CHAPTER VIII
THE ENEMY'S TRICK
Jack Danby was pretty tired after his exertions. Captain Durland, gladthat his Troop, except for the one prisoner, poor Harry Warner, of theRaccoons, was still all together under his command in Bremerton, foundquarters for them in the little village hotel.
"We'll turn in early," he said, "and get all the sleep we can. I thinkthere'll be some hard fighting to-morrow, and we can't tell yet whatpart we'll be called on to play in it when it comes. So we'll get allthe sleep we can. I shouldn't wonder if the battle to-morrow began longbefore dawn. If we can turn the right wing of the Blue army, whichdoesn't seem very likely now, we will want to start the action as soonas possible, because, when you have the enemy trapped, the thing to dois to strike at him just as quickly as you can. Every minute of delayyou give him gives him just that much more of a chance to get out of thetrap."
"That means if General Bean gets to Newville in time, doesn't it, sir?"asked Dick Crawford.
All the Scouts had listened with the greatest interest to what Jack hadtold them of his day's adventures. He had been at the very heart ofthings, and he was able, from the information that he and Tom Binns hadintercepted, to get a complete view of the whole scene of theoperations, far superior to that of any of the others, who knew, ofcourse, only what was going on in their own immediate neighborhood.
"Yes--that's what I mean, of course," said Durland. "But it's a forlornhope. There's a limit to human endurance. Even regular troops would callwhat Bean's brigade did before sunset a hard day's work. Just think ofit--they were in motion before daybreak this morning, ready for theirdash across the line. Then they marched several miles toward Hardport,turned aside for a big flanking movement, and had hardly occupied thecity when they were started off for the Cripple Creek Bridge. Then theywere turned off again from that, and sent to march another twenty milesto Newville. That was necessary, of course--they'd have been cut off andcaptured, to a man, if they'd kept on for the bridge, without even thefun of putting up a fight for their colors. But that doesn't make it anyeasier work. I know Bean--he won't ask his men to do the impossible. Andthat means that he'll be five miles from Newville when morning comes."
"Then nothing is likely to be decided to-morrow?" said Bob Hart.
"I don't see how it can be. The two armies are playing at cross purposesto-night, you see. Unless the Blues have corrected their mistake, theywill be working on the assumption that Bean's brigade is out of itentirely, and that they can eat up the main body of our army, and thenturn around and capture Bean when they like. While they're working onthat idea, General Harkness is making a desperate effort to turn thetables on them, and lead them into just the same sort of a trap thatJack Danby has enabled him to escape. His strategy is perfectly sound,and he can't lose seriously, even if his plan fails. But I think theumpires will call the fight to-morrow a drawn battle."
"What will happen then?"
"Now you're asking a question I can't answer. We've got to wait more orless on the movements of the Blue army, you see. After all, we're on thedefensive. Of course, we've taken the offensive to-day, and on theshowing that's been made so far the Blues are very much out of it. Onthe single day the umpires would have to give the decision to GeneralHarkness. He's in a better position right now to prevent an attack onthe capital itself than he was before the war began."
Then Durland called the order to sound taps, and in a few minutes theTroop was sound asleep.
Bremerton that night was peaceful and quiet. Over in the telegraphoffice watchful soldier operators were at work, but the clicking oftheir keys did not disturb the Scouts in their well-earned rest. Formiles all about them there was bustle and activity. Troops, exhaustedafter a day of work that was very real indeed for a good many of themilitiamen, clerks and office workers, camped along the roads and tooksuch rest as they could get. This game was proving as much of animitation of war as many of them wanted to see.
They had come out expecting a restful, pleasant vacation, with thethrill of a war game as an additional incentive for them to turn out,but they were finding that it closely resembled hard work--the sort ofwork they got too little of in their crowded days of office routine.Later they would enjoy the recollection of it, but while they were doingit there was a good deal of roughing that wasn't so pleasant.
A late moon made the countryside brilliant, and easy to cover with theeye, and when, a couple of hours after midnight, the roll of riflefiring in the distance, coming like light thunder, awoke the Scouts, whowere sleeping three in a room, many of them rushed to their windows.
Jack Danby shared a room with Pete Stubbs and Tom Binns, his particularchums, and he laughed at them.
"What are you looking for, powder smoke?" he asked them. "Don't youremember that they're using smokeless powder in this war? You couldn'tsee that firing if it were within a hundred yards."
The firing soon became general and Jack himself grew interested.
"That doesn't sound just like outposts coming together," he said. "Itseems to me that it's pretty general firing, as if considerable bodiesof men were getting engaged. I'd like to be out there and see what'sgoing on."
The distant din increased, and there was no longer a chance for theScouts to sleep. In real warfare tired men, it is said, can sleep with abattle raging all about them, but the Scouts weren't inured to suchheavy firing yet, and it disturbed and excited them. Durland himselfwasn't bothered, but he sensed the restlessness of his Troop, and herose and dressed. One by one, too, the Scouts followed his example, andgathered on the big veranda of the village inn.
"Come on over to the telegraph office, Dick," said Durland. "Let's seeif we can't find out who's kicking up all this fuss and what it'sabout."
The telegraph wires, which never slept, were clicking busily when theScout-Master and his assistant entered the office.
"Abbey's cavalry running into the enemy on the Newville pike," said atired operator, flicking a cigarette from his mouth as Durland spoke tohim. "Funny, too! We thought he'd join General Bean before he saw a signof the enemy."
Durland felt himself growing anxious; then laughed at himself for hisown anxiety. He turned to find Dick Crawford at his elbow.
"I'm taking this thing too seriously, Dick," he said, with a smile."After all, it's only a game. But I'd certainly like to know the innermeaning of that firing. Unless we've been grossly deceived, Abbey had nobusiness to bump into any considerable force of the Blue army to-night."
"I guess we're all taking it pretty seriously, sir," said Dick. "Isn'tthat the right way, too? Of course, it's only a game--but we might beplaying it seriously some time."
"You're right, Dick," said the Scout-Master. "We can't take this tooseriously. I'm going to horn in here and see if there isn't something wecan do."
He walked over to the key.
"See if you can report my Troop to General Harkness as ready for anyservice required," he said.
It took some little time for the operator to get the message through.Then, however, he sat back with a smile.
"I guess they'll be able to use you, all right, Captain," he said. "Theyseem to be a mile up in the air about what Colonel Abbey's doing. Allthe Colonel can report himself is that he's run into a considerableforce, and he's engaging him tentatively. He seems to be afraid of beingcut off if he goes on without feeling his way."
Then followed another delay.
"Here you are, Captain," said the operator, at last. "Coming, now!"
"Take it," said Durland. "I can read it as it comes."
Out of the chatter of the sounding key both Durland and Dick Crawfordcould make sense.
"Take your Troop up to Colonel Abbey," came the order. "Report to himfor any service possible. But detail two Scouts, with automobile, tomake an attempt to discover the nature of the enemy's operations on theNewville road beyond the point where Colonel Abbey's command has engagedthe enemy. General Bean is within three miles of Newville, waiting fordaylight, owing to the firing in that di
rection. It is most important toapprise him of the actual conditions."
"Report that orders are received and will be obeyed at once," Durlandflung back to the operator, and he and Crawford hurried from thebuilding to rejoin the Scouts, who were waiting eagerly on the porch ofthe hotel for any news that might come.
"Get ready to hike," ordered Dick Crawford, as he reached the Scouts."Danby, report to Captain Durland at once."
Jack listened to his instructions carefully.
"This is a harder job than any you've had yet, Jack," said hiscommander. "But it counts for more, too. Are you sure you're not tootired to handle your car?"
"Not a bit of it, sir!" protested Jack. "I've had all the sleep I need.What the General wants to know chiefly is whether there are enoughtroops of the enemy between Colonel Abbey and Newville to prevent ajunction between the cavalry and General Bean's brigade, isn't it?"
"Right! I can't give you any special orders. You'll have to use your ownjudgment, and do whatever seems best when the time comes. This is thesort of a situation that changes literally from minute to minute, and ifI gave you special orders before you started they would probably hamperyou more than they helped you."
"Can I have Tom Binns again, sir?"
"Certainly! I'll have Crawford tell him to report to you at the garage.Overhaul your car carefully--you don't want any little mechanicaltrouble to come along and spoil your work just as you are on the vergeof success."
"The car's all right, sir. I went over every bit of it before I turnedin. I had an idea I might be called for some sort of emergency work whenevery minute would count, and she's ready for any sort of a run rightnow."
"Good enough! That's the way to be. 'Be prepared'--that's a pretty goodmotto. It has certainly been proved abundantly in the last few hours."
It would take the Scouts a good three hours to come up with ColonelAbbey's regiment of cavalry, but Jack and Tom Binns, in the big grey carthat moved silently, like a grey ghost, in the moonlight, were wellahead of them as the column swung out of the little town.
"Well, we're off again!" said Jack. "No telling what's going to come upbefore the night's over, either, Tom. We've got a roving commission,with no orders to hold us down, and I'm out to see just as much as theroad will show us."
"Are you going to stick to the main road, Jack?"
"No. There's a cross road a little way beyond here. If they've blockedColonel Abbey's advance on this road, we couldn't get beyond hisposition, anyhow, and it won't do us any good to get as far as that andno further. It's what they're doing beyond there that General Harknesswants to know."
"Where is the main body of our army now, Jack?"
"Right around Hardport. The only troops that are moving to-night areAbbey's cavalry regiment, and General Bean's brigade. General Bean, withthe rest of the army closing toward him, is to hold the enemy in checkif they occupy Newville before we get to the place ourselves. The restof the army, at Hardport, can move to his support, or it can develop abig flanking movement that will bring Bremerton into the centre of ourline, with the forces toward Newville making a sort of a triangularwedge stuck out in front. That wedge, you see, will have the whole armyas a reserve. It isn't as favorable a situation as if they had made forCripple Creek, for there we would have been in a position to force themback on Smithville, where they mobilized."
"They'd have gone right into a trap if they had kept on for Newville,wouldn't they?"
"Yes; but that was too much for us to hope for, really. It's good enoughas it is. It was General Harkness's plan from the first to make a standat Bremerton, unless they gave him the chance to make it an offensivecampaign. The mistake we made in sending a brigade to Cripple Creek morethan made up for the capture of Hardport, however, and so we lost thatchance. If we could have made sure of Newville to-night, nothing couldhave saved the Blue army."
"Who's to blame for that, Jack?"
"No one. You can't expect the enemy to tell you what he's going to do,and even Napoleon couldn't always guess right. I think we'll beat themall right--that is, I don't think they'll get within twenty miles of thecapital in the time they've got, even if we get badly beaten in thisbattle that's starting now."
"Here we are at the cross roads, Jack. Which way are you going now?"
"Toward Mardean, at first. I'm going to swing in a great big circlearound Hardport, and way beyond it. I want to come down on them frombehind and see just as much as I can."
"If you swing very far around that way it'll take you pretty nearSmithville, won't it?"
"That's just where I want to get, Tom. The place to find out what theenemy is going to do is the place where he is doing it, it seems to me."
Hardport, a patch of light against the sky, held little interest forJack. The road he took swung back toward the State line, so that hepassed very near Hardport before he reached the road that he and Tom hadfirst traveled when they crossed the line at full speed after war hadbeen declared. But Mardean wasn't held by the enemy now. The troops thathad crossed there had been recalled after the capture of Hardport andthe wreck of the early Blue plans, and some of them probably were inHardport now as prisoners of war, but with none of the rigors commonlyattaching to imprisonment to distress them.
"This road is safer than it was when we took it before," said Jack."Remember how we had to take to the fields a little way along here? Thatwas pretty exciting."
"You bet it was, Jack! I'm glad we can stick to the roads here."
"Don't be too glad yet, Tom. No telling what we may have to do beforethe night's over, you know. It's early yet--or late, as you happen tolook at it."
Mile after mile of road, looking like a silver streak in the moonlight,dropped beneath the wheels of the big grey car. They sped around andbeyond Hardport, and Jack, studying his road map, lighted now by alittle electric light, began to slow down, since they were in countrywhere it was possible, though not probable, that the enemy's outpostsmight be encountered.
"I've got an idea that they're marching hard and fast to-night," saidJack. "Somehow, I'm not easy in my mind. I'm afraid they may have hadsome way of finding out what our army was doing. You know that we're notthe only people who can detect concealed and covered movements. And theymay be setting a trap for us again, just as they were doing when GeneralBean was drawn off toward Cripple Creek."
"I've lost track of where we're going, Jack. Where does this road we'reon now come from?"
"Practically straight from Mardean. You see, Mardean will be about theright of our army to-morrow. A brigade will drop back that way fromHardport, if we give up that town in the morning, and the main forcewill move for Bremerton."
"Then if the enemy should happen to get around this way and break overthe State line near Mardean, they'd be in a good position to meet usto-morrow, wouldn't they?"
"First rate! But that's not the idea, at all. They're all over in theother direction, nearer Bremerton, and east of Hardport. The troubleColonel Abbey encountered seems to indicate that it's their plan tocross in force near Bremerton. That's why holding Newville would be soimportant to them."
Now Jack threw in the high speed again. And at once, almost, as the carsped on, something about the song of the throbbing engine bothered Jack.In a moment he had shifted his gears, and in another, the car, coughingand rattling, came to a sudden stop.
"Good thing I heard that," said Jack, a few moments later, "or we'd havebeen stuck properly a few miles further on. Won't take me five minutesto fix it now."
As he tinkered on the machine, his ears were busy, and he and Tom heardthe sound of approaching horses in the same instant. At once Jack leapedto his driver's seat, and ran the car through an open fence into a fieldbeside the road.
"I want to see what's doing here," he said. "That doesn't sound verygood to me."
The trouble with his engine had been providential, for ten minutes laterhe realized that had he gone on at full speed he would have encounteredthe advance guard of at least a full division of the enemy.
Quietly and steadily the Blue troops were marching on. There was purposein the look of them, and a grim earnestness that made Jack whistle.
"Tom," he whispered, "you certainly hit it! They're setting a trap allright. They're going to cross at Mardean and swing around to cut off ourtroops from Bremerton. They've got a nice plan--just to steal ourposition, and make us fight on our ground--but with positions reversed."
Boy Scout Automobilists; Or, Jack Danby in the Woods Page 8
