"Are these yours?" he asked of the girl who had accompanied them and had been as ardent in the search as themselves.
She examined them.
"I do not think so," she declared. "I do not remember seeing any rope like that around the house."
They scrutinized the pieces carefully.
"Look at these frayed edges," said Frank, laying them together. "You see that these two pieces were part of one rope."
"I"ll tell you what that means," put in Billy. "The girl says that Tom was bound with ropes. That cut or broken one was the one that was used to tie his hands. In some way he cut that. He didn"t have a knife or the cut would be cleaner. Perhaps he sawed the rope against a piece of gla.s.s that he might have managed to get near."
"Good guess," commended Bart. "And this long rope was the one that was used to tie his feet. Tom didn"t need to cut that for his hands were free then and he could untie it."
"Good old scout!" exclaimed Frank in tribute to his absent chum.
"Trust that stout heart of his to keep up the fight to the last minute.
Think of the old boy sawing away at the rope when he didn"t know what minute he"d be taken out and hanged."
"He"s all wool and a yard wide," agreed Bart.
"The real goods," said Billy. "But what were the ropes doing out here in the gra.s.s?"
"Oh, I suppose he hated them so that he chucked them as far away as he could," suggested Bart.
"No," said Frank, measuring the window with his eye. "I"ll tell you how I think it was. Tom knew, of course, that he couldn"t get out of the house by the downstairs way without being nabbed. He didn"t know, of course, that the bunch of Huns weren"t in condition to nab anybody.
So the window was the only way left to him. He took the ropes to the window with the idea of splicing them and climbing down by them. But that would have taken time, and when he saw that the window wasn"t very high up he made up his mind to drop. The ropes were in his hand and he simply threw them out of the window as the easiest way of getting rid of them."
"That sounds reasonable," said Billy. "But, oh boy! if poor Tom had only known that all he had to do was to walk downstairs and bag the whole blooming bunch!"
"I wish he had," said Frank mournfully.
"If he had, that lieutenant wouldn"t have got off so easily as he did,"
declared Bart. "Do you know what would have happened? Of course the first thing Tom would have done would have been to untie the farmer and his son. Can you picture, then, what would have happened to that lieutenant and probably to his men, too? The United States wouldn"t have been put to any expense for feeding them."
"That rope by the well would probably have been put to work," agreed Frank. "But poor Tom didn"t know and there"s no use of our speculating."
Encouraged by the information they had gained, they looked still further. But nothing more was found, and they at last said good-by to the girl and made their way back to their quarters with their hearts lighter than they had been for days. In a sense they had got in touch with their missing comrade, had seemed near to him, and their hopes were high that before long they would have him with them again.
"It"s disposed of one thing that was worrying me anyway," remarked Frank. "We know that Rabig had nothing to do with making away with Tom."
"Yes," said Bart, "that"s one thing the fellow can"t be charged with.
But I"m still mighty curious to know what he was hanging around that farmhouse for."
"It sure was a mighty strange coincidence that he should be there at the time the Germans were," declared Billy. "But Rabig is the only one who knows why and you can bet that he won"t tell."
The comparative lull that had occurred in the fighting was only temporary, and the next day the drive was resumed in all its fury.
This time the use of gas was greater than it had been at any previous time in the battle. And the Germans had made still greater strides in this diabolical contrivance which they were the first to inflict upon an outraged world.
At first the gas had been light and volatile. It caused terrible suffering to those caught by it, but it did not hover long over any given place and a gust of wind was sufficient to drive it away.
But that was not vile enough to satisfy the infernal ingenuity of the foes of humanity. Now they were using gas that settled on the ground so that nothing but a gale would drive it away, and that lasted for hours and even for days. And then there was mustard gas, that penetrated everywhere through the clothing, through the skin, and that burned and ate up the living tissues like so much vitriol.
But the Allies were on the alert and soon found a way to avert or modify the worst consequences of the various kinds of gases. And they were forced to fight fire with fire simply in self-defence. It was a question of kill or be killed, and they were left no alternative. They asked nothing better than to fight as knightly and honorable nations always have fought and always will fight when they are left free to choose their weapons.
But whatever the methods used by the Germans, whether gas or guns or men, they were finding increasing difficulty in keeping up the momentum of their drive. Sheer force of numbers had sufficed at first to carry them forward, but now the Allies with American help coming over the sea at the rate of two hundred thousand men a month--and the finest kind of men at that--were gradually getting on even terms.
"I see the Germans had a good day yesterday," remarked Frank, as he and his comrades were at mess.
"I didn"t notice it," said Bart, looking at his friend in surprise.
"We drove them back and gained ground from them."
"Oh, I don"t mean here," exclaimed Frank. "I mean in Paris."
Billy almost choked in surprise and alarm.
"You don"t mean to say they"ve got to Paris?" he sputtered.
"Not by a jugful," laughed Frank. "But they"re sending sh.e.l.ls into it."
"Then they must be pretty close to it," said Bart in some apprehension.
"The gun they"re shooting with is seventy miles away from the city,"
replied Frank.
"Quit your kidding," commanded Billy.
"Where do you get that stuff?" asked Bart incredulously.
"Cross my heart and hope to die," said Frank seriously. "Honestly, fellows, they"ve got a gun that shoots a sh.e.l.l seventy miles or more.
The sh.e.l.l weighs two hundred pounds. It rises twenty miles in the air, and it takes three minutes on the trip to Paris."
"Is that straight goods?" asked Billy suspiciously.
"It sure is," Frank a.s.sured him. "I was reading about it in a Paris paper I got hold of this morning."
"What was it you were saying about yesterday being a good day for the Germans," asked Bart, when he had digested the facts.
"Oh, one of the sh.e.l.ls. .h.i.t a church where they were having a service and killed seventy-five people, mostly women and children," answered Frank. "Don"t you imagine the Germans call that a good day? Can"t you see them grinning and rubbing their hands? It"s as good as bombing a hospital or an orphan asylum. The Kaiser felt so good about that he sent a special message of congratulation to the manager of the Krupp works, where the gun was made. Oh, yes, it was a good day!"
"The swine!" exclaimed Bart furiously, while Billy"s fist clinched.
"Let"s get busy," cried Frank, springing to his feet. "I can"t wait to get at those barbarians. I hope there"s lots of bayonet work today. I never felt in better trim for it."
They fought that day as they had never fought before, for they had never felt so strongly that the world would never be a decent place to live in until their barbarous enemies were humbled to the dust.
The next day the old Thirty-seventh was ordered to take up its position at a bridgehead that it was of the utmost importance should be strongly held. The enemy attacks were converging there, and it was evident that they were planning to cross the river in force. The country behind the American troops was flat and difficult to defend, and if the enemy should make good his crossing the consequences to the Allied cause might prove serious.
The enemy advance had reached the further side of the river, which at that point was about two hundred yards in width. A fierce artillery duel was kept up between the hostile forces. A wooden bridge with stone arches afforded the only means of crossing, and this was swept by such a fierce sh.e.l.l fire from the Allied guns that it did not seem as though anything could live on it for a moment.