Part 13 (1/2)
The machine tilted up at an angle that made John gasp, but he quickly recovered himself and resisted a desperate inclination to grasp anything he could reach and hold on with all his might. He knew that the strap pa.s.sed about his body held him so firmly that he could not fall out.
Still, it shortened his breath and made his pulses bound, rather than beat.
Up! up they went into the thinner air, the nose of the _Arrow_ again turned toward the south. Lannes did not look back. His mind and soul were absorbed in the flight of his machine, and his heart throbbed with exaltation as he knew that it was flying beautifully. But he called upon John to note the pursuers.
”They're curving up, too,” said John. ”They're very steady, and I think they're still gaining.”
”Daring men! Yes, the Germans have good flyers, and we'll have a hard time in shaking them off. Still, we may lose them among the clouds.”
”I think they're rising at a sharper angle than we are.”
”Trying to get above us! Ah, I know what that means! Why did I not think of it at first? We must not permit it! Never for a moment!”
”Why not?”
But Lannes did not reply. Apparently he had not heard him, and John did not repeat the question.
”Watch! John! Watch!” said Lannes, ”and tell me every movement of theirs!”
”You can depend on me!”
The nose of the _Arrow_ was still tilted upward, and John knew that they had come to a great height, as the cold struck to his very bones. The air also was darker and damper, and he saw that they were in the region of mists of vapors. Mentally he already used terms of land as terms of the air. Before them lay banks of cloud which were the same as mountains.
”One Taube is directly behind us and it seems to me a little higher,” he announced. ”The other has cut off to the right and also a little higher, if I see right.”
”Then we must rise fast! We can't let them get above us!”
The nose of the _Arrow_ tilted up yet farther, and shot into colder and darker regions. John saw mists and vapors below, but the earth was invisible. He was truly hanging between a planet and the stars, and this was the void, dark and thin, cold and infinite.
”Steady again!” said Lannes. ”We're going to descend for a while.”
The nose of the _Arrow_ dropped down many degrees, and then they seemed to John to slide through s.p.a.ce, although they slid like lightning. The air felt damper and thicker, and the area of vision contracted fast.
They had plunged into a bank of vapor, and search as he would with both eye and gla.s.s he could see no sign of the Taubes.
”We've lost them for the time at least,” he said.
”I hoped for it,” said Lannes. ”That's why I made for this area of vapor. It's exactly like a s.h.i.+p escaping in a fog from a fleet--only we haven't escaped yet.”
”Why not?”
”We can't hang in here. If we do they'll explore for us, and if we go on and through it they'll follow. Yet we can hope for a gain. Isn't it a beautiful machine, John, and hasn't it behaved n.o.bly?”
He patted the _Arrow_ as a man would a horse that had saved his life with its speed.
”We'll go slowly here, John. Have you got good ears?”
”Yes. Why?”
”Then uncover them and listen. In case one of the Taubes draws near you can hear its humming and throbbing. My hearing may be deadened a little for the time by my tension in sailing the _Arrow_, so you're our reliance.”