CHAPTER II. A BOLD UNDERTAKING.
No one said anything immediately. Bumpus had turned very white, and apained expression crept across his round face, seldom seen there.
"My poor mother!" they heard him mutter, as he stared over into themysterious west, in the direction where Antwerp was supposed to lie,with part of Germany and the whole of Belgium between.
Under ordinary conditions there would have been only one way out of thescrape for the four chums. This would have been to make as rapid aretreat as they could, passing further into Germany, and managing bysome good fortune to get over into Holland where at Amsterdam they mightsecure passage to London by steamer.
Thad would have laid out their campaign along those lines only for hissacred promise to poor Bumpus, who being very set in his way might haveattempted the task of getting to the Belgian city by himself, and ofcourse making an utter failure of it, because Bumpus never did manythings right.
"So, the worst has come, after all," said Thad, presently; "and thetorch has been put to the powder magazine that will blow up pretty muchall Europe before the end is reached."
"Will Great Britain fight, do you think, Thad?" asked Giraffe, insomewhat of an awed voice for one so bold as he had usually provedhimself.
"That's to be seen," replied the other, gravely; "but we know thatFrance and Russia will fly to arms, and I don't see how England can keepout of it. You know she has sworn to maintain the neutrality of Belgiumeven by force of arms if necessary. If the German army is over theborder that settles it, I'm afraid."
"Whew! but there will be a fierce old row!" declared Giraffe; "and justto think of our being over here at such a wonderful time. Mebbe we won'thave lots to tell Step Hen, Davy Jones, Smithy, Bob White, and the restof the fellows when we get back home again."
"Yes, when we do!" echoed Bumpus, dolefully.
"Here, cheer up, Bumpus; don't look like you'd lost your last friend,"the boy with the long neck told him. "Remember what Thad said about ourhanging to you all the way through, don't you? Well, it still goes. Eventhe whole German army can't keep us from getting over into Belgium, andhiking for old Antwerp. We'll pull up there sooner or later in prettyfair shape, and smuggle Ma Hawtree across the Channel to England'sshores, mark my words if we don't."
Thad and Allan both said something along the same lines. Perhaps theymay not have felt quite so sanguine as Giraffe, but that did not preventthem from trying to bolster up the sagging courage of Bumpus.
Of course the latter began to show immediate signs of renewed hope. Howcould it be otherwise when he had the backing of such loyal chums?
"But what can we do when the whole country is just swarming withsoldiers, all heading in the direction of the border?" Bumpus wanted toknow. "We've got our passports, I admit, but in time of war theywouldn't be worth the paper they're written on. And, Thad, no commonperson can ride on one of the trains these days, I'm sure."
"Yes, that's right, Bumpus," the other admitted, "and in making up ourplans we must omit travel in the regular way."
"The border is something like forty miles away from here, I should say,"suggested Allan, who had of course looked the thing up on the map.
"There's the Netherlands a bit closer," Thad explained, "if we chose tocross over the line; but we might find it hard to get into Belgium thatway. One thing sure, we must be on the move to-day."
"Do you mean we'll hoof it, Thad?" demanded Giraffe, who, being a goodwalker, evidently did not see any particular difficulty about managingtwenty to thirty miles a day over good summer roads.
With Bumpus it was quite another matter, and he held his breath whilewaiting to hear what the patrol leader had to say.
"If we have to we might make it," Thad presently returned, as though hehad considered the matter himself at some previous time. "Then who knowsbut what we might be lucky enough to run across some man owning a car,who would either rent it to us or give us a lift to the border."
"But, Thad," objected Allan, "you know what we heard about all cars? Assoon as the order for mobilization went out it was flashed from theRussian border to Alsace and Lorraine, and from that minute every carworth owning in the entire German country would be the property of theGovernment. Why, if we owned even an American-made car right now itwould be taken away from us, to be paid for by the military authorities.I'm afraid it's going to be a case of shank's mare with us."
"Let it," said Thad; "we've got to make a start inside of an hour orso!"
That was the prompt way in which most of the matters engineered by ThadBrewster were put through. Somehow his manner of saying it thrilled theothers, for there could be seen a new grim look come into their faces.Even the woe-begone countenance of Bumpus took on fresh hope.
"Do you really mean that we're going to start out into the west, Thad?"he asked, with glistening eyes.
"Just what we'll do, Bumpus!" he was told with a reassuring smile on thepart of the patrol leader such as always carried fresh cheer to anxioushearts.
"How about getting rid of the boat that's carried us down the Rhine sosplendidly?" questioned Giraffe.
"That's already been arranged for," was what the other told him; "all wehave to do is to hand it over to that boat builder, and get his receiptfor the same. We have paid the last thaler we owe, and there's no reasonwhy we can't leave our duffle here with the same man, to be sent forlater on when the war is over and railroads are taking on freight againfor America."
"It sounds good to me," said Giraffe. "I'd hate to lose a few things Ibrought along to make myself comfortable with--the red blanket, forinstance, that's been with me on so many camping trips. I hope there's agood chance of seeing our stuff again some fine day."
"Well, talking isn't going to help us any, so what do you say we getbusy?" suggested Thad; and as the others were all agreeable they soonmade quick work with packing up their belongings, so they could be leftin charge of the owner of the boatyard on the outskirts of the city.
All the while they worked the boys could hear a thousand and one soundsconnected with the feverish rush of military trains crossing bridges,and starting off anew toward the Belgian border at three points beyondthe mobilizing centre of Aachen or, as it was once called, Aix laChappelle, almost due west by south from Cologne.
When the hour was up they had accomplished all the preliminaries lookingto the start on foot across German territory. The owner of the boatyarddoubtless wondered what they meant to do, for he asked a number ofcurious questions. Still he readily agreed to store their packages untilsuch time as he received instructions how to ship the same to America,accompanied by a tidy little sum to pay his charges.
"If you asked my opinion," remarked Giraffe, after they had left theplace and started off, "I'd say that old chap didn't wholly believe thestory we told. Right now he may think we're really a party of BritishBoy Scouts, over here in the land of the Kaiser to learn some of thegarrison secrets, so in case of an invasion later on the beefeaterswould know where the weak places in the defences are."
"Do you think he would go to the trouble to inform some of the militaryauthorities of his suspicions, and get them after us?" asked Bumpus,looking concerned, as well he might, for every delay promised to makehis task of rejoining his ailing mother more difficult.
"Let's hope not," said Thad; "but these Germans certainly do have thegreatest secret service ever known. They get their news in a thousandways, I've heard; and this war is going to give the world the biggestsurprise it ever had."
When Thad made that remark he little knew what wonderful things werefated to come to light connected with the spy system of Germany, whichwould prove to be the most elaborate ever conceived by any nation,modern or otherwise.
"Next to Americans, they're the most wonderful people under the sun!"boldly declared Giraffe, whose ancestors had lived along that same Rhineriver, so that he could not help but feel very kindly toward the wholeTeuton race.
There was Bumpus who wa
s on the other side of the fence, for theHawtrees came of good old English stock. Hence he and Giraffe often hadfriendly little tilts, each standing up for the land from which hisancestors sprang. That little remark about the "beefeaters" was meant asa sort of sly slur at Bumpus by the boy with the long neck, though foronce it failed to arouse any comment.
Having been compelled to pass the city in order to find the boatyard towhich they had been directed, the boys were on the northern side ofCologne at the time they began their long tramp. Little did they dreamwhat amazing incidents were fated to fall to their portion before thatjourney came to an end. It would have thrilled them through and throughcould they have guessed even one-half of the hardships and theadventures that awaited them on their bold undertaking.
With small bundles thrown over their shoulders after the manner ofscouts' knapsacks, they left the river behind them and faced the west.
"We've enjoyed meeting you, Old Father Rhine," said Giraffe, waving hishand toward the stream as though he looked on it as a very good friend,"and we'll always keep a little corner of our memory sacred to thisglorious trip; but we've got something to handle now that's a heap moreserious than just loafing in a pleasure boat, and eating three squaremeals a day."
"First of all," said Thad, "we might pin the little miniature Americanflags we brought with us to our coat lapels. Then folks can see that weare Yankees, and not Britishers."
"But we haven't run across much bad feeling for the English among theGermans," Bumpus ventured to say.
"Huh! wait and see what happens if Great Britain dares to take up thechallenge the Kaiser's thrown down when he crossed the Belgian border,"asserted Giraffe. "The first shot a British man-o'-war takes at a Germanvessel and it's going to be unsafe to talk in English over here. You'lleven have to change that snore of yours, Bumpus, and give it a Dutchtwist. Now if your name was only Gottlieb you'd pass for a native easyenough, with your red face and round figure."
Thus chatting they made their way along the road leading away from thecity to the cathedral. Many persons they chanced to meet gave them arespectful salute, no doubt at first thinking they might belong to oneof the German troops of Boy Scouts so common all over the empire. Whenthey glimpsed those tiny flags which the four lads so proudly wore,their eyebrows went up and they were noticed to say things in anundertone, one to another.
On several occasions Thad thought it best for them to step off the roadand settle down in some fence corner, or under a shed it might be. Eachof these times there passed a company of soldiers hurrying toward thecity, and evidently making for a mobilization point so that they mightoccupy a place previously arranged for in the grand concentration schemeof the nation's army.
These delays were not numerous, but they served to hold the boys up moreor less, so that by the time noon came they had not covered more thanthree miles of territory beyond the suburbs of Cologne.
"There's a ramshackle old car stalled over yonder," Thad announced aboutthis time, "and I propose that we see if anything can be done to hire orbuy it. All good cars are seized by the military on sight, but they'dpass such a wreck by. If we find we can repair it, and can get even fivemiles an hour out of the machine, it'd be our policy to commandeer it,if our pocketbook will stand the strain."