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 aëroplane, 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 aëroplane, 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.