"If I see a man with a dog underneath us, just bring me within rifle shot, young man, and I will show you something fancy in the way of gunning."
Henri, whom Schneider was addressing, mentally resolved that he would be in no haste to perform as suggested.
Conditions, however, were reversed long before this test could be made. Indeed, the reversal, with the dawn, was at hand. The hunters were the hunted.
The thud of iron-shod hoofs, the clank of sabers—a troop of cavalry charging through the wooded avenue—four madly racing footmen in the furrowed field.
Full two hundred yards between them and the biplanes!
CHAPTER X.
THE CARRIER PIGEONS.
Billy and Henri, with much less weight to carry than their stalwart fellow fugitives, and much spryer as sprinters, easily led in the race to the flying machines.
Schneider stopped more than once in his tracks to fire from the hip at the pursuing cavalrymen, but he failed to score a hit until the leader of the troopers had almost ridden him down. One of the long-barreled revolvers emptied the saddle of the rearing charger. Schneider had thrown his rifle away at the last moment, finding his pistol more effective in close quarters.