However, when torrents of rain presently began thudding and splashing against him he realized that he must be approaching the lower surfaces. How earnestly he longed for the moment to come! Each blinding glare of lightning, each mighty peal of thunder still had a terrifying effect. He could not rid himself of an awful dread that the fates would, at last, decide against him.
Thus, when the Nieuport actually staggered through the last strata, the boy almost felt as if it was something scarcely to be believed. He could not realize that the most terrible part of the voyage was over and that as he had cheated the Germans in their prey so had he cheated the Storm King.
But dangers were not yet ended. All around him extended a curious expanse almost as obscure, almost as gloomy and murky as that through which he had just passed. And where was he to land? In what direction lay the encampment of the Lafayette Escadrille? Don was even in doubt as to whether he had gone beyond that devastated strip of territory—“No Man’s Land.”
“I reckon there’s nothing to do but trust to blind luck,” he murmured to himself. “Ah, old earth—good old earth—I never appreciated you so much before!”
Down, still further down glided the Nieuport, while the boy strove to pierce the enshrouding darkness.
At last the very faintest of blurs brought an exclamation of joy to his lips. But as the utmost caution was necessary in approaching the earth, he began to volplane at an angle less steep. It would be the easiest thing in the world, he knew, to smash the biplane in landing, and thus bring disaster at the journey’s end.
But still everything was too indistinguishable, too hidden by the rain and shadows for him to gain any idea of the nature of the terrain. All he could make out were faint and mottled grayish patches merging insensibly into one another.
A decision must soon be made. The gasoline was running dangerously low.
Still nearer the earth, like a storm-tossed gull, the Nieuport descended.
It was only a few hundred feet in the air when Don Hale made a discovery that brought a hoarse cry from his lips.