The man did not move at all, but the
horse kicked for a few moments and lay still.
There was a shout of mingled amazement and horror from the other Uhlans,
and it found its echo in John's own mind. He saw one of the men look up,
and he looked up also. A dark shape hovered overhead. Something small
and black, and then another and another fell from it and shot downward
into the group of Uhlans. A second man was hurled from his horse and lay
still upon the ground. Again John felt that thrill of horror and
amazement.
"What is it? What is it?" he cried.
"I think it's the steel arrow," said Fleury, pressing a little further
forward and standing on tiptoe. "As well as I can see, the first passed
entirely through the head of the man and then broke the backbone of the
horse beneath him."
John saw one of the Uhlans, who had dismounted, holding up a short,
heavy steel weapon, a dart rather than an arrow, its weight adjusted so
that it was sure to fall point downward. Coming from such a height John
did not wonder that it had pierced both horse and rider, and as he
looked another, falling near the Uhlan, struck deep into the earth.
"There goes the aeroplane that did it," said John to Fleury, pointing
upward.
It hovered a minute or two longer and flew swiftly back toward the
French lines, pursued vainly a portion of the distance by the German
Taubes.
"A new weapon of death," said Fleury. "The fighters move in the air,
under the water, on the earth, everywhere.
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