CHAPTER X. THE THROB IN THE NIGHT BREEZE.
Thad may have thought that, up to this point, Giraffe was allowing hissuspicions to overcome his better judgment; but he now saw the other wasunusually serious. So the scout leader considered it wise to ask a fewquestions.
"How many others did he talk to, Giraffe?" was what he first wanted toknow.
"There were two, all told," came the answer; "I think one was thatfellow with the coarse laugh, and the other may have been the man almostas broad as he was long, and who made our Bumpus here look like a baby."
"Huh!" grunted the party referred to, "I always told you I wasn't suchgreat shakes when it came to topping the scales; but you've got usinterested, Giraffe, so give us the whole story while you're about it,please."
"Did they only get their heads together and talk?" Thad continued.
"Oh! that was just the beginning," admitted Giraffe; "and if it stoppedthere, how would I know that they were bothering themselves about aparty of boys who had dropped in to spend the night? It was what theydid that gave them away."
"Tell us about it, then," said Thad.
"Well, when I saw them making for the barn, I kind of suspected theymeant to look over our car, and I slipped along after 'em. Course myhaving been a scout helped me a lot to do that without giving myselfaway," and there was a vein of justifiable pride in the way the tall boysaid this.
"Was it our car they looked over?" asked Allan.
"They were nosing all around it," replied Giraffe, "when I glimpsed themthrough a knot-hole. Would you believe it, that man with the crooked eyewas lighting matches to let them see better. And they certainly didoverhaul the car from stem to stern."
"Thad, it might be they thought we left something valuable in the car,such as a pair of expensive field-glasses, you know?" suggested Bumpus,as though seized with a bright thought for once.
The others waited to hear what the spy thought of that idea. Giraffe,however, did not seem to consider it an answer to the riddle.
"No," he said decisively; "they acted as if they were more concernedabout the car itself, for they even tested to see whether there was anyamount of petrol in the tank, and looked the engine over in thebargain."
"Then they want to make us an offer for the car in the morning?" Bumpusonce more advanced; "but I hope none of you'll feel tempted to part withit, while we're still so far away from Antwerp."
"They don't look as if they had pockets full of money," Giraffe told himscornfully. "My idea was that they mean to steal the car some timeduring the night!"
Thad sat, and seemed to be turning it over in his mind.
"Do you mean for their own use, Giraffe?" he asked finally.
"No, if you ask me plainly, Thad, I don't," the other admitted.
"That's queer," muttered the fat scout, who would not stay squelched;"why do people go around taking cars if not for themselves, I'd like toknow?"
Giraffe lowered his voice still more, and in consequence Bumpus felt anadditional thrill pass through him, it was all so mysterious.
"For their Government they might," he said. "How do we know but whatthese Belgians are so patriotic they think it only right strangersshould be made to contribute to the good of their army? They must havegreat need of every kind of motor conveyance just now, to bring up theirtroops. The German army has tens of thousands of big motor-trucks, weheard. Well, they looked over our old car with the idea of running heroff if it seemed worth while."
"Thad, do you take any stock in that idea?" asked Allan, as thoughsomewhat in doubt himself.
"It might be possible," was the reply of the patrol leader. "But there'sone thing I do know, and that is, no matter what they want our car for,they mustn't be allowed to take it!"
"Hear! hear!" said Bumpus joyfully.
"While we all feel sorry for poor little Belgium, dragged into thisterrible war when she hadn't done a single thing to bring it on, stillwe'll need that car ourselves for some time yet."
"Yes," added Bumpus, "and, Thad, for one I'm willing to turn the machineover to the Belgians, such as it is, if they can make any sort of use ofit, just as soon as we strike Antwerp."
"Same here," added Giraffe; "but I haven't quite told you all yet."
"What, is there another chapter to the story?" asked Bumpus, gettingready for a second edition of those thrills.
"I watched them come away from the barn," continued Giraffe; "though ofcourse they didn't know anybody was around. They walked along the road abit, and I saw them stop to speak to another man. And, Thad, he was asoldier!"
"Is that a fact?" remarked the other, deeply interested of course.
"He wore the uniform of an officer, I want you to understand!" Giraffeadded; "and that's the main reason why I think they mean to steal thecar for the use of the Government. Perhaps they haven't just got to thepoint here of taking anything they see in sight, like the Germans aredoing, we were told."
"There's the call to supper," said Bumpus, struggling to his feet withconsiderable difficulty. "What's the last word about this business,Thad?"
"Just this," he was told, "we're going to try and protect that carto-night, if we have to camp out there in the hay and guard it."
"Second the motion!" said Giraffe, with all the vim he was capable ofshowing, for he dearly loved excitement and action.
"Now, don't say another word about it while we're eating," warned Thad."There may be people at the table or nearby who could understandEnglish. We'll talk of other things we've met with in the past. Thereare heaps of incidents that might be worth while bringing up again, youknow."
"I should say there were," admitted Giraffe; "fellows who have hit thetrail down in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina; tramped andcamped up in the pine woods of Maine; had a summer cruise through theLake Superior region; spent a time down in the swamps of the SunnySouth; and even hunted big game away out among the Rocky Mountains,shouldn't find it hard to rake up things to talk about, it strikes me."
The meal passed off pleasantly enough. There was plenty to eat, and allcooked in a way that satisfied their boyish tastes. At the table wereseveral other people, but as they conversed in Flemish and the boys didnot understand much of what was said, they made no attempt to enter intothe general talk.
After eating all they wanted, they left the table and sought the outsideof the inn. It was quite dark by now. At Giraffe's suggestion theysauntered over to what he called the "barn" to make sure the car was allright.
Thad happened to have a small pocket electric flash-light with him,which he found very valuable at various times when a means forilluminating was required. Making use of this he detached thespark-plug, and thus rendered the car useless until another could beobtained capable of filling the gap.
"That might keep them from stealing the car," he observed, "and again itwouldn't. Even if I had a chain, and locked the wheels, they could fileit off, given a little time. So on the whole I think we'll have to campout here. The night's warm, and it won't be the first time all of ushave hit the hay actually."
"But we'd have to let the landlord know," suggested Allan.
"I'll do my best to tell him privately, if you say so," declaredGiraffe.
"At the same time find out what our bill is and we'll pay in advance,"said Thad.
"What's the idea in doing that?" Bumpus wanted to know.
"Just to let him understand we haven't any intention of slipping off,and beating him out of an account," explained the other. "And, Giraffe,another thing you can do; that is, if you are able to tackle it."
"Tell me," said the other simply, just as a Missourian might say, "Showme!"
"Give him to understand that we're armed, and would defend our propertyto the last gasp," was the astonishing declaration Thad made, though hecould be heard chuckling at the same time, as though himself more orless amused.
"But we're not, Thad, you know; we haven't got more than pocket knivesalong with us this trip. Even th
ose we used aboard the boat we packed upwith the other junk, to be sent across to America when we wrote to thatboatyard man."
It was Bumpus who made this protest; the others understood that Thadmust have some sort of little scheme of his own which he intended tomake use of; so they only waited to hear its nature.
"We'll find some of the tools to handle," he told them, "and in the halfdark even a monkey wrench, if you know how, can be made to look like arevolver, especially if you click! click! when aiming the same!"
"That's right," was the comment of Giraffe; "for I've seen the gameworked myself, and to tell the truth had my knees knocking together asif I had the ague till the chap who was giving me the grand scare had tolaugh outright, and broke the game up."
"Well, we might as well go back and sit on that porch till we feelsleepy. Then Giraffe can tackle the landlord and have it out with him."
Thad's suggestion appeared to strike them all favorably, and it was notlong afterward when they settled down to making themselves ascomfortable as possible. There was more or less conversation, thoughgaps came between, for the boys found themselves rather tired. They hadnot slept as well during the last night or two as they might, owing tonumerous things, worries of the mind more than of the body.
"I'm wondering what that queer far-off throbbing sound can be?" Giraffehappened to mention all at once; "I've been hearing it for some time,and it comes as regular as a clock, once in so many minutes."
"And I've been listening to the same," admitted Thad.
"Then perhaps you can give us an idea what causes it?" asked Bumpus,after he too had caught the odd sound, the like of which they could notremember ever having heard before.
"I believe it's the discharge of a monster siege gun!" was Thad'sstartling declaration, which of course provoked a series of outcries.
"Do you mean away over at Liege, where we've been told the Germans aretrying to batter down the conical-top steel forts by dropping monstershells on them from points miles away?" Allan asked in a hushed voice,as though thrilled by the thought.
Thad went on to say that he could not think of any other reason for thestrange sounds. He also told them to notice that some of the men theyhad seen inside the inn had come out, and seemed to be listening to thesounds as if they had a sinister meaning to them.
It was indeed a strange experience for the scouts. They had been incontact with a great many remarkable happenings in the past few years,especially since the troop had been organized at Cranford; but never hadthey expected to be sitting and listening to the deep-throated throb ofgiant guns engaged in a terrible battle of opposing armies.
Although they tried to picture the stirring scene, of course it wasutterly beyond their capacity; for no one who has not looked on a battlecan imagine what it is like.
Giraffe even had the nerve to express a wish that some time or other hemight be privileged to see what a modern engagement was like; but ofcourse it was only a thoughtless boyish desire. Before he was throughwith this journey over the war trails of Belgium possibly he wouldregret having ever made such a remark; for there might be some thingscome into his experience that he would be glad to forget.
Long they sat there in the warm night air, listening to the sounds thatcame, now faintly, and anon in a louder key, according to the characterof the breeze that wafted them to their ears.
Then Thad, seeing that Bumpus had allowed his head to fall forward onhis chest, told Giraffe he had better seek the landlord and sound him onthe scheme of their sleeping in the hay-mow within the barn.