Facing the German Foe | Page 7

the places that must be guarded. The waterworks, the gas
tanks, the railroads that lead to the seaports and that will be used by the
troops."
A startled burst of exclamations answered him.
"Why, there won't be any fighting in England, sir, will there?" asked
Dick Mercer, in surprise.
"We all hope not," said Grenfel. "But that's not what I mean. It doesn't
take an army to destroy a railroad. One man with a bomb and a time
fuse attached to it can blow up a culvert and block a whole line so that
precious hours might be lost in getting troops aboard a transport. One
man could blow up a waterworks or a gas tank or cut an important
telegraph or telephone wire!"

"You mean that there will be Germans here trying to hurt England any
way they can, don't you, sir?" asked Harry Fleming.
"I mean exactly that," said Grenfel. "We don't know this--we can't be
sure of it. But we've got good reason to believe that there are a great
many Germans here, seemingly peaceable enough, who are regularly in
the pay of the German government as spies. We don't know the
German plans. But there is no reason, so far as we know, why their
great Zeppelin airships shouldn't come sailing over England, to drop
bombs down where they can do the most harm. There is nothing except
our own vigilance to keep these spies, even if they have to work alone,
from doing untold damage!"
"We could be useful as sentries, then?" said Leslie Franklin. He drew a
deep breath. "I never thought of things like that, sir! I'm just beginning
to see how useful we really might be. We could do a lot of things
instead of soldiers, couldn't we? So that they would be free to go and
fight?"
"Yes," answered the scoutmaster. "And I can tell you now that the
National Scout Council has always planned to 'Be Prepared!' It decided,
a long time ago, what should be done in case of war. A great many
troops will be offered to the War Department to do odd jobs. They will
carry messages and dispatches. They will act as clerks, so far as they
can. They will patrol the railways and other places that ought to be
under guard, where soldiers can be spared if we take their places. So far
as such things can be planned, they have been planned.
"But most of the ways in which we can be useful haven't showed
themselves at all yet. They will develop, if war comes. We shall have to
be alert and watchful, and do whatever there is to be done."
"Who will be scoutmaster, sir, if you go to the war?" asked Harry.
"I'm not quite sure," said Grenfel. "We haven't decided yet. But it will
be someone you can trust--be sure of that. And I think I needn't say that
if you scouts have any real regard for me you will show it best by
serving as loyally and as faithfully under him as you have under me. I

shall be with you in spirit, no matter where I am. Now it's getting late. I
think we'd better break up for to-night. We will make a special order,
too, for the present. Every scout in the troop will report at scout
headquarters until further notice, every day, at nine o'clock in the
morning.
"I think we'll have to make up our minds not to play many games for
the time that is coming. There is real work ahead of us if war
comes--work just as real and just as hard, in its way, as if we were all
going to fight for England. Everyone cannot fight, but the ones who
stay at home and do the work that comes to their hands will serve
England just as loyally as if they were on the firing line! Now--up, all
of you! Three cheers for King George!"
They were given with a will--and Harry Fleming joined in as heartily as
any of them. He was as much of an American as he had ever been, but
something in him responded with a strange thrill to England's need, as
Grenfel had expressed it. After all, England had been and was the
mother country. England and America had fought, in their time, and
America had won, but now, for a hundred years, there had been peace
between them. And he and these English boys were of the same blood
and the same language, binding them very closely together.
"Blood is thicker than water, after all!" he thought.
Then every scout there shook hands with John Grenfel. He smiled as he
greeted them.
"I hope this will pass over," he said, "and that we'll do together during
this vacation