CHAPTER XXV.
TURNING THE TABLES.
When Rob made this astonishing statement his two chums suddenly realizedthat this must be the matter he had been on the point of explaining tothem when the armored car from Antwerp came tearing along the road intheir rear like a modern war chariot.
The leader of the three Belgian soldiers, and who seemed to be acaptain, looked incredulous. He repeated what Rob had said to hisbackers, in Flemish; and they, too, observed the scout with wonderingeyes.
"This is a strange thing you are telling me, boy," remarked the captain."How is it you know there is an ambuscade laid to catch us napping?"
"I will gladly explain," the Eagle Patrol leader hastened to say. "Yousee, we want to get to Sempst, and, as we helped the Red Cross on thebattlefield yesterday, we were detained. Then we found that there was aGerman army camped right in our way. It moved off toward the front onlyan hour ago, and we have been hiding most of the day. But, while we werewatching the troops depart, I was surprised to see a single gun takeninto a patch of scrub on a little elevation that commands the road. Itis pointed this way, and you can never notice it there unless you havebeen posted. Now I can guess what they are hiding for; they expect thatyou may be along, and mean to rid the German army of your stinging themso often!"
Tubby's mouth was wide open. He stared at Rob as though he hardly knewwhether he were awake or asleep. Even Merritt seemed thrilled by what hehad heard.
As for the Belgian captain, it was an incredulous look that gripped hisfeatures.
"I do not know what to believe, boy," he said, looking earnestly at Rob.
"The best way is to prove it," that worthy told him immediately.
"It would at least be convincing," the pilot of the armored cardeclared.
"Suppose, then," continued the scout, "you leave your car here at thefoot of this little rise. They couldn't see us with that hump between.Go up the hill, and look along the road. You needn't let them see you,of course; but I notice that you've got a pair of field-glasses along.Follow the road with those until you come to a little break in the stonewall that lies around a patch of field on the right. It is this knoll Ispoke of, crowned with brush. Watch that brush closely for a minute;perhaps you will see the sun glint from the gun; or else one of thehidden German gunners may move ever so slightly. That will tell thestory, captain."
The pilot of the armored car jumped out.
"I will do as you say, at least it can be no harm," he remarked hastily.
After speaking in Flemish to his companions, he started up the rise,carrying the field-glasses and a revolver along with him. Watching, theysaw him get down and crawl the last yard or so; and then evidently hefound a way to level his glasses in the quarter under suspicion.
Five minutes later and he backed off, coming quickly down the littledeclivity. The first thing he did was to grip Rob's hand and squeeze itfiercely.
"I have to thank you for my life, and the lives of my brave comrades aswell!" he said with fervor.
"Then you found that what I told you was exactly so?" Rob asked.
"Yes, there is an ambuscade," replied the soldier. "They must havesuspected that we would chase after the army so as to pick upstragglers, because that is our favorite game these terrible days;anything to sting the snake that is crawling across our beloved countryand leaving death and destruction behind."
"You will not go ahead after learning what is waiting there, I suppose,Captain?" Rob continued.
"Certainly not, my boy, because they have the range plotted out, and,when we reached a certain spot, one shot would blow the car and thethree of us to pieces. Our play is to go around another way. But whyhave you done this for us, when you say, as Americans, you must beneutral?"
"I hardly know," replied Rob. "Up to lately we have not felt likefavoring either side, because we have many good German friends at home.But what we have seen and heard here in Belgium is beginning to turn usto the side of the Allies. You see, I could not watch you rush right toyour death, knowing what I did. Perhaps, if the tables had been turned Imight have warned a German pilot to turn around before it was too late."
"Well, you have done us a great favor, and we thank you," said theBelgian soldier, with considerable feeling; after which he conversedwith his two comrades for a minute or so, no doubt explaining what hadawaited them close by; and that only for the timely warning of theAmericans they would have been launched into eternity.
Then the car was turned around, and away the three dashing Belgianssped. The last the boys saw of them was when they waved their handsback ere vanishing around a curve in the road.
"Well," said Tubby, "that was a splendid thing you did, Rob. And tothink you noticed the Germans laying that cute little ambush there! Itshows what training will do for a fellow, doesn't it?"
"It is only what every scout is supposed to do," replied Rob, thinkingto impress a lesson on Tubby's mind. "Observe every little thing thathappens, and draw your own conclusions from it. When I saw that gungoing up into the field, I wondered what they meant by that. Then I sawthey were laying a trap. I couldn't believe it was intended for us, andso I was puzzled, because we didn't expect to use that road at all."
"And when the armored car came whizzing along you knew the Germans meantto get the Belgians who had been doing so much damage day after day, aswe'd heard; that was it, eh, Rob?" and Merritt nodded his head sagely,as though things were all as plain as anything to him now.
"Huh!" snorted Tubby, "after Columbus had cracked the end of the eggand stood it up, didn't those Spanish courtiers all say that was as easyas pie? Course we can see things after they've happened. But you and me,Merritt, had better be digging the scales off our eyes, so we candiscover things for ourselves next time."
Merritt did not answer back. Truth to tell he realized that he merited arebuke for his lack of observation. It might pass with an ordinary boy,but was inexcusable in a scout who had been trained to constantly usehis faculties for observation wherever he went.
"Our road will take us past that place where they are hiding, won't it,Rob?" he presently said. "Suppose, now, they guessed that we must haveturned the armored car back, and lost them their victims, wouldn't theybe likely to take it out on us, thinking we might be Belgian BoyScouts?"
"I had that in my mind, Merritt," admitted Rob, "and for that reason Ireckon we ought to leave the road right here. We can make a wide detour,and strike it further along, where the danger will be past."
All of them were of the same mind. They did not fancy taking any chanceof having that concealed six-pounder discharged point-blank at them.Mistakes are hard to rectify after a fatal volley has been fired. Thebest way is to avoid running any chances.
They found a way to leave the road and take to the fields, skirtingfences, and in every way possible managing to keep out of sight of theGerman gunners who were lying concealed in that scrub on the littleelevation.
It was while they were pushing on some distance away that without theleast warning they caught a strange pulsating rattling sound from therear. All of them came to a stop, and wondering looks were quicklychanged to those of concern.
"Rob," exclaimed Merritt, "it comes from near where that gun lies hiddenback of the bushes; and that's the rattle of a Maxim, as sure as youlive. Those Belgians have turned the tables on the Germans; they'vemanaged to sneak around back of them, and must be pouring in a terriblefire that will mow down every gunner in that bunch of brush!"
Rob was a little white in the face, as he continued to listen to thesignificant discharge. He had seen what mischief one of those Maxim gunscould do at fairly close quarters, for they had witnessed them at workduring the battle of the preceding day.
"I feel bad about it in one way," he said, "because in saving the livesof those three Belgians we have been the means of turning the trap onthose who set it. But I never dreamed they would try to surprise the menin ambush."
The sounds died out, and silence followed; though the far-away grumbleof the
conflict could be heard from time to time.
"They've launched their bolt," said Merritt, "and either skipped outagain, or else the German battery has been placed out of commission. Wedidn't hear the six-pounder go off, so they had no chance to fire back."
They continued their walk in silence. All of them had been much soberedby these thrilling and momentous events that were continually happeningaround them. Much of the customary jolly humor that, as a rule,characterized their intercourse with one another had been, by degrees,crushed by the tragedies that they had seen happening everywhere amongthe poor Belgians and amid the stricken soldiers whom they had so noblyassisted on the field of battle.
Striking the little road again at some distance beyond, they continuedto follow it, under the belief that they could not now be very far awayfrom the town they were aiming to reach.
Before they entirely lost sight of the late encampment of the Germanarmy, the boys discovered that a number of peasants from the surroundingcountry had come on the scene, and appeared to be hunting for anythingof value which might have been purposely or by accident left behind.
"The poor things know they're going to have the hardest winter ever,"said Tubby, with considerable feeling in his voice, "and they're tryingto find something to help out. Like as not some of them even came fromLouvain, where they lost everything they had in the wide world when theplace was burned to the ground. It's just awful, that's what it is.America looks like the only place left where there's a chance ofkeeping the peace."
As they went along Rob was keeping track of their course. He gaveMerritt his reasons for believing they would reach Sempst before sunsetafter all, unless something entirely unexpected happened to delay themagain.
"Just now we're in great luck," he finished. "So far as we can see theGermans have cleared out of this particular section completely. They maybe back again to-morrow; you never can tell what they'll do. But themain line of railroad is where they are mostly moving, because in thatway they can get their supplies of men, guns, ammunition and food, andalso take back the wounded. Some of their dead are buried, but in themain they prefer to cremate them, which is the modern way to preventdisease following battles."
Merritt did not make any remark, for he was becoming more and moreanxious the closer they drew to the town where he expected to have thatquestion of the success or failure of his mission settled.
Rob knew how strained his nerves must be. He could feel for his chum,and it was only natural for him to want to buoy up Merritt's sinkinghopes.
"Don't get downcast, old fellow," he told him. "You've stuck it outthrough thick and thin so far. Whether you find this Steven Meredith inSempst or not, you're bound to meet up with him somewhere, sooner orlater, you know."
Merritt gritted his teeth, and the old look of resolution came acrosshis face, which the others knew full well.
"Thank you for saying that, Rob," he observed steadily. "You know thatonce my mind is made up I'm a poor one to cry quits. I'll follow thatman to China, or the headwaters of the Amazon, if necessary, but I'llnever give up as long as I can put one foot in front of the other."
"And," said Tubby vehemently, "here are two loyal comrades who mean tostick to you, Merritt, to the very end."