gesture he stepped back.

"Jumping Jupiter!" exclaimed Jerry, "what's that?"

Slim, peering ahead of the other two, ejaculated something between a
shriek and a groan.

Strewn about the ground of that cave, in every conceivable position of
misery and torture, were the bodies of half a dozen dead men, all
Germans.

The lieutenant's hand that held the light trembled slightly as he stared
at the ghastly scene before him, but he was grit and courage right
through to the heart.

"This is bad business," he said, "but we are under orders and we must go
through with it. We cannot move the bodies out to-night."

He stepped further into the dark hole, and the other two lads followed.

Suddenly from behind them there was a grumbling, roaring crash, pierced
by a cry of warning from Joe, outside.

The three whirled around, and for a moment no one could utter a word.

The mouth of the dungeon had completely caved in!

"Trapped!" gasped Jerry, who was the first to find his voice.

Even the lieutenant seemed dazed.

"Trapped," echoed Slim, "in the cave of death."

CHAPTER XIV

DESPERATE MEASURES

Never did three young men face a more terrible or more horribly gruesome
situation. Here they were, locked in a natural dungeon behind a wall of
dirt and rock probably four or five feet thick. Not only that, but the
cave already contained the bodies of six men whose fixed and glassy eyes
stared at them as though in mockery and warning, and the already foul
air was becoming more stifling every moment.

In a dull way they realized that they probably could not survive more
than two or three maddening hours in that death chamber.

"It may not be so bad as it seems," said Lieutenant Mackinson in a voice
that seemed unnatural in that vault. "Perhaps it was only a slight
cave-in."

He flashed his light about the hole. It was difficult to tell where the
opening had been.

"Joe and Frank Hoskins!" cried Jerry, a new terror in his voice. "I
heard Joe shriek!"

Slim, catching his meaning, snatched a rifle from beside one of the
bodies, and with the butt of it began pounding frantically upon the side
of the cave where the entrance had been.

There was no answering knock.

"Joe," shouted Jerry in a frenzied tone. "Joe! Can you hear me?"

No answer came, either from Joe or Frank.

"Pinned under tons of that stuff," gasped Slim, the words trembling upon
his lips and a tear trickling down his cheek.

"I do not think so,