CHAPTER XI.
MYSTERIOUS SIGNALS IN THE NIGHT.
Of course once Rob found himself away from that pungent smoke his sight was gradually restored to him, though for quite a while his eyeb.a.l.l.s smarted more or less from the experience.
"What will we do now?" asked Tubby, who was very happy in the knowledge that he had been allowed to have at least a hand, two of them, he affirmed, in the saving of the little one.
"I did have an idea of staying here all night," returned Rob. "But, since the inn has been destroyed, or will be utterly before the fire dies down, of course that"s out of the question."
"You remember we asked questions of the tavern-keeper," Merritt remarked. "He told us there was another village about three miles farther on along the road. We might make out to go there, and see if they will put us up. If not, it"s a haystack for ours, provided there are any haystacks around."
"H"m! three miles or more, on that animated saw-buck, eh? I like that.
It just invigorates me, of course," they heard Tubby telling himself, but his voice was anything but cheerful.
"Here comes the mother and the baby; she wants to thank you, Rob,"
Merritt told the patrol leader.
"Let"s hurry and get out of this, then!" urged Rob, who, above all things, seemed to dislike being made a hero of when he felt that he had not done anything worth mentioning after all.
"No, you don"t!" exclaimed Tubby, laying violent hands on his chum.
"It"s only fair that you give the poor woman a chance to tell you how grateful she is. As it stands to reason she speaks only Flemish, none of us can make head or tail out of what she says, unless she mentions that one word I know, which isn"t likely."
But the woman could talk French, and she made it very evident to Rob that her mother heart was full of grat.i.tude to him for what he had done.
To the intense amus.e.m.e.nt of Tubby, she even kissed Rob again and again, on either cheek, after the manner of the Belgians.
"Bully! That"s the ticket! Give him another for his mother! I like to see anyone appreciate a _real_ hero. And here"s the innkeeper; mebbe he"ll want to add a few little caresses, too, Rob. Now, don"t grieve his heart by refusing. They all do it over here, I reckon."
The man who had owned the inn contented himself, however, by telling Rob just how much he appreciated the gallant work of the American Boy Scout.
Rob would not soon forget that experience; and it must always bring a warm feeling to his heart when thinking of how, with such a little effort, he had made these two humble people supremely happy.
When he tried to make the man accept pay for their food, the other utterly refused to listen to such a thing.
"It is the good wife and myself, young m"sieu, who are heavily in your debt," he told Rob, with the simplicity of sincerity. "How, then, could we ever forgive ourselves for taking money from one who has saved our baby"s life? It would cause the blush of shame to dye our cheeks. We could never look our neighbors again in the face. It would not be right."
Of course that ended it, although Rob would rather have settled for that supper. Merritt tugged at his coat, understanding what it was all about.
"Don"t insist, Rob," he told the other. "You mustn"t try to take away the satisfaction he feels in having done one little thing for you. Let it go at that. He is not a poor man, I imagine, and has something laid by. Now, hadn"t we better be getting out of here?"
"Oh! by the way, where are our horses?" asked Tubby, suddenly.
That reminded them they had forgotten all about the animals. The horses had been left tied to a rail at some little distance alongside the inn when they went in to get supper. Rob had intended, in case they meant to spend the night there, to have the three animals taken care of, and fed.
The hitching bar was entirely dest.i.tute of horses of any type when they turned their eyes in that quarter.
"What if those awful Uhlans took our steeds away with them?" Tubby suggested, with his usual blank look, and that woebegone shake of his head.
"It seems unbelievable to me," Rob replied; "but I"ll make some inquiries. The inn-keeper may have had them taken to the stables back yonder, though I remember noticing the animals at the time we were peeping out of the window when the troopers were coming down the village street. Wait for me, and I"ll ask him."
"I surely hope you learn good news, Rob!" Tubby sighed, as he thought of three long Belgian miles separating him from some sort of bed, where he could secure the rest he needed so badly.
Presently Rob came back, and, when Tubby saw him shake his head in the negative, he gave a dull sort of a groan.
"Bottom knocked out of everything, is it, Rob?" he asked, in a dazed sort of way.
"Well, n.o.body could give me any hope," was the reply. "Of course, the landlord was too excited over the burning of his house to notice just what the Uhlans did as they rode away, but one man told us he saw the troopers take our horses trailing behind them."
"Then that settles it," said Merritt; "though I"ll never understand what they could want with those bony and tired nags, unless it was to make bologna sausages out of. We"re in for a little hike that will stretch our legs."
"Yes, I guess it will," echoed Tubby, in a way that was hardly cheerful.
"And yours can stand a good deal of stretching, Tubby, you know," added Merritt.
"There"s no use crying over spilt milk," said Rob, in his usual cheery fashion. "I more than half expected that we"d lose our mounts, sooner or later."
"So did I," agreed Merritt. "Only I thought perhaps they"d die on our hands from over-exertion. I never dreamed that rough riders like the German cavalrymen would want to be caught leading such ragtag animals along."
"Well, shall we make a move?" asked Rob.
There being no word against it, even from Tubby, who knew when duty called, the three scouts took their last look at the still burning houses, and then strode forth on the road leading toward the east.
The night promised to be unusually clear, for one thing. This pleased Rob, for, as they would have no moon to light them on their way, even the stars were welcome.
Three miles, under ordinary conditions, would have been reckoned almost nothing to scouts accustomed to taking lengthy hikes over hills and along valleys. It was a different matter, however, when pa.s.sing through a war-distracted country, where hostile armies were encamped, so that at any minute they were apt to be greeted with a stern command, either in German or in French or Flemish, to stand and give the countersign, with the warning that to attempt flight would be at the peril of their lives.
Naturally the nerves of the boys were continually on edge. Tubby, in particular, kept his eyes roving from side to side, then into the uncertain distance ahead; and even at times turning to ascertain whether they were being pursued by some soft-footed enemies who thought to take them by surprise.
In this way more than a mile was pa.s.sed over. When Rob announced that he believed they must be all of halfway to the other village, Tubby expressed fervent thanks.
"I"m still able to put one foot in front of the other," he remarked in a hushed voice, for Rob had cautioned them against speaking aloud, as it might draw unwelcome attention to the little party.
"Wait up a minute, please," whispered Merritt, and there was that about his mysterious manner that gave Tubby another bad shock.
"What"s the matter, now, Merritt?" he asked softly but solicitously.
"Hope you haven"t got a stone bruise on your heel. Did you hear anything suspicious? Are we going to be held up by a patrol? Oh! dear, why don"t you hurry and tell us the worst?"
"What do you make of that flickering light over there, Rob?" asked Merritt. "It seems to be in an open field, as near as I can understand.
Just watch how it keeps on jumping up and down, then sideways."
"Why, it caught my eye just about the time you spoke, Merritt," came the reply from the patrol leader. "It must either be the work of some crazy person, or else a way of signaling by lantern."
"Say, I honestly believe you"ve struck the truth that shot, Rob," broke in Tubby, who had, of course, immediately turned toward the spot indicated. "See the way he swings the light around and makes all manner of figures in the air with the same. Why, that was the letter N, as sure as you live. And there goes E, followed by W and S. What does that spell but NEWS? Hey! we"re on the track of a discovery!"
"Will you keep still, Tubby, and let"s see if he begins again?" said Merritt eagerly.
"That must have been the last word of his message," remarked Rob quickly, "but chances are he"ll repeat it. Stand ready to spell it out as well as we can. Three scouts accustomed to reading the Myers code of fire signaling ought to---- There, that was C; and after that O, A, S, T--which means COAST."
Slowly, and somewhat laboriously, the boys spelled the message, letter for letter, their previous training proving of the greatest help; and this was the result: