From February to August.
It has been said that, if coincidences did not happen, stories would not
be written, and what I am about to write seemed at first strange, and
yet, as events proved, was only natural.
Before I reached the white mark upon the tree I heard the noise of the
breaking of bushes, so I carefully reconnoitred, and before long a
swishing near by caused me to drop beneath a shrub, as there passed me
within one hundred yards a figure dragging two saplings. I clapped my
hand over my mouth to prevent shouting. It looked like Nap!
In my excitement I had moved. A sun-ray struck my white jacket. The
figure stood, dropped the bushes, drew his revolver and turned his face
toward me. It was Nap!
I rushed out.
"Nap," I shouted--but the revolver was still pointed.
"Hands up," he called, nonplussed at the German-looking figure rushing
towards him. I threw his old phrase at him: "Fly high and good luck, old
man." Then his arm dropped.
"The voice is Jefson's, sure enough," he said, "but the darned mug licks
me."
"Wait till I cover up the mo'," I said, putting my hand over my mouth.
"Well, old chap, shall we drop a 'cough drop'?" I asked; and he nearly
wrung my arm off.
"I fell near here three nights ago," he explained, "engine trouble--and,
although it's enemy's country I don't like to burn the old 'bus, so I've
backed its tail as far as I could into the bush and am screening the
exposed part with bushes so that it won't be spotted from aloft. There's
not much wrong with it, rather a bad strip of the fabric ripped off as I
was coming down, but I struck an abandoned farm yesterday a mile from
here, and when I cover up the jigger, I'm just going over to see if I
can fossick out something to patch her up."
"I guess I know where your strip of fabric is," I said.
I then told him of the white mark on the tree and how it led me to him,
and as we went to salvage it, he told me of the mighty doings of the
war.
"Let me see," he said, "you went out on your Zep. raid last February?
Well, lots have happened since.
"Shortly after that Germany started to blockade England with submarines
to starve her out, and began to sink all sorts of ships. They bagged a
fine and large lot including some Americans--just sunk 'em on sight,
asking no questions."
"Did America buck up, Nap?" I asked.
"Don't ask me, Jefson--that's the sick part. I want to dodge that. Let
me get on--where was I? Oh, yes, Germany's submarine piracy; but that
didn't do much harm, and she got tired of that stunt after a month or
so. Then her fleet came out of Kiel to make a grand attack: at least, a
bit of it came out, but only a bit of that bit got back again.
"Turkey, in the meantime had butted in and went for the Suez Canal, but
your Australian fellows, who had been dropped at Egypt, made those bucks
hike back quick and lively, then your Australians helped to chase them
off the banks of the Dardanelles: and the British and French Fleets,
smashing their way through, had threatened Constantinople--and then
Turkey got the axe.
"All through February, March and April, Belgians, British and French
held that line from Ostend to Nancy, getting a trench to-day and losing
it to-morrow, all the while Kitchener was waiting for the winter to
break and the Spring to come along and dry the roads for the cavalry and
the big guns.
"In the east the Russian Army was just sitting like a rock. The Germans,
relying on their idea of attack, were simply chucking themselves away on
that Russian rock and smashing up like spray.
"Kitchener had six great armies waiting, but during May, June and July
those armies doubled! The French and Russian Armies also practically
doubled and streams increased from Australia and Canada.
"It was the most extraordinary thing of the war--and a young woman did
it!
"She is a Belgian. She saw her mother being outraged by a German
soldier. She slipped in, took up his bayonet, and skewered him, shot his
companion, and with the weapon escaped to France. Through France and
England she preached a crusade of Revenge. Crowds came to hear the
sweet-faced woman speak frankly of unprintable horrors, and the fire of
her tongue as she preached in her simple country dress with the
bloodstained bayonet in her hand, won thousands of recruits. On top of
her crusade out came the official report, that among other awful things,
over 4000 Belgian women who had been maltreated by German soldiers would
become mothers this year. Men with memories of dear mothers and sweet
sisters tumbled over one another to hear and bless the world's new Joan
of Arc, and marched in hundreds to recruiting stations with a fearful
song of Revenge.
"Then she went to Italy! and though she spoke in a foreign tongue, the
crowds understood and the Italians, passionate to the extreme, rose in
storm--and Italy declared war!
"Italy got busy early in June, invading the Tyrol and smashing Pola on
the Adriatic. Then its armies worked north, finding the great Austrian
fortresses abandoned and destroyed, the big guns having been removed to
be used against the Russians.
"Greece, when it found that Turkey was in danger of being smashed,
joined with the Allies. It hung fire for a bit as its king was a
relative of the Kaiser, but the people got sore, and at an election sent
a popular Premier in who got the Greeks into the firing line.
"The principal Balkan States are also joining in the rumpus, as I guess
they're anxious to be in the "top dog" so as to get some pickings after
the scrap. Then in August we got the tip to get the big move on."