The Young Franc Tireurs, and Their Adventures in the Franco-Prussian War by Henty (good fiction books to read .TXT) 📕

"Dear me," Ralph said, "I had quite forgotten that. Go to the tailor's, Percy, and tell them to send the suit I changed there in here, directly."

Percy went off for the clothes, and Ralph then went on:

"Now I want a black or grayish beard, whiskers, and mustache."

"I have not got such a thing," the hairdresser said, "but I know a man who keeps them. I will get it for you, in a quarter of an hour."

In a few minutes Percy returned, with a boy with Ralph's clothes. In a short time they were ready to start.

"You do look a strange object, Ralph."

"Never mind, Percy, there are plenty of strange objects here. No one will notice me."

Then saying that they would call in again in half an hour, for the beard, they went to a chemist's; from whom--after some talk--they obtained a mixture to give a slightly brown tinge to their faces.

They now dived into the back streets of the town, found a second-hand clothes shop, and speedily got the articles they required. Ralph had a long greatcoat, with a fur collar; and a pair of high boots, coming up to his knees and to be worn over the trousers. A black fur cap completed his costume. Percy had a black cap, made of rough cloth, with a peak and with flaps to come down over the ears; an old greatcoat, with fur round the pockets and collar; a bright-colored handkerchief, to go two or three times round the neck; and high boots like those of Ralph.

They then returned to the hairdresser, and Ralph insisted that the beard and mustache should be fastened on not only in the ordinary manner--with springs--but with cobbler's wax.

"My life," he said, "might depend upon the things not slipping, at any moment."

They now went home. The moment that they entered their rooms, Ralph exclaimed:

"Why, we have forgotten all about Tim!"

"So we have," Percy said. "He was to have met us in front of the railway station at nine o'clock and, of course, he has no idea where to find us. I will go there. Very likely the poor fellow is waiting still."

Percy hurried off; and found Tim, as he had expected, sitting upon the steps going up to the railway station. He jumped up, with a cry of joy, upon seeing Percy.

"The Vargin be praised, Mister Percy! I began to think that you must have been sent off somewhere, without time to warn me; and I couldn't, for the life of me, make out what to do."

"We have not gone, Tim," Percy said, not wishing to hurt the attached fellow's feelings, by telling him that he had been forgotten; "but we are starting tomorrow. I will tell you all about it, when we get in. We have been to see Monsieur Gambetta, this morning and, do you know, we met Colonel Tempe last night, and are stopping in his rooms."

So saying, he walked along at a quick pace towards their lodgings; Tim occasionally glancing a puzzled look at him. By the time they reached the room, Ralph had stained his face and hands, and was busy dressing in his disguise. His back was to the door, when they entered; but he had heard the Irishman's voice on the stair.

"Well, Tim, how are you?" he said, turning round.

"Holy Vargin!" ejaculated Tim, dropping into a chair, and crossing himself with great fervor "Sure, I'm bewitched. Here's an ould gentleman, wid a wonderful head of hair, has been staleing Mister Ralph's voice."

The two boys went off in a shout of laughter at Tim's genuine terror.

"Sure, I'm bewitched, entirely," he went on. "He laughs for all the world like Mister Ralph. Did ye iver see the like?

"What is it all, Mister Percy dear?"

Percy had by this time taken off his cap; and Tim, as he looked him fairly in the face, gave another start.

"By the mother of Moses!" he exclaimed, in terror, "we're all bewitched. Mister Ralph's turned into an ould man, with a furze bush of hair; and Mister Percy's beautiful hair has all turned black, and shriveled itself up. Am I turning, myself, I wonder?" and he looked into the glass, to see if any change had taken place in his own abundant crop of red hair.

The boys were laughing so that they could not speak for some time, and Tim sat gazing at them in speechless bewilderment. At last Percy, by a great effort, recovered himself; and explained to him the whole circumstances of the case. The Irishman's astonishment ceased now, but his dismay was as great as ever.

"Then is it alone you're going?" he said, at last. "Are you going into danger again, without taking me with you? You'd never do that, surely, Mister Ralph?"

"I am very sorry, Tim, to be separated from you," Ralph said; "but it is quite impossible for you to go with us. If you understood French and German as well as we do, the case would be different; but as it is, the thing is absolutely impossible. You know how great a trouble it was to disguise you, before; and it would treble our anxieties and difficulties. Not only that; but even if, in the face of every possible danger, we got you into Paris with us, there would be great difficulty in getting you out. Gambetta will give orders for us to be allowed to come out, in the first balloon; but it is by no means easy to get places in balloons, and it is unlikely in the extreme that we should be able to bring you out with us. So there you would be, shut up in Paris and separated from us, for months.

"No, no, Tim, the matter is altogether impossible. You stay quietly here and, in ten days or a fortnight--if all goes well--we shall be back again with you."

"And is it in a balloon you're thinking of coming out, Mister Ralph; flying like a bird through the air? Och, wirra, wirra! I'll never see yees again."

"Nonsense, Tim, there's no danger in a balloon. If getting in were no more dangerous than getting out, there would not be much peril in the matter."

"Ah, Mister Ralph dear, how can you be risking your life, and the life of your brother in that way? Shooting at a Prussian, or getting shot at, is all well enough; or going among them with your hair all puffed out, and your face painted brown, and the hair growing all over your face before its time, I say nothing against; but flying through the air, in a balloon, is just tempting the good Providence. I know what it will be. You'll be just touching against a cloud, and tumbling out, and breaking yourselves into smithereens; and nothing to take home to your dear father and mother, not to mention Miss Milly," and Tim fairly blubbered with grief, at the thought.

The boys had great difficulty in pacifying the attached fellow; at last, with a face expressive of mournful resignation, he agreed to remain with Colonel Tempe until they returned; or until their prolonged absence rendered it likely that they would not return at all--Tim evidently making up his mind that the latter contingency would happen. In that case, as Tim--now his corps had ceased to exist--need no longer serve, he expressed his determination to return to Dijon; and to stay with Captain Barclay until the end of the war--as he should not, he said, have the heart to fight any more, when his masters were both killed.

While the conversation had been going on, the boys had continued their toilettes. The preparation which they had obtained gave them an olive complexion; and their transformation was now so complete that the boys would have passed each other unknown, even had they looked steadily at each other. Ralph, especially, was utterly unlike himself.

They now told Tim to go out and get his breakfast, and to return in two hours' time; and then started themselves, rounding their shoulders, and so narrowing their chests as much as possible. Ralph stopped at an optician's, bought a pair of slightly-colored spectacles, and put them on.

It was now twelve o'clock--the preparations having taken them three hours--and they went to the cafe where they were to meet Colonel Tempe, to breakfast. He was already there, and they walked up to the table where he was sitting.

"These seats are engaged," Colonel Tempe said, shortly.

The Barclays sat down at the next table; and called, in a foreign accent, for two glasses of beer. Then they spoke together, for some little time, about a journey from Saint Malo which they had just made; and Ralph then turned to Colonel Tempe, still speaking French with a strong foreign accent.

"Pardon me, colonel," he said, "we have just arrived from England. We have a very large quantity of army shoes, and I should feel under a great obligation if you could inform me who is the proper person to whom to apply."

Colonel Tempe at once informed them, adding:

"If your shoes are good ones, and the price fair, and you can deliver them soon, you will not have to wait long; for they are greatly wanted."

"We have also some harness, for artillery horses," Ralph added.

"I do not know about that," the colonel said; "but you will obtain all information from the officer I have mentioned."

"Thank you very much," Ralph said, and returned to his seat.

Colonel Tempe looked at his watch, a little impatiently. Ralph, after a minute or two, again approached him.

"Don't you think we may as well have breakfast, colonel?" he said, in his natural voice.

The colonel looked at him, in speechless surprise.

"So the disguises are pretty good?" Ralph said, smiling.

"Impossible!" the colonel exclaimed. "Do my eyes or my ears deceive me? Can it really be--?"

"It's us, sure enough, colonel; and now, I suppose we may as well sit down."

So saying, the boys took their seats at the table; but Colonel Tempe still looked from one to the other, in astonishment.

"Wonderful!" he at last said, "wonderful! Even now I know who it is, I do not see the faintest possible resemblance.

"Percy is, of course, less altered than you are, Ralph, because he is still young looking; but even now I should not recognize him. As for you, with that wonderful head of hair, and that beard, you look fifty; and as unlike yourself as possible. Upon my word, if it were anywhere else but here in Tours--where there are all sorts of oddities--I should be ashamed, as a colonel in the army, to sit down to table with you."

"You are a little ashamed, as it is," Ralph laughed. "We had not intended to come out in our new character, so soon; but when my hair was once done, you see, it was impossible to go about in uniform."

"But what in the world have you done with your hair?" the colonel said, examining him closely; for Ralph had taken off his fur cap and laid it beside him. "You have not got a wig on; and yet, all that frizzly bunch cannot be your own."

Ralph explained how it was managed, and added:

"And now, colonel, that you have recovered from your surprise, let us have breakfast."

Breakfast was ordered, to which the boys did full justice; but Colonel Tempe was still getting on but slowly, for he could not take his eyes off Ralph's face.

"Will all that frizzle keep in?" he asked, presently.

"Yes; the man said that the false hair--which is the greater portion of it--will keep as well for a week; and we have got a small curling iron, so we can beautify ourselves up when we like."

"Well, boys, I have no doubt, now, that you will be able to get as far as Versailles; as to getting through, that's another matter--but if anyone can, you will, I am convinced."

"I have not much doubt about it, colonel," Ralph said. "I seem to see my way quite clearly into Paris. Much more clearly, indeed, than I do to getting out again."

"Oh, it does not matter about getting out again, boys. You can stop quietly in there, until the end of the siege."

"That is just what we don't want to do," Percy said. "Would you kindly ask them to put into the dispatches a request that we may be sent out again, by the first balloon that comes? We have no fancy, either of us, for eating rats and cats; which I suppose is what it will come to, before it is over."

"I will see to it, boys," the colonel said, smiling; "but really, I should advise your staying there. You have done all--and more than--your share of work."

The boys shook their heads; and it was arranged that, if they got in, they should come out again in a balloon.

The next morning, the boys were up at half-past four and, at half-past five, were at the