ATTACKED IN THE DARK
“These old mines must have been worked for all they were worth.”
“That’s the way it looks to me, Roger. And yet I’ve no doubt that with
up-to-date mining methods they might get a good deal more out of these
places.”
“Oh, I know that, Dave. Modern mining machinery has accomplished
wonders for the mines in the United States.”
About a week had passed since Dave had had the quarrel with Nat Poole
at the brook, and during that time the engineers had been moved forward
to the vicinity of the abandoned mines mentioned by Lieutenant Gebauer.
Here they were busy repairing the roads which had once been used by
the Germans and left by them in a most deplorable condition. Trees and
huge masses of rocks blocked the way and great masses of abandoned wire
entanglements had been strung around wherever it was thought they would
impede the progress of the Americans.
It was bad enough to get rid of the rocks and the trees, but it was
even worse to dispose of the wire. Much of this was rusty, and they
had to be very careful how they handled the stuff for fear of being
scratched and getting their clothing torn to ribbons. Even as it was,
the most substantial of the uniforms worn by the engineers did not last
very long, and had to be replaced.
The abandoned mines were spread over a large area, and because of the
war were in such condition that only a small portion of the various
passageways were used by the Americans. The engineers had their
quarters in one long passageway, which some one had named The Subway,
while some of the infantry were quartered not a long distance off in
what was known as The Tube.
These quarters were, as the chums had agreed, perfectly safe from
bombardment by the enemy. But they were rather damp and chilly, and
were invaded by hordes of mine rats with which the troops had constant
battles.
“My gracious! I don’t know but that the rats are just about as bad as
the cooties,” cried Phil, one day after one of the rodents had run over
him while he was trying to take a nap.
“Don’t say a word about the cooties!” Ben returned, scratching his back
on one of the upright posts in the mine. “I never thought I was going
to be subject to anything like this when I joined the army.”
“Oh, forget it and look pleasant!” cried Dave, who sat on a box mending
a shirt by the light of a candle. He, too, had had his dose of these
little pests, which seemed to have descended upon all the armies like a
plague.
Two things were in the engineers’ favor--the Germans seemed to have
withdrawn from that vicinity and the weather remained unusually fine.
At night there was a full moon which bathed the country for miles
around in beauty.
Dave had put in a hard day’s work, and in addition had been asked to
go on an errand by Captain Obray, who had left an important notebook
at one of the headquarters he had visited. This notebook the young
lieutenant was now carrying in one of his pockets.
“If it wasn’t for those guns banging away in the distance one would
never know a war was on by looking at such a scene as this,” remarked
Dave, on this evening, as he walked toward the mine entrance with Roger
and some of the others.
“It certainly is beautiful,” was the reply of the senator’s son.
“Almost too nice to retire. Wish we were at Crumville with the girls.”
“I think I’ll stay out a while,” went on Dave. “I’ve got nothing
particular to do. Do you want to take a little walk with me?”
“I’ve promised myself to write a letter to my folks, Dave.”
“And I’m going to write a letter, too,” added Phil. “Belle complained
the last time that my letter was very short. This time I’ll make it
long enough, believe me!”
“I wrote two letters yesterday; so I think I’ll take a little walk,”
said Dave. “I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
His chums retired into one of the openings of the abandoned mine, and
Dave turned to walk along a trail which led through the woods. Here at
one point between a number of rocks, he had located a spring of pure
water and he thought to get a drink.
The moonlight filtering through the trees made many objects appear
rather ghostly, but, as my old readers know, Dave was not one to scare
easily, and he walked onward at a brisk pace. Of course he kept his
eyes and ears wide open, for he had no desire to be surprised. He did
not carry a gun, for in that vicinity there seemed to be no use for
firearms.
Although he knew nothing of what had been plotted by Max Gebauer
and Nat Poole, Dave, since coming to the abandoned mines, had been
constantly watched by those two unworthies. Now Gebauer noted with
great satisfaction that Dave was taking a walk by himself in the
semi-darkness. He at once sped away to notify his crony.
“Come on, Nat! Now is our chance,” he said in a low voice.
“What do you mean?”
“Dave Porter is taking a walk by himself in the woods.”
“What do you propose to do?”
“Let us follow him. Maybe we’ll get a chance to square accounts.”
“I don’t see what we can do if he is just walking in the woods,” said
Nat. “Of course, we could both jump on him and give him a good beating.”
“Something may develop. Come on before he gets out of sight.”
Nat was willing, and side by side the pair hurried off in the direction
our hero had taken.
Reaching the spring, Dave procured a drink of water, refilled his
canteen, and then proceeded on his way. The road led up to the top
of a small hill, and here he thought he might get a good view of the
surrounding country in the moonlight.
While on the way Dave paused once or twice to look around him. When he
did this Gebauer and Nat lost no time in dropping flat on the ground
just as if they were making a night sortie into No Man’s Land. As a
consequence, our hero did not become aware that he was being followed.
When Dave reached what he thought was the top of the hill he was rather
surprised to find himself among some rather rough rocks and a large
quantity of loose stones and dirt. Then he made a discovery, which
filled him with wonder. A series of nest-holes for artillery had been
constructed on the top of the hill, evidently by the Germans. But there
were no evidences of field-pieces having been used there, so Dave came
to the conclusion that the enemy had changed their plans after the
nests had been made.
There were eight of the openings, and having walked to the last of them
the young engineer made another discovery. Here there was a wide trench
running downward into a cave-like opening. What was beyond, he could
only surmise.
“It looks to me as if that slope leads down into some part of the
abandoned mines,” he told himself. “This is worth investigating. I’ll
have to report to the captain and we’ll have to see what it looks like
in the daytime.”
In the moonlight the opening underground looked quite forbidding,
and Dave did not venture very far into it. He did, however, examine
the ground as closely as possible to see if he could find any recent
footprints. But nothing of the sort came to light. Evidently no one had
been in that vicinity since the last rain, which had occurred more than
a week before.
As our hero was bending over to make sure that there were no traces of
footsteps around this entrance to the abandoned mines, the notebook
which Captain Obray had entrusted to him slipped from his pocket,
falling between some of the loose rocks.
“Hello! it won’t do for me to lose that notebook,” Dave told himself.
“I should have delivered it before I went on this walk.”
Dave had just straightened up with the notebook in his hand when he
suddenly became aware of two figures close behind him. Each was armed
with a heavy stick, and before he could make a move to defend himself
he received a stinging blow on the head. He gave a cry of pain, and
then two other blows descended upon him and he knew no more.
Having assaulted him in such a dastardly fashion, Gebauer and Nat stood
over their victim for several seconds expecting him to make some sort
of move. But as he did not, the youth from Crumville became alarmed.
“Gee! you don’t suppose we knocked him out, do you?” he whispered
hoarsely.
“Certainly not,” answered Gebauer coolly. “He’s partly senseless,
that’s all. He’ll come around presently.”
“That was an awful crack you gave him on the head!”
“I didn’t hit him any harder than you did, Nat.”
“You did so! I only gave him a slight tap, and you hit him hard twice.”
“See here! You can’t put this off on me,” said the lieutenant fiercely.
“Just the same, I don’t think he’s hurt very much.” He bent over and
took a look at Dave. “He’s breathing all right.”
“Well, I’m glad of that!” returned the money lender’s son, with a sigh
of relief.
While he was speaking Lieutenant Gebauer had picked up the notebook
which had again fallen between the rocks, and placed it in his pocket.
“What’s that?” demanded Nat.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to examine it when we get to the light. Here,
Nat, take hold of him.”
“What are you going to do.”
“Let us place him in that opening yonder. There is no use of leaving
him out here in the open.”
“But he might drop down into the mine if we place him too near one
of the shafts,” remonstrated Nat. He was beginning to get a little
frightened over what had been done.
“What do we care if he does drop down?” answered the other brutally.
“Come on, before he comes to his senses.”
“I don’t want to go too far into this,” whined Nat. He was feeling more
and more uncomfortable.
“You promised to see it through, and you’ve got to do it,” declared
Lieutenant Gebauer. “Come! Catch hold!”
Between them they carried Dave into the cave-like opening. Then, as
Nat retreated, fearing that our hero would recover consciousness and
recognize him, Gebauer lit a match and took a survey of the situation.
Only a few feet away was a slope leading down to unknown depths. The
fellow who had tried to become Dave’s rival in the affections of Jessie
Wadsworth hesitated for an instant and then pushed our hero’s body
toward this slope. Then he gave it another shove, and suddenly saw the
body go turning over and over down the slope and out of sight into the
darkness.
“There, I guess that will fix you, Dave Porter!” he muttered to
himself. “You’ll have one sweet job getting out of that hole. I hope it
takes you several days to do it. And if it does, I think it will be an
easy matter to spread a report that you ran away simply to have a good
time in one of the French towns behind us.”