The Khaki Boys at the Front; or, Shoulder to Shoulder in the TrenchesChase, Josephine
General
The Khaki Boys at the Front; or, Shoulder to Shoulder in the Trenches
Chase, Josephine
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- France -- Juvenile fiction
"Later, however, it was learned that von Kreitzen had been seen in
Belgium. A soldier who had formerly been connected with, the Paris
Police Bureau saw and recognized him. He immediately sent word to the
Prefect. Men were sent to Belgium to trail him, but again he escaped
them.
"That was the last report of him until I went to the Prefect with
what you related to me in Paris. My friend immediately recognized von
Kreitzen from the description you gave me. I would have gone to your
training camp with this photograph had I not received your commander's
kind telegram.
"Strange to say, the next day after our meeting in the café, a report
came to the Prefect that a man resembling von Kreitzen had been
recently seen in Paris. Thus it may well be true that after you saw him
in Belfast, he went from there to England, and thence to Paris. Where
he is now, who knows?" Voissard shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps back
in Germany; perhaps with his kind on the Western front; perhaps dead.
Again he has disappeared."
"I'll tell you a queer thing, sir. I never mentioned it before, even to
my bunkies here."
Jimmy recounted to Voissard the attack made on them by the hidden
gunman on the evening of their return from Paris to the training camp.
"Somehow I always had an idea that this tiger fellow, von Kreitzen,
spotted us in Paris, and trailed us to the village. He saw me and
wanted to get me. It rather tallies with what you say about his having
been seen in Paris."
"When is a clam not a clam? When it's a blazing old tight-mouth
Blazes," was Bob's caustic conundrum, self-answered.
"Well, I had a right to be a tight-mouth if I felt like it," defended
Jimmy. "If I'd said a word about it, then you fellows would have either
told me I was crazy or else you'd have worried about little Jimmy's
health. So I just canned it."
"I wouldn't be surprised if it _was_ that von Kreitzen who went sniping
at us that night," said Roger reflectively. "It's not such a wild
idea. He might have caught sight of you in Paris, Blazes, and followed
you down on the same train. He might have been in another compartment
disguised. I don't remember seeing anyone who got off the train that
night except four or five Sammies. They went into an _estaminet_ across
from the station."
"I saw an old man and a little girl. I remember seeing those doughboys,
too," put in Bob.
"So see I him, the solder and 'nother man. He have the much black
wheeskar an' the hat over the face. He walk ver' quick no look at
nothin'," was Ignace's placid contribution.
"I don't remember noticing anyone in particular," mused Jimmy. "I
guess----"
"I guess Iggy saw the most!" interrupted Bob excitedly. "Iggy saw
_him_, this von Sweitzer, or whatever his name is. That's about the way
he'd fix up to keep shady--false whiskers and his hat over his nose.
If you had not been so keen on keeping still, Blazes, we might have
figured this thing out long ago."
"It wouldn't have done us any good," demurred Jimmy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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