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Page 40
It seemed to them then that the rats were two or, three deep on the
floor. There appeared to be hundreds--thousands of them. They
circled around the boys, becoming bolder every moment. They nipped at
the rubber boots and left the marks of their teeth on the tough
uppers.
"Now, boys," Tommy yelled, as they drew their automatics and leveled
them over the wall, "shoot to kill! This is no Sunday School picnic!
And while we're shooting, boys, you back up to this wall, and see if
you can't work your way to the top. If you can get up here, we can
manage to displace enough slate to let you through."
The boys fired volley after volley, but the rats came on viciously.
CHAPTER XV
A STICK OF DYNAMITE
By this time Jimmie and Dick had their automatics out and were firing
into the horde of rats. They killed the rodents by the score, yet for
every one slaughtered a dozen seemed to appear.
Presently the chamber became so full of powder smoke, the air so
stifling, that the lads were obliged to cease firing.
"Work your way up this wall," Tommy cried out to the lads as he heard
them panting below. "Work your way up so we can catch hold of you,
and you'll soon be out of that mess!"
"There's a dozen rats hanging to my boot!" cried Dick.
"And mine, too!" declared Jimmie.
The three boys on the outside continued to hurt refuse from the top of
the wall into the chamber. This in a measure kept the rats back, and
before many minutes Jimmie and Dick were drawn to the top of the
barrier.
Their rubber boots were cut in scores of places by the sharp teeth of
the rats, and even their clothing as high up as their shoulders showed
ragged tears. A dozen or more rats hung to the boys' boots until the
top was reached, then they dropped back screaming with baffled rage.
"Talk about your wild Indians!" exclaimed Tommy. "I never saw
anything as vicious as that was! I told you boys not to open up an
argument with those fellows! Mine rats are noted for their courage
when attacked."
"How many bites did you get?" asked Elmer anxiously.
"I got half a dozen nips!" answered Jimmie.
"And so did I," Dick cut in.
"Well, you boys ought to get back to the room right away," Tommy
suggested, "and have peroxide applied to the wounds. I've known of
people dying of blood poison occasioned by rat bites."
"Have you got it in camp with you?" asked Elmer.
"We're the original field hospital!" laughed Tommy. "We never leave
Chicago without taking with us everything needed in the first aid to
the wounded line. We'd be nice Boy Scouts to go poking about the
country with nothing with which to heal our wounds!"
"Boys," Elmer now said, with a mischievous grin on his face, "I want
to introduce you to Jimmie Maynard and Dick Thompson. I've heard that
your names are Sandy and Tommy, but that's all I know about it!"
"Green and Gregory!" laughed Tommy. "My name's Gregory. Sandy's name
isn't Sandy at all but Charley. We call him Sandy because he looks
like he'd been rolled in sand."
"Well, we may as well be getting back to headquarters!" declared
Sandy after these original introductions had been made. "But hold
on," he continued turning back to Jimmie and Dick, with a look on his
face intended to be severe, "aren't you going to bring our provisions
back?"
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