CHAPTER XXII

THE MAN WHO SAVED PARIS

The officer stared, as well he might. It was a most unprecedented thing, and almost unbelievable, that important dispatches should have been given into the hands of a party of mere American boys who happened to be wearing the uniforms of Scouts, to be delivered, while there was yet a Frenchman alive to volunteer for the duty.

“Do you mean to tell me this is true, and that you have carried these precious papers all the way here to Headquarters?” he exclaimed.

For answer Thad drew forth the packet, and held it out to the officer.

“Here it is, just as the messenger gave it into our possession,” he explained.

“And the car?” continued the other, even as his fingers closed upon the packet.

“A patriotic French gentleman who was already using it in the service of France donated it willingly for the purpose when he learned of the great need,” Thad went on.

“And you have been under fire too, I should say, for I can see where the body of the car has been torn by something like a bursting shell!” cried the other, as he allowed his admiring glance to rest once more on the resolute face of the boy at the wheel.

“But we are unharmed, and you have the dispatches, M’sieu!” returned Thad, significantly.

“Wait here until I return!” snapped the officer, with which he turned and went off on a run.

The agony was over. Bumpus could smile again now, and gradually get his customary high color back. So they continued to sit there and wait. It seemed very calm and delightful around them, for they were really at some distance from the fighting line. How strange it seemed that the commander-in-chief should be so far removed from the front, with all its dreadful noise and confusion. Here, surrounded by his maps, he could pace up and down in the little humble building where he had taken up his station, keep his finger on the pulse of the whole extended front, know accurately just how things were going, send hurry calls to this general or that, make any necessary changes in arrangements to offset some move on the part of the foe; and in fact manipulate the movements of half a million men as though he sat at a chess board with a comrade, under the soft rays of the evening lamp, to play a mock battle with bits of dumb ivory instead of living, breathing, suffering human beings.

To Thad in particular it was most wonderful, the quiet and repose of this thing; and he knew how it marked a vast change in the order of events since those days of our own Civil War, when a general sat upon his horse, as did Grant at many a battle, smoking his cigar, watching the play of events through his glass, receiving constant reports brought by couriers on horseback and personally directing the arrangements.

“Nowadays,” remarked Giraffe, also mindful of the great change that had taken place, “it’s the field telephone that takes the place of the wigwag work; while sky scouts in aeroplanes observe all that is going on below, to send messages to the gunners just how to direct their fire. But here comes our friend the colonel back to us.”

“And he seems to be smiling pleasantly too,” observed the gratified Bumpus, to whom that fact implied a great deal.

“Leave your car at one side of the road here,” said the officer as he arrived alongside. “It will be safe in the charge of these men, to whom I shall give an order to that effect. General Joffre has asked me to fetch you to him. He is interested especially because you are Americans, and also only boys. He wished me to tell you that he will gladly shake hands with you, though his time is too precious to grant you more than a minute just now.”

“Oh! that is a great honor!” exclaimed Giraffe, immediately leaping over the side of the car in his haste to alight.

Thad lost no time in carrying out the instructions given him. He moved the car further to one side, so that it might not obstruct the road. They hoped to be able to continue their journey all the way to Paris in that same car; but should it be needed in a military sense for other purposes, why, some other means must be employed for gaining their ends.

With the officer they walked along, and presently came in sight of the building which the commander-in-chief of all the French forces was using as his Headquarters.

There was plenty of bustle outside the house. Men came and went. Some of them it appeared were mounted on horses that looked lathered with sweat as though they had been whipped and spurred to do their utmost in covering the ground between some front and the place where the stout man held forth whose genius was directing every move of importance made by the French along that great battle line. Others used the more modern method of covering distances as rapidly as possible, and had motorcycles that started off with a rattle like a machine gun at work.

More or less awed by the fact that they were about to be ushered into the presence of General Joffre himself, the boys fell in behind the officer. So they passed the guard at the door, who closely scrutinized them; but the gesture made by their conductor vouched for their conduct, and they were not stopped.

Once inside and they saw the French commander-in-chief. Bumpus was greatly surprised. Could that stout man with the French military cap on his head, and wearing a white mustache, and who even seemed so genial as he turned to look toward them, be the great man upon whom all bleeding France now leaned in her time of need?

But Thad, more accustomed to reading character, saw in the firm face and the keen eyes a wonderful tactician, to whom the manipulation of armies was second nature.

Then they came to where an extended hand greeted them. General Joffre smiled at Thad as he squeezed the boy’s fingers heartily.

“I am interested in your adventure, my brave American boys,” he said to them. “Some other time perhaps I would like to hear about it in full. You will pardon me if I cut the interview short. France is deeply indebted to you for your noble assistance. I thank you from my heart in the name of my country.”

He shook hands with each scout in turn. Then the colonel managed to draw them away again, knowing that other dusty messengers were coming all the while, bringing still fresher news concerning later developments of the fighting; and that even seconds were worth everything to this overworked man in the flat-crowned military cap, who consulted the colored maps on the walls, talked with this man and that, gave orders that were instantly written down, and through it all seemed to be as calm as a storekeeper selling a bill of goods to a customer.

Stepping back out of the way, they were allowed to remain there for a few minutes just to observe how the weighty matter of directing a dozen armies could be managed through one chief brain. It was an experience that few others could ever say they had passed through. Dozens of those talented and “nervy” newspaper correspondents would have given all they possessed for the privilege of being in that house for just ten minutes or so; it would make them famous for life. But money could not purchase such a favor; influence never gained it; and only personal service at the risk of their lives had allowed Thad and his three chums the inestimable privilege of shaking hands with General Joffre in the midst of his work.

Presently, when he thought they had stayed long enough to be fully compensated for all they had endured, the officer whispered to Thad that it was time they retired. So he led the way outside the house.

Of course all of the boys expected that he would now tell them they were at liberty to enter the car and go their way. Thad indeed had it in his mind to ask how best they had better depart; for if it could be avoided he certainly did not want to pass through that battered section of the road again. Even though the bombardment had ceased, the condition of the roadbed must be such that travel could hardly be a delight.

To the surprise of Thad, and the delight of voracious Giraffe, who it seemed could never get his fill of such things as watching the developments of a battle, the officer made them a proposition.

“General Joffre would do some little thing to show how he appreciates what you have accomplished this day, young Messieurs,” he started to say; “and in the belief that perhaps you might like to see through glasses what a battle of today looks like he has bidden me conduct you to a point of observation near by, where we are watching the ebb and flow of the fighting. Would it please you to accept?”

Of course Giraffe was the first to give an affirmative answer, though Allan came along close on his heels; and Thad also added his voice in favor of the proposal. No one noticed that Bumpus fell silent. There was a great struggle going on in the mind of the stout boy. He had as much curiosity as the next one; but those terrible happenings seemed to almost freeze the blood in his veins.

He plucked at Thad’s coat sleeve, and the other turning found that Bumpus had a look of genuine pain on his again whitened face.

“Oh! I just couldn’t stand it all over again, Thad,” he commenced saying; “somehow it affects me down in the pit of my stomach, and I seem to have a queer gone feeling I can’t describe. Let me stay here in the car, please, Thad; and don’t think me a miserable coward, will you, for backing out this way?”

Thad gripped his hand.

“Sure, I won’t, Bumpus!” he declared with vehemence; “I know better than to think that. You’ve seen enough of this awful thing. I don’t blame you, either, and I’m in something of the same fix myself; but Giraffe must see it through; and besides, it is a terrible temptation, because we are looking at history being made. Stay by the car then, Bumpus. It shows your good sense, that’s what.”

Then he hurried off after the other, who had already started. Bumpus looked as if he already half repented of his decision; but shaking his head sadly he turned his back upon his chums so that he might not be tempted beyond his power of resistance.

Meanwhile the officer had stepped back into the house and soon reappeared bearing several field-glass cases swung over his shoulders.

“These are for the young friends of General Joffre to use,” he told the delighted boys as he again joined the trio; “he gave them into my hands himself, and said that to me. Now we will make our way over to the hill from which observations are being constantly taken.”

Giraffe being a scout who always kept his eyes about him observed several things that might have escaped the notice of Bumpus, for instance. He saw that as far as possible it was managed so that even an air scout sailing over in his Taube aeroplane, and with glasses to assist him, might not learn where French Headquarters was located. This was of course done in order to prevent the possibility of a sudden raid on the part of some Uhlan regiment that had managed to break through the French lines; or even the dropping of bombs from a passing airship, with the hope of depriving the defenders of Paris of the services of the commander-in-chief.

A wire was cunningly laid along the road from tree to tree, but always in such a fashion that it could not be discovered from aloft. Even the couriers who came and went tried to conceal themselves as much as possible, in order to deceive the foe, to whom these signs might betray the truth.

Soon they arrived at the hill which evidently was being used for an observation post. Climbing this at the heels of the officer, the three scouts presently found themselves on the crest, where a scene was spread before them well worthy of being written on the tablets of their memories as long as they lived.