CHAPTER XIX THAD TURNS MAGICIAN
Their troubles began almost as soon as they struck the road. Owing tothe fact that there was an almost constant stream of motors and othervehicles going and coming, it took on the aspect of a moving procession.
Thad was compelled to fall in line and curb his impatience as best hecould. Of course, at the same time, he remained on the alert for suchopenings as occurred, when he might take advantage of a chance to passahead, and spin along a stretch of territory that offered theopportunity.
Progress was tedious, and was made all the more so on account of theopen hostility shown by many of the truck drivers and those connectedwith ambulances. These natives could not understand what business thosethree boys dressed in faded khaki could have seated in a fine car andheading apparently toward Paris. They must have jumped to the conclusionthat Thad and his chums were out for a lark; a trio of curious Englishlads who wanted to bother everybody by trying to see some of thefighting.
Consequently the French drivers resented this seeming impertinence. Morethan that, they began to interfere, whenever they found a chance, bydeliberately blocking the road and delaying the boys unnecessarily.Often, too, some husky chauffeur would call out to them in a sarcastictone; and while they could only guess at the import, they understoodthat it was not meant for a compliment; in fact, they were very likelybeing compared to “pigs.”
Thad stood all this patiently for a little while. Allan was beginning toshow signs of anger, while even gentle Bumpus fumed considerably.
“Can’t we do something to put a stopper on this thing, Thad?” finallydemanded Allan, when a van deliberately blocked their passage and theman at the wheel thrust his bearded face out to leer back at themimpudently.
For reply, Thad shouted out a few words in French, much to the surpriseof both his comrades; at the same time he made a certain sign with hishand. Then, to the utter amazement of both Bumpus and the other boy, thedriver of the van containing wounded heroes on the way to the Parishospitals hurriedly drew his vehicle aside, even going so far as to holdup so as to allow of a free passage.
A minute later this was repeated, and again with surprising results. Nowonder simple-minded Bumpus fairly gasped and stared hard at Thad.
“Say, since when did you practice for a magician, Thad?” he demanded,bent on learning the secret of that magical pass of the hand, thatmajestic signal that would have well become a king. “Why, look at themget out of our way, will you? Honestly, I believe you must havehypnotized the bunch, Thad.”
“And what’s that French phrase you’re shouting at the drivers?” pursuedAllan. “I can only make out the word ‘Joffre’ in it all. Are you tellingthem we’ve got a dispatch for the big push at Headquarters and thatperhaps the fate of the whole battle may depend on our getting it to himin a hurry?”
“You’ve guessed it, Allan,” admitted Thad; “for that is just what itmeans. And you can see how those patriotic drivers understand. They nolonger see in us three happy-go-lucky schoolboys from across theChannel, poking our noses where we hadn’t ought to be, and interferingwith men’s work. Why, I feel like taking off my hat to those chaps afterseeing how they give us the road now.”
“It works like magic, for a fact,” said Allan, looking happy once more;“but how did you get on to it, Thad?”
“Our friend, the American surgeon, told me what to say, and how to givethat signal with my hand,” came the reply. “He realized that we’d havelots of trouble getting along this congested road. I think the officerwho was so badly smashed must have passed it on to the doctor.”
“Well, keep it going then, please,” Bumpus pleaded, “because it seems tosave us heaps and heaps of bother.”
As they were constantly moving away from the scene of action of coursethe awful clamor grew gradually less in volume. Still the boys were ofthe opinion that if the wind was favorable the citizens of the Frenchcapital might even catch distant sounds of apparent thunder. How itwould revive thrilling memories of those bitter days of ’71 in the mindsof the old folks who had passed through the previous siege, and seen theheel of the proud Prussian victor pressing their pavements in Paris.
Once they came to where a van heavily laden had broken down, and blockedthe entire road. With so many vehicles passing back and forth in aconstant stream such a happening was not singular. But those astutedrivers had been equal to the occasion. An adjoining stone wall had beentorn down so that vehicles might turn into a field, and thus go aroundthe block, once more reaching the road further on.
Bumpus felt relieved when he saw how easily this difficulty had been metand conquered. Men were even then busily engaged in repairing the vanthat had caused the trouble. Had it been beyond help they would haveremoved its load, and dragged the heavy machine to one side of the road,so as to leave a free passage.
“But how far do we keep on this route?” Bumpus wanted to know,presently. “It runs direct to Paris, I understand, and surely that isn’twhere we’re bound.”
“Well, I don’t think General Joffre has yet taken up his headquarters sofar away from the fighting line,” laughed Allan. “As I understand itwe’ll soon come to a place where we turn aside, and head into the west;isn’t that it, Thad?”
“Just what we will,” replied the driver; “and then, unless I’m mistaken,our course will gradually carry us back toward the front once more. Wecan tell that from the direction we head for; and, besides, as like asnot the roar will begin to increase again instead of getting softer.”
Bumpus fell silent at that. Given his way and no doubt he would havecandidly admitted that he had seen quite as much of fighting as he everwanted to look upon. The terrible things that had passed in reviewbefore his eyes would never leave his mind; and his heart felt heavybecause of the intense human suffering they had tried their best toalleviate. Still Bumpus was very loyal, and so long as these chums ofhis thought best to see the great battle through he was determined notto show the white feather.
It was certainly amazing, the amount of traffic that was passing backand forth along that road. It had evidently been given over entirely tothis sort of thing; for they did not encounter any batteries of guns, ormarching regiments of troops coming out of Paris as reinforcements onthe way to the fighting line. No doubt arrangements had been perfectedwhereby all such went either by train, or along still another mainartery of travel, where they might have an unobstructed passageconducive to haste.
“Thad, do you think we’ll ever run across Giraffe again?” Bumpussuddenly asked, as though the missing chum might have been in his mindas he watched an empty ambulance swinging by on their right, forvehicles abroad always pass to the left.
“Oh! it’s to be hoped we do,” the boy at the wheel replied, hastily. “Ifhe gets back to where the field hospital is, and meets the surgeon, whopromised to keep an eye out for Giraffe, he will be told where we’vegone; also that he is to go back to Paris, where we’ll join him. I evenleft an address with our friend, so that if it came to the worst Giraffewould know where to find us.”
“Thad, you just manage to think of nearly everything,” commented theadmiring Bumpus, once more looking pleased, as if some weighty doubtshad been thus removed.
“I’m glad you said ‘nearly,’” the scout leader told him, “because I’vegot my weak points as well as the next fellow. But here we come toanother pack; and it’s going to take a whole lot of managing to getthrough in a hurry.”
They were making very good progress all this while, however. Thad feltgreatly encouraged. He believed it could not be long before they arrivedat the place where they expected to leave this main artery of travel,and strike out along the road running parallel with the fighting line.Here the vehicular traffic might be expected to become much less dense,and they would be able to make better time.
“Keep your eyes on the watch for an opening to the left,” he told theothers, after they had managed to get by the jam, and had a little clearspace ahe
ad.
“Watch that ambulance coming, Thad; it seems to wobble a bit, in thehurry of the man at the wheel to get back to the front; and we don’twant any smashup at this stage of the game, you know.”
“Oh! they’ll give us plenty of room when we get closer,” retorted Thad.“With three on the seat they ought to be able to manage things, I shouldthink.”
“The ambulance is full of men, too,” remarked Allan just then. “Just aslike as not they’re fresh workers of the Red Cross Corps getting out onthe front line to help the tired gang we left up to their eyes inbusiness.”
“Say, it seems to me there’s something mighty familiar about one ofthose chaps on the seat of that machine!” exclaimed Bumpus.
His words caused both the others to look closer. Then Allan gave alaugh.
“As sure as you live that’s nobody else save our chum, Giraffe!” heexclaimed. “I’d know that long neck of his among a thousand. And see, herecognizes us now, for he’s grabbed the arm of the pilot of theambulance, and means to get him to stop. Well, if this isn’t luck, thenwe never had it come our way.”
The Boy Scouts Afoot in France; or, With the Red Cross Corps at the Marne Page 19
