TURNING THE TABLES.
When Rob made this astonishing statement his two chums suddenly realized that this must be the matter he had been on the point of explaining to them when the armored car from Antwerp came tearing along the road in their rear like a modern war chariot.
The leader of the three Belgian soldiers, and who seemed to be a captain, looked incredulous. He repeated what Rob had said to his backers, in Flemish; and they, too, observed the scout with wondering eyes.
"This is a strange thing you are telling me, boy," remarked the captain.
"How is it you know there is an ambuscade laid to catch us napping?"
"I will gladly explain," the Eagle Patrol leader hastened to say. "You see, we want to get to Sempst, and, as we helped the Red Cross on the battlefield yesterday, we were detained. Then we found that there was a German army camped right in our way. It moved off toward the front only an hour ago, and we have been hiding most of the day. But, while we were watching the troops depart, I was surprised to see a single gun taken into a patch of scrub on a little elevation that commands the road. It is pointed this way, and you can never notice it there unless you have been posted. Now I can guess what they are hiding for; they expect that you may be along, and mean to rid the German army of your stinging them so often!"
Tubby"s mouth was wide open. He stared at Rob as though he hardly knew whether he were awake or asleep. Even Merritt seemed thrilled by what he had heard.
As for the Belgian captain, it was an incredulous look that gripped his features.
"I do not know what to believe, boy," he said, looking earnestly at Rob.
"The best way is to prove it," that worthy told him immediately.
"It would at least be convincing," the pilot of the armored car declared.
"Suppose, then," continued the scout, "you leave your car here at the foot of this little rise. They couldn"t see us with that hump between.
Go up the hill, and look along the road. You needn"t let them see you, of course; but I notice that you"ve got a pair of field-gla.s.ses along.
Follow the road with those until you come to a little break in the stone wall that lies around a patch of field on the right. It is this knoll I spoke of, crowned with brush. Watch that brush closely for a minute; perhaps you will see the sun glint from the gun; or else one of the hidden German gunners may move ever so slightly. That will tell the story, captain."
The pilot of the armored car jumped out.
"I will do as you say, at least it can be no harm," he remarked hastily.
After speaking in Flemish to his companions, he started up the rise, carrying the field-gla.s.ses and a revolver along with him. Watching, they saw him get down and crawl the last yard or so; and then evidently he found a way to level his gla.s.ses in the quarter under suspicion.
Five minutes later and he backed off, coming quickly down the little declivity. The first thing he did was to grip Rob"s hand and squeeze it fiercely.
"I have to thank you for my life, and the lives of my brave comrades as well!" he said with fervor.
"Then you found that what I told you was exactly so?" Rob asked.
"Yes, there is an ambuscade," replied the soldier. "They must have suspected that we would chase after the army so as to pick up stragglers, because that is our favorite game these terrible days; anything to sting the snake that is crawling across our beloved country and leaving death and destruction behind."
"You will not go ahead after learning what is waiting there, I suppose, Captain?" Rob continued.
"Certainly not, my boy, because they have the range plotted out, and, when we reached a certain spot, one shot would blow the car and the three of us to pieces. Our play is to go around another way. But why have you done this for us, when you say, as Americans, you must be neutral?"
"I hardly know," replied Rob. "Up to lately we have not felt like favoring either side, because we have many good German friends at home.
But what we have seen and heard here in Belgium is beginning to turn us to the side of the Allies. You see, I could not watch you rush right to your death, knowing what I did. Perhaps, if the tables had been turned I might have warned a German pilot to turn around before it was too late."
"Well, you have done us a great favor, and we thank you," said the Belgian soldier, with considerable feeling; after which he conversed with his two comrades for a minute or so, no doubt explaining what had awaited them close by; and that only for the timely warning of the Americans they would have been launched into eternity.
Then the car was turned around, and away the three dashing Belgians sped. The last the boys saw of them was when they waved their hands back ere vanishing around a curve in the road.
"Well," said Tubby, "that was a splendid thing you did, Rob. And to think you noticed the Germans laying that cute little ambush there! It shows what training will do for a fellow, doesn"t it?"
"It is only what every scout is supposed to do," replied Rob, thinking to impress a lesson on Tubby"s mind. "Observe every little thing that happens, and draw your own conclusions from it. When I saw that gun going up into the field, I wondered what they meant by that. Then I saw they were laying a trap. I couldn"t believe it was intended for us, and so I was puzzled, because we didn"t expect to use that road at all."
"And when the armored car came whizzing along you knew the Germans meant to get the Belgians who had been doing so much damage day after day, as we"d heard; that was it, eh, Rob?" and Merritt nodded his head sagely, as though things were all as plain as anything to him now.
"Huh!" snorted Tubby, "after Columbus had cracked the end of the egg and stood it up, didn"t those Spanish courtiers all say that was as easy as pie? Course we can see things after they"ve happened. But you and me, Merritt, had better be digging the scales off our eyes, so we can discover things for ourselves next time."
Merritt did not answer back. Truth to tell he realized that he merited a rebuke for his lack of observation. It might pa.s.s with an ordinary boy, but was inexcusable in a scout who had been trained to constantly use his faculties for observation wherever he went.
"Our road will take us past that place where they are hiding, won"t it, Rob?" he presently said. "Suppose, now, they guessed that we must have turned the armored car back, and lost them their victims, wouldn"t they be likely to take it out on us, thinking we might be Belgian Boy Scouts?"
"I had that in my mind, Merritt," admitted Rob, "and for that reason I reckon we ought to leave the road right here. We can make a wide detour, and strike it further along, where the danger will be past."
All of them were of the same mind. They did not fancy taking any chance of having that concealed six-pounder discharged point-blank at them.
Mistakes are hard to rectify after a fatal volley has been fired. The best way is to avoid running any chances.
They found a way to leave the road and take to the fields, skirting fences, and in every way possible managing to keep out of sight of the German gunners who were lying concealed in that scrub on the little elevation.
It was while they were pushing on some distance away that without the least warning they caught a strange pulsating rattling sound from the rear. All of them came to a stop, and wondering looks were quickly changed to those of concern.
"Rob," exclaimed Merritt, "it comes from near where that gun lies hidden back of the bushes; and that"s the rattle of a Maxim, as sure as you live. Those Belgians have turned the tables on the Germans; they"ve managed to sneak around back of them, and must be pouring in a terrible fire that will mow down every gunner in that bunch of brush!"
Rob was a little white in the face, as he continued to listen to the significant discharge. He had seen what mischief one of those Maxim guns could do at fairly close quarters, for they had witnessed them at work during the battle of the preceding day.
"I feel bad about it in one way," he said, "because in saving the lives of those three Belgians we have been the means of turning the trap on those who set it. But I never dreamed they would try to surprise the men in ambush."
The sounds died out, and silence followed; though the far-away grumble of the conflict could be heard from time to time.
"They"ve launched their bolt," said Merritt, "and either skipped out again, or else the German battery has been placed out of commission. We didn"t hear the six-pounder go off, so they had no chance to fire back."
They continued their walk in silence. All of them had been much sobered by these thrilling and momentous events that were continually happening around them. Much of the customary jolly humor that, as a rule, characterized their intercourse with one another had been, by degrees, crushed by the tragedies that they had seen happening everywhere among the poor Belgians and amid the stricken soldiers whom they had so n.o.bly a.s.sisted on the field of battle.
Striking the little road again at some distance beyond, they continued to follow it, under the belief that they could not now be very far away from the town they were aiming to reach.
Before they entirely lost sight of the late encampment of the German army, the boys discovered that a number of peasants from the surrounding country had come on the scene, and appeared to be hunting for anything of value which might have been purposely or by accident left behind.
"The poor things know they"re going to have the hardest winter ever,"
said Tubby, with considerable feeling in his voice, "and they"re trying to find something to help out. Like as not some of them even came from Louvain, where they lost everything they had in the wide world when the place was burned to the ground. It"s just awful, that"s what it is.
America looks like the only place left where there"s a chance of keeping the peace."
As they went along Rob was keeping track of their course. He gave Merritt his reasons for believing they would reach Sempst before sunset after all, unless something entirely unexpected happened to delay them again.
"Just now we"re in great luck," he finished. "So far as we can see the Germans have cleared out of this particular section completely. They may be back again to-morrow; you never can tell what they"ll do. But the main line of railroad is where they are mostly moving, because in that way they can get their supplies of men, guns, ammunition and food, and also take back the wounded. Some of their dead are buried, but in the main they prefer to cremate them, which is the modern way to prevent disease following battles."
Merritt did not make any remark, for he was becoming more and more anxious the closer they drew to the town where he expected to have that question of the success or failure of his mission settled.
Rob knew how strained his nerves must be. He could feel for his chum, and it was only natural for him to want to buoy up Merritt"s sinking hopes.