and just when objects on the ground loomed up suggestively there was the
expected sudden shift of the lever, a consequent change in the pointing
of the plane's nose, and then they found themselves on the new level,
with the motor again humming merrily.

Jack was on the alert and quickly discovered the object that just then
enlisted their whole attention. As he had suspected when using the
glasses from the higher level, it was a Yankee bomber that lay partly
hidden among the bushes where it had fallen. He could easily see the
Indian head marking the broken wing.

The pilot was sitting near by as though unable to make a run for it,
although Jack imagined he must suspect the approach of danger, for he
gripped something that glinted in the sunlight in his right hand. It was,
of course, an automatic pistol.

Looking hastily around Jack glimpsed the creeping figures of the two
Germans who, having seen the fall of the Yankee plane, must have come out
from some place of concealment and were bent on finishing the pilot, or
at least taking him prisoner. They had almost reached a point where it
would have been possible for them to open fire on the wounded American.

Jack looked in vain for any second figure near the fallen plane. If the
pilot had had an observer with him, which was most likely, considering
the fact that he had been using a bombing machine, the latter must have
been dispatched for relief some time before.

"There they are, Tom!" burst from the one who crouched close to the
machine gun, and pointing as he spoke. "Swoop down and let me give them
a volley!"