THE FIELD HOSPITAL.
"We are friends, three American boys only!"
Very often Rob had practiced his French so as to get this explanation
correct. If his accent happened to be altogether wrong, what he said
could be understood, and that was the main thing.
Apparently, what he had called out must have surprised the Belgian
officer in charge of the detachment, for he could be heard exchanging
comments with someone else. Then he spoke aloud again.
"Advance, and hold up your hands above your heads!" he ordered.
Rob understood the words, but of course his chums could not; so the
first thing he did was to elevate both hands as high as he could, and
say to them:
"Do the same as I am, both of you. The officer has ordered it. And then
come on over to where they are waiting for us!"
In this manner they drew near the spot where the others stood. Everyone
was staring very hard, for to see three boys dressed in khaki, and
talking unmistakable English among themselves, was indeed a considerable
surprise.
The one who held the lantern proved to be a lieutenant. He was a man of
middle age, and as the newcomers drew near he held up his light in order
the better to examine their make-up. What he saw must have created a
good impression, for the frown began to leave his face.
"It is fortunate that I speak English," he started in to say, greatly to
the delight as well as the surprise of Rob, "so you shall tell me how it
comes we find you here on this particular night, and so close to a spot
where a suspicious transaction was going on which we had the pleasure of
nipping in the bud."
Apparently the lieutenant was not wholly satisfied. He could not tell
but that these smart looking boys might have some connection with the
game he and his detachment had blocked in the capture of the two spies.
So Rob hastened to explain as briefly as he could.
"We have come to Belgium on some very important business that has
nothing whatever to do with the war. There is a man we must see, and it
happens that he was last reported in a town near Brussels. We know what
great risks we run in trying to pass between the lines of the hostile
armies; but we hope to keep out of the hands of the Germans; and as for
the Belgians, we are carrying with us a letter that has up to now always
passed us."
This was the signal for Merritt to produce the passport written for them
by the obliging burgomaster of Antwerp. The lieutenant received the
paper gravely. He was evidently puzzled to know how much of Rob's
strange story to believe; for it seemed remarkable that three boys
should take such a dangerous mission upon their shoulders.
When he had read the short recommendation through, and saw the signature
at the bottom, the officer uttered an exclamation of satisfaction.
"You could not have chosen a better sponsor than the worthy burgomaster
of Antwerp," he said warmly. "I have met him more than once, and he is
held in high respect throughout the land, as is Burgomaster Max of
Brussels. Let me return your paper safely. It is worth keeping."
"And you will allow us to go on when we choose, then?" asked Merritt
eagerly.
"There is no occasion for your detention," he was informed, "but if I
sought your best welfare I should order that you turn back, and give up
this foolish mission, for there is hardly one chance in ten that you can
escape capture at the hands of the enemy, since they are everywhere. But
you know best, and I shall not interfere. It must be a serious motive
that brings you into this wretched country?"
"It means a great lot to my family that I find this man, Steven
Meredith," Merritt told him, possibly with a faint hope that the
lieutenant might recognize the name, and admit that he knew the person.
Rob had noticed several things. For one, that the taller prisoner was
certainly badly wounded, since he stood on one leg, and had his teeth
tightly clinched as if to keep from betraying any weakness that might be
deemed unmanly.
One of the Belgians also carried a bandage, roughly fastened, possibly
by a clumsy comrade, around his arm. It showed traces of blood, and Rob
could guess that a speeding bullet fired by the spies at bay probably
had caused the wound.
"I notice that a couple of men here have been wounded," he ventured to
say to the lieutenant, "and, as you must know, Boy Scouts are taught
something of field surgery. Would you mind if I and my friend here
looked at them? We might stop the flow of blood, anyway, and perhaps
make the men a bit easier."
The Belgian officer hesitated for a brief time. He looked at Rob, and
seemed to be considering. Then he nodded his head.
"As we have to stay here until my superior officer and a larger
detachment come along in answer to the signals we are about to make, it
could do no harm. Yes, I have heard that Boy Scouts are supposed to know
something of surgery, although I myself have never seen them practice
it. You may proceed. Albert!"
He beckoned to the private who had his arm bound up. The man upon being
told to show his injury hardly knew what was about to happen. He could
not believe that mere boys would know what a surgeon was supposed to do.
That man evidently had the surprise of his life when Rob, assisted by
Merritt, washed the wound by the aid of some water obtained from a
canteen, and then neatly bound the arm up, using some strips from a
little roll of linen which Rob took from his pocket.
The officer watched the whole operation with considerable interest.
"That was neatly done," he commented, after the man had stepped back to
where a comrade was holding his gun for him. "As you expressed a wish to
attend to the prisoner, I give you full permission to do so. Though,
after all, it will make but little difference with him, since his doom
is sealed."
The tall German said never a word, but allowed the boys to do as they
willed with him. He realized the desperate condition in which his
boldness had placed him and was evidently determined, if convicted of
being a spy, to die game.
His injury turned out to be much more serious than that of the Belgian
soldier, for the bullet had made a bad puncture, and he had already lost
much blood.
Tubby turned his head away at first, as though he could not bear to see
the wound, but evidently realizing that a display of such timidity was
hardly in keeping with what they wished these men to believe of Boy
Scouts, he finally forced himself to offer to assist his chums in their
gruesome work.
It took all of ten minutes to wash and dress that wound with the few
things at their command the best they were able to. During all that time
the spy did not say a word, nor did he groan even when Rob knew he must
be hurting him more or less, although that could not be avoided.
And the officer had commenced to ask questions. It seemed to surprise
him that even in far-away America there, too, the boys had organized
themselves into patrols and learned all these valuable lessons
calculated to make them better citizens when they came to take their
places in business, on the firing line, or among the professions.
"Then the scouts over in your country are also taught to be ready for
any emergency, the same as the boys are in Belgium?" he asked Rob, as he
watched the latter's nimble fingers, with considerable dexterity into
the bargain, draw the bandage tightly into place.
"Oh! yes," replied the boy, only too pleased to say a good word for the
thousands upon thousands of comrades in khaki whom he represented. "You
see, most of us camp out a good deal, and all sorts of accidents happen.
I've known a boy to cut himself so badly with an ax when he was chopping
wood that he would have bled to death long before they could get him to
a doctor, but it was easy for his mates to stop the flow of blood, and
do the right thing."
"It is grand, this teaching boys to be able to save human life,"
declared the middle-aged officer, who perhaps had sons of his own in the
army, "and yet it never came to me before that even in America they were
practicing these noble avocations. I have seen them in England, yes, in
France also, but in America--it is superb to think of it. And there are
other ways in which boys in camp could be injured, you are telling me?"
He had become so deeply interested that Rob only too willingly proceeded
to explain at greater length.
"Why, sometimes a boy is taken with a cramp when in swimming, and of
course he is saved by those who know just how to get him without being
pulled down themselves."
"And," continued the Belgian lieutenant, "if the poor fellow should be
nearly gone, what then? I myself once had a narrow escape that way, and
to this day it gives me a cold feeling every time I remember it."
"Oh! every scout, even when he's a tenderfoot, is supposed to learn how
to resuscitate a comrade who has swallowed lots of water, and come near
drowning. Unless he was pulled out too late, he will be brought back
every time. Then there are the bites from poisonous snakes and insects
that may happen; we are taught how best to counteract the effect of
poison, so as to save the victim."
"I am delighted to know all this," the officer told them. "It has been
quite a pleasure to have met you, although under peculiar conditions, I
admit. And the more I see of you, young messieurs, the more I am
convinced that you can look out for yourselves. At first I considered it
was a shame that three tender boys were allowed to travel over this
dangerous country. I no longer feel that way. If anybody should know how
to take care of themselves, I surely believe you know, and are equal to
do it. I am proud to shake hands with you, and wish you all a successful
journey."
Which operation he proceeded to immediately put into execution; though
Tubby, having had one previous experience with a hearty Belgian
hand-grip, was mighty careful just how he allowed the other to take hold
of his plump digits.
Rob was quite satisfied now that they had done the right thing in coming
forward and joining the party. At least it had been the means of easing
the pain of those who were wounded, and stopping the flow of blood
sensibly.
The German had actually broken his silence to thank the boys when they
finished their work. It was evident, however, that he was not caring
very much what happened to him, since he knew the probable penalty for
allowing himself to be captured in the act of delivering important plans
of fortifications--death.
None of the boys so much as mentioned the fact that they believed the
Taube machine might have been injured, and even fallen a short distance
away. If the Belgians did not see fit to investigate conditions, it was
no part of the scouts' business to put them on the track. The dashing
aviator deserved to get away, Rob thought, and it would hardly be fair
for outsiders, who had really no interest in the matter, to betray him
to his enemies.
So they left the soldiers still waiting for their comrades to come along
with a superior officer in charge. The lieutenant had taken quite a
sudden fancy for Rob and his two chums; but then that was not strange,
Tubby told himself, since the patrol leader always had a knack of making
friends wherever he went.
They soon arrived at the stone wall, and to Tubby's satisfaction found a
break where they could actually pass to the road without once more
climbing the barrier.
The last they saw of the field was when the lighted lantern was being
waved in a way that looked as though the lieutenant might be signaling
to others. In the opposite quarter only darkness was to be seen. Rob
wondered what had become of the operator of the Taube aeroplane; whether
he had indeed come crashing to the earth, or managed to sail away to
safety. But they were never fated to know.