THE PERILS OF ROAD BUILDING
“We’ve got it hot enough now, Dave.”
“I agree with you, Roger. The Huns are certainly bombarding us for
fair.”
“Did you see that tree come down a few minutes ago?” asked Phil. “It
landed within a dozen feet of Captain Obray and Frank Andrews.”
“The German air scouts--those three fellows who sailed this way
yesterday afternoon--must have sent in word of where we were located
and what we were doing,” continued Dave. “It’s too bad our men didn’t
get a chance to bring them down as they did those others.”
“I wonder what they did with that Heinrich Eberhardt?” broke in Shadow,
who was working in the gang with the others.
“He is in the hospital, and I heard yesterday that he is doing very
well,” answered Dave.
“I wish we were sure poor Buster was going to get over that gas
attack,” went on the former story-teller of Oak Hall. “Gee! it’s a
shame that he was knocked out that way.”
“As soon as I can get off I’m going to take a run back to the hospital
and see how Buster is making it,” said Dave. “I think I’m entitled to a
leave of absence; I haven’t been off since last winter.”
“If you do get off, I’ll try to get off at the same time,” cried Roger
quickly.
“And so will I,” added Phil.
Ten days had passed since the spectacular rescue of the Hun aviator
from the burning plane and tree, and during that time the fighting
engineers had well deserved the appellation applied to them. They had
advanced their road through the forest for a considerable distance, and
had had two brushes with the enemy, one a night raid which had come
most unexpectedly; but the blood of the engineers had been up, and
they had beaten the Germans back with the loss of but two men slightly
wounded, while three of the enemy had been killed and one taken
prisoner.
They had also been under artillery fire on more than one occasion, and
now this artillery fire was again directed toward them.
“If those Germans were only a little better marksmen there wouldn’t be
anything left of us, I imagine,” remarked Phil a little later, after a
shell had gone whining over their heads, to explode among some roots in
the rear.
“I don’t believe it’s altogether a case of their marksmanship,”
returned Dave. “I had a talk with Captain Obray one day, and he said
information had come in that the German ammunition was steadily
deteriorating, due I suppose, to the fact that they can’t get hold of
the metal and chemicals they would like to use.”
The young engineers had been working on a small exposed length of the
roadway, but now came orders to advance to a point where they would be
sheltered in part by a series of rocks and heavy trees.
Suddenly came a sound from their rear which gave them intense
satisfaction. During the past week the road up the little hill behind
them had been completed, and an American battery had been located
there. This battery now opened with vigor, sending toward the German
lines at least four shells for every one coming the other way.
“That will teach the Heinies a lesson,” remarked Phil grimly. “I
hope some of our shells reach their batteries and put them out of
commission.”
“I guess we all hope that, Phil,” returned Dave.
The bombardment from both sides increased in intensity as the day
advanced. And it must be admitted that all of the engineers worked
under a tremendous nervous strain, not knowing at what instant a shell
might explode among them, causing much destruction.
“No use in talking, Dave, we are taking our lives in our hands here, in
spite of the protection of the rocks and trees,” remarked Roger.
He had scarcely uttered the words when a shell came over the trees in
front of them, to hit the rocks a short distance to their left. It
exploded with tremendous force, scattering pieces of shrapnel, bits of
wood, loose stones, and chunks of dirt in all directions.
Dave was hit in the chin by a small stone, and a stick of wood caught
him directly across the stomach, doubling him up for the time being.
Roger and some of the others were also struck, while Ben received a
shower of dirt in his eyes which almost blinded him.
“Great Cæsar!” exclaimed Phil, after the excitement attending the
explosion had somewhat subsided. “That’s getting almost too close for
comfort.”
“Anybody seriously injured?” questioned the young sergeant, as he wiped
a little blood from his chin and put his hand down on his stomach,
which felt sore from the blow.
“I’ve got about a pound of dirt in my eyes,” answered Ben, as he
started to wipe his optics with a corner of his handkerchief.
No one had been seriously injured, for which all were thankful, but
there were numerous small cuts and bruises, and the engineers retired
closer to the shelter of the rocks to catch their breath and attend to
their hurts.
“What damage did that shell do?” demanded Captain Obray, as he came up
on the double-quick, for he had been with a gang some distance away.
Dave made his report, and the captain looked the men over.
“You’ve got to keep your eyes and ears open for those shells,” said the
officer. “If you think they are coming anywhere near you, don’t wait,
but throw yourselves flat on your face. By doing that you may save your
life.”
A little later the engineers were out on the roadway working as
industriously as ever. Only one man remained behind, he having fallen
over some rough rocks and bruised his elbows.
It was almost nightfall, and the bombardment seemed to be slowing
up, when Dave found himself with the gang under him at a turn in the
roadway which was being constructed. Here on one side were several
walls of rocks, while on the other the roadway was lined with a series
of heavy trees backed up in some places by thick brushwood.
“Almost time to knock off, isn’t it?” said Ben. He had put in an
unusually big day, and his back ached.
“We’ll knock off in about an hour, Ben,” answered Dave. “Pretty heavy
work, isn’t it?”
“I never thought I’d work as hard as this in my whole life, Dave,”
answered the son of the leading real estate dealer of Crumville. “Gosh!
I wonder what my dad and ma would say if they could see me now? Dad
used to think I didn’t even like to cut the wood at home or weed the
garden, and just look at all the wood-cutting I’ve done, not to say
anything about shoveling dirt, hauling stone, and building trenches and
dugouts.”
“Never mind, we’ve got a good reason for doing this, Ben. When you come
to think of that reason it makes it worth while, doesn’t it?”
“Indeed it does, Dave! And don’t think for a minute that I’m
complaining. If doing this kind of work is going to help win the war,
then they can depend on my sticking on the job until we march right
into Berlin.”
“Say, wouldn’t that be fine?” exclaimed Phil. “How I’d like to march
down Unter den Linden singing ‘Over There!’ or some other of our
popular songs!”
“I don’t believe Germany will allow the war to go that far,” answered
Dave. “They know well enough how angry all the Allies are because of
the wanton destruction in France and Belgium, and they’ll most likely
be afraid that if we got into Germany we’d start to rip things up the
same way.”
“Do you mean by that, Dave, that they’d give in before we got into
Germany?” demanded Phil.
“That’s the way I figure it. I don’t believe they’ll allow any of the
Allies to get a foot farther than the Rhine.”
“How are they going to stop us if we push our way through?” questioned
Ben.
“Only one way to do that, Ben. They’ll have to ask for peace. And that
is what I think they’ll do. Behind it all, I think the common German
people, as well as their allies, are sick and tired of the conflict.
They have been hemmed in on all sides for several years, and been
unable to get supplies from the outside world, and the whole thing
hasn’t sat very well on their stomachs. I think if they could get out
of this war gracefully they would do it in a minute.”
“That aviator we captured didn’t talk that way.”
“He was putting on a front--that’s all. Germany may have had some
notion that with the collapse of Russia she might be able to get the
better of France, Italy, and England before we got into the fight. But
now that we are bringing our men over here by the thousands every
week, she must realize that the jig is up.”
“I can’t see it that way,” said Shadow. “I think she’ll fight to the
last ditch.”
“Well, if she does, Shadow, it will mean a terrible ending for her. The
Allies will keep on pounding her until there will be nothing left to
pound.”
“That’s what I’d like to see!” cried Phil. “I’d like to march right
into Germany and give them the same dose of medicine that they have
given the poor people here in France and those in Belgium, not to say
anything about the destruction by the Austrians in Upper Italy.”
“I wonder what is going to happen to Russia, now that she is out of the
war and in a state of revolution?” remarked Ben.
“That’s a question that nobody can answer just now,” returned Dave.
“It looks to me as if the different Russian political parties had each
other by the throat and nobody wanted to let go.”
“It certainly must be a dreadful country to live in just now,” said
Roger, with a shake of his head. “Neither a person nor his property is
safe.”
The engineers were hard at work cutting down several small trees which
were in the way, and in hauling some loose stones forward for the
temporary roadway, when the bombardment from the Germans, which had
lessened during the last half-hour, commenced all over again. Shells
came whistling and whining over the forest, and in the midst of this
came a telephone communication from the right of the fighting front
that the Germans were preparing to launch another gas attack.
“I don’t think the attack will reach as far as this, however,” said
Captain Obray. “The wind is blowing in the opposite direction. However,
we’ll be on our guard, and as soon as the signal is given I want every
man to put on his mask instantly.”
Dave was just getting ready to tell his men they might quit their
labors for the day when there came the whining of two shells through
the air. Both fell just a trifle short of the roadway the engineers
were building. Bang! Bang! went the missiles of death, one report close
upon the other. Then arose a great mass of rocks and dirt, followed
by flying sticks of wood and thin brush, the latter blown in all
directions.
Dave and his men were working close to the high rocks on the other side
of the roadway. As the shells fell they threw themselves flat, and most
of the flying debris went over them. Then, following the explosions,
came several crashes in the forest, and three large trees were seen to
be falling across the roadway.
“Get close to the rocks, everybody!” yelled Dave, as he caught a quick
glance of what was coming. “Look out for the falling trees!”
The words had scarcely left his lips when the first of the big trees
came down, the top hitting some of the rocks over the engineers’ heads
and sending them in various directions. Then, one after another, the
other trees followed, until the engineers found themselves completely
buried under a mass of trunks and branches.
Dave had tried to get on his hands and knees to crawl closer to the
high rocks, but as he did this a branch of one of the trees came down
across his back, sending him flat again. Then another tree fell on
top of the first, and he found himself held down so tightly that he
could scarcely breathe. Roger was on one side of him, and he, too, was
held so fast he could hardly move. There were many cries of pain and
yells for help; and in the midst of the excitement there came a shrill
whistle from a distance to notify the engineers that the German gas
attack was on the way!