CHAPTER V.
RAN AWAY WITH AN AUTOMOBILE.
Night had come and in front of one of the handsome hotels that had escaped splintering when Ostend, the famous seaside resort, under fire of big guns, was swept by shot and shell, Gun-Lieutenant Mertz had just stepped out of a big gray automobile that looked like a high speeder—the kind that has plenty of power. The driver of the car did not wait for a second order to leave the lieutenant and speed away in the direction of the mess quarters, where he knew that there was a fragrant stew being prepared for duty men coming in late.
The fighting of the day had mostly taken place far up the coast, and the chance had arrived for a loosening of belts in Ostend.
With a final chug the big gray car came to a standstill in a quiet corner off the main street, while the hungry chauffeur joined his comrades in what they called pot-luck. The movements of this man had been watched with a large amount of interest by a pair of visitors, who had chosen the darkest places they could find while approaching the dining hall of the soldiers.
“Gee!” whispered one of the watchers to the other. “I can almost feel a bullet in my back.”
From the companion shadow: “Take your foot out of my face, can’t you?”
Two heads uplifted at the sight of the rear lights of the car.
Again an excited whisper:
“Now for it, Billy!”