uched close to the
machine gun, and pointing as he spoke. "Swoop down and let me give them
a volley!"

The Huns evidently realized what was coming, and feared that their
intended victim might after all escape their hands. Even as Jack spoke
there came a shot from below, and a bullet went screaming past close to
the ears of the Air Service Boys. It was followed by a second and a third
in quick succession.

What the marksmen hoped to do was either to kill the pilot or else to
strike some vulnerable part of the engine, thus disabling it and wrecking
the plane. Those were chances which had to be taken continually; but as a
rule the rapidity of flight rendered them almost negligible.

Jack waited no longer. The two men were about to fling themselves behind
friendly trees, and but a small chance remained that he might catch them
before they were able to shield themselves by these close-by trunks.

Jack, in his most energetic fashion, commenced to spray the vicinity with
a shower of leaden missiles. The chatter of the machine gun drowned any
cries from the two men below. The Yankee plane swooped past the spot
where the injured pilot still sat at bay, ready to sell his life dearly
if the worst came.

CHAPTER II

THE RESCUE

The rat-tat-tat of gunfire suddenly ceased. Jack could no longer cover
the spot where the two Huns were hiding behind the tree-trunks, and
consequently it would be a sheer waste of ammunition to continue firing.

But already Tom had commenced to circle, and soon they would be swooping
down upon the scene from another direction. Jack kept on the alert, so as
to note quickly any possible movement of the enemy.

Again he poured a hot fire on the place where he knew the Germans were
cowering, tearing up the ground with a storm of bullets as though it had
been freshly harrowed. But the sturdy trees baffled him once more.

"Nothing doing, Tom!" he called out, vexed. "We've got to drop down and
go it on foot if we want to save that pilot!"

"I see a good landing place!" announced the other almost instantly.

"Great luck! get busy then!"

The ground chanced to be unusually smooth, and the plane, after bumping
along for a short distance, came to a stand. Meanwhile, both young fliers
had succeeded in releasing themselves from their safety belts.

Together they jumped to the ground and started on a run toward the spot
where those crouching figures had last been seen. Of course, the Huns
must al