CHAPTER XVII
BOUND FOR A GERMAN PRISON CAMP
“We’re getting too far into Germany altogether, Hal,” said Chester, as the train that was carrying them toward the enemy prison camp at Villingen, one of the many improvised shelters for captives that dotted the German frontier, sped along.
“I know it,” said Hal. “It looks as though we were going to have a pretty stiff time getting back in time to do any good, if we get back at all before the war is over.”
Chester gazed from the window of the car at the fleeting landscape.
“I don’t know where we are,” he said at length, “but we must have passed the German border. Also, we are bound north, so Villingen must be in the direction of Hamburg.”
“Well, I don’t know where we are either,” declared Hal, “but if I had a good chance I’d jump off this train and take to my heels.”
“What good would that do? If you didn’t kill yourself, chances are they’d stop the train and the guards would pick you up again.”
“Maybe so,” said Hal, “but it’s worth a chance, to my way of thinking. If we could get a long enough start we might be all right. Certainly, once free, we should be able to appropriate clothing enough to cover these uniforms, and once disguised, I defy any of these Boches to find us.”
“Well,” said Chester, casting a shrewd eye the length of the common day coach, “we’re not so well guarded we can’t try it if you say the word.”
Hal also glanced up and down the aisle. Forward, the German guards had gathered together over a game of cards. There were no guards at the rear of the car, but both boys knew that the door was locked and the vestibule without, closed. It would take time to break through the door, open the vestibule and leap from the train.
“If we can get close enough to the door without arousing suspicion, there’s a bare chance,” whispered Hal. “If the train slows down a trifle and we pass through a woods or forest soon I am in favor of taking a chance.”
“Suits me if it does you,” declared Chester with a shrug of his shoulders.
“We’ll see first whether we can get close to the door,” said Hal. “You wait here a minute.”
He arose and moved up the aisle. A German guard espied him from the other end of the car. “Sit down!” he commanded in a gruff voice.
Hal turned and walked forward in the car.
“Just stretching my legs a bit,” the boy said with a smile.
The German grunted, but made no reply.
Several times Hal paced back and forth through the car, stopping now and then for a word with some of the other prisoners. Eventually the German guards seemed to forget him entirely. Then Hal sat down on the arm of a seat near the door.
Chester, who had been watching Hal closely, now also arose and began pacing up and down, at last stopping close to Hal near the rear door of the car.
It seemed that Providence was guiding the actions of the two young Americans.
The speed of the train began to diminish. Inwardly, Hal and Chester were burning with excitement, but outwardly neither gave a sign that might betray them.
And then the train entered the fringe of a forest.
“Time, Chester,” said Hal in a low voice.
He got to his feet and moved toward the door, Chester close behind him.
There was a sudden crash as Hal broke the glass pane in the door with his hand. With a single movement of his arm he swept clear the remaining fragments and leaped through the opening.
As Chester followed him, Hal opened the vestibule with two swift moves and leaped to the bottom step. Then, balancing himself carefully, he dropped from the car.
Hal was conscious of his feet striking something hard. Then he went down. The next he knew, Chester had seized his arm and was dragging him to his feet, shouting:
“Quick, Hal! They’re stopping the train!”
Hal staggered to his feet and the boys dashed from the embankment and ran for the shelter of the trees. As they entered this retreat, the train stopped a short distance away, and German soldiers jumped to the ground with angry cries.
Just within the shelter of the trees, Chester stopped.
“Hurt, Hal?” he asked.
Hal shook his head.
“Guess not,” he replied. “I did a bad job when I hopped off and lost my balance. I’m all right now, though. How about yourself?”
“I made it like a railroad man,” was Chester’s reply. “But come, we must get away from here. They’re after us.”
“Which way?” demanded Hal.
“Doesn’t make any particular difference, I guess,” replied Chester; “but straight ahead suits me.”
He led the way at a rapid trot.
Behind, the lads could hear the cries of their pursuers, and they made as rapid progress as possible. After perhaps two minutes of walking, Chester, who was slightly in advance of Hal, stopped with a cry of dismay.
They had now come to the edge of the trees and with the first sight of the wide expanse of open ground before them, Chester realized that they were trapped.
“Now what do you think of that!” he ejaculated.
The little woods in which they found themselves could not have been ten rods in width or in length. The lads had simply jumped from the train in a little clump of trees. It would be but the work of a very few minutes for the German guards to surround the place and then close in on the fugitives.
“Well, that’s what I call pretty hard luck,” declared Hal. “And here comes the enemy. Hear ’em?”
Footsteps approached from behind.
“Surrender,” replied Hal quietly. “We can’t afford to let them kill us, you know, much as we might like to fight. While there’s life there’s hope that we may still be successful.”
“Right,” Chester agreed. “Well, here they are.”
As the first German hove in sight, the man put his rifle to his shoulder and fired. The bullet passed between the two lads, who stepped quickly back.
“Wait!” called Hal before the man could fire again. “We surrender.”
He raised his hands, as did Chester.
By this time other Germans had appeared and they rushed the lads angrily.
No more shots were fired, but the first man who came within striking distance of Hal reversed his rifle quickly and brought the butt down on the boy’s unprotected head.
Hal dropped like a log.
Instantly Chester lost all idea of caution. With an angry cry he sprang at the man who had struck Hal and before the German could save himself, Chester stepped in quickly and wrenched the rifle from his hand. So quick was his action that none of the enemy had time to interfere, and raising the rifle aloft Chester served the German as the latter had his friend.
Instantly Chester became the center of a struggling knot of men. Thoroughly aroused by this unexpected resistance, the Germans attacked the lad with loud cries. Chester had no time to reverse his rifle and fire; the press of conflict was too great for that. Nevertheless, the lad fought as best he could with clubbed rifle, and then fists, feet and teeth.
The Germans snarled and shouted as they tried to bring Chester down, but Chester fought in silence.
But the odds were too great against the lad and at last he went down as a German rifle crashed on his head. He fell close beside Hal, and his head rested on his chum’s knees.
And that was all that either boy remembered of the battle.
When Hal returned to consciousness, the train again was bumping its uneven way through the country. Hal looked around slowly. At first he did not realize where he was, but within a few moments the events of the last few hours came trooping back to his brain as he gazed around.
By his side, nearest the window, was Chester, still unconscious. Something felt uncomfortable on Hal’s wrist. He moved his hand. The something on his wrist pulled. He looked down and for the first time saw that he and Chester had been handcuffed together.
He smiled to himself grimly.
“We put a little respect into them, anyhow,” he told himself.
Chester now engaged his attention. In his present condition, Hal could do nothing for his friend, so he sat waiting for him to return to consciousness.
At last Chester’s eyelids began to flutter and his eyes came open. They sought Hal’s. Hal smiled.
“They got us,” he said briefly.
Chester straightened himself up in his seat.
“So I see,” he responded gloomily. “My head feels as though somebody had dropped a ton of coal on it.”
“Looks it, too,” said Hal. “It’s all nicely bound up with a dirty rag, I see.”
“Guess it looks as well as yours, at all events,” Chester grumbled. “How do you feel?”
“Not much, and that’s a fact,” said Hal. “My head feels just like yours looks.”
“I know just how it looks by sight of yours,” returned Chester. “So naturally I know how you feel. Well, what will they do with us now?”
“Intern us in the prison camp, the same as they started to do. We’ll have to work and eat next to nothing and it’ll be pretty tough all around. But we’ll make another break for liberty at the first opportunity.”
“Here’s hoping it comes soon,” declared Chester.
The train slowed down, then stopped.
“Villingen; everybody change,” sang out a Yankee soldier in the rear of the car.