“Armistice,” echoed Tom a little doubtfully. “I don’t exactly like the sound of that. It means that we shall stop fighting for a while. Why should we? That would only give Heinie a chance to get his breath and start in fresh again. We’ve got him on the run now, and we ought to keep it up until we send him hotfoot over the Rhine.”
“Wait now,” said Frank. “I’m not through yet. Likely enough Heinie had that in mind. He’s got everything to gain by getting a rest, and we’ve got everything to lose. But if that was one of his cute little tricks, he didn’t get away with it. The President wrote back asking some awkward questions that put Heinie in a hole. There were two or three other notes, but the upshot of it all was that the Huns were told to apply to Marshal Foch and he would tell them where they got off. Of course it wasn’t put in that way, but that’s the sense of it. They’ve got to send to the Marshal and beg him to stop licking them. In other words, they’ll have to admit defeat and sue for peace on the best terms they can get.”
“But will they do it?” asked Billy. “They’ve still got a big army and a big fleet. You’d think they’d stick it out a bit longer in the hope that things might take a different turn.”
“Yes,” replied Frank. “The English would. The French would. The Americans would. But the baby-killers wouldn’t. They’re like all bullies. The stuff isn’t there. When the pinch comes they curl up. They’re ready to quit right now, and in a few days you’ll hear they’ve done it.”
“It listens good,” said Tom, “and of course in one way it’s fine. But after what I’ve seen of the things they’ve done to France, it seems as though they were getting off too easy. They ought to have their own towns and cities devastated, their orchards cut down, their mills blown up and their coal mines flooded. Then they’d get a taste of what they’ve been doing to others.”
“That’s right,” agreed Billy. “But don’t think they’re not going to pay for everything they’ve done. They’ll be stripped to the bone and don’t you forget it.”
“Well, I hope so,” said Tom, but with not much assurance. “I’d rather take it from them now and make sure of it. Nobody knows what will happen when those fellows get together and begin to bargain. They may throw away all the results of the war for all we can tell. It’s happened more than once that the party that’s been licked on the field has got off almost scot free, if not actually gaining, when the peace treaty came to be signed.”
“Well, you old croaker,” laughed Frank, “we’ll have to leave all that to the diplomats and take our chances on their not letting the Huns put anything over on them. In the meantime, all we’ve got to do is to fight.”
“Ours not to make reply,
Ours not to reason why,