Bumpus seemed to scent more trouble ahead.
“Now I certainly do hope we’ll be able to get what we want here at this place,” he went on to remark, dubiously. “So few of these Belgians in this section of the country understand plain United States as she is spoken. We’ll have to make use of signs to bargain with them for our grub.”
Thereupon Bumpus began to practice what he imagined was a good idea for showing he was hungry, and wanted to buy food. He rubbed his stomach, sighed heavily, then pointed to his open mouth and champed his jaws vigorously, after which he smiled sweetly, and, with a nod of his head, held up a franc.
“Oh! you’ll be able to satisfy anybody going that your proper place is in an asylum, Bumpus, if you carry on that way,” jeered Giraffe; “you leave it all to Thad and Allan and me. We have the goods, and can deliver them. They’re all wool and a yard wide, let me tell you, too.”
So the car entered the village, and pulled up in the most likely place the pilot could see. This was where there seemed to be some sort of open-air market, with all manner of things good to eat exposed for sale.
Their coming of course excited considerable interest. People began to cluster around the car as soon as it stopped. Curious eyes observed the inmates, with their natty khaki uniforms. Of course there were few among them but who realized that these lads must be Boy Scouts, but they seemed to understand immediately that they were not of the Belgian type.
The boys jumped out and started to try and find some one who could understand what they desired to do. Bumpus alone was left sitting there in the car, and he amused himself looking around. When he thought his chums were well out of sight he concluded to try his little scheme; so taking a coin from his pocket he held it up and began his grotesque motions.
At first the crowd seemed to watch him in wonder. Then they began to say things among themselves, and smile. After that some of the half-grown boys laughed rudely, and began to mimic poor Bumpus.
This humiliated him so that he stopped his show, realizing that they were beginning to look on him as some sort of circus performer, perhaps a hokus-pokus medicine fakir on his travels, and trying to gather a crowd around before opening his box of goods for sale.
Meanwhile the other boys were trying to find some one who could talk English, in order to engage a midday meal, and later on purchase what supplies they needed.