get above him. He would then be attheir mercy, for he could not fire vertically, while the gun of theMohawk was specially constructed so as to be able to fire downwardsthrough a trap which opened in the flooring. If they could get what inthe air corresponded to the "weather gauge" at sea, they would have themarauder at their mercy if the Mohawk had speed enough to hold him.Could they do it?
Plainly the fugitive saw his danger. As Yvette shot upward he must haverealised that in speed of climbing he was no match for his antagonist.He decided to trust to his heels.
Yvette, climbing rapidly, had got a couple of thousand feet above thestranger and was heading to meet him. They were now twelve thousandfeet in the air.
Suddenly, with a tremendous nose dive, the foreign aeroplane slippedbelow them. The manoeuvre was so smartly carried out that Yvette wascompletely taken by surprise, and before she could recover herself thechance of bringing the stranger to battle had gone. He had passed fivethousand feet below them, and the issue now depended upon speed andendurance.
With a cry of disappointment, Yvette swung the Mohawk round in pursuit.Their quarry, by his daring manoeuvre, had gained a couple of milesbefore she could turn, and was fast disappearing towards the sea.
Dick shook his head. He had seen the speed of which the fugitive wascapable, and he had the gravest doubts whether the Mohawk could equalit.
Waiting for the strange aeroplane, Yvette had set the Mohawk to acomparatively slow pace. She had misjudged the distance and her errorhad enabled the raider to get a more than useful--possibly a decisive--lead.
But even as she swung round she had pressed the accelerator and theMohawk quivered as the big twin engines began to work up to theirmaximum. Watching keenly, Dick saw the apparent rush away of theforeigner slacken and finally stop. They were at least holding theirown. He signalled Yvette for more speed. She shook her head.
Dick was in despair. The pace at which they were going was not enough.He thought it was their best. But he had not calculated on Yvette'sresourcefulness.
The French girl had swiftly made up her mind. She knew they had plentyof petrol for several hours' flight. They were holding their ownalready in the matter of speed, and the Mohawk, though Dick did not knowit, had still some knots in reserve. Yvette would not jeopardise theengines by instantly pushing them to the limit.
But they were "warming up" under her skilful handling. They were twomiles behind as they passed over Bournemouth and started the long flightto the French coast which the stranger was seeking.
Half an hour slipped by and Dick suddenly realised that the Mohawk wasgaining, slowly, it was true, but unmistakably. He looked inquiringlyat Yvette, who nodded and smiled.
"All right, Dick," she shouted. "We can get them any time we want."
Dick realised her plan. His own thought, as a fighting man, would havebeen to close at once and have it out. But Yvette had the radium inmind. If they smashed the stranger over the sea the priceless radiumwould inevitably be lost.
With the Mohawk gradually gaining, the chase drew near to the Frenchcoast. Cherbourg loomed ahead of them, drew near, and disappearedbeneath them. They were over France.
Instantly Yvette began to coax the Mohawk to do its best. Splendidlythe engines responded, the plane shot forward at a pace which surprisedDick, and a few minutes later they were directly above the fugitive.The battle was all but won. In vain their quarry sought, by diving andtwisting, to shake them off. His position was hopeless.
Seeing a good landing-place ahead Dick fired a couple of shots as asignal. They could see the terrified face of the passenger in the planebelow gazing upward at the strange shape of the Mohawk above them.
Then the signal of surrender came, and the fugitive dipped earthward. Acouple of minutes later it came to land, and the two occupants stoodholding up their hands while the Mohawk came gently to earth fifty yardsaway, dropping vertically from the sky in a fashion which caused thepilot of the foreign machine the wildest astonishment.
The radium was saved! But it enacted a fearful revenge. Theunfortunate passenger, who they found out later was a well-known Spanishanarchist, had imprudently placed the two tubes in his pocket,apparently ignorant of their terrible power. Even in the short time hehad them in his possession he was so terribly burned that he died acouple of days later in spite of the efforts made to save him, while thepilot, who had, of course, been near enough to the tubes to get some ofthe effects, was also so seriously injured that for weeks his life hungin the balance. It was found impossible to remove the tubes to Englanduntil Professor Fortescue, overjoyed at the good news, came bringing theleaden safe into which the precious tubes were placed.
The sequel came a week later. Not even the British War Office couldignore the fact that the Mohawk, single-handed, had achieved a feat atwhich the British Air Force had signally failed. A highly placedofficial sought Dick out. The result was that the plans of the Mohawkwere sold jointly to England and France at the price of one hundredthousand pounds.
And Regnier lost his "star" combination. Dick had no longer before hiseyes the fear that had haunted him for so long that in marrying Yvettehe would be condemning her to a life of comparative poverty. And so thecompanionship born amid the stress and tumult of war came at last toperfect fruition in the marriage between the two lovers which took placein Paris just three months after their last air adventure.
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The End.
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