CHAPTER VI.
UNDER SHRAPNEL FIRE.
"Have we anything to eat along with us, Frank?"
"Why, hello! are you awake, Billy? I was just thinking of calling you,or sending a bell hop up to pound on your door. It's morning, you see."
"Yes, I noticed that light over there in the east, and was thinking howthe poor fellows in the trenches must feel when they see it creeping on,knowing as they do that it means another day of hard work and fighting.But how about my question, Frank? Did we think to fetch that pouch ofship-biscuit along with us?"
"Yes, it's tied just back of you," the other informed him with a laugh."But I'm surprised to hear you so keen for a bite, Billy. If it had beenPudge, now, I wouldn't have thought so much about it, because he'salways ready for six meals a day."
"I don't know what ails me," acknowledged the other, as he reached forthe little waterproof bag in which Frank always tried to keep a pound orso of hardtack, with some cheese as well, to provide for any emergencylike the present, "it may be this sea air, or perhaps it's due to theexcitement we've gone through; but I'm as hungry as a wolf in winter."
"Perhaps I may take your appetite away then," suggested Frank, with achuckle.
"In what way?" demanded Billy, with a round ship biscuit halfway to hismouth.
"Oh! by making a stunning proposition I've been considering while I sathere, that's all."
"Gee! it takes you to think up things, Frank. Now, as for me, I've beenbadgering my poor brains about how we would astonish the people ofDunkirk when we came sailing into the harbor and made for our hangar.There'd be as much excitement as if a dozen of those little Taubeaeroplanes of the Germans had hove in sight, just as they did on thatday of the last air raid. Now tell me what the game is, please, Frank."
"Suppose, then, we weren't in such a big hurry to go back to ourmoorings?" said the other. "Suppose, that having broken away, we tookthat trial spin we've always been promising ourselves when things wereready!"
Billy became so excited that he actually forgot to eat.
"Wow! that's a brilliant scheme, Frank, let me tell you!" he exclaimed."Say, for a wonder, all the conditions favor aeroplane work. The windthat has kept up during the last three days seems to have blown itselfout, and we're likely to have a quiet spell. They'll be on the watch foranother raid of those Taubes from up Antwerp way on such a calm day asthis. Frank, shall we try it?"
"Wait for another half hour," replied the other. "By then it will bebroad daylight, and we can see what the signs promise. If things lookgood we'll start up and take a run to the northeast."
"Over the trenches, do you mean, and perhaps far into Belgium?" criedBilly, to whom the prospect of seeing something of the terrible fightingthat was daily taking place in the lowlands along the canal appealedwith irresistible force; for the old reporter spirit had never beenkilled when he gave up newspaper work for aeroplane building.
"We'll see how the land lies," was all Frank would say. Billy knew verywell the other was bound to be just as keenly interested in the warlikescenes below them as he could be, hence he was willing to check hisimpatience, leaving everything to Frank.
Both of them munched away on the ship-biscuit and cheese. It was prettydry fare, but then there was a bottle of water at hand if they feltchoking at any time.
The half hour passed and they could see from the growing light in theeastern sky that the sun would soon be making its appearance. Aroundthem there was nothing but an endless succession of rollers, upon whichthe buoyant seaplane rose and fell with a continual gurgling sound.
"If this low-hanging fog would only lift," remarked Billy, as he putaway the hardtack bags, "we could tell just where we were. As it is,there's no such thing as seeing land, which must be over there to theeast."
"The sea fog is rising and will disappear as soon as the breeze comes,"Frank observed sagaciously. "By then we want to be several thousand feetup, and taking a look through the glasses at the picture we'll havespread out below us."
"Let's start now," suggested Billy. "I'm wild to see what the country upacross the border of Belgium looks like. To think of us being able toglimpse all the German defenses as we go sailing over so smoothly."
Frank laughed.
"You are counting your chickens again before they're hatched, Billy, anold failing of yours. It may not be the smooth sailing you think.Remember that the Germans are always ready-primed with their wonderfulanti-aeroplane guns for hostile raiders. We may have a dozen Taubes,too, buzzing after us, or find ourselves chased into the clouds by a bigZeppelin."
If Frank thought to alarm Billy by saying this, he immediately saw thathe had failed to shake the other's nerve.
"Gee! that would make it interesting, for a fact!" the other exclaimed,his face beaming with eagerness. "Frank, you can take my word for it, noTaube, or Zeppelin either, for that matter, can catch up with our goodold _Sea Eagle_, once you crack on all of her two thousand revolutions aminute with both motors. They haven't got a thing over on this side ofthe big pond that is in the same class with Doctor Perkins's invention."
"I think you're pretty near right there, Billy," said the pilot, as heproceeded to press the button that would start things humming.
Immediately they were beginning to move along on the surface, thepeculiar spoon-shaped bow preventing the water from coming aboard.Faster went the huge seaplane as Frank gave increased power, until whenhe tilted the ascending rudder they left the water just as a frightenedduck does after attaining sufficient momentum.
"Hurrah!" exclaimed the delighted Billy, as soon as he realized, fromthe change in motion, that they no longer rested on the water, but werecleaving the air.
Mounting in spirals, as usual, the two boys soon began to have asplendid view, not only of the sea, but of the nearby land as well.
"Oh! look, Frank, over there in the west; those must be the famous whitechalk cliffs of Dover across the channel we see. To think that we arelooking down at France, and even Belgium, and on England at the sametime."
"That's about where the Kaiser is aiming to throw those monster shellsfrom his big forty-two centimeter guns, after he has captured Calais,you know," remarked Frank.
"I guess that dream's been smashed by now, and there's nothing in it,"Billy was saying. "Not that the Germans didn't try mighty hard to getthere, and tens of thousands of their brave fellows gave up their livesto carry out a whim of the commander, which might not have amounted tomuch, after all. Oh! Frank, with the glass here I can see our hangar aseasy as anything."
"That's good, Billy. I was just going to ask you to look and see ifthose disappointed spies had done anything to it. I'm glad to hear yousay it's still there in good shape. I expect we'll have more or lessneed of that shed from time to time."
"Well, we don't mean to spend many nights paddling around on the sea,"affirmed Billy, now beginning to turn his glass upon the country theywere approaching, and which lay to the north of Dunkirk.
Frank had changed their course so that they were now over the land. Theycould easily see the camps of the British troops, though they were sofar above them that moving companies looked like marching ants. Thetents could not be concealed, and there were besides numerous low sheds,which doubtless sheltered supplies of every description, needed by thearmy fighting in the trenches further north.
As Frank drew more upon the motors that were keeping up a noisy chorus,the huge seaplane rushed through the air and gave them a change oflandscape every little while.
The sun was in plain sight, although just beginning to touch thingsbelow with golden fingers. Covering land and water, they could see overa radius that must have been far more than fifty miles.
Billy kept uttering exclamations, intended to express the rapture thatfilled his breast. In all his experience he had never gazed uponanything to compare with what he now saw spread out below him as thoughupon a monster checkerboard. African wilds, Western deserts and Polarregions of eternal
ice were all dwarfed in interest by this spectacle.
Again and again did he call the attention of his chum to certainfeatures of the wonderful picture that especially appealed to him. Nowit was the snakelike movements of what appeared to be a new army headingtoward the front, accompanied by a long line of big guns that were drawnby traction engines. Then the irregular line of what he made out to bethe opposing trenches riveted his attention. He was thrilled when heactually saw a rush made by an attacking party of Germans, to be metwith volleys that must have sadly decimated their ranks, for as Billygazed with bated breath he saw the remnant of the gallant band reel backand vanish amidst their own trenches.
"Am I awake, Frank, or asleep and dreaming all this?" Billy exclaimed,as he handed the glasses to his chum.
This Frank could readily do because they were running along as smoothlyas velvet, and long habit had made him perfectly at home in handling theworking parts of the seaplane.
"I wonder what they think of us?" wondered Billy. "You may be sure thatevery field glass and pair of binoculars they own is leveled at us rightnow. They must think the French or the British have sprung one on them,to beat out their old Zeppelins at the raiding business! Oh! wouldn't Igive something to be close enough to the commanding general to see thelook on his face."
Frank was looking for something else just then. Although they wereflying at such a great height, he fancied that the present securitywould hardly last. The Germans were only waiting until they had gone ona certain distance; then probably a dozen of their hustling little Taubemachines would spring upward and chase after the singular stranger likea swarm of hornets, seeking to cut off escape, and hoping by some luckyshot to bring it down.
The barograph was in plain sight from where Frank sat, and perhaps thequick glance he gave at its readings just then had some connection withthis expectation of coming trouble.
Billy interpreted it otherwise. He was afraid Frank, thinking they hadgone far enough, was sweeping around to start back toward the Britishtrench line.
"Just a little further, Frank," pleaded Billy. "There's a big move onover yonder, seems like, where that army is coming along; and I'd liketo see enough to interest our good friend Major Nixon when we get back."
"I don't know whether I'll let you say a single word, Billy," the airpilot told him, as he relinquished the glasses to the eager one. "Thatwouldn't be acting neutral, you know. Besides, there are plenty of theAllies' machines able to fly, and those airmen like Graham-White oughtto be able to pick up news of any big movement."
They could see patches of snow in places, and much water in others wherethe low country had been inundated by the Belgians. This was done inhopes of hastening the retreat of the invaders, who despite all hadstuck to their trenches and the unfinished canal for months, as thoughrooted there.
All at once there sounded a loud crash not far below the young airpilots, and a puff of white smoke told where a shrapnel shell had burst.
"Frank, they're firing at us!" exclaimed Billy, who had made aninvoluntary ducking movement with his head as the sharp discharge burstupon his ears.
Even as he spoke another, and still a third crash told that the Germanshad determined the time was at hand to try their anti-aeroplane guns onthe strange seaplane that was soaring above the camps.