The Brighton Boys in the Argonne ForestDriscoll, James R.
History
The Brighton Boys in the Argonne Forest
Driscoll, James R.
Argonne, Battle of the, France, 1918 -- Juvenile fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile fiction
“What’s the trouble? What’d he do?”
There was something in the twang, or in the tone of this; something
quite intangible, that caught Don’s quick ear, even above the
excitement of the occasion. He had heard this man talk a little before
in typical American, to be sure; yet it seemed to be not wholly
natural. The boy eyed the cook; then addressed the sapper:
“You, little fellow, get a rope off the curtains or in the box maybe
and tie this----”
The driver replied to the cook’s query:
“I ain’t done nothin’! This feller’s a German an’ workin’ fer the
Heinies; he just told me so. Git him, not me! I’m American all over, I
am, and I kin prove it!”
“Headquarters will make you prove it. Keep your hands up.”
“That ain’t no way to treat a fightin’ man!” said the cook angrily.
“You put up yer gun an’ we’ll take care o’ this feller. He’s reg’lar,
all right; I know him.”
Don kept his eye on the speaker, but made him no reply. Again he spoke
to the sapper:
“Come on, you! Don’t stand there like a wooden man! Get a piece of
rope, I said!”
“Don’t you pay no attention to him, Shorty! He ain’t nobody we got to
mind. Put up yer gun, feller, or I’ll make you put it up!” The cook’s
hand went back to his pocket. Don didn’t wait for him to draw his
weapon, which he knew he was going to do; the boy, as once before on a
somewhat similar occasion, dropped the muzzle of his automatic a little
and fired. The cook twisted about in a rather comical fashion and
flopped on his hands and one knee, quite as though John Barleycorn had
seized and thrown him. The others in the _camion_ had come tumbling out
from the front and rear of the car and were pushing forward.
“Take his gun, one of you!” Don ordered sharply. “Now then, pick him up
and get him inside and and see how badly he’s hurt. Bandages in the car
somewhere. Two of you watch this guy till Shorty ties him.”
“What’s this all about, bo?” questioned a big sapper.
Don turned back his coat lapel and exposed an M. P. badge and that
sufficed to compel obedience to his orders. The big fellow and two
others took the cook in charge and at Don’s directions started to
search him, which immediately brought about a struggle. This proved the
key to the situation; the sappers took from the cook’s possession some
letters that were written in German and postmarked from a German town
and on the driver they found some evident orders, also in German.
At once the sentiment, rather lukewarm at first in any sense, turned
against the two apparent traitors within the Army.
“Let’s get a line of some kind and string these two skunks up by the
neck to the first tree we can find!” shouted the big sapper. “Eh?
Fellers, who’re with me?”
There was a unanimous, loud agreement to this from the sappers and the
other cook; they surrounded the prisoners threateningly, one fellow
reaching over and with the flat of his hand striking the driver in the
face.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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