CHAPTER XVIII
CAPTURED
Swiftly as falls a bird with a broken wing, down came the German aëroplane. It was now within plain sight of the Americans stationed in the woods, and, as it happened, a squad, of which our five Brothers formed the major part, were nearer than anyone else.
"I can see their faces!" cried Bob. "They look worried all right!"
And well the Germans might, for they were being forced to land within the enemy's lines.
"Guess their gasolene tank was shot to pieces," commented Roger. "The plane doesn't seem to be damaged much."
And this, later, they learned was the case. A bullet had pierced the petrol tank of the Boche craft, and the pilot and gunner had been forced to land.
Down shot the craft, and, a moment later, it made a good landing in a field. The machine ran along over the rough ground for a little distance and then two figures, clad in regulation flying costumes, were seen to leap out. They paused for a moment, trying to set fire to their machine, so that it might not fall, comparatively undamaged as it was, into the hands of the Americans. But this was not to be.
"Don't let them get away with that!" cried an officer, quickly. "Pick off those two men, boys!"
Instantly rifles began to crack, and as the bullets sang about the ears of the Huns they stopped their incendiary operations and began to run. How they thought they could escape is inexplainable. They were surrounded by Americans, and were some distance away from their own lines.
"Come on, fellows!" cried Jimmy to his chums. "Don't let 'em get away.
We can head 'em off!"
"You said something!" yelled Bob. "Oh, boy! That was some fight!"
The battle in the air was over now, and though there had been a lull in the contest in the immediate vicinity of our heroes, the firing was going on in both wings of the American army.
Emerging from their shelter in the woods, so as to intercept at an angle the fleeing Germans, Jimmy and his four Brothers ran hotfoot over the open ground. Then the Huns saw the five lads coming, and turned, as though to go in another direction.
"No you don't!" shouted Bob, as he sent a well-aimed bullet over the head of the foremost German. He did not intend to hit the fellow—merely to scare him. And it had that effect.
The man stopped suddenly, and raised his hands in the air.
"Kamerad!" he bellowed.
His companion was seen to be fumbling in his belt, as though trying to get a hand grenade or lose his revolver. But the man who had surrendered, realizing what would happen if any resistance were shown, gave his companion a kick that sent him sprawling.
"Kamerad!" cried the kicker. And his companion, struggling to rise, echoed:
"Kamerad!"
"You'd better surrender!" grimly observed Jimmy, as he and his chums rushed up.
Quickly the Germans were disarmed, and then they were marched back, ahead of their captors, to where stood the captain of the company of which the five Brothers formed so active a part.
"Good work, Sergeant," complimented the captain, when Jimmy, as a ranking non-com. over his companions, came back with the two German aviators. "Good work! And you may have the pleasure of taking the prisoners to the rear. We'll be held up here some time, I fancy. Report to me when you return. And don't let those fellows get away!" he added significantly.
"We'll take care of that, sir," said Jimmy grimly.
"Come on, you fellows! Hike!" ordered Roger to the captured airmen. And a little later they were turned over to the proper authorities in the rear. Some valuable plans and information concerning German movements were found on the prisoners, and their capture was regarded as important. Jimmy and his chums received commendation, and were mentioned in the official reports of the day's grim doings.
"And now we'd better be getting back," suggested Jimmy, who was in charge of the prisoner squad. "The fighting may start again any minute, and we don't want to miss it."
"I should say not!" cried Bob. "Now that we can have a show for our white agate there'll be some fun in it. But to have to crouch down in a wood and let some one take pot shots at you from overhead isn't my idea of a war at all."
They were marching along a camouflaged road when they saw an American and a French machine coming down together on a level spot not far away.
"Wonder if they're in trouble?" asked Roger.
"Doesn't seem so," answered Bob. "They seem to have the planes under control. But let's go and see. Maybe we can help. They'll surely need some attention after that fierce fighting."
The two machines, one a single seater and the other a double, came to earth at the same time, and not far apart. And at the sight of two aviators getting out of the American craft Jimmy gave a yell and exclaimed:
"Well, if it isn't the Twinkle Twins! Good enough! What do you know about that, fellows? The Twinkle Twins were among those who saved our bacon this day!"
And it was, indeed, John and Gerald Twinkleton, otherwise known as Jack and Jerry, or the Twinkle Twins, who had emerged from the aëroplane.
"Well, of all good things! Look, Jerry!" dried Jack. "It's the five
Brothers!"
"Sure enough! Oh, say, what are you fellows doing here?" asked Jerry.
"Same as you were—disposing of some Boches," answered Jimmy. "Are you hurt?"
"Not a scratch, though our plane was hit a lot," said Jack. "But we ran out of gas, and had to come down here. Glad we did, too, or we'd have missed seeing you. Cousin Emile is in the same boat as ourselves. Here he comes! He'll be glad to see you."
And from the smaller plane there emerged an aviator whose very stride across the field told what he was—a brave, intrepid man. Such was Emile Voissard, cousin of the Twinkle Twins, and right well had he earned the title, "Flying Terror of France."
"Ah, my American friends!" exclaimed Voissard, as he came over, acknowledging the greetings he received. "I am glad to see you again. It is good—très bien!" and he smiled.
"Well, say, it was good to see you and the other Frenchmen go at those Huns!" exclaimed Bob. "If we had known the Twinkle Twins were up there among the Americans we'd have been worse scared than we were, when we saw the Germans getting the best of it."
"Ah, it is nothing. Voila! What would you have?" and Voissard shrugged his shoulders. "They are but beasts and they fight as the beasts—they run, too, as the beasts! n'est ce pas?"
"Well, two of 'em tried to run, but we landed 'em!" exclaimed Roger, with a laugh. "We just took 'em to the rear. Their petrol tank was shot full of holes."
"Was it a machine with a sort of double iron cross on it?" asked Jack.
"That was it," said Roger.
"That's the one we couldn't seem to get," went on Jack. "She was a bit too speedy for us. But it seems we got her after all."
"Or Jimmy and his bunch did", commented Jerry.
"Oh, well, it's all the same as long as they were 'got'!" and Jack clapped Jimmy on the back.
"You are keeping up your good work, I see," commented Voissard.
"France shall soon be free of the mark of the beast!"
"Well, you're doing your share, sir!" commented Roger.
"It is nothing! If I could only do a thousand times as much!" and the man who had earned such an enviable rating shook his head. "There are so many of the Huns! So many! But we shall never give up! Never!" and he drew himself up determinedly.
"But, my friends, we must not linger here," he went on. "The battle will soon start again, and the fortunes of war may turn against us. We should go and telephone for petrol, that we may take our machines back behind the lines, to safety."
"Yes, we'll have to do that," declared one of the Twinkle Twins. "See you again, boys!" and with waves of their hands they set off to find the nearest telephone, that they might send word of their plight to their hangars.
"Well, good luck!" called Jimmy and his chums to the brave Frenchman and his no less brave cousins.
"That was some coincidence—that the Twinkles and their cousin Emile should be fighting for us and we not know it," commented Roger, as the five Khaki Boys trudged back. "I should say so," agreed Bob. "Say, we'd better hurry!" he went on. "Sounds as if they were starting the game once more!"
The noise of the big and little guns was beginning again, and hardly had our heroes reached their command in the woods than the order came to go forward.
With yells of savage delight it was received, and then there came a desperate dash that carried Jimmy and his friends, as well as those with him, well up toward the German lines.
Fierce and bloody was the fighting, and there was death in it, too, for many. But ever did the Americans press on, slowly but steadily driving back the Germans. On all sides great guns roared, and ears were nearly split with the riot of sound.
When night came it found our five Brothers occupying some of the trenches so long held by the Huns, who had been driven out. It was the start of the movement that was to clean the Boches from France.
Tired, weary, blood-stained, dirty, hungry and thirsty—that was the condition of all the fighters. And yet they would be ready to do it all over again the next day, after a little rest and food. And food they had, though not of the best.
"Sergeant Barlow and Corporal Dalton take listening post number seven," the sergeant-major ordered two of the Brothers, after what passed for supper. "Be on the alert. The Germans will very likely try a counter-attack."
Bob and Roger prepared for their dismal night trick. Franz and Iggy were sent to another part of the line, and Jimmy was on duty in the dugout, assisting the telephone operator.
The night settled down. It was comparatively quiet now in the trenches, in front of which barbed-wire entanglements had been hastily put up. The Germans had done the same, and between the stretches of wire another No Man's Land had been established.
Worn and weary, Roger and Bob waited for what they feared might happen. But as the hours passed, and there was no sign nor movement from the German lines, they began to think there would be no fighting.
Suddenly, however, the blackness of the night was broken by the red glare of a rocket.
"What's that?" cried Bob.
"Signal of some sort," replied Roger. "Guess we'd better get on our feet. The attack may be coming."
"Shall we go back and report this?"
"No, they must have seen it as soon as we did. We're only to report if we see any of the enemy approaching this post."
They waited. Another rocket—a green one this time—soared aloft. And then with a suddenness that was startling, a terrific firing broke out from the German lines. "Here it comes—the counter-attack!" cried Bob.
As he spoke he and his companion saw a dark, massed body moving toward them.
"Come on!" cried Bob. "We've got to report this!"
But before they had time to run back more than a few paces they were surrounded by an attacking party of Germans. On either side of Bob and Roger there was fierce fighting now going on. The two lads who had been on duty in the listening post felt themselves caught and their rifles wrested away before they had a chance to use them, and then they were dragged over toward the German trenches.
"What's it all mean?" gasped Bob.
"We're captured!" said Roger. "Keep still! Don't give any information no matter what they do! Keep still!"
"I will!" said Bob grimly.
One of the Germans dragging him along cried out an insulting epithet and struck Bob across the mouth.
And then the captives were dragged away in the darkness.