After one such pause, as he again started to follow Frank, Bob felt a
form brush against him from the side. Then an arm shot out and
encircled his neck. Bob wriggled about to face his opponent and threw
both arms about him in a mighty clasp.
As they fell to the floor, Bob heard a strangled cry from Frank and a
grunt from Jack. They, too, had come to grips with the enemy. Their
three opponents had started for the door with the same purpose held by
the boys--that of bottling up the other side. The two crawling trios
had brushed against each other in the middle of the floor.
Now three individual fights raged furiously on the floor of the cave
in Stygian darkness. Every man fought for his very life. The sob of
labored breathing was the only sound--that and the threshing about of
bodies.
Tom Bodine was sick with rage at his helplessness, for he dared not
shoot lest he hit one of the boys, and he could not see to take a
hand. He decided to try to find that button in the middle of the floor
of the outer cave which the enemy had used to throw off the lights.
If not that, perhaps there was a wall switch somewhere. In his pockets
was a box of safety matches. With these in his hands he started for
what he thought was the middle of the room.
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