And with that a.s.surance she had to be content.
CHAPTER VIII
THE UHLAN
"Come along with me," said du Chaillu, when they had left Madame de Frenard in the station. "I"ll see that you"re put up for the rest of the night, and to-morrow we"ll make other arrangements."
"Thank you," said Paul, "but I think we"d better go back. A good many things were saved, after all, when the house was burned. When so much was destroyed I think we ought to try to safeguard what remains, for my uncle"s sake. And there is a place there where we can sleep very well, thank you."
"H"m!" Du Chaillu looked more than doubtful. "But there is no telling how soon the Germans will be there. Had you thought of that?"
"They won"t hurt us, sir," said Paul.
"No, I suppose not. There"s no reason for them to make war on boys or any other non-combatants. One word of warning, though. If the Germans do come before you can get away again, don"t make any move against them. All the fighting must be done by soldiers. The Germans consider it is murder if a civilian fires on them, and they are in the right, according to the rules of war. They are justified in making any reprisals. So be careful yourselves, and warn all the men about your place. Tell them the message is from me. General Leman has issued orders that no civilians are to oppose the Germans or give them any excuse for destroying undefended places."
"I understand, sir," said Paul. "Then we may go?"
"Yes. But be careful. We have seen aeroplanes of the Germans already--one of our flyers chased one of their Taubes early in the evening. They dropped bombs on Fort Boncelles."
"I never thought of that!" exclaimed Arthur, sharply. "Do you suppose one of their aeroplanes could have dropped a bomb that would have set our house afire?"
"It is possible," said du Chaillu, shortly. "They might not have realized what they were doing. I hope they did not, if that is what happened. It is not the sort of work for soldiers."
"It makes very little difference now," said Paul. "The house is burned, so it doesn"t matter, I suppose, how it came to catch fire. We will go back, then, major."
"Very well. Report to me at headquarters here when you return, although by that time I may be on duty in one of the forts. I cannot tell; we of the staff are in one place one minute, and far away the next. Good-night, again, and better luck, this time, than my wishes brought you before."
"Good-night!" they echoed, and set out to find their carriage. But before they reached it Paul stopped.
"I want to go to Henri Creusot"s house," he said. "There is something in the stable there we shall need. I suppose we can"t wake him up, but I shall get what I want, even if we cannot."
Arthur followed him willingly, although Paul volunteered no explanation of what it was that he was after. And he remained on guard outside the stable while Paul went in, to reappear presently with a large and c.u.mbrous burden--a sack bulging with the spoil of his little raid.
Then they went to the carriage, and soon they were driving back toward the ruined house. When they reached it the dawn was beginning to break in the east--toward Germany! It was a red, menacing dawn--the sort of daybreak one might well have expected to see in such a time. About the smouldering remains of the fine house the men employed about the place were still grouped. It seemed all had decided that in some mysterious fashion the Germans were responsible for the ruin that had been wrought, and they were talking sullenly of what they meant to do to the enemy.
Paul gave quick directions for housing and hiding the pictures and the few fine pieces of furniture that had been saved. When all that he ordered had been done there seemed a good chance that what the flames had spared would be safe from further risk. Then he and Arthur went over to look at the garage, which had not been touched by the fire.
"This is a piece of good luck, anyhow," said Paul, when he found the little building untouched. "I think we"ll live here as long as the Germans will let us, Arthur, which probably won"t be very long, even if we pretend to be stupid. We can be mighty comfortable."
"Of course we can," said Arthur. "It will be like a picnic, or like camping out, won"t it?"
"I"m afraid it won"t," said Paul. "But we"ll make the best of it, anyway. Come along to the house. I think the ruins are cool enough for us to find out what I want to know."
He led the way and Arthur followed. But it was not to the house that Paul went first. Instead, he led the way to a post that had carried the telephone wire, and, finding the wire, began to follow it toward the wing where it had entered the house.
"What on earth are you looking at that telephone wire for?" asked Arthur, completely mystified. "It seems to me that that"s the least important thing there is left."
"I think it"s going to be about the most important thing!" said Paul, surprisingly. "Go get a shovel, will you? Or rather two, for we"ve got some digging to do."
Arthur obeyed, as he always did, but he was thoroughly mystified. And no light was shed upon the mystery when he returned, to find that Paul had disconnected the wire in the ruins of the house and was dragging it away from the post where it entered the grounds. But now Paul explained.
"Do you remember that several of the crosses on those maps we found were right over there?" he asked, pointing in a direction east of the burned house.
"Y--es," said Arthur, with an effort to remember. "Oh, yes, I do, now!"
"Well, that means that there will be a battery there. Do you see how it"s screened? The woods hide it completely. It doesn"t make any difference to the Germans that they can"t see their target--they"ve got a fixed range, because they know just where the forts are, and they"ll get the range of anything else from their aeroplanes."
"Yes, I see that."
"Well, I think this battery is likely to turn out to be the most important one on this side. I think that they will depend on it to silence Boncelles and Embourg. We haven"t many aeroplanes and it"s going to be mighty hard for our people in the forts to tell what the effect of their sh.e.l.l fire is, and to correct the range, especially if the Germans use comparatively light guns that they can move about, as I think they will. Now do you see?"
"Not quite--"
"Suppose we stay here in the garage? There"s a chance that they may let us, isn"t there? Well, if they do, we can see whatever goes on, with a little care. And if we have a buried telephone wire leading to Boncelles we can report just what happens when a sh.e.l.l is fired, and they can correct their aim. That"s why I want to dig a trench for that wire from some distance outside the grounds here, and run it under the garage--into the pit, you know."
"Oh, now I see! You mean we would stay here and pretend not to have any idea of what"s going on, while we were really sending information to the forts?"
"Yes. Now the first thing we"ve got to do is to tap that wire and tell them in Liege what we are doing, so that they can give us direct connection with Boncelles. Then we"ll try to hide the wire, so that the Germans won"t find it."
Now the mysterious errand Paul had had in Liege was explained. He had brought with him all he thought he could use of a lot of wire and telephone instruments that one of their fellow scouts had used in setting up a miniature telephone exchange of his own, with wires connecting his house with that of some of his chums.
"We"d better dig the trench and bury the wire first because we"ve got to be very careful in filling it up again, so that no one will notice what"s been done," said Paul. "That"s the most important part. You see, if we were caught at this we"d be treated as spies--and that"s what we"ll really be."
"Isn"t there a chance that they won"t really come as far as this?"
asked Arthur.
"Yes, there is and a very good chance, too, I think. Really, if they do come up to this point, I believe we won"t have much chance. But the grounds here will be well within the range of the guns from the forts, and I don"t think they"ll do any infantry work until they"ve tried to beat down our forts with their big guns. Not from this side, anyway.
If they try to take Liege by storm they"re more likely to attack between Liers and Pontisse, or between the Meuse and Barchon. The country"s more open there. Here, you see, the Ourthe runs between Boncelles and Embourg, and the two forts command all the approaches.
So I think there"s a good chance for us. But we have got to take precautions, of course, because they are almost sure to throw out their scouts as far as this in the beginning, even if they recall them after the guns start firing."
Neither of the scouts thought of being tired after that. Arthur began the work of digging out the shallow trench in which they meant to bury the wire, while Paul tapped the main wire and explained to an officer at headquarters in Liege what they planned. It took him some time to overcome the doubts of this officer, but finally it was arranged that his wire should be connected with Fort Boncelles direct, and he talked to that important link in the chain of defending forts for some time, making final arrangements.
"No matter what happens, of course," he said, "you mustn"t call us, because if we"re quiet for any length of time, it may mean that the Germans are around us. We will watch the firing, after it begins, and tell you whatever we can find out."
Then he returned to help Arthur, and they worked until it was broad daylight. By that time they had the wire well hidden, so that it was entirely invisible. It came out under the garage, and the instrument at its end was well concealed in the pit under the place where the big car stood when repairs were to be made.
"Well, that"s done!" Paul exclaimed at last, with a deep sigh of satisfaction. "Are you tired, Arthur?"
"I wasn"t just a minute ago," said Arthur, rubbing his eyes. "But now I"m so sleepy that I feel as if I could go off standing up!"
"Well, there"s no reason why we shouldn"t get some sleep now. I"m like you. As long as we still had something to do I didn"t feel tired. But now,--"
A great yawn interrupted him. They surveyed their work with blinking eyes, then they crept up to the little room above the garage, and in less than a minute were sound asleep.
It was broad daylight when they went asleep; when they awoke dusk had fallen. Paul woke first, and he went to the window and looked out.
Everything, seemingly, was just as it had been when they had last looked out. The scene was one of profound peace. From the window he could not see the burned house, a patch of blackened ruin in the fair landscape. The fading light played on the leaves just as it had a thousand times before; shadows lay along the little mossy patches, the corners of the lawns that he knew so well.