“I’ve been thinking of that,” said Phil; “and I have a scheme that I think will work first rate. After we get ahead with the tunnel a few feet, we’ll cut a hole straight up to the surface next to the foundation. We’ll keep the lights away from that hole, and stop our talking, too.”
Phil now left his two companions hard at work and ascended the stairway to report progress to his waiting companions and select two or three more assistants to help speed up the work in the cellar.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE PRISONERS TAKE A PRISONER
The work of digging the tunnel progressed rapidly. At first Phil feared that the job would prove exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, of performance in the seven or eight hours they had before them for labor before the next daybreak. He based this fear on the proximity of the supposed stonequarry just south of the house.
The earth was not even solidly packed at every place where they struck with spade, shovel and pick. In fact, much of it was so loose that to use the pick would have been a waste of time. Generally the spade served the purpose best in the tunnel, the one who wielded that tool pitching the diggings back as far as he could, while others threw or dragged them still farther back against the opposite wall with the shovel and hoe.
Before long it became evident to all the workers why the earth was so easy to spade. There was considerable sand mixed with the clay and the loam constituting the earth’s crust at this point. They concluded, therefore, that the stonequarry must be of the sand variety, and that the rocky substratum in this section of the country was covered with a sandy admixture of supersoil.
But they struck so much of this loosening element that it presently began to appear as a menace rather than an advantage. If a vein of sand should be struck overhead or in the upper part of the excavation, a cave-in might result in the suffocation of the tunneler before he could be rescued. Phil then suggested that thereafter the continuation of the tunnel be elevated a foot or two in order to lessen the possibility of such disaster. However, they were careful also not to cut too close to the surface of the ground for fear lest a guard, passing that way, might step through and be precipitated into the passage.
But that is the very thing that happened, and it came near bringing the enterprise of the energetic Marines to an unhappy conclusion. Nevertheless, perhaps, it was fortunate that things turned out as they did, for the guard who stepped through into the subterranean avenue was so overwhelmed by the mass of sand and earth which closed in upon him, that his wits, his voice and his power of self-help deserted him.
Phil was taking his turn with the spade in the tunnel when this thing occurred. Fortunately, he had stepped back several feet in order to bring the candle forward to a new niche he had just cut in the wall and was not covered by the avalanche of earth. As it was, he started back several feet, fearing that the whole roof of the tunnel was about to fall in, but was presently reassured by an appearance of the cause of the sudden interruption of his work.
A pair of coarse-broganned feet protruded from the heap of earth in the wrecked passageway and apprised him of the fact that someone—certainly not an American Marine—had been caught in a very effective trap, which had been intended for anything but a trap. Moreover, it was likely to prove a death trap in short order unless steps were taken to release the victim with all possible speed.