<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X<br/> <span class="cheaderfont">AN ADVENTURE IN THE ARDENNES</span></h2>
<p>Both Ned and Buck were too busily engaged
in getting the <em>Ocean Flyer</em> out of range of the
aerial guns to miss Alan for fully ten minutes.
They shot the airship almost obliquely upwards
over the city until the clouds shut off all sight
of it from them and even the most daring of the
pestering French aeroplanes could follow them
no higher. Then Ned noticed for the first time
that Alan had not returned to the pilot house.</p>
<p>“Is Alan down there in the engine room with
you, Buck?” he called through the speaking
tube.</p>
<p>“No. Good gracious! Isn’t he with you
either?” exclaimed Buck anxiously. “Everything
here seems to be running smoothly, so I’m
going to risk leaving it a few minutes to look
for him.”</p>
<p>It was not a hard matter to find Alan where
he lay huddled up just inside the port door.
With a cry of consternation Buck dropped upon
his knees beside the silent figure, turned it over<span class="pagenum">[87]</span>
gently and was shocked to note the bloody
ghastliness of his comrade’s face.</p>
<p>Severe newspaper training was strong in Buck
Stewart though. He did not turn squeamish or
raise Ned’s anxieties by shouting that Alan had
been wounded. Ned needed his whole mind for
the management of the Flyer, and Buck realized
that.</p>
<p>Gathering the insensible boy up in his arms,
Buck carried him into one of the small staterooms,
hurriedly bathed his face in warm water,
and was relieved to discover that what had at
first appeared to be a mortal wound was merely
an abrasion of the flesh where the Frenchman’s
bullet had grazed its way. Alan revived a few
minutes afterward, and while his legs were still
a little shaky he protested that he felt quite
his usual self.</p>
<p>After their hostile reception at Paris, the
Airship Boys realized that it would be folly to
attempt a similar daylight descent upon Muhlbruck,
where Bob Russell was imprisoned. Also
the appalling screech of bursting shells going
past had given them a heartfelt disinclination to
get the <em>Ocean Flyer</em> anywhere between the lines
of fire on the battle front.</p>
<p>Examination of a war map presented to them<span class="pagenum">[88]</span>
by the editor of the New York <cite>Herald</cite> showed
plainly that the nearest trenches of the opposing
armies lay about forty miles to the northeast
of Paris, extending thence in the form of a
rough semicircle, indented towards the north,
for a length of nearly two hundred miles. One
end of this titanic battle front ended on the
shores of the North Sea in Belgium; the other
in French territory in the Meuse prefecture. In
order to reach Muhlbruck it was necessary for
the <em>Flyer</em> to pass directly over the firing-lines
somewhere in the Ardennes forest region, and
then to proceed northerly, tending somewhat to
the east until crossing the Belgian frontier, near
which Muhlbruck is situated. The latest reports
of the war showed the fiercest fighting just then
to be going on far to the south along the river
Meuse, and northwesterly along the Aisne, a
few miles within French territory, where the
Germans were making desperate daily assaults
upon the allied French and English intrenchments.
The severe guerrilla fighting which had
nearly turned the Ardennes region into a
shambles had then ceased almost entirely, while
General von Kluck, commanding the German
army of the west, was endeavoring to force the
arms of his crescent battle line westward in<span class="pagenum">[89]</span>
around the Allied forces and by so doing compel
them either to be surrounded and captured, or
else to fall back upon Paris once more.</p>
<p>“It looks to me,” said Ned, outlining the
positions on the map with one finger, “that it
will be best for us to cross the firing line there
in the Ardennes, flying high so as to be out of
the range of those tremendous German field guns
which they say can carry a cannon ball fifteen
miles or more. If you boys think well of it, we
might even drop the <em>Flyer</em> in the Ardennes
forest, get a chance to stretch the cramps out
of our legs there, and still get to Muhlbruck
long before dark.”</p>
<p>Both Alan and Buck approved heartily of this
plan and so it was decided upon. Estimating
the distance between their present position and
the Ardennes by their maps and instruments,
the <em>Ocean Flyer</em> proceeded on its way, concealed
from sight by the heavy cloud banks beneath.
While the sun was still high, they saw that they
had arrived somewhere in the neighborhood of
the intended stopping-place. Ned then began
planing as straight downwards as he dared and
shortly afterwards shouted:</p>
<p>“There it is, boys! We figured the time and
distance exactly. There are the tree-tops!”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[90]</span></p>
<p>Sure enough, there extended the green expanse
of the great Ardennes wood, with the dull glint
of the setting sun gilding the leaves and
branches. Afar in the distance, a mere speck
in the flame-colored sky, a solitary observation
balloon was ascending. Somewhere away to the
northwards the dull, monotonous booming of
cannon could be heard like the rumble of distant
thunder. The woods showed no signs of life;
there were no spirals of smoke rising into the
still evening air to warn the young aeronauts of
near-by camp fires.</p>
<p>Sailing slowly over the tree-tops and gradually
dropping lower and lower, the <em>Flyer</em> finally came
upon an open glade perhaps half a mile square
and ideally located for a landing. Its only
obstruction was a clump of maybe half a dozen
ancient oaks standing almost in the middle of
the area.</p>
<p>There Ned brought the big airship to earth as
lightly as a bird, and the three boys jumped
out to enjoy their first touch of Mother Earth
since leaving New York nearly a day before.
The air was mild and odoriferous with the smell
of the forest and all took huge breaths of it
gratefully. Buck pranced about like a colt let
loose in pasture, and he and Alan ran short<span class="pagenum">[91]</span>
races up and down the glade to stretch their
cramped muscles.</p>
<p>“Now, boys,” called Ned, “it is time that we
held a serious council of war to decide just how
we are going to manage Bob’s escape. Let’s
sit down under these trees here and make final
arrangements, because by midnight we’ll be at
Muhlbruck and won’t want to waste any time in
that dangerous vicinity.”</p>
<p>So they sat there under the biggest tree in
the center of the field and talked things over.</p>
<p>Alan said: “I don’t see how we can decide
upon any very definite plan until after we get
there and find out the lie of the land. For all
that we know, the prison where they have Bob
locked up may be right in the center of the town
with a couple thousand watchful soldiers around
it. I don’t believe that we’ll ever be able to get
near enough to the prison to get Bob out without
some leg-work.”</p>
<p>“I’ve been thinking of that too,” said Ned,
“and feel pretty sure that some one of us will
have to go into town disguised to get exact
information, while the other two of us remain to
guard the <em>Flyer</em> and be ready to lend assistance
whenever we are called upon. The difficulty is
to say which one of us ought to undertake the<span class="pagenum">[92]</span>
perilous mission of spy. You know if the Germans
ever caught him he would be in an even
worse fix than poor old Bob.”</p>
<p>“Let me go, Ned,” pleaded Alan, his face
aglow with enthusiasm. “I’m perfectly willing
to take the risk.”</p>
<p>“No, let me go,” said Buck. “Both of you
boys are absolutely needed to manage the airship,
and in a pinch can get along well enough
without me. Besides that, I can speak German
well enough to pass in the dark, and my newspaper
work has given me more practical experience
in the sleuthing line than either of you two
have had.</p>
<p>“Personally I don’t think the chances are
that I would run much danger of detection there
in disguise after midnight, but, even if they do
get suspicious, I could show them the war-correspondent’s
credentials given you by the
<cite>Herald</cite>. I don’t believe that even grouchy old
General Haberkampf is crazy enough to risk
getting the American press down on him by mistreatment
of me should I have to shove those
papers under his nose.”</p>
<p>“I think that you exaggerate the importance
of the New York <cite>Herald</cite> over here in the war
zone,” said Alan with a smile. “Remember<span class="pagenum">[93]</span>
that the <cite>Herald</cite> card didn’t prevent the Germans
from throwing Bob into their beastly prison.”</p>
<p>“But that was quite a different case,”
explained Buck. “Bob Russell was caught with
certain papers on his person which are said to
have branded him as a hostile spy.”</p>
<p>“However—” began Alan again.</p>
<p>Ned interrupted him.</p>
<p>“Buck is right, Alan,” said he. “I don’t
like to think of his risking his life in this way,
but he is clearly better fitted for the job than
either you or I. I understand how disappointed
you are in not getting the chance to risk it for
good old Bob’s sake, and I’m just as sorry that
I can’t do it. But Buck’s knowledge of the
German language, his experience in this sort
of thing, and the fact that he can the better
bluff about being a regular newspaper correspondent,
all make him the logical man for it.
You and I will have to give in.”</p>
<p>Alan was very much disappointed that things
turned out so and tossed back his head to conceal
his chagrin. As he did so his eye caught
sight of something strange in the bushy tree-top
directly above their heads.</p>
<p>“Look, boys, isn’t that a little house up
there?” he cried, pointing.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[94]</span></p>
<p>As he did so there came a chorus of guttural
exclamations from the concealing leaves up
above, and, before the startled Airship Boys had
time to do more than scramble to their feet, at
least a dozen shaggy-bearded German soldiers,
in ragged, dirt-stained gray uniforms, came
sliding one after another down the surrounding
tree-trunks.</p>
<p>“Hands up!” roared one who seemed to be
in command, and, even though he spoke in
German, there was no mistaking the meaning of
the musket barrels pointed threateningly at the
three boys.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum">[95]</span></p>
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