and Corporal Shaw went on ahead to reconnoitre.

CHAPTER XVII

Cutting the Line

The line was well guarded. A company of infantry was allotted to every
four or five miles of line, and furnished the sentries who were posted
every hundred yards or so. These men were within easy reach of one
another, sometimes stationed on the line itself and at other times at
the top of any adjacent knoll or rising ground. The nucleus of the
company, the men resting from their turn of sentry-go, was stationed at
a point of vantage within easy touch of the whole of the line under its
care. An alarm at any point would not only attract the sentries from
both sides to the spot, but would also quickly bring the remainder of
the company hurrying to the scene.

Corporal Shaw's dispositions were soon made. His men were brought within
reach of the railway at a point where it ran through country well wooded
on either side. A sentry was then marked down as the point of contact,
and six men, three on either side, were detached to act as flank guards.
These were posted within easy reach of the sentries, next on either
side, with instructions to shoot them down should they make any move to
interfere, and to hinder, by all means in their power, the approach of
further reinforcements.

The unfortunate sentry marked down as the point of contact would not
require much attention. He would obviously be helpless against ten men.

A whistle apprised the flank guards that the attack was about to begin.
Then the main body emerged from cover and half a dozen rifles were
levelled at the sentry in front of them. For a moment the man was too
astonished to move; then he gave a shout of alarm and fled down the line
towards the sentinel on the right.

Two rifles cracked almost simultaneously and the man fell in his tracks
and lay motionless.

"Get his rifle, someone, and then come and lend a hand here," cried
Corporal Shaw, springing out on to the line and getting to work with an
entrenching tool upon the permanent way. Other men followed his example,
the gravel was rapidly scraped away from the sleepers, and several long
iron bars, taken from some derelict agricultural machine passed on the
way, inserted beneath the rails. But the united efforts of several men
made no impression upon the well-bolted rails and the attempt was
promptly abandoned.

The bolts and nuts which held the rails together were attacked instead,
and, although no spanners were a