Part 15 (1/2)

And then, suddenly, there came a cras.h.i.+ng, splintering sound. There was an exclamation from the officer, and, as he leaped back he cried:

”There she goes, boys! The way is as clear as I can make it! Come on out, and lively, too!”

The Khaki Boys lost no time in obeying. Leaping and scrambling as best they could over the heaps of brick, stone and splintered wood, they emerged through the hole cut for them by the officer. He had chopped through the one beam that held all the others, or most of the others in place, and the crisscross structure had collapsed, allowing the boys to escape.

”Come on! Come on!” cried Jimmy. ”Everybody out!”

And they leaped out only just in time, for as Bob, the last to make his way to safety, cleared the jagged barrier, a burst of flames and smoke swept into what had been the boys' prison.

Now they stood on the green gra.s.s, in the open, with the burning ruins of the mill at their backs. And confronting them, still holding the axe, and panting from his terrific exertions, was the strange officer.

And as the young soldiers looked at him they wondered, more than ever, who he was.

CHAPTER XIII

A PERILOUS JOURNEY

Almost at once there set in a reaction, as was natural under the circ.u.mstances. The Khaki Boys had been keyed up to such a high pitch through the battle, the attack on the hill, the subsequent sh.e.l.ling of it, and their own dangerous position after the collapse of the building, that now their rescue hardly seemed real.

”Say, I'm about all in!” exclaimed Bob, as he sank down on the gra.s.s.

”Same here,” agreed Jimmy, staggering to a seat.

”Take it easy, boys, take it easy,” counseled their rescuer. ”And better come a bit farther away from the fire. The whole place is going, and the wind's blowing strongly this way. We're too much in line with it.”

He spoke the truth. The boys were enveloped, part of the time, in a haze of smoke and a swirl of burning brands. Tired, and physically and mentally exhausted as they were, they scrambled to their feet--for they had all stretched out on the gra.s.s--and made their way to a spot where they could breathe with freedom. The mill ruins were now burning fiercely.

”Any more left in there!” asked the officer, pointing with his axe towards the fiery structure.

”None alive,” answered Jimmy, as he thought of their brave comrades in arms who had perished in wiping out the German machine-gun nest. It was, perhaps, a fitting funeral pyre for them.

”Stay here and I'll get you some water,” offered the blue-s.h.i.+rted officer. ”That will fetch you around quicker than anything else. I can get you a little food, too, I think--emergency rations, if you need them.”

”We aren't exactly hungry, sir,” said Jimmy, tacking on the ”sir” in an almost certain opinion that the man was an officer. ”We had some of our own rations, and we were eating when the Huns sent a big sh.e.l.l over that spilled the beans.”

”I see. Well, then, rest here until I can get you some water.

Fortunately the Boches can't blow up a stream. The water is sure to remain somewhere. It won't take long to get it, I'll be back in a moment.”

He hurried off between two little hillocks, away from the burning mill and in the direction of the stream.

”Who in the world is he?” asked Bob.

”It's a puzzle,” said Jimmy. ”We'll ask when we thank him for saving our lives.”

”Here you are, boys,” said the officer, as he came up the slope with a canteen which gurgled most musically with water. ”Drink this and then we'll discuss what's best to be done.”

”Are we safe here?” asked Jimmy. ”Safe from the Germans, I mean?