“If I only had my watch to tell the time by,” he mused. He had not yet replaced the timepiece which had been lost.
The day’s work and the subsequent events had so exhausted our hero that at last he concluded he had better lie down and rest. As he progressed he had picked up several sticks of wood and some more dry brush, and this he placed beside him so that he might have it ready for use if needed. Then by the dying flare of the torch he was using he managed to arrange something of a couch at the side of the gallery, and there lay down. He thought he would not be able to sleep, but after lying there for the best part of half an hour he dropped off into troubled slumber.
When the young lieutenant awoke it was still as dark as ever around him. He lost no time in fixing himself another torch, and, feeling hungry, ate a portion of the emergency ration he carried, washing it down with a few swallows of water.
As he advanced he noticed that the passageway he was following sloped gradually upward, and this gave him some encouragement.
“If it keeps on going up it certainly ought to come out into the open air sooner or later,” was the way the young officer reasoned.
He had gone but a short distance further when a sound came to his ears which filled him with surprise. There was a sharp bark, followed by several others.
“Dogs—or else foxes!” he exclaimed.
The sounds came closer, and holding up his torch Dave made out the forms of two lean and hungry-looking dogs. At first he thought they might belong to some Red Cross contingent, but soon threw this idea to the winds.
“They are just stray dogs, and pretty wild and hungry at that,” he told himself. “I wish they hadn’t come this way. I don’t like their looks at all.”
The dogs had evidently scented him, and now they came closer, barking furiously and showing their teeth. Evidently they, too, were lost underground, and most likely had not had food for some time.