“There’s some sort of a battle on, as sure as you live!” declared the other.
Thad knew he spoke the truth, for he, too, had caught that same low mutter that could mean only one thing, for there was not a cloud in the sky to tell of rain. From the hour the Kaiser’s hosts had crossed the French border there had started a series of earth quakings that would never cease as long as one invader’s foot remained on French soil, no matter if it took years to eject them.
Some time later the train came to a small village and stopped. The boys quickly realized that something had happened, for the guards came along telling the passengers to alight.
“We dare go no further,” Thad told his comrades after listening to what was being said by the chattering throng. “It seems that they’ve got word a portion of one of the great divisions of the German army is overrunning the line ahead of us. It is no longer possible to get to Paris this way. We are just a day too late!”
Bumpus was tugging at Thad’s sleeve immediately.
“But do we have to give it up altogether, Thad?” he asked in a quivering voice. “Isn’t there some sort of way in which we might get around the Germans and come in on Paris from the southwest?”
“Well, we can do our level best and try,” the other assured him. “You know we’ve never been the fellows to give up anything easily, Bumpus. So let’s hustle around to see what sort of conveyance we can strike. And as beggars shouldn’t be choosers we’ll be glad to take whatever comes along.”
CHAPTER VI
CAUGHT BETWEEN THE LINES
Concerning one thing, at least, there was no longer any doubt. They could plainly hear the deep grumble of big guns, while the very earth under them trembled perceptibly with the tremendous shock of the explosions that were miles away.
Undoubtedly the battle was on that must decide the fate of the gay French capital. Von Kluck and those other daring Teuton commanders were converging in toward Paris just as the spokes of a giant wheel draw closer as they approach the hub. If General Joffre, the veteran French leader, could manage through strategy to baffle their designs he would win such immortal fame as no man short of Napoleon had ever attained in the estimation of the French nation.