Boy Allies at Liège; Or, Through Lines of Steel Read online

  THE BOY ALLIES AT LIEGE

  OR

  Through Lines of Steel

  By CLAIR W. HAYES

  AUTHOR OF "The Boy Allies On the Firing Line" "The Boy Allies With theCossacks" "The Boy Allies In the Trenches"

  1915

  CHAPTER I.

  THE TWO COMRADES.

  "War has been declared, mother!" shouted Hal, as closely followed by hisfriend, Chester Crawford, he dashed into the great hotel in Berlin, wherethe three were stopping, and made his way through the crowd that throngedthe lobby to his mother's side.

  "Yes, mother, it's true," continued Hal, seeing the look of consternationon Mrs. Paine's face. "The Kaiser has declared war upon France!"

  Mrs. Paine, who had risen to her feet at her son's entrance, put her handupon the back of her chair to steady herself, and her face grew pale.

  "Can it be?" she said slowly. "After all these years, can it be possiblethat millions of men will again fly at each other's throats? Is itpossible that Europe will again be turned into a battlefield?"

  Overcome by her feelings, Mrs. Paine sank slowly into her chair. Hal andChester sprang to her side.

  "It's all right, mother," cried Hal, dropping to his knees and puttinghis arm about her. "We are in no danger. No one will harm an American. Atthis crisis a citizen of the United States will not be molested."

  Mrs. Paine smiled faintly.

  "It was not of that I was thinking, my son," she said. "Your wordsbrought back to me the days gone by, and I pray that I shall not have togo through them again. Then, too, I was thinking of the mothers and wiveswhose hearts will be torn by the news you have just told me. But come,"and Mrs. Paine shook off her memories, "tell me all about it."

  "As you know, Mrs. Paine," spoke up Chester, who up to this time hadremained silent, "Hal and I went to the American Embassy immediatelyafter dinner to-night to learn, if possible, what difficulties we werelikely to encounter in leaving Germany. Since the Kaiser's declaration ofwar against Russia all Americans have been preparing to get out of thecountry at the earliest possible moment. But now that war has beendeclared on France, we are likely to encounter many hardships."

  "Is there any likelihood of our being detained?" asked Mrs. Paine inalarm. "What did the ambassador say?"

  "While the ambassador anticipates no danger for foreigners, he advisesthat we leave the country immediately. He suggests that we take the earlymorning train across the Belgian frontier."

  "Why go to Belgium?"

  "All railroad lines leading into France have been seized by Germansoldiers. Passenger traffic has been cut off, mother," explained Hal."All trains are being used for the movement of troops."

  "Yes, Mrs. Paine," continued Chester, "we shall have to go throughBelgium. Even now thousands of the Kaiser's best troops are marching uponthe French frontier, and fighting is only a question of hours."

  "Very well, then," returned Mrs. Paine. "We shall go in the morning. So Iguess we would all better go upstairs and pack. Come along, boys."

  While the packing is going on, it is a good time to describe the twoAmerican lads, who will play the most important parts in our story.

  Hal Paine was a lad some seventeen years of age. Following his graduationfrom high school in a large Illinois city the previous June, his motherhad announced her intention of taking him on a tour through Europe.Needless to say, Hal jumped at this chance to see something of theforeign countries in whose histories he had always been deeplyinterested. It was upon Hal's request that Mrs. Paine had invited hischum, Chester Crawford, to accompany them.

  Chester was naturally eager to take the trip across the water, and, aftersome coaxing, in which Mrs. Paine's influence also was brought to bear,his parents finally agreed to their son's going so far away from home.

  Hal's father was dead. A colonel of infantry, he was killed leading acharge at the battle of El Caney, in the Spanish-American war. Hal'sgrandfather died of a bayonet wound in the last days of the Civil War.

  But, if Hal's father's family was a family of fighters, so was that ofhis mother. Her father, a Virginian, was killed at the head of his menwhile leading one of Pickett's regiments in the famous charge atGettysburg. Three of her brothers also had been killed on the field ofbattle, and another had died in prison.

  From her own mother Mrs. Paine had learned of the horrors of war. Beforethe war her father had been a wealthy man. After the war her mother wasalmost in poverty. While too young then to remember these things herself,Mrs. Paine knew what havoc had been wrought in the land of her birth bythe invasion of armed men, and it is not to be wondered at that, in viewof the events narrated, she should view the coming struggle with anguish,despite the fact that her own country was not involved and that there wasno reason why her loved ones should be called upon to take up arms.

  Chester's father was a prominent and wealthy lumberman, and Chester,although nearly a year younger than Hal, had graduated in the same classwith his comrade. The two families lived next door to each other, and thelads had always been the closest of chums.

  For the last three years the boys had spent each summer vacation in oneof the lumber camps owned by Chester's father, in the great Northwest.Always athletically inclined, the time thus spent among the roughlumbermen had given the boys new prowess. Day after day they spent in thewoods, hunting big game, and both had become proficient in the use offirearms; while to their boxing skill--learned under a veteran of theprize-ring, who was employed by Chester's father in the town in whichthey lived--they added that dexterity which comes only with hardexperience. Daily fencing lessons had made both proficient in the use ofsword and saber.

  Among these woodsmen, composed of laborers from many nations, they hadalso picked up a smattering of many European languages, which proved ofgreat help to them on their trip abroad.

  Standing firmly upon their rights from first to last, the two lads neverallowed anyone to impose upon them, although they were neither naturallypugnacious nor aggressive. However, there had been more than onelumberjack who had found to his discomfort that he could not infringeupon their good nature, which was at all times apparent.

  Both boys were large and sturdy, and the months spent in the lumber campshad given hardness to their muscles. Their ever-readiness for arough-and-tumble, the fact that neither had ever been known to dodgetrouble--although neither had ever sought it, and that where one wasinvolved in danger there was sure to be found the other also--had gainedfor them among the rough men of the lumber camp the nickname of "The BoyAllies," a name which had followed them to their city home.

  It was by this name that the boys were most endearingly known to theircompanions; and there was more than one small boy who owed his escapefrom older tormentors to the "Boy Allies'" idea of what was right andwrong, and to the power of their arms.

  Both lads were keenly interested in history, so, in spite of the mannerin which they tried to reassure Mrs. Paine and set her mind at rest,there is no cause for wonder in the fact that both were more concerned inthe movement of troops and warships than in the efforts the other powerswere making to prevent a general European war.

  Staunch admirers of Napoleon and the French people, and, with a long lineof descendants among the English, the sympathies of both were naturallywith the Allies. As Chester had said to Hal, when first rumors of theimpending conflagration were heard:

  "It's too bad we cannot take a hand in the fighting. The war will be thegreatest of all time, and both sides will need every man they can getcapable of bearing arms."

  "You bet it's too bad," Hal had replied; "but we're still in Europe, andyou never can tell what will happen. We may have to play a part
in theaffair whether we want to or not," and here the conversation had ended,although such thoughts were still in the minds of both boys when theyaccompanied Mrs. Paine to their apartment to pack up, preparatory totheir departure in the morning.

  The packing completed, the lads announced their intention of walking outand learning the latest war news.

  "We won't be gone long, mother," said Hal.

  "Very well, son," Mrs. Paine replied; "but, whatever you do, don't getinto any trouble. However, I do not suppose there is any danger to befeared--yet."

  For more than an hour the lads wandered about the streets, reading thewar bulletins in front of the various newspaper offices, and listening tocrowds of men discussing the latest reports, which became more graveevery minute.

  As the boys started on their return to their hotel, they heard a shoutdown a side street, followed immediately by more yells and cries; andthen a voice rang out in English:

  "Help! Police!"

  Breaking into a quick run, Hal and Chester soon were upon the scene ofconfusion.

  With their backs to a wall, two young men were attempting to beat backwith their fists a crowd of a dozen assailants, who beset them from threedirections.

  As the two boys rounded the corner, the cry for help again went up.

  "Come on, Chester!" shouted Hal. "We can't let that gang of hoodlums beatup anyone who speaks the English language."

  "Lead on!" cried Chester. "I am right with you!"

  They were upon the crowd as he spoke, and Hal's right fist shot out withstinging force, and the nearest assailant, struck on the side of theneck, fell to the ground with a groan.

  "Good work, Hal!" shouted Chester, at the same time wading into the crowdof young ruffians, for such the attackers proved to be, and striking outright and left.

  Howls of anger and imprecations greeted the attack from this unexpectedsource, and for a moment the ruffians fell back. In the time that it tookthe crowd to return to the struggle, the boys forced their way to theside of the victims of the attack, and the four, with their backs to thewall, took a breathing spell.

  "You didn't arrive a moment too soon," said one of the young men, with asmile. "I had begun to think we were due for a trimming."

  "There are four of us here," returned Hal, "and we ought to be good forthat crowd; but, instead of standing here, when they attack again, let'smake a break and fight our way through. There will be more of them alongin a minute, and it will be that much harder for us."

  "Good!" returned the second stranger in French. "Here they come!"

  "Are you ready?" asked Hal.

  "All ready," came the reply from the other three.

  "All right, then. Now!"

  At the word the four rushed desperately into the throng, which waspressing in on them from three sides. Taken by surprise, the enemy gaveway for a moment; then closed in again.

  Blows fell thick and fast for the space of a couple of minutes. Then,suddenly, Chester fell to the ground.

  Turning, Hal fought his way to the other side of Chester's prostratebody. Then, bending down, he lifted his chum to his feet.

  "Hurt much?" he asked.

  "No," replied Chester, shaking his head like an enraged bull. "Let me getat them again!"

  He rushed in among his assailants with even greater desperation thanbefore, and two young hoodlums fell before his blows.

  In the meantime the strangers were giving a good account of themselves,and the enemy were falling before their smashing fists.

  Hal ducked a blow from the closest of his assailants, and, stepping inclose, struck him with all his power under the chin. The youth fell tothe ground.

  As he did so the ruffian nearest him, with a hiss of rage, drew a knife,with which he made a wicked slash at Hal. Hal did not see the movement,being closely pressed elsewhere, but Chester, with a sudden cry, leapedforward and seized the hand holding the knife, just as the weapon wouldhave been buried in Hal's back.

  "You would, would you, you coward!" he cried, and struck the young Germanin the face with all the strength of his right arm. The latter toppledover like a log.

  All this time the crowd of assailants continued to grow. Attracted by thesounds of the scuffle, reinforcements arrived from all directions, and itis hard to tell what would have happened had not the sudden blast of awhistle interrupted the proceedings.

  "The police!" yelled someone in the crowd. "Run!"

  In less time than it takes to tell it, Hal, Chester, and the two otheryoung men were alone, while racing toward them, down the street, wereseveral figures in uniform.

  "Run!" cried the young Frenchman. "If they catch us we will all go tojail, and there is no telling when we'll get out. Run!"

  The four took to their heels, and, dodging around corner after corner,were soon safe from pursuit.

  "Well, I guess we are safe now," said the Englishman, when they stoppedat last. Then, turning to Hal:

  "I don't know how to thank you and your friend. If you had not arrivedwhen you did, I fear it would have fared badly with us."

  "No thanks are due," replied Hal. "It's a poor American who would refuseto help anyone in trouble. Shake hands and call it square!"

  The Englishman smiled.

  "As modest as you are bold, eh? Well, all right," and he extended hishand, which Hal and Chester grasped in turn.

  But the Frenchman was not to be put off so easily. He insisted onembracing both of the boys, much to their embarrassment.

  "I'm Lieutenant Harry Anderson, of the Tenth Dragoons, His Majesty'sservice," explained the Englishman, and then, turning to his friend:"This is Captain Raoul Derevaux, Tenth Regiment, French Rifle Corps. Wewere strolling along the street when attacked by the gang from which yousaved us. In the morning we shall try to get out of Germany by way of theBelgian frontier. If now, or at any other time, we may be of service toyou, command us."

  "Yes, indeed," put in the Frenchman, "I consider myself your debtorfor life."

  Hal and Chester thanked their newly-made friends for their good will,and, after a little further conversation, left them to continue theirway, while they returned to the hotel, much to the relief of Mrs. Paine,who had become very uneasy at their long absence.