The Dreadnought of the Air

by Percy F. Westerman

The fellow moved not a muscle. Thinking he had fainted through sheer fright, the Englishman grasped him under the arms and dropped him out on the ground. As he fell the Valderian rolled over on his face. He was stone dead: a bullet from the second aeroplane had pierced his heart.

Looking over his shoulder Dacres ran, following his fleeter-footed companion.

"Lie down when I give the word," he exclaimed breathlessly. "Now—lie down."

Both men threw themselves flat upon the ground at eighty yards from the railroad.

The noise of the impact was deafening. The splintering of wood, the clang of iron, and the hiss of the water upon the scattered contents of the furnace were outvoiced by the thud of the debris, which, hurled far and wide by the concussion, fell in showers about the prostrate survivors from the stolen locomotive.

Dacres rose to his feet. It was a bad enough smash, but he had expected it to be worse, for the trucks looked suspiciously similar to those left on the siding near Naocuanha. He felt convinced that had the authorities at La Paz the means at their disposal they would not have hesitated to dump a heap of dynamite cartridges into the trucks to make a complete business of "wiping out" the two fugitives.

He realized that their position was far from enviable. The mere fact of the attempt on the part of the Valderians at La Paz was sufficient to prove that Dacre's act of cutting the wires had failed to attain its desired object. The two comrades had a dangerous journey before them. Ill-equipped, ill-provisioned, and in an open country where the Republican irregulars were practically certain to be in evidence, many perils would beset them ere they rejoined the "Meteor."

On the other hand, there was a chance that when the Valderian troops arrived at the scene of the disaster they might come to the conclusion that the two fugitives were either killed in the collision and buried under the debris, or else that they were blown to atoms in one of the two explosions caused by the head-long fall of the biplanes. Taking this for granted, the Valderians might abandon the pursuit.

Again, Dacres and his companion had dealt the Republic a heavy blow. In addition to the loss of the two aeroplanes the railway track between Naocuanha and La Paz had been torn up in two places, the damage being beyond all chance of a speedy repair. In the event of the Valderians having to abandon the capital and fall back upon La Paz, their retreat would be seriously impeded.

Having shared their scanty load of provisions the two comrades set out on their long and necessarily circuitous route towards the Sierras. Fortunately the grass was dry and left little or no indication of their tracks. In places the plain was composed of mud, still moist from the recent rains. In crossing these patches Henri suggested that they should walk backwards, so that should the faint trail be followed through the grass the trackers would come to the conclusion that they had hit upon the route of two men walking towards the railway instead of from it. To heighten the deception Dacres and his companion removed their boots when crossing the plastic mud. Their trail then resembled that of two Indians of the plains, who invariably go barefooted, although they mostly ride on horseback.