CAUGHT IN A STORM
"Take a good look at that flag, boys," said the corporal, with a
smile, "for it may be some time before you see it again."
"What do you mean?" asked Frank in surprise.
Corporal Wilson smiled at the perplexed and somewhat rueful faces
of the four Army Boys.
"Just what I said," he replied to Frank's query. "You fellows are
slated to go over the mountain with a bunch of others to round up
some of the guns and supplies that the Heinies have promised to
surrender. They're slow about it, and have been making all kinds
of excuses to keep from bringing them in. The general's patience
is just about exhausted, and he's going to get those guns or know
the reason why."
"Where is the place?" asked Frank.
"I don't know exactly," answered Wilson. "From the lieutenant who
told me to get the boys together for the job I only gathered that
it's a good way off. He told me to pick out men that I could rely
on, and I thought of you at once. There'll be about fifty of you
altogether. You want to get ready to start in about two hours."
He passed on to recruit the rest of the detachment, and the boys
looked at each other. Frank was thoughtful, Bart indifferent, but
Tom and Billy glum.
"Hard luck," growled Tom.
"You said a mouthful!" snorted Billy.
"Look at those boobs," mocked Bart. "I'll bet a dollar to a
doughnut that they were planning to go over to see Alice and Helen
this afternoon."
"'Gee whiz, I'm glad I'm free,
No wedding bells for me."
sang Frank.
"Oh, come off!" retorted Tom. "You're simply jealous."
"A perfectly good day gone to waste," grumbled the usually
cheerful Billy.
"Cheer up, you hunks of misery," gibed Bart. "The worst is yet to
come."
"I'm not specially keen for the trip myself," said Frank. "I'd
thought to go over to Coblenz this afternoon and have another look
at that place where they so nearly bumped us off last night. But I
suppose now that will have to wait."
"The alley will be there when we come back unless there's an
earthquake in the meantime," remarked Bart.
"I wish there would be," declared Tom wrathfully. "I'd like to see
the whole place wiped off the map. That is," he corrected himself,
"if I could get one person out of there before the blow up came."
"Make it two," grinned Billy. "But there's no use grizzling about
it. We'll have time anyway to write a letter to the girls telling
them all about it. Then, ho! for the mountains and the tricky
Huns! I'll be just in the humor to make it hot for them if they
don't toe the scratch."
"We'd better get a move on," counseled Frank. "The corp is a
hustler, and he'll have that squad together before we know it."
"Hello, what's this?" exclaimed Bart, as they came to a part of
the barrack grounds where they caught a glimpse of the road
beyond.
Two men were engaged in a heated conversation. One was poorly
dressed and had a decided limp, as he tried to keep up with the
other, who looked like a professional man of some kind. The former
was evidently pleading with the latter, who shook off impatiently
the hand that had been placed on his arm.
"Scrapping about something," remarked Tom carelessly.
The lame man still persisted, and suddenly his companion swung
around and aimed a blow at him with his cane. The other dodged and
the cane was lifted again, but before it could fall, Frank had
reached the man's side and wrenched the cane from his hand.
The owner turned with a glare of fury, which changed however to a
look of apprehension as his eyes fell on the American uniform.
He mumbled something that might have been an apology or an
explanation, but Frank cut him short.
"Hitting a lame man doesn't go around here," said Frank curtly.
"If you had actually hit him, I'd have done the same thing to
you."
The man was cowed and made no reply. The lame man meanwhile had
hobbled away. Frank handed back the cane, turned his back upon the
owner and rejoined his companions.
"True Prussian brutality," commented Bart. "Good work, old boy.
But now let's hurry or we'll be late."
They scattered to their quarters, and in a short time were fully
equipped for the coming journey.
When a little later they had assembled at the place the corporal
had appointed, they found there a group of their comrades selected
from the old Thirty-seventh bent on the same errand as themselves.
Lieutenant Winter was in command of the detachment, which numbered
about half a hundred.
"Mighty good name for the leader of this trip," Bart whispered
jokingly to Frank, as they stood drawn up in line awaiting the
command to start.
"It certainly is," agreed Frank, drawing his coat a little closer.
"This is about as bitter weather as I've ever stacked up against."
"Looks to me as if a snow storm were coming," murmured Billy.
"Attention!" came the sharp command. "Forward, march!"
The lines moved forward as one man, the lieutenant riding ahead on
horseback and two motor trucks loaded with supplies bringing up
the rear.
The road led at first along the bank of the river and was fairly
level. After two miles had been traversed the line of march
swerved sharply toward the right and the men began to climb.
The weather was biting cold, and a stinging-wind whipped their
cheeks and searched their clothing. But they were warmly clad and
the pace at which they marched kept them comfortable enough. Their
sturdy frames were inured to hardships, and they joked and laughed
as they went along.
Soon they had passed through the little suburban villages that
hung on the flank of Coblenz, and the way was interspersed with
farmhouses at longer and longer intervals. The country became
wilder, and as the path wound upward, they soon found themselves
in the midst of mountains, on the other side of which lay the town
for which they were bound.
The leafless branches of great trees waved creakily over their
heads as the wind whistled through them. There was no sign of
human life or habitation to, be seen. For all that appeared to the
contrary, they might have been in the depths of a primeval forest.
"The jumping off place," muttered Tom, as at the command of the
lieutenant the detachment paused for a short rest.
"The little end of nowhere, I'll tell the world," returned Billy,
gazing about him. "Gee, what a place to be lost in!"
There was only a brief time permitted for rest, as the lieutenant
was anxious to get his men over the ridge and at their destination
before the short winter afternoon came to an end. The men fell in
and the march went on.
The sky had now become a steely gray, and flakes of snow began to
fall. They came down slowly at first and then more rapidly, and
the ground was soon covered. The wind too had increased in
intensity, and the boys soon found themselves in what promised to
develop into a genuine blizzard.
The road had dwindled now to a mere mountain path, and even this
was soon obliterated by the snow that was becoming deeper every
minute.
Suddenly Bart tripped over a root and fell full-length on the
snow. He tried to rise, but could not bear his weight upon his
foot, which gave way under him. His comrades, who had laughed at
first, sprang to help him. They drew him to one side, while Wilson
came to see what the matter was.
"It's nothing," explained Bart, as he stood with an arm flung over
the shoulders of Tom and Billy, while Frank, on his knees,
vigorously rubbed and manipulated his ankle. "I'll be all right in
a minute. It was a boob stunt for me to do."
"Nothing broken?" inquired Wilson anxiously.
"No," answered Frank, looking up but keeping on with his rubbing.
"I can feel that the foot's all right. He's just strained it a
little, that's all."
"Good," said Wilson. "You fellows come on after us then as soon as
you can," and he hurried back to his place.
Two or three minutes more and Bart was able to walk, although he
limped a trifle. They picked up their rifles and hurried after
their comrades.
In the gathering dusk they did not notice that a trail diverged
from the main one that they had been traveling, and they turned
into this side trail, straining their eyes through the whirling
snow to catch a glimpse of their comrades.
They had gone on for about ten minutes, not talking in order to
save their breath, when Frank put into words the growing
uneasiness of all of them.
"Queer that we haven't caught up to them yet!" he exclaimed,
peering ahead, although he could not see more than twenty paces
through the blinding snow.
"We certainly are traveling a good deal faster than they were when
we saw them last," declared Bart.
"They must have got hold of some seven-league boots," grumbled
Tom.
"Put on a little more speed," advised Billy. "Make it snappy now,
and we're bound to catch up with them."
They quickened their pace, but without result. There were no
footprints to be seen, but that meant nothing, for the snow
covered up all tracks almost as soon as they were made.
For twenty minutes more they hurried along as well as they could
through the snow that clogged and clung to their feet, and at last
the truth forced itself upon their unwilling minds.
"No use, fellows," said Frank, as he stopped and the others
gathered around him. "There's no use kidding ourselves any longer.
We might as well own up to it that we've taken the wrong trail."
"Guess you're right, old man," said Tom disconsolately. "It simply
wouldn't be possible for us not to have caught up to them at the
rate we've been going. We're up against it for fair, and the
question is, how we're going to get out of it. Getting snowbound
in this wilderness doesn't make any hit with me."
"There's only one thing to do," said Frank decidedly, "and that is
to right about face and try to find the place where we turned
off."
"Swell chance," muttered Tom. "It's getting dark now by the
minute, and it'll be as black as pitch in a little while."
"I know it's a forlorn hope," admitted Frank, "but it's the only
thing to do just the same, and even forlorn hopes have a way of
winning out sometimes. We can't stand here and be frozen to death.
Perhaps we'll find some of the fellows sent back to look for us.
Get a hustle on now."
He set the pace, and they followed with a speed that under other
conditions they would not have thought possible.
But fast as they went, the snow and the darkness came faster, and
despite all their efforts they were not able to find where the
paths diverged. Everywhere was one bleak wilderness of snow. Soon
they had all lost the path they were following and found
themselves floundering through the woods among the tree trunks.
There was no use in going further, for in the dense darkness they
were quite as likely to be going away from their comrades as
toward them, and at last Frank called a halt.
"The storm's got us, fellows," he declared, with a forced laugh
that had little mirth in it.
"All my fault," remarked Bart gloomily. "I guess I'm a Jonah, I
picked out the wrong moment to take a tumble. Now we're in a fine
mess."
"We've been in worse," said Billy cheerily, "and pulled through
them just the same."
"That's the way to talk!" exclaimed Frank heartily, giving Billy a
slap on the back. "We'll get out of this scrape as we have out of
a lot of others. At the worst, it's only a matter of having to
wait till daylight. We're worth a dozen dead men yet. At any rate
we've got grub with us, so that there's no danger of our
starving."
"How about freezing to death?" said Tom, who was always inclined
to see the dark side of things.
"We won't do that either," replied Frank. "That is, if we keep
moving, and that's what we've got to do. It may not get us
anywhere, but at least it will keep the blood circulating. Then
too, there's the odd chance of our stumbling upon some hut or
other where we can find some kind of shelter."
"Better let me go first, then," put in Bart. "I'm good at
stumbling. In fact it's my long suit."
They all laughed and felt better.
"We don't know where we're going, but we're on the way," sang out
Billy, as they began to trudge forward.
They had plenty of rations with them, and they munched some food
as they went along. It was cold comfort, but it was comfort just
the same.
"Oh, you hot coffee!" murmured Billy, and at the picture that he
conjured up the others groaned.
The snow was now knee deep and showed no signs of letting up,
though the wind had abated somewhat in violence.
They plodded on through the heavy drifts that clutched at their
tired legs like so many nightmare hands trying to hold them back
to their destruction. They were young and hardy, but their
physical strength was sorely tested by the battle with the
elements. Their hearts were thumping as though they would burst
through their ribs, and their breath came in gasps.
Suddenly Frank's keen eyes caught sight of a dark mass that seemed
to stand out even blacker than the darkness which was everywhere
around them. He rubbed his eyes clear of the snow that clung to
the lashes and looked again. Then he gave a shout.
"We've found it, boys!" he yelled. "There's a building of some
kind just ahead of us. See it? See it?"
They looked and saw, and with a joyful shout make a break for
shelter.