George Durston

“ He paused again to chuckle, and Porky quite suddenly shoved a sharp elbow into Beany’s ribs.
“Well, I’m sick of it,” said Fritz still in his low, hoarse whisper, and seemed to move away from the side of the hill where he had been standing.
The boys with the greatest caution wriggled away.
“Now what do you think of that?” said Porky when they were in a position where they could talk in safety. “What do you think of that?”
“Anyhow,” said Beany, “they aren’t spies. I’m sort of fed up on spies. I can stand for most anything else.” ”

“ It isn’t fair.”
“Stuck with a girl!” said Beany. “Why, Porky, I like it! I never could see why when any one has a baby, everybody says, ‘Gee, it’s a boy! Isn’t that bully?’ or else ‘Huh, it’s a girl, too bad!’ I never could see it. Course when they get our size they mostly are silly pills, but if I have a hand in bringing up this girl, why, you just watch her, that’s all! I bet when she’s fifteen she won’t look cross-eyed at a boy. I bet she knocks their blocks off! She is going to have some sense!”
“Looks as though you mean to make a scrapper of her,” laughed Porky. ”

“ Then General Pershing looked up.
“Prisoner,” he said, “it is not customary to accord a prisoner of war the sort of interview I am about to give you, but the circumstances alter this case. I want the truth, and the whole truth.”
Porky and Beany nudged each other slyly.
“I want some of the information that it is in your power to give me, and I want it straight. You know you are in my power. There is always a firing squad for men like you. But I want you to unravel this puzzle. I want you to commence when you left the ranch—yes, even before that.” ”

“ Porky and Beany knew instinctively that they were standing in the presence of death; not the glorious and gallant passing that the soldier finds on the battlefield, but the coming of release from a long and undeserved agony. ”

“ Porky demanded of Fritz.
“Yes, sir,” said Fritz.
Porky waited a little. The worst was coming now.
“Tell those men to open that door, and step outside, and if they value their lives, to keep their hands up.”
Fritz spoke rapidly in German. What he said was, “These are Americans, you fools! The officer says to step outside, and keep your hands up. You had better do it, if you want to live. They would rather shoot than eat. I know them! Obey, no matter what they tell you.” ”

“ Ahead lay the heartless and ruthless killers, wolves that had come to worry and tear the sheep, but behind in the darkness, the boys knew with a thrill, every possible mode of transportation was swiftly bringing up the reserve American troops, thousands and thousands of them; men in their prime and beardless boys grim, determined, yet light-hearted, ready to fight as only Americans can fight. Men from the farms, farms in the east where fifty well-tilled acres was a fine homestead; farmers from that great and spacious west where a man called miles of land his own. ”

“ We want a few English-speaking prisoners, so you are quite safe for a while.”
“One of those men outside speaks English also,” cried Fritz.
“All right,” said Porky. “I advise you to keep still. Sergeant, detail a guard for this place with orders to shoot him at the first outcry.”
“Yes, sir,” said Beany. He retreated under cover of the darkness, thoughtfully going around the corner of the mound as a flare brightened the sky, and he remembered, in the nick of time, that it wouldn’t do to let the two men, carefully bound as they were, see him roaring directions at an imaginary squad. ”

“ Porky laughed unpleasantly, as he shifted the weight of the child. “What’s worrying me now is what is going to be done with these poor little kids. Isn’t the one you have a pretty little thing? Even all the dirt and hunger can’t hide her looks. I suppose they will have to go into some asylum!”
“I don’t see why,” said Beany suddenly. “Do you remember Mom and Pop said they wished if we brought them anything from across, it would be something good and worth while? They didn’t want German helmets and junk like that. What do you suppose they would say to a couple of dandy little kids like these?” ”

“ All Germany is dying slowly of substitutes. Substitutes for bread, for meat, for tea, for sugar, for coffee, for milk. At first the army was fed well, at the expense of the civilians. Now all suffer together, and no man in the world works well or fights well on an empty and aching stomach.” He groaned.
“What were you doing out there in that hillock?” asked the General.
“We were well behind the German lines a few days ago,” said Fritz, “but whether they retired purposely or not, I cannot say. Since then, however, we have been kept there to communicate with the airplanes. ”

“ He pocketed the tool, and slipping cautiously out of sight of the group of officers, they went scrambling noiselessly down the steep trail into the valley. Reaching the foot of the hill, they struck cautiously out toward the entanglements, dropping on their faces whenever a flare went up. Presently Beany, a little in the rear, pulled his brother’s leg. Porky stopped, and waited for Beany to wriggle up. He muttered, “What?” but did not turn his face. He knew too well that a face turned upwards in the darkness can be seen by an observant watcher overhead in some prowling plane. ”

“ Even Porky and Beany sensed something big and terrible in the air.
“Want to bet something?” asked Porky, poking his brother with a backhand jab in the ribs.
He never found out whether Beany was game to bet or not for the door of the chateau opened and a group of officers came out. General Pershing led the group. The boys leaped to salute, the sentries stopped and presented arms. Even the mechanics straightened to their feet. There was perfect quiet, however, and five minutes later they started away full speed in the darkness. ”

“ He threw himself back on his bed.
“Don’t do that,” said Porky. “We are going to the General’s tent at seven, you know, to hear what the Fritz person is going to say for himself. I bet he tells the truth anyhow. If the General fixes his gimlet eye on him once, he will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
“I would in his place,” said Beany. “It wouldn’t seem just healthy to lie to the General.” He commenced the simple process of dressing as practiced by soldiers in the field. ”

“ We were expected to discover things too cleverly hidden from the airplanes.”
“This is interesting at least, Fritz,” said the General. “It would be still more interesting to know just how true it is that the German army in general does not know that we are seriously in the war. There are two millions of us here now, Fritz, and more coming.”
“Two millions!” echoed the astounded prisoner. “Two millions! When they learn that, the war is over. But how will they ever learn it? Your airplanes scattered leaflets along the front several times. ”

“ It would be good-by to our little trip. We would be sent back quicker than they sent Bill and Peggy.”
“Who wants to get into any scrape?” said Porky. “All I want to do is to see—to see—well, to see just what I can do.”
“Well, come on,” said Beany mournfully. “I bet we are in for some fun, because when we look for things we generally find ’em.”
“What hurts me,” said Porky, “is not carrying weapons of any sort. It’s a good safe rule for the Boy Scouts, but I’d be glad of some little thing like a sling shot or a putty blower.” ”

“ Beany was impressed. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he said. “Looks like we haven’t much to tell them about, nothing but the submarine and the secret passage and that sort of thing.”
“And the spies back home,” added Porky. “No, we ought to wind up with something else. Beside, if I don’t get hold of a Hun or two after what we saw and heard back at the Duval farm, I don’t think I’ll ever live.”
“Well, I’m with you,” agreed Beany. “Now let’s plan. We sure have got to get a prisoner or two our own selves. What’s next?” ”

“ No, it is too much to expect that a man will persuade a couple of men, to say nothing of twenty, to give themselves into the hands of an enemy they have been taught to believe is ruthless, but if he does, we will know that the conditions in the German army are worse than we dream.”
Time dragged away. The boys, still believing in Fritz, sat at the head of the only trail, watching. ”

“ They settled back in the car which was to take them back to General Bright. They heard the other cars glide quietly and swiftly away in the distance. They too shot out at high speed.
Soberly they stared into the darkness. Their thoughts flew forward to the tiresome trip to the port of embarkation, the long ocean voyage with its deadly inaction. They had been living in confusion, danger, and uncertainty. They commenced to see before them their home, their father and mother, the familiar fellows.
“We have to get Bill and Peggy,” said Beany.
“Yep!” said Porky briefly. ”

“ Two members of any staff, even though they are only boys, cannot disappear as though the earth had swallowed them without a suspicion of foul play.
In the office above the chamber which had witnessed the stirring events narrated in “The Boy Scout Firefighters,” in which both Beany and Porky Potter had been actors, there had been great anxiety. When General Pershing received the report, he at once sent couriers and scouts to every station where the boys might have gone. The sentries one and all declared that the boys had not been seen outside of the building. ”

“ Another squad brought up the rear, and between them—yes, between them marched, or rather staggered, a dismal company of twenty haggard skeletons headed by Fritz!
He had kept his word. The men were evidently frightened badly and Fritz kept talking to them as they advanced. The General came out of his shelter and surveyed them by the light of his flash.
“Here they are, sir,” said Fritz. “Ask them what you like.” ”

“ It was barely five next morning when Porky and Beany, like two shadows, slipped from their quarters and went silently down to the courtyard. Several automobiles stood ready, heavily guarded, and a couple of mechanics were busily tightening nuts and testing various parts of the machinery. No one spoke. The boys crossed the open space, and in accordance with an agreement made previously, sat down back to back on a ledge of the broken fountain. They were taking no risks of surprise or attack from the rear. ”

“ I don’t mind trying to run an army, but running those twins is a bigger task than I like to tackle. I am glad they don’t know just how glad I will be to hear the story they will tell us when they get the job finished. Three prisoners, and they want an escort of officers and an electrician! Well, they are on the trail of something, I’ll be bound! I would like to question those prisoners but I won’t spoil the boys’ innocent pleasure in what they are doing. But I must say that I want one of you to keep an eye on them every second now until we return to headquarters. ”

“ Pierre had a good farm of his own down the valley, and there they lived in simple happiness and prosperity. Three children were born, the two little creatures crouching before them and one a little older, now dead.
When the war broke out, Pierre put on his uniform and went away. For a while, like other heroic women, she tilled the little farm until one night when a small scouting party of Huns swept down, burning and destroying all that lay in their path. She escaped with her children under cover of the darkness and made her way back to her father’s house. ”

“ When they fight.... Wait until you have seen them fight! They fight with grunts and gasps and bared teeth. They do not need trenches, they will go over the top with a shout. You will see, friend Peter. They are back there in the darkness now. I feel them!”
“A few of them, only a few,” said Peter. “This little castle of sod and stone is getting on your nerves, my friend. Look you! Do you think the Highest would deceive us? Never, never! There is nothing to this talk of the Americans coming over here. To be sure, they have declared war, but what of it? They are no good. They have no army. ”

“ If General Pershing is goin’ to let youse kids go stealin’ wrenches, I’ll—I’ll—well, you’ll see what I’ll do, discipline ner no discipline!” He glared at the boys and at the unoffending wrench.
Beany sadly allowed himself to wake up.
“I had your old wrench,” he said, “and I guess I lost it. I will buy you a new one if I can’t find it.”
“You find it!” said the man. “I don’t want no new one! I know the feel of me own tools, and no others need apply!”
He went off grumbling, and the boys, now wide awake, watched him.
“I told you how it would be,” groaned Beany. “He’ll never let up on me. ”

“ There was still a chance to rebuild and save enough from the wreckage to enable the owners to start their lives afresh. But alas, of those owners but two were left—the two tiny, terrified, war-racked creatures in the arms of the two Boy Scouts. While their little charges slept, the boys continued their talk in a low tone. Their arms, unaccustomed to such burdens, were tired and stiff by the time one of the officers left the distant group and approached them. ”