A crash
came again, but the bomb had struck farther away, then a third, and a
fourth, each farther and farther in its turn, and Bougainville suddenly
uttered a shout that was full of vengeance and exultation.
John looked up. The group of black specks was still in the sky, but
another group was hovering near, and clapping his glasses to his eyes he
saw flashes of light passing between them.
"You're right, Bougainville! you're right!" he cried, although
Bougainville had not said a word. "The French flyers have come and
there's a fight in the air!"
He forgot all about the battle on earth, while he watched the combat in
the heavens. Yet it was an affair of only a few moments. The Germans
evidently feeling that they were too far away from their base, soon
retreated. One of their machines turned over on its side and fell like a
shot through space.
John shuddered, took the glasses down, and, by impulse, closed his eyes.
He heard a shock near him, and, opening his eyes again, saw a huddled
mass of wreckage, from which a foot encased in a broad German shoe
protruded. The ribs of the plane were driven deep into the earth and he
looked away. But a hum and swish suddenly came once more, and a sleek
and graceful aeroplane, which he knew to be the _Arrow_, sank to the
earth close to him. Lannes, smiling and triumphant, stepped forth and
John hailed him eagerly.
"I met Caumartin in an aerial road," said Lannes, in his best dramatic
manner, "and he described this place, at which you were waiting.
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