Belgians to the Front

by Ralph Henry Barbour

  CHAPTER IV

  THE FLIGHT

  From his hiding place outside the cottage, Arthur had been watchingfaithfully while Paul explored the inside. He heard the steps thatheralded the approach of a man, and whistled at once, imitating the cryof a quail, since he thought it better to take the chance of giving afalse alarm than of letting his chum be trapped inside. But it wasalready too late, as it turned out. Paul had gone down into the cellarand let the door fall behind him. So Arthur's warning fell on deafears.

  The steps came nearer, and Arthur, wondering why Paul did not appear,and only half guessing the reason, whistled louder. It was hard forhim to refrain from dashing at once to the rescue. But after amoment's thought he realized that this would do Paul no good, and thatit was all important for him to remain free, so that, if Paul was madea prisoner, he could carry the news to Liege and so serve not onlyBelgium, but Paul, since that would be Paul's only chance of rescue.At least so it seemed then.

  Now the man whose approach had alarmed Arthur came in sight. He wastrudging along, looking like a veritable peasant. But, now, in thelight of the suspicions that had been aroused that day, Arthur couldsee things about this man that distinguished him from the Flemishdwellers in the neighborhood.

  "He is a German!" he thought. "What shall I do?"

  For the moment he could do literally nothing. He could only lie stilland watch the man go up to the front door of the cottage and unlock it.But then, after the German had gone in, Arthur saw that there was stilla light--a light that became visible as soon as the pretended peasantlighted his lamp. Plainly the door had not been quite closed; thelittle streak of light showed that.

  Arthur waited breathlessly for some sign that Paul's presence had beendiscovered. But none came. He was close enough to the door to hearthe man in the cottage stamping about, and he could guess, of course,that Paul was concealed in some fashion. He had even the idea of thecellar but of course he could not be sure that Paul was not above--safeas long as it did not enter the German's head to climb the stairs. Atany rate, Arthur was grateful for a respite, no matter how brief itmight prove to be. Almost anything was better than the actualknowledge that his chum had been caught.

  "While there's life, there's hope!" he said to himself, grimly.

  But it was a good deal easier for him to determine that he would makesome sort of effort to release his chum than it was for him to discovera practical way of doing so. He had the feeling that at any cost toPaul he must secure his own freedom; that was the thing that Paul hadimpressed most vividly on his mind. At last he determined to risk atrip to the window by which Paul had made his entrance. He wanted tolook inside; to see, at least, what was going on. Then some means ofhelping Paul might suggest itself.

  Of course Arthur had seen nothing of the inside of the room, since ithad been dark when Paul had climbed in. Now the first thing he sawafter the man of the house himself, was the trap door that led to thecellar. He understood at once that Paul must be down there.

  "That's why he didn't hear me, of course!" he said to himself. "Now toget him out!"

  Suddenly, just as he was about to leave the window, Arthur was startledinto a stiff and rigid halt by the sound of a heavy knock on the doorof the cottage. The German inside, busy just then in cutting up a hugesausage that was evidently to be his dinner, seemed to be almost asstartled as Arthur himself. He jumped up, upsetting his chair, andflung the door open. At once his whole manner changed. He startedback, then stiffened himself and stood at attention. A young man,dressed in a uniform of a greenish-gray cloth that Arthur had neverseen before, and covered now with dust, walked in. Arthur couldscarcely believe his eyes. Everything about the newcomer pointed tothe fact that he was a German officer, for if the color of the uniformwas unfamiliar, its cut was not. But a German officer in uniform here!

  "Zu befehl, Herr Hauptmann!" said the man of the cottage.

  "It's come, Froebel," said the captain. He stretched his arms, as ifglad of the chance. "I've had a fine trip from Aachen! The worstroads I ever tried to push a motorcycle over! But I'm here--so that'seven! There are more coming. General von Emmich's army is on themarch already. We have even now taken possession of Luxembourg.To-night the Belgian government finally declined to give us the rightto move our troops through their little toy country! So we must fightthem, too."

  "I'm not sorry," said Froebel. Some of the stiffness had gone out ofhis manner. "I'll be glad to get a chance to do some fighting insteadof this eternal spying! And who knows? If I am lucky, I may get alittle swifter promotion than I had hoped for."

  "Oh, I forgot," said the other. "Congratulations, Froebel! You haveyour captaincy, and a staff detail. That's unofficial, of course. ButI've seen the order."

  "Good," said Froebel, impassively. "But if you stay with the line,Poertner, you'll be a colonel before I'm a major. Enough--to business!I have bad news."

  "Bad news? What sort?"

  "It's that clumsy fool Ridder! He has been mapping the whole field ofoperation here, as you know--details of the forts, and the location ofall the concealed gun mountings and platforms we have put in in casethe Belgians should be foolish enough to try to stop us by force."

  "Yes, yes! What of it?"

  "Eh? He had those papers--those simply invaluable papers! And he wasalarmed by two Belgian boys in Boy Scout uniform--thought they weresoldiers coming to arrest him! He took to his heels and naturally,being boys, they followed! He dropped his papers going over a fence!When he missed them he went back. But he found no trace of them. Heis sure that the two boys got them."

  "Donnerwetter! That's a bad business, Froebel! I fear for our friendRidder! The intelligence department will not be altogether pleased bythis. But what if the boys have them? Is there a chance, do youthink, that they will understand them?"

  "Who knows? Some devil might lead them to take them to a Belgianofficer! However--even so, there is this much of good about it. Thereis no time for them to do anything. They can't get at our gunplatforms. If they had a week! But you say General von Emmich isalready on the march? That means that war has been declared?"

  "No, only that it has begun," said Poertner, with a smile. "It is nolonger the fashion to declare war formally---unless the enemy is likeRussia with us--so far away that we can't strike first. No. Themodern way is to begin fighting and let the other side declare war. Sothey seem to take the aggressive."

  "I see," said Froebel. "Well, at any rate, it is the time I amthinking of. They are fairly well prepared here at Liege. The fortsare in order; they have good men, and plenty of ammunition for theirguns. But against our Krupp pieces--"

  He laughed to express the chance that the stout forts of Liege were tohave against the German artillery. And outside Arthur, listening,ground his teeth. He was glad that he had come; already he had learnedfacts likely to prove of the first importance. No matter how well thegarrison of Liege was prepared for any emergency, it would be vastlyhelpful to know when the blow might be expected to fall. It is onething to be prepared for a trouble that may come some day; it is quiteanother to know that it is imminent, and to make plans accordingly.

  In Arthur's mind an idea now began to take root. The voices of the twoGermans inside died away, and he seized the opportunity to make his wayquietly to the front of the cottage. There, lying on its side, was themotorcycle of which the new arrival had spoken. Arthur had riddenmotorcycles himself, and now he went up to this one and examined itcarefully. He found that while it was different from the ones he hadridden, the points of difference were really trifling and that he couldunderstand it easily enough.

  Then he went back for another peep in the window. The two Germanofficers were busily engaged now in eating, and were washing down thesausage, amid a good deal of laughter at the rough fare, with twobottles of wine.

  "When we have finished," said Poertner, "we will have a look at yourlittle arsenal below."

  "It's a real arsenal
," said Froebel, proudly. "That was rather wellmanaged, I think. We have managed to bring in the guns, one part at atime and the ammunition piecemeal, in the same way. These stupidBelgians never even suspected. It is only just lately that they haveeven begun to dream that there might be danger for them if it came towar. Before they woke up everything was here!"

  "Well, your guns will be at work before many hours if all goes well,"said Poertner. "This sausage of yours is not so bad, after all! Foodis food when you are hungry! Ah, it will be some time, at best, beforewe can eat again in Berlin, my friend!"

  "Yes. There will be garrison work, even after we have taken Paris.Still, even so, it should not be so long. Three weeks perhaps--thatshould be enough to beat the French this time. We are better preparedthan we were in 1870."

  "So are they, I hear. Well, they couldn't be worse off than they werethen! No matter, though--we shall outnumber them from the start. Willthe English fight, do you think?"

  "Pah--the English! No! They will be too busy with their troubles athome. They will have a rebellion on their hands in Ulster. No,England will have too many troubles of her own at home, to be able tocross the sea to look for more."

  Arthur had heard all he needed. Now he drew back from the window,picking up several good-sized stones as he did so. And when he wassome distance away, but still able to see the two Germans, he stoppedand waited.

  He waited until the two officers had finished their meal and had risen.Even then he waited until they moved, together, to the trap door.Then, raising his arm, he let fly the first of his stones. It crashedthrough the window, shattering the glass. At once he threw another,and then still another. He had counted, and not in vain, on theinstinct that would move the two Germans. With a single motion theyleaped to the door. As they did so, even as they rushed out, he randiagonally, so as to get away from them, toward the front of the house.As they stormed around in the direction from which he had thrown thestones, and so out of sight of the front of the house, he stopped.They passed within half a dozen feet of him, but, naturally, they hadnot expected him to come right toward them, and they passed himunnoticed.

  Then, as soon as they were out of sight, he made for the cottage. Hemeant to call Paul. But Paul was at the door as he reached it for hehad understood, from what he had been able to hear, something of whathad happened.

  "Come on! Here's a motorcycle we can take!" cried Arthur, eagerly.

  He lifted the machine. In a moment he had started the motor, and Paulleaped up behind him as he got it going.

  "Hurry! Here they come!" shouted Paul.

  The put-put of the motor had aroused the Germans to what was going on.Now they stormed back around the cottage. They were just in time tosee the motorcycle being ridden madly off; in time, too, to fire acouple of shots apiece from their pistols. But their aim was bad: theboys heard the bullets whistling over their heads. In less than aminute they were safe!