Paul smashed the telephone now. Perhaps the Germans, if they found it, would think it had been useless from the beginning of the fighting.
And, just as he went upstairs, there was a crash at the door, and half a dozen German soldiers, led by an officer, broke in. In a moment Paul was seized; in another two men had gone upstairs, and returned, each with a hand gripping one of Arthur"s arms.
"What are you doing here?" asked the officer, in German. Paul understood him very well, but thought it better to pretend ignorance.
He answered in French, saying he did not understand, and the German officer repeated his question in French.
"We--we lived in the house that was burned,"" said Paul, pretending to be greatly frightened. "We did not know where to go or what to do. So we stayed here."
"How long have you been here?"
"Since last night."
"You heard the explosions just now?"
"Yes. I did not know what they were."
"Take them back," said the lieutenant to a corporal. "You are in territory occupied by our forces where no civilians have any right to be," he added, speaking to Paul. "Unless you can prove that you are innocent, you will be tried and condemned as spies. Have you any arms here?"
"No, sir," said Paul.
A quick search confirmed his statement. But though that seemed to count in their favor, the order was not countermanded. In a few moments they were on their way through the German lines, and in half an hour they reached what was plainly the headquarters of a brigade at least, perhaps of a whole division. There they were thrust into a small hut that already contained three other prisoners, Belgian peasants. Outside the door there was a guard. They were prisoners of war and if the truth about their doings came out, they would almost certainly be shot, despite their youth.
CHAPTER XI
THE SPY
"What will they do to us, do you think?" asked Arthur. He was trembling, but with excitement, not from fear.
"Nothing, unless they can prove that we have actually been working against them," answered Paul. "And I don"t see how they can."
"If those two who chased us when we ran off with their motorcycle saw us, they"d be able to prove it," said Arthur.
"Yes, I hadn"t thought of them. But they"re prisoners fortunately. I hope they"ll be well looked after, too. It would be mighty awkward if they turned up here suddenly. They know just how important were the plans we got and these others don"t know anything about that, at all.
I believe that our people knowing just where the German guns were placed made a great deal of difference."
The coming of a soldier interrupted them. He told them that they were to be examined at once.
"Then you will be shot," he said, showing his teeth. "As you deserve,"
he added, trying to look fierce.
But there was a twinkle in his eye that both Paul and Arthur saw. They had been treated very well so far. They had seen nothing, as a matter of fact, to make them think that the Germans were brutal. They made war, and that is brutal in itself. The gentlest men, when they are engaged in a campaign, must do things that they would never attempt of their own free will.
The soldiers now led the way to a house that both boys knew well, for it belonged to a friend of their uncle, whom they had often visited.
It was being used as headquarters now by a part of the German staff, and was full of officers who looked at them curiously. They still wore their Boy Scout uniforms. There had been no opportunity, as a matter of fact, for them to change their clothes before the fire, and all the other clothes they possessed had been destroyed, of course, at that time.
"You were caught by our troops in territory occupied by us--within our actual battle line, indeed," said a colonel who received them. "Did you not receive warning that all civilians were to leave the zone in which you were found?"
They could deny that truthfully, and did. Paul was rather glad, as the matter had turned out, that his plan of pretending to be dumb had not been tried. He knew that it would be very hard for Arthur to tell an untruth, even by suggestion, excellent as was the excuse for doing so.
Arthur could understand, of course, that to deceive the enemy was permissible, and, more than that, praiseworthy. It was a question simply of whether he could hope to do so successfully.
"The thing to be done now is to get rid of you," said the colonel. He frowned severely, but, as with the soldier who had brought them for examination, there was a smile behind the frown. "I might have you shot, but we should save ammunition. And I might send you back to Germany, to be confined in a fortress, but that would mean that we should have to feed you. If I let you go through the lines toward Huy, will you promise not to come back?"
"Yes, sir," said Paul, heartily. He was amazed, by the prospect of release, but he realized, of course, that while he and Arthur knew what dangerous enemies they had already proved themselves, the colonel did not.
And so, to their surprise and Paul"s relief, they were soon being escorted through the German lines, their direction being southwest, in the general direction of Huy, the Belgian city nearest to Liege of the border line of fortresses. Huy, though not as strong as either Liege or Namur, was a link in the chain, having been designed chiefly to supply a base for the centre of an army resisting the advance of an invader, with its wings resting on the more powerful fortifications of Liege and Namur.
Their escort was the same good-natured soldier who had taken them before Colonel Schmidt, and he paid little attention to them. Perhaps he thought that there was no need to watch them closely; perhaps he was simply negligent. But, whatever the reason, Paul was able to discover the composition of the force upon which they had stumbled with a good deal of exactness. He learned to what regiment their escort belonged, and he also saw numbers on helmets and other identifying marks that supplied him with much other information. Neither he nor Arthur knew the real meaning of what they saw, but both boys knew that if they reached the Belgian lines they would find officers of the intelligence department to whom such facts would be valuable in the extreme. It was important, as both knew, for the Belgians and their allies to know something of the German plan.
Paul, indeed, had spoken of that very point to Arthur after their arrest.
"If we see what regiments are here, others can use what we tell them to determine what army corps are being used in this attack, and perhaps what the general plan is," he had said. "Then the French will know where to ma.s.s their troops."
"Last stop!" said the soldier, finally. Some time before they had pa.s.sed a sentry and for nearly a mile they had seen only outposts. "I must go back now. You are all right. We have pa.s.sed the last of our posts. The next soldiers you see will be Belgians, unless we have cavalry in this direction. Perhaps this is a mistake. It might be better if I shot you myself, to make sure--eh?"
"You needn"t trouble," said Arthur, and the soldier roared with laughter.
"All right, then, I won"t!" he declared. "You are good boys. I am glad they let you go. But what will you do? You live in Liege, don"t you? You can"t get back there."
"We have friends in Brussels," said Paul. "I think we shall do very well now, thank you."
"Good! Then I will go back, and you will go forward--so! Good-bye!"
"Good-bye!" they echoed.
He drew himself up, stiffly, saluted, and then, laughing, broke into the famous German goose step, used as a mark of respect to superior officers, for a few paces. In a few moments he was gone.
"I don"t believe he wanted to come into Belgium and fight against us,"
said Arthur. "He was splendid to us, wasn"t he? And the colonel was kind, too. It made me feel--oh, I don"t know--"
"As if we were being sneaky? I know just what you mean. I felt like that, too. But I told myself that we couldn"t think of whether we liked a few Germans who were good to us--that they weren"t just people, they were part of the enemy."
"Yes. That"s what I thought of, too. But it was hard just the same, Paul. I did feel like a sneak. But I suppose we are doing what is right."
"I wish there was some way of getting the news of what we"ve learned to-night into Liege," said Paul, frowning. "I don"t see just what it all means, but I"m quite sure it"s important. I tell you what--I believe they"re sending even more troops into Belgium than anyone thought they would. That soldier was from a regiment that is stationed with the army corps that has its headquarters in Koenigsburg, near the Russian border. It seems to me they are going to leave fewer troops there than anyone expected. Perhaps the staff knows that, but then perhaps it doesn"t."
"If we get to Huy they can send word from there," said Arthur. "They must have wireless working, even if the Germans have cut all the wires."
"That"s so! I hadn"t thought. I don"t know just where we are, though, do you?"
"Not exactly. They tried to keep us from finding out, I think. But I watched the stars whenever I could, and I think if we turn to the right here and keep on northeast, we"ll come to the river road from Liege to Huy. Then we shouldn"t have any trouble at all, so far as I can see."
Paul looked up at the stars himself, studied the lay of the land for a moment, and then nodded in agreement.
"Yes," he said. "That"s what we"ll have to do. Come on, then. We"ll cut across the fields. I"d rather do that than take chances on finding a path or a road. It can"t be so very far, do you think so?"
"No. Listen, Paul! What"s that?"