Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction; Boy Scouts -- Juvenile fiction
"I'll try to skirt the wood."
"You needn't do that. Keep straight on the road we were taking, instead
of turning off at the foot of the hill. About half a mile beyond the
crossroads the road rises again, and you'll find a windmill. If you
climb to the top of that you can see beyond the woods, and you ought to
be able to tell if the Germans are moving out of the woods."
"Splendid!" said Frank. He admired Henri's readiness, once he had made
up his mind that Frank was going alone, to help him with his greater
knowledge of the countryside. Some boys would have been sullen, and
would not have volunteered that information, he was sure.
Before Frank started on his lonely errand, he carried Henri's bicycle
back of the hedge. Then he mounted his own, and coasted down the hill.
His object was to seem entirely indifferent, should some German scout or
straggler spy him, but plainly the Germans had decided to leave the road
uncovered.
"I guess they decided it was better to risk being surprised than to give
themselves away," he said to himself. "Otherwise they'd have been pretty
sure to leave an outpost of some sort here because this road looks like
just the place for troop movements. It looks more and more as if they
had really managed to make a secret of this column."
It did not take him long to find the windmill of which Henri had told
him. The place was deserted; there was no one to oppose his entry. And,
when he reached the top, he found that there was an excellent view of
the country for several miles, a much better one than they had had from
their shelter on the hillside above the Germans.
He could see the woods into which the invading troops had disappeared,
looking dark and mysterious in the deepening twilight. There was no sign
of life about them; no smoke rose above the treetops. And no Germans
were beyond them. Then his guess had been right, he decided. They had
made for those woods to obtain shelter, and they relied upon the fact
that the allies did not know of their presence. It was a daring move; it
might well have been successful, save for the accident of the two boys
who had observed it. Indeed, even now there was a chance, and something
more than a chance, that the German object, whatever it was, might be
attained. Frank and Henri were a long way yet from having reached the
British headquarters. Unknown dangers and obstacles lay between them and
their destination.
"With the German attack developing so quickly as this, we don't know
where we may not run into them," mused Frank, as he descended from the
windmill and mounted his wheel, preparing to start back to join Henri.
"They may be anywhere. I don't want to see them win, but they certainly
are wonderfully good fighters. They have good leaders, too."
When he reached Henri he found that his French comrade was lighting the
lamp of his bicycle. With a laugh he blew out the flame.
"But it's dark and we'll be arrested if we ride without a light," said
Henri, protestingly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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