Chapter XXVI: The Big War

The next thing that Leon knew was when he opened his eyes to find himself lying in a clean white cot with both Jacques and Earl standing by the bedside.

"What happened?" inquired Leon dazedly.

"Nothing," laughed Earl, "except that you've been asleep for about fifteen hours or so."

"How about our report?"

"That was made just about fifteen hours ago; just after you went to sleep."

"But you said you'd stop for me."

"We did," smiled Earl. "We stopped for you all right, but you'd gone and fainted and then you went to sleep and we thought we'd better not wait."

"Did you make your report?" asked Leon eagerly. He was now sitting up in bed and had almost forgotten his slightly wounded arm; in fact he would have been entirely unconscious of it had it not been for the fact that it was bandaged.

"We certainly did," said Jacques. "Major Villier seemed very much pleased with what we had done and he said he would see to it that we were mentioned at headquarters."

"Were they worried about us at all?"

"They were a little; they had expected us back sooner than we actually did arrive."

"What did the major think of our blowing up that train?"

"It seemed to please him greatly," said Jacques. "In fact he was almost as pleased about that as he was about our having delivered the dispatches safely at Flambeau."

"I should think he'd been more glad about the train than the dispatches," exclaimed Leon.

"We don't know what they were," Jacques reminded him. "Evidently they were even more important than blowing up a munition-train."

"At any rate I'm glad Major Villier approved of what we did."

"He said we got into too many scrapes," laughed Earl. "He said that unless we were careful we might get hurt."

"He was joking, wasn't he?"

"Of course he was; as though we went around looking for trouble."

"I want to get up," exclaimed Leon suddenly. "I want something to eat, too, and I want it quick and I want an awful lot of it."

"Whew!" whistled Jacques smilingly. "You must be feeling better."

"I never felt so well in my life," cried Leon. "I feel like a king."

"Well, I wouldn't care to feel that way," laughed Earl. "As far as I can see there aren't very many kings who are very well off these days."

"Well, then I feel the way kings used to feel," said Leon. "Have it any way you want, but give me something to eat."

"How would you like to go automobiling after you eat?" inquired Jacques. "Earl and I are going."

"What do you mean?"

"I've got to run an ambulance up to the front and we are to start in about fifteen minutes. I need two helpers and if you feel strong enough you may come along."

"Of course I'll go," exclaimed Leon. "What are they doing with you anyway, Jacques? It seems to me you have a new job about every day."

"He's general utility man," laughed Earl, "and we're his assistants."

"It looks so," Leon agreed. "At any rate I don't mind it. I'm rather fond of variety."

"Did you hear about the _douzième_?" asked Jacques.

"Tell me what has happened to them," demanded Leon quickly. "Where are they?"

"There are not many of them left," said Jacques soberly. "Do you remember that bombardment we saw as we flew over the firing line last night?"

"I do. I remember we wondered if our regiment was in it."

"Well they were all right," said Jacques. "They bore the brunt of the whole attack and if it hadn't been for them I don't know what would have happened."

"Tell me about it," urged Leon eagerly.

"The Boches launched a terrible bombardment on that portion of the line held by the _douzième_," continued Jacques. "Then they turned loose one of those massed infantry attacks on our trenches and though the _douzième_ was outnumbered nearly four to one they held fast. Not without paying the price though and half of our comrades were either killed or wounded so that they are out of it."

"Did the Germans take the trench?"

"They reached it at some points and even entered it; just as things looked blackest, reënforcements arrived and drove them out and saved the trench."

"Good!" cried Leon heartily. "It must have been splendid!"

"More bloody than splendid I guess," said Earl grimly. "I think we were pretty lucky to have missed it."

"So do I," agreed Jacques. "Still I hate to be absent when the rest of our regiment is fighting."

"Weren't you fighting all that time?" demanded Earl.

"Oh, yes, but somehow I feel so much safer up in the air than I do in the trenches."

"There aren't many safe spots left in Europe now anyway, I guess," remarked Earl.

"Nor any other place in the world, for that matter," added Leon. "Just stop a minute and think where there have been battles fought in this war."

"Pretty nearly every place you can think of," said Earl.

"I know it; in France, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Austria, Italy, Serbia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, China--"

"What was in China?" demanded Earl.

"Kiao Chau. Don't you know that port the Japanese and English took from the Germans?"

"That's right. Then there is or has been fighting in Armenia, Persia, Mesopotamia, Africa, the Marshall Islands and all those islands down around Australia; Zeppelins have raided England."

"Yes," exclaimed Leon, "and sea fights in the Atlantic and Pacific, the Mediterranean, in the North Sea and the Baltic, the Indian Ocean and the Carribean Sea and I don't know where else."

"It's awful, isn't it?" said Earl. "And right at home in America the Germans have been blowing up factories that were making arms for the Allies; they've also been putting bombs on ships."

"Why doesn't your country stop that?" asked Jacques.

"Don't ask me," exclaimed Earl. "I wish they would; if they'd deal with some of those plotters the way any European government would, I think all that trouble would end. We're too good to people in the United States."

"That's right," agreed Leon. "We offer them our hospitality and give them a chance to earn a good living and then they turn on us."

"Some day the people of the United States will turn on them," said Jacques solemnly.

"That's just what will happen," exclaimed Earl. "They will stand for a lot over there and they don't get angry easily; people like that are the worst kind when they do lose their tempers. One of these days they'll all get mad and those trouble makers will wake up to find that they've been playing with fire."

"There's our ambulance," said Jacques suddenly. "Come along."