CHAPTER IX
A GLIMPSE OF THE ENEMY
Other ears than theirs had heard that firing, too. As they rode alongthey saw a cloud of dust before them, and soon men and horses emergedfrom the dust.
"Let's hide in the hedge along the road," said Frank. "Come on--they'llnever see us."
"But they won't hurt us, Frank. They're English--our friends."
"Probably they are. But how do we know? They may be more Germans."
"Oh, I never thought of that! If they are--"
"Yes, if they are, it's good-bye to Captain Hardy and his supplies. Butwe can't help it. We've already done all we could for him."
They watched the oncoming cavalry, but even at a little distance, whatwith their speed and the dust, it was impossible to tell to which armythey belonged. They were either English or German; that was all thatcould be certain. And that could be deduced from their khaki uniforms.There were no colors to emerge, bright and vivid, from their dun mass;no points of steel, on which the rays of the sun might shine and bereflected.
"If they were French we could tell," said Henri, proudly. "We could seetheir red and blue uniforms and, if they were cuirassiers, theirbreastplates!"
"Yes. The French are far behind the times in that," said Frank, a littleimpatiently. "Nowadays armies don't try to act as if they were on dressparade. They wear uniforms that can't be seen any great distance away."
"The French army fights in the uniform in which its famous victorieswere won," said Henri.
"And it gets killed in them, too," said Frank. "Gets killed when itdoesn't do any good. But that doesn't matter now. Ah, they're English! Ican see that now. We needn't tell them to hurry--they're going for allthey're worth now. They've heard the firing and are hastening."
The English horsemen swept by. They were riding low in the saddle,urging their horses on. Each man carried a carbine, ready to dismount atany moment and give battle as seemed best. In five minutes they hadswept by.
"Two troops," said Frank. "Well, that ought to be enough, though there'sno telling how many Uhlans there were. Ah, here come some more!"
This time it was a battery of light artillery--four guns, going alongalmost as quickly as the cavalry had done.
"That ought to settle it," said Frank, with satisfaction. "Even if theyrun into a brigade of Uhlans, the guns ought to do the trick. I don'tbelieve they had any guns or we'd have heard them by this time."
"They're still fighting back there," said Henri, as they wheeled theirbicycles back to the road. "I can hear the firing."
"Yes, and I think it must be a pretty lively skirmish, too," said Frank."Captain Hardy would keep them at it. Listen! The Uhlans must outnumberthem three or four to one. I hope the others get up in time."
A few minutes gave assurance that they had. They heard the firing stillmore loudly; then, a few minutes later, the heavier sound of the gunschimed in. And then there was silence behind them.
"Score one for our side," said Frank. "We know a little more than we didbefore, too. I think it's a safe guess that the Germans aren't in thisdirection. We can go along without worrying about them."
As he said that they were coasting down a little hill, at the bottom ofwhich, Henri had said, another road crossed the one on which they wereriding just around a little turn in the road. And as they took thatturn, their feet off the pedals, they almost fell off their wheels inastonishment. For the transverse road was gray-green with soldiers;soldiers with spiked helmets, marching south!
A moment later they did fall off their wheels, deliberately, and at acommon impulse, because it was the only way there was of stopping beforethey were in the midst of the German infantry. There was just a chancethat they had not been seen and they took it, and fled to the hedgeagain, leaving their bicycles behind. There was no time to bother aboutsuch trifles now. The thing to do was to make good their escape, if theycould.
"Whew!" said Frank, whistling. "That was a close shave, if you like!Where on earth did they come from? And how is it they didn't see theEnglish cavalry?"
"Perhaps they didn't care, if they did see them," said Henri, wide-eyedwith astonishment. "Look, Frank, there must be thousands of them! Wherecan they be going?"
"Where did they come from? That's more to the point!" said Frank, vastlyexcited. "I know! They got the railway--that's what they did! They musthave come through Arras. Jove, though, they took a terrible risk, Harry!Because, no matter how many of them there are, they can't even begin tocompare with the allies in numbers--not around here. But how can they behere without being seen? What are our aeroplanes doing?"
"I haven't seen one all day--not since we left Amiens, at least," saidHenri. "But I know where they are--flying over the enemy's lines, tryingto locate the guns exactly. That's what they try to do, you know. Theydecide just where a masked battery is, and then our fellows can droptheir shells right among their guns. The gunners can't get the rangeproperly any other way. There isn't any powder smoke to help them anymore, you know. So I suppose that's where they are."
"Then I tell you what I think happened. I think they cut the railroad,or, rather, they didn't cut it. I bet they ran those fellows down therethrough on trains--right through our army."
"How could they do that?"
"Easily--no, not easily. It wouldn't be easy at all. But it's possible.They've caught a lot of our men, haven't they? Well, couldn't they usetheir uniforms so that it would look as if it was a French or an Englishtrain? Let me have your field glass. It's better than mine."
They were sheltered now and safe from observation. They could,nevertheless, see the German column strung out along the road. It seemedto cover at least two or three miles of the road, and there was no wayof being sure that there were not more men.
"I think they've got pretty nearly five thousand men," Frank decidedfinally. "They're in light marching order, for Germans, too. No campkitchens--nothing. Only what the men themselves are carrying. They'remaking a forced march to get to some particular place. Queer to useinfantry, though, but I suppose they couldn't get horses through withwhatever trick it was they played."
"They're beginning to turn off," said Henri. "See, the head of thecolumn is slipping through that field over there. They must know thiscountry as well as I do or better. That's a short cut that will takethem to Hierville."
"I don't believe they're going to Hierville or any other village now,"said Frank. "Tell me, are those woods I can see in front of them at allthick?"
"Yes, they're old, too. They've been preserved for a long time. That'sthe oldest part of the old park of the Chateau d'Avriere. It was one ofthe castles that wasn't destroyed in the revolution."
"Well, they're going to take cover in those woods. This is all a part ofa mighty careful plan, Harry. I think they have turned a real trick. Ifthe French or the English knew that the Germans were in any such forceas this so far south and west as this they would be acting verydifferently, I believe. Their aeroplanes have certainly failed themhere."
"They're on the line of retreat, if we were beaten again in that battlewe've been hearing all afternoon."
"I don't think it was a real battle at all, Harry. I think it was justrear guard fighting. But I tell you what we've got to do. We've got toget through and tell about these troops. Of course, they may know allabout them at headquarters, but it doesn't look so. We had better waithere until we make fairly sure of what they're going to do and untilthere isn't any more danger of our being seen, too. They'll have scoutsout all around them. We were mighty lucky to get through so long as wehave. But it's going to get dark pretty soon, and then we ought to besafe."
They lay in their improvised shelter. It took the Germans a long time topass, but at last the road below was free of them, and the last of themslipped into the sheltering obscurity of the woods.
"We ought to find out if they're staying there, or if they are stillmoving on," said Frank. "It's risky, but I think we ought to take therisk. You stay here, Henri. I'll try to get around, and come back."
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"Why should I stay here? If there's a risk, why shouldn't I take itjust as well as you?"
"Because one of us has got to get through. If I'm caught, you'll stillbe here and able to get through to headquarters with what we've foundout already. And the reason I'd better go is that I'm an American. Ifthey catch me they're not so likely to hold me."
"But I don't think it's fair for you to take the risk. I ought to doit," said Henri, stubbornly.
"I don't care what you think," said Frank, "I'm going. Au revoir,Harry!"
"Wait a minute! How are you going to find out?"
"I'll try to skirt the wood."
"You needn't do that. Keep straight on the road we were taking, insteadof turning off at the foot of the hill. About half a mile beyond thecrossroads the road rises again, and you'll find a windmill. If youclimb to the top of that you can see beyond the woods, and you ought tobe able to tell if the Germans are moving out of the woods."
"Splendid!" said Frank. He admired Henri's readiness, once he had madeup his mind that Frank was going alone, to help him with his greaterknowledge of the countryside. Some boys would have been sullen, andwould not have volunteered that information, he was sure.
Before Frank started on his lonely errand, he carried Henri's bicycleback of the hedge. Then he mounted his own, and coasted down the hill.His object was to seem entirely indifferent, should some German scout orstraggler spy him, but plainly the Germans had decided to leave the roaduncovered.
"I guess they decided it was better to risk being surprised than to givethemselves away," he said to himself. "Otherwise they'd have been prettysure to leave an outpost of some sort here because this road looks likejust the place for troop movements. It looks more and more as if theyhad really managed to make a secret of this column."
It did not take him long to find the windmill of which Henri had toldhim. The place was deserted; there was no one to oppose his entry. And,when he reached the top, he found that there was an excellent view ofthe country for several miles, a much better one than they had had fromtheir shelter on the hillside above the Germans.
He could see the woods into which the invading troops had disappeared,looking dark and mysterious in the deepening twilight. There was no signof life about them; no smoke rose above the treetops. And no Germanswere beyond them. Then his guess had been right, he decided. They hadmade for those woods to obtain shelter, and they relied upon the factthat the allies did not know of their presence. It was a daring move; itmight well have been successful, save for the accident of the two boyswho had observed it. Indeed, even now there was a chance, and somethingmore than a chance, that the German object, whatever it was, might beattained. Frank and Henri were a long way yet from having reached theBritish headquarters. Unknown dangers and obstacles lay between them andtheir destination.
"With the German attack developing so quickly as this, we don't knowwhere we may not run into them," mused Frank, as he descended from thewindmill and mounted his wheel, preparing to start back to join Henri."They may be anywhere. I don't want to see them win, but they certainlyare wonderfully good fighters. They have good leaders, too."
When he reached Henri he found that his French comrade was lighting thelamp of his bicycle. With a laugh he blew out the flame.
"But it's dark and we'll be arrested if we ride without a light," saidHenri, protestingly.
"That law was made for peace, not for war," said Frank. "When we know aslittle about where the Germans are as we do, I'm not going to take anychances. We'll ride with lights out, thank you. Come on!"
As they rode along in the growing dusk, close together, Frank told whathe had seen.
"That was a good guess, then," said Henri. "But, Frank, how can theyknow so well what to do? You would think that they had been brought upin this country, those German officers!"
"They might as well have been," said Frank. "I've heard stories of howthey prepare for war. They have maps that show every inch of land inthis part of France. They know the roads, the hills, even the fields andthe houses. They have officers with every regiment who know whereditches are that they can use as trenches, and who have studied the landso that they recognize places they have never seen, just from the mapsthat they have studied until they know them by heart. And it isn't onlyFrance that they know that way, but England, and some parts of Russia,too. Why, I've even heard that they've studied parts of America, aroundNew York and Boston, almost as thoroughly."
Henri cried out in anger.
"That is how they have behaved!" he cried. "They have been planning, allthese years, then, to crush France!"
"Oh, cheer up, Harry," said Frank. "I guess you'll find that your Frenchstaff officers have returned the compliment. Unless I'm very muchmistaken, any one of them could tell you just as much about the countryin Alsace and Lorraine, and all through the Rhine Province, as theGermans could of this section. It wasn't so in the last war. Then Frenchofficers were losing their way in French territory. That was one reasonwhy the battle at the Speichern was lost--because French reinforcementslost their way. But this time France got ready, too."
"Shall we still make for Le Cateau?"
"There's nothing else to do, until we find out that the staff haschanged its location."
Riding along in a light that made men out of the shadows of trees andregiments of the shocked corn in the fields was eerie work. But neitherof them was afraid. They were fired by a purpose to serve the cause inwhich they had enlisted. And they were thrilled, too, by the knowledgeof the German force upon which they had spied, themselves unseen.
And then all at once, out of a dark spot in the road, appeared a man,holding a horse.
"Halt!" he cried, in a guttural voice.
They obeyed, perforce. And when they were close enough, they saw that hewas a German cavalryman, one of the dreaded Uhlans.