"If it's really a fight they want, I reckon the time has arrived when we'll have to stop and give it to them," he breathed again through clenched teeth. He and Andy now were working together like a pair of Siamese twins. The dual motors were turning out a new specimen of power, as though by some human intelligence they, too, realized that the moment of supreme test had come.
"Don," Jack shouted, "you'll have to work that machine gun. Andy is needed here in the cock-pit."
CHAPTER XIV Destruction of the Enemy
As Don crawled forward to take his place behind the shielded shoulder of the machine gun, Fred stripped himself of the wireless paraphernalia to become mechanician while Jack and Andy gave all their time to the engines and the maneuvering. At the same time they climbed higher, maintaining the advantage which always is with the upper plane in aerial battle.
"Get ready, Don," Jack shouted, as the big machine swerved about and banked steeply for a sudden dive at the machine below.
Before the crew of the latter could even guess what was going to happen, much less get into position for firing their own gun, mounted forward, Don opened up with a hail of bullets which cut the lower left wing of the enemy machine in a dozen places and made her all the more difficult to maneuver or manage.
A skilled pilot was in charge of her, however, and even with this damage the giant plane wheeled gracefully, circling for an advantage which Jack and Andy refused to give. Up, up, up they went, cutting, crossing, swerving, always seeking for position.
And then like a flash Jack gave the order and they turned on the enemy. Again Don let go a fusillade that sounded like the rapid rat-a-tat of a great drum. It was another bull's eye, and one of the bullets apparently took the pilot in the right arm, for Fred, looking over, saw it drop limp at his side, while he frantically grasped at levers with his left hand, and said something sharply to another member of his crew.