"I should say not," exclaimed Jacques warmly. "We were sent in here to rout out the enemy and that's what we must do. There are surely more of them than we have seen."
"Next time we must be more careful going into rooms like this," advised Leon. "It doesn't pay just to go ahead blindly."
"Come," urged Jacques, and he led the way out of the little room down the narrow passageway leading they knew not where.
Cautiously they slunk along, their eyes strained to see through the dim light of the underground passage. The noise of the great cannonade above came to their ears but faintly here. A hoarse rumbling and a trembling of the earth was the sole evidence that over their heads the opposing armies were hurling tons of metal at each other.
"There's a turn just ahead," whispered Jacques cautiously. "Be ready."
Every sense alert the three young soldiers proceeded slowly. Soon they came to the spot where the passage led off to the left. Jacques peered cautiously around the corner and quickly drew back his head.
"Come," he whispered, beckoning to his two companions. "Have your grenades ready."
All three boys took hand grenades in their right hands and prepared for instant action.
"Lean your rifles against the wall here," Jacques directed.
This done, they crept stealthily forward, the grenades in their right hands and their automatic revolvers in their left. Making almost no sounds, they walked gingerly around the corner of the passage and there before their eyes they saw what had caused Jacques to draw back so speedily a few moments before. Standing in the center of a little room similar to the one they had just left were six Germans.