CHAPTER X.

THE THROB IN THE NIGHT BREEZE.

Thad may have thought that, up to this point, Giraffe was allowing his suspicions to overcome his better judgment; but he now saw the other was unusually serious. So the scout leader considered it wise to ask a few questions.

"How many others did he talk to, Giraffe?" was what he first wanted to know.

"There were two, all told," came the answer; "I think one was that fellow with the coarse laugh, and the other may have been the man almost as broad as he was long, and who made our Bumpus here look like a baby."

"Huh!" grunted the party referred to, "I always told you I wasn't such great shakes when it came to topping the scales; but you've got us interested, Giraffe, so give us the whole story while you're about it, please."

"Did they only get their heads together and talk?" Thad continued.

"Oh! that was just the beginning," admitted Giraffe; "and if it stopped there, how would I know that they were bothering themselves about a party of boys who had dropped in to spend the night? It was what they did that gave them away."

"Tell us about it, then," said Thad.

"Well, when I saw them making for the barn, I kind of suspected they meant to look over our car, and I slipped along after 'em. Course my having been a scout helped me a lot to do that without giving myself away," and there was a vein of justifiable pride in the way the tall boy said this.

"Was it our car they looked over?" asked Allan.

"They were nosing all around it," replied Giraffe, "when I glimpsed them through a knot-hole. Would you believe it, that man with the crooked eye was lighting matches to let them see better. And they certainly did overhaul the car from stem to stern."

"Thad, it might be they thought we left something valuable in the car, such as a pair of expensive field-glasses, you know?" suggested Bumpus, as though seized with a bright thought for once.

The others waited to hear what the spy thought of that idea. Giraffe, however, did not seem to consider it an answer to the riddle.

"No," he said decisively; "they acted as if they were more concerned about the car itself, for they even tested to see whether there was any amount of petrol in the tank, and looked the engine over in the bargain."

"Then they want to make us an offer for the car in the morning?" Bumpus once more advanced; "but I hope none of you'll feel tempted to part with it, while we're still so far away from Antwerp."

"They don't look as if they had pockets full of money," Giraffe told him scornfully. "My idea was that they mean to steal the car some time during the night!"

Thad sat, and seemed to be turning it over in his mind.

"Do you mean for their own use, Giraffe?" he asked finally.

"No, if you ask me plainly, Thad, I don't," the other admitted.

"That's queer," muttered the fat scout, who would not stay squelched; "why do people go around taking cars if not for themselves, I'd like to know?"

Giraffe lowered his voice still more, and in consequence Bumpus felt an additional thrill pass through him, it was all so mysterious.

"For their Government they might," he said. "How do we know but what these Belgians are so patriotic they think it only right strangers should be made to contribute to the good of their army? They must have great need of every kind of motor conveyance just now, to bring up their troops. The German army has tens of thousands of big motor-trucks, we heard. Well, they looked over our old car with the idea of running her off if it seemed worth while."

"Thad, do you take any stock in that idea?" asked Allan, as though somewhat in doubt himself.

"It might be possible," was the reply of the patrol leader. "But there's one thing I do know, and that is, no matter what they want our car for, they mustn't be allowed to take it!"

"Hear! hear!" said Bumpus joyfully.

"While we all feel sorry for poor little Belgium, dragged into this terrible war when she hadn't done a single thing to bring it on, still we'll need that car ourselves for some time yet."

"Yes," added Bumpus, "and, Thad, for one I'm willing to turn the machine over to the Belgians, such as it is, if they can make any sort of use of it, just as soon as we strike Antwerp."

"Same here," added Giraffe; "but I haven't quite told you all yet."

"What, is there another chapter to the story?" asked Bumpus, getting ready for a second edition of those thrills.

"I watched them come away from the barn," continued Giraffe; "though of course they didn't know anybody was around. They walked along the road a bit, and I saw them stop to speak to another man. And, Thad, he was a soldier!"

"Is that a fact?" remarked the other, deeply interested of course.

"He wore the uniform of an officer, I want you to understand!" Giraffe added; "and that's the main reason why I think they mean to steal the car for the use of the Government. Perhaps they haven't just got to the point here of taking anything they see in sight, like the Germans are doing, we were told."

"There's the call to supper," said Bumpus, struggling to his feet with considerable difficulty. "What's the last word about this business, Thad?"

"Just this," he was told, "we're going to try and protect that car to-night, if we have to camp out there in the hay and guard it."

"Second the motion!" said Giraffe, with all the vim he was capable of showing, for he dearly loved excitement and action.

"Now, don't say another word about it while we're eating," warned Thad. "There may be people at the table or nearby who could understand English. We'll talk of other things we've met with in the past. There are heaps of incidents that might be worth while bringing up again, you know."

"I should say there were," admitted Giraffe; "fellows who have hit the trail down in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina; tramped and camped up in the pine woods of Maine; had a summer cruise through the Lake Superior region; spent a time down in the swamps of the Sunny South; and even hunted big game away out among the Rocky Mountains, shouldn't find it hard to rake up things to talk about, it strikes me."

The meal passed off pleasantly enough. There was plenty to eat, and all cooked in a way that satisfied their boyish tastes. At the table were several other people, but as they conversed in Flemish and the boys did not understand much of what was said, they made no attempt to enter into the general talk.

After eating all they wanted, they left the table and sought the outside of the inn. It was quite dark by now. At Giraffe's suggestion they sauntered over to what he called the "barn" to make sure the car was all right.

Thad happened to have a small pocket electric flash-light with him, which he found very valuable at various times when a means for illuminating was required. Making use of this he detached the spark-plug, and thus rendered the car useless until another could be obtained capable of filling the gap.

"That might keep them from stealing the car," he observed, "and again it wouldn't. Even if I had a chain, and locked the wheels, they could file it off, given a little time. So on the whole I think we'll have to camp out here. The night's warm, and it won't be the first time all of us have hit the hay actually."

"But we'd have to let the landlord know," suggested Allan.

"I'll do my best to tell him privately, if you say so," declared Giraffe.

"At the same time find out what our bill is and we'll pay in advance," said Thad.

"What's the idea in doing that?" Bumpus wanted to know.

"Just to let him understand we haven't any intention of slipping off, and beating him out of an account," explained the other. "And, Giraffe, another thing you can do; that is, if you are able to tackle it."

"Tell me," said the other simply, just as a Missourian might say, "Show me!"

"Give him to understand that we're armed, and would defend our property to the last gasp," was the astonishing declaration Thad made, though he could be heard chuckling at the same time, as though himself more or less amused.

"But we're not, Thad, you know; we haven't got more than pocket knives along with us this trip. Even those we used aboard the boat we packed up with the other junk, to be sent across to America when we wrote to that boatyard man."

It was Bumpus who made this protest; the others understood that Thad must have some sort of little scheme of his own which he intended to make use of; so they only waited to hear its nature.

"We'll find some of the tools to handle," he told them, "and in the half dark even a monkey wrench, if you know how, can be made to look like a revolver, especially if you click! click! when aiming the same!"

"That's right," was the comment of Giraffe; "for I've seen the game worked myself, and to tell the truth had my knees knocking together as if I had the ague till the chap who was giving me the grand scare had to laugh outright, and broke the game up."

"Well, we might as well go back and sit on that porch till we feel sleepy. Then Giraffe can tackle the landlord and have it out with him."

Thad's suggestion appeared to strike them all favorably, and it was not long afterward when they settled down to making themselves as comfortable as possible. There was more or less conversation, though gaps came between, for the boys found themselves rather tired. They had not slept as well during the last night or two as they might, owing to numerous things, worries of the mind more than of the body.

"I'm wondering what that queer far-off throbbing sound can be?" Giraffe happened to mention all at once; "I've been hearing it for some time, and it comes as regular as a clock, once in so many minutes."

"And I've been listening to the same," admitted Thad.

"Then perhaps you can give us an idea what causes it?" asked Bumpus, after he too had caught the odd sound, the like of which they could not remember ever having heard before.

"I believe it's the discharge of a monster siege gun!" was Thad's startling declaration, which of course provoked a series of outcries.

"Do you mean away over at Liége, where we've been told the Germans are trying to batter down the conical-top steel forts by dropping monster shells on them from points miles away?" Allan asked in a hushed voice, as though thrilled by the thought.

Thad went on to say that he could not think of any other reason for the strange sounds. He also told them to notice that some of the men they had seen inside the inn had come out, and seemed to be listening to the sounds as if they had a sinister meaning to them.

It was indeed a strange experience for the scouts. They had been in contact with a great many remarkable happenings in the past few years, especially since the troop had been organized at Cranford; but never had they expected to be sitting and listening to the deep-throated throb of giant guns engaged in a terrible battle of opposing armies.

Although they tried to picture the stirring scene, of course it was utterly beyond their capacity; for no one who has not looked on a battle can imagine what it is like.

Giraffe even had the nerve to express a wish that some time or other he might be privileged to see what a modern engagement was like; but of course it was only a thoughtless boyish desire. Before he was through with this journey over the war trails of Belgium possibly he would regret having ever made such a remark; for there might be some things come into his experience that he would be glad to forget.

Long they sat there in the warm night air, listening to the sounds that came, now faintly, and anon in a louder key, according to the character of the breeze that wafted them to their ears.

Then Thad, seeing that Bumpus had allowed his head to fall forward on his chest, told Giraffe he had better seek the landlord and sound him on the scheme of their sleeping in the hay-mow within the barn.