“You fellows stay here and take care of this prisoner, and I’ll go out and reconnoiter. I want to see the lay o’ the land. Maybe we’ve done all the digging necessary. With this guard out of the way, the coast may be clear to the south. We want to know where we’re going before we start.”
“Let me go along,” Dan requested. “I’ve got a notion that two spies working together can do better than one.”
“Come on, then,” Phil responded. “Is that satisfactory to you fellows?”
The speaker by this time was acknowledged by all as their leader. Half a dozen were now in the basement giving their assistance in shifts in the preparations for escape. They nodded assent to this latest suggestion.
A minute later Phil and Dan had crawled up over the pile of earth at the end of the tunnel and were creeping over the ground toward the supposed stonequarry.
CHAPTER XIX
OVERHEARD IN A SANDPIT
Carefully the boys peered in every direction for signs of the presence of guards in the vicinity, but apparently the boche whom they had captured had been the only one stationed south of the house. They reached the edge of the large excavation without an alarm to themselves or the enemy, and then began an examination of the descent for an avenue of departure for themselves and their waiting companions in the house.
The night was clear, but there was no moon; and it was difficult, with the aid of only the stars, to get a satisfactory view any considerable distance ahead of them. However, it is well known that one can accustom his eyes to ordinary darkness of night to such an extent that he is able to discern distant objects with a clearness that at first would seem impossible.
And so it was that after lying several minutes at the edge of what at first seemed to be a steep bluff, they found that they could make out the edge of a deep pit directly to the south and a hill-like descent that curved along to the left gradually to the southward. Bushes grew here and there along this winding hill-path, so that it was evident that they must make their inspection rod by rod, if not yard by yard, in order to determine of what value it was to them.
“Let’s go down there and see what it looks like,” Phil whispered in his companion’s ear.