His watch, having an illuminated dial, indicated that the
time was about ten o'clock. In his rear the darkness was more dense
than ahead. Probably his plane had dropped just in the edge of that
open space he thought he had dimly seen while up in the air.
While looking over his machine as best he could to see if there was any
chance to tinker it up so as to make another flight, he stopped short,
his pulse leaping. Then he stood motionless.
"What was that?" he kept thinking, keeping as quiet as possible.
After a lengthy interval he heard rustling amid the trees near by, then
a subdued crashing limbs, then an unintelligible moan or groan. After
that came a heavy shock as if something or some one had struck the
earth.
"I must look into this," he reflected, listening now also for any other
sounds of human presence. But all was still near by. Back west there
came the dying echoes of the recent scrimmage with the raiders. Hans,
having gotten the worst end that deal, seemed to have subsided.
"Fritzy is preparing to look into things. He must know that some of us
were knocked out. Doubtless he is getting ready for a more thorough
look around."
Without formulating any definite plan, Blaine headed towards where the
last sounds of some thing or some one falling had come from. To the
left came the far rumble of trains crawling forward on one of the many
side lines used by the Huns for war transportation.
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