As the first machine righted after its abrupt halt, Chester took deliberate aim and fired, even at the moment that a bullet passed close to his head.
There was a yell from the pursuing machine. A man leaped suddenly to his feet, shaking the frail craft violently as he did so, waved his arms once, twice, and toppled into space.
“I got one of ’em,” Chester shouted to Hal, and his lips shut grimly.
“Good for you!” Hal shouted back.
Even Marquis realized that it was time to be pleased, and he sent up a sharp bark of joy. His canine intelligence told him that something that threatened had been overcome.
But the man at the wheel of the German aëroplane, now that he was alone, was not minded to give up the chase. The machine darted at the boys’ craft suddenly, and, but for the fact that Hal at that very moment happened to glance over his shoulder, the sharp-pointed prow of the German craft would have cut them down.
With a sudden twist of the wheel, however, Hal sent the machine out of the path of the German, and, as the enemy sped by, Chester took a snap shot with his revolver.
Evidently he missed, for the German checked his plane and returned to the attack.
“So,” said Hal to himself, “two can play at that game.”
Once more he avoided the German rush; and then, wheeling his own craft at the moment the German sped by, he dashed in pursuit. The enemy, doing the work of two men, did not perceive this change in tactics by his foes, and, even as he slowed down to turn and make another attack, the point of the lad’s machine plowed into him.