As Josh afterwards remarked, the man immediately commenced to "hedge"; that is, he hastened to "square himself" with the French colonel, who was now glancing curiously, perhaps a bit suspiciously, toward him.
"Apparently I have been mistaken in supposing that it was these brave young messieurs who were sending secret messages to the enemy," he went on to say glibly, "and I hasten to offer them my most sincere apologies and regrets that through me they have been put to such needless trouble.
I hereby withdraw my charge and trust that you will forget it has ever been made, Monsieur le Colonel."
This was said in French, which Rod alone of the three boys could fully understand, but Josh guessed the tenor of the remarks from the shrugs accompanying them.
"He"s eating his words, Hanky, don"t you see?" he observed behind his hand to his other chum. "Some people know enough to get in out of the rain when the deluge comes. Jules has wasted some more hard cash, seems like."
Now Rod understood that he could make it pretty hard for the Secret Service man of the French Government if he chose to tell what he knew about Jules, and the profit that would accrue to the schemer could he prevent Andre from signing that paper on time. He did not think it good policy, however, to mention the matter. It would only serve to anger the man, and could not bring them any particular benefit.
Accordingly Rod only shot him a suggestive look that doubtless the other could easily a.n.a.lyze. It meant that the boys were not disposed to be vindictive--that in fact they were ready to take it for granted he did not know the true condition of affairs when he entered into his agreement with the crafty Jules; and hence they were going to let the matter drop.
Perhaps the man might feel a spark of grat.i.tude and appreciation for this kindly and generous spirit; the future would show that, Rod thought.
As the colonel had been so much interested in their story, Rod considered it only fair that he relate a few more circ.u.mstances connected with their past. He also gladly showed him the paper given him by the surgeon at the field hospital, telling how the American boys had worked like beavers in a.s.sisting him take care of the numerous cases he had been compelled to handle with such inadequate facilities at his command. Yes, there were still other doc.u.ments which Rod allowed them to glance over, after which he smilingly remarked:
"I suppose now, M. le Colonel, there will be no necessity for taking us out before a file of your soldiers and blindfolding our eyes while they perform their melancholy duty?"
The officer for answer threw his arms around Rod and gave him a demonstration of excitable French admiration by kissing him on both cheeks.
"If I had a son," he said fervently, "which, alas! Heaven has not allowed me to retain in this world, I should be proud indeed were he built in your image, my brave young American. And when you go back to your splendid country tell them, will you not, wherever you go, that France sees her duty by the world, and will not flinch, no matter what the cost. When this war is over there will never be a despotic military power again. The victory on the Marne has settled all that, though it may take years for Germany to recognize the fiat."
The three boys parted from the worthy colonel with mutual expressions of esteem. They would often recall his fine martial appearance, with his strong face and its white imperial, trimmed after the style of the later Napoleon.
Even Hanky Panky could laugh now, once they were on the road again.
"That agent of the Government saw he had put his foot in it, after you flashed the King Albert message before them," he remarked as they rode slowly along as near to forming a bunch as was safe for motorcyclists.
"Yes, and I reckon he felt pretty cheap when he had to own up about making a mistake," added Josh. "You don"t believe for a single minute, do you, Rod, that he really saw anybody trying to send signals to the enemy? It was all a set-up game, wasn"t it?"
"No question about it," he was told by the other, Rod being in the van, as usual, "but it was another experience for us, you know. And besides, I managed to pick up a little information that helps out."
"Do you mean with regard to the regiment we"re on the track of?"
questioned Hanky Panky eagerly, for to tell the honest truth he was hoping that the end of the trail was near at hand, when they could follow their other chums across the sea to their far-distant homes.
"Yes," said Rod over his shoulder, "it"s ahead of us, and we ought to reach it some time to-day; but the chances are we"ll find it neck deep in action, because it forms a part of that army thrown forward to do the worrying of the German rearguard to-day. Let us hope if one man in that regiment survives the battle it may be Andre."
CHAPTER XXI.
THE HAUNTED WELL.
The boys did not attempt to do much of this sort of talking as they moved along the road. Many reasons united to make conversation a weariness to the flesh when carried on under the prevailing conditions.
In the first place they had to keep a certain distance apart, which would in itself necessitate shouting. Then the rumble of cannon was growing steadily heavier the further they advanced, deadening most other sounds pretty much all the time. Last of all there were those gaps in the road, springing up most unexpectedly, where enemy sh.e.l.ls had struck in the endeavor to destroy as many of the pursuing French troops as possible.
Both armies had traversed the region through which Rod and his friends were making their tedious way. It can well be understood that the marks of their late progress abounded on all sides.
Even where no particular action had occurred a thousand reminders of the human flood of men that had so lately pa.s.sed through were to be discovered on every side. Often Hanky Panky"s heart seemed to feel a chill hand rest upon it as he marked the inevitable evidences of "man"s inhumanity to man." Cottages were burned or ruined in some way or other; once beautiful gardens trampled out of all recognition; outbuildings torn down to make campfires for the marching hosts--in fact the land looked as though a hurricane might have recently swept across it, leaving scars that it would take a long time indeed to heal.
Here, there, and everywhere they could see groups of the forlorn inhabitants wandering about. Some stood and stared at the ruins of their recent homes; others guarded the little they had saved; while still more were on the roadside looking toward the region of the north, from whence came all those portentous rumblings and angry roarings.
Hanky Panky, however, was astonished to discover very few solemn faces among the peasants of the Marne country. At first this amazed him, but presently he figured out what it meant.
They had in many cases lost the acc.u.mulated savings of years, even their humble homes; but in spite of this they could take off their caps and shout in almost savage glee as the three Motorcycle Boys rode past.
Why, to be sure, the Great Day had come, of which they had some of them dreamed full forty years and more; when the German legions, like a plague of locusts, had once more descended upon devoted Paris, only to be brought to a standstill by the glorious army of the republic. And even now those furious guns told how Von Kluck, who had made such wonderful boasts of what he meant to do, was in full retreat bordering on a panic.
That was why temporary sufferings were all forgotten. For France these honest sons and daughters would make much greater sacrifices, and think little of it. So Hanky Panky felt ready to take off his hat to every one of them who gave the three riders a cheer or a salute in pa.s.sing by.
Few animals save dogs and cats could be seen. Evidently the Germans had tried to make a clean sweep of the forty miles and more they covered like a vast fan, in falling back to the prepared positions along the Aisne. Those horses or cows that had been saved from the general slaughter or seizure must have been artfully secreted somewhere, so that they escaped the keen search. As for chickens, not a solitary rooster"s crow had the boys heard since early dawn; for fowls of every description are first looked after by the soldier marching through a hostile country.
Long caravans of supplies were crawling over other roads, all heading for the front and coming from the direction of Paris. No wonder that every thoroughfare must be crowded with vehicles of transportation, when a million Frenchmen in arms had to be fed daily, not to mention the enormous quant.i.ties of ammunition that must be expended between the rising and the setting of every sun.
The more Rod saw of this the greater grew his admiration for the genius of the men whose brains had to command all these thousands of details looking to the provisioning of such a vast host. It was an experience the educational value of which could never be fully estimated; and often would the boy ponder over the problems that must have confronted those who were responsible for the solution of them.
They had numerous little adventures by the way, though as a rule these were in the line of narrow escapes from nasty spills, on account of ruts in the road. Rod frequently gave warning when he reached an especially bad stretch of ground, for he was well aware of the failings of his two chums--Josh with his impetuous ways, and Hanky Panky rather apt to be careless as well as clumsy.
One thing in particular Rod noticed, and this was that as they proceeded the sounds ahead of them kept on growing louder. Evidently then they were coming up on that part of the Marne country where the last rearguard action was being fiercely contested.
Von Kluck and his proud army must be continually finding themselves pushed further and further away from the beautiful city in which they had fully expected to be encamped ere this; though they grimly contested every mile they gave up, bound to sacrifice as few of their heavy guns as possible.
Another thing staggered the boys when they came to think of it. During the Civil War in their own country some of the greatest battles then known to history were fought, and the numbers on both sides did not really amount to more than two hundred thousand men. Here there were more than as many million grappling in deadly earnest, supplied with the most wonderful of modern death-dealing weapons, with engineers highly educated along the lines of utilizing these engines of wholesale destruction.
No wonder then the dead and wounded were as the leaves of the forest when the wind of late October tears them from their hold upon the branches and scatters them in windrows behind the logs and stumps and in fence corners.
Rod had some reason to believe that if they were allowed to proceed forward on this particular day they would presently reach the regiment in which Andre, sought so earnestly in the interest of his family, had an humble part. He was determined that should fortune favor them and the object of their search be accomplished he would listen no longer to the pleadings of Josh, but strike for Paris, so as to get away from this war-blasted country as quickly as possible.
It was beginning to pall upon Rod. After all he was only a boy, and had never been accustomed to such terrible sights as of late were being continually thrust before him. Nature has its limits, and Rod believed he was now very close to the end of his endurance.
"As it is, what we"ve run across will haunt us the rest of our lives,"
he was telling himself as he led the way along the difficult road; "and for one I"m longing to wake up again, and find myself wandering by the peaceful waters of the river bordering Garland in the far-distant States. And here"s hoping that this may turn out to be our very last day in the track of the battling armies."
The dust was thick in places, partly on account of the season of the year, and then again because of the unwonted use to which that particular thoroughfare had been put of late. When several hundred thousand feet have tramped along in almost endless procession, and then innumerable vehicles of every known description, not to mention heavy artillery, some of it drawn by traction engines, some by horses, pa.s.sing back and forth, it can easily be understood that the best of roads must be well nigh wrecked.
Hanky Panky had coughed a number of times, as though his throat was beginning to clog up with all this dust, and he found himself in danger of choking. When no attention was paid at first to these plain symptoms he coughed louder than ever, and with such evident distress that Rod guessed what he wanted.
"All right, Hanky," he shouted back, "wait till we come to a well, or a spring of some sort, and we"ll drop off to wash it down."
After that Hanky Panky quieted considerably, his main object having been accomplished. As he rode along the boy kept watching ahead, hoping that it would not be long before they sighted some oasis in the desert where a sparkling rill ran, or the thrice welcome sweep of an old-fashioned well told of water to be had for the trouble of raising the same.
"I see one, Rod!" he presently called at the top of his voice, which was quite husky from the acc.u.mulation of dust; "there"s a well in that place we"re coming to, and I hope you keep your word, because I"m nearly perishing for a drink."
"Same here," said Josh, thinking to relieve the other"s mind, because that would make two in favor of a stop, and majority always ruled with the Motorcycle Boys.
It happened just then that the road was next to deserted, though again just the reverse might be the case. The well sweep could no longer be seen, but Hanky Panky had marked the spot in his mind, and was not to be cheated because a knoll hid the well from the road, so it was only visible in that one quarter.