CHAPTER XXIV.
UNCLE JOHN "BUTTS IN."
"Well," said Chester to the young Austrian officer, as they were returning to their quarters an hour later, "you hold a remarkably strong position here. And still, if you are forced to fall back, then what?"
The Austrian smiled.
"We have considered all possibilities," he replied. "Back there," sweeping his arm about in a comprehensive gesture, "lies Gorizia, the key to Trieste, which naturally is the Italian goal in this section. Gorizia is exceptionally well fortified, as you well know. We could defend ourselves there indefinitely in the face of overwhelming numbers."
"But," interrupted Hal, "it is not necessary to capture Gorizia to take Trieste?"
"No," said the Austrian with a smile, "but it is necessary to take Gorizia to hold Trieste. The mountains that overhang the city are fortified with our great guns, which could rain shells upon the city without danger of a successful reply. The Italians know this, which is the reason they have not struck at Trieste before. The same goes for Trent, the other point coveted by the enemy."
The party had stopped during this discussion, but now moved on again. In this part of the camp the tents were laid out in little streets and avenues, and down these they walked slowly.
And suddenly the three friends were treated to a disagreeable shock.
Closely followed by a guard, Uncle John suddenly stepped from a tent and stood directly in their path. He seemed stricken dumb with amazement for a moment and then hurried up to them with a glad cry.
"Chester! Hal!" he exclaimed in English.
For a moment the two lads were dumbfounded. Then, realizing their perilous situation, Hal pushed Uncle John away and frowned at him. He whirled upon the Austrian officer.
"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded sternly. "I did not know you had lunatics here."
Now Uncle John knew something of German himself, and he caught this remark. He glared angrily at Hal and then spoke to Chester.
"What's the meaning of this, Chester?" he asked.
Chester did not reply, pretending that he did not understand English.
Uncle John grew more angry.
"You young scalawags," he shouted, "what are you trying to do? Have some fun with me? I want to tell you this is no place nor time for fun. I want to get out of here."
Hal and Chester each was afraid to give Uncle John a signal for fear it might be seen and Colonel Anderson made no move to interfere. The Austrian officer turned a suspicious gaze upon the three friends.
"Do you know this man?" he asked.
Hal shook his head.
"He evidently has mistaken us for some one else," he said. "Do you understand what he says? It sounds like it was English he spoke."
"So it is," replied the Austrian. "He called you Hal and Chester and also scalawags, whatever that means."
Chester shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know him," he said.
"Nor I," said Hal.
"I've never seen him before, to my knowledge," declared Colonel Anderson.
The Austrian officer glared down at Uncle John.
"What's the meaning of this?" he demanded in broken English. "Why do you accost these gentlemen?"
"Why?" exclaimed Uncle John, dancing up and down in his rage, "why? Because one of them is my nephew. What does he want to deny he knows me for?"
"He says one of you is his nephew," said the Austrian turning to the others.
"Well, he's wrong," declared Chester. "I'm sure none of us ever saw him before. Let us go."
The Austrian signified his readiness and they moved off; and as they went along Uncle John, glaring after them, shook a finger violently, and shouted time after time:
"You young rascals. You'll be sorry for this."
He was still raging when the others disappeared from sight among the tents.
"I wonder why?" he asked himself repeatedly, when he was back in his prison tent. And then suddenly it dawned upon him. "What a fool I was," he muttered. "Of course they are here to get me out of this and I came almost spoiling the whole thing, if I have not done so. I ought to be licked."
Meanwhile, the three friends followed the Austrian officer back to their quarters, where he left them.
"By Jove! that was a pretty close shave," remarked Hal, after the officer had taken his leave.
"Rather," replied Chester dryly. "You would think a man of Uncle John's age would have more sense. I'll tell him about it good and strong when I see him again."
"But great Scott! wasn't he mad," said Hal with a laugh. "Did you see how he glared at us? Wonder what he thinks of us, anyhow?"
"Maybe he thinks he has made a mistake," put in the colonel.
"No, he doesn't," declared Chester. "He knows us when he sees us, all right, and I'll bet he is doing some tall thinking about now."
"Well," said the colonel, "we have done about enough for to-day. I vote we accept the officer's invitation to have dinner with him."
"Same here," agreed the others.
The evening and night passed quickly, as did another day, and with the coming of darkness on the second day, the friends began to think of a method of making their way back to their own lines.
"We'll have to make an effort to take Uncle John with us," said Chester.
"Sure," agreed Hal and the colonel, and the latter added: "I guess we will manage it some way. Now, as to the matter of getting by the outposts."
"I can't see as there will be any difficulty about that," said Chester. "Fortunately we are known to most of the officers around here by sight. They will think nothing strange of the fact that we are making a tour of the outposts. Then, if we can manage to catch a sentinel off guard, we can nab him and run."
"Sounds all right," remarked Hal. "We'll try it. But first we must get
Uncle John."
"Of course," said the colonel. "We'll get him, all right. In an hour, then, we shall move."
The hour passed slowly, and it seemed to all that the time for action would never come. But at last Colonel Anderson, after a glance at his watch, rose to his feet.
"Let's go," he said briefly.
The others followed him from the tent and he led the way quickly to where Uncle John was confined. In the distance they saw that a sentinel stood on guard and that to enter by that way would arouse suspicion.
"You fellows engage the guard in conversation," said Chester, "and keep talking to him until I rejoin you."
The others asked no questions, but signified that they understood. Chester let them walk on ahead of him, and then made his way to the rear of the row of tents.
He produced a knife when he stood behind Uncle John's tent and slit the canvas silently. Inside Uncle John was reading by candle light. Chester whistled softly, the old whistle of his boyhood days at home, which he felt sure Uncle John would recognize.
Nor was he wrong. Uncle John looked around quickly and beheld Chester's face peering into the tent. Chester laid a finger to his lips and Uncle John nodded. Then Chester beckoned Uncle John to come toward him and the latter did so. Chester enlarged the opening in the tent with his knife and Uncle John stepped into the open.
"Follow me," whispered the lad.
Uncle John asked no questions, but obeyed. Two hundred yards from the tent, Chester halted.
"Now you stay right here till I come back," he said.
He hastened away to join his friends, who were still talking to Uncle
John's guard.
He joined in the conversation for a moment and then announced that they might as well turn in. They told the guard good night and walked back to where Chester had left Uncle John. The latter greeted them with silent joy; he realized that to make a sound might betray them, and he was tired of standing there by himself.
Colonel Anderson motioned to the others to follow and led the way forward.
Swiftly and silently the four shadowy forms made their way along in the shelter of the innumerable tents; and finally they passed beyond the farthest row and into the open. Rapidly they covered the ground toward the outposts, and nearing them, slowed down.
Then they walked forward, talking quietly among themselves, as though they were just out for an evening stroll. And then—
"Halt!" came a hoarse command.
The four obeyed. A soldier confronted them with levelled rifle.
"Who goes there?" he continued.
"Friends," was the reply.
The man peered at them closely, and still keeping them covered, raised his voice for his superior. The latter came on a dead run.
He eyed the four in the darkness and then motioned the soldier to stand back.
"It's all right," he told him.
The soldier saluted and walked away. The officer spoke to Hal.
"You are out rather late," he said.
"Right," returned the lad, "but we thought we would take a short stroll before turning in. We had no idea we had wandered so far from camp."
"Oh, it's all right," was the reply. "Who is that with you?" peering at
Uncle John in the darkness.
"Just a friend we have made," said Chester, a slight tremor in his voice, for he had hoped that Uncle John's presence would be overlooked.
"I don't seem to know him," said the officer, still peering intently at
Uncle John. And then suddenly he exclaimed: "The prisoner!"
He raised his voice in a cry for help; and at the same moment Hal's revolver butt crashed down upon his head!