Winded as they were, neither had the strength to climb the smooth-sided hole as the German evidently had done, by the main strength of the pressure of his legs against the walls as he made his way upward.
George squared himself with widespread feet, and Tom mounted to his shoulder. Ollie, who was still guarding the prize prisoner and awaiting their return, began popping questions, even as he helped Tom out of the hole, but the latter had no time for more than the essential facts then.
“Use your jacket as a rope and give Harper a lift out of that hole,” he instructed, and while this was being done he partially regained his breath.
“Now Ollie,” he continued, “go like the wind to the first officer of Engineers you can find, tell him we’ve discovered that everything under Thiaucourt is mined, and get back here with the necessary men as soon as you can.”
He turned to Harper. “You stay here and watch this German. I’ve still got breath enough left to make brigade headquarters in a very few minutes. Don’t let Fritz get away under any circumstances.”
And at the same instant Tom and Ollie sped away in opposite directions—Tom for the highest commanding officer he could find; Ollie back over the ground they had traversed, past the grave they had dug, and into the wood in search of an officer of Engineers.
Both knew that thousands of lives were at stake. Both put forth their bravest effort. For both realized that if they succeeded at all it would only be in the nick of time.
CHAPTER XII
The Desperate Chance
AS Tom, in the gray of the breaking dawn, came pounding into the lines which surrounded the thousands of sleeping soldiers, he nearly precipitated himself upon the out-thrust bayonet of a sentry whose call of halt he did not hear.