"Look, look!" Andra was gazing through Buck"s gla.s.ses at the approaching planes, which had a strange look as they flew at tremendous speed in V formation. "What if they should not be friendly?"

Just then Blaine closed his own gla.s.s for he saw flyers coming on the run.

"Are you two all right?" he called to the boys. "All our best men are off on the daily run over the Boche trenches. I cannot think how these fellows got by. Get down to the hangars, if you feel strong enough. I may have to go up myself . They"re making straight for us."

The girls were looking on in wonder, whereat Byers turned to them.

"You better get into the bomb-proofs," he said. "Your father"s yonder."

The Senator was seen hurrying from one of the buildings towards them.

Both the aviators, seeing, Erwin and Brodno on the run, joined them and hastened on down to where mechanics were trundling out a number of machines upon the smooth level that was the starting point nearest.

With a word to the Senator, Byers followed, while the girls both waved their handkerchiefs. Said Andra to her sister:

"Let us go on down. I want to see them start. Do you think Mr. Bangs is strong enough? Look at him run!"

"I guess he is as strong as Mr. Blaine. But they both really ought to have a few days" leave, don"t you think?"

Arrived on the driveway, half a dozen men, all in the leather uniforms with caps and goggles to match, were mounting the machines nearest.

Blaine, having donned his rig on the run, as it were, was already in a triplane much like the one he had last used. Turning to the mechanic, he asked:

"It cannot be my own machine, is it?"

"Sure thing!" the man replied. "It was sent to us the day after you got in. We fixed her up, thinking you might need it. Glad you are out so soon, Ensign."

"Thanks for that! I reckon we"ll need all we got by the looks of that squad that"s coming. They"re dropping bombs already."

"Yes, sir," said another mechanic, using his gla.s.s. "And right over where you and Sergeant Bangs came down."

CHAPTER XI

THE BATTLES IN THE AIR

In a trice Blaine was rising in the air. The feeling that he had again his old machine was rea.s.suring. It put new life into his nearly restored vitality.

With Buck Bangs a close second and Orris Erwin right behind him, the leading planes spiraled into the air, with the advancing Boches hardly two miles away, their bombs dropping as they flew.

Byers himself was getting into his own plane, a two-seated affair equipped with two machine guns. With him was his own observer, an excellent photographer and airman. The two opposing squadrons were about equal. Dividing into two columns, with Blaine heading one and Captain Byers the other, they bore directly off toward the enemy.

Such a start had the Boches gotten, by somehow missing the Allied planes that were supposed to be picketing the front, that a direct attack was inevitable. Up or down they rose or fell, each plane singling out its opponent, and each maneuvering for position. It was here that the superior speed and nimbleness of the Allied triplanes was soon apparent.

Byers in his big biplane made straight for the leading plane opposed to him and presently the rattle of machine gun fire interplayed with the whirring sounds of the motors, while the diving, flipping, looping, with all the other air stunts of sky battling, made the scene so interesting to those below that the adjacent bomb-proofs were hardly thought of.

On a small knoll the American senator and his two daughters, gla.s.ses in hand, were watching, listening, semi-oblivious as to any possible danger to themselves. Finally a spatter of bullets and sh.e.l.l fragments roused the father to a sense that more than himself might be in the line of fire at any moment.

"This won"t do, girls!" he announced in peremptory tones. "Get into that shelter!" pointing at a half underground dugout near. "Run, run!"

Avella, without lowering her gla.s.s, replied:

"In just a minute, papa. See Mr. Blaine! My! What"s he doing to that other horrid fellow?"

Blaine was at the instant trying to got on the tail of a big Taube, not unlike the one Blaine and Erwin had captured and used while on an earlier scout, as may be recalled by the reader. What accentuated Blaine"s eagerness was the glimpse he caught of that Death"s Head Flag, which had also adorned the former captured machine. But the Boche within this one was an adept and so maneuvered that Blaine, to save himself from an onset from behind, was obliged to try the risky side-loop, much to the surprise of the other. For Blaine, while upside down, was already firing at his opponent, and as he rose was directly on the tail. But to the girls below it looked as if Blaine was already crashing towards the earth. Andra gave a nervous scream. Avella was shocked, of course, but had her gla.s.s the next instant upon Buck Bangs, at that moment engaged in a fierce duel with two enemy opponents.

"Look! Look!" called Andra. "He"s falling -- ah-h-h!" This last word was long drawn out during which, to her intense joy, Blaine had righted himself and was behind and below the other plane. Now she could see the spitting of lire as he plugged bullets and shrapnel into his astonished opponent.

Scarcely did she breathe again before the Taube, its Death"s Head Flag collapsing about its staff, was tumbling down, almost over them. At the same time one of the Huns battling with Bangs was. .h.i.t in the tank by a rain of bullets from Byers" machine which was striving to rise above and behind the foe the captain had singled out for himself.

Down went this one of Buck"s opponents in flames. Both planes fell just without the grounds, while the battle above filtered away towards the German front, the invaders evidently having gotten enough. Two other enemy planes were retiring in a crippled condition, all pursued by the Allies, who had so far lost only one machine.

The Senator, seeing little heed paid by his daughters to his commands, was seized by the spirit of the combat and recklessly hurried off towards the nearest wrecked plane that had fallen. The girls, with others, followed.

It was a sad sight. This machine, the wings still burning, lay in a confused huddle over a crushed human body that still gave signs of life. It was the plane that Byers bad sent down in flames.

Aided by men from the aerodrome, they extinguished the fire with a ready hose, the Senator and the girls a.s.sisting. Carefully they dragged out a horribly mutilated yet youthful form. A surgeon, with the girls aiding, tried to alleviate the, pain of the dying man. His lips moved.

"What"s he trying to say, Vella?" demand the Senator. "You know some German, don"t you?"

"Sounds like "Schwein, Schwein!" Doesn"t that mean pigs, papa?"

"It sure does! There, he"s talking again!"

The girls listened, but could not understand; while the surgeon, formerly an intern at one of the New York hospitals, smiled pityingly.

"Poor fellow!" he volunteered. "He"s not complimentary."

"What"s he saying now? Sounds like American -- then something else."

"He says, "Amerikaner-all swine-pigs," and a lot more."

They drew back somewhat; but the girls whose sympathy predominated, continued to minister to his needs until the last breath announced that one more Boche had gone to his account.

It was an hour or so before the rest of the squadron again appeared.

With them were the scouting planes that had been wished for when the enemy squadron so suddenly appeared. In the fights over the German trenches another of our planes had somehow vanished. No one could say further except that Erwin, the missing pilot, had been seen mounting high up amid a scurry of clouds, with two pursuing Fokkers on his heels.

Blaine and Bangs were in the midst of hearty congratulations from many, including Senator Walsen and his daughters, when the news was brought to them.

They had just alighted and were standing beside their machines.

Instantly Blaine turned to Buck, saying:

"You and your machine all right, Buck?"

Andra, at this, regarded Lafe closely.

"I"m O. K. and so is my bully little Nieuport. Say, old man, we"ve got to go out and see what"s gone wrong with that little snipe Orry, eh?"