“Here is where sheer bone and muscle count,” was Dave’s comment, as he ploughed forward through some underbrush with the detail under him. It was a warm summer day, and all the engineers were perspiring freely.
“I wish we had had this to do last winter when it was colder,” remarked Ben.
“Oh, for some ice cream soda!” sighed Roger.
“Say, that puts me in mind of a story,” cried Shadow. “A small boy came to his mother in the winter time with a big idea. He had six snowballs in his arms, and brought them right into the house. ‘What are you going to do with those snowballs, Bobby?’ asked his mother. ‘I want you to put ’em away in your closet where you keep the jam,’ answered the small boy. ‘What do you want to do that for?’ ‘Oh,’ said the small boy, ‘I want you to keep ’em until next summer for me, and then when I can’t have any ice cream I’ll go and get a snowball.’” And at this joke there was a slight smile.
“There is only one good thing about that joke, Shadow,” remarked Dave. “It makes a fellow think of winter, and believe me it’s a good thing to think of ice and snow when the thermometer is up in the nineties as it is to-day.”
Presently came the command to halt, and then the young engineers were instructed to crawl forward with caution to a line already mapped out by Frank Andrews and several of the experienced linemen under him. As soon as the line was gained the engineers must lose no time in digging themselves in, so that no stray bullets from the German trenches might catch them.
Dave had been in such a position before, so there was nothing in the way of novelty about it. He well knew the peril of the work, and he cautioned all under him to be careful in exposing themselves.
“Those Germans are as mad as hornets for being driven back,” he remarked; “and they would more than glory in it to lay out some of our fellows. And remember, while you are working I want all of you to have your guns handy, so that if they show themselves or try to reach us we can give a good account of ourselves.”
“I’d just like a little fighting,” rejoined Roger.
The wish of the senator’s son was gratified sooner than any of them expected. They had reached the line and were busy digging themselves into temporary quarters, when, with no warning whatever, came a volley of shots from a patch of woods some distance ahead.