FALLING WALLS
For a moment Jimmy's companions did not quite understand him. Was he
perpetrating some grim joke, or had he received an injury on the head
that made him irresponsible?
Suddenly the concussion of a heavy gun shook the mill, making the old
walls rattle and sending up little clouds of grain dust from nooks and
crannies where it had gathered for many peaceful years.
"The Germans have surrounded us?" cried Roger. "Do you mean that?"
"Look for yourself," said Jimmy, and his very calmness as he pointed
from the window seemed to indicate that he was master of himself.
His four companions looked as he indicated. Rolling down from the
hills, which surrounded the little valley in which the mill was
located, were ranks of gray-clad men; Huns beyond a doubt. And they
were coming in force.
"Do you suppose they are after us?" asked Bob, and he was quite
surprised when his four chums burst into laughter. No, I am wrong.
Only three of them laughed--Roger, Jimmy and Franz. Iggy looked on
almost as uncomprehendingly as did Bob, but Iggy was staring at a dead
German on the floor of the mill--a German he had killed by a bayonet
thrust from behind, when that same German was about to fire his
revolver, pointblank, at Roger. Iggy was filled with many emotions as
he looked at his work--work undertaken and carried out for Liberty.
"What's the matter?" asked Bob, a bit nettled. "Doesn't it look as
though they were after us?"
"I don't know why I laughed," confessed Jimmy. "Sort of nervous, I
guess. But the idea of a German army, or at least several divisions,
coming to capture us five struck me as funny."
"Well, you said we were being surrounded!" protested Bob.
"Well, I meant it, too. But in a general way," went on Jimmy. "I don't
suppose the Huns know we are here. Of course they may realize it after
they find out we've silenced the machine guns. But for the present
this seems to be a big advance. I guess there's going to be some
fierce fighting. They've brought up some of their reserves to stop our
progress, and by the fortunes of war, we're caught in a back current."
"You mean none of our fellows are here?" asked Roger.
"None that you can see," went on Jimmy. "I guess we sort of over-ran
our objective. There must have been a withdrawal and we didn't know
it.
"We were too intent on capturing this mill. And we did, though it
wasn't easy. And now the Germans are coming on, and--well, if we can
stay here long enough, and keep hidden, we may get out of it yet.
But--"
He shrugged his shoulders. It was too much of a question for him to
solve.
"But I don't see that we are completely surrounded," declared Franz,
hopefully, as he gazed from the window.
"Sure not!" broke in Iggy, who now began to comprehend, in a measure,
what was in the wind. "We may out run by der back door yet."
"Not a chance," declared Jimmy. "Look over there!"
He pointed in the direction where their own lines were supposed to be
located--where they probably were, for it was from there that the lads
had come in the rush during the gas attack. But now the way over
which they had hastened, amid fire and smoke and death and wounds, was
occupied by a line of gray. The Germans had slipped down from the left
flank and had cut off the retreat of the five Brothers in the mill.
And as the advancing army was coming on in the shape of a huge
semi-circle toward the mill it can easily be seen that if the boys
were not exactly surrounded it was so near that perilous situation as
to be what is called a distinction without a difference.
For a moment, after they had comprehended the situation to which Jimmy
had called their attention, they were all silent. Then Iggy caused
another laugh by remarking.
"Well, I eat me now. I haf some of my rations and I hear where is
water running yet. Always in our countries where is a mill is water.
Of a dryness I am, and water is good for of a dryness."
"That's the truest thing you've said in a long while!" cried Jimmy,
clapping his chum on the back. "Fellows, we'd better eat and drink
while we can. We have our emergency rations, and, as Iggy says, there
must be water where there's a mill. It isn't a wind one and there's no
steam or electricity here yet. Let's get ready for a siege."
"Do you really think they know we're here?" asked Bob, and he pointed
out toward the advancing German army.
"To be perfectly frank, I don't," said Jimmy. "I think the situation
is just this--but let's go get washed up a bit, and then we can eat
and talk. I'm as dry as a bone, and this--well this place isn't just
the most inviting," and he could not repress a shudder as he looked
at the death and devastation all about them. The bodies of the killed
Germans were sprawled in all positions, some even resting on the guns.
Then, too, there were bodies of the companions of the five Brothers.
As Jimmy said, it was no place to eat and talk.
They found where the mill stream came down the flume to turn the
wheel, and there they washed and drank, and then, finding a room where
the miller had evidently lived, they sat down to make what meal they
could. And as they ate the Germans advanced down the hills to occupy
the valley in which was located the old red mill.
"Now let's hear your opinion, Blazes," called Bob.
They all seemed instinctively to turn to Jimmy as a leader now. Nor
was this the first time.
"Well, I think we've seen the last of some Germans and the first of
others," he began.
"Sounds like a puzzle," commented Bob.
"It may turn out to be before we get through with it," was Jimmy's
grim reply. "But here's the situation as I see it. You know we
started, some days ago, to drive back the Huns. To a certain extent
we succeeded. Then came a lull, and that ended when they launched an
attack to-day--an attack with the gas as a preface.
"We did our best then, and I guess we must have rolled back part of
a wing of one of the German divisions. But our particular sector was
halted, and we seem to have gone on too far, or else the others got
orders to retreat, and we didn't, and here we are.
"Now I think the two German machine-gun crews that were in this mill
were probably what was left of the force our boys succeeded in wiping
out. They had orders to stay as long as possible to delay our advance,
and they stayed--got to give 'em that credit.
"But we just had to wipe 'em out, and we did. That's to our credit.
This seems to be the last of some not very large German force that
started the game this morning. And now comes a much larger force," and
he indicated the Hun hordes rolling down the slopes. "It was probably
the knowledge of the advance of this big body of troops that caused
the retreat, or halt, of our main force. We're probably waiting for
reserves, or we may be playing a deeper game--to get the Huns in this
valley and clean 'em up.
"That, of course, is up to the General Staff. But that doesn't change
our position. We're here, but I don't believe those Huns know it. The
army, or division, or whatever it is, that's coming on now may not
even know that this mill, for a time, was held by some of their
own men. Though, of course, later, when orders and instructions are
interchanged, this fact will come out.
"But before then I hope we'll either be out of here, or in a position
to give a better account of ourselves," went on Jimmy, who was sitting
on a box, munching part of his rations, and drinking from an old tin
cup he had found.
"What's that mean?" asked Franz.
"Well, either we can escape, or our boys will drive these Huns back,
and in that case we'll be all right. I admit it's going to be a
ticklish proposition to escape from here though," and Jimmy went to an
upper window and took another observation.
"Are they closing in?" asked Bob.
"They seem to have halted," replied Jimmy. "At least the center has.
The two wings are coming on like a pair of pliers getting ready to nip
us between the jaws."
"Ach! Den will dey squeeze us?" asked Iggy.
"If they know we are here I suppose they'll try it," declared Jimmy.
"But maybe we can inflict a few bites before they crush us! Fellows,
we'd better look to the defense. How much ammunition have we?"
"Mighty little!" declared Roger, gloomily. "I fired about all I had
coming on in the rush."
"Same here," admitted Bob.
"Maybe a machine-gun yet we could shoot," suggested Iggy. "One only
was bust by your grenade, Jimmy. Maybe one iss--"
"By Jove! He's right!" cried Jimmy. "I never thought of that. If worst
comes to worst we may, for a short time, turn the German's own gun on
'em. Come on and we'll take a look."
To the delight of the Khaki Boys the second machine-gun was in good
order, and there was considerable ammunition left.
"But can we work it?" asked Bob.
"Let me take a look," suggested Franz. "I saw something of 'em when
they had me a prisoner."
"Something good may come of that, after all," cried Jimmy. "Here you
go, Schnitz, take a look."
This Franz did, and presently reported that there was no reason why
they should not work the German gun. Accordingly it was freed from the
dead Huns about it, and the ammunition was overhauled. There was also
some ammunition for the German rifles that had fallen from the
dead hands of their owners, and this, together with the guns, was
collected.
In addition to this the lads had a few rounds left for their own
rifles, though, as Roger had said there was very little available.
They had fired fast and fiercely in the rush on the old mill.
"Let's look around and see if the Huns had any food they didn't
gobble," suggested Roger. "That ration of mine was only a sample."
A look from the mill windows showed that the advancing German army had
no present intentions, as far as could be judged, of attacking the red
mill. They did not seem to be paying any attention to it.
So far there had been a total absence of either artillery or rifle
fire. The advance had been made silently and comparatively quietly.
On either side of the mill, in the far distance, and to the rear,
however, were dull rumblings and booms that told of war's activities.
Greatly to their relief, the lads found quite a store of food the
Germans had put away, evidently in preparation for a long stay in
the mill. It was not food of the best quality, but it was better than
nothing, they all agreed. And there was water in plenty.
"If they come at us we'll fight as long as we can," decided Jimmy,
which was the sentiment of all, "and we'll live to the best of our
ability meanwhile."
"But they don't seem to be going to attack," ventured Roger. "They
look to me as though they were settling down for a long stay. I can't
see 'em digging trenches yet, but maybe there are some already dug."
While getting the food and ammunition in readiness, and dragging back
the dead bodies out of the way, the boys occasionally looked from the
mill windows. As Roger had said, the army appeared to have come to a
halt, both the center and the wings.
The Khaki Boys had just finished binding up their minor hurts, and
were talking of their chances for escape, when there suddenly sounded
outside a whine, a scream and a mingled roar.
The next instant there was an explosion that threw them all flat from
the force of the concussion, and a terrific noise deafened them. They
seemed to be at the ending of the career of this part of the old earth
as they saw the whole front wall of the red mill collapse, falling as
though sliced off by a gigantic cleaver.