Facing the German Foe

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Facing the German Foe, by Colonel James

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Title: Facing the German Foe
Author: Colonel James Fiske

Release Date: November 28, 2006 [eBook #19957]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
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World's War Series Volume 2
FACING THE GERMAN FOE
by
COLONEL JAMES FISKE
Illustrated by E. A. Furman

The Saalfield Publishing Company Chicago Akron, Ohio New York Copyright, 1915 by The Saalfield Publishing Co.

CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I Serious News 11
II Quick Work 27
III Picked for Service 45
IV The House of the Heliograph 65
V On the Trail 81
VI The Mystery of Bray Park 99
VII A Close Shave 117
VIII A Friend in Need 127
IX An Unexpected Blow 143
X A Good Witness 153
XI The First Blow 163
XII The Silent Wire 173
XIII A Treacherous Deed 185
XIV The Trap 195
XV A Daring Ruse 205
XVI The Cipher 213
XVII A Capture from the Skies 223
XVIII Vindication 233

Facing the German Foe
CHAPTER I
SERIOUS NEWS
"As long as I can't be at home," said Harry Fleming, "I'd rather be here than anywhere in the world I can think of!"
"Rather!" said his companion, Dick Mercer. "I say, Harry, it must be funny to be an American!"
Harry laughed heartily.
"I'd be angry, Dick," he said, finally, "if that wasn't so English--and so funny! Still, I suppose that's one reason you Britishers are as big an empire as you are. You think it's sort of funny and a bit of a misfortune, don't you, to be anything but English?"
"Oh, I say, I didn't quite mean that," said Dick, flushing a little. "And of course you Americans aren't just like foreigners. You speak the same language we do--though you do say some funny things now and then, old chap. You know, I was ever so surprised when you came to Mr. Grenfel and he let you in our troop right away!"
"Didn't you even know we had Boy Scouts in America?" asked Harry. "My word--as you English would say. That is the limit! Why, it's spread all over the country with us. But of course we all know that it started here--that Baden-Powell thought of the idea!"
"Rather!" said Dick, enthusiastically. "Good old Bathing-Towel! That's what they used to call him at school, you know, before he ever went into the army at all. And it stuck to him, they say, right through. Even after Mafeking he was called that. Now, of course, he's a lieutenant general, and all sorts of a swell. He and Kitchener and French are so big they don't get called nicknames much more."
"Well, I'll tell you what I think," said Harry, soberly. "I think he did a bigger thing for England when he started the Boy Scout movement than when he defended Mafeking against the Boers!"
"Why, how can you make that out?" asked Dick, puzzled. "The defence of Mafeking had a whole lot to do with our winning that war!"
"That's all right, too," said Harry. "But you know you may be in a bigger war yet than that Boer War ever thought of being."
"How can a war think, you chump?" asked the literal-minded Dick.
Again Harry roared at him.
"That's just one of 'our funny American ways of saying things,' Dick," he explained. "I didn't mean that, of course. But what I do mean is that everyone over here in Europe seems to think that there will be a big war sometime--a bigger war than the world's ever seen yet."
"Oh, yes!" Dick nodded his understanding, and grew more serious. "My pater--he's a V. C., you know--says that, too. He says we'll have to fight Germany, sooner or later. And he seems to think the sooner the better, too, before they get too big and strong for us to have an easy time with them."
"They're too big now for any nation to have an easy time with them," said Harry. "But you see what I mean now, don't you, Dick? We Boy Scouts aren't soldiers in any way. But we do learn to do the things a soldier has to do, don't we?"
"Yes, that's true," said Dick. "But we aren't supposed to think of that."
"Of course not, and it's right, too," agreed Harry. "But we learn to be obedient. We learn discipline. And we get to understand camp life, and the open air, and all the things a soldier has to know about, sooner or later. Suppose you were organizing a regiment. Which would you rather have--a thousand men who were brave and willing, but had