CHAPTER VII.
THE "SEA EAGLE" ON PARADE.
"That means we'll have to climb higher, so that their guns can't reach!"Frank immediately decided.
It was indeed getting rather warm around them, Billy thought. Theshrapnel puffs seemed to be above, below, and on every side, and it wasa wonder that neither of them received a wound.
"Only for the speed we're hitting up, the story might be a whole lotdifferent, according to my notion, Frank. They have a hard job to getour range, you see."
"Yes, most of it bursts back of us, showing a faulty figuring," thepilot explained, as he started a corkscrew movement of the seaplanecalculated to cause the aircraft to bore upward in spirals.
The guns, far below, kept up a merry chorus. Billy could hear the faintnoise made by the continuous discharges, and the puffs of smoke thatseemed to rise in a score of places at the same time told him howeagerly the German gunners were trying to strike that elevated mark.
Now the shrapnel ceased to worry Billy, for he saw that none of itseemed to be bursting around them as before. The limits or range of theanti-aircraft guns had apparently been reached.
"We're safe from the iron rain up at this height, Frank. What does thebarometer say?" he asked, with that spirit of curiosity that had madehim a good reporter in the old days.
"That's too bad," replied Frank, as he bent forward to look.
"Don't tell me that the only fragment of a shell that's struck homeruined our fine barometer!" cried Billy.
"Just what happened," he was told. "At any rate, it's knocked toflinders; and I think I must have had a pretty close shave. But we canbuy a new one when we get back to Dunkirk. As near as I can give a roughguess we must be between three and four thousand feet high."
"I should say it was a lot more than that," Billy declared. "But so longas they can't reach us any longer, why dispute over a few thousandfeet?"
He thereupon once more started to make use of the glasses, and hadhardly settled them to his eyes than he gave a startled cry.
"Frank, they're coming up like a swarm of angry bees!" Billy exclaimed.
"Do you mean Taube aeroplanes, Billy?"
"Yes, I can see as many as six right now in different directions, andothers are going to follow, if looks count for anything. The word musthave been given to attack us."
"I'm not worrying any," Frank told him calmly. "In fact, I don't believethey'll try to tackle such a strange hybrid aircraft. They can see howdifferently constructed the _Sea Eagle_ is from all otherhydro-aeroplanes, and expect that we must mount at least onequick-firing gun."
"Then what are they climbing for, Frank? I can hear the buzz of theirpropellers right now, and let me tell you it sounds like 'strictlybusiness' to me!"
"They are meaning to get close enough to let the pilots see what kind ofa queer contrivance it is that's hanging over their camps," Frankcontinued in a reassuring manner. "When we choose to turn tail and clearout, there isn't one in the lot that can tag on after us."
"I know that, Frank, thanks to those wonderful motors, and the cleverconstruction of Dr. Perkins' model. But now here's new trouble loomingup ahead."
"I can see what you mean, Billy. Yes, that is a Zeppelin moving alongdown there, one of the older type, I should say, without having used theglasses."
"But surely it will make for us, Frank. A real Zeppelin wouldn't thinkof sheering off from any sort of aeroplane."
"Watch and see what happens," Billy was told, as Frank changed theircourse so as to head straight for the great dirigible that was floatingin space halfway between their present altitude and the earth that laythousands of feet below.
The firing had stopped. Probably the German gunners, having realized theutter futility of trying to reach the _Sea Eagle_ while it remained atsuch a dizzy height, were now watching to see what was about to takeplace. Many of them may have pinned great faith in the ability of theiraircraft to out-maneuver any similar fliers manipulated by the pilots ofthe Allies. They may even have expected to see a stern chase, with theirair fleet in hot pursuit of this remarkable stranger.
If this were really the case, those same observers were doomed to meetwith a bitter disappointment.
"Well, what does it look like now?" Frank asked presently, while hiscompanion continued to keep the glasses glued to his eyes as thoughfairly fascinated by all he saw.
"The Zeppelin has put on full steam, I should say, Frank," admittedBilly.
"Coming to attack us?" chuckled the other, though the motors werehumming at such a lively rate that Billy barely caught the words.
"Gee whillikins, I should say not!" he cried exultantly. "Why, they'reon the run, Frank, and going like hot cakes. I bet you that Zeppelinnever made faster time since the day it was launched. They act as thoughthey thought we wanted to get above them so as to bombard the bigdirigible with bombs."
"And that's just what they do fear," said Frank positively. "That's thegreatest weakness of those big dirigibles, they offer such a widesurface for being hit. While an ordinary shell might pass straightthrough, and only tear one of the many compartments, let a bomb bedropped from above, and explode on the gas bag, and the chances are theZeppelin would go to the scrap-heap."
"They're dropping down in a hurry!" declared Billy. "There, I can see agreat big shed off yonder, and it must be this that the dirigible isaiming to reach. We could, however, bombard the shed as easily, anddestroy it together with its contents. Frank, it makes me think of anostrich trying to hide its head in a little patch of grass or weeds, andbecause it can't see anything, believes itself completely hidden."
"Well, as we haven't even a gun along with us the Zeppelin is prettysafe from our attack," remarked Frank. "We've proved one thing by comingout to-day."
"I guess you mean that we've given the Germans something to puzzle theirwits over, eh, Frank? They know now that no matter what big yarns havebeen told about the new Yankee seaplane they tried to steal, it's alltrue, every single word of it."
Billy seemed to be quite merry over it. The fact that the dangerousZeppelin had fled in such wild haste, shunning an encounter, while thevicious little Taube aeroplanes darted about like angry hornets, yetalways kept a respectable distance away from the majestic soaring _SeaEagle_ was enough to make anyone feel satisfied.
"I admit that at first I was kind of shaky about defying the whole lot,but I've changed my mind some, Frank," he called out a minute later."Yes, the shoe is on the other foot now. They're afraid of us! Makes afellow puff out with pride. There's only one thing I feel sorry about."
"What might that be?" asked the other.
"If only Harry could have been along to enjoy this wonderful triumphwith us, or Dr. Perkins either. It would have completed our victory. Butfrom here I can see that army on the move as plain as anything. They'remeaning to make one of their terrible drives somewhere along the YserCanal, perhaps when that air raid comes off that we heard so much quiettalk about."
"Well, that raid may be held up a while," Frank told him. "They mustbelieve that French or British pilots are aboard the _Sea Eagle_ rightnow; and for all they know there are half a dozen just such big aircraftwaiting to engage their fleet if it hove in sight of Dunkirk or Calais."
"Every time we make a sweep around you can see the nearest Taube scuttleoff in a big hurry," ventured Billy. "Why, Frank, some of those machinesare carrying a quick-firer with them, but they've had orders not to takerisks. What would you do if they actually started to close in on us?"
Frank laughed as though that did not worry him very much.
"Why, there are several things we could do, Billy. In the first place wecan go higher with the _Sea Eagle_ than any of those flimsy Taubes woulddare to venture, though I'd hate to risk it in this bitter cold air."
"Yes, that's true, Frank, and like you I hope we will not have to climbany further. It isn't so bad in the summer, but excuse me from doing itnow. We would need two more coats on top of the ones w
e've got, andanother hood to keep our ears from being frozen stiff. What's the otheridea?"
"A straight run-away," explained Frank. "If I really saw that any ofthem meant business, I could crack on all speed until we were making theentire two thousand revolutions per minute. That would leave them farbehind."
"I should think so," admitted Billy, who had the greatest possible faithin the ability of the seaplane, as well as the cleverness of its youngpilot. "Once we got to going our prettiest and they would look as ifthey might be standing still. Who's afraid? Set 'em up in the otheralley!"
"I think I'll show them something to start them guessing," Frank wassaying a minute later. "They haven't yet seen what she can do underforced pressure."
"Let her out to the limit then," pleaded the passenger, who could neverexperience too much excitement.
So Frank began to turn on full speed, and the wonderful creation of Dr.Perkins' inventive brain was soon swooping along in a manner calculatedto make some of those who were staring through glasses far below gaspwith astonishment bordering on awe.
After all, Frank Chester was a boy, and must have felt a natural pridein being able to thus surprise the whole of the Kaiser's army with hisamazing new aircraft. He knew that tens of thousands of eyes must beriveted upon them at that particular moment, from the officers atHeadquarters to the mud-spattered and half frozen men concealed in theirregular trenches.
"See the Taubes giving us all the room they can, Frank!" cried Billy.
"Evidently they're not hankering after an engagement with the _SeaEagle_, Billy."
"They make me think of a flock of wild ducks on a lake when an eaglepoises on fluttering wings above them, picking out his dinner," Billywent on to say. "They scatter and dive and act half crazy; but nearlyevery time the eagle gets what he's after.
"Well, all we want is a clear road back over the way we came," the pilotpursued. "Fact is, we're not near so dangerous as we look. All we coulddo just now would be to ram a Zeppelin, and go down with it."
"But they don't know that, Frank, which is lucky for us!" declared hischum.
No doubt, Billy, in common with most other boys, must have learned atschool the familiar saying that "pride always goes before a fall." Hehad just been doing considerable boasting, and his heart was even thenswelling with the conviction that he and his chum were virtuallysnapping their fingers at the whole of the Kaiser's scattered army withevery enlisted man craning his neck in wonder.
Then came the sudden shock, all the more terrifying because so utterlyunexpected. It seemed to Billy that his very breath was taken away. Thejoyous buzz of the motors that had amounted to almost a shriek ceased asif by magic; and the _Sea Eagle_, shooting forward a bit under theimpetus of her great speed, quickly began to volplane toward the earth,thousands of feet below!