“You promised to see it through, and you’ve got to do it,” declared Lieutenant Gebauer. “Come! Catch hold!”
Between them they carried Dave into the cave-like opening. Then, as Nat retreated, fearing that our hero would recover consciousness and recognize him, Gebauer lit a match and took a survey of the situation. Only a few feet away was a slope leading down to unknown depths. The fellow who had tried to become Dave’s rival in the affections of Jessie Wadsworth hesitated for an instant and then pushed our hero’s body toward this slope. Then he gave it another shove, and suddenly saw the body go turning over and over down the slope and out of sight into the darkness.
“There, I guess that will fix you, Dave Porter!” he muttered to himself. “You’ll have one sweet job getting out of that hole. I hope it takes you several days to do it. And if it does, I think it will be an easy matter to spread a report that you ran away simply to have a good time in one of the French towns behind us.”
CHAPTER XXI
IN THE ABANDONED MINES
“Where in the world am I and what happened to me?”
This was the first thought that coursed slowly through Dave’s mind as he gradually returned to consciousness. He lay perfectly still, not moving for several minutes.
All was pitch dark around him, and by the way his whole body hurt he knew he had been tumbled over some rocks. He put his hand to his head and found quite a swelling there. Then his fingers traveled to his left temple and felt something sticky, which he knew was blood that had started to congeal.
Presently a faint recollection of what had occurred crossed his mind. He remembered stooping to pick up the notebook belonging to Captain Obray and then catching a flitting glimpse of two figures behind him. Then had fallen several blows upon his head, and he had gone down in a heap.
“Maybe they were a couple of Germans who attacked me,” he reasoned. “Perhaps I am their prisoner.”
But then he remembered something else, which was that even in that passing glimpse of his assailants he had noted that they wore khaki and not the grey of the enemy.