What should he do?  For the moment he could not see the fight below him between Parker and the plane Parker had started to chase.  Surely, with three to one against him, the best thing he could do would be to keep his own skin intact.  Intuitively glancing upward, what was his horror to see, still high up but dropping like a meteor, a fourth enemy plane—–­a big Gotha!  It came over him like a flash!  The Boches were at their game.  While the three lower planes engaged his attention, a watcher had sat aloft.  The German plan, Parker had told him, was to swoop down from a great height and catch the unwary Allied flier unawares.

Stopping his engine, he side-slipped out of the path of the newcomer, rolled over once or twice to befog the enemy as to his intentions, and then sailed aside still further on one of his “upside-down stunts,” which had caught the eye of the flight commander.  He thus escaped the swoop of the diving Gotha, and as the other three Germans turned to the right to demolish him, he swung half round, righted himself, and climbed for dear life.  In very few minutes he was above them, leading the chase, all three pressing after him, and spreading out fan-wise slightly to ensure catching him if he again tried the maneuver that had extricated him from the former trap.

For a few moments Jimmy felt a mite nervous as to how things were coming out.  Then it dawned on him that he was doing his part well if he drew the enemy fighters after him and away from Parker.  The fourth of the Boche hunters might be after him still, back there behind him, or it might be fighting Parker, wherever Parker might be.  By a quick glance back he could see the three pursuers.  Their planes, too, were climbing well.  He straightened out to try a burst of level speed.  Examining his map and compass he saw he was not heading for home.  That was bad.  He tried veering to the left a bit, but imagined that the plane behind him on the left drew nearer.

Then Jimmy found himself.  What was it Parker had said about the new hunter-machines being splendid loopers?  Why not try a loop?  Would the Boches get wise to the idea quickly?  Perhaps not quickly enough.  If he did a big, fast loop, he might come right-side-up on the tail of one or even two of his would-be destroyers, and if he could only get that wicked little rapid-firer of his to bear he would lessen the odds against him, of that he felt sure.  In a very few seconds after the idea had come to him he had decided to put it into practice.

The big wasp turned a beautiful arc, swiftly, neatly, as if it had known the game and was eager to take part in it.  No machine could have performed a more perfect loop; and, as he had hoped, it brought him in the rear of the group of assailants.  The center one of the three enemy planes was nearest to him.  Straight at it Jimmy dashed, and when close, started firing.  It was the first time in his life that Jimmy had tried to take a human life, but he did not give that fact a thought.  A fierce desire to finish off the flier so close in front overwhelmed him.  He felt that he could not miss.  A second or two passed after the burst of fire before any change in the conduct of the plane in front was noticeable.