Closer yet he
flew, regardless of safety. His air tabulator was not working. That
was a sign that he was within two to three hundred feet of the earth.
All at once something flashed out from this moving mass that presently
disappeared underground again.
Archie had momentarily stopped. But an unmistakable whistle of lead
was accompanied by a metallic puncture below. The bullet hit the near
end of his petrol tank almost at his knee. Now he knew.
"Lordy!" he palpitated. "That's too near!" Already his fingers were
twisting the speed accelerator, while up went the nose of his machine.
Still the Archies spake not, but the spat, spat, spat of real rifle
bullets followed his retreat.
Just then his hand, feeling below, came in contact with the hand
grenades which he had forgotten amid the excitement of his later
flight. Ahead rose a swell of land that he knew terminated in a bluff
abutting upon one of the smaller streams of that region. This
underground trench, evidently dug at great cost of labor and life, went
straight for that bluff.
Their own aerodrome lay only a few miles opposite.
By actual and repeated reconnaissance both from below and in the air,
this bluff was considered as deserted, or held at most by a very small
force. This was owing to its supposed isolation.
Evidently Erwin had just made a great discovery. At least he hoped so.
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