,leaving only the scarred and ghastly trunks.
They went through villages, or what had once been villages, but werenow only heaps of crumbling stone with, here and there, a shaky wallleft standing.
They had to watch their footing more and more to avoid falling intocraters where the ground had been torn up by shells. There was nobeauty in that part of fertile France that had once been like a "gardenof the Lord."
War had breathed upon it, blighting and blasting every living thing,except the dauntless spirit of the people who were fighting and wouldfight to the last gasp in defense of liberty and civilization.
At last they reached a line of sentinels by whom they were greeted, notwith challenges, but with exclamations of delight and welcome.
A little further on they came to a great gash in the earth thatstretched in either direction like a huge black, zigzag blot.
They had reached the trenches!
But they did not stop there. Onward they went again, past another lineof trenches.
"Gee! we must be going to the first line of trenches!" whispered Bart.
"That's what!" answered Frank.
Army Boys in France; or, From Training Camp to Trenches Page 22