by Gordon Bates
CHAPTER XXII
THE UNSPEAKABLE CRIME
Within the next two minutes Jimmy reversed his opinion that the endhad come. True, they were still dropping, but at the instigation of amaster hand on the controls, the Voisin was once more obeying its pilotand volplaning easily earthward.
Now they were not more than two hundred feet from the ground andhanging over a ruined farmhouse. Some distance behind it stood adilapidated barn. A little below the barn was an orchard of apple treeswhich sloped gradually down to open meadow land.
At a point in the meadow close to the orchard, the plane finally madeharbor. As it touched ground Jimmy peered anxiously about for signs ofhuman beings. German soldiers could not be far away. Behind the Germanlines, as they were, they could not hope to escape being seen and firedupon.
Strangely enough, no shots were fired as the plane made a landing.Over all hung the mystery of dawn, broken only by the pounding of theguns on the battle lines. Jimmy had fully expected to fight for hislife the instant he reached terra firma. It dazed him to find himselfbehind the German lines, for even a moment, unmolested.
"We are in a most dangerous locality, _mon cher_ Blaise." Voissardhad already left the machine and was circling it, making a hastyexamination as he went. "We must leave here at once!" he continued. "Itwas either this or perhaps a fall when over the Boche lines. I knewnot the extent of damage done by that Archie. It has lost me my goodGaston. That is, indeed, a loss. I am deeply grieved. Yet this is notthe occasion for the grief. A moment and I shall know how quickly wemay ascend. I knew this spot and determined thus to take the risk ofone little moment's landing."
"Is there anything I can do, sir?" Jimmy eagerly offered. "Perhaps Ican help----"
"Wait."
Voissard dived into the car, returning with a pair of revolvers and abox of cartridges.
"Take these and stand guard," he ordered, offering one of the revolversto Jimmy. "Should a Boche soldier appear, shoot him on sight. It is yetearly and we are some distance from the enemy trenches. Still there isalways the outpost guard or the patrol to reckon with. Again, this isof a truth a fitting spot for an early morning execution."
Obediently mounting guard, Jimmy stood at alert while the aviatorbusied himself with his machine. For twenty minutes he remained thus,his ears cocked for the slightest hostile sound, his eyes keeping abright lookout.
"It is well!" the aviator at length exclaimed, raising up from theengine. "The damage to the plane has been, after all, small. We shallregain our lines easily, provided we can escape enemy planes on ourway. We cannot fight as we have no Gaston. The enemy guns we may escapeby flying high. Come; into the seat, my boy. We must lose no time. Donot fail to strap yourself in."
Motioning him into the observer's seat, Voissard turned sorrowfully tothe crumpled form of the bomber. It had slid well down into the seatGaston had been occupying when killed. Strapping the body securely, sothat it could not tumble out, the aviator sighed:
"_Mon pauvre ami_," he mourned. "It is the best I can do for you untilwe have reached our station."
Very grimly he strode to the propeller. Starting the engine he leapedinto the pilot's seat. The engine responding with a deafening roar, theplane began to roll over the soft ground.
His revolver in readiness, Jimmy kept his eyes trained earthward asthey left the meadow and took to the air. Again they passed over theorchard and were on the point of spiraling upward when a shout issuedfrom Jimmy's lips that Voissard heard even above the noise of theengine.
Simultaneous with it a revolver spoke. Instantly Cousin Emile lookeddown and understood. Shutting off the motor, he volplaned and madeskilful landing on an open space between the barn and the orchard.Before the plane touched earth, the revolver had spoken again.
"Oh, the brutes! The dirty, yellow brutes! Thank God, I've done for twoof 'em!"
Another shot accompanied Jimmy's hoarse exclamation, shouted in aperfect frenzy of loathing. Out there in the stillness of the morning,Jimmy had come upon the thing which will forever brand the Germans asfiends incarnate. Half a dozen Boches were about to crucify an Americansoldier.
Looking down, his eyes had come to rest on the barn. Grouped about theclosed door were half a dozen German soldiers. He caught a glimpse of ahatless, olive-drab figure, spread-eagled against the door. He saw thegleam of bayonets--then he shouted and in the same instant fired hisrevolver.
Intent on their fiendish work, the crucifiers had paid no attention tothe purr of the aeroplane's engine. They were not looking for an enemyplane so far behind their own lines.
At Jimmy's first shot a Boche threw up his arms and dropped. Instantlythe other five whirled and left their victim, whose outspread arms werebound to two staples hastily driven into the door. Then another Hunclutched his breast and pitched forward. A third fell, shot through thehead.
Always cowardly when cornered, two of the remaining trio took one lookat the plane and ran. Only one stood his ground. Bayonet discarded, hepulled an automatic pistol and opened fire on Jimmy.
A shot from Voissard's revolver pierced the Hun's left arm. Jimmy firedagain. He thought he had missed his man, and was about to try againwhen he saw the Boche sway, take a tottering step forward, and collapseforward in a heap on the ground.
The plane having rolled along a few yards and come to a standstill,Jimmy and the aviator leaped out of it and ran to the rescue of thetrussed Sammy.
"My poor fellow----"
Sheer amazement checked the expression of sympathy that welled toCousin Emile's lips. His young friend Blaise was laughing and cryingand hugging the man fastened to the door as though quite bereft of hissenses.
"Oh, Schnitz! _Oh, Schnitz!_" Jimmy sobbed out wildly.
"Blazes, my--bunkie!" Down Schnitzel's wan cheeks the tears werestreaming.
Then Voissard knew and his own eyes blurred. For a moment he stoodback, saying nothing. Realization of their peril made not only speechbut prompt action necessary. Whipping a clasp knife from a coat pockethe opened it and proceeded to cut Schnitzel loose from the door. Thisdone he offered his hand to the German-American, saying simply: "Thanksto _le bon Dieu_, we arrived in time. Now we must leave here instantly.Two of the beasts have escaped. They will give the alarm and a patrolwill be sent out against us. We must make haste or perhaps all sufferthe fate intended for you. The Boches will be much enraged over theloss of these _canaille_."
Voissard scornfully indicated the four dead Boches, sprawling hideouslyon the ground, the result of Jimmy's ability to shoot to kill.
"I'd forgotten the dogs for the moment." Turning from Schnitzel,Jimmy's face registered the utmost loathing as his eyes took in theugly but satisfactory sight.
"Just a second and then we'll beat it. Come here, Blazes."
Schnitzel strode over to one of the dead, lying face downward in themud. Grasping the body by the shoulders, he turned it viciously on itsback. It was clothed in the uniform of a Boche captain.
Jimmy peered down at the ghastly, black-bearded face. The dead man'seyes, wide open, stared malignantly up at him.
"The tiger man!" burst from his amazed lips.
At the cry, Voissard sprang to his side. Together the three men stoodlooking down for an instant at that glassy-eyed, wicked face.
"And _I_ got him!"
Jimmy spoke in awed, unbelieving tones.
"Come," Voissard warned sharply. "To the plane. The explanation of thismust wait. I doubt not that it must be of a truth amazing."
"It is," Schnitzel grimly assured.
With one accord the three turned and hurried to the spot where theaeroplane stood. Turning his revolver over to Schnitzel, the aviatorordered them into the plane, provided Schnitzel with an extra coat andcap which had belonged to Gaston, and made hurried preparations torise. The open space between the barn and orchard was large and levelenough to permit of an easy get-away.
Hardly had the plane left the ground when the dreaded patrol appeared.It was composed of at least a dozen Boches. They
charged through theorchard, shooting as they came. Bullets whistled past the plane, butfailed to touch it.
Spiraling on upward, the plane drew away from the orchard and beyondrange of Boche rifles. Higher and higher it flew and found protectionabove a long gray cloud-bank. The morning sky heavily overcast, CousinEmile looked to the friendly clouds to shield them in their flight overthe German lines.
Once well above the clouds, Schnitzel had laid aside his revolverand turned his attention to the machine gun. Finding a fresh belt ofcartridges close beside it, he removed the spent belt, which Gaston hadused up in the attack on the Aviatik, and loaded the gun for ready use.
Traveling at high speed half an hour's run would see them clear of theGerman lines. As they continued the flight the clouds began to scatterand the sun came out. Above No Man's Land they broke from the cloudsand in the same instant encountered a foe. Not far ahead and above themflew an Aviatik on its way back to the German lines. It had also beentaking advantage of the cloud curtain.
Each pilot saw his enemy in the same moment. Without a gunner, Voissardrealized that in flight lay the only chance of safety. He must dashstraight on under the Aviatik and win clear of it if he could. Itsspeed being greater than that of his own plane, he already regardedhimself as doomed.
As the plane darted on in a swift, level course, Voissard's earscaught a dim rattling sound that briefly startled him. Had Gaston cometo life? A flashing glance over his shoulder revealed not Gaston, butSchnitzel, at the machine gun. Schnitzel had acted with lightningswiftness. His carefully gathered knowledge of guns and aircraft nowsaved the day.
Behind the Aviatik and on an even keel under it, he knew their positionto be ideal for hitting the Boche plane. Having made ready for anyemergency, he had opened fire at the right moment. A rain of bulletshit the Aviatik squarely. One of them toppled the pilot over. Othersmust have struck a vital point of the machine, for it began to stagger.Fairly riddled by bullets, the doomed plane lurched wildly, turnedhalf over, and began a last tumultuous, uncontrolled descent to earth.Schnitzel had indeed made good as a gunner.
The Aviatik done to death, the flight was swiftly continued. Now overthe American lines the danger momentarily lessened. In the distancethey saw three French planes chasing a Boche Albatross that was makinga desperate effort to get away from its pursuers.
They came at last to the aviation station and were received jubilantlyby a group of shouting aviators who had run out to meet them. It hadbeen feared by those who had taken part in the bombing expedition thatVoissard had made his last flight.
Clambering out of the aeroplane, it seemed to Jimmy Blaise as thoughhe was returning to reality from a strange dream. Only the living,breathing presence of Schnitz, his bunkie, standing beside him, assuredhim that he had not dreamed. His "hunch" that Schnitz and he would meetagain had not been an idle one. Out of the very jaws of death, Schnitzhad come back.