It was really Thad himself who discovered a wayside cottage, with a well in the yard. Possibly Bumpus, bent on severe atonement, would never have called their attention to the same if he had been the only one to glimpse it.
He even began to demur when Thad said they would stop and ask for a drink; but Giraffe told him not to be foolish.
“Think we want you to get choking pretty soon, and scare us half to death?” he told the fat boy severely; but then Bumpus knew very well this was all assumed, and that Giraffe really wanted him to assuage his raging thirst.
So they came to a stop, and when a woman accompanied by several children came out of the cottage, Thad managed by signs to ask permission to drink at her well. She quickly understood what he wanted, and nodded an assent, even starting to draw a fresh bucket of water, though Thad took the rope from her hands, and completed the job.
CHAPTER XIV.
MORE HARD LUCK.
During the next few hours they made progress, but the distance covered did not count for many miles. There were several reasons for this. In the first place Thad found he had made a mistake in the road, for his chart was not as accurate as it should have been, and of course to rectify this they had to go back and try it all over again.
Then Giraffe complained of being hungry, and that necessitated looking for some place where they might get something to eat. Coming to a village finally, they saw another tavern, and as money “talks” with people who keep caravansaries of any sort, arrangements were made whereby they might be supplied with a meal.
So an hour and more was consumed in waiting for this to be cooked, and in afterwards eating the same. No one, however, begrudged the time or the money, for what they had proved to be quite appetizing, with its flavor of French cookery.
Another cause for delay consisted in the fact that the road they were following mounted several rises, and as they had already learned, to their cost, the tricky old car disliked hill climbing above all things. So they were compelled to display their scout knowledge of “first aid to the injured” in the way of lending a helping hand.
They came upon many people as they pursued their way. Some were going in the same direction as the boys, while others came from the opposite quarter. They could not help noticing that all looked unusually excited; while some of them seemed to be carrying heavy burdens. These were doubtless possessed with the idea that the German cavalrymen would be raiding through that entire section at any time now, and if they hoped to save their most cherished possessions it was time they took them to some place of security.