Part 25 (1/2)

Every device of refined and barbarous cruelty was practiced as well as every trick of cunning. But the three remained steadfast, and even laughed in the faces of their captors. But not a jot of vital information did they give, though they boasted in exaggerated terms of the strength of the commands to which they were attached, and told of countless armies on the way over to wipe the Huns from the face of the earth.

At last the German officer, in a burst of rage, ordered the three prisoners taken away, and this was done with great roughness. This coupled with their terrible night and the mental and physical torture inflicted at the inquisition, made the young soldiers sick at heart and body. Once more they were thrust into their horrible prison, and not until nearly noon was any food given them.

Then it was only some greasy, slimy water, probably intended for soup, together with some chunks of mouldy bread.

”But we've got to eat it, boys!” said Jimmy. ”We've got to keep up our strength.”

”What's the good of it!” sighed Bob, with a half cry of anguish.

”So we can escape, of course!” said Jimmy with more fierceness and energy than he really felt. ”Think I'm going to stay in this hole?”

”How are you going to get out?” Roger wanted to know.

”I'll show you!” went on Jimmy, and by his strength of character, and by his forced spirits he bolstered up the courage of his companions.

They managed to choke down the food, vile as it was, and seemed to feel a little better for it.

Their miseries of the next few days I will not detail. In fact, the boys themselves could not remember all of them, horrible as they were. Again and again they were questioned, but always they remained steadfast, and gave no information that could be of any value to the Huns.

Then they were taken from their horrible prison and removed to a camp, some distance in the rear, where there were a number of other Allied captives, in as miserable a condition as that to which the three Khaki Boys were now reduced.

”Well, we've got a better chance now,” said Jimmy, with an a.s.sumption of cheerfulness, when they were thrust into the barbed wire enclosure.

”A better chance for what?” asked Bob.

”To escape,” was the answer, ”It's a common occurrence for prisoners to get out of German prison camps, though I won't say that they all get back to their friends. Anyhow, we'll try the first chance we get.”

There was one advantage of being in the prison camp, and away from the dungeon that was partly underground. The air and light were better, and the food was somewhat improved, though it was far from being good, satisfying, or even decent.

But the natural healthfulness of the boys kept them up, and they soon recovered from the slight wounds and bruises caused by the fight during which they were captured.

”Heard of any chance to escape?” asked Roger, when they had been in the camp about two weeks.

”No, though there is talk of digging under the barbed wire and a lot of the men going out,” Jimmy answered. ”You want to hold out and hide all the food you can. Well need it if we do get away.”

His advice was followed, and, though the prisoners did not get much more than enough to keep them alive, the three boys managed to hide some sc.r.a.ps of bread and a bit of what was called ”sausage,” though it was made mostly from the meal of peas and beans.

As Jimmy had said, there was a plot, hatched among some of the English prisoners, to break out of the prison camp. But before there was a chance to put it into operation Fate stepped in and gave her aid--that is, it was aid for some, and death for others.

Not far from the German prison camp was a German ammunition dump, and one night there pa.s.sed over it a raiding squadron, though whether of French, American or English airmen could not be learned by our heroes.

At any rate several bombs were dropped and one, either more accurately placed than the others, or falling more luckily, fell on the dump and it went up in a terrible and fearful burst of powder and sh.e.l.l.

The concussion caused several of the prison camp buildings to collapse, and a number of Russians were killed. The barbed and charged wires about the camp were torn loose and then it was that Jimmy saw his chance--a chance taken by many of the captives.

”Come on!” he shouted to Roger and Bob, as they awoke in the darkness and confusion, hardly knowing what had happened. It seemed like the end of the world.

Out rushed the three Brothers, catching up their few belongings and the precious packets of food they had h.o.a.rded against just such a chance as this, though they had not hoped for it so soon.

The Germans were in such confusion, and such havoc had been caused among them when the ammunition dump went up, that they had no time, then, to look to their prisoners. Consequently the unfortunate men who had been kept in the horrible camp scattered to the four winds, eager to make their way back to their own lines.