Even in this brief moment of time the two air-craft had come closer, the one plainly in pursuit of the other. But they made no direct flight. Now and then they both hung poised in the air, then they darted at each other, or one plunged toward the earth and the other soared higher.
“One of them must be a German scout trying to locate the enemy’s position near here,” Barbara remarked. She herself a few weeks before would not have believed that she could have seen such a spectacle as the present one without being overpowered with alarm and excitement. But war brings strange changes in one’s personality. Both girls were entranced, awed, but above all profoundly interested. They had not yet thought of fear for themselves nor for the men who must be guiding the destinies of the ill-omened birds now driving nearer and nearer toward them. But for the moment one could not associate human beings with these winged creatures; they were too swift and terrible.
The German plane was evidently the larger and heavier of the two.
It could escape only by disabling the other craft, but the smaller one would not remain long enough in one position to have the other’s guns turned upon it.
Now and then there were reports of explosions in the air above them. Nona and Barbara expected to see one or the other of the two machines disabled, but somehow the shots missed their aim.
Barbara had a sudden remembrance of having once seen a fish-hawk chased by a kingfisher. The resemblance was strange. Here was the great bird, powerful and evil, moving heavily through the air, while the smaller one darted at it, now forward, now backward, then to the side, causing it endless annoyance, even terror. Yet the larger bird could not move swiftly enough to be avenged.
Once the two planes circled almost out of sight and unconsciously the two watchers sighed, partly from relief, although there was a measure of disappointment. For whatever terror the spectacle held was overbalanced with wonder. Moreover, by this time they were both becoming exhausted. Nona started to sit down again to rest her eyes for a moment.
The next instant Barbara clutched her. Back into their near horizon the fighting air-craft reappeared, and now it was plain enough that the larger was swaying uncertainly. The smaller aeroplane made a final dash toward it, another report sounded, then a white flash appeared and afterwards a cloud of heavy yellow smoke. Away from the smoke, still lumbering uncertainly but keeping a course in the desired direction, the big Taube machine was sailing out of sight. For a few moments longer the smaller aeroplane hung suspended, although it was impossible to see more than the outline of its great white wings through the thick vapor surrounding it.
Then the wings began to waver and the aeroplane to descend toward the earth.
Instinctively, with almost the same emotion that a child feels in reaching the scene of a falling balloon, Nona and Barbara ran forward. Unless its course changed the aeroplane must fall in a field not more than two hundred yards away.