ent was at the mercy of an enemy's sword. A mighty
stroke of the massive arm and the German lay dead on the ground.

The Germans, having had the worst of this encounter with a single foe,
stood back and drew their revolvers. Quickly Alexis reversed his own
weapon and fired. There was one enemy less. A bullet struck him in the
chest. He staggered, but recovered, and again fired at his foes.

The revolvers of the two lads were also spitting fire. A bullet grazed
Hal's head and he toppled over. He was up in a moment, however, fighting
more fiercely than before. Chester felt a stinging sensation in his
right arm. Quickly he transferred his weapon to his left hand, and it
continued to send out its deadly missiles.

But this unequal contest could not last. It must be ended.

Alexis, wounded in a score of places, his giant body hacked and hewn,
hurled himself forward in one last desperate attack. Germans quailed
before the very fury of his face; they tumbled here and there beneath
his sword, or sweeping blows of his now empty revolver. A bullet struck
the giant in the throat. He dropped his revolver and clapped his hand to
the wound. Another struck him in the shoulder. He sprang forward, struck
down another of the enemy, then staggered back.

And at that moment there came the sound of tramping footsteps on the
sand. Turning quickly Hal and Chester perceived approaching rapidly a
body of Swedish troops. The Germans saw them at the same instant. They
were still a mile away across the sands, but the Germans had no mind to
be caught and interned. Quickly they leaped for their aircraft, all
except those who remained upon the sands, their faces turned upward or
buried therein.

Hal and Chester each seized Alexis by an arm and dragged him back toward
their own aeroplane, now righted and waiting only the touch that would
send it into the air. The giant Cossack staggered along, but it was
plain to both lads that he was about to collapse.

"Come, come, Alexis!" cried Hal, trying to urge him on. "Only a few more
steps and we will be all right."

To the very side of the craft they carried him; but here, shaking
himself free of their detaining hands, he suddenly fell, face forward,
upon the ground. Quickly the two lads bent over him, and succeeded in
turning him on his back.

His voice came in faint gasps. The boys bent near to catch what he was
saying.

"Leave me here! You go on!" came his voice. "I am done for! Save
yourselve