and safety, where he appeared to land in such
manner as to show that he had suffered but little, if any, damage.
Jimmy was treated to an exceptionally severe salvo of "Archies"
before he could get well up again, and was slightly wounded in the
cheek by a shrapnel splinter. Harry Corwin's adversary fired at
Harry, and Harry fired at him, but neither made a hit, so far as
could be seen. The Boche was soon lost in a cloud for which he
was heading, and Harry circled back to find his fellows.

Meantime two of the German fighting machines had kept on for the big
triplanes. They were heading for fast, powerful machines, well
armed, but they dashed at them as though they had no fear of result.
The first German machine to score a hit was a fast Albatros. It
dived straight at Richardson's machine. Richardson side-slipped
and dropped like a stone till close to the ground. Not a single
German who watched his drop, whether watching from the air or from
the ground, dreamed that the big machine was still under control.
Just before it seemed about to crash into the earth, however, Richardson
righted it, and heading for home, skimmed the ground at a height
of not more than fifty feet above the ground. The doughty little
major poured round after round of bullets from his machine-gun at
the heads of the Huns in the trenches and dugouts as the fleeing
plane passed close over the astonished Germans, and the whole thing
was over before anyone except the two occupants of the plane realized
what was taking place.

Not a single shot from the thousands fired hit the brave young pilot,
though the major was not quite so fortunate, having been wounded in
the wrist by a ball from the machine-gun of the flier who attacked
them from the Albatros. How they escaped death at his hands they
hardly knew, for he had poured a veritable storm of lead into them
at close range, and made dozens of holes in one or other of the three
planes. Richardson's arrival with the major at the home airdrome
was the first news to come back of the fight in the air. The major
reported that they had satisfactorily performed their part of the
work and escaped with but little damage. The Boche ammunition dump
they were to assail had been blown into a thousand fragments, the
detonation of the explosion having been heard for miles.

Meanwhile, Bob Haines and Dicky Mann in the other triplanes were
having an exciting fight with another Albatros. Bob had chosen to
mee