"I don't see why we don't blow it up right away," said Bart. "Then the Germans would have to rely on pontoons and what we would do to them would be a crime."
"Our officers know what they're about," objected Frank. "We might want that bridge to go across on ourselves if things take the right turn. So it's just as well to have it handy. If there's any blowing up to do, we can do it later just as well as now. And it's just as well to have it go skyward when it's crowded with Germans as when it's empty. Get me?"
"I get you, all right," replied Bart. "But suppose something should go wrong when the time came to blow it up?"
"That would be something else again," laughed Frank. "But I guess there isn't much danger Of that. Just one little pressure of a button—and—zowie!"
Just then Frank caught sight of his friend, Colonel Pavet, coming toward him and went forward to meet the French officer.
The colonel's greeting was a very cordial one.
"I'm glad to see that you've come safely so far through this fierce fighting," he said.
"Fierce is the right word," answered Frank smilingly.
"I was at Verdun," went on the colonel, "and I thought at the time that nothing could be more ferocious than the fighting there. But this has been much worse."
"We've got a pretty stiff proposition right now in holding this bridge," observed Frank.