The Boy Scouts on Belgian Battlefields

"I was bothering my head about that, too, since you mention it," Rob announced.

"What did you make up your mind was the cause of it?" continued Merritt, who had considerable respect for the opinions and decisions of the Eagle Patrol leader.

"It means either one of two things," he was told. "It may be the settled policy of the Germans in their rush to push through Belgium and Northern France to leave their wounded to be taken care of by the enemy, whenever the battle has gone against them; or else a quick change of front compels them to abandon the field."

"Still," argued Merritt, who secretly was much in favor of the Allies, "you'd think there would be some parties out with stretchers, looking up their wounded. I never will understand it."

"Well, they must have a good reason for acting that way," Rob told him. "You know the Germans are great sticklers for sacrificing everything to the good of the cause of the Fatherland. If necessary even the wounded must be temporarily neglected until the end aimed at is attained. You remember what we heard in Antwerp about those three British cruisers that were just torpedoed in the North Sea by German submarines?"

"I can see what you mean, Rob. One was struck, and began to sink. The other two hurried up to render assistance, and while their engines were still they were hit by torpedoes and went down. If, instead of trying to help their distressed comrades in the English way, they had let them look out for themselves, and first of all smashed the conning towers of the submarines, they would have saved themselves. I guess in war times the German style counts best, though it seems cruel to me."

"I think we had better pull out of this before long," remarked Rob.

"Well, if you asked me I'd say I've had enough to last the rest of my life," Merritt told his chum. "If ever I had any idea I'd like to be a soldier I give you my word that's gone glimmering now. What I've looked on this day has cured me."

"I was thinking more of poor Tubby than either of us," the patrol leader remarked. "You can see he's pretty near the end of his rope. Twice now I've seen him trip and fall flat, over some of the war material that's scattered around so thick. And he could hardly get on his feet again, he's that played out."

"But, Rob, Tubby has certainly shown up splendidly in this terrible trial!"

"He's done a heap more than we have," Rob asserted, "because he always has been a timid sort of chap with regard to seeing blood when any of us got hurt. I remember how ghastly white Tubby grew that time one of the scouts in the Owl Patrol cut his foot with the ax. I thought for a while we'd have two patients on our hands. He had to sit down so as to get over it."

"Yes, and see what he's stood to-day," said Merritt. "Many a boy who boasts of having lots of nerve would have shrunk from doing what he has. Tubby's all right, and that's a fact. But it's high noon, and I warrant you he's feeling mighty hungry."

"He would, under ordinary conditions," said Rob, "but just now I don't believe any of us could eat a mouthful. I know the very thought of it makes me feel queer."

"That's because we're not used to such sights and sounds," Merritt explained. "I expect to wake up many a night with a groan and a shiver, dreaming I'm on a battlefield again, after those awful Maxims have been doing their murderous work."

"Well, we might take one last turn around," suggested Rob, "and if we fail to find any more wounded men, we'll call it a day's work, and quit."

"For one thing, I'm glad I don't mean to follow this up as a profession," his comrade continued. "I think I've had enough experience of fighting to last me a lifetime, and yet, on second thought, if it should happen again that they needed what little help I could give, why I'd have to pitch in."

CHAPTER XIX.

AN IMPORTANT CLUE

"There was one thing I meant to mention to you, Merritt," said Rob, as they once more started to zigzag across the field where so many windrows of fallen Germans lay, just as they had dropped when making that daring charge.

It was perhaps a little strange how the boys could come to converse as they did while surrounded by such gruesome sights; but after several hours' familiarity with such scenes these begin to lose some of their harrowing features. And while Rob and his chum were still shocked by frequent sights, they did not feel the same weakness that had, in the beginning, almost overpowered them.

"Then, tell it now," urged Merritt.

"It was about Anthony," continued the other.

"Well, as we know only one Anthony just now," pursued Merritt, "I reckon you must be referring to our late guide, the same who gave us the slip like a coward. What about Anthony, Rob?"

"I guessed right about him," replied the patrol leader. "It was not fear that tempted him to leave us in the lurch, but a craze to get in action. I think Anthony, while too old a man to be on the active list of the Belgian army, must have been a reservist."

"Yes, he told me so," said Tubby, coming up and catching what was being said by his chums.

"Well," Rob continued, "apparently he knew where to go to get a suit, for there he was as big as life, and he even had the audacity to wave his hand at me, and grin."

"Where was this, Rob?" demanded Merritt, surprised, as well he might be.

"Where but sitting on one of those ammunition caissons that went whirling past us into action. Anthony must have been with the artillery corps. He felt the longing come over him when he thought of the enemies of his country – those raiding Uhlans. So what did he do but take French leave on his horse, and get to where this battery was waiting for orders to proceed to the front."

"Oh! well, if you're dead sure it was Anthony," Merritt observed, as if mollified by the information, "of course we'll have to forgive him. I was only mad because I thought the fellow'd gone and gotten cold feet, after taking our advance pay, too. If he's that kind of a patriot, I've got no quarrel with Anthony."

"And perhaps he even had a share in mowing down some of these Germans who had invaded his country," suggested Tubby. "Anthony seemed to be pretty bitter against the Kaiser and his people for trying to cross Belgium in order to strike France in the back, as he called it. Whee! I'm tired; but I didn't give up, did I, fellows? You never thought Tubby would be able to come through with what he has, and I know it."

"You deserve a medal, Tubby; and we were just saying what a change there's been in you," Rob told him, causing a wan smile to flit across the wearied face of the fat scout.

"Yes," added Merritt readily, "to see the tender way you handled that German, hardly more than a boy himself, and who may never live to see his people again, anyone would have thought you had it in you to be a surgeon. Tubby, if I were you I'd pay more attention to such things. I honestly believe there's a streak of it in your blood."

"Well," Tubby remarked complacently, "we've had eminent doctors in our family; and my folks always said they hoped I'd take a fancy that way; but when I found how weak I was every time I saw a little blood, I gave up the idea. Now I've had my baptism on the battlefield, so mebbe I will change my mind. Even a soft-hearted fellow might make a good doctor, if he couldn't be a surgeon."

"Listen, there's someone calling to us!" exclaimed Merritt.

"And in German, too," added Rob. "Look all around, and see if you can find him. He must have recovered his senses after we passed by before."

"There's something moving under that pile of bodies," remarked Tubby with a shudder; "yes, and now you can see a hand waving to us. Oh! let's hurry and get the poor fellow out!"

The others were just as willing, and soon they had dragged a man out from the weight that had almost smothered him.

"He's pretty badly hurt, I reckon," remarked Rob, as he immediately stooped down over the Bavarian soldier, "but not fatally, I think. We'll do what we can for him here, and the next time men come along with a stretcher, we'll send him over to the field hospital."

The wounded German soldier had listened to them speaking.

"Are you American boys, then?" he asked, in excellent English.

"Well, now, he must have guessed that when you said you 'reckoned,' Rob," declared Merritt, "but how comes it you talk English, my friend?"

"Oh! I'm from Hoboken," said the man, smiling in spite of the terrible pain he must have been enduring.

Rob was already busily engaged stanching the bleeding from his wounds, which seemed to be numerous, though not apt to prove fatal, if they had proper attention.

"Do you mean Hoboken, New Jersey?" he asked, in surprise.

"Sure. I have lived there for many years now, and have a large brewing interest. Krauss is my name, Philip Krauss. I went across from Munich, in Bavaria, and was on a visit to my old home when the war came about. Although I have long been an American citizen I still love my native land, and they soon found a place for me in the ranks. But now if I ever get over this I think I will have had enough of fighting, and expect to return to my wife and children in Hoboken. But what are you doing here on this terrible field? It is not the place for boys."

"We are Boy Scouts," Tubby informed him proudly. "By accident we were where we could watch the battle being fought. Then along came the Red Cross ambulances, and the nurses. They asked us to assist, and as scouts all learn something about first aid, why we thought we'd help out. I guess you're about our last case, Herr Krauss."

Meanwhile Rob and Merritt busied themselves. The way they went about temporarily relieving his suffering, as well as stopping the loss of blood, quite won the admiration of the Hoboken patriot, even as it had done in the case of numerous other wounded men whom the boys attended previously.

It chanced that once again the boys became immersed in their own affairs, which were beginning to weigh heavily on their minds.

"I was making inquiries of one of the men with the stretchers," Rob told his comrades, "and he assured me that this little place by the name of Sempst is only a matter of six miles or so from where we are right now."

"Then," said Merritt, brightening up, "if only we stand a chance to get around without being gobbled by the Germans, we might strike in there to-morrow, and see if Steven Meredith is still at his post. The agent sent word to my grandfather that he had accepted a position there in charge of some manufacturing plant owned by a German firm in Brussels. I think myself there may have been some truth in that story about his being in the pay of the German Government, both over in America and here!"