ng
above us had greatly increased--we lit our candles again, but it was no
use--there seemed to be a terrific bombardment on and the concussion
was so great that we could not keep our lights going. Fritzie was
certainly making up for lost time. The Corporal said, "Well, Jack, we
might just as well go up and see what is doing," so we started back to
the shaft; our candles were out, so we had to grope our way along. We
had not gone far when we heard some one calling for help. Following
the sound, we came to a hunch of men belonging to the infantry; they
had come down for protection from the shell fire, and a shell had blown
in the entrance to their tunnel. Not being used to the network of
tunnels, they were completely lost. We guided them out to the main
shaft, and it was still intact, so they went up; then the Corporal
said, "I wonder if there are any more back there?" I said, "I don't
know, but I think we had better have a look," so we went back and after
searching every tunnel and not finding any one, we decided to go out
ourselves, and we started back along the shaft. We were feeling our
way along with the shells dropping overhead like hail, when all at once
two "Krupps" landed on the tunnel just over my head; there was a
terrific explosion, the props of the tunnel gave way, and in another
instant I found myself choked with dust and half buried under a pile of
dirt. The Corporal was crawling along three or four yards ahead, and
in the darkness he could not see what had happened. As soon as I could
get my breath I yelled, "Hey! Corporal, come back." He said, "What's
the matter?" I said, "By golly! I have half of Belgium on my back."
So he came back and pulled me out,---my back was badly strained, but
otherwise I was none the worse,--but we both realized now that things
up above must be getting pretty serious, and once more we started for
the shaft. The Corporal was ahead, and he called out, "Say, Jack, we
are in the devil of a fix now!" I said, "What's up?" He said, "Those
confounded Boches have blown in the top of our sap-head." This was a
serious matter, for it meant cutting off our supply of air as well as
our chance for escape--it would be bad enough to be killed in a fair
fight, but we didn't relish being buried alive; however, we would not
give up without a struggle, and we began searching the nearby tunnels
for a shovel. In the darkness I heard some one moving, and I said,
"Who's there?" A fam