The spotty clouds were responsible for a bit of delay. Parker
was nowhere to be seen. Joe, Harry, and Jimmy circled round once
or twice, undecided what to do, and at that moment Parker came climbing
back from a dead-leaf drop, having shaken off his Boche pursuers, and
gave the signal for the home flight. Home they turned, and as
they did so, four big Albatrosses, a section of the first group they
had met, joined to two of the second group, came at them. Without
any concerted idea of action Joe, Jimmy, and Harry looped straight
over simultaneously, every one of the three performing a perfect
loop and coming right side up at the same moment. Each of them,
also, fired a round at the Boche immediately in front of him
and made off for home at top speed.
Parker did a side-wing drop, and as he did so felt a sharp pain in
his back. His arms lost their power. A bullet had lodged in his
back, and worked its way, urged, perhaps, by the pressure of the
boy's back against the seat cushion, to some spot more vital than
that in which it had first lodged.
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