one o'clock
Where the road dipped into the ravine and down through the village to the valley the rider drew his restless mount into a walk ; but , once in the valley , he let him out . Barney took the short road to Lustadt . It would cut ten miles off the distance that the main wagonroad covered , and it was a good road for a horseman . It should bring him to Lustadt by one o'clock or a little after . The road wound through the hills to the east of the main highway , and was scarcely more than a trail where it crossed the Ru River upon a narrow bridge that spanned the deep mountain gorge that walls the Ru for ten miles through the hills . When Barney reached the river his hopes sank . The bridge was gone -- dynamited by the Austrians in their retreat .