Army Boys on German Soil.
by Homer Randall.
CHAPTER I
THE FLASH FROM THE GUNS
"I tell you, Bart, I don"t like the looks of things," remarked Frank Sheldon to his chum, Bart Raymond, as the two stood on a corner in the German city of Coblenz on the Rhine.
"What"s on your mind?" inquired Bart, as he drew the collar of his raincoat more snugly around his neck and turned his back to the sleet-laden wind that was fairly blowing a gale. "I don"t see anything to get stirred up about except this abominable weather.
It"s all I can do to keep my feet."
"It is a pretty tough night to be out on patrol duty," agreed Frank. "But it wasn"t that I was thinking about. It"s the way these Huns have been acting lately."
"Are you thinking of that sergeant of ours that was found stabbed to death the other night?" asked Bart, with quickened interest.
"Not so much that," replied Frank, "although that"s one of the things that shows the way the wind is blowing. But it"s the surly way the whole population is acting. Haven"t you noticed it?"
"There certainly is a difference," admitted Bart. "Everything was peaches and cream when we first came. The people fairly fell over themselves in trying to tell us how glad they were to have the Americans here instead of the French and English. Now they"re getting chesty again. A couple of fellows pa.s.sed me a little while ago who looked at me as if they"d like to slip a knife into me if they dared."
"They hate us all right," declared Frank. "It makes them sore as the mischief to have Americans keeping the watch on the Rhine.
They"re mad enough to bite nails every time they"re reminded of it."
"And that"s pretty often," laughed Bart, "for they can"t go out into the street without seeing an American uniform somewhere.
We"ve got this old town pretty well policed, and if any trouble starts we"ll put it down in a jiffy."
"Well, trouble"s coming all right," prophesied Frank. "There are lots of new faces in the city, fellows who seem to have come from the outside. You know Germany"s being ripped up the back everywhere by mobs, and the red flag is flying in Berlin. I have a hunch that these outsiders have come to start the same thing here."
"If they do they"ll get more than they bargained for," said Bart grimly. "They"ll find they"re monkeying with a buzz saw. What our fellows would do to them would be a sin and a shame. But here come Tom and Billy, if I"m any sort of a guesser."
"Right you are," replied Frank, as he descried two uniformed figures approaching, their heads bent away from the icy gale which was increasing in fury as the night wore on.
"h.e.l.lo, fellows," was the greeting that came from one of the newcomers, as they came into the flickering light of the street lamp, near which Frank Sheldon and Bart Raymond were standing.
"This is a dandy night to be out patrolling--I don"t think."
"A good night for ducks, Tom," replied Frank with a laugh.
"For polar bears, if you ask me," put in Billy Waldon, Tom"s companion, as he shook the drops from his raincoat. "How would it be to be back in the barracks just now lapping up a smoking hot cup of coffee? Oh, boy!"
"It wouldn"t be bad--" Bart was beginning, when suddenly a rifle cracked and a bullet whizzed by so close that it nearly grazed Tom Bradford"s ear.
"Shelter, fellows!" shouted Frank, as he leaped for an adjacent hallway.
His companions followed him quickly, and crouching in the hall, they peered out into the darkness to see if they could detect the whereabouts of the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin.
But everything was quiet except for the roaring of the gale, and the street seemed to be empty.
"Might as well look for a needle in a haystack," muttered Tom Bradford. "We don"t even know the direction from which the shot came. You can bet that skunk made tracks as soon as he fired."
"It was a mighty close call for you, Tom," remarked Billy. "A half inch closer and you would have been a goner."
"It would have been hard luck to have been laid out now after having come through that Argonne fighting alive," grumbled Tom.
"I"d just like to have my hands right now on the cowardly Heinie who tried to snuff me out."
"Don"t you see, Bart, that I was right when I told you that trouble was brewing?" remarked Frank.
"I guess you were, old man."
"It"s because we"ve been too confoundedly easy with these fellows," snorted Billy wrathfully. "We"ve gone on the theory that if we treated "em white and gave "em a square deal they"d appreciate it and behave themselves. We might have known better."
"The French and English know these ginks better than we do, and they"ve put the boots into them from the start," growled Tom.
"There"s been no namby-pamby dealing with the Huns in the bridge- heads where they"ve held control. They"ve made the Boches walk Spanish. If they didn"t uncover when the flag went by, they knocked their hats off for them. They know that the only argument that a Hun understands is force, and they"ve gone on that theory right along. And as a consequence the Heinies don"t dare to peep in the districts where the French and English run things. We ought to take a leaf from their books and do the same."
"That"s our good-natured American way of doing things," said Bart.
"But we"re due to stiffen up a bit now. We"re not going to stand for attempts to murder in cold blood--"
He was interrupted by an exclamation from Frank.
"Quiet, fellows," he adjured in a low voice.
"See anything?" whispered Bart, who was nearest him.
"I thought I caught a glimpse of a fellow stealing into that alley half-way down the block," returned Frank. "And there goes another one," he added, with a trace of excitement in his voice.
"I was looking that way and I didn"t see anything," murmured Billy Waldon rather incredulously.
"I"d bank on Frank," returned Bart. "He has the best eyes of any of us. They"re regular telescopes."
"There goes another!" exclaimed Frank tensely. "There"s something doing there, sure as guns!"
"I know that alley," said Tom Bradford. "I"ve often looked into it when I pa.s.sed it on my beat. But it"s a blind alley and doesn"t lead to any thing. It ends at a brick wall."
"All the better chance to bag them," replied Frank. "We"ll wait just a minute longer to see If any one else goes in, and then we"ll go down and nip the whole bunch. It"s against regulations for them to be on the streets at this hour, and you can bet they"re up to no good."
"I only hope the fellow"s among them that fired that shot,"
murmured Tom vengefully.
They waited a moment or two longer, but Frank Sheldon"s eyes detected no other skulking figure and he gave the word to move.
"Have your clubs and pistols ready, but don"t use the guns unless you have to," he ordered, for when the Army Boys were together the leadership by common consent devolved on Frank. "I guess the clubs will do the business if it comes to any resistance on their part."
"Fists would be enough," muttered Tom, as with the others he prepared to follow their leader.
Like so many ghosts they drifted out of the hallway, and, moving in the shadow of the houses, though in the rain and darkness that seemed almost unnecessary, they stealthily approached the entrance to the alley.
It was in one of the poorer sections of the town, and the dwelling houses were interspersed with factories and coal yards. On each side of the alley stood the wall of a factory, three stories in height. No light came from any window, and the alley itself was as dark as pitch.