Army Boys in France Part 16

Then it was the trawlers' turn to take the offensive. Two depth bombs were placed on the taut chains and slid down through the waters to the hull of the doomed submarine.

There was a m.u.f.fled boom, a geyser-like rush of water, and then the telltale oil that came to the surface showed that all was over. One more of the a.s.sa.s.sins of the sea had paid the score it owed to an outraged world!

"And that's the Kaiser's weapon that was going to bring England to her knees!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Tom.

"The Allies are getting the best of them," declared Frank. "It looked at one time as though Germany were going to put it over. But we're sinking them now just as fast as they can be built and when America gets fairly to work we'll sink them still faster."

"Just wait till Edison gets on the job. He'll find something that will finish the U-boats in jig time. He'll make them look like thirty cents," declared Tom.

A little later they caught their first sight of France. Only a blur on the horizon at first, it grew steadily larger, and the bow of the boat was packed with the eager young soldiers, straining for a sight of the war-swept land that had suffered so much and done so much in the fight for liberty and democracy.

Here they were to fight, here they were to suffer, here they were to carry their country's flag to a glorious victory!

Frank breathed hard as the land came closer, for to him France had a greater significance than even to the others. It was his mother's land and for that reason doubly dear.

As the great vessel followed by others drew near the port, it was seen that the wharves and sh.o.r.es were black with people. News had been wirelessed of their coming, and the city had gone wild with joy at this visible token of help from the great sister republic across the sea.

Bells were ringing, whistles blowing, cannon booming. Flags were flung out from all the buildings and the whole city was in holiday garb to welcome Uncle Sam's army boys to France!

CHAPTER XV

WITHIN THE SOUND OF GUNS

"Here at last!" cried Frank in wild jubilation, as the transport was made fast to the wharf. "Pinch me, fellows, to make sure I'm not dreaming."

"It's real, sure enough!" exulted Bart.

"Now we'll see action!" exclaimed Billy.

"And get a chance at Fritz and Heinie!" added Tom. "I'm aching to get a hack at them."

Frank did not answer to this. Now they had arrived in France his mind had drifted back to his mother and what she had said about the property she had inherited. Would they ever be able to claim his grandfather's estate?

If the army boys could have had their way, they would have leaped forthwith from the deck to the dock. They were wild to feel the soil of the gallant country beneath their feet. But discipline had to be observed and several hours elapsed before the troops were ready to leave the ship.

Then at last they poured over the gangplank, line after line, wave after wave, in what seemed to the delighted mult.i.tude of watchers an almost endless procession.

They formed in line and after a formal exchange of greetings between their commanders and the city authorities, the troops swung into the streets with the bands playing alternately, the "Star Spangled Banner"

and the "Ma.r.s.eillaise."

Such cheers as greeted them, such tears, such pelting of flowers, such waving of flags as the stalwart young Americans marched through streets that were packed to the curb with joyous, shouting, frenzied natives!

It was a royal greeting that not one of the boys could ever forget.

They reached the great barracks that had been a.s.signed to them by the French Government for a temporary halting place before they should go to a place in the interior right behind the fighting lines.

There was plenty of room, for the barracks were empty now, every son of France of fighting age that could be spared, being at the front.

"They sure seemed glad to see us," grinned Frank, as, after the march, the regiment broke ranks and the men went to their quarters.

"I don't wonder," replied Bart. "I suppose America felt the same way a hundred years ago when Lafayette and his comrades went over there."

"Gee, it seems strange to speak of America as being over there," said Tom, a little soberly.

"Not getting homesick, are you, Tom?" questioned Billy, with a smile.

"I have an idea I will," Tom answered with a grin, "when I have time to think about it. But it would make me sicker still," he added stoutly, "to go back before we'd licked the Huns."

"Right-o!" cried Billy. "When I go back I want to take a lot of German helmets along to give to some girls I know."

"Some girls," chaffed Bart. "You talk like a Mormon, Billy."

The next few days were busy and delightful ones for the boys. The townspeople opened their hearts and homes to them, and they were feasted and entertained to their heart's content. Everything was so new and strange to them that they were constantly stumbling upon surprises.

The language, to be sure, offered some obstacles. The boys had been taught some of the most necessary French phrases while in their training camp, and these along with some language primers they carried, sufficed for their more simple needs. But their vocabulary was limited and their accent was a fearful and wonderful thing, though their hosts were too polite to laugh at them.

Frank had some advantage over the others because his mother, being a French woman, had taught him her native tongue, and it was a great comfort to the rest of the Camport boys to have Frank along with them as interpreter when they themselves were stumped--which, it must be confessed, was often!

Tom especially, who had no gift for languages was usually in hot water.

His struggles with the language were frantic, not to say pathetic.

"You're game, old scout," chaffed Billy, after Tom had wrestled in vain with the p.r.o.nunciation of the French word for soup. "But why in thunder did you make that waiter crazy by asking for bullion? Any one would think you were trying to cop off the United States mint."

"Well, what should I say?" Tom defended himself stoutly, as he thumbed over his phrase book. "There it is, plain as day," he added, triumphantly--"b-o-u-i-l-l-o-n. If that isn't bullion, what is it?"

"You're all wrong, you're all wrong," said Bart condescendingly. "It's _bwe-yone_, just like that."

Tom tried it once or twice desperately and then gave it up.

"I'd have to have a cold in my head to talk that way," he protested, pocketing the book in disgust. "I'm not going to try any more. The more I try the worse I get. The next time, I'm going to ask for soup, plain, old fashioned American soup. S-o-u-p. Get that? Then the waiter can do the guessing!"

"Yes, and then he'll serve you spaghetti," laughed Frank.

"So much the better," grinned Tom. "Let him go through the whole shooting match. Sooner or later he'll come to soup and when he does I'll be there."

"And you intend to eat right through the menu?" queried Billy admiringly.

"The which?" asked Tom. "Oh, you mean the bill of fare. Sure thing.

I don't care whether it's soup to nuts or nuts to soup, I'll catch it coming and going."

"And you're the fellow they wouldn't let enlist on account of his teeth," moaned Billy, with a doleful shake of his head.

"They didn't know me," grinned Tom.

The army boys spent nearly a week in the barracks to get rid of their "sea legs," and then the order came to go to the new camp, right behind the lines that had been a.s.signed to them.