lly exciting!" gasped Hanky Panky,
stretching his neck still more in order to follow the swift evolutions
of the rival air machines; "what if one of them has the hard luck to get
his motor smashed by a ball; or his gasoline tank exploded?"

"That'd be a bad thing for the men in the aeroplane, I should say!" Josh
informed him. "They must be all of half a mile high, and a fall would
flatten a poor chump out like a pancake."

"There's one of the Germans turning tail right now and running away!"
called out Hanky Panky; "and the other--why, see how queer that machine
is acting, will you? It keeps turning around like a corkscrew, and seems
to be dropping all the while."

"A good reason, too," snapped Josh. "French guns proved superior to the
Kaiser's, for they did some damage. That Taube is falling! Only for the
skill of the two men aboard it'd be coming down right now like the stick
of a spent rocket, or a meteor aiming to strike the earth."

All of them watched the erratic course of the disabled aeroplane with
the keenest interest. Indeed, the valiant pilot certainly deserved a
great deal of praise for the way in which he manipulated his charge. At
the same time the Taube was going to strike the earth with a severe
blow.

"I wouldn't like to be aboard that poor craft, let me tell you," said
Hanky Panky, as it neared the earth, not far back of the French front;
"the people in it are going to get broken arms or legs, and the machine
will be smashed in pieces."

"Huh! they'll call themselves lucky if it ends at that," snorted Josh;
"some men would have their necks or backs broken; but these German
aviators are a tough lot, I've heard, and can stand a heap of pounding."

Even as they looked the wrecked Taube struck the ground. Some soldiers
had hastened in that direction, and were on the spot almost as soon as
the disabled German machine landed. They could be seen moving about
amidst the wreckage of the aeroplane. Then they appeared carrying
something in their midst.

"They've picked up the occupants of the fallen Taube," said Rod, "and
from the way they carry them the poor chaps must be badly hurt. Yes,
there they've stopped that ambulance coming from the front, and are
getting the wounded birdmen aboard. The French admire bravery, even in a
mortal foe, and you can be sure that those gallant fellows will receive
just as good care as if they were their own men."

He again started to move forward. The field hospital wa