CHAPTER XVI
THE WINE SHOP
In the wine shop, when they came to it, they found none of the men ofHannay. The German soldiers, off duty for a little while, had takenpossession of the place, and the sound of their singing, which could beheard as soon as one came within a hundred yards of the place, showedthat they were happy. The two scouts looked in as they passed thewindow. They saw the invaders there, looking less like soldiers thanthey had imagined German troops ever could look. A few of the men wereresting their feet, having taken off their heavy hobnailed boots, andwere sitting in their woolen socks. Some were playing cards; nearlyall were smoking.
"It's safe enough," said Paul. "If we can find that back entrance, Ithink we can get into the cellar. The worst of it is that they mayhave a guard there."
It was Arthur who found the entrance to the cellar. He led the waydown the stone steps, and they found themselves in a whitewashed vault,scrupulously clean, as are practically all Belgian houses from garretto cellar. There was a lantern, too, shedding a dim but most welcomelight on the place, with its rows of casks and hogsheads.
"That's a piece of luck, that lantern," said Paul. "Only it showssomething we'll have to look out for--that we may have a visitor anymoment. Look over there, Arthur. There's a little space behind thatrow of barrels. If anyone comes we can hide there."
But Arthur had another idea. Before Paul could stop him, he spranglightly up the stairs that led to the room above, whence the sound ofthe German soldiers came very plainly. He fumbled for a moment at thedoor before he returned.
"I thought I might find that," he said. "I've shot a bolt on the door.That will hold anyone who tries to come down for a few moments atleast, and it will give us time to get out the way we came. We maywish to escape, you see."
"Good!" said Paul. "All right! Now let's try to find those guns."
But of guns or weapons of any sort they could find no trace. Theylooked behind all the barrels and casks and under every possible hidingplace. They lifted some of the barrels, though to do so was aconsiderable task, and the result was the same.
"Perhaps they have chosen some other hiding place or else the woman didnot really know, and only suspected," suggested Arthur.
But that explanation did not satisfy Paul. And in a moment he had aninspiration. At once he began trying to tip back the great hogsheadsat one side of the vault. The third yielded easily, and he immediatelypried off its top.
"Aha, here we are!" he said. "Look, Arthur! I noticed that some ofthese were empty, but I thought anything like a gun would rattle aroundinside. But do you see what they did? They have the guns here, butthey're packed in with rags and sacking, so they can't move and make anoise."
"That was clever!" said Arthur. "I suppose they expected the Germansto make a search."
He drew out a gun, a shotgun with a sawed off barrel. The shorteningof the barrel served a double purpose. It made it possible for the gunto be hidden in the barrel, and it made of it, also, at close range, afar more dangerous and formidable weapon than it had been in itsoriginal form.
"What are we to do with them? Where shall we hide them?"
"Nowhere. We shall put them back," said Paul. "When we have finishedwith them, that is. Here, let me show you!"
He took the sawed off shotgun, opened the breech, and in a moment hadhopelessly shattered the firing mechanism.
"There, do you see? They'll find their guns--but they'll have troublein firing them! That's better than taking them away, because it's somuch safer."
"Oh, I should say so!"
They were busy for five minutes getting out the guns, of which therewere only a dozen all told, breaking them and then putting them back.They left the place as they found it, and the guns themselves,moreover, would not immediately give up the secret of how they had beentreated.
"I wonder if we can't find the ammunition?" said Paul, when they hadfinished their work with the guns. "Then we could really finish thejob."
But the search for that proved vain. Though they looked everywherethey came upon no hidden store of bullets or powder. Nor had Paulreally hoped that they would.
"They'd carry that with them, naturally," he said. "Well, it doesn'tmake much difference. We--"
On the word there was a noise outside. They stopped, listening. Downthe steps by which they had entered came footsteps, and they first sawheavy boots and then a pair of stout legs come into the range of thelantern. For a moment they were rooted to the spot, and in that momentthe rest of the descending figure came into view, and they saw that itwas Raymond. In the same moment he saw them, and cried out sharply,fear and anger mingled in his voice. That ended the spell that hadheld them still. Arthur started a rush toward the newcomer, but Paulcaught his arm.
"No! Upstairs!" he cried.
As he spoke, he seized the lantern from the hook where it hung, andswung it around, extinguishing the feeble flame at once. And then, asRaymond with a roar of rage started toward them, he flung the lanternstraight at him. A cry of pain told him that his aim had been true,even in the darkness, and then he leaped up the stairs after Arthur,who was already fumbling at the bolt. In a moment they were throughthe door and had burst into the midst of the astonished soldiers in thetaproom above.
For just a moment their sudden appearance caused excitement andconfusion among the soldiers, who must have imagined that this was asurprise attack. But then some of the men, who had seen them talkingwith Major Kellner earlier in the day, recognized them and a shout oflaughter went up.
"It is only those boys!" cried one soldier. "Here, you young ones, youmust stay to supper, now that you have come!"
He seized Paul and forced him into a chair, while another did as muchfor Arthur.
"Come, landlord, your best for our guests!" cried half a dozen of thesoldiers.
Marcel, the landlord, who evidently knew only too well what his cellarcontained beside wine and beer, was staring at them with a white,panic-stricken gaze. But he turned to obey, none the less; he was indeadly fear, it was plain, of the boyish soldiers. They might bewilling to jest now, but he knew that they were the same men who foughtlike devils, and if reports were true (which they were not!) cut offthe hands of women and children.
He brought food, and one of the soldiers handed Paul a glass of wine.
"Now, then!" cried the German. "You shall drink a toast to the goodKaiser Wilhelm, who is now King of Belgium as well as of Prussia, andwho will eat the first course of his Christmas dinner in Paris and flyto London in a Zeppelin for the second! Skoal!"
"Ja! Ja wohl! A toast to the Kaiser by the young Belgian!" cried someof the others.
Paul got up, the glass held firmly in his hand. His cheeks wereblazing.
"I will give you a toast!" he cried. "To Kaiser Wilhelm! May he eathis Christmas dinner in Saint Helena, with the ghost of Napoleon tokeep him company! And may King Albert and King George and the Czar andthe president of France enjoy a dinner that shall be served to them inthe palace of Potsdam!"
And then he flung down the glass, so that it was shattered on the stonefloor, and the red wine ran over the white flags.
"And so say I and every other good Belgian!" echoed Arthur.
For a moment there was a stunned silence in the room. The Germansoldiers, aghast at such daring, stared with open mouths and wide eyes.And then there was an angry murmur, spreading from one man to another,as the enormity of Paul's daring sank in.
"He has insulted the Kaiser! He has dared to be disrespectful towardour Emperor! He has refused to drink to his health!"
"Do what you like!" cried Paul, thoroughly aroused now, as Arthur hadseen him roused only once or twice before, and utterly indifferent towhat might happen to him. "I am not afraid of you! Come, stop us ifyou like!"
And then while the angry muttering continued, and each of the Germansoldiers seemed to wait for one of the others to make the first move,Paul and Arthur, side by side, without looking
to right or left, walkedout of the place and into the open air of the single street of Hannay.For a moment, after they passed outside, they heard nothing, thoughthey had expected to be pursued and brought back. And then suddenlyfrom behind them there came the last sound they could have expected orhoped to hear--a tremendous roar of laughter! Paul's courage indefying them had won the admiration of the German soldiers at last.Brave men are nearly always ready to pay a tribute to bravery in others.
But if they had escaped from one danger, they had still to face anotherand one that might be even greater, as they well knew. For Raymond,the butcher, had seen them in the cellar. No doubt he knew by thistime what had happened to his guns, and he would certainly know who wasto blame for their condition. He would be more certain than ever thatthey were traitors to Belgium, since he was too stupid to understandhow well the scouts had served him, and it was sure that he and hiscronies of the civic guard would make some attempt to secure revenge.
Indeed, even as they came into the street, Paul saw a lurking figureacross the way, that moved as they did.
"Don't look around," he whispered to Arthur. "But I think that Raymondis watching us from the other side of the street. We must be careful."
And then, suddenly, without the slightest warning, a whistling soundthat both scouts knew well after their experience during the shellingof the German battery near their old home, was heard overhead. It wasfollowed in a few seconds by a terrific explosion. But fortunately theexplosion was at some distance. The shell, for it was a shell thatthey had heard, burst outside of the village and did no damage.
But it created a tremendous effect, none the less. At once the Germanofficers came running from the doctor's house where they werequartered, and, as more shells burst nearby, bugles sounded, and theGerman soldiers came running to the centre of the village, gatheringrapidly from the houses where they had been enjoying their briefrespite from war. Sentries and all were called in, and within threeminutes the troops were off, at the double quick, going in thedirection whence they had come to enter the village of Hannay.
And now the comparative silence of the night, that had been brokenbefore then only by the dull and intermittent thunder of the gunsaround Liege, was shattered in a thousand ways. Heavy firing byinfantry rifles, as well as by field guns, came from the north. It wasplain that Belgian or French troops must have been advancing with greatrapidity to interfere with the German raid on the country between Liegeand Brussels. Flashes of fire marked the bursting shells less than amile away, and occasional spurts of flame showed where the German gunswere replying to the sudden attack. In a moment Hannay was deserted bythe Germans. And before the villagers, led by Raymond, had collectedtheir scattered wits, Paul had seen the chance of escape.
"Come on!" he cried, to Arthur.
They ran as fast as they could after the Germans.
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