In good time they were shown to a room, where they proceeded to make themselves comfortable. Rod, with some cord which he produced, set a clever little trap. By this simple method of protection he fixed matters so that should any one try to enter by way of the open windows they would arouse the sleepers by pulling down three chairs which had been piled up, and made fast to the cord.
Whatever the plan of the plotter may have been, evidently entering the room of the three American boys did not form a part of it, because the night passed without any further alarm.
“Guess he knew we had that gun we took from his man who played the part of Oscar William Tell,” observed Hanky Panky in the morning, when awakened by the rising sun they lay there and talked matters over.
“Well,” remarked Josh with a yawn, “by this time Jules is beginning to understand that we don’t mean to handle him with gloves if he runs afoul of us. While he may keep on trying as hard as ever to get that paper in his hands, it’ll be through some sneaky way, and not in a stand-up fight. Schemers like him seldom do feel like facing the men they aim to beat. I’m keeping an eye out for Jules; and say, if ever I do get a chance to give him my compliments you listen to what he says about it; that’s all.”
The morning opened peacefully, though in the distance they could already begin to hear the guns take up the same steady rhythm that would grow louder and more insistent as the day grew older, until the fierce rush of battle again held sway, and a million of Frenchmen hurled themselves against an equal number of Germans in the endeavor to push them back still further in their retreat from before Paris.
The boys started out soon afterwards. Rod believed he knew about where the regiment could be found to which Jeanne’s husband, Andre, belonged. If fortune favored them, and they discovered the French reservist still in the land of the living, doubtless it could soon be arranged as they planned.
As on the previous afternoon, they soon found themselves on the road along which the retreating German army had passed. Everywhere they could see marks of this flight, for such it really was, despite the order with which the retrograde movement had been conducted. In places the roadside was glutted with cast-off articles, such as had better be disposed of if haste and mobility were to be considered.
As a rule these had been rendered useless before being abandoned, in order to prevent them from becoming valuable to the enemy. It was a sight worth seeing; and no wonder such of the country people whom the boys came upon, examining this “made in Germany” material, had broad smiles on their faces, since it spoke eloquently of the near panic that must have existed in the army of Von Kluck, before they would thus abandon so much of their resources.
A score of interesting things engaged their attention as they slowly made their way along. Obstacles were frequently met with, but cleverly avoided by these expert riders. Many times Rod called a temporary halt in order to speak with some peasant who chanced to look more than ordinarily intelligent, and, he imagined, able to give him information.
They also came upon various detachments of the French army. Some were engaged in caring for wounded comrades who could not be taken to the rear as yet on account of the glut of injured and the lack of vehicles of transportation; though many such were to be seen on their way to Paris with loads of groaning humanity.