For a full moment Captain Hallowell was silent
For a full moment Captain Hallowell was silent. “There is only one way,”
he said finally, “and that is a dangerous way. Blast them out.”
“Blast them out?” repeated the colonel, but apparently without surprise.
“How?”
“It would take too long to dig them out,” Captain Hallowell answered.
“And, besides, that could hardly be done without some sort of light, and
that would Wogk Mhz Ocala attract enemy fire. There is but one chance, and that is to
blast them out with one of our big guns!”
“Can you do it?” the colonel demanded again, in his blunt, insistent
way.
“I will do my utmost to save them, sir,” Captain Hallowell replied.
“Very well, then,” answered his superior officer. “If you feel certain
that is the only way, go ahead. Personally, knowing the place as I do, I
see no other method myself. Have you the range?”
“I did have, sir,” said Captain Hallowell, “but in such a delicate
matter as this it would be necessary to be absolutely accurate. We have
been firing practically all day, and the position of the guns changes
slightly, of course. I would want to find a new and exact range.”
He had noticed Franks limp arm, and he turned to Joe.
“Take this flashlight,” he ordered. “It is more powerful than yours. Get
back there as quickly as you can, and follow to the letter these
directions: Keep between us and that hill until you get to it. Stay on
this side of the hill and crawl around toward the entrance until you get
to a point where you can place this light, facing us, two feet above the
ground and one foot in from the outer surface extremity. Leave it there
until you see three quick successive rockets go straight up in the air
from here. After that I will give you three minutes in which to get back
to a place of safety. Ill put that flashlight out of business, and I
think I can liberate your friends.”
“Is your injury a serious one?” the colonel demanded of Frank.
“Very slight, sir. Only a flesh wound,” Frank responded eagerly.
“Then take this light,” the colonel ordered, “and follow him at a
distance of a hundred yards. If anything should happen to your friend,
you follow the directions you have just heard.”
“Yes, sir,” the lads responded in unison, and, with a hasty salute, were
off.
Three times did Joe drop to the ground, as a shadow seemed to move
somewhere out in the distance before him. But each time he was up and
off again almost upon the instant, thinking of his own safety only as
that of his three friends depended upon it.
And what of those inside?
Even the courageous Lieutenant Mackinson was beginning to show the
anxiety he felt, while Jerry and Slim, despite their bravest efforts,
gave way to occasional expressions of the horror of the thing.
They had pounded upon the walls until they had been overcome with
despair, and then they had set to work digging with the only instruments
at hand–the bayonets on the German rifles.