The Boy Scouts on the Trail | Page 7

Grand Prix.
He will drive a general. He is a soldier, like all Frenchmen, and that
will be his task--to drive some great general wherever he wants to go."
That was how the meaning of mobilization really came home to Frank,
who learned more from the things he missed that he was accustomed to
seeing than from new sights. In the boulevards, for instance, where as a
rule the little tables in front of the cafes would be crowded, all the
tables had vanished. That was a result of what was happening.
Everything brought the fact of war home to him. To him it was even

more vivid perhaps than to Henri, who had been brought up to know
that some time all this would come about, and saw little that he had not
been sure, some time, of seeing.
The crowds delayed them. Sometimes they had to dismount from their
wheels and walk for a space, but in the end they came to their
destination. Madame Martin, Henri's aunt, greeted him with delight.
"We were thinking of you, Henri!" she said. "Your uncle said to me
only to-night, when we heard of the mobilization: 'And what of Henri?
He cannot go home yet.' I knew you would come to us! And you have
brought a friend? That is very well."
"Oh--an American!" she exclaimed, a moment later. "You have done
well, my nephew."
"I'm half French," said Frank. Somehow he was beginning to feel very
proud of that. These last few hours, that had shown him how France
rallied in the face of a terrible and pressing danger had made it easier
for him to understand his mother's love of her own land. He was still an
American above all; that he would always be. But there was French
blood in his veins after all, and blood is something that is and always
must be thicker than water.
So he had to explain himself, and when he spoke of the uncle who was
to come for him Madame Martin looked concerned.
"I am glad that you are here," she said, simply. "It may be hard for him
to get here. But we can look after you until he comes. There is room
enough--and, ma foi, you shall have all that we have!"
CHAPTER IV
THE RECRUITS
August was drawing to its close. And still Henri and Frank were in
Paris. Henri's father and his uncle had gone to the front; Frank's Uncle
Dick, if he had tried to reach Paris or St. Denis, had not succeeded. Or

if he had, he had been unable to get word to Frank. War in all its
terrible reality was in full blast. Troops were passing through Paris still,
going to the front. But they were older men now, the last classes of the
reservists. Every night, too, the city was dark save for the searchlights
that played incessantly from the high buildings and from the Eiffel
Tower. For now there was a new menace. The Germans fought not on
land alone, but in the air. At any time a German might appear,
thousands of feet above the city, prepared to rain down death and
destruction from the clouds.
Paris was quiet and resigned. Wounded men were coming back;
hospitals, from which floated the Red Cross flag, were everywhere. The
hotels were sheltering the wounded; churches, theatres, all sorts of
buildings not commonly so used were in the hands of the doctors and
the nurses. There were few newspapers; there was neither paper on
which to print them, nor men to run the great presses or write what they
usually contained. All were gone; all except the old and the children.
Hundreds of thousands of men were still in Paris, but they were the
garrison of the city, the men who would man the forts if the Germans
came.
And now, to get the news, Harry and Frank went to the places where
the bulletins were posted, becoming a part of the silent crowds that
waited. Every day they took their places in the crowds, to learn what
they could and carry the tale back to Madame Martin. She was too busy
to stand among the crowds herself; every day she was doing her part,
helping in the nursing, and helping, too, to relieve the distress among
the poor.
One day the two friends turned away. They had seen the last bulletin;
for some hours there would be no more news.
"I'm afraid it's not going well, Harry," said Frank.
"No," said Henri, almost with a sob in his voice. "It looks to me, too, as
if the Germans were winning!"
"But many thought they would win, at first," said Frank. "It's not time

to be discouraged yet, Harry. At first we all believed the Belgians