Amos uttered a cry in which astonishment was mingled with pain. He even rubbed his eyes as though he almost believed they had deceived him.
“Jack, it’s gone!” he gasped. “The poor village I mean! Just see how the cottages have been smashed to smithereens by the shells the Germans hurled over here while the Allies were holding the place! Oh! it’s terrible, terrible! I don’t believe there are two stones on top of each other.”
“Well, it isn’t quite as bad as that, Amos,” said his comrade, “because I can see several houses still standing, though they’re wrecks at that. But if ever there was a peaceful village turned into a howling wilderness this one has been.”
“But, Jack, what’s become of the people?”
“A whole lot of them were wise enough to get away at the time we did,” Jack reminded him. “You remember how we found them strung out along the road. By now we hope they’ve found lodging somewhere in Northern France; for the French people have warm hearts, and owe Belgium such a heavy debt for holding back the Kaiser’s army that they will share their last crust with their neighbors.”
“Still there were some who meant to stay here, Jack?” urged Amos.
“That’s true enough,” came the answer, “and our old landlord the burgomaster was of the number, though I reckon he insisted on most of his people going away. They had a good deep cellar under that cottage, he told us; perhaps no German shell buried itself down there to find them out. Come, let’s head that way. I’ve got an idea the one house we can see standing over there is the very home where we were taken in.”
“I hope so, Jack, I surely do!” exclaimed the other boy fervently. “I’d hate to learn that such a fine old man had been done for. If that is the house, though, I’d never recognize it with the corners torn off, and the chimney fallen in ruins. Oh, Jack, see, there’s a gaping hole in the wall showing where a shell passed through. If it exploded inside we can guess the fate of all that were hiding there.”
“Look again, Amos, and you’ll see that it came out through that hole, and buried itself in the ground right here. It was a German shell, of course, as pretty much all that fell upon this place must have been; for the British were behind the houses holding the enemy off, and every effort was made to chase them out.”
“But they held their ground, it seems like,” said Amos, “and with the coming of reinforcements pushed the Germans back a mile or more. Now to find out what happened to the old burgomaster.