The Boy Allies at Liege

The Boy Allies at Liege

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Title: The boy Allies at Liege
Author: Clair W. Hayes
Release Date: June 19, 2004 [eBook #12656]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ALLIES AT LIEGE***
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THE BOY ALLIES AT LIÈGE
OR
Through Lines of Steel
By CLAIR W. HAYES
AUTHOR OF "The Boy Allies On the Firing Line" "The Boy Allies
With the Cossacks" "The Boy Allies In the Trenches"
1915

CHAPTER I.
THE TWO COMRADES.

"War has been declared, mother!" shouted Hal, as closely followed by
his friend, Chester Crawford, he dashed into the great hotel in Berlin,
where the three were stopping, and made his way through the crowd
that thronged the lobby to his mother's side.
"Yes, mother, it's true," continued Hal, seeing the look of consternation
on Mrs. Paine's face. "The Kaiser has declared war upon France!"
Mrs. Paine, who had risen to her feet at her son's entrance, put her hand
upon the back of her chair to steady herself, and her face grew pale.
"Can it be?" she said slowly. "After all these years, can it be possible
that millions of men will again fly at each other's throats? Is it possible
that Europe will again be turned into a battlefield?"
Overcome by her feelings, Mrs. Paine sank slowly into her chair. Hal
and Chester sprang to her side.
"It's all right, mother," cried Hal, dropping to his knees and putting his
arm about her. "We are in no danger. No one will harm an American.
At this crisis a citizen of the United States will not be molested."
Mrs. Paine smiled faintly.
"It was not of that I was thinking, my son," she said. "Your words
brought back to me the days gone by, and I pray that I shall not have to
go through them again. Then, too, I was thinking of the mothers and
wives whose hearts will be torn by the news you have just told me. But
come," and Mrs. Paine shook off her memories, "tell me all about it."
"As you know, Mrs. Paine," spoke up Chester, who up to this time had
remained silent, "Hal and I went to the American Embassy immediately
after dinner to-night to learn, if possible, what difficulties we were
likely to encounter in leaving Germany. Since the Kaiser's declaration
of war against Russia all Americans have been preparing to get out of
the country at the earliest possible moment. But now that war has been
declared on France, we are likely to encounter many hardships."

"Is there any likelihood of our being detained?" asked Mrs. Paine in
alarm. "What did the ambassador say?"
"While the ambassador anticipates no danger for foreigners, he advises
that we leave the country immediately. He suggests that we take the
early morning train across the Belgian frontier."
"Why go to Belgium?"
"All railroad lines leading into France have been seized by German
soldiers. Passenger traffic has been cut off, mother," explained Hal.
"All trains are being used for the movement of troops."
"Yes, Mrs. Paine," continued Chester, "we shall have to go through
Belgium. Even now thousands of the Kaiser's best troops are marching
upon the French frontier, and fighting is only a question of hours."
"Very well, then," returned Mrs. Paine. "We shall go in the morning.
So I guess we would all better go upstairs and pack. Come along,
boys."
While the packing is going on, it is a good time to describe the two
American lads, who will play the most important parts in our story.
Hal Paine was a lad some seventeen years of age. Following his
graduation from high school in a large Illinois city the previous June,
his mother had announced her intention of taking him on a tour through
Europe. Needless to say, Hal jumped at this chance to see something of
the foreign countries in whose histories he had always been deeply
interested. It was upon Hal's request that Mrs. Paine had invited his
chum, Chester Crawford, to accompany them.
Chester was naturally eager to take the trip across the water, and, after
some coaxing, in which Mrs. Paine's influence also was brought to bear,
his parents finally agreed to their son's going so far away from home.
Hal's father was dead. A colonel of infantry, he