Page 101 - A Hero of Liége

huge circle, still at a great height.

When the expected signal came, it was startling in its suddenness. Kenneth
had not seen an object fall from the aeroplane, but there was a sharp

explosion just beyond the bridge, a cloud of dust, and cries of amazement
and fear from the guards. He moved nearer to the bridge. From the
direction of the troop train he heard the crackle of rifles. The eyes of the

guards were still turned upwards upon the monoplane, which was circling
round at a height of three or four thousand feet above the bridge, within

range, indeed, but a difficult target.

Taking advantage of the excitement of the men, Kenneth had crept through

the scrub on the river bank and come beneath the end of the bridge. He had
already perceived that the stone arch at each end had been destroyed, but

the centre arch was intact, and the gaps had been covered with stout balks
of timber on which the railway track was laid. His aim must be to destroy
the central arch. With that broken down, to repair the bridge a second time

would be a much more difficult matter.

Covered now by the bridge, he waded out to the central arch, carrying his
apparatus. He had supposed that it would be necessary to hack out with the
pick-axe a hole in the masonry large enough to hold the case of gelignite,

and the risk of being heard strung his nerves to a high tension. It was with
great relief that he discovered a hole already made. Apparently a charge

had been laid there by the Belgian engineers, but it had failed to explode,
and probably had been removed by the Germans.

He lost no time in wedging the case of gelignite into the cavity, attached the
detonator, and waded back to the bank. There was now almost continuous

rifle fire from the troops, who had alighted from the train and lined up on
the track. The incessant noise smothered the whirr of the propeller, but it
was clear that Pariset was still absorbing the attention of the Germans.

Kenneth crept along up stream, paying out the wire as he went, until he
reached the shelter of a dense thicket. Then he made the connection with

the battery. Instantaneously there was a deafening roar, the arch collapsed,
and the whole bridge fell with a crash into the river.