The Boy Allies at Liege Part 1

The boy Allies at Liege.

by Clair W. Hayes.

CHAPTER I.

THE TWO COMRADES.

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

"Yes, mother, it's true," continued Hal, seeing the look of consternation on 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 hand upon 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 possible that millions of men will again fly at each other's throats? Is it possible that Europe will again be turned into a battlefield?"

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

"It's all right, mother," cried Hal, dropping to his knees and putting his arm about her. "We are in no danger. No one will harm an American. At this 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 words brought back to me the days gone by, and I pray that I shall not have to go through them again. Then, too, I was thinking of the mothers and wives whose 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 had remained silent, "Hal and I went to the American Emba.s.sy immediately after dinner to-night to learn, if possible, what difficulties we were likely to encounter in leaving Germany. Since the Kaiser's declaration of war against Russia all Americans have been preparing to get out of the country at the earliest possible moment. But now that war has been declared on France, we are likely to encounter many hards.h.i.+ps."

"Is there any likelihood of our being detained?" asked Mrs. Paine in alarm. "What did the amba.s.sador say?"

"While the amba.s.sador antic.i.p.ates no danger for foreigners, he advises that we leave the country immediately. He suggests that we take the early morning train across the Belgian frontier."

"Why go to Belgium?"

"All railroad lines leading into France have been seized by German soldiers. Pa.s.senger 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 through Belgium. Even now thousands of the Kaiser's best troops are marching upon the French frontier, and fighting is only a question of hours."

"Very well, then," returned Mrs. Paine. "We shall go in the morning. So I guess 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 two American lads, who will play the most important parts in our story.

Hal Paine was a lad some seventeen years of age. Following his graduation from high school in a large Illinois city the previous June, his mother had announced her intention of taking him on a tour through Europe.

Needless to say, Hal jumped at this chance to see something of the foreign countries in whose histories he had always been deeply interested. It was upon Hal's request that Mrs. Paine had invited his chum, Chester Crawford, to accompany them.

Chester was naturally eager to take the trip across the water, and, after some 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 a charge at the battle of El Caney, in the Spanish-American war. Hal's grandfather 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 of his mother. Her father, a Virginian, was killed at the head of his men while leading one of Pickett's regiments in the famous charge at Gettysburg. Three of her brothers also had been killed on the field of battle, and another had died in prison.

From her own mother Mrs. Paine had learned of the horrors of war. Before the war her father had been a wealthy man. After the war her mother was almost 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 by the invasion of armed men, and it is not to be wondered at that, in view of the events narrated, she should view the coming struggle with anguish, despite the fact that her own country was not involved and that there was no 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 cla.s.s with his comrade. The two families lived next door to each other, and the lads had always been the closest of chums.

For the last three years the boys had spent each summer vacation in one of the lumber camps owned by Chester's father, in the great Northwest.

Always athletically inclined, the time thus spent among the rough lumbermen had given the boys new prowess. Day after day they spent in the woods, hunting big game, and both had become proficient in the use of firearms; while to their boxing skill--learned under a veteran of the prize-ring, who was employed by Chester's father in the town in which they lived--they added that dexterity which comes only with hard experience. Daily fencing lessons had made both proficient in the use of sword and saber.

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

Standing firmly upon their rights from first to last, the two lads never allowed anyone to impose upon them, although they were neither naturally pugnacious nor aggressive. However, there had been more than one lumberjack who had found to his discomfort that he could not infringe upon their good nature, which was at all times apparent.

Both boys were large and st.u.r.dy, and the months spent in the lumber camps had given hardness to their muscles. Their ever-readiness for a rough-and-tumble, the fact that neither had ever been known to dodge trouble--although neither had ever sought it, and that where one was involved in danger there was sure to be found the other also--had gained for them among the rough men of the lumber camp the nickname of "The Boy Allies," a name which had followed them to their city home.

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

Both lads were keenly interested in history, so, in spite of the manner in which they tried to rea.s.sure Mrs. Paine and set her mind at rest, there is no cause for wonder in the fact that both were more concerned in the movement of troops and wars.h.i.+ps than in the efforts the other powers were making to prevent a general European war.

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

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

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

The packing completed, the lads announced their intention of walking out and 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 get into any trouble. However, I do not suppose there is any danger to be feared--yet."

For more than an hour the lads wandered about the streets, reading the war bulletins in front of the various newspaper offices, and listening to crowds of men discussing the latest reports, which became more grave every minute.

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

"Help! Police!"

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

With their backs to a wall, two young men were attempting to beat back with their fists a crowd of a dozen a.s.sailants, who beset them from three directions.

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 beat up 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 with stinging force, and the nearest a.s.sailant, struck on the side of the neck, fell to the ground with a groan.