第 14 页

for two strangers to ask for the schoolmaster. The priest will tell

us where he lives."

So saying, they entered the little cabaret, walked down a long

passage leading from the door, and paused for a moment at the

threshold--for in the room were some eight or ten Prussian

soldiers.

"It is too late to retreat, Percy. Come in boldly."

Lifting their caps, they walked up to an unoccupied table; and

called for some bread, cheese, and beer. The landlord brought the

refreshments, and the boys had scarcely begun to eat when a

Prussian sergeant--who had exchanged a word with the landlord,

evidently in reference to them--strode up to them and, laying his

hand upon Ralph's shoulder, said:

"Who are you, young fellows? The landlord says you do not belong to

the village."

"We belong to a party of woodcutters, from Colmar," Ralph said,

quietly.

Illustration: Among the German Soldiers.

"Oh, indeed!" the sergeant said, in an incredulous voice, "and

where are your party?"

"Out in the forest, at the place where we have begun to fell

trees," Ralph said.

"But people do not come to cut wood without horses, or carts to

take it away," the sergeant persisted.

"They are up in the forest with our father," Ralph said.

"Have you heard anything about this party?" the sergeant asked the

landlord.

The man hesitated a moment. He evidently suspected, also, that the

boys might belong to the franc tireurs; and was anxious to say

nothing which could harm them.

"No," he said, after a pause, "I can't say that I have heard of

them; but I know some of the forest was sold, not long ago, and

they might have come from Colmar without coming this way."

"We only arrived this morning," Percy said, quietly, "so that you

could hardly have heard of us, unless some of the people of your

place happened to pass, when we were at work; and we have not seen

anyone, all day."

"At any rate," the sergeant said, "I shall see if your story be

true, and you will at once take us to the place.

"Corporal, get ten men in readiness."

"Certainly," Ralph said, "if you will allow us to finish our

supper, we will show you the way, at once."

The sergeant nodded, and resumed his seat.

"Look here, Percy," Ralph said, quietly, "we are in a nasty fix,

this time. There is only one thing to be done, that I can see. If

we both go they will shoot us, to a certainty; for although one

might make a bolt in the wood, it is certain we could not both get

away.

"Only one thing is to be done. I will say your foot is bad, and ask

for you to stay here. Directly we have gone, you slip out and

go--as hard as you can--to the place where our men are hid. I will

bring them in that direction. We shall have passed the place before

you can reach it--at least, unless you can get out, at once--and

pass on in the darkness. Take off your shoes, so as to run lightly.

As we pass, fire a volley right into us; and I will make a dart

into the wood, in the confusion."

"But you might be shot by our men, Ralph. They could not possibly

distinguish you, in the dark. No, I will go with the men, and you

make your way to Tempe."

"No, no, Percy, I won't have that."

"Very well," Percy said, doggedly, "then we will go together."

There was a silence for a minute or two, and then Ralph said:

"Look here, Percy, this is madness; however, as you won't do as I

tell you, we will draw lots. I will put a piece of crumb in one of

my hands. You shall guess which it is in. If you guess right, I

will go with the Germans. If you guess wrong, you shall go."

"Very well," Percy said; "I agree to that."

Ralph then broke off a small piece of bread, and put it in one of

his hands--having already, before he made the proposition, broken

off a similar piece, unobserved by Percy. He then put both hands

under the table, and then lifted them again; all the time trying to

appear not to be engaged upon anything out of the way, as he knew

that some of the Germans were watching them.

"Left," Percy said.

Ralph replied by opening the left hand, and dropping the piece of

bread on the table; at the same time putting his right hand back

into his pocket, as if to get out his handkerchief--and dropping,

as he did so, the piece of bread it contained into the place.

"There, Percy, fortune has decided it.

"Goodbye; God bless you. I daresay I shall get out of it but, if

not, give my love to them all, at home."

Then he finished his beer and rose, without giving Percy time to

reply, even could he have done so; but the lad was so much choked,

with the effort to keep from crying, that he could not have spoken.

Ralph turned to the sergeant and--stretching his arms, with the

natural air of a tired boy, objecting to be disturbed--said:

"Now, sir, I am ready to start. I suppose there is no occasion for

us both to go, for my brother has hurt his foot. We shouldn't have

come in, tonight; but it is his first time out with the woodmen,

and he is not accustomed to sleeping out, in the wet."

"Yes, one is enough. He can stay," the sergeant said.

"You had better ask the landlord to show you a corner, where you

can sleep on the straw, Karl," Ralph said. "It is no use waiting

for me. I shall be back in an hour."

With a nod to Percy, Ralph now walked steadily to the door. The

sergeant, with the men told off for the duty, accompanied him. When

they reached the street, it was raining heavily.

"I wonder," Ralph said, "whether the landlord would lend me a sack,

to put on my shoulders."

"Is this place far off, youngster?" the sergeant asked, peering out

into the darkness.

Ralph's heart gave a jump; for he detected, in the tone, a certain

hesitation as to taking the men out in such a night, upon such

slight suspicion. He was, however, too shrewd to show any desire to

dissuade the sergeant from it, so he replied:

"No, it is no distance to speak of; not a mile, at most. We should

be there and back in half an hour, if it was light; but there is

only a path among the woods and it is dark.

"I think we had better have some lanterns, for I do not think I

could find my way without them, tonight; at any rate, it would take

us much longer."

"There, boy, that will do," the sergeant said, laying his hand on

his shoulder. "I am satisfied, now, with the truth of your story. I

thought, for a bit, you had something to do with the franc tireurs

who are about here, but I see I was mistaken.

"Turn in again, lads. It is no use taking you out on a useless

search, such a night as this, among these forests."

Ralph laughed aloud, as they turned to go down the passage again to

the corner.

"Won't father laugh," he said, "when he hears that you thought I

was a franc tireur. We haven't seen any, about Colmar. I don't

think you need be afraid of them, if they ain't bigger or older

than I am."

By this time they had entered the room again, and Ralph saw that

Percy was already talking to the landlord--with whom, indeed, he

was on the point of leaving the room. He turned round, upon hearing

the party come in again, and gave a slight start of pleasure.

"I am soon back, Karl, and am glad that it is so for, frankly, I

too am tired; and it is not a night for a dog to be out. I will go

in with you."

"Stay, landlord," the sergeant said. "Give the boys another glass,

each, before they go off."

"Thank you," Ralph said. "A glass of good beer never comes amiss."

The boys stopped, while the landlord filled their glasses.

"Now," said the sergeant, raising his arm. "Here's a health, to

King William."

"Here's a health, to King William," Ralph repeated. "I am sure I

wish him no harm.

"And now, with your permission, I will be off."

The landlord led them to an outhouse, in which were some trusses of

straw. Just as he was about to leave them, Ralph said, suddenly:

"Ah! I had nearly forgotten about the priest. You have a priest

here, have you not?"

"Of course," the landlord said. "Do you take us for heathens?"

"Not at all," Ralph said, apologetically; "but father told me to

call, and pay him for some masses. My eldest sister was very ill,

when we came away, and father worries about her.

"Where does the priest live?"

"The last house on the left, as you go out from the farther end of

the village. But anyone will show you it, in the morning.

"You don't want the light any longer?"

For the boys had, while speaking, been taking off their boots, and

making a show of preparing to lie down on the straw.

"No, thank you. Good night.

"Oh, I forgot--what do you charge, a cask, for your best beer?

Father wanted to know and, if the price suits, will send down a

cart to fetch it."

The landlord named the price, and then said good night, and left

them.

When he returned to the room where he had left the German soldiers,

the sergeant asked him a question or two concerning the boys; and

the landlord repeated the substance of the conversation which he

had just had. This allayed the last suspicions which had remained

in the sergeant's mind; and he congratulated himself, greatly, that

he had not taken his men out, in such a night, upon a mere

groundless suspicion.

"If the landlord repeats that yarn to the Germans, it will allay

all suspicion," Ralph said, when they were left alone. "Otherwise

the sergeant might have taken it into his head to come to have a

look at us and, although it would not very much matter that he

should discover that the birds had flown, still it would have put

him on his guard, and he might have doubled the sentries, and made

it much more difficult for us.

"We have had a very narrow squeak for it this time, Percy, old

boy."

"Very, Ralph! I would rather go through twenty battles, again, than

feel as I felt when I saw you start, and thought that I should

never see you again, alive."

"Well, we have no time to lose now, Percy. Have you got your boots

on again? If so, let us start at once. The major and men must be

very anxious, long before this. It must be full an hour since we

came."

"It has been the longest hour I ever passed, Ralph. There now, I am

ready, if you are."

"We must go out very quietly, Percy. I have no doubt that they have

got sentries posted all about. They know that we are in the

neighborhood I wish I knew how many there are of them."

"I found out, from the landlord, that all the fifteen men we saw

here were billeted upon him," Percy said. "He told me at first,

when I asked him, that he could do nothing for me in the way of a

bed, because there were three or four in every room. I said that a

stable and a little straw would do for us, very well, and then he

thought of this outhouse.

"At the same rate, there must be at least a hundred men in the

village."

They now opened the door of the outhouse, went quietly out, and

made their way through a garden at the back of the house towards

the wood.

"Stand still a few minutes, Percy," Ralph said, in a whisper, "and

let us see if we can find out where the sentries are placed. I

expect that they form a cordon round the village.

"Lie down by this wall. We can see them, there, and they cannot see

us."

It was well that they did so for, in another minute, they heard a

tread quite close to them; and a Prussian soldier passed, within a

yard of where they were lying. They could dimly see that his hood

was over his head, and hear that he was humming to himself a scrap

of some German air. They lay there until he had again passed the

spot; and then--having found out the direction of his beat--they

crawled noiselessly away and, in five minutes, had reached the edge

of the forest.

They did not enter it, as it would have been impossible--in the

dense darkness--to have made their way without running against

trees, and snapping off boughs, which would have given the alarm.

They therefore skirted the edge--knowing that, with the trees

behind them, they would be invisible at the distance of a yard or

two--and in ten minutes reached the place where their company was

awaiting them. As they approached the spot, they gave a short, low

whistle; which was the agreed sign, among the band, for knowing

each other on night expeditions. It was answered at once and, in

another minute, they were among their friends.

"What has happened?" Major Tempe asked. "We were getting very

anxious about you. I sent Favarts to reconnoiter, ten minutes ago;

and he has just returned, saying that he can hear someone pacing

backwards and forwards on the road, and that he believes it to be a

sentry."

"He was quite right," Ralph said; "the village is full of Germans.

There must--as far as we can see--be seventy or eighty of them, at

the very lowest; and there are probably a hundred. We have been

prisoners, or something very like it, and have had a monstrously

close shave of it.

"But I will tell you all that, when we have time. Do you still

think of carrying out your plans?"

"Certainly," Major Tempe said, "that schoolmaster I am determined

to have, even if we fight our way in, and shoot him in bed. Have

you found out where he lives?"

"No, sir, but we have found out where the priest lives. It is this

end house: the end of the village, on the left-hand side as you

come out."

"Are the sentries very close together?"

"They are pretty close, but not too close to prevent our crawling