e-slipped,
and then plunged into a dizzy circle in which they flew round and round
an imaginary axis, the radius of the circle growing ever shorter and
shorter. Every action of the leading plane was immediately matched by
the pursuer.

Larkin, realizing that his skill in manoeuvering was something less than
McGee's, decided to bring the contest to a close with a few thrills in
hedge hopping.

Of all sports that offer high hazard to thrill satiated war pilots, that
of hedge hopping, or contour chasing, occupies first place. This is
particularly true when the pilot is flying a Sopwith Camel powered by
the temperamental Clerget motor with its malfunctioning wind driven
gasoline pump. The sport had been repeatedly forbidden by all the allied
air commands, but these commands had to deal with irrepressible youth,
which has slight regard for doddering old mossbacks who think that a
plane should be handled as a wheel chair.

Larkin dived at the ground like a hawk that has sighted some napping
rodent, and so near did he come that by the time he had leveled off, his
wheels were almost touching the ground--and wheels must not touch when
one is screaming through space at the rate of a hundred and forty miles
per hour.

He glanced back. Sure enough, McGee was still on his tail. No hedge
hopping, eh? Huh! Trust The Shrimp to keep young, he thought. Fat chance
they had of getting old. Who ever heard of an old war pilot? Ha! That's
a good one! And here's a double row of tall poplars fringing the road
directly ahead. Hold her close to the ground and then zoom her at the
last minute ... landing gears just clearing the topmost branches ...
make it, and that's hedge hopping. Fail to make it--and that's bad news!

Larkin made it, a beautiful zoom that carried him over the trees by a
skillful margin. Then he swooped down again, skimming along the level
field on the other side of the road.

McGee's zoom was just as spectacular and as nicely timed, but as his
nose climbed above the first row of trees his motor died as suddenly as
though throttled by the strangling hands of some unseen genii. Sudden
though it was, McGee had sensed that he was crowding the motor too much
and had tried to ease her off and still clear the trees. It was too late
to relieve the choked motor but he did clear the first row of trees. He
was about to close his eyes against the inevitable crash into the
poplars on the other side of the road when he saw that two of