Out of the darkness, right into his face, this scream came, ending in a
weak, despairing, but above all else heartrending, moan; then everything
grew still. Jeb could have neither moved nor uttered a cry; he had
recoiled in terror, crouching as a part of the fallen masonry that
littered the floor.
Almost at once quick steps resounded through the ruined streets,
scrambling over heaps of wreckage and coming nearer until they passed
with a kind of ruthless determination just outside the tottering wall.
In another moment they had turned an angle and the sentry, silhouetted
against the lighter sky, stood peering through the doorway. He barked
something in German that had an ominous sound, and the nearby voice
began an hysterical whimpering, interspersed with pleading in rapidly
spoken French which Jeb partially understood. At least, he realized a
girl was in this dark place with him, and that she was promising to make
no further outcry. Weak and thin her voice seemed, though rasping in a
kind of frenzy, as she attempted to excuse a former disobedience by
trying to explain how someone had come and frightened her. Luckily for
Jeb the man gruffly interrupted with another flow of German, or his fate
might then and there have been sealed.
"Please--please," the girl moaned, "oh, please don't come in! I won't
cry again!"
He hesitated, as if considering; then growled a threat and turned back.
Waiting until he had quite gone and the last sound of his boots upon the
rubble had died away, Jeb summoned his French and cautiously whispered:
"I'm your friend--don't make a noise!"
A slight movement in the corner first answered him, then a wee voice
asked:
"Is Monsieur English?"
"No, American."
The sound which followed this lingered in his ears long afterward. It
was scarcely a gasp, nor moan, nor groan, but an inarticulate animal
sound expressive of what the body feels when snatched in the nick of
time from destruction. A moment later she had crawled through the
darkness; her hands passed quickly over his sleeve, his shoulder, then
found his neck and clasped it passionately.
Drawing her gently to his lap he realized that she was merely a child
who had come to him--a skeleton child, of perhaps eight or nine years
old, seeming to be little more than bones dressed in scanty clothing.
Touching his lips to her cheeks he whispered encouragement, promising
prodigious things without regard to their possible accomplishment, until
her body ceased to quiver. Then she whispered tremulously:
"Are you the American who fed us?"
"No, little one, I haven't fed you." He, too, spoke in the merest
whisper.
"But yes, Monsieur, indeed you did! _Le bon cure_ said the American gave
us food for many, many months. Oh, I wish I had some now!"
"He meant the American Relief, little one. Haven't you any food now?"
"Not since two days, Monsieur. The Boche," he felt her quiver again as
she pronounced this name, "used to take our American food and give us
their own black kind; but the cure told us to submit gracefully, as
those who had tried to object were killed. But two days ago a German, a
Kommandantur, they called him, Monsieur, said that he felt so very, very
sorry for us he thought we had better starve; and since then we have had
nothing."
"Where is the cure now?" he asked, feeling himself grow hot with rage.
"Dead, Monsieur. They killed him for trying to defend his bell."
"Defend his bell?"
"Quite so, Monsieur." She snuggled into a more comfortable position, as
though the presence of this American removed all dangers; she found it
good, furthermore, to talk to someone, even in whispers, and amidst
ruins, and about the horrors buried there. "Before blowing up the Marie
they lowered the bell--for everything iron in the village they said must
be sent into Germany. But the cure loved his bell--so did we all,
Monsieur--and he threw his arms about it, pleading. But this made the
soldiers laugh very much." She waited an instant, as though listening,
then continued: "So they got a blanket, Monsieur, and tossed him into
the air, but always let him fall upon the stones. He was very old, was
_le bon cure_,--but so good! Then officers came up, and they carried
open bottles of wine, and around their necks were strung on cords many
women's finger rings and bracelets. My mother uttered a prayer, because
she thought they would help _le bon cure_, but when they were told he
had tried to protect his bell, they jumped over and over him, Monsieur,
pretending to prance like horses, and kept sticking him with their spurs
until his poor face was cut and swollen. We cried out for shame, but he
held up the Crucifix toward us and gently shook his head--so we turned
away weeping. But they let us bury him, Monsieur," she added, tenderly.
"Where are your parents?" Jeb asked, shuddering not alone at the tale of
barbarity, but because this young child had become so inured to these
sights that she could passively recite them.
"Dead, Monsieur," she answered, in a tone that might itself have been
dead. "Quite dead," she added, dispiritedly. "My father was summoned
with many others to Avricourt. When they came back the Germans marched
him past our house tied to the tail of one of their horses, but would
not let us speak to him; yet he turned his face so we could see a blue
cross marked upon his cheek, and then my mother fainted--she was not
well, Monsieur. That night they shot him."
Her poor little body was beginning to shake, but he drew her closer with
soothing words, while his heart was wrung by pity. For the moment he
forgot what had been uppermost in his mind: to discover through her if
this place lay within the German lines and how far were the Allies. She
took courage from his endearments and continued, although in the same
lifeless whisper:
"The next day they marched my mother and other women away, Monsieur. I
ran after her but was thrust back; yet she called telling me to hide the
children in the cellar."
"Then your mother may not be dead," he suggested hopefully.
"But yes, Monsieur. I watched them for a great way along the
road--there are no trees now, and I could see. Several times she fell;
the last time a soldier raised his gun twice, and twice brought it down.
Oh, I wanted to help her then, but they laughed and held me!"
Jeb was growing beside himself at these unheard-of barbarities, but he
managed to ask gently:
"Why are you not in the cellar now?--listen!"
The sound of iron striking stone again reached him. She understood, and
answered quietly:
"It is where they dig, Monsieur. They have been doing it since sundown;
and it was their coming and going through the cellars that made me bring
the children here, in fear of them."
"But where are the children?" he asked, for no sound had come from the
corner she had left.
"There are three, Monsieur, in the dark behind me. Two live, but they do
not know me any more. They are so young," she said apologetically, "that
the things they have seen quite put out their minds--but they obey me,
very nicely."
"Merciful God," he gasped.
"The other," her voice resumed its tone of dull despair, "was killed but
a little while ago by the man who looked in. Monsieur, we were very
hungry and frightened, and she was crying; but I tried--oh, how I
tried--to comfort her! Then in anger he came, and--and stuck her with
the long knife on his gun. Oh, Monsieur," she whispered, clinging to him
in a new terror, "I was glad for the darkness!"
A sob, arising from the very depths of Jeb's soul, burst from his lips.
Scalding tears of rage and anguish streamed down his cheeks; and these
must have touched her upturned face, for she raised a thin hand and
patted him, whispering:
"You are very kind, Monsieur, to weep for her."
"My poor little child," he moaned, "my poor little child! Oh, what a
plight they've left you in!--with only the dead, and worse than dead!"
The moon had cleared by now, bathing the ruined hamlet with a silvery
sheen, although the place which sheltered them remained in darkness.
But through a rift in the broken wall stole one narrow beam of light,
and he moved slightly to let this fall upon her face--then just in time
caught himself, else he would have given a cry of pain and fury.
Her eyes, horrified and shadowed by the cruelties she had witnessed,
were turned to him; great, dark, hollow eyes which seemed to be looking
directly through him to some confusion of thoughts beyond. Her face was
pinched and blue with lack of nourishment, the skin stretched tightly
over cheek bones which seemed about to push through; her lips were
wax-like, dry and cracked, and her ears were almost transparent. But
even more appalling than any of these was the utter despair, the absence
of hope or desire of life, that had changed the bloom of youth to the
decay of age. She might have been the wan ghost of a shrivelled old
woman lying in his arms, instead of young flesh and blood!
This martyred child, who should be sleeping happily amidst dreams of
dolls and play--what was the ghastly thing into which she had been
made? The father, who with horse and plowshare should be summoned by the
morning cock to yielding fields--where was that servant of the vineyard?
The mother, who should be planning for the harvest which her capable
hands would convert into winter comforts--what of her? A wee tot, whose
sobbing should have been stilled by tender arms--did she understand the
caress of steel? And the other two, whose minds had been snapped by
horrors and privations--did their locked-in souls realize these things
to be the result of military necessity?--or a nation's degeneracy!
Yet what could he expect from a people whose idol in philosophy, their
pampered Nietschke, teaches and writes: "Morality is a symptom of
decadence! There is no right other than that of theft, usurpation and
violence!" It is in his book for all to read! What hope of an army, or
hope of mercy from it, whose Kaiser confesses himself to be a liar or a
lunatic by proclaiming: "The spirit of God has descended upon Me because
I am the German Emperor! I am the instrument of the Most High. I am His
sword, His representative on earth. Woe and death to those who oppose
My will! Death to the infidel who denies My mission! Let all the enemies
of the German nation perish. God demands their destruction--God, who by
My mouth summons you to carry out His decrees!"[3]
[Footnote 3: From the Kaiser's proclamation to his army, Sept. 13,
1914.]
As Jeb recalled these utterances, their blasphemy made him cringe. He
wrapped the little broken body tighter in his arms. Was she, then, what
she was by a loving God's decree? He kissed her hair and groaned in
righteous anger. Did that Outcast Emperor dare call himself the
representative of God on earth, and thereupon urge his menials to do
evil for the sake of evil, destroy for destruction's sake, pillage for
the bestial love of it, outrage the life, honor and liberty of the
helpless, leaving a wide trail that everywhere led to the most loathsome
crimes?--did "the spirit of God descend upon" this vampire, and call him
"chosen"?
Jeb found himself trembling in every muscle as a deep rage at these
blasphemies spread throughout his frame. As tropic storms strike
languid forests, swaying, threshing, rending trees this way and that, so
a mighty rush of fury swept him. Slowly at first, then faster, the
almost forgotten taper flame of manliness that flickered on the altar of
his inmost being leaped higher, until it blazed as a consuming fire. The
eyes of his soul were open; the strength of his soul grasped the sword
of Humanity to strike for this child, and the thousands like her, whose
injury was irreparable, who had been blasted, damned, by the ego-mania
of accursed hypocrites!
"Oh, little one," he whispered to her fiercely, "if all the boys back
home could see the things you've shown me, they'd break their necks
getting over here to smash that upstart German power!"
For a moment he bowed his head, as though in prayer. The far-off
rumbling of cannon, sublimely rising from the distant horizon, might
have been a deep-toned organ sending its hymn of victory through the
vaulted space; and, while he listened, the little hand was raised again
to touch his cheek, as the weak voice murmured:
"Monsieur, I feel better since you came."
"I must get you away," he kissed her quickly. "Now listen well, and
answer well, for everything depends on what you know!"
The indomitable spirit of France which kept these people alive through
hardships and outrages that will never be written, bounded through her
veins and warmed them. He felt her body snuggle more confidingly, as if
to assure him that he would not be disappointed in her share of this new
partnership.
After careful questioning he learned enough to open his eyes. The French
lines had indeed passed northward, leaving this ruined hamlet in its
wake. But for several months prior to yesterday's engagement the Germans
had been working on gigantic subterranean operations, beginning at the
levels of the cellar floors and penetrating downward until the entire
village sub-area had been converted into a kind of catacomb. Here a
great number of machine-guns were stored with quantities of ammunition,
and a garrison put in charge which numbered upwards of two thousand men.
A machine-gun regiment, he mentally noted. These had fought when the
French came but, instead of retreating, ducked into the sub-cellars and
closed the openings which had been artfully contrived to escape notice.
When the French passed, thinking the enemy had been driven before them,
the Boche quietly emerged after nightfall and slipped away in several
directions, taking many guns and spades and boxes of ammunition.
Jeb felt that he now understood the mystery of that digging party back
on the plain, as also the nearer sounds. They were units of this
garrison--and there must be many others like them scattered
about--fortifying for a particular counter attack tomorrow when, with a
line of machine-gun sections operating in the Allied rear, defeat might
be turned to victory. It was an audacious scheme, thus to burrow while a
victorious army passed over them, and then come up out of the ground and
strike again!
"How far is it to the place they're digging here?" he asked.
"Just there, beyond this wall--but a little ways," she pointed in the
direction from which the sentry had come.
"How many are there?"
"I could not say, Monsieur; but few, assuredly, as I saw quite as many
as I thought were in the ground, and more, slip away after dark with the
guns and spades and boxes."
"Then wait very quietly till I come back," he lifted her from his lap,
but she clung desperately and would have cried had he not promised to
return safely.
She let him go then and he crawled away, passing just outside the door
to see if the street were clear. Skirting the torn walls and keeping in
the heavier shadows, creeping over piles of rubble as silently as a rat,
he came at last to a point which overlooked the hole where men toiled,
wearily, though in desperate haste. The sentry paced back and forth
within a hundred feet of him, sometimes speaking in monosyllables to his
comrades below.
At highest tension Jeb waited, until he felt not only sure of their
strength but reasonably certain that no others remained in the lower
strata of catacombs; because they rested at frequent intervals, implying
a state of exhaustion, and this, in turn, indicated an absence of relief
shifts. Fifteen men in all were there, besides the sentry. On the street
level their rifles had been stacked. The hole--a machine-gun
redoubt--in which they dug was about five feet deep; the sides were
steep; the only weapons near at hand were picks and spades.
Tingling with excitement, he stole carefully back to the ruined door and
entered, bringing with him a stout club picked from the debris. The
girl's arms flew about him at once, and the wan voice whispered
tremulously:
"Oh, Monsieur, if you had not come!"
"But I did come," he took her again upon his lap, seeming in a much
better humor than when he had gone out. "We're about to get away, little
one; are you big enough to do just what I say?"
There was a look of reproach in her eyes which he could not, of course,
have seen, but he felt her arms tighten.
"Everything," she whispered. "Can Monsieur carry the little sisters?"
"Monsieur can, but he isn't going to," he muttered fiercely. "They'll
have two-legged horses to ride, and so will you. Now, I'm going over by
the door, and when I get there I want you to give a loud cry."
"Oh, Monsieur," she trembled, "he will come and--and----"
"I want him to come, but he won't do any more than that. We're going to
take those men and punish them for a lot of things they've done."
"Capture them, Monsieur?--by Monsieur's own self?"
"By Monsieur's own self," he gave her a squeeze, then sat her back upon
the ground. "Now, when I get close to the door, cry!--then you may close
your eyes until I say look; but don't cry again, whatever happens."
Picking up the club he took a position in the deepest shadow and waited.
Spartan little soldier that she was, she now sent a wail into the night
that would have brought a dozen sentries; then, as before, everything
was silent. Also, as before, hurried, angry steps soon were heard; yet
this time, as the sentry passed close outside the rear wall, he talked.
Jeb at first thought that it might be the mumbling of an enraged man,
but he took a tighter grip upon his club when another voice laughed a
reply.
The two Germans turned the angle of the side wall, stumbling over loose
stones and uttering words that scarcely needed translation. A patch of
moonlight fell athwart the sill, and Jeb watched this, knowing it would
tell better than his ears when the crucial time had come. The men were
just outside now, and the breathing of one became audible--a workman,
doubtless, following to see what would happen. Then a shadow fell across
the spot of light, and slowly a bayonet glided within two feet of Jeb's
face--the bayonet that might yet be warm from having dried a child's
tears! After it came the sentry, stooping as he entered, while his
companion, who chortled with a kind of insane glee, pressed closely at
his heels.
Jeb had been standing in deep shadow to one side, with the club drawn
back. He waited until both men were well within the door, then made a
vicious swing, and then another; there were two sharp cracks of wood on
bone, and the two who had come to kill lay dead.
"It's all right," he whispered through the darkness. "Bring the
children, quick!"
"Thank God, Monsieur," her voice reached him.
Kneeling, he stripped the sentry of ammunition, examined the rifle until
he had mastered its mechanism, and saw that it was loaded and ready.
When the children reached him--the two smaller ones staring vacantly
ahead as if walking in their sleep--he whispered:
"Now, do just as I say: follow closely, keep in the shadows and make no
noise. When I put back my hand, stop and wait; when I call, come at
once. Is that clear, little one?"
"But, oh, Monsieur," she panted, "should we not run now?"
"We couldn't make it, for one thing," he answered slowly, "and, besides,
I--I don't think I'll ever run again, little one," he stooped and kissed
her--although she did not understand. "Ready? Come along!"