“No, if they had zey would search zee ground wiz zeir light.”
“That’s so.”
“But now they are point eet ’ere, zere, all over zee sky. If zey no find us zey think zat we are keel and zey go away.”
Jack shuddered at the narrow escape they had from this being made literally true.
For a long time, or so it seemed to the anxious watchers below, the Zeppelin soared above them, her searchlight swinging in every direction. But at last the noise of her engines grew dimmer and the light vanished.
“Zey go away disgoost,” said de Garros, shrugging his shoulders. “Now we see what are zee chances of patching up my hand and getting zee engine going again.”
The electric light, carried to locate engine trouble at night, was switched on and brought out by its long wires over the side of the craft. Then began an anxious examination of the aviator’s hand.
It proved that the tip of his thumb, where it had laid on the edge of the wheel, had been badly nicked by a bullet, but luckily it was the left member.
“If zee engine ees capable of being fixed I can drive wiz my right hand,” declared the aviator. “Thank the bon Dieu that it was not zee steering wheel zat was struck.”
With the first aid kit, carried by all soldiers in the field, they soon dressed and bound the injured member, and then came the examination of the engine, an investigation on which much depended. If it proved to have been too badly damaged to be repaired, they would not stand much chance for escape in a country so overrun with German troops. For all they knew some might be camped not far off. But they had to take their chance of that.