Tom Slade with the Boys Over There | Page 7

in their apprehension it hurt them to skimp their hospitality or
suffer any shadow to be cast on a stranger's welcome.
Florette led the way along a narrow board path running back from the
house, through an endless maze of vine-covered arbor, which
completely roofed all the grounds adjacent to the house. Tom,
accustomed only to the small American grape arbor, was amazed at the
extent of this vineyard.
"Reminds you of an elevated railroad, don't it," said Archer.
On the rickety uprights (for the arbor like everything else on the old
place was going to ruin under the alien blight) large baskets hung here
and there. At intervals the structure sagged so that they had to stoop to
pass under it, and here and there it was broken or uncovered and they
caught glimpses of the sky.
They went over a little hillock and, still beneath the arbor, came upon a
place where the vines had fallen away from the ramshackle trellis and
formed a spreading mass upon the ground.

"You see?" whispered the girl in her pretty way. "Here Armand he
climb. Here he hide to drop ze grapes down my neck--so. Bad boy! So
zen it break--crash! He tumbled down. Ah--my pappa so angry. We
must nevaire climb on ze trellis. You see? Here I sit and laugh--so
much--when he tumble down!"
She smiled and for a moment seemed all happiness, but Tom Slade
heard a sigh following close upon the smile. He did not know what to
say so he simply said in his blunt way:
"I guess you had good times together."
"Now I will zhow you," she said, stooping to pull away the heavy
tangle of vine.
Tom and Archer helped her and to their surprise there was revealed a
trap-door about six feet in diameter with gigantic rusty hinges.
"Ziss is ze cave--you see?" she said, stooping to lift the door. Tom bent
but she held him back. "Wait, I will tell you. Zen you can open it." For
a moment pleasant recollections seemed to have the upper hand, and
there was about her a touch of that buoyancy which had made her
brother so attractive to sober Tom.
"Wait--zhest till I tell you. When I come back from ze school in
England I have read ze story about 'Kidnap.' You know?"
"It's by Stevenson; I read it," said Archer.
"You know ze cave vere ze Scotch man live? So ziss is our cave. Now
you lift."
The door did not stir at first and Florette, laughing softly, raised the big
L band which bent over the top and lay in a rusted padlock eye.
"Now."
The boys raised the heavy door, to which many strands of the vine
clung, and Florette placed a stick to hold it up at an angle. Peering

within by the light of a match, they saw the interior of what appeared to
be a mammoth hogshead from which emanated a stale, but pungent
odor. It was, perhaps, seven feet in depth and the same in diameter and
the bottom was covered with straw.
"It is ze vat--ze wine vat," whispered Florette, amused at their surprise.
"Here we keep ze wine zat will cost so much.--But no more.--We make
no wine ziss year," she sighed. "Ziss makes ze fine flavor--ze earth all
around. You see?"
"It's a dandy place to hide," said Archer.
"So here you will stay and you will be safe. Tomorrow in ze night I
shall bring you more food and some clothes. I am so sorry----"
"There ain't anything to be sorry about," said Tom. "There's lots of
room in there--more than there is in a bivouac tent. And it'll be
comfortable on that straw, that's one sure thing. If you knew the kind of
place we slept in up there in the prison you'd say this was all right.
We'll stay here and rest all day tomorrow and after you bring us the
things at night we'll sneak out and hike it along."
"I will not dare to come in ze daytime," said Florette, "but after it is
dark, zen I will come. You must have ze cover almost shut and I will
pull ze vines over it."
"We'll tend to that," said Tom.
"We'll camouflage it, all right," Archer added.
For a moment she lingered as if thinking if there were anything more
she might do for their comfort. Then against her protest, Tom
accompanied her part way back and they paused for a moment under
the thickly covered trellis, for she would not let him approach the
house.
"I'm sorry we made you so much trouble," he said; "it's only because
we want to get to where we can fight for you."

"Oh, yess, I know," she answered sadly. "My pappa, it break his