“Oh! I hope that exhausts all their ammunition,” was the prayer poor Pudge was heard to utter, when this last stunning report announced that once more they had escaped by a close shave from a terrible fate.
“Don’t hug that fond delusion to your heart, Pudge,” Billy told him, jeeringly; “they’d be more apt to start out with fifty such bombs along than just three or four. I’m hoping we’ll come up on some marching regiment of British going to the front, or even a field battery that could make the old Taube climb up half a mile or so in the air. We wouldn’t need to worry then, because they never could hit such a tiny mark away down here.”
Frank was thinking somewhat on similar lines. So long as there was nothing to prevent the Germans from making those swift swoops down toward them the peril must continue to hang heavy over their devoted heads.
He realized that it was always possible for the aviators to come so close to them that there would not be one chance in ten of a miss being made. Perhaps after all it might be fear of the gun which Billy was making out to wave that would save them in the end. Frank had on more than one occasion in the past known even smaller things than that to accomplish important feats.
If the danger continued he was inclined to exercise his authority and compel his chums to dismount so as to fall behind. In that way they would be out of the danger zone, while he stayed aboard with the chauffeur to try and baffle the plans of the enemy above.
And now once more the peril hovered over them. How Billy yearned to have a gun in his hands, and with what joy would he have started using it, in the hope of at least causing the Germans to climb to safer heights?
Frank had altered his plan of campaign again. He intended to keep them guessing as long as possible. This time he arranged with the chauffeur to start the car speeding, and then at the second signal to suddenly apply the brake and bring it to a standstill.
When the man above saw them starting off wildly he evidently judged that was meant to be their game, and so he sent the small but terrible bomb through space.
Frank knew when it left his hand, and at that same second he gripped the chauffeur, so that the car was instantly brought under control. The bomb struck ahead of them, alongside the road, and tore another hole in the ground.
Billy gave a shout as though in that way he might get rid of some of the pent-up emotion that was well nigh choking him.