CHAPTER IV GIRAFFE ON GUARD
While Giraffe was saying this the remnant of the train was indeedattaining considerable velocity in its backward rush. Thad knew that acoupling must have broken under the great strain, a no infrequentoccurrence across in America.
Of course by now a pandemonium of loud cries and shrieks had brokenforth. Some of the more excitable passengers aboard the rear vans actedas though almost ready to hurl themselves out of the open vehicles oftransportation. Indeed, Thad just caught one frightened little boy intime to prevent him from jumping wildly.
There was a guard’s van at the extreme rear, and the man in this musthave immediately guessed the nature of the accident. Perhaps he hadprepared against such a thing, knowing that it was liable to happen.
At any rate he seemed to have some means for putting on the brakes, forwhile they continued to slip rather swiftly down the grade theirprogress was not anything like it would have been had the wheels turnedunimpeded.
“It’s all right, and nothing is going to happen to hurt us!” calledThad, as he held the struggling French lad fast, despite his efforts tobreak away.
Although few of those who heard what he said may have exactly understoodwhat the American scout meant, at least his actions were reassuring, andthey could comprehend the fact that he must be discounting the dangerthat menaced them. Then besides they also discovered for themselves thatthey were not whirling madly down to destruction, as they had at firstanticipated would be the case.
Reaching the bottom of the slope the action of the brakes became morepronounced, and presently the fragment of the mixed train came to a stopat the bend. Already had the man in the motor been informed of thedisaster that had happened. By looking up the boys could see that thetrain was backing down toward them.
Everybody breathed easy again. Faces that had turned ghastly white nowburned red with the reaction. Some even laughed hysterically, and ofcourse boldly disclaimed anything in the nature of fear. It is always soafter the cause of alarm has been effectually dissipated, for people arepretty much alike all over the civilized world.
Giraffe was rubbing his chin, while a shrewd expression stole graduallyover his lean and suspicious face. Bumpus was puffing with theexcitement, and as red as he could well be. He looked over the edge ofthe van at the hard ground, with the air of one who might be figuring onhow it would feel to be tossed out, and flung on that unfriendly soil.
“Only another little incident in our career over here,” remarked Allan,as though by now they ought to be pretty well accustomed to havingthrilling events turn up every little while.
“Well, now, are you _quite_ sure it was just an accident?” askedGiraffe, at which remark all the others immediately turned their eyes onthe speaker in surprise.
“What’s bothering you, Giraffe?” spluttered Bumpus, always the slowestto size up a situation when quickness of thought was an asset. “Course acoupling broke and let us slip backwards. It often happens around ourpart of the country, where the trains have to pull over hills. I’ve seena coal train dumped in a hollow because of a defective iron couplingpin. And we’re the luckiest fellows going, in the bargain, to haveescaped a smash.”
Still Giraffe only wagged that head of his, poised on the longest neckany boy in Cranford could boast, and looked mysterious. Even the way heturned his eyes to the right and to the left added to his solemn manner.
“Go on and tell us what ails you, Giraffe, that’s a decent fellow,”urged Allan Hollister, understanding that unless some one hurried theother along he would keep everlastingly at this business of looking so“knowing.”
“Well, then,” began the tall scout, in a low hoarse tone that he triedto make impressive, “I believe it wasn’t an accident at all, but adeliberate and dastardly attempt at wrecking the train!”
“Whee! who’d want to bother trying to smash such a collection of oldtraps as these carriages and goods vans are, tell me?” wheezed Bumpus.“You must be dreaming, Giraffe, that’s what.”
“Mebbe I am, Bumpus, mebbe I am,” muttered the other, as he watched thecoming of the front part of the long train, “but all the same I’ve got ahunch that there’s something crooked about this thing. You ask who’dwant to bother making kindling-wood of these lovely cars? Well, thatGerman spy I warned you about, for one!”
He looked at them triumphantly as he said this. Allan and Thad exchangedglances, though it was hard to tell whether they had been duly impressedor not.
“Now don’t you see, fellows,” the artful Giraffe went on to say,following up his attack while the “iron was hot,” and Bumpus at leastwas thrilled; “even such a makeshift train as this is going to be mightyuseful to the French, for it’ll get a pack of British soldiers to thefighting line much sooner than if they had to walk all the way acrosscountry. So wouldn’t it pay a real cunning secret agent of the Kaiser toplot so as to smash things? Why, if he could cause a wreck, and put theold line out of business for twenty-four hours it would countsomething.”
“Why, it does look like that might be so,” admitted Bumpus; “but I can’thardly believe any man would put so many innocent lives in danger justto hold back a few cars and vans.”
“But this is _war_, and we’ve already learned that Germans neverhesitate at anything terrible if only they can serve the Fatherland,”Giraffe finished triumphantly.
However, neither Thad nor Allan seemed to be convinced. The former evenjumped off and went forward to where some of the men were clustered,endeavoring to repair the damages so that the reunited train couldproceed once more. When later on he came back again, it was to tell theothers that all was serene, and they were about to proceed, which theysoon found to be the case.
“Did you hear anything said about trickery, Thad?” demanded Giraffe,after the hill had been successfully negotiated, and they were once moregliding along at an accelerated pace, perhaps to make up for lost time.
“Not a single word,” the other told him.
“Well, even that doesn’t prove that the thing wasn’t a set-up job,”complained the stubborn Giraffe. “That rascal could cover his work, andmake it appear as though it had happened by accident. They’re mightysly, let me tell you. And I glimpsed him moving about among the peoplewhen repairs were being made. Yes, and he even seemed to be having ahand in the work, which I take it was only done to throw off suspicion.But I’m watching him, don’t you forget that. Giraffe’s right on the job.Sooner or later I calculate to trip that spy up.”
Thad was used to hearing the other talk in that strain, for Giraffeinvariably went in for things with all his heart and soul. That in ameasure accounted for his success in many games in which he took part;and his vim covered up a multitude of minor shortcomings, according toThad’s way of looking at it.
Of course what the suspicious one had said was not entirely without thebounds of reason. Thad knew that German spies were circulating throughBelgium and Northern France by thousands, and taking all sorts ofdesperate chances in order to do something for their native land. Manyof them lived amidst people who had known and respected them for years;and they even carried on extensive business enterprises; but these wereonly masks for the real reason that kept them exiles from home.
There were no signs of war in the country through which they were nowpassing, except now and then they glimpsed some man in uniform guardinga bridge. Women, to be sure, were busily engaged caring for the growingcrops in the fields; but then in times of peace that is a common sightthrough most European countries, where they do much of the farm andgarden work, while the men go to town with the produce, carry on thevoting, and “boss things generally, as our American Indians used to do,”Giraffe had more than once remarked when noticing these things.
In a town they came to, however, there were more stirring sightsawaiting them. A regiment was being embarked on a train bound for thefront, though just why it had been delayed so long of course the boysnever knew. It was a martial spectacle indeed
, and one they would oftenlook back to with a thrill. The men were bidding their wives, children,or sweethearts goodbye, well knowing that many of them would never lookon those dear faces again.
Those aboard the patched-up train took a deep interest in the going ofthe reserves to where duty and honor, perhaps a soldier’s grave, awaitedthem. Being detained on account of the other train that was lying acrosstheir track, they could watch all that went on. And when finally itmoved off, amidst loud huzzas, and frantic waving of handkerchiefstogether with a flood of tender farewells, every one joined in thethrilling shouts, even the four American boys.
Such sights were bound to make a lasting impression on the minds of theyoung scouts. In years to come they would surely remember them, and inimagination once more see the waving hands, the anxious tear-wet facesof girls and women and children, not to mention the old men; and notehow those aboard the departing troop train thrust their hands far outfrom the windows of the carriages so as to get the very last glimpse ofthe ones left behind.
But it was over at last. The loaded train bearing brave hearts andvaliant souls devoted to the defense of their beloved country hadvanished, and those who were bound for Calais could now once moreproceed.
“How few of them may ever see their folks again,” said Bumpus, shakinghis head sadly; “for we happen to know how men are mowed down like ripegrain before those terrible guns of the Germans.”
“Well, it’s always been going on that way,” added Giraffe, who couldsurvey such things without feeling so “squeamish” as tender-heartedBumpus, “since the time this world began. Men and animals keep onscrapping, and it’ll be the same to the end of time. Men must fight, andwomen must weep. But if the women get the vote mebbe they’ll want to dosome of the scrapping themselves.”
They understood that by now they were getting well along on theirjourney, and also if everything went smoothly, in another half-hour orso the slow-moving mixed train could be expected to pull into theseaport whither it was bound.
“Then a whole lot depends on whether we can get transportation toParis,” Bumpus was telling them, as they discussed this matter.
“Don’t cross a bridge till you come to the same,” warned Giraffe, alwaysconfident. “We’ll find a way to get there, make your mind easy, Bumpus.We always do, you know, and that isn’t bragging, either, only tellingbald facts.”
Just then the train slackened its speed as though signalled to pull upat the next station, where there was another big crowd awaiting it,perhaps some of whom meant to go on to Calais so as to get across theChannel.
“We’ll stop here for ten minutes, I heard a guard say,” observed Thad;“so if any of you feel like stretching your legs, now’s the time to doit.”
Only Allan took advantage of the opportunity, besides the scout leader.Giraffe and Bumpus continued to sit there and watch all that was goingon, at the same time keeping track of such luggage as they possessed.
Giraffe amused himself in trying to mentally figure out what each queerperson he chanced to pick out of the jostling throng might be when athome. It was a favorite game with the tall scout, for he had the habitof observation highly developed, as many scouts do, since it grows uponone.
In the midst of his occupation Giraffe received a sudden, violent shock.It really affected him so that he seized Bumpus by the arm and gave thatworthy a duplicate thrill.
“Well, wouldn’t that jar you now, Bumpus?” was what Giraffe burst outwith. “If you please, there’s our chums talking to beat the band with a_man_; and what do you think, it’s that crafty German spy. Now what doesthat mean, I’d like to know?”