CHAPTER IX.
WITH FIRE AND SMOKE
"Gingersnaps and popguns! then we're in for a warm time of it!" Tubby burst out.
"Let's hope they manage to get the fire out; or that it doesn't spread to the inn," Merritt soothed him, after the manner of one who wished to throw oil on troubled waters.
"If only the Germans would pull out right away we could get down from here in good time," continued Tubby hopefully. "Look again, fellows, and see if they show any signs of skipping."
"They seem to be galloping all over the village, as far as I can see, and threatening to shoot if anybody dares take a crack at them," Rob announced, after making a hurried survey.
"Oh! my stars!" groaned Tubby, "little did I ever dream that I'd stand a chance of being cooked before I'd been in Belgium two days. I always said I liked cold weather best, and now I know it. Baked or stewed or even broiled doesn't suit my taste."
"The fire next door is beginning to rage fiercely," remarked Rob. "The people are just standing on, and sullenly watching it burn. They don't seem to dare to offer to help save a single thing, because they might be shot down."
"That house is doomed!" asserted Merritt, gloomily.
"Better keep back more," cautioned Rob. "The light grows stronger all the while, you notice, and we might be seen up here by some Uhlan, who'd think it fine sport to send a shot if only to frighten us. I thought I saw one man glance up. If he happened to see that we wore khaki and had on these military looking hats he'd pass the word along that there were Belgian soldiers hiding in the inn."
"Please don't start a riot," begged Tubby. "It's sure bad enough as it stands without that happening. If we had wings now we might sail away. What wouldn't I give for an aëroplane to come along at this minute, and pick me up? Rob, has our house taken fire yet?"
At first Rob did not see fit to answer, upon which the suspicious Tubby pressed him to declare the truth.
"No matter how bad it is," he said soberly, "we should know the worst, instead of pulling the wool over our own eyes, and believing everything's lovely. How about it, Rob?"
"I'm afraid it's a bad job, Tubby."
"You mean we're on fire, do you?" questioned the other, with a hurried intake of his breath, as his heart possibly beat tumultuously with new apprehension.
"Yes, it's caught the end of the inn, and with that breeze blowing there isn't a chance for this house to be saved," Rob continued. "I'm sorry for the poor man who owns it; but then he'll be no worse off than tens of thousands of other Belgian sufferers."
"But think of us, will you?" the fat scout urged. "We're neutrals only, and it's a shame to make us stand for that foolish shot some sniping boy may have fired. Hadn't we better make our way downstairs, Rob, and throw ourselves on the mercy of the Uhlans?"
"I'm in favor of sticking it out just as long as we can," said Merritt desperately; for only too well did he know that once they fell into the hands of the Germans, all chances of carrying out his well laid plans would be lost.
"Oh! so am I, when it comes to that," affirmed Tubby; "and I hope that neither of you think I'd be the one to scream before I'm hurt. But I do smell smoke, and that looks bad, as the plight of Bluebeard's wife."
There could be no questioning that what Tubby said was so, for little spirals of penetrating smoke had commenced to come under the door, so that they could already feel their eyes begin to smart.
Rob went back to the open window to watch. He knew that the thing calculated to help them most of all would be the flitting of the Uhlan troop. If the raiders would only gallop away from town there would be an opportunity for the three Boy Scouts to make their way from the garret of the doomed inn.
"Are they showing any signs of going yet?" asked Tubby, rubbing one hand continually over the other; and then he burst out into a half hysterical fit of laughter as he went on to add: "D'ye know, when I said that it made me think of Bluebeard, don't you remember where the wife was waiting to be called down to lose her head, and expected her brothers to come to the rescue, she had her sister watching out of the window for a cloud of dust on the road? And all the while she keeps on asking: 'Sister Ann, Sister Ann, do you see anyone coming?'"
"I guess you're not as badly rattled as you make out, Tubby," suggested Merritt, "when you can joke like that with the house on fire. In this case you're wanting to know whether there's anybody going. Well, they're here yet, I'm sorry to tell you."
"But I think they are getting together to ride away," Rob added.
"Did they shoot down many of the poor villagers on account of that sniper?" asked the fat scout anxiously.
"No, I couldn't see anything like that," Rob hastened to assure him. "There was some firing, but it looked to me as if it might be done for effect, just like cowpunchers ride into town, yelling, and shooting their guns in the air. But at the same time I think they must have got the person who did the sniping."
"Yes, I heard several shots that seemed to come from inside that next house," Merritt admitted. "It'll certainly be his funeral pyre. The house is all aflame, and burning fiercely."
"Poor chap! he must have been crazy to fire on Uhlans when they were in such force," Tubby declared. "They never refuse a dare, I've heard said. And believe me, I don't ever want to test them. I hope they hear the call soon now. That fire must be getting pretty close to us by this time, boys!"
Rob opened the door of the garret a trifle, after having pushed back the heavy trunk. Immediately a cloud of smoke entered, at which poor Tubby fell back in dismay.
"Oh! we're goners, I'm afraid!" he moaned, making his way through the pall in the direction of the one small window that was open, so that he might secure a breath of fresh air.
"If we can keep the smoke out a little while longer it's going to be all right," Rob informed them. "The Uhlans are all in the saddle, and seem to be only waiting for the order to leave. I can hear the captain in charge of the troop telling the villagers something or other, and he is speaking in French, too; so I reckon it must be a warning that if a single shot is fired as they ride away, they will turn back and not leave one stone unturned in the place."
"That seems to be the usual Uhlan way, I've heard," muttered Tubby, glad he could say anything; for at the time he was desperately clutching his nose with thumb and fingers, as though in hopes of keeping the pungent smoke from entering his lungs.
He had apparently gotten beyond the seeing stage, for both his eyes were kept tightly closed. At the same time Tubby was listening eagerly for good tidings. He knew that his chums were constantly on the lookout.
"There they go off!" he heard Rob say presently, when the situation had almost become unbearable.
The sound of many hoofs coming to their ears, even above the roaring of the fire, affirmed this statement. Tubby acted as though he wanted to cheer, and then reconsidered his intention, through fear that the sound might be heard by the Uhlans, and work them harm.
"Now, let's get out of here," said Rob briskly. "Take hold of my coat, Tubby. Merritt, bring up the rear. We'll find a room just below this where we can drop out of a window easily, if the stairs are ablaze, as I'm afraid may be the case."
Passing down from the garret in this fashion, through dense billows of smoke that struck terror to the soul of Tubby, they presently found themselves in one of the ordinary rooms, used perhaps for stray guests.
Looking from the window Rob saw that it would be easy for him and Merritt to drop down on the turf below. Tubby must be taken care of first, and so Rob snatched a sheet off a bed, and twisted it into the shape of a rope.
This he forced Tubby to take hold of, and then climb over the window sill.
"Keep a fast grip, and we'll lower you!" Rob told the fat scout, who had full confidence in his comrades since they had never failed him.
After all, it was an easy thing to let him down, because the distance was short. As for themselves, the other two boys scorned to make use of such means. Clambering out of the window, when Tubby reported himself safe below, they hung down as far as they were able, and then just let go. There was a little jar as they struck solid ground, and it was all over.
"Beautifully done, fellows," Tubby was saying, as he dug his fat knuckles into his still smarting eyes. "We'd pass muster for fire laddies, I tell you. After all, it takes scouts to know what ought to be done. But I think some of these people must have gone out of their minds to whoop it up so. What's that poor woman shouting now, Rob? Can you make it out? And look how they're holding her back, would you? It must be the wife of the inn keeper; the loss of her home has unsettled her reason, I'm afraid, poor thing!"
But Rob, who had been listening, knew better, as he immediately proved.
"It's a whole lot worse than that, I'm afraid," he told the others. "She keeps calling out for her baby; and I think the child's been left in the burning building!"
CHAPTER X.
THE DUTY OF A SCOUT
Tubby was dreadfully shocked when he heard the news.
"The poor thing!" he cried, "to be forgotten in all the row, and left to be smothered by the smoke, perhaps burned up in the bargain. Oh! Rob, I hope you're mistaken!"
"I wish I could believe so myself, Tubby, but if you look you can see them all staring up there at that window next to the one we jumped from. Some even point at it, and you notice more than a few of the women are crying like everything."
"But my stars! why doesn't somebody run up and get the child out, if that's so?" Tubby demanded, – forgetting that his eyes still smarted, – because this discovery, and the distress of the parents overwhelmed him.
"Because the lower floor is all afire, and the stairs can't be used," Merritt told him.
"If only we'd known about the child before we came out, we might have saved it," Tubby wailed. "If I could climb like some fellows I know, who can even go up a greased pole in the contests, I'd be for making my way up there right now. Hey! what are you going to do, Rob, Merritt? Let me help any way I can. Stand on my back if you want to; it's broad enough to do for a foundation! The poor little thing! We mustn't let it be burned if we can help it!"
Neither Rob nor Merritt had waited to give Tubby any answer when he made that really generous offer. They knew there would be no need of his back as a means for elevating one of them to the sill of the upper window. In fact, Rob had made a sudden discovery that must have been the main reason for his speedy actions.
"The tree is close to the house, Merritt!" he was saying as he sprang forward.
"Better still, Rob, one limb grows right alongside the window!" the other scout added, keeping in touch with the patrol leader.
They were quickly on the spot, Rob starting up the trunk of the tree at once.
"Don't follow me," he told his chum, as he climbed upward. "If I find the child I may want to drop it down to you. Get busy underneath, Merritt!"
"All right, Rob; I understand!" came the answer.
Tubby had also heard what was said. He came puffing forward, as though he did not mean to be left out entirely of the rescue.
"Let me help you, Merritt," he was saying, between his pants from his recent exertions.
"Sure I will, if there's any chance, Tubby."
"Can Rob reach that window from the limb?" the fat scout asked anxiously, as he tried to look straight upward, a task that was always a trying one with Tubby because of the odd shape of his chubby neck.
"He's about there now, you notice. There's something of a little ledge underneath and he's going to make it all right."
"There! He's clinging outside and starting to throw a leg over," Tubby exclaimed in evident rapture. "And if there is a child inside that room, our chum will find it. If it was me now, I'd be so blind with the smoke I'd have to just grope my way around, and p'raps get lost in the shuffle."
"But what's that you've got in your hand, Tubby?" pursued Merritt, becoming aware for the first time that the other was holding on to some white object.
"This? Why, what but that fine sheet you used to lower me with," he was told.
"I remember that Rob dropped it down after you landed," said Merritt, "but I never thought you'd want to take it along with you, Tubby."
"Oh! shucks! don't you see, I picked it up when I started over after you," the stout boy tried to explain.
"But why should you do that?" persisted Merritt, who was looking eagerly aloft just then, and possibly not fully paying heed to what he was saying.
"Why, you know how firemen stand and hold a blanket for people to jump into?" explained Tubby; "I thought that if it came to the worst, Rob might drop the baby into this sheet, which both of us could hold stretched out!"
"Well, you are a daisy, after all, Tubby!" cried Merritt, in sincere admiration. "That's as clever a scheme as anyone could think up. Here, give us a grip of an end, and we'll get ready for business!"
Quickly they clutched the four corners of the sheet. Fortunately, it appeared to be a fairly new bed-covering, and might be trusted to bear a certain weight without tearing.
Having reached the point where nothing more could be done in order to assist Rob, the other two scouts had to stand there and wait, as the precious seconds crept by, each seeming like an age to their anxious hearts.
Meanwhile, what of Rob, who had, without the least hesitation, risked his life in order to save the child forgotten in the excitement of the Uhlans' coming, and the strange events that had so soon followed?
When he reached that window, he found it closed, but, on his pressing against the sash, it had swung inward, allowing him free access to the room.
It was rather an appalling prospect that confronted Rob. The smoke seemed to be thick, and he could not see three feet away. For all he knew the fire that was raging in the lower part of the inn might by this time have eaten partly through the floor boards, so that, if he put his weight on them, he stood a chance of being precipitated into the midst of the flames.
Rob never hesitated a second. He had taken all these matters into consideration when making up his mind as to what he meant to attempt. More than this, he did not believe anything partaking of such a disaster threatened him in case he entered that apartment.
The most he feared was that he might be unable to discover where the child lay, for it was manifestly impossible to use one's eyes to any advantage, with all that veil of smoke interfering.
Over the window-sill he climbed, just as the two boys below witnessed. And, no sooner did Rob find himself in the room, than he started to cross it. He expected to find a bed somewhere, and toward this purpose he at once set himself.
He could hear the crackling of the flames below. Besides this, there came to him with painful distinctness the wails of the poor woman who was being restrained from trying to rush into the burning inn.
Rob was listening for something more. He had strong hopes that he might catch another sound, perhaps feeble, but enough to guide him to where the imperiled one lay in the bed or on the floor.
Groping as he advanced, and at the same time feeling with his feet, in case the object he sought should prove to be on the floor, Rob passed away from the vicinity of the open window. The smoke was pouring from the aperture now, as though it were in the nature of a funnel. This turned out to be of considerable help to the boy, for the draught served to thin the smoke that had filled the room to suffocation.
Now he had reached the farther wall, and, turning sharply to one side, started to comb this, every second expecting to come upon a bed of some sort.
It was about this time that Rob thought he heard a low, gasping cry just ahead of him. Though unable to use his eyes with any measure of success in locating the source of the sound, he was encouraged, and persisted in pushing forward. In this way he found himself bending over a cot.
His groping hand came in contact with something warm – something that moved ever so slightly at his touch. It was the forgotten child. Rob found that it was a mere baby, possibly not much more than a year old.
The smoke had not yet choked the little thing, though a short time longer would have certainly finished it.
Rob had no sooner clutched it in his arms than he tried to set himself right for the window by means of which he had reached the room. In this he was assisted by the light that came through the opening, and which served as his guide. By the time he reached it, he could no longer see a single thing, and, when he leaned out of the window, his first thought was to shout:
"Merritt, are you down below? I can't see a thing! The smoke has blinded me!"
To his great satisfaction there came an immediate response, and never had words from the lips of his chum sounded sweeter than they did then.
"Yes, we're both here, Rob. Let the child drop straight down! We'll take good care of it!"
"But you might miss it," objected Rob, still unable to see a thing.
"We can't! We've got a sheet spread out to catch it in!" Merritt sent back. "You're all right just there! Let go! Leave the rest to us!"
So Rob did as he was told. Accustomed to giving orders himself, he at the same time could obey when the necessity arose. Perhaps it was with considerable fear that he allowed the child to leave his grip; but the joyful shout arising from his chums below assured him that all was well.
Then he heard a feminine shriek, and judged that the frantic mother had darted to where the boys were standing, to clasp her rescued offspring to her breast.
Rob crawled over the ledge. He could not see how to make that friendly limb again, but then there was no need of going to all that trouble. He had dropped in safety before, and felt able to do the same again; so down he came like a plummet.
CHAPTER XI.
MYSTERIOUS SIGNALS IN THE NIGHT
Of course once Rob found himself away from that pungent smoke his sight was gradually restored to him, though for quite a while his eyeballs smarted more or less from the experience.
"What will we do now?" asked Tubby, who was very happy in the knowledge that he had been allowed to have at least a hand, two of them, he affirmed, in the saving of the little one.
"I did have an idea of staying here all night," returned Rob. "But, since the inn has been destroyed, or will be utterly before the fire dies down, of course that's out of the question."
"You remember we asked questions of the tavern-keeper," Merritt remarked. "He told us there was another village about three miles farther on along the road. We might make out to go there, and see if they will put us up. If not, it's a haystack for ours, provided there are any haystacks around."
"H'm! three miles or more, on that animated saw-buck, eh? I like that. It just invigorates me, of course," they heard Tubby telling himself, but his voice was anything but cheerful.
"Here comes the mother and the baby; she wants to thank you, Rob," Merritt told the patrol leader.
"Let's hurry and get out of this, then!" urged Rob, who, above all things, seemed to dislike being made a hero of when he felt that he had not done anything worth mentioning after all.
"No, you don't!" exclaimed Tubby, laying violent hands on his chum. "It's only fair that you give the poor woman a chance to tell you how grateful she is. As it stands to reason she speaks only Flemish, none of us can make head or tail out of what she says, unless she mentions that one word I know, which isn't likely."
But the woman could talk French, and she made it very evident to Rob that her mother heart was full of gratitude to him for what he had done. To the intense amusement of Tubby, she even kissed Rob again and again, on either cheek, after the manner of the Belgians.
"Bully! That's the ticket! Give him another for his mother! I like to see anyone appreciate a real hero. And here's the innkeeper; mebbe he'll want to add a few little caresses, too, Rob. Now, don't grieve his heart by refusing. They all do it over here, I reckon."
The man who had owned the inn contented himself, however, by telling Rob just how much he appreciated the gallant work of the American Boy Scout. Rob would not soon forget that experience; and it must always bring a warm feeling to his heart when thinking of how, with such a little effort, he had made these two humble people supremely happy.
When he tried to make the man accept pay for their food, the other utterly refused to listen to such a thing.
"It is the good wife and myself, young m'sieu, who are heavily in your debt," he told Rob, with the simplicity of sincerity. "How, then, could we ever forgive ourselves for taking money from one who has saved our baby's life? It would cause the blush of shame to dye our cheeks. We could never look our neighbors again in the face. It would not be right."
Of course that ended it, although Rob would rather have settled for that supper. Merritt tugged at his coat, understanding what it was all about.
"Don't insist, Rob," he told the other. "You mustn't try to take away the satisfaction he feels in having done one little thing for you. Let it go at that. He is not a poor man, I imagine, and has something laid by. Now, hadn't we better be getting out of here?"
"Oh! by the way, where are our horses?" asked Tubby, suddenly.
That reminded them they had forgotten all about the animals. The horses had been left tied to a rail at some little distance alongside the inn when they went in to get supper. Rob had intended, in case they meant to spend the night there, to have the three animals taken care of, and fed.
The hitching bar was entirely destitute of horses of any type when they turned their eyes in that quarter.
"What if those awful Uhlans took our steeds away with them?" Tubby suggested, with his usual blank look, and that woebegone shake of his head.
"It seems unbelievable to me," Rob replied; "but I'll make some inquiries. The inn-keeper may have had them taken to the stables back yonder, though I remember noticing the animals at the time we were peeping out of the window when the troopers were coming down the village street. Wait for me, and I'll ask him."
"I surely hope you learn good news, Rob!" Tubby sighed, as he thought of three long Belgian miles separating him from some sort of bed, where he could secure the rest he needed so badly.
Presently Rob came back, and, when Tubby saw him shake his head in the negative, he gave a dull sort of a groan.
"Bottom knocked out of everything, is it, Rob?" he asked, in a dazed sort of way.
"Well, nobody could give me any hope," was the reply. "Of course, the landlord was too excited over the burning of his house to notice just what the Uhlans did as they rode away, but one man told us he saw the troopers take our horses trailing behind them."
"Then that settles it," said Merritt; "though I'll never understand what they could want with those bony and tired nags, unless it was to make bologna sausages out of. We're in for a little hike that will stretch our legs."
"Yes, I guess it will," echoed Tubby, in a way that was hardly cheerful.
"And yours can stand a good deal of stretching, Tubby, you know," added Merritt.
"There's no use crying over spilt milk," said Rob, in his usual cheery fashion. "I more than half expected that we'd lose our mounts, sooner or later."
"So did I," agreed Merritt. "Only I thought perhaps they'd die on our hands from over-exertion. I never dreamed that rough riders like the German cavalrymen would want to be caught leading such ragtag animals along."
"Well, shall we make a move?" asked Rob.
There being no word against it, even from Tubby, who knew when duty called, the three scouts took their last look at the still burning houses, and then strode forth on the road leading toward the east.
The night promised to be unusually clear, for one thing. This pleased Rob, for, as they would have no moon to light them on their way, even the stars were welcome.
Three miles, under ordinary conditions, would have been reckoned almost nothing to scouts accustomed to taking lengthy hikes over hills and along valleys. It was a different matter, however, when passing through a war-distracted country, where hostile armies were encamped, so that at any minute they were apt to be greeted with a stern command, either in German or in French or Flemish, to stand and give the countersign, with the warning that to attempt flight would be at the peril of their lives.
Naturally the nerves of the boys were continually on edge. Tubby, in particular, kept his eyes roving from side to side, then into the uncertain distance ahead; and even at times turning to ascertain whether they were being pursued by some soft-footed enemies who thought to take them by surprise.
In this way more than a mile was passed over. When Rob announced that he believed they must be all of halfway to the other village, Tubby expressed fervent thanks.
"I'm still able to put one foot in front of the other," he remarked in a hushed voice, for Rob had cautioned them against speaking aloud, as it might draw unwelcome attention to the little party.
"Wait up a minute, please," whispered Merritt, and there was that about his mysterious manner that gave Tubby another bad shock.
"What's the matter, now, Merritt?" he asked softly but solicitously. "Hope you haven't got a stone bruise on your heel. Did you hear anything suspicious? Are we going to be held up by a patrol? Oh! dear, why don't you hurry and tell us the worst?"
"What do you make of that flickering light over there, Rob?" asked Merritt. "It seems to be in an open field, as near as I can understand. Just watch how it keeps on jumping up and down, then sideways."
"Why, it caught my eye just about the time you spoke, Merritt," came the reply from the patrol leader. "It must either be the work of some crazy person, or else a way of signaling by lantern."
"Say, I honestly believe you've struck the truth that shot, Rob," broke in Tubby, who had, of course, immediately turned toward the spot indicated. "See the way he swings the light around and makes all manner of figures in the air with the same. Why, that was the letter N, as sure as you live. And there goes E, followed by W and S. What does that spell but NEWS? Hey! we're on the track of a discovery!"
"Will you keep still, Tubby, and let's see if he begins again?" said Merritt eagerly.
"That must have been the last word of his message," remarked Rob quickly, "but chances are he'll repeat it. Stand ready to spell it out as well as we can. Three scouts accustomed to reading the Myers code of fire signaling ought to – There, that was C; and after that O, A, S, T – which means COAST."
Slowly, and somewhat laboriously, the boys spelled the message, letter for letter, their previous training proving of the greatest help; and this was the result:
"Coast clear – safe landing here – important news!"