“Gee! is there no end to the procession?” exclaimed Giraffe, as he could still see countless numbers of the same gray-coated soldiers swarming out of the woods to the west, and coming on in serried ranks.
“Just to think of the nerve of that one little battery trying to hold a whole army corps in check!” declared Allen. “It strikes me these Belgians are the bravest of the brave, and mean to fight for their country to the last gasp.”
“Do you know what I believe?” demanded Giraffe, as though a sudden thought had come into his head.
“Tell us, please, Giraffe,” asked Bumpus.
“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that battery we watched do all this fighting was the identical one I saw come into that town. You remember I told you about the chat I had with a young gunner who could talk United States? I hope now he isn’t one of those who are lying across the river, where the German shells and bullets caught them.”
He glanced almost pityingly toward the place where the battery had been stationed, as though he had a personal interest in the gallant Belgian gunner. Thad was meanwhile watching the movements of those on the near side of the river. He could see how machine-like everything was carried on, the men with the stretchers coming to get their burdens, and then carrying them to the rear, where a temporary field hospital would undoubtedly be started.
Already a corps of engineers had come up, and men were seen out on the broken bridge, measuring the gap as though figuring on what would be required to mend the causeway so that the heavy artillery could move across, converging toward Brussels.
“They’ll get across, all right, you can see,” asserted Allan, drawing a long breath, as though up to then he had been too fascinated to do more than gasp.
“Yes, but the Belgians detained them,” urged Giraffe, “and that’s their game, we understand. Every hour that the Kaiser can be held in Belgium is life for France, because it gives time to get her men together. Germany is the only country that has always been ready for such a thing as this. They expected to be in Paris before the French woke up, and only for this delay nothing could have prevented them.”
“Well, you wait till the Britishers get over, and going good,” said Bumpus, with a wise nod of his head, “then you’ll hear something drop.”