第 31 页

The officer laughed, but one of them took out his card, and wrote

upon it:

"Dear Von Koch, this man is--for a Hebrew--tolerably fair in his

ideas."

"That is for the major of the regiment, at Bellevue," he said; and

Ralph bowed, as if he had received a recommendation of the warmest

kind.

"I was beginning to be alarmed, Ralph," Percy said, when his

brother again took his place in the wagon.

"I have been haggling over prices," Ralph said. "Fortunately, we

are not pressed for time."

They had another stop, of some duration, at Chaville; and it was

nearly three o'clock in the afternoon before they came down to the

back of Bellevue. Here they were stopped and, upon Ralph producing

his pass, an officer came up.

"You cannot go any farther," he said. "You are close to Bellevue,

now; but if you were to take this wagon into the main road, you

would draw Valerien's fire upon us, at once.

"You will find most of the officers there," pointing to a large

house, near.

"I have this card, for Major Von Koch," Ralph said. "I am here to

buy, or carry home on commission, goods of all kinds."

The officer went with Ralph; and the scene at Viroflay was

repeated, but upon a much larger scale. Viroflay is a small

village, containing only a few large villas; Bellevue is composed

almost entirely of handsome residences, owned by Parisians. The

quantity of articles "saved" was proportionately large.

After examining and bargaining for a large number of valuable

articles of furniture, pictures and clocks; Ralph left, with some

of the officers, to view other articles in the villas upon the side

of Bellevue, looking down upon the river. Percy had taken the

horses out of the wagon, and accompanied his brother, ostensibly to

carry back any articles purchased.

At one of the villas Ralph expressed a great desire to go out into

the garden, to look over Paris; and the officer with him--being in

an excellent humor, at the disposal of some articles at much higher

prices than he had expected to receive; and at having the proceeds,

in German bank notes, in his pockets--went out himself, and pointed

out all the various objects of interest.

The fog of a winter's evening was already shutting in the view, but

the boys could see the principal buildings of Paris. The towers of

Notre Dame, the domes of the Pantheon and Invalides, the heights of

Montmartre and Vilette, and the forts of Issy and Vanves were

distinctly visible. The boys' eyes turned, however, more to the

river at their feet, and the intervening ground, than upon the

objects--however interesting--of distant Paris.

"Do not show yourself," the officer said. "If we were caught sight

of, from Issy or Point du Jour--or from that gunboat, below--we

should have a rain of shells about us, in no time. You can look out

from among the trees; but do not get beyond their shelter, or you

will be seen, instantly."

The house in whose garden they were standing stood upon the brow of

the hill. Behind was a little wood, and gardens sloping

pretty-steeply down. Then along by the water was a street, with

houses upon either side. The river was, here, divided by an island;

the lower end of which, however, scarcely extended low enough to be

opposite to the spot upon which the boys were standing.

"Bless me," Ralph said, "it must be very dangerous, living down

there. Why, that gunboat could blow the place into the air."

"That she could," the officer said, "and consequently, none of our

men live there. We have sentries along the river bank, and a few

others scattered about; but none of the troops are quartered there,

nor even in this line of villas where we now are. If we were to

show a light at night, in any window here, we should have a shell

in in a couple of minutes. We have no fear, whatever, of a sortie

in this direction; and have plenty of force behind."

Ralph and Percy lingered, upon one excuse or another; asking

questions as long as they could, and making the best use of their

time, to gain a fair idea of the ground that they would have to

cross. They had with them, in the wagon, a map of Bellevue and

Meudon upon a large scale, with every house marked upon it.

"It is going to be a dark night," the officer said, as they hurried

away, "and we shall have snow before midnight."

Another hour or two was spent in purchasing various articles, taken

from the French villas. Darkness had come on, and Ralph told the

officers that he should not return until the next morning to

Versailles; and that if the articles to be entrusted to his care

for delivery were put in rough cases--of which there were plenty,

which had come full of stores--and brought by ten o'clock in the

morning, carefully directed, it would be in sufficient time.

"Will you give us leave to sleep in one of the villas, upon the

farther side of the road?" Ralph asked the officer in command. "My

boy has never seen a shot fired, in earnest; and I should like him

to be able to say he had watched the fire of the forts, round

Paris."

"If you sleep there," the colonel said, "you must not light a fire,

or show a light, or you would bring the fire of a hundred guns upon

us."

"I will be very careful, sir," Ralph answered. "Will you kindly let

an orderly go with us, to pass us through the sentries? For, as

it's dark now, they would not let us pass."

The colonel gave the order, and an orderly went with them. They

stopped at the wagon, and each took out a large bundle.

"We shall want our blankets, tonight," Ralph said. "It is bitterly

cold.

"Would you like a glass of brandy, to help keep it out, my man?"

The soldier smiled an assent, drank off a glass of brandy, and then

accompanied them to the villa. Short as was the distance, they were

challenged twice, and the sign and counter-sign had to be

exchanged. They reached the deserted villa, threw down the bundles

in a corner; and then the orderly said good night, and left them to

themselves.

Chapter 16: A Desperate Attempt.

"So far, so good, Percy!" Ralph said, when they heard the street

door slam, as the orderly left. "Hitherto we have had the most

extraordinary good fortune and, as it's going to snow--for I felt a

few flakes, as we came along--I look upon it as good as done."

"It will take away from us risk of being hit, but I don't see that

it will make much difference in our risk of being drowned," Percy

said. "I own, Ralph, I am a great deal more afraid of that, than of

the other."

"But it does, Percy. It makes all the difference in the world. We

had agreed that we would put on life belts; but that we would blow

the smallest quantity of air possible into them, so that they might

give us some slight assistance, and yet not be too buoyant to

prevent us from diving. Now we can blow them up with wind, so as to

prevent the possibility of our being drowned. Once in the water,

and we are safe from everything except a stray bullet. In a

snowstorm, on such a dark night as this, they could not see our

heads five yards off."

"But what is worse, Ralph, we shall not be able to see five yards,

either; and should have no idea where we were swimming."

"I had not thought of that, Percy. Yes, that would be very

serious," and Ralph thought, for some time. "It seems a risk, this,

Percy; but I can see no plan, except to draw their fire."

"How do you mean?" Percy asked, puzzled.

"You see, Percy, our idea before was to get down to the shore, to

put our dummy into the water, and to let it float down a hundred

yards--the length of its string--and then to start ourselves,

holding the other end of the string, in hopes that--if the sentries

are really sharply on the lookout--they would see the dummy,

instead of us, as it will be a much more conspicuous object;

especially as we intended to do as much diving as we could, and our

movements forward would jerk the dummy's string, and make him bob,

like a man swimming. If they once caught sight of it, they would be

too busy firing at it to look about for anyone else.

"Well now, I think that instead of giving up the dummy

altogether--as we might have done, now that the snow has come

on--we must let it float gently down, for seventy or eighty yards;

and then throw a stone into the water by it, so as to draw the

attention of the sentry. Or--if the sentries are pretty far

apart--one of us might make a great splash in the water, when the

dummy is floating; and then run back before the sentry gets up, and

get into the water quietly, higher up. Their fire will act as a

guide to us."

"We had better start soon, Ralph. It may take us an hour, or even

two, to get down to the water; for we must go along like ghosts, so

as not to alarm the sentries; and we shall have walls to get over,

and all sorts of difficulties."

"All right, Percy. I do not see the use of waiting. We shall not

get any warmer, by stopping here. It's like having a tooth out.

One's got to do it, and the sooner it's done, the better.

"Now for our bundles."

They went downstairs into a cellar--where the light could not be

seen from outside--struck a light, and lit a candle. The first

thing taken out of the bundle was the dummy--a net, rather larger

than a man's head, tightly filled with corks; with a cord, a

hundred yards in length, attached. Next were two complete suits,

made of white calico; with caps, with long flaps of the same

material. Next were two large rolls of India rubber webbing, about

six inches wide, which they had brought from Tours with them.

"I can't think that that will be any good, Ralph."

"It will, indeed, Percy. The water will, of course, soak through;

but what gets in will remain in, and the heat of the body will warm

it, a good deal. I can assure you, it will be a great deal warmer

than having the icy water flowing past you."

Both boys now took off their coats and waistcoats, put on a warm

flannel jersey over their flannel shirts, and then wound the

bandages of India rubber round each other's bodies. They began

under the arms; drawing the webbing tight, as they wound it round,

so that its natural elasticity caused each turn to press tightly

upon the turn above, which it overlapped. This bandage was

continued down to the lower part of the body. Then they put on the

life belts. Over them they put their suits of white calico, white

shoes with India rubber soles, the white caps, and swimming gloves.

They then put the "dummy" in a pillow case, which they had bought

for it at Versailles. Before putting on their caps, they fastened

the quills with the dispatches in their hair. In a belt, underneath

their jackets, each carried a heavy revolver.

"This India rubber stuff regularly squeezes me, Ralph."

"All the better, Percy. You will feel the benefit of it, when you

are in the water, believe me."

The boys now knelt down together, and asked for protection through

the peril which they were about to encounter. A few minutes later

they rose, grasped each other's hand; and then--blowing out the

light--groped their way upstairs, opened a window which led into

the garden, and stepped out.

The wind was blowing strongly. Snowflakes were being whisked hither

and thither, like spray from a wave. Had it not been for the gleam

from the snow-covered ground, it would have been impossible to see

ten paces, here. As it was, it was intensely dark.

"It's lucky that it's downhill, Percy, or we should never find our

way to the water's edge. If we keep descending, we must be there,

at last."

Before starting, the boys went a few paces from each other; and

were pleased to find that their white costumes suited admirably as,

between the driving snow and the white sheet upon the ground, they

could not make each other out at more than eight or ten yards, even

when they knew exactly where they stood. They now began to descend

the hill, very carefully, step by step. The snow upon the ground

made walking much more easy than it otherwise would have been.

Their footsteps--muffled alike by the India-rubber soles, and the

snow upon which they walked--were inaudible, even to themselves.

They had several walls to climb, and the noiseless India-rubber

soles were of good service, here. Several times they could hear the

sentries, beating their feet upon the ground to warm them; but in

no case were they near enough to see them.

At last, after an hour and a half--spent in passing the three

hundred yards which separated them from the river--they reached, in

safety, the wall of the road which runs along by the river. Here

the sentries were pacing along at distances of thirty or forty

yards apart. The white houses, upon the opposite side of the road,

could be faintly seen; and the boys moved along until opposite an

opening between them, by which they could get through to the river.

Looking over the wall, they could watch the sentries and--choosing

their time when one had just passed, so that his back would be

turned towards them--he no sooner disappeared in the darkness than

they dropped noiselessly into the road, ran across the street,

climbed a low railing, and stood in a garden which reached down to

the river.

They stood watching, for some time, to assure themselves that no

sentry was placed in the garden; but at last they stole forwards

and stood at the end of the garden, with the river at their feet.

The snow--which was at their backs--was falling faster than ever.

The river deepened rapidly from the wall; but the water was low

enough for anyone to get along on the sloping side--faced with

rough stone--between the foot of the wall and the water.

The boys got over the wall, took the dummy from the bag and,