“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.