Chasing El Dorado Page 6

CHAPTER 6

  The two companions followed the sentry, eventually arriving at a large farmhouse surrounded by barns and small storage sheds. Several airplanes sat in an open field a hundred yards away. This was a temporary forward command center occupied by both French and American troops.

  As the men entered the camp several French soldiers approached the big Captain welcoming him back enthusiastically and affectionately.

  Captain Joley ordered Jack to get a hot meal, a clean uniform and some rest. He was then hurried off for debriefing leaving Jack alone once again.

  Jack had just found the mess hall when an American voice called from behind him.

  “Private Jack Cage!” Jack turned to see an American MP approaching with his side arm drawn and pointed in Jack’s direction.

  “Follow me.” The man barked.

  He was escorted to the office of a skinny little Lieutenant named Ogilvie where he was made to stand at attention while the officer peevishly flipped through the pages of a paper file on his desk.

  “So Private Cage, I have in front of me a report that states your unit went missing two days ago. A unit that consisted of one Lieutenant, one Sargent, two Corporals and four Privates, including yourself.”

  “Yes sir.” Jack answered smartly.

  “And yet here you are Private, what happened to the others?” The Lieutenant asked.

  “Sir, we were ambushed. I was on pointe, too far ahead of the squad, when they were surprised. I heard several shots and when I returned Lieutenant Brown and the squad were already surrounded and being disarmed. It looked like two of our boys were dead sir. I took cover and waited for an opportunity. Lieutenant Brown was watching for me and spotted me. He looked me right in the eye and shook his head. He wanted me to go for help. I can take you to where they were captured Sir, we can be there by tomorrow evening.” Jack excitedly pleaded with the skinny little man behind the desk.

  “I have a report here that agrees Private Cage. It seems a Private Carlton and a Corporal Wyatt were killed in action two days ago after their squad leader mistakenly led his unit into enemy territory.” Ogilvie said condescendingly.

  “The report is wrong Sir!” Jack snapped. “We were not behind enemy lines and those men were my friends so I will thank you to show some respect.”

  “Your friends are either dead or prisoners of war Private Cage however here you sit without a scratch.” Ogilvie said disparagingly. “You found them surrounded by the enemy yet you hid like a sniveling child. Two lay dead in the cold mud while the others were being led off to a detention camp but you did nothing to help them when you could. No Mr. Cage, I think it is you who lacks respect for your friends. We have received a communiqué from the German’s informing us of their capture. They are on their way to Germany even now. There will be no rescue mission.”

  Jack felt rage boiling up in his chest.

  “Then give me rations and ammunition and I will march to Germany and right into the Kaisers shit house to rescue them if I have to.”

  “Rations yes, ammunition, no! You are under arrest for desertion and treason. Guard!” Ogilvie smiled with amusement taking pleasure at his own derisive and contemptuous joke.

  The same man that brought him to Ogilvie’s office returned now holding a revolver and shackles. It appeared Lieutenant Ogilvie had Jack convicted the moment he walked into camp. Jack gave the oily little self-satisfied Lieutenant a lethal grin that turned the little man pale and caused him to tug at his collar.

  “Take him to the Stockade and get him a meal.” Ogilvie said his voice faltering.

  Jack was roughly escorted to a barn made of white brick with a thatched roof. Along the top of the walls, below the eave, were square light apertures and at each end were two large sliding doors.

  Each door was being guarded by two men and as Jack and his escort approached the nearest two slid the door open just far enough for them to enter. Once inside it took several seconds for his eyes to adjust to the low light. Jack then spied four more guards, two posted at each end of the building.

  Above him, on each side of the barn, were the hay lofts, connected across the center by narrow walk planks. Down each long side of the Barn were the individual cattle stalls that were now being used as prison cells.

  As Jack and the Guard moved past these Jack saw what appeared to be three local Frenchmen looking out at him from one stall and three German soldiers peering out from three individual stalls.

  Jack was moved to the opposite side of the building and pushed into a stall. The Guard slid the door closed behind him. The door was made of thick wood planks across the bottom and wooden bars placed close together at the top. As the door closed he heard the latch fall into place and the Guard simply turned and walked away.

  “No locks?” Jack called after him.

  “We prefer you try to escape. We get to shoot prisoners that try to escape.” The man said without turning around.

  “Swell.” Jack muttered under his breath.

  Two days ago his biggest fear was that someone would discover he had lied about his age, that he was only seventeen, and ship him back to Chicago. Now he was wondering if he had come all the way to France just to get his neck stretched before his eighteenth birthday.

  “Nice Jack, now the German’s and the Americans want you dead. Who’s next, the Italians?” Jack asked to no one in particular.

  Jack Cage was wet, cold, hungry and tired. The floor of the hay loft overhead blocked the beams of sunlight that leaked into the building thus casting deep shadows in his cell. Moving to the back wall where it was darkest Jack dropped down into the soft hay to try and get some rest.

  He landed in a pile of wet cow shit.

  “Well, why the hell not?” Jack barked dejectedly. After all, he thought to himself, what was a little more crap added to his already shitty day. He moved to a corner away from the manure pile and pulled the lapel of his wet, rancid and putrid wool coat up around his neck and ears, leaned his back against the wall, closed his eyes and pitched head long into the abyss of sleep.

  Jack was startled awake by the sound of the stall door being opened. A guard was placing a bowl and canteen on the ground while a second guard stood watch behind him.

  Jack waited until the door slid closed before moving to the bowl of food. After choking down the meal he moved once again to the back of his stall to sleep. He noticed the beams of sunlight had moved drastically indicating it was now late evening. Jack drifted off to sleep again, this time waking several times in the night each time simply repositioning for comfort and then drifting off again.

  Jack was dreaming of Mama Gorrozo’s Cotoletta alla Milanese, Agnolotti and Cannoli’s when the sound of multiple voices approaching took the food right out of his mouth.

  Opening his eyes Jack could see the morning sun beams creeping across the barn floor and just now casting a bright curtain of light just inside his cell door.

  Rising to his feet he realized his overcoat had frozen solid. Thick frost had formed on his hair and eyelashes. As he stood, every muscle in his body screamed out in pain causing him to grimace and stretch with a loud moan of discomfort.

  Approaching the cell door he reached out to grab on to the bars. His hands were illuminated by the curtain of sunlight while the rest of his body remained in shadow.

  Jack was taken aback by the group entering the musty old barn. There was an American Colonel, a French Major, and a French Captain with a Medical Doctors insignia, Lieutenant Ogilvie, and a young woman wearing the uniform of a French volunteer nurse.

  There was also the very familiar red headed behemoth in a fresh, clean French uniform and, he did not appear to be in his usual cheerful benevolent frame of mind.

  Jack could see that the American Colonel was having his way with Ogilvie and being none too gentle about it. The Doctor and Nurse stood a few proprietary feet away.

  The French Major however, stood right there in the middle of the ass chewing, thus adding to Ogilvie’s d
iscomfort.

  Captain Joley walked purposefully toward the stall where Jack was being held. Two of the Americans that had been guarding Jack hurried over to intercept him. The two men stood shoulder to shoulder in an attempt to be intimidating.

  Captain Joley pressed right up against the two MP’s, his wide chest almost touching the noses of the two Sargent’s. Jack could hear his low voice however he could not catch the words being spoken but he could see that the Captain was not happy.

  One of the guards then pointed straight at Jack. Joley separated the two men as if he were parting a curtain and marched straight over to Jack’s cell. Jack backed away and pushed himself as deep as he could into a dark corner of the stall.

  ‘I think I would rather hang than be ripped limb from limb by this red headed monster’ Jack silently thought to himself.

  Captain Joley strained to see into the stall and failing to do so worked the latch sliding the door open with such force that it became wedged in its own track two thirds of the way open. Moving forward Joley silently scanned the stale malignant stall for the young soldier.

  “I did not desert those men.” A low quiet voice came from the back corner of the stall.

  Captain Joley’s head snapped in the direction of the voice like a predator zeroing in on its prey. In half a second he had hold of Jack by the lapel and was dragging him out of the dark foul smelling stall and into the light.

  Holding the young man at arm’s length, Joley looked him over from head to toe.

  “Are you injured Jack?” Joley asked.

  “No?” Jack answered, more than just a little confused.

  The group of officers approached and Jack made an attempt to stand at attention. The American Colonel was the first to speak ordering Jack to relax.

  “Private Cage I am Colonel Hampton, this is Major Choreau, Doctor Labrie and of course you have met Lieutenant Ogilvie. Private let me be the first to apologize. A junior officer under my command has made an error based on ignorance and stupidity.” The Colonel gave Ogilvie a stern look.

  “Unfortunately you have been made to suffer for that error and I deeply regret any discomfort or disrespect that may have been rendered unto you. Captain Joley here has given an endorsement of your fine character and he has explained to us your role in the success of his mission.”

  While speaking, the Colonel had been working at unbuttoning Jack’s filthy woolen overcoat. He now spun Jack around and yanked the foul thing off his shoulders.

  “Lieutenant Ogilvie, take off your coat.” The Colonel ordered.

  “But sir, it’s freezing!” Ogilvie whined.

  “Yes Lieutenant, a fact that you have made Private Cage very conscious of.” Colonel Hampton snapped. “Now take it off!”

  Lieutenant Ogilvie removed his overcoat handing it to the Colonel who proceeded to drape it around Jack’s shoulders.

  “Jack, your friends have been taken to a detention center in Germany where they will be cared for as prisoners of war.” Colonel Hampton relayed this news with empathetic sorrow pulling the coat closed around Jacks neck. “I am sorry that there is nothing else you can do for them. The bodies of your two fallen squad members have been recovered and are being prepared for their return to the States and their families.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Jack said.

  “Corporal Cage,” Major Choreau stepped forward. “Thank you for your assistance to Capitaine Joley. The French nation is forever in your debt. Would you please accompany Doctor Labrie and the Nurse to the infirmary? I will see that you receive a proper meal as well.”

  “Yes, thank you sir, with the Colonel’s permission?” Jack replied. “And forgive me sir but its Private Cage.”

  “Not anymore Corporal.” Colonel Hampton said. “Go with the Doctor son and when you are ready report to ‘Jolly’. You have been assigned as his special attaché for the duration of this conflict.”

  “Jolly sir?” Jack asked confused.

  “Captain Joley,” Colonel Hampton said with a smile, “Jolly is his nickname, but don’t you call him that, not yet anyway.”

  Jack looked back over his shoulder as he was being escorted away by the pretty young nurse and the French Doctor. Captain Joley was grinning at him. Jack smiled back at the red haired Giant. It seemed the French Captain had gone looking for Jack and upon discovering the accusations made against him had threatened to break every American head until he found where Jack was being kept and who was responsible. Given the fact that Joley was the leader of the most elite French covert force in the French Military and from one of the most politically connected families in France, it was a sure bet that he would not be ignored.

  “Be sure to give him a bath Nurse,” Jolly called after them, “he stinks.”

  “Lieutenant, are you not responsible for this Detention Center?” Colonel Hampton turned to Ogilvie.

  “Yes sir.” Ogilvie replied.

  “Well it stinks as well! I want it cleaned up and your office moved out here before breakfast.” Hampton ordered. “You will stand right here and oversee it personally. Do you understand?”

  “Yes sir.” Ogilvie agreed dejectedly. “I will just run to my quarters and get another coat sir.”

  “”No need Lieutenant,” Hampton said with a smile as he draped Jack’s rancid overcoat around Ogilvie’s shoulders, “you can wear this one. Now get busy!”

  “I believe he is turning green.” Major Choreau snickered. Captain Joley burst into laughter as the two Frenchmen strolled out of the barn behind Colonel Hampton.