active 1909-1917 Herbert Carter

“ Still swinging around in a circle the birdman commenced hurling other menacing missiles. Each time the result could be seen in the puff of smoke close to the Belgian battery; but at that distance it was impossible for Thad to make sure that any casualty followed those repeated thrusts.
But now the head of the attacking German force had reached the bridge. Fearful had been the price they paid for this advantage; but fresh men had closed up the gaps, so that they were just as densely packed as ever when they came to the end of the structure. ”

“ Giraffe was not quite so tenderhearted, though feeling flushed with satisfaction over his recent victory.
“Guess you know now why your dad wouldn’t let you learn to run your big touring car at home, don’t you, Bumpus?” he jeered.
“I’m beginning to think he knew a heap better than I did about it,” admitted the humble Bumpus.
“It takes brains to run a car,” asserted Giraffe meaningly. “Some people never should try it, because they get rattled at the least little thing out of the ordinary, and go all to pieces.” ”

“ Of course no one would dream of allowing such a thing as this last hint covered; and doubtless Bumpus knew that he was perfectly safe in making it.
“Then I go, do I, Thad?” asked Giraffe, looking actually pleased at the chance to make himself “useful as well as ornamental,” as he himself called it.
“Yes, if you will,” he was told; “we’ll promise to stay here and watch the car, though it’d be hard for any one to steal it without a bit of petrol in the tank to run the engine. Take your time, Giraffe; no need of sprinting. If you can’t get the gasoline, bring a horse and a driver.” ”

“ Thad informed him. “For one thing, every time we chance to run across any Belgian soldiers I intend to coax the engine to puff and groan the worst you ever heard. It’ll help discourage envy on their part. We’ll act as though it’s stalled every twenty feet, and that we’re having a dickens of a time with it.”
That idea amused Giraffe, who laughed heartily.
“It certainly does take you to get up some of the smartest games going, Thad,” he ventured; “and I guess now that’d be the best dodge to save our palatial car from being commandeered by the army. ”

“ The man proved to be full of grit, as was to be expected of one who continually took his life in his hands in making those daring aerial flights, thousands of feet above the earth, and over hostile lines at that, where he would be a target for dozens of exploding shrapnel bombs.
Bumpus down below grew more and more excited the closer they came. He had braced himself like a gladiator, as though he meant to try and catch the man if by any mischance he slipped from their grasp and fell, and Bumpus would have been foolish enough to offer himself as a buffer, had any such accident happened. ”

“ Thad knew, however, that they had a rocky road to travel, for many times they must run up against soldiers, who would not be apt to let things pass so easily.
“We’re coming to a bridge ahead there, that spans the river,” he told the other three presently.
“I wonder will it be guarded,” remarked Giraffe; “I’ve heard so much about the wonderful way every little thing has been mapped out in case of war being declared by Germany, that I reckon each man, young and old, knows just what his part is to be, and has rushed off to do it the first thing when the news came.” ”

“ The country people did not mean to give up without further effort, for most of them continued to run. They must have seen that the car was an old and ramshackle one, and cherished hopes that they might yet overtake it.
Giraffe stood up and waved his campaign hat excitedly as he cheered in the good old American way.
“Bully for the machine!” was the burden of his cry; “she’s actually doing her little five miles an hour, perhaps even more. Say, this is getting too reckless for my blood. I forgot to take out any life insurance, Thad, before starting on this break-neck trip. ”

“ If you could only drag us all the way up I’d beg your pardon for ever having even thought evil of you. Here we go!”
They started up the rise bravely enough, but speedily the engine began to make signs as of distress.
“Get ready to jump, everybody!” called out Giraffe.
“Yes, that’s easy for you to say,” complained poor Bumpus, “but think of me, won’t you? How can I spring like a frog when she starts to go backward down the hill again? I’ll do my best to roll out; only somebody grab hold, and don’t let me get started rolling like a barrel after the car!”
“Oh! no danger,” Thad told them. ”

“ I’m wet up to my knees, all right; but I got dear little Benjy, didn’t I?”
Thad clapped him on the shoulder.
“After all there’s not so much to laugh about, Giraffe,” he said, soberly. “We all thought Benjy was a child, and you risked your life to save him. The motive is what counts every time; and I’m sure you did what any scout would be proud to own to; but we’re glad it wasn’t a child after all, for it would have been drowned.”
“I guess you’re about right there, Thad,” the other admitted, “for you see the puppy could swim, which is what a child couldn’t do. Let’s be going on again, fellows.” ”

“ Thad was meanwhile watching the movements of those on the near side of the river. He could see how machine-like everything was carried on, the men with the stretchers coming to get their burdens, and then carrying them to the rear, where a temporary field hospital would undoubtedly be started.
Already a corps of engineers had come up, and men were seen out on the broken bridge, measuring the gap as though figuring on what would be required to mend the causeway so that the heavy artillery could move across, converging toward Brussels. ”

“ AT A WAYSIDE BELGIAN INN.
“It looks all right to me, fellows!” remarked Bumpus, as they approached the inn where a swinging sign announced that travelers and their animals could be entertained.
“Yes, and if the grub is as attractive as the surroundings,” added Giraffe, “I’d wish it was night time right now, so we could put up here. I’ve heard how neat as wax these Dutch vrouws are about their beds and food, and it’d sure suit me to try the thing out. But of course, since Bumpus here is in such a hurry to get to Antwerp, we couldn’t think of that.” ”

“ He was greatly interested in hearing of the adventure that had befallen Thad and his three chums since they separated from him that morning. For the first time he learned how they had saved that German Taube man from the treetop, afterwards binding up his wound.
“It does beat all creation,” declared the circus fugitive, “how you boys manage to go around doing good to others. I owe you a big debt just as that aviator does, and I warrant you there are many others, only you’re too modest to mention the fact.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ If the poor old tramp refuses to make the climb, however are we to get over the rise?”
“Take off your coat, Bumpus,” Thad told him.
“Oh! do we have to really push?” asked the fat scout, looking at the balance of the hill, and scratching his head in a manner that told how little he enjoyed the prospect ahead.
“It’s the only way,” Giraffe explained, “unless we want to leave the car here, and continue our long journey afoot!” ”

“ Surely you will not want to keep us here against our will, where we would be a burden on you, and with four more mouths to fill?”
“It is sad,” said the officer, with a shrug of his shoulders, “but now that war has been declared, and we do not know what will befall the Fatherland, we must do many things that would never happen in times of peace. So while I am sorry for the boy with the sick mother, it must not interfere with my orders, which were that no one should be allowed to pass on toward the Belgian border unless he showed proof that he was in the service of the Central Government.” ”

“ Every hour that the Kaiser can be held in Belgium is life for France, because it gives time to get her men together. Germany is the only country that has always been ready for such a thing as this. They expected to be in Paris before the French woke up, and only for this delay nothing could have prevented them.”
“Well, you wait till the Britishers get over, and going good,” said Bumpus, with a wise nod of his head, “then you’ll hear something drop.” ”

“ Allan remarked, with a shake of his head.
“I’m glad I saw it,” ventured Bumpus, “but they’re sure a reckless lot aboard, from the way they rushed along this road.”
“It takes that sort of men to use an armored car, I should think,” said Thad. “They expect to drop down on the enemy wherever they can find him, and never stop to count heads, but just run the gantlet, firing as they go. If they’re lucky, and get through without an accident, they go back home laughing over a good day’s hunt.” ”

“ He’s in a terrible position, and may lose his life unless we do something for him. So let’s head that way on the run!”
“What about the car, Thad?” asked Allan.
“Hang the car,” replied the other, impulsively. “It’s stalled right now, and the engine partly dismantled, so there’s no danger of its running away.”
“I hope not,” Bumpus was heard to mutter, dubiously, “but cars are mighty funny contraptions any way you put it, and nobody ever knows what they’re meaning to do. When you think they’re sleeping as sweet as anything they may kick you all of a sudden just like a mule.” ”

“ He heard them talking among themselves in German. Giraffe was listening eagerly to what he could catch, and when he found a chance he whispered to Thad what he was able to make of it.
“They say a breathing spell for the men will do no harm, and you can see their horses are sweating something fierce, Thad. But somehow all you’ve said doesn’t seem to have convinced that head officer. He must hate everything English like the mischief, for some reason or other. He’s telling them that perhaps we’re cunning spies after all, smart Britishers playing a game, and pretending to be neutral Americans. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He’s as slow as molasses in winter, and that can’t be beaten.”
Giraffe looked at the speaker and grinned. When Bumpus called anything “slow” it must move about as tediously as an ice wagon, or one of those enormous German guns drawn over the hard roads by a powerful traction engine.
[43]
“Let me crawl out first, Thad,” the fat boy remarked, “if you’re meaning to move the car aboard the ferryboat.”
“Bumpus is afraid of you, Thad!” cried Giraffe; “he thinks you may make a slip and dump the whole business over the side of the boat; and Bumpus doesn’t care to go in swimming with his suit on. ”

“ The Belgians are pretty furious over their country being overrun with the Kaiser’s troops. I’ve even seen old peasants handling guns as if they meant to fight for their homes, a very foolish thing for them to do, because it would only enrage the invaders, and end with a massacre.”
“You act as if you’d remedied the break in the engine, Thad, seeing that you’re putting up your tools, and wiping your hands off,” remarked Giraffe. ”

“ Bumpus evidently imagined that he was in camp somewhere, with some of his chums bent on routing him out at an unearthly early hour. Thad this time gave him so sturdy a shake that Bumpus began to sit up and rub his eyes.
[92]
“Hey! what’s all this, anyway? Where am I at? I was dreaming that——” he commenced, when the impatient Giraffe interrupted him.
“Never mind what you were dreaming, Bumpus; we’re going out to the barn to sleep, and, unless you want to be left alone here on the inn porch the rest of the night, hump yourself and trot along with us. I’ve got a blanket here for you, see?” ”

“ Thad smiled. He knew now he would be able to convince these good people that far from being German spies or even sympathizers, he and his chums were deeply concerned over the threatened fate of poor little Belgium, in danger of being made the battleground for warring neighbors.
“We are American Boy Scouts,” he started to say. “We have been traveling through the country, and had just made a trip down the Rhine when we heard that war had broken out. One of my friends has a sick mother in Antwerp. We are trying our best to make our way to her. We bought this old car to help us along. ”

“ There’s one place at the Holland town of Sittard where the gap can’t be much more than four miles, so you see how easy it would be for us to run across that neck, and land in Belgium.”
“With this lightning car,” observed Giraffe, “we’d hit the border, give one grand splurge, and then bring up on Belgian soil.”
“Limberg, you said, didn’t you, Allan?” remarked Bumpus; “I guess I know now where that strong cheese comes from. I only hope we don’t strike any factories on the way. It always makes me feel faint, you know.” ”

“ They knew he meant that no matter how innocent of any intention to do wrong they might claim to be, if they persisted in breaking the rules laid down by the German Government for war times, why they must take the consequences, which could not be very pleasant.
All of those castles in the air which Bumpus had been conjuring up during their short ride now came tumbling in ruins to the ground.
“I guess we’ll have to give it up, fellows,” he groaned, “and take our medicine the best way we can. We’ve tried our hardest to get out of this beastly country; and no one can blame us for not succeeding. ”

“ Giraffe told him. “We’d deserve to be kicked out of the organization if ever we did that. How could we look back without turning fiery red every time we remembered such a cowardly act? Leave it to us, and we’ll get him down out of that, eh, Thad?”
“Our duty compels us to do everything we can to alleviate distress,” the patrol leader said, soberly. “And it doesn’t matter the least bit to us whether that poor chap is a German, Belgian or Frenchman. ”

“ After they had actually covered a full mile, and the machine was still moving ahead, Bumpus could restrain his exultation no longer.
“Ha! this is the life!” he exclaimed with a broad smile on his happy face. “A fellow would be a fool to walk when he could sit here in his own private car and whirl along the highway at this dizzy pace of five miles an hour. Thad, that was a dandy idea of yours about buying the wreck; and Giraffe, I want to give you great credit for doing the bargaining. Here we are headed for Belgium in fine shape, and with our cares yet to come.” ”

“ I’ve heard a lot about what appetizing dishes those housewives can serve, and I’d like to say I’d eaten just one meal in the Netherlands.”
“Count on me to vote with you, Giraffe,” observed Bumpus, “though of course if it was going to delay us any I’d be willing to stand the famine till we got over in Belgium, and had to put up for the night on account of darkness.”
“For that matter, we will have a moon about nine o’clock to-night,” said Thad, “but I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me from driving this crazy car over roads I don’t know, by moonlight. It’s bad enough in broad day.” ”