FLIGHT
Both lads fled through the night knowing that their lives depended upon
it. For safety's sake it was absolutely necessary that they put as great
a distance as possible between them and the barn.
According to Hal's calculations, the spot where the aeroplane was hidden
was far enough away so that the machine would not be disabled by the
force of the explosion; and it was for this point that the lads made at
full speed.
They reached there safely; and still there had been no explosion.
"How much time did you allow, Hal?" asked Chester.
"Ten minutes, as nearly as I could judge," was the reply.
"Then we still have a few minutes, I guess. Had we better wait here until
after the blast, or shall we run out the machine and get up in the air."
"We'd better stay here," returned Hal, positively, "I don't know how much
ammunition there is in that barn. It's going to kick up a terrible fuss.
My advice is that we lay flat on the ground, hold our ears and bury our
faces. Immediately after the blast we'll run the machine out and get up
as swiftly as possible."
"I can imagine the effect of the explosion," said Chester.
"Well, I can't," returned Hal; "nor can you. How many men it may kill,
how many it may maim and what damage it will do cannot be estimated. But
one thing sure, immediately afterwards every sleepy German soldier within
fifty miles will be on the alert. The Germans will know it was not an
accident. They will attribute the explosion to a bomb dropped from the
air. We may have trouble reaching our lines."
"I wish you hadn't done it, Hal," mumbled Stubbs, whom the lads had
found hiding beside the aeroplane. "It will dig a hole a mile deep in
the ground. Rocks, guns and everything will come down like hail. We may
be killed."
"Quiet, Stubbs!" ordered Hal. "Flat on the ground with you now. Hold your
ears and bury your faces until I tell you to get up."
He suited the action to the word. Chester and Stubbs followed his
example.
For long moments, it seemed to them, they waited for the sound of the
blast that would shake the country. Each was anxious, for there was no
telling what the result of the explosion might be. Stubbs squirmed
uneasily as he burrowed in the ground, while Chester and Hal were by no
means easy in their minds.
So long did they wait that it seemed to Chester something must have gone
wrong. Perhaps the fuse had gone out. Perhaps another German guard had
discovered it in time and pinched out the fire. There were many
possibilities, and the lad considered them all as he lay prostrate on
the ground.
He was about to raise his head and ask Hal a question, when, suddenly,
the blast came.
There was, at first, a long grumbling roar, which, it seemed, would never
end. Gradually the roar increased until it reached such proportions as to
be beyond all description; it was a roar the like of which neither of the
three figures who lay there had ever heard before--probably never would
hear again.
Louder and louder it grew and then ended in a final blast that was louder
than many thousand times the loudest peal of thunder--louder than the
simultaneous firing of thousands of guns.
Then it became suddenly quiet--so quiet that Hal, Chester and Stubbs, who
had now leaped to their feet, felt a queer sensation hovering all about
them; so quiet that it was, for the moment, impossible to hear.
Then something descended not five yards from where the three stood with a
terrible roar. Instinctively, all fell to the ground again, crowding
themselves into the smallest possible space.
For the rain of debris had begun. And for several minutes it continued.
Pieces of guns, of rocks and of all objects imaginable fell upon all
sides of the three; but, fortunately, none struck them. Then the rain of
debris ceased.
In the great German camp all was hideous confusion. Thousands of lives
had been snuffed out by the force of the titanic blast; thousands of
others had perished in the rain of steel and iron and rock that followed.
It was the greatest catastrophe that had befallen the Germans for many a
long day. The effect of the explosion was appalling.
Hal's first thought after the rain of steel and iron had ceased was for
the aeroplane. If it had been smashed they were, indeed, in a serious
situation. If it had gone through the storm safely they were
comparatively safe.
Together the three friends rushed toward the machine. Quickly they rolled
it out into the open. Hal examined the engine and steering apparatus
carefully.
"All right, Hal?" asked Chester, anxiously.
Hal shook his head.
"Something wrong with the engine."
"Can you fix it?"
"I haven't been able to determine just what's wrong yet."
Hal worked rapidly; and at last he gave an exclamation of satisfaction.
"Find it?" asked Chester.
"Yes; I'll have it fixed in a quarter of an hour."
"If we're not away from here in five minutes we're likely to be dead,"
said Stubbs, plaintively.
"Don't croak, Stubbs," said Chester. "We've done a good day's work and
you should be proud to have a hand in it."
"Should I?" said Stubbs. "Well, all right, if you say so; but I would be
a whole lot more proud if I could get back and tell somebody about it."
"A man deserves no particular credit for doing his duty," said
Chester, quietly.
"Maybe not," agreed Stubbs. "But I haven't done mine yet."
"Why--"
"My duty," said Stubbs, "is to get back to some place where I can send an
account of this feat to the New York _Gazette_. Believe me, it will be
some scoop."
"Scoop?"
"Yes. I mean no other paper will have the facts as I have them."
"All right, Stubbs," said Chester. "I hope you get your scoop."
"I'm going to get it," said Stubbs, excitedly, "if I have to walk over
the body of the Kaiser himself to do it."
"That's the way to talk," said Chester. "Confidence is the greatest asset
in the world."
"It's not confidence," said Stubbs. "I've just got to do it. Why, if my
boss knew I had something like this in my hands and I didn't get it to
him I'd lose my job."
Chester made no reply to this; instead, he bent over Hal who was still
tinkering with the engine of the aeroplane.
"How are you making it?" he asked.
"I don't seem to be able to fix it," returned Hal. "Say! you two fellows
walk away a bit and keep an eye open for possible enemies. We don't want
to be caught off our guard here."
Chester and Stubbs did as Hal directed, though the latter mumbled to
himself as he took his position some distance away.
"That's the trouble with these contraptions," he said. "Always out of
whack. If a man had a good horse now--"
He broke off and continued to mumble something unintelligible to himself.
"I've found it," cried Hal now, from the aeroplane. "I was working on the
wrong part. I'll have it fixed in a jiffy."
Chester made no reply, but Stubbs brightened up wonderfully.
"That's the talk!" he cried. "Fix her up, Hal, and get a move on."
Hal smiled to himself as he tinkered with the engine.
Hal was deep in his work when his attention was attracted by a sudden cry
of alarm from Stubbs.
"Germans!" cried the little man, and without stopping to look again, he
dashed toward Hal.
At almost the same moment Chester saw a force of the enemy advancing
toward him. He, too, uttered a cry of alarm and dashed toward the place
where Hal still bent over the aeroplane.
Stubbs danced up and down and chanted excitedly:
"Hurry up, Hal! Hurry up! Here they come!"
"Shut up, Stubbs!" exclaimed Hal, straining all his energies to fix the
break in the plane. "I'll have it in a minute."
"A minute will be too late!" cried Stubbs.
"Be still, Stubbs!" said Chester, quietly. "Give Hal a chance. There is
still time to run if it's necessary."
And at that moment Hal sprang to his feet.
"Fixed!" he cried joyfully. "Climb in here, quickly!"
The others needed no urging and soon all were in their places. It was now
that Hal thanked his stars that the plane was one of the few that could
rise from the ground.
Slowly the large army plane gathered headway as he moved along the
ground. Hal increased the speed slowly in spite of the close proximity,
for he realized that too great haste might spell disaster, and he wished
to test the engine carefully before soaring into the air.
"Up, Hal!" cried Stubbs. "Here they come!"
Hal paid no heed to this frantic exclamation. Instead, for a moment, he
reduced the speed of the craft as something seemed not to be working
exactly right. Calmly he bent over the engine and tinkered with it a
moment later. Then he sat straight and exclaimed:
"All right now!"
Stubbs gave a great sigh of relief.
Hal increased the speed of the machine until it fairly flew over the
ground. And then his hand touched the elevating lever.
Immediately the plane soared in the air like a big bird.
And from the ground came exclamations of surprise; for it was not until
that moment that the Germans who had been advancing toward the friends
had discovered their presence; although they had been espied by Chester
and Stubbs some moments before.
A volley of rifle bullets was fired at the rapidly rising machine.
One flew by Stubbs' ear and he dropped to the bottom of the car with a
howl of fright.
A moment later, however, the machine was beyond reach of the rifles of
the German troops, and Hal laid the craft out on a straightaway course,
heading directly west.
"Nothing can stop us now but enemy aeroplanes," he said quietly.
He increased his speed. The big army plane flew toward the distant French
lines with a speed greater than that of the fastest express train.