Run the game like this: LOADFIX -25 CBS

Can also do two separate commands, if preferred:
LOADFIX -25
CBS

FYI, LOADFIX allocations are something you should always try with broken games. It's not just about games that crash, although that can happen. There is no limit to the kinds of program misbehavior that can result from being loaded as low in memory as DOSBox does by default; although it's mostly real mode programs that might mess up.

ripsaw8080, thanks a lot!

To my utter shame after so many years of using DOSBox this is the first time I learn about LOADFIX and its uses.

As a side-note, LOADFIX is something I have trouble using in the D-Fend Reloaded frontend; if I enable it I get an 'illegal command' when the game executable is launched using the normal script; I can launch it ok from the command prompt and then the game, but it seems it is not recognized (as an internal command) during the more complex startup script created by the front-end, so as there is no explicit file for it I get the error. (Since it can be circumvented, it's a minor niggle)

Is there any way to get audio in the full freeware v2.1 version of this game? I tried most everything with no success. Audio works in the shareware v2.0 version.
Also I can't get GUS audio to work at all.

Rwolf...you can use loadfix with D-Fend Reloaded as follows:

The full freeware version of the game has a bug where SETSOUND.EXE produces a SETSOUND.DAT file that is 85 bytes long, but CBS.EXE expects the file to be 86 bytes long and will not enable sound if the file is smaller. I can only guess how this situation came to be, but in any case there appear to be two options to work around the problem: 1) extend SETSOUND.DAT by one byte after every time SETSOUND.EXE is used to change sound settings, 2) modify the byte at offset CA17 in CBS.EXE from 56 to 55. I think option 2 is likely to be less aggravating in the long run. 😉

As for GUS, the setup offers only "high" DMA channels, so some care must be taken. First, I suggest using an SVN build of DOSBox because some fixes have been made regarding high DMA channels and 16-bit sound. Second, I suggest using DMA channel 5 in SETSOUND.EXE, gusdma=5 in DOSBox settings, gus=true, and sbtype=none to avoid possible conflicts -- this setup works in my testing. Note that gusdma=3 is the default, so you will have to change that no matter what DMA channel is selected in SETSOUND.EXE, but definitely stay away from DMA channel 4 because it can't be used for transfers and I have no idea why the setup even offers it.

Excellent! Thank you ripsaw8080 - it works great.
I chose to modify the CBS.EXE file as you stated above and now can hear the game's sound as expected.
Your detailed info is much, and always, appreciated.