pistol and struck him
sharply on the head. He went down like a log.

"Run, Henri, run!" he cried. "They're coming up behind us! Run for the
car!"

Behind them, indeed, the footsteps of running men were plainly to be
heard. A shot rang out, but both boys had turned instinctively to the
side of the road and were running low in the ditch beside the highway.
They could not be seen, and the firing ceased. It seemed that most of
the men were unarmed, or carried revolvers at the most. Had there been
rifles behind them, they would have had no chance. But as it was, they
reached their car and leaped in. Henri threw the switch of the electric
starter, the motor leaped into throbbing life, and they were off.

Behind them more shots were fired, but the aim was wild. And they sped
away, at fifty miles an hour, pursued only by a few vain revolver
bullets, and by a chorus of shouts and yells of rage and execration.

"The coward!" stormed Frank. He had never been so angry in his life. "He
might have killed you, Harry! And just because he was in a rage over
what had happened to the airships! He didn't even know that you'd had
anything to do with it--not positively! And we'd already surrendered."

Henri laughed--and he meant the laugh. It was not affectation. He had
faced his danger in the true spirit of the Frenchman, who is as brave in
action as any man in the world.

"Eh, well!" he said. "He did not shoot me, so what does it matter? That
was a fine crack on the head you gave him! He will remember us, I think,
next time he sees us."

Frank shuddered a little.

"I hope not!" he said. "Or, that if he does, he will be a prisoner
himself, and won't be able to try to get even."

Frank remembered the look of sheer devilish rage in the eyes of the
German. It was not pleasant to think that they might meet again.

"If it is to be, it will be," said Henri. "I bear him no grudge! He had
cause to be angry--ma foi, yes! The Kaiser will not say pretty things
when he hears of what we did to-night, Francois!"

"No!" Frank laughed. "I wonder where those airships were meant to go?
Paris? They could have done terrible damage. Perhaps they were to attack
the army--to lie behind its course, knowing that our aeroplanes would be
scouting on the front. They might have made it harder than ever to
retreat in good order. But I think they would have gone to Paris. I
think that they would have been there before daylight."

"And now--pouf!" said Henr