This eBook was produced by John PobudaThe Boy Scouts in Front of WarsawOr In the Wake of WarBoy Scout Series Volume 20By Colonel George DurstonChapter IThe DisappearanceIt was the fifth of August  Warsaw the brilliant Warsaw theBeautiful the best beloved of her adoring people had fallen  Torn bybombs wrecked by great shells devastated by hordes of alien invadersshe lay in ruinsHer people despairing seemed for the greater part to have vanished inthe two days since the fatal third of August when the city was takenMany of the wealthiest of her citizens had taken refuge in the lowerpart of the city leaving their magnificent palaces and residencessituated in the newer part to the flood of invading soldiers who wentwith unerring directness to the parts containing the greatest comfortand luxuryWarsaw is built in the midst of a beautiful plain mostly on the leftbank of the river Vistula  All the main part of the city lies close tothe river and the streets are so twisted and crooked that it is almostimpossible to picture them  They wriggle here and there like snakes ofstreets  The houses of course are very old and with their heavybarred doors and solid shutters look very strange and inhospitablePeople in a way become like their surroundings  Here in thesetwisted narrow streets are to be found the narrow twisted souls ofthe worst element in Poland but the worst of them love their countryas perhaps no other people do  To the last man and to the frailestwoman they are loyal to Poland  For them it is Poland first lastand alwaysIn these low and twisted streets the devastation was greatest and thepeople had scurried like rats to cover  A week before they had swarmedthe streets and crowded the buildings  Now by some miracle they hadgone utterly disappeared  The houses were deserted the streetsempty  The destruction had been greatest in these crowded places butmany of the beautiful public buildings and state departments in the newpart were also in ruins as well as a number of matchless palacesThe people from the upper part of the city who had taken refuge in theholes along the river front were for the most part a strange appearinglot  Some of them carried great bundles which they guarded withjealous care Others empty handed sat and shivered through the summernightchills that blew from the river  Scores of little children clungto their mothers hands or wandered trembling and screaming from groupto group seeking their own peopleThere was a general gathering of types  Nobles mixed with the poorestmeanest and most criminal classes and mingled with their commonsorrow  For the most part a dumbness a silence prevailed  The shockof the national disaster had bereft the people of their powers ofexpressionSince 1770 Poland had been torn and racked by foes on every handPrussia Austria and Russia envied her wealth courage and her fertileplains  Little by little her enemies had pressed across her shrinkingborders wet with the blood of her patriot sons  Little by little shehad lost her cherished land until the day of doom August third 1915Sitting hiding in their desolated city the people of Poland knew thattheirs was a country no longer on the map  Russia Austria and Prussiaat least had met  There was no longer any Poland  For generationsthere had been no Polish language it was forbidden by her oppressorsNow the country itself was swallowed up  No longer on the changing mapof the world had she any placeBut in the hearts of her people Poland lives  With the most perfectloyalty and love in the world they say We are Poland  We live anddie for herA gray haze hung over Warsaw  The streets after the roar of greatguns the bursting of shells and the cries of thousands of peoplerushing blindly to safety seemed silent and deserted  The hated enemyheld the town and the people of Warsaw most hapless city of allhistory cowered beneath the iron hand of the enemyAs is usual in the fearful lull after such a victory the town wasfilled with dangers of the most horrible sort  Murder crime of everykind lawlessness in every guise stalked through the streets or lurkeddown the narrow dark and twisted alleys  The unfortunate citizens whohad not retreated in time hid when they could in all sorts of strangeplaces  They gathered in trembling whispering groups into garretsand cellars even the vaults in the catacombs the old burial place ofthe dead were opened by desperate fugitives and became hiding placesfor the livingThe soldiers were in possession of all the uninjured residences in themore modern portion of the city where they reveled in the comforts ofmodern baths lights and heat  But the lower part of the city lyingalong the left bank of the river Vistula was filled with a strangemixture of terrified people  In all the throngs huddled in streetsand alleys storehouses and warerooms there was perhaps no strangergroup than the one gathered in a dark corner of a great building wheremachinery of some sort had been manufacturedThis had strangely enough escaped destruction and stood unharmed in astreet where everything bore the scars of shells or bombsThe engines were stopped the great wheels motionless the broad beltssagged hopelessly  Even the machinery seemed to feel the terrible blowand mourned the fallen cityThe persons huddled in the shadow of a vast wheel however gave littleheed to their strange surroundings  They seemed crushed by a frightfulgrief more personal even than the taking of Warsaw would cause in themost loyal heartIn the center of the group a boy of fourteen or fifteen years stoodtalking excitedly  He was tall dark as an Italian and dressed withthe greatest richness  Two rings set with great jewels flashed on hishand and while he spoke he tapped his polished boot with a small canein the end of which was set a huge sparkling red stone  He spoke withgreat rapidity in the