Following Frank"s suggestion, they had not gone more than half a mile when, to their great satisfaction, they caught sight of an American sentry walking his post.
"Good!" exclaimed Dunton. "That means that we"re still in the occupied zone. We"ll just ask this bird where we are."
Inquiring of the sentry, they learned that they had landed at Montabaur, which was on the very edge of the zone occupied by the American Army. The sentry gave them directions as to the best way to reach camp. They arrived there without further mishap, and separated, the two friends hastening to their barracks, and Dunton to his headquarters to make a report on the loss of the balloon.
Great was the joy of Tom and Billy at seeing their comrades safe and sound, as they had been under intense anxiety concerning them.
"But we might have known better than to have worried about you,"
said Billy finally, after he and Tom had heard the story of their adventure. "I had a hunch all along that you"d both come piking along sometime to-night or to-morrow, and after this, I refuse to worry in any degree about you. It serves you right, anyway, for going up without us."
"Well, in the future, you can go up without me all you want to,"
laughed Frank. "How about it, Bart?"
"You said it," acquiesced Bart heartily. "I"m off that parachute stuff for all time. I know when I"ve had enough, and this is one of the times."
"The way it looks around here," said Billy soberly, "it isn"t going to be necessary to go up in the air to find excitement. All the evening we"ve been hearing reports of big riots going on in Coblenz, and everybody says we"re likely to be called out to- morrow to do a little suppressing act."
CHAPTER XIII
GERMAN RIOTING
For once rumor had not overstated things. The most turbulent rioting the city had ever seen started the next day, and, in spite of all the efforts of the authorities, seemed to increase in intensity as the day wore on. The German authorities seemed to be utterly helpless to cope with the situation, and finally the American troops had to be called upon to quell the disturbances.
"What did I tell you?" exclaimed Billy, when the order came through to get under arms. "We"re in for a nice little shindy now, as sure as guns. But as far as I"m concerned, I"m glad of a chance to teach these Huns how to behave. The trouble with us is, we"re entirely too easy with them."
"Yes, we"re not half as strict as we ought to be," a.s.sented Frank.
"But the more monkey business they try, the tighter the lid is going to be clamped down, as they"ll find to their cost."
But in point of fact, the rioting was not so much against the American authorities as it was against the German authorities who were operating under the protection and direction of the Americans.
But it was all one to the boys, as all they cared about was the prospect of some pleasurable excitement. And more excitement was brewing for them than they antic.i.p.ated, for this was by far the most serious riot that had occurred since they had entered German territory, and was one not easily to be suppressed.
The regiment was not long in getting ready, and was soon swinging out of camp, headed toward the rebellious city. As the soldiers approached it, they could hear the sound of rifle firing, mingled with the sharper sound of machine gun fire.
"Something doing, all right," said Bart, as they swung rapidly along. "Sounds as though some one were getting trouble, and plenty of it, and I"m willing to bet the Heinies are getting the worst end of it."
"You can bet they are," agreed Billy. "And just wait till this bunch of bad men gets after them. It begins to seem like old times again."
"Right you are," said Tom. "And whatever"s going to happen, it will be pretty soon, because we"re getting close."
By this time they were indeed on the outskirts of the town, and before long were swinging down one of the main streets, the noise of rifle firing and shouting growing steadily louder as they progressed. At first few people were to be seen, although here and there an anxious face peered out of an upper window.
But as they penetrated further into the heart of the city, they encountered hurrying and shouting knots of men, who, however, hastily changed their direction when they caught sight of the businesslike appearance of the Americans.
Suddenly Billy caught sight of a face at an upper window that seemed familiar.
"There"s the fellow that tried to strike the lame man the day you took his cane away from him, Frank!" he exclaimed.
Frank looked in the direction that Billy indicated just as the man was hastily withdrawing behind a curtain.
"Couldn"t see much of him, but it did look something like him," he remarked. "But I shouldn"t be surprised to find him mixed up in this trouble. He"s the kind that would be in the thick of it."
Just then there was a flash from the window and a bullet whizzed by the Army Boys and flattened against the wall on the other side of the street.
"I"ll bet that was aimed at you, Frank!" exclaimed Bart. "That fellow"s a bad shot but he has a good memory."
The shot was quickly followed by others from windows and roofs, but fortunately, the snipers were in too much of a hurry to take effective aim, and their bullets did little damage at first.
But as the Americans marched on, they encountered constantly increasing opposition. Several of the soldiers had been wounded by the time they had reached the thick of the disturbance. When they turned a corner into one of the main streets of the town they found that a barricade had been erected across it, and this barricade was being held by a small force of Americans, who, hemmed in on every side by Germans, were finding it a hard task to hold out against tremendously heavy odds. But the advent of reinforcements turned the tide of battle for the time being, and the mob quickly took to its heels and left the Americans a brief breathing s.p.a.ce.
The new arrivals were welcomed l.u.s.tily, and soon found themselves within the barricades, where they commenced a brisk fire against their unseen enemies on roof and at window, who still kept up a scattering fire. Meanwhile, the leaders held a brief consultation to decide their immediate course of action.
It was decided to dispatch small bodies of men, as many as could be spared, to clean up the adjacent streets, and so prevent the rioters from ma.s.sing again.
The four Army Boys, together with twelve of their company, two squads in all, found themselves detailed to a narrow street, and they soon found that their task was going to prove no sinecure.
The street was very narrow, bordered by tall, peaked houses, and every house seemed to shelter two or three riflemen. It was only occasionally that the Americans could see their opponents, but when a German did venture to expose himself for a moment, his slip almost invariably proved fatal, as the American rifles spoke with deadly effect. But the Americans were at a terrible disadvantage, and the sergeant in charge saw this and acted accordingly.
"Break up into groups," he ordered, "part on one side of the street and part on the other, and go from house to house. Clean them out thoroughly, and show no mercy to anybody you find with a rifle in his hand. We"ll a.s.semble again at the end of this street."
This plan was put into immediate operation. The four Army Boys were together. With their rifle b.u.t.ts they battered in the doors of houses, then fought their way up to the roofs against the most treacherous opposition. Again and again one or the other escaped death by what seemed a miracle, and they saw to it that the Huns paid the price for these attacks. The second house that they entered was a large one, and seemed a veritable maze of rooms, for each one of which they had to fight to gain possession. As they reached the foot of the stairway leading up to the top story, they saw three burly Germans at the top, rifles in hand, evidently prepared to stop the hated Americans at any cost.
"Surrender!" shouted Frank.
For answer, one of the Germans, who appeared to be the leader, leveled his rifle at Frank"s head, but before he could pull the trigger, Bart"s big automatic pistol spoke once, and the German swayed, stumbled, and came crashing down the staircase.
"Now"s the time, fellows!" yelled Frank, as he saw the remaining two Germans hesitate after the fall of their leader. "Let"s get "em and get "em quick! Treat them rough!" As he spoke all the boys leaped up the staircase, firing as they mounted.
But before they could reach the top reinforcements arrived for the Huns in the shape of three others of their countrymen. Nothing daunted, the Army Boys rushed on. As they fired one German fell, but the others presented a determined front, although their aim was bad, and so far none of the boys had been seriously wounded, although both Tom and Frank had been grazed by flying bullets. In a few more steps they were among the Germans, and then ensued a fierce hand to hand fight on the narrow landing. The Germans proved themselves no mean antagonists, and for a few minutes there was a wild medley of blows and shouts. The boys fought desperately, and slowly forced their antagonists back against a light bal.u.s.trade that guarded the stair well.
Suddenly there was a sharp snapping sound, the frail railing gave way, and with wild shouts and oaths the Germans hurtled over the edge for a sheer drop of three stories.
So suddenly did this happen, that the boys had the greatest difficulty in preventing themselves from following, but they recovered in time, and peered over. Three of their late enemies lay still as they had fallen, but the fourth showed some signs of life.
"Whew!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Frank, wiping the sweat from his eyes, "we had it hot and heavy here for a time, didn"t we?"
"I should say we did!" exclaimed Bart. "But that railing was a good friend to us. I hate Germans, but I"ve got to admit that those birds knew the rudiments of close-in fighting."
"Well, they"re done for now," said Billy, "and it looks as though we had cleaned this house up pretty thoroughly. If we have this much trouble in every house we tackle, I can see where we"ve got our work cut out for us."
"I think maybe it would be better to go up to the top of this house," said Frank, and then enter the adjoining one from the roof. Anybody in it will be expecting an attack from the street, and going in that way we may be able to take them by surprise."
"That"s a good idea" exclaimed Bart. "Lead on, old timer."
Frank"s plan proved to be a good one. They met with no further opposition while mounting to the roof, and once there, they located the scuttle leading into the next house. Fortunately this was not fastened, those in the house probably having left it unlocked with the idea in mind of facilitating their own escape.