A GLIMPSE OF THE ENEMY
Other ears than theirs had heard that firing, too. As they rode along
they saw a cloud of dust before them, and soon men and horses emerged
from the dust.
"Let's hide in the hedge along the road," said Frank. "Come on--they'll
never see us."
"But they won't hurt us, Frank. They're English--our friends."
"Probably they are. But how do we know? They may be more Germans."
"Oh, I never thought of that! If they are--"
"Yes, if they are, it's good-bye to Captain Hardy and his supplies. But
we can't help it. We've already done all we could for him."
They watched the oncoming cavalry, but even at a little distance, what
with their speed and the dust, it was impossible to tell to which army
they belonged. They were either English or German; that was all that
could be certain. And that could be deduced from their khaki uniforms.
There were no colors to emerge, bright and vivid, from their dun mass;
no points of steel, on which the rays of the sun might shine and be
reflected.
"If they were French we could tell," said Henri, proudly. "We could see
their red and blue uniforms and, if they were cuirassiers, their
breastplates!"
"Yes. The French are far behind the times in that," said Frank, a little
impatiently. "Nowadays armies don't try to act as if they were on dress
parade. They wear uniforms that can't be seen any great distance away."
"The French army fights in the uniform in which its famous victories
were won," said Henri.
"And it gets killed in them, too," said Frank. "Gets killed when it
doesn't do any good. But that doesn't matter now. Ah, they're English! I
can see that now. We needn't tell them to hurry--they're going for all
they're worth now. They've heard the firing and are hastening."
The English horsemen swept by. They were riding low in the saddle,
urging their horses on. Each man carried a carbine, ready to dismount at
any moment and give battle as seemed best. In five minutes they had
swept by.
"Two troops," said Frank. "Well, that ought to be enough, though there's
no telling how many Uhlans there were. Ah, here come some more!"
This time it was a battery of light artillery--four guns, going along
almost as quickly as the cavalry had done.
"That ought to settle it," said Frank, with satisfaction. "Even if they
run into a brigade of Uhlans, the guns ought to do the trick. I don't
believe they had any guns or we'd have heard them by this time."
"They're still fighting back there," said Henri, as they wheeled their
bicycles back to the road. "I can hear the firing."
"Yes, and I think it must be a pretty lively skirmish, too," said Frank.
"Captain Hardy would keep them at it. Listen! The Uhlans must outnumber
them three or four to one. I hope the others get up in time."
A few minutes gave assurance that they had. They heard the firing still
more loudly; then, a few minutes later, the heavier sound of the guns
chimed in. And then there was silence behind them.
"Score one for our side," said Frank. "We know a little more than we did
before, too. I think it's a safe guess that the Germans aren't in this
direction. We can go along without worrying about them."
As he said that they were coasting down a little hill, at the bottom of
which, Henri had said, another road crossed the one on which they were
riding just around a little turn in the road. And as they took that
turn, their feet off the pedals, they almost fell off their wheels in
astonishment. For the transverse road was gray-green with soldiers;
soldiers with spiked helmets, marching south!
A moment later they did fall off their wheels, deliberately, and at a
common impulse, because it was the only way there was of stopping before
they were in the midst of the German infantry. There was just a chance
that they had not been seen and they took it, and fled to the hedge
again, leaving their bicycles behind. There was no time to bother about
such trifles now. The thing to do was to make good their escape, if they
could.
"Whew!" said Frank, whistling. "That was a close shave, if you like!
Where on earth did they come from? And how is it they didn't see the
English cavalry?"
"Perhaps they didn't care, if they did see them," said Henri, wide-eyed
with astonishment. "Look, Frank, there must be thousands of them! Where
can they be going?"
"Where did they come from? That's more to the point!" said Frank, vastly
excited. "I know! They got the railway--that's what they did! They must
have come through Arras. Jove, though, they took a terrible risk, Harry!
Because, no matter how many of them there are, they can't even begin to
compare with the allies in numbers--not around here. But how can they be
here without being seen? What are our aeroplanes doing?"
"I haven't seen one all day--not since we left Amiens, at least," said
Henri. "But I know where they are--flying over the enemy's lines, trying
to locate the guns exactly. That's what they try to do, you know. They
decide just where a masked battery is, and then our fellows can drop
their shells right among their guns. The gunners can't get the range
properly any other way. There isn't any powder smoke to help them any
more, you know. So I suppose that's where they are."
"Then I tell you what I think happened. I think they cut the railroad,
or, rather, they didn't cut it. I bet they ran those fellows down there
through on trains--right through our army."
"How could they do that?"
"Easily--no, not easily. It wouldn't be easy at all. But it's possible.
They've caught a lot of our men, haven't they? Well, couldn't they use
their uniforms so that it would look as if it was a French or an English
train? Let me have your field glass. It's better than mine."
They were sheltered now and safe from observation. They could,
nevertheless, see the German column strung out along the road. It seemed
to cover at least two or three miles of the road, and there was no way
of being sure that there were not more men.
"I think they've got pretty nearly five thousand men," Frank decided
finally. "They're in light marching order, for Germans, too. No camp
kitchens--nothing. Only what the men themselves are carrying. They're
making a forced march to get to some particular place. Queer to use
infantry, though, but I suppose they couldn't get horses through with
whatever trick it was they played."
"They're beginning to turn off," said Henri. "See, the head of the
column is slipping through that field over there. They must know this
country as well as I do or better. That's a short cut that will take
them to Hierville."
"I don't believe they're going to Hierville or any other village now,"
said Frank. "Tell me, are those woods I can see in front of them at all
thick?"
"Yes, they're old, too. They've been preserved for a long time. That's
the oldest part of the old park of the Chateau d'Avriere. It was one of
the castles that wasn't destroyed in the revolution."
"Well, they're going to take cover in those woods. This is all a part of
a mighty careful plan, Harry. I think they have turned a real trick. If
the French or the English knew that the Germans were in any such force
as this so far south and west as this they would be acting very
differently, I believe. Their aeroplanes have certainly failed them
here."
"They're on the line of retreat, if we were beaten again in that battle
we've been hearing all afternoon."
"I don't think it was a real battle at all, Harry. I think it was just
rear guard fighting. But I tell you what we've got to do. We've got to
get through and tell about these troops. Of course, they may know all
about them at headquarters, but it doesn't look so. We had better wait
here until we make fairly sure of what they're going to do and until
there isn't any more danger of our being seen, too. They'll have scouts
out all around them. We were mighty lucky to get through so long as we
have. But it's going to get dark pretty soon, and then we ought to be
safe."
They lay in their improvised shelter. It took the Germans a long time to
pass, but at last the road below was free of them, and the last of them
slipped into the sheltering obscurity of the woods.
"We ought to find out if they're staying there, or if they are still
moving on," said Frank. "It's risky, but I think we ought to take the
risk. You stay here, Henri. I'll try to get around, and come back."
"Why should I stay here? If there's a risk, why shouldn't I take it
just as well as you?"
"Because one of us has got to get through. If I'm caught, you'll still
be here and able to get through to headquarters with what we've found
out already. And the reason I'd better go is that I'm an American. If
they catch me they're not so likely to hold me."
"But I don't think it's fair for you to take the risk. I ought to do
it," said Henri, stubbornly.
"I don't care what you think," said Frank, "I'm going. Au revoir,
Harry!"
"Wait a minute! How are you going to find out?"
"I'll try to skirt the wood."
"You needn't do that. Keep straight on the road we were taking, instead
of turning off at the foot of the hill. About half a mile beyond the
crossroads the road rises again, and you'll find a windmill. If you
climb to the top of that you can see beyond the woods, and you ought to
be able to tell if the Germans are moving out of the woods."
"Splendid!" said Frank. He admired Henri's readiness, once he had made
up his mind that Frank was going alone, to help him with his greater
knowledge of the countryside. Some boys would have been sullen, and
would not have volunteered that information, he was sure.
Before Frank started on his lonely errand, he carried Henri's bicycle
back of the hedge. Then he mounted his own, and coasted down the hill.
His object was to seem entirely indifferent, should some German scout or
straggler spy him, but plainly the Germans had decided to leave the road
uncovered.
"I guess they decided it was better to risk being surprised than to give
themselves away," he said to himself. "Otherwise they'd have been pretty
sure to leave an outpost of some sort here because this road looks like
just the place for troop movements. It looks more and more as if they
had really managed to make a secret of this column."
It did not take him long to find the windmill of which Henri had told
him. The place was deserted; there was no one to oppose his entry. And,
when he reached the top, he found that there was an excellent view of
the country for several miles, a much better one than they had had from
their shelter on the hillside above the Germans.
He could see the woods into which the invading troops had disappeared,
looking dark and mysterious in the deepening twilight. There was no sign
of life about them; no smoke rose above the treetops. And no Germans
were beyond them. Then his guess had been right, he decided. They had
made for those woods to obtain shelter, and they relied upon the fact
that the allies did not know of their presence. It was a daring move; it
might well have been successful, save for the accident of the two boys
who had observed it. Indeed, even now there was a chance, and something
more than a chance, that the German object, whatever it was, might be
attained. Frank and Henri were a long way yet from having reached the
British headquarters. Unknown dangers and obstacles lay between them and
their destination.
"With the German attack developing so quickly as this, we don't know
where we may not run into them," mused Frank, as he descended from the
windmill and mounted his wheel, preparing to start back to join Henri.
"They may be anywhere. I don't want to see them win, but they certainly
are wonderfully good fighters. They have good leaders, too."
When he reached Henri he found that his French comrade was lighting the
lamp of his bicycle. With a laugh he blew out the flame.
"But it's dark and we'll be arrested if we ride without a light," said
Henri, protestingly.
"That law was made for peace, not for war," said Frank. "When we know as
little about where the Germans are as we do, I'm not going to take any
chances. We'll ride with lights out, thank you. Come on!"
As they rode along in the growing dusk, close together, Frank told what
he had seen.
"That was a good guess, then," said Henri. "But, Frank, how can they
know so well what to do? You would think that they had been brought up
in this country, those German officers!"
"They might as well have been," said Frank. "I've heard stories of how
they prepare for war. They have maps that show every inch of land in
this part of France. They know the roads, the hills, even the fields and
the houses. They have officers with every regiment who know where
ditches are that they can use as trenches, and who have studied the land
so that they recognize places they have never seen, just from the maps
that they have studied until they know them by heart. And it isn't only
France that they know that way, but England, and some parts of Russia,
too. Why, I've even heard that they've studied parts of America, around
New York and Boston, almost as thoroughly."
Henri cried out in anger.
"That is how they have behaved!" he cried. "They have been planning, all
these years, then, to crush France!"
"Oh, cheer up, Harry," said Frank. "I guess you'll find that your French
staff officers have returned the compliment. Unless I'm very much
mistaken, any one of them could tell you just as much about the country
in Alsace and Lorraine, and all through the Rhine Province, as the
Germans could of this section. It wasn't so in the last war. Then French
officers were losing their way in French territory. That was one reason
why the battle at the Speichern was lost--because French reinforcements
lost their way. But this time France got ready, too."
"Shall we still make for Le Cateau?"
"There's nothing else to do, until we find out that the staff has
changed its location."
Riding along in a light that made men out of the shadows of trees and
regiments of the shocked corn in the fields was eerie work. But neither
of them was afraid. They were fired by a purpose to serve the cause in
which they had enlisted. And they were thrilled, too, by the knowledge
of the German force upon which they had spied, themselves unseen.
And then all at once, out of a dark spot in the road, appeared a man,
holding a horse.
"Halt!" he cried, in a guttural voice.
They obeyed, perforce. And when they were close enough, they saw that he
was a German cavalryman, one of the dreaded Uhlans.