CHAPTER II.
BEYOND THE ENEMY.
Hal Paine and Chester Crawford, two young American lads, had already seen much active service in the great European war of 1914, the greatest war of all history.
With Hal’s mother they had been in the capital of Germany when the conflagration broke out. In making their way from Berlin they had been separated from Mrs. Paine and, thrown upon their resources, it became necessary for them to make their way out of Germany alone, or else to stay in Berlin for an indefinite time. The boys elected to leave.
With Major Raoul Derevaux, a French Officer, then a captain, and Captain Harry Anderson, an Englishman, they had finally succeeded in making their way into the Belgian lines. They had witnessed the heroic defense of the Belgians at Liège, and had themselves taken part in the battle. Having accomplished several missions successfully, they had come to be looked upon with the greatest respect by the Belgian commander.
At Louvain Hal was wounded, and Chester had him conveyed to Brussels. Here the lads again fell in with Captain Anderson, and, through the good offices of the latter, eventually found themselves attached to the British forces on the continent. They had gained favor in the eyes of Sir John French, the British Field Marshal in command of the British troops, and had successfully accomplished several difficult missions.
Taken prisoners by the Germans, they had been saved from death at the hands of a firing squad by the Emperor of Germany himself, and had finally been taken back to Berlin.
In the streets of the German capital, one day, a message had been put into their hands by an English prisoner, who declared that its delivery to the Grand Duke Nicholas, commander of the hosts of the Czar of Russia, was a matter of much moment.
Displaying great resourcefulness and bravery, the lads had succeeded in escaping from Berlin in an aëroplane, as narrated in “The Boy Allies on the Firing Line,” the same in which, at the opening of this story, we find them flying swiftly eastward.
Crack revolver shots, and having skill in the use of the sword and with their fists, the boys had fought themselves out of many ticklish situations. And now, free again, they were making all speed to deliver the message from the combined leaders of two countries to Grand Duke Nicholas, a message that would mean closer coöperation between the Russians in the east and the British and French forces in the west.
The Russian campaign so far could hardly be called a success. True, the first German advance into Poland, with Warsaw as its object, had been checked, and the invader had been driven back; but the mighty legions of the Czar of all the Russias could not be mobilized with the swiftness of the Kaiser’s troops; and, when mobilized, could not be transported to the front with the same dispatch.