They made a long detour through the fields to avoid a group of buildings. Striking the road again, they soon came upon a slight rise of land that stood well above the level of the surrounding country. "Are we not rather conspicuous here?" asked the girl. "Well, rather," admitted her companion, pausing to look around; "but I guess we can see as far as we can be seen." "Look! look!" called Ethel excitedly, jerking her companion's arm and pointing to the south, where the flat horizon was broken by the derricks and tanks of the oil fields. At first Winslow saw nothing, and then shading his eyes he sighted what looked like a great bevy of birds flying just above the horizon. Larger and larger grew the specks against the sky. "They will be over us in fifteen minutes," said Winslow; "let's get up in that oak over there, where we can see without being seen." Safely hidden by the enveloping foliage, the man and the girl now watched the approach of the planes. As they came over the oil region the planes began swooping near the ground and then rapidly rising again. "Its Japanese after the American cavalry, I guess," said Winslow. In a few minutes black smoke belched forth at numerous points from the petroleum works. After a time a cloud of dust arose from a great meadow that spread for several miles to the north of the oil wells. A group of aeroplanes hovered closely above the dust cloud and kept up that periodical swooping towards the earth. "It's stampeding cavalry," said the sharp-eyed Ethel, "and the airmen are dropping bombs on them." The cloud of dust came nearer and nearer until they could see the swift fall of the deadly missiles from the swooping planes and the havoc wrought in the straggling ranks by the showers of pellets from the shrapnel exploding above their heads. When the foremost of the cavalry troop were perhaps a quarter of a mile from the observers, a commanding officer, who was riding well in the lead, wheeled his horse, threw away his jacket, tore off his white shirt and waived it frantically above his head. An answering truce flag soon appeared from a plane above and the jaded horsemen, riding up, drew rein and waited. The truce plane now swooped low and dropped a message fastened to a white cloth. A soldier caught it and brought it to the officer, who signalled assent. Orders were called along the line, and the men filed by and piled their weapons in an inglorious heap. After this most of the lazy circling planes rose and made off to the left, while a few assigned to guard duty circled above the retreating cavalry, as they moved off slowly in the opposite direction. Two belated members of the troop, who had lost their horses, flung themselves down to rest for a moment in the lengthening shadow of the oak tree.