rown in this direction?"

It was, without the shadow of doubt. For, as all three peered over the
edge of the hole they had made so rapidly, thanks to the strength of
Stuart, the depths below were illuminated for just a few seconds, and
then were hidden in pitch-black darkness, which within a few moments
was again lit up by a brilliant beam of light coming from a distance up
the tunnel--that long path which they had followed, which had fitted
the burly Stuart's shoulders so narrowly, and had made turning in his
case an impossibility. It acted now as a tube, and sent sounds along
towards them, accentuated them, indeed, until there was no difficulty
in deciding that a man was struggling and pushing his way towards
them--a man armed with an electric torch, a fellow who breathed
heavily, who swore beneath his breath and then out loud, and who set
masses of earth tumbling down about him.

"Better go," whispered Henri, when the cause of the sounds was quite
certain, "better slip away at once before the fellow finds the opening
and shouts an alarm."

"Wait!" Stuart stretched a hand out and gripped him with a grip of
iron, a grip which held the vivacious Frenchman to the ground. "Not
yet, for that bounder of a sentry is again coming towards us. Lie
low!" he cautioned them; "lie low, or he will see us."

"But the man below with the light--he is nearer, far nearer," said
Jules, who lay with his head well over the opening. "He'll be here in
next to no time--then what?"

Stuart dragged himself a little closer to that opening, and, keeping
one eye on the sentry, glanced down to the bottom of the tunnel.

"Leave the beggar to me," he said. "Look here, Henri, grope about for
a stone--a brick--anything that's hard and will hurt, and can be thrown
easily. Ah! here's one--a big 'un too; you try the same, Jules, and
get ready to heave at that sentry. When I bash my fist against the
fellow below, you throw your stones as hard as you can at the German
inside the entanglements, and so put out his aim; not that there's much
to be feared, seeing how dark it is at this moment."

Quick as thought, Henri grabbed the big stone which Stuart thrust into
his hand, and, groping about, quickly secured another. Then he slowly
raised himself into a kneeling position, ready to spring to his feet
and carry out the duty Stuart had given him. Nor was it likely to be a
very difficult matter to strike the sentry at that moment hammering
again