"No, to the _douzième_. We'll be there before long."
"How are we going?" demanded Leon greatly puzzled. He was having a hard time understanding what was taking place. His brain was still stunned and worked slowly.
"We're in the monoplane," explained Earl.
"Those that attacked us aren't going to bother us any more. Don't let the thought of them worry you."
"But I don't understand," Leon persisted. "What happened?"
"When we rushed out from the woods," said Earl, "we thought there were only two of the Germans left. You accounted for one of them yourself when you came around in back of the machine there. The other one Jacques took care of. We thought we had killed three of them before we charged, but one of those three was 'playing possum.' As soon as we passed the spot where he was lying he jumped up and grabbed you around the neck. It was a pretty clever trick on his part and he was a powerful fellow too; I thought you were done for for a while there."
"So did I," agreed Leon; ruefully passing his hand over his sore and bruised throat. "Tell me though; how did you pry him off?"
"Well we had a terrible time. Jacques finally cracked him over the head with the butt of his revolver; that finished old Mr. Boche."
"No," exclaimed Earl, "it merely stunned him. That was enough for us though and we got away as fast as we could."
"Why we just dumped you into the monoplane here and then got aboard ourselves and off we went."
"Before the reënforcements arrived I suppose?"
"Just before. As we left the ground and began to rise a whole troop of cavalry came racing into the clearing. They fired at us all right but they didn't touch us and here we are."
"It seems queer to me," said Leon, "that the Germans didn't do something to disable the engine or some part of the machine so we couldn't use it again."
"That's what I told Jacques," exclaimed Earl, "but he said they probably thought we wouldn't give them any more trouble and that they had captured a perfectly good monoplane and could use it themselves."
"No, but it wouldn't take much trouble to put the distinguishing mark of the German machines on it."
"I guess we got after them just in time," said Leon gleefully.
"We surely did," agreed Earl. "We've been pretty lucky so far."