CHAPTER IX.
THE NIGHT ALARM.
Their arrival at the dooryard of the roadside farm was signalized by afrantic clatter. Dogs barked, chickens squawked on their way to theirroosts, ducks quacked, and even a calf tethered to a stake in the rearof the house set up a pitiful bleating, as if under the conviction thatthe dreaded butcher's cart had arrived, and the last hope of life nowhung by a slender thread.
"One thing I'm glad to see," announced Josh, as they came to a haltamidst all this bustle and clamor.
"What's that?" asked Hanky Panky, in duty bound.
"The terrible Germans have not come this way so far, that's sure,"remarked the observing one.
"I'd like you to tell us just how you know that?" demanded the other.
"Shucks! open your eyes, and look around you, my friend. Would it standto reason that a bunch of hungry soldiers, raiding through an enemy'scountry, could pass by, and allow all this fat of the land to exist?Ducks, and chickens, and pigs, and calves would have gone to make up aGerman feast this night. And like as not the dogs would have been shotin cold blood because being French they had dared to bark at theuniforms of the Kaiser's men."
"Guess you're right there, Josh," admitted Hanky Panky, easily convincedwhen the evidence was there before his very eyes.
"Here are the good people of the house come to see what's broken looseto give their live stock such a scare," observed Rod just then.
A woman with a tottering, silver-haired old man just behind her,appeared around the corner of the low building. Possibly they had beenalarmed by hearing the splutter of the coming motorcycle brigade'smachines, and hesitated about showing themselves. But when Rod advancedtoward them, making a courteous salute, and they saw what a frank boyishface he had, somehow they lost all fear.
Arrangements were soon made that assured the lads some sort ofentertainment. That they were not the terrible Germans was enough forthe good woman of the farm house. In her mind the whole world wasdivided into two classes just then: enemies and friends; and all who didnot have German blood in their veins she looked upon as naturallyfavoring the Allies.
The old man became quite solicitous concerning the safety of thesplendid motorcycles. He even led the boys to where they might storethem for the night. This receptacle turned out to be a sort of dry cavedug into the side of a mound. It was evidently a frost-proof receptaclefor the potatoes and other vegetables raised for winter use, and had agood stout door, secured with a hasp.
"There doesn't seem to be any sign of a lock here, boys," announcedJosh, after they had carefully deposited their machines inside andclosed the door.
"Well," replied Rod, "these people around here are so honest themselvesthat they never dream of anybody ever stealing a single thing. Chancesare you'll not find a lock or even a chain or a bar in all the house."
"Sounds all very nice," grumbled the suspicious Josh, "but I'd sleepbetter, I'm thinking, if I knew the machines were under lock and key."
"We could manage to make you a shake-down here in the potato bin if sobe you felt disposed that way," suggested Hanky Panky blandly; butsomehow the idea did not appear to appeal strongly to the other, for hesnickered.
"If the rest can stand it I oughtn't to worry," he grunted, and thusdismissed the subject apparently from his mind.
Later on they sat down to a pretty fine supper, which the good womanprepared for them. The hungry boys were ready to declare that while theyhad sampled all sorts of cookery since landing on European soil, fromEnglish and German to Flemish, they really believed that the Frenchexcelled all others when it came to getting up tasteful dishes out ofnext to nothing.
"No wonder they save so much money, and could pay off that billiondollars the Germans exacted after the war of Seventy-one," said Joshconfidentially.
"They always say that a French family can live comfortably on what anAmerican family would waste," added Hanky Panky; "and for one I believeit."
Rod, of course, started in to do the talking, but it was soon discoveredthat the woman could speak pretty fair English. Great was the surpriseof Josh and Hanky Panky when she told them she had lived in the FrenchQuarter of New York as long as three years, some time back, before shewas married.
She proudly confessed that her two boys, as well as her husband, were inthe ranks of the republic's patriotic army; and that even though shemight never again see them, it would be a sacrifice for the land sheloved with all her heart and soul; so that if the hated Germans wereonly beaten, and France saved to posterity, she could reconcile herselfeven to the loss of all she possessed in the wide world.
They sat up chatting until a reasonably late hour. Then, as the boyswere more or less tired after an exhausting day's ride they asked to beshown the apartment where they were to pass the night.
It proved to be a room in a wing that had been recently added to the oldfarmhouse, with evidences of not yet being suitably furnished. Still,all they wanted was a place to throw themselves down and rest. The nightwas warm, it being still summer, and little if any covers would beneeded.
Here then they prepared to sleep. Each of them removed their outergarments, as they had already done with regard to their leggings andshoes.
Josh poked his head out of a convenient open window to take anobservation. He grunted as if pleased to know that from that point itwas possible to see the mound of earth in which the potato cellar hadbeen located.
A wide double bed occupied one corner of the room. The good woman of thehouse had also fetched in a cot, which would serve admirably for the oddtraveler.
"It looks good to me," remarked Hanky Panky, after testing the big bed,and finding that it felt reasonably soft. "I reckon, Rod, we'll let Joshtake the cot, because you know he's such a kicker when he dreams thatnobody likes to stand for it."
"Only too glad of the chance to sleep alone," chuckled Josh, apparentlyin no wise feeling hurt by the insinuation.
So it was easily arranged, and in less than ten minutes afterward Rod,being the last one up, blew out the candle that had been given to them,and sought his place in the big bed.
If Josh chose to lie awake for any length of time turning over mattersin his active mind at least he did not make any sound calculated todisturb his companions.
Time passed on.
Rob was in the midst of a delightful dream of the far-away home acrossthe sea when he felt some one gently shake him. As he instantly openedhis eyes it all came back to him again in a flash, and he knew where hewas; also that it must be Josh who was again trying to draw hisattention.
"Hello! what's up, Josh?" asked Rod quietly and without a trace ofexcitement, whereas a good many boys, upon being so suddenly arousedfrom a sound sleep would have sat up, trembling with alarm, anddemanding to know in quivering tones what had happened.
"Something's going on outside here that we ought to look into,"whispered Josh.
By this time Hanky Panky had been awakened, and heard the last words.
"Gee whiz! then the Germans have come after all!" he was heard tomutter, as he started to feel around for his shoes.
They hurried to the windows and looked out. Just how Josh had happenedto awaken he did not take the trouble to inform the others; but theycould see that something out of the common was occurring outside. Acouple of lights that might be lanterns seemed to be moving this way andthat, as though those who held the same were looking around theouthouses belonging to the farm.
"Get dressed, and in a hurry, too," said Rob, after he had watched thesemoving lights for a minute or so.
"Then you think they must be the Germans come after us, do you, Rob?"asked Hanky Panky tremulously, as he started to dress as fast as hecould in the semidarkness.
"I don't know, but I mean to find out," he was told in low but incisivetones.
They made all the haste possible. Rob was ready some little time aheadof his comrades. This might be because he mastered his feelings betterthan either of the others, or else on account of having his possessionsso carefully ar
ranged before climbing into bed that he knew exactlywhere to lay a hand on each and every article in the dark.
Finally Josh, and then Hanky Panky announced that he was all ready toissue forth. Josh doubtless was figuring in his mind just how they mightget the precious motorcycles out of the potato cellar unobserved, andride wildly away before the searching Germans suspected their presence.Hanky Panky on his part would have been almost willing to abandon thewheels rather than risk chances of falling into the hands of theinvaders; for he had an idea they might be treated as spies, and dealtwith in a summary fashion. The thought of being stood up against a barnand riddled with cruel bullets was uppermost in the boy's mind.
There was a door leading from the new wing of the farmhouse to the outerair. Rod softly opened this now, and led the way forth, the otherstrailing after him, confident that Rod would know what line of actionwas best under the exciting conditions by which they were confronted.
The first natural thing for them to do was to peer carefully around, inexpectation of again locating the wandering lights. Then Josh uttered alow gasp, as his fingers plucked at Rod's sleeve.
"Looky there, will you, Rod?" he whispered, intensely excited; "they'verun across the potato bin, and are going to take a peep inside!"
"Oh! my stars! it's all up with our poor wheels then!" Hanky Panky washeard to tell the others, though no one seemed to pay the slightestattention to him.
There was no doubt about the situation being grave. The lights had bythis time vanished within the vegetable cellar that had been builtunderground for frost protection in the cold winters.
"Come; let's creep forward and see what's happening," suggested Rodboldly, as though after all he began to have slight hopes that it mightnot be quite as bad as they had been thinking.
As they advanced hurriedly they soon began to catch the sound of severalvoices. Evidently the searchers had been amazed to discover three suchsplendid motorcycles hidden away in a potato cellar on this farm; thiswas hardly what they had been looking for when using their lanterns soindustriously.
"Too bad, too bad it had to happen!" whimpered the disconsolate HankyPanky, for he had become so accustomed to spinning along on his reliablemachine that the prospect of using "Shank's mare" as a means ofprogressing did not appeal to him at all.
"Don't worry!" Rod told him, "but listen again."
"What's the use?" complained the other, "when I can't understand asingle word of what's said, because it's French they're using."
"French!" echoed Josh, a little louder than prudence might havedictated, though in his new excitement he evidently did not considerthat; "why, then after all it isn't the Germans who've come snoopingaround looking for us."
"What are they saying, Rod?" asked Hanky Panky.
"Asking each other who can be the owners of these wonderful machines,"replied Rod, at the same time taking a step forward, as though meaningto enter the potato cave.
"Messieurs," he said, "pardon me, but those machines belong to us; andwe are friends of France, we beg you to believe."