That was enough to excite Bumpus, and Giraffe as well. They were soon enjoying a hearty breakfast, and as the landlord asked no questions they did not think it worth while to tell him about the night alarm.
The next problem was to secure a supply of petrol. While there was no scarcity of the fluid as yet, still every one who owned any seemed to suspect that the time was near at hand when it would become very valuable, especially if German raiders overran this part of Belgium, and commandeered every gallon they could discover.
Upon asking the landlord he put them on the track, and in the end they were able to purchase just five gallons, at about three times the usual price. Still this would enable them to make a start, and there was always hope that they could pick up a further supply as they went along, even if it had to be in driblets, a gallon here and another there, to eke out.
Leaving the roadside inn, the boys were feeling in fairly high spirits, especially Giraffe, who declared that with such luck on their side they were bound to get to Antwerp some way or other, sooner or later.
“I tell you we’re just bound to do it,” he said, with spirit, as they moved along the road, “and if all other channels are blocked, what’s to hinder us backing up again and crossing the border into Holland? We could make our way to Rotterdam, and there take a small boat through the inside passages to the Schelde River, so as to get to Antwerp all right. So keep that in your mind, Bumpus—when the Silver Fox boys settle on doing a thing it has to come, that’s all!”
CHAPTER XII.
THE PENALTY OF MEDDLING.
“The thing that’s bothering me,” said Bumpus, a little later on, “is this. If the military in Belgium here are so hard up for cars that they’d even think to take such a tough-looking machine as this, how are we ever going to keep hold of the same, somebody tell me?”
“We’ll do the best we know how,” Thad informed him. “For one thing, every time we chance to run across any Belgian soldiers I intend to coax the engine to puff and groan the worst you ever heard. It’ll help discourage envy on their part. We’ll act as though it’s stalled every twenty feet, and that we’re having a dickens of a time with it.”
That idea amused Giraffe, who laughed heartily.
“It certainly does take you to get up some of the smartest games going, Thad,” he ventured; “and I guess now that’d be the best dodge to save our palatial car from being commandeered by the army. When they see what a cantankerous mule it is, they’ll ask to be excused from trying to bother with such a kicker.”