Boy Scouts on Belgian Battlefields
CHAPTER IX.
WITH FIRE AND SMOKE.
"Gingersnaps and popguns! then we're in for a warm time of it!" Tubbyburst out.
"Let's hope they manage to get the fire out; or that it doesn't spreadto the inn," Merritt soothed him, after the manner of one who wished tothrow oil on troubled waters.
"If only the Germans would pull out right away we could get down fromhere in good time," continued Tubby hopefully. "Look again, fellows, andsee if they show any signs of skipping."
"They seem to be galloping all over the village, as far as I can see,and threatening to shoot if anybody dares take a crack at them," Robannounced, after making a hurried survey.
"Oh! my stars!" groaned Tubby, "little did I ever dream that I'd stand achance of being cooked before I'd been in Belgium two days. I alwayssaid I liked cold weather best, and now I know it. Baked or stewed oreven broiled doesn't suit my taste."
"The fire next door is beginning to rage fiercely," remarked Rob. "Thepeople are just standing on, and sullenly watching it burn. They don'tseem to dare to offer to help save a single thing, because they might beshot down."
"That house is doomed!" asserted Merritt, gloomily.
"Better keep back more," cautioned Rob. "The light grows stronger allthe while, you notice, and we might be seen up here by some Uhlan, who'dthink it fine sport to send a shot if only to frighten us. I thought Isaw one man glance up. If he happened to see that we wore khaki and hadon these military looking hats he'd pass the word along that there wereBelgian soldiers hiding in the inn."
"Please don't start a riot," begged Tubby. "It's sure bad enough as itstands without that happening. If we had wings now we might sail away.What wouldn't I give for an aeroplane to come along at this minute, andpick me up? Rob, has our house taken fire yet?"
At first Rob did not see fit to answer, upon which the suspicious Tubbypressed him to declare the truth.
"No matter how bad it is," he said soberly, "we should know the worst,instead of pulling the wool over our own eyes, and believingeverything's lovely. How about it, Rob?"
"I'm afraid it's a bad job, Tubby."
"You mean we're on fire, do you?" questioned the other, with a hurriedintake of his breath, as his heart possibly beat tumultuously with newapprehension.
"Yes, it's caught the end of the inn, and with that breeze blowing thereisn't a chance for this house to be saved," Rob continued. "I'm sorryfor the poor man who owns it; but then he'll be no worse off than tensof thousands of other Belgian sufferers."
"But think of us, will you?" the fat scout urged. "We're neutrals only,and it's a shame to make us stand for that foolish shot some sniping boymay have fired. Hadn't we better make our way downstairs, Rob, andthrow ourselves on the mercy of the Uhlans?"
"I'm in favor of sticking it out just as long as we can," said Merrittdesperately; for only too well did he know that once they fell into thehands of the Germans, all chances of carrying out his well laid planswould be lost.
"Oh! so am I, when it comes to that," affirmed Tubby; "and I hope thatneither of you think I'd be the one to scream before I'm hurt. But I dosmell smoke, and that looks bad, as the plight of Bluebeard's wife."
There could be no questioning that what Tubby said was so, for littlespirals of penetrating smoke had commenced to come under the door, sothat they could already feel their eyes begin to smart.
Rob went back to the open window to watch. He knew that the thingcalculated to help them most of all would be the flitting of the Uhlantroop. If the raiders would only gallop away from town there would be anopportunity for the three Boy Scouts to make their way from the garretof the doomed inn.
"Are they showing any signs of going yet?" asked Tubby, rubbing onehand continually over the other; and then he burst out into a halfhysterical fit of laughter as he went on to add: "D'ye know, when I saidthat it made me think of Bluebeard, don't you remember where the wifewas waiting to be called down to lose her head, and expected herbrothers to come to the rescue, she had her sister watching out of thewindow for a cloud of dust on the road? And all the while she keeps onasking: 'Sister Ann, Sister Ann, do you see anyone coming?'"
"I guess you're not as badly rattled as you make out, Tubby," suggestedMerritt, "when you can joke like that with the house on fire. In thiscase you're wanting to know whether there's anybody going. Well, they'rehere yet, I'm sorry to tell you."
"But I think they are getting together to ride away," Rob added.
"Did they shoot down many of the poor villagers on account of thatsniper?" asked the fat scout anxiously.
"No, I couldn't see anything like that," Rob hastened to assure him."There was some firing, but it looked to me as if it might be done foreffect, just like cowpunchers ride into town, yelling, and shootingtheir guns in the air. But at the same time I think they must have gotthe person who did the sniping."
"Yes, I heard several shots that seemed to come from inside that nexthouse," Merritt admitted. "It'll certainly be his funeral pyre. Thehouse is all aflame, and burning fiercely."
"Poor chap! he must have been crazy to fire on Uhlans when they were insuch force," Tubby declared. "They never refuse a dare, I've heard said.And believe me, I don't ever want to test them. I hope they hear thecall soon now. That fire must be getting pretty close to us by thistime, boys!"
Rob opened the door of the garret a trifle, after having pushed back theheavy trunk. Immediately a cloud of smoke entered, at which poor Tubbyfell back in dismay.
"Oh! we're goners, I'm afraid!" he moaned, making his way through thepall in the direction of the one small window that was open, so that hemight secure a breath of fresh air.
"If we can keep the smoke out a little while longer it's going to be allright," Rob informed them. "The Uhlans are all in the saddle, and seemto be only waiting for the order to leave. I can hear the captain incharge of the troop telling the villagers something or other, and he isspeaking in French, too; so I reckon it must be a warning that if asingle shot is fired as they ride away, they will turn back and notleave one stone unturned in the place."
"That seems to be the usual Uhlan way, I've heard," muttered Tubby, gladhe could say anything; for at the time he was desperately clutching hisnose with thumb and fingers, as though in hopes of keeping the pungentsmoke from entering his lungs.
He had apparently gotten beyond the seeing stage, for both his eyes werekept tightly closed. At the same time Tubby was listening eagerly forgood tidings. He knew that his chums were constantly on the lookout.
"There they go off!" he heard Rob say presently, when the situation hadalmost become unbearable.
The sound of many hoofs coming to their ears, even above the roaring ofthe fire, affirmed this statement. Tubby acted as though he wanted tocheer, and then reconsidered his intention, through fear that the soundmight be heard by the Uhlans, and work them harm.
"Now, let's get out of here," said Rob briskly. "Take hold of my coat,Tubby. Merritt, bring up the rear. We'll find a room just below thiswhere we can drop out of a window easily, if the stairs are ablaze, asI'm afraid may be the case."
Passing down from the garret in this fashion, through dense billows ofsmoke that struck terror to the soul of Tubby, they presently foundthemselves in one of the ordinary rooms, used perhaps for stray guests.
Looking from the window Rob saw that it would be easy for him andMerritt to drop down on the turf below. Tubby must be taken care offirst, and so Rob snatched a sheet off a bed, and twisted it into theshape of a rope.
This he forced Tubby to take hold of, and then climb over the windowsill.
"Keep a fast grip, and we'll lower you!" Rob told the fat scout, who hadfull confidence in his comrades since they had never failed him.
After all, it was an easy thing to let him down, because the distancewas short. As for themselves, the other two boys scorned to make use ofsuch means. Clambering out of the window, when Tubby reported himselfsafe below, they hung down as far as they were able, and then just letgo. There w
as a little jar as they struck solid ground, and it was allover.
"Beautifully done, fellows," Tubby was saying, as he dug his fatknuckles into his still smarting eyes. "We'd pass muster for fireladdies, I tell you. After all, it takes scouts to know what ought to bedone. But I think some of these people must have gone out of their mindsto whoop it up so. What's that poor woman shouting now, Rob? Can youmake it out? And look how they're holding her back, would you? It mustbe the wife of the inn keeper; the loss of her home has unsettled herreason, I'm afraid, poor thing!"
But Rob, who had been listening, knew better, as he immediately proved.
"It's a whole lot worse than that, I'm afraid," he told the others. "Shekeeps calling out for her baby; and I think the child's been left in theburning building!"