A Young Hero | Page 8

at her wonderingly, her parting word sounded to his English ears so strange, for she said "adieu" and not "good-bye."
"Walk fast, boy," said the Doctor, almost harshly; "we must rest by and by."
They hurried on for quite two hours, and then, hot and weary, the old man suffering as hardly as the boy, they slackened their pace, and once more making for a patch of woodland, rested for a while in the shade. But not for long.
"I can't hear the guns now," whispered Phil, after a long silence.
"No," said the Doctor, "I have not heard a sound for quite half-an-hour."
"But where are we going now?"
The Doctor smiled sadly and shook his head.
"Where fate leads us, Phil," he said; "anywhere to be out of this terrible work."
He had hardly spoken before the crash of many guns made them start to their feet, Phil beginning to run out in the open in his sudden alarm, but only to turn back directly and catch at the Doctor's hand.
"Ah!" cried the old man, drawing him in amongst the trees; "that was running into fresh danger. Look!"
Phil was already looking at a line of men who seemed to have suddenly started out of the ground a hundred yards away.
At the same moment the Doctor threw himself down amongst the thick growth, dragging his companion with him.
"Lie close," he whispered, and it was well that they were both lying flat, for there was a flash of light, a long line of smoke, and in response to a sharp pattering sound a little shower of twigs and leaves came dropping around.
This was answered by firing evidently from the other side of the wood again and again, the reports each time sounding more and more distant, while as Phil lay flat upon his face he could hear trampling and the sounds of men hurrying among the trees right past them, two coming so near that the boy wondered that they were not seen.
"Don't speak, my boy," whispered the Doctor, as he held Phil's hand, though the words were not needed, for the boy's attention was so taken up by the exciting events that surrounded him that he was all eyes and ears for the next thing that should happen.
For the soldiers that passed on, firing as they went, seemed to receive a check, and were driven back, filling the wood with smoke, which hung low and seemed to cling to the lower branches of the trees. But the men recovered their ground and passed on once more, the firing growing more distant.
"Now," said the Doctor, at last, "let's try again, boy."
A sharp volley from another direction was followed by the pattering down of more twigs and leaves, and the Doctor uttered a groan and laid his hand upon Phil's head to press it closer to the ground.
"Are you hurt, Dr Martin?" whispered the boy, raising himself suddenly in the fear that he now felt for the first time.
"No, no, my child. Lie still. We must not stir yet."
It was not till nightfall that they could venture to leave the wood, and it was by guesswork, for the stars were clouded over, that the Doctor made for what he believed to be the south, but not to go far in the darkness, on account of the twinkling fires which shone out here and there as if all around them. That night they slept in another pine wood, to keep on starting up from time to time during the night, awakened now by a shot, and twice over by the sound of a bugle, which came from the direction of the watch fires.
There was no further engagement during the next day, but every attempt to get out of the wood in which they sheltered was in vain; for they were surrounded by the troops dotted here and there, as if watching for the next attack.
They had not come away empty-handed, but the food given to them by their French hostess had come to an end, and at a word from the Doctor, as evening fell, Phil sprang to his feet.
"Yes," he cried, "they won't see us now. Oh, how I wish I was different, Dr Martin! But I can't help it."
"Different?" said the old man, pressing his shoulder. "In what way? Why?"
"I keep on getting so hungry and wanting to eat, when I know I ought to be patient and wait."
"Poor boy," said the Doctor, with a little laugh. "How strange that you should be perfectly natural, Phil, eh? There, we'll make a brave effort to get right away now, and perhaps we shall find another French friend whose husband is away in the fight."
"And then we could sleep in a bed once more," said Phil after a long silence, during which they had been pressing on, with the bushes