CHAPTER XXVI. A TATTOOED FUGITIVE.
Thad did not wait to consult his chums on hearing what the forlornfigure standing amidst the bushes said; he knew they would back him upin his generous impulse.
"If you are an American you'll be doubly welcome here," he called out;"but no matter where you came from, if you're hungry we've got plentyand to spare. Step this way and join us!"
The man did not hesitate after that warm invitation, but hustledforward. They looked curiously at him, and no wonder, for he wasapparently no ordinary individual. His sleeves were rolled up to theelbow and it could be seen that his arms were fairly covered with themost wonderful colored tattoo marks imaginable. Really it looked likethe work of an artist in this line; and Bumpus, who had never gazed uponsuch a sight stared as though the other were a curiosity.
It turned out that this was just what he was, and Thad suspected it thefirst thing he discovered those tell-tale marks.
"You see," said the stranger, as he joined the scouts, "I'm thewonderful tattooed man of the great circus and Wild West Show that hasbeen exhibiting in Belgium this summer. We got caught when the war brokeout so suddenly. Our boss told every one to look out for himself orherself, and with that the whole show went to smash. The last I saw ofour Injuns they were being herded up by the authorities of the townwhere we separated. They were afraid they'd start on the warpath, andscalp everybody, I guess."
"Sit down here on this log," said Allan, "and we'll help you to somecoffee and whatever we've got. It's lucky we cooked much more than weneeded. I think Bumpus and Giraffe must have expected company, or elseoverrated their own appetites."
"Bumpus and Giraffe sound good to me!" declared the tall stranger, as helooked with a smile at the two boys designated; "somehow hearing thosenames gives me a feeling that I'm still with the Big Show. But I want totell you it's a piece of great luck for me to meet up with you boys. Tolook for Americans over here is as bad as hunting a needle in ahaystack."
"Then you've been having a hard time, I take it?" remarked Thad, as heheaped a pan with food and turned it over to their unexpected guest.
"Hard!" echoed the other. "I'm thankful to be alive, and outside of adungeon to-night. And what d'ye think it all comes from but my name."
"What might that be?" asked Giraffe.
"The worst any poor man marooned in Belgium or France could own up toright now," replied the other; "it's Kaiser!"
"Oh! my stars!" ejaculated Bumpus. "I should say so; and you couldn'tchange it, I suppose?"
"I'd been billed under my own name as the greatest freak alive, the manwhose body was decorated with more dragons and flags and pretty girlsthan anything ever seen before. Yes, and until a week ago I was proud ofthat name of Kaiser. Now it threatens to be the death of me."
He groaned a little, and then started to eating voraciously. After awhile, when he had seemingly taken the sharp edge off his appetite, hecondescended to explain further, knowing of course that his kindentertainers must be curious to hear his story.
"You see, they know me all over Belgium by now. Crowds would stand andstare at me, and try to ask questions. The boss had to keep aninterpreter nearby to answer these. Some of them were terribly foolish.It even seemed to many of these simple people that I was in some wayconnected by blood with Kaiser Wilhelm; and fool that I was, I neverbothered correcting that silly idea. Bitterly have I repented thatmistake. It has cost me dearly."
"After the circus disbanded and you had to shift for yourself," remarkedThad, "I suppose you thought to get out of the country before thefighting began?"
"Well, at first I wasn't in any hurry," came the reply, with a shrug ofthe bony shoulders of the side-show freak. "When I did wake up and getbusy it was just too late. You see the people remembered that I was aKaiser, and they had it in for me. Oh! what I have suffered. Turned backone day, kicked out of a town the next, threatened with prison, anddoors shut in my face when I tried to beg or buy something to eat, I'velived the life of a dog for days."
"Well, that was too bad," said the kind-hearted Bumpus; "here, let mefill your tin cup again with coffee, Mr. Kaiser."
"Please don't mention that name again above a whisper, while we're inBelgium," pleaded the other. "It's just like showing a red flag to a madbull. Call me Bob, if you feel like it, boys. I'll come to any namethese days, especially if there's a feed like this goes with it."
"What are you aiming to do next?" asked Thad.
"I'm heading north the best I can," he explained. "When after beingkicked and cuffed around I found that it was useless to hope to get toAntwerp where I might steam over to England, I knew that the next bestthing for me to do was to cross into the Netherlands, where theywouldn't abuse me on account of my name."
"But are you a German?" asked Giraffe.
"I was born in the good old United States," replied the freak. "Ibelieve my ancestors did come from the Fatherland, but to tell you thetruth I haven't a bit of German feeling in me. I'm Yankee to thebackbone. I ran away as a boy, and have knocked about the four cornersof the world, principally in the Far East, where all this wonderfultattoo work was done for me, a little at a time. When I'm done eatingI'll let you see what my body looks like. I'm told that there's nothinglike it known."
"Do you like being a freak?" asked Bumpus, innocently.
The man looked at him and smiled. Every one liked Bumpus from the first,because there was something so candid and sincere about him. You couldlook straight into those blue eyes of his and believe that there was nohypocrisy or deceit lurking back of their depths.
"Well, son, I do and I don't," the other finally replied. "I know now Iwas a fool to get this done, but once it was started, there could be norubbing it out, you understand, because it's picked in with indeliblecolors. It gets me a living by exhibiting myself, and people do lots ofmighty queer things for that, in their journey through this old world."
"But if you had the chance again would you allow it to be done?" askedGiraffe, who himself had an anchor in blue upon his arm, of which he hadbeen rather proud in the past.
"Not if I was in my right senses," came the prompt reply. "To tell youthe truth the first tattooing I had was given to me against my will whenI was held a prisoner among some wild men in Borneo. They thought mywhite skin was a good background to display the art of their bosstattooer. Later on the crazy idea came to me to have it continued, andthen join some show. I think with what little money I've got saved overin Philadelphia I'll buy a farm and settle down, if only I'm luckyenough to get out of this war-cursed country alive."
Later on the fugitive circus freak did let the boys look him over, andall of them united in declaring that he certainly was a wonderfulexhibition of the art of tattooing in bright colors. Giraffe mentallydecided, however, that he would never allow another anchor, or any otherdesign for that matter, to be placed upon his arms. This awful examplehad effectually cured his leaning in that direction.
The man sat there for fully two hours and entertained his young hostswith amazing stories connected with his adventurous past. Whether theywere all true or not might always be open to suspicion, but then none ofthe scouts doubted that he had been through a maze of exploits, equal toanything they had ever read in those books so dear to the heart ofyouth, "Robinson Crusoe," "Swiss Family Robinson," "Gulliver's Travels,""Sindbad the Sailor" and "The Arabian Nights' Entertainment."
Later on they disposed of themselves the best way they could, andmanaged to secure more or less sleep while the night lasted.
Nothing occurred to disturb them. If there were various sounds heardduring the time that the moon rode high in the heavens they were not ofa character to cause any alarm.
So morning found them, and breakfast was prepared in much the samefashion as supper had been on the preceding evening. Bob Kaiser was loudin his protestations of gratitude as he shook the hand of each scout atparting. He told them he would never forget what they had done for him;and from that time f
orth he meant to say a good word for scouts whereverhe went.
When the four lads saw him last, as they moved off along the road, hewas waving farewell in answer to their salute, before turning his facetoward the north.
Upon the whole they were very glad such an opportunity to extend ahelping hand had come to them. It must always please a genuine scout tobe of assistance to any one in distress; and the fact that the party hadbeen a fellow American added to the satisfaction they felt.
The man had told them he had friends at Amsterdam who would look out forhim if only he could get there; and with a reasonable amount of goodluck he surely ought to be able to cover the seven miles, more or less,between their camping place and the border, during the day ahead of him.
In fact, Thad almost envied him his resolution to head that way. Itseemed the shortest route to safety in those strenuous days when thewhole of Belgium was ablaze with excitement, hostile armies battling forsupremacy, and every one suspicious of all strangers.
"To-day will decide the question for us," Allan was saying, an hour orso after they had started that morning; "if we manage to pull through upto night time without any more backsets, we can consider it settled thatwe're going to make Antwerp by this route."
No one disagreed with him. Even Bumpus was figuring what thirty miles"as the crow flies" might mean, when they had to follow varying trailsand roads, subject to the whims of any military commands they chanced tomeet.
"Something coming ahead there!" announced the ever-watchful Giraffe.
On looking the others could see that a cloud of dust was rising in thedirection they were heading. This of course indicated the passage ofsome considerable number of men or horses along the road.
"Another battery coming from Antwerp and hurrying to the front by thisroute," speculated Allan, and indeed that seemed the most probableexplanation of the disturbance.
"There, I heard what sounded like the clatter of horses' hoofs then,"announced Giraffe, with his hand cupped at his ear to imitate therabbit, which a kindly Nature has so constructed as to be able to throwits ears forward and catch the slightest sound that otherwise would beinaudible.
Thad listened, and as he did so his eyebrows went up as though asuspicion might be passing through his mind that Allan's speculation wasaltogether wrong.
He too heard the clatter of hoofs now, for they were coming moreheavily. To him it seemed as though there were many hundreds of them,and that they pounded the road more like a squadron of cavalry on thegallop.
Thad drew the car to one side of the road, and then stopped his engine.Until the mystery had been solved there was no use trying to proceedfurther. Perhaps this spot was to mark the high-water line of theiradvance on Antwerp.
"There, I can see them beginning to show up now!" cried Giraffe.
Moving figures came into view, constantly augmented until there musthave been scores amidst the rising dust. No sooner had Thad noticed thefact that they were gray-coated, and that they carried what seemed to belances, with small pennons fluttering at the ends, than he knew what itmeant.
Giraffe voiced what all of them understood by that time when heejaculated:
"Why, they're German lancers, don't you see, boys; the Uhlans we'veheard so much about, the Rough Riders of the Kaiser, and raiding thecountry to cut off communications between the Belgian army and Brussels.Whew! now we're in the soup!"