As for Pudge, he could only lie there on his face unable to look up—it was so terrible to see that man-made bird in the air above them, just for all the world like a hawk he had watched hovering over the water ere making a swift descent and plucking a fish out of the lake with its talons.
While he lay there on his stomach waiting in dread Pudge felt the car give several erratic movements. He could not at first decide whether it was stopping or making a sudden dash, but he did hear the crash announcing the next explosion.
Realizing that he was still in the land of the living, and as far as he could tell unharmed, Pudge raised his head and twisted his fat neck around.
He saw the Taube machine speeding on ahead; the van was apparently unharmed by the last shot, for it too continued along its way with a merry chug-chug-chug that sounded as sweet as any music he had ever heard in the ear of Pudge Perkins.
“What happened, Frank?” he asked eagerly.
“A number of things,” he was told; “first we dodged him, and coaxed a throw. Then in his haste he made a bad shot and wasted another of his precious bombs, for it only tore a wound in the pasture land back there a bit.”
“That makes four times he’s whacked away at us, don’t you know, Frank!” exclaimed Pudge, as though he considered each separate escape little short of a miracle.
“It’s the last time in the bargain,” announced Billy, “because there comes a troop of mounted soldiers around the bend over yonder, and you’ll hear the crack of guns if you listen a bit. There! what did I tell you? See how they start right away to try and get the Germans in the Taube. The Britishers know that make of aëroplane as far as they can see it. A Taube and a German are one and the same thing with them.”
“Whee! I warrant you the lead is singing around their ears like a swarm of angry wasps right now,” ventured Pudge, now condescending to actually sit up again, for it began to appear that their peril was a thing of the past.
“Well, I don’t really know that I want to see those daring fellows come down in a rush,” admitted Frank, whose sportsmanlike spirit could find much to admire in a foeman, as well as in a friend.