The Boy Scouts on Belgian Battlefields

"There have been lots of remarkable surprises sprung in this war already," Merritt observed thoughtfully, "but I'm thinking the worst is yet to come. There never was such a war before in the history of the world, and it's to be hoped this one ends in a peace that will last forever."

"Yes," added Rob, greatly impressed by what he was seeing, "war's going to cost so much after this that the nations will have to fix up some other way to settle their differences. About that Zeppelin, Tubby; don't you see how they might be able to drop a few bombs on the enemy's trenches; or where the Belgians have fixed barbed-wire entanglements to stop the rush of the charging German troops? Just to think that here we are really watching a battle that isn't like one of the sham rights they have every summer at home. It's hard to believe, boys!"

They were all agreed as to this, and every little while one of them might be detected actually rubbing his eyes, as though suspecting he were asleep and all this were but a feverish dream.

The cannonading grew more and more furious as the morning advanced. Huge billows of smoke covered sections of the country, some of it not more than a mile away from the village where Rob and his chums had stopped.

"And just to think," said Tubby, with a touch of sorrow in his voice. "While all this sounds like a Fourth of July celebration to us, safe as we are, it spells lots of terrible wounds for the poor fellows who are in the fight. Why, with all those big shells bursting, and the shrapnel too, that you spoke about, Rob, right now I reckon there are just hundreds of them wanting to be attended to."

"That's true enough, Tubby, the more the pity," replied Rob.

"What's this coming up behind us?" called out Merritt, as loud cheers, together with the rattle of wheels and the pounding of many horses' hoofs, were heard on the road they had used on the previous night.

"Oh! they're going to bombard the village; and now we'll get it!" gasped Tubby.

"It looks like a battery coming from the direction of Antwerp, and hurrying to get in action!" Rob ventured to say, as he discovered that those who were seated on the horses and on the gun caissons wore the Belgian uniforms.

"Just what it is, Rob," added Merritt excitedly. "They hear the sound of the guns ahead, and are crazy to get there. Look at them whip the horses, would you! And how the animals run! They smell the smoke of burnt powder, and it's fairly set them all wild!"

It was indeed a stirring sight to see that battery come tearing along straight through the little village, and heading directly toward the place where the flashing and roaring of battle seemed fiercest.

The men were all keyed up to a pitch of excitement that made them forget they were about to face danger and death. They shouted as they swept past, and the poor villagers, filled with a momentary enthusiasm, sent back answering cries.

Such enthusiasm is always contagious. Why, even peace-loving Tubby seemed to be infected with some of it. His eyes glowed, and his breath came in short puffs, as he watched the guns and caissons go whirling along until men, horses and all had vanished down the road in a cloud of dust.

"Some of those brave fellows will never come back again, I'm afraid," said Tubby sadly.

"It begins to look as if the artillery arm was going to be everything in this war," Rob remarked, as though the sight of those bursting shells impressed him.

"But what do you suppose all that bombardment means?" Merritt asked.

"I can only give a guess," the patrol leader replied. "From all I've read I get the idea that before the Germans order a charge of their infantry they pour in a heavy bombardment from every big gun they can get in line. That makes it so hot in the trenches that the enemy has to keep under cover. Then the infantry manages to get a good start before they are fired on."

"Nothing new about that, I guess," replied Merritt. "It was done in the battle of Gettysburg, where Lee used more than a hundred cannon to bombard, before starting to carry Little Round-top and Cemetery Hill by assault. I was just reading about it a few weeks ago in a magazine article at home. But if those are their tactics, Rob, we ought to be seeing some movement of troops pretty soon."

"Yes," the patrol leader admitted, "the gun fire is slackening right now; and if we had glasses I expect we could see the infantry starting forward. Those up in the Zeppelin can watch every move that takes place."

"All the same I'd rather take my chances down here," Tubby announced.

"What's that moving away over there, Rob?" demanded Merritt. "Seems like a gray looking snake creeping out from the shelter of the woods. I declare if I don't believe it is a mass of men charging straight at the Belgian trenches!"

"The Germans all wear a sort of grayish green uniform, you know," Tubby declared, "which is so like the dirt that lots of times you can't tell the soldiers from the earth half a mile away."

"Look sharp, fellows," said Rob, "because that is where they're going to shoot their bolt. What we see is a battalion of infantry charging. Now watch how they begin to gather momentum. Yes, and when the gun fire lets up we'll hear the voices of thousands of men singing as they rush forward, ready to die for the Fatherland."

They stood there with trembling limbs, and continued to watch what was developing right before their eyes. It seemed as though that gray mass would never cease coming into view. The whole open space was covered with lines upon lines of soldiers all pushing in one direction, and that where the intrenchments of the Belgians must lie.

"Oh! look! look! they're opening on them with quick-fire guns, and all sorts of things!" Tubby exclaimed, in absolute horror. "Why, I can see lanes cut in the lines of the Germans; but they always close up, and keep right on! Isn't it terrible?"

"It is sublime!" said Rob; and that tribute to the unflinching bravery of the German advance was about the limit of a boy's vocabulary.

"But the plucky little Belgians won't yield an inch of ground, you see!" cried Merritt. "They keep pouring in that terrible fire, and mowing the Germans down, just like they were cutting wheat on a Minnesota farm."

"How will it all end, I wonder?" said Rob, fascinated, more than he would have believed possible, by the panorama that was being unfolded before his eyes.

"If the ammunition of the Belgian batteries and Maxims holds out," ventured Merritt, "there won't be any German army left in this part of the country. Their best troops are said to be down in France now, fighting the Allies; but if these are only second or third class reserves, I wonder what the really top-notch ones can do in a battle."

"They're weakening, let me tell you!" Rob startled the others by saying. "Watch and you'll see that they don't advance as fast as before. Perhaps the general in charge has found that the trenches can't be taken by a direct charge. They're going to fall back, and let the artillery start in again! The first part of the terrible battle is over, for there the Germans begin to scatter, and run, to get out of range of the Maxims!"

"And the plucky Belgians have won again!" Merritt declared as though almost tempted to join in the cries of satisfaction that were beginning to rise from those of the villagers who were clustered close by, intensely interested spectators of the thrilling spectacle just enacted.

"And there's that old Zeppelin still swinging around up in the sky," remarked Tubby. "For all the information they were able to signal down, the Germans couldn't take the Belgian trenches. When they got the wire entanglements they were blocked."

"But unless I miss my guess," exclaimed Merritt, "the Zeppelin will have to get on the run pretty quick or it'll find there's a little war brewing in the sky, because I can see a couple of aëroplanes rising from back of the Belgian lines!"

CHAPTER XVII.

THE BADGE OF COURAGE AND MERCY

"It seems like we were to be treated to about everything there is going in the way of up-to-date fighting!" said Tubby, who was having some difficulty in craning his fat neck, to look toward where the wonderful airship was still making enormous circles above the battle lines.

"Are you sure they are Belgian aëroplanes?" asked Merritt, who had been attentively observing the ascending fliers.

"They came up from behind the line of trenches," replied Rob, "and that makes it look as if they couldn't be German machines. Besides, the invaders all use a model that is called a Taube, which is different from these."

"But why d'ye suppose they didn't climb up before now, and tackle that monster Zeppelin, so as to put it out of business, or chase it off?" inquired Tubby.

"They had their reasons, I suppose," he was told by the patrol leader. "No matter what they may have been, we're not interested. It's enough for us to watch what's going to happen from now on."

"I'll be jiggered if the Zeppelin isn't going to have it out with them!" exclaimed Merritt. "Did you see that little puff of what looked like smoke? They've got some sort of gun aboard, and mean to try and riddle the aëroplanes with it!"

"Whew! talk to me about excitement, this has got everything I ever knew beaten by a mile!" admitted Tubby.

"You notice that both the monoplanes manage to keep pretty far away from the dirigible," Rob told them. "And see how they bore up in circles all the while, too, getting higher right along."

"What's the idea of that?" asked Merritt.

"For one thing it'll put them on equal terms with the Zeppelin so that they can send back shot for shot," explained the other. "But unless I miss my guess they mean to try a bigger scheme than that, if once they can get above the airship."

"You mean drop a bomb down on it, don't you, Rob?" Merritt asked.

"Yes. You know these Zeppelins are made in many sections. They say one could keep afloat even if a dozen of these were smashed. They're along similar lines as the watertight compartments of steamships. Some auto tires are made the same way too. But if a bomb was dropped on top of the gas bag, I reckon the explosion would play hob with the whole business."

They stood there and watched the strange duel in the heavens. The thrill of that occasion would never be forgotten by any one of the three scouts. And all the while the guns over beyond the low-lying hills were beating a terrible tattoo that was like the music of the orchestra when a play is being performed. That tragedy was there above them, the stage being the limitless expanse of the heavens.

The Zeppelin maneuvered again and again in order to get in touch with the wasp-like enemies that constantly darted out of reach. There was more or less firing going on, the boys could see, even though the distance and the growl of the German artillery prevented them from hearing any reports.

"There, I believe they've done it!" shouted Merritt suddenly.

"The Zeppelin is running away, that's sure!" echoed Tubby, "and one of the aëroplanes seems to be further up, too!"

"Something has happened, because the rear of the dirigible looks as if it had collapsed," Rob announced. "I wonder how they manage to steer, with the rudder useless. But they're coming down fast now, you notice!"

"And aiming so as to bring the monoplanes over the German lines," added Merritt. "If the little fellows know what's good for them, they'll keep a good distance off, because there are guns made that can shoot straight up for a mile, and send a shell or shrapnel to burst, and fetch an aviator every time."

While they watched, the disabled Zeppelin dropped out of sight back of the woods, and it was easily possible for the boys to hear the wild shouts of derision that ascended from the trenches where the Belgians lay concealed.

The two aëroplanes then started to have a little scout of their own, and doubtless those daring air pilots picked up more or less information that would prove of value to the defenders of the trenches.

"Is the battle over, do you think?" asked Tubby, when this exciting panorama in the upper air currents had come to an end.

"Some of the guns are still muttering," Rob told him, "but they seem to be further away. Perhaps the Germans are bombarding some fortified place off in the distance, or it may be an English army has shown up, and is giving battle to the Kaiser. You know the poor Belgians are hoping for that to happen right along."

"But just think what is over there!" continued Tubby, with a shudder as he pointed a chubby finger toward the scene of the late charge and repulse. "Why, I can see hundreds of men lying around, just like the corn when they go to cutting so it can be stacked. Ugh! it's awful to think of all those poor Germans!"

"They're not all Germans, either," corrected Merritt; "because I saw one place where the Belgians rushed out of their trenches, and fought hand to hand. Lots of them must have been knocked over, too. They just couldn't hold back, I guess, with the fighting spirit in them."

"And this is what's going on all through Belgium, Northern France, and over along the border of Russia," said Rob, powerfully impressed with the tragic scene he had looked upon.

"Here's another battery coming along the road, too late to get in the fight!" they heard Tubby saying.

"That's where you're barking up the wrong tree, Tubby," Merritt assured him, "because what's coming now is just the opposite of a battery. One cuts down the ranks of the enemy, this one helps to bind up their wounds, and carry them off the battlefield! In action the fighting men become like fiends; but I guess you could call these angels of mercy!"

"Why, sure enough, I can see the Red Cross on the wagon!" cried Tubby, evidently pleased by the discovery. "Then that must be an ambulance, and they're going on the battlefield to help the poor wounded fellows! Oh! how much I admire them right now. I wish I was worth a continental as a surgeon, and I'd like to volunteer to help take care of some of the wounded."

"There are three more ambulances, and they seem to have several nurses aboard each one," Rob observed, as the procession advanced closer to where they were located.

"There's a man driving, and I reckon now that may be the surgeon," Merritt was saying, as though deeply interested. "How about this, Rob? I thought nurses only worked in the hospitals back of the lines; but these seem heading right for the battlefield."

"As a rule they let men bring in the wounded," said Rob. "But sometimes a nurse is allowed to go about trying to help the poor fellows as best she can until such time as a stretcher can reach them. Most of them are parched with thirst, and what they ask for first of all is a drink of water."

"I might do that much, anyway," Tubby was heard to mutter to himself, "if only I thought I could stand the terrible sights. You know, seeing blood always used to make me feel faint-like. But then a scout ought to overcome that weakness."

Possibly it may have been something in what Tubby said that gave Merritt his brilliant idea, for he immediately whirled upon the patrol leader, and exclaimed:

"Rob, why couldn't we ask them to take us along, and let us do what we can to help? As scouts we know something about taking care of wounds, you remember. Why, didn't that officer compliment us on the way we looked after his men, and the German spy they'd captured? Rob, see if we could do it, won't you? It might be a terrible experience for us; but I feel like I'd be better satisfied if I could lend a helping hand here."

The first of the three army ambulances had by this time come close to the boys. Attracted by their khaki uniforms, and possibly their bright eager faces, the man who was driving held up his team. A woman of middle-age, garbed as a nurse, jumped to the ground, and approached the boys. They saw that undoubtedly she must be the one in charge of the Red Cross detachment.

At sight of the little American flag which Tubby wore on the lapel of his coat her eyes glistened.

"That is a glorious sight to my eyes in this foreign land," she told them, "for I, too, am American-born. My profession is that of a trained nurse. A wealthy patient I brought abroad died in Antwerp; and as the war had broken out I determined to offer my services to the Government, so that I was immediately given a position of trust and responsibility. We are short-handed with men, you can see. I happen to know what Boy Scouts over in America have to learn about taking care of wounded persons. It is a terrible thing to ask, but this is a case of necessity. Would you be willing to help us out; and do you think you could stand the awful sights and sounds of the battlefield?"

Rob and Merritt exchanged glances; while their flushed faces told the nurse what their answer would be, even before they spoke a single word.

"We were just wondering whether you would let us join you," Rob said quickly, "for we want to do something to help those poor fellows over there. Yes, if you can make room for us aboard your ambulance we'll gladly go along."

Poor Tubby had lost all his color. He was as white as a ghost; but with tightly shut teeth he pushed up, to allow the nurse to fasten a bit of muslin, stamped with a vivid red cross, upon his left arm, and then he climbed into the ambulance.

CHAPTER XVIII.

AFTER THE FIGHTING WAS OVER

The horses had been urged on at considerable speed, in order to arrive upon the scene of action, for the animals began to show evidences of exhaustion long before they reached a position back of the Belgian trenches. That may have been one of the reasons why they were halted temporarily, at the time the head nurse talked with the three Boy Scouts.

As they approached the battle line Rob and his friends became intensely interested. They saw the heads of the defenders of the trenches thrust up to observe their coming, and heard the hearty ringing cheers with which the Red Cross nurses were greeted.

Men sprang out to assist them, so that apparently it would be no hard task to find plenty of recruits to handle the stretchers upon which the wounded could be carried to the hastily constructed field hospital in the rear, where the surgeons would soon be busily employed.

Tubby was still looking very white, but he had made up his mind that he would go through with this wonderful experience even if he fainted dead away. All that was stubborn in his nature had come to the surface; and Rob, after noticing this, made up his mind Tubby was going to take a long step forward before another sun had set.

Now they were on the other side of the trenches. There was considerable bustle. Nurses commenced to spread out over the field, on which some men lay groaning and others very still.

The assistants with the stretchers, upon whose arms had been fastened badges bearing the sacred red cross, began to carry off such of the wounded as they found needed urgent attention.

"Come on, boys, let's see where we can help out!" said Rob, trying to appear perfectly cool and collected, but at the same time knowing that his knees were inclined to knock together, so that he could not blame poor Tubby for feeling as he did.

They started out. At first all of them stuck together, for the sights they soon saw filled them with a sense of horror, as well as compassion.

Never were Boy Scouts placed in a position where they had more reason to be thankful for what little knowledge of surgery they had attained.

The American nurse may have felt considerable doubt as to whether she had done a wise thing in affording these boys a chance to assist the Red Cross upon the battlefield. Rob saw that she hovered near them, as though keeping an eye on what they did.

It was a dreadful experience for those boys, to be thus brought in close contact with the dead and the dying; they could never forget what they saw there that day.

Even Tubby braced up when he found that he could be useful in helping the others. He had secured a bucket of water, and when he heard some poor fellow cry out, or saw him make frantic gestures, it was his business to hurry over and supply his wants. No matter what uniform the wounded man wore, it did not make a bit of difference; since the Red Cross recognizes neither friend nor foe, but treats all alike.

It is possible to get accustomed to almost anything in this world. Not one of those boys would have imagined a short time before this that they could find courage and nerve enough to walk in the midst of such carnage; and yet they were actually doing it now.

As Rob and Merritt finished binding up the leg of a poor fellow who would soon have bled to death but for their coming, the nurse who had meanwhile come up behind them commended their work.

"It was excellently done, I want you to know," she told them, "and I can plainly see that I need have no further fears concerning your ability to be of much assistance here. Do all you can, my brave boys, but remember not to go too far. You are not accustomed to such sights, and it may affect you in the end."

She hurried away to take up her own labors, leaving the boys with a proud sense of having done their duty as genuine scouts should, trying to be of use to others in sore need.

For an hour, yes two of them, they continued to work there, while the stretcher bearers and the ambulances bore the victims of the late conflict back in apparently an unending procession. Those poor fellows who had no further need of attention were of course allowed to remain just as they had fallen; and by degrees the wounded were weeded out, to be taken care of back of the desperately defended lines, where the Red Cross floated from the canvas field hospital.

Tubby had about reached the end of his endurance. They could see that he was certainly getting very wabbly on his feet, for often he stumbled as he moved around with his bucket and dipper, seeking a stray wounded soldier who might have been overlooked, so as to supply water to quench his raging thirst.

The sun looked down from a cloudless September sky, and it was very hot for the advanced season of the year. Far off in the distance those never-ceasing German guns still kept up their muttering as they sent shells into some fortified place. The battle in this particular field was apparently not going to be renewed; for already some of the Belgian batteries were being taken away, to face a new quarter where, according to their air scouts, the enemy meant to next try a forward movement.

Terrible though the experience may have been to all the boys, none of them had any regrets. The grateful looks and words they had received repaid them tenfold for all the nerve-racking ordeals through which they had gone.

"I think it's queer, though," Merritt was saying to Rob, as they walked around in search of any wretched victim whom they might assist, "that not a single German has been out on the battlefield to render first aid. I don't understand it at all. They've got as fine surgeons as any in the world, and the Red Cross works with their armies the same as with all the rest."

"I was bothering my head about that, too, since you mention it," Rob announced.

"What did you make up your mind was the cause of it?" continued Merritt, who had considerable respect for the opinions and decisions of the Eagle Patrol leader.

"It means either one of two things," he was told. "It may be the settled policy of the Germans in their rush to push through Belgium and Northern France to leave their wounded to be taken care of by the enemy, whenever the battle has gone against them; or else a quick change of front compels them to abandon the field."

"Still," argued Merritt, who secretly was much in favor of the Allies, "you'd think there would be some parties out with stretchers, looking up their wounded. I never will understand it."

"Well, they must have a good reason for acting that way," Rob told him. "You know the Germans are great sticklers for sacrificing everything to the good of the cause of the Fatherland. If necessary even the wounded must be temporarily neglected until the end aimed at is attained. You remember what we heard in Antwerp about those three British cruisers that were just torpedoed in the North Sea by German submarines?"

"I can see what you mean, Rob. One was struck, and began to sink. The other two hurried up to render assistance, and while their engines were still they were hit by torpedoes and went down. If, instead of trying to help their distressed comrades in the English way, they had let them look out for themselves, and first of all smashed the conning towers of the submarines, they would have saved themselves. I guess in war times the German style counts best, though it seems cruel to me."