The Boy Allies with the Cossacks; Or, A Wild Dash over the Carpathians

“What’s that below, Hal?” The speaker was Chester Crawford, an American lad of some 16 years. Hal Paine allowed his eyes to turn from the steering wheel and glanced over the side of the flying aëroplane. “I don’t see anything,” he replied, after a careful scrutiny below. “Neither do I, now,” said Chester, straining his eyes. At this moment the third occupant of the machine made his presence known. “Woof! Woof!” he exclaimed. The third speaker was Marquis, a dog. “Woof! Woof!” he barked again. Hal, with a quick move, slackened the speed of the aëroplane, and let it glide gently closer to the earth. “Must be something wrong,” he confided to Chester, “or Marquis wouldn’t be barking like that.” Both lads peered into the darkness that engulfed them on all sides. As far as the eye could penetrate there was nothing but blackness, solid, intense. “Let’s go a little lower, Hal,” whispered Chester. Under Hal’s firm hand the aëroplane came down gently, until at last it was soaring close to the treetops. And now, suddenly, both lads made out the cause of Marquis’s uneasiness. Beneath them were thousands upon thousands of armed men. To the north, to the south, and to the east and west the dense mass of humanity stretched out. Hal and Chester, flying close to the earth, at last could make out moving forms below them.