Part 20 (1/2)

”You got to get 'em down on theirr knees beforre you make a treaty with 'em,” boasted Archer. ”You can see yourself they'rre no good when they haven't got any commanderr--or any arrms. When Uncle Sam makes a treaty with that gang, crab-apples, but I hope he gets the boat, too.”

”I know what you mean,” said Tom soberly. ”I have to laugh at the way you talk when you get mad. It reminds me of the country and Temple Camp.”

”That's one thing I learned from knockin' around in Europe since this warr starrted,” said Archer. ”The botches, or whatever you call 'em, are no darrned good when you get 'em alone. The officers may be all right, but the soldierrs are thick. If I couldn't 'a' knocked the bluff out o'

that lord-high critturr, I'd 'a' rubbed his pie face in the mud!”

Tom laughed at his homely expletives and Archer broke out laughing too, at his own expense. But for all that, Tom was destined to recall, and that very soon, what Archer had said about the Huns. And he was shortly to use this knowledge in one of the most hazardous experiences of his life.

They were now, thanks to their treaty, both dry clad in the field-gray uniforms of the German rank and file; and though they felt somewhat strange in these habiliments they enjoyed a feeling of security, especially in view of the populated district they must pa.s.s through.

Of the purposes and fate of their late ”enemies” they had no inkling and they did not greatly concern themselves about this pair of fugitives who had crossed their path. They knew, from the gossip in ”Slops” prison, that Germany was full of deserters who were continually being rounded up because, as Archer blithely put it, they were ”punk scouts and had no resourrce--or whatever you call it.” Tom did not altogether relish the implication that a deserter might be a good scout or _vice versa_, but he agreed with Archer that the pair they had encountered would probably not ”get away with it.”

”If they had a couple o' generrals to map it out forr 'em, maybe they would,” said Archer.

”I think I'm above you in rank,” said Tom, glancing at an arrow sewn on his sleeve.

”I'm hanged if I know what that means,” Archer answered. ”Therre's a couple morre of 'em on your collarr. Maybe you'rre a generral, hey? I'm just a plain, everyday botch.”

”Boche,” said Tom.

”Same thing.”

They landed at an embankment where a railroad skirted the sh.o.r.e and it occurred to Tom now that the guiding light which had forsaken him the night before was a railroad signal which had been turned the other way after the pa.s.sage of the train he had heard. At his suggestion, Archer bored a hole in the boat and together they gave it a smart push out into the river.

”Davy Jones forr you, you bloomin' tattle_tile_, as the Tommies would say,” Archer observed in reminiscence of his vast and varied acquaintances.h.i.+p. ”Come on now, we've got to join our regiment and blow up a few hospitals. How do you like being a botch, anyway?”

”I'd rather be one now than a year from now,” said Tom.

”Thou neverr spakst a truerr worrd.

”Oh, Fritzie Hun, he had a gun, And other things that's worrse; He didn't like the foe to strike, So he shot a Red Cross nurrse,”

Archer rattled on.

”Can't you say _nurse_?” said Tom.

”Surre I can--nurrrrse.”

Tom laughed.

They tramped up through the main street of a village, for the populated area was too extensive to afford hope of a reasonably short detour. The few people whom they pa.s.sed in the darkness paid no particular heed to them. They might have been a couple of khaki-clad boys in America for all the curiosity they excited.

At the railroad station an army officer glared at them when they saluted and seemed on the point of accosting them, which gave them a momentary scare.

”We'd better be careful,” said Tom.

”Gee, I thought we had to salute,” Archer answered.

They followed the railroad tracks through an open spa.r.s.ely populated region as far as the small town of Ottersweier. The few persons who were abroad paid no particular attention to them, and as long as no one spoke to them they felt safe, for the street was in almost total darkness.