CHAPTER XIX
A CAVE-IN
Momentary confusion followed Ned’s cry and his fall, and those nearesthim, when they saw the blood, felt a good deal of alarm. But efficientofficers were in charge of the drilling squads, and a few sharp orderssufficed to bring the men back in line, while an examination was madeof the injured lad.
He was bleeding freely, but when his shirt was taken off it was seenthat a bayonet had struck him a glancing blow, cutting a long, but notdeep, gash in the fleshy part of his back.
“How did this happen? Did any one see it?” asked the officer in chargeof the instruction.
“It was----” began a lad who had been standing next to Ned.
“I did it!” growled out the unpleasant voice of Pug Kennedy. “But Ididn’t mean to.”
“I should hope not,” commented the officer, rather sharply. “But howdid it happen?”
“He leaned over and got right in my way just as I was making a lunge,”explained the fighter. “I tried to hold back my gun but it was toolate.”
The officer looked sharply at Kennedy, but there seemed to be no goodreason why his word should be doubted.
“Very well,” said Captain Reel, who was giving the bayonet instruction.“Only be more careful after this. Save such strokes for the Germans. Wecan’t afford to lose any of our soldiers. This will be all for to-day.”
Ned had been carried to the infirmary, and thither, having receivedpermission to do so, went Bob and Jerry. They were met by an orderlywho, on hearing their inquiries, told them that Ned’s wound was not atall serious, and that he would be kept in his bed only long enough tomake sure there would be no infection from the steel and to enable thewound to heal slightly.
Later in the day they were allowed to see their chum. Ned was on a cotin the infirmary, and he smiled at Jerry and Bob.
“Oh, I’m not out of the game for long,” he said, in answer to theirinquiries. “I’ll be a bit stiff for a day or so, the doc says, butit’ll soon wear off.”
“How did it happen?” asked Jerry. “Did you really get in his way as hesays you did?”
“I didn’t know it if I did,” answered Ned. “I was just making a lungemyself, and I’d been doing it right along, so I knew my distance.”
“He did it on purpose,” insisted Bob. “I was talking to the fellow whowas on the other side of Pug Kennedy, and he says there was plenty ofroom. He did it on purpose to get even with you, Ned, for the way hewas caught the other night, when he tried to run the guard.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that,” objected Jerry. “Pug Kennedyis a scrapper, and he doesn’t like us. But I don’t believe he’ddeliberately try to bayonet a chap.”
“Well, I don’t know what to believe,” returned Ned. “I thought I hadplenty of room on each side of me, but my foot may have slipped. Ormaybe Pug’s may have done the same thing.”
“He made it slip!” declared Bob. “He wanted to get square with you andhe took that way.”
“If he did it’s a pretty serious way,” said Jerry, “and he ought tobe dismissed from the service. But it’s going to be as hard to provethat as it would be to prove that he had some plot on foot when he metthat man at midnight. I don’t believe we can do anything unless we getbetter proof.”
“Oh, drop it all!” exclaimed Ned. “It’s only a scratch, anyhow, and itwon’t kill me. There’s just as much chance that it was an accident asthat he did it on purpose. I’m not going to make any accusation againsthim.”
“No, I don’t believe it would be wise,” agreed Jerry. “But, at thesame time, we’ll keep watch on him. He may try something like it again.”
Ned’s prediction as to the lightness of his injury proved correct. Intwo days he was out of the infirmary, and though he was not allowed togo in for violent drill for a week afterward, he said he felt capableof it.
Pug Kennedy made a sort of awkward apology for his share in theaccident.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” he said to Ned. “But either you leanedover too far toward me, or else I slipped. You may think I did it onpurpose, on account of you giving me away to the corporal that night,but I didn’t.”
“I had nothing to do with your getting caught when you went out frombarracks that night,” said Ned. “It was your own fault. As for gettingsquare--you’re welcome to try.”
“Who says I was going out of barracks?” asked Pug vindictively.
“Weren’t you?” Ned asked.
“No. Course not. I was coming in, and I sort of got lost in the dark.I didn’t know my way and I asked a fellow I met. He was one of theteamsters, I guess. I was talking to him, when I was caught--I mean yousaw me and then the corporal came.”
“We didn’t send for him,” declared Jerry “He just happened to come atthat moment.”
“Well, it looked as if you’d sent for him,” growled Pug. “I’d be gladto think you didn’t. And I’m sorry you’re hurt,” he added to Ned.
“Oh, I’m not hurt much,” was the easy answer. “Next time I’ll give youplenty of room when there’s bayonet drill.”
Whether Pug liked this or not, he did not say. But he went awaymuttering to himself.
Ned was soon back with his chums again, drilling away, and dreaming ofthe time when he and they could go to France to fight the Huns. Butmuch preliminary work was necessary. It was, as has been said, drill,drill, drill from morning until night.
Meanwhile the boys were beginning to appreciate what the army life wasdoing for them. They were becoming better physically, every day; ashard as nails and as brown as berries.
They wrote enthusiastic letters home, and received letters in reply,giving the news of Cresville. Matters there were about the same.There had been no more “peace” meetings, though it was said thatMr. Schaeffer and his fellow pro-Germans were contemplating anotherbig meeting as a protest against the draft, which had been put intooperation.
The place where the fire had been was still a heap of ruins, Mrs.Hopkins wrote Jerry, and it had not been cleared because of a disputeover the insurance money. Mr. Cardon, the Frenchman, had recoveredfrom his experience, though he still talked about the loss of hismoney, which, he insisted, a man with a crooked nose had stolen.
“I think his story is true,” wrote Mrs. Hopkins. “But nobody has seen the man with the crooked nose, and there is positively no trace of Mr. Baker’s watch nor of my diamond brooch. Mr. Martley’s creditors have found his affairs in such a mess that there will be next to nothing coming to them--so if the watch and brooch are not recovered we will have to stand the loss ourselves.”
“Isn’t that the limit!” cried Jerry, as he read this portion of theletter to his chums.
“It sure is,” remarked Ned.
“I’ll bet my dad feels sore,” put in Bob.
Professor Snodgrass wrote to the boys, telling them he hoped soon topay them a visit. He was finishing cataloging the bugs he had caught onhis last trip to Cresville, he stated, and would soon be on the lookoutfor more.
It was two weeks after Ned’s injury by a bayonet in the hands of PugKennedy, and he was fully himself again, that, one afternoon as he andhis chums were getting ready for hand grenade drill, a cry came froma section of the camp near the artillery unit. There was a series ofshouts following a salvo of heavy guns.
“There’s been an accident!” exclaimed Jerry, as he saw a number ofofficers and men running.
“Cannon exploded, maybe,” said Bob.
“It didn’t sound so,” remarked Ned. “The noise wasn’t any louder thanusual. But it’s something,” he added. “There go the ambulances!”
As he spoke a number of the vehicles dashed across the parade groundtoward the place that seemed to be the center of excitement.
“Come on!” cried Ned. “We’ve got to see what this is!”
The motor boys started to run, followed by several of their new chums,and on all sides there were questions.
“What is it? What happened?”
/> A sentry, who did not leave his post, gave the first information.
“A line of trenches caved in!” he said. “A lot of the men are buriedalive!”