The Boy Allies with Haig in Flanders Part 25

"You know as much about it as I do," said Hal grimly. "See all that merry gang outside dancing around us? Guess we'll have to surrender.

We can't fight with nothing to fight with."

"You're right, Sir," said one of the men. "No use staying here and being blown up when we can't fight back."

As the occupants of the tank so far had made no signs of complying with the German demand for surrender, bullets were still being rained upon the tractor. Hal now took a handkerchief from his pocket, put it on the end of his empty revolver, and poked it through the porthole.

A cry of triumph went up from the outside, and the firing ceased.

Chester threw open the door of the armored car, and, with Hal and the four members of the crew, got to the ground. An officer approached them and saluted.

"You are my prisoners, Sir," he said.

"So it seems, captain," said Hal with a smile. "Well, it can't be helped now."

He pa.s.sed over his empty revolver, the only weapon he possessed.

Chester followed suit. The members of the crew had no arms. They had discarded their rifles when they entered the tank.

"I shall conduct you to Colonel Hertlitz," said the German captain.

"Come."

The four followed the German officer far back into the German lines, where the officer ushered them into a tent where sat a German officer whose insignia proclaimed him a colonel of infantry.

"These are the men who manned the armored car, sir," said the captain.

"Take the men and lock them up safely," was the reply. "Send my orderly to attend me while I converse with these officers. See, too, that the captured car is made safe."

The captain withdrew and the colonel's orderly entered, and stood at attention. The four Canadian members of the tank's crew were ordered to the rear, but for the night they would be kept in the lines behind the trenches.

"You are brave young men," said the colonel to Hal. "I watched you advance into our army single-handed. At the same time, it was a fool's trick--or a youngster's."

"We're not so brave as you would think, sir," said Hal with a slight smile. "Neither are we such fools. We would gladly have turned about, but the thing wouldn't work; neither could I stop my engine."

"Oh-o! I see," said the colonel. "I took your deed for an act of bravery, and for that reason I had planned to have you particularly cared for, so it was only an accident, eh? Orderly, have these fellows locked up with the others."

"We're officers in the United States Army, sir," Hal protested, "and, as such, are ent.i.tled to treatment as becomes our rank."

"You are American pigs!" was the angry response. "So American troops are really in France, eh? I never believed they would come. America is a nation of cowards."

Hal took a threatening step forward.

The German did not move from his chair, but called to his orderly:

"Take them away."

A moment later a file of soldiers entered and Hal and Chester were escorted from the colonel's quarters. An hour later they found themselves in a tent behind the German trenches together with the four Canadians who, such a short time before, had formed the crew of the tank that had advanced single-handed into the German lines.

"You went and spoiled it, Hal," Chester muttered when they were left to themselves again.

"Well, I was just trying to be honest. They say 'honesty is the best policy,' you know."

"That's all right," said Chester, "but you don't have to go around telling how honest you are."

"I'll admit I put my foot in it," Hal a I greed. "But here we are, six of us, captured by the enemy with the chances that our days of fighting are over."

"Never say die," said Chester. "We've been in some ticklish places before now and we're still alive and kicking."

"We'll hold a council of war," Hal decided. "I don't know your names,"

he said to the Canadians, "but I take it you'll all be glad to get out of here if possible."

"You bet," said one. "I've no hankering for a German prison, sir."

"Good! Now what are your names?"

"Crean, sir," said the man who had spoken.

"Yours?" said Hal, turning to the next man.

"Smith, sir."

The other two men admitted to the names of Jackson and Gregory.

Hal then introduced Chester and himself.

"This is not the first time we've been captured by the enemy," he explained, "and we've found that because escape is looked upon as such a remote possibility, it is much simpler than in days when wars did not cover so much territory as the whole world."

"We're with you in anything you decide, sir," said Smith. I

"You can count upon us to the finish," Crean agreed.

"I was sure of it," said Hal quietly. "Now, we'll take stock. Of course, we've no weapons."

"Nothing that looks like one," Chester agreed.

"The first thing, then," said Hal, "is to secure weapons. Makes a fellow feel a bit more comfortable if he has a gun in his hand."

"Or even a sword, or a knife, sir," said Gregory.

"Well, I'm not much of a hand with a knife," Chester declared. "I have been slashed a couple of times, but every time I think of a knife being drawn through my flesh it makes me shudder. Now, a gun is another matter."

"I agree with you, Chester," said Hal. "However, if we can't get guns we won't turn down knives if we can get our hands on them."

"Right you are, sir," said Gregory. "Now, I've lived long enough in the northwest to realize the value of a good knife when I get my hands on it. A weapon is a weapon after all, sir."

"Only some are better than others," Smith interrupted.

"We won't argue about that," said Hal, "since we have decided that the first thing we need are weapons. Of course, that means that first we must have one weapon. One will mean others. Now, I'll suggest this: I'm no pickpocket, but someone will come in here directly to give us food or something, and I'm no good if I can't, relieve him of a gun or a knife, providing I get close enough to him."

"And then what?" demanded Chester.