THE DEATH OF A TITAN.
Quickly the three leaped out. In spite of the Germans hovering overhead,
Hal examined the 'plane.
"Great Scott!" he exclaimed, after a quick, though careful, inspection.
"I can fix this thing in five minutes."
Now the German machines came to the ground a short distance away. From
each craft leaped three men, who dashed toward the three friends.
Alexis turned to Hal and Chester.
"Do you," he said calmly, "fix up the airship. I will meet these
fellows!"
Before either lad could reply, he had hurled himself upon the foe.
For some reason, probably because they did not wish to attract the
attention of the Swedish authorities by the sounds of a struggle, the
Germans, at first, drew no firearms. Perceiving but one form rushing
toward them, they advanced to meet him confidently. Plainly they
considered it the wild dash of a madman.
Hal and Chester turned their attention to the aeroplane, and while
Alexis fought against overwhelming numbers, they overhauled it
carefully.
Right into the midst of his foes rushed the giant. Such a superb attack
was never seen before--such a mad wild dash as he took the enemy by
surprise and hurled them back--all of them--back against the airships
that stood on the sands.
As the huge Cossack rushed forward, his sword flashed above his head.
His revolver he gripped tightly by the barrel. A fighting fire darted
from his eye, and his thin lips were bared in a slight smile.
If ever a man felt the joy of battle it was he. He heeded not the number
of his adversaries nor the steel that flashed forth against him.
Slashing, cutting, parrying, thrusting, he hurled himself in upon them.
They were carried back by the very fierceness of his attack. They gave
way before him, parting to retreat around one of the aircraft. With one
swift sweep of his foot, Alexis tore a ragged hole in the bottom of the
first craft; and at the same instant two men fell beneath his slashing
blows.
They could not stand before him--their very numbers were against them as
the giant pressed ever forward. Now a man dropped to the ground and
seized the giant by the left leg, thinking to drag him down. Alexis
drove his right boot into the man's face, and at the same moment, by a
quick back-handed sweep of his sword, cut down a man who would have
sprung upon his back.
His revolver rose and fell, once, twice, three times, and beneath these
crushing blows more Germans went down. But Alexis did not escape
unscathed. A sword thrust had pierced his chest, not deeply, but the
blood streamed forth. There was a gaping wound in his cheek; his
clothing was pierced in a dozen places.
But in spite of this he pressed on. He thought only of advance, never of
retreat; and as he hurled his gigantic body, time after time, upon the
overwhelming number of his foes, they gave back in consternation and
astonishment.
Ten men lay dead upon the ground, their skulls battered by fierce blows
of the revolver, or pierced through and through by the great sword.
And now Hal and Chester, the aeroplane once more ready for flight,
dashed forward to the rescue with loud cries.
They ranged themselves alongside the fighting Cossack. He greeted them
with a half-smile; he had no time for more. Three men threw themselves
upon him. One he hurled from him with a stroke of his mighty leg,
another felt the weight of his revolver butt and the third fell back
with a sword wound in his chest.
Unmindful of his own danger, the giant turned to the aid of Chester,
who, at that moment was at the mercy of an enemy's sword. A mighty
stroke of the massive arm and the German lay dead on the ground.
The Germans, having had the worst of this encounter with a single foe,
stood back and drew their revolvers. Quickly Alexis reversed his own
weapon and fired. There was one enemy less. A bullet struck him in the
chest. He staggered, but recovered, and again fired at his foes.
The revolvers of the two lads were also spitting fire. A bullet grazed
Hal's head and he toppled over. He was up in a moment, however, fighting
more fiercely than before. Chester felt a stinging sensation in his
right arm. Quickly he transferred his weapon to his left hand, and it
continued to send out its deadly missiles.
But this unequal contest could not last. It must be ended.
Alexis, wounded in a score of places, his giant body hacked and hewn,
hurled himself forward in one last desperate attack. Germans quailed
before the very fury of his face; they tumbled here and there beneath
his sword, or sweeping blows of his now empty revolver. A bullet struck
the giant in the throat. He dropped his revolver and clapped his hand to
the wound. Another struck him in the shoulder. He sprang forward, struck
down another of the enemy, then staggered back.
And at that moment there came the sound of tramping footsteps on the
sand. Turning quickly Hal and Chester perceived approaching rapidly a
body of Swedish troops. The Germans saw them at the same instant. They
were still a mile away across the sands, but the Germans had no mind to
be caught and interned. Quickly they leaped for their aircraft, all
except those who remained upon the sands, their faces turned upward or
buried therein.
Hal and Chester each seized Alexis by an arm and dragged him back toward
their own aeroplane, now righted and waiting only the touch that would
send it into the air. The giant Cossack staggered along, but it was
plain to both lads that he was about to collapse.
"Come, come, Alexis!" cried Hal, trying to urge him on. "Only a few more
steps and we will be all right."
To the very side of the craft they carried him; but here, shaking
himself free of their detaining hands, he suddenly fell, face forward,
upon the ground. Quickly the two lads bent over him, and succeeded in
turning him on his back.
His voice came in faint gasps. The boys bent near to catch what he was
saying.
"Leave me here! You go on!" came his voice. "I am done for! Save
yourselves!"
The lads waited to hear no more. Chester took him by the feet and Hal by
the head, and with great effort succeeded in placing him within the
aeroplane, stretching him out, as well as they could across two of the
seats. Then Chester sprang in and Hal jumped to the wheel.
Along the beach the craft skimmed lightly, then arose from the ground.
At the same instant a volley rang out from the approaching Swedish
troops and the officer in command called out to surrender. The German
airships, for some unaccountable reason, had not waited to resume the
fight upon ascending into the air, but had made off.
Hal headed the aeroplane due westward, making for the coast of England.
Alexis had lapsed into unconsciousness upon being placed in the machine,
but now he stirred feebly and spoke.
"A real fight, wasn't it?" he gasped. "I told you I could do it if I
were on the ground. How many was it I killed? Twenty--thirty--forty----"
He broke off and burst into a fit of coughing. Chester bent over him
anxiously.
"You'll be all right in a day or two, old man," he said gently.
Alexis smiled feebly.
"Don't try to fool me," he said. "I am a man. I know when death is near
and I am not afraid to face it."
Both lads realized that their giant Cossack friend was near his end, but
there was nothing they could do for him. Chester bound up the wounds as
well as he could, stopping the flow of blood, but that was all.
As the aeroplane flew over the sea toward the coast of England, the
dying man continued to talk. Now he sat up in the craft and gazed down
over the side.
"I had always thought," he said slowly, "that I should end my days in my
own land. As it is I shall not end them in any land at all; but in the
air. It is strange."
Hal slowed the aeroplane down until it was barely moving and turned to
Alexis.
"You are wrong," he said. "You are not going to die. In a few hours we
shall be in England, where you shall have the best of medical
attention."
"It is too late," replied the Cossack calmly. "I shall not live an
hour."
His breath came with difficulty.
"There is one thing I should like to know," he said.
"What is it, Alexis?" asked Hal.
"Will you tell me what you meant by 'drawing the long bow'?"
Hal was silent for some moments, and then replied gravely.
"When a man boasts of things he has never done, in America it is called
'drawing the long bow.' I was mistaken in your case. It would be
impossible for you to 'draw the long bow.' You have done too much."
"That is true," agreed Chester.
Suddenly the giant frame fell back. Hal turned as best he could while
Chester leaned over him anxiously. Alexis extended a hand to each of
them, which they grasped.
"This," he said, pressing their hands in a still strong grip, "is the
end. I wish that I could have lived to see the outcome of this war."
"There can be but one outcome," replied Chester softly. "You may rest
assured of that."
"True," said the giant, "but I would like to have seen my old home
again."
The lads were silent. Finally Hal spoke.
"To think," he said, "that we are responsible for your fate; but for us
you would have remained with the army and have lived to the end of the
war. We are to blame."
"Sh-h-h," whispered the dying giant. The hand which held Chester's freed
itself and groped in his pocket. "But for you lads," he continued, "I
should never have won this."
He pulled from his pocket the Cross of St. George, pinned to his breast
by the Russian emperor, and gazed at it lovingly.
"It is well worth the sacrifice," he said.
Still holding the medal his hand again sought Chester's and pressed it.
His other hand still gripped Hal's.
"Good-by, boys," he said firmly. "Let the Grand Duke know."
The pressure upon their hands relaxed. The giant frame of Alexis
Vergoff, brave man and fighter extraordinary, stiffened and lay still.
He was dead.
And as the aeroplane swept over the sea to the distant coast of England
Hal and Chester mourned the loss of a true and stanch friend.
Arrived in England the lads saw the body of Alexis laid to rest with
fitting honors, and continued their mission to the continent, where Hal
put the document entrusted to his care by the Russian Grand Duke
Nicholas into the hands of Field Marshal Sir John French,
commander-in-chief of the British forces on the continent.
And so we shall take leave of them for a short time. Their subsequent
adventures will be found in a succeeding volume, entitled: "The Boy
Allies in the Trenches; or Midst Shot and Shell Along the Aisne."
THE END.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Boy Allies with the Cossacks, by Clair W. Hayes