“That’d be a bad thing for the men in the aeroplane, I should say!” Josh informed him. “They must be all of half a mile high, and a fall would flatten a poor chump out like a pancake.”
“There’s one of the Germans turning tail right now and running away!” called out Hanky Panky; “and the other–why, see how queer that machine is acting, will you? It keeps turning around like a corkscrew, and seems to be dropping all the while.”
“A good reason, too,” snapped Josh. “French guns proved superior to the Kaiser’s, for they did some damage. That Taube is falling! Only for the skill of the two men aboard it’d be coming down right now like the stick of a spent rocket, or a meteor aiming to strike the earth.”
All of them watched the erratic course of the disabled aeroplane with the keenest interest. Indeed, the valiant pilot certainly deserved a great deal of praise for the way in which he manipulated his charge. At the same time the Taube was going to strike the earth with a severe blow.
“I wouldn’t like to be aboard that poor craft, let me tell you,” said Hanky Panky, as it neared the earth, not far back of the French front; “the people in it are going to get broken arms or legs, and the machine will be smashed in pieces.”
“Huh! they’ll call themselves lucky if it ends at that,” snorted Josh; “some men would have their necks or backs broken; but these German aviators are a tough lot, I’ve heard, and can stand a heap of pounding.”
Even as they looked the wrecked Taube struck the ground. Some soldiers had hastened in that direction, and were on the spot almost as soon as the disabled German machine landed. They could be seen moving about amidst the wreckage of the aeroplane. Then they appeared carrying something in their midst.
“They’ve picked up the occupants of the fallen Taube,” said Rod, “and from the way they carry them the poor chaps must be badly hurt. Yes, there they’ve stopped that ambulance coming from the front, and are getting the wounded birdmen aboard. The French admire bravery, even in a mortal foe, and you can be sure that those gallant fellows will receive just as good care as if they were their own men.”
He again started to move forward. The field hospital was now close at hand, and they could expect to be within its borders in a few minutes more.
Hanky Panky nerved himself for the terrible ordeal he knew was before him. Both the other lads also shut their lips firmly, so that they might endure the gruesome sights without feeling faint; for they were not accustomed to such things, and but boys after all.