“It is tough luck,” added Jack, drawing a long breath, “but only the fortune of war. We’ll see lots more of it before we’re through, I’m afraid. But by now it strikes me we ought to be meeting the first of the British reinforcements coming forward to fill the gap and stem the retreat.”
“Jack, just as you were saying that I caught a new sound—anyhow it came from a new direction. When there was a little lull in all that roar of guns I thought I heard the trample of horses’ hoofs and the rumble of hurrying artillery.”
“You hit the bull’s-eye that time, Amos, for there they come.”
Both boys felt their hearts beat with a quickened vigor as around a bend in the Belgian road came galloping horses drawing a field piece. After it appeared a caisson with ammunition, and then other portions of the battery in quick succession.
“Let’s get out of the way, because they’ll need the whole road,” said Jack.
“But what can one battery do against all those heavy German guns?” Amos asked, as the leading horses drew near.
“Oh! this is only a beginning,” he was immediately told by his companion. “I’ve no doubt for a mile and more back the road is solid with them, all hurrying to the front. And tens of thousands of troops must be headed in the same direction, though perhaps they’ll take to the fields, and leave the roads to the artillery. Now watch, and give the boys a salute as they go past.”
They stood with their hats in their hands, and as the first field piece went rumbling by both boys gave a yell, at the same time waving their headgear.
The grim-looking gunners returned the cheer. Their bronzed faces had an eager look, as though they scented the battle smoke from afar, and were wild to get busy.
So they kept streaming past, battery after battery, the officers shouting their commands, for every one undoubtedly knew exactly where he was expected to take up a position so as to effectually check the fierce drive that the German hosts had started.