Simon was at their side again. “No ammunition in the guns behind,” he said. “Got any in front?”
De Richleau shook his head. “None — I looked just after we started — but it would be useless in any case, we could not hope to fight a dozen ’planes, and there are more ahead. Rex, we must come down before we are shot down,” he added, as there came another burst of machine-gun fire.
Rex nodded. “Cursed luck; still, ‘while there’s life’. Let’s get out of the way of the rude man with the squirt.” The machine dived suddenly, and it was none too soon; the quick stutter had started again, and the first three bullets pinged through the wing.
Marie Lou was sitting in the cabin where Simon had pulled her when he had first sighted the enemy ’planes. He spoke to her now, quickly, urgently: “Look here, nobody knows you’re with us — it’s us they’re after, not you. When we land you must run for it.”
“Where can I go?” she protested. “It is terrible, this — that we should all be caught at last.”
“Anywhere’s better than prison,” Simon insisted, “and I want you to go to Moscow, as fast as you can — that is, if you get away. Here, take this.” While he was talking he had unbuttoned his coat and torn the ikon that Valeria Petrovna had given him from his neck. He thrust it into her hand and struggled along to the front of the cabin again. “Where shall we be near when we land?” he asked the Duke.
“Kiev,” said De Richleau, promptly. “I can see the spires in the distance and the two great rivers.”
“Right — give me your money, quick.”
“Why?” asked the astonished Duke.
“Give it to me; they’d take it off us, anyhow.” As he spoke Simon peered out. The tiny squares of the fields below them were increasing in size every moment — the earth seemed to be rushing up to meet them. He shouted in Rex’s ear: “Land near that village to the right — near the trees, if you can.”