"Look you there! Was that not fine?"
"Hard to beat," seemed to be the general verdict. "Fritz will have to open his eyes tomorrow."
And so the show above went on. A flock of little birds chirped and flopped past the group below. What pikers they seemed by comparison, with the show going on above -- far above! And now they were descending in long spirals, each squad by itself, yet preserving the mathematical distance required, both from the opposing squad and at the same time keeping the line prescribed for such tactics during drills at the home grounds.
Particularly did Blaine distinguish himself in the daring of his stunts. Erwin was hardly behind him. They looped again, they rolled, they did the wing and tail slides, doing the last until they fell almost perpendicularly a thousand feet. Finally they righted hardly two hundred feet above the earth; then shot upward again at almost incredible speed.
And now the two leaders circled slowly as their respective squads followed on towards the ground, some falling, drifting like dead leaves, others slanting lazily as they pa.s.sed the leaders, and on down, alighting at last each in his appointed place or thereabouts.
And then the two leaders began circling and swooping more and more rapidly until those below felt the whirring rush of air as the two planes swept by so low that one imagined that an arm would nearly touch them.
All hands knew it was rivalry -- the rivalry of stunts. Yet to stand below and watch those steel engines falling down on you from the skies took the same kind of nerve to keep from dodging as only airmen themselves are gifted with by practice.
Finally all this drew to a close. The machines at last ranged themselves at opposite extremes of the landing stage and with a final swoop both were apparently upon the spectators as with the rush of a whirlwind. Yet, dizzy as it looked, it was mathematically timed. The two planes flattened as if by magic; they rose, dipped again and, pa.s.sing each other in the down grade, saluted methodically as they pa.s.sed the Commander. Ten seconds later their wheels dropped gently on the gravel at either end of the parade ground two tired looking aviators left their the waiting mechanics and walked soberly to the others.
The stunts were over for the day.
CHAPTER VI
CATCHING THB SPY
"Well, well, Orry! How do you feel after your stunts of yesterday?"
This from Sergeant Blaine as he jumped from his bunk in the aerodrome dormitory the following morning just as the dawn was breaking.
Erwin, still drowsing, opened one eye. The next instant, remembering what the day probably hold in store for him, he threw off the covers and leapt from his bunk. At the same time, in order impress Blaine with his general fitness, he hit the big Sergeant a mock blow on the midwind region where, according to ring history, Fitzsimons dropped Corbett in their historic championship fight. Then he sprang back, arms and fists feinting.
"Can"t you see how I feel?" he retorted. "Want to try me more?"
"Nit, you shyster, nit!" Blaine was laughing as he recovered, retreating and grimacing, as if in mock misery. "I don"t want no more solar plexus stuff at this stage of the game. I guess you"re all right."
"Bet your thick cocoanut I am! I was a bit drowsy at first. Say, Lafe, you know I must be in on this, whatever it is."
"Sure! I was at first a bit afraid that all those air stunts might have frazzled you a little, seeing you are just out of hospital."
"Honest Injun, Lafe, I"m all right! Don"t you forget to remember that!"
"Well, then, get your clothes on. I want to talk to you private like."
And Blaine sauntered off, lighting, a cigarette, while Erwin hastily put on his clothes. Going out soon, he encountered Blaine on the parade before the hangars where the starting of planes usually began.
It promised to be a lovely day. Not a cloud was in the sky. Off to the east a lone airplane was, soaring high over No-Man Is-Land, doubtless one of the night scouts that are maintained along that portion of the front.
Said Lafe:
"Last night after the rest of you had gone to the clubroom, Byers sent for me and told me briefly what he wanted us to attempt today. You know those sausages the Boches got now, over back of that bluff you unearthed the day you came home after our last raid?"
"Appincourte?" Orris blinked and nodded. "I ought to remember."
"Well, the French have tried a time or two to get them, but the Boche planes have been too much for them so far. Kept them so busy fighting back, they had no time to do much bombing. And now word has come from headquarters that they must go. Must! See?"
Erwin nodded. He took a deep breath, feeling already the lift in the pure morning air. Blaine continued:
"Well, Anson was to have headed this raid, but he"s been promoted also.
He"s an ensign now. I am in his place and they made you corporal under me for two reasons. One was on account of the stunts you did along with me; then for what you did after you went on your own hook and busted into that Boche communicating trench which made them try to Archie you and thus exposed to us what they had done in making themselves at home under Appincourte Bluff."
"Yes, yes! Come to the point, Lafe! What is it you and I have got to do today, or whenever it comes off?"
"Don"t be so impatient. The second reason is because they now think you have nerve enough for most anything, and that we two, working together might succeed in puffing off this sausage business best in our own way."
"You mean we are to bomb them where and when we please?"
"No -- of course not! But Byers, who is the real head here, thinks you and I, taking as many other chaps along as we please, can force our way in our fighting planes to where these pesky gas keep hanging and spying on us, and literally blow them to dashed smithereens. See?"
"But how? Their Archies will blow us to Hades and be gone before we reach anywhere near. It looks like a forlorn hope --"
Blaine smiled, as he interrupted with:
"Like Balaklava, eh? Or old Pickett"s third day charge at Gettysburg?"
Erwin did not reply. Blaine continued:
"If we go strong enough and swift and low enough, we"ll got there; and, once there we"ll do the bombing all righty!"
"And in broad daylight, too?"
"I don"t say that, Orry. All this is strictly between you and me.
Byers rather favors a daylight raid as affording a better chance to regain our own lines, either after bombing or in case we fail. But we"re not going to fail . These dratted sausages have got to come down!"
"Are you sure they stay up at night?"
"Ever since we busted up that bluff you exposed, there they stay day and night, half a dozen or more. And my own notion is that if we have a new offensive here, which I think looks likely to a man up a tree, those blamed sausages will give the Boches too much leeway in nosing out ahead what we might be trying to do in getting ready."
"Well, what else? Will Captain Byers leave it to you? "
"I think he will . Having tried every other way and failed, he will let us -- you and me in private but me in public, decide upon the way we"d prefer. Both of us have been over the ground. We know how far we have to go. I also know about what the Boches have got behind those balloons. It was only a few miles from there that we -- you and me -- got that Taube and the German aviator. Believe me, unless things have changed mightily, there isn"t much there in the way of reinforcements or more planes or anything."
"You"ve been back there since?"
"You bet! Finzer and I went over there the day before you left the hospital. The Boches have no notion that our side is doing anything here, except air-raiding in No-Man"s-Land or using our planes. That is one reason the headquarters thinks that it is a good place to -- to do something."
"Well Lafe," Orris spoke deliberately, "you know I am with you. Tell me as much or as little as you please. I"ll follow you to the last notch."
"I knew it!" Blaine grasped his comrade"s hand and nearly wrung the fingers off. "Well, keep mum! Don"t say anything to anybody but me.