lroad bridge and has
artillery mounted so that the guns will have to be captured before
General Bliss can make an attempt to rebuild it."

"I see! If the bridge is covered with guns, the theory is that the enemy
couldn't do any work, eh?"

"Exactly! They've got to work in a narrow place, and they'd be blown to
pieces, a squad at a time, while they were trying to work. That was the
decisive move of the whole action. What did General Bean say to you?"

"He said it was good work, sir, and that he was going to speak to you of
it."

"Excellent, Jack! I am very pleased that one of my Scouts should have
played so important a part in the first decisive engagement of the
campaign. And General Bean is the sort of a man who is sure to see that
you get the credit for what you've done."

"What shall we do next, sir?"

"I'll hold you in reserve until I get further orders from headquarters,
I think. General Harkness evidently plans an aggressive fight from the
very outset. I have heard nothing from his headquarters direct as yet,
but I probably shall pretty soon. I shall send in a report of General
Bean's success at Hardport at once, though he has probably done that
already."

The Scouts were working well all along the line. The enemy, as Pete
Stubbs had reported, had crossed the State line in some small force at
Mardean. Two regiments had occupied that village, which was on the Red
side of the line, and had thrown out skirmishers for a couple of miles
in both directions. Warner, one of the Raccoon Patrol, had been
captured, but he was the only one of the Troop who had not made good his
escape in the face of the enemy's advance, and even he had accomplished
the purpose for which he had been sent out, since he had managed to
wig-wag the news of the advance of a troop of cavalry before they had
run him down, and the news had been flashed all along the line, from
Scout to Scout, until it had reached Durland.

The wireless was not in use here, though experiments were being made
with a field wireless installation some miles away, but the Scouts did
not need it. They were spread out within plain sight of one another, and
with their little red and white flags they sent messages by the Morse
alphabet, and in a special code, as fast as wireless could have done.
They also were prepared to use, when there was a bright sun, which was
not the case that day, the heliograph system, which sends messages for
great distances.

In that syste