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{{frabfp061.png}} || eagles of the sky ||

the hearts of every man on board both boats as
they felt that terrible, unseen agency stabbing at
their eyes and making the stoutest writhe with
agony and alarm, thinking they must be doomed.

Jack could easily comprehend why they should
be demoralized under the prevailing conditions--there
had been enough excitement in the
air to start with when the hijacker crowd boarded
the rum-runner and joined issues with the crews
of the two allied boats but when from out of the
skies there descended a swooping monster, apparently
about to fall upon them as might a stray
meteor from unlimited space in the firmament,
and that strange, racking pain gripped their
eyes, nothing but panic could describe their condition
with any degree of accuracy.

But one element was now lacking in the dreadful
turmoil--Perk could no longer detect the
quick percussion of blows, as fists and clubbed
firearms clashed against human bodies backed by
a fierce anger that had been fanned into a blaze
by injuries received and a sense of impending
victory, with the spoils in sight.

Apparently every man among them was thinking
of nothing save his own individual sufferings
and terror--unable to see with any degree of certainty,
they must be staggering this way and that,
colliding with each other and then one by one
either falling into the water or else jumping

[[61]]

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