But their precaution was needless. The trench was empty!
Empty as far as men were concerned. But it was full of other things that made their hair stand up with horror as their meaning swept in upon them!
CHAPTER VI
A TASTE OF COLD STEEL
Planted at intervals in the trench were rows of iron stakes, coming to a sharp point at the top and cunningly camouflaged so that they would not be detected by any one looking over the edge. The Army boys were not slow in seeing the meaning of the trap and the fiendish ingenuity that had conceived it.
"It's a dummy trench!" murmured Corporal Wilson. "The idea is to have their men seem to retreat into it when the fighting takes place on this part of the line. Our boys come on in pursuit, jump over the edge, come down on these sharp stakes and are spitted like larks. Nice way to wage war, that!"
"It's worthy of the Hun," growled Tom.
"And when you've said that you've reached the limit," observed Bart.
"The Turks are pretty good at torture," murmured Frank bitterly, "but they must feel like thirty cents when they compare themselves with their German masters."
"Let's get these things out of the way," said Billy wrathfully, as he grasped one of the spikes.