The Boy Scouts on the Trail Part 20

For hours they drifted, unable to tell how far they had gone. Frank, guessing their distance by the time it had taken a piece of wood to float a certain distance during the afternoon, had hoped to be well beyond the city when daylight came. But he had not been certain.

Gradually a faint light crept through the dark, stifling cloth. The temptation to raise it and look out was terrible. But they resisted, speaking only occasionally in whispers. With every minute that pa.s.sed their chance for success grew greater. And yet at the last minute they might be caught.

At last there could be no doubt that the sun was up, and that there was full daylight. And then, suddenly, there was a sharp tug at the boat.

With a groan Frank started up, and Henri too.

And what they saw was an amazed French peasant, and all around the smiling country below Amiens, which was far behind!

CHAPTER XXI

VIVE LA FRANCE!

The peasant listened in amazement to the story that they told him. But he was a real Frenchman, out of the army because of his age.

"Come with me," he said. "You shall have the best there is in my house--it is not much! Dry clothes, too. If you will wear a peasant's blouse, there are the clothes my Jean left when he went to the war!"

"We have clothes in the boat," said Frank. "Until we knew we were safe we dared not change into them. But your food will be more than welcome!"

So it proved, indeed. It was rough fare, but it seemed to both the best that they had ever tasted. And while they ate, the peasant told them what news he had.

"We hear that the French and the English are winning now," he said. "A gentleman came past my house in an automobile this morning, and said that he had pa.s.sed French troops ten miles away--cuira.s.siers riding this way."

"Hurrah!" cried Frank. "Henri, we must try to join them as quickly as possible. When we explain they will let us go through to where we shall be safe until we can go back to Amiens. Come on! Farewell!" This to the peasant. "We shall never forget your good food and your welcome!"

And with light hearts they set out, glad to walk, since it gave them a chance to stretch the legs that had been cramped for so many hours in the bottom of the boat.

Plainly there had been a great change in the character of the battle over night. The heavy thunder of the guns was greatly reduced in volume, though they should still have been able to hear it. And it was unmistakably coming from further north. It must be that the Germans were retreating. But they walked for three hours before they knew for certain that they were right.

They did not meet the cuira.s.siers of whom they had heard. Instead a cloud of dust that they saw for two miles before men emerged beneath it turned out to be a column of French infantry. They were in their Boy Scout uniforms, and the men who first saw them at the side of the road cheered them. Soon a captain came up to them.

"Eh bien, mes enfants!" he said. "What do you do here? Where do you come from!"

They told him Amiens, and he laughed.

"And it is there, precisely, that we are going!" he laughed. "The Germans are out by now and our men were in there an hour ago!"

Frank and Henri cried out in delight at the news.

"May we go with you?" asked Frank. "We would like to go back as soon as possible."

"As to that you must ask the colonel. He will decide--and, see, here he comes now in his automobile! I will report to him that you are here."

But there was no need, for the officer who sat in the car was Colonel Menier himself, and at the sight of them he laughed aloud.

"Ah, my brave ones!" he cried. "So you are here! Ride with me! Did the Germans drive you from Amiens? I shall drive you back!"

They obeyed that order with delight. They sprang to their places in the car.

"Now tell me everything!" said Colonel Menier. "How it is that you left Amiens and how you came here?"

He leaned over first, however, and spoke to his driver, and the car shot forward, leaving the troops far behind.

And then they began the story, each telling the part of it that he knew best. At the story of how the German officer had recognized Henri and caused his arrest, he clenched his hand angrily.

"They make war even on boys!" he said, bitterly. "A brave enemy recognizes the heroism of his foes. If I had been in that man's place I should have forgotten my own defeat and praised those who had caused it!"

Then came the story of Frank's discovery of the hidden vault and the boat, and of their voyage down the Somme and their lucky escape.

"Milles tonnerres!" he cried. "A thousand million thunders! That was well done! Through all the German sentries! Eh, well, I have a surprise for you when you reach Amiens with me, I think. Mind, I make no promises! Only wait!"

Slow as had been their flight from Amiens, their return was swift.

Already they were in the outskirts. From every window hung the tricolor.

Everywhere the people were mad with delight. The Germans had gone. At the sight of Colonel Menier's uniform women leaned from their windows, shrieking their joy.

In the town itself French troops were everywhere, marching through. Guns thundered along, and there were English troops as well as French. Amiens was in holiday mood. Straight through the cheering crowds the car sped on. It drew up at last before the Hotel de Ville. Sentries stood at the main door, but at the sight of Colonel Menier they saluted and gave him free pa.s.sage.

Inside Colonel Menier spoke to a staff officer, who smiled and went into a room at the side. In a moment he returned.

"The general will receive you, my colonel," he said.

"Good!" He turned to Frank and Henri. "You are to meet the greatest man in France," he said. "Allons!"

They followed him into the room. By the window stood a man, not tall, but large rather than fat. He turned quiet eyes toward them. Colonel Menier saluted.

"Monsieur le General Joffre," he said. "I have the honor to present the Boy Scouts of whom you have heard--they who served General Smith-Derrien so well and who destroyed the Zeppelins near Abbeville."

"These are the ones?" said the general. "In the name of France, I thank you! And in the name of France, and by order of His Excellency the President of the Republic, I hereby decorate you! For each, the cross of the Legion of Honor! Which is Francois Barnes?" glancing from one to the other.

Frank stepped forward. General Joffre took the cross from his own breast and pinned it to Frank's. Then he turned to another officer, and received another cross from him. And this he affixed to Henri's breast.

For a moment they were overcome. And then together they cried:

"_Vive la France!_"