CHAPTER XXXV.

THE BULLY OF THE CLOUDS.

And then all at once the danger came.

Ahead of them loomed, in the darkness, for the moon had not yet risen, a bulking dark form.

An exclamation burst from the Frenchman's lips.

"A Zeppelin. Malediction!"

"Do you think she'll attack us?" asked Jack.

"I don't know. I can't tell yet which way she is coming. Ah!"

A long ray of light, like a radiant scimitar, glowed suddenly from the mighty aircraft, 400 feet long and capable of carrying many men and tons of explosives.

Hither and thither the ray was flung.

"Zey heard our engines. Zey look for us!" exclaimed de Garros.

He shot up to a greater height. He was manoeuvering to get above the Zeppelin, where her guns would be useless against the aeroplane, which was more mobile and swifter in the air than the Kaiser's immense sky-ship.

But suddenly the glowing light enveloped them in its full blaze. Dazzlingly it showed them in its rays. It was the most peculiar sensation Jack had ever experienced. It was like being stood up against a wall with a fiery sabre pressed to your breast.

With a quick movement of the wheel, de Garros sent the aeroplane out of range of the revealing light. The next moment came a sharp crackle and something screamed through the air.

"Missed!" exclaimed the aviator with satisfaction.

Again the questioning finger pointed its interrogating tip hither and yon across the night sky. Others from below now joined it in its quest.

The firing from above, and the sight of the searchlight had been rightly guessed by the Germans encamped below. They knew that a hostile aircraft was above them and were helping in the search for it.

A sharp exclamation broke from the Frenchman. He bent and fumbled with some contrivance on the floor of the aeroplane.

There was a sharp click.

"What have you done?" asked Jack.

"I have released zee bomb."

"The dickens!"

"Watch! Now you see!"

Fascinated, even in the midst of the awful danger they were facing high above the earth in the upper air, Jack leaned over and stared at a battery of searchlights sending out fan-shaped rays on every side.

He guessed this was the objective of de Garros' bombs. He was right.

As he gazed there was what looked like the sudden opening of a flaming fire below, and the searchlights went out as if a giant had snuffed a monstrous candle.

Then came the report, booming upward through the air.

"Aha! Zere are some Germans below zere who will not do zee mischief more!" exclaimed the Frenchman with vicious satisfaction.

But his congratulations to himself were premature.

Again the light of the Zeppelin enveloped them. The glare seemed like a warm bath of all-revealing light. There was a flash and then the shriek of a projectile as the aeroplane dipped under the glow of the light. Then came the boom of the report.

"Zey ought to learn to shoot," muttered de Garros.

"Thank heaven they can do no better than they are," rejoined Jack.

"Now we show zem zee clean pair of heels and run away," said de Garros.

"I'm glad to hear that. I couldn't stand much more of this," thought Jack.

"If I was alone, or had an officer wiz me, we go above zat Zeppelin high in zee air and blow him up," announced de Garros cheerfully, after a minute or two. "Ah! zey get us again. _Peste!_"

The whine of a machine gun sounded as the searchlight of the pursuing Zeppelin again enveloped the bold little aeroplane. Her great bulk, big as a steamship, was rushed at top speed through the air. They could catch the roar of her four motors being driven at top speed.

De Garros had dropped again, and thanks to his skill, the aeroplane was still unhit, although the projectiles from the quick firer had come close enough for the occupants of the monoplane to hear their whine.

"We beat zem out!" exclaimed the Frenchman.

"Then we are faster than they are."

"Oh, very much."

"Well, we can't be too fast for me," muttered Jack. "I----"

"_Sacre!_"

The searchlight had again caught them, and again there had come reports from her underbody. This time the sharp crackle of rifles.

"Are you hurt?" cried Jack, as the Frenchman gave a sharp exclamation recorded above.

"Malediction, yes. Zey nick my hand. Eet is not bad. But worse zey hit zee motor I think."

The smooth-running machine was no longer firing regularly. Its speed had decreased.

"What are you going to do now?" cried Jack. "We'll be mowed down by those machine guns if we slow up."

"We must come down."

"But the Germans?"

"There are no campfires below us now."

"But can you make a good landing?"

The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders.

"_Parbleu!_ If I cannot zen all our troubles are over, _mon ami_."

The aeroplane began to descend, slowly at first and then faster. The dark earth sky-rocketed up at them from below.