The Boy Scouts on the Trail | Page 2

time will come--the time of La Revanche. Tell me, Frank, you have seen the Place de la Concorde, in Paris?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Do you remember the statue of Strassburg? How it is always draped in black--with mourning wreaths?"
"Yes."
"The day is coming when the black shall be stripped off! Alsace-Lorraine--they are French at heart, those lost provinces of ours! They shall be French again in name, too. Strassburg shall guard the Rhine for us again--Metz shall be a French fortress once more. We shall fight again--and next time we shall be ready! We shall win!"
"I hope so--if war comes again," said Frank, soberly. "But--"
"If war comes?" said Harry, surprised. "Don't you know it must come? France knows that--France makes ready. We shall not seek the war. But it is not enough for us to desire peace. The Prussians are afraid of us. They will never rest content while we are strong. They thought they had crushed us forever in 1870--but France was too great for them to crush! They made us pay a thousand million francs--they thought we should take years and years to pay, and that meanwhile they would keep their soldiers on our land, in our fortresses! But no! France paid, and quickly. And ever since we have prepared for the time when they would try to finish their work."
"If war comes, I am for France," said Frank, still soberly. "But war is a dreadful thing, Henri."
"We know that--we in France," said Harry. "But there are things that are worse than war, Frank. A peace that is without honor is among them. We do not want to fight, but we are not afraid. When the time comes, as it is sure to come, we shall be ready. But enough of that. There will be no war this year or next. We have not settled about your coming home with me. You will come?"
"I'd love to," said Frank. "If the head master says I can, I will most gladly. But will your people want me?"
"My friends are their friends," said Harry. "My mother says always, 'Bring a friend with you, Henri.' Oh, there will be plenty for us to do, too. We shall take long walks and play tennis and ride and shoot. Let us settle it to-day. Come now to the office with me. We will ask the head master."
They went forthwith to speak to Monsieur Donnet, the head of the school, who received them in his office. The school was a small one but it numbered among its pupils several English and American boys, whose parents wanted them for one reason or another to acquire a thorough knowledge of French. He heard their request, which was put by Henri, pleasantly.
"Yes, that will be very well," he said. "I have been thinking of you, Barnes. Your uncle has written to me that he will be here about the tenth or fifteenth of August, and asked permission for you to stay here until then. But--"
They waited, while M. Donnet thought for a moment.
"Yes, this will be much better," he said. "I--I have been a little troubled about you, Barnes. If all were well, you might stay here very well. But--" Again he paused.
"These are strange times," he said. "Boys, have you read in the newspapers of the trouble between Austria and Servia?"
They looked startled.
"A little, sir," said Frank. "There's always trouble, isn't there, in those parts?"
"Yes, but this may--who knows?--be different. I do not say there is more danger than usual but I have heard things, from friends, that have made me thoughtful. I am a colonel of the reserve!"
Henri's eyes gleamed suddenly, as they had a few minutes before when he had talked of how France was ready for what might be in store for her.
"Do you mean that there may be war, sir?" he asked, leaning forward eagerly.
"No one knows," said the master. "But there are strange tales. Aeroplanes that no one recognizes have flown above the border in the Vosges. There are tales of fresh troops that the Germans are sending to Metz, to D��sseldorf, to Neu Breisach." He struck his hand suddenly on his desk. "But this I feel--that when war comes it will be like the stroke of lightning from a clear sky! When there is much talk, there is never war. When it comes it will be because the diplomats will not have time, they and the men with money, the Rothschilds and the others, to stop it. And if there should be trouble, not a man would be left in this school. So, Barnes, I should be easier if you were with Martin. I approve. That is well, boys."
Both boys were excited as they left the office.
"He talks as if he knew something, or felt something, that is still a secret!" said Frank, excitedly. "I