Part 18 (2/2)
”Take two men with you,” Major Tempe said, ”and escort those five prisoners to the village. Give them over to Lieutenant Houdin; and tell him to send them, with the prisoners he has taken, under charge of six men to the forest. Let their hands be tied behind their backs, for we cannot spare a larger escort. Tell him to be sure that the escort are loaded, and have fixed bayonets. Directly he has sent off the prisoners let him join me here, with the rest of his force.”
Lieutenant Ribouville now set to work to inspect the bridge; and ordered the men--who were provided with the necessary implements--to set to, and dig a hole down to the crown of the princ.i.p.al arch. It was harder work than they had expected. The roadway was solid, the ballast pressed down very tightly, and the crown of the arch covered, to a considerable depth, with concrete. Only a few men could work at once and, after a half-hour's desperate labor, the hole was nothing like far enough advanced to ensure the total destruction of the bridge, upon the charge being fired. In the meantime the Prussian sentries were arriving from up and down the line and, although not in sufficient force to attack, had opened fire from a distance.
”Don't you think that will do, Ribouville?” Major Tempe asked.
”No, sir,” the other replied. ”It might blow a hole through the top of the arch, but I hardly think that it would do so. Its force would be spent upwards.”
At this moment Ralph--who had done his spell of work, and had been down to the stream, to get a drink of water--came running up.
”If you please, Lieutenant Ribouville, there is a hole right through the pier, just above the water's edge. It seems to have been left to let any water that gets into the pier, from above, make its escape. I should think that would do to hold the charge.”
”The very thing,” Lieutenant Ribouville said, delightedly. ”What a fool I was, not to have looked to see if such a hole existed!
”Stop work, men, and carry the barrels down to the edge of the water.”
The stream was not above waist deep; and the engineer officer immediately waded into it, and examined the hole. He at once p.r.o.nounced it to be admirably suited to the purpose. It did not--as Ralph had supposed--go straight through; but there were two holes, one upon each side of the pier, nearly at the same level, and each extending into the center of the pier. The holes were about four inches square.
The barrels of gun cotton were now hastily opened on the bank, and men waded out with the contents. Lieutenant Ribouville upon one side, and Ralph upon the other, took the cotton and thrust it, with long sticks, into the ends of the hole. In five minutes the contents of the two barrels were safely lodged, the fuse inserted, and the operation of tamping--or ramming--in dry sand, earth, and stones commenced.
”Make haste!” Major Tempe shouted. ”Their numbers are increasing fast. There are some fifteen or twenty, on either side.”
A brisk fire of rifles was now going on. The day had fairly broken; and the franc tireurs, sheltered behind the parapet of the bridge, on the bank of the river, were exchanging a lively fire with the enemy. Three-quarters of an hour had pa.s.sed since the first shot was fired.
Suddenly a distant boom was heard, followed in a few seconds by a slight whizzing noise, which grew rapidly into a loud scream and, in another moment, there was an explosion close to the bridge. The men all left off their work, for an instant.
”And what may that be, Mister Percy? A more unpleasant sound I niver heard, since I was a baby.”
”I quite agree with you, Tim, as to its unpleasantness. It is a sh.e.l.l. The artillery are coming up from Luneville. The fire of the sentries would take the alarm, in a couple of minutes; give them another fifteen to get ready, and half an hour to get within range.
”Here comes another.”
”Are you ready, Ribouville?” the commandant shouted. ”They have cavalry, as well as artillery. We must be off, or we shall get caught in a trap.”
”I am ready,” was the answer.
”Barclay, strike a match, and put it to the end of your fuse, till it begins to fizz.
”Have you lit it?”
”Yes, sir,” Ralph said, a moment later.
”So have I,” the lieutenant said. ”They will burn about three minutes.
”Now for a run!”
In a couple of minutes the franc tireurs were retreating, at the double; and they had not gone a hundred yards when they heard the sound of two tremendous explosions, following closely one upon another. Looking back, they saw the pier had fallen in fragments; and that the bridge lay, a heap of ruins, in the stream.
”Hurrah, lads!” shouted the commandant. ”You have done your work well. Those who get out of this with a whole skin may well be proud of their day's work.
”Don't mind the sh.e.l.ls,” he continued, as two more of the missiles burst, in quick succession, within a short distance of them. ”They make an ugly noise; but they won't hurt us, at this distance.”
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