"About that map, Freddy," Dave said presently in a low voice. "I think this is Estalle, myself, but that"s not much of a help. I mean, I couldn"t figure how far we are from the Belgian lines. I guess it can"t be very far, though. They only started the invasion yesterday morning, so they can"t have gone very deep into the country."
"I don"t agree with that, Dave," Freddy said. "The German blitzkrieg in Poland made as much as eighty and ninety miles in a day. Besides, my father taught me a lot about marking army maps. Of course I don"t know what _all_ of those markings meant on the Colonel"s map, but I"m pretty sure those little yellow pins represented their advanced armored scouting units."
"But good gosh, they were as far west as Brussels and Charleroi!" Dave gasped. "That"s miles away. What about the Belgian frontier forts, and the forts of Liege, and such big places? Wouldn"t they hold them back?"
"I don"t know," Freddy said. "But I suspect the Germans are doing the same thing they did in the Polish campaign. Their light fast mobile units scoot right on past the heavily fortified centers and capture small positions in the rear. Then the bombers and the heavy attack tanks, and such, go at the big forts. It"s as I heard my father say shortly after the Polish invasion. You don"t have trench warfare any more. It"s blitzkrieg nowadays. Lightning attack with small fast units, with the main body moving up behind and concentrating on main points of defense. And don"t forget Hitler"s air force, Dave. It cleared the way for him in Poland, and in Denmark, and Norway. They"re probably doing the same against the Belgians. At least until the British stop them. And we"ll jolly well stop them, don"t worry."
"Gee, you talk like a regular military expert," Dave said in admiration.
"I guess your Dad taught you a lot. War certainly isn"t what it used to be, I guess. But, look, there were some blue pins on that map, and beside each one was a date. I saw dates a week and two weeks from now.
And there were blue pins all the way across Belgium to the English Channel. I ... Holy smokes! It just struck me. The yellow pins show where the Germans are today, and the blue pins mark places they expect to capture on certain days! Could that be true, do you think?"
"Yes, I do," Freddy said. "I"m pretty sure, Dave, that we"ve seen something the Allied High Command would give a million pounds to see.
Five million, or more! That was an Intelligence map of the whole German plan of invasion, Dave. I"m sure of it!"
"My gosh, then let"s get going!" Dave cried, and leaped to his feet.
"We"ve got to get through to Allied High Command, wherever it is. We can"t show them the map, but between us we should be able to remember enough about it to help them plenty. We...."
A wild yell from down at the base of the hill, and three pistol shots in rapid succession, cut off Dave"s words like a knife. He shot a quick look down the hill and saw a cl.u.s.ter of lights suddenly spring into being. He wasn"t sure but he felt pretty certain they were from the building where he and Freddy had been held prisoners.
A second later when more shots and more shouting drifted up to him, he was sure. The guard had probably taken another look, and found out they had escaped. Now the alarm was being given. Bitter anger for wasting time talking flashed through him and was gone. He reached down quickly and pulled Freddy up onto his feet.
"They"ve discovered our escape!" he cried. "We"ve got to start moving, and fast. Stick close to me. We"ll still head north."
"But why north?" Freddy protested. "We should go west if we want to reach the Belgian outposts as soon as possible, and get them to take us to Allied G.H.Q., Dave!"
"No, north!" Dave said. "They"ll guess we"re trying to get to the Belgians, you see? So they"ll start hunting toward the west, and sending word ahead. If we go north we"ll be fooling them for awhile ... I hope.
Anyway, it"s our best bet. See? There go a couple of their cars racing down the road toward the west. Come on!"
CHAPTER NINE
_A Desperate Mission_
Dawn was a little over an hour away and Dave Dawson couldn"t drag his body forward another step. For hours he and Freddy Farmer had trudged across strange country through the darkness striving to put more and more ground between them and the pursuing Germans. A dozen times they had almost stumbled headlong into roving German mop-up patrols. And once they had crouched for a solid hour in a road ditch while a long line of tanks, and motorized artillery units had rumbled by heading westward.
But now he just couldn"t go another step. He didn"t care if the whole German Army was right at their heels. He had to stop and rest. There is a limit to the endurance of even the strongest of men, and Dave and Freddy had most certainly proved themselves to be men, not just mere boys, during those hours of mad flight across enemy held ground. Where they were Dave didn"t know, nor did he care much right at the moment.
The North Star had been his guide all the way, but they had been forced to change their direction in order to skirt bomb blasted villages filled with German troops, and roads clogged with parts of the mighty n.a.z.i war machine, so it was impossible even to guess how far they had traveled, or in what general direction.
Now, though, as he came to the outer edge of some woods and saw the shadowy shapes of barren fields beyond, Dave flung himself down under some bushes and gave his body over to the utter fatigue and weariness which had been trying to drag him down for the last several miles. His throat was dry and craving for water, and his stomach was screaming for some of the bread and the hunk of cheese he and Freddy had so wisely saved from that huge breakfast, and had stuffed inside their shirts before crawling out the window. Yes, food and water would go fine, but later. He was too dead tired now to so much as move a muscle. In a dull sort of way he was conscious of Freddy flopping down beside him, and then a moment later he felt himself slip away into blissful peace.
A soothing warmth on his back eventually woke him up. He started to move but the sudden aches and pains in his body brought a stifled groan to his lips. He stayed where he was for a moment with his face buried in his crossed over arms, soaking up the soothing warmth on his back. Then he rolled over on his back and stared up through the bush branches at the sky. It was another perfect spring day and the sun was well up on high. That realization finally filtered into his tired brain and brought him sitting bolt upright.
"Gee, it must be close to noon!" he heard his own voice whisper. "And we"ve still got a heck of a ways to go. But where, and in what direction, I wonder?"
He turned and put out his hand to shake Freddy sleeping close beside him. But when he saw the pale drawn face of his friend he let his hand drop back into his lap. He just didn"t have the heart to wake up Freddy.
The English youth was positively dead to the world, and one look at the completely exhausted expression on Freddy"s face told Dave the youth wouldn"t be fit to travel even if he were awakened. True, it might be very dangerous for them to remain where they are. German soldiers might stumble about them at "most any moment. Just the same a strange sense of responsibility took possession of Dave. He was the older of the two, and the stronger. By more or less mutual consent he had become the leader.
As the leader he should use his head. And it would _not_ be using his head to wake up Freddy and force the poor kid to continue on.
"No, it"s best to stick here, at least until dark," he argued with himself. "We"re pretty well hidden under these bushes. And ... and, gosh, I just haven"t the heart to wake him up!"
His decision made, he put his hand inside his shirt and pulled out the very much crushed half loaf of bread and the hunk of cheese. He ate a little of each and then made himself put the rest back inside his shirt.
It helped his stomach a little, but it only served to aggravate his thirst. He"d rather have a gla.s.s of water right now than be standing in the middle of Piccadilly Circus, in London, with his father.
He lay back on the ground again and started thinking about his father in an effort to forget his thirst. But after no more than five or six seconds it just wasn"t any use. He sat up again and peered around. It was then he saw the farm house and the sheds about half a mile away.
Smoke was coming from the farm house chimney, and he could see figures moving about in the yard. Because of the sun in his eyes he couldn"t tell if they were German troops or not. Off to the right he suddenly saw a moving cloud of dust. He knew at once it was a car traveling along a road. And presently the car came into view from behind a string of trees. It traveled up to the farm house and came to a stop. Four figures climbed out and hurried into the farm house. A faint hope that had been flowering in Dave died out at once. His straining eyes had made out the bucket shaped helmets and the tight-fitting field-grey uniforms of German officers.
Approaching the farm house was out of the question, now. He had hoped there might just be peasant farmers there, pa.s.sed by by the Germans. But that obviously wasn"t so. The place was alive with Hitler"s soldiers.
Fighting back his momentary defeat, he got slowly to his feet, took a make-sure look at the sleeping Freddy Farmer, and then crept off into the woods in search of a brook or a small pond.
Remembering his Boy Scout training, he broke branches off bushes every now and then so that he would be sure to find his way back to the sleeping Freddy. As a matter of fact, though, there really wasn"t any need of his doing that. At the end of a quarter of a mile the ground sloped down into a shallow valley, and there was a small brook trickling through the middle. With a low cry of joy Dave rushed down to it, flung himself flat, and buried his face in the icy cold water. Never, never in all his life had anything felt so good, so completely satisfying as the coolness of that brook. Cupping his hands he drank until he couldn"t hold another drop. Then tearing off part of his shirt sleeve he used it to wash his face and his neck. Finally, feeling almost like a new man, he got up and retraced his steps to his hiding place.
Freddy was awake when he got back, and when the English youth spotted him a look of fear and utter misery was instantly banished by joyful relief.
"Phew, what a fright you gave me!" Freddy choked out. "When I woke up I couldn"t remember if we"d come to this spot together, or if we"d lost each other last night. I came jolly close to yelling for you and then I sighted those German blighters over at that farm house. Where have you been, and I wonder where we are?"
"I wish I knew," Dave said. "But I"ve got some good news, anyway. Go straight back about a quarter of a mile and you"ll find a brook. Bet you could do with a nice long drink of water, couldn"t you?"
"I should say so!" Freddy cried and sprang to his feet. "My throat feels completely filled up with dust."
"Then hop to it," Dave grinned and pointed. "Straight back. You"ll see branches broken off the bushes. I"ll wait here and try to figure our next move."
"Be right back," Freddy said and hurried off into the woods.
When the English youth left Dave sat down on the ground and fixed frowning eyes on the farm house. Last night in that prison room his brain had concentrated on but one problem. The problem of getting out of the room. Well, they had done that, and they had put considerable distance behind them. That was all, however. Now, there were more problems to confront, and consider. Number one, was to find out where they were. Number two, was to decide whether or not it was safe yet to start heading west, or to continue north, and number three, was the problem of food. Whether they went north, south, east, or west they had a long road facing them, and their bread and cheese was not going to last forever. They would have to get food some place. And that farm house....
Dave let his thoughts trail off and stop as Freddy came up and sat down beside him. The English boy looked like an entirely different person.
His eyes were clear and not heavy with fatigue. There was a lot of color back in his face, and there was a happy and contented smile on his lips.
"I"ll remember that brook all the rest of my life," he said. "Gee, nothing ever seemed so good. Well, have you thought up a plan? I fancy, though, we"d better stay here until it"s dark. We"re bound to be stopped in daylight. That colonel chap has probably radioed a description of us all over the place."
"Gee whiz, you think so?" Dave e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "Just to catch a couple of fellows like us?"
"I fancy so," Freddy said in a sober adult voice. "He"ll be hopping mad that we escaped. And besides p.r.i.c.king his pride it will probably add to his silly ideas about us. Yes, I think the blighter will go to all ends to catch us. So, we"d better keep a watchful eye out even if we are in a hurry. What do you make of that farm house?"
"I"ve been thinking about it," Dave grunted. "There are Germans there, of course, but there must be food, too. If we could only manage to swipe some food I"d feel a lot better about starting out again. It"s going to be a long walk, and it"s a cinch we won"t be able to do any hitch-hiking with German tanks and armored cars all over the place."
"True," Freddy murmured. "But we might have to walk for days, and days.
Then the information we have might not be of any use to the Allied High Command. We"ve got to get back quickly, Dave, and I"m afraid we can"t do that by walking all the way."
"No, I guess not," Dave said unhappily. "But we"d be taking a heck of a chance trying to thumb a ride. Maybe, though, if we moved over close to that road over there, an empty truck or something might come by and we could slip aboard it for a little ways, anyway. Gosh, it seems a hundred years since I left Paris!"
"Two hundred," Freddy said with a sigh. "I certainly never even dreamed that anything like this would ever happen to me."
"Me, too," Dave said and gave a little half shake of his head. "Boy, what I"ll have to tell the fellows when I get back home!"