Part 19 (1/2)

At last, after an all day's ride, they reached their destination. But alas, there was no such place as Slopsgotten! Tom was sorry for this for he liked the name. It sounded funny when his English friends said it.

Schlaabgaurtn, was the way he read it on the railroad station. He felt disappointed and aggrieved. He was by no means sure of the letters, and p.r.o.nunciation was out of the question. He liked Slopsgotten. In Tennert's mouth he had almost come to love it.

It was the only thing about Germany that he liked, and now he had to give it up!

Slopsgotten!

FOOTNOTE:

[4] Kill.

CHAPTER XXIV

HE GOES TO THE CIVILIAN CAMP AND DOESN'T LIKE IT

”'Ere we are in bloomin' old Slops! Not 'arf bad, wot? Another inch and we'd bunk our noses plunk into Alsice! Wot d'ye s'y, Freddie?”

”I s'y it's the back o' the old front. The only thing in the w'y is the mountains. Hi, Yankee! You see 'em? It's the ole mountains out of the song.”

Tom looked at a distant range of blue-gray heights. Crossing those somewhere was the battle line--the long, sweeping line which began far off at the Belgian coast. How lonesome and romantic it must be for the soldiers up in those wild hills. Somewhere through there years ago Frenchy had fled from German tyranny and pursuit, away from his beloved ancestral home. Funny, thought Tom, that he should see both the eastern and western extremities of France without ever crossing it.

He was much nearer the front than he had been when he talked with Mr.

Conne in the little French cemetery. Yet how much farther away! A prisoner in Germany, with a glowering, sullen Prussian guard at his very elbow!

”We used to sing about them when I went to school,” he said. ”'The Blue Alsatian Mountains.'”

”I'd jolly well like to be on the other side o' them,” said Freddie.

Tom clutched the little iron b.u.t.ton in his pocket. Something prompted him to pull a b.u.t.ton off his trousers and to work his little talisman into the torn place so that it would look like a suspender b.u.t.ton. Then he turned again to gaze at the fair country which he supposed to be one of France's lost provinces--the home of Frenchy.

”There ain't much trouble crossing mountains,” said he; ”all you need is a compa.s.s. I don't know if they have tree-toads here, but I could find out which is north and south that way if they have.”

”Blimy, if we don't listen and see if we can 'ear 'em s'ying 'polly voo Fransay' in the trees!” said Tennert.

”But a feller could never get into France that way,” said Tom. ”'Cause he'd have to cross the battle line. The only way would be to go down around through Switzerland--around the end of the line, kind of.”

”Down through Alsice,” grunted Tennert.

”'E'd 'ave a 'underd miles of it,” said Freddie.

”Unless Fritzie offered 'im a carriage. Hi, Fritzie, w'en do we have tea?”

They made no secret of this dangerous topic--perhaps because they knew the idea of escape from the clutches of Germany was so preposterous. In any event, ”Fritzie” did not seem greatly interested.

They were grouped at the station, a woebegone looking lot, despite their blithe demeanor. There were a dozen or more of them, in every variety of military and naval rags and tatters. Tom was coatless and the rest of his clothing was very much the worse for salt water. The sailor suits of his two companions were faded and torn, and Freddie suffered the handicap of a lost shoe. The rest were all young. Tom thought they might be drummer boys or despatch riders, or something like that. Several of them were slightly wounded, but none seriously, for Germany does not bother with prisoners who require much care. They were the residue of many who had come and gone in that long monotonous trip. Some had been taken off for the big camps at Wittenberg and Gottingen. As well as he could judge, he had to thank his non-combatant character as well as his youth for the advantages of ”Slopsgotten.”

When the hapless prisoners had been examined and searched and relieved of their few possessions, they were marched to the neighboring camp--a civilian camp it was called, although it was hardly limited to that.