WILL THE GERMANS SIGN?
"It was a pitiful sight," said Tom, continuing the tale of his
experience while a captive. "One of the women wanted to write a
message of farewell to her husband and children. They gave her
paper and pencil, and one of the guards offered his back to rest
the paper on while she wrote. At about every sentence, the guard
let himself fall down and the woman stumbled over him. It was
great fun for the rest of the gang. They laughed as if it were a
show. Oh, I tell you, the Huns are great humorists!"
The eyes of the Army Boys flashed.
"The unspeakable beasts!" cried Frank.
"It would be a good thing if a plague came along and snuffed out
the whole nation!" angrily exclaimed Bart.
"It might be a good thing for the rest of the world," agreed Tom.
"And, by the way, speaking of plague, I don't know but what it's
on the way even now. In one or two of the places I've been in
there's a mysterious something that's killing off the people like
sheep. I've heard the guards talking about it. Nobody seems to
know what it is and the doctors themselves are all at sea. Only
yesterday one of the guards was taken with it. Big husky fellow he
was too, and yet in a couple of hours he was dead. Seems to work
as quickly as the cholera and to be just as deadly. I hope it
doesn't hit the American Army."
"It has hit it already," replied Frank soberly. "There's quite a
lot of our boys in Coblenz who have died of it, and the officers
are all up in the air about it. The medical staff is at its wit's
end. I tell you, it's getting to be a mighty big problem."
"I wish we were out of the hoodooed country!" exclaimed Bart
savagely. "The whole land seems to rest under a curse. When on
earth will that treaty be signed so that we can go back to the
States?"
"The Germans say that they're not going to sign it if it proves to
be as severe as is reported," remarked Tom. "I've heard that said
on every side."
"'They say' they're not," sneered Billy. "What does their 'they
say' amount to? Nothing at all. They said they'd never stop
fighting, and they lay down like dogs. They said we'd never step
on the sacred soil of Germany, but there wasn't a peep out of them
when we marched over the Rhine. They're the biggest bluffers and
the quickest quitters in the world."
"When are we going back to Coblenz?" asked Tom.
"In a hurry to get back are you?" laughed Frank. "Well, I don't
blame you, old man. Billy tells me that Alice has been crying her
pretty eyes out ever since you disappeared. But I suppose we'll
have to hang around here for a few days yet. There's a lot to be
done in cleaning out the Spartacides and getting the town in
proper condition. The lieut. won't go back till he's finished the
job. But you needn't worry, for by this time he's telephoned the
whole thing over to Coblenz, and the authorities there know that
you're safe and sound. It's a safe bet that Alice has already
learned the good news."
Frank's conjecture turned out to be correct, for it was nearly a
week before the lieutenant concluded that his work in the town was
done. Then the column took up its march in a jubilant mood, for
their comrade, who was a prime favorite in the regiment, had been
rescued and the work had been done in the deft and finished way
that marked the traditions of the American Army.
Tom and Billy slipped away as soon as they could obtain leave
after they reached the city, and there was not any doubt in any
one's mind as to their destination. Nor on their return to the
barracks that night, bubbling over with glee and high spirits, was
there any question but that their visit had been a thoroughly
satisfactory one. If traces of his captivity were still visible in
Tom's rather hollow cheeks and shrunken waistband, they had
entirely disappeared from his manner.
His comrades had of course told him of their adventure in
connection with the trap door, and he was all agog with interest
in their recital of their battle with the rats, scars of whose
bites were still visible as evidence if any had been necessary.
"It must have been some fight!" he remarked, with a touch of envy.
"Gee! I'd like to have been with you. Too bad, though, that you
didn't find out what you went after. Of course you're not going to
give it up?"
"You bet your life we're not!" answered Frank emphatically. "Give
it up isn't in our dictionary. We're going to search that place
again, rats or no rats, only the next time we'll have clubs and be
ready for them."
"That's the way to talk!" cried Tom. "That'll give me a chance to
get in on the game."
"I don't know that the rats will trouble us next time," put in
Billy. "You'll remember that it was only after we got past that
place where the light was that we came across them in any numbers.
Their stamping ground seemed to be further on."
"That seems likely enough," agreed Bart. "The light being there
showed that somebody had been using the passage without hindrance.
We simply had the hard luck to get in the quarter where the rats
were thickest. At any rate, well take another chance."
That chance was not as soon in coming as they had hoped for,
however, for Coblenz was now seething with unrest. The disorders
that were prevalent all over Germany were manifesting themselves
in the region of the Rhine. Scarcely a day passed without an
outrage of some kind being reported. Several American soldiers
were found stabbed in the street by unknown assassins. Agitators
from Berlin were slipping into the city and trying to stir up
insurrection. It was feared that the sharp lesson given on a
previous occasion would have to be repeated.
Strikes were called in various industries, and sullen knots of
idle men, ripe for mischief, were in evidence everywhere. When
they were dispersed by military patrols, it was only to gather in
some other place.