TURNED BACK.
"Bully," Giraffe was heard to mutter half under his breath, at this
sudden change in front on the part of the stern Uhlan officer, evidently
a soldier of more or less reputation.
Even Bumpus wanted to be able to say he had grasped the fist of a German
cavalry officer raiding through Belgium, for he crowded forward, and was
the last to be greeted in that friendly way.
"Let me give you back this slip of paper, boy," said the commander to
Thad. "You should be very proud of having saved the life of that brave
man, for he is called the foremost aviator in our entire corps. If our
commander, the Kaiser, ever learns of what you have done be assured that
he will send you a personal letter of thanks."
All this was very pleasant for the boys to hear. Bumpus was evidently
still hugging a faint hope to his faithful heart that they might be
allowed to pass on. He even managed to find his voice, and put his
anticipation into words.
"And could we be allowed to keep on to Antwerp, sir?" he asked.
At that the officer frowned again. He seemed to consider for a moment,
then shook his head slowly in the negative.
"You must turn back, and proceed to the Dutch border," he told them. "It
would be much better for you to try and reach Antwerp by way of
Rotterdam and the sea. There nothing will delay you, while on land a
thousand obstacles may arise to prevent the accomplishment of your
plans. Besides, you must give us your word of honor as scouts that you
will not come back this way again."
Thad felt as though a great load had been taken from his chest. Now that
they were to be forced to promise Bumpus could not complain; and they
would be able to try the other plan. He was sorry now he had not
insisted on doing that at the time they trod Dutch soil; before now they
would have reached Rotterdam, and might even be sailing for the Schelde.
"We are ready to make you that promise, sir," he told the commander of
the Uhlans, "in fact, we should have decided on that course long ago. It
would have saved us a heap of trouble. Once across the border and on
Dutch soil we should not have crossed back again."
"I differ with you there, boy," said the other, smiling again; "for had
you done so the German flying corps would perhaps have lost its most
brilliant and daring exponent. Turn your car, therefore, and you can
proceed ahead of us. First of all let me mark out the course I wish you
to take."
With that he drew out a map of Belgium and Holland. Thad was interested
when he saw what a marvel of ingenuity that map was. It had evidently
been carefully prepared for the army to be used in case of just such an
invasion. Possibly there were other charts covering Great Britain,
France, Russia, Italy, Switzerland and Denmark.
Thad saw that it was very minute. Not a railroad, station, crossing,
canal, road, town, village, bridge, ford, fort or anything else of
consequence but that it was plainly marked there. And the officer had
other maps too, for Thad glimpsed them when he was selecting this one.
He traced the route back to the Dutch border, and Thad, taking out his
own apology for a chart, made marks to indicate the course he was to
take. Then after considerable work he managed to get the car turned,
some of the troopers being ordered to dismount and lend a helping hand.
After that they started, and before they had gone far the clatter of
horses' hoofs from the rear announced that the entire squadron of
troopers must be coming after them.
"Gee! but I'm glad they're not meaning us any harm," remarked Giraffe,
as he took one of his usual backward peeps by simply twisting that long
neck of his around; "because they'd be able to overtake us in a jiffy,
even if their nags are tired. It's a heap nicer to have these
hard-riding Uhlans for friends than enemies. And I also hope we don't
run afoul of that armored motor-car we saw, with those reckless Belgians
in the same. I do believe they'd charge the whole Uhlan squadron."
Thad himself echoed that wish. He had seen sights during that terrible
battle for the possession of the disputed bridge that would never fade
from his memory; and he did not want to look on anything further that
had to do with bloodshed and misery, under the thin veneering of glory.
"We're coming to the side road he wants us to take, and which will lead
to the Dutch border," Thad announced after a time.
A few minutes later and the car turned to the left, after which Thad
shut down. Standing up they watched the troop gallop past, and
fortunately the dust was blowing toward the opposite quarter so their
view was not hindered. The scouts had taken off their hats, and every
time they saw any one in that long column give them a salute they
answered in kind as they had been taught by the rules of the
organization to which they belonged.
Finally the last Uhlan had ridden past, and only a slowly settling cloud
of dust told where they had gone.
"We'll always remember this last incident as one of the pleasant
episodes of our dash through Belgium," remarked Thad, as they settled
down again in their places for another start.
"One thing sure, Thad," observed Giraffe, "that commander must have
placed a lot of confidence in your simple word, because he wouldn't know
now whether we meant to keep on into Holland, or try again to push on
after he'd forbidden it."
"I guess he knows whatever a scout says he'll do he tries to perform,"
ventured Bumpus, proudly.
"Seven miles isn't far, and with any sort of luck we ought to be over
the line by noon," remarked Allan.
"What's the plan of campaign, then, Thad?" inquired Bumpus.
"We'll try for a station on a railway," he was told. "Over in Holland
they're not so apt to be given over wholly to the military forces, so we
stand a chance to get passage to Rotterdam. The very first time our car
goes back on us with the railroad close by it's good-bye to this
machine."
"I really don't think any of us will mourn much for the dinky trap,"
Giraffe argued; "but then I suppose after a time when things get mellow
in our minds well all take a lot of satisfaction in talking about this
trip, and the old car will come in for its share of attention. Time
heals many faults, you know."
Now that the change in plans had really come about, they could feel a
sort of satisfaction in reflecting that they had kept on to the very
last. In fact, they had refused to give up until actually in the hands
of the Uhlans, and compelled to promise on their honor as scouts that
they would do as ordered.
"Oh! did you see that?" exclaimed Bumpus, starting them all to staring
around in various directions; and then he condescended to go on, thus
centering their attention to the one point--"it was ahead of us I saw
it, boys."
"Saw what, a boa constrictor from the menagerie?" demanded Giraffe, with
the suspicion of a sneer in his voice.
"It was a _man_," said Bumpus, severely, "if you want to know, and he
dodged into the bushes there as quick as a flash when we came around the
bend."
"Oh! he did, eh?" continued Giraffe; "and now mebbe you could tell us
what sort of a man it was, Bumpus, white or black, tall or short,
soldier or just a plain ordinary citizen. Speak up, Bumpus, we're
waiting."
"He looked to me about like our friend the Kaiser!" said the fat scout,
with a trace of a smile on his rosy face; "and there's where he dodged
into the brush, too!"
Thad stopped the car.
"Nothing more likely than that it was the very man," he remarked. "I
should think he might have gotten this far along the way to the Dutch
border by now," and then raising his voice the patrol leader called:
"Hello! Kaiser, don't you want to buy a dog? Show yourself, Bob; you
ought to know your friends!"
At that a lanky figure bobbed up and there was an inarticulate cry,
after which the circus fugitive hurried to join them.
"Why, this _is_ a surprise, I must say, and a pleasant one in the
bargain," he declared, fairly bubbling over with delight as he shook
first Thad's hand and then that of each scout in rotation; "I never
dreamed I'd see you boys again on this side of the water. What made you
change your minds?"
"A stout officer in the uniform of a Uhlan colonel," laughed Thad. "The
fact is we ran smack into a squadron of Uhlans, and they made us promise
to cross over to Holland; so, as scouts always keep their solemn word
we're bound that way right now. And there's room enough for you to crowd
in, if you think we can make faster time than afoot."
The tattooed man did not wait for a second invitation, and easily
squeezed in with the two boys in the rear. There was not much room to
spare, owing to the fact of Bumpus being so very corpulent; but then
Kaiser was as thin as he was long, so that he occupied very little
space. Giraffe said he "wedged" himself in, which was about the truth.
He was greatly interested in hearing of the adventure that had befallen
Thad and his three chums since they separated from him that morning. For
the first time he learned how they had saved that German Taube man from
the treetop, afterwards binding up his wound.
"It does beat all creation," declared the circus fugitive, "how you boys
manage to go around doing good to others. I owe you a big debt just as
that aviator does, and I warrant you there are many others, only you're
too modest to mention the fact."
"Oh! that's all in the game!" said Giraffe, making out to look upon such
things with a feeling bordering on contempt, although being human he
must have liked to hear his praises sung.
"To tell the truth," ventured Thad, "we are the ones who feel under
obligations, because we get much more benefit out of these happenings
than the other fellow. Everybody does who believes in the old saying
that it's more blessed to give than to receive. Besides, we are only
obeying the rules of the organization that we're proud to say we belong
to."
As they went on their way the man who had traveled to the uttermost
corners of the world entertained them with still further stories
connected with his strange experiences. Thus they hardly noticed the
lapse of time, and when Thad told them they had passed the seventh mile
the eagle eye of Giraffe began to get busy with the task of locating the
guard station that would mark the border line.
A short time afterwards he pointed it out to them, and they discovered
one of the same white posts that had marked the division of territory at
the time they were chased by the German cavalrymen, and found refuge
over the line with the soldiers of Queen Wilhelmina.
Of course they were stopped, but at this early stage in the war the
Dutch guard along the border had no orders to keep any one out of
Holland. Questions were put to them by an officer who was summoned by
the privates. These of course Thad could answer truthfully, and besides,
the manly bearing of the lads must have had an influence in determining
the officer to admit the party.
He did look rather doubtfully at the circus freak, but having been told
just who Kaiser was, and seen something of his wonderful adornment, he
did not think himself justified in turning him back.
So it came the four scouts left Belgium territory again. They had been
through some pretty warm experiences since first striking the soil of
the buffer state, many of which would never be forgotten.
Somehow all of them seemed to breathe easily after they had started
along the road that would take them to the nearest railroad town. Thad
knew it had all been a mistake, their trying to break past the
struggling armed hosts, and that they would have shown wisdom had they
come this way in the beginning.
At the same time he did not feel very sorry. They had been given a
wonderful experience, and would certainly never forget some of the
things that had happened to them. Particularly would they have reason to
remember that terrible battle for the bridge head, when the German hosts
fought their way through a storm of shot, only to see the bridge blown
up with dynamite before they could secure it.