"It _is_ dark!" said Blake. "But come on. Use your pocket lights. No, hold on. We"ll use only one at a time. No telling how long we may need them."
Bringing out his own light, he flashed it on and led the way. Above them a continuous roar could now be heard, and they guessed that the airships were attacking in force, directly over the German camp, and were being fired at from all sides.
"One bomb must have splattered Fritz"s electric plant," observed Joe, as he and his chums hurried on as best they could in the somewhat dim light of the little pocket lamp Blake carried.
Hardly had he spoken when there came a tremendous explosion--one that staggered the boys and seemed to crumple up the tunnel as though it were made of paper.
They had no time to cry out. They were thrown down and felt rocks and stones falling about them, while their ears were deafened by the roaring sound.
Then came silence and darkness--a darkness that weighed heavily on them all, while Blake, who had been in the lead, tried to move his hand to flash on the electric light that had gone out or been broken. He could barely move, and as he felt dirt and rocks all about him there was borne to his senses the horrible message:
"Buried alive!"
After that thought mercifully came unconsciousness.
CHAPTER XXV
THE END OF LABENSTEIN
How long they lay entombed in the German tunnel the moving picture boys did not know. They must have been unconscious for some time.
Joe was the first to regain his senses. Telling about it later, he said he dreamed that he had been taking views in Earthquake Land and that, somehow or other, a volcano had fallen on his chest. He had difficulty in breathing, and no wonder, for as he came to his senses he found that a great rock and a pile of earth were across him.
Slowly at first, fearing to move much because he might bring down more debris on himself, Joe felt about. He found that his arms and hands were comparatively free, though partly buried in earth.
"I say!" he called, and his voice sounded strange in that dark and broken tunnel, "is any one here but me? Blake! Charlie! Are you alive?"
No one answered, and then, feeling his strength coming back, Joe ventured to move. He found that he could manage to emerge from the pile of earth and stones that had fallen on him, fortunately none over his head. When he ventured to stand upright he tried to pierce the darkness and find out what had become of his chums.
But he could see nothing until he thought of his pocket lamp and, taking it in his hand, flashed it about him. The light revealed to him the figures of Blake and Charlie, lying not far away and covered with debris as he had been.
He set the little light on a rock, leaving the switch on, and by the intense but limited glow, he set to work to free his companions. Blake"s head was bleeding from the cut of a sharp rock, but he, like Joe and Charlie, had fallen in such a way, or rather, the cave-in had taken place in such a manner, that their heads and faces were comparatively free from dirt, else they would have been smothered.
Joe worked feverishly to free his chums and at length succeeded in freeing his a.s.sistant, who, of the two, was less covered by the debris.
Charlie opened his eyes and looked about him, asking:
"What happened? Where am I?"
"Don"t stop to ask questions now," directed Joe. "Help me with Blake.
I"m afraid he"s hurt!"
The two together got their chum cleared of the debris finally, and then Joe, taking a flask of cold coffee from his pocket, gave his now half-unconscious chum some to drink. This served further to rouse Blake, and it was soon found, aside from a painful cut on the head, that he was uninjured except for bruises, such as they all had.
"But what happened?" asked Charlie, as they sat down to rest on some rocks and took turns finishing Joe"s limited supply of coffee.
"The tunnel caved in on us after a big explosion of some kind," Joe said. "I guess we"re going to have trouble getting out, too."
"Let"s have a look," suggested Blake. "We can"t stay in here much longer or more of the roof and sides may cave in. Can we get out?"
"I haven"t looked," answered Joe. "I wanted to get the dirt off you fellows. I"m afraid we"re caught, though."
And they were. An examination, made with the pocket lights, showed them that the way back was blocked by a ma.s.s of rock and earth and that no progress ahead could be made for the same reason.
"I guess we"ll have to dig our way out," said Joe.
"What with?" asked Charlie.
"Some of the broken boards that held up the tunnel," was the answer, and Joe pointed to pieces of timber that had been splintered and shattered by the cave-in.
"Yes, it"s the only way out," agreed Blake, who, now that his cut had been bound up with bandages from the first-aid kits the boys carried, felt better. "We"ll have to dig out." And after a short rest they began this work.
A terrible fear was upon them, a fear greater than that caused by their capture by the Germans with the possibility of being shot as spies. It was the fear of a horrible death--buried alive.
They dug as best they could for some time with the broken boards, their hands becoming cut and bruised by the rough edges. And yet, with all their efforts, they could not see that they had gained much.
They were digging back along the way they had come in, for, as Blake said, they knew how long the tunnel was in that direction, but they did not know how far it extended the other way.
"Is it of any use to continue?" asked Joe wearily, when they had been digging for what seemed several hours, though really it was not as long as that.
"Of course we"ve got to continue!" declared Blake, half savagely. "We can"t give up now--and die!"
"We may die anyhow," said Joe.
They were resting in the darkness after strenuous digging. In the dark because, to save the battery, they had switched off the electric light by which they had been working.
Charlie turned to look back. They had been piling the earth behind them as they worked, but there was not much of it as yet. They had made but small impression on the debris that hemmed them in. And as Charlie looked he uttered a cry.
"What is it?" asked Blake.
"A light! Don"t you see a light there?" Charlie demanded. "See! Back there through the c.h.i.n.ks in the rock. See, a flickering light!"
There was no doubt of it! There was a gleam of light, and it appeared to come from a point where some fallen rocks were loosely piled.
Dropping their boards, which they had been using for shovels, the boys climbed as near as they could to the hole. In the dark as they were, the light showed plainly.
"Can you see anything?" asked Charlie of Joe, who was nearest.
"No, only some figures moving about. It seems like some sort of dugout beyond there, and it hasn"t caved in. Maybe it"s the end of the tunnel."
"Did you say you can see somebody in there?" asked Blake.
"Yes; figures moving about."
"Call to them."