“Ought we to keep on and try to get across that bridge, Thad?” asked Allan.
“It’s a question whether the Belgians would let us get close enough to tell who we are. They might open on us as soon as we came in sight,” Bumpus remarked, from which it might easily be seen what he hoped Thad would do.
“We’re not going to have the chance to try and cross the bridge,” remarked Giraffe, “and if you want to know the reason why just look along the river road that joins this one down near the bridge.”
No sooner had the others done this than loud and excited exclamations told what a shock they had received.
“That’s what all the dust meant I noticed rising over those trees,” said Bumpus. “Why, there comes a whole army of soldiers, and say, they’ve got field guns along with them, too, because you can see the horses dragging the same.”
“And do you notice the gray uniforms they are wearing?” Giraffe demanded. “That shows who they are—the Kaiser’s men, as sure as anything. Now there’s going to be the dickens to pay. The river must be deep, and I reckon that same bridge is the only one around this section. The Germans are bent on crossing over, and the Belgians just as set that they shan’t do the same. Thad, you won’t think of quitting this splendid view-place and losing the one chance we may ever have to see a real up-to-date battle?”
Thad did not answer immediately. He had a boy’s curiosity as well as Giraffe, and felt that it would be something to say they had actually witnessed a fierce fight between the rivals for Belgian soil, the defenders and the invaders.
“Yes, we will stay a while,” he finally said; “but first let’s get the car turned around, and make sure it will work when called on. We may have to leave here in a big hurry, you understand.”
These little matters having been duly attended to they were in a position to observe all that was transpiring below. It was just like a grand panorama, or something that had been staged for a moving picture show.
The German battery was advancing on a gallop now, as though the fact had been discovered that the bridge was guarded by the Belgians. Men could be seen using the whip on the steaming horses, already galloping wildly. The rumble of the wheels on the road came distinctly to the ears of the interested boys standing on the rise, and really not more than a mile or so from the scene.