The Boy Allies with the Cossacks - Or, A Wild Dash over the Carpathians

Clair W. (Clair Wallace) Hayes

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• Publié par: adryo
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 21
• Langue: English

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Project Gutenberg's The Boy Allies with the Cossacks, by Clair W. Hayes This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Boy Allies with the Cossacks Or, A Wild Dash over the Carpathians Author: Clair W. Hayes Release Date: January 13, 2010 [EBook #30951] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS *** Produced by Roger Frank, D Alexander and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS OR A Wild Dash Over The Carpathian Mountains By CLAIR W. HAYES AUTHOR OF “The Boy Allies at Liège” “The Boy Allies On the Firing Line” “The Boy Allies In the Trenches” Copyright, 1915 B Y A. L. B URT COMPANY THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS ALEXIS–FROM HIS CANTEEN POURED WATER OVER THE LAD’S FACE. 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 glanced over the side of the flying aëroplane. “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 presence known. “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 aëroplane, and let it glide gently closer to the earth. “Must be something wrong,” he confided to Chester, “or Marquis wouldn’t be barking like that.” Both lads peered into the darkness that engulfed them on all sides. As far 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 aëroplane came down gently, until at last it was soaring close to the treetops. And now, suddenly, both lads made out the 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 humanity stretched out. Hal and Chester, flying close to the earth, at last could make out moving forms below them. Suddenly it became light. Not broad daylight, but the darkness gave way enough for the lads to distinguish what lay below them. The dawn of another day was breaking. At the same instant that the lads made out the huge mass of humanity upon the ground their presence in the air was discovered. There came the sound of a single shot and the whiz of a bullet, as it sped close to Hal’s ear. With a quick movement the lad sent the plane soaring high in the air once more. So sudden was the movement that Chester, caught unprepared, lost his balance, and saved himself from tumbling to the ground only by clutching the side of the machine. Marquis also had a narrow escape from being thrown out. He let out a loud yelp of fear, as he was thrown violently against Chester. The lad threw out a hand and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, just as it seemed he would plunge to certain destruction. “Say!” he called to Hal, when he finally regained his breath and his head. “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 all right. We had to come up suddenly, or the chances were we would have gone 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 this once.” “Say no more about it,” answered Chester. “But what was the cause of this sudden rise?” “Cause!” repeated Hal in astonishment. “You don’t mean to tell me you don’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 or foe?” “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 over the German lines. Then we’ll come down.” The machine was high in the air now, and, peering intently over the side, as he did, Chester was unable to make out anything below in the early morning light. But in the rear, soaring high in the air, although neither lad realized it, a new danger threatened. When the presence of the boys’ plane had been discovered, a German craft had immediately risen, and was now in pursuit. Glancing over his shoulder, Chester was the first to discover that they were followed. At the same moment that he perceived the pursuing machine there came a shot from the enemy. There was no need for Chester to cry out to Hal. The sound of the shot told the latter of their danger, and he immediately threw the speed lever over as far as it would go. The machine bounded forward. But the pursuer also came on faster than before; and, while it was apparent 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 the bullet fell short. While the enemy could pepper them at will with his rifle, 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 a minute if we don’t do something.” To himself he added: “If I only had a rifle!” “You be ready with your revolver,” Hal called to his friend, “and I’ll soon fix that. It’s our only chance.” Abruptly he slackened the speed of the machine, and swiftly the enemy came on. So suddenly had Hal acted that the man at the wheel of the pursuing machine could not act promptly enough, and was within range of Chester’s revolver before he could slow down. As the first machine righted after its abrupt halt, Chester took deliberate aim and fired, even at the moment that a bullet passed close to his head. There was a yell from the pursuing machine. A man leaped suddenly to his feet, shaking the frail craft violently as he did so, waved his arms once, 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 a sharp bark of joy. His canine intelligence told him that something that threatened had been overcome. But the man at the wheel of the German aëroplane, 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 moment happened to glance over his shoulder, the sharp-pointed prow of the German craft would have cut them down. With a sudden twist of the wheel, however, Hal sent the machine out of the path of the German, and, as the enemy sped by, Chester took a snap shot with his revolver. Evidently he missed, for the German checked his plane and returned to the attack. “So,” said Hal to himself, “two can play at that game.” Once more he avoided the German rush; and then, wheeling his own craft at the moment the German sped by, he dashed in pursuit. The enemy, doing the work of two men, did not perceive this change in tactics by his foes, and, even as he slowed down to turn and make another attack, the point of the lad’s machine plowed into him. There was a ripping, tearing sound; the German plane wavered and started to fall as the craft in which the boys were flying dashed by. But, by a superhuman effort, the German succeeded in righting his craft. Then, holding the wheel steady with one hand, he calmly produced a revolver and took deliberate aim at Hal. There was a sharp crack, followed immediately by another, but Hal was unharmed. Realizing the German’s purpose, Chester’s weapon had spoken a second before 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 German plane, now without a hand to keep it steady, rocked crazily for several moments, then turned turtle and went tumbling over and over toward the ground. “Did you get him, Chester?” asked Hal, who had not turned his head, and therefore 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 was none. Not a German bullet had so much as struck the machine. “They are not very good marksmen, are they?” said Hal, with a slight grin. “Doesn’t look that way,” returned Chester. “However, maybe those fellows are 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 of those German machines flying after us, so I guess it behooves us to get away from here as soon as possible.” “I guess you are right,” Chester acquiesced. Once more the aëroplane straightened itself out on its course and, flying high –absolutely hidden from the ground by a dense mass of black clouds that seemed to spring up as if by magic–sped on. Hal, with firm hands on the wheel, kept his gaze directly ahead. Chester settled himself comfortably in his seat again, and Marquis, after sniffing about for several moments, finally composed himself to sleep. In spite of the fact that he was flying far above ground, the dog had not shown