Part 9 (1/2)

Some one had met with disaster over to the left, for Tom saw a flash of descending flame and had a vague view of a figure jumping hopelessly from the doomed plane, having found means to cut loose from his safety belt. It was only ”jumping from the frying pan into the fire,” however, for death in another form awaited him, the ground being a quarter of a mile below.

At one moment it happened that both boys were firing together, the position of the Yankee plane allowing this unusual demonstration. And as to which of them was responsible for the bullet that sent the Boche downward in erratic circles, like a wounded duck, he trying desperately to gain an even keel before it was too late, was always fated to be a little bone of contention between Tom and Jack.

CHAPTER X

A SURPRISE FOR JACK

THE two Air Service boys followed the enemy down with a risky nose-dive, determined to make sure that he did not get away; and so were able to see him strike amidst the upper branches of the trees with a horrible crash. They themselves had a close call, and only for Tom's clever handling of his machine might have shared the fate of their victim.

Marking the spot as best they could in the darkness of the night, the boys again started upward, in the hope that there might still be other work for them to do.

”Too late!” called out Jack. ”The Boche has had a stomachful and is beating it for home like all get-out. He's lost two planes and pilots, which is a heap more'n he counted on giving up for the fun of bombing our hangars. Shall we call it off and go in, Tom?”

Indeed, there was nothing else for them to do. The enemy had been forced to run before he could have dropped more than half of his stock of destructive bombs.

Back to the hut went the three boys. Harry was limping, a fact Tom noticed for the first time.

”Look here, did you run up against a Boche bullet while you were chasing around up there, Harry?” he asked solicitously.

”Not quite so bad as that, I'm glad to tell you,” came the reply, as Harry stooped to rub the calf of his left leg gently. ”But something struck me a nasty blow. Don't know exactly what it was, but I warrant I'll have a nice black-and-blue mark to show for it. Felt mighty queer, too, just as if you'd gone and slapped me with a lathe, flat-side out.”

”I reckon,” spoke up Jack, ”it was a bullet striking the part of your machine that you've got sheathed in steel. You must have been resting your leg against it just where the Boche bullet struck.”

”Now, strange to say, I hadn't thought of that explanation before, Jack.

But I wouldn't be surprised if you'd guessed the answer. But it stung like everything for a while, and feels sore still.”

”But for all that you've cause for being satisfied, Harry,” Tom told him.

”Considering what would have happened to me if I didn't have that sheathing outside the frame of my plane, I guess I ought to be grateful.

Do you know only to-day I was figuring whether it paid for the extra weight, and had nearly made up my mind to have it ripped off. Nothing doing about that from this time on. Saved me a bad leg I tell you, boys.”

Arriving at the Y. M. C. A. shelter the boys halted at the door. It was so cozy in there the boys could always find some good excuse for bending their footsteps in that direction; and also loitering after they had finished the business that took them to the hut. So no one was surprised, or disappointed, to hear Jack call out:

”I think I upset my gla.s.s of lemonade in my hurry to clear out; and as the thirst seems worse now than ever I reckon I'll have to indulge in another of the same kind, if Miss Sallie has the fixings. Will you join me, fellows?”

”Not me, for one, Jack,” said Harry. ”I got all of mine down without spilling a drop. I'm not so keen as you about lemonade. But I'll go along, because these rest places are the only homelike signs we run across on the front these days.”

Jack thereupon gave Tom a sly nudge in the ribs.

”I was right, it seems,” he managed to whisper aside. ”Keep your eye on that blue-eyed Miss Sallie, and watch for any tell-tale signs in Harry's face when he's chatting with her. But she's a mighty nice girl, all the same, and I don't blame him. Comes of a fine family, too, I'm told.”

Sallie, however, was only ”conspicuous by her absence,” as Jack put it.

In fact she had retired to seek rest, for another day's arduous work came with the morning.

Tom, as did Jack, ordered another gla.s.s of lemonade, but drank only a small portion.

”Somehow or other I seem to have lost my taste for the stuff,” he explained, when this fact was drawn to his attention by Jack; ”or else this girl hasn't learned the wrinkle of mixing a drink as well as Miss Sallie has. But there's something bothering me, and I was just going to ask Harry if he didn't want to take a run over to the field hospital with me.”