CHAPTER XXVI

THE BADGE OF COURAGE AND HONOR

Bumpus failed to make any reply to this taunt on the part of Giraffe. He did sit up very straight, however, and cast an anxious look toward the little group of soldiers, one of whom had stepped upon the road and half raised his gun in a suggestive way.

“Get out!” snapped the determined looking man who seemed to be in command of the squad, and wore chevrons on his sleeve to indicate that he was a non-commissioned officer.

Of course he said this in French, but Thad knew what the words stood for. Even without that knowledge the commanding gesture with which they were accompanied must have told what was wanted.

“But we are Americans, and this is our car. We expect to go to Paris, M’sieu. We carry a permit also.”

“Get out; your car is needed by the French Government. We are taking every one we can find. No words now, or you may be sorry for it!”

Thad did not seem to be shocked when he heard the other say this so brutally. He knew that the man had been sent out to round up all the means of transportation possible, and that his orders were to let none escape, whether the cars of the very rich, or the vans of business men.

Indeed, what surprised Thad most of all was to hear himself addressed in such excellent English. Apparently, this man then had not spent his whole life within the borders of his native country, but must have lived abroad.

“Please do not be in so great a hurry, M’sieu,” he went on to say pleasantly, as he put his hand to his pocket in search of the paper given to him by the obliging colonel. “Listen, we have been serving France with the Red Cross. See, even now one of my comrades still wears the band about his arm. Then, too, we had the happiness of assisting to carry dispatches to the front. For doing this we received a paper to show to any one like yourself who might wish to detain us, or take our car away. Kindly glance your eye over this, and then decide, M’sieu.”

With that he flashed the magical document in front of the bluff sergeant, who had no other recourse but to read what was there written. It was wonderful what a change came over the man as soon as he saw the name at the bottom. He looked up into the face of Thad wonderingly.

“What does it all mean?” he demanded in a subdued tone. “I see a name all France loves to honor, the man who this very day has saved our country. Do you mean to tell me you have been with General Joffre at the front, you boys?”

“We have entered his Headquarters, we have shaken hands with him, and he has thanked us for what we did. More than that he gave us this paper you can see, with his name at the bottom. Is it enough, M’sieu? Can we go on to Paris, where we have promised to turn this car over to the military authorities for their service?”

The bluff sergeant snatched off his cap.

“I salute you, comrades. Pardon the little inconvenience we have put you to. I envy you your good fortune. The road is open to you, and here is your wonderful paper. Would that I had such a proud heritage to hand down to my children.”

He stood at attention, with his hand upraised, as did the other soldiers, who while possibly not understanding everything, had heard enough to know that these wonderful American boys clad in those faded khaki uniforms had been in the company of the Great Commander.

Thad would have liked to converse longer with the man, for he saw that he must be an uncommon character, but time was too valuable to waste just then. Bumpus was grieving, and wanting to learn the truth as to the safety of his mother.

So Thad returned the soldier’s salute, and started up his engine, which had been suffered to stop working while they were detained, as gasolene or petrol was valuable. The last they saw of the sergeant he was waving his hand after them.

Bumpus drew a long breath.

“Another narrow escape!” he ventured, with a vein of relief in his voice.

“Oh! a miss is as good as a mile!” sang Giraffe. “Some way or other we seem to get around every difficulty that crops up. Sometimes it’s Thad’s knowledge of mechanics that saves us; and then again it turns out we have in our possession a little magical document that makes friends out of enemies.”

“Yes,” added Bumpus, drily, “you forget one important thing that has saved at least one member of the crowd a tanning, and that’s the possession of a good pair of running legs, and the ability to use the same.”

“I guess you’re right there, Bumpus,” acknowledged the other. “Now, if it had been you that same mob was chasing after, I can see your finish, because they’d have grabbed you in less’n no time.”

“Then it was lucky you got hungry instead of me,” chuckled the stout boy, as he once more settled himself back comfortably in his seat.

The soldiers had been stationed at a commanding point, for it was at the junction of the two roads. No doubt they had been able to commandeer numerous cars and other vehicles; for certain wealthy old men in Paris having learned about the victory won by the French army were beginning to come out, with the desire to gaze upon the scene; and this gave the watchers a chance to stop them and send a soldier back in charge of the car.

“On the home-stretch at last, Bumpus!” exclaimed Giraffe. “I recognize this section, and we can’t be more’n ten miles out of the city. Before long we’ll begin to catch glimpses of the distant Eiffel Tower and some of the higher buildings. But there are still a number of pretty little villages to pass through.”

“Thad, I’m going to ask a favor of you!” called out Bumpus just then.

“Go ahead, then,” floated back over the shoulder of the pilot at the wheel.

“Now we could easily get another back here in the tonneau of this wide car by squeezing a little. I’ve noticed several wounded soldiers walking toward the city, and there’s one right now ahead of us. Why couldn’t we offer to take him in, and give him a lift? I’d be willing to hang on outside, if need be, so’s to assist one or two of those noble chaps.”

“Bully for you, Bumpus; you’re always thinking of some one else!” applauded Giraffe, who could appreciate these things even if they did not seem to come to him in the same way they did to the other comrade.

“And we’ll do it, too!” exclaimed Thad, only too willing to be of service to one of those who trudged along through the dust, heading for a hospital.

So as they overtook the walking man Bumpus called out to him.

“Hey! there, don’t you want to get in, and ride to the city with us?” he asked.

Thad brought the car to a standstill, for the soldier had stopped upon hearing a voice hail him. They saw that he was a youngish sort of man wearing a short beard. He had his right arm bound up with bandages, showing that the busy workers at some field hospital must have taken care of him, after which he was to go to a base hospital for further attention and recovery.

“But I do not go to Paris just yet, young Messieurs,” he told them in good English too, for many Frenchmen speak the language, as they come in frequent intercourse with the people across the Channel. “My home it is in a village outside the city. First I must show myself to my wife and family, that they may know I am yet alive. Then, too, I have something else that they should see.”

With that he turned more fully toward them, and Thad saw to his great surprise that the private was actually wearing a glittering emblem. It was really the Cross of the Legion of Honor, only bestowed, like the English Victoria Cross, upon some man who has shown extraordinary valor in battle, performed some wonderful feat of bravery, in fact.

To see it on the breast of a humble wounded private trudging wearily along a dusty road near Paris naturally gave the boys a thrill. They looked upon the man now as an exalted hero, for he surely must have done something wonderful; and yet if that were so how did it come that he still occupied such a humble rank?

His eyes were glittering with happiness. He touched that emblem proudly, and with almost reverence.

“Ah! young Messieurs,” they heard him say, “it was mon colonel himself who tore this splendid medal off his own coat and pinned it there. ‘It shall stay,’ he told me, plain Jaques Leforge and but a private, ‘it shall stay until I see your own fastened there.’ And that too on the field of battle, with men dying all around us. That was a most proud moment for me, let me assure you. And as I walk along all this way to my home I am telling myself that my Janet and the little ones they too will be glad, for never again can any one point a finger at Jaques Leforge and say he is a coward, and that his blood is water.”

“What! did they say that of you, then?” asked Thad, deeply interested in what he was hearing, for it seemed as though they were on the point of learning how a miracle had been wrought in the nature of this man.

“It is too true, M’sieu,” the other replied, sadly. “All my life I have been told that I had no spirit, that I would never stand the test when it came to war; that the heart of a timid man dwelt under my uniform. So I too had come to believe it, even I, Jaques Leforge, who should have known better. I often told myself I was meant for only a poltroon, a coward; and when the war came I went to my place in my regiment believing that I should die of fright when the guns rang in my ears, and the shells, burst all around me. Ah! that was a strange delusion, M’sieu, a most strange deceit.”

“Tell us all about it,” urged Giraffe; while Bumpus leaned over and kept his eyes glued upon that wonderful medal which the dusty private bore upon the left bosom of his blue uniform.

“I do not know just how it happened,” continued the man, modesty. “They said we would charge. I shut my eyes, thinking that I might be tempted to run away, and sooner than have such a disgrace come upon me I meant to die. Then we were going in, and all around me men were struggling and striking and dying. I too gave and took and, most wonderful of all, found that I was not afraid. Then came the signal to retreat, for the enemy they were too many for us. As we fell back the cry arose that our colonel had fallen and was left behind. M’sieu, I do not know what possessed me to turn back and run into the mass of the enemy, striking right and left. They swarmed about me, but somehow I always seemed to escape death. Then I saw my colonel there upon the ground, wounded. He waved his hand to me, seeing the blue there; but I did not stop only long enough to snatch him up. Just then I seemed to have the strength of a dozen men. I fought my way through again, and staggering I reached our lines, where my comrades nearly smothered me with caresses. And after that my colonel pinned this to my coat, and said I was a brave man. The best of it to me is that he will live to lead his men again. That is all. And I, Jaques Leforge, did it.”

“You must get in here with us,” said Thad. “We will not take no for an answer. You are tired, you are almost spent, and your home may still be some miles away. Besides, we want to put you down there, so that we too may see what those neighbors will say, those who misjudged you all these years, when they see that splendid medal, and know that you have won it.”

“That’s the talk,” said Giraffe, promptly; and even Bumpus, much as he wanted to hurry along, would not have arranged it otherwise.

So the wounded hero was helped into the car, where they made room for him on the rear seat. It was not more than five minutes later when he pointed ahead with his uninjured hand and called out:

“There, you see the little church, M’sieu—my house is at the corner, and that woman who is coming out of the gate, she is my Janet, my wife!”