e grabbed Freddy by the arm and spun them both
around.

"That busted bridge!" he shouted in his friend's ear. "We can crawl down
under it. We should be safe."

"Just thinking of that, myself!" Freddy shouted back as they both broke
into a run. "Those blasted Stukas! Will we never hear the last of them!"

As though to punctuate that sentence the leading bomber swooped low,
dumped its load and went screaming up into the night sky. Its bomb
struck a hundred yards away but the concussion seemed to lift both of
the boys off their feet. It put wings on their feet as well. They dashed
madly through the roaring darkness, missed turned-over trucks and hunks
of the bombed station by inches, and finally scrambled down under the
bridge and into the cave-like hole blown out of one of the supporting
walls. They crawled back over the broken stones as far as they could and
sat huddled together listening to the world blow apart over their heads.

"Well, at least we got our load of wounded aboard!" Dave shouted as
there came a lull in the bedlam of thunderous sound. "That's something,
I guess."

"Yes, we didn't let them down," Freddy's voice came faintly. "Phew, but
I'm tired. Stukas or no Stukas, I don't think I can keep awake another
minute."

The words seemed to touch something inside Dave. He too became suddenly
listless in both mind and body. He felt Freddy sagged against him and he
battled to keep his eyes open; to keep a look-out in case they might
have to change their place of shelter. But ton weights hung on his eye
lids, and it was impossible to keep them open any longer. Above them
worlds exploded sound and flame. Underneath them worlds shook and
trembled as each devastating blow was struck. None of it, however,
reached the two boys. Young strong bodies had taken an awful beating for
hours on end, and they needed rest. Time might cease, and the world
could come to an end, but it would have no effect on Dave Dawson and
Freddy Farmer, for they were both sound asleep.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

_Thunder In The West_

The cold, clammy air of early dawn finally pried Dave's eye lids open
and brought him back to the conscious world. For a moment he stared
dully at the mass of grey shadows all around him. Then gradually he
realized that the shadows, most of them, were rocks and huge chunks of
cement, and that light was filtering down through cracks and holes
between them. That realization brought back memory of where he w