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swamped the little boats and swept the specks into the sea. A fourth bomb also it must have deposited. How or where it had exploded, or whether it had plunged harmlessly into the ocean, I did not know. I saw only that this biplane lacked both bombs; it, too, was become a cargo carrier descending, light, to take its tons of treasure.

I twinged to attack it; but it was no mark for me. It no longer dangled death over the specks on the sea. If I had a drum of machine-gun bullets to fire, I must spend them on the biplanes, with their eggs below them, swinging about and about on their beat over the ship.

I passed the cargo carrier and climbed with Kinvarra after me but not gaining upon me; my plane was swift as his.

I must try to attack, I knew, when the bombers reached an end of their orbit furthest from the ship. Attack? First I must escape attack; for a two-seater, with a machine-gun, flew at me.

It had detached itself from the flight of six machines which I had considered Bane's immediate command. I dodged, climbed and