PRISONERS OF WAR
For five minutes the two scouts, appalled, horrified, stood as if glued
to the floor, staring at the scene of destruction. The guns in Fort
Boncelles had the range now. Nothing more than Paul's hurried message,
"Your shell landed beyond the guns," had been necessary. Now shell
after shell was dropped in the midst of the battery that had been wiped
out before it could fire even a single shot. There was a deadly,
terrifying accuracy about the whole proceeding. Miles away the Belgian
gunners, safe in their concrete and steel turrets, were producing this
waste and destruction--not by fighting, it seemed to Paul and Arthur,
but by a blackboard exercise. That was all it really was.
"You see, they know just where their gun is, and they can adjust it to
fire a certain distance. They can take a map, and fire a shell at any
given spot, just by mathematics. They know the angle they must use,
and they know just how far, and how fast that shell will go. It won't
always go quite true, of course; that was why the first shell didn't
strike just the right spot."
"But why is that, if everything is so exact? I shouldn't think they'd
ever make a miss."
"Oh, there are lots of reasons. For one, after a gun has been fired a
few times the inside is affected. The rifling is worn in places, and
that gives a slightly different spin to the shell. It doesn't take
much of a change in conditions to alter the course of a shell a good
deal. And the weather counts, too. Sometimes there is more air
resistance; on a day when it is damp and foggy, with low lying clouds,
for instance. So, though they have the range exactly, they may have to
alter what they call the formula a little."
"And they find out by shooting how nearly right they are?"
"Yes, that's just what they do. It's the only way they can do it, too.
That's why it's so important, when guns are being fired at targets
miles away, to have some one report the effect of the first shot or
two. In a regular battle, in open country, both armies will probably
use aeroplanes in this war. The man in the aeroplane can see just
where the shells strike, and send back word."
"How?"
"In lots of ways. Some of the bigger ones have a small wireless
equipment. Sometimes they drop bombs, that make a smoky patch in the
air when they explode--they drop them right over the place the
artillery wants to hit, and then the men with the guns get their
instruments and figure out just what the range is."
"I don't think the Germans are so very brave, after all," said Arthur,
in a moment. "They all ran as soon as the shells began to come."
"That doesn't show they're not brave--it only shows that their officers
have some common sense. What good could they do if they stayed there
to be killed? They couldn't save those guns, could they? I'm sorry
they couldn't have been warned, that's all. You see, they might have
thought the first shell was just a chance, lucky shot and so they
stayed after that, and tried to fire themselves. But when the second
one came plumping into them they knew the truth--and the officers sent
them to cover, just as any officers who knew their business would have
done."
"I suppose it's war," said Arthur, a little gloomily. "But--"
"It's war right enough," said Paul, with a shudder. "It's not like the
pictures we've seen of Waterloo, but it's war. But there'll be plenty
of the other sort, too, before it's over, Arthur. You needn't worry
about that. The Germans haven't had time to bring up very many men
yet, but I expect they will, and they may try to rush the forts. Did
you notice that they were stretching a lot of wire fencing near Fort
Boncelles when we passed it last night?"
"Yes. What was that for?"
"To stop an infantry charge, or to help to stop it. You see, an attack
by infantry is likely to be made at night, when it's harder to see the
men being massed. And the wire fence piles up a charge. Oh, I think
there'll be some pretty bad fighting of the old-fashioned sort before
they capture Liege!"
"I don't see how they can capture Liege at all," said Arthur, stoutly.
"The firing of the guns has almost stopped; it seems to me that they've
been beaten back."
"It seems so, but I'm afraid it isn't really true," said Paul, with a
smile. "The Germans haven't begun yet, Arthur. And there are millions
of them. They can put thousands of men in the field to our
hundreds--they will outnumber us ten to one, at least. Liege isn't
supposed to hold out against them very long. No one expects it to. If
it checks them, keeps them from spreading all over Belgium in their
first rush, it will have done its part fully."
"I'd like to see them beaten here, just the same," said Arthur,
stubbornly.
"I'm going down to report what happened," said Paul. "Keep watch,
Arthur, but I don't think we can do much more here. I believe that we
won't have to stay here very much longer."
Boncelles had ceased firing by this time, and the close, immediate din
was at an end for the time, at least. There was still heavy firing
from the northwest, which Paul guessed was from the guns of Fort
Pontisse, replying to an attack launched from Vise and Argenteau.
Major du Chaillu had said that the Germans would almost certainly try
to cross the Meuse at Vise, which was the best place they could choose
to launch the cavalry raid he said would be likely to form a part of
their strategy.
"We will have troops there," he said, "to try to hold them back,
supported by Fort Pontisse. But if they come in great force they can
probably break through there, for the place is not well suited to
defence."
Everywhere else in the circle that was closing about Liege the firing
seemed to have died away. And Paul was anxious to know how the opening
skirmish--as he correctly judged it to have been--had gone, as well as
to make his report of what he and Arthur had seen. Delaunay was
waiting at the Boncelles end of the wire.
"You are there at last!" he said, relief in his voice. "I was afraid
you and your brave friend had been hurt."
"No, we're all right. It's the Germans who were hurt! You smashed
that battery to pieces, lieutenant! They never got a single gun ready
to fire. Your second shell smashed the two that were in position, and
the shells after that simply swept the location of the battery. I
don't think the guns can be of much use--not for a long time, and until
they have been thoroughly repaired, at any rate. How has the fighting
gone elsewhere?"
"We are holding them along the Meuse, north of Pontisse. They attacked
with their infantry there, but we beat them back easily."
"That is good news! We are holding them all along the line, then?"
"Yes, for the present. But they have not brought up large forces yet.
When they do, it will soon be over unless we receive heavy
reenforcements. You two had better come in, if you can get away from
your position without being detected. There is no more for you to do
there. You have already accomplished far more than we hoped."
"We are to report to you at Fort Boncelles?"
"It makes no difference. No, I think you had better try to get into
Liege itself and find Major du Chaillu. Good luck!"
"Thank you, lieutenant, and the same to Fort Boncelles! We will try to
escape from here. I should think we ought to have no great trouble,
for the Germans will be busy at their battery again, as soon as they
find the shelling has ceased."
"Yes. We will give them another round or two at intervals during the
night, just to let them know that we still think of them."
When he had finished talking to the fort, Paul proceeded to hide the
telephone as well as he could. Sooner or later the Germans were
certain to come to the garage and it was desirable, for a good many
reasons, that they should find no evidences of the use to which it had
been put. For one thing, it was impossible to tell what was going to
happen. It might well turn out that further use could be made of the
telephone later. And when Paul had done, he felt that it was highly
improbable that the Germans could discover the installation. And then,
just as he finished, Arthur cried out in a voice sharp with alarm, and
Paul rushed up to join him.
The ground about the garage seemed suddenly to have sprouted soldiers.
There were men everywhere, hundreds of them, advancing in loose order.
For a moment Paul hung to the window, fascinated by the sight. Then he
caught himself.
"It's an attack on Boncelles!" he said. "I'm going to warn them if I
have time. I don't care what happens. Arthur, get away from here! If
they come in, pretend you can't speak at all."
And on the word he was off, rushing down again, tearing away the cover
he had provided for the telephone. He had to wait an agonizing two or
three minutes before there was any answer, and once more he was sure
that the wire must have been discovered and cut. But at last there was
an answering voice in his ear, and he gave his news.
"Infantry?" asked Delaunay. "They must be mad!"
"They are planning a surprise attack, I suppose," said Paul. "There
are a great many of them--and I am almost sure I saw some machine guns."
"If their battery hadn't been put out, I could understand," said
Delaunay. "They might have attacked under the cover of a heavy fire
from that. But to bring infantry against fortifications! It seems
like suicide."
"I must go now," said Paul. "They are all around us. I don't know how
soon they may come in. You will be ready for them?"
"Don't worry about that! We'll give them a hotter reception than they
expect!"
Paul smashed the telephone now. Perhaps the Germans, if they found it,
would think it had been useless from the beginning of the fighting.
And, just as he went upstairs, there was a crash at the door, and half
a dozen German soldiers, led by an officer, broke in. In a moment Paul
was seized; in another two men had gone upstairs, and returned, each
with a hand gripping one of Arthur's arms.
"What are you doing here?" asked the officer, in German. Paul
understood him very well, but thought it better to pretend ignorance.
He answered in French, saying he did not understand, and the German
officer repeated his question in French.
"We--we lived in the house that was burned,"' said Paul, pretending to
be greatly frightened. "We did not know where to go or what to do. So
we stayed here."
"How long have you been here?"
"Since last night."
"You heard the explosions just now?"
"Yes. I did not know what they were."
"Take them back," said the lieutenant to a corporal. "You are in
territory occupied by our forces where no civilians have any right to
be," he added, speaking to Paul. "Unless you can prove that you are
innocent, you will be tried and condemned as spies. Have you any arms
here?"
"No, sir," said Paul.
A quick search confirmed his statement. But though that seemed to
count in their favor, the order was not countermanded. In a few
moments they were on their way through the German lines, and in half an
hour they reached what was plainly the headquarters of a brigade at
least, perhaps of a whole division. There they were thrust into a
small hut that already contained three other prisoners, Belgian
peasants. Outside the door there was a guard. They were prisoners of
war and if the truth about their doings came out, they would almost
certainly be shot, despite their youth.