The Belgians to the Front.
by Colonel James Fiske.
CHAPTER I
A DISCOVERY
In the great public square of the ancient city of Liege, in Belgium, a troop of Belgian Boy Scouts stood at attention. Staffs in hand, clad in the short knickerbockers, the khaki shirts and the wide campaign hats that mark the Boy Scout all over the world, they were enough of a spectacle to draw the attention of the busy citizens of Liege, who stopped to watch them admiringly. Their scoutmaster, Armand Van Verde, had been addressing them. And now in the fading light of the late afternoon, he dismissed them.
At once the troop broke up, first into patrols, then into small individual groups of two or three. The faces of the scouts were grave for it was serious news indeed that Van Verde had communicated to the troop at the meeting just ended. Paul Latour called sharply to his great friend, Arthur Waller.
"Come on, Arthur," he said. "We"d better be getting along home. There may be something for us to do."
"All right," agreed Arthur, cheerfully. He was a little younger than his chum, and was nearly always willing to agree to anything Paul proposed.
The two boys were not natives of Liege. However, they spent their summers with relatives who lived in the country a few miles beyond the limits of the famous old town, in the direction of the village of Esneux. They themselves came from Brussels, and, while not themselves related, were both cousins of the family which they were now visiting, that of M. de Frenard.
So now, striking out with a good, swinging pace, they made their way rapidly through the streets of the old town of Liege, narrow and crooked, once they were beyond the great square. They pa.s.sed over the new Exposition Bridge and so to the new town of Liege, where the great steel works of Seraing were beginning to cast red reflections against the darkening sky.
"They have begun to work all night long," said Arthur.
"It"s a good thing, too," said Paul, soberly. "If there is to be a war, as Mr. Van Verde says, we may need all the guns they can turn out."
"But we shall not go to war, Paul! Belgium is neutral. All the powers joined in declaring Belgium to be a neutral state. We have learned that in our history in school!"
"I know that, Arthur. But will the Germans respect our neutrality? If they don"t, we shall have to defend ourselves against them. And the first attack will be here, at Liege."
"Then these forts that Uncle Henri showed us will really be useful?
They are strong forts, Paul."
"I hope not. But just because there are forts there it is a sign that the government has feared an invasion, Arthur. I hope that if there is war we shall stay out of it. But Belgium has always been exposed to war when her great neighbors fought. Some of the greatest battles in the history of the world have been fought on our soil."
"I know! Waterloo was where Napoleon was beaten finally. We have seen that battlefield, Paul, you and I. Do you think there may be a battle there again? That would be exciting!"
"Waterloo was only one. Ramillies was fought in Belgium, too, and many other battles. Even Caesar fought here. Do you remember the place where he says that of all the tribes he conquered, the bravest were the Belgians?"
"Oh, that"s so! I"d forgotten that! But, Paul, you said there might be something for us to do. What did you mean?"
"I"m not sure yet, Arthur, and I"d rather not say anything more until I am. But I want you to slip out with me to-night, after dinner. We"ll find out then, for certain. And I don"t want to tell Uncle Henri or anyone else, and afterward find I was wrong. We"d be laughed at then, you see."
"Then you have found something! Oh, tell me, Paul! I won"t repeat it to a soul!"
"You"ll know all in good time. Do you remember that man who tried the other day to get work as a gardener?"
"Yes, I do. Uncle Henri didn"t have any work for him, but he sent him to the factory in Seraing, and told him they would give him a job."
"That"s the one. You know he said he was hungry, and that he hadn"t been able to get any work for a long time, so he didn"t have any money.
Uncle Henri told the cook to give him a dinner."
"Yes, and I was sorry he didn"t get a place. He looked as if he would have been all right."
"Well, Arthur, I saw him again, last night! He was in Esneux, and he seemed to have plenty of money, though he hadn"t gone to Seraing to get work. He was in Madame Bibet"s wine shop, and he was treating everyone. Do you know what he paid with?"
"No."
"A German gold piece! That"s how I know about it, because Madame Bibet had never seen such a coin before, and she was afraid it wasn"t good.
So she came out, and when she saw me she asked me, and I told her it was good, of course."
"Well, that"s nothing, Paul. We often see German money here in Liege.
Isn"t it like that in all places that are near a border? I suppose that on the other side there is a lot of French money. Why, there is, even in Brussels."
"It may mean nothing at all, Arthur. I hope it doesn"t. But I think it"s funny that that man should be staying around so. He must have told Uncle Henri a lie when he said he didn"t have money. I"d like to know what he"s up to. I"d like to be sure that he"s not a German spy."
"Oh, I never thought of that! A spy! Why should the Germans have spies around here, though, Paul?"
"It"s just the place where they would have them, Arthur. The forts!
They want to find out all they can about them. Boncelles is near us; so is the fort of Embourg. They want to know if our people are ready.
If they come through Belgium, you know, they will want to get through as quickly as they can, to attack the French."
"But I don"t see why they should want to come through Belgium at all, Paul. Why can"t they leave us alone? They can attack the French along their own border, I should think."
"They can. But the French know that, and they have their strongest fortresses all along there, from Belfort to Verdun. It would take the Germans weeks, months perhaps, to get past these fortifications along the border, and that would give the French time to bring up all their soldiers. And the Germans have to beat the French quickly this time, or else not at all. They aren"t fighting France alone, but Russia as well, and their plan must be to beat France first and then turn on Russia. They think that here in Belgium it will be easy for them to get around these forts. If they once get behind them, the French will have to retreat. And the Germans think that the quickest way to bring that is for them to go through our country and so attack Paris."
"They ought to be stopped!" said Arthur, hotly. "England and France would help us, wouldn"t they?"
"France certainly would, because she would have to. And I believe the English would help, too. I hope so. Because even if the Germans promised to go away as soon as they"d beaten France, I don"t believe they would. They"d make Belgium a part of Germany."
"They can"t do that! They shan"t! Why, we"re not German! We"re a free country!"
"Yes, but we may have to fight to remain free, Arthur. Free countries have had to do that before. If there is war, I think we shall see the Germans here within a day of its declaration. We had better hope for peace. But we must be prepared for war--and we must not deceive ourselves. A treaty guarantees our neutrality, but I think the time is coming when treaties will be forgotten."
"We shall have to teach these Germans to remember them, then," said Arthur, valiantly. "We may be weak, but we are brave, we Belgians. I believe we can give them something to think about."
Paul smiled a little sadly. He understood the true facts, the real possibilities, better than his friend.
"If it comes to fighting, we will do our part," he said, "but we should be helpless against Germany alone, Arthur. The only thing we could do would be to try to hold them back long enough for the French and the English to come to our aid. Either that, or we would have to let them pa.s.s through without resisting them."
"So that they could fall on France? But that would be treachery!" said Arthur, indignantly. "I have heard of that treaty of neutrality. We are safeguarded from attack, but we are forbidden to allow the troops of a country that is at war to pa.s.s through our territory. If it was the French who talked of invading us to reach Germany, I should say that we must fight them."
"Yes, you"re right, Arthur," said Paul. "I think we should make any sacrifice to keep faith. But be sure that it will be a terrible sacrifice, if we must make it."
"Look there!" whispered Arthur, suddenly. "Someone started up just now from behind the bushes. A man--and he is running away from us!"
"After him!" cried Paul. "It looks--yes, it is the man I spoke of!"
They ran as hard as they could, shouting as they went, in the hope that someone might intercept the fugitive. But he had too good a start, and in a few moments he had distanced them by climbing a rail fence and disappearing into a thicket that came down to the edge of a field.
"No use!" said Paul, disgustedly. "He got away from us. But I don"t suppose it would have done us any good to catch him. We couldn"t have done anything--h.e.l.lo!"