“I wonder how many more miles we’ve got to hike over this road?”
“No less than three, so the top sergeant told me,” answered Dave, to whom the question was put.
It was about a week after the events narrated in the last chapter, and the fighting engineers, as they were familiarly called, were once more forging toward the battle front. The storms of the past three weeks had cleared away, and the hot summer sun beat down upon them with all its intensity.
During the time spent in camp Roger had recovered from the injury to his ankle and was now around as before. He had had another conversation with Phil regarding the letter received from Laura, and both had again decided not to say anything to Dave concerning Max Gebauer. But they had spoken to Dave in a casual way about his not receiving a letter from Jessie and had said that possibly she was not getting the letters he had forwarded.
“Well, I can’t do anything more than write and mail the letters,” had been the young sergeant’s reply to this. Nevertheless, his chums had noticed with satisfaction that he wrote another letter to Jessie that very evening and was particular to see that it was properly addressed and taken care of.
In the meantime Roger had forwarded his reply to Dave’s sister, and in that communication he told Laura he hoped she would keep her eyes on Jessie and see that Gebauer did not have a chance to become intimate with the girl. He also asked Dave’s sister to send him word if anything out of the ordinary occurred.
The engineers were moving along with their full equipment on their backs. Behind them came a string of motor-lorries, carrying great quantities of tools, and also some explosives.
By nightfall they had reached a spot not far from the fighting front. They had turned off from the main road and were now passing through a small French hamlet, beyond which was a small hill hedged in on all sides by a thick forest.
“Orders are to clear a road around one side of this hill, and do it as quickly as possible,” announced Captain Obray. “We’ll have to blast out some of the rocks and cut down a number of trees, I am afraid.”
The work was started early in the morning, after a night which was not altogether a comfortable one. There was a rumor throughout the camp that the Germans might make a raid over No Man’s Land, probably with the idea of obtaining some prisoners from whom they could obtain much-desired information. Consequently the engineers were all more or less on their guard.