manage to steer,
with the rudder useless. But they're coming down fast now, you notice!"

"And aiming so as to bring the monoplanes over the German lines," added
Merritt. "If the little fellows know what's good for them, they'll keep
a good distance off, because there are guns made that can shoot straight
up for a mile, and send a shell or shrapnel to burst, and fetch an
aviator every time."

While they watched, the disabled Zeppelin dropped out of sight back of
the woods, and it was easily possible for the boys to hear the wild
shouts of derision that ascended from the trenches where the Belgians
lay concealed.

The two aeroplanes then started to have a little scout of their own, and
doubtless those daring air pilots picked up more or less information
that would prove of value to the defenders of the trenches.

"Is the battle over, do you think?" asked Tubby, when this exciting
panorama in the upper air currents had come to an end.

"Some of the guns are still muttering," Rob told him, "but they seem to
be further away. Perhaps the Germans are bombarding some fortified place
off in the distance, or it may be an English army has shown up, and is
giving battle to the Kaiser. You know the poor Belgians are hoping for
that to happen right along."

"But just think what is over there!" continued Tubby, with a shudder as
he pointed a chubby finger toward the scene of the late charge and
repulse. "Why, I can see hundreds of men lying around, just like the
corn when they go to cutting so it can be stacked. Ugh! it's awful to
think of all those poor Germans!"

"They're not all Germans, either," corrected Merritt; "because I saw one
place where the Belgians rushed out of their trenches, and fought hand
to hand. Lots of them must have been knocked over, too. They just
couldn't hold back, I guess, with the fighting spirit in them."

"And this is what's going on all through Belgium, Northern France, and
over along the border of Russia," said Rob, powerfully impressed with
the tragic scene he had looked upon.

"Here's another battery coming along the road, too late to get in the
fight!" they heard Tubby saying.

"That's where you're barking up the wrong tree, Tubby," Merritt assured
him, "because what's coming now is just the opposite of a battery. One
cuts down the ranks of the enemy, this one helps to bind up their
wounds, and carry them off the battlefield! In action the fighting men
become like fiends; but I guess yo