Nevertheless even Pudge would hardly have voted to forsake the _Sea Eagle_ at this stage of the game. They had a certain affection for the big air traveler; and besides, their duty to the Company demanded that they stick to their task, which was to get the plane back into its hangar safe and sound, if such a thing were at all possible.
As the Taube came rapidly upon them they watched eagerly to see what would happen. Again the man who did the throwing of the bombs was seen to partly raise his arm, showing that he had another of those explosives ready for hurling.
Just at the critical second, as it seemed, Frank gave the chauffeur the signal to stop short. He already saw that the man above had made a swift motion with his upraised arm. It was very familiar as a trick to the American boys; how often had they seen the first baseman of the opposing team make the same feint when all the while he was holding the ball concealed, hoping to catch the runner off his base.
When however he saw the bomb-thrower make a duplicate movement he knew that this time it was coming.
So the second grip on the chauffeur's arm told him to instantly start forward again at full speed. So sudden was the change made that the van gave a furious spurt such as would have possibly thrown the boys out only that they had prepared themselves against it.
For the third time Frank had hoodwinked the Germans in the Taube. This bomb also fell back of them quite as much as fifty feet. It struck on one side of the roadbed, but might have done more or less injury to the machinery of the big van, and compelled a stop that must have spelled new trouble for the boys, caused to abandon their charge because of the recklessness of staying further.
"Oh! I hope that exhausts all their ammunition," was the prayer poor Pudge was heard to utter, when this last stunning report announced that once more they had escaped by a close shave from a terrible fate.
"Don't hug that fond delusion to your heart, Pudge," Billy told him, jeeringly; "they'd be more apt to start out with fifty such bombs along than just three or four. I'm hoping we'll come up on some marching regiment of British going to the front, or even a field battery that could make the old Taube climb up half a mile or so in the air. We wouldn't need to worry then, because they never could hit such a tiny mark away down here."