A RISKY DECISION
"Did you notice that Victrola?" Archer asked fondly.
"Yes, it was busted; did you want that, too?"
"We might have used the arm for a chimney if we were building a fire,"
Archer ventured.
"We'd look nice crawling through these mountains with a Victrola in our
arms. The Fritzies always have a lot of that kind of junk with 'em. They
had one on the submarine that picked me up that time."
They were both now clad in the semi-military blouses worn by the German
"sausage men" and felt that to a casual observer at least they were
disguised. It gave them a feeling of security even in these unfrequented
highlands. And their little store of food refreshed their spirits and
gave them new hope.
What cheered Tom most of all was his precious possession, the rubber
gloves, a detail of equipment which every gas-engine mechanic is pretty
sure to have, though, he regarded the discovery as a rare find. He was
thankful to have found them, for the terrific deadly current which he
knew rushed through the formidable wire entanglement along the frontier
had haunted him and baffled his wits. It was characteristic of Tom to
think and plan far ahead.
All the next day they journeyed through the hills, making a long detour
to avoid a hamlet, and meeting no one. And at night, under the
close-knit shelter of a great pine tree, they rested their weary bodies
and ate the last of their meat and biscuits.
When Tom roused Archer in the morning it was to show him a surprising
view. From their wooded height they could look down across a vast tract
of open country which extended eastward as far as they could see,
running north and south between steep banks. Converging toward it out of
the hills they had followed, they could see a bird's-eye panorama of the
broadening streams, the trickling beginnings of which they had forded
and drunk from, and their eyes followed the majestic water southward
until it wound away among the frowning heights which they had all but
entered.
"It's the Rhine," said Archer, "and that's the real Black Forest where
it goes. Those mountains are in Baden; now I know."
"Didn't I say there must be a big river over that way?" said Tom. "I
knew from the way that ridge went. It's a big one, huh?"
"You said it! Maybe that twig you threw in to see which way it went is
floating down the Rhine now. They'll use it in the Black Forest to make
a toy out of, maybe."
"I s'pose you'd like to have it for a souvenir."
"If we could make a raft we could sail right down, hey?" queried Archer
doubtfully.
Tom shook his head. "It must pass through big cities," he said, "and
we're safe in the mountains. Anyway, it flows the other way," he added.
It was not difficult now for them to piece out a fairly accurate map of
the locality about them. They were indeed near the eastern edge of
Alsace where the Rhine, flowing in a northeasterly direction, separates
the "lost province" from the Duchy of Baden. To the south, on the Baden
side, the mighty hills rolled away in crowding confusion as far as they
could see, and these they knew held that dim, romantic wilderness, the
Black Forest, the outskirts of which they had entered.
Directly below the hill on which they rested was a tiny hamlet nestling
in the shadow of the steep ascent, and when Tom climbed a tree for a
better view he could see to the southwest close by the river a surging
metropolis with countless chimneys sending their black smoke up into the
gray early morning sky.
"I bet it's Berrlin," shouted Archer. "Gee, we'll be the firrst to get
therre, hey? It might be Berrlin, hey?" he added with less buoyancy,
seeing Tom's dry smile.
"It might be New York or Philadelphia," said Tom, "only it ain't. I
guess it must be Strassbourg. I heard that was the biggest place in
Alsace."
They looked at it through their field glass and decided that it was
about twenty miles distant. More to the purpose was the little hamlet
scarce half a mile below them, for their provisions were gone and as Tom
scanned the country with the glass he could see no streams to the
southward converging toward the river. He feared to have to go another
twenty-four hours, perhaps, without food and water.
"We got to decide another thing before we go any farther, too," he said.
"If we're going to hike into those mountains we've got to cross the
river and we'll be outside of Alsace. We won't meet any French people
and Frenchy's button won't do us any good over there. But if we stay on
this side we've got to go through open country. I don't know which is
better."
They were indeed at a point where they must choose between the doubtful
hospitality of Alsace and the safe enveloping welcome of the mountain
fastnesses. Like the true scout he was, Tom inclined to the latter.
"Do you notice," he said, looking down through the glass, "that house
that looks as if it was whitewashed? It's far away from the others."
Archer took the glass and looking down saw a little white house with a
heavy roof of thatch. A tipsy, ramshackle fence surrounded it and in the
enclosure several sheep were grazing. The whole poor farm, if such it
was, was at the end of a long rustic overgrown lane and quite a distance
from the cluster of houses which constituted the hamlet. By scrambling
down the rugged hillside one could reach this house without entering the
hamlet at all.
"If I dared, I'd make the break," said Tom.
"Suppose they should be Gerrmans living therre?" Archer suggested. "I
wouldn't risk it. Can't you see therre's a German flag on a flagpole?"
"That's just it," said Tom. "If I knew they were French people I could
show them Frenchy's button. If I was sure this uniform, or whatever you
call it, was all right, I'd take a chance."
"It's all right at a distance, anyway," Archer encouraged; "as long as
nobody can see yourr face or speak to you."
It was a pretty risky business and both realized it. After three days of
successful flight to run into the very jaws of recapture by an
ill-considered move was not at all to Tom's liking, yet he felt sure
that it would be equally risky to penetrate into that dark wilderness
which stretched away toward the Swiss border without first ascertaining
something of its extent and character, and what the prospect was of
getting through it unseen. Moreover, they were hungry.
Yet it was twilight and the distant river had become a dark ribbon and
the outlines of the poor houses below them blurred and indistinct in the
gathering darkness before Tom could bring himself to re-enter the haunts
of men.
"You stay here," he said, "and I'll go down and pike around. There's one
thing, that house is very old and people don't move around here like
they do in America. So if I see anything that makes me think the house
is French then probably the people are French too."
It was a sensible thought, more dependable indeed than Tom imagined, for
in poor Alsace and Lorraine, of all places, people who loved their homes
enough to remain in them under foreign despotism would probably continue
living in them generation after generation. There is no moving day in
Europe.