THE "SEA EAGLE" ON PARADE.
"That means we'll have to climb higher, so that their guns can't reach!"
Frank immediately decided.
It was indeed getting rather warm around them, Billy thought. The
shrapnel puffs seemed to be above, below, and on every side, and it was
a wonder that neither of them received a wound.
"Only for the speed we're hitting up, the story might be a whole lot
different, according to my notion, Frank. They have a hard job to get
our range, you see."
"Yes, most of it bursts back of us, showing a faulty figuring," the
pilot explained, as he started a corkscrew movement of the seaplane
calculated to cause the aircraft to bore upward in spirals.
The guns, far below, kept up a merry chorus. Billy could hear the faint
noise made by the continuous discharges, and the puffs of smoke that
seemed to rise in a score of places at the same time told him how
eagerly the German gunners were trying to strike that elevated mark.
Now the shrapnel ceased to worry Billy, for he saw that none of it
seemed to be bursting around them as before. The limits or range of the
anti-aircraft guns had apparently been reached.
"We're safe from the iron rain up at this height, Frank. What does the
barometer say?" he asked, with that spirit of curiosity that had made
him a good reporter in the old days.
"That's too bad," replied Frank, as he bent forward to look.
"Don't tell me that the only fragment of a shell that's struck home
ruined our fine barometer!" cried Billy.
"Just what happened," he was told. "At any rate, it's knocked to
flinders; and I think I must have had a pretty close shave. But we can
buy a new one when we get back to Dunkirk. As near as I can give a rough
guess we must be between three and four thousand feet high."
"I should say it was a lot more than that," Billy declared. "But so long
as they can't reach us any longer, why dispute over a few thousand
feet?"
He thereupon once more started to make use of the glasses, and had
hardly settled them to his eyes than he gave a startled cry.
"Frank, they're coming up like a swarm of angry bees!" Billy exclaimed.
"Do you mean Taube aëroplanes, Billy?"
"Yes, I can see as many as six right now in different directions, and
others are going to follow, if looks count for anything. The word must
have been given to attack us."
"I'm not worrying any," Frank told him calmly. "In fact, I don't believe
they'll try to tackle such a strange hybrid aircraft. They can see how
differently constructed the _Sea Eagle_ is from all other
hydro-aëroplanes, and expect that we must mount at least one
quick-firing gun."
"Then what are they climbing for, Frank? I can hear the buzz of their
propellers right now, and let me tell you it sounds like 'strictly
business' to me!"
"They are meaning to get close enough to let the pilots see what kind of
a queer contrivance it is that's hanging over their camps," Frank
continued in a reassuring manner. "When we choose to turn tail and clear
out, there isn't one in the lot that can tag on after us."
"I know that, Frank, thanks to those wonderful motors, and the clever
construction of Dr. Perkins' model. But now here's new trouble looming
up ahead."
"I can see what you mean, Billy. Yes, that is a Zeppelin moving along
down there, one of the older type, I should say, without having used the
glasses."
"But surely it will make for us, Frank. A real Zeppelin wouldn't think
of sheering off from any sort of aëroplane."
"Watch and see what happens," Billy was told, as Frank changed their
course so as to head straight for the great dirigible that was floating
in space halfway between their present altitude and the earth that lay
thousands of feet below.
The firing had stopped. Probably the German gunners, having realized the
utter futility of trying to reach the _Sea Eagle_ while it remained at
such a dizzy height, were now watching to see what was about to take
place. Many of them may have pinned great faith in the ability of their
aircraft to out-maneuver any similar fliers manipulated by the pilots of
the Allies. They may even have expected to see a stern chase, with their
air fleet in hot pursuit of this remarkable stranger.
If this were really the case, those same observers were doomed to meet
with a bitter disappointment.
"Well, what does it look like now?" Frank asked presently, while his
companion continued to keep the glasses glued to his eyes as though
fairly fascinated by all he saw.
"The Zeppelin has put on full steam, I should say, Frank," admitted
Billy.
"Coming to attack us?" chuckled the other, though the motors were
humming at such a lively rate that Billy barely caught the words.
"Gee whillikins, I should say not!" he cried exultantly. "Why, they're
on the run, Frank, and going like hot cakes. I bet you that Zeppelin
never made faster time since the day it was launched. They act as though
they thought we wanted to get above them so as to bombard the big
dirigible with bombs."
"And that's just what they do fear," said Frank positively. "That's the
greatest weakness of those big dirigibles, they offer such a wide
surface for being hit. While an ordinary shell might pass straight
through, and only tear one of the many compartments, let a bomb be
dropped from above, and explode on the gas bag, and the chances are the
Zeppelin would go to the scrap-heap."
"They're dropping down in a hurry!" declared Billy. "There, I can see a
great big shed off yonder, and it must be this that the dirigible is
aiming to reach. We could, however, bombard the shed as easily, and
destroy it together with its contents. Frank, it makes me think of an
ostrich trying to hide its head in a little patch of grass or weeds, and
because it can't see anything, believes itself completely hidden."
"Well, as we haven't even a gun along with us the Zeppelin is pretty
safe from our attack," remarked Frank. "We've proved one thing by coming
out to-day."
"I guess you mean that we've given the Germans something to puzzle their
wits over, eh, Frank? They know now that no matter what big yarns have
been told about the new Yankee seaplane they tried to steal, it's all
true, every single word of it."
Billy seemed to be quite merry over it. The fact that the dangerous
Zeppelin had fled in such wild haste, shunning an encounter, while the
vicious little Taube aëroplanes darted about like angry hornets, yet
always kept a respectable distance away from the majestic soaring _Sea
Eagle_ was enough to make anyone feel satisfied.
"I admit that at first I was kind of shaky about defying the whole lot,
but I've changed my mind some, Frank," he called out a minute later.
"Yes, the shoe is on the other foot now. They're afraid of us! Makes a
fellow puff out with pride. There's only one thing I feel sorry about."
"What might that be?" asked the other.
"If only Harry could have been along to enjoy this wonderful triumph
with us, or Dr. Perkins either. It would have completed our victory. But
from here I can see that army on the move as plain as anything. They're
meaning to make one of their terrible drives somewhere along the Yser
Canal, perhaps when that air raid comes off that we heard so much quiet
talk about."
"Well, that raid may be held up a while," Frank told him. "They must
believe that French or British pilots are aboard the _Sea Eagle_ right
now; and for all they know there are half a dozen just such big aircraft
waiting to engage their fleet if it hove in sight of Dunkirk or Calais."
"Every time we make a sweep around you can see the nearest Taube scuttle
off in a big hurry," ventured Billy. "Why, Frank, some of those machines
are carrying a quick-firer with them, but they've had orders not to take
risks. What would you do if they actually started to close in on us?"
Frank laughed as though that did not worry him very much.
"Why, there are several things we could do, Billy. In the first place we
can go higher with the _Sea Eagle_ than any of those flimsy Taubes would
dare to venture, though I'd hate to risk it in this bitter cold air."
"Yes, that's true, Frank, and like you I hope we will not have to climb
any further. It isn't so bad in the summer, but excuse me from doing it
now. We would need two more coats on top of the ones we've got, and
another hood to keep our ears from being frozen stiff. What's the other
idea?"
"A straight run-away," explained Frank. "If I really saw that any of
them meant business, I could crack on all speed until we were making the
entire two thousand revolutions per minute. That would leave them far
behind."
"I should think so," admitted Billy, who had the greatest possible faith
in the ability of the seaplane, as well as the cleverness of its young
pilot. "Once we got to going our prettiest and they would look as if
they might be standing still. Who's afraid? Set 'em up in the other
alley!"
"I think I'll show them something to start them guessing," Frank was
saying a minute later. "They haven't yet seen what she can do under
forced pressure."
"Let her out to the limit then," pleaded the passenger, who could never
experience too much excitement.
So Frank began to turn on full speed, and the wonderful creation of Dr.
Perkins' inventive brain was soon swooping along in a manner calculated
to make some of those who were staring through glasses far below gasp
with astonishment bordering on awe.
After all, Frank Chester was a boy, and must have felt a natural pride
in being able to thus surprise the whole of the Kaiser's army with his
amazing new aircraft. He knew that tens of thousands of eyes must be
riveted upon them at that particular moment, from the officers at
Headquarters to the mud-spattered and half frozen men concealed in the
irregular trenches.
"See the Taubes giving us all the room they can, Frank!" cried Billy.
"Evidently they're not hankering after an engagement with the _Sea
Eagle_, Billy."
"They make me think of a flock of wild ducks on a lake when an eagle
poises on fluttering wings above them, picking out his dinner," Billy
went on to say. "They scatter and dive and act half crazy; but nearly
every time the eagle gets what he's after.
"Well, all we want is a clear road back over the way we came," the pilot
pursued. "Fact is, we're not near so dangerous as we look. All we could
do just now would be to ram a Zeppelin, and go down with it."
"But they don't know that, Frank, which is lucky for us!" declared his
chum.
No doubt, Billy, in common with most other boys, must have learned at
school the familiar saying that "pride always goes before a fall." He
had just been doing considerable boasting, and his heart was even then
swelling with the conviction that he and his chum were virtually
snapping their fingers at the whole of the Kaiser's scattered army with
every enlisted man craning his neck in wonder.
Then came the sudden shock, all the more terrifying because so utterly
unexpected. It seemed to Billy that his very breath was taken away. The
joyous buzz of the motors that had amounted to almost a shriek ceased as
if by magic; and the _Sea Eagle_, shooting forward a bit under the
impetus of her great speed, quickly began to volplane toward the earth,
thousands of feet below!