The General studied the map of the wild men’s island which the Turk had drawn, in the hope that he could figure out a way to attack the Saboes without storming their fort. In storming the fort, the General felt sure that many of his soldiers might be injured and he wished to rout the enemy with as little damage as possible. “I have it! I have it!” exclaimed the General one morning as he sat studying the tiny map. “We can hire a mole to tunnel under the wild men’s fort and then we can blow it up with a firecracker.”
“Bully!” shouted the Old Soldier. “And before they get over the surprise of the explosion we can charge through the destroyed fort into the village.”
“That’s the idea,” smiled the General. “We’ll go over to-morrow and engage the old mole who lives down by the river.”
“Moles are great engineers,” said the Doctor, “and what they don’t know about underground digging isn’t worth knowing.”
The next day the General and the Doctor, with an escort of four soldiers, set out on the journey to the mole’s home.
“S-s-say, what is a m-m-mole anyhow?” asked the Dunce as the little party marched along.
“A mole? Why, a mole—let’s see, a mole—why a mole is a mole,” answered Gogo.
“I’ll tell you what a mole is like,” laughed the Doctor, who had overheard the Dunce’s question. “A mole is an animal almost the size of a rat and he lives under the ground. He has very small eyes and ears, and he very seldom comes out in the day time, for it is pretty hard for him to see in the bright sunlight. He has very short and powerful legs with which he can dig very fast. He lives on worms and grubs and roots, and he is usually very gruff and bad-tempered.”
Presently the little party came to the place where the mole lived and the General ordered the soldiers to halt. They had stopped by the side of a steep bank and near the top was a hole under the roots of a tree, which was the front door of the mole’s home.
“Dress up in line, men!” co............