against an abrupt angle of rough earth that brought him to a halt all
at once. Quickly he adjusted the controls and, revolver in hand,
boldly leaped out.

Dark it was, except for the lurid flashings of distant artillery, while
to the west the roar of infantry battle sounded much nearer than when
Lafe was high up in the air.

"Where am I?" he asked himself, reaching for his pocket flashlight.
"Surely this must be No-Man's-Land!"

Thus thinking, he stumbled against another plane; not his, but the
wreck of another one. Intuitively he felt that he must have landed
right. Feeling round him, he detected certain signs that made him
almost sure one of the raiding scout machines had fallen here.

"This must be one of those big shell holes," he thought. "Why -- what
if it is where those signals came from?"

Just as Blaine was about to climb up the incline of disrupted earth,
his flashlight sending gleams here and there, a voice he recognized
,sounded:

"Halt, you! I heard your motor, but you won't get me without a fight."

"Damn if it ain't Buck all righty," said Blaine, still climbing.

He turned his light to where the voice sounded, and bellowed,
regardless of consequences: