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The rain had ceased and a little pale sunshine cheered the cottages, the henless, dogless, empty road. A valiant bird sang on a hedge beside her. With her wire-cutters she opened the tin of potted meat, and with their handle spread it on the bread.
"No"; and with a gasp of relief we hurried on. In a few moment's the group in advance pulled up, shouting "'Ware barbed wire!" We all stopped, and there were frantic calls for wire-cutters. With four reports like the snapping of big fiddle-strings the last barrier before Mafeking was removed, and we passed on again, this time at a hand-canter.
A luminous watch. A pair of insulated wire-cutters. "There's only one thing you've forgotten," remarked Captain Wagstaffe, when introduced to this unique collection of curios. "What is that?" inquired Bobby, always eager to learn. "A pantechnicon! Do you known how much personal baggage an officer is allowed, in addition to what he carries himself?" "Thirty-five pounds." "Correct."
Shortly afterwards the first captured trench having been put into some shape for defense, the advance line of the Hotwaters retired. A small covering party stayed and kept up a rapid fire till most of the others had gone, and then climbed through the trench and doubled back after them. The officer, whose wire-cutters Everton had used, had been hit rather badly in the arm.
Even when he snapped an automatic handcuff over one wrist she smiled incredulously. But the jeering expression on her dark, handsome features altered when they approached the Swiss wire. And when Recklow produced a pair of heavy wire-cutters all defiance died out in her face. "Make a sound and I'll simply shoot you," he whispered. "W-what is it you want with me?" she asked in a ghost of a voice.
Presently, if he gets safely across the intervening ground, the faint yet feverish snipping of wire-cutters is heard, each time being followed perhaps by a slight "ping" as the strained wire separates. The ensuing silence is almost heart-breaking, for in contrast something else may at any instant be increasing its tension, a sentry's trigger-finger.
Several men in each company carried wire-cutters with them, but to stand up and snip through lines of barbed wire when the Mauser bullets and the deadly shells of the Pom-Pom gun are tearing up the soil around is perilous work.
"But what are we going to do if the Scientist does get caught in one?" "We shall burn that bridge when we reach it, my boy. Now, do you have the pliers, wire-cutters, and screw driver below?" "Yes, they're down in the cellar. What are we going to do with them, Phoenix?" "Patience, patience! You will be told when the time comes.
General Anderson had instructions to extend his line to crowd the insurgents out of their trenches with their consent, but this was not attempted, for that would have brought on an engagement prematurely. Anderson had purchased wire-cutters with insulated handles in San Francisco, and they were useful! Anderson had his trenches with the insurgents.
"Let me go on with it, sir," he said eagerly, and without waiting for any consent stooped and picked up the fallen wire-cutters and set to work. He and the others, standing erect and working on the wire, naturally drew a heavy proportion of the aimed fire; but Everton was only conscious of an uplifting exhilaration, a delight that he should have had the chance at such a prominent position.
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