It was a matter of seconds, but just in time the ladder was jerked out of the reach of clutching hands.
“All ready there, Mr. Engineer,” shouted Buck from up above the pilot room.
Buck made a dash for his post, the current was turned on, and in a minute more the Flyer was soaring high above the scene of the massacre.
CHAPTER XXI
INSIDE OF BESIEGED PRZEMYSL
“The fiends!” exclaimed Alan, staring horrified down upon the heap of blazing ruins which so short a time before had been happy, peaceful homes. “It would be only right if we were to drop a few lyddite bombs down upon them!”
“No,” said Bob, “we mustn’t do that, because we would be almost certain to blow up a good many of those poor German villagers along with the guilty Cossacks.”
“I don’t believe that there are any Germans left alive there,” grumbled Alan.
“Nevertheless, we shouldn’t bombard the Russians,” interposed Ned. “Remember, Alan, that we aren’t in Europe either to fight or take sides in any way, unless we absolutely have to in order to protect our own lives. The United States is a neutral country, and we must do nothing which might later imperil that neutrality. I know that it’s hard to spare such wretches as those we have just escaped, but we ought to do it.”
“Ned is right,” chimed in both Bob and Buck, so Alan had to forego the bomb-dropping, richly as the Cossacks deserved it.