Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/179

 flew barely above the helmets of the men in the mêlée, he emptied the magazine.

English soldiers glanced up at him; ten feet below him were English boys, doomed, surrounded but fighting. It struck shame through Gerry the next moment when he was rising clear and safe that a few seconds before he could have been almost within hand reach of those English boys fighting to the end on the ground; that, indeed, he had for a moment fought with them and then he had deserted them to their death while he had flown free. He looked back, half banking his machine about; but already the battle upon that hill crest was over; the last of the English were killed. Gerry could return only to avenge them; and the way to avenge was with refilled bomb racks and machine-gun magazines.

That dive to the top of the hill had separated him from the other machines in his flight except one which was following him on his return to the airdrome for ammunition and bombs. Gerry, gazing down, found disorganization more visible than when he had flown to the front. He could see the English troops, whom he had viewed advancing upon the roads, spreading out and forming a line of resistance; but he could better realize how few these English were for the needs of this mighty emergency. They were taking positions, not with any possible hope of holding them against the German masses but only with determination to fight to delay the enemy a little as Gerry, had just seen some of them fight.

He sighted his field and he swooped down upon it, leaping out as soon as he stopped. He saw that, as he had suspected, rifle or machine-gun bullets had gone through