[Illustration: âI ran straight on, regardless of bombs dropping all around me.â (Page 124)] BILLY WHISKERS IN FRANCE BY FRANCES TREGO MONTGOMERY AUTHOR OF âBILLY WHISKERS,â âBILLY WHISKERSâ KIDS,â âBILLY WHISKERS IN THE SOUTH,â âBILLY WHISKERS IN CAMP,â âZIP, THE ADVENTURES OF A FRISKY FOX TERRIER,â ETC. [Illustration] ILLUSTRATED BY FLORENCE WHITE WILLIAMS THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AKRON, OHIO NEW YORK Copyright 1919, by The Saalfield Publishing Co. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I BILLY WHISKERS GROWS HOMESICK 7 II BILLY UNEXPECTEDLY MEETS A FRIEND 15 III AN INOPPORTUNE SNEEZE 23 IV THE GENERAL RECAPTURES BILLY 35 V BILLY NEARLY KILLS THE COOK 47 VI BILLY RELATES SOME OF HIS ADVENTURES 59 VII BUTTON FRIGHTENS TWO NURSES 75 VIII BILLY MAKES PLANS TO LEAVE FRANCE 83 IX BUTTON DISCOVERS SPIES IN THE HAYMOW 95 X BUTTON MAKES THE FARMER FIGHTING MAD 109 XI THE CHUMS ON A CANAL BOAT 123 XII BUTTON HAS A FIGHT WITH A WHARF RAT 135 XIII A DOG CEMETERY IN PARIS 143 XIV WHAT THE CHUMS DID IN PARIS 153 XV BLOWN UP BY A SUBMARINE 165 ILLUSTRATIONS âI ran straight on, regardless of bombs dropping all around meâ _Frontispiece_ PAGE Every man of them jumped as if shot 30 Billy gave one long, loud baa that resounded down the big, bare room 66 Away went Billy, jerking the cook around trees, over stumps and beehives 92 One thing Billy butted was a basket full of clothes 118 The first thing Billy knew, he was rolling over something soft that squealed like a stuck pig and that kicked like a calf 148 _Billy Whiskers in France_ CHAPTER I BILLY WHISKERS GROWS HOMESICK As Billy Whiskers lay in an American camp somewhere over in France, he became very restless and soon had the blues from thinking of his dear Nannie so far away--away over in America, with that deep, deep, wide, blue ocean between them, infested not only with huge sea monsters belonging to the finny tribe, but also with death-dealing, quickly moving submarines and torpedo boats belonging to the German Kaiser. âI want dreadfully to go home! Still I hate to risk my life on any ship that sails the seas these days, for it may be blown sky high at any moment, or sunk to the nethermost depths of the ocean. There is no way to walk around, and I donât suppose I could get any one to let me go with them in an airship. So here I must remain, or trust my life to some troop ship returning to America for more soldiers. I just believe I will do it! I have lost all interest in the War over here since my master was wounded and was invalided home. Home! The very word makes me so homesick I canât see for tears. Well, Iâll just fix this homesickness, so I will! I start for there this very minute. It is a good dark night and I think I can slip out of camp easily as they have not been watching me so closely since my master was sent away.â Suiting the action to the words, Billy jumped up, shook himself, took a long breath and said to himself, âHereâs luck to you, old fellow, on your long, long, perilous journey! And may you reach the other side and once more see your loving little wife Nannie and all your children and grandchildren!â Then he gave a flick of his tail and started on a brisk run for the least guarded entrance to the camp, to try to sneak through. âMy, but it is lonesome traveling by myself!â he thought. âI do wish Stubby and Button were here to accompany me on this journey.â Billy was so busy thinking of his old friends Stubby, the little yellow dog with a stubby tail, and Button, the big black cat with blazing eyes like buttons, that he reached the entrance to the camp before he knew it, and he managed to slip out without being stopped, for there was a jam at the gate caused by many big ambulances going out and army trucks coming in. âHumph!â said Billy to himself. âIf I get over all my difficulties as easily as I got through that gate and past the guards, my journey will be a smooth and pleasant one.â He had been traveling some time when he heard some one say, âHi, there, Billy Whiskers! What are you doing outside of camp? Looks to me as if you were trying to run away.â This from a driver of an ambulance who knew Billy was not to be allowed to escape from the camp. âCome here and I will give you a nice red apple.â âSee anything green in my eye?â winked back Billy. âI know you! You would give me an apple with one hand and slip a rope around my neck with the other. Anyway, whereâs your apple? _I_ donât see any!â âHere, Billy! Stop, I tell you, and come here! If you donât like apples, here is a handful of salt,â and the soldier held his hand out as if he had it full of salt. But Billy was too keen for him. He had seen him close his hand over nothing before offering it to him. So he kept right on walking as if he had not heard the soldier. âSay, Bill, this is no joke! It is the Generalâs orders that you are not to escape, but to be made to stay in camp until we go home. You are too valuable a goat to allow the Germans to make you up into chops and roasts. Besides, when we get home we want to show the goat that stole Von Luxemburgâs maps and plans from under his very nose, and also butted or hooked all his staff into a heap in the corner of his own little room. If you wonât come back for apples or salt or coaxing, very well! Iâll have to lasso you, or shoot you in one of your legs so you cannot run away,â and the soldier turned his back to look for a rope in the ambulance, as he preferred to lasso Billy rather than shoot him. He was an expert with the lasso, as he had come from a ranch away out in Montana to join the army, and was considered the best hand with the rope in all Montana. [Illustration] âHuh!â grunted Billy. âI must have run into Lasso Jake. If this is so, I better be getting a move on me and pushing my leg.â As luck would have it, right before Billy was a creek, with a temporary bridge across it. Down the bank beside the bridge plunged Billy, for he knew the bank was so high that the cowboy soldier could not throw his lasso so as to catch him. Instead of trying to climb out the other side of the creek, Billy kept on in the middle of the swift-flowing stream, swimming against the current, though he could not make much progress against it. Presently he heard voices and turning his head he saw two soldiers standing on the bridge and one was swinging a lasso over his head. Billy waited to see no more, but ducked. And just as his head disappeared under the water, he heard the splash of the rope as it hit the surface of the water just where his head had been. âGood thing I ducked! If I hadnât, they would now be pulling me to shore with a lasso around my neck. Gee, but that was a close call, and that cowboy soldier is some lasso thrower! I never saw his equal, even in a circus. I think he better get a flying machine and fly over the German line and watch his chance to rope the Kaiser or the Crown Prince, some of the Generals and other high monkey-monks.â And Billy laughed to himself at the spectacle of the Kaiser being made to walk into an American camp with a lasso around his neck. Billy forgot he could not open his mouth to laugh under water, and he began to choke so he had to stop swimming under water and come to the surface. Just as he did so, his eye caught sight of a soldier standing on the bank of the stream with a lasso hanging from his hand ready to throw the moment Billyâs head appeared above the surface of the water. He was about to dive again when he heard a cry for help from the bridge. The soldier turned and ran to rescue a man who had fallen into the water, calling as he went down, âSave me! I canât swim!â Billy crawled out of the stream and stood watching the soldier with the lasso trying to save his comrade. He was having a hard time for as the man went down he struck his head on a stone, which stunned him, and now he was being carried downstream by the swift current and knocked against the bowlders over which the water frothed. Try as he would, the cowboy soldier was put to it to catch up to him as the swift current bore his chumâs body ever and still ever ahead of him. But at last his comradeâs body caught between two rocks and was held there until the cowboy soldier overtook it. The cold water had revived the man, so that by the time his soldier chum reached him he was coming to his senses. Billy only waited to see that the man was alive and then he left them sitting in midstream, each on a big rock that raised its head above the water. He thought it wise to cut sticks for safety and ran into a thick woods he saw, which would serve to hide him from the soldiers should they cross the bridge and try to follow him. This, however, they did not do, knowing it would be useless to try to catch Billy when he had such a start. As soon as he could, Billy found his way out of the woods to the road he had left. After following it for some time he found it led out to the main highway to Paris. This road Billy knew he must follow or he could never find his way back to the seacoast. Once in Paris, he knew he must pass through it and then keep straight on in a westerly direction until he came to the English Channel. Once there, he would follow the coast until he came to a port from which boats were sailing for America. Then he would watch his chance to steal aboard and sail for home. Billy was very good at directions and from the moment he had landed in France he had taken special pains to keep the points of the compass straight in his head, so that if he ever wanted to return home alone he would find his way. Now it proved what a wise old goat he was, for all he had to do was to travel by the sun and North Star in a northeasterly direction until he came to Paris and from there in a westerly until he reached the English Channel, from one of whose ports he had disembarked when he came to France. But it was discouraging to think how very far it was and what privations and hardships he would have to endure and overcome before he reached his destination. But Billy Whiskers was a regular old soldier by this time and well used to hardships and hard knocks of all kinds. So he only heaved a long sigh and then ran all the faster, knowing that every step he took brought him just that much nearer home and Nannie. âIf I tried to count the steps I shall have to take before reaching home, it would be like counting the sands of the sea. I shanât try, but just push on and I know I shall get there some day.â âBow-wow-wow!â barked a big Dane in his deep voice. âBow! Wow! Wow!â came the short, sharp, snappy barks from a short-legged Scotch terrier as they bounded out of a gate beside the road, ready to pounce on Billy. They were followed by poodles, collies, St. Bernards, and all manner of dogs, both great and small. Billy thought he had never seen so many dogs of different breeds in one place in all his life. You see he had run into a dog hospital, and these were the convalescent dogs which were allowed to play together in the yard. [Illustration] Not one of these dogs tried to bite Billy, and after they had given up trying to frighten him by barking in their fiercest way as if about to eat him alive, they quieted down and became as docile as lambs. CHAPTER II BILLY UNEXPECTEDLY MEETS A FRIEND âGood-morning, friends!â baaed Billy. âWould you allow a tired traveler to rest under the shade of your trees, and give him a drink of water? For I am a stranger in a strange land, and have traveled far. I am an American.â âYou an _American_?â exclaimed the dogs in chorus. âNow we surely are glad to meet you!â barked the big Dane. âFor if there is any place on earth we dogs have longed to see, it is America. Probably you will tell us about it?â âYes,â said another dog. âWe have heard that every dog has his day over there and many of them two or three.â âWe have also heard,â added a French poodle, âthat all dogs are free over there, and can go and come as they like, and that they are never tied up, shut in a house or muzzled. Is that true?â âYes and no,â replied Billy. âIt depends on where you live and who your master or mistress is.â âWhy, we have heard,â piped up a little black and tan, âthat any dog can choose his own master or mistress, and that all he has to do if he doesnât like them or isnât pleased with the way they treat him is to walk off and follow the first person he sees that he thinks he would like to live with, and that they will take him home with them and feed and house him.â [Illustration] âAgain you are partly right and partly wrong,â replied Billy. âIt depends on whom you run away from and whom you pick out to be your new master or mistress. You might happen to belong to some one who was very fond of you, though you might not be fond of them. In that case if you ran away they would advertise and try to get you back, but if you had proved yourself to be a good-for-nothing dog, they would let you go and say âGood riddance to bad rubbish!â and never bother their heads about you. âThen again you might show poor judgment in selecting a new master and choose one who did not care for dogs, and when he found you following him he might throw sticks and stones at you. So you see you canât always be sure of changing masters successfully.â âDid you just come from America?â asked a fourth. âOh, no! I have been over here nearly a year now, with the army.â âYou donât mean to tell us that you have really and truly been with the army?â âSurely not at the front!â added another in amazement. âBut I have!â Billy assured them. âI have crossed No-Manâs-Land many times, and been shot at and blown up once besides. See where a piece of my tail is gone? Well, I lost it at Verdun. A bomb exploded and threw me up in the air and also blew off part of my tail. I consider myself very lucky that it decided to blow a piece off that end of my body instead of the other, for if it had been my head in place of my tail, it would have killed me. I canât get along without a head, but I can without a tail.â âHaw! Haw! Haw!â laughed the dogs. âYou surely are a funny fellow!â said one. âCome on in and we will find something for you to eat and drink and also a place to rest. Then after you have rested, I hope you will tell us more of your experiences at the front. If you will do that, we will tell you our experiences in Paris before we left there, and we will introduce you to some of our celebrated police and Red Cross dogs who have been in the war and been wounded or gassed. They will relate some thrilling adventures and hairbreadth escapes. To-night will be a good time, after our keepers have gone to bed. Then we can sneak out under the trees in the little patch of woods behind the big stables and while you brave soldiers swap tales of the war we who have never been near the war can listen. âThere goes one of our heroes now. See that dog crossing the lawn, wearing a Red Cross bandage on his chest?â Billy turned and took one long look at the dog. Then without a word of warning he put down his head and bounded toward him, taking ten or twelve feet at a single bound. The dogs stood spellbound. What was the big goat going to do? Butt their wounded hero? If so, why should he wish to butt a perfectly harmless dog he had never seen before? But had he never seen him before? Perhaps they had met and fought on the battlefield and were enemies. If so, they must all run and protect their hero from the long horns of the strange goat. But when the dogs arrived within speaking distance they were overjoyed to hear the goat baa out, âHello, old chum! How in all that is wonderful did you get here? I heard you were dead; that you had been seen with a Red Cross ambulance which had first been gassed and then blown up by a shell. One of your friends said he saw you with his own eyes sitting in the back of the ambulance when the shell struck it, and the next thing he saw was the whole ambulance flying up in the air and then coming down in small pieces.â [Illustration] âWhat he saw all happened. I was there and sitting in the back of the ambulance with my gas mask on, for the signal had been given for all to put on their masks, and one of the doctors with the ambulance corps had just stopped and strapped mine in place when a shell hit us, and I found myself going up in the air at the rate of about a hundred miles a minute. When I came down, my mask had been blown off my face. How it ever was done without killing me or blowing my head off I donât know, but it was. I thought I was all right until I began to see red, and I had a queer sensation in my head as if my brain were going round and round like a cat runs after its tail. Then I could not get my breath and I fell over, giving myself up for dead. But if you will believe it, the next thing I knew I opened my eyes and found myself in a long room with two rows of beds in it, all just like baby cribs. And bending over me was a sweet-faced lady nurse. I found myself all bound up in splints and cotton batting. You see an interne to another Red Cross ambulance who had come to look for the wounded, if any had possibly survived the blow-up, had found me senseless on the ground. So he picked me up and brought me here as this hospital for dogs was on the way to the hospital where he was stationed. This is now my fourth week here, and I want to tell you that only angels in human form live here. They are so good to one! They have nursed me back to life. I was only slightly gassed and so my lungs are all healed and I am also over my shell shock. I shall likely go back to the front in another week.â âYou donât mean that you are going back to the fighting line, do you?â asked a long white-haired collie that had fallen very much in love with the brave Red Cross dog. âOh, why do you risk your life again?â âWhy do I risk my life?â in astonishment. âTo try to save some brave soldier, whose life is a thousand times more valuable than any dogâs ever will be. Yes, I am going back and back and back as long as I have eyes, teeth or claws to go back with, until this cruel war is over.â âBully for you!â exclaimed Billy. âYou make me feel like a slacker, getting homesick and running away from the army.â âWell, it is not too late yet to go back. I propose that you stay here and rest until next week and then go back with me.â âIâll do it!â said Billy, and they rubbed noses together to seal the bargain. âI hear a bugle. What is that call for?â âOh, that is our supper call,â said the Red Cross dog. âWhen they blow the bugle all the dogs that are running loose are supposed to go to the back kitchen door. There are long troughs there in which they put our suppers. Come ahead with us, and we will give you some food. There will be plenty for all of us and for you too, for they serve very bountifully here,â and all the dogs and Billy too moved off in the direction of the kitchen. CHAPTER III AN INOPPORTUNE SNEEZE âWell, well, well! Whom have we with us?â exclaimed the cook at the dog hospital as he stood in the kitchen door in apron and cap ready to throw some more food in the dogsâ trough. âBless my soul, I believe it is Billy Whiskers!â Billy hearing his name spoken looked up, only to find himself gazing into the eyes of the cook who had once served the old General who had issued the strict orders for Billy not to be allowed to leave camp. âBilly, you old rascal, come here and let me pull your beard for luck and old timesâ sake! I will bet my whole monthâs wages that you have run away from camp.â All the time the cook was talking, he was walking toward Billy, wishing to get near enough to discover if the goat really wore around his neck a collar from which hung a medal engraved with his name. âHere, Billy, is a nice big carrot for you. Donât jerk back. I am not going to hurt you. I am only going to pat your head. Donât you remember the good old times in camp when I used to give you nice juicy apples and crisp lettuce heads?â By this time the cook was standing close by Billy, pretending to pat his head, but every time he put his fingers through his hair, he tried to feel for the collar and Billy would jerk his head away. He was afraid the cook was going to try to take off his collar and Billy had made up his mind many moons before this that if ever any one tried to take it off he would fight them to the death. Just then a little breeze blew Billyâs hair up so that it showed the medal with some engraving on it, and the cook saw it read: âThis collar was presented to Billy Whiskers by the --th New York Regiment for his bravery in battle.â âWell, Billy, I certainly am glad to see you! But I bet you have left many sad hearts behind you. I am homesick to be back with my old regiment, but I canât go. Perhaps you havenât noticed that I have a wooden leg and that part of my right arm is gone. If it was only my leg that was gone, I would be back, leg or no leg. But without my arm, I canât shoot or carry a bayonet. It breaks my heart to be near enough to hear the roar of battle as I am here, and know I canât be in it, killing off those pigs of Germans!â Just then from down the road came the sound of a high powered motor car, and the cook, stepping on a big stone to see the better, exclaimed, âIt is the General, by hookey! And I bet he is coming in here for a cup of coffee and a bite to eat, as he knows I can get it for him quicker than if he went on to the village restaurant, and better, too. He always said no one could make coffee like I can.â Billy waited to hear no more, but started to find a place to hide, well knowing the General would carry him back to camp if he saw him, even if he had to take him in the auto with him. [Illustration] The cook had forgotten all about Billy in his excitement at seeing the General. Billy took advantage of this to whisper to the dogs, telling them what was up and they all followed him as he ran toward the stable to try to find a place to hide. Just as Billy was about to turn the corner of the stable, he saw the Generalâs big touring car turn in the lane. âGee, fellows, Iâm lost if that cook even mentions my being here! For the General is equal to sending a whole squad of soldiers to find me and bring me back to camp. It would not be the first time he has done it, either!â By this time Billy and the dogs had run into the little grove of trees spoken of before, but they stayed near enough the edge to be able to see if any one started to hunt for Billy. âI tell you what I think would be a good plan,â said the Red Cross dog. âHave one of the dogs go back and hang around where he could hear everything the cook says to the General. In that way we will know whether or not he tells the General that you are here.â âExcellent idea, that!â agreed Billy. âPinky, you would be the best one to go. You are so small that you can squeeze in anywhere out of sight under a chair or sofa, and listen to all that is said.â âOh, I donât want to go! I am afraid they will kick me out if they should catch me listening. Besides, I want to stay here and hear Mr. Billy Whiskers relate his experiences. It is so dull here after Paris that I just long for some excitement, and I am sure Mr. Whiskersâ tales will be all that.â âYou run along, Miss Pinky, and Iâll tell you just what I tell them some other time all by yourself. Besides, you wonât miss much as our friend here, the Red Cross dog, can tell you adventures a hundred times more exciting than I can.â âOh, no, he canât. But I will go if you promise to repeat word for word to me all you tell them when we are alone some time.â [Illustration] âThank you very much, Miss Pinky.â âDonât call me Pinky! That is not my name! It is only a nasty, mean nickname the dogs have given me because I am afflicted with pink lids to my eyes, the same as many poodle dogs. I just _hate_ that name! But I canât stop them from using it.â âAnd pray what is your real name?â asked Billy. âRosie de la France. And it is such a pretty one I like to be called by it.â âWell, hereafter I will call you Mademoiselle Rosie de la France. But I cannot see much difference between Rosie and Pinky, as they are both pretty much the same color.â âYes, if you look at it in that way. But it is the meaning hidden under it that I hate.â âNever mind now what you are called, but run along or you will be too late to hear all the cook says to the General,â said the Red Cross dog. The dogs then all lay down under the trees in a semi-circle around Billy and the Red Cross dog, so they could hear every word that was said by either of them, but every one of them kept an eye open for any one who might round the corner of the stable. Billy and the Red Cross dog had told them their most exciting experiences in the war, interposed by stories from the other dogs, when they heard the hum and buzz of the big motor as it drove out of the lane, and at the same time they saw Pinky running toward them so fast one could scarcely see her for dust. She ran into their midst panting and all out of breath, and between gasps tried to tell them that she had slipped into the sitting-room and sneaked under a big davenport with a cover thrown over it that hid her completely, but where she could hear every word that was spoken in the room. The General was sitting at a little table only a few feet from her, eating the good things the cook had brought to him on a tray. âHe seemed in a very good humor,â she said, âand was laughing and joking with two officers who were with him when I had the misfortune to sneeze. You would have thought I had thrown a bomb the way those three men jumped to their feet and reached for their swords! ââWho sneezed?â thundered the General. ââThere is some one hiding in this room!â exclaimed one of his staff. ââCome out of the closet or from behind those curtains or wherever you are before I shoot!â commanded the General. âOf course no one came out, and I crouched down nearer the floor than ever and prayed that they would not lift the cover of that davenport and see me. I could see through the thin ruffle of the davenport cover and there they all stood stock still, with eyes searching every nook and corner of the room. Then what do you think happened? I sneezed again, and expected to be killed on the spot, but I could not help it as there was a lot of moth balls right under my nose, put there to keep the moths from eating the carpet. Well, if you will believe it, every man of them jumped again as if shot. I could see their feet leave the floor. And one of the staff said in a stage whisper, âSpies behind that curtain!â Then he marched toward it with sword in hand, and brushed the curtain aside. Of course there was no one there. Then the other staff officer flung open the closet door. No one there! Still they had heard two distinct sneezes. The General stalked to the window and looked out as it opened on the ground. I expect he thought some one might be hiding under the window, listening. No one there! Only a flower bed with bees droning and buzzing over it. And horror of horrors! As he leaned out of the window and the staff officers were looking behind chairs and under tables and even up to the ceiling I gave another big sneeze. I sneezed so hard it nearly blew my head off. I expect it was because of holding it in so long. âThis of course was my undoing. One of the staff dropped on one knee to look under the davenport. The General jerked his head back through the window, and heard the staff officer exclaim in a loud voice, âOnly a measley, sneaking little poodle dog!â and with that he stuck his sword under the davenport to prod me out. It would have cut my leg off, or run right through me, I am sure, but just then the cook opened the door to come in to remove the dishes and I jumped over the sword and ran between the legs of the staff officer who was standing between the davenport and the door, and simply flew back here. [Illustration: Every man of them jumped as if shot.] âWhen I got outside I did sneak around under the window, and heard them all laughing over the fact that a little dogâs sneeze had given them such a fright. The General said âBetter be on the right side than on the wrong, and many a warning as small as a sneeze gone unheeded has cost many lives. I would rather be too careful than not careful enough,â You see they all thought I was a spy hidden in the room somewhere. Then I heard the cook say, âGeneral, has the Regiment still got the big white goat they used to have as a mascot?â ââNo, I am sorry to say he has been missing since a week ago to-day, and we cannot get any trace of him. One of our ambulance drivers saw him on the road to Paris, and tried to catch him, but he could not. He nearly had him when a friend fell off a bridge into a creek, and would have drowned had he not left the goat and gone to his assistance. I would not have lost that goat for a thousand dollars. He knows more than most men.â ââWell, General, you have lost your thousand dollars. I know where your goat is at this minute.â ââYou do? Well, produce him and the money is yours. You know Billy is like the proverbial flea. Now you have him and now you donât. If you will show me that goat now, weâll have him in my office at camp headquarters to-morrow. Iâll give you a check for one thousand dollars, too.â ââIâll do it for you gladly, General, as you have done me many a good turn, but I cannot accept your money. And now if you will step to the door, I will show you Billy, the Mascot of the Regiment, quietly eating out of a trough at the back kitchen door.â âThe General and his staff picked up their caps and swords and followed the cook around the house to the dogsâ trough, but as you know, no goat was there. âThe General had to laugh at the blank look on the cookâs face when he turned the corner of the hospital and saw that the goat and all his dogs too had disappeared as completely as if swallowed up by an earthquake. ââWell, that beats everything I ever saw! He was here a few minutes ago. In fact, just when you drove in eight or ten of our dogs with Billy in their midst were all standing here eating and now not an animal is in sight anywhere. It beats all! I canât explain it!â ââI can,â said the General. âThat goat recognized my car, thought I was after him and lit out. He has done it before, and I doubt if any of us will ever see him again. I tell you he is sharper than the devil, whose cloven hoof he has!â ââGeneral, will you kindly do me the favor to wait till I blow my dog whistle? That is the signal for all the dogs to gather here. We will see if Billy does not come running with them.â âThe General waited. The cook blew his whistle repeatedly but no dogs showed up. Then the cook ran to the barn and around it, looking in every known hiding place the dogs had, but no goat or dog did he see. And he came back to the General and said, âWell, General, I shall have to give up beaten. He has gone and, what is more, he has taken every dog with him that is not confined to a hospital bed. I canât find hide or hair of any of them, but I am so mad that I am ready to devote months, if need be, to finding that tricky goat. And when I do I will return him to you even if I bring only his hide, horns and tail!â ââWell, here is luck to you, but I hope you will bring him alive, and not in pieces for I could make use of a live goat, but I would be hard pressed to know what to do with a dead one!â âThen with a hearty laugh all around, the General and his staff got into their auto and whizzed out of the lane, and I scurried back here to tell you all this.â CHAPTER IV THE GENERAL RECAPTURES BILLY âThank you, Miss Rosie de la France, for finding out so much for me. You certainly did have a narrow escape when under that davenport and you sneezed for you might have had your legs cut off by that officerâs sword. So the cook is going to catch me and bring me to the General, alive or dead, is he? I can tell him right now that he will never be able to give so much as one hair of my beard to him!â âHere comes the cook now!â exclaimed one of the dogs. âWe better scoot!â With that they all jumped up and ran in different directions, Billy choosing a long, circuitous course that would bring him out on the Paris road. Then and there he gave up the idea of returning to the war and entering the army again with the Red Cross dog. He soon reached the road, and once on it he put his head down like a race horse to resist the wind, and ran as he had never run before, jumping stones, ditches and uneven places on the roadway until he was completely winded. As it took a great deal to wind Billy Whiskers, you may know he traveled many, many miles and left the dogsâ hospital far behind. âI shall stop running when I come to the next stream, get a drink, take a bath, and eat whatever I can find by the roadside. Then after a good rest I shall start on again,â he planned. [Illustration] All of this he did, and he was hidden behind a big bush beside the road down by a stream, watching the big ambulances and high powered touring cars go thundering by in endless procession when, all plans to the contrary, he dropped asleep. It seemed but a minute to him after his eyes had closed when he felt something tight around his neck. He tried two or three times to loosen it by stretching his neck without taking the bother to open his eyes, but when at last he did open them, he saw standing around him three officers with broad grins on their faces. And behind them was the old General in his touring car, waiting for his officers to bring Billy to him! âI certainly was caught napping that time!â thought Billy to himself. âAnd they have me all right enough now with this strong rope around my neck. It is queer I did not hear them coming! It must have been I was so tired that it made me sleep like the dead.â âCome, get up, Billy, you old rascal, and come along without any fuss! For you are a smart enough goat to see that there is no use resisting with a rope around your neck and five men against you--we three officers with the General and his chauffeur.â Yes, Billy saw all this and as he walked along quietly behind them he wondered where they were going to put him. They could not mean to tie him behind the car as no goat, even if fitted out with twenty league boots, could keep up with the Generalâs car at the rate he drove. And with three staff officers, the General and the chauffeur he could not see where there would be room inside the car. âWell, Master Billy, you thought you had escaped from me for good, didnât you? But you see you havenât. And, what is more, you wonât escape in a hurry again, for I propose taking you right along with us, though it will crowd us some. Here I was blustering about and scolding the chauffeur for his carelessness in not seeing that we had water enough in the car to carry us through when the very lack of it led us to finding you. He got out to carry a bucket of water from the stream and found you so fast asleep behind the bush that you had not heard our approach in the car or even the chauffeurâs steps when within three or four feet of you. He had time to come back to the car and tell us what he had found, get a rope and the three officers to help me capture you while you slept on. Now, my dear Billy, you are my prisoner. If you behave, you shall have every care and comfort, but try to escape, and I shall send a bullet through you, for I shall stand no nonsense. Hear that?â and the General pulled Billyâs beard in a joking manner. But Billy knew he would do as he said if he tried to escape or cut up any monkeyshines. So he quietly let them help him into the car, where he stood between the two seats in the tonneau while they tied him to the rod at the back of the front seat on which the extra robes hung. Billy was experiencing one of his rare moments of dejection and discouragement, for he knew if they once succeeded in getting him back in camp it would be very difficult indeed to escape as they would use every precaution to keep him there and they might even put him inside the electrically charged barbed wire fence where they kept the German prisoners. That would be horrible indeed! âI must think up some way to escape before we reach camp or I am lost,â thought Billy. âHow I ever can unless we have a breakdown is more than I can tell!â Presently they came to the dogsâ hospital and whizzed by it at full speed, but not too fast for Billy to see standing at the gate the cook, or for him to get the cookâs expression of surprise and wonder when he saw Billy in the Generalâs car. Billy also saw the Red Cross dog close at the cookâs heels. âI am glad they saw me for now the dog will know what has become of me,â thought Billy. Presently the big car slowed down and went bumping and sliding over a terrible piece of road that was being repaired. âNow would be my chance to jump out while they are going slower if I only were not tied. And I canât chew the rope loose right under these menâs noses, either. Perhaps when they stop for supper I may get a chance.â Just then there was a terrible explosion as one of the tires blew out, and at the same time the car slipped on the soft, shifting gravel with which they were repairing the roadway and slid down into the ditch. âNow we are ditched and in for a long delay!â exclaimed the General. âI simply must get to camp with these plans within the next three hours. Stop the first car that passes here and I will make whoever is in it take me to camp while you officers stay here and help the chauffeur repair the damages and get the car out of the ditch. That should not be a hard job but only a tedious one for the men working on the highway can help you out of the ditch and the chauffeur can mend the tire for I expect the explosion was due to a bursted tube.â It was one thing to say get the men on the road to help but where were those men? Nowhere in sight, but several miles down the road working on another bad stretch. âI hear a car coming!â exclaimed the General. âMake ready to stop it, Lieutenant Strong!â In less time that it takes to tell it, the car had come, stopped and taken the General aboard. As the General waved good-by to them, he called back, âI wish you luck, gentlemen! I will keep your supper hot for you!â to which Billy replied with a loud baa. This made the staff officers laugh, for his voice sounded exactly like a cross old man saying âBah!â in derision to the Generalâs joking remark. As soon as the General was out of sight, the officers fell to and tried to lift and push the car up into the road. But they might as well have tried to move a huge rock for it did not so much as budge an inch. It was embedded too deep in the sand and loose gravel. âThis is most provoking!â said one of the officers. âIt means that we must try to stop some passing car and get them to help us. When they see it is the Generalâs car that is in trouble they will feel in duty bound to aid us, no matter whether they really want to or not. But I just hate the job of stopping any one for that purpose as it always makes any one provoked to be so hailed on the road.â âHere comes a farmer driving a pair of horses hitched to an old wagon. Let us stop him. I think his horses can pull us out if we all push,â suggested another of the officers. âNow is my chance!â thought Billy, and he was just about to chew at the rope around his neck when the farmer came up and stopped opposite them to see if he could help them any. âYes,â replied one of the officers. âYou are just the man we have been looking for to give us a lift out of this ditch.â âWal, that is a purty durn big car of yourân. But I guess my hosses kin pull her out. That is, if I only had a rope to tie to the back of my wagon, but I canât get hide nor hair of any rope or chain or nothinâ.â âWe have a rope,â answered one of the officers. âWe always carry a good strong rope for just such purposes under one of the seats. Here, Jean, get it out and we will see how soon these horses can pull us out.â Jean, the chauffeur, stopped working on the tire to get the rope, but alas! when he looked under the seat no rope was there. From the fury into which the officers flew, Billy thought they were going to kill the fellow on the spot for his carelessness, first running out of water and now finding no rope. âYou are discharged the minute you get us to camp!â roared the superior officer. âAnd what is more, I shall see that the General has you severely punished. What if the enemy were at our heels and we were trying to escape from them, or we had important dispatches that must get to Headquarters to change some movement of the army that would mean the saving of hundreds and thousands of lives?â At last the chauffeur managed to say, âCould we not use the rope that is around the goatâs neck to pull the car out of the sand? It is a very long one. In fact, it is the rope that belongs under the seat. In my excitement I forgot I had used it to tie the goat.â âOf course we can! And to keep him from escaping we can tie him with one of the farmerâs reins.â âHere, you Billy, stand still while I take this rope off your neck.â The chauffeur stood on the step, leaning through the open door of the tonneau as he untied the rope that was around Billyâs neck, with the farmer standing behind him ready to hand him one of his reins to secure Billy again. âHere is a good chance to escape,â thought Billy. âTo be sure, I will have to run the chance of one of the officers shooting me, but I will take it. For I would rather be shot than carried
{'title': 'Billy Whiskers in France by Frances Trego Montgomery', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}