Then came the thunderbolt when they learned how war had suddenly broken out, with the great German military machine pouring troops over the Belgian border by tens and hundreds of thousands, thinking to catch France totally unprepared, so that Paris could be taken, and the country forced to its knees.
The boys had hastily abandoned their cruise on the Rhine, and, securing an old rattletrap of a car, for fear a good one might be taken from them, they started for the border, in hopes of getting across, and finally reaching Antwerp.
But after many adventures they had finally been forced to change their plans, retreating to Holland instead, and then coming around by way of the North Sea. So here they were, safe at last at their destination, and glad to know that they had broken down all obstacles to their progress.
Thad Brewster was the leader. He held the position by virtue of his commanding nature, as well as the fact that he was at the head of the Silver Fox Patrol, and indeed often served as scout-master of the troop in the absence of the duly authorized gentleman who occupied that lofty office.
On his part Allan Hollister could claim to be the best-posted member of the troop when it came to a knowledge of woodcraft and an acquaintance with the denizens of the wilderness in the shape of fur, fin and feather, for he was a Maine boy, and that stands for a great deal.
Giraffe, he of the long “rubber-neck,” was a master hand at several things, though it must be admitted that he took more pride in his ability to start a fire in a dozen different ways than concerning anything else he did.
As for Bumpus, he did not claim to excel in anything, unless it was a remarkably good judgment with various kinds of food and ways in which to prepare them so as to arouse the appetites of his mates.
It happened that they found little difficulty in securing the services of a driver, since they had made up their minds not to scorn any sort of vehicle so long as it got them to the Sanitarium on that August morning.
As they bundled in with their scanty luggage and started off from the quay at which the steamer from Rotterdam had tied up, the boys naturally found themselves keenly interested in all they saw. Antwerp under war conditions was quite a different city from the rather quiet, staid place they had thought it before. Indeed, all of them admitted that it fairly seethed with excitement, and was full of most thrilling sights just then.
Men in soldierly garments could be seen on the streets, all apparently hurrying toward some central point of mobilization. Twice the boys heard the clatter of many horses’ hoofs as their carriage was drawn hastily aside to allow a battery of field-pieces to pass by with a whirl. These were possibly heading for the front, where the Belgians still heroically resisted this forced invasion of their country by their powerful and unscrupulous northern neighbor, one of the countries guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium at that.