CHAPTER XV.

AT THE END OF A TOW LINE.

This state of uncertainty was of short duration. Then Thad chuckled softly.

"I certainly heard Giraffe's laugh then," he told Allan; "and you can tell now it's only a single horse that's thumping along. After all Giraffe had to give up on the petrol business, and come down to getting us towed in."

Soon they could see moving figures on the road, and catch the creak of heavy wheels much in need of axle grease. It proved to be a cart, and seated in the same was Giraffe, together with a couple of half-grown Belgian lads.

"Thought I was never coming, didn't you?" the tall scout remarked, as he jumped to the road; "well, I kept trying to get some gas all through the village, but it was no use. When I contracted to buy a supply I must have bitten off a bigger wad than I could chew. And I had a number of things happen, too; tell you about the same later on. Now, we'll get busy hitching our chariot to a star. This was really the best I could do, Thad."

He was of course assured that no one dreamed of blaming him; and that they would be very well satisfied to get somewhere or other, no matter what the means of locomotion turned out to be.

The two stout Belgian boys soon managed with the help of Giraffe to fasten the stalled car to the rear of their queer-looking cart. Ropes had been brought along for that very purpose, Giraffe foreseeing the need of such things.

When the start was made the car gave a jerk. That served to arouse Bumpus, who had continued to sleep calmly on despite all the talking.

"Oh! so we're going on again, are we? Did Giraffe fetch the stuff, and--my stars! whatever is that ahead of us; and a towing rope in the bargain? Oh! I see now; we're being carted into town, for a fact!"

Giraffe was full of his recent hunt for liquid fuel.

"I never saw the beat," he told them, "how everybody wants to hold on to what little petrol they've got. I offered double price, but they shook their heads and as near as I could understand tried to tell me they needed every drop for their own use. Now that the war has broken out nobody knows what will happen. After chasing around till I was tired out, I made up my mind it was a case of the tow-line for us, or stay out here all night. I took the tow, and here we are."

"How far away is the town you mention?" asked Thad.

"All of two miles," he was told; "but it wasn't the distance that kept me. I had to waste so much time trying to make them understand. Then one party would direct me to a certain house where I might buy some petrol. Result, half an hour wasted and not a thing gained."

"Is there an inn in that town, Giraffe?" asked Bumpus, softly.

"Thinking about your grub, ain't you, Bumpus?" chuckled the other; "but that's all right. There's an inn, and I told the landlord we might show up later on. He even promised to cook us some supper when we came, charging extra for the same, you understand, Bumpus. It was in front of that same inn I saw the soldiers."

"Germans?" asked Allan, quickly.

"No, a Belgian battery of field guns that is heading for the fighting line," the late messenger explained. "They came in with a whirl while I was there, and watered the horses dragging the guns at the trough in front of the inn. It made a pretty sight, let me tell you, for the moon was just rising. I'll never forget it as long as I live."

"They didn't offer to bother you, did they, Giraffe?" asked Bumpus.

"Sure they didn't," replied the other, scornfully. "Why, I soon found that one of the gunners could speak pretty good English, and I had quite a little talk fest with him while the horses were drinking their fill at that trough."

"Did you pick up any information worth while, Giraffe?" asked Allan.

"What I got only made me feel sour," the other replied.

"Why should it, Giraffe?" Bumpus wanted to know.

"Because I was told the Germans seemed to be sending out thousands of their hard-riding cavalrymen to scatter through this part of the country and terrorize the people," explained Giraffe.

"There would be another meaning to such a move, I should think," ventured Thad.

"Right you are there, Thad," continued the other. "That gunner let me understand it was believed the Germans, being held up so fiercely by the forts at Liége, were trying to make a flank movement so as to threaten Brussels from this side. And Thad, he said there wasn't more'n one chance in ten we'd ever be able to get through the lines."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Giraffe," remarked the patrol leader.

"But we don't mean to give up yet, do we?" queried Bumpus, who never liked to quit; he had plenty of faults, but that of yielding could hardly be called one of his shortcomings.

"It doesn't look like it," admitted Thad; "for we've got our tank mended, and if there's any gasoline to be had for love or money we'll push on to-morrow, taking what comes, and making the best of it."

"And always remembering," said Giraffe, "that in case the worst comes we can go back to the Dutch border, cross over, and make for Rotterdam. That's what the Belgian gunner told me. He was a fine young chap, and if he comes through the fighting all right I expect to hear from him after I get home again."

As he never did, Giraffe was later on forced to the sad conviction that his new-found friend must have given up his young life in defence of his beloved country, as thousands of others did likewise.

They continued to talk as they made slow progress. It was snail-like, after having become accustomed to the ten-mile-an-hour gait of the car, when it was doing its best. Still, no one complained, for half a loaf was a good deal better than no bread.

"I'd a lot sooner be caught in this fix than to stay out there all night, crammed in the car," remarked Bumpus, and then continuing he said, with a vein of reproach in his mellow voice: "but, Thad, Allan, it wasn't just right for you to tuck the only wrap we had along around me, like I was a big baby. I've got to learn to take my knocks like the rest of you, and I want you to let me meet my share, or else I'll be unhappy."

"There, we're getting close to the village now," said Giraffe, pointing to where houses could be dimly seen in the misty moonlight.

The hour was pretty late when they hauled up in the inn-yard. The landlord had kept his word, and supper was being cooked even then, a fact Bumpus discovered as soon as he could scent the odors in the air.

"Oh! mebbe I'm not glad you decided to take a horse when you couldn't get any gas, Giraffe," he remarked, sniffing vigorously; "now, I wonder what he's having cooked for us. If it's as good as the stuff we had at noon I'm going to find out how it's made. Then some time or other when we're camping out with the rest of the boys I'll spring a big surprise on you all."

"I think that everything considered," said Thad, "we have reason to be thankful things are no worse. So far as I can see there's been no damage done; and here's the landlord coming to tell us supper is ready."

"Hold on, Bumpus, you forget that you've got a game leg, don't you?" called out Giraffe, as the fat boy jumped to his feet in readiness for a rush.

"Oh! that's got well again," Bumpus assured him blandly. "Fact is, the scare I had when I was run away with by that car did the business for that lame leg. But if both of them happened to be crippled that wouldn't keep me from feeling hungry, would it?"

Since no one had ever known anything to do this of course there was no chance for Giraffe to make any response. The supper turned out to have the same appetizing flavor which Bumpus had so much admired at noon, and after a great deal of effort Giraffe managed to extract the information from the landlord that it was all a little French trick of rubbing a bit of garlic on the pan in which the food was being cooked, and which gave it that flavor.

"I see all sorts of trouble ahead for us scouts," ventured Giraffe, after he had imparted this information to Bumpus, "if ever he takes to carrying a string of garlic along with him on our hikes."

They really enjoyed that supper immensely. Possibly it was because they had such keen appetites after waiting so long in the cool night air; but no matter what the cause they left the table satisfied.

"Next thing is to get some sleep," remarked Bumpus.

"We're going to step out a bit first, Bumpus, and push the car under a shed, so it will be hidden," Allan told him.

"Oh! we don't have to lie around again to guard the same, I hope," suggested the fat scout, who was hoping to have clean sheets and a mattress for a change, instead of just ordinary hay.

"No, we've decided to cut that out this time," Thad explained, "because we don't believe there's going to be any stealing done. I'll cripple the machine again by taking away some part; and with no petrol aboard it ought to be safe."

They were given a couple of large rooms that overlooked the front of the house. When Thad thrust his head out of a window he could see the road, and the watering trough where as Giraffe had told them the horses of the Belgian field battery rushing to the front had stopped to drink.

All seemed peaceful and quiet. If a dog barked occasionally, or a nearby rooster gave vent to a few crows, as was his habit at certain hours of the night, none of the tired lads were likely to pay any attention to such common sounds. They figured that given two more days, with as much progress accomplished as had marked the one just passed, and they should be beyond the danger line, with what could be called a clear field ahead of them.

So doubtless as they settled themselves to sleep, two in each room, and with good clean and comfortable beds under them, their last thoughts must have been of hopes for the morrow, and wishes for as few interruptions as possible.

Allan was Thad's bed-fellow, which of course left Bumpus and Giraffe to pair off--"the fat and the lean," as the tall boy remarked when proceeding to get most of his clothes off and try that "dandy-looking bed."

Thad could not go to sleep very easily, for a wonder. It was not that he had any reason to anticipate coming trouble, for as far as he could see there was nothing of the sort in sight. So many things persisted in crowding into his mind that for once his plan of settling down did not seem to work very well.

It must have been fully eleven o'clock before he dropped off; and the last thing he remembered hearing was a series of odd little snorts coming from the adjoining room, which he knew must be caused by Bumpus lying on his back. Giraffe on his part was certainly sound asleep, or he would never have stood for such noises.

Then Thad awoke.

He heard the clatter of many horses' hoofs outside, together with the jangling of accoutrements. It gave him a shock and he immediately sat upright in bed. This awoke Allan, and he copied Thad's example as soon as he caught the strange and significant noises coming in through the open windows.

As the two boys sat there listening, hardly knowing what all this rattle of iron-shod hoofs might signify, they heard a loud voice give a command, which was evidently intended as "halt!"

What thrilled Thad and his chum, however, was that the order was not given in English, French or Flemish but in plain, unmistakable German.

"The Kaiser's men have struck this place, Allan!" said Thad, as with quivering hands he threw back the bed clothes, and jumping out started toward the window, bent upon seeing what it meant.

Allan was at his heels, and upon reaching the open window they looked out, to discover a sight that was calculated to impress them so strongly that it could never be forgotten.