CHAPTER IV
THE RECRUITS
August was drawing to its close. And still Henri and Frank were inParis. Henri's father and his uncle had gone to the front; Frank's UncleDick, if he had tried to reach Paris or St. Denis, had not succeeded. Orif he had, he had been unable to get word to Frank. War in all itsterrible reality was in full blast. Troops were passing through Parisstill, going to the front. But they were older men now, the last classesof the reservists. Every night, too, the city was dark save for thesearchlights that played incessantly from the high buildings and fromthe Eiffel Tower. For now there was a new menace. The Germans fought noton land alone, but in the air. At any time a German might appear,thousands of feet above the city, prepared to rain down death anddestruction from the clouds.
Paris was quiet and resigned. Wounded men were coming back; hospitals,from which floated the Red Cross flag, were everywhere. The hotels weresheltering the wounded; churches, theatres, all sorts of buildings notcommonly so used were in the hands of the doctors and the nurses. Therewere few newspapers; there was neither paper on which to print them, normen to run the great presses or write what they usually contained. Allwere gone; all except the old and the children. Hundreds of thousands ofmen were still in Paris, but they were the garrison of the city, the menwho would man the forts if the Germans came.
And now, to get the news, Harry and Frank went to the places where thebulletins were posted, becoming a part of the silent crowds that waited.Every day they took their places in the crowds, to learn what they couldand carry the tale back to Madame Martin. She was too busy to standamong the crowds herself; every day she was doing her part, helping inthe nursing, and helping, too, to relieve the distress among the poor.
One day the two friends turned away. They had seen the last bulletin;for some hours there would be no more news.
"I'm afraid it's not going well, Harry," said Frank.
"No," said Henri, almost with a sob in his voice. "It looks to me, too,as if the Germans were winning!"
"But many thought they would win, at first," said Frank. "It's not timeto be discouraged yet, Harry. At first we all believed the Belgians weredoing better than they could do--because they fought so well at Liege.Now Namur has fallen. And the English--they are falling back."
"Ah, well, that is so," said Henri, brightening a little. "We did notexpect to fight in Belgium, we French. Wait till they try to enterFrance! We will stop them--at Lille, at Maubeuge, at Valenciennes!"
"I hope so, Harry," said Frank, soberly. "But do you know what I think?I believe we ought to go to your home at Amiens. I think you have beenwaiting here on my account--because you thought my uncle was coming.Well, I think he couldn't come. I am better off with you. And perhaps Ican help, too. I think you should go to your mother, if she is alone atAmiens, because--"
Henri turned on him fiercely.
"Do you mean you think the Germans can get to Amiens?" he criedfuriously. "Never! Never! They will never come so far! They will bestopped long before they get near it!"
"I think so--and I hope so," said Frank. "But if my mother were there Ishould want to be there, too. I've read a great deal about war andbattles lately, Harry, and I know that often an army has to retreat, notjust because it's beaten, but because it's necessary for battles thatare planned later on. The English and the French toward the coast areretreating now--on the left of the allies. They are moving back towardAmiens, and the Germans are following them."
Henri continued to argue bitterly against the possibility that Franksuggested, but his arguments grew weaker. And when he told his auntwhat Frank had said she sighed despairingly.
"I, too, have been thinking that," she said. "These are terrible timesfor our poor France. We shall win--everyone believes that. But we shallsuffer greatly first. I have talked with General Broche--you know him,Henri. He is too old and weak to fight now, but he was active in 1870.And he says--he says that the government may move soon, away fromParis!"
"Then they think--!" cried Henri, almost overcome.
"They do not know--no one knows. But if there is to be another siege, itis better that the government should be where the Germans cannot bottleit up. I shall stay here, but I shall be safe. There are plenty to dowhat I need. Go to Amiens, Henri. Your place is near your mother. Ifthere seems to be danger, beg her to come here, or even to go to herfriends, the Douays, in Nice. There at least all will be safe."
Henri did not argue with his aunt. It was hard for him to realize thetruth, as it was for Frenchmen older than himself. But he admitted itto Frank and even to himself, that night. And so the next morning theystarted for Amiens. An officer, returning to the front after bringingdespatches to Paris, agreed to see that they reached the northern citysafely. Without him, indeed, they would have found it difficult, if notimpossible, to get aboard a train, for while other railways were openthose that led to the front were entirely in the hands of the militaryauthorities.
But thanks to the friendly officer, a friend of the Martin family inParis, they reached Amiens quickly enough. On the way, more than oncethey passed long trains carrying wounded, and, several times, othertrains on which were packed German prisoners. These, under close guard,looked out sullenly from the windows. The sight delighted Henri.
"That doesn't look much as if we were losing, does it?" he criedhappily.
Amiens itself was a smaller Paris. In times of peace, Amiens is, likemany other French cities, a curious place, owing to the contrastbetween its character as a busy, bustling, manufacturing town, and itsother character as a place where there are many renowned examples ofancient art. But now it was quiet save for the ever present soldier.Troops were passing through the streets; in the station several hundredwere entraining.
"Do soldiers go from here, too?" asked Frank.
"Yes. Amiens is the headquarters of the second army corps," explainedHarry. "All the reservists of that corps report here, no matter wherethey live. When a regiment loses a lot of men, if it is in the secondcorps, new men from here go forward to fill their places. There is nosign of the Prussians, eh?"
"No," said Frank. "I hope there never will be! But, tell me, would theyfight here? Are there fortifications?"
"Not new ones--no," said Harry. He pointed to the old citadel crowningone of the hills that commanded the town and the crooked, twistingcourse of the Somme river. "There is the old citadel. That stillstands. But the ancient battlements have been dismantled. I believe thatin time of war, if the enemy got past the troops in the field, theycould come peacefully into Amiens. It is not a fortress, like Lille orMaubeuge. Oh, look, there are some of the scouts! I see Monsieur Marron.He is the directeur of the troop--the scoutmaster. Let us speak to him."
They went over to a tall man in khaki, who was speaking to an officer inthe red and blue uniform of the French army. Henri saluted, and when theofficer went away, the scoutmaster turned to him with a smile.
"Well--so you are here, Martin," he said. "Are you going to join? Wewill waive formalities--we need all the scouts we can get."
"Yes, sir, and I have brought a recruit. He is half French--the rest ofhim is American. But he wants to join, too. May he?"
"Certainly," said the scoutmaster. "Report to-night or in the morning.Get your uniforms. Who is your recruit?"
Frank was introduced, and the tall Frenchman shook hands with him.
"You will be welcome," he said. "My boys are at work, you see. They areserving as messengers. There has been plenty for us to do in these days,too. Pray God there may not be more--and of a less pleasant sort."
Frank observed the French scouts with interest. They were in khakiuniforms, with wool stockings, and short trousers that stopped justabove the knee, and the soft campaign hats made famous by the pioneerscouts in England. Indeed, they looked like the English and Americanscouts in many respects.
"One moment," said Marron, checked by a sudden thought. "You speakFrench well?" He asked the question of Frank, who smiled.
"Yes, sir," he said, in
French. "My mother was French, you see."
"That is very good," said the scoutmaster. "Never fear, I shall be ableto keep you busy as long as I am here. Soon, I hope, they will let mego to the front, where I should be right now."
"I thought you would have gone, sir," said Henri.
"They wanted me to stay with my boys at the first," said Marron, with ashrug of his shoulders. "But they can do their work alone now, and thereis no fear that they will not do it well."
Then Frank and Henri went off, on their way to Henri's house.
"So we have come to Amiens after all and we are to join the Boy Scouts,just as we planned that day when I said there would be no war thisyear!"
"Yes--but it's different, isn't it, Henri?"
"Yes, and we can be of some real use now."
"I am glad that we are here, aren't you? When we get our uniforms and goto work, I shall feel that we are really being used in the war. I--I'man American, of course, but I've hated the idea that I was so close tothis war and wasn't having anything to do with it."
"And I--I have been wishing, Frank, that they might have waited until Iwas old enough to fight for France!"
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