they saw some German soldiers drinking, sat down at a table, and called for some bread and cheese and beer. While they were taking them, they listened to the conversation of the soldiers. The only information that they gleaned from it was that the men seemed to have no expectation whatever of any early movement, and that they were heartily sick of the monotony of the place, and the hard work of patrolling the line of railway night and day.

Presently the soldiers paid for their beer and left, and some of the townspeople came in and took the places they had left. Their conversation of course turned on the Prussian occupation, and deep were the curses heaped upon the invaders. The only thing mentioned in their favour was the smallness of their number. There were not over two hundred men; and this amount weighed but lightly upon Saverne, compared with the fifty, sixty, or a hundred quartered at every little village along the line of railway.

The boys had now learnt what they most wanted to know, and paying for their refreshment, went out again into the street. Then they walked to the railway station, where they saw several soldiers on guard, and then set off to a point where they could see the entrance to the tunnel. There two soldiers were on guard; while others were stationed at short distances all along the line.

The boys now went up to a wood whence, unseen themselves, they could watch the trains passing. They came along nearly every half hour; immensely long trains filled with stores of all kinds. As it became dusk

they saw a body of Prussian soldiers marching down the

German Precautions.

95

line, relieving the sentries, and placing fresh ones at distances of little more than fifty yards apart. These marched backwards and forwards until they met each other, then returning until they faced their comrade at the other end of their beat.

"We can be off now, Percy," Ralph said, rising; "our news is bad, for it will be by no means so easy to cut the line as we had expected. These weasels won't be very easily caught asleep."

"No, indeed," Percy said; "the idea of cutting the line sounded so easy when we were at a distance, but it is quite a different matter now we are here."

Upon their return they found with some difficulty the place where they had hidden their uniforms; again changed clothes, and then carrying those they had just taken off, made up into bundles, they re-entered the village, and went straight to head-quarters.

Major Tempé was at dinner with the other officers, and received them with great pleasure, for he had been anxious all day lest any misfortune might befall them.

Finding that they had had nothing to eat since early in the morning, he at once invited them to sit down to dinner, for military discipline is far less strict in these matters in France than it is in England, and among the corps of franc-tireurs especially, as among the English volunteers, where the private is, in many cases equal to, or superior to his officer in social standing, the difference of rank is very much put aside, except on duty.

"And you say that they have a sentinel at every fifty or sixty yards along the line?" Major Tempé said, when

Ralph had given an account of their day's investigation. "That appears to me to be fatal to our plans."

"Why so?" Lieutenant de Maupas, who commanded the first company, asked. "It seems to me that nothing could be easier. Suppose we fell upon any given point, the sentries near it would be at once killed or made prisoners; and even allowing, as young Barclay says, that there are troops in all the villages, it would be a good half-hour before a force sufficient to disturb us could arrive."

"That is true enough," Major Tempé answered. "But what could we do in half an hour? We might pull up two hundred yards of rail. What real advantage would be gained by that? The line of sentries along the rail would, by firing their rifles, pass the news ten miles in half as many minutes, and the trains would be stopped long before they arrived at the break. Each train carries, I know, workmen and materials for repairing the line; and as it would be impossible for us to carry away the rails after pulling them up, they would be replaced in as short a time as it took us to tear them up; and the consequence would be, that the traffic would only be suspended for an hour or two at most. For a break to be of any real utility whatever, it must last for days, if not for weeks. The great coup, of course, would be the destruction of the rock-tunnel of Saverne, which was the special object of our presence here. Failing that, we must try a bridge. The tunnel, however, is the great affair. Once destroyed, there would be no repairing it for many weeks. My proposition is, therefore, that we turn our attention at once to that point."