He then became aware of a movement on the part of the air pilot. Till that moment he had not noticed the least sign of life from the wheel man. Now there came a soft blob and a red light shot into the air.
Almost instantly there again was darkness.
“By Jove!” whispered Jack to himself, amazedly. “This certainly is marvelously fast work!”
There was no repetition of the signals.
For a while Jack was content to gaze about him in idle wonder. He seemed indifferent to his plight. He drank in the scenes about him, gazed interestedly at other air-craft that passed them, and watched the sky begin to turn a dull slate color. It was the dawn of another day of carnage.
Others, too, were on the watch for these faint signs of day. From somewhere came the long, awful boom of a huge cannon.
Jack tried to get up, but fell back to his former position. He only then realized that he was chained to his seat. He had a certain amount of freedom, but beyond that he was a prisoner, helpless.
“Well,” mused Jack upon this discovery, “even if my hands and feet were free, I could not escape from this height. We must land some time, and then I’ll have more need to use them.”
So Jack settled back to watch developments. Now everything was astir. A faint murmur was wafted to him on the morning breeze.
He could see the soldiers moving about, the great cannons and howitzers beginning to lumber onward, the column of Uhlans already in saddle, and the hundreds of air-craft rising to greet the early sun’s rays.