A streak of flame plunging earthwards within fifty yards of GV 7 attracted Derek's attention. One glance revealed the sad fact that a British biplane was crashing. He could see the concentric red, white, and blue circles as the doped canvas glinted in the ruddy light. A little beyond two British chaser-machines were climbing "all out" towards a patch of clouds where the Hun who had downed the unsuspecting biplane was "squatting" in fancied security. His dream of safety was soon to be rudely shattered, for the Boche 'plane stood as little chance as a rat when cornered by a trained terrier. Just as Derek was preparing for a vol-plane, a Hun triplane dashed blindly athwart his path, followed by a British "Camel". The Boche evidently "had the wind up" horribly, for he made no attempt to use his after machine-gun, but merely dodged and banked stupidly in a forlorn attempt to shake off the pursuit. Then with ostrich-like tactics he attempted to fly under, and in the same direction as GV 7, regardless of the fact that the latter could "drop an egg" with unerring aim upon his broad expanse of planes. Daventry let him severely alone, knowing that the Boche had all his work cut out to defend himself without a chance to fire upwards into the battleplane. It was against the ethics of aerial warfare to spoil another man's bag. On came the Camel, her speed being only about five miles more than GV 7, although both were tearing through the air at more than a hundred miles an hour. Derek could see the hooded and goggled head of the machine-gunner as he bent over his sights. Then came a rapid burst of flame from the Lewis gun. Daventry looked over the side of the fuselage. The triplane, a litter of rents and fluttering canvas, was plunging earthwards. Waving his arm in joyous congratulation to the victorious Camel, Derek turned, and began to swoop down upon his objective. As he did so he became aware that he was an object of attention from a particularly-aggressive anti-aircraft battery. The Huns had brought up several Archibalds, mounted on swift armoured-cars, and were doing their level best to counteract the demoralizing attack of the "air hussars". Banking, Derek brought his machine out of the danger-zone, but not before the wings showed unpleasant signs of the accuracy of the Huns' aim. The rotten part of the business was that he was unable to locate the position of the antis. Right out in the open were several sky-directed guns surrounded by men, but Derek was becoming a wily bird. He knew that both men and guns were decoys, and that the actual battery was some hundreds of yards away and skilfully camouflaged. To fall into the error of attempting to wipe out the decoy would be an act of self-destruction.