FOR HUMANITY'S SAKE.
"I think we're coming to Sempst," said Rob.
It was nearly half an hour after Merritt had so firmly announced his
intention of staying in the game, no matter if he should meet with a
bitter disappointment in the town, which had been the loadstone for
their advance through the heart of war-stricken Belgium.
"Then Brussels can't be very far away, over there," said Tubby. "Gee! I
only wish we could find some scarecrows about now, and get a change of
clothes."
"What makes you say that?" asked Rob. "I thought you were so proud of
your suit of khaki that nothing could tempt you to give it up."
"Oh! I didn't mean I'd really want to discard this bully suit," Tubby
hastened to explain. "Only if we could manage to conceal the scout
uniform under something more common, why, you see the Germans might
take us for Belgian boys, and in that case wouldn't molest us."
"I understand what he's getting at, Rob," Merritt chuckled, "Tubby has
said a number of times that the one thing he was sorry about was that we
couldn't have a run through Brussels. Seems like he got a great notion
he wanted to visit there, as he'd read a lot about the wonderful city.
But you'll have to let that longing sleep until the next time you come
abroad, Tubby."
"Unless we happen to find we've got business in Brussels," observed the
other cunningly. "Then mebbe we might decide we'd find a way to go in.
'Course I mean if they told us here in Sempst that Mr. Steven Meredith,
who seems to be a pretty smart secret agent of the German Government,
had changed his residence to Brussels, so as to be in touch with army
headquarters and the General Staff. How about that, Merritt?"
"We won't cross rivers before we come to them," Rob hastened to remark,
not wishing the other to fully commit himself to any course. "After
coming so far with the intention to find our man here in this little
town, it seems silly to get cold feet when we're right on the spot, and
before we know anything that's against our having the best of success."
"Oh! you're right, Rob," agreed Tubby. "You remember the old motto we
used to write in our copybooks at school long ago--'sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof.' Guess that's from the Good Book, too; but it
applies to our case, all the same. We'll wait till we see what is going
to happen here in Sempst. Anyway, they haven't burned this little place
down, because I don't see anything that looks like ruins."
Indeed, it seemed as though the peasants living close to Brussels had
been induced by the Germans to continue their regular field work, under
promise of purchasing for fair prices all the green stuff they could
fetch into the capital. They, mostly women, old decrepit men, and
children, for even the smallest could be given some task that would help
out, were working in the fields.
"I wonder if any of them could understand my French," Rob was saying.
"Of course it wouldn't be likely they could talk English. I've got a
good notion to try it on the first one we meet on the road ahead."
"Do it, Rob," urged Tubby. "Merritt and I will stand by to catch him if
he starts to faint."
"Oh! I hope my French isn't quite that bad," exclaimed Rob. "I've been
polishing it up considerable, you know, while on the steamer, and after
we landed in Belgium; and, with what I know, and by pointing and
shrugging my shoulders, I generally manage to make people understand. Of
course, I don't know how it would be with a clodhopper who didn't happen
to be as intelligent as I'd want. But here's a chance, and I'm going to
make the attempt."
"It won't kill, even if it doesn't cure," said Merritt; "and, Rob, if
you can get him to understand what you're saying, be sure and ask if
that chemical factory, where we understood Steven had been given his
responsible berth, has shut down, or if it is still in operation."
"I'll do that, Merritt," the other promised.
Accordingly, when the peasant, smoking his big pipe, came along in his
wooden shoes, Rob stopped him. He wanted to impress the fellow
favorably, so as to increase the prospect for a favorable answer; and so
Rob made sure to have one of his famous smiles on his bright face when
he began to air his French.
The other boys stood there watching the "circus," as Tubby called it.
They saw, however, that Rob, many times at a loss for words in order to
express his meaning, must have managed to make the peasant understand
him.
Again and again each of them pointed toward the town so near at hand.
Possibly Rob may have been explaining just who he and his chums were,
and also how they had come all the way from Antwerp with the one hope of
finding a certain person in this little suburb.
"He's picking up some kind of news, seems like," Merritt told Tubby, as
the dialogue progressed under so many difficulties, expressive movements
of the shoulders, and waving hands taking the place of words that
failed.
"What makes you think so?" demanded the fat scout.
"Look at Rob's face, and you can tell that he's feeling more or less
satisfied with the way things are going on," replied Merritt.
"Gosh! that's so," muttered Tubby. "Seems you're getting a move on, too,
with observing things. I'll have to hurry and do something myself, if I
don't want to find that I'm no first-class scout, after all, but only a
dub."
Finally Rob was seen to press a coin in the calloused palm of the
peasant, who took off his cap and bowed several times, as though
grateful, and then he continued on his way along the road.
"What luck?" asked Tubby immediately; while Merritt, more deeply
interested than any of them, silently waited to listen.
"Oh! he gave me quite some information," replied Rob; "and, so far as I
can see, it looks good for us. I didn't learn anything about Steven
Meredith, because the farm laborer probably never heard of such a
person; but he did tell me that the chemical works have been kept going
full blast ever since the Germans occupied Brussels."
"That must be because certain things are made there that they can use in
their war game, eh, Rob?" Merritt conjectured, and the other nodded.
"No question about it," he said, "though the peasant couldn't say why
certain things were done, only that they did happen. But, if the factory
is running wide open, there seems to be a chance that we may find Steven
still on deck, and keeping his finger on the pulse."
"I'm only afraid that if he really is what we think, a secret agent of
the government," Merritt suggested uneasily, "that he may have been
transferred to some other point where his smartness would be apt to
count, perhaps away down in France, so that he could send up valuable
information about the making of artillery, or how the conscription of
the Nineteen-Fifteen boy recruits is coming on."
"Still, to find the works open, and doing business right along, looks
like a piece of good luck to me," said Tubby.
"It is," added Rob positively. "We agreed long ago that we'd consider it
such, if we learned there had been no shutdown. We hoped it would be
that way, for we already knew that German capital had been back of the
chemical works. I wouldn't be much surprised if it was learned that
somewhere about the place, unknown to most people, these clever Germans
had long ago built a heavy concrete floor, to be used in their business;
but which would make the best kind of foundation for one of those big
siege guns they used to knock down the Liege and Namur forts."
When Rob said this he did not dream how closely he was hitting the
truth. It had not been discovered at that time how secret preparations
along such lines had been made by the Germans, year after year, in close
proximity to many of the leading cities in Belgium, France, and even
over in England.
"Well, now for moving on, and entering the town," Merritt remarked, with
a look on his face that told how he was summoning all his resolution so
as not to appear too heartbroken should they meet with bitter
disappointment.
"I hope we don't run across any German soldiers here," said Tubby.
"We want to keep on the constant watch for them," Rob gave warning. "If
they saw us, they might think it their duty to have us arrested at
once, and detained until our story could be investigated."
"And that would spell ruin for all our plans, wouldn't it?" Merritt
asked, not as cheerfully as he might, because he had been fearful all
along that something like this might come to pass just when he had
discovered the object of his long search, and before he could proceed to
relieve Steven Meredith of the old case in which he carried those
splendid field-glasses.
They were now among the outer houses of the town. So far as they could
see, Sempst did not differ to any degree from various other Belgian
towns they had seen. It consisted of numerous small houses, a few more
pretentious dwellings, possibly of Brussels business men, and some
factories.
From only one of these stacks was smoke seen coming, and, having picked
up a pointer, it was easy for the scouts to decide that this must be the
German-owned chemical works with which Steven Meredith had been
connected, between his foreign trips.
When thus entering the town that was so close to Brussels, where the
Germans were in full charge, it was the policy of the three scouts to
draw as little attention to themselves as possible. While thus far they
had not chanced to notice any German soldiers, still there was always a
possibility that some of them were around.
Besides, Rob figured that if a German-owned chemical factory had been in
operation here for years, very naturally there would be many natives of
the Rhine country employed there, and living in the town. If the German
government were really back of this Belgian works, as seemed possible,
they would want to have mostly reliable men on guard, who, in case of
sudden emergency, could throw off their workmen's garb and show
themselves in their true colors, as regularly enlisted soldiers, serving
their superiors while plying their regular trade.
When, therefore, the boys heard loud outcries, after entering the town,
and made the distressing discovery that there was a runaway approaching
them, the first thought Rob had was that they must keep out of the way,
and not interfere, lest by so doing they attract attention toward
themselves.
With this discreet plan of action rapidly forming in his mind, Rob was
even in the act of hastily drawing both his chums back behind a wall
until all the excitement had subsided, when he made a discovery that
brought his scheme to a halt.
It was, after all, only a pony that had been seized with an attack of
blind staggers, and was now dashing frantically away, with a little
basket-cart dragging back and forth at his heels; but in that cart Rob
saw was a frightened child.
In that moment, Rob struggled with a grave question. To show themselves
before a crowd such as would likely gather, was full of danger, not only
to themselves, but for their mission as well. At the same time there was
a something within his soul that refused to avoid the responsibility by
shutting his eyes.
He could not do it. He knew that child was in deadly peril, for, small
as the pony might be, just then he was acting like a little demon. If
he allowed the runaway to go by, and something dreadful happened, how
could he ever reconcile his action with his vows as a true-blue scout?
So Rob's mind was made up.
"Merritt, we must save that poor little child, come what will!" he
exclaimed; and that loyal comrade, forgetting all else for humanity's
sake, instantly cried:
"We will, Rob! Hurry and get on one side, while I look out for the
other!"