To escape by flight was impossible. The Valderian airmen, realizing that their only chance lay in vanquishing their opponents, turned and headed straight for the seaplanes. On both sides the automatic guns were sending out small but powerful shells as fast as the delicate and intricate mechanism could admit, yet ninety-nine per cent of the missiles failed to find a billet.
One of the British aircraft was the first to receive a knock-out blow. Hit fairly on the swiftly revolving cylinders it seemed to stop dead. Then, plunging vertically, it fell at a comparatively low rate of speed and with ever-widening circles through space till its descent was checked by crashing violently upon the ground.
Ten seconds later a Valderian biplane was literally pulverized by a shell that exploded in her petrol tank. Two more were quickly put out of action, while the fourth, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, vainly attempted a vol-plane.
With two of her antagonists like avenging angels following her steep downward glide, the biplane dropped to within a hundred feet of the ground without any apparent injury. Then, suddenly tilting beyond the angle of stability, she fell vertically. Under the joint action of gravity and the traction of her propeller her rate at the moment of impact could not have been far short of two hundred miles an hour.
It took all the skill at their pilots' command to save the two seaplanes from a similar fate. So intent had they been in the headlong pursuit that they temporarily lost all sense of caution.
The first seaplane succeeded in rising, but the second was not so fortunate. The sudden downward pressure on the planes as the frail craft changed her direction resulted in the carrying away of one of the tension wires. The right-hand plane collapsed like a limp rag, and the seaplane, tilting sideways, fell to the earth, her pilot getting off lightly with a few bruises, while almost by a miracle the observer escaped injury.
Only one Valderian biplane now remained. Her pilot, whether from sheer daring or whether he was incapable of realizing what he was about, headed straight for the nearest of his antagonists.
The British pilot, equally fascinated by the sight of the huge mechanical bird bearing straight towards him, held on his course. The slightest alteration to the elevating planes would have resulted in the seaplane flying either above or under her opponent; but inexplicably the naval pilot made no effort to avoid the collision.
With a crash that was plainly heard by the spell-bound crew of the "Meteor," both aeroplanes met, eight thousand feet above the ground.
The spectators saw both motors, thrown clear of the tangle of struts and canvas, drop almost side by side, followed by the mangled bodies of three of the victims. Then, slowly, the lighter debris began to fall, until, some of the spilt petrol catching fire, the wreckage blazing furiously like a funeral pyre, streamed earthwards, leaving behind it a trail of smoke resembling a gigantic memorial column to the slain.