“A line of trenches caved in!” he said. “A lot of the men are buried alive!”
[CHAPTER XX]
A PRACTICE MARCH
Had such an accident as had occurred at Camp Dixton taken place in the midst of a big city street, there would have been so much excitement and conflict that the result would have been magnified in seriousness.
As it was there was enough seriousness to it, but it was minimized by the fact that the accident happened in the midst of a military camp, and among men who are used to meeting resolutely every sort of accident and emergency.
Short and sharp were the orders issued. Those who could not be of help were halted before they reached the place, and were held in readiness for any work that would be needed.
The three friends, being among the first to reach the scene, were put in one of the rescue squads. It did not take long to understand what had happened. Trenches had been dug in many parts of the camp to give the men training under the conditions they would find in France and Flanders. But there had been some heavy rain, and when a battery of heavy guns was fired too near a certain line of the trenches, the soft earth slid in on top of the men occupying the defenses. They were buried, a number of them being covered out of sight.
Fortunately there were plenty of entrenching tools on hand, and the first thing to do was to begin digging the men out. This was done under the direction of men of the engineer corps, who were experts in this work.
A hasty calling of the roll showed that twenty men had been caught in the cave-in, and within five minutes every one had been dug out. Several were unconscious, but there were pulmotors in the camp, and these were used until all but one of the victims was breathing naturally, if faintly. This one man died, and several had broken arms, legs and other injuries.