Page:America Fallen!.djvu/147

Rh the debarkation from these ships of a force of 5,000 picked bicycle troops. Accompanying them were several batteries of machine-guns, bicycle-mounted and capable of being quickly assembled. The first company to land was told off to cut all telegraph, telephone, and railway lines leading to Washington. A small detachment from this company, composed of fast riders,—more than one of whom, in past years, had come over for the international races in Madison Square,—pushed on at full speed for Washington, with instructions to mine the tall towers of the Arlington long-distance radio station, lay the wires, and be prepared to wreck the plant as soon as the expeditionary force reached the city.

Except for the machine-guns (each of which was carried between a pair of tandems) the whole force was in the lightest possible marching order, each man carrying only two days' rations and an extra supply