THAD TURNS MAGICIAN
Their troubles began almost as soon as they struck the road. Owing to
the fact that there was an almost constant stream of motors and other
vehicles going and coming, it took on the aspect of a moving procession.
Thad was compelled to fall in line and curb his impatience as best he
could. Of course, at the same time, he remained on the alert for such
openings as occurred, when he might take advantage of a chance to pass
ahead, and spin along a stretch of territory that offered the
opportunity.
Progress was tedious, and was made all the more so on account of the
open hostility shown by many of the truck drivers and those connected
with ambulances. These natives could not understand what business those
three boys dressed in faded khaki could have seated in a fine car and
heading apparently toward Paris. They must have jumped to the conclusion
that Thad and his chums were out for a lark; a trio of curious English
lads who wanted to bother everybody by trying to see some of the
fighting.
Consequently the French drivers resented this seeming impertinence. More
than that, they began to interfere, whenever they found a chance, by
deliberately blocking the road and delaying the boys unnecessarily.
Often, too, some husky chauffeur would call out to them in a sarcastic
tone; and while they could only guess at the import, they understood
that it was not meant for a compliment; in fact, they were very likely
being compared to “pigs.”
Thad stood all this patiently for a little while. Allan was beginning to
show signs of anger, while even gentle Bumpus fumed considerably.
“Can’t we do something to put a stopper on this thing, Thad?” finally
demanded Allan, when a van deliberately blocked their passage and the
man at the wheel thrust his bearded face out to leer back at them
impudently.
For reply, Thad shouted out a few words in French, much to the surprise
of both his comrades; at the same time he made a certain sign with his
hand. Then, to the utter amazement of both Bumpus and the other boy, the
driver of the van containing wounded heroes on the way to the Paris
hospitals hurriedly drew his vehicle aside, even going so far as to hold
up so as to allow of a free passage.
A minute later this was repeated, and again with surprising results. No
wonder simple-minded Bumpus fairly gasped and stared hard at Thad.
“Say, since when did you practice for a magician, Thad?” he demanded,
bent on learning the secret of that magical pass of the hand, that
majestic signal that would have well become a king. “Why, look at them
get out of our way, will you? Honestly, I believe you must have
hypnotized the bunch, Thad.”
“And what’s that French phrase you’re shouting at the drivers?” pursued
Allan. “I can only make out the word ‘Joffre’ in it all. Are you telling
them we’ve got a dispatch for the big push at Headquarters and that
perhaps the fate of the whole battle may depend on our getting it to him
in a hurry?”
“You’ve guessed it, Allan,” admitted Thad; “for that is just what it
means. And you can see how those patriotic drivers understand. They no
longer see in us three happy-go-lucky schoolboys from across the
Channel, poking our noses where we hadn’t ought to be, and interfering
with men’s work. Why, I feel like taking off my hat to those chaps after
seeing how they give us the road now.”
“It works like magic, for a fact,” said Allan, looking happy once more;
“but how did you get on to it, Thad?”
“Our friend, the American surgeon, told me what to say, and how to give
that signal with my hand,” came the reply. “He realized that we’d have
lots of trouble getting along this congested road. I think the officer
who was so badly smashed must have passed it on to the doctor.”
“Well, keep it going then, please,” Bumpus pleaded, “because it seems to
save us heaps and heaps of bother.”
As they were constantly moving away from the scene of action of course
the awful clamor grew gradually less in volume. Still the boys were of
the opinion that if the wind was favorable the citizens of the French
capital might even catch distant sounds of apparent thunder. How it
would revive thrilling memories of those bitter days of ’71 in the minds
of the old folks who had passed through the previous siege, and seen the
heel of the proud Prussian victor pressing their pavements in Paris.
Once they came to where a van heavily laden had broken down, and blocked
the entire road. With so many vehicles passing back and forth in a
constant stream such a happening was not singular. But those astute
drivers had been equal to the occasion. An adjoining stone wall had been
torn down so that vehicles might turn into a field, and thus go around
the block, once more reaching the road further on.
Bumpus felt relieved when he saw how easily this difficulty had been met
and conquered. Men were even then busily engaged in repairing the van
that had caused the trouble. Had it been beyond help they would have
removed its load, and dragged the heavy machine to one side of the road,
so as to leave a free passage.
“But how far do we keep on this route?” Bumpus wanted to know,
presently. “It runs direct to Paris, I understand, and surely that isn’t
where we’re bound.”
“Well, I don’t think General Joffre has yet taken up his headquarters so
far away from the fighting line,” laughed Allan. “As I understand it
we’ll soon come to a place where we turn aside, and head into the west;
isn’t that it, Thad?”
“Just what we will,” replied the driver; “and then, unless I’m mistaken,
our course will gradually carry us back toward the front once more. We
can tell that from the direction we head for; and, besides, as like as
not the roar will begin to increase again instead of getting softer.”
Bumpus fell silent at that. Given his way and no doubt he would have
candidly admitted that he had seen quite as much of fighting as he ever
wanted to look upon. The terrible things that had passed in review
before his eyes would never leave his mind; and his heart felt heavy
because of the intense human suffering they had tried their best to
alleviate. Still Bumpus was very loyal, and so long as these chums of
his thought best to see the great battle through he was determined not
to show the white feather.
It was certainly amazing, the amount of traffic that was passing back
and forth along that road. It had evidently been given over entirely to
this sort of thing; for they did not encounter any batteries of guns, or
marching regiments of troops coming out of Paris as reinforcements on
the way to the fighting line. No doubt arrangements had been perfected
whereby all such went either by train, or along still another main
artery of travel, where they might have an unobstructed passage
conducive to haste.
“Thad, do you think we’ll ever run across Giraffe again?” Bumpus
suddenly asked, as though the missing chum might have been in his mind
as he watched an empty ambulance swinging by on their right, for
vehicles abroad always pass to the left.
“Oh! it’s to be hoped we do,” the boy at the wheel replied, hastily. “If
he gets back to where the field hospital is, and meets the surgeon, who
promised to keep an eye out for Giraffe, he will be told where we’ve
gone; also that he is to go back to Paris, where we’ll join him. I even
left an address with our friend, so that if it came to the worst Giraffe
would know where to find us.”
“Thad, you just manage to think of nearly everything,” commented the
admiring Bumpus, once more looking pleased, as if some weighty doubts
had been thus removed.
“I’m glad you said ‘nearly,’” the scout leader told him, “because I’ve
got my weak points as well as the next fellow. But here we come to
another pack; and it’s going to take a whole lot of managing to get
through in a hurry.”
They were making very good progress all this while, however. Thad felt
greatly encouraged. He believed it could not be long before they arrived
at the place where they expected to leave this main artery of travel,
and strike out along the road running parallel with the fighting line.
Here the vehicular traffic might be expected to become much less dense,
and they would be able to make better time.
“Keep your eyes on the watch for an opening to the left,” he told the
others, after they had managed to get by the jam, and had a little clear
space ahead.
“Watch that ambulance coming, Thad; it seems to wobble a bit, in the
hurry of the man at the wheel to get back to the front; and we don’t
want any smashup at this stage of the game, you know.”
“Oh! they’ll give us plenty of room when we get closer,” retorted Thad.
“With three on the seat they ought to be able to manage things, I should
think.”
“The ambulance is full of men, too,” remarked Allan just then. “Just as
like as not they’re fresh workers of the Red Cross Corps getting out on
the front line to help the tired gang we left up to their eyes in
business.”
“Say, it seems to me there’s something mighty familiar about one of
those chaps on the seat of that machine!” exclaimed Bumpus.
His words caused both the others to look closer. Then Allan gave a
laugh.
“As sure as you live that’s nobody else save our chum, Giraffe!” he
exclaimed. “I’d know that long neck of his among a thousand. And see, he
recognizes us now, for he’s grabbed the arm of the pilot of the
ambulance, and means to get him to stop. Well, if this isn’t luck, then
we never had it come our way.”