Our Pilots in the Air | Page 8

loose and they're having it. What must I do?"
Even while these thoughts were flashing, he was working. He dared not
turn to Blaine's relief. He did not know yet if the sheaf thrown him
would fit his own machine gun. But first he must dip, circle, come up
underneath and try his luck.
As has been said, Orry was no novice. He had flown at the front for
months as one of the Lafayette Escadrille. Before that he had worked
his way up in aerial mechanics in the United States and also here in
France.

Even while diving, circling, swirling in mid air, ten thousand feet up,
he was adjusting the new sheaf to his own gun. Happily it fitted.
That was a good sign, and pirouetting, not unlike an expert dancer
executing a new turn, he dove aside and came up fairly behind the
nearest Boche. Without hesitation he began to spray the enemy with a
shower of their own bullets. It was indeed lucky the new cartridges
fitted. It was merely one blunder committed by the extra efficient
Germans in converting British weapons to their own use.
Evidently the ammunition dealt out to the Death's Head Squadron was
of the best. It was intentionally so. Another proof of this lay in the fact
that the German plane thus attacked fell sideways, recovered, plunged
half staggering away, while a tiny spark of flame became visible to
Erwin as he sheered aside in the opposite direction and prepared for a
new onset from above by the second plane. So far as he could see, the
other plane was making for Blaine's machine that still flow the Death's
Head Flag. Yet it was acting strangely as seen from a distance by the
Boches, who might or might not be posted as to the strange change of
its ownership.
The second plane, rendered more cautious by the fate of the first, which
was now descending a mass of flames, began a series of divings,
wrigglings, and even nose dips, in its efforts to confuse Erwin and find
a good position from which to shower the daring invader with bullets.
On his own part Orris went through the usual maneuvers customary
when two airmen, both skillful, are seeking the advantage of the other.
Well it was for the young man that his own Bleriot was one of the best
of the up-to-date fighting planes.
Numerous shots were taken on both sides, and in the excitement f or
the moment Orris lost all sight of the fate of his partner. At last, in
trying by a desperate and perilous maneuver, to "get on the tail" of his
adversary by a side-loop in mid-flight, the Boche pilot, while upside
down, came for an instant fairly within range. Quickly Orris took his
advantage.

He was above and to the right of the German, and with a single whirl of
his Lewis gun brought it fully in line with the Boche's head as he sat
head down, strapped in his seat, while his machine was swiftly turning
in its side evolution so as to bring him in the rear of his enemy.
"Now!" gasped Orris, beginning his bullet spray. "Help me, Mars!"
A queer prayer, but it was quickly answered. The German machine
righted more slowly, however. Erwin dove swiftly down and came
upright in the rear of his now swaying adversary. Then the lad saw
what fate had done for him.
The German had collapsed in his seat, to which, as has been said, he
had strapped himself. His head lay on the rim, apparently a mass of
streaming crimson. His machine, a renovated Fokker, was tipsily
zigzagging along without any guidance except its stabilizer and its own
momentum.
To say the boy was half paralyzed at first is not too strong. But a
revulsion swept through him in a flood. At the same time there came to
his brain a vivid flash, reminding him that while thus desperately
engaged for his own life, he had heard sounds of aerial battling
somewhere in his rear.
While he was making up his mind what to do next, the whir of
speeding motors rose rapidly. Looking back, he saw the Death's Head
flag waving from the nearest one and soon distinguished Blaine,
apparently all right, but chugging away at top speed in Erwin's
direction.
Just now the Fokker with its dead occupant gave another side drop and,
uninfluenced by the usual controls, came nearly to a standstill. It
toppled again, then down it went earthward at increasing speed,
carrying its occupant along.
"Hey-you!" This from Blaine as he swept up and by, while rounding to.
"Look behind! I dropped that chap -- the first one! But he's brought a
lot of others. Let's make for home, boy!"

Apparently it was