“You shall have them,” answered the General stiffly. “Good day to you, sir.” Lifting his hat politely, he ordered the soldiers to march back to camp.

Chapter Nineteen THE OLD SOLDIER’S WAR MACHINE

At exactly four o’clock the next morning the mole came into camp, and as the General had promised, his breakfast was ready. After the mole had eaten his grubs, he reported for work. The General showed the mole just where he wanted the tunnel to run and immediately the old fellow set to work. He burrowed his nose down into the soft ground and then pushed the loosened earth back with his powerful fore claws. He worked wonderfully fast and in less than a minute he had entirely disappeared into the ground.

All day long the mole worked, coming out only for a few minutes at noon to eat his lunch, and at half past five in the afternoon he again appeared to announce that the tunnel had been finished.

The General sent the Sailor into the tunnel to measure it, for he wanted to be quite sure that it reached a point just under the wild men’s fort.

“It’s just exactly eight hundred and fifty-eight feet long,” announced the Sailor when he crawled out of the tunnel a few minutes later. “I could hear the wild men walking on the ground above, so it must stop right in the middle of the fort.”

“’Course it does,” snapped the mole. “Don’t you suppose I know how to dig?”

When the mole had been paid for his work, he slipped off into the night without ever even thanking the Teenie Weenies for his pay.

“Queer old surly fellow,” said the General as he watched the awkward mole waddle off.

“Yes, but you have to admit that he is a wonderful engineer,” observed the Old Soldier.

“Well, gentlemen,” said the General turning to his officers, “we have got to move our lines forward. You see, we are about eight hundred and fifty feet from the wild men’s fort and it is quite necessary that trenches be built forward so we will not have too great a distance to charge when we explode the mine under the enemy’s fort.”

The officers all agreed with the General and that very night several men were sent out, when it was quite dark, to start the work.

The little soldiers had gone but a short distance when they were seen by the wild 

 Prev. P 30/51 next