“Lieutenant Andre, on account of his wounds, was disabled for life, but through his efforts Jean was appointed to the French military training school, and the last I heard of him he was still fighting heroically for France.”

CHAPTER XI

A BRAVE LITTLE COWARD

“He was a fine fellow, that Jean,” observed Joe Funk, “but for myself I think I should have shouldered a gun and sailed in to get some of the Boches.”

“That was for the soldiers to do,” replied Captain Favor.  “Jean’s heroism was as great as that of any man who ever went into battle with rifle or sword.  Now I will tell you about another hero who was both coward and hero, but, in the last analysis, was all hero.  Lucien, he was named, and, though he did not know it, he was a very funny fellow.  Listen to the tale of little Lucien.”

“Lucien’s home was in a village not far from Verdun, where such terrible fighting had been indulged in for so many, many weeks.  Battles, in fact, had been fought not far from the boy’s home, and even now angry Prussian parties were raiding these towns and robbing the inhabitants of whatever appealed to their appetites or their greed.  Parties of them had already visited the village and Lucien was in the habit of observing their movements from high up in a tree, which was his favorite hiding place when danger approached.  Nor was he partial to any particular tree.  Any tree that was handy would answer his purpose.

“On the afternoon that I have in mind, a farmhouse just outside the village bore mute evidence that raiders had been there.  All the windows had been broken out, doors smashed in and blackened spots about the windows and doors on the outside wall indicated that the house had been set on fire on the inside, but for some reason had not burned down.  The scene was a cheerless one.  Not a person was in sight.

“Along the road came a detachment of French soldiers.  The officer in command, a captain, halted his men for rest and, observing the condition of the house, entered the yard to see if he could not obtain some information from the occupants.  But there were no occupants there.

“‘They must have been here recently,’ he said out loud, meaning that the Germans had visited the place.  ’Perhaps I shall find that which I seek in the village.’

“Strolling along, the captain halted under a large apple tree, from which apples had fallen to the ground, though the tree had been pretty well stripped already.  He stooped over to pick up an apple and as he did so a hard apple hit him squarely on the top of the head.

“The captain said ‘Ouch!’ and rubbed the spot where the apple had hit him.  But he forgot all about it in his enjoyment of the apple he was now eating while stepping out from under the tree.  He was munching away at the fruit when another apple hit him, this time squarely on the neck.