CHAPTER XX.
CAUGHT IN A SNOW SQUALL.
"Oh! they did it after all!" Pudge cried out as they saw the recklessBritish birdmen in the seaplane start to run the gantlet of gunfirepreparatory to rising once more to a safe height.
That was about the feeling of relief that seized upon them all. The deedhad been so wonderfully daring that Frank and his two chums would havecheered its successful culmination no matter whether a Frenchman, aBritisher or a German had piloted the aircraft that carried it out--itwas the _men_ they applauded, not their nationality.
"How long is this terrible bombardment going to keep up, do you think,Frank?" asked Billy, for it seemed to him he had been gazing on theastounding picture for an hour, so many things had followed fast on eachother's heels.
"I expect that was the crowning stroke," replied Frank, making himselfheard only with some difficulty, owing to the clamor all around themfrom bursting shrapnel, accompanied by the duller sounds coming up fromthe distant earth.
"Then the aviators are getting low in their stock of ammunition,"affirmed the observant Billy, "because I can see lots of things they'dstill like to smash."
"Most of them have already stopped throwing bombs," Pudge declared."That looks as if they'd reached the end of their resources."
"Yes," added Frank, "there goes a signal from the chief, and it mustmean the time has come to start on the return journey."
Even the seaplane that had undertaken the perilous task of dropping downso as to make a sure job of blowing up the magazine had by now managedto climb to the level of the other fliers. A general movement wasnoticed, heading toward the south, and which must have been observedwith great satisfaction by the sadly harassed defenders of Zeebrugge,who could now proceed to count up damages.
"It's been a wonderful trip for us," remarked Billy, as they againsoared above the fleet, and kept up "without half trying," as he himselfwould have said.
"The greatest thing about it, according to my mind!" Pudge declared, "isthat not a single plane was brought down with all that firing. Why, evenup where we were I heard a queer singing noise several times, that musthave been made by parts of the bursting shrapnel shells. They're filledchock full of bullets and all that sort of thing, I understand. Howabout that, Frank?"
"Yes," the pilot told him, "as far as I know what is called shrapnelto-day is pretty much the same as grape and canister used to be in thetime of our Civil War. It scatters in every direction, but is driven nowby a much more powerful explosive than in the old days when gunpowderalone was used."
"Now that you mention it, Pudge," said Billy, "I heard some of thosewhining noises myself. It must have been our swift movements that keptus from being struck; and that's what makes it so hard for ground gunsto fetch an aeroplane down."
"Yes," Frank continued, "anyone who has tried to stop a duck speedingpast at the rate of seventy miles an hour knows what small chances hehas to wing the quacker. It takes nice judgment and a quick eye to doit."
"So our excursion with the air raiders is all over, is it?" Billy asked,with a tinge of regret in his tone; for being engaged in the building ofaeroplanes he naturally took the keenest interest in seeing such a fleetof the aircraft in action.
"I was thinking of making a proposition to M. Le Grande here," venturedFrank, without, however, taking his attention from his levers.
The experienced French aviator had been observing everything thatoccurred with almost breathless interest. He had clapped his handsenthusiastically and cried "bravo! bravo!" when the bold British birdmenmade that death dip, and succeeded in blowing up the magazine, takingterrible risks of perishing themselves when the air waves caused theirmachine to dance madly.
At hearing Frank say this he showed a keen interest in the possibilityof something new developing that had not been on the program.
"I should be pleased to hear what it is, young m'sieu," he now hastenedto say.
"Since the raid is over with," Frank commenced, "and the fleet bound forDunkirk and Calais, where we understand the tired pilots will rest a fewdays before returning across the Channel, how would you like to have metake you out over the battle lines as we saw them yesterday?"
Pudge showed uncommon interest immediately. He had heard so much aboutthe astonishing sights witnessed on that occasion by his two chums thatit would always be a source of bitter regret to him should he have noopportunity to see the war picture for himself.
The Frenchman did not let a second go by, such was his eagerness toaccept the proposition advanced by Frank.
"That is charming of you, I must say, young m'sieu," he declaredenthusiastically. "If you would be so kind it would place me under heavyobligations. To see how your wonderful _Sea Eagle_ can act under new andnovel conditions would complete my day, the most memorable of all myexperiences, and they have been many, I assure you, messieurs."
"Then there is really no need of our going down the coast any further,"Frank explained. "We might as well make a sharp turn to the east here,and say good-by to our gallant companions."
As they did this, the action was noted by many of the speeding airmen;and while they could only guess at the object of the change, this didnot interfere with their calling out and waving to the boys.
Looking back, Billy and Pudge could see the flock growing smaller in thedistance as they scurried along like a covey of partridges. Well hadthey done their duty for the homeland on that day, and their hearts werebeating proudly as they could see, in imagination, their names on theRoll of Honor for Britain's sons.
Then Billy and Pudge tried to forget all about the late raid, for theyknew they would have plenty of excitement to the square inch with whatlay before them.
Just below where they broke away from the fleet of birdmen lay Ostend,basking in the February sunshine. It may have been fairly comfortabledown there, but it was pretty cold half a mile up in the air, and theboys had reason to be thankful for their warm clothing and head hoods.
Attention was now called to the land over which they had commenced tofly, leaving the coast line behind. The Frenchman and Pudge inparticular were observing everything with undisguised eagerness. Whilethe experienced aviator had doubtless taken many a trip himself overjust such a landscape, the conditions had never been just the same asthey were now. As for Pudge, this was his baptism of fire in a seaplane,and as far as he had gone he rather liked it.
The great checkerboard lay below them. A hundred different phases of thelandscape engaged their attention. They could see villages, towns,railway lines, and even fortifications that may have been erected by theGerman invaders in order to defend some monster gun that was aimedseaward, so as to give trouble to men-o'-war passing along the Belgiancoast.
Billy and Pudge kept up a running fire of comment. Dozens of things wereconstantly attracting attention which had to be pointed out. Frank wasnot trying to make any great speed since there was no need of haste.
When they felt that they had gone far enough, and the spirit moved them,he changed the course, and they once more struck for Dunkirk on theFrench coast.
"No Taubes in sight yet, I notice?" Billy cried out gleefully; for heremembered how those German aeroplanes had risen like a swarm of angryhornets on the occasion of their previous visit.
"The news of the great raid must have been wired all over the countrybefore now," Frank explained. "Orders may have been given to keep alltheir Zeppelins and other aircraft housed until the danger is over."
"Can you blame them?" laughed Billy. "They heard that as many as fiftyseaplanes--for things are always stretched, you know, in thetelling--were chasing up and down their coast, smashing everything topieces. They therefore would wait and then raid the Allies' quarterswith a vengeance."
"Yes," added Pudge, "and right now I warrant you many a pair of fieldglasses is turned up this way, and all sorts of guesses are made aboutwhat sort of queer craft is whizzing over them. If your Government getsthis seaplane, Mister Le Gr
ande, and makes a bunch of them from thesample, you'll give the enemy cold feet right away."
"It is a wonderful machine, I am ready to declare; superb, beyondanything that I had ever dreamed could be made. I have only praise, Iassure you," was what the Frenchman told them in his explosive way.
"I guess that settles the business then," remarked Pudge to Billy,meaning that the report made by the aviator must convince the FrenchGovernment it was greatly to their interest to conclude the bargain withthe _Sea Eagle Company, Ltd._, as originally entered into, for thedelivery of this sample seaplane, and the privilege of making as manyothers, on royalty, as they chose within a given time.
This would be the only way of settling the matter, since no machinescould be shipped from America without a breach of neutrality, as theGovernment at Washington had recently declared.
The sea had now been left far behind, and Frank was veering their coursesomewhat toward the southeast, as though he meant to cover a differentfield from the first land journey.
Billy noticed this, and asked questions in order to settle matters inhis own mind.
"I reckon now, Frank," he began, "you've got some plan up your sleeve tomake a wide circuit and see something of what's going on down along theborder of France? How about it?"
"We're covering a strip of Belgium right now," said the pilot, "and youcan see the unfinished canal used by the Kaiser's troops as trenches,besides all sorts of other sights where the water has flooded thelowlands when the dikes were cut in the fall by the Belgians. Now wemight like to take a peep at Lille, and see what is going on in adifferent kind of country--where there are hills and valleys."
"That would be fine!" exclaimed Pudge, thinking only of the wonderfulpictures that would be spread out beneath them as they sailed over justbelow the occasional fleecy clouds.
"Of course it would be more dangerous work," Frank hastened to tellthem.
"You mean we would be shot at by batteries on the hilltops, don't you,Frank?" Billy questioned.
"Partly that," he was told, "and also from the treacherouscross-currents of air we would be apt to strike in such a hilly country.You never know when you may hit an air pocket, a vacuum in which dangerlies for the aeroplane that is loafing, since it is apt to drop like aplummet. But we'll have to risk all those things. If we come through allright, we'll consider that we were well rewarded."
"Here's another of those nasty snow squalls heading this way, Frank!"burst out Pudge. "That makes the sixth we've struck. Say, let me tellyou this one looks like business, too, it spreads out so wide."
"Isn't there any way to avoid it, Frank--by climbing up higher, forinstance?" demanded Billy, as he drew his hood closer around his cheeks,and made ready to "take his medicine," as he called it.
"Too late to try that now," Frank told him. "All we can do is to holdtight, and keep pressing straight along. We'll hope it isn't so very biga cloud. Steady now, everybody!"
"Do your prettiest, old _Sea Eagle_," Pudge was heard to call out as thebeginning of the snow squall struck them. Ten seconds later they wereshrouded as in a white pall by the scurrying flakes, urged on by a windthat made the seaplane rock and dance in alarming manner.