Parker was going at such speed that the fifty rounds he loosed off apparently missed his opponent, in spite of the fact that but forty yards separated them when the last bullet left Parker’s gun.  The German went down in a clever spiral for a couple of thousand feet.  When he flattened out, however, Parker, who had dived with and after him, was close behind.  More, he was in an ideal position, from which he fired another fifty rounds.  These steel messengers reached their billet, and the German flier went straight down to earth.

But while Parker had been dropping with eyes on the first Boche, the second had dropped after Parker.  Parker reached for a new drum for his Lewis gun, and as he did so the second Boche, who had got on Parker’s tail, let go at close range.  The hunter was riddled.  Parker felt that he was hit, but not badly.  That was his impression, at least, at the moment.  He spun his hunter round and dropped sheer for a thousand feet, coming up in a fairly thick bank of white cloud.  He there flattened out again and began climbing, not being sure of his altitude.  No sooner had his engine begun to drone out the rhythm of its full power, and the good hunter-plane begun to rise majestically, than what should he see but the second enemy fighter right in front of him!  A new drum was in place on his Lewis gun, and he let go.  The Boche pilot threw up both hands and fell back, and down into the cloud went the enemy plane, clearly out of control and quickly out of sight.

Parker examined himself as well as he could, but was unable to locate his wound.  It was in his back somewhere, for he felt a stiffness and numbness all down his spine, but he still could move his arms, and felt no faintness.  He decided that it must be merely a scratch, and climbed up as fast as he could to get into the fray again.

The other three American hunters had engaged in close, desperate encounters to a man.  Joe Little was lucky enough to bring down his adversary and circled round toward the two triplanes, which had both finished their work and were climbing fast to get out of the range of the “Archies.”  Jimmy Hill had missed his man, who went down in a spiral, Jimmy spinning down after him.  Owing to the greater pace at which Jimmy was traveling he had to make a wider spiral.  The Boche flattened out and Jimmy dived for him again, but before he could come within range the German dived straight down to the ground and safety, where he appeared to land in such manner as to show that he had suffered but little, if any, damage.  Jimmy was treated to an exceptionally severe salvo of “Archies” before he could get well up again, and was slightly wounded in the cheek by a shrapnel splinter.  Harry Corwin’s adversary fired at Harry, and Harry fired at him, but neither made a hit, so far as could be seen.  The Boche was soon lost in a cloud for which he was heading, and Harry circled back to find his fellows.