The Boy Scouts on Belgian Battlefields

For this purpose he had even bought an empty case while in Antwerp which had been carried through all their adventures. It was a new one, for, in making up his plans, Rob may have had in mind the old Arabian story of the magical lamp, and how the cunning schemer managed to get possession of it by going around and offering housewives to exchange new lamps for old ones.

He meant to exchange with Steven, and give him a brand new case for his worn one, should the opportunity arise for such a transfer.

"And once we get our hands on that bit of paper," he had told the others, "we'll shake the dust of this country off our shoes in the biggest hurry ever."

It must have been fully an hour after they left the stable of the village inn when Rob imparted some information to his chums that caused Tubby, at least, more or less apprehension.

"It's about time we were coming to it now," Rob started to say.

"What, already?" remarked Tubby, evidently delighted, for, of course, he foolishly thought it must be the little town they were heading for that Rob meant.

The other quickly undeceived him.

"Oh! we're a long, long way off from Sempst yet, Tubby," he said. "I was referring to a bridge the inn-keeper told me about, that's all."

"What's there about a bridge to worry us, I'd like to know?" muttered the fat scout suspiciously, feeling terribly depressed, because he had been so like a drowning man grasping at a straw.

"Unless it happens to be guarded by the Germans," suggested Merritt softly, "and then we'd have a dickens of a time getting across."

"The trouble about this particular bridge isn't so much that it's apt to be guarded," Rob went on to inform them, "but the inn-keeper was afraid we'd find it gone!"

"Blown up, do you mean, Rob?" Tubby demanded.

"It's been reported that way," he was informed. "Fact is, there doesn't seem to be much doubt about it. From all accounts, the Belgians destroyed it, as they have done many other costly bridges, so as to impede the advance of the German heavy guns. It takes lots of time and trouble to rebuild a bridge and make it strong enough to let a monster siege gun rumble over."

"But, Rob, shall we have to swim across, or is there a sort of ford handy that we might use?" Merritt inquired.

"I certainly hope we don't have to swim, anyway," Tubby declared, "for, if there's one thing I hate to do, it's to get soaking wet. It's so uncomfortable afterward, and especially when you can't change your clothes. But, of course, if it's got to be done, we'll all have to just grin and bear it."

"It may not be necessary in this case," added Rob, no doubt purposely delaying his information, because he liked to hear Tubby drumming up his courage in this way.

"Then mebbe you've gone and got some wings hidden away, which we can use to fly across?" suggested Tubby quickly, "or it might be an aëroplane is kept handy so's to ferry folks over dry-shod."

"Neither of your guesses hits the mark, Tubby," he was informed. "The inn-keeper said one man told him that, while the bridge was wrecked, a few of the steel beams still hung in place, so that any one who was fairly spry might manage to make his way over from one side to the other. A number had done it, including the man who told him."

"If others can, we ought to be able to make it," Merritt said stoutly.

"Yes, I suppose that's so," admitted Tubby ruefully, "but then you mustn't forget that they had daylight to help out. That makes a heap of difference. I never did have the eyes of a cat so's to see in the dark."

"It's getting on toward the first peep of dawn," Rob told him; "and I expect there'll be some light for us when we reach the bridge."

"We can wait till she comes along, then," Tubby continued, as though even that assurance gave him more or less satisfaction.

From the formation of the country Rob judged they must soon arrive at the place of the bridge. He had already made the discovery that there was a stream on one side of them, which the road would have to cross before long.

"I think I see where it lies," Merritt announced a few minutes after they had stopped talking.

"Yes," admitted the leader, when he had followed the course of Merritt's outstretched finger as well as was possible in the semi-darkness, "that must be the anchorage of the bridge. We'll soon know what we're going to be up against."

"Well, all I hope is we don't have to swim, that's what!" Tubby muttered.

Rob, as they continued to advance, kept a careful lookout. He wondered whether any sort of patrol could have been stationed at the ruined bridge by one or the other of the hostile armies. It might make considerable difference with them in their intended crossing; and would turn out very awkward if, when they were in the middle of the span, they discovered they were being made targets by some reckless marksmen on the further shore.

Presently they drew up alongside the spot. As Rob had hinted the night was really at an end, and in the east the first peep of coming dawn could be seen in the brightening sky.

"It's a wreck, all right!" said Merritt, as they stood there, straining their eyes to try and follow the outlines of the torn steel girders that seemed to have been twisted into all manner of queer shapes by the force of the explosion.

"Gingersnaps and popguns!" ejaculated Tubby helplessly, "and do you really expect to crawl over that swinging thing? I've read about some awful hanging bridges in the mountains of South America and Africa, but I bet you they couldn't hold a candle alongside this mussed-up affair. Whee! you'd have to blindfold me, I'm afraid, boys, if you expected me to creep out there on that dizzy girder."

"We'll wait a bit till the light gets stronger," Rob counseled, knowing full well that when it came to it Tubby would summon the necessary resolution to cross over, especially if his comrades showed the way.

A quarter of an hour elapsed. By that time they could see across fairly well.

"First of all," Rob summed up, "there doesn't seem to be anybody over there to bother us, that I can notice."

"And the way across isn't so bad, that I can see," announced Merritt, principally to help buoy up the sinking heart of poor Tubby. "Why, all of us have done stunts worse than that. You know we have, Tubby, many a time."

"Well," Tubby answered him weakly, "just as you say, boys. I'm in your hands. I promise to do the best I can to get over; but, if I should slip, please get me out of the river as soon as you can. You know I'm not a cracking good hand at swimming."

Of course they promised, and cheered him up by every means possible; but it was with many doubts that in the end Tubby consented to start forth on the trip.

Rob led the way, and after him came the fat chum, with Merritt bringing up the rear. There was a method in this arrangement, for, while the pilot could test each girder, so as to pronounce it secure, the rear guard was able to keep an eye on luckless Tubby, and even give him an occasional word of advice.

Now that the morning had arrived they could see better with each passing minute; and Rob soon declared there was no necessity for any further delay.

It was always a principle with him to grapple with a difficulty, and carry out his plans, without letting anything like dismay seize hold of his heart.

Accordingly Rob now made a start.

"Why, this is dead easy," was the way he sung out, after he had passed along the swaying girder for a little distance. "All you have to make sure of is that your grip is sound. Then keep hunching along, foot by foot. And don't look down any more than you can help, because it might make you dizzy."

Tubby shut his teeth hard, and began to follow after the pilot. He made good progress until he had about reached the middle of the rocking span. Then Rob was really alarmed to hear a sudden loud cry, and feel his slender hold shaken violently.

Something had certainly happened to unfortunate Tubby!

CHAPTER XXII.

SCOUT TACTICS

Just as he feared, when Rob managed to turn around and look back, he found that Tubby had gone and done it again. Whether he had missed his footing, or something had given way under his additional weight, was a question that could not be decided.

Before Merritt, close in his rear, could thrust out a helping hand, poor Tubby had fallen. The river was all of thirty feet below, and just there the water looked unusually unpleasant, because it had considerable foam on the surface, there being a shallow rift above the wider stretch.

By the merest accident in the world, Tubby's clutching hands had succeeded in fastening upon a loose steel stay that hung downward for ten feet. It must have given the fat boy a considerable wrench when he gripped this, but he had clung with the tenacity of despair.

When Rob turned around, the first thing he saw was Merritt kneeling there on the violently agitated girder over which they were making their crossing. He was staring downward, and, of course, Rob instantly focused his gaze in the same quarter.

He had expected to see Tubby splashing about like a porpoise in the stream far down below; but, instead, was astonished to discover him clinging desperately to that loose piece of steel wreckage.

Tubby had his face turned up toward his chums. There was not a particle of the rosy color to be seen that as a rule dyed his ample face; in fact, he was as white as a ghost. A beseeching look was in his eyes. Tubby knew that swinging there he was in a serious predicament, from which there would be only one escape if he were left to his own devices. That would mean he must release his frantic clutch on the swaying steel rope, and drop down into the river, a possibility he shuddered to contemplate.

"Hey! get me up out of this, fellows, can't you?" he whined, for, after his recent gymnastic efforts, he no longer had sufficient breath to shout.

"Clasp your legs around the thing, can't you, Tubby?" said Rob, who saw that the strain on the other's arms must be tremendous, judging from the way he was hanging there.

The advice struck Tubby as well worth following; so he immediately began to work his short legs violently until he found that he could, as Rob suggested, twist them around his slender support.

When that had been accomplished it was much easier for him. He began to suck in some encouragement once more.

"But won't you try and get me up again, Rob?" he asked piteously. "I can't hang on here for very long, like a regular old pendulum to a clock. I'm not wound up for a seven-day-goer. And say, I'd hate to have to drop kerplunk into all that water down there. Think up some way to grab me out of this, won't you, Rob?"

"I'm trying to, Tubby. Keep still a bit, and let me think," he was told.

In one way, of course, it was a ridiculous sight, and that was why Rob winked his eye at Merritt when he thought he could detect a whimsical look on the other's face. Still, it was anything but a laughing matter to poor Tubby, who felt that he had a tremendous amount at stake. Every time he found himself compelled to let his horrified eyes turn downward that noisy stream seemed to be more and more formidable to him. He fairly hated it.

"Can't you climb up again, Tubby?" asked Merritt, who knew exactly what he would have quickly done had he found himself placed in the same predicament.

"I'd like to, the worst kind," the fat scout assured him, "but you know I'm feeling very queer and weak, so I don't believe I could do much that way, unless," he added quickly, "I had some assistance from above."

"And that's just what I'm going to try and give you, Tubby."

While Rob was saying this he had unbuttoned his coat. This he proceeded to take off, first making sure to transfer anything he had in the pockets, so that he might not suffer a loss.

"Now, by leaning down here, I think I can reach you with this coat," he proceeded to explain. "If I had a rope, it would be much easier, for with a loop I could make a sure thing of it. But half a loaf is better than no bread, they say."

"Of course it is, Rob," agreed Tubby, who was in no position to quarrel with any measures that were taken for his relief. "But what can I do with the coat when it comes down to me? I don't feel that cold, you know."

"I'm going to keep hold of one end, Tubby," Rob explained quietly, in a way to convince the imperiled scout that everything was working as arranged, and that he need not worry. "With just one hand you get a good grip of the end that's near you; then start in to try and climb, using your clasped legs the best you know how. And don't get discouraged if you only come up an inch or so at a time. When you're within reach Merritt will hang down and lend a hand, too."

All of which was undoubtedly very cheering to Tubby. This thing of having stanch comrades in times of distress was, he had always believed, one of the best parts of the scout brotherhood.

He immediately took a firm grip of the dangling coat-sleeve, and commenced to wriggle the best he knew how.

"I'm making it, Rob; sure I am!" he presently announced. "That time I slid up as much as six inches. It was a bully hunch, that coat racket of yours. Keep her going, Rob, and I'll get there yet. Never give up – that's my motto, you know. I may get in lots of scrapes, but somehow I always do manage to crawl out, don't I?"

"Save your breath, Tubby, for your work; don't chatter so much," Rob told him.

Merritt was ready to do his part. He had clasped a leg about the girder to help hold him, and was leaning as far down as possible. Presently the grunting fat chum reached a place where he could be taken hold of, and so Merritt fastened a hand in his coat back of his neck.

"Here you come, Tubby," he said encouragingly.

"Don't let go with your hands or knees yet!" warned Rob; for, should Tubby be so foolish as to do this, the chances were that such a sudden weight might drag Merritt down, and both would take the plunge.

It required considerable effort to finally land Tubby on the horizontal girder, but in the end this was accomplished. Then all of them sat there to rest after their recent violent exertions.

"I don't see how I came to do it," Tubby finally remarked, as though he deemed it necessary that some sort of explanation were forthcoming. "I was moving along as nice as you please, when all of a sudden I felt myself going. I must have grabbed at the air, and happened to get a grip on that hanging steel rope. Well, it might have been a whole lot worse for me! I'm glad I didn't get soused in the river. And I'll never forget how nobly my chums came to the rescue."

"Oh! stow that sort of talk, Tubby," Merritt told him. "That's what we're here for. What's a scout wearing his khaki uniform for if it isn't to remind him what he owes to his chums? You'd do the same for us any old time."

"Just try me, that's all," declared the grateful Tubby; and then, changing his tune, he went on to say: "Here we are, out in the middle of the span, and it's just as hard to go back as it is to move forward. So when you're ready, Rob, start off again. I'll try not to slip any more. The next time you might see my finish."

"I'm sure it would see mine," remarked Merritt, rubbing the arm he had used in order to tug at Tubby's great weight.

Luckily nothing more happened, and they were able to reach the opposite shore in safety. Tubby sank down and panted, as soon as he crawled off the end of that fragment of the steel bridge.

"Thank goodness that job is over with!" he exclaimed fervently, "and all I hope is that we don't have to come back this way."

"Oh! you're getting to be an expert tight-rope walker by now, Tubby," Merritt said encouragingly. "A little more practice, and you could apply for a job with Barnum & Bailey's circus."

"Thank you, Merritt, but I have loftier aims than that calling," said Tubby disdainfully.

"Well, let's be getting on," suggested Rob. "We've spent enough time here already."

"Thank goodness I don't have to tramp along soaked to the skin," Tubby was heard to tell himself, with gratitude.

The road skirted the river bank on the side they were now on for some little distance at least. Rob continued to keep a watchful eye around as they progressed. He knew there was always a chance that they might meet some detachment of troops hurrying along; though the fact of the bridge being down must be known to the Germans, and would deter them from trying to make use of this road until a temporary structure could be thrown across the river by their engineers.

Most of the inhabitants had fled from that part of the country. Some may have drifted into Brussels before the capital fell into the hands of the invaders, when August was two-thirds gone; and they had remained there ever since. Others had fled in the direction of Ghent and Antwerp, in the hope that these cities might hold out against the German army.

Several times they saw old men at work in the fields, trying to save a part of their farm crops, though without horses they could do little. Every beast of burden had been drafted for one or the other army; what the Belgians missed the Germans had certainly commandeered to take the place of horses lost in the numerous fierce engagements thus far fought.

On consulting his little chart Rob soon found that it would be necessary for them to abandon this good road, and take to a smaller one that branched off from it, winding in through the trees, and past farms that had been thrifty before this blight fell on the land.

"Here's a wood ahead of us that looks as if it covered considerable territory, and you don't often see such a bunch of timber in Belgium," Merritt announced presently.

"Because, with seven million inhabitants to such a small area," added Rob, "it's always been necessary that they employ what is called intensive farming. That is, they get as much out of the soil as possible, even to several crops off of the same patch of ground during the year."

"Belgium is a busy manufacturing country, too, or has been up to now," Merritt continued, which information he may have remembered from his training at school, or else found in some guide-book purchased in New York City before their steamer sailed for England.

"I wonder what we'll strike on the other side of this wood?" Tubby questioned, always speculating on things to come; and possibly hoping then and there they might run across a hospitable farmer who would kindly offer to provide them with some sort of breakfast.

"That's yet to be seen," Merritt told him. "Here's where there seems to be a sort of swampy patch, with water and bogs. Listen to the frogs croaking, will you? And I can see more than a few whoppers, too. Chances are this is a frog farm that supplies the big hotels in Brussels and Antwerp. You know the French are keen on frogs' legs, and pay fancy prices for them by the pound."

"I've eaten them more than once," Rob informed them, "and I never had spring chicken that was more toothsome and tender."

Whereupon Tubby cast a wistful eye toward the border of the frogpond, where the big greenbacks could be seen, sitting partly in the water, and calling to one another socially.

The boys kept walking on, and finally came to where the trees began to get more scanty. About this time Rob made a discovery that was not at all pleasing.

"Hold up, fellows," he said in a hoarse whisper that thrilled Tubby in particular, "our road is blocked. There's a whole German army corps camped ahead of us; and it's either go back, or else hide here in the woods till they take a notion to break camp and clear out. Let's drop down in the brush and talk it over."

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE FROG HUNTERS

"That settles me, I guess!" said Tubby sadly, as he followed Rob into the shelter of the brush nearby, from which haven of refuge they might watch to see what chances there were of the big camp, a mile and more away, being broken up.

"I know what you're thinking about, Tubby," Merritt told him; "that none of us has had any breakfast, and the outlook for dinner is about as tough as it could be."

"Yes," admitted the fat scout, "I feel just like kicking myself, because I didn't think of doing it when I had the chance."

"Doing what?" asked Merritt.

"Getting that good-natured old fellow at the inn to put us up some lunch," was the explanation Tubby offered. "I guess he'd have done it, too, because he thought we deserved being taken care of, after hearing what the wounded Belgian soldiers had to tell about us. Oh! it's a shame how all my great thoughts come afterward. What's the use of locking the stable door when the horse has been stolen?"

"Well, cheer up," said Rob, who, of course, had overheard what was being said; "it may not be a case of starving."

"See here, you don't happen to have a lot of stuff hidden away on your person, do you, Rob?" gasped Tubby hopefully; and, as the other shook his head, he continued in a mournful tone, "I thought that would be too good to be true. But please tell us what you mean by saying it mightn't be so very serious. Mebbe you know of a henroost nearby, where we might find a tough old Dominick fowl that had been overlooked by the raider squads from the camp?"

"If I did I'd tell you, Tubby; but wait a bit, while we watch the camp. If nothing happens inside of two hours, I've got a sort of scheme to propose to you both, and I hope it'll meet with your approbation."

"Two hours! Two long, weary hours! Gee!" And, as Tubby said this, he proceeded to take in some of the slack of his waistband, possibly meaning to show Rob how terribly he had fallen away of late.

They could see that myriads of men were moving about on the level stretch of country where the invaders were encamped. Fires were going, and doubtless those excellent camp ovens, of which so much had been written, were being used to bake fresh bread for the day. Those Germans omitted nothing that would provide for the comfort of the enlisted men.

"It looks as though they meant to stay there all day," remarked Rob, when they had been observing these things for at least a full hour.

"Oh! Rob!" protested Tubby helplessly, as though the information gave him a severe pain.

"Well, they believe in drilling right up to the minute they go into battle," was what Merritt remarked; "for there you can see a whole regiment of them marching in review past the commander, with others following behind."

"It's a wonderful sight," admitted Rob. "I never saw soldiers keep step, and seem to be such parts of a machine like that. You'd think they were moved by some network of wires, like a big automatic engine."

"Oh! look what funny steps that first line is practicing!" cried Tubby. "Why, they must be only boys, and just playing soldiers. See how they lift their feet, and go along like a high-stepper of a horse. Ain't that the limit, now?"

"I tell you what that must be," said Rob, quickly. "I've read about what they call the 'goose-step.' It's a flinging up of each leg, as the step is taken, bending the knee, instead of keeping it stiff, like most soldiers on parade do."

"The silly nonsense!" laughed Tubby. "What would I look like trying that fancy step? I thought the Kaiser had more sense than that."

"Hold on. Don't condemn a thing before you know what it's meant for," said Rob. "There's an object, and a mighty good one, about that step, even if it does make most people smile when they see it for the first time."

"Then let's hear what it is, please, Rob."

"As far as I know about it, the object is to strengthen the muscles of the leg, and give those that are tired from a set position a rest. Don't you see how that sort of a movement relieves the leg? Try it a few times, and you'll believe me."

"Have you ever seen the goose-step before, Rob?" asked Merritt.

"Only once, in a moving-picture play of the German maneuvers," he was told. "It struck me then as ridiculous; but I knew those German military men had long heads, and would not start a thing like that in a parade without something big back of it. So, when I got home I tried it a few times, and then I saw what a splendid relief that throwing forward of the foot was. There goes another line doing it."

They continued to crouch – there was small possibility of any one discovering them – and watched all that was going on in the busy camp beyond.

Not once did any of the soldiers wander away. It was plainly evident that they were being given no liberties. Rob only hoped that the order would come for this corps to get on the move, and head to the southwest; for he did not doubt but they were meaning to go to Ghent, or to some other place toward the coast.