"Sometimes an army must retreat to fight better somewhere else," said Henri in defense.
"But here? At Amiens? There are no Prussians here!"
"Perhaps they are not so far away. One hears--they were in Brussels a week ago--they are pouring toward the border--perhaps they have pa.s.sed it. It may be that there is a battle to be fought here in France."
"Oh, well, if there is a battle to be fought, that is different again.
That is what we want. In Alsace there were no battles. They ran as soon as they saw our uniforms--the pigs of Prussians!"
"Good luck to you, then! May you beat a thousand of them!"
"We shall! Never fear! I will bring you a pretzel from Berlin when we come back in exchange for your good rolls!"
Laughing again, Frank and Henri went out.
"That fellow is like the French soldiers I"ve read about," said Frank, much interested.
"Yes. He is the sort who fights well, but does not think. But, Frank, I begin to think you were right. If they give up the fight in Alsace to re-enforce the army here, the Germans must be winning."
"Perhaps not. It may be only for the time."
"Yet it looks serious. Listen! Can you hear the sound of guns?"
Henri said that as a jest. But Frank listened--he took him seriously.
"Not yet," he said.
"Nor ever shall--from here!" exclaimed Henri. "I did not mean that! They will be held on the border."
Yet, even as he spoke, though he did not know it, the Germans, victors at the great battle of Mons-Charleroi, were driving the left wing of the allied army remorselessly, steadily back through the fertile fields of Champagne, where bullets were tearing the laden grapevines to pieces.
The Uhlans were riding along the coast. Forced back by the defeat of the left, the centre was yielding. It was well that they did not know then what was in store; that they could not foresee the coming days when the Germans seemed to be the sure victors.
As they talked, Frank and Henri were making their way to the place where M. Marron, the scoutmaster, had told them to report. He was there, listening to reports and giving orders when they arrived. They had provided themselves the night before with uniforms, and now they were true scouts in appearance save that they did not wear the badge. They waited until he was ready to speak to them.
"You know the scout law?" he asked them, briefly.
Together they recited it.
"In war," he said, "rules may be forgotten. There are other tests, but these I shall not impose. Recite after me the scout oath. It binds you to be faithful, to be honorable. You are to obey the ten points of the scout law. And now that war has come, you are to obey all orders from officers of the army as you would those of your scoutmaster. If I go--and that may be to-day--you will obey the leader of the third patrol, to which you are a.s.signed, as you would me. If things so come about that you can get orders from no one you will still do all you can for France."
Then he repeated in French the scout oath, and they said it after him.
"Now you are scouts," said Marron. He pinned badges on their sleeves.
"Wear this always. Remember that it typifies your honor."
He raised three fingers in the scout salute; they returned it.
"That is well," he said, then. "Now for your first duty, you will accompany other scouts, to see how they perform their work. When you have done that for a little while, you may be trusted with independent commissions."
All morning, first with other scouts, and then alone, they did errands of one sort and another. After a brief rest for a hurried noonday meal, M. Marron gave them new orders.
"Here is a list of houses," he said. "Soon a train will arrive with refugees from districts where the Germans are. You will take these refugees around with you, in parties of twenty-five, with two scouts to a party, until all are cared for. The owners of the houses on your list have agreed to give these poor people food and shelter until they can safely return to their homes. Treat them kindly and chivalrously.
Remember that though they may not have fought, they have suffered for the fatherland! You understand?"
They saluted, and were off.
CHAPTER VI
TO THE FRONT
There was real news to be gleaned from these unfortunates who came into the station at Amiens soon after the boys took their places there with some of the other scouts of the troop. Women, children and old men--not a young man was among them, of course--they poured from the freight cars that in the main they occupied. And they were willing to talk; more than willing, indeed. They told of how the Germans had come. First the Uhlans riding through, stern and silent, willing to leave the inhabitants alone, as a rule, if they themselves were let alone. Then the infantry, rolling along in great grey ma.s.ses. And with them came the spoiling of the countryside.
"They took everything--food, wine, everything our army had not had,"
said one woman to Frank and Henri, as she walked through the streets with them. Frank was carrying her baby for her. "They left us with nothing! And then they burned all the houses in my street because, they said, there must be clear s.p.a.ce for their guns to fire!"
It was a simple matter to distribute these poor refugees. The town of Amiens had troubles of its own but it forgot them now, and set itself doggedly to work the relief of the far more acute distress of those from the countryside to the north and east. Always the stories of those who had fled before the German hosts were the same.
"The Germans haven"t got an army!" cried Henri, bitterly. "It"s a war machine they send against us! They do not fight like men, but like railroad trains!"
They were learning more in this task of escorting the refugees than all the bulletins had been able to tell them. No censors could close the mouths of these poor people, and they were not only willing to talk--they craved listeners.
"It makes it easier to bear what we have suffered when we know that others know what the Germans have done," said the woman with the baby.
"We women--we gave our husbands, and those who had sons gave their sons.
Now we have given all to France. Let the men win back enough for us to live--that is all that we ask."
They did not know the meaning of the military movements they had seen.
Indeed, they had not seen military movements in the strict sense of the word. All they knew was that soldiers, first in one uniform, then in another, had pa.s.sed through their villages, first going north and east, then south and west. They had heard firing, dim and in the distance at first, but coming always nearer. Then the tide of battle had rolled by.
That was all they knew.
But to boys who from the beginning of the war had followed every move on the great chessboard of the struggle, these things meant knowledge for which the editors of newspapers would have given fortunes. In Paris they had had a great map, and every day they had shifted the tiny flags that showed where the troops were. They had flags for each of the allies and for the Austrians and Germans at first. Later they had become more particular. They had worked out as well as they could the different armies, even to the army corps, and had marked their flags accordingly.
And so this exact knowledge of where troops of particular commands had been, made it possible for them, when there was time for them to go home, to make changes in the positions of the little flags that dotted their map.
When they had finished doing that they looked at one another.
"The French and the English are retreating," said Henri, soberly. "You were right, Frank. They fought on the line of Mons to Charleroi in Belgium, and then they began running away."
"Not exactly that, either," said Frank. "Look here--look at the map, Henri. There is Paris. There is a great army there under General Gallieni. There are enormous fortifications. That is the great base.
There is this line with three fortresses--Rheims, La Fere, Laon, with other forts between them. That backed the centre when the French army retired from the border. But there is another army on the left of that line--because, if the Germans get around the left, behind that line of fortresses, they could be surrounded."
"But they could be defended--"
"Yes, as Bazaine defended Metz--until he was starved out," said Frank.
He was beginning to be excited. "I think I see what may happen, Harry.
The German right is moving out, always--far out, toward the sea. It wants to get around our left, and cut it off. If it gets between our left and Paris, there will be a disaster--another Sedan, perhaps. That is why there is a retreat. It is necessary. We are not ready to fight yet. But wait!"
"Wait! Wait? Is that the thing for French soldiers to do? That is not how Napoleon won his battles! He struck--and he struck first!"