Jeb had been standing in deep shadow to one side, with the club drawn back. He waited until both men were well within the door, then made a vicious swing, and then another; there were two sharp cracks of wood on bone, and the two who had come to kill lay dead.
"It"s all right," he whispered through the darkness. "Bring the children, quick!"
"Thank G.o.d, Monsieur," her voice reached him.
Kneeling, he stripped the sentry of ammunition, examined the rifle until he had mastered its mechanism, and saw that it was loaded and ready.
When the children reached him--the two smaller ones staring vacantly ahead as if walking in their sleep--he whispered:
"Now, do just as I say: follow closely, keep in the shadows and make no noise. When I put back my hand, stop and wait; when I call, come at once. Is that clear, little one?"
"But, oh, Monsieur," she panted, "should we not run now?"
"We couldn"t make it, for one thing," he answered slowly, "and, besides, I--I don"t think I"ll ever run again, little one," he stooped and kissed her--although she did not understand. "Ready? Come along!"
CHAPTER XV
He felt the call now of three great forces: America, Humanity, and his soul--but the greatest of these was Humanity! Each held him by a new, a strong appeal; each looked confidently to the best there was in him, wrapped him in entreating arms that struggled to inspire the highest type of courage.
Carefully the little refugees followed him out into the calm moonlight, the tots whose minds had gone back to shadowland acting as automatons under the silent direction of their sister. He stopped once, as though with indecision, and looked at them; then set his teeth fast and again went on. Hugging the snagged walls, crossing open places on hands and knees, they came finally to the spot Jeb had previously selected for them to wait, while he crept ahead to reach the pyramids of stacked rifles before letting his presence be known.
He could distinctly hear the sounds of digging now, but there was no exchange of words--doubtless the stilled sentry had been the only loquacious spirit among them. This presence of human beings laboring in silence at dead of night made his task decidedly ticklish, and minutes pa.s.sed before he gained a position behind the last pile of rubble, overlooking the hole.
Besides the fourteen Germans he had expected to see below, he now made out one other, an officer, who, doubtless because he sat well beneath the opposite wall, had escaped observation during the first reconnaissance. This brought the total to fifteen--three clips of cartridges and no misses, he told himself, if it came to a fight. The men toiled surlily, as though that beaver-like industry, everywhere displayed by the German army in fatigue work, had about reached the quitting point. It was, moreover, possible that they sulked for having been detailed to a duty which meant almost certain death.
Jeb did not know how to challenge them, but a pointed rifle and a stern command in any language is never difficult of translation between soldiers of opposing armies. He saw now that six of them were laboring with a large stone, and there could be no more favorable time for him to act. With a bound he reached the edge.
"Hands up!" he barked.
The fifteen faces turned to him were blank with astonishment.
"Hands up!" he repeated.
The officer, first to recover, made a quick reach for his pistol, and Jeb dropped him in his tracks. This shot, and its effect, broke the spell. Spades and picks were thrown aside, the stone fell with a crash, and the men, thoroughly cowered, raised their hands, calling: "Kamerad!
Kamerad!"--the same old cry that has rung from Verdun to the sea, although Jeb was hearing it for the first time.
By gesture he commanded them to climb out, one at a time, and in single file to march farther away from the rifles, since at some personal cost they might have yet attempted a rush and overpowered him. But there was no rush in these exhausted men, and, except for a few who showed signs of relief, they took the situation with stolid gravity.
In a hundred yards he halted them and called the child, who came bravely out of hiding with the remnants of her family; but, confronted by the grimly uniformed line, she drew back screaming.
"It"s all right, little one," Jeb called rea.s.suringly. "These are your horses; come quickly, hop up and ride!"
One of the prisoners, understanding French, began to laugh as he translated this to his comrades, but Jeb peremptorily stopped all conversation. To let these fellows get an inch beyond the strictest discipline was to invite disaster. Yet now he could give orders through this interpreter, and soon the column was marching silently southward, its first three men each bearing on his shoulders a wan little victim from the "empire of death." The others followed obediently enough, while Jeb, in a position to enfilade the column--thus maintaining a command of each file--brought up the rear. From his att.i.tude and voice the captives seemed to know that he was on a very dangerous tension, and that the slightest hesitation on their part would mean instant death. They had no desire to test his skill further than that one snap shot through their officer"s brain.
His first concern was to drive straight southward and get clear of the machine-gun redoubts, which he felt sure were being extended westward; and as the success of this plan hinged largely upon absolute silence, he had promised fourteen inches of bayonet to the first man who spoke, coughed, sneezed, or stubbed his toe. Moreover, he was recklessly prepared to execute this threat without a second"s hesitation, fully realizing that if he would hold supremacy against such overpowering odds he must let his words and acts mesh with the nicety of machine gears, or his authority would vanish.
From time to time, when the burden of this responsibility began to wear down his courage, and fear came creeping in at the sheer audacity of this undertaking, he would raise his eyes to the three little tots ahead--and feel every nerve grow steady. As a consequence, the men were thoroughly in hand, stepping with caution and showing every disposition to carry out his orders.
In this way they covered perhaps a mile, reaching a ground of comparative safety where their silence might have relaxed without bringing about disaster. But Jeb would take no chance, and forced the column to proceed with the same scrupulous care. As he was skirting a group of the dead, that looked frightfully grotesque in the pale moonlight, a voice almost at his back sent terror to his soul--then joy.
"Well, w"ot d"ye know about thot!" it said guardedly.
"Tim!" he cried, instantly calling a halt. There could be no mistaking that voice, were it heard anywhere on earth. "Tim, where are you?"
"If it ain"t Jeb, may I be shot for a spy! B"ys, deliverance is come!"
And the sergeant raised himself to a sitting position, while several forms about him also began to stir.
"You blessed Irishman," said Jeb, delightedly, "if I could take my eyes off this bunch, darned if I wouldn"t kiss you!"
"Ye"ve brought better"n a kiss, lad--but ye can do thot yit, mind ye, if I see inither sun!"
"Are you too badly hurt to be carried in?"
"Thot"s a divil av a question, now! Sure, me an" the b"ys is too continted to move for annything, lest "tis a pitcher av ice-water----"
his voice seemed to crack at the mention of this.
Through the interpreter Jeb ordered a man to lift him; and as a big fellow stepped forward, Tim chuckled:
"If this don"t beat the Dutch, may I be shot--ow! me leg! Here, ye butcher, don"t ye know better"n to handle a mon like a trunk! Kneel, ye spalpeen, whilst I straddle the neck av ye!"
When the German arose with Tim firmly astride his shoulders Jeb sent out another prisoner, then another, until nine wounded were prepared for transport rearward.
"You"re sure there aren"t any more, Tim?" he asked.
"Faith, an" I wisht there was, lad," the sergeant answered soberly.
"Pa.s.s me up me rifle, like a good b"y, forinst we start! I see be the black-and-gold b.u.t.ton on me ar-rmy mule thot he"s a Landstrumer, an"
they"s tricky b"ys, at times!"
There was a cheer so spontaneous about this Irishman, whose very genius for happiness had lightened many a heavy burden, that his mount began to shake with laughter; whereupon Tim, in spite of a wound that pained grievously, grinned down at him.
"Laugh away, ye fat-headed Fritz," he said. "But don"t go tryin" to buck me off, or "tis Tim Doreen"ll crack yer periscope--bein" as he"s settin"
on it! Jeb, ye"ve two spare ar-rmy mules--let thim bring in all the rifles, like a good lad!"
They had gone but a little way when Tim caught the German by the ear, saying:
"Gee-haw, ye beggarly Boche! Turn "round, an" take me to the boss av this job!"--but, as the prisoner did no more than flinch, he called back: "Jeb, order this outcast to halt, whilst ye come up to us!"
When this had been accomplished through the interpreter, and the two friends were moving side by side, the sergeant asked:
"D"ye think there"s no fear av this divil understandin" G.o.d"s language?
Thin, I"ve a mind to ask w"ot"s come over ye, lad--but ye mustn"t be takin" it amiss! Ye know thot whin I saw ye last, ye wasn"t w"ot I"d call love-sick for a sc.r.a.p!"
"Tim," he answered, in an awed voice, "it was the sight of those children!"
"The childer, ye say! Thim w"ot"s forinst us?"