He let the machine drop a little until it was only six or seven hundred yards above the earth, and took wary glances from side to side.

He feared another pursuer, but the air seemed clear.
Lannes had sunk a little further forward.

John saw that the bleeding from his head had ceased.

There was a dark stain down either cheek, but it was drying there, and as Lannes had foreseen, his hair and the cap had acted as a bandage, at last checking the flow effectively.
His breathing was heavy and jerky, but John believed that he would revive before long.

It was not possible that one so vital as Lannes, so eager for great action, could die thus.
Now he looked ahead.