if other reinforcements were hurrying up to take their places on the firing line, the boys did not happen to meet them on this road. it seemed to be given over almost entirely to vehicles of every description speeding forward to carry off the bleeding forms of those whose lives might yet be saved.
there were some queer-looking vans among the rest, for every available motorcar had been pressed into the service of removing the injured to dunkirk and calais, where later on they could be transported to havre and across the channel.
“i was just wondering,” amos remarked after some time had elapsed, “why both germans and the allies seem to set so great a store on the holding of ypres. from all the information[185] i’ve been able to pick up, as a place it doesn’t amount to a row of beans. and yet, brussels, antwerp and a whole lot of other cities fell without one-quarter of the fighting that’s been taking place around here. how do you make it out, jack?”
“the only thing i can see,” replied the other, “is that it must be a railroad center, and from ypres there’s a good road to dunkirk and calais. you know how set the kaiser has been right along on getting his big guns stationed on the french coast, where the channel is only twenty miles across. he’ll never be happy until he can watch one of those monsters hurling shells that fall on england’s shore.”
“and the british are just as bent on keeping him from doing it, seems like,” observed amos. “queer how a little thing like that brings about many desperate fights. tens of thousands of germans have been killed, wounded or captured just because of a pet whim of the kaiser’s; for i don’t believe anything very great would come of it even if they did take calais. the british[186] battleships would pour in such a smashing amount of shells that they’d wreck any gun emplacement the germans might build.”
“it’s a queer war all around, i think,” said jack. “it started with a match in the powder magazine, when that murder occurred in servia; and by degrees it’s getting to be the most terrible thing that ever happened on this old earth, barring none. we’re living in wonderful times, amos.”
“seems so, jack, when you stop to think of all that’s being done, in the air with dirigibles and aeroplanes, and under the sea with the submarines.”
“our fathers laughed at jules verne when they read some of his books,” ventured the other boy, seriously; “but let me tell you most of what he described there has already come to pass. we may live to see his account beaten to a frazzle, as teddy says, the way things are going on nowadays.”
“it’s a blessed good thing that america’s three thousand miles away, and that the whole big[187] atlantic ocean rolls between,” remarked amos, reflectively.
“by which you mean we’re not likely to get into this scrap, i take it,” said his cousin. “just go a little slow there, my boy.”
amos stopped short to look at him in wonder and uneasiness.
“whatever do you mean, jack?” he started to say. “from the way you speak it looks as if you wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see the united states get mixed up in this awful business, after all.”
“which would be what i meant,” explained jack, soberly, “much as i hate to admit it. stop and think for a minute, no matter how much the main body of americans may want to keep out, remember that we’ve got some six millions of germans who are supposed to be naturalized citizens, but whose hearts still beat fondly for the fatherland. besides, there might be a whole lot of reasons why germany would really want to see war declared between herself and our country.”
[188]
“why, they must be crazy to want that, jack! we have a hundred million people, and could do them all sorts of harm.”
“could we?” asked jack, shrewdly. “in what way, i want to know? as there isn’t any vessel today carrying food or anything else from america to germany they wouldn’t feel it there. we wouldn’t send an army over, nor yet our battleships to take chances of being torpedoed. we might send forty or eighty torpedo boats and destroyers, but that is all. can’t you see that if our country were at war it would shut off the great supply of arms and ammunition that is flowing across to great britain and russia and france? we’d need it all at home for six months.”
amos stared as well he might. he had not bothered looking below the surface when he figured that war with the united states would mean the overwhelming of the teutonic race. it took jack to consider what lay underneath the exterior, and see signs of a deep game wonderfully played by the kaiser’s strategy board.
[189]
“if that ever happens,” reflected amos, “it’s bound to be a world war in fact, and every nation going will be drawn into it. but after turkey i don’t know of even one country that stands back of germany and austria. that alone makes it seem as if they must be in the wrong; but of course no german will admit that, even if ten thousand neutrals were against him.
“you remember the obstinate irishman on the jury that disagreed, who claimed that there were ‘eleven pig-headed men’ locked up with him, the most stubborn lot he had ever run across?” laughed amos.
“one thing sure,” jack added, “if germany is beaten in the end it’ll only be the same way our south was whipped, by sheer force of superior numbers, wearing them away until they have to hoist the white flag and surrender. great britain is already fighting on that policy of grant’s, that man for man the allies can stand equal losses better than their enemies.”
“why, i’ve been beaten at checkers by the same dodge, jack. the other fellow having[190] managed to get one of my men by some accident insisted in facing others and compelling an equal exchange, till it got down to his having two to my one; which odds proved too much for me. i’ve quit playing the game on that account.”
“well, i’m going to predict that the chances are germany, if she ever does quit, will do it from the same reason, that as the war goes on the ratio against her will keep on increasing steadily until she is overwhelmed. perhaps holland will be dragged into it, and the allied army will pass through the netherlands to invade germany from the west. we may live to see the end, and i want you to remember what i’m saying.”
so they talked as they went on, not as careless boys, but with the air of observers deeply impressed by what they had witnessed of the great war. rubbing up against such impressive sights is bound to be a great educator, and those two wideawake american boys had progressed by great leaps and bounds since coming abroad a short time before.
[191]
“is that smoke rolling overhead, or clouds, jack?” asked amos, a short time later, as he chanced to look up.
“clouds, because they are coming from another quarter than the fighting line,” the experienced western boy announced.
“then perhaps we’ll get some rain before long, though it feels pretty cold for that, when you come to think of it,” replied amos.
“it wouldn’t surprise me if we did,” said jack. “they say that after a big battle it nearly always does rain, whether from the great noise, or something else i can’t tell you. if it comes it means more mud, and goodness knows we’ve had enough of that before now.”
“if only it’s heavy enough it may put a stop to the fighting for today, which would mean some lives saved,” ventured the other.
“only to be sacrificed tomorrow, so what difference does that make?” jack returned. “i’m getting kind of cynical about these things. there will be just so many men killed in this war, you see, and so the sooner they reach that number[192] the better. then perhaps america can patch up an enduring peace.”
“jack, i really felt a big drop of rain then!”
“yes, i’m afraid we’re in for a storm that may last the rest of this day, amos.”
“and no shelter in sight,” groaned the second boy. “i wish we could only run across another ruined chateau like that one we visited this morning. it might seem a little hard to go hungry all night, but we could build a fire, and keep comfortable anyhow, and that’d count for a lot.”
“let’s start out and run for it,” suggested jack.
“what’s the use, if we have to get soaked anyway? see here, jack, have you glimpsed any haven of refuge? is there a cottage in sight, a friendly cave, or even a big hollow tree into which we might push?”
jack laughed at the way his cousin said this.
“i think i sighted something like a cottage ahead of us, several of them in fact,” he admitted. “if that was a fact, why, we may be coming[193] to the outskirts of the town of ypres, which isn’t a very big place.”
at that amos looked pleased.
“hurrah! who knows but what we may get something to eat in the bargain, even if sour black bread is all they’ve got to spare. i can run faster than this, if you say the word, jack!”
“then whoop it up for keeps!” jack told him, immediately setting a good example by increasing his own pace.
there were houses ahead. the drops began to come down faster, and it seemed to be an open question as to whether jack and his cousin would reach shelter fairly dry or not until the rain had drenched them. almost winded with their exertions, they presently arrived in the midst of the cottages, which like nearly all others in belgium of that day showed positive signs of having been under artillery fire.
