Chapter XXVII · CONCLUSION

As the car bore down and stopped in front of the humble cottage gate the little French peasant woman stared hard, as well she might. To see her “man” riding in such a fine vehicle alongside four strange young chaps was enough to make her believe in miracles.

Then, as some of the boys helped Jaques to alight, for he was trembling violently, and could hardly have managed it with one hand, she noticed that he had an arm bound up as though severely wounded. With a cry she flung herself upon him and clasped her arms about his neck.

Out of the cottage flew three children whom the soldier hugged as well as he could with that single arm. From neighboring houses flocked the inmates, so that presently there was quite a crowd assembled to see the strange return of Jaques Leforge, the man whom they had always believed to be so sadly lacking in the quality of courage.

245

Then some one discovered the shining badge, pinned to the left breast of his dusty and torn blue coat, which bore many marks of the conflict through which he had so lately passed with such credit. Loud cries attested to their wonder. Jaques was called upon to explain the mystery, which he attempted to do, perhaps after the same fashion that he had in English given it to Thad and the others.

It was a picture well worth seeing. The four scouts sat there and looked on with the keenest of interest. Why, even Bumpus for the time being utterly forgot that he was in a terrible hurry; for he wanted to share in the triumph of Jacques.

So it sometimes happens that men, as well as boys, bear the name of coward when it is not at all deserved. Poor Jaques had so long been accustomed to hearing his neighbors call him timid and weak-hearted that he had come to take it for granted he was really lacking in moral fiber. But when the war came, and he actually found himself, he was not long in proving the falsity of the charge.

From the abject manner of the old men and the chattering women it was evident that the same Jaques would from that hour rank high as the greatest hero the little village in the environs of Paris could ever boast.

246

Thad was only waiting to get a chance to shake hands with the soldier before making a fresh start. The others felt just as he did about it, Giraffe in particular wanting to be able to say that he had actually gripped the fingers of a hero to whom had been awarded that highly prized Cross of the Legion of Honor, which is only bestowed on those who have shown exceptional valor on the battlefield, or in the service of France.

Managing to finally catch the eye of Jaques, Thad beckoned to him. Apparently the man understood, and his sense of gratitude caused him to push through the throng of admiring villagers until he reached the side of the car. His wife and children clung to him as though they feared he was about to be whisked out of their sight again before they had hardly seen him.

“We are going on, Jaques,” said Thad, “and would shake hands with you first.”

“Willingly, young M’sieu!” cried the soldier, “though my neighbors have almost taken the life out of my fingers already. If this is what it means to be reckoned a hero I do not know how much of it I may stand. But I owe you and your comrades a debt, for which I can only give you my thanks. Here then is this wife of mine who cannot yet believe what her eyes tell her, and that her Jaques is wearing a decoration. Tell me your names, if you please, that I may introduce you to her.”

This the boys did gladly. They were pleased to see that the brave Jaques had such a neat and adoring little wife, and such a healthy brood of children, the future hope of France.

247

After that there was nothing else to delay them, and so Thad made the start. The last they saw of Jaques he was waving his hat after them, standing happily there in front of his own little white gate; while the crowd still clustered around, eager to see, and if highly favored, even touch that wonderful badge of courage that decorated his torn and bloody coat.

“I’d call that a splendid and fitting finish to our experience along the battle line of Joffre’s men!” declared Giraffe, as soon as they were once more progressing along the smooth road.

“Yes,” Bumpus added, “we’ve seen the fighting, the taking care of the wounded, and it was only right we should be on hand to take part in the homecoming of the hero. Bully for Jaques, say I, and may he long flourish. That wound of his will get well in time, though I suppose the poor fellow may have to go to the front again, so that perhaps he may never live to see the end of the war.”

“You’re mistaken there, Bumpus,” said Thad, on hearing the stout chum paint such a grewsome outlook for the little family of the hero; “Jaques confided to me that he had lost the better part of his hand, and that hence he must be out of the war for good, though he may still serve his country at home in some capacity.”

248

“Well, it’s a funny thing for me to say that I’m glad to hear that,” Bumpus remarked, with a grin, “but you know how I mean it. Jaques has done enough, and ought to be spared for his family’s sake.”

“What’s the programme now, Thad?” asked Giraffe, partly rising in his seat as he spoke, in order to stare far ahead, where through the haze he believed he could already catch a glimpse of the city they were heading for.

“We’ll find Mrs. Hawtree,” replied the scout leader; “then learn how we can get a steamer for New York. There’s going to be a big rush on the first and second cabin accommodations, and I’m afraid we’ll have trouble in finding berths.”

“Oh! that isn’t going to bother me any,” laughed Allan, good naturedly, for with the end of the long and arduous journey through the war-torn region in sight he felt that it was easy to accept things as they came. “If we’re forced to it we can take potluck and go steerage.”

“The only thing I don’t like about that,” declared Giraffe, “is the grub part of it. They say you don’t get all you’d like to have in the way of eats. But then, with so many fine society folks having to take steerage passage, mebbe the companies will reform, and do better. Let’s hope so.”

“So long as I find my mother, and she’s feeling a heap better,” observed Bumpus, with not a line of worry across his forehead now, “I’m not going to bother my head about such a trifling thing as eating.”

249

“Of course not,” flashed Giraffe, with a grin, “because plump fellows such as you can be like hibernating bears, and live on their fat for a certain length of time; but it is a whole lot different when a slim-jim like me has to go hungry. But I’m considered a pretty good rooter for grub, my folks tell me, and if there’s any to be had I’ll get there. Thad, take a good look right over there, and tell me if you don’t think that’s the old Eiffel Tower right now standing up against the skyline like something on stilts.”

At that of course every one showed the most intense interest. Thad, on looking in the quarter indicated by Giraffe’s extended finger, quickly announced that the tall scout’s eagle eye had not deceived him.

“Yes, that’s the tower, most certainly,” he said, in a satisfied way; “which fact tells us we’re on the outskirts of Paris at last.”

“Everything seems pretty peaceful here, I should say,” Bumpus remarked, just as though he may have been indulging in some sort of wild fancy founded on the mad scenes which history describes as having racked the French capital at the time of the Commune, a hundred and more years back.

250

“Oh! we’ll find Paris pretty quiet, with so many people gone, and business dead,” Allan ventured to say; “but all the same I’m anxious to take a turn about the place now we’re here. I’ve been studying that little guide book we got hold of, and set down a lot of things we ought to see, before we leave for the good old United States.”

Under the belief that the great German army of invasion might succeed in investing the capital, tens of thousands of the best inhabitants had departed for points further south; indeed, even the French Assembly had abandoned Paris and gone to a safer place, so that the legislative branch of the government should not suffer in case of a siege, as in the previous experience.

As they continued to glide along the smooth avenue, surrounded by scenes of constantly increasing beauty such as can be found in few other places on earth, the four comrades of the khaki felt a sense of peace fill their hearts. They seemed to be far removed from those terrible battlefields upon which they had so lately looked; and it was hard to realize that only a score or so of miles separated the invading German army from the goal which they had set out to capture and hold as a prize.

251

Bumpus lay back in his comfortable seat and dreamed dreams. He had little doubt but that he would be able to find his mother without much trouble, and to him that September day seemed like the end of a bad dream. All the dreadful things that had passed in review before their eyes he would now try to forget, since they had been but a means to an end. Soon they would find themselves threading the streets and broad avenues of the great metropolis, and looking upon the myriads of fluttering tri-color flags which would be given to the breeze as the citizens learned of the wonderful battle which their idol Joffre had won on the banks of the Marne.

And here, having safely arrived at their goal, we may leave them, in the hope that at no distant day it may once again be our pleasure to meet Thad and his gallant chums in the pages of still another volume, in which shall be described further interesting and profitable adventures that are likely to come their way.

THE END