osed
that there was no chance of rigging up a cable-way, while the incline
was so steep and rough that it was out of the question to try to drag it
up with ropes. Just as we were on the verge of giving up in despair, one
of the Alpini--a man of Herculean frame who had made his living in
peace-time by breaking chains on his chest and performing other feats of
strength--came and suggested that he be allowed to carry the gun up on
his shoulders. Grasping at a straw, I let him indulge in a few 'practice
man[oe]uvres'; but these only showed that, while the young Samson could
shoulder and trot off with the gun without great effort, the task of
lifting himself and his burden from foothold to foothold in the
crumbling rock of the seventy-degree slope was too much for him.

[Sidenote: Men pull man and gun to position.]

"But out of this failure there came a new idea. Why not let my strong
man simply support the weight of the gun on his shoulder--acting as a
sort of ambulant gun-carriage, so to speak--while a line of men pulled
him along with a rope?

We rigged up a harness to equalize the pull on the broad back, and, with
the aid of sixteen ordinary men, the feat was accomplished without a
hitch. I am sorry to say, however, that poor Samson was laid up for a
spell with racked muscles.

"The gun--with the necessary parts and munition--was taken up in the
night, and at daybreak it was set up and ready for action. It fired just
forty shots before the Austrian 'heavies' blew it--and all but one or
two of its brave crew--to pieces with a rain of high-explosive. But the
troublesome Austrian battery was put so completely out of action that
the enemy never thought it worth while to re-emplace it.

[Sidenote: Italians mine and Austrians countermine.]

[Sidenote: The final explosion.]

"That is just a sample of the fantastic things we were doing all of the
three months that we drove the tunnel under the summit of the Col di
Lana. The last few weeks were further enlivened by the knowledge that
the Austrians were countermining against us. Once they drove so near
that we could feel the jar of their drills, but they exploded their mine
just a few metres short of where it would have upset us for good and for
all. All the time work went on until, on the 17th of April, the mine was
finished, charged, and 'tamped.' That night, while every gun we could
bring to bear rained shell upon the Austrian position, it was exploded.
A crater 150 fee