In the afternoon they found themselves far down the road leading to Ypres, when they were startled at the sound of an unusual buzzing, and soon divined the cause as they saw a dozen or more airplanes flying around over the broad fields to the east. Nothing more was needed to give the boys an inspiration. They moved toward the great field, as though a giant magnet pulled them. Long before they were near the hangars they could see the flyers far above them, circling about. The scene fascinated them.
Then something like a dull explosion startled them, and they looked at each other and then glanced about.
"There it is; look at it; directly above us," shouted Alfred, in great excitement.
"Something has happened; it's on fire," said Ralph.
In an incredibly short space of time, something struck and rattled along the ground not far from them, but the machine, although falling, was still some hundreds of feet from the earth. One of the operators could be seen frantically drawing back the levers, and trying to hold the badly damaged ship from overturning, but his efforts were unavailing.
The boys closed their eyes as the swiftly moving machine now actually rolled down through space, tumbling over and over, until it finally struck the ground with a crashing noise, not a hundred feet from where they stood. Terrorized at the sight, they stood still for a few moments, but this was no worse than the scenes they had witnessed in battle, so, without a word, they made a rush for the mound of debris.
"They are both under the machine," said Alfred.
"Look at the smoke; it's afire," shouted Ralph.
"Use sand! use sand!" almost shrieked Alfred.
They had early learned that sand is more effectual as a fire extinguisher of burning oil than water, if properly applied. Handsful of sand were scooped up and applied. A groan from one of the men arrested their movements.