Posted As Missing

Chapter Twenty-One

The sun had dried much of the sandstone slab by the time they rolled out of bed and dressed. "The pools will probably not rewarm enough today to be comfortable," David said as he looked across at them "The hail and the snow will have chilled them too much."

Maria and Rachel walked with him to the brink of the slab and looked down to the slopes below. "Still snow on the ground between the trees and on the shaded branches," he said. "It'll be slippery going for a while yet. Even if Fritz had left, it wouldn't make sense for us to continue in these conditions."

"It's started again." Maria pointed up the slopes. "The flying machine's engine has started."

The engine ran slowly for a while, then increased rapidly in both pitch and noise. "It's going back up into the air," Maria said. "They bounce along the field, gradually picking up speed, then their wings lift them off the ground. They seem so terribly fragile."

The three stood listening to the steady racket of the engine, then they heard it stutter, miss a beat, resume for a moment. There was a loud bang, a brief squeal of metal on metal, then silence.

"I know that sound," David said. "That's similar to the one Dad's motorcar made when a connecting rod let go. What a twist of metal we found when we removed the oil pan."

They listened. Heard nothing. They looked at each other, then up past the tops of the cliffs. There was nothing but clear, blue sky and complete silence except for the splash of the waterfall across from them, the gurgle of the stream and the murmur of the cascade below.

"It's going to come back down. Without the engine, there's nothing to hold it up except the air moving past its wings," he said. "The only way to keep the air passing over the wings to keep it flying without power, is to descend."

"Three weeks ago, in early April, I watched one lose its power as it was taking to the air," Maria said. "It started to turn to head back to the field, but fell sideways into..."

She stopped at the sharp snap above them. It was quickly followed by another, some twangs, the sounds of breaking trees, ripping cloth and a loud, dull thud. Then there was silence.

"That sounded rather close." He looked up at the cliffs "Can't be more than a hundred yards across there." He pointed up to the right. "Fritz is going to come back this way again, I'm afraid."

"It's on our safe side, fortunately," Rachel said.

They continued to stare up at the cliff tops. David walked out to the brink and looked from there. "Still can't see anything above the rocks from here except the ends of a few branches." Then he saw a billow of black smoke wafting across in the gentle easterly breeze, and he caught its acrid smell.

"It's afire. Smells like burning gasoline," he said as he moved back in from the brink. "Good thing the forest is wet from last night's storm. It had been dry until that. This would have rapidly spread yesterday."

"Dowsed with gasoline, it'll set trees ablaze," Rachel added. "We're fortunate there's such a light breeze. The mountains are clearly visible from home, and we've watched how quickly a fire spreads up here. Also on the slopes of the Vosges across in Elsass."

They watched the billow of smoke change from black to grey. "Looks as if the trees are now burning," Maria said.

"I wonder how far back it is from the cliff tops. I can see a few sparks now in the smoke." He looked at the oiled canvas. "It might be a good idea to pack up our things, move them to the other side, across the stream. Keep them farther away from falling embers. Let's do that." He turned toward the camp.