CHAPTER XIII
THE CAVE OF DEATH
It is one of the fortunes, or misfortunes, of war that a position gainedone day, even at great human sacrifice, may be of no real or practicalvalue whatever the next. So it was with the advance post ofcommunication located by Lieutenant Mackinson and his party under suchdangerous conditions during the night before.
The information which they had gained through tapping the enemy's wireenabled the American and French troops, operating together, to preventthe German trick from being carried into effect. More than that, itenabled them to turn the knowledge of those plans to such good advantagethat the allied brigades swept forward in terrible force against theweakest points in the enemy line. They pushed the whole Boche front backfor more than a mile--at the very point where it had been consideredstrongest!
As a consequence, the point of communication which the lieutenant andhis aides had established with so much difficulty was now well withinthe territory held by the American and French fighters. The requirementsfor a further advance now made it necessary to have another outpostpoint of communication as near to the enemy trenches as the first onewas before the day's battle put the Allies a mile further forward.
And so, except for Tom Rawle, who was resting easy from his hip wound,the same party started out at the same tune for the same purpose on thissecond night, but with a very much sharpened realization of theobstacles they had to overcome and the chances they faced of beingwounded or captured.
"We take an entirely different direction," Lieutenant Mackinson toldthem, as he looked up from the map he had been studying. "We go to thenorth and east and as close to the observation trenches as possible."
Now the danger of this can readily be seen from considering what anobservation trench is. The front-line trenches of the opposing armies,of course, run in two practically parallel lines. But an observationtrench runs almost at right angles with the front-line trenches, anddirectly toward the enemy trench, so far as it is possible to extendit. The extreme ends of these observation trenches are known as"listening posts," and often they are so close to the enemy lines thatthe men in the opposing army can be heard talking.
Lieutenant Mackinson and his aides, Joe, Jerry, Slim and Frank Hoskins,were to get their signaling location as near to an enemy listening postas possible! In other words, they were to court discovery in an effortto get just a few feet nearer the enemy than they otherwise would.
They went along much as they had on the preceding night, except, hadthere been light enough, it might have been noticed that Slim, in hiswalking, pushed his feet forward cautiously, and then in stepping liftedthem high from the ground.
But as luck would have it they had not gone more than two hundred yardswhen a bullet whizzed within two feet of Jerry's head, followed by ashower of missiles that were directed entirely too close to them forcomfort.
Instantly they dropped flat on the ground. In the distance ahead of themthey could see three shadows stealthily crawling along toward them.
"Pick your men!" Lieutenant Mackinson ordered, in a whisper. "Fire!"
Their automatics let out a fusillade of bullets. Two of the shadowsjumped slightly into the air, and then rolled over. The third man roseand started to run toward the enemy line. Frank Hoskins took deliberateaim and fired. The man dropped and lay still.
"Looks as though we got them," said Lieutenant Mackinson, "but they maybe only pretending. Do not move for a few minutes."
While they were thus waiting, the enemy trenches sent up a glaringrocket. It fell shorthand failed to reveal them, but it plainly showedthree German soldiers lying prone upon the ground, all of themapparently instantly killed.
"That's the part of it I don't like," muttered Slim with a shudder. "Itisn't so bad when you are firing into a whole company or regiment andsee men fall. At least, it doesn't seem so bad, for you don't know justwhich ones you hit and which ones some one else bowled over. But in thisindividual close-range stuff it leaves a nasty feeling."
"You are right," whispered Frank Hoskins, "but you'd better not talkany more about it now or some Boche may try the same close-range stuffon us."
Warned to silence by the lieutenant, they continued to creep along, onlya foot or so at a time, stopping every few minutes to listen intently tosee if their presence had been discovered.
On the night before they had been upon fairly level ground, but thisnight they were in a section that was all hills and hummocks andhollows. They would creep cautiously up the side of one mound, notknowing but that on the other side lay a group of Germans, perhaps outupon a similar mission.
For no one can tell what may happen in No Man's Land--that sectionbelonging to neither side, before and between the front-line trenches ofthe opposing armies.
"With that star as my guide, I am certain that we have not turned fromthe proper direction," Lieutenant Mackinson whispered, as they came to ahalt in a secluded spot that seemed as safe from attack as fromobservation. "We have passed the fifth hill. Fifteen more minutes shouldbring us to the place which Major Jones indicated on the map. It is asort of natural trench. If we reach it all right we are to string awire from there to our first observation trench to the northwest of it.I believe that the same place has been used for the same purpose before,during the long time that all this has been contested ground. An outpostthere can observe and report every activity of the enemy in daylight,without himself being seen."
They began again to creep forward, now flat upon their stomachs, andonly raising themselves from the ground a little way, but at infrequentintervals, in order to make sure of their position and that they werenot being watched.
"Listen!" hissed Frank Hoskins, who was a little to the left of wherethe others were snaking their way along.
They all stopped moving, almost stopped breathing.
"What was it?" Lieutenant Mackinson barely breathed, after severalminutes of silence.
Hoskins crawled nearer before he spoke.
"How near are we, Lieutenant?" he asked:
"I should say about a hundred yards."
"Look straight ahead of us when the next rocket goes up," Hoskinssuggested.
They had not long to wait for one of the great sky torches to comesailing over the side of the German trench, but from a considerabledistance ahead of them.
"Did you notice anything?" Hoskins asked.
"I didn't," whispered the lieutenant. "Did you?"
"I thought I saw half a dozen men," said Joe.
"We'll wait, then, and see," said Lieutenant Mackinson.
In a moment another rocket went up, this time from the American-Frenchside, and it clearly showed what Joe and Frank both had seen.
Six, perhaps seven or eight, men were crawling along, headed towardthem.
"They are making for the same place," said Jerry.
"Exactly," replied the lieutenant. "It means that we have got to fightfor it. We will have some advantage if we can beat them to theprotection of the base of that hummock."
As rapidly as possible they started forward. Lying out flat, they woulddraw their feet upward and toward them, rising slightly and goingforward upon their arms. This action, which put them ahead a few inchesevery time, they repeated times without number. But it was slow progressat best, and made slower by the interruptions of the rockets.
"We are almost there," Lieutenant Mackinson whispered, "but I think wehave been discovered. Lie flat and don't make a move. By keeping my headin the position I have it I can watch that other group. If we have beenseen it means a running fight to the mouth of that trench or cave."
Another rocket cut a glaring path across the sky. Again it was from theAmerican-French side and illumined the black shadows strewn along theground like little clumps of low-growing bushes.
"Ah!" exclaimed the lieutenant suddenly, and then, in the same breath:"Up and at 'em, boys!"
Before the others had an opportunity to realize what had happened,Mackinson was dashing at top speed toward the indicated trench or ca
ve,firing as he went.
As they followed suit, but more careful in their shooting, for fear ofhitting him, they realized that the men in the enemy group were doingthe same thing--running as fast as they could for the same position.
"Drop!" ordered the lieutenant, and they did so, but it was as if he hadissued the order for both sides, for the others were not a second laterin seeking the security of the ground.
"Either side may begin playing machine-guns on us at any moment," theyoung officer whispered, between gasps for breath. "Forward as quicklyas possible, and continue firing."
How they ever escaped the enemy bullets as long as they did none of themever knew, but the men of the other side were just as doggedlydetermined, and no less courageous, even if three of their numberalready lay stretched out motionless and useless upon the ground.
And so the battle waged, until both groups were no more than fifty feetaway from the mouth of the natural trench. Each moment brought themcloser together, with the even more vigorous popping of their guns, forby now it was virtually a hand-to-hand battle.
Only four men now remained upon the side of the Germans, and, so far asnumbers were concerned, the Americans seemed to have the advantage byone. But the score was evened an instant later, when one of the Boches"winged" Frank Hoskins, and his right arm fell useless at his side.
But Lieutenant Mackinson squared accounts for Hoskins by putting anotherGerman completely out of commission. A prompt return compliment knockedJerry's revolver out of his hand. At this juncture Slim played a heroicpart by laying low another German.
Seeing themselves now outnumbered almost two to one--for apparently theydid not know that they had injured Hoskins--the two remaining Bochestook one final, despairing survey of the situation, then turned andstarted on a dead run for their own lines.
Lieutenant Mackinson leveled his revolver at them, held it in thatposition for a moment, and then--perhaps it was an accident--seemed toelevate it slightly in the air and fired. Certainly neither German washurt by the bullet, although it did seem to add a little to their haste.
"The position is ours," announced the lieutenant exultantly, and then,suddenly remembering that Frank Hoskins had been hit and that Jerry haddropped his gun, he inquired: "Hurt badly, Frank? And how about you,Jerry?"
"Nothing but a scratch," said Frank. "Took me right on the 'crazy bone'and made me jump for a minute, but it's hardly bleeding now."
"Only hit my gun," announced Jerry, "and I recovered that."
There was no time for further conversation. The Germans had reachedtheir own lines, and a machine-gun was being trained upon the Americans.They rushed headlong to the north side of the little mound, and into theopening of a natural cave.
The earthwork made them as solidly entrenched as though they were behindtheir own lines, and only heavy shells could dislodge them. But they hadwork to do, and the nature of it required that they do it quickly.
The entrance faced almost directly north and into No Man's Land, so thatthe light of an electric flash, such as they all carried, hardly couldattract the attention of either side.
"Joe," said the lieutenant, sizing up the situation, "it is not safe toleave the enemy unwatched for a single second. I think it would be wellfor you to stay on duty outside, while the rest of us rig up theinstrument and begin to unspool the wire. Hoskins, you're hurt, so youstay here with Joe. But both of you be mighty careful not to exposeyourselves where you'll stop a German bullet."
With Lieutenant Mackinson leading, Jerry just behind him and Slimbringing up the rear, they crossed the five feet of narrow passagewayback into the natural dungeon.
The lieutenant switched on his light. Involuntarily and with a startledgesture he stepped back.
"Jumping Jupiter!" exclaimed Jerry, "what's that?"
Slim, peering ahead of the other two, ejaculated something between ashriek and a groan.
Strewn about the ground of that cave, in every conceivable position ofmisery and torture, were the bodies of half a dozen dead men, allGermans.
The lieutenant's hand that held the light trembled slightly as he staredat the ghastly scene before him, but he was grit and courage rightthrough to the heart.
"This is bad business," he said, "but we are under orders and we must gothrough with it. We cannot move the bodies out to-night."
He stepped further into the dark hole, and the other two lads followed.
Suddenly from behind them there was a grumbling, roaring crash, piercedby a cry of warning from Joe, outside.
The three whirled around, and for a moment no one could utter a word.
The mouth of the dungeon had completely caved in!
"Trapped!" gasped Jerry, who was the first to find his voice.
Even the lieutenant seemed dazed.
"Trapped," echoed Slim, "in the cave of death."