Then suddenly a white flag shot up from the sloop’s breastworks. Oscar, with the gallantry such as had ever distinguished the air fighters on both sides in those days that tried men’s souls, ceased firing.
“Give up?” he was bawling, as the rapid-fire guns both became silent, while their hot barrels cooled off a bit.
“Not so you could notice it,” Perk shouted. “Jest wanted to exchange a few words with you, if you’re Oscar Gleeb, an’ it’s true that you was a live-wire over there in France an’ the Argonne–say, is that all to the good, Mister Pilot?”
The other did not answer immediately. Plainly he must have been considerably astonished at the queer turn the engagement had taken; and then again possibly he did not exactly like the idea of being compelled to acknowledge his identity, fearing it might be only a trap to ensnare him in the meshes of the law he had been defying so flagrantly.
“What’s that matter to you?” he finally yelled testily, so that Perk began to suspect he must have touched up the other with one of the bullets that struck the seaplane.
“Oh! nothin’ much,” sang out the complaisant Perk, cheerfully, “on’y I wanted to let you know I was over there in the same line and had the good luck to send down a few o’ you Hun pilots in a blazin’ coffin. Wondered now if me’n an’ you mightn’t a had a private scrap o’ our own in them bully times. Allers did hanker to have a talk-fest with you, sense I heard ’bout you bein’ one o’ them bloomin’ hot Junker pilots.”
A hoarse laugh greeted this amazing sally of Perk’s.
“Say, what sort of a crazy gyp are you to want to talk things over while we got this scrap on?” bellowed the helmeted man in the shot torn cabin of the amphibian. “That’s our boat you’re standin’ on, and we need it in our business, see? Give you three minutes to clear out, for I’m comin’ aboard. Get that, Kamarad?”
“Sure thing, Oscar old hoss, but when you do it’ll be feet first, for I’m fixed to fill your carcass so full o’ lead it wouldn’t need any cannon ball to sink you if you died at sea. So mind your step, Mister Pilot–jest been gettin’ my hand in so far, but what’s comin’ next’ll be a whole lot different, bet your boots!”
The other did not show the white feather but immediately set to work once more with his weapon. No sooner was its chatter “on the air” than Perk started giving his own gun a chance to show its worth. This made it lively again and once more those aggravating splinters began to scatter, worrying Perk not a little, for strange to say he dreaded lest one of them find lodgment in his anatomy and this troubled him much more than the possibility of being struck by a speeding bullet.