CHAPTER XXII.
SCOUT TACTICS.
Just as he feared, when Rob managed to turn around and look back, hefound that Tubby had gone and done it again. Whether he had missed hisfooting, or something had given way under his additional weight, was aquestion that could not be decided.
Before Merritt, close in his rear, could thrust out a helping hand, poorTubby had fallen. The river was all of thirty feet below, and just therethe water looked unusually unpleasant, because it had considerable foamon the surface, there being a shallow rift above the wider stretch.
By the merest accident in the world, Tubby's clutching hands hadsucceeded in fastening upon a loose steel stay that hung downward forten feet. It must have given the fat boy a considerable wrench when hegripped this, but he had clung with the tenacity of despair.
When Rob turned around, the first thing he saw was Merritt kneelingthere on the violently agitated girder over which they were making theircrossing. He was staring downward, and, of course, Rob instantly focusedhis gaze in the same quarter.
He had expected to see Tubby splashing about like a porpoise in thestream far down below; but, instead, was astonished to discover himclinging desperately to that loose piece of steel wreckage.
Tubby had his face turned up toward his chums. There was not a particleof the rosy color to be seen that as a rule dyed his ample face; infact, he was as white as a ghost. A beseeching look was in his eyes.Tubby knew that swinging there he was in a serious predicament, fromwhich there would be only one escape if he were left to his own devices.That would mean he must release his frantic clutch on the swaying steelrope, and drop down into the river, a possibility he shuddered tocontemplate.
"Hey! get me up out of this, fellows, can't you?" he whined, for, afterhis recent gymnastic efforts, he no longer had sufficient breath toshout.
"Clasp your legs around the thing, can't you, Tubby?" said Rob, who sawthat the strain on the other's arms must be tremendous, judging from theway he was hanging there.
The advice struck Tubby as well worth following; so he immediately beganto work his short legs violently until he found that he could, as Robsuggested, twist them around his slender support.
When that had been accomplished it was much easier for him. He began tosuck in some encouragement once more.
"But won't you try and get me up again, Rob?" he asked piteously. "Ican't hang on here for very long, like a regular old pendulum to aclock. I'm not wound up for a seven-day-goer. And say, I'd hate to haveto drop kerplunk into all that water down there. Think up some way tograb me out of this, won't you, Rob?"
"I'm trying to, Tubby. Keep still a bit, and let me think," he was told.
In one way, of course, it was a ridiculous sight, and that was why Robwinked his eye at Merritt when he thought he could detect a whimsicallook on the other's face. Still, it was anything but a laughing matterto poor Tubby, who felt that he had a tremendous amount at stake. Everytime he found himself compelled to let his horrified eyes turn downwardthat noisy stream seemed to be more and more formidable to him. Hefairly hated it.
"Can't you climb up again, Tubby?" asked Merritt, who knew exactly whathe would have quickly done had he found himself placed in the samepredicament.
"I'd like to, the worst kind," the fat scout assured him, "but you knowI'm feeling very queer and weak, so I don't believe I could do much thatway, unless," he added quickly, "I had some assistance from above."
"And that's just what I'm going to try and give you, Tubby."
While Rob was saying this he had unbuttoned his coat. This he proceededto take off, first making sure to transfer anything he had in thepockets, so that he might not suffer a loss.
"Now, by leaning down here, I think I can reach you with this coat," heproceeded to explain. "If I had a rope, it would be much easier, forwith a loop I could make a sure thing of it. But half a loaf is betterthan no bread, they say."
"Of course it is, Rob," agreed Tubby, who was in no position to quarrelwith any measures that were taken for his relief. "But what can I dowith the coat when it comes down to me? I don't feel that cold, youknow."
"I'm going to keep hold of one end, Tubby," Rob explained quietly, in away to convince the imperiled scout that everything was working asarranged, and that he need not worry. "With just one hand you get a goodgrip of the end that's near you; then start in to try and climb, usingyour clasped legs the best you know how. And don't get discouraged ifyou only come up an inch or so at a time. When you're within reachMerritt will hang down and lend a hand, too."
All of which was undoubtedly very cheering to Tubby. This thing ofhaving stanch comrades in times of distress was, he had alwaysbelieved, one of the best parts of the scout brotherhood.
He immediately took a firm grip--and commenced to wrigglethe best he knew how.--_Page 247._]
He immediately took a firm grip of the dangling coat-sleeve, andcommenced to wriggle the best he knew how.
"I'm making it, Rob; sure I am!" he presently announced. "That time Islid up as much as six inches. It was a bully hunch, that coat racket ofyours. Keep her going, Rob, and I'll get there yet. Never giveup--that's my motto, you know. I may get in lots of scrapes, but somehowI always do manage to crawl out, don't I?"
"Save your breath, Tubby, for your work; don't chatter so much," Robtold him.
Merritt was ready to do his part. He had clasped a leg about the girderto help hold him, and was leaning as far down as possible. Presently thegrunting fat chum reached a place where he could be taken hold of, andso Merritt fastened a hand in his coat back of his neck.
"Here you come, Tubby," he said encouragingly.
"Don't let go with your hands or knees yet!" warned Rob; for, shouldTubby be so foolish as to do this, the chances were that such a suddenweight might drag Merritt down, and both would take the plunge.
It required considerable effort to finally land Tubby on the horizontalgirder, but in the end this was accomplished. Then all of them sat thereto rest after their recent violent exertions.
"I don't see how I came to do it," Tubby finally remarked, as though hedeemed it necessary that some sort of explanation were forthcoming. "Iwas moving along as nice as you please, when all of a sudden I feltmyself going. I must have grabbed at the air, and happened to get a gripon that hanging steel rope. Well, it might have been a whole lot worsefor me! I'm glad I didn't get soused in the river. And I'll never forgethow nobly my chums came to the rescue."
"Oh! stow that sort of talk, Tubby," Merritt told him. "That's whatwe're here for. What's a scout wearing his khaki uniform for if it isn'tto remind him what he owes to his chums? You'd do the same for us anyold time."
"Just try me, that's all," declared the grateful Tubby; and then,changing his tune, he went on to say: "Here we are, out in the middleof the span, and it's just as hard to go back as it is to move forward.So when you're ready, Rob, start off again. I'll try not to slip anymore. The next time you might see my finish."
"I'm sure it would see mine," remarked Merritt, rubbing the arm he hadused in order to tug at Tubby's great weight.
Luckily nothing more happened, and they were able to reach the oppositeshore in safety. Tubby sank down and panted, as soon as he crawled offthe end of that fragment of the steel bridge.
"Thank goodness that job is over with!" he exclaimed fervently, "and allI hope is that we don't have to come back this way."
"Oh! you're getting to be an expert tight-rope walker by now, Tubby,"Merritt said encouragingly. "A little more practice, and you could applyfor a job with Barnum & Bailey's circus."
"Thank you, Merritt, but I have loftier aims than that calling," saidTubby disdainfully.
"Well, let's be getting on," suggested Rob. "We've spent enough timehere already."
"Thank goodness I don't have to tramp along soaked to the skin," Tubbywas heard to tell himself, with gratitude.
The road skirted the river bank on the side they were now on for somelittle distance at least. Rob continued to keep a w
atchful eye around asthey progressed. He knew there was always a chance that they might meetsome detachment of troops hurrying along; though the fact of the bridgebeing down must be known to the Germans, and would deter them fromtrying to make use of this road until a temporary structure could bethrown across the river by their engineers.
Most of the inhabitants had fled from that part of the country. Some mayhave drifted into Brussels before the capital fell into the hands of theinvaders, when August was two-thirds gone; and they had remained thereever since. Others had fled in the direction of Ghent and Antwerp, inthe hope that these cities might hold out against the German army.
Several times they saw old men at work in the fields, trying to save apart of their farm crops, though without horses they could do little.Every beast of burden had been drafted for one or the other army; whatthe Belgians missed the Germans had certainly commandeered to take theplace of horses lost in the numerous fierce engagements thus far fought.
On consulting his little chart Rob soon found that it would be necessaryfor them to abandon this good road, and take to a smaller one thatbranched off from it, winding in through the trees, and past farms thathad been thrifty before this blight fell on the land.
"Here's a wood ahead of us that looks as if it covered considerableterritory, and you don't often see such a bunch of timber in Belgium,"Merritt announced presently.
"Because, with seven million inhabitants to such a small area," addedRob, "it's always been necessary that they employ what is calledintensive farming. That is, they get as much out of the soil aspossible, even to several crops off of the same patch of ground duringthe year."
"Belgium is a busy manufacturing country, too, or has been up to now,"Merritt continued, which information he may have remembered from histraining at school, or else found in some guide-book purchased in NewYork City before their steamer sailed for England.
"I wonder what we'll strike on the other side of this wood?" Tubbyquestioned, always speculating on things to come; and possibly hopingthen and there they might run across a hospitable farmer who wouldkindly offer to provide them with some sort of breakfast.
"That's yet to be seen," Merritt told him. "Here's where there seems tobe a sort of swampy patch, with water and bogs. Listen to the frogscroaking, will you? And I can see more than a few whoppers, too. Chancesare this is a frog farm that supplies the big hotels in Brussels andAntwerp. You know the French are keen on frogs' legs, and pay fancyprices for them by the pound."
"I've eaten them more than once," Rob informed them, "and I never hadspring chicken that was more toothsome and tender."
Whereupon Tubby cast a wistful eye toward the border of the frogpond,where the big greenbacks could be seen, sitting partly in the water, andcalling to one another socially.
The boys kept walking on, and finally came to where the trees began toget more scanty. About this time Rob made a discovery that was not atall pleasing.
"Hold up, fellows," he said in a hoarse whisper that thrilled Tubby inparticular, "our road is blocked. There's a whole German army corpscamped ahead of us; and it's either go back, or else hide here in thewoods till they take a notion to break camp and clear out. Let's dropdown in the brush and talk it over."