“He seemed feverish with but one desire, and that to tell where two German soldiers could be found shut in a hole in the ground. I found a British officer who sent some of his men to the place, and it was as Jacques had said. A great rock had been toppled over so as to fill in the gap, and this he must have learned some time ago could be hurled down with even a child’s puny strength. And that, young Messieurs, was the trap Jacques always hinted to us about, but at which we only smiled.”
“Bully for little Jacques!” exclaimed Amos, carried away with boyish enthusiasm.
“When he saw the soldiers passing by with the two Germans in their charge Jacques, although in great pain, laughed in glee, for the one great hope of his life had been realized,” continued the burgomaster, “but even then he did not know what else there was waiting for him. As the story of his valor went around many of the British soldiers came here to see the Belgian boy who had captured two big Germans alone and unaided. We even had a general visit us, and tell the lad how proud he was that the sons of their allies should display such valor. But while this may have pleased Jacques there was something else coming that overwhelmed him with joy.”
Jack started at hearing this. Somehow he suddenly remembered that man in the stained uniform of a Belgian soldier who was bending over the little figure of the boy hero, and one of whose arms seemed to be swathed in bandages.
“That soldier over there, who holds his hand on the head of Jacques, and looks down at him so tenderly, is his father, supposed to have fallen at Antwerp?” he asked.
“Yes, it is as you say, young M’sieu; he lived, and has come to claim his boy!”
CHAPTER XXV.
NEARING THE GOAL.
“That’s splendid news,” Jack at once remarked. “I’m glad for the sake of little Jacques that his brave father did not die there in front of Antwerp as you all believed. If I had time I’d like to hear his story, because I reckon it’d be well worth listening to. But we have business of our own to look after, and so must once more take leave of you.”
“Do you think he will get well again?” asked Amos, who under different conditions, would only too willingly have volunteered to help take care of the wounded, since his education as a Boy Scout had taught him how to apply the principles of “first aid to the injured.”