Part 13 (2/2)
John listened intently, and in a few minutes the sound they feared came to his ears.
”I hear it,” he said suddenly, ”and as sure as we live it's directly over our heads!”
”Then we must mount at once!”
Up shot the _Arrow_, and pa.s.sing through the vapor it flew again with nothing above it but the clear, cold stars. John looked down, but his vision was lost in the ma.s.s of floating mist. He exulted. They had lost the Taubes! But joy lasted only a moment. Out from the bank shot a dark shape. It was one of the machines, and in two minutes the other appeared.
”They've come through the mist, too, and they see us,” he said to Lannes. ”They seem to be trying to rise above us.”
”I thought it would be their plan, if we didn't lose 'em. We've got to make another dash. We're pointing toward Switzerland, now, John, and maybe if we have luck we can descend in a neutral country. But I don't want to do it! I tell you I don't want to do it!”
He spoke with uncommon energy, but relapsed afterward into complete silence. The humming of the motor increased, and the icy wind rushed past John's ears in a perfect hurricane. He drew his cap down further and sank his neck and ears deeper in his collar. Nevertheless he thought he would freeze. The fingers that still clasped the b.u.t.t of the automatic felt stiff and bloodless.
”What are they doing now, John?”
”They are gaining again--Ah, and there's a change!”
”What's that change?”
”One machine seems to have dropped a little lower than we are, while the other is rising higher.”
”And that has come, too! I expected it. This, John, is what you might call an attempt to surround us. I'm surprised that they didn't attempt it sooner. Watch the Taube that's rising. Watch it all the time, and tell me everything it does!”
He spoke with the most intense energy and earnestness, and John knew that he had some great fear in regard to the upper Taube. So, he never took his eyes from it, and he noted that it was not only rising fast, but that its gain was perceptible. As it was his first flight it did not occur to him in those moments of excitement that his own weight was holding back the _Arrow_, and Lannes had been willing to risk death rather than tell him.
”They're coming very fast,” he said to Lannes, ”and the upper machine seems to be the swifter of the two.”
”Naturally. That's the reason why it's now the upper one. Is it above us yet?”
”No, but in fifteen minutes more it will be, at the present rate of speed.”
”About how much higher above us do you think it is?”
”A thousand feet maybe, but I never calculated distances of this kind before.”
”Likely it's near enough. Let me know when it's about to come directly over us, and on your life don't fail!”
John watched with all his eyes. He saw the hovering shape, and he caught a glimpse of the arm of the man who steered. But it became to his fancy a great bird which, with its comrade below, pursued them. That name, Taube, the dove, called so from its shape, was very unfitting.
While he was watching he saw the Taube swoop down at least five hundred feet, and at the same time make a burst of speed forward.
”It will be over us! almost directly! within a minute!” he shouted to Lannes.
The _Arrow_ swerved to on side with such suddenness that John reeled hard against his seat, despite the strap that held him. At the same moment he caught a glimpse of some small object shooting past the _Arrow_.
”What was it? what was it?” he cried.
”A bomb,” replied Lannes. ”That was the reason why I didn't want either of the Taubes to get above us. I was sure they had bombs, and if one of them fell upon us, well, n.o.body would ever find our pieces. Hold hard now, we're going to do a lot of zigzagging, because that fellow probably has more bombs, where the one he just dropped came from.”
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