Each was anxious, for there was no
telling what the result of the explosion might be. Stubbs squirmed
uneasily as he burrowed in the ground, while Chester and Hal were by no
means easy in their minds.
So long did they wait that it seemed to Chester something must have gone
wrong. Perhaps the fuse had gone out. Perhaps another German guard had
discovered it in time and pinched out the fire. There were many
possibilities, and the lad considered them all as he lay prostrate on
the ground.
He was about to raise his head and ask Hal a question, when, suddenly,
the blast came.
There was, at first, a long grumbling roar, which, it seemed, would never
end. Gradually the roar increased until it reached such proportions as to
be beyond all description; it was a roar the like of which neither of the
three figures who lay there had ever heard before--probably never would
hear again.
Louder and louder it grew and then ended in a final blast that was louder
than many thousand times the loudest peal of thunder--louder than the
simultaneous firing of thousands of guns.
Then it became suddenly quiet--so quiet that Hal, Chester and Stubbs, who
had now leaped to their feet, felt a queer sensation hovering all about
them; so quiet that it was, for the moment, impossible to hear.
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