BATTLESHIP BOYS TO THE RESCUE
"This is the famous Bois de Boulogne Sam."
"The what?"
"Bois de Boulogne, one of the most popular drives in Paris."
"Huh!" grunted Sam Hickey. "That sounds to me like some kind of sausage. What do they ever name their streets that way for in Paris?"
"All the names in this great, gay city mean something," answered Dan Davis. "This park here bears the same name. It was infested by desperate robbers as far back as the fourteenth century."
"Robbers!" exclaimed the red-haired boy.
"Yes."
"Are they here yet?"
"No; Napoleon cleaned them out. We shall soon be out by the Arch. The Frenchmen call it Arc de Triomphe."
"They do?"
"Yes."
"Just like that?"
"Of course."
"I'll bet there isn't a Frenchman in France who would know what you were talking about if they heard you call it by that name. I don't know anything about French, but if that is French give me plain United States. You are sure there are no robbers left in the Bologna sausage?"
"Bois de Boulogne, Sam," corrected Dan. "No; there are no robbers here. You need not be afraid."
"Afraid! What do you take me for, Dan Davis. I——"
"Hark!"
"Nothing of the sort. I'm no coward. I, a sailor in Uncle Sam's Navy, and afraid of robbers? Pooh!"
"Listen! Did you hear that, Sam?"
"Hear what? No; I didn't hear anything. But—wow! What's that?"
Hickey gave a sudden startled jump.
"It's a woman's scream," breathed Dan, listening intently. "Did you hear it?"
"I—I should say I did. Yes, and there it goes again. She's some sort of foreigner. I wonder what is going on?"
The scream was repeated. Though the lads were unable to understand what the voice was saying, it was evident that the woman, whoever or whatever she might be, was in dire distress.
"Where is it—where is it?" demanded Sam, now very much excited.
"The sound came from off yonder, where the trees are thickest."
"I see nothing."
"I do," answered Dan. "See, yonder is a carriage. Come on! There's a woman in trouble. What is it?" shouted the boy, raising his voice.
"Help! Help!" came the answer in plain English.
"It's one of our own countrywomen—our own United States. We're coming, madam!"
Dan was off with a bound, followed a few paces behind by his red-haired friend, Sam Hickey.
As they ran they made out a coupé that had been drawn up beside the road. One man was holding the horses by the heads, while a group of others were standing by the door of the carriage.
"What's going on there?" demanded Dan.
"I—I guess Napoleon didn't chase all the robbers out," stammered Hickey in a doubtful tone.
"They are robbers and they're robbing two lone women," exclaimed Dan.
"I guess we're Johnnie-on-the-spot, then," answered Sam. "Me for the party holding the horses. He looks kind of weak like."
Two women, attired in evening gowns, were standing beside their carriage, which, at a glance, was seen to be an elegant private equipage. The men surrounding the women wore small, black caps with the visors pulled down over their eyes, and long, flowing handkerchiefs about their necks.
As the lads drew near they saw two of the men strip the handkerchiefs from their necks, quickly twisting the cloths about the necks of the women. The cries of the latter were stilled almost instantly.
"Break away, you villains!" roared Dan Davis.
"Yes; chase yourselves or you'll get your faces slapped," added Sam. "Vamoose! Allez vous—scat!"
"We're coming, ladies! Charge them, Sam! They're thugs! Look out for yourself!"
"I've got one of them!" yelled Sam Hickey triumphantly.
In passing the horses he had sheered close to the fellow who was holding them, hitting the man a blow on the jaw that tumbled him over in a heap. The man did not rise, but Sam was too excited to notice the fact.
"Whoop!" he howled, making a rush and coming up by his companion. "We're the wild men from the land of the cowboy!"
The boys swept down on the robbers, the formers' fists working like the piston rods of a locomotive.
The ruffians turned on them instantly.
"Quick! Into your carriage!" called Dan. He had neither the time nor opportunity to assist the ladies in doing so. Both boys were now altogether too busy to give further heed to the frightened women.
Smashing right and left, they fell upon the robbers.
Bang!
A bullet whistled close to the head of Sam Hickey. The latter made a dive for the man who had fired the shot, and ere the fellow could pull the trigger for another shot, Hickey's fist had struck him on the jaw, laying the fellow flat on his back.
"Whoop!" howled the boy. "That's the way we do the thing in the good old United States."
Dan was having a lively battle with two men, each of whom held a knife in his hand and was making quick thrusts at the lad, who was quickly diving in and out.
All at once Dan's foot came up. It caught one of the men on the wrist of his knife hand. The fellow uttered a yell and his knife went soaring up into the air. Dan tried to serve the other assailant in the same way, but instead of reaching the man's wrist, the kick caught the fellow in the stomach. This answered quite as well. With a groan the robber fell down heavily.
"Lay in! We've got them!" yelled Davis.
"I am laying in," answered Sam. "Lay—lay in yourself. Whoop! That was a beauty. I spun him like a top. He's spinning yet! Watch him, Dan!"
Dan knew better than to turn his head. Three desperate men were now seeking to surround and put an end to his fighting abilities. Dan found them more difficult to handle than he had those others who had gone down under his sturdy blows.
In the meantime the women had sprung into their carriage, and the driver, whipping up his horses, had started away.
Attracted by the uproar, a squad of gendarmes were bearing down on the scene on the run.
"Robbers!" yelled the driver in French as he swept past the officers of the law.
"Where?"
The driver pointed with his whip toward the trees under which the battle was being waged.
"The police!" yelled one of the robbers, catching a glimpse of the gendarmes, as the latter ran into the light of a street lamp.
Instantly every man of the robbers plunged into the bushes and disappeared, those who had been knocked down by the two brave lads having gotten to their feet just in time to get away.
"Follow them!" cried Dan. "We'll capture a couple of them, anyway."
Sam caught a foot on the curbing and fell headlong. His companion hesitated for one brief instant. Both lads thought they had put the robbers to flight. They did not know that the desperate men had seen the police coming, for the cry of "police" had been uttered in French.
"Look out! Here they are again!" warned Dan. "Sail in, Sam! They've surrounded us."
Sam was up like a flash. They were now well off the road. The spot was dark and the boys did not know that it was the police who had come upon and surprised them.
Dan Davis laid low the first gendarme just as the man placed a hand on his shoulder. Sam gave the next officer a good stiff punch that must have made the man's head swim, for it sent him staggering away.
Hickey uttered a yell of triumph. His fighting blood was up. He went at them with a rush, punching with both hands, nearly every blow taking effect.
All at once Dan Davis made a discovery.
He caught the glint of a brass button.
"Cease firing!" he roared.
"Not on your life! Not till I've licked this heathen——"
"Sam! Sam! Stop! It's the police we are fighting! Stop, I tell you!"
Hickey's ready fists dropped to his sides. He stepped back, half inclined to run.
"Well, well! What do you think of that?" he growled.
Dan, too, had stopped fighting the instant he made the discovery that it was the police whom they had assaulted. He sprang back, gazing almost in awe at the rest of the squad of gendarmes who were bearing down upon them.
"This is the time we have put our foot in it. Gentlemen, I beg——"
He did not finish the sentence.
A blow from one of the gendarmes laid him flat on the ground. At the same instant three men jumped on Sam Hickey. They took him so utterly unawares that he had not made the slightest resistance.
"Get away, you fools! Don't you know——"
Hickey's breath was fairly knocked out of him. He was at the bottom of the pile, unconscious almost the next second.
The Battleship Boys had gone down fighting valiantly, the lads whom the readers of this series now know so well. They were the same boys who, in "The Battleship Boys at Sea," enlisted in the United States Navy, serving their apprenticeship at the Training Station in Newport. It was there that they proved by their faithful attention to duty, their courage and fitness to serve the Flag of their country. Then, on board the battleship "Long Island," it will be recalled how Dan Davis whipped the bully of the ship in a fair stand-up battle; how Hickey was punished for an offence for which he was not wholly to blame, being confined to the brig on rations of bread and water; and how finally both lads proved themselves by their heroic rescue of a drowning diver. The latter was the man who had been responsible for all their trouble on shipboard. For their bravery in facing almost certain death the boys were rewarded by a grateful government in the bestowal of that much-coveted decoration, the medal of honor.
Again, in "The Battleship Boys' First Step Upward," the reader will remember Sam Hickey's having sighted a "shooting star," while on lookout duty, and that the shooting star was a rocket signal of distress from a sinking schooner. It will be recalled how Dan Davis was left alone on the doomed ship; how the battleship turned its big guns on the schooner, shooting the decks from beneath his feet, and how, in the end, the plucky lad saved the schooner and its cargo. Dan's heroic effort in saving a boat load of men from almost certain destruction by a rushing torpedo, and his winning of a promotion to the grade of petty officer will also still be fresh in the reader's mind.
And now the boys were on their first foreign cruise. The battleship "Long Island" had come to anchor off Boulogne, France. The Battleship Boys had asked for a shore leave of one week, which was readily granted to them. In that time they had planned to visit Paris and London, which they would have ample time to do, and rejoin their ship before their leave of absence expired.
They had arrived in Paris that morning, after an all-night ride on one of the fastest express trains in France, but which Sam Hickey had referred to under the undignified title of "milk train."
After considerable difficulty they had secured lodgings at a pension, as the boarding houses in France are called, and had at once started out to see the city. This they did with the aid of a map. They were self-reliant boys, and the thought of getting lost did not trouble them at all.
During the afternoon they had wandered off along the fashionable avenue, the Bois de Boulogne, and into the beautiful park of the same name, where they lingered until nearly night. Hunger alone brought them to a realization that it was time they sought their lodgings. So anxious were they to see Paris, that they had forgotten all about breakfast, and, when noon arrived, they saw no place where they could procure food.
They were on their way back when they met with the adventure that now promised to involve them in serious difficulty. They had assaulted a body of men who were police officers of the republic of France.
The gendarmes had not seen the robbers. They had seen only Dan Davis and Sam Hickey, who now presented a most disreputable appearance. The boys had lost their caps bearing the name of their ship, their blouses were torn and covered with dirt, while Dan's shirt was ripped in several places where the knives of the desperate men had made great rents in it, his trousers were torn, and his face bruised where he had been struck by one of the robbers. Hickey was in a similar condition.
The gendarmes were chattering loudly, accompanying their words with wild gestures.
Making sure that their prisoners were wholly overpowered, they quickly secured them, one of the number in the meantime having sent in a call for a patrol wagon. Soon the auto wagon came puffing up and backed down to the curb.
Quite a crowd had gathered, attracted to the scene by the uproar.
"What is it?" questioned one after another.
"Apaches!" answered the officer in charge.
A growl of rage ran over the gathering. There is no criminal in Paris so dreaded or so hated as the one who belongs to the so-called "Apaches." These men have but two aims in life—to rob and kill. It is nothing to them who the victim may be, or how innocent. They are infinitely worse than the worst red Indian of the past.
The Apaches are found everywhere in Paris, and woe to the stranger in the gay city who happens to stroll out alone at night, for the Apache will track him to the death if he chances to strike the stranger's trail.
It was this desperate band of criminals to which Dan Davis and Sam Hickey were supposed by the police to belong. On the contrary, the Battleship Boys had met and practically whipped a band of Apaches single handed and without weapons. It was an achievement to be proud of, had they known it, but at that moment neither lad was in a condition to realize anything.
Searching the clothes of their prisoners for weapons, and finding none, the gendarmes picked Dan up by the head and heels, hurling him into the patrol. Next came Hickey. He was thrown in on top of his companion.
Half a dozen officers piled into the wagon and sat down on their prisoners. At that moment the patrol started away with the two boys, moving over the smooth pavements of the French capital almost without a jar.