The Belgians to the Front Part 14

"Now we can take up our place behind that--and G.o.d help the German pigs! Jean, do you and Marcel go up in the windows of Boerman's house, there, and make holes in the shutters to shoot through. If they drive us from this barricade we will take to the houses and the roofs, and do what we can from there."

A cheer greeted his speech.

"Now we shall be safe!" said one woman. "Ah, if they had had one like Raymond the butcher to show them how to fight, those poor people would not have been driven from their homes! He is a man!"

"I think so, too, Paul!" whispered Arthur. "It's something to make a fight like this, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is something," said Paul. "It's suicide, that's what it is!

How long can they stand against the Germans? They will throw their own lives away and they won't save the village. Instead, they will simply make it certain that it will be destroyed. The Germans won't fight them on even terms. If they find that the place is to defended they'll bring a couple of guns into action! and sh.e.l.l the place. In five minutes every house will be on fire, and they will shoot down the men as they try to run from the flames. Wait! I'm going to see what I can do!"

Arthur did not seem to be convinced. But when Paul ran forward and stood before the crowd by the barricade, Arthur was by his side. He was like a good soldier, obeying his superior officer, as he felt Paul was, even though he neither understood nor approved the orders he received.

Now, indeed, the khaki uniforms of the scouts attracted their share of attention. There was a murmur of surprise; one or two lads laughed aloud. But the chief emotion of the crowd was one of curiosity. As Paul walked up to the big self-satisfied butcher, the noise behind the barricade died away.

"Are you the leader here?" asked Paul.

"Yes--chosen by the Garde Civique of the village of Hannay, in this time of danger!" announced the butcher, swelling up with pride.

"Then it is your duty to save the people entrusted to your care by ordering them to go to their homes and to stay there quietly if the Germans come," said Paul. "Also to call upon your guards and all others in the village to give up their arms and on no account to fire a shot against the Germans if they come."

"Eh?" said the astonished Raymond. "Is that the way to save the village from the Germans?"

"Is it not better to give in to them and know that no one will be hurt than to make it necessary for them to fire with their cannon? As for your men, they can do nothing here. If they want to serve their village and their country, let them enlist in the army."

"Eh?" said Raymond again. He was half angry and wholly puzzled. Paul did not defer to him at all; he spoke aggressively, and as if he were entirely sure of himself and of what he was saying. "Who are you, that you come here giving orders?"

"I'm giving no orders," said Paul. "I am only telling you what the government wishes. The Germans do not recognize the Garde Civique as soldiers at all. They are treated as spies, or as outlaws. Any man who bears arms against the Germans, or shoots at any German, will be shot as soon as he is caught."

Paul spoke purposely in a loud tone. He saw that his words were making an impression, not so much on Raymond as on some of the others.

"They won't make prisoners of war of you, you see," he said. "Those who aren't killed by the sh.e.l.ls will be caught, and then they will be shot or hung. They won't be sent back to Germany, to be safe and sound, with plenty of food and a good place to sleep. They will be treated just like men who kill other men in time of peace, except that they won't have a trial."

"What of it?" asked Raymond, who was beginning to realize that this sort of talk was bad for his authority. "We can only die once for the Fatherland! Isn't that so?"

"Then die so that it will be of service for you to die!" said Paul.

"Tear down your barricade. Give up your arms. And then let those of you who want to fight go to Huy and enlist. There will be plenty of fighting for you then, and if you are captured you will be treated like soldiers, and not like murderers and robbers. If you were not patriots you would not be willing to do this. Then why not do what will be useful?"

For a moment there was silence. Raymond stood still, his mouth open, staring at the two scouts. And then there came sudden aid for Paul.

From behind the barricade a small, determined looking woman appeared.

She marched straight up to Raymond.

"Give me that gun!" she said.

There was a t.i.tter and in a moment it had spread until it became a roar of laughter. Raymond the bl.u.s.terer, wholly unnerved by the sudden appearance of his small wife, surrendered at once, and without conditions.

"Be off, the rest of you!" she said. "I daresay the young gentleman is quite right! As if you could fight against the Germans here!"

Raymond's wife had given the rest a cue. In a few moments the barricade was being dismantled. In five minutes peace reigned. And Raymond, entirely subdued now, came to Paul.

"Need we give up our arms?" he asked.

"You know what the Germans order," said Paul. "Perhaps they have no right to do so, but they have the strength to enforce their orders, and that is what counts, after all. Believe me, I would like to fight.

But when there is no chance of winning, the wise soldier saves himself for a day when things will be more even. Look, there are the Germans coming now!"

CHAPTER XIV

SUBMISSION

It was true. A dozen Uhlans rode into the village, trotting along on their big, rawboned horses, as coolly as if they had been on parade in Berlin. Only these men did not look like parade soldiers. Their uniforms were of the neutral gray that faded into the background at short distances, and they were dirty and travel worn, besides. Their horses, however, were still in fine condition, for it was a part of their training to see to it, wherever they were, that their mounts were properly cared for.

The soldiers ignored entirely the few people who still remained outside their houses. Most of the villagers, impressed by what Paul had said, or, like Raymond, the bl.u.s.tering butcher, more afraid of their wives than of the foreign enemy, had gone within, and the place was very quiet. But those who had not gone in greeted the Germans with sullen looks, which did not provoke so much as a smile.

One of the Uhlans, evidently detailed in advance for the duty, produced proclamations and orders, like the ones the refugees had described.

These he affixed to posts and buildings in conspicuous places. Then he joined his fellows, and the little troop rode on, with a clattering of hoofs to the mairie, the official centre of Hannay. There stood the maire, a small, spectacled, frightened man, with the parish priest to support him, waiting for them. Paul and Arthur drew near to listen.

"Which is the burgomeister?" asked a young lieutenant with closely cropped head and a tiny blonde moustache, which he had tried in vain to cultivate so that it would resemble the moustache that the German Kaiser's pictures have made famous. Paul noticed that this young officer spoke excellent French, with hardly a trace of an accent. It impressed him as showing how well the Germans had prepared for this war that 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 the lieutenant. "And salute! Tell all your people to do so, also."

"Yes, sir," said the maire. "But how are we to know it is an officer we see? We poor people do not understand all about your uniforms."

"If you are in doubt, salute every German soldier," said the officer contemptuously. "They are worthy of your salutes in any case, and it will be better for your people to salute a thousand soldiers without the necessity of doing so than to fail to salute one officer who is ent.i.tled 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 German burgomeister would submit as tamely were it a German village that had witnessed the arrival of invading troops? Probably not! Few German officers in those days thought it possible that an enemy's foot would ever tread the soil of the fatherland. No such fear had yet a.s.sailed them.

"You and your people," the lieutenant went on, "must observe exactly the rules that are posted in the proclamations, especially with regard to arms. We shall not remain here, but other troops will arrive before nightfall. When they come all arms must be piled here, waiting for them. Five hundred loaves of bread, a hundred hams, twenty-five barrels of flour, five steers and ten barrels of wine are requisitioned, and must be turned over to the commissary department upon its order."

The maire threw up his hands in horror.

"But, sir, we are poor people!" he cried. "We shall starve if all those things are required of us! We shall not have enough for our own needs."

"That is your concern," said the German officer indifferently. "The German army must be supplied; it is delayed in Belgium because of the unwarranted resistance of the Belgian government to its peaceable pa.s.sage."

"But--"

"Silence! No argument! You will provide the supplies that are required. In addition all gasoline in the place is to be collected and turned over to the proper authorities. Payment will be made for all private property that may be taken."

He barked out a sharp order then, and the Uhlans rode on. Paul turned to Arthur, whose eyes were blazing.

"Did you hear that?" he cried. "He talks as if we were to be blamed for defending ourselves! Is that the way the Germans mean to talk?"

"I suppose so," said Paul. "I have heard before that they would do that. They say, you see, that all they wanted was permission to send their troops across Belgium to reach France. Perhaps they really believed that we should not resist. If we had not, they would not have damaged the country, and perhaps if they had won in the war, they would have paid for whatever injury was done. But how absurd! If we had allowed that, without making any further attempt to stop them, we should really have been just as badly off."