CHAPTER XI
DAWN—AND A NEW ENEMY
The two Germans, just about to throw Frank overboard, turned quickly at the sound of this new voice. They wasted no time.
"At him!" cried one, and leaped.
The other sprang after him.
Jack, with his feet wide apart and arms extended, braced himself to receive the shock; and when it came he was ready. Frank, in the meantime, sank down in the plane almost unconscious, for one of the Germans had all but choked the life from him.
As the first German sprang, Jack met him with a straight right hand blow to the face and the man reeled back. The second, seeing the fate of his companion, dived for Jack's legs and seized them, pulling the lad down.
Jack felt out with his left hand and encircled the German's neck. Then he squeezed. The German gasped for breath as his wind was shut off. His hand searched his belt and presently flashed aloft with a knife. Jack saw it. Releasing his hold on the man's throat, he seized the knife arm with his left hand and twisted sharply, at the same time driving his right fist into the man's face.
There was a sharp snap and a cry of pain. The knife fell clattering to the deck of the plane. Jack, very angry, rose to his feet, stooped over, and picking up the German as though he had been a child, heaved him overboard.
"So much for you!" he muttered.
He stepped across the body of the second German to Frank's side and stooped over him. Gently he raised his chum's head to his knee.
Frank's eyelids flickered and directly he opened his eyes.
"How do you feel, old man?" asked Jack.
Frank struggled free from his chum's grip and sat up. He shook his head once or twice and then rose to his feet.
"I'll be all right in—Look out!" he broke off suddenly.
He dodged. But Jack, not realizing the import of Frank's words, remained still. He felt something hot sear the lobe of his ear. Wheeling abruptly, the lad saw the German whom he had first knocked unconscious facing him with levelled revolver—the weapon was Jack's own, which he had left behind when he swam to the enemy's aeroplane.
The German faced him with a smile.
"Hands up!" he commanded.
But Jack, with a few drops of blood trickling from his ear, suddenly became very angry. He objected to being shot at from behind.
"Put down that gun!" he commanded in a cold voice. "Put it down before
I kill you!"
The German was struck by the menace in the lad's tones, and for a moment he hesitated and the revolver wavered. Then he braced and brought the weapon up again.
But that moment of hesitation decided the issue. In spite of the fact that the revolver was pointed right at him, and that only a few feet away, Jack took a quick step forward.
The German fired. Jack swerved a trifle. The bullet plowed through the sleeve of his shirt and touched the skin; but that was all.
Again the man's hand tightened on the trigger, but he never fired again. Jack's powerful left hand seized his wrist and twisted the revolver from it Then, still grasping the wrist, the lad wheeled on his heel. The German left the spot where he had been standing as though pulled by a locomotive. He was lifted high in the air and, as Jack gave a jerk and then released his hold, the man went sailing through the air and dropped into the sea with a loud splash.
And at the same moment the intense darkness was shattered. The first faint streak of dawn showed in the east.
Jack sat down. Frank did likewise.
"That settles that," said Jack, briefly. "Now we had better get away from here. We haven't any too much time."
Frank, without a word, took his place at the wheel.
"Feel fit?" asked Jack.
Frank nodded, though he felt terribly faint.
"Sure you can make it?" Jack continued.
"Yes," replied Frank.
"Well, I just wanted to know," said Jack, "because here comes a German torpedo boat."
Frank was startled. He turned in his seat, and there, not a mile and a half away, was a ship of war. She was flying the German flag and was making directly for the spot where the British hydroplane rested.
"By George! Won't we ever get out of this?" the lad muttered.
"We won't unless you hurry," said Jack.
"But those two Germans. Won't they be picked up and give the alarm?"
"One of 'em won't," said Jack, grimly, "and I feel pretty safe about the other, too. Let's get up in the air."
Frank tinkered with the motor and took a firm grip on the wheel. But the hydroplane did not move.
"Something wrong," said Frank, quietly.
"What?" demanded Jack.
"Something wrong with the motor. It won't work."
Frank had bent over and was examining it carefully.
Came a shot from the German torpedo boat.
"If we don't get out of here pretty quick," said Jack, quietly, "we won't get out at all."
Frank made no reply, but continued to tinker with the engine.
A second shot from the German torpedo boat. It skimmed the water ahead of the hydroplane. Jack gazed toward the vessel. As he did so a small boat put off from the German and headed toward them.
"They're coming after us, Frank," said Jack, "a whole boatload of 'em.
How long will it take you to fix that thing?"
Frank uttered an exclamation of satisfaction.
"I've found it," he cried. "Five minutes," he answered Jack's question.
"Five minutes is liable to be too late," returned Jack, measuring the distance to the rapidly approaching German boat with his eye. "However, hurry as much as you can."
Frank did not take his eye from his engine.
"How far away?" he asked as he worked.
"Three quarters of a mile," replied Jack, calmly.
"Lots of time for us, then," said Frank, still working as swiftly as possible.
"Maybe," replied his chum. "Don't forget they carry pretty fair rifles with them."
"If we can get started before they shoot, I'll guarantee they don't get us," returned Frank.
"Well, they'll get us if you keep talking and don't get a move on there," said Jack. "They're coming like the wind."
"That's just the way I'm working. She's almost fixed row. Can you hold them off?"
"What, with a single revolver against a score of rifles? Not much.
They're right on us now. How's that engine?"
"Fixed!" cried Frank at that moment, straightening up.
"All right. Let her go then," said Jack, calmly. "They don't know yet that we're going to run. They have made no preparations to fire. Evidently they think we shall wait for them."
Even while Jack was speaking, the hydroplane began to move slowly over the surface of the water. Very slowly it went at first, then faster and faster.
"Halt!" came a cry from the German boat.
Jack picked up his cap and waved it at the Germans.
"Some other time," he called back. "We're terrible busy today.
Goodbye."
The German officer gave a sharp command. Several sailors sprang to their feet and blazed away at the hydroplane with their rifles. Bullets flew by on all sides, but none struck home.
Again Jack waved his cap.
"Very bad shooting," he remarked. "Looks like some of my—Hello! That wasn't so bad."
For the lad's cap, which he had been waving in derision at the pursuing foe, was suddenly carried from his hand by a German bullet.
"By Jove!" said Jack, quietly, "I wouldn't have lost that cap——" He gazed at it as it floated in the water.
And at that instant Frank sent the hydroplane soaring into the air with a lurch. Jack glanced down into the water.
"Hold on, Frank!" he cried.
In response to this command, Frank slowed down.
"What's the matter now?" he demanded.
"Why, one of our erstwhile German friends has come to life. He was just about to lay hold of us when you came up in the air. Great Scott! What do you think of that?"
"What do I think of what?"
"Why, the Germans in the boat have just shot him."
"Shot whom? The German?"
"Yes; they saw him coming after us and evidently thought he was a friend of ours. Poor fellow! To be shot down by one of his own countrymen. And so goes the last chance the Germans had of learning that we have discovered their plans."
"Then it is a good thing for us they shot him."
"For us, yes. But think of the irony of it!"
"Well," said Frank, "I wouldn't like to have shot him, defenseless as he was; and I didn't want you to. That's why I didn't suggest having a look for him before we came up."
"I couldn't have done it," returned Jack.
"No; nor I; and yet duty would have demanded it. For with him alive, there always remained a chance that he would give the warning."
"It just goes to show," said Jack, slowly, "that even fate sometimes works on the side of the right."
"True."
Unconsciously, Frank had allowed the speed of the hydroplane to diminish during this conversation, and the crew of the German boat again had found themselves within range. They had started to abandon the chase when the plane soared aloft, but when it had slowed down, they had resumed the pursuit, hoping that something had gone wrong with the craft.
Several bullets flew about the machine.
"Great Scott! They're at it again!" cried Jack. "Let's get away from here right now."
"All right, here she goes," said Frank. "Full speed ahead!"