Thus thinking, he stumbled against another plane; not his, but the wreck of another one. Intuitively he felt that he must have landed right. Feeling round him, he detected certain signs that made him almost sure one of the raiding scout machines had fallen here. "This must be one of those big shell holes," he thought. "Why -- what if it is where those signals came from?" Just as Blaine was about to climb up the incline of disrupted earth, his flashlight sending gleams here and there, a voice he recognized ,sounded: "Halt, you! I heard your motor, but you won't get me without a fight." "Damn if it ain't Buck all righty," said Blaine, still climbing. He turned his light to where the voice sounded, and bellowed, regardless of consequences: "Don't you know your squad leader?" "Good gracious! You -- here?" The youth from Butte, Montana, was peering down at advancing form, delighted amazement in face, but he only said: "Shut off your light Sergeant! We're surrounded by - by - them! That's better! Where'd you come from?" "Oh, I just dropped down in answer to your signal. I thought if the Boches were about to get you, they might have another chance at me, see?" A faint yet hilarious chuckle came forth. Then: "Say, Lafe, when I first tumbled down here, I thought I was a goner. But I wasn't hurt much. My machine is smashed, though." "What brought you down? Why didn't you go a little further?" "I would have, but Archie got me just as I thought I was about safe. That ain't all. I guess our downing them sausages was a bit too for Hans. Directly after that they started the hottest barrage fire you've seen in a month of Sundays. Keepin' it up yet, only they've slacked a bit along here. I kept thinkin' how I was going to get out of this when I heard the tramp and scuffle of advancing infantry. "All at once I knew. They're sour yet over busting up their big underground at Appincourte Bluff; and now comes this raid of ours and away goes that string of a dozen balloons. I guess it was too much." "Infantry! What infantry? Oh, you mean Fritzy!" "Who else? Well, Fritz came with such a rush he didn't look for me. There was a lot of him passed. I scrunched down inside this crater the best I knew how and directly I knew I must let our folks know. Then's when I sent up my signals -- in code, of course." \"That's so, Buck. I saw 'em and read 'em." Buck was grinning to himself. "You?" Bangs looked his astonishment. "Well, if we warned our folks in time, and I guess I did by the sounds, and then caught hold of you, it was a lucky venture." "You caught me all right. But how are we going to get away? Say your machine is busted?" "How'd ye know?" "Well, by the way it came down and struck. I have no tools with me, and I had to crawl in here in a hurry." "Come on," ordered the Sergeant in his official tone. "We've got no time to lose. I've got tools or rather Milt had."