But that day the fighting had been so fierce and the enemy had been kept
so busy in resisting the American onslaught that no such precaution had
been taken. And this better than anything else told the boys how badly
the enemy had been shaken.

At several places they found gaps that had been made by the Yankee guns,
and these they widened by the use of the wire cutters that they carried
in their belts.

At each such breach the boys tied small pieces of white rag, so that on
the next day these fluttering bits of white could be seen through field
glasses by the American officers, and the full force of guns and men
could be brought to bear against these weakened portions of the line.

They worked rapidly and silently, timing their cutting with the roar of
the guns that still kept up the artillery duel, so that the click of the
nippers would be drowned in the heavier sound.

Little by little in the course of the work, the members of the patrol
had drawn apart, depending upon their ability to rejoin each other by
following the line of the wire.

Frank found himself working on a specially tangled bit of wire that was
made still more difficult of handling because it was intertwisted with
the stalks of a thick hedge. He had just nipped a piece of wire in two,
when his quick ear detected a sound on the other side of the hedge.

Instantly he stiffened. Every muscle became as taut as tempered steel.
He scarcely seemed to breathe while his unwinking eyes tried to bore
through the mass of tangled brush and wire to see what was on the other