em to their fates, he
called:

"I've found what I've been looking for--an axe! I'll soon have you out
now!"

He came running back, carrying an axe of curious make. It was a large,
keen one, however, and later it developed that it was one the French
miller had used to chop his firewood. Throwing off his coat, and
revealing beneath it a dark blue shirt, the officer began fiercely
to chop at the beams.

And the boys remembered afterward, though at the time they were too
excited to mark it, that the officer picked out what might be called
the "key" beam. That is one which held all the other pieces of jigged
and splintered timber in place, making a prison of that part of the
cellar.

With vigorous blows of the keen implement, the unknown chopped away at
a great hand-hewn beam. And he swung the axe as though he knew how to
use it, and not as a tyro.

"He's been in a lumber camp at one time of his life," decided Jimmy,
and the others were inclined to agree with him.

The fire was now gaining so rapidly that the heat of it, penetrating
to the prison of the boys, was almost unbearable. The smoke, too, made
their eyes smart and burn, and it choked them, causing them to gasp
and cough.

"Steady, boys! Steady!" panted the officer, between his vigorous
blows. "A few more strokes and I'll have this beam cut. Then I think
you can get out."

Again and again he swung the keen axe. Between the blows the boys
could hear the sounds of distant firing, and the reverberation told
them that heavy guns were being used.

"Hope they don't send any more shells over this way," murmured Bob.

"They seem satisfied, now that they have brought down the old mill on
top of us," commented Franz. "Can any of you see the German lines!"

None of them could, it developed. In fact, their vision was obstructed
by a small hill directly in front of the grill work of their prison,
and, even if this had been removed, the smoke was now swirling around
them so thickly that, at times, even the officer chopping them out was
obscured.

Once or twice the chopper had to stoop down, in order to breathe the
purer and cooler air near the ground, and the boys were put to the
same expedient.

And then, suddenly, there came a crashing, splintering sound. There
was an exclamation from the officer, and, as he leaped back he cried:

"There she goes, boys! The way is as clear as I can make it! Come on
out, and lively, too!"

The Khaki Boys lost no time in obey