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THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS
OR
A WILD DASH OVER THE CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS
By CLAIR W. HAYES
AUTHOR OF
"The Boy Allies at Liege" "The Boy Allies On the Firing Line" "The Boy Allies In the Trenches"
A. L. BURT COMPANY
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1915
By A. L. Burt Company
The Boy Allies with the Cossacks
ALEXIS--FROM HIS CANTEEN POURED WATER OVER THE LAD'SFACE. _Page 203._ _The Boy Allies With the Cossacks_.]
THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS.
CHAPTER I.
FLYING.
"What's that below, Hal?"
The speaker was Chester Crawford, an American lad of some 16 years.
Hal Paine allowed his eyes to turn from the steering wheel and glancedover the side of the flying aeroplane.
"I don't see anything," he replied, after a careful scrutiny below.
"Neither do I, now," said Chester, straining his eyes.
At this moment the third occupant of the machine made his presenceknown.
"Woof! Woof!" he exclaimed.
The third speaker was Marquis, a dog.
"Woof! Woof!" he barked again.
Hal, with a quick move, slackened the speed of the aeroplane, and let itglide gently closer to the earth.
"Must be something wrong," he confided to Chester, "or Marquis wouldn'tbe barking like that."
Both lads peered into the darkness that engulfed them on all sides. Asfar as the eye could penetrate there was nothing but blackness, solid,intense.
"Let's go a little lower, Hal," whispered Chester.
Under Hal's firm hand the aeroplane came down gently, until at last itwas soaring close to the treetops. And now, suddenly, both lads made outthe cause of Marquis's uneasiness.
Beneath them were thousands upon thousands of armed men. To the north,to the south, and to the east and west the dense mass of humanitystretched out. Hal and Chester, flying close to the earth, at last couldmake out moving forms below them.
Suddenly it became light. Not broad daylight, but the darkness gave wayenough for the lads to distinguish what lay below them. The dawn ofanother day was breaking.
At the same instant that the lads made out the huge mass of humanityupon the ground their presence in the air was discovered. There came thesound of a single shot and the whiz of a bullet, as it sped close toHal's ear.
With a quick movement the lad sent the plane soaring high in the aironce more. So sudden was the movement that Chester, caught unprepared,lost his balance, and saved himself from tumbling to the ground only byclutching the side of the machine. Marquis also had a narrow escape frombeing thrown out. He let out a loud yelp of fear, as he was thrownviolently against Chester. The lad threw out a hand and grabbed him bythe scruff of the neck, just as it seemed he would plunge to certaindestruction.
"Say!" he called to Hal, when he finally regained his breath and hishead. "What's the matter with you? You almost dumped us both out."
"Did I?" replied Hal briefly. "Well, as long as you didn't fall it's allright. We had to come up suddenly, or the chances were we would havegone down suddenly. But it's my fault. I should have given you warning.Are you hurt?"
"No," replied Chester.
"I'll be careful next time," said Hal. "You'll have to forgive me thisonce."
"Say no more about it," answered Chester. "But what was the cause ofthis sudden rise?"
"Cause!" repeated Hal in astonishment. "You don't mean to tell me youdon't know the cause? Didn't you hear that shot?"
"Yes, I heard it. But how do you know whether it was fired by friend orfoe?"
"I can't see as that would make any difference if it happened to hit us.However, I'm morally certain they were Germans."
"Well, maybe they were. What are we going to do now?"
"We'll stay up here until we are absolutely certain we have passed overthe German lines. Then we'll come down."
The machine was high in the air now, and, peering intently over theside, as he did, Chester was unable to make out anything below in theearly morning light.
But in the rear, soaring high in the air, although neither lad realizedit, a new danger threatened. When the presence of the boys' plane hadbeen discovered, a German craft had immediately risen, and was now inpursuit.
Glancing over his shoulder, Chester was the first to discover that theywere followed. At the same moment that he perceived the pursuing machinethere came a shot from the enemy.
There was no need for Chester to cry out to Hal. The sound of the shottold the latter of their danger, and he immediately threw the speedlever over as far as it would go.
The machine bounded forward.
But the pursuer also came on faster than before; and, while it wasapparent that he was not lessening the distance between the two craft,he nevertheless was still in range, and his rifle continued to crack.However, neither the machine nor its three occupants were struck.
Chester took a snap shot at the other craft with his revolver, but thebullet fell short. While the enemy could pepper them at will with hisrifle, a bullet from the lad's revolver could not reach him.
Hal heard the sound of Chester's revolver, and called out:
"Did you hit him?"
"No!" Chester shouted back, "he's too far behind. But he'll get us in aminute if we don't do something." To himself he added: "If I only had arifle!"
"You be ready with your revolver," Hal called to his friend, "and I'llsoon fix that. It's our only chance."
Abruptly he slackened the speed of the machine, and swiftly the enemycame on. So suddenly had Hal acted that the man at the wheel of thepursuing machine could not act promptly enough, and was within range ofChester's revolver before he could slow down.
As the first machine righted after its abrupt halt, Chester tookdeliberate aim and fired, even at the moment that a bullet passed closeto his head.
There was a yell from the pursuing machine. A man leaped suddenly to hisfeet, shaking the frail craft violently as he did so, waved his armsonce, twice, and toppled into space.
"I got one of 'em," Chester shouted to Hal, and his lips shut grimly.
"Good for you!" Hal shouted back.
Even Marquis realized that it was time to be pleased, and he sent up asharp bark of joy. His canine intelligence told him that something thatthreatened had been overcome.
But the man at the wheel of the German aeroplane, now that he was alone,was not minded to give up the chase. The machine darted at the boys'craft suddenly, and, but for the fact that Hal at that very momenthappened to glance over his shoulder, the sharp-pointed prow of theGerman craft would have cut them down.
With a sudden twist of the wheel, however, Hal sent the machine out ofthe path of the German, and, as the enemy sped by, Chester took a snapshot with his revolver.
Evidently he missed, for the German checked his plane and returned tothe attack.
"So," said Hal to himself, "two can play at that game."
Once more he avoided the German rush; and then, wheeling his own craftat the moment the German sped by, he dashed in pursuit. The enemy, doingthe work of two men, did not perceive this change in tactics by hisfoes, and, even as he slowed down to turn and make another attack, thepoint of the lad's machine plowed into him.
There was a ripping, tearing sound; the German plane wavered and startedto fall as the craft in which the boys were flyi
ng dashed by. But, by asuperhuman effort, the German succeeded in righting his craft.
Then, holding the wheel steady with one hand, he calmly produced arevolver and took deliberate aim at Hal.
There was a sharp crack, followed immediately by another, but Hal wasunharmed.
Realizing the German's purpose, Chester's weapon had spoken a secondbefore that of the enemy. The lad had not had time to take careful aim,but the bullet sped true, striking the German squarely in the forehead,even at the moment his finger pressed the trigger of his own revolver.
Chester saw the man throw up his hands and fall backward. The Germanplane, now without a hand to keep it steady, rocked crazily for severalmoments, then turned turtle and went tumbling over and over toward theground.
"Did you get him, Chester?" asked Hal, who had not turned his head, andtherefore had not perceived his own danger.
"Yes, I got him," replied Chester simply.
"Good!" returned Hal. "And the machine?"
"Gone!"
The lads now paused to take stock of their own damage, if any. There wasnone. Not a German bullet had so much as struck the machine.
"They are not very good marksmen, are they?" said Hal, with a slightgrin.
"Doesn't look that way," returned Chester. "However, maybe those fellowsare not the best specimens."
"Maybe not," replied Hal.
"What next?" asked Chester, after a slight pause.
"Guess we might as well go on," replied Hal. "There may be some more ofthose German machines flying after us, so I guess it behooves us to getaway from here as soon as possible."
"I guess you are right," Chester acquiesced.
Once more the aeroplane straightened itself out on its course and,flying high--absolutely hidden from the ground by a dense mass of blackclouds that seemed to spring up as if by magic--sped on.
Hal, with firm hands on the wheel, kept his gaze directly ahead. Chestersettled himself comfortably in his seat again, and Marquis, aftersniffing about for several moments, finally composed himself to sleep.
In spite of the fact that he was flying far above ground, the dog hadnot shown a sign of nervousness or fright. Evidently he had no fear.Possibly through his head flashed the thought that if these young boyswho were caring for him had saved him once, it was no more than theywould do again.