CHAPTER XX RUNNING THE GANTLET OF SHELLS
“Hello! there, want to get aboard, Giraffe!” called out Bumpus, assumingall the airs of a millionaire owner of a palatial car upon meeting aless fortunate friend on the highway.
Already Giraffe had jumped from the seat of the ambulance. His face toldof the wonder that filled his soul upon thus discovering his threecomrades occupying a commodious high-priced car, and speeding along asthough apparently bound for Paris.
The ambulance started up again, and passed them by in a cloud of dust.Giraffe lost no time in getting aboard.
“We’re in a desperate hurry, you see, Giraffe,” Bumpus assured him, evengoing to the extent of reaching forward and trying to help drag theelongated chum into the rear seat of the car, which he had beenoccupying alone up to then, Allan being in front alongside the driver.
Thad hardly waited until Giraffe had tumbled aboard than he was offagain. The new addition to their ranks gasped for breath.
“Well, I should say you _were_ in a big hurry to get somewhere,” heremarked, rubbing his forehead where it had come against the back of theseat with a bump when the car started so suddenly. “Are the Germanscoming so fast as that, tell me?”
He looked backwards rather anxiously, as though half expecting to seesome band of Uhlans charging along in the rear.
Bumpus being closer than either of the others took upon himself the taskof putting the newcomer in possession of the main facts. There was notime to elaborate, and make a stirring story of their late adventures,nor was Bumpus especially gifted in that way. He did manage to explainhow they had reached the field hospital and were making themselvesuseful in lots of ways when the injured dispatch bearer was brought in.
When Giraffe began to understand what a strange mission his chums hadundertaken he showed the most intense interest. Perhaps up to then hehad thought he held the palm for undertaking a remarkable exploit, whenhe drove that Red Cross ambulance, with its load of wounded soldiers,all the way to Paris, safely delivered them at one of the hospitals, andthen turned over his charge to another pilot.
“But this beats all the other things hollow, for a fact!” he declaredafter Bumpus had managed to give him the “gist” of recent events. “Tothink that you American scouts are right now carrying dispatches for theFrench army, and that the delivery of the same may mean a heap to theclinching of victory for Joffre! Say, there’s nothing neutral aboutthat, let me tell you, Bumpus. Running a Red Cross ambulance, yes, andeven helping ’em at a field hospital may be all right; but in tacklingthis you’re making us allies of the French. They could shoot you fordoing it, if the Germans caught you.”
“Well,” replied the other, confidently, “they won’t catch us, all thesame, I’m telling you, Giraffe. And Thad seemed to think it was allright. We’re not supposed to know what the message is we’re carrying. Itmay be a call for reinforcements over on the left; or that the armythere has to fall back. No matter, Thad agreed to deliver it atHeadquarters, and he will, barring accidents!”
Still Giraffe shook his head as if he did not wholly like the idea. Ashis ancestors had come from Germany many years before, and Giraffe wasknown to have more or less of a tender feeling for the cause of theKaiser deep down in his heart, his feelings could be understood. Thismatter of strict neutrality is at best a most difficult thing toarrange, for in almost every case thinking people are drawn one way orthe other.
“I don’t suppose now, Giraffe,” ventured Bumpus, a minute afterwards,with a vein of entreaty in his voice and manner, “that you happened tosee anything of a lady in Paris who looked like my mother?”
Giraffe laughed scornfully.
“Why, Bumpus,” he hastened to say in a patronizing way, “you must knowthat Paris is something more than an overgrown village. Next to our ownNew York, and then London, it’s called one of the biggest cities in theworld. Of course, right now the people have flocked out of the sameburg, thinking Von Kluck meant to break through and gobble up the same;but still there were plenty of folks on the avenues, I noticed, tens ofthousands, in fact. No, Bumpus, I’m sorry to say I didn’t chance to runacross your mother.”
“Oh! well, I hope and expect she’s all right,” sighed the stout chum.“But there’s Allan pointing ahead. I wonder now if he’s discovered thatside road we expect to strike along here, so as to get to where GeneralJoffre is holding the fort?”
“So, that’s the game, is it?” exclaimed Giraffe. “Well, there _is_ aroad just where you see that clump of trees. I noticed it as we camealong, because a scout is bound to use his eyes to the best advantagewhen he travels, either afoot or on the seat of an army Red Crossambulance. Yes, and it leads toward the east in the bargain, Bumpus.”
“I’m glad to hear that, because once we get off this much traveled linewe’ll be able to make better time,” the other observed.
Presently they made the turn. It immediately offered them a chance tospeed faster, and this pleased Thad. He seemed to have taken a strangefancy for playing the part of the wounded dispatch bearer. Perhaps deepdown in his mind he knew he really had no business to give that promiseto the surgeon at the field hospital; but the conditions by which he wassurrounded at the time must have made a deep impression on him; and oncehaving given his word Thad could not back out. Right or wrong he was nowgrimly determined on carrying his mission to a successful termination.
Another point of importance soon made itself manifest; they not only hadceased to head in the direction of Paris, but seemed gradually swingingaround, and following an oblique course back toward the battle line.
Still Thad had figured all that out before, and for one he was not inthe least surprised. It might mean they would see still more of thefurious fighting along the Marne before they quit this region for good.
There were a few vehicles on the road, they soon discovered. These mustbe going to another part of the front, taking supplies. Some master mindback there in Paris, with accurate road maps to consult, was directingall these movements of laden vans and wagons. Every want of the army inthe way of ammunition, food and other supplies had to be figured on withmathematical precision. Thad was utterly stunned whenever he tried toimagine how all this could be done; and yet as a scout he already knewthe great value of system.
Louder grew the deep muttering away off there on their left, and aheadas well, for more than one section of Joffre’s army of the defence wasin action on this morning, the third of the terrible battles. Bumpus hadfallen strangely silent. He simply sat there, gripping the side of hisseat, and listening, with his heart beating very fast, as the dreadfultattoo rose and fell like the waves of the sea. Much as he might want tofind himself face to face with the commanding general of the Frencharmies, of whom he had heard so much, Bumpus dreaded seeing thosepainful sights again. He was of the opinion, and rightly too, that thisdisputed ground between the lines was no proper place for himself andchums, who would show considerably more wisdom if they made direct forParis, and even beyond.
“My stars! but it’s getting pretty noisy around here again, let me tellyou,” Giraffe called out, having to elevate his voice considerably inorder to make himself heard.
“We’ve covered a good many miles since leaving that other road, yousee,” explained Thad, speaking over his shoulder, “and then, again,along here the fighting line must lie further south than where we leftit. I can hear shells bursting; with the roar of the big guns theymuffle the sound of the motor working, so that sometimes I almost fearit has gone back on me.”
“Not while we’re making all this speed,” Allan put in, sagaciously, ashe glanced at the trees, and the low stone buildings that seemed tofairly flit past in swift succession.
“But what’s all that mean ahead there, Thad?” suddenly asked Giraffe, heof the eagle eye; “looks to me like there might be quite a squad ofmotors heading in our direction; and say, it also strikes me that theman with the horses is whipping ’em like fun in the bargain. Talk to m
eabout a panic, that has all the earmarks of one! What under the suncould have happened?”
“We must try and find out,” snapped Thad. “I’ll see if one of them won’tgive us information.”
“But for goodness’ sake, Thad,” said Bumpus, “don’t try to swing across,so as to block the road; because they’re coming licketty-split, andmight run right over us, you know.”
Thad was wise enough to foresee such a contingency. He kept on his ownside, but at the same time slowed up, waving his hand in a way thatcould have only one meaning, and that a desire for information.
The first van went booming past, with the man calling something whichnone of them could begin to understand, what with all the noise. Asecond met with no better success. Thad now rested his hopes on the manwho had the wagon and the team.
He was using his whip vigorously, so that his steaming horses kept on amad gallop. Upon seeing Thad making motions, however, the man managed tocheck his team somewhat, his desire to be accommodating overcoming themad impulse that called for speed.
Thad shouted something at him, and again his comrades caught that magicname of Joffre. It must have reached its mark, for the driver in returnbawled as he went by them, and even turned to point excitedly in hisrear.
Then he too drifted along down the road. There were no other vehicles insight; the four chums had the thoroughfare to themselves, to allappearances.
“What did he say, Thad?” demanded Giraffe, immediately.
“I only caught a part of it,” replied the other, soberly; “but I thinkhe was trying to tell us that the road a mile or more ahead wasimpassable for any vehicle, being under the fire of the Germans. Ireckon those drivers know of another way around, a heap longer, ofcourse, but safer.”
“And will we too turn back then, Thad?” asked Bumpus.
“What do you say, Allan; for I know already how Giraffe would answer ifI asked him?” the leader demanded.
“It would mean considerable risk, if those men didn’t dare try it,”commenced Allan, as though weighing every word first before uttering it;“but time is worth something to us right now. Besides, when we strikethat sector that is under fire the German batteries may have changedtheir range entirely, swinging around again. We might go on further, andsee if we dare take the chances.”
“Just what I was wanting to say myself,” added Thad, as he again startedthe car. “We’ll move up and take a look. If it seems too dangerous wecan give it up, and turn around again.”
Their excitement grew by leaps and bounds as they kept moving along theroad in the direction of the scene of danger.
“There, did you see that tree go down with a smash?” suddenly bawledGiraffe; “why, a shot must have cut it off like a knife near the base.And see how the dirt flies up on that knoll, will you? It was a bigshell bursting in the ground that sent it sky-rocketing. Thad, what doyou think; shall we risk it?”
The boy at the wheel knew that whatever he said those devoted chumswould stand back of him to the end. That made it all the harder for himto decide; had he only himself to think of he could settle the mattervery quickly, one way or the other. Bumpus did not count; and thoseother two seemed willing, almost eager, to have him answer in theaffirmative. Thad took a careful survey of the ground, and as far alongthe road as he could see.
“We might chance it,” he finally decided; “for it strikes me that if wecan only get to where the road seems to make another bend half a mile along, we ought to be out of range of the shells. They’re covering thisroad for some reason or other. Allan, is it go, or turn back?”
“Keep her moving, Thad!” cried the one appealed to. “Let her out to thelimit, if you think the road’s safe. The more speed the better ourchances of escaping being hit by any of that flying stuff. Everybodyhold on, and keep as low down as you can!”
Thad sent the car on with a jump. All the reserve power of the motor wasthrown on; and some of those well-built French cars do possess enginesthat are capable of developing an extraordinary capacity for business,when in the right hands.
It was a most intense period of time for Bumpus, yes, and the otherscouts as well. Even that never-to-be-forgotten ride on the gun caissonsof the flying French battery when under fire would have to take a backseat when this flight was mentioned; and the boys at the time hadthought that the very acme of thrill-producing excitement.
Soon they were in the midst of the zone where the far-away guns of theGerman batteries were dropping their monster shells with almostmathematical certainty, thanks to their wonderful rangefinders, and theaccurate maps they must possess covering the various roads around Paris.
When a frightful crash came, apparently close by over on their right,Bumpus held his breath in awe, not knowing what the result might be. Butluckily the force of the explosion must have been thrown in anotherdirection, for none of them received so much as a scratch.
Then another monster dropped in their rear, and a gaping cavity appearedin the road just where they had passed. Apparently they had come too farto retreat now, and there seemed nothing for them to do but keep rushingon, hoping for the best.