The Boy Scouts on Belgian Battlefields

"I'm going to propose," Tubby projected, as though he could not tear his thoughts away from the one fascinating subject as long as the taste of his remarkable feast was still on his lips, "that we put in a couple of hours' more work getting a supply of these bouncing big frogs. If the Germans stay right there the rest of the day we want to lay in some provisions; and our choice is limited, you know, to this one thing."

"Of course we could do that," Rob informed him, "in case it was absolutely necessary; but I've got a hunch that there's going to be a movement of that army before sundown. If that happens, we can get away from here, and find some one to cook us a meal."

"Then you must have noticed signs that told they were beginning to get ready to go?" suggested Merritt.

"Which was just what I did," replied Rob. "I can hear certain sounds that tell me they have received the order they were expecting, and are breaking camp."

As all of them were anxious to learn whether this glorious possibility could be really true or not, they once more made their way back to the spot where their former vigil had taken place.

"Why, the whole army is in motion, seems like!" ejaculated Tubby.

"And a wonderful sight it is, at that," added Merritt. "They can say what they please about these German soldiers – and the Belgians feel they've got a right to call them all sorts of hard names, as barbarians and the like; but there never was such remarkable discipline in the history of the world. The huge army is like one vast machine. Men count only as necessary cogs. When one goes another takes its place, and the engine grinds on."

They crouched there and watched every operation from a safe distance. It seemed as though there was a never-ending procession of gray-coated figures, most of them with the spiked helmets on their heads, marching away in columns toward the southwest. Then came batteries of quick-firing guns, and heavier field pieces. The clattering of accouterments, the neighing of horses, and the hoarse singing of various regiments – all these things came floating on the breeze to the ears of the three lads, as they lay there in the afternoon sunshine and watched.

"They seem particularly fond of certain tunes," remarked Tubby, "and I know one is the German national air, 'The Watch on the Rhine,' because we've sung it many a time in the school at Hampton. What's that other they roar out, Rob?"

"I think it's a popular patriotic German air, called Deutschland ueber Alles, which means, of course, 'Germany Over All'," Rob obligingly replied.

"Oh! well, every country's sons believe they ought to have the first place in the sun; and I reckon we Americans have done a heap of boasting that way," Merritt remarked, which seemed to be about what Tubby thought, too.

So they lay there until the camp was entirely deserted. Never would those three scouts forget the spectacle to which they had been treated that day.

It was now along toward the middle of the afternoon. Far off in the distance somewhere, an action was certainly going on, for the grumble of heavy cannonading came almost constantly to their ears.

"Chances are," said Rob, as they prepared to vacate their refuge and once more push onward, "there's a fierce battle in progress, and this corps has received orders to get on the firing line. That would account for the way the troops were singing. Their business is to fight, and most of them are only happy when they can smell burnt powder, hear the crash of bursting shrapnel, and the heavy boom of big shells."

"We've seen one battle," observed Tubby with a shudder, "and for myself I'm not hankering after a second experience."

"I suppose in time we'd get used to such terrible things," Rob pursued in a reflective way, "for even the fellow who nearly swoons away in his first fight, they say, becomes a regular fire-eater after a while; but, so far as I'm concerned, I'll be a happy boy when I see good old peaceful Long Island again, with its sandy beaches, and the familiar things we love."

"We all will, Rob," remarked Tubby fervently, a yearning expression coming over his rosy face, as in imagination he again saw the home folks, and sat down to a table that fairly groaned with the good things he doted on.

"Yes, after I've carried out my mission I'll be just as glad to start back as either of you fellows," Merritt assured them.

The last of the Germans had disappeared from view when the boys started out. Rob was looking a bit serious, and the other noticed that he kept turning his eyes off toward the right, for it was in that direction the great host had gone.

"You don't expect they will turn back and give us trouble, do you, Rob?" asked Merritt, noticing this frequent look.

"No; it isn't that," he was told, "but I'm wondering what a certain movement that I happened to notice could mean."

"Tell us about it, won't you, Rob?" Tubby implored. "It can't be that we have to take the same road that army marched away along, because we're heading in just the other quarter."

Before Rob could commence with his explanation they heard the sound of what appeared to be an automobile behind them. At the time they chanced to be at the foot of a slight elevation, which rose for perhaps twenty feet in a gradual ascent.

"Gingersnaps and popguns! Look what's bearing down on us, will you?" gasped Tubby.

"It's an armored automobile, as sure as anything!" added Merritt, "just like that car we saw in Antwerp, you know. Yes, I can see the muzzle of the deadly Maxim gun that's back of that metal shield. Rob, it's heading straight at us. What if they take us for Germans, and open fire?"

"Oh! for goodness' sake, let's wave a white flag to keep them from mowing us down like wheat!" exclaimed Tubby, commencing to fumble in his pocket.

"Hold up your hands to show that we have no arms!" ordered Rob, abruptly. "They are Belgians, and perhaps the same daring fellows we saw come into Antwerp with all sorts of spoils to show they had made a raid, and shot down their regular allotment of the enemy. Yes, wave the white bag, if you want, Tubby; we don't mean to take any chances."

"It's a hard thing to be shot down, and then have some one say they're sorry, and that they didn't know the gun was loaded," remarked Merritt.

The armored car slowed down as it approached. Those vigilant Belgians aboard were doubtless observing the three figures in khaki closely. Already they must have discovered that they were Boy Scouts. Possibly they more than half expected to find they were Belgian scouts, for such boys were being used as dispatch bearers all over the war zone.

"We are friends!" called out Rob, "American boys, who belong to the scouts over in our country, you understand? We have nothing to do with the war. Do any of you speak English? I can talk in French a little, if it's necessary."

The three Belgian soldiers laughed at that. Plainly they had been at a loss to place these three lads.

"I happen to be able to talk English very good," one of them called out, as the car stopped, "and we are glad to meet you. Americans are good friends of ours."

"Listen," said Rob impressively, "if you keep on the road you expect to take, so as to follow the German army corps, you will fall into an ambush inside of three minutes."

CHAPTER XXV.

TURNING THE TABLES

When Rob made this astonishing statement his two chums suddenly realized that this must be the matter he had been on the point of explaining to them when the armored car from Antwerp came tearing along the road in their rear like a modern war chariot.

The leader of the three Belgian soldiers, and who seemed to be a captain, looked incredulous. He repeated what Rob had said to his backers, in Flemish; and they, too, observed the scout with wondering eyes.

"This is a strange thing you are telling me, boy," remarked the captain. "How is it you know there is an ambuscade laid to catch us napping?"

"I will gladly explain," the Eagle Patrol leader hastened to say. "You see, we want to get to Sempst, and, as we helped the Red Cross on the battlefield yesterday, we were detained. Then we found that there was a German army camped right in our way. It moved off toward the front only an hour ago, and we have been hiding most of the day. But, while we were watching the troops depart, I was surprised to see a single gun taken into a patch of scrub on a little elevation that commands the road. It is pointed this way, and you can never notice it there unless you have been posted. Now I can guess what they are hiding for; they expect that you may be along, and mean to rid the German army of your stinging them so often!"

Tubby's mouth was wide open. He stared at Rob as though he hardly knew whether he were awake or asleep. Even Merritt seemed thrilled by what he had heard.

As for the Belgian captain, it was an incredulous look that gripped his features.

"I do not know what to believe, boy," he said, looking earnestly at Rob.

"The best way is to prove it," that worthy told him immediately.

"It would at least be convincing," the pilot of the armored car declared.

"Suppose, then," continued the scout, "you leave your car here at the foot of this little rise. They couldn't see us with that hump between. Go up the hill, and look along the road. You needn't let them see you, of course; but I notice that you've got a pair of field-glasses along. Follow the road with those until you come to a little break in the stone wall that lies around a patch of field on the right. It is this knoll I spoke of, crowned with brush. Watch that brush closely for a minute; perhaps you will see the sun glint from the gun; or else one of the hidden German gunners may move ever so slightly. That will tell the story, captain."

The pilot of the armored car jumped out.

"I will do as you say, at least it can be no harm," he remarked hastily.

After speaking in Flemish to his companions, he started up the rise, carrying the field-glasses and a revolver along with him. Watching, they saw him get down and crawl the last yard or so; and then evidently he found a way to level his glasses in the quarter under suspicion.

Five minutes later and he backed off, coming quickly down the little declivity. The first thing he did was to grip Rob's hand and squeeze it fiercely.

"I have to thank you for my life, and the lives of my brave comrades as well!" he said with fervor.