“No, the road chart shows no place worth mentioning along this section,” Thad assured them; “but you know the soil here is something like that in Holland, and very rich. Westphalia and Rhenish Prussia are the garden spots of Germany, so we’ll see plenty of farms and grain fields.”
Indeed, as they passed along they saw people working in the fields on every side, but it was always the same, not a single stalwart young man, only boys, women and very old men. The rest had all obeyed the call to the colors, and were already either fighting at the front, or else in concentration camps, preparing for the time when they would be needed to fill awful gaps in the ranks.
All at once the engine stopped short.
“That’s what I call a low-down trick!” said Giraffe, as Thad sprang out to throw back the hood so as to take a look, and see what was wrong this time.
“Oh! we must expect something like that to happen every little while,” he was told by Allan; “it’s a poor arrangement at the best, and pretty well worn out in the bargain. But we agreed to make the best of it, and so what’s the use of knocking?”
The three of them sat there for a little while, as Thad pottered at the refractory machinery. Then Allan jumped out to assist him, saying that “two heads might be better than one,” as often proved to be the case.
“Wake me up when you’ve found out the trouble, and rectified the same,” said Giraffe, pretending to stretch himself out over the seat, and make ready for a nap.
Just about three minutes later he had reason to change his mind. It was Bumpus who did it, and if Giraffe suddenly started up it was not because the other had been malicious enough to thrust a pin into his leg.
“Say, looky here what’s bearing down on us, Thad, will you?” the fat scout had called out, and Giraffe was up on his feet like a flash.
As he turned and looked back he saw something that was not apt to make him feel happy, to say the least. Along the road came a swarm of women, boys and old men. They must have been recruited from the fields near by, for they were carrying all manner of pitchforks and such tools that looked dangerous when held in the hands of aroused tillers of the soil.