The balloons were gone. The few enemy planes left to guard the gasbags had been put to flight by the daring raiders. Blaine himself had sent one down in flames. Others had followed the retreating raiders. Now that a night drive was on, other planes would be converging towards the salient thus suddenly selected for a night a.s.sault. In another instant Blaine"s mind was made up.
"Here"s at you, my friend," he said to himself. "I"ll try to find out who and what you are. d.a.m.n the risk!"
With the thought he turned the nose of the triplane downward, so that it was almost at a perpendicular angle. Before this he had noted that around the point whence had risen that telltale signal there seemed to be a foggy void. This meant to Lafe that, for the present at least, there was nothing doing at this particular spot. Of course those signal lights might draw dangerous attention, but Blaine had resolved to risk the chances of that. Perhaps one of his comrades in distress had deliberately courted death or imprisonment m order to let their side know what was taking place. "Bully boy, whoever he is!" he thought.
Briskly yet carefully working his machine, Lafe descended until, when he flatted out, he could see through the fog the darker background of war-torn earth.
"I"ll flash our private signal," he resolved. "He may see it. So may Fritz. But -- here goes!"
Lafe pressed with his foot upon a certain b.u.t.ton that was connected with an electric flashlight fastened in a special groove at a downward angle of the fuselage or body of the car. At each pressure certain flashes emitted the message of inquiry in private code.
"Where are you, pal? I"m coming. Let me know if you can."
Circling round at an even slightly lower level, he continued to signal but without avail. Just as he was about to quit and rise higher again, he detected a faint red and blue gleam that apparently ceased without rime or reason. One faint glimmer succeeded, but died out as if suddenly broken off.
Without waiting for more Blaine gave a searching look around but, seeing nothing through the mist, gently, cautiously felt his way downward, easing up in speed as best he could. The wheels jolted over rough but level ground, until the nose of the plane shoved itself against an abrupt angle of rough earth that brought him to a halt all at once. Quickly he adjusted the controls and, revolver in hand, boldly leaped out.
Dark it was, except for the lurid flashings of distant artillery, while to the west the roar of infantry battle sounded much nearer than when Lafe was high up in the air.
"Where am I?" he asked himself, reaching for his pocket flashlight.
"Surely this must be No-Man"s-Land!"
Thus thinking, he stumbled against another plane; not his, but the wreck of another one. Intuitively he felt that he must have landed right. Feeling round him, he detected certain signs that made him almost sure one of the raiding scout machines had fallen here.
"This must be one of those big sh.e.l.l holes," he thought. "Why -- what if it is where those signals came from?"
Just as Blaine was about to climb up the incline of disrupted earth, his flashlight sending gleams here and there, a voice he recognized ,sounded:
"Halt, you! I heard your motor, but you won"t get me without a fight."
"d.a.m.n if it ain"t Buck all righty," said Blaine, still climbing.
He turned his light to where the voice sounded, and bellowed, regardless of consequences:
"Don"t you know your squad leader?"
"Good gracious! You -- here?" The youth from b.u.t.te, Montana, was peering down at advancing form, delighted amazement in face, but he only said: "Shut off your light Sergeant! We"re surrounded by - by - them! That"s better! Where"d you come from?"
"Oh, I just dropped down in answer to your signal. I thought if the Boches were about to get you, they might have another chance at me, see?"
A faint yet hilarious chuckle came forth. Then:
"Say, Lafe, when I first tumbled down here, I thought I was a goner.
But I wasn"t hurt much. My machine is smashed, though."
"What brought you down? Why didn"t you go a little further?"
"I would have, but Archie got me just as I thought I was about safe.
That ain"t all. I guess our downing them sausages was a bit too for Hans. Directly after that they started the hottest barrage fire you"ve seen in a month of Sundays. Keepin" it up yet, only they"ve slacked a bit along here. I kept thinkin" how I was going to get out of this when I heard the tramp and scuffle of advancing infantry.
"All at once I knew. They"re sour yet over busting up their big underground at Appincourte Bluff; and now comes this raid of ours and away goes that string of a dozen balloons. I guess it was too much."
"Infantry! What infantry? Oh, you mean Fritzy!"
"Who else? Well, Fritz came with such a rush he didn"t look for me.
There was a lot of him pa.s.sed. I scrunched down inside this crater the best I knew how and directly I knew I must let our folks know. Then"s when I sent up my signals -- in code, of course."
"That"s so, Buck. I saw "em and read "em."
Buck was grinning to himself.
"You?" Bangs looked his astonishment. "Well, if we warned our folks in time, and I guess I did by the sounds, and then caught hold of you, it was a lucky venture."
"You caught me all right. But how are we going to get away? Say your machine is busted?"
"How"d ye know?"
"Well, by the way it came down and struck. I have no tools with me, and I had to crawl in here in a hurry."
"Come on," ordered the Sergeant in his official tone. "We"ve got no time to lose. I"ve got tools or rather Milt had."
"What"s the matter with Finzer?" Buck was keenly concerned for he and Milt had been quite chummy.
Blaine told him briefly all that had happened.
"And you had to leave him back there? Well - well, it"s war. Sure he was dead? By thunder! I"ll get even yet with Hans -- Gawd willin".
The skunks!"
All this and more while Lafe, now alert and busy, was getting out Finzer"s tools. Presently the two were examining Buck"s plane which they found was practically all right except for a big rent in two of the wings. With the appliances at land this did not take long, for both worked frantically, knowing that hostile planes from the neighboring front would soon be hovering near and also that the infantry was due either to reform the battle line or, if not, that reinforcements might pa.s.s at any time.
In a very short while the job was done. To Blaine"s surprise Buck began nimbly climbing back up the crater wall.
"Where ye going?" he gently called, but only heard in reply:
"In a minute -- in a minute!"
But while Blaine was fuming, still getting things in readiness, Bangs slid back down the embankment, dragging a shabby gray army overcoat.
Lafe looked disgusted. He s.n.a.t.c.hed it, held it up, flashed his light over it, then cast it down, saying:
"That"s a Boche infantry coat -- officer"s, I reckon. What do we want of that? Get into your place. I"ve turned your machine round."
Both climbed in, Bangs stowing in his own machine the coat he had delayed both to secure, a said the while:
"When those charging battalions went by, of their officers threw away his coat. They were on a double quick, to reinforce others that gone on before I came down.
"Lucky they happened to have no planes. Otherwise I"d never pulled through. As it was she was a close squeeze. I slipped down, bagged the coat, and here she is. You needn"t laugh, Sergeant. There"s maps and papers inside. Might be wuth something to our side yet."
"Bully for you, Bangs! I was wrong. Are you ready? Then follow me!
We"re going to stick round the Boche flanks a bit and who knows what we may run up against?"