But he was game, you bet!"
"Where is he then?"
"Cold and stiff under my feet. Watch out, Orry!"
Megaphones cast aside, both Americans now addressed themselves to the
desperate task of fighting these new assailants and reaching their own
lines.
But in the first firing that ensued Erwin's Lewis gun suddenly jammed.
This was probably one result of his having to use the German-made
ammunition tossed to him earlier by Blaine, when his own had been
exhausted. He signaled to his partner:
"Gun jammed! Must cut for home -- understand?"
"All right! Go up - up -"
A burst of flame from Blaine's machine, and the toppling down of the
nearest adversary was the first result of this new encounter.
Evidently that flag waving from Blaine's captured plane had fooled the
Boches again.
Down, down went the hostile machine, its pilot frantically but
ineffectually trying to right himself.
Passing Erwin, the latter saw the Boche, evidently a mere lad, working
at the controls as the plane dropped down like a dead leaf in the air.
"Poor fellow," sighed Orris, beginning to spiral upward. "What a
deadly cruel thing war now is!"
Up, up he climbed, two of the enemy following, while Blaine was
engaging another, the last. The final view Erwin had of his bunkie the
two were engaged in a close duel, dipping, darting, flashing about each
other. Now came interchanging machine gun fire, with both gradually
following Erwin higher, higher, until the latter began to feel that the
thin air of these upper regions was getting on his nerves.
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