"If he wasn't he'd turn and run."
"How soon shall we open fire?"
"I don't know yet; he's two miles away now, anyway."
Speeding through the sky the two great mechanical birds rushed at each other. With jaw set and a cool calculating eye Jacques sat in the pilot's seat and directed the course of his flier. Earl and Leon held the machine-gun ready for instant action.
"We're almost over the battle-line," announced Earl suddenly. "I can see the trenches below."
"Never mind them," exclaimed Leon. "Watch that machine."
"He's smaller than we are," said Earl.
"There are only two men in it too," added Leon.
"Get ready," ordered Jacques suddenly.
As the two machines approached each other Jacques all at once elevated his front plane and the big French flier rose swiftly higher and higher. The opponents were scarcely a half-mile apart now and as the monoplane in which the three young soldiers of France were seated rose above its adversary Leon and Earl opened fire with the machine-gun.