The corporal’s face was grave as he made the discovery.
“No chance of doubling on them in here,” he remarked. “Looks very much as if they’d got us in a trap. If they follow us up, we’ll have to fight it out. And we haven’t got too much ammunition left. I sent most of my bullets at the Huns in the boats.”
“You toppled over two of them,” said Tom. “I saw them drop. But there’s a lot of them left.”
“There’s a light at the mouth of the tunnel!” exclaimed Billy.
They looked back.
From the point that they had reached the tunnel extended back to its mouth as straight as an arrow, and they could see the two boats that had been in pursuit lying beside each other, while from the light of a lantern in the bow of one they could see the figures of the men engaged in an animated debate. They seemed to be divided as to the course to pursue.
“Wonder if they’ll follow us in,” murmured Tom.
“They don’t seem to relish the idea very much,” remarked Frank.
“The chances are that they will,” judged the corporal. “They know that they outnumber us, and they won’t want to let us go back to our lines with the information we’ve picked up.”
Suddenly the light went out.