Copyright, 1916
By A. L. Burt Company
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE [I. The News That Reached the Rhine.] 3 [II. A Bold Undertaking.] 12 [III. Giraffe Makes a Bargain.] 19 [IV. The Blocked Way to the Border.] 28 [V. At the Ferry.] 37 [VI. Scout Tactics.] 45 [VII. Dodging Trouble.] 54 [VIII. The Country of Windmills.] 63 [IX. At a Wayside Belgian Inn.] 71 [X. The Throb in the Night Breeze.] 80 [XI. Warned Off.] 89 [XII. The Penalty of Meddling.] 98 [XIII. Repentant Bumpus.] 106 [XIV. More Hard Luck.] 115 [XV. At the End of a Tow Line.] 124 [XVI. The German Raiders.] 132 [XVII. A Man in the Tree Top.] 141 [XVIII. Good Samaritans.] 149 [XIX. The Battle at the Bridge.] 158 [XX. Victory in Defeat.] 167 [XXI. The Call for Help.] 176 [XXII. Up from the Depths.] 184 [XXIII. “A Tempest in a Teapot.”] 193 [XXIV. The Ambuscade.] 202 [XXV. The Scouts’ Camp Fire.] 210 [XXVI. A Tattooed Fugitive.] 219 [XXVII. The Uhlan Hold-up.] 228 [XXVIII. Turned Back.] 236 [XXIX. A Change of Plans—Conclusion.] 245
THE BOY SCOUTS ON WAR TRAILS IN BELGIUM.
CHAPTER I.
THE NEWS THAT REACHED THE RHINE.
“It strikes me Allan’s a pretty long time coming with those letters, Thad.”
“Oh! perhaps he’s struck some exciting news worth picking up; you know he’s a correspondent for a newspaper at home in the good old United States, and must always be on the lookout for happenings. Have a little more patience, Bumpus.”
“But you see I didn’t sleep ten winks last night, Thad. After our lovely quiet trip down the Rhine by boat from Mainz this place seemed just as noisy as any boiler factory.”
“No wonder, Bumpus, with trains pouring in from the east and north, every one loaded down with German first-line troops, field artillery, cavalry horses, aeroplane supplies, and all sorts of war toggery.”
“Yes, but, Giraffe, I took notice that you slept like a top through it all, just as if we were camping again in the Maine woods, or down in that Louisiana swamp where we had such a roaring good time.”