the young
Englishman perceived, to his disgust and alarm, that the Spanish
soldiers had availed themselves of the obscurity not only to entrench a
strong body of riflemen to right and left of their own end of the ruined
bridge, but also to advance a long, light platform, or gangway, mounted
on the wheels of one of the disabled field pieces, which they seemed to
be preparing to throw across the gap in the bridge as soon as they could
get sufficient light to enable them to run it into position; indeed,
they were actually engaged in moving it forward at the very moment when
Jack discovered its existence.

To bring up his men, and place them in a position among the bamboos
which would enable them to frustrate this bold attempt to span the river
was the work of but a minute or two for Jack; then he immediately opened
a hot fire upon the working party who were engaged in moving forward the
gangway. But no sooner had he done this than he found how seriously the
conditions had changed for the worse during those two hours of total
darkness; for now the Spaniards who had established themselves in the
trenches were so close at hand that the cover of the bamboos was no
longer an efficient defence, and casualties among the defenders became
disconcertingly frequent. Furthermore, it soon appeared that the
Spaniards had got two strong hauling parties sheltered behind a couple
of low earthworks, and that these people, by means of two stout ropes
attached to the gangway, were steadily and with much skill hauling the
thing toward the required position. Jack soon saw, however, that it
would be quite impossible for the hauling parties to haul it far enough
forward to enable it to be dropped into position across the gap in the
ruined bridge: a moment must come, sooner or later, when the concealed
men who were dragging upon the ropes would be obliged to leave their
cover and push the platform the remaining portion of the distance; and
he quickly determined to reserve his energies and his ammunition until
that moment.

The time quickly arrived. A single bugle blast appeared to be the
signal for the entrenched Spanish riflemen to concentrate their fire
upon the clump of bamboo brake wherein Jack had hidden his men, and at
the same instant about a hundred infantry-men sprang from behind their
sheltering earthwork and made a dash at the platform, their every
movement being clearly visible by the light of the vivid electric
discharges which