CHAPTER XVI THE STONE CAIRN ON THE BORDER
“Naw, naw, ye’re baith wrang!” hastily exclaimed Donald, as soon as hecould “get a word in edgewise.”
“But that certainly was a train we heard,” affirmed Andy stoutly,adding: “There goes a whistle! Don’t you hear it, Donald?”
“Oh, ay, but ye ken it was not my fayther’s hand at the throttle of theengine. That train is the regular passenger goin’ west. It is much tooairly for the freight carrying munitions and stores, and bound east.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear you say so,” Andy was quick to admit.
“I can breathe easy again,” muttered Tubby, who had received quite asevere shock.
The sound of the train grew louder. They could even tell when it struckout on the trestle that served as an approach for the long and costlybridge. Naturally it thrilled them to remember that the unworthy plot ofthose who would strike a cowardly blow at the enemy of their nativecountry by abusing the neutrality of the land that gave them friendlyshelter—and protected them in the bargain—that this plan was laid todestroy that splendid piece of mechanical engineering, and, perhaps,engulf many human beings in the wreckage.
“Everything seems to be right—so far,” observed Andy, as they once againstarted to hurry along the dimly seen trail.
“We ought to be in time,” Donald told them over his shoulder, “accordin’to what I heard them say. It’s hopin’ and prayin’ I am that I can holdout to the end. If the worst does come, why here’s a braw chap who couldtak ye to the bridge. A’ ye hae to do is to tell them that Donald, theengineer’s lad, sent ye with the warnin’. They’ll know what to do thenicht. But I’ll manage somehow to get there, by hook or by crook.”
“You certainly will, if being game counts for anything, Donald, oldfellow,” Andy assured him. “I never ran across a scout with more gritthan you’re showing right now. Why, nearly any boy, with such a badlybruised leg, would be glad to let some one else do the running for him,satisfied to get the glory himself.”
“But do ye not understand, I could nae do anything less, because it ismy ain fayther whose life is in danger?” the other said, apparentlythinking that he was doing nothing so very wonderful—nothing more thanany boy ought to do for the parent he loved.
The train was going away from them now, and by degrees they heard thesound of its passage less distinctly, until presently the rumble becamevery faint indeed, and then died away completely, though the falling ofthe night wind may have had considerable to do with this.
Rob, being a scout who always paid attention to even the smallestdetails, when on duty or off, for it had become second-nature with him,noticed that they were just about exactly opposite the place where, fromthe deep rumble, it seemed the western trestle and approach must lie.This he also knew was the end of the bridge they were heading for, sinceto reach the other terminus it would first of all be necessary to crossthe river, which they were not prepared to do.
Besides, it was absolutely certain that the conspirators would alsoapproach the object they planned to destroy from this side; andconsequently Rob meant to extinguish the lantern, once he learned theywere across the line.
“I can see something queer, like a pile of stones, ahead there,”announced Andy, who had particularly keen eyesight, and chanced to belooking forward at the time, instead of minding his steps.
“It is the cairn that marks the boundary,” said the Canadian boy simply.
A minute later and they had approached so close that all of them couldeasily see the object, which turned out to be a heaped-up pile of rocks,and on top was a broad stone slab, with some markings on it. Lookingcloser at the “monument” the boys read the words: “Boundary Line,” andunderneath this “United States.” On the other side they discovered theword “Canada” below the same descriptive text.
“Well,” said Tubby, as they paused for a minute before crossing over,“just to think that I can sit here on this rock-pile, with one foot overin a foreign country and the other in our own home land. It seemsqueer!”
“Huh!” grunted Andy, always ready for a sly fling at good-natured Tubby,“take care then that you don’t have to sit on a stone-pile day afterday, and wearing a striped suit. Please don’t get the habit, Tubby.”
“I won’t, I promise you,” retorted the other, “for it might be catching,like the measles, and you’d be a fit subject for contagion, Andy.”
“Start on, Donald,” said Rob, as he deliberately blew out the lantern,which he proceeded to carefully deposit at the base of the littlepyramid of rocks, where they could get it again when on their way backto camp.
Evidently Rob did not believe there would be any further necessity forcarrying a lantern. Besides, it was more or less of an encumbrance,since he had his rifle to handle in the bargain.
Tubby did not wholly like this. It would probably mean more frequentstumbles for him, and also knocks and scratches; but he did notremonstrate, knowing well that Rob was the best judge of what was rightand proper.
So they all crossed the border, and found themselves treading the soilof Canada, for the first time in the lives of the three Boy Scouts ofHampton Troop.
“Why, it doesn’t seem one whit different,” said Tubby, in evidentsurprise, “and only for that sign on the slab of rock I’d never dreamthat I’d stepped over from Uncle Sam’s world, and was treading foreignsoil.”
Andy was heard to snort as though highly amused, but he resisted thetemptation to take a fling at the “unsophisticated farmer,” as hesometimes called simple-minded Tubby. As though there would be anyperceptible difference in the soil and trees and rocks, because animaginary line divided the continent between two entirely differentnations!
Tubby sometimes knew better than he made out, and perhaps Andy was wisenot to pursue the subject any further; he had been “stung” before, whenattempting to take advantage of a “break” on the part of amiable Tubby.
“After this,” Rob was telling them, “be careful not to talk so loud. Wedon’t know which trail those men may take in passing across the border;but if they heard us speaking they would become suspicious at once. Youmust know that the very desperate character of their work would makethem think everybody’s hand was raised against them; and the chances arethey’d feel inclined to pounce on us, and at least make us prisoners.”
“Oh, that must never be!” said Donald, with deep feeling. “If they keptus fra warnin’ the bridge guards, ye ken, the whole thing wud be in thesoup.”
After that they all fell silent, and the forward progress was carriedout as so many ghostly specters in a country churchyard might stalkabout at the hour of twelve, if, indeed, such visitors from the otherworld ever do visit this one.
For one thing the path actually seemed to be growing easier now, Tubbythought. At least he did not meet with so many obstacles to hisprogress, and could thank his lucky stars on this account. He reallybelieved every square inch of his stout limbs below his knees must bynow show signs of having come in rough contact with stumps, logs, rocksand all other manner of things. Indeed, Tubby had already made up hismind to apply in person to Rob for a portion of that healing salve, whena fitting opportunity arrived and their mission had been carried throughsuccessfully.
All of them listened anxiously as they went along. If a bird or asquirrel moved amidst the pine needles or the branches of a neighboringtree the sound, faint though it might be, gave them a correspondingthrill, because their nerves were all on edge, so to speak. Had a deer,lying in a thicket, suddenly bounded away with a crash of theundergrowth, Tubby feared he would faint, it was apt to give him such aterrible shock.
But there was no such alarm, and they were making steady progress allthe while. Rob, as a rule, mapped out his plan of campaign beforehand,and he would have done so in this particular case also, only heconsidered that the honor of giving the warning should belong to Donald.The devoted Canadian boy had made a gallant attempt to carry the news ofhis ter
rible discovery to those in charge of the bridge’s safety; he hadsuffered all manner of pain and hardship in the effort, and it seemedonly fair that he should reap most of the reward.
Besides, Donald knew the lay of the land in the vicinity of the bridge.Without his assistance as pilot to the expedition they might havestrayed from the path and lost so much valuable time that even thoughthey eventually arrived it would be only in time to hear the stunningreport that would tell them the bridge was destroyed, and that thetrainload of munitions had gone down into the gulf, a twisted mass ofwreckage.
Tubby had conceived a new and somewhat alarming thought, and he wishedthat Rob had not placed that embargo on speech, for he wanted to ask aquestion very much. As it was, he had to take it out in lookinganxiously upward every time they happened to be in an open bit ofground, where one could glimpse the clear heavens overhead, by strainingthe muscles of his neck terribly.
The fact of the matter was, Tubby had remembered about the aeroplanewhich all of them had so earnestly watched on that other day, when itsped across the line, descending low enough for the pilot to snap off aseries of pictures of the ground below, together with the long railwaybridge, and then once more scuttled away, heading for the American sideof the border. He wondered whether those who meant to undertake thedestruction of the bridge would come again in an aerial craft, and tryto drop bombs upon the bridge at the moment the freight from the westwas approaching the trestle.
Now, this was not so ridiculous as it might appear to some readers whomay not know that Tubby, together with Rob and Merritt Crawford, hadbeen abroad on the battlefields of Belgium and Northern France, where itwas even then, in the early stages of the war, a common occurrence foraviators to soar over supply depots, railway stations, and various othercentral points, to try and blow them up by bombs they let fall from agreat height. Why, Tubby could remember having looked upon a church usedas an observation tower that had been successfully bombed in that way bya daring Teuton aviator.
He took a little more comfort, however, when presently he rememberedthat Donald had heard the plotters going over the details of theirplans, and that according to all that was then said, they very evidentlymeant to use dynamite, planted under the trestle, and fired by means ofa long copper insulated wire and a battery.
Plodding on, the little party began to ascend what seemed to be agradual rise of ground. This would indicate that they were drawing nearthe railway line, for it was on a high bank at this place, a necessitycaused by the fact of having to cross the river close by.
Tubby wondered what the next half-hour was fated to bring forth. Hehoped they were going to meet with the success their efforts deserved,and that the miserable scheme might be nipped in the bud. Tired as thestout youth certainly must be, he was yet buoyed up by the excitementthat had him in its clutches; and though the threatened bridge had beentwice as far distant Tubby stood ready to keep going until he droppedfrom sheer exhaustion.
But the time was coming when the dull monotony of that advance was fatedto be abruptly broken, and in a way calculated to give them a freshthrill.