Another Verey light, shot straight down overboard, showed a glimpse of
a grass field, and Reddie swung gently round, and slid downward again.
At the same time he fired a landing light fixed out under his lower
wing-tip in readiness for just such an occasion as this, and by its
glowing vivid white light made a fairly good landing on rough grass
land. He shut the engine off at once, because he had no idea how near
he was to the edge of the field or what obstacles they might bump if
they taxied far, and the machine came quickly to rest. The two men sat
still for a minute breathing a sigh of thankfulness that they were safe
to ground, then turned and looked at each other in the dying light of
the flare. Stiffly they stood up, climbed clumsily out of their places,
and down on to the wet ground. Another flurry of snow was falling, but
now that they were at rest the snow was floating and drifting gently
down instead of beating in their faces with hurricane force as it did
when they were flying.
Reddie flapped his arms across his chest and stamped his numbed feet.
Walk Jones pulled his gloves off and breathed on his stiff fingers.
“I’m fair froze,” he mumbled. “Wonder where we are, and how far from
the ‘drome?”
“Lord knows,” returned Reddie. “I don’t know even where the line
is—ahead or astern, right hand or left.”
“Snow’s clearing again,” said Jones. “Perhaps we’ll get a bearing then,
and I’ll go ’n’ hunt for a camp or a cottage, or anyone that’ll give us
a hot drink.”
“Wait a bit,” said Reddie. “Stand where you are and let’s give a yell.
Some sentry or someone’s bound to hear us. Snow’s stopping all right;
but, Great Scott! isn’t it dark.”
Presently they lifted their voices and yelled an “Ahoy” together at
the pitch of their lungs. There was no answer, and after a pause they
yelled again, still without audible result.
“Oh, curse!” said Jones, shivering. “I’m not going to hang about here
yelping like a lost dog. And we might hunt an hour for a cottage.
I’m going to get aboard again and loose off a few rounds from my
machine-gun into the ground. That will stir somebody up and bring ’em
along.”
“There’s the line,” said Reddie suddenly. “Look!” and he pointed to
where a faint glow rose and fell, lit and faded, along the horizon.
“And the guns,” he added, as they saw a sheet of light jump somewhere
in the distance and heard the _bump_ of the report. Other gun-flashes
flickered and beat across the dark sky. “Funny,” said Reddie; “I’d have
sworn I turned round as we came down, and I thought the lines were dead
the other way.”
The observer was fumbling about to get his foot in the step. “I thought
they were way out to the right,” he said. “But I don’t care a curse
where they are. I want a camp or a French cottage with coffee on the
stove. I’ll see if I can’t shoot somebody awake.”
“Try one more shout first,” said Reddie, and they shouted together
again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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