The sergeant"s warning rang out, and in an instant the air was shattered with battle. Protected by the fire from a nest of machine-guns, the Germans launched a converging attack towards the bridge. Waiting until the advancing troops were too close to permit the aid of their own machine-gun fire, the Americans poured a deadly hail of bullets into their ranks. The attack broke, but fresh troops were thrown in, and the line was penetrated at several points.
Van Derwater rallied his men, directed the defence, and time after time organised or led counter-attacks which restored their position. His voice rose sonorously above everything. Hearing it, and seeing his powerful figure oblivious to the bullets which stung the air all about him, his men yelled that they could never be beaten so long as he led them.
Half-mad with excitement, Selwyn repelled the attacks on his sector, though his casualties were heavy and ammunition was running low.
Durwent"s mood of reverie had pa.s.sed, and he fought with limitless energy. Once, when the Huns had penetrated the road, one of their officers levelled a revolver on him, but discharged the bullet into the ground as the b.u.t.t of Mathews"s rifle was brought smashing on his wrist.
The old groom followed his master with eyes that saw only the danger hanging over him. For his own safety he gave no care, but wherever d.i.c.k stepped or turned, the groom was by his side, with his large, rough face set in a look that was like that of a mastiff protecting its young.
As waves breaking against a rock, the Huns retreated, rallied, and attacked again and again, and each time the resistance was less formidable as the heroic little band grew smaller and the ugly story pa.s.sed that ammunition was giving out.
They had just thrown back an a.s.sault, and Van Derwater had sent for his section commanders to advise an attack on the enemy in preference to waiting to be wiped out with no chance of successful resistance, when he heard a shout, and bullets spat over their heads. Turning swiftly about, they saw a tank lurching across the bridge. Amidst wild shouting from the Americans, the clumsy landship stumbled towards them, with bullets glancing harmlessly off its metal carca.s.s. Lumbering on to the road, the tank stopped astride it.
In almost complete forgetfulness of the impending enemy attack, the jubilant Americans crowded about the machine and cheered its occupants to the echo, as a small door was opened and two French faces could be seen.
In a few words Van Derwater explained the situation, receiving the discouraging information that no troops were anywhere near the vicinity.
The tank had been discovered by the ex-Belmont waiter and sent on to the bridge.
"Pa.s.s word along," said Van Derwater crisply, "to prepare for an attack.
The tank will go first, and when it is astride their machine-gun position we will go forward and drive them out of the brushwood into the open.--Messieurs, the machine-guns are gathered there--straight across, about forty yards from the great tree."
The Frenchmen tried to locate the spot indicated, but were obviously puzzled and too excited to listen attentively. Van Derwater was about to repeat his instructions, when d.i.c.k Durwent shouldered his way into the group. Men"s voices were hushed at the sight of his blazing eyes.
In a bound he was on the bank, and stood exposed to the enemy"s fire.
With something that was like a laugh and yet had an unearthly quality about it, he threw his helmet off and stood bareheaded in the golden sunlight. "_En avant, messieurs_!" he cried. "_Suivez-moi_!"
There was a grinding of the gears and a roar of machinery as the tank reared its head and lunged after him.
"Stop that man, Selwyn!"
Van Derwater"s voice rang out just in time. The old groom had scrambled to the bank to follow his master, but four hands grasped him and pulled him back. With a moan he clung to the bank, following d.i.c.k with his eyes. And his face was the colour of ashes.
With their voices almost rising to a scream, the chafing Americans watched the Englishman walk towards the enemy lines. Bullets bit the ground near his feet, but, untouched, he went on, with the metal monster following behind. Once he fell, and a hush came over the watchers; but he rose and limped on. His face pale and grim, Van Derwater moved among his men, urging them to wait; but they cursed and yelled at the delay.
Again d.i.c.k fell, and with difficulty stumbled to his feet. For a moment he swayed as if a heavy gale were blowing against him, and as his face turned towards his comrades they could see his lips parted in a strange smile. Raising his arm like one who is invoking vengeance, he staggered on, and by some miracle reached the very edge of the enemy"s position.
There he collapsed, but rising once more, pointed ahead, and lurched forward on his face.
With a roar the American torrent burst its bounds and swept towards the enemy. Selwyn leaped in advance of his men, his voice uttering a long, pulsating cry, like a bloodhound that has found its trail.
He did not see, over towards the centre, that Van Derwater had stopped half-way and had fallen to his knees, both hands covering his eyes.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE END OF THE ROAD.
I.
One noonday in the November of 1918 a taxi-cab drew up at the Washington Inn, a hostelry erected in St. James"s Square for American officers. An officer emerged, and walking with the aid of a stout Malacca cane, followed his kit into the place.
It was Austin Selwyn, who a few days before had come from France, where he had hovered for a long time in the borderland between life and death. Although he had been severely wounded, it was the nervous strain of the previous four years that told most heavily against him.
Week after week he lay, listless and almost unconscious; but gradually youth had rea.s.serted itself, and the la.s.situde began to disappear with the return of strength. The horrors through which he had pa.s.sed were softened by the merciful effect of time, and as the reawakened streams of vitality flowed through his veins, his eyes were kindled once more with the magic of alert expression.
Having secured a cubicle and indulged in a light luncheon, he went for a stroll into the street. Looking up, he saw the windows of the rooms where he had spent such lonely, bitter hours crusading against the world"s ignorance. It was all so distant, so far in the past, that it was like returning to a boyhood"s haunt after the lapse of many years.
Going into Pall Mall, he felt a curiosity to see the Royal Automobile Club again. He entered its busy doors, and pa.s.sing through to the lounge, took a seat in a corner. The place was full of officers, most of them Canadians on leave; but here and there in the huge room he caught a glimpse of st.u.r.dy old civilian members, well past the sixty mark, fighting Foch"s amazing victories anew over their port and cigars.
Inciting his eyes roam about the place, Selwyn noticed a group of six or seven subalterns surrounding a Staff officer, the whole party indulging in explosive merriment apparently over the quips of the betabbed gentleman in the centre. Selwyn shifted his chair to get a better view of the official humorist, but he could only make out a tunic well covered with foreign decorations. A moment later one of the subalterns shifted his position, and Selwyn could see that the much-decorated officer was wearing an enormous pair of spurs that would have done admirably for a wicked baron in a pantomime. But his knees!
Superbly cut as were his breeches, they could not disguise those expressive knees.
Selwyn called a waitress over. "Can you tell me," he said, "who that officer is in the centre of the room--that Staff officer?"
"Him? Oh, that"s Colonel Johnston Smyth of the War Office."
"Colonel--Johnston Smyth!" Selwyn repeated the words mechanically.
"That"s him himself, sir. Will you have anything to drink?"
"I think I had better," said Selwyn.
About ten minutes later, after perpetrating a jest which completely convulsed his auditors, the War Office official rose to his feet, endeavoured to adjust a monocle--with no success--smoothed his tunic, winked long and expressively, and with an air of melancholy dignity made for the door, with the admiring pack following close behind.
"Good-day, colonel," said Selwyn, crossing the room and just managing to intercept the great man.
The ex-artist inclined his head with that nice condescension of the great who realise that they must be known by many whom it is impossible for themselves to know, when he noticed the features of the American.
"My sainted uncle!" he exclaimed; "if it isn"t my old sparring-partner from Old Glory!--Gentlemen, permit me to introduce to you the brains, lungs, and liver of the American Army."
The subalterns acknowledged the introduction with the utmost cordiality, suggesting that they should return to the lounge and inundate the vitals of the American Army with liquid refreshment; but Selwyn pleaded an excuse, and with many "Cheerios" the happy-go-lucky youngsters moved on, enjoying to the limit their hard-earned leave from the front.
"May I offer my congratulations?" said Selwyn.
"Come outside," said the colonel.
They adjourned to the terrace, and Smyth placed his hand in the other"s arm. "Do you know who I am?" he said.
"Eh?" said Selwyn, rather bewildered by the mysterious nature of the question.
"I, my dear Americano, am A.D. Super-Camouflage Department, War Office." The colonel chuckled delightedly, but checking himself, reared his neck with almost Roman hauteur. "I have one major, two captains, five subalterns, and eleven flappers, whose sole duty is to keep people from seeing me."
"Why?" asked the American.
"I don"t know," said the colonel; "but it"s a fine system."
"You have done wonderfully well."
"Moderately so," said the A.D. Super-Camouflage Department. "I have been decorated by eleven foreign Governments and given an honorary degree by an American university. I also drive the largest car in London."
"You amaze me."