"
Indeed, the entire performance did remind Hugh of occasions when he
had watched a red-tailed hawk chasing a frightened bunny, now slowing
up on quivering pinions, then making numerous pretended lunges in
order to frighten the quarry still more, and finally ending the
pursuit by a well-directed swoop that gave the bird of prey its
fine dinner.
The two men were bewildered as well as alarmed. Another bomb
exploded close behind them, and started them off on a new tack.
Run which way they might, it seemed as though that terrible enemy
in the air kept hovering above them, sending a little black object
shooting earthward every half dozen seconds, to be followed by a
sudden crash, many times magnified in their excited imaginations.
Once the taller man started to fire his automatic revolver upwards,
as though in sheer desperation he hoped to cause the air pilot to
give over the chase. The reports sounded like the detonation of
toy fire-crackers to Hugh; and if the bullets came as far as the
monoplane, he heard nothing that sounded like their passing.
Dodging this way and that as though almost panic-stricken, the
spies finally betook themselves into the sheltering forest. Before
they could hide under the branches of the oaks, the tall man was
seen to stumble at the top of a rather steep declivity and roll all
the way to the bottom, as though he might be a barrel that some
mischievous lad had started downhill for the fun of seeing it jump.
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