Even the lieutenant seemed dazed.
"Trapped," echoed Slim, "in the cave of death."
CHAPTER XIV
DESPERATE MEASURES
Never did three young men face a more terrible or more horribly gruesome situation. Here they were, locked in a natural dungeon behind a wall of dirt and rock probably four or five feet thick. Not only that, but the cave already contained the bodies of six men whose fixed and glassy eyes stared at them as though in mockery and warning, and the already foul air was becoming more stifling every moment.
In a dull way they realized that they probably could not survive more than two or three maddening hours in that death chamber.
"It may not be so bad as it seems," said Lieutenant Mackinson in a voice that seemed unnatural in that vault. "Perhaps it was only a slight cave-in."
He flashed his light about the hole. It was difficult to tell where the opening had been.