A glance at
his own register showed eighteen thousand feet or thereabouts.
Still his adversaries climbed after him. Now and then a spurt of flame
and a spatter of bullets indicated that his own plane was being more or
less perforated. The lad became doubtful as to the wisdom of waiting
longer for his comrade. Evidently Blaine would fight on as long as his
ammunition lasted or until disabled himself. After all, two hostile
planes dropped and the third one brought home with its occupant was not
a bad conclusion for a night's bombing raid on the enemy trenches.
Here a sudden, fierce gust of wind from the north catching him unawares
half tilted his machine and then as he righted it sent him scurrying at
terrific speed southward. At the same time a black cloud, belching and
flaming thunder and lightning, swept down on him with almost the force
of a hurricane.
CHAPTER IV
WINNING PROMOTIONS
Looking back, Orris saw his nearest foe, apparently caught by the same
whirlwind that had nearly unseated him, go side-looping over and over
as if in the grasp of mighty, invisible forces that he was unable to
meet or control.
"It's safety first, I guess, for us all," he thought, at once diving
into the nearing thunder burst that closed round him like a black pall,
a pall now threaded and convulsed with electric forces that showed only
in vivid flashes and deafening thunders.
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