CHAPTER II.

A BOLD UNDERTAKING.

No one said anything immediately. Bumpus had turned very white, and a pained expression crept across his round face, seldom seen there.

"My poor mother!" they heard him mutter, as he stared over into the mysterious west, in the direction where Antwerp was supposed to lie, with part of Germany and the whole of Belgium between.

Under ordinary conditions there would have been only one way out of the scrape for the four chums. This would have been to make as rapid a retreat as they could, passing further into Germany, and managing by some good fortune to get over into Holland where at Amsterdam they might secure passage to London by steamer.

Thad would have laid out their campaign along those lines only for his sacred promise to poor Bumpus, who being very set in his way might have attempted the task of getting to the Belgian city by himself, and of course making an utter failure of it, because Bumpus never did many things right.

"So, the worst has come, after all," said Thad, presently; "and the torch has been put to the powder magazine that will blow up pretty much all Europe before the end is reached."

"Will Great Britain fight, do you think, Thad?" asked Giraffe, in somewhat of an awed voice for one so bold as he had usually proved himself.

"That's to be seen," replied the other, gravely; "but we know that France and Russia will fly to arms, and I don't see how England can keep out of it. You know she has sworn to maintain the neutrality of Belgium even by force of arms if necessary. If the German army is over the border that settles it, I'm afraid."

"Whew! but there will be a fierce old row!" declared Giraffe; "and just to think of our being over here at such a wonderful time. Mebbe we won't have lots to tell Step Hen, Davy Jones, Smithy, Bob White, and the rest of the fellows when we get back home again."

"Yes, when we do!" echoed Bumpus, dolefully.

"Here, cheer up, Bumpus; don't look like you'd lost your last friend," the boy with the long neck told him. "Remember what Thad said about our hanging to you all the way through, don't you? Well, it still goes. Even the whole German army can't keep us from getting over into Belgium, and hiking for old Antwerp. We'll pull up there sooner or later in pretty fair shape, and smuggle Ma Hawtree across the Channel to England's shores, mark my words if we don't."

Thad and Allan both said something along the same lines. Perhaps they may not have felt quite so sanguine as Giraffe, but that did not prevent them from trying to bolster up the sagging courage of Bumpus.

Of course the latter began to show immediate signs of renewed hope. How could it be otherwise when he had the backing of such loyal chums?

"But what can we do when the whole country is just swarming with soldiers, all heading in the direction of the border?" Bumpus wanted to know. "We've got our passports, I admit, but in time of war they wouldn't be worth the paper they're written on. And, Thad, no common person can ride on one of the trains these days, I'm sure."

"Yes, that's right, Bumpus," the other admitted, "and in making up our plans we must omit travel in the regular way."

"The border is something like forty miles away from here, I should say," suggested Allan, who had of course looked the thing up on the map.

"There's the Netherlands a bit closer," Thad explained, "if we chose to cross over the line; but we might find it hard to get into Belgium that way. One thing sure, we must be on the move to-day."

"Do you mean we'll hoof it, Thad?" demanded Giraffe, who, being a good walker, evidently did not see any particular difficulty about managing twenty to thirty miles a day over good summer roads.

With Bumpus it was quite another matter, and he held his breath while waiting to hear what the patrol leader had to say.

"If we have to we might make it," Thad presently returned, as though he had considered the matter himself at some previous time. "Then who knows but what we might be lucky enough to run across some man owning a car, who would either rent it to us or give us a lift to the border."

"But, Thad," objected Allan, "you know what we heard about all cars? As soon as the order for mobilization went out it was flashed from the Russian border to Alsace and Lorraine, and from that minute every car worth owning in the entire German country would be the property of the Government. Why, if we owned even an American-made car right now it would be taken away from us, to be paid for by the military authorities. I'm afraid it's going to be a case of shank's mare with us."

"Let it," said Thad; "we've got to make a start inside of an hour or so!"

That was the prompt way in which most of the matters engineered by Thad Brewster were put through. Somehow his manner of saying it thrilled the others, for there could be seen a new grim look come into their faces. Even the woe-begone countenance of Bumpus took on fresh hope.

"Do you really mean that we're going to start out into the west, Thad?" he asked, with glistening eyes.

"Just what we'll do, Bumpus!" he was told with a reassuring smile on the part of the patrol leader such as always carried fresh cheer to anxious hearts.

"How about getting rid of the boat that's carried us down the Rhine so splendidly?" questioned Giraffe.

"That's already been arranged for," was what the other told him; "all we have to do is to hand it over to that boat builder, and get his receipt for the same. We have paid the last thaler we owe, and there's no reason why we can't leave our duffle here with the same man, to be sent for later on when the war is over and railroads are taking on freight again for America."

"It sounds good to me," said Giraffe. "I'd hate to lose a few things I brought along to make myself comfortable with--the red blanket, for instance, that's been with me on so many camping trips. I hope there's a good chance of seeing our stuff again some fine day."

"Well, talking isn't going to help us any, so what do you say we get busy?" suggested Thad; and as the others were all agreeable they soon made quick work with packing up their belongings, so they could be left in charge of the owner of the boatyard on the outskirts of the city.

All the while they worked the boys could hear a thousand and one sounds connected with the feverish rush of military trains crossing bridges, and starting off anew toward the Belgian border at three points beyond the mobilizing centre of Aachen or, as it was once called, Aix la Chappelle, almost due west by south from Cologne.

When the hour was up they had accomplished all the preliminaries looking to the start on foot across German territory. The owner of the boatyard doubtless wondered what they meant to do, for he asked a number of curious questions. Still he readily agreed to store their packages until such time as he received instructions how to ship the same to America, accompanied by a tidy little sum to pay his charges.

"If you asked my opinion," remarked Giraffe, after they had left the place and started off, "I'd say that old chap didn't wholly believe the story we told. Right now he may think we're really a party of British Boy Scouts, over here in the land of the Kaiser to learn some of the garrison secrets, so in case of an invasion later on the beefeaters would know where the weak places in the defences are."

"Do you think he would go to the trouble to inform some of the military authorities of his suspicions, and get them after us?" asked Bumpus, looking concerned, as well he might, for every delay promised to make his task of rejoining his ailing mother more difficult.

"Let's hope not," said Thad; "but these Germans certainly do have the greatest secret service ever known. They get their news in a thousand ways, I've heard; and this war is going to give the world the biggest surprise it ever had."

When Thad made that remark he little knew what wonderful things were fated to come to light connected with the spy system of Germany, which would prove to be the most elaborate ever conceived by any nation, modern or otherwise.

"Next to Americans, they're the most wonderful people under the sun!" boldly declared Giraffe, whose ancestors had lived along that same Rhine river, so that he could not help but feel very kindly toward the whole Teuton race.

There was Bumpus who was on the other side of the fence, for the Hawtrees came of good old English stock. Hence he and Giraffe often had friendly little tilts, each standing up for the land from which his ancestors sprang. That little remark about the "beefeaters" was meant as a sort of sly slur at Bumpus by the boy with the long neck, though for once it failed to arouse any comment.

Having been compelled to pass the city in order to find the boatyard to which they had been directed, the boys were on the northern side of Cologne at the time they began their long tramp. Little did they dream what amazing incidents were fated to fall to their portion before that journey came to an end. It would have thrilled them through and through could they have guessed even one-half of the hardships and the adventures that awaited them on their bold undertaking.

With small bundles thrown over their shoulders after the manner of scouts' knapsacks, they left the river behind them and faced the west.

"We've enjoyed meeting you, Old Father Rhine," said Giraffe, waving his hand toward the stream as though he looked on it as a very good friend, "and we'll always keep a little corner of our memory sacred to this glorious trip; but we've got something to handle now that's a heap more serious than just loafing in a pleasure boat, and eating three square meals a day."

"First of all," said Thad, "we might pin the little miniature American flags we brought with us to our coat lapels. Then folks can see that we are Yankees, and not Britishers."

"But we haven't run across much bad feeling for the English among the Germans," Bumpus ventured to say.

"Huh! wait and see what happens if Great Britain dares to take up the challenge the Kaiser's thrown down when he crossed the Belgian border," asserted Giraffe. "The first shot a British man-o'-war takes at a German vessel and it's going to be unsafe to talk in English over here. You'll even have to change that snore of yours, Bumpus, and give it a Dutch twist. Now if your name was only Gottlieb you'd pass for a native easy enough, with your red face and round figure."

Thus chatting they made their way along the road leading away from the city to the cathedral. Many persons they chanced to meet gave them a respectful salute, no doubt at first thinking they might belong to one of the German troops of Boy Scouts so common all over the empire. When they glimpsed those tiny flags which the four lads so proudly wore, their eyebrows went up and they were noticed to say things in an undertone, one to another.

On several occasions Thad thought it best for them to step off the road and settle down in some fence corner, or under a shed it might be. Each of these times there passed a company of soldiers hurrying toward the city, and evidently making for a mobilization point so that they might occupy a place previously arranged for in the grand concentration scheme of the nation's army.

These delays were not numerous, but they served to hold the boys up more or less, so that by the time noon came they had not covered more than three miles of territory beyond the suburbs of Cologne.

"There's a ramshackle old car stalled over yonder," Thad announced about this time, "and I propose that we see if anything can be done to hire or buy it. All good cars are seized by the military on sight, but they'd pass such a wreck by. If we find we can repair it, and can get even five miles an hour out of the machine, it'd be our policy to commandeer it, if our pocketbook will stand the strain."