<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI<br/> <span class="cheaderfont">INSIDE OF BESIEGED PRZEMYSL</span></h2>
<p>“The fiends!” exclaimed Alan, staring horrified
down upon the heap of blazing ruins which
so short a time before had been happy, peaceful
homes. “It would be only right if we were to
drop a few lyddite bombs down upon them!”</p>
<p>“No,” said Bob, “we mustn’t do that, because
we would be almost certain to blow up a good
many of those poor German villagers along with
the guilty Cossacks.”</p>
<p>“I don’t believe that there are any Germans
left alive there,” grumbled Alan.</p>
<p>“Nevertheless, we shouldn’t bombard the Russians,”
interposed Ned. “Remember, Alan, that
we aren’t in Europe either to fight or take sides
in any way, unless we absolutely have to in order
to protect our own lives. The United States is
a neutral country, and we must do nothing
which might later imperil that neutrality. I
know that it’s hard to spare such wretches as
those we have just escaped, but we ought to do
it.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[166]</span></p>
<p>“Ned is right,” chimed in both Bob and Buck,
so Alan had to forego the bomb-dropping, richly
as the Cossacks deserved it.</p>
<p>“Well, where to now?” asked Ned, when the
<em>Flyer</em> had continued on her course in a westerly
direction for about ten minutes. “Shall we head
for Russian Poland and see what General
Von Hindenburg is doing towards capturing
Warsaw?”</p>
<p>“Don’t go there because you may think that
I want to,” replied Bob. “I’m sick of the way
they fight here on the eastern frontier. They
may kill more men in Belgium with their big
cannon, but at least they do it in a soldierly
fashion.”</p>
<p>“I’d rather go somewhere else too,” said
Alan. “How about a flight to Asia Minor? I
read in the papers just before we left America
that the Allied fleets were knocking the Turkish
forts on the Dardanelles to pieces with thirteen-inch
guns. That might be an interesting
sight.”</p>
<p>“No, let’s not go there,” Bob objected. “Let
poor little Turkey die alone. She had no business
getting mixed up in this war in the first
place. We’ll pass up the scrap there and the
Japanese assault on Tsing-Tau. As far as I’m<span class="pagenum">[167]</span>
concerned there’s only one place more I’d like
to see before we start for New York again, and
that is Przemysl.</p>
<p>“You know that it is one of the great strategic
fortifications in Galicia, and was the first
real stumbling-block in the way of the Russian
invasion of Austria-Hungary. When the Austrian
army was crushed at Jaroslaw and
retreated in disorder to protect Budapest, they
asked for volunteers to garrison Przemysl. It
was pointed out at that time that the town and
fortress would surely be besieged, and that there
was very little hope of any Austrians remaining
ever escaping with his life. The orders were to
hold out at no matter what sacrifices.</p>
<p>“Volunteers came forward a plenty. Then
millions of Russians poured down around the
city. These burned the town, shelled the citadel
and tried actual assault. All in vain! So the
Russians left three army corps of men besieging
the fortress and marched on to the conquest
of Hungary. Those besiegers are still camped
around the brave fellows in Przemysl. Six
months and more of famine rations, terrible
disease and unceasing bombardment have not
quenched their determination to hold out until
the last man drops.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[168]</span></p>
<p>“Now, don’t you boys agree with me that a
visit to Przemysl ought to prove worth while?”</p>
<p>“Przemysl it is then,” cried Ned. “You’re
a wonderful speech-maker, Bob.”</p>
<p>“Quit your kidding,” grinned the newspaper
man. “Also, if you really want to reach Przemysl,
I’d advise you to ship our course more to
the southeast.”</p>
<p>“Aye, aye, sir!” grinned Ned, with a mock-serious
salute. “Sou’ by sou’east it is, sir!”</p>
<p>“Humph!” grunted Bob. “I hope that Buck
Stewart has our breakfast ready.”</p>
<p>The jagged summits of the Carpathians—mountains
more rugged and awe-inspiring than
those of Switzerland itself—scalloped the southern
horizon and seemed to overshadow the countryside
for leagues, when Ned announced from
the pilot-room that Przemysl was in sight.</p>
<p>For an hour past they had been traversing a
region of wild grandeur, where broad rivers
rushed tumbling and foaming down from the
rocky heights, where wild sheep browsed on
lonely hillsides and where the binoculars showed
natives as fantastically garbed as the bandit
chorus of a popular musical comedy.</p>
<p>They had seen whole brigades of Russians on
the march, plodding sullenly along like slaves<span class="pagenum">[169]</span>
under the driver’s whip. They had seen signal
fires leap flaming from hill crest to mountain
crag. They had seen a flotilla of Russian barges
being poled down the broad, glistening waters of
the Vistula, an ugly, snub-nosed cannon on every
boat. They had seen the remnants of a once
natty Austrian regiment being hunted down and
shot like rabbits by mounted Cossacks. All this
they had seen and much more.</p>
<p>Away off to the west the dull rumble and muttering
of heavy cannonading vibrated through
the air. That was the battle of Cracow in
progress, although the boys did not know it then.</p>
<p>Death and devastation was everywhere.
Smouldering villages with unburied bodies among
the embers lay in the track of each army,
whether Serb, Russian or Austrian.</p>
<p>“Przemysl is directly ahead!” called Ned
down through the speaking tube, and the <em>Ocean
Flyer</em> began to plane slowly towards it.</p>
<p>The shell-battered citadel stood upon a little
rise of ground with the ashes and fire-charred
walls of what had been the flourishing town
surrounding it. The tattered red, white and
green flag of the dual empire still flapped defiantly
upon the walls. All around the fortress,
for miles and miles, stretched the vast encampment<span class="pagenum">[170]</span>
of the great horde of Russian besiegers.</p>
<p>They had dug a zigzag line of shallow trenches
as close to the walls as they dared, and sharp-shooters
lay flat on their stomachs in these,
watching for an incautious head above the battlements.
Every now and then a little puff of
bluish smoke somewhere along the line showed
the alertness of the marksmen.</p>
<p>Some distance farther back three batteries of
artillery had been planted behind earthworks
and these every now and then belched forth
fire, shaking the ground as their shells went
hurtling towards the obstinate defenders.</p>
<p>As always before, the appearance of the
<em>Ocean Flyer</em> created an instantaneous disturbance
among all who saw it. Aerial guns were
trained upon it from both the fortress and the
Russian lines, and several smaller military aeroplanes
shot bird-like into the sky to reconnoitre
it.</p>
<p>The first of these rose directly from Przemysl
itself and Alan signaled to it from one of the
<em>Flyer’s</em> outside runways by waving a white flag.
The Austrian aviator swung near enough for
Bob to explain that their mission was peaceful
and that they wanted to alight inside the walls.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[171]</span></p>
<p>“Wait until I report concerning you,” called
back the Austrian.</p>
<p>He volplaned down into the city and returned
with the message that the <em>Flyer</em> would be permitted
to descend.</p>
<p>It seemed as if every man in the garrison not
on guard duty gathered to see the big airship as
it settled down upon the parade ground, and the
commandant himself was there to meet his unusual
visitors. After learning their identity, he
greeted the boys cordially, but said:</p>
<p>“I confess that I am disappointed too, because
the general outline of your vessel suggested to
me that it might be a new form of German
dirigible, come with news of a relief army on
the way. You have heard, of course, of the great
fleet of Zeppelins which they are getting ready
for the aerial invasion of England?”</p>
<p>“We have heard rumors of something like
that,” answered Alan, “but were inclined to
believe that it was all just a bugaboo to frighten
London.”</p>
<p>“Oh, no! Not at all,” the commandant
assured him warmly. “You will see in the
course of the next few weeks. Yes, and England
shall see too!”</p>
<p>After that the young aeronauts were shown<span class="pagenum">[172]</span>
over the fortress, which really was a small town
in itself. Many of the buildings had been set
afire or demolished by bursting shells, but a
corps of engineers was kept ready at all times
to repair damages as fast as they were made.</p>
<p>Food supplies had run short some time before
and the garrison was then reduced to starvation
rations, consisting of a little soup with a few
crumbs of black bread and, twice a week, a bit
of tinned meats. Horses and even rats had been
eaten with relish. The soldiers presented a
pathetic but inspiring spectacle. The hospitals
were crowded with sick and wounded; the walls
were gradually crumbling under incessant shell
fire, yet that garrison of heroes remained
undaunted.</p>
<p>It was as Buck said, “just as if they had been
Americans.”</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum">[173]</span></p>
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