James Fiske

“ Grenfel was right. London's full of spies. Isn't that an awful idea, Harry? You can't tell who's a spy and who isn't!"
"No, but you can be pretty sure that the man you suspect isn't," suggested Harry, sagely. "A real spy wouldn't let you find it out very easily. I can see one thing and that is a whole lot of perfectly harmless people are going to be arrested as spies before this war is very old, if it does come! We don't want to be mixed up in that, Dick—we scouts. If we think a man's doing anything suspicious, we'll have to be very sure before we denounce him, or else we won't be any use." ”

“ Never again during his experience with the Red Cross did Zaidos find time to watch the marvelous skill of a field surgeon. The soldier, a large and muscular man, was almost in ribbons. His flesh was actually tattered, and the dirt had been driven into the wounds. A leg had been blown off, and both arms were broken. Yet he lived. There was quick and silent work for awhile. When the doctor finally stood up and looked critically at his finished task lying there bandaged like a mummy and breathing with the heavy slowness of insensibility, he nodded in satisfaction. ”

“ Hallo swore savagely.
"You have done well!" he said. "Eh, there is time yet, you think, to stop them? How is it that you do not know more concerning their plans?"
"They do not trust me wholly. I know only what I can learn by spying and ferreting about. They tell me almost nothing. But I am sure that I am right. Look—I will draw you a plan that will show you where the tunnel is. I think that if you hasten you can catch most of them like rats in a trap. Milikoff is not there. He is the most dangerous of all, save one."
"Who is more dangerous than Milikoff?"
"The boy Stepan Dushan!" ”

“ Harry listened, in an agony of fear rather than of pain, to such sounds as came to him after Dick had, so reluctantly, left him pinned in the trap. He could hear, plainly enough, the advance of the two searchers who had scared Dick into hiding in the rhododendron bush; he could even see the gleam of their flashlights, and was able, therefore, to guess what they were doing. For the moment it seemed impossible to him that Dick should escape. It would require more skill than he thought Dick possessed, and more of another quality—concealment and patience. ”

“ As he found the chain, a large locket was released from the man's blouse and, swinging against his buttons, sprung open. Unconsciously Zaidos looked at it.
"Send that with the rest," said the officer. He closed his eyes.
"Here, you!" cried Zaidos. "Quit that! Don't you dare go and die! Do you hear me? Don't you do it! Do you hear? I want to talk! I don't need to send this anywhere. If you just hang on, you will see her! Helen is here! Don't die now! You want to see her, don't you? I know who you are! You are Tony Hazelden!" ”

“ This might be war, but it was a grim, cold business, too.
"It's like going to see the steel works at Seraing at night," said Paul. "Except that there's less glare from the blast furnaces, of course."
"A good many of those men aren't in uniform," said Arthur, his keen eyes taking in details as he grew more accustomed to the strange and awe inspiring grandeur of the scene as a whole.
"They're probably workmen from Essen," said Paul. He had a pair of binoculars out now, and was looking closely at every detail of the scene.
"But why should they be there? This is a time for soldiers." ”

“ We can't hear from Harry, either!"
"We might have guessed they'd do that!" said Jack. "They must have had some one out to watch us, Dick—perhaps they thought they'd have a chance to catch us. They know that we've found out something, you see! It's a good thing we stayed where we could make people hear us if we got into any trouble."
"Oh, nonsense!" said the vicar, suddenly. "You boys are letting your imaginations run away with you! Things like that don't happen in England. The wire is just out of order. It happens often enough, Jack, as you know very well!" ”

“ Jack waited on Zaidos with such care all the way down from London that the boy said he would be entirely spoiled. A big, roomy car met them at the station and carried them smoothly over miles of perfect road through the vast park of the Hazelden's where pheasants by the dozen flew across their path, bright-eyed deer dashed into hiding, and hundreds of wonderful Persian sheep grazed on the lawns that had been lawns for generations. ”

“ There are no fortifications there."
"I believe there are—by this time," said Paul. "Earthworks, at least. You see, it would simply mean terrible destruction and suffering if a city like Brussels were defended. It has no forts, and it would be a simple matter for the Germans to stand off and bombard it. It is like that with Louvain. It would be better to let the Germans capture that town without resistance than to force them to bombard it and destroy the famous old buildings there. If a great city cannot be defended by an army fifty miles away, it is better not to defend it at all." ”

“ Stepan ground his teeth at the sight of them.
"They're not soldiers, oh, no!" he said. "You see they're not in uniform. But do you notice how they sit their horses, and how they ride in files? Undisciplined men never did that! Those bands are the ones that cross over, raiding our borderlands. But what can we do? We have enough without fighting Bulgaria, too, so we have to accept apologies the Sofia government makes. If possible we want Bulgaria on our side. But—! The treacherous dogs!"
"Don't get so excited, Stepan," advised Dick. "I believe you hate them more than you do the Austrians!" ”

“ He was seeing a nation aroused, preparing to fight. If war came to England it would [42] be no war decreed by a few men. It would be a war proclaimed by the people themselves, demanded by them. The nation was stirring; it was casting off the proverbial lethargy and indifference of the English. Even here, in this usually quiet suburb of London, the home of business and professional men who were comfortably well off, the stirring of the spirit of England was evident. And suddenly the song of the scouts and those who had joined them was drowned out by a new noise, sinister, threatening. ”

“ Look!" as a swift gleam of light across the water, on a line with his eyes, betrayed the lightning swift course of a torpedo. It struck the ship, and at the same moment the Zeppelin dropped an accurate bomb. There was a terrific explosion as the torpedo struck amidships, a spurt of flame as the bomb scattered its inflammable gases over the decks, and fire burst out everywhere. Another torpedo tore into the ship. Zaidos' eyes bulged as he watched, the monster ship flaming and roaring with repeated explosions, her own guns valiantly firing to the last. ”

“ I am glad you are going to stay, Dick. We are in the right, and we are going to win. There's no other way."
"I think so, too," said Dick. "Steve, there's just one thing. I know that Austria has treated Servia badly, and that she should not have annexed lands in which there were so many Serbs. But that murder in Serajevo was an awful thing—"
"It was frightful!" declared Stepan, passionately. "Every true Servian will tell you the same thing! But it is a wicked Austrian lie to say that Servia had anything to do with it! It was Austrian subjects who were, perhaps, Serbs in blood, who planned it. ”

“ We are safeguarded from attack, but we are forbidden to allow the troops of a country that is at war to pass through our territory. If it was the French who talked of invading us to reach Germany, I should say that we must fight them."
"Yes, you're right, Arthur," said Paul. "I think we should make any sacrifice to keep faith. But be sure that it will be a terrible sacrifice, if we must make it."
"Look there!" whispered Arthur, suddenly. "Someone started up just now from behind the bushes. A man—and he is running away from us!" ”

“ That is why disciplined troops can conquer five times their number of rioters or savages. And so in a moment they reached the shop.
"Let us in! We're here to protect you!" cried Franklin to old Schmidt, who was cowering within, with his wife. Then he turned to the rioters, who, getting over their first surprise, were threatening again.
"For shame!" he cried. "Do you think you're doing anything for England? War's not declared yet—and, if it was, you might better be looking for German soldiers to shoot at than trying to hurt an old man who never did anyone any harm!" ”

“ That's pretty fine, isn't it, Velo? Don't that make you feel warm all over?"
"She may not stop," said Velo gloomily.
"A Red Cross ship pass all this bunch swimming around here without stopping to pick them up? You are crazy!"
"There are not so very many," insisted Velo.
"They will stop to pick you up if all the rest of us go down before they get here," said Zaidos patiently. "You have the life belt, Velo, so don't worry any more than you have to."
A silence followed. After the wild racket of the guns, it seemed as though the sea itself whispered. On and on came the Red Cross ship. ”

“ They passed over the new Exposition Bridge and so to the new town of Liege, where the great steel works of Seraing were beginning to cast red reflections against the darkening sky.
"They have begun to work all night long," said Arthur.
"It's a good thing, too," said Paul, soberly. "If there is to be a war, as Mr. Van Verde says, we may need all the guns they can turn out."
"But we shall not go to war, Paul! Belgium is neutral. All the powers joined in declaring Belgium to be a neutral state. We have learned that in our history in school!" ”

“ If a few battles are lost, if Russian troops pour through the passes of the Carpathians and the Cossacks come within sight of Buda-Pesth? After all, Hungary is an independent kingdom, and a part of the Austrian empire only of her own free will. Her army is her own, and she has her own parliament and her own ministers. There is no reason why she should not have a king of her own again when she chooses. We may see the rise of another Kossuth, who would force Hungary to make peace with Russia and with Servia. ”

“ He could not say the words Velo had begged to hear, and he stared back while Velo looked at him with dumb and suffering eyes.
"Oh, forgive me!" begged Velo with a dry sob that racked him. "Zaidos, be as good as you can, but don't be hard! You can't tell what temptations people have. It is a terrible thing to be hard. Don't do it, Zaidos! There are so many hard people—hard teachers and hard fathers who don't know how fellows are tempted and how they suffer. I am dying, Zaidos, and I tell you don't be hard. ”

“ But not even the presence of the officer restrained him.
"Where are those papers you stole from me, you sneak?" he cried.
"You keep away from me!" said Graves. "You—Yankee!"
"Here, no quarreling!" said the officer. "Take him, men!"
Two of the soldiers closed in on Harry. He stared at them and then at the officer, stupefied.
"What—what's this?" he stammered.
"You're under arrest, my lad, on a charge of espionage!" said the officer. "Espionage, and conspiracy to give aid and comfort to the public enemy. Anything you say may be used against you." ”

“ For the first time the note of real hand-to-hand fighting came into the battle din. They could hear the crashing volleys of rifle fire, and the explosive crackling of machine guns coming into play for the first time. That was confirmation enough of their guess that a regular assault on the line of forts was in progress.
"You see that just shows how important it is for them to capture Liege quickly, Arthur," said Paul. "They know perfectly well that when they bring up a few more army corps and their big guns they can batter the forts to pieces and just overwhelm our garrison." ”

“ Stepan seized his glass on the instant.
"Yes!" he said. "That is bad luck for it is one of their newer, faster machines! We must try to get away! Here, take this rifle. If she comes so near that she discovers who we really are, we must fight. Aim for the tank. A bullet through that will send them down quickly! But don't fire until I give the word. It is better to run than to fight, if we can."
And now, as if he had not seen the hostile aeroplane, Stepan turned and began to race south, in the direction whence they had come. ”

“ Velo, too evil and too lazy to close the door of his mind on common thoughts and low desires, had grown more and more like his unworthy guests. And now instead of kicking the whole mob into the outer darkness, he lay there, face down, listening to their evil whispers.
"Get rid of Zaidos," they said over and over. "Get rid of him. Who will know? Don't you hate him? You ought to! Just because he is the one who really owns everything, is that any reason why you should get out and work for an honest living? You don't want to bother with an honest living. You want to live soft and lie easy. ”

“ Britons never, never, never shall be slaves!
Scores of voices swelled the chorus, joining the fresh young voices of the scouts. And then someone started that swinging march song that had leaped into popularity at the time of the Boer War, Soldiers of the Queen. The words were trifling, but there was a fine swing to the music, and it was not the words that counted—it was the spirit of those who sang.
As he marched along with the others Harry noticed one thing. In a few hours the whole appearance of the streets had changed. From every house, in the still night air, drooped a Union Jack. ”

“ She thought that she understood his submissiveness better now!
"But—women and children?" she said. "Surely these boys?"
"We are not children!" protested Paul and Arthur in one breath.
Major du Chaillu smiled rather sadly.
"No, they are not children in such times as these, Madame," he said. "We have not quite come to the point of calling upon boys to fight, but we cannot treat them as children. Still, I shall see that they are looked to, as well as I can, be assured of that, Madame de Frenard." ”