Brighton Boys in the Radio Service Page 11

  CHAPTER XI

  TAPPING THE ENEMY'S WIRE

  The following morning all of those who had arrived on the transportswere established in a concentration camp, but it was merely for thepurpose of inspection of men and equipment, and was not to be for long.It was that same day that the three boys from Brighton were for thefirst time assigned to a regular unit of the Signal Corps.

  Also, with a real thrill, they learned that they were almost immediatelyto see war service, for American troops were already in the trenches.

  It was a happy circumstance for the three lads that they had had suchclose association with Lieutenant Mackinson, for, without question, healready had gained an enviable reputation, and when he was ordered toemergency service, and told he might choose the five men who were to beunder his direction, his three assistants on the trip across were thefirst ones named.

  The other two were Tom Rawle, a fellow proportioned like their firstfriend in the service, Sergeant Martin, and a wiry, energetic,quick-speaking youth named Frank Hoskins.

  "We have a long trip before us," Lieutenant Mackinson informed them,"and we leave here on a special train in two hours. In a short time wewill be in the thick of it."

  It was joyous information for the five, and they set about their fewpreparations with a zest only experienced by boys knowing they haveimportant work to do, and feeling capable of doing it well.

  "How long have you been over?" Joe asked of Tom Rawle.

  "Got here two weeks ago," the big fellow answered. "But I haven't hadany real service yet. I was assigned once to Cambrai, but before Ireached there a big drive was under way, the Germans were being pushedback, and the detachment to which I had been assigned was so far forwardthat my orders were changed and I was sent back here."

  "Did you get within sound of the big guns?" asked Slim excitedly.

  "I should say so," answered Tom Rawle. "And so will you within a fewhours. Isn't that so, Hoskins?"

  "Yes," answered Frank, "and when you do you'll get a new idea of thefighting qualities of the French and Americans, going shoulder toshoulder against the Boches."

  "Hoskins knows," explained Rawle, "for he got nearer than I did."

  "Only for a short time," Frank corrected modestly, "but they called itmy 'baptism of fire.' I was out one night with an advance party. We werenearly ambushed, and had to beat a quick retreat."

  "Well, tell them all about it," demanded Tom Rawle, impatient at Frank'sunwillingness to talk much about himself.

  "Oh, they fired on us from a distance of about a hundred yards," theother lad admitted, "and it was a surprise party for fair, I can tellyou. When bullets begin singing around your head for the first time, andespecially when they come without any warning from the enemy, or anyexpectation on your part, it does give you rather a peculiar sort offeeling.

  "They got one of the fellows in our party with a bullet in the arm, thenwe all dropped on our stomachs and wriggled our way back into our ownlines without any further damage. But we did some rapid wriggling, youcan bet. There wasn't any time wasted by any of us, and inasmuch as wewere apparently outnumbered, we did not fire back, for fear of givingthem an exact range of our whereabouts.

  "After that I was sent back along the rear lines on an inspection tripwhich brought me all the way to this point, where I was held for theformation of this unit."

  "Say, that must be thrilling--to be a member of an advance party likethat," said Jerry, his enthusiasm as fiery as his hair. "I wonder ifwe'll get any work like that?"

  "You sure will," responded Rawle, "and plenty of it. You needn't worryon that score."

  At that moment Lieutenant Mackinson arrived to inquire if all theirpreparations had been made, and if they were ready to board the special.

  "All ready," they answered, and the lieutenant led the way to the train.

  They found several others already aboard, who were to make at least apart of the trip with them. There were half a dozen men who had beenslightly wounded in the trenches, and now, completely well, werereturning to their regiments. Also, there was a wire company of theSignal Corps, which was going to join another American unit.

  For the first three or four hours of the trip the lads, even includingHoskins and Rawle, found the returning young veterans the center of allinterest, and from them they heard many serious and amusing stories,many true tales of the attack and retreat, of shot and shell andshrapnel and the hand grenade and the poisonous gas bombs thrown by theBoches.

  And then, one by one, the soldiers of Uncle Sam dropped off into longand restful slumber--slumber that was to fit them for hard and difficultduties ahead.

  "This is where we get off," finally announced Lieutenant Mackinson,shaking the lads into wakefulness. "We leave the train here and travelthe balance of the distance by automobile."

  Never had the boys seen such a powerful looking car as that to which anorderly led them. Without the waste of a moment they climbedin--Lieutenant Mackinson, our three friends, young Hoskins and thetowering Rawle. In another instant they were speeding across the countrywith the break of dawn.

  But their trip now was far different from the one they had had acrossEngland. Where, in that country, they had seen big concentration camps,and men preparing for war, with an occasional evidence of war's effectsin a building wrecked by a night air raid, here, in the eastern part ofFrance, they came upon actual war in all its fateful progress, withwhole towns demolished, forests and orchards blotted out--stark ruinwritten over the face of the earth.

  With a clear right-of-way, their high-power machine swept pastammunition and food trains--long strings of powerful motor trucksdriving toward the scene of action. They came upon towns and villages inthat area known as "behind the lines," where French, American, Belgianand British soldiers were recuperating after hard days and nights in thefront-line trenches.

  By this time they were well within sound of the heavy guns, and theirdriver told them that the artillery duel then going on had been inprogress for forty-eight hours at least.

  "Sometimes it lasts for a week or more, you know," he said, "inpreparation for a great infantry advance. But I understand that thistime they expect to go forward before the end of to-day."

  "Which, means," added Lieutenant Mackinson, "that we probably will get achance to get right into the thick of it."

  On and on they went, and nearer and nearer to the scene of actual battlethey came. They passed the third-line trenches, and now, in places, theyseemed to be in a straight line with some of the concealed artillerythat was pounding away at the enemy in terrible detonations that shookand rocked the ground every minute.

  At the second-line trenches their orders called for a halt. They did nothave to be told that there was "something doing." The road, so far asthe eye could reach backward over the route they had traveled, was aconstantly moving line of motor trucks, coming forward with men andshells, while out ahead of them, tremendous and menacing, big tanks--thebiggest things the boys ever had seen propelled on wheels ortractors--were pursuing their uneven course toward the front, inpreparation for a new kind of assault.

  "They look like miniature battleships on land, don't they?" exclaimedSlim.

  The others agreed that it was about the best description that could begiven of these massive fighting machines, equipped with guns and men,that could travel with their own power practically anywhere, acrossshell holes, over trenches, through barbed wire--the most human piece ofwar mechanism that had yet made its appearance on the battlefield.

  Summons to a long-delayed meal gave a welcome interruption to theirguesses as to just what their first duties would be, and they hadscarcely finished their substantial rations of food when an orderlyinformed Lieutenant Mackinson that he was to report at once to the fieldheadquarters.

  "Await me here," he said to the five men under his immediate command. "Iprobably will be only a short time."

  And, indeed, it seemed to them that he had hardly time to reach theheadquarters when he was seen returning hurriedly.
He gave some hastyinstructions to the chauffeur, and the latter immediately began a quickexamination of his engine and tires, which promised another early move.

  "We go forward as far as we can by automobile again," the lieutenantinformed them, "and after dark to-night we are to establish an outlyingcommunication from the farthest skirmish points to headquarters."

  Almost as he finished the sentence, they were started, but now theirprogress frequently was impeded, and occasionally a shell broke so closeto them as to jar the machine from its course.

  None of the men in the rear seats of that car were cowards, but, asidefrom Hoskins, it was their first experience under actual fire, and theymarveled at the coolness of the driver, who seemed not to mind at allthe dangerous quarters they were in.

  When they climbed out of the machine, half an hour later, Joe remarkedupon it in tones of open admiration.

  "It's nothing," the youthful chauffeur replied. "You'll get used to it,too."

  As he turned the automobile and started backward, Slim suddenlyremembered that they hadn't even heard his name.

  "Don't know it," said Hoskins, "but he was wounded twice in thetrenches, I heard while we were waiting for the lieutenant. That's whyhe's driving a car now. He has seen enough service to know thatnervousness doesn't help."

  They had been directed to the quarters of Major Jones, in charge of theSignal Corps men in that section, and it was with considerable surprisethat the boys learned, upon arriving there, that they were to accompanythe lieutenant into the superior officer's presence for instructions.

  He was a man, they found, about forty years old, already grizzled andhardened by his field experience. And he knew how to convey orders andtransact business without a moment's delay.

  "You are to follow the red-ink lines on this map," he told LieutenantMackinson, as they all leaned over his desk to follow the tracing of hispencil, with which he showed them the course they were to take.

  "When you have reached this point"--indicating a heavy spot about midwayof the map--"you will seek a suitable location from which to establishcommunications. You will determine whether it can be done by wireless.As soon as you can do so, report what progress you have made. Use everycaution, for you will be in the country occupied by the enemy. Youshould leave here about seven o'clock this evening. It is now six."

  Fifteen minutes later they had examined their arms and equippedthemselves with a full supply of small-arms ammunition, portablewireless instrument and antennae, and three rations each of eatingchocolate.

  The latter article is dispensed to every soldier in the American armiesjust prior to an engagement in which he may become separated from hisunit or companions, and, if wounded, might otherwise starve to death.

  The remaining three-quarters of an hour they spent in close study of themap that Major Jones had given them, and promptly at seven o'clock theystarted upon the dangerous mission.

  With nightfall the big cannonading had noticeably shut down, but to thesouth of them artillery firing still could be heard distinctly. It was ablack night and they proceeded with the greatest caution.

  They did not dare use the flashlights that each of them carried, andfrequently all of them would have to drop suddenly flat upon the groundas a big rocket went up from either side, lighting the whole section fortrace of skirmishing parties.

  In this way they went forward, yard by yard, until they reached a thickclump of trees. There, after listening intently for several minuteswithout hearing a dangerous sound, they spread out their coats,tent-like, while Lieutenant Mackinson, with gingerly flashes of hislight, examined the map again, to make certain of their location.

  They had hardly progressed a hundred feet further when the unlucky Slimtripped and went sprawling on the ground with a pained but suppressedgrunt.

  "Sh-h-h-h!" warned Lieutenant Mackinson in a whisper, while Tom Rawle,quietly chuckling at the fat lad's misfortune, aided him to his feet.

  "Down flat!" said Mackinson again, as he discerned several shadowsmoving across a space a considerable distance to the north of them.

  For fully ten minutes, which seemed like an hour, they lay there, notdaring to move. They watched the enemy scouting party get a like scare,and then, after what seemed to be a whispered consultation, turn back tothe German lines.

  "What did you fall over?" the lieutenant finally asked of Slim, in ascarcely audible tone.

  "I just found it," replied Slim. "It's a wire. Here, let me have yourhand." And he guided the lieutenant's fingers to that which had been thecause of his downfall.

  "Copper!" exclaimed the lieutenant. "Hoskins, let me have that kit."

  And without the aid of a light he extracted from the leather case whichHoskins gave him a very small telegraph instrument. The instant it wasattached to the wire the receiver began to tick irregularly.

  Neither Rawle nor Hoskins understood German, but to the others they werewords easy to translate.

  They had accidentally struck an enemy wire and had tapped it! That partof the message which they had intercepted read:

  "--lead enemy to believe whole attack centered from your position, but main assault will be a flank move around Hill 20"

  At that instant a fusillade of bullets cut the ground all about them,and the six men suddenly realized that they were under a pitiless andwell-directed machine-gun fire.