aviator, whom the whole corps of flying men
whose velocity forbade more than one
attached to the army group of the Crown occupant; the remaining five were the slower Prince before Verdun both despised for his
type of Rumpler “dove” biplanes, with their
nationality and feared for his prowess, was not characteristic aileron on the upper wing
based upon any ignorance of Rockwood’s shaped like the tip of a pigeon’s wing, for antecedents or exploits.
greater stability and swifter response in
The amazing accuracy of the German
maneuvering, although at far less average
secret agent is proverbial; in this, as in all
speeds than their Fokker comrades. Each
other branches of the service, the passion for
Rumpler machine carried a pilot and an
detail and completeness is no less in evidence
observer or machine-gun operator.
than in the other classifications of the
Sixteen intrepid and devoted airmen
Germany army organization.
flashed from the earth into the teeth of the
Ten days before, within a hundred dawn on that ever-memorable morning; flying yards of the mound at which he was now
eastward, instead of westward or northward—
standing, the commander of the Verdun where the enemy aircraft were usually found.
aeroplane base had been hastily summoned to
East and south they flew, on the wings
receive a messenger from no less a personage
of the morning, in a slight haze which made
than the division commander on the Meuse
their departure invisible to the skulking enemy sector, ranking next to his royal highness. The aircraft from the Verdun fortress, who, as
message which was given him on that usual, were abroad at that hour.
occasion was of such tremendous significance
And east and south they flew for many
that Colonel Imman immediately summoned
a weary league, until, in the hour when the
all of the aviators whom he could possibly
August sun bleached the tenuous, dewy
spare from the front that day, including curtain of their concealment into nothingness, several youths who had not yet received their
the eleven were hovering far in the rear of the brevet, but whose skill must now be relied
German lines in Alsace and Lorraine—
upon for crucial test, if he was to comply with circling like buzzards who scent a cadaver.
the imperative demands suddenly made upon
The low-lying clouds which blanketed
his already attenuated corps of flyers.
the peaks of the ranges where France and
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6
Switzerland join, however, once gained, “bed rails” of the lowest wing of the biplanes, served to further aid the lurking airmen to
at regular intervals: and the method of
make sure the ambush which they had dropping them was controlled from the prepared; and when seven battle-planes from
fuselage by the observer, who, when over the
the enemy lines had groped their way through
munition supply base, or the railway station,
the cloud-hung dawn, following the lead of
or the town which was the objective sought,
three high-speed machines which acted both
he could, by Simply jerking a cord, release
as scouts and pilots, ere they could demolish
each projectile in turn, so that it would drop
the munition depots far, far behind the upon its intended target.
German trenches on this remote corner of the
All of which, in detail, was known to
five-hundred-mile battle line, Flight-
the German commander; all of which was
Lieutenant Imman and his comrade aviators
communicated to the aviators who had been
pounced down upon them.
hurriedly despatched to head off and disperse,
The numerical superiority of the one
if possible, the other machines, after they had machine which the Allied aviators faced was
crossed the German lines in the darkness.
more than compensated for by the armored
The furious onslaught which
construction of their own heavier battle-
immediately followed, therefore, had not
planes; in fact, the battle in the air at once took alone for its object the disabling of the Allied on an analogy not unlike a combat at sea; in
biplanes by the usual method of killing the
machine to bits or disabling the engine: any
There was one exception, however, to
part of the aeroplane offered rich possibilities, the comparison—an exception which Colonel
if one of the bombs they carried could also be
Imman, even in his haste, had not failed to
struck.
make plain to the men he was despatching to
In that case, the terrific explosion to
meet and drive back the raiders. That follow would surely demolish the aircraft, if, exception was the character of part of the
indeed, it did not blow the pilot and his
“useful load” with which the slower Allied
defender out of the machine in fragments.
biplanes were carrying that morning—
There is a strategy of the air as well as
consisting, in part, besides the usual of the sea: and this strategy, to no small complement of machine-guns and ammunition
degree, consists in the advantage which an
in the fuselages of each machine, of numerous
opponent secures when he is above his
large bombs, upon which the major adversary.
destructive power of the raiders depended.
Hence, Flight-Lieutenant Imman and
These bombs were of a type known as
his ten machines came swarming down out of
“percussion contact bombs,” a term signifying
the clouds, in “fan-formation,” blazing death
that they would explode upon contact with
and destruction to the Allied machines below,
whatever object they struck when dropped.
at their first volleys.
For convenience, and also to facilitate the
Three of these went incontinently
“balance” of the aeroplanes which the Allies
down, then the others rallied, and a German
were using on this occasion, as well as to
machine hurtled earthward under the
allow the pilot of each and its machine-gun
concentrated fire which three of the enemy
operator the fullest latitude for fighting off the aircraft focused upon it as one man; in another aeroplanes if attacked, these bombs were minute of fighting two more German planes distributed at various points along the lower
were out of the engagement as well as a fourth
Brother Enemies
7
Allied machine. But the appearance, far to the
airman in the swift biplane had again attacked
west, of several other German aircraft, sent to and again disposed of another German
overhaul if possible the raiders from the aircraft—single-handed.
Alsace lines, seemed to determine the ultimate
A blast of wind sweeping a sheet of
issue of the engagement in favor of the mist down a mountain gorge blanketed the Central powers, for they were coming up fast
Germ
an flier’s vision for a moment. When he
and relentlessly.
again emerged into the uncertain light of the
Then occurred an extraordinary thing.
forenoon, to his renewed rage and horror,
A small, swift biplane, which Flight-
another German plane was failing, under the
Lieutenant Imman divined contained the deadly, unerring gunfire of the solitary Allied brains of the expedition, bolted out of the mist aviator.
and, single-handed, engaged two of the
Imman judged that he must now be at
German machines.
least fifteen hundred feet above this
With uncanny maneuvers of the most
satanically skillful aviator, who alone had shot reckless and daring character, its pilot down four of the eleven aeroplanes which had manipulated his machine, darting this way and
expected to annihilate him and his
that, like a hawk attacking two robins. Imman
companions scarcely twenty minutes before.
himself was for the moment engaged in
So far as the prime object of the
regaining his elevation, so that he could German ambush was concerned, that had been swoop down again upon another of the enemy
attained; the precious munition-supply depots
planes in his deadly Fokker; and as he climbed
would not be bombed this morning—not by
he thrilled to the stupefying audacity of the
any of the ten raiders in this group at least.
But owing to the unsuspected prowess
and marvelous bravery, one after another he
of this lone aviator, there would be a sad story disposed of the two German machines. In two
to tell to his father when he returned to the
minutes more, however. Imman had swept
base behind Verdun; and with a determination
down in dizzying spirals and fatally disabled
as fiendish as the skill which the other had
the other machine, which he had singled out as
displayed, the German commander began his
his personal prey; and the count now stood
headlong spiral down upon the unprotected,
with five Allied machines down and a like
devoted pilot of the biplane, resolved to end
number of Germans accounted for.
his career then and there.
The maneuver of dispatching his own
Again, however, fate or luck seemed to
antagonist had necessitated Imman’s retiring
be with the other airman. The dense, swirling
some distance from the scene of the other
fog-bank enfolded him as tenderly as a mother
contest, occurring about two miles to the south wraps her babe in a downy quilt just at the
and east of his own latest victory; and as he
instant that Imman was about to open fire.
again circled and swept up the invisible
Instantly the German commander cut
staircase of the air to regain his advantageous off his engine and volplaned down, as silently
altitude preliminary to a further descent, the
as the mist-breath itself, in the direction in
German commander saw, to his grief and which his intended victim had disappeared.
chagrin, that while all the remaining machines
“I’ll follow him to hell!” grated
of the Allied fleet save one solitary biplane
Imman, as, with a backward flip of his ear-
were now in full flight—and likely to be cut
protectors, he strained forward in the fuselage off and annihilated by the reinforcements to catch the sound of the other’s motor, coming up from the west—that the intrepid
beneath and to the southeast of him when last
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8
seen.
Imman saw, however, that he had
A grim smile lighted up his own visage
made the better landing of the two, and as he
as he discerned it, exactly where he believed it leaped from his machine he whipped his
would be. He again threw in his motor, and
Luger service pistol from his belt and ran
dived headlong down through the mist, firing
forward toward the other’s.
like a demon in the direction of his invisible
The menace in the frowning muzzle
enemy.
brought no responsive token of surrender,
Again he cut out his engine and however. The pilot of the Allied biplane listened.
merely laughed pleasantly, showing a
This time he heard no sound.
remarkable set of teeth in a mischievous
Again he volplaned downward into smile, the smile of a prankish schoolboy who space, this time plunging out of the cloud-knows he has the best of things.
bank and emerging into the radiant forenoon
“Put up that plaything, Lieutenant
at the lower level.
Imman,” said he jovially. “We’ve drifted over
Not a hundred yards away was the
the frontier into Switzerland. You can see the
Allied aeroplane, coming toward him with a
mountains back there not fifty feet away. My
venom fully comparable to his own.
word, old man, what a busy morning!”
And simultaneously they opened fire
Without lowering his pistol lest the
together.
statement should be merely a ruse to divert his Next instant, also simultaneously, they
attention, Imman complied. It was true. He
whirled downward.
replaced the weapon, and as the other
Imman was unwounded, but his descended from the fuselage he came forward engine, after a convulsive shudder, had with his hand outstretched.
stopped dead. There was nothing whatever to
“We’re brother airmen for a little
do save point her nose toward the ground and
while, I take it.” said the German in faultless make a landing, if possible, in the midst of the English. “May 1 have the honor of inquiring
forbidding mountainous country over which
your name?”
he found himself.
“Kane Rockwood, brevet sous-
It was some small satisfaction to know,
lieutenant, attached to the French division
even though he himself was in difficulties,
usually at Verdun. Great guns, man, what a
that his antagonist was similarly situated, for surprise you gave me. I didn’t dream of
he likewise was making a forced landing.
finding you down here! Why, only day before
Twenty seconds later they came to yesterday we exchanged visiting-cards on the earth in the midst of a small glade entirely
Verdun front!”
surrounded by high peaks and enclosed by
“Yes,” said Imman. “I might have
trees, whose majesty of size suggested that
known it was you. You shot down
they had been growing since the beginning of
Schemmerhorn and Laub the day we engaged,
time.
didn’t you?”
It was, strangely enough, the only
“The fortune of war, lieutenant,”
possible landing-place for either machine quietly admitted Rockwood. “I say, old man, without smashing to bits. And into the solitude that was great work you did, coming down
of this tree-girt, mountain-bound enclosure behind me and shooting off my propeller they dropped, almost simultaneously, and, when we engaged. What did I do to you?”
even more oddly, within two hundred feet of
“Come over and see.” returned his late
each other.
antagonist. “I haven’t an idea yet. My engine
Brother Enemies
9
went dead on me, that’s all.”
“But,”
interposed
the other, “how are
As amicably as if both were members
you going to get out of Switzerland,
of the same club they inspected the Fokker.
Lieutenant Imman?”
One of Rockwood’s bullets had severed the
The German gave a surprised gesture.
cable of wires leading from the magneto to the
“In my machine, of course, the same as
engine. Imman laughed, opened a kit in his
you will. Come, we must make haste.”
fuselage, and immediately began repairs, with
“But you’re almost entirely out of gas.
Rockwood assisting him.
Go over and look at your gauge,” laughed the
“And now.” said the German when this
American. “We’re both in the hole, old man.
had been completed, “let’s see what you must
I’ve got practically no ammunition left—shot
do to get out of Switzerland.”
it all away, you saw me. You’ve got
They walked to the biplane, where practically no gas. I can get away; that is. I Rockwood procured a wrench from his tool-can get over the Swiss frontier. You can’t.
box and stripped the wrecked propeller-stump
Now listen. I know how you feel. I don’t
from the engine-shaft. Then he produced a
blame you. Some day somebody—who
duplicate from beneath the lower wing, where
knows?—maybe it will be you—but some day
it was carefully bolted to the reenforcement of somebody will bring me down, just as surely
the lower bed-rail.
as somebody will bring you down some day.