CHAPTER IX A FIGHT IN THE DARK

Jerry and Bob got out of the automobile to go up to read the notice for themselves. As Ned had informed them, a meeting was called, on whose behalf was not stated, to protest against the reported action of the military authorities in sending recruits to do battle on foreign soil.

“We will defend our own country to the last ditch,” was one of the statements made, “but we will not send our youth of the land abroad to fight for foreign kings!”

“Bah, that makes me sick!” declared Jerry. “What do they want to do? Wait until the foreign Kaiser comes over here to kill our women and children before they’re willing to fight?”

“Looks so,” admitted Ned.

“Well, it won’t look so long!” announced Jerry. “I agree with you, Bob, that this meeting ought not to be held. It’s encouraging sedition. The military authorities ought to know about it.”

“Let’s tell Colonel Wentworth!” suggested Ned.

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“Yes, we’ll tell him and also let the recruiting officer in Richfield know about it,” agreed Jerry. “The military authorities may want to have a representative present to listen to the talk. If some of these pro-Germans get too rambunctious they may get sat on.”

“And I’d like to do some of the sitting!” added Ned.

“I’ll help,” offered Chunky.

“And that will be some aid,” laughed Jerry, as he looked at his stout friend.

“Yes, that’s what we’ll do—tell the colonel and the recruiting officer,” went on Jerry. “I’ve read about some of these meetings being held in other places. They are started, financed and encouraged by German agents here, the same agents that sent out the warning against sailing on the Lusitania! The wretches! Boys, this meeting ought not to be held!” And there were peculiar looks that passed back and forth among the three chums.

“Do you remember,” asked Ned, reminiscently, as they motored onward, “that the seniors were going to hold a meeting at Boxwood Hall, once, and that we broke it up?”

“I should say I do remember!” exclaimed Jerry.

“Well—” Ned spoke suggestively.

“Oh,” said Jerry.

Bob’s eyes showed interest.

“Something doing?” he queried.

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“Better hang around a bit and watch,” advised his tall chum.

“You get my meaning, I see,” said Ned, with a laugh.

The recruiting officer at Richfield was both interested and delighted at the call of the boys. He was delighted at getting such fine-appearing recruits, for the motor boys were above the average in physique, though it could not be denied that Bob was a bit fat.

“But a few setting up exercises will take that off you in jig time,” said the recruiting officer.

His interest, too, was keen on getting the information the boys had to give about the pro-German meeting.

“So they are starting already, are they?” demanded Lieutenant Riker. “Well, we’ll have to expect that. However, they must not go too far—these pacifists and these lovers of the Kaiser. Uncle Sam is pretty easy; too easy, I say, but he has a long arm. I’m much obliged to you boys for the information. I’ll have one or two regular men there, just to listen and to report to the Department of Justice. And as for you——”

“Oh, we’ll be there!” exclaimed Jerry. “We wouldn’t miss it. We are going to tell Colonel Wentworth about it, and he may have something to suggest.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he did,” commented[71] Lieutenant Riker with a smile. “Well, I’ll leave that part to you. Now about this enlistment. It’s fine of you to be among the first to come in. There’ll be plenty more too, when they find out a draft is coming.

“Not that it is to the discredit of any one to be in the selective service, as it is going to be called,” he went on. “No higher honor can come to a man. But the advantage of enlisting is that you can pick your own branch of service, and that will be of value. Have you boys any idea where you’d like to be?”

“I’d like aeroplane work,” said Jerry. “We’ve had experience in that.”

“I was thinking of submarines,” put in Ned.

“Why not the artillery?” asked Bob. “You know we had a little to do with explosives when we went out west to our mine.”

“I see you boys know a little something about all three branches of the service,” commented the lieutenant. “Well, perhaps it will be best for you to volunteer for the infantry at first, and, later, make application to be transferred. You can do this as long as you have volunteered.”

“That’s what we’ll do,” said Jerry. So, having formally enlisted, with the consent of their parents, the boys were told that word would be sent to them in a few days where to report for preliminary examinations and training.

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“And now we’ll get back and see about that meeting!” exclaimed Jerry.

“I shall be interested in the outcome,” said the recruiting officer.

“I hope you won’t be disappointed,” remarked Jerry, with a smile.

Colonel Wentworth was at once interested and indignant.

“The idea!” he exclaimed. “What! allowing a pro-German meeting in Cresville? And especially when some of her sons are going to be in the new army! It’s infamous!”

“What had we better do?” asked Ned.

“We’d better do something to teach these scoundrels a lesson!” declared the colonel, who was a good deal of a “fire-eater,” though no finer patriotic gentleman lived. “I’ll speak to some of my friends, and we’ll be at the meeting.”

“We expect to do the same,” said Bob. “We have some friends, too. We’ll all be there.”

“Of course,” went on the colonel, “every man is entitled to his own opinion, to a certain extent. But I don’t believe that when we are at war a set of men who, for their own advancement came over here to make money, can, when war is declared against the country they used to live in, side with that country and against the land that has given them everything they have, and has made them everything they are. There should[73] be no more German-Americans! We should all be Americans. And any meeting or gathering that tends to foster this divided spirit, any gathering of misguided individuals which has for an object the weakening of our righteous war-like spirit, should be broken up.”

“And we’ll attend to the breaking-up!” exclaimed Jerry. “Come on, boys! We’ve got lots to do!”

And for the rest of that day Ned, Bob and Jerry were very busy.

There was a large gathering at the meeting held under the auspices of the “Friends of Liberty,” as they called themselves. Just who the prime movers were was not certain, but some men, whose names proclaimed their former nationality, whatever it might be now, were actively engaged in making the arrangements. Among them was Mr. Schaeffer, who was seen hurrying to and fro from the front entrance to the rooms back of the stage, where the speakers were sequestered.

Ned, Bob and Jerry, with some of their chums, were among the early arrivals at the hall. Bob took a survey over the audience and bowed to some one.

“Some one else we can get to help when the row starts?” asked Jerry.

“It’s Helena,” answered Bob, and he seemed a trifle uneasy. “Say, boys, what are we going to[74] do about the women and girls?” he asked. “We don’t want any of them roughly treated.”

“There won’t be any rough treatment,” said Jerry. “All those who wish, will be given a chance to leave the hall peaceably first.

“And then the whole thing may fizzle out. It all depends on the line of talk the speakers hand out. Lieutenant Riker said we’re not to stand for anything seditious, or that would tend to discourage recruiting. It may be that these Kaiserites will only generalize and not particularize enough to give us cause for action. We’ve got to wait. But don’t worry about Helena. She’ll be all right, whatever happens.”

Bob seemed easier after this, but it was noticed that his gaze strayed often toward that section of the hall where Miss Schaeffer sat.

Meanwhile her father and two or three other members of the committee hurried to and fro. If Mr. Schaeffer saw the boys, he did not speak to them.

The meeting opened peaceably enough with a statement by Mr. Schaeffer to the effect that war was a terrible thing, and something to be avoided by all peace-loving people, which was the kind making up the population of the United States. If other nations wanted to engage in battle, let them, was his argument. But let them keep away from those who did not want to fight. Of[75] course, he suggested, there were certain rights which must be upheld, and on these other speakers would dwell. He introduced Adolph Pfeiffer as the principal orator of the evening.

There were a few murmurs as Mr. Schaeffer sat down, but nothing serious. He had not come out strongly enough to warrant any open challenge, though his weak and lack-of-back-bone policy made some of the audience sneer. Ned, Bob and Jerry looked over toward several regular soldiers seated not far from them. They had been sent by Colonel Riker, but they gave no sign that there was any need for action yet.

Mr. Pfeiffer was a lawyer, and his name indicated his leanings. He began by counseling patience and prudence, and dwelt on the legal aspects of war, what belligerents had a right to do, and what was against international law. Then he spoke of the entrance of the United States into the war, and he did not challenge the right of the government to make such a declaration.

“But I do say,” he went on, after a short pause, “that the United States has no right to send our boys across the water to fight with the French and the English against Germany. The United States has no right to do that!”

“Why not?” some one in the audience demanded.

“Because it is a violation of constitutional rights.[76] We may defend our land from an invasion, but Germany is not going to invade us. It is not right to send our soldiers to fight her.”

“That’s right!” cried Mr. Schaeffer. “This war is not a good war. We should not go abroad to fight Germany. Our country is doing wrong and we should not uphold her when she——”

“Treason! Treason!” came the cries from all over the hall.

“TREASON! TREASON!” CAME THE CRIES FROM ALL OVER THE HALL.

“I guess it’s time to start something!” exclaimed Ned, starting to his feet. On one side of the hall he saw the soldiers rising. On the other Colonel Wentworth was shaking his fist at the men on the platform, and shouting something that could not be heard.

“There’ll be a riot in a minute!” cried Bob, as he started toward that part of the hall where Helena Schaeffer had been sitting.

“There’s going to be a fight, I guess,” said Jerry calmly. And then he yelled: “Let the women and children get out! This is no place for them!”

There were some frightened screams and squeals, and a rush on the part of a number of women to reach the exits. Ushers helped them, and a quick glance showed Bob that Helena had gone with them.

Meanwhile the men on the platform, the German-American speakers, were holding a hasty[77] consultation. Colonel Wentworth was advancing up the aisle, calling for three cheers for the stars and stripes, and the singing of the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

“Quiet! Quiet!” roared Mr. Schaeffer, his Teutonic accent coming back to him. “Sit down. You have no right to interrupt this peaceable meeting, Colonel Wentworth!”

“That’s the trouble with it! It’s too peaceful—too traitorous!” cried the former soldier. “I call on all good Americans to put an end to this seditious talk!” he shouted.

“We’re with you to the finish!” exclaimed Jerry.

“Put ’em out!” some one called.

“Don’t stand for any seditious talk!” advised some one beside the colonel.

Ned, Bob and Jerry kept together. They saw half a dozen soldiers, regulars from the recruiting station, walking toward the platform.

Just then some one threw a chair over the heads of the crowd toward the platform. It broke some of the electric lights with pops like those of a distant revolver.

“It’s a shame to stop our speakers!” declared a man next to Jerry, and his voice was unmistakably German.

“Oh, is it? Say, what kind of an American are you?” asked Ned.

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“Chust as goot vot you are!” came the quick answer. “I show you dot you can’t——!”

He aimed a blow at Ned, who, to guard himself quickly raised his arm, and, in so doing, accidentally struck the German in the face. The latter let out a roar, and at once began to fling his arms around like flails.

“Grab him!” cried Jerry to Bob, who was beside Ned.

In another instant fights started in several parts of the hall, and there were shouts and yells, some calling for order and others yelling just from excitement.

“There’s going to be a fight!” joyously cried Jerry. “Stick together, boys!”

An instant later the lights went out, and the fight, spreading to all parts of the auditorium, became general in the darkness. There was the sound of blows, the crashing of chairs, and the shouts of the enraged ones.