It took some time to get a good fire alight. The wood was damp, and Giles’s tinder-box had not altogether escaped a wetting. But the fire was ablaze at last, and then Jack set to work with the creaking bellows to blow it to a heat sufficient to weld the broken ends of the tyre. The third man, Plunket, held the iron in the glowing charcoal with the smith’s huge tongs, while Giles stood ready with the hammer to beat it on the anvil. "I’m afeard it won’t be big enough to go round the felly without a bit more iron," said Giles; "and there don’t seem to be a bit of the right kind here." "Try it first. The whole tyre may expand enough with the heat." But when Giles had welded the broken ends, and tried to fit the tyre on the wheel, he found that it was too short, as he had feared. "We can’t give it up," said Jack. "Look round the place and see if you can find a scrap of thin iron that will serve the purpose." After searching in the smithy and the surrounding yard for several minutes, a strip of iron was discovered which Giles thought might weld with the rest. The tyre had to be heated again and cut at the cleavage. The small piece had to be beaten until it was of the same thickness as the tyre, and only after a good deal of patient manipulation did Giles succeed in forming a tyre of the required circumference. It was finished, however, at last. It fitted on the scorching felloe, and after cold water had been thrown on it from the blacksmith’s tank, filling the air with vapour and the characteristic smell of the smithy, Giles declared that the wheel was good enough for another campaign. "That’s right, then," said Jack. "Now we must get back to the cart. By George! it has taken us a long time. It’s past five o’clock, and getting dark. Raining as hard as ever too!" They trudged up the road and through the village, expecting to meet the rear-guard of the British infantry, or at any rate the cavalry. But there was nobody to be seen. They hurried along out of the village towards the spot where, in the gathering darkness, they saw the wagon still standing in the middle of the road. "But where are the bullocks?" cried Jack, noticing that the shafts and rope traces were empty. Hastening in advance of the men, burdened as they were with the heavy wheel, he came to the cart. "Wilkes, where are you?" There was no answer; nor was there any sign of the men he had left on guard. "This is awkward, my men," he said, as the two came up. "The wheel’s right, but those two fellows and the driver have gone off, and the bullocks with them. We can’t move the thing without animals." "The corp’ril wouldn’t budge without he were sent, sir," said Plunket. "Maybe the French have come up in the dark and captured ’em, sir," added Giles. "Nonsense! the French were not so close as all that. I don’t fancy our cavalry have gone by yet. You two fellows fix the wheel on. I am going back to the village to find a team. I sha’n’t be long."