The Ace and the Spy
1
So slow was McGee's recovery that it was the middle of September before
he received his final discharge from the hospital and was given orders
to rejoin his old squadron, now operating in the St. Mihiel salient.
Three days prior to his release the American Army, operating on a purely
American front, had attacked the Germans in the St. Mihiel salient with
such determined vigor, and the entire preparation conducted with such
successful secrecy, as to take the Germans by complete surprise, overrun
all opposition and recover for France many miles of territory long held
by the invaders. Thousands of prisoners, and arms of all calibre, were
captured in the swift stroke, and all France was ringing with praise of
the endeavor.
News of the progress of the battle reached McGee just before his final
discharge. He entertained high hopes of rejoining the squadron in time
to participate in the feast of victory, but by the 15th, three days
after the battle was begun, the salient had been pinched out and the
battle won.
On the 16th, when McGee reached Ligny-en-Barrois, which had served as
General Pershing's field headquarters at the beginning of the operation,
he found that his squadron had been withdrawn from the sector and sent
somewhere else.
Where? No one seemed to know. Furthermore, no one seemed to care a great
deal. A pilot lost from his squadron, or a soldier lost from his
regiment, was no new thing in France. It happened daily. Men were
discharged from hospitals, ordered to a certain point to rejoin their
commands, only to discover on reaching there that the outfit had
seemingly vanished in thin air.
McGee spent a full day trying to find someone with the correct
information as to the location of the squadron.
At last an officer on the General Staff looked over McGee's papers and
gave him a transportation order to a little town west and south of
Verdun.
"Is my squadron there, sir?" McGee asked.
"They should be," the officer replied. "At least near there," and he
closed the conversation as though that were quite enough for any pilot
to know.
But when McGee reached the town, part of the journey being by rail and
part by motor lorries, he found himself as completely lost as possible.
Again no one seemed to know anything about the squadron. His search was
made doubly difficult by the fact that there was an unusual air of
activity; all the troops seemed to be on the move, and officers were far
too busy with their own cares to listen to the troubles of a lost
aviator.
That night McGee watched two or three regiments pass through the town,
fully equipped for battle. It came to him, suddenly, that all this
activity and night marching could mean only one thing--a new attack
along some new front. Encouraged by the success of St. Mihiel, the
Americans were going in again. But where? McGee put the question to a
dozen officers, and not one of them had the foggiest notion of where he
was going.
This served all the more to convince McGee that a new operation was
being secretly planned by Great Headquarters, and from the many
different divisional insignias which he had noticed, he felt convinced
that it would be a major offensive. Regiment after regiment of soldiers
marched through the little village; then came lumbering guns and
caissons clattering over the resounding cobblestones of the street.
Battery after battery passed by. They were followed by a long train of
motor transports; then came some hospital units with their motor
ambulances; then more infantrymen, singing and joking as they swung
along in the darkness.
Watching them, McGee was suddenly seized with an idea which no amount of
logical thinking could exclude from his mind. Where these troops were
going, there he would find action. Somewhere, between this point and
their final stopping place, the trenches, he would find some unit of the
air force. The army must have its eyes, and any member of any air unit
could tell him more than he could learn here.
The spirit of this new type of adventure moved him to action. He had
often wondered about the life of the doughboy. Now, for the night, he
would fall in and march along with them. It would be fun just to be
going along, answerable to no one and making his way forward on foot, by
hooked rides, or by whatever means that presented itself and seemed
attractive.
Slinging his musette bag over his shoulder, and buttoning up his flying
coat, he stepped into the street, followed along the dark buildings for
a few yards and then fell in alongside a long line of infantrymen.
A mile beyond the edge of the town he regretted his action. Rain began
to fall in torrents. Ponchos were quickly donned by the men and they
again took up the splashing, sloshing line of march, grumbling a little,
joking about "Sunny France," and complaining over the harsh order that
forbade smoking.
From that one thing McGee knew for a certainty that they were being sent
forward under orders of the utmost secrecy. Men on the line of march
under cover of darkness were never allowed to smoke. An enemy airman,
should he pass over, would see a long line of twinkling fireflies. From
that he would know there was some sort of movement, and this information
would be speedily carried to the German High Command. So, without
displaying any lights whatsoever, the men and motors moved ever forward
along the muddy road.
The rain ceased as suddenly as it had come. The night was warm, for
September, and grey fog wraiths began rising from the ground. The
sweating horses, straining at the big heavy guns at the side of the
road, were blanketed in steam.
The traffic on the pitch black road was becoming increasingly heavy, and
now and again halts were made until someone, far ahead, succeeded in
working out the snarl. Then the troops would move forward again.
McGee no longer had any doubts concerning what was in store for these
thousands upon thousands of men, but he was beginning to question the
wisdom of his own move. He made no attempt to engage anyone in
conversation, fearing that it would result in some officious commander
ordering him to the rear.
Far ahead, against the black night sky, flashes of gunfire showed now
and then, the following thunder establishing the fact that the front was
within three or four hours' marching time. The gunfire, however, was not
heavy, being merely the spasmodic firing incident to such nights as
communiques spoke of as "calm."
After another hour of marching, McGee noticed that they were on the edge
of a shattered village. Not one single wall stood intact. As he reached
the center of this stark skeleton of a once happy village he saw that
here the enemy had concentrated their fire. Here was a wall, standing
gaunt and grim against the night sky; and over there, facing a little
square, a shattered church still retained the strength to hold aloft its
cross-capped steeple. The Cross ... in a broken, blood-red world!
McGee slowed his pace, gradually, and dropped from the line of march. He
had considered himself fully recovered, but the last hour had sapped his
small reserve of strength. He seated himself on a pile of stone in the
dark corner of a protecting wall and wiped his brow. What with the long,
hot march, and the steam arising from the soaked earth, he was wringing
wet. The experience had served to increase his respect for these
plodding doughboys who considered this as only one more night like
dozens of others they had experienced.
Sitting there on the damp, cold stone, McGee considered his position.
This town, battered by shell fire, would be forward of any position
taken up by a pursuit group. To push on would be but to retrace his
steps. It would also be folly, for he had no gas mask. Shells had
reached this town before, and they might do so again. He was willing to
take a chance with flying shrapnel, but deadly gas was something else
again.
He decided, therefore, to make his way to the edge of the town, find
shelter if possible, and await the coming of dawn. Daylight, he
reasoned, would be certain to bring him in sight of planes from some
group, operating on this front, and if he could locate a 'drome his
problem would be near solution.
He made his way back along the lines of infantrymen, artillery,
ambulances and wagon trains until he reached an old stone stable that
had miraculously escaped destruction.
Having no light, he groped around in the black interior, seeking a place
where he might spread his coat for a bed. He stumbled against a ladder,
which mounted upward into the cavernous mow of a loft. He climbed the
creaking rungs, found footing on the dry floor, and stopped to sniff at
the odor of the few wisps of dry, musty hay scattered thinly over the
rough boards. He took a step forward, stumbled over a pair of legs and
landed headfirst on the stomach of another sleeper.
"Whoosh!" went the escaping breath of that truant soldier, followed by
an angry outpouring of abuse.
"Say, soldier! Get your foot out of my face! What do you think this
is--a football game?"
"Pipe down!" came a gruff voice from another corner. "Do you want some
smart Looie to come up here and chase us out?"
McGee smiled, wondering what would be their reaction should he announce
that "a Looie" was even now in their presence. Perhaps it was his duty,
as an officer, to rout them out and order them to rejoin their commands,
but he felt no responsibility for these men of the line, and if they
were as weary and sleepy as he--and doubtless they had more reason to
be--then he could hardly blame them for falling out. With the morning,
he knew, these army-wise soldiers would go down the road until they
found their outfits and there pour forth a plausible lie about becoming
lost in the tangle and how they had searched all night for their
company.
McGee knew little enough about the American infantrymen, but he did know
that "for tricks that are vain" Bret Harte's famous heathen Chinee had
nothing on the average soldier of the line, be he American, English,
French or a black man from Senegal.
Cautiously he felt out a clear space, spread his coat over the rough
timbers and was soon sound asleep.
2
While McGee slept soundly, blissfully removed from all scenes of
conflict and completely ignorant of his exact location, a midnight
conference of gravest nature was taking place in the little settlement
of Landres-et-St. Georges, far behind the German lines of defense.
Four thick-necked, grey-haired German officers were seated at a long
table in the front room of a chateau that had been in German hands for
more than three years. Candles flickered uncertainly on the table,
lighting the center of the large room but leaving the corners in dim
shadows.
The four officers sat stiffly erect, without comment, their eyes on the
double door as though they were awaiting someone. Outside, on the stone
flagging of a courtyard, sounded the heavy tread of a Prussian Guardsman
walking guard before the sanctum of these "Most High" ones who sat so
stolidly waiting.
The resounding footfalls of the guardsman came to a clicking halt,
followed by a guttural challenge which was replied to in a softer voice.
The guardsman again took up his beat.
A moment later the door to the council room opened. A smooth-faced,
blond young man stood at stiff salute in the doorway--dressed in the
uniform of an English officer!
For a long minute he stood at salute while the four at the table eyed
him studiously. Then the hand came down, and a quick smile spread over
his face as he stepped forward into the brighter light of the room. He
carried in his hand one of the swagger sticks so commonly used by
English officers.
"Well, _Herr Hauptmann_," he addressed the officer at the head of
the table, "do you find my disguise, and my English, sufficiently
correct?"
"Correct, yes," the heavy-jowled officer replied in German, "but not
pleasing, Count von Herzmann. _Himmel!_ How I hate the sight of the
Englander's uniform and the sound of his thin, squeaky tongue. And I say
to you again that this wild plan of yours is a fool's errand. I would
forbid it, had you not gained the consent of the General Staff. I do not
understand it. You are too valuable to the cause for the General Staff
to permit you to take such a chance. I say again, it is a fool's
errand."
Count von Herzmann smiled reassuringly. "Fool's errand, _Herr
Hauptmann?_" he responded in German. "Is there anything more precious
to our cause than to learn just now where this next blow is to be
struck? For the past ten days all of our secret operatives have sent us
conflicting reports. The English and the French are too quiet on their
fronts. It presages a storm. As for the Americans, we need not worry.
They are still boasting of their victory at St. Mihiel. They will not be
ready to strike again before late Fall--perhaps not until Spring. We
must--"
"Speak in English," interrupted one of the other officers. "Much as we
hate it, we must see to it that it is perfect."
"Right you are!" von Herzmann replied with the perfect accent of a
well-bred Englishman. "My three years' schooling in England was not for
nothing, sir. Accent top hole, eh, what! Rawther." He smiled at his own
mimicry. "I was saying," he went on, "that we must discover where the
English will strike next. Victory depends upon it."
"_Ja_, _das ist richtig_" spoke up the stolid
_Oberst-leutnant_, who had been listening without comment as his
grey eyes, deep set under stiff, bristling eyebrows, appraised the
confident von Herzmann. "_Ja_, we must learn where the swine strike
next. But must it be you to take the chance? You know the cost--should
you fail?"
"Quite well, sir," von Herzmann replied, smiling. "A little party in
front of a firing wall with myself as the center of attraction. Ah,
well! What matter. I have about played out my string of luck in the air.
Sooner or later, there must be an ending. I have a great fear that it
will be the luck of some cub, fresh at the front, to bring me down. Ha!
How he would swank around, boasting how he brought down the great von
Herzmann. Bah! Death, _Herr Hauptmann_, I do not fear in the least,
but I hate the thought of a cub boasting over my bones. Besides, there
are no new adventures left for me in the air. I am a little weary of it
all. But this--this is new adventure and--"
"And deadly dangerous," reminded the cadaverous, thin-faced officer at
the far end of the table.
"If not dangerous, it is not adventure, sir," von Herzmann replied. "Do
we not all enjoy the thing that presents some hazard? Youth lives it;
age thrills to the reports of it. If I fail, I fail. If I succeed, the
Fatherland is well served and I've another adventure in my kit. Perhaps
even another bit of iron to dangle on my coat, eh? Rawther jolly
prospect, what?" He again smiled at his own mimicry, as well he might,
for the accent was perfect. "But I won't fail, _Herr Hauptmann_."
He became serious as he drew some papers from the breast pocket of his
well tailored, though well worn, English uniform coat which bore the
marks of campaigning. "See," he said, tossing down a little black fold
which the English issued to officers for identification, "I am
Lieutenant Richard Larkin, R.F.C., known to his familiars as 'Buzz.'
The picture, you will notice, is my own, placed there after we had
carefully removed the one of the gentleman whose uniform and
identification card I am to make use of.
"This," he tossed another paper on the table, "is a pass to Paris,
properly indorsed, and giving authority for refueling and repairing, if
needed. Neat enough, eh? The date, unfortunately, was originally in
April, but our Intelligence section has some very clever penmen and you
will note that the date now appearing there is as of September the
twenty-sixth, and the period of the pass is for five days."
"The twenty-sixth!" exclaimed the _Oberst-leutnant_. "So soon! That
is the day after to-morrow."
"Yes. Our operative will cross the lines to-morrow evening, just before
sundown, in a two-seater Nieuport. He will land just back of Montfaucon,
and I will then re-cross the lines, will be set down back of Neuvilly
and will then begin the great adventure. I am to be back within five
days, or--" he shrugged his shoulder expressively.
One of the officers banged his fist on the table. "It is a fool's
errand, I repeat, a fool's errand! If this operative, with the
Americans, is back of Neuvilly, what is he doing there? Perhaps the
Americans are there in force, preparing to strike here."
"Impossible!" the senior officer snorted. "Attack the Hindenburg Line?
The Americans are stupid, but not so stupid as that. We know that a few
Americans are in the sector south of Vauquois Hill. They are relieving
the French there. And for what reason? So that the French may be moved
up in the Champagne, east of the Meuse. That is where the blow will be
struck. But, even so, I have not the faith in this Operative Number
Eighty-one which the High Command seems to place in him."
"He has brought us much information," one of the others reminded.
"Yes, erroneous and tardy information. Not one thing have we learned
from him but what was too late to be of value. And much of it
inaccurate."
"Not always," von Herzmann replied. "He brought correct and timely
information concerning the movement of that new American pursuit
squadron, you will recall. And but for the accursed luck that brought
those French Spads upon us at the wrong time, my Circus would have
potted half of them."
"Luck!" the senior officer retorted, heatedly. "You call it luck! It was
luck that we did not lose you and that you got your crippled plane back
across the line. But can you be sure that those Spads came upon the
scene, at the right moment, by chance?"
Count von Herzmann shook his head. "No, _Herr Hauptmann_, in this
war we can be sure of only one thing--death, if the war continues. It
must be brought to a speedy close. Daily, now, we lose ground. It is
because of this that I made the urgent request to be permitted to
undertake this mission. But," he smiled expansively, "be not too fearful
or alarmed. If I fail, if there be trickery in it, you shall have the
privilege of avenging me."
"How do you mean, avenge you?"
"_Herr Hauptmann_, war is a world-old game, with modern
applications. You have read, doubtless, how in the olden times hostages
were held?"
"Yes, but--"
"It is not always effective, but it furnishes the crumb of revenge and
retaliation. I am not without some fear for my safety, and because of
that I will provide a hostage."
"You talk in riddles."
"Perhaps, but I give you the answer. Operative Number Eighty-one will
come for me in a two-seater just at dark. But he will not be the one to
take me back."
"_Ach! Himmel!_"
"_Das ist ziemlich gescheit!_"
Count von Herzmann shrugged his shoulders at the exclamatory surprise
and compliment. "Clever? No. Merely an old custom borrowed from old
wars. Operative Number Eighty-one will be held at the headquarters at
Montfaucon--pending my return. If I do not return in five days, then he
too will hold the stage a brief minute before a firing wall. Then,
perhaps we will meet beyond the Great Line--where there are no wars or
rumors of wars. Is there anything else you have to take up with me now,
_Herr Hauptmann?_"
"Ach, yes! If you are successful, and return within your scheduled time,
how will this operative, held at Montfaucon, make a satisfactory
explanation to the Americans regarding his long absence?"
Count von Herzmann snapped his fingers. "Poof! That is secondary, and a
problem which I leave to the superior mind of _Herr Hauptmann_--and
the High Command."