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The suddenness and surprise of the movement started the ends of Cowan's moustache to twitching. "Sir," spoke up the muddy infantryman, "here's that bozo we all been lookin' for." Major Cowan arose. "Count von Herzmann, I believe?" he said as calmly as though it were a social meeting. The prisoner lifted his eyebrows in well feigned surprise.
Count von Herzmann merely shrugged his shoulders at this piece of news which must have been irritating in the extreme. "Ah, well," he said easily, "one cannot think of everything. In our haste to get away, neither I nor my pilot thought of that possibility. Very clever fellow, this man Schwarz. We both made good guesses, and we both lose. Kismet! We both serve our country, and we both get shot.
The leading plane raced along the green field, and a moment later the first flight of von Herzmann's great Circus leaped into the air, climbed rapidly, and laid a course for a cloud bank hanging over the lines above Comblizy. How often the youthful, clever von Herzmann had made use of shielding cloud banks, or lacking clouds had placed himself above his adversary, squarely in the blinding sun.
Not one thing have we learned from him but what was too late to be of value. And much of it inaccurate." "Not always," von Herzmann replied. "He brought correct and timely information concerning the movement of that new American pursuit squadron, you will recall. And but for the accursed luck that brought those French Spads upon us at the wrong time, my Circus would have potted half of them."
"What makes you so sure that Count von Herzmann " The door was thrown open by a helmeted, muddy doughboy sergeant from the lines. Then into the room, followed by the mud-spattered doughboy and the M.P. detail, walked a smiling, confident, blond young man, attired in the uniform of a member of the British Air Forces.
There was no longer any doubt of that. Yancey voiced the thoughts of every man present when he said: "It wouldn't be so tough if he could get it in the air. But this way at a wall is tough." "What about von Herzmann?" Fouche asked. "I guess it was tough for him, too." Yancey grinned and scratched his head.
Could that be the plane of the renowned von Herzmann, who from the beginning of his fame had advertised himself as the man who always flew a brightly painted green and gold plane? Another Fokker dived at Larkin, his Spandaus rattling. His aim was wild and he overshot Larkin's steep dive.
If you are successful, and return within your scheduled time, how will this operative, held at Montfaucon, make a satisfactory explanation to the Americans regarding his long absence?" Count von Herzmann snapped his fingers. "Poof! That is secondary, and a problem which I leave to the superior mind of Herr Hauptmann and the High Command." Wheels Within Wheels
Doors rattled, the ground quivered, and through the window the sky was alight with a pulsating red-white glare. For a few minutes every man in the room stood listening. "What is that?" Count von Herzmann asked at last. "The beginning of the end," Cowan answered. "You wondered when it would come. Soon now.
The green and gold plane of von Herzmann was now a rapidly diminishing speck against the cloud bank toward la Chapelle, streaking for the Fatherland. The others, lacking a leader, and facing unequal chances with the timely and unexpected appearance of the French Spads, were withdrawing from the action with all the speed they could get out of their wonderful motors. And that was speed enough.
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