CHAPTER XI
THE SIGNALS
"Say, where'd you hear all this?" demanded Roger. "Is it straightgoods?"
"Sure it is," answered Jimmy. "Talk of it all over. I got it from oneof the orderlies at brigade headquarters."
"Just what was it?" Bob asked.
"Iss der German brutes by us goin' to come again?" asked Iggy.
"If they do I hope they don't find us as unprepared as the bunch waslast night," remarked Jimmy, gloomily enough. "It was a bad piece ofbusiness. But it wouldn't have happened if the Huns hadn't known someof the reserves had been pulled away from that sector."
"Were they?" was Bob's question.
"Yes," answered Jimmy, who had acquired considerable of thisdisquieting information. "Our side was planning a big raid, but notin this immediate neighborhood. On that account the headquarters staffsent for some of our reserves. They were taken off quietly enough, andit was thought the Germans wouldn't get wise to the fact. But they did,and they took a jump over, and got away with it, worse luck!"
"And you say it was because of treachery on the part of someone on ourside?" asked Roger.
"That's the story," admitted his chum. "You'll hear the talk as soon asyou circulate around a bit. It's a rotten shame, that's what it is!"
"But how did anyone from our side get over to the German lines withoutbeing shot--unless he took the part of a spy and put on a Germanuniform?" asked Bob.
"They didn't go over--they sent signals," went on Jimmy. "And thosesignals are what gave away the weak spot in our lines."
"Signals!" exclaimed his chums. "What kind?"
"Different kinds," replied the young sergeant. "Last night there werelight signals, but, of course, signals could be sent by day also, usingsmoke balls. You know we have a new machine for that."
"I didn't know it," admitted Roger. "What is it?"
"Well, I saw one up at the signal corps headquarters the other day. Itlooked like a big soup kettle with a stove pipe sticking out the top,and there were levers on the sides. I asked one of the fellows how itworked, and he showed me.
"Of course it's easy enough to make different colored fire signals atnight," went on Jimmy. "You've all seen them, even on Fourth of July.But it isn't so easy to signal by smoke in the daytime--or, rather, itwasn't until this machine was invented. Before that they could send uppuffs of white or dark smoke, just as the Indians used to signal fromone mountain top to the other.
"But one of the signal corps men invented this 'smoke kettle,' as I'llcall it. The smoke clouds can be made of almost any color--red, greenor yellow. And there are white ones, too. It's all done by chemicals.When you pull one lever it sends a certain mixture of chemicals intothe caldron. They form a ball of dense, colored smoke. A puff ofcompressed air sends the ball out up through the 'stove pipe,' as I'llcall it, and it sails up into the air, keeping its round shape, like acloud.
"I suppose they have some code, or combination, by which a certainnumber of smoke balls of a stated color sent up at definite intervalsmean something to the man who sees 'em."
"Did the traitors send up signals that way?" asked Bob.
"I'm not certain of that. All I know is that the smoke balls by day andthe colored fires by night are the means used by the regular signalcorps. Whether the traitors took a leaf from their book, or stole oneof the caldron machines and used it, I don't know. But it gave ourweakness away all right, and we got in Dutch."
"Rotten work!" exclaimed Roger, and the others agreed with him.
"Dose craters should of be put in de smoke ball and dropped by a bombyet!" declared Iggy.
"That's right, old scout!" exclaimed Jimmy. "Only don't call 'em'craters,' Iggy, lad. You're thinking of a shell-hole. 'Traitors' isthe word," and he spelled it.
"I of thankfulness to you am," said Iggy. "English, she is of mos'queer talk to learn, but I will on keep."
"Only way to do!" said Jimmy.
The information he had given his chums they soon verified by hearingthe talk in and out of the trenches of the disaster of the previousnight. That the American plans had been betrayed by someone withinthe Allied lines was evident. In no other way could the Germans haveknown that the supporting reserves had been withdrawn. And because ofthe demoralization caused by the success of the German raid it wasimpossible, for the time being, to go on with the plans of using themassed reserves, as had been hoped.
That afternoon, following mess, when Roger and Bob were on their way tothe rear with a message to headquarters they met Captain Dickerson. Hewas in company with other officers attached to the secret service, andas the captain, who had once been suspected by the boys of being a spy,passed them he acknowledged their salute and paused to speak to them.
"I was wondering if we had any trace of them, sir?" said Bob,suggestively.
"Trace of whom?" inquired the captain with a good-natured smile.
"The fellows who sent signals from our lines and brought on the raidlast night," said Roger.
"Oh, so you've heard that story, too?" asked the captain.
"Isn't it true?"
"Well, I'm not going to deny or affirm it," said Captain Dickerson,with a half smile. "But you boys seem to have luck in digging upmysterious matters, so if you hear of any bunch of fellows acting in aqueer way or having certain chemicals in their possession you might letme know."
"We will, sir!" promised Bob, and Roger nodded his assent.
"I'll say this much," went on the captain. "The secret servicedepartment is working hard to locate the place where the signals camefrom, and trying to discover who sent them--if any were sent." Thesecret service official added this in order to be in conformity withhis former statement of not admitting anything.
"We'll be on the watch as best we can," promised Roger.
Captain Dickerson walked on with other officers from the secret servicedepartment of the army, and Bob and Roger regarded each other withserious eyes.
"There's more to this than appears," declared Roger.
"I believe you," agreed his chum.
And in the days that followed they learned this more fully. For thelocation of a number of American batteries and machine gun nests was,in some manner, disclosed to the enemy. In consequence there was ashelling of these spots by the Germans, and considerable damage wasdone.
In one instance a battery had been carefully planted in a certain placeand carefully camouflaged. It was hoped, after all the guns were inplace, to open up a fusillade on a strong German position and carry it.This would have removed a menace from the American lines--a sort ofsmall angle from which a raking fire was often sent.
But the night before the battery was to have opened it was almostcompletely destroyed by German shell fire. And the shells came withsuch accuracy, falling through the camouflaged screen, that it couldnot be doubted the exact location of the cannon was known to the Huns.
"But if the signals can be seen by the Germans, why can't they be seenby our men?" asked Roger. "And if they are seen, the location ought tobe easy to come at."
"I don't know what the reason is," replied Jimmy, "but I know theyhaven't discovered the traitors as yet. It's getting serious, let metell you!"
"I should say so!" agreed Bob.
It was about a week after the discovery that secret signals were aidingthe Germans that Jimmy, coming back from a visit to the hospital wherehe had called to see a wounded chum, startled his friends by saying:
"I've heard from Franz!"
"No!" cried Bob incredulously.
"Yes," asserted Jimmy emphatically. "Listen while I tell you!"