shortly afterwards the two boys said good-bye to their host and his wife, and started out to find headquarters in ypres. they quickly discovered that the badly battered town was full of marching soldiers, and all the other things that go hand in hand with modern war, even to a number of armored cars which sped past them on the road, exciting the wonder of amos greatly.
“why, just see how they’ve managed to build up that metal shield around the men aboard, jack! they seem to be safe from ordinary bullets fired by a machine gun. there were two maxims aboard that last car, i noticed.”
“yes,” added the other, deeply interested, “fighting today begins to take on some of the old-time ways. you’d almost think of roman chariots to see those cars flying along the road,[244] only the galloping horses have been displaced by a power a hundred times more powerful. but there must have been some pretty warm engagements around this town, if the battered walls can tell the story.”
“huh! it doesn’t look to me worth the powder that’s been wasted,” remarked amos. “why should both germans and the allies want to get and hold possession of ypres, i’d like to know? thousands must have fallen here, because everywhere you look you see those mounds where the dead have been buried.”
“they consider it a place of strategic importance, which is the only explanation i can give you,” jack observed. “perhaps it’s what we’d call a railway center over in the states. then the only good road leading to dunkirk and the channel runs out from ypres; and you know the kaiser is dead set on getting his army where he can throw those shells over on to the shore of england. that mania with him has cost pretty much all this terrible slaughter.”
amos shook his head as though his feelings[245] overpowered him. he must have been thinking that human life was held pretty cheaply when it could be thus thrown away for a freak idea, a pet object of revenge that in the end could not amount to much so far as ending the war was concerned.
of course, the two boys aroused considerable curiosity. it was only natural that this should be so. dozens of the soldiers, humming tipperary as they strode past in ranks, usually heading toward the fighting zone, waved a hand toward them in friendly greeting; and the chums invariably gave an answering salute.
“i guess they think we’re english boys,” suggested amos, when this had happened a number of times. “they know from our looks, and the fact of our being here, we can never be german anyhow.”
“now, i’m of the opinion they glimpse that little flag in your buttonhole,” ventured jack, quickly. “it tells them who and what we are. while the united states is trying hard to be neutral in this big war, and treat both sides alike,[246] still, as germany can’t get any war supplies and the allies do, on account of their controlling the seven seas, these british must look on us as near-allies. besides, if they ever read the papers printed on our side of the water they’d know that the biggest part of the american nation believes in their cause, and prays that in the end militarism will be knocked out, with a new germany to rise on the ruins of the old.”
that might sound like pretty strong talk coming from a boy; but then jack was wise beyond his years. besides, he had looked upon strange sights since coming abroad. education develops rapidly under such conditions.
“i should say headquarters might lie over in that direction, jack?” suggested amos, pointing as he spoke. “i notice that in most cases the troops come from that way, which would tell the story, you know.”
“good idea, amos, and one that does your boy scout training credit. according to my mind it’s just as you say, and we’ll see if we can get an interview with the general commanding this[247] district. he must be a mighty busy man, and only for that magical letter of introduction we’re carrying around with us i’m afraid our chances of seeing him and getting a little confab would be next to nothing. but when he looks on that signature k. of k. there’s little he can refuse us.”
“yes,” added amos, grinning happily, “that was a master stroke on your part, asking dad to give us a letter to his old friend and comrade, general kitchener, after you learned how close they had once been in south africa or egypt long ago. when i see their eyebrows go up, and that look come on their faces, it makes me think of a talisman such as they used of old. i can imagine ali baba saying the magical words ‘open sesame’ before the rock wall that always swung open to the signal. we’ve got the same wonderful magnet in our well-worn letter signed by the minister of war over in london.”
moving steadily along they quickly found themselves getting among crowds of civilians and soldiers who filled the streets of the little old belgian town, now a ruined place.
[248]
“what are they all staring up at, i wonder?” remarked amos. “it must be some of those rash pilots driving german taubes are circling around again, trying to locate hidden batteries of the allies. oh! jack, look there, that’s a zeppelin i do believe.”
jack had already decided this for himself. away up among the fleecy clouds of the early morning they could see what looked like a bulky cigar-shaped object that was speeding along its course. it was too high for any anti-air craft gun to hope to reach it. possibly allied birdmen would presently be sent aloft to try and engage the enemy, or failing that chase him off.
all at once there arose a shout that was taken up by a thousand excited voices. the entire crowd started to sway and break. men dashed for any sort of shelter that came most convenient. others threw themselves flat upon their faces, believing in their sudden panic they would be in far less danger if they hugged the ground closely.
jack had himself detected some object falling[249] from aloft. it might have been a cast-off sandbag, but in these perilous war times one must expect something more destructive than this. he too would have followed the example of those close by and dropped flat, only that he saw the falling object was bound to miss the spot where he and his chum stood by a big margin. in fact, it would drop outside the town, as the hostile airship was at too high an altitude for the marksman to aim with any reasonable certainty of success.
instantly there came a terrific boom. jack and amos felt the ground tremble under them with the concussion, and they did not need to be told it had been a most destructive bomb that had been dropped from the swiftly moving zeppelin.
instantly there came a terrific boom.—page 249.
almost immediately afterwards came a second shock, with the same quiver of the racked earth following the explosion. when even a third made the atmosphere seem to be surcharged with thunder amos sank to his knees and pulled at the legs of his companion.
[250]
“drop down, jack,” he called, almost frantically. “how do we know but what the very next bomb will be close by? we don’t want to be torn into fragments if we can help it, do we?”
“it’s all over, i reckon, by now,” jack assured him. “the zeppelin seems to have passed well over us; and besides there’s a whole flock of allied aeroplanes rising like birds to give chase. this wreck of a town has had another close call, i take it. those bombs were terrible ones, and must have been meant for a purpose.”
“what do you think the germans were after? i don’t suppose now they knew for a minute jack maxfield and amos turner had come to town?”
of course jack understood that his chum was only saying this in a spirit of sport.
“they’re after bigger game than two american boys this time, amos,” he said.
“then you think they meant to catch somebody high up in authority; is that it?” demanded the other.
“it has probably become known through some[251] of those secret channels by which the germans learn so much that the british have their headquarters established somewhere in ypres just now, even if it is shifted often to confuse them. and because the fighting line has been pushed so far away they can’t send shells in here they’ve resorted to another means for trying to give the british a scare.”
“the crowd’s pushing over to view what happened,” remarked amos; “shall we go, too, and find out what a bomb dropped by a zeppelin can do?”
“i’d like to say i’d seen the effect of such a thing,” returned jack. “we’re not in such a rushing hurry but what we can afford the little time it’ll be likely to take; so come along, amos.”
together then they joined the throng that was hurrying toward the quarter where that last terrible air bomb had exploded on striking the earth.
“what great luck that it fell in an open place, and never a human being was injured, seems like!” exclaimed amos, gaping at the tremendous[252] hole in the ground, with the earth thrown in every direction for a distance of many yards.
“if a monster meteor, hissing hot, had fallen here it couldn’t have smashed things worse than that!” jack declared. “from the way things are thrown around i’d say if that bomb ever struck a house the people inside would never know what had happened.”
“then they shot it down at haphazard, or else knew in what part of the town headquarters lay, and aimed to hit the same?” suggested amos.
a soldier in khaki overheard them and started a conversation. doubtless he was more or less curious to know who and what they were, and why they had the run of the british camps when so many spies were known to be prowling around. he seemed to eye them more or less suspiciously, especially when jack made no effort to enter into explanations, not caring to take every ordinary tommy into his confidence.
in the end this happened to bring them into new difficulties, for the soldier must have immediately gone about voicing his suspicions, because[253] about the time jack said they had seen enough and had better be going amos noticed that quite a number of soldiers started to cluster around them, nor did they show any intention of opening up to let the two boys pass.
angry looks were being bent on the lads. amos was indignant, but jack could easily understand what a little thing in these days of bitter warfare can cause the seeds of suspicion to be sown, making the harvest quick and unpleasant.
just then an officer came bustling up, followed by another bunch of tommies, and jack understood what had happened when he saw in their midst the very same tall man in khaki who had tried to pry into their affairs.
“there they are, captain!”
“german spies they must be!” called out another voice.
“ten to one they signalled to that same airship where to drop the bally old bombs!” cried a third soldier, angrily.
loud outcries attested to the ugly temper of[254] the gathering crowd. there could be no telling to what ends that mob might go, sooner or later. despite the fact that they were amenable to military orders they might get beyond the control of authority, and start to wreak summary vengeance upon the boys, neither of whom showed any signs of being alarmed.
“captain,” said jack, quietly, though he had to raise his voice so as to be heard above the rising clamor, “we are just what we say, american boys. we have made our way into ypres in order to see your commanding officer. it is foolish for any one to connect us with that german zeppelin, when we were in just as much danger as the rest. please take us to headquarters without any delay. we have something to show the general; and after he has seen it you will find that he’ll extend the honors of the camp to us.”
the captain must have known that if he held back much longer the excited men were apt to get out of bonds, and do something that would not be according to military discipline; so he[255] evidently determined to follow the advice of the boy who seemed to be able to retain his presence of mind, regardless of the overhanging difficulties.
