THE BADGE OF COURAGE AND MERCY 190

XVIII. AFTER THE FIGHTING WAS OVER 200

XIX. AN IMPORTANT CLUE 210

XX. THE CAMP FIRES OF AN ARMY 220

XXI. THE HANGING BRIDGE 230

XXII. SCOUT TACTICS 242

XXIII. THE FROG HUNTERS 254

XXIV. THE ARMORED CAR 266

XXV. TURNING THE TABLES 278

XXVI. FOR HUMANITY'S SAKE 290

XXVII. CONCLUSION 302

The Boy Scouts on Belgian Battlefields.

CHAPTER I.

ANTWERP, ON THE SCHELDT.

"Oh! how glad I am that part of the trip is over, now we've crossed from
England to Antwerp without being wrecked!"

"You certainly did seem to have a bad time of it, Tubby, in the wash of
the Channel!"

"Bad time did you say, Rob? It was a great deal worse than anything we
struck on the voyage between New York and Liverpool, let me tell you."

"But now we want to forget all our troubles of the past, Tubby."

"I know what you mean by that, Merritt; it's just the same as telling me
the worst is yet to come."

"Well, I'm a little afraid myself that's going to turn out a fact. Here
we are, just landed in a strange country that is being overrun by an
army of German invaders; and all of us are bound to push deeper and
deeper into the mire."

"Hey, Merritt, you give me a shiver when you say that, don't you know?"

"I guess you must mean a quiver, Tubby; because whenever you laugh or
tremble you make me think of a bowl full of jelly!"

"Now you're making sport of me because I'm so pudgy and fat. Just as if
I could help that; can I, Rob?"

"To be sure you couldn't, Tubby; and we wouldn't want you to be anything
but what you are--the best natured scout in the whole Eagle Patrol, and
I'm safe in saying you're the only fellow in the Long Island town of
Hampton who hasn't an enemy. Everybody takes a fancy to a jolly rolypoly
like you, Tubby."

"What would we do without you?" Merritt added, with real feeling in his
voice.

"Well, but it strikes me you tried mighty hard to induce me not to join
you two on this wonderful trip abroad," complained the fat boy
reproachfully.

"There was a good reason for that, Tubby," defended Merritt quickly. "I
could see that with all these Old World countries in a scrap, my job of
finding that man who i