From what he had seen and bits of information that he had picked up from other prisoners, some of whom were Frenchmen and knew the country well, Tom had a pretty good idea of the lay of the land. He knew that the country was rolling, with here and there a range of hills that rose almost to the dignity of mountains. Here there ought to be plenty of hiding places where he could stay while he planned a way to get across the lines.
Of course his route would be within the German lines for miles. But the inhabitants were in sympathy with the Allied cause, prisoners in almost as great a degree as he himself had been, and he might find among them aid and comfort, though such a.s.sistance if discovered would be sure to be visited with hard punishment by the German oppressors.
The way was full of difficulties and almost every step would be attended by danger. But for the present at least he was free. Free!
The word had never appealed to him so strongly before. He drew in great draughts of the mountain air. They seemed in a way to cleanse his lungs from the prison taint.
For what seemed to him hours he never slackened his pace. Many times he stumbled in the darkness and his body was full of bruises, but in the joy of his recovered freedom, he scarcely felt the pain. On he went and on until he felt certain he had placed a safe distance between himself and the scene of his recent captivity.
To be sure, the German command had other things to rely on than mere physical pursuit. There were the long arms of the telegraph and telephone, through which every division on the sector might be warned to be on the lookout for him. But it was wholly unlikely that this would be done. On the eve of the great drive, the authorities were too busy to expend their energies on the recapture of an escaped prisoner.
Even if he should fall into the hands of another body of his enemies, it was unlikely that they would know anything of his recent exploit.
So with body tired after his strenuous exertions, but with his mind as much at rest as it could be under the circ.u.mstances, Tom threw himself down at last to take a brief rest under the shadow of a giant beech.
The sun streaming through the branches woke him a little later. For a moment he did not know where he was and lay trying to get his thoughts in order. Then it all came back to him with a rush and he sprang to his feet and looked about him.
There was nothing in sight to alarm him. The place seemed to be wild and unvisited. A squirrel sat in the boughs over his head chattering his surprise and perhaps his displeasure at the sight of the intruder.
A chipmunk slipped along a gra.s.sy ridge and vanished in the undergrowth. Birds sang their welcome to a new day. Everything about him spoke of peace and serenity. It seemed as though there were no such thing as war in the world.
Yet even while this thought lingered with him there came a discordant note in the booming of a distant gun. But it seemed far off and though other guns soon swelled the menacing chorus there seemed to be no immediate cause for alarm.
A little way off from where he had slept, a small brook wound its way through the sedge gra.s.s. Tom welcomed it with a grin, for he had not had a bath since he had been captured.
In a moment he had undressed and plunged into the brook. The water was scarcely deeper than his waist, but its coolness was like balm to Tom"s bruised and heated body. When he resumed his clothing he felt infinitely strengthened and refreshed.
The young soldier worked his way into a dense thicket as a measure of precaution, before he ate the remnants of food that he had carried away with him the night before. It was a meager breakfast and he could have eaten four times as much if he had had it. But even crumbs were grateful to him in his famished condition.
He had just finished when an ominous sound fell on his ears. Voices mingled with the tread of feet and the clank of weapons. He looked through the bushes and saw a squad of soldiers wearing helmets coming over a little rise of ground beyond where he lay concealed.
He counted them as they came into view. There were at least forty Germans going along in loose marching order. They might have been a patrol out for scout duty or, what was more likely, a foraging party.
He had scarcely established their numbers when on the other side of the thicket and not more than fifty feet away another squad of Germans came into view. They apparently belonged to the same party, but had separated somewhat from the others, probably for more ease in marching.
They seemed to have come from some distance for they were warm and perspiring. The sight of the brook was refreshing, and after a brief conference between the lieutenant in command and a sergeant, the order was given to break ranks, and the men threw themselves down in sprawling att.i.tudes for a rest under the trees.
Tom"s heart was in his mouth. What kind of a trick was fate playing on him? Was this to be the end of his heartbreaking struggle, his wild flight through the woods? Was he to get just a tantalizing glimpse of liberty to have it immediately s.n.a.t.c.hed from him? At that moment he tasted the bitterness of death.
How lucky it was, though, that he had sought refuge in that thicket before he commenced his breakfast. There was still a chance. The men were tired and would not be likely to wander about. They were only too glad of a chance to rest.
He burrowed deeper and deeper into the recesses of the thicket. He lay as close to the ground as possible. What would he have given for the friendly shelter of a trench!
The men conversed lazily together while the officer sat some distance apart. At times the Germans" eyes rested carelessly on Tom"s shelter, but without any sign of suspicion.
At last the order came to resume the march, and Tom drew an immense sigh of relief. A few minutes more and they would be gone.
The men had formed in loose marching order and the lieutenant lifted his hand to give the signal.
Suddenly a loud ringing came from the center of the thicket, whirring, rattling, clanging.
_The time-piece Tom was carrying was an alarm clock!_
CHAPTER IX
THE CONFESSION
To poor Tom that ringing was the crack of doom.
The world seemed to end for him then and there. The first surprise had paralyzed him. Then he rolled upon the betraying clock, tried to crush it, strangle it, press it into the earth. But it kept on remorselessly until the alarm ran down.
The Germans had been almost as startled at first as Tom himself. But they hesitated only for a moment. There could be no mistaking where that insistent buzzing was coming from. There was a rush for the thicket, and the next moment Tom was hauled out and stood upon his feet among his captors.
It took only a glance to tell them that Tom was an American. His face as well as his uniform betrayed that fact. Amid a hubbub of excited exclamations he was taken before their leader.
But this time the officer was not able to talk English and there was no interpreter at hand, so that Tom for the present was spared the ordeal of questioning.
The fateful clock was pa.s.sed around among the men with jest and laughter. It was a good joke to them, but Tom was in no mood to see the humor of the situation. To him it meant that all his strivings had come to naught.
Why had he not noticed that the clock was of the alarm variety and that the alarm had been set? He promised that he would never forgive himself for that.
A number of men were counted off to take Tom to the local prison camp, while the rest of the party went on with their expedition.
The journey was long, but it was not attended by the rough treatment that would ordinarily have been meted out to the prisoner. The men were glad, for one thing, that they were relieved from going on the special duty for which the party had been formed. Then, too, Tom"s misadventure had given them a hearty laugh, and laughs were something to be prized in their arduous life.
After reaching the camp, Tom was taken before an officer for examination. But the officer was busy and preoccupied, and the questioning was largely a matter of form. Tom was vague or dense as the case demanded, and the impatient officer curtly ordered him to be thrust in with the other prisoners and promptly proceeded to forget him.
Tom pa.s.sed through several stages of emotion when he was left to himself. First he moped, and then he raged. Then, as the comical side of the situation forced itself even upon his misery, he laughed.
A proverb says that "the man is not wholly lost who can laugh at his own misfortunes." Tom laughed and immediately felt better. His natural buoyancy rea.s.serted itself. But he had imbibed a prejudice against alarm clocks that promised to last for the rest of his life.
The sector was a quiet one and Tom was not sent out to work under sh.e.l.l fire. For a few days he was left unmolested to the tedium of prison life, and he began with renewed zest to formulate plans for his escape.
He had a chance also to become more or less acquainted with his fellow-prisoners. There were not many and Tom reflected with satisfaction that the Americans held more German prisoners than the Huns had captured of his own countrymen.
There was a sprinkling of nationalities. There were a few American and British, but the majority were French and Belgians.
About the only French prisoner that Tom grew to know intimately was one who could speak English fairly well. This he explained was due to the fact that the man in whose employ he had been as a butler had a daughter who had married an American, and English had been much spoken in the household.
"What part of France do you come from?" asked Tom one day, when they were chatting together.
"From Auvergne," answered the Frenchman, whose name was Martel. "Ah,"
he continued wistfully, "what would I not give to see the gardens and vineyards of Auvergne again! But I never will."
"Sure you will," said Tom cheerily. "Brace up, Martel. You won"t stay in this old hole forever."
Martel shook his head.