“It’s going to come soon, I guess!” ventured Josh, when a brief lull in all the firing allowed him a chance to get in a few words.
“Yep,” added Hanky Panky, who was getting a stiff neck with looking up so long; “right now you can see that they’re sailing around like they might be looking for a good place to hover. But they’d better take care, because that shrapnel is bursting just below them, and some time a shell might hit home.”
A loud whoop from Josh instantly followed these words.
“There, one let go a bomb, as sure as you live!” he shouted; “look and see where it hits!”
Quickly following came a report, and the boys could see the earth fly in showers.
“Not by a jugful!” whooped Hanky Panky, also carried away with the excitement of the moment; “they’ll have to aim better than that if they expect to knock the German battery out of business.”
The second airman tried his hand, and while possibly he managed to do a little better than the first the result was also disappointing. Evidently they were at too great a height to be able to strike a small mark like the hidden battery. At that early stage in the war which had been sprung so suddenly on France, her aviators had not as yet become proficient in this sort of shooting; later on when they had been given much practice, the result was bound to be quite different.
When the birdmen had exhausted all their bombs and made no impression on the dangerous battery they were compelled to desist and circle around. Evidently it was the intention of the air scouts while aloft to learn all they could connected with the disposition of the German forces. This information would prove valuable to the French commander, whether able to win the coveted ford or not.
“Will they give up trying to cross over now?” asked Hanky Panky, after it was seen that the efforts of the circling birdmen, much more than half a mile aloft, had not met with any sort of success.
“That isn’t the usual French way of fighting, if all I’ve heard and seen of them cuts any figure in the game!” Josh exclaimed.