The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1917-12-13

V
is relaid, and u couple of hours later
things are going on well again.
Perhaps, though, there are not
enough pit props available. Round
rushes an officer, gets a chit from the
office of the chief engineer of the army
corps operating there, hops on a lorry,
and away he pelts to the nearest rail
head or dump. The chit is handed in
to the officer in charge there, the nee.
essary material is issued and loaded,
back goes the lorry again, and the job
is done.
Perhaps a road is under water.
Well, iron pipes are necessary to take
the surplus from one side of the high
way to a ditch on the other, and iron
pipes have to be found. They do not
grow on the bushes by the side of, the
road. They are stacked perhaps miles
away on a dump, and they have to be
brought up. Then, and not till then,
the work can be done, and the route
released for traffic again.
Humoring the Steam Roller.
Even steam rollers have to be con-
sidered, for a steam roller has a soul,
and has to be humored. The first
steam roller I saw in France came
from a London suburb, and she was
resting in a ditch. The next I saw was
one from the county council Of a south.
ern county. She was in Il ditch, too.
Both were got out, of course, but the
edge Of a road In France has an I'M
cu.ny naDl OF breaking away, and
then the trouble begins.
One roller 1 knew was the most per-
verse creature 1 ever met. She made
a start by blowing out the plug of her
boiler and had to be assisted from a
small river twice by means OF a couple
OF Caterpillar" tractors Then, sud-
denly. she appeared to change ner
mind, and when l hearu of ller last
was working as though she were at
home. She had to be Kept at work.
too, and her repairs nad also &c be
rushed. When the plug blew out, tor
instance, an officer who happened to
come along took a couple OF men round
to a French b~lacksmlth's shop. found
some lead, made the repairs there and
then, paid half a franc out of his w
pocket and wasted only q few hours
over the task instead of a couple Of
days. Economy of time means every
thing, and an hour saved means an
hour gained.
Real Rush Repair.
Somewhere in France" there is a.
little river about the width of a canal
and with the water confined between
banks some feet higher than the sur
rounding country. The Hun naturally
shelled these banks, with the intcn-
ton Of letting all the stream into the
fields. Now and again he got home
on his objective. But in a few
minutes, with sheets of corrugated
iron, posts, wire bindings. rolls of
brushwood-in fact, anything that was
ut hand-the gap was filled in and
the damage repaired. This was q
real rush repair, and it went on at in
t~ervals, day and night, for IL week or
ten days. Then Tommy showed the
Hun back, and he had something else
to occupy his attention. I!
Getting up material for these re-
pairs by means Of motor lorries is,
too, not a task for children. When
you walk across a field or through a
wood there isn't usually much danger
in it. But the Huns know where the
roads are, and he also knows there is
transport coming up OF down practi-
cally all the time. So, suddenly, he
starts Smelling, and then you have to
get a real move on. You are also, l
may add, just as likely to run into
anything as to run away from it.
Once a lorry was going down tt
fetch some stuff from a dump about
twelve miles back. Then the shells
began to pop over. That meant put
ting IN speed, and for five or six miles
it was q race between the shells, the
lorry and a motor car. The trio trav-
eled "some," but the car couldn't gain
a yard on the lorry, and eventually
both ran out of range.
When the lorry came back, loaded.
a couple of hours later, it was found
that four shell craters had been blown
in the road, but that the engineers had
already been on the spot and repaired
all the damage done.