Below, the comments went on from the staff surrounding the Commander,
who would say now and then:

"Look you there! Was that not fine?"

"Hard to beat," seemed to be the general verdict. "Fritz will have to
open his eyes tomorrow."

And so the show above went on. A flock of little birds chirped and
flopped past the group below. What pikers they seemed by comparison,
with the show going on above -- far above! And now they were
descending in long spirals, each squad by itself, yet preserving the
mathematical distance required, both from the opposing squad and at the
same time keeping the line prescribed for such tactics during drills at
the home grounds.

Particularly did Blaine distinguish himself in the daring of his
stunts. Erwin was hardly behind him. They looped again, they rolled,
they did the wing and tail slides, doing the last until they fell
almost perpendicularly a thousand feet. Finally they righted hardly
two hundred feet above the earth; then shot upward again at almost
incredible speed.


And now the two leaders circled slowly as their respective squads
followed on towards the ground, some falling, drifting like dead
leaves, others slanting lazily as they passed the leaders, and on down,
alighting at last each in his appointed place or thereabouts.

And then the two leaders began circling and swooping more and more