right, shooting upward and firing as rapidly as he
could, and had the satisfaction of seeing the German swerve to one side.
The fire was too hot for his liking.

The other, however, came on and sent such a burst of fire at Tom that
the latter realized it was a desperate chance he was taking. He tried to
get above his enemy, but the other's plane was the speedier of the two,
and he held the advantage.

Tom's ammunition was running low, and he realized that he must do
something. He decided to take a leaf out of the book of the Germans.

"I'll go down in a spinning nose dive," he reasoned. "They'll be less
likely to hit me then. I'll have to go back, I guess, and get some more
shots. I used more than I thought."

He sent his last drum at the persistent German, and, noting that the
other was swooping around to attack again, went into the dangerous
spinning nose dive.

The Germans may have thought they had disabled their antagonist, for
this dive is one a machine often takes when the pilot has lost control.
But in this case Tom still retained it, and when he had dropped out of
the danger zone, he prepared to straighten out and fly back over his own
lines.

It is not easy to straighten an airplane after such a dive, and for a
moment Tom was not sure that he could do it. Often the strain of this
nose dive, when the machine is speeding earthward, impelled not only by
its propellers, but by the attraction, of gravitation, is so great as to
tear off the wings or to crumple them. But after one sickening moment,
when the craft seemed indisposed to obey him, Tom felt it beginning to
right itself, and then he started to sail toward the French lines.

He was not out of danger yet, though he was far enough away from the two
German machines. But he was so low that he was within range of the
German anti-aircraft guns, and straightway they began shooting at him.

To add to his troubles his engine began missing, and he realized that it
had sustained some damage that might make it stop any moment. And he
still had several miles to travel!

But he opened up full, and though the missing became more frequent he
managed to keep the motor going until he was in a position to volplane
down inside his own lines, where he was received with cheers by his
comrades of the camp.

"How goes it?" asked Major de Trouville anxiously.

"I think we are holding them off," said Tom.

He was the first one who had had to return, much to his chagrin