Bisbee daily review., 1917-05-27

have been held only at q COST too high fnr their value. As they were empticd, regiment after regiment of Japanese infantry which had been waiting till the batteries had prepared their way. charged across the bridge with ire sistible impetus and swept over the trenches like q living wave.
 Not, however. entirely without Oppo- sition. 0neeman had. f6r reasons of his own, elected not to retreat. Alone he greeted the onslaught with ma chine-gun fire. spraying death over the bridge and its approaches. Dozens of the charging troops fell before he ran out of ammunition or was silenced by shot well aimed; Patria never knew how the fellow met his end. He was, one minute. working his weapon busiiy and methodically; the next, he was si- fenced: and his fate was masked by the hordes that took possession of the trenches.
 As this happened, Patria's observer touched her arm to draw her attention to their personal peril. So absorbed had she been in the action beneath her that she-and for that matter. her observer as welt-had altogether neg lected to look after the safety of the biplane.
 It was now mepaced by no less than three Japanese air scOutS-lightlv armored biplanes carrying two pas sengers and equipped with machine guns.
 Soaring out over the battlefield at great height, these assassins of the air had chosen shrewdly the right moment to strike at Patria's plane. The latter happened to occupy the lover levels of the air alone, at that time; no other machines of Patria's flying corps were at hand; the two which had pursued the first hostile airplane beyond the border were lost to view in the heat haze that yelled the south, their fate a mystery; all others were still in the hangars or delayed by minor circuIn- stances at the aviation field.
 Upon the lonely craft piloted by Pa tria. then, the three Japanese dropped down from their high level with the ferocity of hawks, opening fire with their machine guns as soon as they got within range, and attacking the de- voted biplane from three sides.
 Taken utterly by surprise-with no warning hand upon her arm by way of preface to a hailstorm of bullets Patria did the only possible thing per mitted by the conditions. that is, sought safety in fortnight flight. And. since she was hemmed in on the north, east and west. she was obliged to drive into the south.
 For a few moments she expected each breath to be her last. Bullets whistled and sang between the planes or tore their flimsy surfaces or glanced from twanging struts and cables like sleet through the ribs of coverless umbrella. It seemed nothing short of miraculous that none found lodglnent in either Patria or the observer.
 Then, however, the slightly superior speed of the American engines began to make itself felt. Patria drew slight ly ahead and at the same time tilted the nose of her machine and began to climb. Immediately the firing of the machine guns ceased, and the three Japanese closed in behind and stretch ed out in determined pursuit.
 The four swept away into the south- ern skies like leaves whirling before a squall.
 Climbing steadily, Patria gained the 5,000-foOt level at distance of some miles within the Mexican side of the border, her three pursuers outpaced but undlscouraged lowering in the of- fing like wolves that wait for q winded stag to fall.
 And now fortune chosse to favor the American for little. Out of the haze in the south a fifth aircraft was ap- preaching. For some time in doubt as to whether it was another enemy craft or possibly an American survivor of that triangular duel which had result ed from the first air skirmish of the day, Patria was quickly able to recog- nize certain peculiarities of construc- ton which unmistakably identified the newcomer as one of her own corps.
 There was, however. no way of tell ing how it was manned, whether by its original crew or by the Japanese who might have captured the plane. But all doubts as to this were soon set at rest by the action of one of PatIia's pursuers in abandoning his first ob- jective and sweeping off at tangent to engage the stranger-who cheerful ly greeted this new antagonist with a whitening blast of machine-gun fire.
 Circling warily, like prizefghters sparring for an opening, splitting fire and hatred, the two were temporarily forgotten by Patria, who had pressing personal matters demanding instant attention.