A FRIEND IN NEED.
Many thoughts ran through Chester's head as he stood there for a brief
moment with the hand of the man who had accosted him on his shoulder. He
thought of flight and he thought of fight, but most of all he thought of
the ill fortune he had encountered in the past few days.
"This is the limit," he told himself ruefully. Aloud he said: "You are
mistaken, sir."
"No, I'm not mistaken," returned the officer, "and I suppose most would
take you at your word. You speak German without an accent, but your face
betrays you. At a guess, I would say you are English."
"You are wrong," declared Chester.
"Nevertheless, I shall have to ask you to accompany me," said the
officer.
For a moment Chester hesitated; he was tempted to leap upon his captor
and make a fight for it, but he had hesitated too long now. The officer
produced a revolver, which he held carelessly in his right hand.
"I have a little persuader here, in case you should think of disobeying
my order," he said quietly.
"Oh, all right," said Chester. "I'll go along."
"I thought you would," replied his captor, with a smile.
He motioned for Chester to walk on ahead of him, which the boy did, the
while grumbling to himself.
"I should have run when I saw him coming," he muttered.
There was little doubt in Chester's mind now that he was due for his trip
to Vienna with the ambassador. After that, in view of his attempt to
escape, he wasn't sure what might happen, for he believed the ambassador
would recall his offer of a safe conduct after this.
"Yes, it looks like Vienna to me," he told himself.
And so it probably would have been but for one thing--or rather, for one
person; and Chester had no more idea of seeing him than he had of
encountering Hal at the next cross street.
As the two walked along, Chester slightly in front, his captor following
him closely with drawn revolver, a figure left the shadow of a nearby
building, and with a whistle of amazement, crept silently in their wake.
"Well! Well!" muttered this figure to himself. "What do you think of
that? I can't stand for this. I'm liable to get killed or hurt, but I've
just got to take a hand."
As Chester and his captor turned into another street and disappeared
from sight, the man broke into a run, stepping lightly on his toes. When
he rounded the corner he was only a few feet behind the other two.
Silently as a cat, he closed up the distance, drawing a weapon from his
pocket as he ran.
He took the revolver by the barrel, and with a sudden leap, sprang
upon the officer who had captured Chester. A quick blow and the
officer staggered. He seemed about to cry out, but even as he opened
his mouth, the newcomer repeated the blow and the man fell to the
sidewalk without a word.
"It's all right, Chester," said the newcomer.
Chester, who had stood as if petrified during the struggle--he was so
surprised at this sudden and unexpected aid--uttered an exclamation
of surprise.
"Who are you?" he asked, in vain trying to pierce the darkness
with his eyes.
The stranger chuckled.
"You don't know, eh?" he asked.
Again Chester peered at him intently. It was so dark he could not make
out the man's features, but there was something very familiar about the
short, rotund figure that stood before him.
"By Jove!" cried the lad at last. "It is--it can't be--yes, it must be--"
"Anthony Stubbs, war correspondent of the New York _Gazette_, sir, and
very much at your service," came the now well-known voice.
Chester sprang forward and seized the extended hand.
"And what in the name of all that's wonderful are you doing here?" he
asked in amazement.
"Getting some red-hot news for the New York _Gazette_," was Stubbs'
laconic response. "You are liable to find me most any place. As I told
you before, there is no place a newspaper man cannot go. Now, what's all
this mess I find you in?"
Chester explained and Stubbs listened attentively.
"Hm-m-m," he said, when the lad had concluded, "I guess the best thing
for you to do is to hop back into Italy as fast as the law allows."
"My idea," said Chester dryly. "The trouble is it's a pretty long hop,
and in the next place the Austrian law doesn't allow it."
"That's so," agreed Stubbs. "However, you just leave these little things
to Anthony. He'll get you through or the New York _Gazette_ will lose its
best man."
"Well, I hope the _Gazette_ doesn't lose him," said Chester; "but I would
like to get back into civilization."
"Civilization?" echoed the little man. "And what do you call this? Let
one of these uniformed gentleman on this side of the border hear you say
that and you won't ever get any place except under the sod. This, take
the Austrian word for it, is the last word in civilization. Therefore,
what you mean is that you want to get out of civilization."
"Whichever way suits you," agreed Chester.
"All right. Then you come with me. It's time to be moving, anyhow. This
fellow is getting about ready to get up and there is no use of our being
here to greet him when he opens his eyes. Let's go."
He led the way back toward the heart of the city and Chester followed,
though not without a protest.
"What's the use of going back there?" he wanted to know. "That's the
place I have been trying to get away from."
"Now listen here, young man," said Stubbs, "you didn't have much luck
getting away by yourself, did you?"
"No," replied Chester, "but--"
"And you won't have any better now, if you don't do as I say," declared
Stubbs. "But I'll tell you. I am leaving here myself in the morning. I am
going to Italy. I've dug up all the stuff I can get around here and now
I'm going to have a look at the Italian army in action. If you wish, you
can come along."
"Of course I'll come," said Chester. "That is, if they will let me."
"Oh, they'll let you, all right," replied Stubbs. "Say, I guess you
don't know who I am! I'll tell you: I'm the war correspondent of the New
York _Gazette_, and these fellows over here are glad to show me what
favors they can. It doesn't do them any harm, and it might do them some
good. See?"
"I see," agreed Chester briefly.
"All right, then. I'll take you to my lodgings and you can spend the
night there with me. We'll leave early in the morning."
Chester followed the little man, though not without some misgivings.
Apparently Stubbs had not spoken without reason. Along the way they
passed several officers, each of whom, after recognizing the war
correspondent, gave him a formal military salute.
"You see," said Stubbs, "I am some pumpkins around these parts."
"So I see," replied Chester.
"Here is where we put up," said Stubbs presently, turning into a large
and well-lighted hotel. "Put your best foot foremost now, and walk in
like you owned the place. Can you swagger a bit?"
"Well, some," said Chester hesitatingly.
"So can I," said Stubbs, "which is the reason I get along so well.
Follow me."
His usual manner--the one to which Chester had become accustomed when he
had been with the little man in the French theater of war, left him as he
entered the door, and he swaggered in like a true bravo. Chester threw
out his shoulders and did likewise.
Straight up to the desk walked Stubbs, where a clerk came courteously
forward to see what was desired.
"My friend here," said Stubbs, with a wave of his hand, "will share my
room to-night. Have us called at six o'clock and send a man to help me
with my things at that hour. Understand?"
"Yes, Herr Stubbs," replied the clerk, rubbing his hands together, though
why Chester did not know. "It shall be done."
"All right," said Stubbs. "My key!"
The clerk hastened to get it.
"Now that's the way to get by in this benighted land," said Stubbs to
Chester as they made their way to the little man's room. "Make 'em think
you own the place. It never hurts anything."
"So I see," said Chester dryly. "Now, about the morning. How do we get
out of this country?"
"Simple," said Stubbs. "We take an automobile from here to a little
town called Gorz, to the north. And then we circle around the little
neck of Italy to Trent, again in Austria. Of course there are quicker
ways out, but I have made these arrangements already and it would look
suspicious to change now. Until we get to Trent there will be no
trouble. There we shall have to do a little figuring, but the best way
is this: I have a safe conduct, given me by the Austrian commander
here. It will pass me into Italy. What I shall do is give it to you and
you can cross the border."
"But you--" began Chester.
"I'm coming to that. They will stop me, of course. Then I'll raise a
holler. I'll demand that they wire the commander here and give a
description of me, saying I have lost my papers. They will identify me,
all right, because there are no more like me. A second safe conduct will
come along and I'll move into Italy. Simple little thing, isn't it?"
"Quite simple--if it works," said Chester.
"Oh, it'll work all right!"
"I hope so," declared Chester.
"It's got to work," replied Stubbs. "I can't afford to have it fail. My
paper will be expecting something out of Italy from me within a few days
and I've got to be there to give it to them. Otherwise, I'm liable to be
dismissed."
"I guess that won't happen," said Chester, with a smile.
"Not if I can help it," agreed Stubbs. "Now let's climb between
the sheets."