Tom Slade with the Boys Over There

Slade with the Boys Over There,
by Percy K. Fitzhugh

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Title: Tom Slade with the Boys Over There
Author: Percy K. Fitzhugh
Illustrator: R. Emmett Owen
Release Date: July 31, 2006 [EBook #18954]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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SLADE WITH THE BOYS OVER THERE ***

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[Illustration: "I AM--AMERICAN. MY NAME--IS TOM SLADE."
Frontispiece (Page 9)]

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TOM SLADE WITH THE BOYS OVER THERE
BY PERCY K. FITZHUGH
Author of TOM SLADE, BOY SCOUT TOM SLADE AT TEMPLE
CAMP TOM SLADE ON THE RIVER TOM SLADE ON A
TRANSPORT
Illustrated by R. EMMETT OWEN
Published With the Approval of THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS: NEW YORK
Made in the United States of America
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Copyright, 1918, by GROSSET & DUNLAP
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To
F. A. O.
The real Tom Slade, whose extraordinary adventures on land and sea
put these storied exploits in the shade, this book is dedicated with
envious admiration.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I THE HOME IN ALSACE 1 II AN APPARITION 5 III TOM'S
STORY 12 IV THE OLD WINE VAT 22 V THE VOICE FROM THE
DISTANCE 32 VI PRISONERS AGAIN 38 VII WHERE THERE'S A

WILL---- 42 VIII THE HOME FIRE NO LONGER BURNS 51 IX
FLIGHT 58 X THE SOLDIER'S PAPERS 64 XI THE SCOUT
THROUGH ALSACE 72 XII THE DANCE WITH DEATH 79 XIII
THE PRIZE SAUSAGE 84 XIV A RISKY DECISION 90 XV HE
WHO HAS EYES TO SEE 97 XVI THE WEAVER OF MERNON
103 XVII THE CLOUDS GATHER 112 XVIII IN THE RHINE 118
XIX TOM LOSES HIS FIRST CONFLICT WITH THE ENEMY 124
XX A NEW DANGER 131 XXI COMPANY 137 XXII BREAKFAST
WITHOUT FOOD CARDS 141 XXIII THE CATSKILL VOLCANO
IN ERUPTION 145 XXIV MILITARY ETIQUETTE 155 XXV TOM
IN WONDERLAND 162 XXVI MAGIC 167 XXVII
NONNENMATTWEIHER 174 XXVIII AN INVESTMENT 180
XXIX CAMOUFLAGE 184 XXX THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE 190
XXXI THE END OF THE TRAIL 196
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TOM SLADE WITH THE BOYS OVER THERE
CHAPTER I
THE HOME IN ALSACE
In the southwestern corner of the domains of Kaiser Bill, in a fair
district to which he has no more right than a highwayman has to his
victim's wallet, there is a quaint old house built of gray stone and
covered with a clinging vine.
In the good old days when Alsace was a part of France the old house
stood there and was the scene of joy and plenty. In these evil days when
Alsace belongs to Kaiser Bill, it stands there, its dim arbor and pretty,
flower-laden trellises in strange contrast to the lumbering army wagons
and ugly, threatening artillery which pass along the quiet road.
And if the prayers of its rightful owners are answered, it will still stand
there in the happy days to come when fair Alsace shall be a part of

France again and Kaiser Bill and all his clanking claptrap are gone
from it forever.
The village in which this pleasant homestead stands is close up under
the boundary of Rhenish Bavaria, or Germany proper (or improper),
and in the happy days when Alsace was a part of France it had been
known as Leteur, after the French family which for generations had
lived in the old gray house.
But long before Kaiser Bill knocked down Rheims Cathedral and
black-jacked Belgium and sank the Lusitania, he changed the name of
this old French village to Dundgardt, showing that even then he
believed in Frightfulness; for that is what it amounted to when he
changed Leteur to Dundgardt.
But he could not very well change the old family name, even if he
could change the names of towns and villages in his stolen province,
and old Pierre Leteur and his wife and daughter lived in the old house
under the Prussian menace, and managed the vineyard and talked
French on the sly.
On a certain fair evening old Pierre and his wife and daughter sat in the
arbor and chatted in the language which they loved. The old man had
lost an arm in the fighting when his beloved Alsace was lost to France
and he had come back here still young but crippled and broken-hearted,
to live under the Germans because this was the home of his people. He
had found the old house and the vineyard devastated.