Belgians to the Front

  CHAPTER XII

  A CLOSE SHAVE

  Blind instinct sent them both running, though a moment of reflectionwould have told them that to run was the worst thing they could havedone. Ridder had been asleep and he did not arouse himself fully atfirst. And perhaps that saved them. He did fire after them once buthis aim was bad, and before he could fire again they had leaped a hedgeand dropped out of his sight into a sunken road that crossed the fieldsparallel to the course they were taking toward the river road to Huy.They had a good start and Ridder was fifty yards behind them when theyreached the shelter of the road. Here Paul pulled himself together.

  "Stop!" he said to Arthur, seizing his chum by the arm. "Here, getright into the shadow of the hedge here, at the side of theroad--there's almost a ditch, too. If he follows us, he may gostraight on, and he won't know which direction we took. It's the bestchance we have to escape."

  "Do you think he recognized us?" asked Arthur.

  "I don't know. But our running away like that made him suspicious--wecan be sure of that much, anyhow. Look out! I hear him coming!"

  Down they crouched, just in time. Ridder came tumbling through thehedge, growling fiercely.

  "If I were sure!" he said fiercely and under his breath, so that theycould scarcely hear him. "Those verflutchen boys! If I knew that theywere the ones who stole my papers!"

  In the middle of the road he paused and rubbed his eyes. He reeled alittle as he stood; it was plain that the man was in the last stages ofexhaustion. The two scouts, even without knowing in detail what theduties of a spy in wartime might be, could understand Ridder'sexhaustion. They could guess how much he must have done since they hadlast seen him.

  As they crouched, watching him, he dropped his head, like a dog lookingfor a scent suddenly vanished, and seemed to hesitate, wondering whichway to go. He circled around, apparently looking for something toguide him. The road was hard, and baked dry. There had been no rainfor a good many days, and so their footprints did not show. Riddertossed his head at last in decision. The two scouts began to breatheagain in a more normal fashion when he turned down the road and wentalong, still muttering. He swayed from side to side as he walked.

  "Poor chap!" said Paul, finally. "I feel sorry for him! And I'mcertainly glad he was so tired! I wouldn't give much for our chancesif he had caught us. He knows by this time, you can be sure, what wedid with those plans."

  "I don't feel sorry for him--he's a spy!" said Arthur.

  "We're spies, too," said Paul, soberly. "And a good many Belgians willbe spies, and Frenchmen, too, before this war has been going on verylong. It's not nice work. There isn't the glory and the excitementabout it that there is for the soldiers who are doing the fighting.But a spy does more for his country, if he succeeds in getting somereally important information, than a whole regiment of men who donothing but fight."

  "I suppose so," admitted Arthur, grudgingly. "It's safe to go on now,isn't it?"

  "Yes. I don't think we'll find our friend Ridder in the next field!And I hope we won't run into any more Germans of any sort."

  As they walked along, the searchlights still flashed to their right andat intervals sounds of heavy firing came to them from the samedirection. But the steady, ceaseless cannonading was over, and therehad been no renewal of the sounds that indicated fighting at closequarters. Liege, it was easy to understand, was holding out.

  Their course across the fields finally brought them to the river road,where they felt themselves at home. This road they knew thoroughly,having traversed it many and many a time. Now they were well on theirway to Huy and felt that there was no reason now why they should notarrive safely. But suddenly Paul stopped.

  "There's no use in our getting to Huy before morning, before it'slight, anyway," he said. "The sentries wouldn't let us by. You knowthis is wartime. We're not used to that yet. Everything is changed.I'm tired, and I know you are, too. I think the best thing we can dois to get some sleep. We can't tell what we may not have to do afterwe get to Huy, and we'd better be fresh and ready for whatever turnsup."

  "I am tired," admitted Arthur. "I think you're right. Where shall wesleep?"

  "We'll find a place before long," said Paul. "How peaceful it is here!If we couldn't see the searchlights and hear the guns now and thenthere'd be nothing to make it seem as if there was real fighting goingon within a few miles."

  Houses were fairly frequent as they went along, but all were dark.Their occupants, if they had not fled from the nearness of war, wereall asleep. They were farm houses in the main; here, as everywhere inBelgium, the land was cut up into innumerable tiny patches, evensmaller than the peasant farms of France. In the fields were endlessrows of vegetables--beans, turnips, cabbages, and garden truck of allsorts. This was the sort of country that had made Belgium known foryears as the vegetable garden of Europe. Finally they stopped near adark house, and made themselves comfortable in the lee of a haystack.And there they slept until the light of the sun came to rouse them.They awoke to see a peasant boy staring stupidly at them.

  "Good-morning!" said Paul, rousing himself. "Can we get breakfast inyour house if we pay for it?"

  "I suppose so," said the peasant. "My mother may have some for you.My father has gone to fight."

  They followed him to the little cottage, and there they got what thewoman could give them for breakfast--eggs and milk, as it turned out.In a few days, though she did not realize this, neither would beobtainable thereabout at any price; the German host would have spreadover the countryside like a swarm of locusts. Perhaps it would pay forwhat it ate, but it would eat at all events, regardless of that, andthe money it might leave in the place of the food it took would bevalueless, since money can buy nothing when there is nothing to be sold.

  But these were things of which neither the peasant woman nor the twoscouts thought. They ate their breakfast with relish, not havingrealized until they saw the food how hungry they really were, and then,refreshed in mind and body, they began the last stage of their journeyto Huy. They had not so very far to go and they entered the Belgiancity to the tune of the distant cannon at Liege.

  In Huy there was little to make one think of war. People were groupedin the streets, waiting eagerly for the news of what was going on atLiege, for all sorts of rumors were spreading about. On one side itwas said that England had already declared war and had destroyed theGerman fleet; on the other that England had refused to fight at all.But most of the people of the town went about their business in themost unconcerned way, as if the invasion of the country could notpossibly affect them, and their own affairs were still the mostimportant things in the world for them.

  There was only a small force of Belgian troops in Huy, as Paul andArthur soon learned. And, to their dismay, they found that the officerin charge refused absolutely to listen to them! He was a pompous,greatly excited little man, most of whose service had been in theCongo, and he laughed at the suggestion that they could haveinformation of value.

  "But if you will send a wireless message to Liege Major du Chaillu willtell you that our information is correct," pleaded Paul. "At least hewill tell you that we gave valuable news before, and that we can betrusted."

  "There are other things for the wireless to do in times like these,"said the officer pompously. "Be off with you, now. I have no time towaste on boys!"

  "No wonder the Germans can win!" said Paul, bitterly. "What chance hasan army with an officer so stupid as that?"

  He had given up the attempt to convince the commandant, for it wasobvious that they would only waste time and breath if they persisted.

  "But what are we to do?" asked Arthur. "We must let them know in someway."

  "We must go to Brussels," said Paul. "There are those there who willknow that we can be trusted, and we may find a way of getting awireless message through to Major du Chaillu."

  But, as they soon found, it was one thing to decide to go to thecapital, and quite another to acc
omplish their desire. The railway waschoked by military movements. Troops and supplies of all sorts hadusurped every means of travel, except by walking. Though Huy itselfmight appear to be normal, no other part of the country was, as it waseasy to discover when an attempt was made to do even the most ordinarythings.

  "Well, if we can't ride, we can start walking," said Paul. "If we waithere we'll never get anywhere, that's sure. There's more confusionhere than there was at Liege, and a lot less reason. The thing to dois to get away before they close the town up absolutely, so that wecan't even do that."

  But even that resolution could not be carried out without difficulties.For some reason--they learned later that it was because new troops wereadvancing from that direction--they were not allowed to pass along theroad leading to Namur, which was the logical one for them to take in aneffort to reach Brussels. Their plan had been to pass through Gemblouxand Wavre, after turning around Namur. They were obliged, instead, tostart back toward Liege, turning north after a few miles and headingfor the railroad at Saint Trond.

  "If we get that far I think we'll have a chance to get on a train,"said Paul. "From all I hear, there will be troops there, coveringBrussels."

  "Covering Brussels? But it's nowhere near the city!" exclaimed Arthurin great amazement.

  "That doesn't matter, Arthur. Brussels will be defended at long rangeor not at all. If the Germans get past Tirlemont and Haelen they willget to Brussels, I think, without any more opposition."

  "But why? There are no fortifications there."

  "I believe there are--by this time," said Paul. "Earthworks, at least.You see, it would simply mean terrible destruction and suffering if acity like Brussels were defended. It has no forts, and it would be asimple matter for the Germans to stand off and bombard it. It is likethat with Louvain. It would be better to let the Germans capture thattown without resistance than to force them to bombard it and destroythe famous old buildings there. If a great city cannot be defended byan army fifty miles away, it is better not to defend it at all."

  The idea of such a tame yielding of Brussels, where he had been bornand had lived most of his life, seemed to depress Arthur greatly. Fora long time they went along in silence. Then a peasant came along witha cart and offered them a ride. This man seemed to know little ornothing of the war, although, like them, he must have been able to hearthe sullen growling of the cannon from Liege, that showed the fortresswas still holding out. They rode for several miles with this man,until he had to turn off. Then they began walking again. And now,before them, directly in their path but still some considerabledistance away, they saw smoke rising on the horizon, a pall heavy,brownish smoke with patches of black. It was not at all like the fainthaze that hung over Liege, the result of smokeless powder.

  "There must be a fire," said Arthur.

  "I should think so," said Paul, grimly. "The Uhlans are ahead of us,Arthur."