"Give us fifteen minutes more at this speed,"
Tom roared, "and we'll be back over our own French lines!"
They were soon going at terrific speed, fifteen thousand feet up in the air, when a terrifying peril beset them.
Out of the blackness ahead, bearing straight at them, came a dozen
German airplanes in splendid formation!
CHAPTER XXIV
CONCLUSION
"Hurrah!" yelled Tom Reade. "Sink or swim—-but never say die!
Now we'll give it to 'em, real Yankee Doodle, 'over there' style!"
It sounded like sheer bravado, but Reade was fired with the new genius of the war.
Tom headed straight for the nearest plane, and Dick turned the machine gun loose. Almost immediately he had the great good luck to cripple that enemy and send the craft fluttering down to earth.
But another plane had attempted to go under them with a view to shooting up. It came too near, in the maneuver shot too badly, and Dick let loose with the machine gun again. Down came the enemy plane while Reade took a wide swerve to the right.