"It"s hot on the boat. It would be nice to take the babies ash.o.r.e while we eat," said Mother De Smet, running out the gangplank. "I believe we"ll have supper on the gra.s.s. You hurry along and get the milk and eggs, and I"ll cook some onions while you are gone."
Jan and Marie ran over the plank at once, and Mother De Smet soon followed with the babies. Then, while Marie watched them, she and Jan brought out the onions and a pan, and soon the air was heavy with the smell of frying onions. Joseph and Jan slipped the bridle over Netteke"s collar and allowed her to eat the rich green gra.s.s at the river"s edge. When Father De Smet returned, supper was nearly ready. He sniffed appreciatively as he appeared under the trees.
"Smells good," he said as he held out the milk and eggs toward his wife.
"Sie haben recht!" (You are right!), said a loud voice right behind him!
Father De Smet was so startled that he dropped the eggs. He whirled about, and there stood the German soldier who had told Netteke to halt.
With him were six other men.
"Ha! I told you we should meet again!" shouted the soldier to Father De Smet. "And it was certainly thoughtful of you to provide for our entertainment. Comrades, fall to!"
The onions were still cooking over a little blaze of twigs aid dry leaves, but Mother De Smet was no longer tending them. The instant she heard the gruff voice she had dropped her spoon, and, seizing a baby under each arm, had fled up the gangplank on to the boat. Marie followed at top speed. Father De Smet faced the intruders.
"What do you want here?" he said.
"Some supper first," said the soldier gayly, helping himself to some onions and pa.s.sing the pan to his friends. "Then, perhaps, a few supplies for our brave army. There is no hurry. After supper will do; but first we"ll drink a health to the Kaiser, and since you are host here, you shall propose it!"
He pointed to the pail of milk which Father De Smet still held.
"Now," he shouted, "lift your stein and say, "Hoch der Kaiser.""
Father De Smet looked them in the face and said not a word. Meanwhile Jan and Joseph, to Mother De Smet"s great alarm, had not followed her, on to the boat. Instead they had flown to Netteke, who was partly hidden from the group by a bunch of young willows near the water"s edge, and with great speed and presence of mind had slipped her bridle over her head and gently started her up the tow-path.
"Oh," murmured Joseph, "suppose she should balk!" But Netteke had done her balking for the day, and, having been refreshed by her luncheon of green gra.s.s, she was ready to move on. The river had now quite a current, which helped them, and while the soldiers were still having their joke with Father De Smet the boat moved quietly out of sight. As she felt it move, Mother De Smet lifted her head over the boat"s rail behind which she and the children were hiding, and raised the end of the gangplank so that it would make no noise by sc.r.a.ping along the ground. She was beside herself with anxiety. If she screamed or said anything to the boys, the attention of the soldiers would immediately be directed toward them. Yet if they should by any miracle succeed in getting away, there was her husband left alone to face seven enemies.
She wrung her hands.
"Maybe they will stop to eat the onions," she groaned to herself. She held to the gangplank and murmured prayers to all the saints she knew, while Jan and Joseph trotted briskly along the tow-path, and Netteke, a.s.sisted by the current, made better speed than she had at any time during the day.
Meanwhile his captors were busy with Father De Smet. "Come! Drink to the Kaiser!" shouted the first soldier, "or we"ll feed you to the fishes! We want our supper, and you delay us." Still Father De Smet said nothing. "We"ll give you just until I count ten," said the soldier, pointing his gun at him, "and if by that time you have not found your tongue--"
But he did not finish the sentence. From an unexpected quarter a shot rang out. It struck the pail of milk and dashed it over the German and over Father De Smet too. Another shot followed, and the right arm of the soldier fell helpless to his side. One of his companions gave a howl and fell to the ground. Still no one appeared at whom the Germans could direct their fire. "Snipers!" shouted the soldiers, instantly lowering their guns, but before they could even fire in the direction of the unseen enemy, there was such a patter of bullets about them that they turned and fled.
Father De Smet fled, too. He leaped over the frying-pan and tore down the river-bank after the boat. As he overtook it, Mother De Smet ran out the gang plank. "Boys!" shouted Father De Smet. "Get aboard! Get aboard!" Joseph and Jan instantly stopped the mule and, dropping the reins, raced up the gangplank, almost before the end of it rested safely on the ground. Father De Smet s.n.a.t.c.hed up the reins. On went the boat at Netteke"s best speed, which seemed no better than a snail"s pace to the fleeing family. Sounds of the skirmish continued to reach their ears, even when they had gone some distance down the river, and it was not until twilight had deepened into dusk, and they were hidden in its shadows, that they dared hope the danger was pa.s.sed. It was after ten o"clock at night when the "Old Woman" at last approached the twinkling lights of Antwerp, and they knew that, for the time being at least, they were safe.
They wore now beyond the German lines in country still held by the Belgians. Here, in a suburb of the city, Father De Smet decided to dock for the night. A distant clock struck eleven as the hungry but thankful family gathered upon the deck of the "Old Woman" to eat a meager supper of bread and cheese with only the moon to light their repast. Not until they had finished did Father De Smet tell them all that had happened to him during the few terrible moments when he was in the hands of the enemy.
"They overreached themselves," he said. "They meant to amuse themselves by prolonging my misery, and they lingered just a bit too long." He turned to Jan and Joseph. "You were brave boys! If you had not started the boat when you did, it is quite likely they might have got me, after all, and the potatoes too. I am proud of you."
"But, Father," cried Joseph, "who could have fired those shots? We didn"t see a soul."
"Neither did I," answered his father; "and neither did the Germans for that matter. There was no one in sight."
"Oh," cried Mother De Smet, "it was as if the good G.o.d himself intervened to save you!"
"As I figure it out," said Father De Smet, "we must have stopped very near the trenches, and our own men must have seen the Germans attack us. My German friend had evidently been following us up, meaning to get everything we had and me too. But the smell of the onions was too much for him! If he hadn"t been greedy, he might have carried out his plan, but he wanted our potatoes and our supper too; and so he got neither!"
he chuckled. "And neither did the Kaiser get a toast from me! Instead, he got a salute from the Belgians." He crossed himself reverently.
"Thank G.o.d for our soldiers," he said, and Mother De Smet, weeping softly, murmured a devout "Amen."
Little did Jan and Marie dream as they listened, that this blessing rested upon their own father, and that he had been one of the Belgian soldiers, who, firing from the trenches, had delivered them from the hands of their enemies. Their father, hidden away, in the earth like a fox, as little dreamed that he had helped to save his own children from a terrible fate.
XII
THE ZEPPELIN RAID
When the Twins awoke, early the next morning, they found that Father and Mother De Smet had been stirring much earlier still, and that the "Old Woman" was already slipping quietly along among the docks of Antwerp. To their immense surprise they were being towed, not by Netteke, but by a very small and puffy steam tug. They were further astonished to find that Netteke herself was on board the "Old Woman."
"How in the world did you get the mule on to the boat!" gasped Jan, when he saw her.
"Led her right up the gangplank just like folks," answered Father De Smet. "I couldn"t leave her behind and I wanted to get to the Antwerp docks as soon as possible. This was the quickest way. You see," he went on, "I don"t know where I shall be going next, but I know it won"t be up the Dyle, so I am going to keep Netteke right where I can use her any minute."
There was no time for further questions, for Father De Smet had to devote his attention to the tiller. Soon they were safely in dock and Father De Smet was unloading his potatoes and selling them to the market-men, who swarmed about the boats to buy the produce which had been brought in from the country.
"There!" he said with a sigh of relief as he delivered the last of his cargo to a purchaser late in the afternoon; "that load is safe from the Germans, anyway."
"How did you find things up the Dyle?" asked the merchant who had bought the potatoes.
Father De Smet shook his head.
"Couldn"t well be worse," he said. "I"m not going to risk another trip.
The Germans are taking everything they can lay their hands on, and are destroying what they can"t seize. I nearly lost this load, and my life into the bargain. If it hadn"t been that, without knowing it, we stopped so near the Belgian line of trenches that they could fire on the German foragers who tried to take our cargo, I shouldn"t have been here to tell this tale."
"G.o.d only knows what will become of Belgium if this state of things continues," groaned the merchant. "Food must come from somewhere or the people will starve."
"True enough," answered Father De Smet. "I believe I"ll try a trip north through the back channels of the Scheldt and see what I can pick up."
"Don"t give up, anyway," urged the merchant. "If you fellows go back on us, I don"t know what we shall do. We depend on you to bring supplies from somewhere, and if you can"t get them in Belgium, you"ll have to go up into Holland."
Mother De Smet leaned over the boatrail and spoke to the two men who were standing on the dock.
"You"d better believe we"ll not give up," she said. "We don"t know the meaning of the word."
"Well," said the merchant sadly, "maybe you don"t, but there are others who do. It takes a stout heart to have faith that G.o.d hasn"t forgotten Belgium these days."
"It"s easy enough to have faith when things are going right," said Mother De Smet, "but to have faith when things are going wrong isn"t so easy." Then she remembered Granny. "But a sick heart won"t get you anywhere, and maybe a stout one will," she finished.
"That"s a good word," said the merchant.
"It was said by as good a woman as treads shoe-leather," answered Mother De Smet.
"You are safe while you stay in Antwerp, anyway," said the merchant as he turned to say good-bye. "Our forts are the strongest in the world and the Germans will never be able to take them. There"s comfort in that for us." Then he spoke to his horses and turned away with his load.
"Let us stay right here to-night," said Mother De Smet to her husband as he came on board the boat. "We are all in need of rest after yesterday, and in Antwerp we can get a good night"s sleep. Besides, it is so late in the day that we couldn"t get out of town before dark if we tried."
Following this plan, the whole family went to bed at dusk, but they were not destined to enjoy the quiet sleep they longed for. The night was warm, and the cabin small, so Father De Smet and Joseph, as well as the Twins, spread bedding on the deck and went to sleep looking up at the stars.
They had slept for some hours when they were suddenly aroused by the sound of a terrific explosion. Instantly they sprang to their feet, wide awake, and Mother De Smet came rushing from the cabin with the babies screaming in her arms.