ON GERMAN SOIL
The boys sprang excitedly to their feet.
“Bart!” exclaimed Billy huskily.
“What makes you think that?” asked Tom.
“Of course, it’s just a guess,” explained Frank, “and I may be all
wrong. But it seems to me it’s a reasonable guess. From what Dick says,
the man seems to be out of his head. No sane man would go through all
those drill motions all by himself. And you know that Bart was always a
crank on the manual of arms. There wasn’t a quicker or smarter man at
drill in the whole Thirty-seventh. We know that poor Bart was out of
his head when he escaped from the hospital. What more natural than that
his twisted ideas should go back to the very thing that he used to be
most interested in?”
“By Jove, I shouldn’t wonder if you might be right!” cried Billy.
“Then, too, what Dick said about his being ragged would chime in with
that,” exclaimed Tom. “If he were just an ordinary straggler trying to
catch up with the regiment, he’d be dressed all right anyway. You know
how strict the officers are that the men should look smart. But poor
Bart only had on his night clothes when he got away from the hospital,
and he’s probably picked up pieces of clothing here and there as he had
a chance. Say, fellows, can’t we get the officers to let us go back and
look into the matter?”
“We’ll try,” said Frank, “but I’m afraid they’d think it was a wild
goose chase. But at any rate, Dick is freer than we are and I’m sure
he’ll do the best he can for us. Won’t you, Dick?”
“You bet I will,” replied Dick warmly. “Poor Bart was a prince, and
there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him or for you. The more I think
of it, the more I’m inclined to think that Frank may be right. There
isn’t a free minute when I won’t be looking for the poor fellow.”
“Even if it shouldn’t be Bart, he ought to be taken care of,” said
Frank. “Just wait a minute, Dick, until I see the captain and try to
get permission to go back with a squad and hunt him up.”
He was off like a shot, but returned in a few minutes disappointed
and chagrined. The captain had listened with sympathy, but the chance
seemed to him too remote to depart from the strict orders he had
received to keep all the regiment together on this momentous march. He
promised, however, to notify the rear guard to keep their eyes open,
and if they caught sight of the straggler, if he were such, to gather
him in. And with this promise Frank had to be content.
Dick left them with a repeated promise to do all he could, and the
march was resumed with the Army Boys in a high state of excitement. In
their hearts they knew that it was only a chance and that they might be
doomed to bitter disappointment. But as Frank had said, it was at least
a reasonable guess, and their hearts swelled with delight at the mere
possibility of having dear old Bart back with them again. Even if his
mind were wandering, they felt sure that with the care he would receive
he would soon be himself again.
The absence of their comrade had been the one bitter drop in their
cup of happiness over the beating of the Hun. Half the delight in
the victory would be gone unless their loved comrade could share the
triumph with them.
They could talk of little else all the rest of that day, and many a
glance was directed at the fleet of aeroplanes flying overhead. One
of these, they knew, was Dick’s, and they were sure that that trusty
friend was “on the job.”
All that day they kept passing huge piles of war material that had been
left behind by the Germans under the terms of armistice. There were
guns by the hundred, heavy and light. Most of them were camouflaged
with all the colors of the rainbow. This had been unnecessary while
the Germans were fighting in entrenched positions, but when the rapid
advance of the Allies had forced the Germans to put up their guns
hastily in the best positions they could find they had painted them in
order to dazzle and bewilder the eyes of their enemies.
“All that good paint wasted,” chuckled Billy, as he looked at the grim
monsters, silent now, that a little while before had been belching out
their messengers of death.
There were airplanes too, scores of them, some of them the famous
“flying tanks,” so called because they had a metal armor about them
to ward off enemy bullets. The Army Boys looked at them with great
curiosity and would have liked to stop to examine them at leisure, but
had to keep on in the steadily marching ranks.
They could look across into Germany now, where on the other side of the
river, the German forces were withdrawing. It was a strange sensation
to see a German and not snatch up a gun to hurry his movements.
While they were pitching camp that night, Billy suddenly nudged Frank,
as a man passed them in earnest conversation with one of the officers.
“Look at that fellow,” he murmured.
Frank looked at the man indicated.
“Why it’s the man we saw hanging around Mrs. Edsall’s house!” he
remarked with interest. “I wonder what he’s doing here?”
“Seems to have the run of the camp all right,” observed Tom with a
scowl.
“Well, I guess that shows he’s all right,” returned Frank. “You’ve got
no cause to kick, Tom, nor Billy either. You know now that he isn’t
hanging around the girls.”
“No, but it looks as though he were going along with the army to
Coblenz,” said Billy uneasily.
“And the girls are going to be there soon, eh?” teased Frank. “Gee, but
I’m glad that I’m not in love.”
“Who said we were?” demanded Tom.
“Oh, nobody,” laughed Frank. “I’ve got a pretty good pair of eyes in my
head, though.”
No news came from Dick that night, although the boys were looking for
him to turn up at any moment. Either he had seen nothing of their
missing comrade, or his duties had prevented him from joining them.
“Never mind,” Frank consoled his comrades, when they were forced to
turn in. “Tomorrow’s a new day. My hunch is growing stronger that I was
right about poor Bart.”
The next day was the one fixed for the Army to enter Germany. At last
they were reaching the goal that they had aimed at ever since they had
come to France. The arrogant country that had sought to enslave Europe
was to feel the foot of the victor on her own soil, that she had so
haughtily declared to be “sacred.”
They reached the bridge that had been designated for the crossing. Then
with bands crashing out their martial music and the Stars and Stripes
floating proudly overhead, the American Army swung across the bridge
and entered as conquerors on German soil.