ot away at all, then! There isn't a flaw in
the sand wall anywhere. They must be hiding about the middle now. Come
on, gentlemen," and around he trotted to the front door. "Sergeant," he
cried, "get out all the prisoners--all their bedding--every blessed thing
they've got. I want to examine that floor."

Most of the guardhouse "birds" were out chopping wood, and Canker danced
in among the few remaining, loading them with bedding belonging to their
fellows until every item of clothing and furniture was shoved out of the
room. One member of the Board and one only failed to enter with his
associates--a veteran captain who read much war literature and abhorred
Canker. To the surprise of the sentry he walked deliberately over to the
fence, climbed it and presently began poking about the wooden curb that
ran along the road, making a low revetment or retaining wall for the
earth, cinders and gravel that, distributed over the sand, had been
hopefully designated a sidewalk by the owners of the tract. Presently he
came sauntering back, and both sentries within easy range would have
sworn he was chuckling. Canker greeted him with customary asperity.

"What do you mean, sir, by absenting yourself from this investigation,
when you must have known I was with the Board and giving it the benefit
of the information I had gathered?"

"I was merely expediting matters, colonel. While you were looking for
where they went in I was finding where they got out."

"Went in _what_? Got out of what?" snapped Canker.

"Their tunnel, sir. It's Libby on a small scale over again. They must
have been at work at it at least ten days." And as he spoke, calmly
ignoring Canker and letting his eyes wander over the floor, the veteran
battalion commander sauntered across the room, stirred up a slightly
projecting bit of flooring with the toe of his boot and placidly
continued. "If you'll be good enough to let the men pry this up you _may_
understand."

And when pried up and lifted away--a snugly fitting trapdoor about two
feet square--there yawned beneath it, leading slantwise downward in the
direction of the street, a tunnel through the soft yielding sand, braced
and strengthened here and there with lids and sides of cracker-boxes.
"Now, if you don't mind straddling a fence, sir, I'll show you the other
end," said the captain, imperturbably leading the way, and Canker,
half-dazed yet wholly in command of his stock of blasphemy, followed. At
the curb, r