CHAPTER XXIII.

THE THUNDER OF OPPOSING BATTERIES.

Standing there they used their eyes to the best advantage, though none of them felt fully satisfied with their position. Josh looked enviously at a spot only a short distance away. It was something of a small elevation, and he felt positive that if only they could manage to reach it their chances of seeing all that went on would be immeasurably enhanced.

"Yes," Rod was saying, loud enough for the others to hear him, "I'm afraid, too, his regiment is going to be in the thick of that desperate battle for the possession of the ford across the Marne."

"Do you mean Andre?" demanded Hanky Panky, instantly.

"Just who I meant," came the reply.

The others knew that as Rod spoke French, and had talked with a number of people as well as soldiers on the road, he must be primed with information such as had not fallen to their lot. Hence it never occurred to either of them to question the accuracy of anything he might say.

"That would be too bad for all of us," remarked Josh, "if anything happened to Andre, just when we got within stone's-throw of him. But Rod, do we have to stay right here, and do our looking?"

"What makes you ask that, Josh?"

"Well, you see, there's a whole lot better place over yonder, if only we could reach it; but I'm afraid lugging our machines over the rough ground would be too big a job."

At that Rod took a glance, and of course saw the advantages to be attained by a shift in their position.

"It might be done," he told the anxious Josh, "if we cared to try and conceal our wheels somewhere near by, and walked or ran over to the rise."

"Would that be safe?" asked Hanky Panky, fearful lest they after all lose their mounts, and be compelled to walk, or depend on getting an occasional lift from some vehicle going in the direction of Paris.

"Reasonably so, I think," admitted the leader.

Encouraged by his tone Josh began to cast about in the hope of discovering a hiding place that would stand the test. This he speedily succeeded in doing, for Josh had sharp eyes, and could see things in a flash that it would take another a long time in finding out.

So they made haste to hide the trio of motorcycles in the shrubbery, hoping no one might by accident force a way through just at that particular point, and discover what had been left there.

"Now let's whoop it up for the rise!" suggested the eager Josh, for the sound of the battle had grown so insistent that he was fairly wild to see everything going on.

They all ran in a bunch, for Rod held Josh in, so that Hanky Panky might not be left too far behind. When they arrived at the place picked out for their station they found that, just as Josh had guessed, it was admirably fitted for their purpose.

Brief though the time had been taken up with this strategic maneuver the fight had evidently progressed beyond the preliminary artillery duel. True, the guns on either side of the Marne were thundering fearfully, and every time a battery sent out its winged messengers of death the very earth seemed to tremble under the boyish trio, who crouched there, and gazed with their hearts fluttering in their breasts like those of frightened birds when held in the hand.

The Germans had left quite a strong detachment of their forces behind to defend that particular ford, which evidently assumed an important position in the eyes of the commander. The Marne could not be crossed with heavy artillery in all that section without the building of a bridge to replace those destroyed by the retreating Teutons, which would take a certain measure of time to execute.

But it was possible to get the guns across here at the ford, for that was what the Germans themselves had done. And a crossing here in force would mean that the pursuing columns of the French must creep that much closer to the precious big guns which the Germans were doing everything in their power to save from capture.

A thousand men might be sacrificed in this endeavor, but what of that? Human material could be replaced readily enough, but it took months to build up one of those magnificent forty-two centimetre mortars with which they meant to batter down the defences of Paris, and win the war.

At the moment the three boys reached their point of observation things were rapidly drawing near a crisis. The French troops were undoubtedly getting wild to be let loose upon the waiting enemy; only their commander knew that the chances were as two to one they would not be able to get across the river so long as that one battery in particular commanded the ford. Its shells were able to sweep over every yard of the crossing, and could cut down those who were wading desperately through the waist-deep water, as though they were helpless flies.

"What are they waiting for, do you think, Rod?" asked Josh, between the roars of the opposing guns.

"The French leader hates to sacrifice so many of his brave men while that battery is in a position to sweep the ford," replied the other, without hesitation, showing that he had grasped the situation even in that brief time.

"Well, tell me how he expects to get rid of the same?" continued Josh, though he had to place his lips close to Rod's ear, and fairly bellow his words in order to make himself heard, such was the increasing din close by.

"Perhaps he keeps hoping that some of his own guns will be able to locate the German battery among the bushes there, and disable it," said Rod.

Hanky Panky pulled at his sleeve. When Rod turned his head he found the other pointing excitedly upwards, and upon casting his own eyes in that quarter Rod instantly knew what his chum meant.

"Two French aeroplanes going up, sure enough!" he exclaimed.

"Mebbe they mean to try and drop bombs on the battery, so's to destroy it!" suggested Josh, whose attention had also been drawn to the new feature in the lively drama taking place before them.

Rod nodded his head to signify that the idea struck him as worth while. Even had he attempted to speak just then his effort would have been pretty much wasted, for the din had become something terrible. A thousand French soldiers were cheering, even while being held in check by their officers; they made Rod think of hounds restrained by the leash, and loudly bewailing their inability to jump forward. He could easily imagine with what frantic zeal those men would leap ahead and into the waters of the Marne when the time came.

Up higher and higher soared the twin aeroplanes, climbing in eccentric spirals.

Evidently the daring birdmen intended to attain a certain height where they might feel reasonably safe from the shrapnel sent after them from antiaircraft guns manned by the Germans; when they would try their luck in dropping the bombs they undoubtedly carried with them, in hopes of making a lucky shot.

"It's going to come soon, I guess!" ventured Josh, when a brief lull in all the firing allowed him a chance to get in a few words.

"Yep," added Hanky Panky, who was getting a stiff neck with looking up so long; "right now you can see that they're sailing around like they might be looking for a good place to hover. But they'd better take care, because that shrapnel is bursting just below them, and some time a shell might hit home."

A loud whoop from Josh instantly followed these words.

"There, one let go a bomb, as sure as you live!" he shouted; "look and see where it hits!"

Quickly following came a report, and the boys could see the earth fly in showers.

"Not by a jugful!" whooped Hanky Panky, also carried away with the excitement of the moment; "they'll have to aim better than that if they expect to knock the German battery out of business."

The second airman tried his hand, and while possibly he managed to do a little better than the first the result was also disappointing. Evidently they were at too great a height to be able to strike a small mark like the hidden battery. At that early stage in the war which had been sprung so suddenly on France, her aviators had not as yet become proficient in this sort of shooting; later on when they had been given much practice, the result was bound to be quite different.

When the birdmen had exhausted all their bombs and made no impression on the dangerous battery they were compelled to desist and circle around. Evidently it was the intention of the air scouts while aloft to learn all they could connected with the disposition of the German forces. This information would prove valuable to the French commander, whether able to win the coveted ford or not.

"Will they give up trying to cross over now?" asked Hanky Panky, after it was seen that the efforts of the circling birdmen, much more than half a mile aloft, had not met with any sort of success.

"That isn't the usual French way of fighting, if all I've heard and seen of them cuts any figure in the game!" Josh exclaimed.

Rod, too, seemed to be of the same opinion.

"I think they must be getting ready to make a mad effort to rush the ford," he went on to say; "you notice that their guns are silent just now; but that's done so they can burst out with a more terrible bombardment than ever, under cover of which the attack will be started."

"But why all this row over just one contemptible little ford?" asked Hanky Panky innocently.

Josh snorted at hearing this.

"Why, can't you see what it means to both sides to control a crossing where the artillery can get over without building a bridge?" he demanded. "To hold up the French here the Germans would be willing to sacrifice thousands of their best men, because it would save their big guns now on the way north. There, it's coming, I do believe."

None of them heard the last words spoken by Josh, and for a very good reason. Every gun the French had within a mile of the ford began to bellow in concert, and the ground shook under the concussion. Across on the other side they could see the shells bursting everywhere. It seemed as though they sought out each place where they suspected hostile batteries or columns of troops might lie in hiding, thus fairly raking the entire vicinity.

This was "preparing the ground for the seed," as army men would put it. When this fierce "spraying" was well under way no doubt the order that had been awaited so long and impatiently by the concealed French soldiers was to be given; when they would start toward the bank of the river and strike into the shallow water, breasting their way across if possible.

The three boys fairly held their breath with awe, knowing what was coming next. Hanky Panky crouched there shivering like one who had the "shakes," yet wholly unable to drag his horrified eyes away from the grim spectacle of war that was passing before him. Josh, on the other hand, had arisen to his feet, knowing that there was little or no chance of his being noticed and fired at, unless indeed some German gunner conceived the idea that they were a group of French officers observing the progress of the battle from an eminence.

This dreadful "spraying" with fire had gone on for some little time now when Rod saw signs that told him the expected event was coming. He could not have made his chums hear, no matter how he shouted, and so he contented himself with clutching each of them, Hanky Panky by the arm and Josh by the calf of his leg. They knew what he meant by this action, too, even though not a word was uttered.

The violent gunfire was being kept up, but from several points there suddenly burst into view living streams of French soldiers racing madly for the ford, and every man apparently wild to be the first to attempt the deadly crossing.