CHAPTER XIV
SUBMISSION
It was true. A dozen Uhlans rode into the village, trotting along ontheir big, rawboned horses, as coolly as if they had been on parade inBerlin. Only these men did not look like parade soldiers. Theiruniforms were of the neutral gray that faded into the background atshort distances, and they were dirty and travel worn, besides. Theirhorses, however, were still in fine condition, for it was a part oftheir training to see to it, wherever they were, that their mounts wereproperly cared for.
The soldiers ignored entirely the few people who still remained outsidetheir houses. Most of the villagers, impressed by what Paul had said,or, like Raymond, the blustering butcher, more afraid of their wivesthan of the foreign enemy, had gone within, and the place was veryquiet. But those who had not gone in greeted the Germans with sullenlooks, which did not provoke so much as a smile.
One of the Uhlans, evidently detailed in advance for the duty, producedproclamations and orders, like the ones the refugees had described.These he affixed to posts and buildings in conspicuous places. Then hejoined his fellows, and the little troop rode on, with a clattering ofhoofs to the mairie, the official centre of Hannay. There stood themaire, a small, spectacled, frightened man, with the parish priest tosupport him, waiting for them. Paul and Arthur drew near to listen.
"Which is the burgomeister?" asked a young lieutenant with closelycropped head and a tiny blonde moustache, which he had tried in vain tocultivate so that it would resemble the moustache that the GermanKaiser's pictures have made famous. Paul noticed that this youngofficer spoke excellent French, with hardly a trace of an accent. Itimpressed him as showing how well the Germans had prepared for this warthat apparently only they had known was bound to come.
"It is I," said the little man very promptly.
"Say 'Sir!' when you speak to a German officer!" thundered thelieutenant. "And salute! Tell all your people to do so, also."
"Yes, sir," said the maire. "But how are we to know it is an officerwe see? We poor people do not understand all about your uniforms."
"If you are in doubt, salute every German soldier," said the officercontemptuously. "They are worthy of your salutes in any case, and itwill be better for your people to salute a thousand soldiers withoutthe necessity of doing so than to fail to salute one officer who isentitled to the honor."
"Yes, sir," said the maire, meekly.
"Hannay is occupied by the German army," said the lieutenant, then,smiling a little at the maire's timidity. Was he wondering if a Germanburgomeister would submit as tamely were it a German village that hadwitnessed the arrival of invading troops? Probably not! Few Germanofficers in those days thought it possible that an enemy's foot wouldever tread the soil of the fatherland. No such fear had yet assailedthem.
"You and your people," the lieutenant went on, "must observe exactlythe rules that are posted in the proclamations, especially with regardto arms. We shall not remain here, but other troops will arrive beforenightfall. When they come all arms must be piled here, waiting forthem. Five hundred loaves of bread, a hundred hams, twenty-fivebarrels of flour, five steers and ten barrels of wine arerequisitioned, and must be turned over to the commissary departmentupon its order."
The maire threw up his hands in horror.
"But, sir, we are poor people!" he cried. "We shall starve if allthose things are required of us! We shall not have enough for our ownneeds."
"That is your concern," said the German officer indifferently. "TheGerman army must be supplied; it is delayed in Belgium because of theunwarranted resistance of the Belgian government to its peaceablepassage."
"But--"
"Silence! No argument! You will provide the supplies that arerequired. In addition all gasoline in the place is to be collected andturned over to the proper authorities. Payment will be made for allprivate property that may be taken."
He barked out a sharp order then, and the Uhlans rode on. Paul turnedto Arthur, whose eyes were blazing.
"Did you hear that?" he cried. "He talks as if we were to be blamedfor defending ourselves! Is that the way the Germans mean to talk?"
"I suppose so," said Paul. "I have heard before that they would dothat. They say, you see, that all they wanted was permission to sendtheir troops across Belgium to reach France. Perhaps they reallybelieved that we should not resist. If we had not, they would not havedamaged the country, and perhaps if they had won in the war, they wouldhave paid for whatever injury was done. But how absurd! If we hadallowed that, without making any further attempt to stop them, weshould really have been just as badly off."
"I don't understand that, Paul. I would rather see the whole countryruined than have it act so, but if we had made no resistance they couldnot have done things like this, could they?"
"No, perhaps not. But think a minute, Arthur. The French, then, wouldhave come over the border on their side. The French and German armieswould have met in Belgium, and neither would have considered our poorcountry. They would have fought in our fields, and seized our forts.Each would have bombarded our cities, and neither would have been ourfriend. Now, as it is, we are suffering for France, and France and herally, England, must take our part. Perhaps they will not be strongenough to save us at once, but they will be obliged to stand by us, forthe sake of their own honor."
"Yes, that is true. We shall have friends, at least. Oh, Paul, Isuppose it was right not to attack those Germans, but when that officerspoke so, I could have tried to kill him with my bare hands!"
"He is a bully, Arthur. I suppose there are officers like that inevery army. But all the Germans are not like him. You must rememberthat there are some, at least, like Colonel Schmidt who gave us ourfreedom after we had been caught. He was kind to us, and he would havebeen courteous here, had he been in the place of this lieutenant."
Now, when the Uhlans had gone, the people began to come out of theirhouses again. News of the demand that had been made upon Hannay spreadrapidly, and after a little while there was a great deal of bustle andconfusion as efforts were made to obtain what was required. The mairecame to Paul and asked him what the Germans would do if the things werenot provided.
"I don't know," said Paul. "And I think it would be better not to findout, if you can possibly get them. Have them ready, and then when thenew force comes, see if the commander is not more reasonable than theofficer who was here. But it is better to take no chances. And hesaid that they would pay."
"Yes, that is so," said the distracted little man. "Eh? Well, Isuppose we had better do as you say. Our lives and our homes are worthmore than the food to us."
But there were sullen, angry looks among the villagers as they wentabout their preparations. There seemed to be a revulsion of feeling infavor of the plan of resistance of Raymond, the butcher, and there werescowls for Paul, who had spoiled that plan.
"I think there is nothing more that we can do here," said Paul toArthur. "Let's go on. It's just as important as ever for us to getsomewhere where the information we have can be of use. Everything Isee makes me more and more certain that the principal German attackwill be delivered in this direction. And I am not sure that that isgenerally known yet. I heard officers in Liege, when we were waitingto see General Leman, say that the French were planning a greatmovement from Belfort, that they thought the Germans were likely tomake a powerful attack from Alsace and Lorraine. If so, theirinformation is wrong."
"But they must know by this time that the Germans are coming throughBelgium instead, in great force, I should think."
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. They may think it is a feint. It might be,too. You see, they are throwing out their cavalry. We saw a dozenUhlans, but there must be two or three thousand dozen of them. Theyare like a great human screen, thrown in front of the army. A screenwith eyes. They hide what is going on behind them from the enemy, butthey themselves can see plainly."
"But even if it is true, I should think it might work
both ways, Paul.If the French advance from Belfort, and the main body of the Germans isin this quarter, won't the French in Alsace win very easily?"
"Perhaps, just at the beginning. But this is the great danger. If theGermans could advance on this line without meeting any greatresistance, they would be able to swing around and get in the rear of aFrench army that had crossed the border into Alsace, but the Frencharmy could not come into a position to threaten the rear or thecommunications of the Germans. There might be a great disaster. Andjust because it was believed that Germany would find the road throughBelgium the quickest and the easiest for an invasion of France, someFrench and Belgian officers believed that if war came, Germany wouldonly make a threat through Belgium, and would start her real attack onsome other line."
"Well, we ought to give the information, whether it will be of anygreat use or not. It isn't for us to think about that."
"You're right there, Arthur! Let's slip away quietly. We have donethese people here a great service, but they don't quite understand, andI think that instead of being grateful they're almost ready to besuspicious. Perhaps they think we were really trying to help theGermans."
So they slipped out of the village. If any of the villagers of Hannaynoticed, they said nothing. They had enough to keep them busy and tooccupy their minds, as well. They were learning that this war, ofwhich they knew so little, was affecting them almost as much as if theywere actually fighting.
Outside of Hannay, as they moved along toward the north the ground rosegradually, and the road brought them, in less than a mile, to the topof a hill that gave them an excellent view of the surroundingcountryside. From Liege there still came the thunder of the big guns,but from other directions they gathered evidence that the fortress wasno longer guarding the country. It was still holding out, and wasundoubtedly keeping a great many Germans busy. But more Germans hadswept around it, and the evidences of their activities were plain.
On all sides smoke was rising, marking burned farmhouses, even wholevillages that for one reason or another had been given to the flames.They could see now the smoking ruins of the village whence the refugeeswho had really caused them to stop in Hannay had come, a scene ofdesolation that looked all the worse for the bright sunlight in whichit was bathed. That same sunlight, too was reflected ever and again ontiny points of steel.
"Uhlans--the sun shines on their lance heads," explained Paul. Helooked gloomily at the scene. "Ah, they will have to pay! Perhaps anenemy will cross the Rhine and carry fire and sword into their lands,too. I hope so--for the sake of the poor, homeless ones."
"But you said it was wrong for them to defend themselves--that theGermans had the right to do like that!" said Arthur, wonderingly.
"I said it was wrong for them to give the Germans an excuse to destroytheir homes and kill their men," said Paul. "Wrong only because it isuseless."
The descending road turned just below the crest of the hill on whichthey stood. And suddenly a bugle sounded, startlingly near. The twoscouts had been so occupied in watching the country for miles aboutthat they had given no heed to what might be going on close by. And sonow while they stood in amazement and dismay, German soldiers began toappear over the hilltop, and in a moment they were surrounded byhundreds of the men whose uniforms were so familiar. It was abattalion of German infantry, and in a minute more they had beenseized, and were being escorted to the rear, where in a few moments aburly major, plainly a soldier of the old school, and the commander ofthe battalion, questioned them.
They told their story plainly and truthfully, though they omitted, ofcourse, all the incidents of the adventurous period between theirdiscovery of the spy Ridder and their first capture.
"We are only doing what Colonel Schmidt told us to do, sir," said Paul."We explained to him that we would try to reach Brussels, and after wegot to Huy, we were compelled to come this way."
The major nodded.
"Pfadfinder, hein?" he said. This, as both Paul and Arthur knew, waswhat the Boy Scouts were called in Germany, just as in France andBelgium they were called Eclaireurs Francais or Eclaireurs Belges, asthe case might be. "You can go no further this way. We shall take youto Hannay, and there you will have to stay for a time. No civiliansare allowed at this time to leave their own villages. The wholecountry beyond here is a battleground, for we shall soon be in touchwith the enemy on the way to Brussels. Still, you shall be safeenough. I have a boy of my own, who is a Pfadfinder with a troop inEisenach."
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