CHAPTER XIX
AT THE BROOK
The great World War which had now raged so furiously for four years was rapidly approaching its climax. The Germans had been driven from the vicinity of Paris, they had suffered their great defeats on the Marne and at Verdun at the hands of the entente Allies, and now the American troops had beaten them back at Château Thierry and other points, while the Italians were hammering the Austrians mercilessly in the mountains of upper Italy.
In the meanwhile there had been naval battles in the North Sea and the Mediterranean, and the extraordinary submarine campaign of the Germans had proved to be more or less a failure.
Our soldiers were coming over the Atlantic as fast as our transports could carry them, and what was equally important, we were sending immense quantities of food, ammunition and other supplies to those who were fighting this tremendous war with us.
With the Americans and their Allies thus pushing the Germans back at every available opportunity, there was plenty of work for the engineers. More than once Dave and those under him found themselves working ten and twelve and even fourteen hours on a stretch, and doing this in places which were as dangerous as they were uncomfortable. More than once they were out when it was raining furiously, and on two occasions after an early breakfast they got nothing more to eat until nightfall.
“If anybody thinks being an army engineer is a cinch, he’s got another guess coming to him,” remarked Ben one evening, after an extra hard day’s labor.
“You never said a truer thing than that, Ben,” returned Phil. “Gosh! how my back does ache!”
“I know what I’m going to do,” put in Roger. “I’m going bathing. There is nothing that refreshes me half so much as a bath after a hard day’s work.”
“I think I’ll go with you,” said Dave. “I saw a dandy spot to-day, while we were fixing that bridge.”
“And that’s just the place I had in mind,” said the senator’s son.