At short intervals they could hear firing, sometimes voices in the distance, and occasionally the boom of artillery, but except for these reminders of the fighting the scene was of that sort which Tom loved. It was there, while the sniper, all unseen, guarded the source of the stream, his keen eye alert for any stealthy approach, that Tom told him in hushed tones the story of his own experiences; how he had been a ship"s boy on a transport, and had been taken aboard the German U-boat that had torpedoed her and held in a German prison camp, from which he and Archer had escaped and made their way through the Black Forest and across the Swiss border.
"Some kid!" commented Roscoe, admiringly; "the world ain"t big enough for you, Tommy. If you were just back from Mars I don"t believe you"d be excited about it."
"Why should I be?" said literal Tom. "It was only because the feller I was with was born lucky; he always said so."
"Oh, yes, of course," said Roscoe sarcastically. "_I_ say he was mighty lucky to be with _you_. Feel like eating?"
It was delightful to Tom sitting there in their leafy concealment, waiting for any other hapless German emissaries who might come, bent on the murderous defilement of that crystal brook, and eating of the rations which Roscoe never failed to have with him.
"You"re kind of like a pioneer," he said, "going off where there isn"t anybody. They have to trust you to do what you think best a lot, I guess, don"t they? A feller said they often hear you but they never see you. I saw you riding on one of the tanks, but I didn"t know it was you.
Funny, wasn"t it?"
"I usually hook a ride. The tanks get on my nerves, though, they"re so slow."
"You"re like a squirrel," said Tom admiringly.
"Well, you"re like a bulldog," said Roscoe. "Still got the same old scowl on your face, haven"t you? So they kid you a lot, do they?"
"I don"t mind it."
So they talked, in half whispers, always scanning the woods about them, until after some time their vigil was rewarded by the sight of three gray-coated, helmeted figures coming up the bank of the stream. They made no pretence of concealment, evidently believing themselves to be safe here in the forest. Roscoe had hauled the body of the dead German under the thick brush so that it might not furnish a warning to other visitors, and now he brought his rifle into position and touching his finger to his lips by way of caution he fixed his steady eye on the approaching trio.
One of these was a tremendous man and, from his uniform and arrogant bearing, evidently an officer. The other two were plain, ordinary "Fritzies." Tom believed that they had come to this spot by some circuitous route, bent upon the act which their comrade and the mechanism had failed to accomplish. He watched them in suspense, glancing occasionally at Roscoe.
The German officer evidently knew the ground for he went straight to the bush where the hogshead stood concealed, and beckoned to his two underlings. Tom, not daring to stir, looked expectantly at Roscoe, whose rifle was aimed and resting across a convenient branch before him. The sniper"s intent profile was a study. Tom wondered why he did not fire.
He saw one of the Boches approach the officer, who evidently would not deign to stoop, and kneel at the foot of the bush. Then the crisp, echoing report of Roscoe"s rifle rang out, and on the instant the officer and the remaining soldier disappeared behind the leaf-covered hogshead. Tom was aware of the one German lying beside the bush, stark and motionless, and of Roscoe jerking his head and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up his mouth in a sort of spontaneous vexation. Then he looked suddenly at Tom and winked unmirthfully with a kind of worried annoyance.
"Think they can hit us from there? Think they know where we are?" Tom asked in the faintest whisper.
""Tisn"t that," Roscoe whispered back. "Look at that flat stone under the bush there. Shh! I couldn"t get him in the right light before. Shh!"
Narrowing his eyes, Tom scanned the earth at the foot of the bush and was just able to discern a little band of black upon a gray stone there.
It was evidently a wet spot on the dusty stone and for a second he thought it was blood; then the staggering truth dawned upon him that in shooting the Hun in the very act of letting loose the murderous liquid Roscoe had shot a hole in the hogshead and the potent poison was flowing out rapidly and down into the stream.
And just in that moment there flashed into Tom"s mind the picture of that weary, perspiring boy in khaki down in captured Cantigny, who had mopped his forehead, saying, "A drink of water would go good now."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
TOM USES HIS FIRST BULLET
It had been a pet saying of Tom"s scoutmaster back in America that you should _wait long enough to make up your mind and not one second longer_.
Tom knew that the pressure of liquid above that fatal bullet hole near the bottom of the hogshead was great enough to send the poison fairly pouring out. He could not see this death-dealing stream, for it was hidden in the bush, but he knew that it would continue to pour forth until several of these great receptacles had been emptied and the running brook with its refreshing coolness had become an instrument of frightful death.
Safe behind the protecting bulk of the hogshead crouched the two surviving Germans, while Roscoe, covering the spot, kept his eyes riveted upon it for the first rash move of either of the pair. And meanwhile the poison poured out of the very bulwark that shielded them and into the swift-running stream.
"I don"t think they"ve got us spotted," Tom whispered, moving cautiously toward the trunk of the tree; "the private had a rifle, didn"t he?"
"What are you going to do?" Roscoe breathed.
"Stop up that hole. Give me a bullet, will you?"
"You"re taking a big chance, Tom."
"I ain"t thinking about that. Give me a bullet. All _you_ got to do is keep those two covered."
With a silent dexterity which seemed singularly out of keeping with his rather heavy build, Tom shinnied down the side of the tree farthest from the brook, and lying almost p.r.o.ne upon the ground began wriggling his way through the spa.r.s.e brush, quickening his progress now and again whenever the diverting roar of distant artillery or the closer report of rifles and machine guns enabled him to advance with less caution.
In a few minutes he reached the stream, apparently undiscovered, when suddenly he was startled by another rifle report, close at hand, and he lay flat, breathing in suspense.
It was simply that one of that pair had made the mistake so often made in the trenches of raising his head, and had paid the penalty.
Tom was just cautiously crossing the brook when he became aware of a frantic scramble in the bush and saw the German private rushing pell-mell through the thick undergrowth beyond, hiding himself in it as best he might and apparently trying to keep the bush-enshrouded hogshead between himself and the tree where the sniper was. Evidently he had discovered Roscoe"s perch and, there being now no restraining authority, had decided on flight. It had been the officer"s battle, not his, and he abandoned it as soon as the officer was shot. It was typical of the German system and of the total lack of individual spirit and resource of the poor wretches who fight for Kaiser Bill"s glory.
Reaching the bush, Tom pulled away the leafy covering and saw that the poisonous liquid was pouring out of a clean bullet hole as he had suspected. He hurriedly wrapped a bit of the gauze bandage which he always carried around the bullet Roscoe had given him and forced it into the hole, wedging it tight with a rock. Then he waved his hand in the direction of the tree to let Roscoe know that all was well.
Tom Slade had used his first bullet and it had saved hundreds of lives.
"They"re both dead," he said, as Roscoe came quickly through the underbrush in the gathering dusk. "Did the officer put his head up?"
"Mm-mm," said Roscoe, examining the two victims.
"You always kill, don"t you?" said Tom.
"I have to, Tommy. You see, I"m all alone, mostly," Roscoe added as he fumbled in the dead officer"s clothing. "There are no surgeons or nurses in reach. I don"t have stretcher-bearers following _me_ around and it isn"t often that even a Hun will surrender, fair and square, to one man.
I"ve seen too much of this "_kamarad_" business. I can"t afford to take chances, Tommy. But I don"t put nicks in my rifle b.u.t.t like some of them do. I don"t want to know how many I beaned after it"s all over. We kill to save--that"s the idea you want to get into your head, Tommy boy."
"I know it," said Tom.
The officer had no papers of any importance and since it was getting dark and Tom must report at headquarters, they discussed the possibility of upsetting these murderous hogsheads, and putting an end to the danger. Evidently the woods were not yet wholly cleared of the enemy who might still seek to make use of these agents of destruction.
"There may be stragglers in the woods even to-morrow," Roscoe said.
"S"pose we dig a little trench running away from the brook and then turn on the c.o.c.k and let the stuff flow off?" suggested Tom.
The idea seemed a good one and they fell to, hewing out a ditch with a couple of sticks. It was a very crude piece of engineering, as Roscoe observed, and they were embarra.s.sed in their work by the gathering darkness, but at length they succeeded, by dint of jabbing and plowing and lifting the earth out in handfuls, in excavating a little gully through the rising bank so that the liquid would flow off and down the rocky decline beyond at a safe distance from the stream.
For upwards of an hour they remained close by, until the hogsheads had run dry, and then they set out through the woods for the captured village.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE GUN PIT