His breath coming and going in quick, sharp gasps, Tom managed to give the countersign, adding, “Sergeant Walton, Company C.” The sentry lowered his rifle and Tom proceeded; but a few yards further on he was compelled to repeat the process. For once he wished that all sentries were asleep on their posts.
At brigade headquarters he encountered a man who refused to get excited, and who demanded to know in detail what it was Tom wanted before he would waken his own sergeant to see if the message could be delivered to the general.
“I tell you,” Tom blurted out, in rising tones, “the life of every man here is in danger. This place is likely to be blown off the map any minute. The whole place is mined. I’ve just seen the bombs—scores of them—in a big underground chamber directly under the town. I’ve got to speak to someone in authority.”
“What’s that you say,” demanded a staff major, suddenly appearing on the scene. He had heard the last few words, and as he peered into the face of Sergeant Walton, who immediately came to a salute, he seemed instantly to sense the seriousness of the situation.
Briefly as possible Tom repeated his startling information. The major rattled off some orders to the sentry and a sergeant who had appeared, then left suddenly, telling Tom to wait right there.
In an incredibly short time the brigadier general, followed by most of his staff, emerged hurriedly from a dug-out.
“You are certain of this?” the general demanded sternly.
“Absolutely positive,” Tom answered. “I fell into the mouth of the cave myself, in helping to capture the German who had just come out of it, and when I found that it was a long tunnel, leading directly northward toward this spot, I led the way through it. We came upon a large underground chamber practically filled with big bombs, all connected with a cable. I should measure the distance we travelled as bringing that chamber almost beneath where we are standing now.”
Had Tom himself thrown a bomb into the midst of the gathered staff members it hardly could have caused greater consternation.
The general waited for no more. He barked a dozen orders to as many different officers in rapid-fire succession.