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diff --git a/31312.txt b/31312.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..35952af --- /dev/null +++ b/31312.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5683 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Air Service Boys Over The Enemy's Lines, by +Charles Amory Beach + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Air Service Boys Over The Enemy's Lines + The German Spy's Secret + +Author: Charles Amory Beach + +Illustrator: Robert Gaston Herbert + +Release Date: February 17, 2010 [EBook #31312] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AIR SERVICE BOYS OVER ENEMY LINES *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: THE DUEL IN MIDAIR.] + + + + +AIR SERVICE BOYS OVER THE ENEMY'S LINES + +OR + +THE GERMAN SPY'S SECRET + +BY + +CHARLES AMORY BEACH + +Author of "Air Service Boys Flying for France" + +ILLUSTRATED BY + +ROBERT GASTON HERBERT + +THE WORLD SYNDICATE PUBLISHING CO. + +CLEVELAND, O. NEW YORK, N.Y. + + + + +Copyright, 1919, BY + +GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY + +Printed in the United States of America + +by + +THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO. + +CLEVELAND, O. + + + + +AIR SERVICE BOYS OVER THE ENEMY LINES + +CONTENTS + Chapter Page + I. Back of the Trenches 1 + II. The Winged Messenger 10 + III. A Spy Baffled 19 + IV. Praise From the General 27 + V. The Strange Warning 35 + VI. Looking Backward 45 + VII. The Great Day Arrives 53 + VIII. Over the Enemy's Lines 61 + IX. Winning His Spurs 70 + X. After the Battle 78 + XI. A Show on the Front 85 + XII. Clowns on the Wing 94 + XIII. More Work in Prospect 103 + XIV. Off on a Daring Mission 113 + XV. The Moonlight Flight 120 + XVI. Landing Close To Metz 129 + XVII. More Trouble for the Chums 137 + XVIII. The Lone House by the Roadside 144 + XIX. A Nest of Spies 153 + XX. Jack Climbs a Wall 162 + XXI. In the Old Lorraine Chateau 171 + XXII. Facing More Difficulties 181 + XXIII. Left Behind in the Enemy's Country 191 + XXIV. Troublous Times for Jack 200 + XXV. Back to Safety--Conclusion 208 + + + + +AIR SERVICE BOYS OVER THE ENEMY'S LINES + + + + +CHAPTER I + +BACK OF THE TRENCHES + + +"Tom, what do you suppose that strange man who looked like a French +peasant, yet wasn't one, could have been up to late yesterday +afternoon?" + +"You mean the fellow discovered near the hangars at the aviation camp, +Jack?" + +"Yes. He seemed to go out of sight like a wreath of smoke does. Why, if +the ground had opened and swallowed him up, once the hue and cry was +raised, he couldn't have vanished quicker. I wonder if what they say +about him can be true?" + +"That he was a German spy? Anything is possible in war times." + +"I guess you're right there. German secret sympathizers, and spies in +the bargain, seemed to bob up all over the United States before we +crossed the ocean to do our fighting for France as aviators." + +"They certainly were busy bees, Jack, blowing up munition-works, trying +to destroy big railroad bridges so as to cripple traffic with the Allies +over here; burning grain elevators in which France and Great Britain had +big supplies of wheat stored; and even putting bombs aboard ocean liners +that were timed to explode days later, when the boat would be a thousand +miles from land." + +"Over in France here they make short work of spies, I've heard, Tom!" + +"Yes, it's a drumhead court martial and trial. Then, if the man or woman +is found guilty, the spy goes out with a firing squad to the most +convenient stone wall. They never return, Jack." + +"Whee! that sounds like war times, doesn't it? And to think the two of +us are right on the firing line, in the midst of all the scrapping. But, +Tom, tell me, why should a tricky German spy want to hang out around the +aviation field? He could hardly expect to pick up any news there that +would be worth taking across the lines to the headquarters of the Crown +Prince before Verdun." + +"Don't be too sure of that, Jack. Perhaps he might learn of some +contemplated bombing expedition, like that one we went on not so long +ago." And Tom Raymond smiled slightly. + +"They are a mighty clever bunch, those spies," admitted Jack Parmly. + +"Why, Jack, half of the successes of the Kaiser's armies on all fronts, +Russia, France and Rumania, can be laid at the door of his secret +agents. They seem to be everywhere, trying to foment internal troubles, +strikes, and discontent, so that when the Germans strike hard they meet +a divided enemy in front." + +"Well, I certainly wish we had caught that fellow." + +"You were in the crowd, you told me, that scoured the whole neighborhood +in search of him." + +"That's right, I was. But say, he proved too foxy for us all. Anyway, we +failed to find the rascal. Then night came on, when we had to give our +man-hunt over. And to think that I even glimpsed the fellow's face in +the bargain before the alarm went out!" + +"Then you'd know him again perhaps, Jack, if ever you met him?" + +"I think so. Though I suppose these spies have ways of changing their +looks at times. But, to change the subject, Tom, it strikes me neither +of us is groaning under the weight of game so far on our little side +hunt." And Jack Parmly grinned. + +"Oh, I didn't really expect to run across anything, though that French +peasant assured us there were still some rabbits in the burrows over +here, three miles back of our sleeping quarters. That's why, with a day +off-duty, I took a notion to borrow an old Belgian-made double-barrel +shotgun he owned, and walk out here." + +"More to stretch our legs and get the kinks out, than anything else, eh, +Tom?" + +"That's it, Jack. Don't you remember that while we were training at the +aviation school at Pau we used often to walk from the town, eight miles +distant, until we sighted that famous little old red barn at Pau, where +the Wright Brothers conducted some of their experiments in flying +heavier-than-air machines. That was some little hike." + +"Then too, Tom, I guess we wanted to get together by ourselves for a +change, so we could talk about our folks at home in little old +Bridgeton, U. S. A.," went on Jack Parmly with a sigh. "All the fellows +of the Lafayette Escadrille are mighty kind and sociable, but there are +times when a fellow gets homesick. Just remember that we have been over +here many months now. It seems years to me, Tom." + +"Say, I hope you are not homesick enough to want to go back, old +fellow?" + +"Not me, Tom. I made up my mind to stick it out until we whip the +Kaiser. But already I can see it'll never be an accomplished fact until +Uncle Sam throws his sword into the scales. And any day now something +may drop." + +"Yes, matters are at an acute stage in Washington, that's sure. All +France, bled nearly white in two-and-a-half years of war, is praying +that the day may come soon." + +After that the two athletic looking young Americans, dressed in the +uniform of the French aviation corps, fell silent for a brief time. +They, however, continued to trudge over the devastated fields, looking +this way and that for any sign of a stray rabbit that had escaped the +general slaughter. + +It was just previous to the world-stirring session of Congress, when the +President made his thrilling speech that sounded almost from end to end +of the world, and put America in line for the cause of democracy. +Anxious days those were across the ocean, anxious not only in France, +Italy and Great Britain, in Serbia, Rumania, Greece and Russia, but in +the Central Empires, also. + +For well did those in Teutonic authority know, in spite of their vain +boasting, that once great America decided, the thing was bound to be +done, sooner or later. Never in the course of her history has our +republic been on a losing side. Her wars have invariably brought +eventual victory to her arms, because she has never once fought for an +unjust cause. + +These two vigorous young fellows were fair samples of those enterprising +Americans who found it impossible to sit idly by. They could not await +the slow course of events that was bound to carry our country into the +world war on the side of the Allies, in spite of all the powerful +counter currents among the pro-German citizens at home. + +Dozens of the brightest of flying men from the States had gone over and +offered their services to France, the country they loved. In time there +came to be so many, that from the ordinary French Flying Corps there was +formed a unit entirely made up of Americans. + +This, in honor of the one great Frenchman whom Americans most honor at +home, was called the Lafayette Escadrille. Some of its members had +become famous at their profession. Names like those of Lufbery, Thaw, +McConnell, Chapman, Prince, Rockwell, Hill, Rumsey, Johnson, Balsley and +others became household words among readers of the great dailies in the +States. + +Tom Raymond was the son of a man who had gained fame as an inventor. +When the war broke out he started work on numerous inventions, some of +which were calculated to become terrible agents for the destruction of +human life. Then Mr. Raymond's mood changed, and he set to work to +conceive a wonderful stabilizer for airplane use that would save myriads +of lives, and if adopted by Uncle Sam was likely to help win the war for +the Allies. + +Just when this invention was finished a drawing of one of the parts was +stolen by a German spy. Later on, after Tom and his chum, Jack Parmly +had decided to become war aviators, having already had considerable +aviation experience, they went to the flying school conducted by the +Government in Virginia. + +From there in course of time they crossed the Atlantic and entered the +famous French school at Pau. Then, having mastered the science of flying +sufficiently to be sent to the front, they had joined the Lafayette +Escadrille, as related in a previous volume entitled "Air Service Boys +Flying for France; or The Young Heroes of the Lafayette Escadrille." + +Tom in particular seemed to have a great career ahead of him, unless +some unfortunate accident, or possibly a Teuton pilot, cut it short, as +had happened in the cases of Rockwell, Prince, McConnell and Chapman. +Every one knew he possessed genius of a high order, and that it would +not be long before Tom Raymond might anticipate gaining the proud title +of "_ace_," which would indicate that he had defeated five enemies +at different times, and put them entirely out of the running. + +Tom was already a corporal in the French service, and expected before a +great while to be given the privilege of wearing the chevrons of a +sergeant. Jack had not progressed so rapidly but was doing well. + +And now to return to the young aviators during their walk. + +"I reckon we've gone far enough, Jack," Tom remarked presently. "Our +friend Jean may have been telling the truth when he said there were +still a few bunnies left alive in this war-racked section of country, +but I can see they've got the good sense to stick to their burrows +during the daytime. We won't be burdened with our bag of game on the +return trip." + +"Yes, that's always the trouble, when you go out after rabbits and +haven't any hound along to get them up and bring them within gunshot," +grumbled Jack. + +"But we've had a good walk," returned his companion; "and for a time we +managed to get away from that terrible explosion of shells, and big-gun +firing. We ought to be thankful for our little time off, Jack." + +"Oh! I'm not really complaining," remarked the other young aviator, with +a whimsical expression on his good-natured face. "But don't you know I +hate to go back without having fired even one shot." He stopped short +and pointed upward. "Hold on, Tom; there's some kind of bird going to +pass over right now! Crow or anything, please bring it down! I'll +promise to eat it, no matter what it is." + +Laughingly Tom threw the gun up to his shoulder, and the next instant +the report sounded. It seemed almost contemptible, after listening to +the roar of those monster shells exploding for so long. + +The bird fell fluttering in a heap. Tom evidently was a fair marksman, +for it had been moving swiftly over their heads at the time he fired. +Jack ran forward and picked the game up. As he did so he gave utterance +to exclamations that naturally excited the curiosity of his chum. So +Tom, after reloading his gun with a fresh shell, waited for Jack to +rejoin him, which the other did, his face full of mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE WINGED MESSENGER + + +"What do you call this, Tom? A queer sort of crow, I'd say. Looks more +to me like the blue-rock pigeons Sam Becker used to raise at home," and +so saying Jack held up the still quivering bunch of feathers. + +Tom took one quick look, and then a startled expression flitted across +his face. + +"Just what it is, Jack!" he hastened to say. "A homing pigeon in the +bargain! You can tell that from the bill and the ring around the eyes." + +Jack in turn became aroused. + +"A homing pigeon, is it?" he ejaculated. "Why, birds like that are used +for carrying messages across the lines! Some of our airplane pilots have +told me that sometimes they take a French spy far back of the German +front. When he had made an important discovery he would write a message +in cipher, enclose it in a tiny waterproof capsule attached to a ring +about the pigeon's leg, and set the bird free. Inside of half an hour it +would be safe back in its loft, and the message on the way to French +headquarters." + +He lifted one limp leg, and then the other. + +"Look here, it's got a message, as sure as anything!" Jack exclaimed. + +Tom leaned forward and took the bird in his hand, dropping the gun +meanwhile. He carefully took off the gelatine capsule, and from it +extracted a delicate piece of tough paper, which he spread open. There +were a series of strange marks on the paper, of which neither of the air +service boys could make anything. + +"Looks like hieroglyphics, such as you'd expect to find on an Egyptian +tomb or in the burial places under the pyramids," complained Jack, after +he had stared at the lines in disgust for a brief period of time. + +"It's a cipher of some kind," explained Tom, seriously. "With the key +all this would resolve itself into some sort of communication, I +suppose, connected with valuable information concerning the French +armies here at Verdun." + +"Then it was made by a spy!" + +"No question about that part of it," came the ready reply. + +"This carrier pigeon with this message, was on its way across to some +point in the rear of the enemy line when you fired, and brought the poor +little thing down in a quivering heap, I'm sure that's it," continued +the other. + +"Yes. And so after all it's turned out to be a lucky thing you chanced +to see the bird coming along, Jack, and begged me to knock it down so we +could show some sort of game when we got back to camp." + +"What ought we do with this message?" asked Jack, accustomed to +depending on his more energetic chum in many cases; though when left to +his own resources he could think for himself, as had frequently been +proved. + +"I shall see that it gets to French headquarters, with an account of the +singular way we ran across it," Tom told him. + +"Do you think it would be possible for any one there to translate this +cipher of the German secret code?" + +"Why not?" Tom demanded. "They are clever people, these wideawake +French, and I shouldn't be at all surprised if they turned this incident +to some good use." + +"How?" + +"Oh, it could be done in many ways. Suppose they found the key to the +code. Don't you see how a fictitious message could be sent on in some +way, if they could bag another pigeon from the same coop? They might +even coax the Germans to deliver a furious attack at a supposed weak +place in the line, which would of course be heavily guarded." + +"That would be something worth while!" exclaimed the other with glowing +eyes. "Lead them into a trap, where they would be mowed down like ripe +grain, terrible as that sounds!" + +"Yes, that's the idea I had in mind. But it would depend on several +things. First of all would come the successful solving of this cipher +code." + +"Yes, and then the finding of another homing pigeon," added Jack. "I +wonder if the fellow who released that bird could have a lot more of the +same kind hidden away somewhere around back here." + +"I was just going to suggest that we take a turn toward the south, and +look around a bit before going back to camp. Do you feel equal to it, +Jack?" + +"What, me! Tom? Why, I'm as fresh as a daisy! This business has made me +forget there's such a thing as getting tired walking." + +"Let's see, we stood here when I fired," continued Tom reflectively, +"and you walked straight to where the bird dropped. That would make the +direction due northwest by southeast. How about that, Jack?" + +The other took a survey, and then pointed with his hand. + +"When I saw the bird coming first of all, Tom," he finally remarked, "it +was just showing up over that clump of trees killed by gunfire. And it +was heading as straight as can be for us." + +"Yes," Tom went on to say, "because a homing pigeon on being released +will rise to a certain height and take its bearings. Then it starts in a +bee-line for its loft, whether that is five miles away or hundreds of +miles. Some peculiar instinct tells it in which way home lies. It seldom +if ever goes astray. Sometimes birds have made a thousand miles, and +shown up at their home coop days after being set free." + +"Well, then, the man who threw it into the air, after fastening this +cipher message to it, must be over to the southeast of us," affirmed +Jack. + +"The bird was released within five minutes or so of the time I fired," +Tom told his chum. "It's even possible the spy may have heard the report +of my gun." + +"Tom, why not try to capture that spy?" asked Jack, eagerly, ready for +any sort of excitement. + +The young aviators started off, walking briskly. They kept their eyes +alertly open as they proceeded. At the same time, on Tom's suggestion, +they continued to act as though still looking for game, even +investigating at a burrow that certainly was used by rabbits, as the +tracks plainly indicated. + +Tom never deviated from a direct line due southeast. He knew that their +best chance of making a valuable discovery lay in finding the place +where the carrier pigeon had been released, to fly across the lines to +its home loft. This might be many miles to the rear of the fighting +front, even on Lorraine territory, in the neighborhood of the fortified +city of Metz itself. + +The two passed over a mile without making any sort of discovery, Jack, +who did not possess quite as determined a nature as his comrade, was +already commencing to make certain sounds akin to complainings, as +though he felt keenly disgruntled because of their lack of success. + +"Guess we'll have to give it up, Tom," he finally remarked. + +"Wait," said Tom. "Before doing that let's investigate that old +shattered farmhouse over yonder." + +"Hello!" exclaimed Jack, plucking up some fresh interest, "have you +located one of those remains of a building, then? I was coming to +believe there wasn't so much as a broken wall left standing for a space +of five square miles, so complete has been the destruction. But I see +what you mean, Tom." + +They walked ahead again, and approached the ruined farmhouse. It had +been riddled through and through by shot and shell. Three-fourths of the +original building lay in piles, the stones heaped up as they had fallen. + +"Queer, isn't it, that the kitchen part escaped the smashing fire, and +still stands," observed Jack. "I warrant you this is the only part of a +building left around here. Tom, would our spy be likely to take up his +headquarters in such a place as this, do you think?" + +"I don't know," came the answer. "We can soon find out." + +"He might feel desperate enough to open fire on us," suggested Jack, +though he did not shrink or hold back when Tom advanced; for Jack Parmly +did not have a drop of cowardly blood in his veins. + +Tom turned and waved his hand as though beckoning to others who might be +coming after them. He even called out in his best French, as if there +were a dozen back of him, that there was a possibility of securing at +least a drink of cold water at the old-fashioned well with a sweep that +stood near the kitchen of the ruined farmhouse. + +"Good idea, Tom!" commented the other, chuckling with amusement. "If he +gets the notion in his head that we are legion he won't be so apt to +blaze away at us, knowing it would mean a short shrift for him. He may +prefer to play the poor French peasant part, and try to pull the wool +over our eyes." + +Presently they arrived at the door. It was hanging from one hinge, and +the entire place presented a vivid picture of the utter desolation cruel +war always brings in its train. + +Tom's first act before entering was to look down at the ground just +before the door. Some intuition told him that if the place had been +recently occupied they would possibly find some evidences of the fact in +the earth. + +"See there, Jack!" he suddenly exclaimed, as he pointed down close to +his feet. "Fresh tracks, and made by a man's shoes in the bargain!" + +"Some one has been in here for a fact, Tom, and I wouldn't be afraid to +wager he saw us coming and cleared out in a hurry. He could have skirted +those bushes, and got clear easy enough. Do you think it could have been +the same chap who freed that pigeon?" + +"No doubt about it," and Tom, stooping, picked up some small object. +"See, here's a feather that was sticking to that dead weed. It's from a +bird of the same color as the pigeon, perhaps from the very one I've got +in my pocket." + +"That settles it," snapped the pleased Jack. "I must say you're a clever +hand at finding these things out. I'd have never dreamed of looking down +at my feet, but blundered right into the shack to see if----Oh! What do +you think of the luck we're in this day, Tom? See what stands there on +that poor old three-legged table!" + +Jack's excitement was natural, as Tom readily understood when he looked; +for there was a small basket or cage made from oziers or willow wands; +and inside this they could see two blue gray homing pigeons, mates to +the one Tom had shot only a short time before! + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A SPY BAFFLED + + +Both young aviators stared at the wicker cage containing the two +pigeons. The birds had been still up to then, but now commenced to make +cooing sounds, as though pleased at having human company. Apparently +they were inclined to be sociable, as Jack afterwards put it. + +"So he discovered us coming along," Jack went on to say, "and skipped +out in such a hurry he didn't have time to carry away the cage with +him." + +"He must have climbed out of this window in the side of the wall," +observed Tom. "We could have seen him if he had used the door. Yes, +there are footprints underneath the window. He ran down behind those +bushes and reached the stone wall that leads to the broken country and +what is left of the woods." + +"The chances are he had all that mapped out beforehand," suggested Jack. +"Surely a spy has always to keep a door open for retreat." + +"Yes. Why not? They take their lives in their hands every time they +enter the hostile lines, and you can't blame a man for wanting to live a +little longer, especially if he believes he can serve his country." + +"Perhaps he hasn't got such a good start but that we could overtake him +if we went after him now," suggested Jack. + +"We might take a turn that way," his chum agreed. "But not too far +afield. We didn't start out to search for spies, and we've only got a +single gun between us. Even my automatic was left behind, because I +didn't expect to have any use for it, and get tired carrying the thing, +with its belt." + +"But these pigeons here, Tom?" + +"We can leave them until we get back. That's one reason why I don't want +to get out of sight of the place. He might make a round, and carry the +birds away while we were engaged in a hunt half a mile off. And it may +be of much more importance that those live birds arrive in the French +camp than that we should bag the spy." + +"I get you, Tom; so let's commence our little man-hunt right away." + +The two friends set off. Tom tried to follow the course he believed the +spy must have taken on quitting the old farmhouse ruins. That his +reckoning was clear he proved several times by pointing out to his +companion plain evidences that some other person had passed along the +way before them. + +Here the marks of shoes could be detected in the soft earth. A little +further on, and at a point where the man must have crawled in order to +keep from being seen, they found tracks where his toes had dragged +along, as well as the indentation of his knees in the soil. + +Presently they arrived at the terminus of the stone wall, about the only +thing remaining intact connected with the French farm. There was not a +single tree showing signs of life in that patch of sombre forest; where +shell-fire had failed to do the work of destruction a malicious hand had +girdled the trunk with a keen-edged tool, and thus encompassed the doom +of the trees. + +Tom came to a pause. + +"I reckon we've come far enough," he said, taking a look over toward the +fragment of a house on the slight elevation, which could just be seen +from their present position. + +"I'd have liked to catch up with that duck and march him back to camp, +along with his feathered messengers," Jack grumbled disappointedly. +"Somehow I hate and despise a spy above all created things." + +The youths set their faces once more in the direction of the ruins, +where they soon arrived. Jack half feared that in spite of them the cage +and its feathered inmates had been spirited away. He hastened inside +ahead of his companion and then called out cheerily: + +"It's all right, Tom, and nobody at home. Here's the wicker cage and the +pigeons, just as we left them!" + +"As the afternoon is passing, and we have a long distance to go, we'd +better be making a start," Tom remarked, when he reached the open door. + +"Let me carry the pigeon cage, Tom, as you have the gun," suggested +Jack, after slipping his hand through the ring at the top. "Say, perhaps +the boys won't give us a laugh, to see what queer game we've brought +back from our hunt!" + +They left the ruins of the once peaceful farmhouse behind them, and +commenced retracing their steps. Tom was too old a hand at hunting to +get lost. He had kept his bearings through the whole tramp, no matter +how many turns they took in examining some promising ground where rabbit +burrows might be found. On this account then he would have no difficulty +whatever in leading his comrade straight back to the villa in which the +entire Lafayette Escadrille of American fliers was quartered. + +They were passing along about half a mile from the wrecked farmhouse +kitchen, and not far from the spot where Tom made his successful shot, +when without warning the report of a gun came to their ears. Jack +involuntarily ducked his head. + +"Say, did you hear that whining sound just over us, Tom? That was caused +by a bullet skipping past!" + +Tom for answer dragged his chum down behind a fringe of dead bushes that +chanced to lie close by. + +"It was a bullet, all right, Jack," he replied, not without a tremor in +his voice, for this thing of being made a target by some murderous +unseen person was a new and novel experience. + +"Do you suppose it was fired by the man who owns these pigeons?" further +questioned Jack, though showing no intention of loosening his grip on +the wicker cage. + +"It could hardly be any one else. He has dogged us this far, or else +just happened to catch sight of us. That shot was fired from a distance, +and if we take a notion to run he couldn't possibly hit us. But we might +as well make use of this fringe of bushes to creep some way off. Then +we'll get on our feet and put out for home at full speed." + +This they proceeded to do without further delay. When it was no longer +possible to utilize the bushes for cover, they sprang to their feet and +ran. Jack fully anticipated hearing other shots--yes, and perhaps having +more leaden missiles singing their vicious songs about his head. But he +was agreeably disappointed in his expectations, for not a report came. + +Evidently the spy had gone away, thinking discretion the better part of +valor. He may have noticed that they were in uniform, and armed in the +bargain. + +Later on the air service boys moderated their mad pace, and as there +seemed to be no further signs of danger they finally fell into a walk. +Still neither of them lagged, but kept up a brisk pace, Jack casting +numerous apprehensive glances over his shoulder, haunted by a lingering +suspicion that the spy might yet give them trouble. + +They came through safely at last. The villa in which the American fliers +were quartered was reached, and seemed to be deserted at that hour in +the afternoon. Everybody must be busy at the front, the boys concluded, +for the din was more distracting than usual. + +"We picked out a bad day for getting off, I'm afraid, Tom," Jack sighed. +"They told us there was nothing big in prospect; but since we started +out on our hunt I guess the Huns have put up something of size. And the +boys will be in the thick of it all too! We might have had a share if +we'd been on duty to-day." + +"Brace up, Jack," chided his chum. "For all you know, what we've done +may turn out to be ten times more important than all the work of the +entire escadrille to-day. These captured birds and that cipher message, +represent possibilities beyond anything you or I can know. Leave all +that to the general." + +"When do you mean to see him, Tom?" + +"As soon as I can arrange it. And you're coming with me when I get the +summons to his headquarters, depend on that, Jack. Your part in this +affair is just as important as mine." + +Tom put the cage with its cooing inmates in their room. Then he started +out to try to get into communication with the commanding general. He had +met him once by mere chance, but he hardly believed General Petain would +remember him in the least. + +The action was about over for the day. The Crown Prince had once again +thrown a heavy storming party forward in the endeavor to make a breach +in the French lines, through which he could pour the veteran reserves he +had in waiting. But, as had often happened before, he counted without +his host; and when the sun went down all he had to show for his stroke +was a greatly increased casualty list. + +The French could not be moved. + +Tom understood how to go about it, and in the end managed to get an +obliging French captain whom he knew very well, to carry a message to +the commander-in-chief to the effect that he had news of great +importance to communicate. Just as Tom expected would be the case, this +brought back a speedy answer. + +"You are both to come with me, young Messieurs," said the captain, his +eyes sparkling with interest, for Tom had told him enough to excite his +curiosity, and he knew the Americans would not aimlessly take up the +precious time of the general. "Our valiant commander is tired after a +strenuous day; but never is he too weary to attend to duty; and he +already finds himself interested in everything you brave young airmen +attempt. So please accompany me to headquarters." + +Shortly afterwards the boys found themselves face to face with General +Petain. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PRAISE FROM THE GENERAL + + +General Petain received the pair with his accustomed kindness. He loved +youth, and his eyes sparkled with pleasure as he gave each of them a +hand. + +"My time is limited, I regret to say, my gallant Americans, or I should +gladly ask you all manner of questions concerning your own country. We +are all anxious to know when the great republic across the sea will +decide to cast her decisive influence into the scales to bring us the +victory we await with much patience. Tell me now what this strange thing +is you have come across to-day." + +Tom waited for no second bidding. He realized how tired the general must +be after a strenuous day in keeping his finger on the pulse of the whole +front, where the fierce German attacks had been hurled without success. + +Accordingly he started at once his tale of how they had been given a day +off for rest, and, having a love for hunting in their veins, had +borrowed an old shotgun and started forth. Without wasting any time in +useless descriptions he quickly reached the point where the pigeon was +shot. + +Jack, having nothing to say just then, contented himself with watching +the various shades of expression that flitted across the face of the +commander. At mention of the pigeon his eyes sparkled, and he leaned +forward with an air of expectancy, as though anticipating what would +come next. + +Then, as Tom produced the message written on the thin but tough paper +and handed it to the general the French officer eagerly scanned it. Jack +also noticed that he did not appear disappointed because he could not +immediately read the baffling communication. Of course it would be +written in some secret code; that was to be expected. + +"It is fortunate," remarked the French officer, "that I have on my staff +one who is considered an expert at solving any and every species of +cipher code. He will speedily figure it all out for me, and then we +shall see what news this spy was transmitting to his commander. Please +continue your story, which is very interesting, and in which your part +does you both credit." + +Tom, thus encouraged, went on. He told of their further search for the +mysterious man who had set the homing pigeon free after attaching the +secret message to it. + +When he presently told of coming on the ruined farmhouse, and +discovering the ozier cage containing two additional pigeons, just where +the spy had left them in his hurried flight, the general fairly beamed. + +"It is splendid news you have brought me--you aviators from our sister +republic across the sea," he remarked exultantly, as though already in +his fertile mind he could see great possibilities looming up whereby +those pigeons might be made to serve a purpose. + +The story was soon finished. Tom, of course, thought it necessary to +tell of having been fired on while on their way back to the aviation +post, though no harm had resulted. He did this not for the purpose of +impressing the general with the idea that they had run any great +personal risk, but because it might have some influence on the plans the +officer probably had in mind. + +After all had been told the commander again shook hands with both of the +air service boys. This indicated, as Tom well knew, that he had given +them all the time he could spare and that a dozen important things were +awaiting his attention, so he saluted and turned to depart. + +"This may prove to be a most important thing you have discovered," the +general halted the aviators to say warmly. "The cipher will be solved, +and then, if the facts warrant it, we may have another written that can +be sent forward by one of your birds. You will give them over into the +charge of an officer whom I shall dispatch back with you to your +quarters. That will be convenient, I suppose?" + +Tom hastened to assure him that they had expected just such a thing, and +had hoped that the two captured pigeons might prove the means of leading +the Crown Prince's forces into some sort of trap. + +The general's black eyes snapped on hearing Tom say this. + +"Ah! I see that you too have thought it out!" he exclaimed +enthusiastically. "Some day perhaps you may have command of an army, and +exercise that talent with glorious success. France thanks you." + +Both boys were deeply moved by their brief interview with the busy +commander-in-chief of the French forces. They did not feel any +humiliation at being addressed as "my children," knowing that it was a +term of endearment used freely by officers high in command when +addressing, those in the ranks. In fact, the French army is very much +like a big family, the men loving those they serve under. + +"Well, that job's over," remarked Jack, heaving a sigh of relief when +they were on their way to their quarters, accompanied by a jaunty +captain who, Tom believed, must be a member of the general's staff. + +"I'm glad to have had such a fine opportunity for meeting General +Petain," Tom returned, for the captain at the time was walking a little +in the rear, conversing with a courier who had come running after him, +as if on important business. + +"He was fine, wasn't he, Tom?" + +"Next to Joffre I understand General Petain is the most beloved +commander the army has ever had," replied the other. "I'll always feel +proud that he shook hands so heartily with both of us." + +The air service boys were soon in the automobile that had carried them +to the general's headquarters back of the French lines. Here the captain +joined them, having finished his hasty consultation with the courier. On +the ride to the aviation camp he chatted pleasantly with the young +Americans. He, it appeared, had spent several years attached to the +French Embassy at Washington. + +He asked particularly concerning the feeling of the common people in +America, and what influence the powerful cliques of naturalized but +pro-German citizens were apt to have on the Government. + +Tom was able to assure him that slowly but surely the people of free +America were becoming aroused to the deadly menace of German +imperialism, and that presently--it might come at any day, according to +the latest advices--Congress would assemble to hear a ringing appeal +from the President, urging them to declare war upon the Kaiser, war to +the finish. + +Apparently what the boys said had much in it to comfort the French +captain. He knew only too well how eagerly his wearied nation was +listening to hear just such a message of hope. He knew, also, just what +it would mean for the brave defenders of France. + +In due time the three arrived at the villa, Several of the American +pilots saw the trio leave the car, wondered much what was in the wind +that Tom and Jack should return with a member of General Petain's +personal staff. Their curiosity was considerably heightened when later +they saw the captain come out of the villa carrying a small ozier cage +containing two blue-rock carrier pigeons, and effusively shake hands +with both Tom and Jack, calling out to them as the car moved off: + +"In the name of France and General Petain I thank you for what you have +done this day, my brave Americans!" + +As the chums were about to pass into the building there was a hail. + +"Wait a minute, Jack!" called one of their fellow pilots, hurrying up +with some object in his hand at which the two boys stared with rising +curiosity. "I've got something here for you!" + +"For me?" cried the youth addressed. "I'm ever so much obliged, but it +strikes me I've got beyond the point of playing with a toy balloon; +though honestly now, when I was a kid I used to be pretty fond of +sailing one of 'em at the end of a long string, until it would get away, +and leave me staring up while it climbed toward the clouds." + +"Oh, this one is about past doing any climbing, I should say," replied +the pilot, laughing at Jack's description of his childish woes. "In +fact, it's been out during the night, and the heavy air forced it to +come down. Listen, and I'll tell you a strange story that will make you +believe in fairy tales." + +"Go on then, please," urged Jack. "You've got me all worked up already. +So there's a history attached to this little balloon, is there?" + +"There was _something_ attached to it, something that may mean much +or little to you fellows," came the reply. "This thing was found by a +French dispatch bearer on his way across country. Out of curiosity he +stepped aside to look at the bobbing red object he had noticed among +some bushes in an open field. When he found that it had a paper fastened +to it, which on the outside had an address, he concluded to bring the +whole business along with him. He came here half an hour back inquiring +for Jack Parmly, and on finding you were away at the time left the +balloon and the paper in my charge. Take it, and see what the message +is, Jack!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE STRANGE WARNING + + +"Open it, Jack, and see what the message is," urged Tom, as his chum +stood with the scrap of damp paper held between his fingers, having +allowed the sagging little toy balloon to fall at his feet. + +Jack was thinking just at that moment of the other message his companion +and he had found attached to the homing pigeon. But of course they could +not possibly have any sort of connection! + +He opened the small bit of paper. It had some writing in lead pencil. +Once it had doubtless been plain enough, but the dampness must have +caused it to become faint. Still, Jack could make it out without much +difficulty. This was what he read aloud, so that Tom and the other pilot +could hear: + + "_Look carefully to your planes; examine every part. There is + treachery in the air!_" + +"That's all, fellows," said Jack, much puzzled, as he turned the paper +over and over, looking for some signature. + +"No name attached, Jack?" asked his chum. + +"Nothing whatever to tell who wrote that warning. Here, take a look at +it, Tom. Your eyes may be sharper than mine and see something I've +missed." + +But Tom and the other pilot both failed to throw any light on the matter +after examining the paper thoroughly. They exchanged stares. Then Jack +laughed, a little queerly. + +"This is certainly a mystery," he went on to say, trying to take the +thing as a joke. "Some kind friend sends me a solemn warning, and then +neglects to sign his name. Do you think any of the fellows of the +escadrille could be up to a prank?" + +Tom shook his head. The other pilot also exhibited positive signs of +doubt in connection with such a thing. + +"The boys often have their little jokes, and we are a merry bunch much +of the time, just to change off from the nervous strain we're living +under," the man observed. "But I'm sure not one of them would dream of +doing a thing like this. It would be a mean trick." + +"Then both of you are inclined to believe this warning was meant in all +seriousness, are you?" continued Jack, no longer grinning as before. + +"Yes, I do," Tom instantly announced. "It seems a bit childish, sending +it in such a queer fashion; but then perhaps it was the only way open to +the person. There was one chance in ten that it would be found; but you +know sometimes we can't choose our way of doing things, but must +accommodate ourselves to circumstances. This toy balloon being handy +suggested a possible way of getting the warning to you, Jack." + +"But why me any more than you, Tom, or any other fellow in the +escadrille?" continued Jack, sorely bewildered. + +"That's something we can only guess at," he was told. "Evidently this +person had your name, and knew you were working here with the Lafayette +boys. Try to think of some one you may have done something for to make +him feel grateful to you. Could it have been that boyish-looking German +prisoner we talked with the other day, and for whom you bound up a badly +damaged arm, Jack?" + +"Oh! that boy!" exclaimed the other, and then shook his head. "No, it's +impossible. You see the poor chap could hardly talk halfway decent +English, and I'm sure he never could write my name like this. Besides, +Tom," Jack went on triumphantly, "I never bothered to mention to him +that I had a name. To him I was simply an American flying for France." + +"Anybody else you can think of?" persisted Tom, for it seemed to him +that it meant considerable to try to discover who had sent the message +by such a strange channel. + +Jack pondered. Then all at once he looked up with a light in his eyes. + +"You've thought of something!" exclaimed the other pilot eagerly. + +"Well, it might be possible, although I hardly believe she'd be the one +to go to such trouble. Still, she had children, she told me, at her home +in Lorraine, back of Metz; and this is a child's toy, this little +hot-air balloon." + +"Do you mean that woman you assisted a week or so ago? Mrs. Neumann?" +asked Tom, quickly. + +"Yes, it was only a little thing I was able to do for her, but she +seemed grateful, and said she hoped some day to be in a position to +repay the favor. Then later on I learned she had secured permission to +cross over to the German lines, in order to get to her family. She is a +widow with six children, you know, a native of Lorraine, and caught by +accident in one of the sudden furious rushes of the French, so that she +had been carried back with them when they retreated. At the time she had +been serving as a Red Cross nurse among the Germans. It was on that +account the French allowed her to return to her family. They are very +courteous, these French." + +Tom was listening. He nodded his head as though it seemed promising at +least. + +"Let's figure it out," he mused. "Which way was the wind coming from +last night, do either of you happen to know?" + +"Almost from the north," the other aviator instantly responded. "I +chanced to notice that fact, for other reasons. But then it was almost +still, so the little balloon could not have drifted many miles before +the heavy atmosphere dragged it down until finally it landed in the +field." + +"Well, that settles one thing," asserted Tom. "It came from back of the +German lines, don't you see?" + +"Yes, that seems probable," admitted Jack. + +"Your unknown friend was there at the time," continued Tom, in his +lawyer-like way, following up the trail he had started; "and hence +apparently in a position to know that some sort of plot was being +engineered against one Jack Parmly. Don't ask me why _you_ should +be selected for any rank treachery, because I don't know." + +"And this person, this unknown friend of mine," Jack added, "wishing to +warn me so that I might not meet a bad end to-day, sent out this message +in the hope that it might fall back of our lines and be picked up. Tom, +it makes me have a queer feeling. I almost think I must be asleep and +dreaming." + +"No, it's real enough. We may never know who the writer of this note is; +but we can heed the warning just the same, and go over to examine our +planes minutely. Whoever it was, spelled your name correctly. I've +studied the writing, but it seems to be assumed, and clumsy. There was a +reason for that too, as well as the writer failing to sign a name." + +"What sort of reason?" queried Jack. + +"Fear that in some way the message, and the balloon, might fall into +German hands and lead to unpleasant results," Tom continued. "We know +about how those Huns would serve any one who tried to spoil their plans. +They believe in frightfulness every time, and it might mean death to the +writer. This she evidently knew full well." + +"Just why do you say 'she' when you speak of the writer?" + +"Oh, I have an idea that Mrs. Neumann may be the mysterious friend who +is taking such desperate chances to send you a warning. Anyway, +something about it seems to say it isn't a man's handwriting. Besides, +neither of you may have noticed it, but there's a faint odor, as of +perfume, adheres to that bit of paper, though the dampness has taken it +almost all out." + +Jack looked astonished at such shrewd reasoning. + +"Well, you are certainly a wonder at seeing through things, Tom," he +hastened to say. "And so of course that settles it in my mind. Mrs. +Neumann sent this message to me; though how she could have learned that +there was anything treacherous going on beats my powers of reasoning." + +"But don't you think it would pay to learn if there's any truth about it +all?" asked the other pilot, whose curiosity had been stirred up by such +a strange happening. + +"Yes, let's all go over to the hangars and have the planes out for a +regular inspection," said Tom. "If mischief has been done the chances +are it would be in a part not usually examined by the mechanician before +a flight. Then again the damage, if there is any, might be so covered up +by the shrewd schemer that it would not be noticeable." + +There were always cars going to and fro, for pilots came and went from +time to time; so the trio quickly found themselves being whirled along +over the road so often traveled in their daily work. + +"How about that fellow they chased late yesterday afternoon, who was +loitering about the hangars and acting in a suspicious way?" asked the +friendly pilot, as they rode along. "More than a few of the fellows say +he must have been a spy, and up to some mischief, because he slipped off +so slickly." + +"I had him in mind all the while," said Tom. "And if any mischief has +been done, of course we can lay it at his door; though just how he +managed to work we'll perhaps never know." + +"I caught sight of him, too," Jack remarked; "and I only wish now I'd +had a good look at the chap who owned those pigeons to-day, so as to +tell if they were one and the same, which I believe to be a fact." + +Just then Tom gave his chum a kick with the toe of his shoe. This +suddenly reminded Jack that he was treading on forbidden ground, since +they had resolved not to say anything to a third person concerning the +adventure of that afternoon. + +The other member of the escadrille was looking interested. He understood +that Tom and Jack must have met with some singular adventure; but since +they did not see fit to take him into their confidence he was too polite +to ask questions, feeling there must be a good reason for their silence. + +Presently they arrived at the hangars. It was now almost sunset. The +fliers were coming down one by one, their labor for the day having been +accomplished. It had been a pretty arduous day, too, and two members of +the escadrille had new honors coming to them, since they had dropped +enemy planes in full view of tens of thousands of cheering spectators, +after thrilling combats high in the air. + +One had also passed through an experience that few aviators can look +back to. He had started to drop rapidly when, at almost ten thousand +feet altitude, his motor was struck by a missile from a rival pilot's +gun. When halfway down, either through a freak of fortune or some +wonderfully clever manipulation on the part of the pilot, the machine +righted, and he was enabled to volplane to safety, though considerably +bruised and cut up through hasty landing. + +Jack quickly had his little Nieuport out of the hangar, and the three +airmen began a minute inspection. For a short time nothing developed +that had a suspicious appearance. Jack, in fact, was beginning to +believe the warning might after all be in the nature of a fake, or else +the spy had not found a favorable chance to do his foul work before +being frightened off. + +But presently Tom gave utterance to an exclamation. + +"Found anything, Tom?" asked Jack eagerly. + +"Yes. Come around here, both of you!" + +When the others joined Tom he pointed to where an important wire stay +had been dextrously filed so that it must snap under a severe wrench or +strain, such as commonly comes when a pilot is far afield, and wishes to +execute a necessary whirl. + +Jack shivered as he took in the meaning of that partly severed stay. If +it gave way while he was far above the earth it must spell his certain +doom! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +LOOKING BACKWARD + + +"Just see the fiendish cleverness of the fellow who filed that stay!" +Tom cried, as they all stared. "He filled the indentation his sharp file +made with a bit of wax or chewing-gum of the same general color. Why, no +one would ever have noticed the least thing wrong when making the +ordinary examination." + +"Then how did you manage to find it, Tom?" asked Jack, breathing hard, +as he pictured to himself the narrow escape he had had. + +"I suspected something of the kind might be done; so I ran my thumb-nail +down each wire stay," came the answer. "And it turned out just as I +thought." + +"There may be still more places filed in the same way," suggested the +other pilot, looking as black as a thunder-cloud; because such an act +was in his mind the rankest sort of treachery, worthy of only the most +degraded man. + +"We will find them if there are," replied Tom, resolutely. "And when +this thing is known I imagine there'll be a general overhauling of all +the machines on the aviation field. One thing is certain, Jack. You were +playing in great luck when you suggested that we ask for a day off and +then picked out this particular one." + +Jack shrugged his shoulders as he replied: + +"That's right, Tom." + +Nothing could be done just then, with night coming on. Tom talked with +several of the attendants at the hangars, and left it to them to go to +work with the coming of morning. He even showed them how cunningly the +work had been carried out; so they might be on their guard against such +a trick from that time forward. + +Then the three returned to the villa. Others of the members of the +escadrille were in the car with the trio, so the talk was general, +experiences of the day's happenings being narrated, all told in a +careless fashion, as if those young aviators considered all such risks +as part of the ordinary routine of business. + +Later on the news concerning Jack's singular warning, and what came of +it went the rounds. He was asked to show the brief note many times; but +in answer to the questions that came pouring in upon him, Jack could not +say more than he had already said with regard to his suspicions +concerning the probable writer of the message. + +That night Tom and Jack preferred the quiet of their own apartment to +the general sitting-room, where the tired pilots gathered to smoke, +talk, play games, sing, and give their opinions on every topic +imaginable, including scraps of news received in late letters from home +towns across the sea. + +"Do you know, Tom," Jack said unexpectedly; "I'd give something to know +where Bessie Gleason is just at this time. It's strange how often I +think about that young girl. It's just as if something that people call +intuition told me she might be in serious trouble through that +hard-looking guardian of hers, Carl Potzfeldt." + +Tom smiled. + +Bessie Gleason was a very pretty and winsome girl of about twelve years +of age, with whom Jack in particular had been quite "chummy" on the +voyage across the Atlantic, and through the submarine zone, as related +in "Air Service Boys Flying for France." The last he had seen of her was +when she waved her hand to him when leaving the steamer at its English +port. Her stern guardian had contracted a violent dislike for Jack, so +that the two had latterly been compelled to meet only in secret for +little confidential chats. + +"Oh, you've taken to imagining all sorts of terrible things in +connection with pretty Bessie and her cruel guardian. He claimed to be a +Swiss, or a native of Alsace-Lorraine, which was it, Jack?" + +"Uh-huh," murmured Jack Parmly, his thoughts just then far away from Tom +and his question, though fixed on Carl Potzfeldt and his young ward. + +Bessie Gleason was a little American girl, a child of moods, fairylike +in appearance and of a maturity of manner that invariably attracted +those with whom she came in contact. + +Her mother had been lost at sea, and by Mrs. Gleason's will the girl and +her property were left in Potzfeldt's care. Mr. Potzfeldt was taking her +to Europe, and on the steamship she and Jack Parmly had been friends, +and as Potzfeldt's actions were suspicious and, moreover, the girl did +not seem happy with him Jack had been troubled about her. + +"I'm afraid you think too much about Bessie and her troubles, Jack; and +get yourself worked up about things that may never happen to her," Tom +went on after a pause. + +"I knew you'd say that, Tom," the other told him reproachfully. "But I'm +not blaming you for it. However, there are several things Bessie told me +that I haven't mentioned to you before; and they help to make me feel +anxious about her happiness. She's a queer girl, you know, and intensely +patriotic." + +"Yes I noticed that, even if you did monopolize most of her time," +chuckled Tom. + +"How she does hate the Germans, though! And that's what will get her +into trouble I'm afraid, if she and her guardian have managed to get +through the lines in any way, and back to his home town, wherever that +may be." + +"Why should she feel so bitter toward the Kaiser and his people, Jack?" + +"I'll tell you. Her mother was drowned. She was aboard the +_Lusitania_, and was never seen after the sinking. Mr. Potzfeldt +was there too, it seems, but couldn't save Mrs. Gleason, he claims, +though he tried in every way to do so. She was a distant relative of +his, you remember." + +"Then if Bessie knows about her mother's death," Tom went on to say, "I +don't wonder she feels that way toward everything German. I'd hate the +entire race if my mother had been murdered, as those women and children +were, when that torpedo was launched against the great passenger steamer +without any warning." + +"She told me she felt heart-broken because she was far too young to do +anything to assist in the drive against the central empires. You see, +Bessie has great hopes of some day growing tall enough to become a war +nurse. She is deeply interested in the Red Cross; and Tom, would you +believe it, the midget practices regular United States Army standing +exercises in the hope of hastening her growth." + +"I honor the little girl for her ambition," Tom said. "But I'm inclined +to think this war will be long past before she has grown to a suitable +size to enlist among the nurses of the Paris hospitals. And if that Carl +Potzfeldt entertains the sentiments we suspected him of, and is secretly +in sympathy with the Huns, although passing for a neutral, her task will +be rendered doubly hard." + +"That's what makes me feel bad every time I get to thinking of Bessie. +If only we could chance to run across them again I'd like to engineer +some scheme by which she could be taken away from her guardian. For +instance, if only it could be proved that Potzfeldt was in the pay of +the German Government, don't you see he could be stood up against a +wall, and fixed; and then some one would be found able and willing to +take care of the girl." + +Tom laughed again. + +"How nicely you make your arrangements, Jack! Very pleasant outlook for +poor Mr. Potzfeldt, I should say. Why, you hustle him off this earth +just as if he didn't matter thirty cents." + +"It isn't because I'm heartless," expostulated the other hurriedly. "But +I'm sure that dark-faced man is a bad egg. We suspected him of being +hand-in-glove with Adolph Tuessig, the man who stole your father's +invention, and who we knew was a hired German spy over in America. And +from little hints Bessie dropped once in a while I am certain he doesn't +treat her well." + +"Still, we can't do the least thing about it, Jack. If fortune should +ever bring us in contact with that pair again, why then we could perhaps +think up some sort of scheme to help Bessie. Now, I've got something +important to tell you." + +"Something the captain must have said when he was chatting with you in +the mess-room immediately after supper, I guess. At the time I thought +he might be asking you about our adventures of to-day, but then I +noticed that he was doing pretty much all the talking. What is on the +carpet for us now?" + +"We're going to be given our chance at last, Jack!" + +"Do you mean to fly with the fighting escadrille, and meet German pilots +in a life and death battle up among the clouds?" asked Jack, in a voice +that had a tinge of awe about it; for he had often dreamed of such +honors coming to him; but the realization still seemed afar off. + +"That is what we are promised," his chum assured him. "Of course our +education is not yet complete; but we have shown such progress that, as +there is need of additional pilots able to meet the Fokker planes while +a raid is in progress, we are to be given a showing." + +"I'll not sleep much to-night for thinking of it," declared Jack. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GREAT DAY ARRIVES + + +By the time the pilots of the American escadrille began to assemble on +the field where the airplane hangars were clustered, (these being more +or less camouflaged by means of paint cleverly applied to represent the +earth), the news concerning the air service boys' narrow escape had +become generally known. + +Great was the indignation expressed by all. Up to this time there had +appeared to be considerable honor exhibited among-the flying men on both +sides. In fact many curious little courtesies had been exchanged that +seemed to put the aviation service on a plane of its own. + +One thing was certain. After that there would be no taking things for +granted. Each pilot meant to satisfy himself as best he could that his +plane was in perfect order before risking his life in the upper +currents. + +Jack was besieged for a full account of the matter. He, being an +obliging person, gladly told everything he knew. Naturally the mystery +attached to the discovery of the message of warning tied to the poor +little partly collapsed child's balloon aroused considerable curiosity +and speculation among the aviators. + +The way some of them pumped Jack made him laugh; but he assured them he +was just about as "deep in the mud as they were in the mire." + +"I've told you all about the woman named Mrs. Neumann," he repeated for +the tenth time. "And she's the only one I can think of who would be apt +to care a cent whether Jack Parmly happened to be alive or dead. If +anybody can give a better guess I'd like to hear it." + +They did considerable "guessing," but after all it became the consensus +of opinion that the grateful Mrs. Neumann was responsible. And so +finally they let it go at that; for the day had begun, and there was an +abundance of work to be accomplished before the sun set again. + +"But this is certain," said one of the leading flyers of the escadrille, +seriously; "if the Boches mean to stop playing fair it's bound to +demoralize the service. Up to now there's been an unwritten set of rules +to the game, which both sides have lived up to. I shall hate to see them +discarded, and brutal methods put in their place." + +Others were of the opinion that there might have been something personal +connected with the attempt to kill Jack, through that shabby trick. The +German spy might have had a private grievance against the youth, they +said, which he meant to pay off in his own dastardly way. + +No matter which turned out to be the truth, it was not pleasant for Jack +to believe he had become an object of hatred to some mysterious prowler, +and that possibly other secret attempts on his life might be made from +time to time. + +That day passed, and another followed. There did not seem to be much +stirring on either side of the line; but such a lull frequently proved +the precursor of some gigantic battle, for which the armies were +preparing. + +Of course, when the wind and weather permitted, there was always plenty +of excitement among the airplane escadrilles. All manner of little +expeditions were organized and carried out. + +Now it was an attempt to get above that string of "sausage" balloons +used for observation purposes only, so that a few well-dropped bombs +might play havoc among them. + +As these were always defended by a force of fighting planes hovering +above, all primed to give battle on the slightest provocation, the +result of these forays was that a number of hotly-contested fights were +"pulled off" high in air. + +One pilot brought down another enemy, and increased his score a peg, +always a matter of pride with a pilot of a fighting plane. And another +of the escadrille had the honor of getting above those observation +balloons before a couple of them could be hastily pulled down. + +Two of his companions engaged the defending Teuton pilots, and fended +them off purposely, in order to permit the raid. The selected man +swooped down like a hawk, passed the Gotha guard, and managed to shoot +his bomb downward with unerring aim. One of the balloons was seen to +burst into flames, and the second must have met with a like fate, since +it was perilously near at the time, though the dense smoke obscured +everything. + +All these things and more did Tom and Jack witness through their glasses +as those two days passed. Tom especially was waiting to have his wish +realized with as much calmness as he could summon. + +"I think it will come to-night, Jack," he told his chum, on the second +afternoon, as they prepared to return to their lodgings. + +"Then you believe there's some big move on tap, and that to-morrow a +battle will be commenced? And all for the possession of some old ruined +fort, perhaps, that is now only a mass of crumpled masonry and debris!" + +"You mustn't forget, Jack, it is the famous name that counts with these +romantic Frenchmen. Douaumont and Vaux mean everything to them, even if +there is nothing but a great mound of stone, mortar and earth to tell +where each fort once stood." + +"Yes, I suppose you're right, Tom; and then again I was forgetting that +the retaking of a prominent position which the Germans had captured +means a heartening of the whole army. I've heard them talking of +Mort-Homme, and Hill Three Hundred and Four, as if those were the most +precious bits of territory in all France." + +"These are sometimes strategic points, you know, keys to a further +advance. But there comes the captain now, and he's got his eye on us, as +sure as you live!" ejaculated Tom, giving a little start, and turning a +shade paler than usual, owing to the excess of his emotions, and the +anticipation of hearing pleasant news. + +The leader of the Lafayette Escadrille smiled as he drew near. He waited +until he could speak without being overheard, for it was not always wise +to shout aloud when dealing with matters in which the High Command had a +deep interest, such as a pending advance movement. + +"It is to-morrow, Raymond," he said quietly, yet with a twinkle in his +eye. + +He had taken a great liking to these daring lads who had already made +such strides toward the goal of becoming "aces" in time, granting that +they lived through the risky period of their apprenticeship. + +"Both?" gasped Jack eagerly. + +The head pilot shook his head in the negative. + +"Sorry to disappoint you, Parmly, but you'll have to wait a bit longer," +he announced, whereat the other's face fell again, though he gulped, and +tried to appear content. "There are several things you must correct +before you can expect to take such chances. We are short a fighting +pilot for to-morrow, and I thought it was time we gave Raymond his +initiation." + +Then as he walked alongside the chums he entered into a minute +description of the duties that would devolve upon Tom in his first time +up to serve as a guardian to the heavier planes acting as "fire-control" +and scouts, or "eyes of the army." + +"Of course you are only to butt in if we are outnumbered," the leader +explained in conclusion. "The experienced and able fliers must take care +of such of the enemy as venture to attack our big machines. Some of +these Boches will be their best men, with records of a dozen or two +machines to their credit. It would be little short of suicide to send a +novice up against them, you understand." + +Tom was ambitious, and would of course be delighted to prove his metal +when opposed by a famous ous "ace;" whose name and reputation had long +made him a terror to the French and British airmen. Nevertheless he +recognized the wisdom of what the captain was telling him, and promised +to restrain his eagerness until given the prearranged signal that his +chance had come. + +It made Tom feel proud to know he had won the good opinion of such a +brave man as the captain, as well as the friendship of those other +gallant souls composing the American squadron of aviators fighting for +France. + +"Still," he said to Jack later on, when they were together in their room +getting into their ordinary street clothes, "it made me feel a bit cheap +when he spoke of my being pitted against just an _ordinary_ pilot, +some fresh hand as anxious as we are to achieve a reputation. At the +same time that's what we must seem to these veterans of scores of air +combats, all of whom have met with the most thrilling adventures again +and again." + +Jack managed to hide his bitter disappointment. He realized that he +would never be in the same class as his more brilliant chum. Tom fitted +for becoming an expert in the line had chosen for his calling. On the +other hand Jack began to believe that he was a little too slow-witted +ever to make a shining success as a fighting aviator, where skill must +be backed by astonishing quickness of mind and body, as well as +_something else_ within the heart that is an inherited birthright. + +"Anyhow," he consoled himself by saying, not aloud, but softly, "I can +be the pilot of a bombing machine, and perhaps in time they'll give me +charge of a plane used as fire-control during the battle. That is as far +up the pole as I ought to aspire to climb. These chaps in the Lafayette +are one and all picked men, the very cream of the entire service." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +OVER THE ENEMY'S LINES + + +"I say, Tom, it looks like a poor day for flying I'm afraid," Jack +called out in the chill of the early dawn the next morning, he having +been the first to get out of bed and step over to the window of their +sleeping room. + +It was of course in the villa placed at the disposal of the escadrille, +many miles back of the first line of trenches. + +Tom, however, did not bother his head about the weather to any +appreciable extent. + +"It's likely to turn out a fair day for work," he told his chum, in his +cheery way, as he followed Jack to the window. "You know that's happened +lots of times. So far we've been lucky enough not to get caught in a +storm while aloft. Yes, I can already see that there isn't going to be a +stiff breeze; and what would a sprinkle of rain amount to?" + +"I suppose the thing has to be pulled off, no matter what the weather +is," mused Jack, as he proceeded to dress, since breakfast had been +ordered at an unusually early hour that morning. + +"Well, the High Command has made all arrangements for a big time. You +know what that means, when tens of thousands of poilus have to be +transferred during the darkness of night, so that the enemy pilots can't +glimpse the movement and give warning? So, unless the skies fall, we are +bound to get busy this morning." + +The air service boys were soon at the hangars, where an animated scene +was taking place. Any one could see that something unusual was about to +take place, because of the numbers of men rushing this way and that, +while motors were popping and machine-guns being tried out so as to be +certain they were in prime condition for service. Scores of +mechanicians, chauffeurs, observers, as well as other helpers, went +about their work of getting "ready for business." + +The air fighters were dressed in their fur-lined union suits, with fur +overcoats, gloves, and caps; for they would soon be soaring to great +heights, where the atmosphere was almost Arctic in its intensity. + +They were examining their automatic pistols, seeing that their airplane +compasses, speed indicators, special airplane clocks, mounted on wire +springs, and altitude barometers were in their proper places and in +working order. Their very lives might depend on a little thing, and no +one could afford to neglect even trifles. + +Every few minutes one of the planes would roll over the surface of the +level ground in front of the long line of hangars. Then, when sufficient +momentum had been attained, it would commence to climb swiftly upward. +Soon the machine would get into spirals like a winding staircase, and +mount toward an altitude of perhaps four thousand feet, there to await +the coming of companion craft before heading toward the battleground, +far distant. + +Jack squeezed the hand of his chum, and gave him one last look. There +was no need of words to tell the deep feelings that gripped his loyal +heart; indeed, Jack was utterly unable to utter a single sentence. + +Then Tom was off. + +He made the ascent with his customary brilliancy, which had won him the +admiration of the entire escadrille. The air seemed to be filled with +various types of planes. Some were already moving off toward the front, +from which came the roar of battle, showing that already the action had +begun by an intense bombardment of a portion of the German trenches +which the French longed to retake. + +Tom spent some little time "knocking around" while awaiting the coming +of those members of the Lafayette Escadrille who were the last to leave +the ground. + +What is twenty or even thirty miles to a pilot in a speedy Neiuport +capable of going two miles a minute when pressed? They could be over the +lines in a very brief time after leaving the aviation camp. + +Tom looked at the scene below him, which was spread out like a gigantic +map. He never wearied of observing it when simply "loafing" up in the +air, as at present. The sun was fairly above the eastern horizon, though +clouds drifted along in scattered masses, and it was as yet impossible +to tell what the day might bring forth. + +Then the last of the squadron arrived, and the signal was given to start +for the front. Away they went with a whirr and a roar, seven strong. +They overtook a number of clumsy two-seaters on the way, observation +planes, bombing machines, or it might be those included in the +"fire-control" units going to relieve some of their kind already doing +their appointed bit in the battle. + +Tom looked far beyond. He could see great oceans of smoke arising that +told of innumerable high explosives bursting, and enormous guns being +discharged. Both sides seemed hard at work, though the French were +certainly sending ten shells to one that came from the forces of the +Crown Prince. This told plainly enough which army expected to do the +attacking that day. + +And yet while all this wonderful panorama of war was spread beneath +them, the seven pilots moving onward in wild-geese formation, with the +captain at the head of the V, they heard nothing of the tumult raging. +In their muffled ears sounded only the loud whirr of the propellers, and +the deafening explosions of the engines. It was almost as noisy as a +boiler shop in full blast. + +The fire-control planes were already sending back their signals, the +observer aboard intently following the course of each monster shell to +note exactly where it landed, and then communicating with the gunners, +so they might correct their faults and make each missile count. + +German pilots were in the air also, sometimes in swarms. Theirs was the +task to attack these heavier machines and try to cripple or destroy +them. + +Of course each one of these machines of the French "relage," or +fire-control, was armed with a quick-firing gun; and there was an +observer aboard, as well as a deft pilot. They carried such a large +assortment of material, consisting among other things of a complete +wireless outfit, that they had to be built with unusually large wings. + +This makes them slow to answer to the call of the pilot; and when +attacked by the more nimble Fokkers they have a hard time to keep from +being shot down. That is why a number of the Nieuports with well known +"aces" in charge, must always be hovering over the fire controls, ready +to fly to their assistance in case they are attacked. + +"Things are surely beginning to happen," murmured Tom. "The Boches seem +to be in an unusually fierce and aggressive humor on this particular +morning." + +The youth was right in this. The Germans had been thrown out of numerous +hard-won positions lately, and this gave them cause for feeling bitterly +toward the French. + +By the time the American unit reached the field of battle, several +furious combats had already taken place with disastrous results. Two of +the enemy machines had been sent down, one of them in flames, after the +pilot had fallen at his post, fairly riddled by the gunfire of the +Frenchman. A birdman had also paid the great debt on the side of +Petain's men. As the score was two against one there seemed no cause for +depression. + +The Americans would not be kept out of the fight for long. No sooner +were three adventurous Teuton pilots seen climbing up to attack the big +fire control machine when Tom's companions dropped down from the +"ceiling" to engage them. + +Tom watched everything as though photographing the thrilling happenings +on his brain forever. He had a greater interest in these things than at +any previous period of his life, for was he not also hovering over that +observation Caudron, upon which the movements of the advancing French +troops depended? At any minute might he not receive the signal from the +captain to attack some fresh Boche, who had climbed high above the +battle lines to join the general scrimmage, or else "get" the big French +machine while its defenders had their hands full with his comrades? + +Had Tom been able to use his binoculars just then, which was out of the +question of course, and look back to where the monster French guns were +firing, he might have noticed various white sheets spread out in +fantastic patterns on the ground, the picture varying every little +while. + +These were used to "talk" with the observer who was sending those +messages from the fire-control plane, telling the gunners just how many +metres their fire was short, long, to the right, or to the left of their +intended objective. + +Then again information was being sent by another observer to the +advancing infantry, warning them of perils that lay in their way, which +might have cost them great and grievous losses if they remained unknown +until the German trap was sprung. + +The morning was advancing. Tom had seen his comrades chase off several +flocks of enemy aircraft that endeavored to interrupt the deadly work of +the observers. As yet his anticipated chance had not come. He was +beginning to feel impatient. Could it be that he must stay there almost +up among the clouds, and only be a "looker-on?" + +How eagerly did his heart throb with renewed hope each time he +discovered signs of another attempt on the part of the enemy pilots to +engineer a raid that might check this observation work. They knew what +it was doing to advance the cause of the battling French; and that, as +often proved to be the case, the airplanes were again the "vigilant eyes +of the army." + +It was well along in the morning when Tom Raymond's time came. The +fighting below had been going on for some time, and from fugitive +glimpses Tom snatched every now and then as he looked down, he had +reason to believe things were moving successfully for the assailants. At +least the French troops occupied a long line of trenches where the +Boches had been in possession at the close of the previous day. + +Yes, there was another burst of ambitious fliers rising to take a +chance. The fact that already seven of their men had been dropped, +several with their planes ablaze, did not deter them; for those German +airmen had often proved their courage and were known as stubborn +fighters. + +Soon another battle below the clouds was in progress. Besides Tom, there +were now only three of the Americans in the air, the remainder having +been driven down, some in trouble of some kind, others to replenish +their supplies. And there were _four_ enemy planes, Tom noticed, +even as he watched the machine of the captain and received the signal to +attack the latest arrival in the enemy squadron. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WINNING HIS SPURS + + +"At last!" + +Those were the expressive words that broke from Tom Raymond's lips when +he saw the commander give him the long-anticipated signal. Tom had +already discovered his intended antagonist. A fourth plane was coming up +quickly. It had held back to await the chance that would be offered when +the three defenders of the fire-control machine were hotly engaged with +the trio of skillful Boche pilots. + +The game was very apparent. It was likewise exceedingly old. The French +commander was too experienced an aviator to be so easily caught. That +was why he had signaled to Tom to take care of the fourth and last +German airman, and guard the important observation plane. + +Tom started down with a rush, just as a hungry hawk might swoop upon a +pigeon it had marked for its intended prey. + +"I've got to make good!" the young aviator told himself. "I've got to +make good!" + +The German pilot saw him coming. He had more than half expected to be +interfered with in his designs; but it would please him first of all to +riddle this ambitious young airman, and his Nieuport, and then to +accomplish his main purpose. + +Now the two were so close that Tom could plainly see the black Maltese +crosses on the wings of the Teuton plane as it tilted in climbing. +Already had the other opened fire on him, for as his motor was silent +during his first long dive Tom could catch the tut-tut-tut of the +rapidly exploding mitrailleuse. + +Somehow this did not unnerve him in the least, as he had feared it +might. Even when he realized that the missiles were cutting holes +through the wings a few feet away he did not grow uneasy. The spirit of +battle had gripped Tom. He was now attaining what had seemed to be the +height of his ambition. He was trying out his mettle against one of the +enemy pilots, a man with considerable more experience than himself, and +therefore well fitted to spur him on to do his level best. + +He could see the pilot crouched in his place, and working his gun with +one hand while he managed some controls of his fleeting machine with the +other, for there was only one man aboard, though German machines usually +hold two. Long practice had made him an adept at this sort of thing, it +seemed. + +But then Tom had been taught the same clever trick down at the French +school of aviation at Pau, and over on the lake at Casso. He was now +about to show whether he had learned his lesson to advantage. It was +French ways pitted against those of the German school. + +Tom tried to aim directly at the foeman as he rushed toward him. Then he +pressed the release hard, and instantly the rapid-fire gun commenced its +staccato barking, as it spit out the bullets. + +Crack! crack! crack! crack! + +Thus the two rivals, rushing at each other like opposing birds of +enormous size, passed and dived, as though ducking to avoid the hot +fire. Tom looked back, hoping to discover the enemy winged and dropping +out of the fight. Nothing of the kind occurred; but on the contrary his +antagonist was sailing on, apparently untouched, at least in any vital +point. + +That meant it must all be tried over again. The second round in the air +duel was about to open. It was impossible to predict what the outcome +might be, but at any rate Tom felt renewed courage and confidence. + +If he had passed through one siege unscathed he believed he could show +considerable improvement the next time. Already had he learned how he +might avoid several little errors of judgment, not much in themselves +possibly; but which tended to interfere with his doing the one thing +necessary--firing point blank into the muffled face of the German pilot. + +Once more were they rushing headlong toward each other. Tom was steadier +now, and more alert. He had his plan of campaign mapped out clearly in +his mind. He had moreover noticed a weak point about the other's method +of attack, of which he intended to take advantage. + +The other three Americans were just as hotly engaged not far away; but +it was a case of every man for himself. Tom counted on receiving no +assistance. Indeed, while that feeling of confidence pulsed through his +veins he would have scorned to call for help, or even to allow it, if he +could prevent such a thing. + +Again the guns opened fire as the two foes advanced with savage fury. +Such a battle in the clouds is on a plane that almost beggars +description. Nothing resembling it has ever been known before in all the +annals of history until the present world war broke out, and the +airplane was perfected as it stands to-day. + +This attack was even more tumultuous than the first had been. The planes +tried dodging, and several tricks were brought to bear on either side; +for it seems that every pilot has his pet theories as to how best to +catch an opponent napping. Everything is fair, once the battle royal has +started and German wit is matched against American, or French. + +Again did they pass each other for a sudden dip. Each feared to be +caught in a condition that would not permit of defense. They looked for +all the world like a couple of agile boxers engaged in a contest, in +which foot-work counted almost as much as that of the fists. + +Around and around they flew, coming back to the attack a third, and even +a fourth time. Tom was beginning to grow impatient. Try as he could, he +did not seem able to bring the other down, though he was almost sure he +had poked his rapid-fire gun straight for the German's face, and when +only a comparatively short distance away. + +"I've got to get him!" he muttered. "Or else he'll get me!" + +He wondered whether there could be anything in what he had heard one old +aviator say, to the effect that he firmly believed some of those Germans +must be wearing armor or suits of mail, since he had poured streams of +missiles straight at them, and without the least appreciable effect. + +The German was getting a bit reckless. No doubt he had anticipated an +easy victory over the other, whom he must have guessed was something of +a beginner at this sort of aerial combat. Tom's agility in avoiding +punishment annoyed him; likewise the way the bullets splashed around him +had a disconcerting effect on his mind. + +This was the fifth dash, and it seemed as though the time had come when +one or the other should win the contest. They were growing more and more +desperate now; the fire of the battle had gone to their heads, and each +must have made up his mind to finish the fight then and there, judging +from the way they headed straight toward one another. At any rate Tom +had determined that he must win, and win without delay. + +Bang! + +Tom realized suddenly that he had been struck, for he felt a sudden +acute twinge. He neither knew nor cared how serious the injury might be, +so long as it did not incapacitate him from serving his machine. And, +best of all, thus far no missile from that popping mitrailleuse of the +German had done serious damage to the vitals of his plane. + +Let the bullets cut holes all they pleased through the linen of the +wings; there would be no splitting, as happens in the case of cotton or +other fabrics; and such tiny apertures do not count for much in +retarding the upholding power of a plane. + +Another dash, and this time Tom felt absolutely certain he had made a +hit. It seemed to him he must have fairly riddled the other pilot, so +close was he when he poured all that torrent of lead aboard his craft. + +They rushed past one another, but Tom took the earliest possible +opportunity to redress, and look back at his foe. A thrill ran through +his entire being as he discovered that the other was in trouble. The +Fokker was descending in erratic spirals, evidently out of control. Man +or machine, perhaps both, had come within the deadly line of fire, and +the fight was over. + +Turning, Tom watched the enemy plane go down. He had a queer, choking +sensation in his throat. Every novice probably feels that when he +watches his first rival heading earthward, with a mile or more to fall +before he strikes. Still, Tom grimly held his feelings in check. A +successful air pilot, especially when he manages a fighting craft, can +not let sentiment get the better of his combative spirit. It is a fair +test of skill and endurance, and as a rule the better man wins the game. +And war must always be an exhibition of cruelty in that human lives are +the stake played for. + +Nevertheless Tom was secretly glad to discover that the plane was being +fairly well guided to earth, showing that the German pilot, though he +had lost his fight, could not have been killed outright, or even +mortally wounded. + +Tom now found a chance to look around, and note what was going on. It +was just then that one of the leading American aviators drove at his +antagonist in a series of zigzag spins that must have bewildered the +German, he never having run up against such tactics before. + +The consequence was the enemy met defeat. Tom knew what was going to +happen as soon as he saw the chief star of the Lafayette Escadrille +start his favorite attack. And ten seconds afterwards a second Teuton +plane was whirling around aimlessly and falling. It turned in its flight +so that its white belly showed plainly just as a fish will in its death +throes. + +But the pilot was game to the finish, and managed in some wonderful +fashion to swing his damaged craft around again, so that when it landed +with a crash it fell bottom-down, and the motor did not come on top of +him. + +Later on Tom learned that the man was badly injured, and made a +prisoner. Eventually he pulled through, though it was reported he would +never be fit for flying again, even if he gained his freedom. + +The other two Germans had retreated, deeming the Americans too strong +for them. And Tom hoped it would be some time before others could muster +up sufficient courage to go aloft, to pit their machines with those of +the members of the Lafayette Escadrille. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +AFTER THE BATTLE + + +During all this turmoil the fire-control plane pilot had kept his +machine at work. While the fighting guard engaged the German, the +observer aboard the larger craft continued to send his signals to the +batteries far in the rear of the French advanced lines; and through the +successful working of the undertaking a number of heavy Teuton guns had +already been silenced. + +Tom now found time to look down, using his glasses for the purpose, +since the air in their immediate vicinity was clear of enemy planes. He +could see something of the battle, though so much smoke lay above the +battleground that it was only when this lifted temporarily that an +occasional fugitive glimpse could be obtained of the earth. + +The French were undoubtedly pushing the Germans well out of their +advance trenches. They had already gone forward far enough to redeem a +fairly wide stretch of territory that had been taken from them at the +time the forces of the Crown Prince made their forward drive, at the +cost of more than a hundred thousand men. + +Tom now felt another twinge in his shoulder. On looking into the matter +he discovered, as he suspected, that he had been wounded. Blood was +showing on his thick fur-lined coat. + +Just then a plane approached him. Tom recognized the mark on the side, +and knew the muffled figure seated in the machine was the commander of +the escadrille. He was coming to ascertain whether the novice had drawn +out of his first combat entirely unscathed. + +He had, in truth, cast many an anxious, fleeting look toward the pair +while Tom was "doing his bit" for France; for after discovering that the +German was an experienced pilot, and a man to be feared, the captain +would gladly have flown to the relief of Tom only that he had his hands +full with the Teuton he had attacked. + +He made motions as he approached at reduced speed. Tom could not hear a +sound save the loud beat of his own motor, but he knew what the other +was asking. + +So he touched his left shoulder with his finger, and held that up to +show that it was reddened. Then the Captain made a quick motion that was +meant for a command. Tom was to go down. There was no necessity for his +remaining aloft longer, now that another had arrived to relieve him from +the post of duty. He ought to call it a day's work, and have his +shoulder attended to. + +Regretfully Tom obeyed. His fighting spirit was aroused, and he would +gladly have accepted a second challenge to combat, had the opportunity +come. He nodded his head to show he understood, and then started back +toward the French lines. + +All this time shrapnel had been bursting here, there and everywhere +underneath them; but no one paid much attention to the shower. Indeed, +shrapnel does not account for as many hostile planes as might be +imagined; since each looks like a fly when ten thousand feet high, and +the surrounding space is so vast. + +So Tom swung past the advance French lines, just as they were making +another forward movement. He could glimpse long lines of poilus +streaming over the shell-hole pitted terrain like ants in army array. +Tom would have been pleased to hover above them for a while, and watch +how those furious fighters rushed the Boches out of their second line +trenches, as though nothing could stay their push. + +Beyond the French barrage fire was falling like a curtain. Tom could +tell this from the constant line of explosions that took place. The +Germans in the second trenches would have no chance of going back +through that deadly hailstorm of shells; they must either die at their +posts, or surrender, he saw. + +So fifteen minutes later Tom dropped to the field, ran his plane up +close to the hangar, and then as a figure dashed wildly toward him, +started to climb wearily from his seat. + +Of course it was Jack. He was wild with delight, and was swinging his +cap above his head with all the animation of a schoolboy. + +"Oh! to think that I saw it all, Tom!" was what he cried, as he seized +the hand of his chum, and squeezed it fiercely, almost crying in his +excitement. + +"You did!" exclaimed the other. "How did that happen, when I had the +glasses aloft with me?" + +"Oh, I borrowed a pair from an obliging French officer. When he +understood that you were my chum, and that it was your first trial at +combat in the air, he gladly accommodated me. They are willing to do +almost anything for us Americans. My heart was up in my throat every +time you rushed at that terrible Boche pilot!" + +"But how could you pick me out at that distance?" demanded Tom +incredulously, for it seemed almost unbelievable. + +"I guessed that our captain would have you hold back when he and the +other two started to meet the rising Germans," said Jack. "You see, I +was wise enough to believe he would want you to butt in only in case a +fourth Boche came along. And when that happened I knew your chance had +come." + +"It was pretty exciting while it lasted," remarked Tom grimly. + +They were soon on the road to the villa, going in one of the cars used +to take the pilots when going to and returning from work. There was a +surgeon at hand, and an examination of Tom's hurt was made. It proved to +be a small matter, though it had bled quite freely. + +"You must take a few days' rest, young M'sieu," the army surgeon told +the young aviator after he had dressed the wound. "It was a narrow +escape, I assure you. Three inches further down, and I would not like to +have answered for your life. But evidently France had further need of +your excellent services. I salute you, M'sieu Raymond, you have this day +done your duty well, and won your spurs." + +The air service boys could not remain quietly at the villa while all +that furor was going on. They wished to be at the hangars, to greet +those who returned, and give the pilots who were sallying forth a last +word of encouragement. + +It was a long day, and full of thrilling happenings. Other battles in +the air occurred along the extended front, and not all of them wound up +in victories for the Allied forces. Some distinguished Teuton "aces" +were flying on that occasion who would not be denied their toll. But the +Lafayette Escadrille lost none of its members, Tom and Jack were glad to +learn. + +Night finally set its pall over the field where all day long the hostile +armies had fought and bled. The French were grimly holding their seized +terrain, and hurling the Germans back again and again. The serried ranks +had pushed forward up to within an hour of sunset; then, apparently +realizing that it was a hopeless task, the Teuton High Command had given +the order to withdraw. + +On the following day the battle was not resumed. The French had their +hands full in strengthening and fortifying their new positions, while +the Germans must have been so severely punished and "shot to pieces" +that they needed time to effect the reorganization of their various +battalions and regiments. + +So several days passed, and nothing out of the ordinary happened, at +least in connection with the two chums. Tom's slight wound was healing +fast, and he was told by the army surgeon that it would be quite safe +for him to go up again at any time now, a fact that pleased the young +aviator immensely. + +"I'm going to make a record for myself," he told his chum. + +"You're the fellow to do it," answered Jack. "Wish I was in your shoes." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A SHOW ON THE FRONT + + +While the fighting on the Verdun front was furious at times, with +prolonged spasms when the Germans seemed determined to recover the +territory they had lost to the French, there were also periods of almost +total calm. + +During these quiet periods the members of the American escadrille were +sometimes hard pushed for ways in which to pass the time away, and amuse +themselves. Inaction fretted most of them, since they were endowed with +that restless spirit which seems to be the inherent trait of most +Americans. + +Many were the expedients tried by means of which some amusement might be +extracted from life. Their daily business was so exciting that these +slumps left the aviators nervous and unhappy. It was like the sailor +who, bowling along under full pressure of canvas for weeks, in the old +days of the sailing vessel, suddenly found himself in the "doldrums," +and becalmed for what might be an indefinite period--it was apt to wear +upon a nervous system that demanded work. + +Of course the pilots were merry while at meals and during their loafing +periods; but every time one of their number returned from the front and +reported the inaction as still continuing, many deep sighs of discontent +would arise. + +Then a clever thought occurred to some one of the men. Perhaps it was +suggested by a happy-go-lucky Irish aviator who was connected with the +British air forces, and wore the marks of distinguished service on his +arm and cap. + +Sergeant Barney McGee had received a month's furlough in order to +recover from injuries which he had sustained. Instead of going back to +Ireland to spend his enforced vacation, as one might naturally expect +him to do, McGee put in the time visiting other parts of the long front +between Ypres and Verdun. + +After all, there was nothing so very singular about that. Give an old +railroad engineer a week off, and presently you will discover him +spending the time loafing around the roundhouse, chatting with the other +engineers, and investigating things. His whole life being wrapped up in +his work his idea of a vacation consists of being free to watch his +fellows of the same craft work. + +Sergeant McGee was an exceedingly droll chap. He spent a couple of weeks +with a French cousin who was also an aviator, and in time came to know +the jolly members of the Lafayette Escadrille. He grew to be exceedingly +fond of them all, and was in the mess-room nearly every night. + +His idea was that they should get up a show to pass these dull evenings +away. If the enemy allowed them sufficient time they could even give a +public performance, and give the proceeds to the Red Cross. + +It took like wildfire with the Americans, casting about at the time for +some way to kill dull care, and make the hours pass more quickly until +called to action again. + +A survey developed the fact that there were a number in and out of the +Lafayette Escadrille who possessed a talent of some kind or other. This +one had a violin which he loved to play; and, while not a finished +artist, he was able to make real and lovely music by means of his clever +bow. Another, it turned out, had a good tenor voice, and knew many of +the most popular songs of the day. A third showed a talent for mimicking +well known people, particularly Americans of national fame. Several +agreed to black up, and give a humorous little minstrel skit that they +declared would set the house in a roar. + +It was Barney McGee himself who most astonished the Americans, however. +At the first rehearsal he appeared before their astonished eyes dressed +to imitate a well known and popular moving picture star and he carried +out the part in a fashion that caused the wildest excitement. From that +moment the success of the show was assured. + +They made feverish preparations, for no one could tell just when the +period of inaction would come to an end, and every available member of +the several fraternizing escadrilles be ordered to rush to the front +again, to take his life in his hands, and risk it hourly for the great +cause. + +Tom and Jack both had parts in the entertainment. Jack made a good +"bones" for the minstrels, and he coaxed his chum to don a burnt-cork +face for that one evening, and show what he could do as a comedian of +parts. + +They found a building in Bar-le-Duc that could be used, and which would +hold a respectable sized audience. Little preparation was needed save to +build a stage and get seating arrangements. Where chairs were not +available benches had to take their place. Lights were also provided, +and what few accessories they needed, such as curtains and stage +scenery, were improvised after a fashion. + +In the spirit of fun that prevailed "any old thing went," as Jack +expressed it. The makeshifts that came to light when the performers +appeared dressed for their various parts were many and startling. They +had borrowed or begged anything that promised to answer the purpose from +a long-tailed French coat to a lady's highly colored shawl. Wigs had +been sent for, and Paris had responded with an assortment that left +nothing to be desired. + +The members of the two French air squadrons whose headquarters were near +by, had entered into the affair with great zest. They blessed the little +Irish pilot for his suggestion. And Sergeant Barney McGee was on the +jump all day long, displaying all the sterling traits that distinguish +able generals and leaders of men. + +The time approached when the entertainment was to come off. The +performers were sure of a full house, provided no war orders were issued +that would interfere with the arrangements. + +"Since Fritz has kept quiet for so many dreary days now," one pilot was +heard to say on the morning of the entertainment, "let us hope we'll +have just one more peaceful evening to reap the reward of all this +training. It would break the heart of Sergeant Barney if the order came +for every one to buckle down to hard work just when his big show is +about to come off." + +The weather man proved friendly, for he gave them a splendid day, with +the promise of a moonlight night. Besides, the cold had pretty well +vanished, and it was really becoming more seasonable, with the sun +warming the earth, and the mud drying up to a considerable extent. + +When the show opened that night it was to a house jammed to the doors. +Even the windows were utilized for seating room; and crowds stood +without, unable to gain admittance. + +"Some crowd, eh?" remarked Jack, as he watched the airmen, soldiers and +others pouring in. + +"I should say so!" cried Tom. "I hope we make good." + +It was certainly a unique performance, considering the fact that it was +given in a camp close to the battle lines; and that at any hour every +one of those who were dressed so fancifully and conducted themselves as +actors born to the stage, might be called on to mount to the clouds, and +perform their dangerous work of fighting for France, perhaps even giving +up their lives. + +Loud applause greeted every individual act. The violin music drew tears +from eyes unused to weeping, because the strains of "Way Down Upon the +Suwannee River," "Home, Sweet Home," and other loved airs tenderly and +beautifully played, as they were, carried the Americans back again to +those near and dear, those whom they might never again see on this +earth. + +The songs were rapturously applauded, and the singers forced to give +encore after encore. One youth who played the part of a little maid from +school, and sang in a sweet soprano voice, caused the greatest +enthusiasm of the evening; but then everything seemed to make a decided +hit. + +Tom and Jack, as members of the minstrel troupe, did their parts well, +though neither professed to be a star of the first magnitude. They +certainly enjoyed seeing and hearing the others go through with their +appointed tasks. As for Sergeant Barney McGee, he drew the house down +every time he appeared on the stage in his quaint dress, and with the +famous walk that is the trade-mark of the character whom he represented. + +Two-thirds of the entire show was soon carried out. Indeed, the rest was +to be more or less a repetition of preceding acts, though the pleased +audience seemed eager to sit for another hour, and applaud each turn +vigorously and uproariously. + +However, it was not fated that the evening should pass entirely without +some interruption. Afterwards the actors, and those who had enjoyed the +performance from in front, agreed that they had been exceedingly lucky +as it was, and that "half a loaf was much better than no bread at all." + +Those whose turns were finished remained, of course, as part of the +audience. Some of the black-faced artists lingered in the so-called +"wings" to watch what was going on, desirous of getting all the fun +possible out of the evening. + +It was not a case of "eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die;" +but "have all the happy times you can, fellows, while the going is good, +for to-morrow we fight." + +Sergeant Barney McGee was on again, and the audience was convulsed with +laughter over his ludicrous antics. He appeared to be a born actor and +mimic; and had they not known otherwise Tom and Jack could have declared +that the comedian who was under contract with an American film company, +and doubtless in California making pictures at that moment, had been +suddenly transported to the French fighting front to entertain the +soldiers. + +Suddenly the laughter came to a stop. The building in which the show was +being held shook as though a violent thunderclap had rocked the earth. +This loud detonation that broke upon their hearing, however, was only +too familiar to all those army aviators. They understood its dread +meaning. + +The enemy had taken this opportunity to send over a squadron of raiding +Fokkers to bomb the hangars of the French and American fliers at +Bar-le-Duc! + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CLOWNS ON THE WING + + +Boom! + +What followed that first heavy detonation was very much like a riot. The +audience became frantic under the belief that it meant an attack on the +town, and that the missiles would presently drop upon the roofs, working +destruction to everything around. + +It was the actors, however, who were the most exercised. One and all +they understood what it meant to them. Their planes were in danger of +being demolished! In some way the Teutons must have learned about the +entertainment, and realized that almost every Allied pilot would want to +attend it. They rightly guessed that for once the guard about the +aviation field and numerous hangars where the dozens upon dozens of +planes of every description were housed when not in use, would be +unusually light. They had also taken advantage of the bright moonlight +to make a bold sally over the French lines and reach this distant point +undiscovered. + +Boom! boom! boom! + +Other crashing sounds announced that the enemy machines were busily at +work. Each pilot pictured the entire camp under bombardment, with the +utmost disaster overtaking the airplanes upon which General Petain was +depending so much to serve as the "eyes" of his brave army. + +There was a general and maddened rush. Every one wanted to get to the +camp in the briefest possible space of time. There was no chance for the +actors to change their clothes. They were glad enough of an opportunity +to snatch up a heavy fur-lined coat, either their own or some other +person's. With this to hide their ludicrous attire, and also give some +needed warmth once they went aloft, they hastened to find a waiting car, +which, when loaded to its capacity, would be sent like mad along the +road to the aviation field. + +It was one of the most amazing sights imaginable, to see those pilots, +many of whom were world famous, thus garbed. It looked as though some +asylum of freaks had opened its doors and allowed the inmates to escape +to the highways and byways. + +Only one thought possessed them all, which was to get to the hangars in +the shortest possible time. When they arrived each anticipated seeking +his particular plane. If that chanced to be out of commission, then +commandeering any other, it mattered little whose, so long as they were +able to go up, and give battle to the audacious Teuton pilots who had +raided their camp at Bar-le-Duc. + +"We've got to save our machines!" cried Tom. "Come on!" + +"Right you are!" responded Jack. + +Tom and Jack were with the rest who found some way to crowd aboard one +of the waiting cars that were seized upon to carry the pilots to the +field. As they went booming furiously along the road they could still +hear those frightful explosions ahead, each one accompanied by a flash +as of lightning. The reports were almost deafening. + +Eager eyes were turned aloft. The moon shone, but it was difficult to +make out so small an object as an airplane at a height of a mile or more +without the use of searchlights, and even these were not very efficient +on such a night. + +Still, some of the pilots believed they could see several enemy planes +swooping over at a lower level, possibly, they thought, on the lookout +for the procession of cars bearing the aroused Allied aviators to the +hangars. + +Bang! + +A bomb fell not fifty feet away from the car in which the two chums were +seated. One of their companions received a trifling wound from the +effect of the explosion of the TNT contents of the bomb, said to be the +most powerful known for such uses, and handled by the engineers of all +the armies, under different names. + +If the design of the Boche who swooped down for the purpose of waylaying +the cars carrying the French and American airmen was to rob the Allies +of the services of a dozen eminent pilots all at once, it failed in +execution. + +At last the aviators arrived on the scene. It was lively enough, with +bombs still bursting here and there. Already considerable damage had +been done to some of the hangars. + +The Allied pilots were "mad all the way through" at having been caught +napping by the foe. They paid no attention to the danger that still hung +over their heads, with the enemy's supply of explosives as yet +unexhausted. While the dreadful detonations continued, sometimes +exceedingly close by, the various pilots seized upon such mechanicians +as they could. + +One by one the planes rolled along the field and began to climb upward +by way of the usual spiral staircase route, to give battle to the enemy, +regardless of any superiority in numbers. + +Jack was dismayed to discover that his plane was badly wrecked by one of +the explosions. Indeed, it was afterwards found that he had to have a +new machine, since the repairs necessary to put the old one into service +again were too complicated to be done at the front. + +Tom was more fortunate. His hangar had also suffered to some extent, but +so far as could be seen in a hasty examination his plane was not injured +in the least. + +He too went up, burnt-corked face and all. There were clowns abroad that +night who could give Tom many points in the game, so far as comical +looks went, and still easily win the stakes. But all else was forgotten +under the spur of the moment, save that each man was eager to get in +touch with the Boche pilots who had almost spoiled their one great +evening. + +But no longer were those crashing detonations coming. This told the +story only too well. The Germans had either exhausted their supply of +bombs, or else they deemed discretion the better part of valor. They had +evidently taken their departure before the first Allied pilot got up to +the elevation they had been using in their bombardment. + +Nothing could be seen of them, though had the Allied pilots been able to +use their ears, which was impossible when their own motors were making +such loud noises, they might have heard, in the distance and to the +east, the telltale music of Teuton propellers beating the air in a rush +for home ports. + +A pursuit was organized, and several planes followed the retreating +invaders over the entire distance to the front; but it was of no avail. +The enemy planes had had too good a start, and were being pushed for all +they were worth to get beyond the danger zone. + +There had been several accidents at the Bar-le-Duc field, but none of +them fatal. This was not at all surprising, considering the haste shown +by the pilots to mount and engage the foemen. + +Too, several of the planes besides Jack's had been damaged, a +circumstance which brought about disaster before the aviator was able to +leave the ground. + +As the fliers came back one after another, filled with indignation and +disappointed hopes, Jack stalked about, with his black face, yet laughed +to see what comical pictures most of his fellow aviators made. + +By degrees most of them began to realize that the joke was on them, and +joined in greeting with noisy shouts each fresh arrival from above. The +damage had not been so very serious after all, since most of the Teuton +bombs had either failed to explode when aimed true, or else only dug +enormous craters in the ground where it did not matter, sometimes even a +quarter of a mile away from the hangars. Jack's machine, it was found, +was the only one badly damaged. + +From that time there was one subject on which American and French pilots +were agreed. They must certainly repay their enemy rivals for this +visitation. The honors could not continue to be all on one side. + +So from that hour every Allied pilot who went far back of the German +lines used his glasses diligently, in the endeavor to locate the secret +aviation field of the Boche. This would naturally be camouflaged in the +customary fashion, at which the Teutons had become almost as proficient +as the French; but trust an airman to spy out the lodging place of his +kind. + +Step by step they learned which direction the enemy planes took in +coming to the front, and retiring when through for the day. Thus in good +time the hiding place was found. Great was the delight of the whole +Lafayette Escadrille when this confidential news was passed about. And, +later on, a party of Allied aviators paid a night visit to the German +camp, and dropped several tons of high explosives from bombing planes, +that were heavily guarded by the fighting Nieuports. + +They had reason to believe from what they themselves saw, as well as +through a secret report received from a French spy, that their aim had +been remarkably fine; and that many times the amount of damage the +Germans had done at Bar-le-Duc had been carried out on the reprisal +sally. + +After that it seemed as though the slate had been wiped clean. Their +honor had been fully purged of the stain that had rested on it ever +since that dreadful night when they were caught off their guard. + +It turned out that the enemy had meant to start an action on the +following day, and it had been hoped that the squadron of airmen might +so cripple the French service that the advantage would be all on the +side of the assailants. + +Something happened, however, to balk the plans of the Crown Prince. +Perhaps he had a reprimand from his august father and emperor for so +recklessly sacrificing such vast numbers of his men in a fruitless +assault against the stonewall defensive of the French army. It may also +have been something else that called the attack off, but at any rate it +failed of accomplishment. + +The stagnation along the front continued; but all this while General +Petain was making quiet though effective preparations, in order some day +to strike a staggering blow, such as the French had before given, which +would take the enemy by surprise, and push him still further back. + +Jack was fretting because thus far he had seen so little of real action. +Since his Nieuport had been sent away, and another had as yet failed to +arrive for his use, he often bewailed his ill-luck. He even assured his +chum the "green mould would be growing all over his person if something +didn't soon come to pass to break the terrible monotony." + +But every lane, however long, must have its turning; and Jack's hour +struck at last. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MORE WORK IN PROSPECT + + +"Tom, sit down here on this bench, won't you? I want to have a little +talk with you about some things that have bothered me a whole lot +lately," said Jack, some days after the exciting experiences narrated in +the two preceding chapters. + +"I can give a pretty good guess what they are, Jack, since I see you +staring hard at the slip of paper found attached to the toy balloon +which drifted over our lines from somewhere back of the German front." + +"Yes; I own up I do sit and look at that paper, Tom. If it could only +talk I'd know who penned that warning, and my curiosity'd be satisfied +for one thing. But try as hard as I may, I can't be certain whether it +was Mrs. Neumann, or somebody else. But I wanted to speak to you about +Bessie just now." + +"What about her, Jack?" asked Tom, knowing how much his chum was +concerned over the unknown fate of the pretty young girl they had met on +the Atlantic liner, and who was apparently anything but happy in the +charge of her legally appointed guardian, Carl Potzfeldt. + +"There are several things she told me, half unwillingly, I admit, that I +guess I haven't said anything about to you, Tom." + +"Then she confided her secrets to you, eh?" half chuckled Tom; though he +saw his chum was in anything but a humorous frame of mind. "I remember +you told me she felt very bitter toward all Germans because she had lost +her mother when the _Lusitania_ went down." + +"Yes. But this had to do with her guardian," Jack continued. + +"Oh, I see! Mr. Potzfeldt, Jack? You haven't felt favorably disposed +toward that gentleman at any time since first meeting him." + +"Neither have you, Tom, to tell the truth!" declared the other quickly. +"In fact, as I remember it, both of us were pretty much inclined to +believe he was a paid spy of the German Government, working on some line +of dark business over in America. Well, he had to clear out in a hurry, +Bessie told me." + +"Did the authorities get track of his scheming work, and was he in +danger of being arrested for plotting against Uncle Sam's interests as a +neutral?" Tom asked. + +"It may have been that; but Bessie wasn't sure about it. In fact, she +seemed inclined to believe her guardian had some secret, which was in +danger of being exposed. An old friend of her mother's was interesting +himself in the matter. Given time, he might have made it uncomfortable +for Carl Potzfeldt; and so the gentleman cleared out between two days." + +"Taking Bessie with him!" + +"Yes. They made as if to go to Chicago, but instead hurried to New York. +When he came aboard at the last call he kept to his cabin for a time, +until we were well away from land. There has been considerable of +mystery about his actions. Bessie is afraid of him, too. She even hinted +that she believed he might have obtained control of her fortune and +herself through fraud, and that this was in danger of being found out at +the time he cut stick and ran." + +"All this is interesting, Jack; but just when and how we're ever going +to learn the truth about it I'm unable even to guess. It would be like +hunting for a needle in a haystack to try to find Potzfeldt. He and his +pretty little ward may be hundreds of miles away from here." + +"Perhaps you're right, Tom," mused the other sadly, as he stared afar +off toward the north. "I'd be glad of a chance to do something for that +poor girl. She is to be greatly pitied, if she's wholly in the power of +a man who wouldn't hesitate to do _anything_, if he saw a chance +for gain ahead." + +"Well, all you can do, Jack, is to live on and hope a lucky chance will +bob up for you. But there's our captain beckoning to me. Perhaps another +battle is on the carpet for to-morrow, and I'll be given a look-in +again." + +"Oh, if the lightning would only strike me too!" sighed Jack, enviously. +"Please beg him to figure out something I can do, Tom. If it's only +occupying a place aboard an observation plane or taking photographs of +the Germans regrouping far back of the lines, I'd gladly welcome it. +Anything but sitting here, when all the other pilots are at work." + +Tom hurried to join the commander of the Lafayette Escadrille. He had +taken a great fancy to the gallant man, and believed this feeling was in +a measure returned. Jack continued to sit and mope. He really felt +slighted to be left out when so much thrilling work was being done. + +He had put away the well-thumbed scrap of paper with its mysterious +lines of warning, for the time being Bessie and all her troubles passing +from his mind. Jack was now full of his own affairs. He found himself +growing a bit discontented because thus far he had been allowed to do so +little for the cause, when his heart was full to overflowing with a +desire to assist. + +There were aviators going and coming all the time, and surely many of +them did not excel him appreciably in talents. Why did not those in +charge find something for an ambitious pilot to do? He was striving +daily to master the weak spots in his education; and had not the captain +himself assured him he was doing bravely? He turned to cast an +occasional look toward the spot where Tom and the commander of the air +squadron still talked earnestly. Yes, something was certainly "on tap," +as Jack expressed it, for he saw the other carefully examining a bit of +paper his companion had evidently placed in his hand. + +Jack began to be interested. Perhaps after all it might turn out to be +something quite different from what Tom had anticipated. Had the captain +simply wished to notify the other to be ready to answer a call on the +following morning, surely he need not have taken all this time; nor +would he have given Tom that paper, undoubtedly carrying explicit +instructions. + +How the minutes dragged! Jack thought it an eternity before he saw Tom +and the captain separate. He was glad to notice that his chum once more +headed in the direction of the spot where they had been seated on a +bench back of the long row of frame buildings used for permanent hangars +at the Bar-le-Duc aviation field. + +Yes, Tom had evidently been told something that pleased him very much. +His smile admitted the fact, and Jack knew by now just how to read the +face of his comrade so as to get a good idea of what was passing in his +mind. + +"Looks like good news, Tom," he cried out, for motors were rattling and +throbbing, mechanicians and helpers, as well as pilots, calling to one +another, and all manner of sounds combining to make a great racket. + +Tom shrugged his shoulders in a non-committal way, which might mean a +whole lot, and again might express a small fraction of disappointment. + +"Yes, I've been given a job, if that's what you mean," he admitted, as +he dropped down once more on the bench alongside Jack, and threw one leg +over the other. + +"More fighting to-morrow, possibly?" queried Jack, anxiously. But he +found his curiosity further whetted when Tom shook his head in the +negative. + +"Not necessarily this time, it seems," he went on to say; "though of +course you never can tell what you'll strike when once you pass fifty +miles, more or less, behind the enemy front." + +Jack pursed his lips up as if about to whistle, but he made no sound. It +was only a visible indication of surprise on his part--surprise, and an +eager desire to know just what his chum was so slow in telling him. + +"Another bombing raid, then, is it?" + +"Never a bomb going along this time," came the puzzling answer. "Nor is +there going to be a big bunch of planes starting out. I'm to be the only +pilot in the game this time, Jack." + +"You're knocking me silly with that, Tom," protested the other young +aviator. "I can see the twinkle in your eyes, as if you were holding +something back, so as to tantalize me. Are you free to tell me what this +business of yours it is the captain has just handed over to you?" + +"Oh, surely, Jack. He told me I could take _one_ fellow into my +confidence, and no more. So I mean to tell you all about it." + +Tom turned and cast a careful look around. They were not very close to +any of the hangars, it happened; and none of the many helpers and +attendants could possibly overhear what was said, with all that clatter +constantly going on. + +"I guess it's perfectly safe for me to talk here, Jack, and not give the +thing away. You know it does seem that the German spies are able to +penetrate nearly everywhere, and pick up all sorts of valuable +information, to send across the line in any one of a dozen different +ways." + +"Yes. But go on, Tom." + +"It seems there is need of some one to go to-night to a particular place +far back of the German lines--in fact, close to the fortified city of +Metz itself. In a certain place, inside a hollow post, will be found a +paper marked in cipher, and containing much valuable information which +has been collected by one of the ablest of the French spies. He is +really a native of Alsace-Lorraine, and well thought of by the Germans. +As it is utterly out of the question for him to report in person, he has +adopted this way of getting his news to General Petain. And as there is +a scarcity of pilots capable of doing this work our captain has selected +me to undertake it for the cause." + +"But Tom, I should have thought he would have picked out some one more +familiar with the ground back there. How can you find your way to that +particular place, if you've never been there before?" + +"I've been given directions that are bound to take me right," Tom +assured his worried chum. "There was a man they used for this purpose, +and several times he's brought back the papers; but on his last trip he +had the misfortune to run into a bunch of cruising Fokkers, and they +brought him down. He fell fortunately inside the French lines, so his +papers were saved; but Francois will never handle the controls of a +plane again. He was killed." + +"Then there is danger in the game!" + +"Certainly there is. But in these times who could dream of passing so +far back of the German front without expecting to be in constant peril? +The papers will be put in a little box previously prepared. Should +disaster overtake us, it will be flung overboard, and before it reaches +the ground everything will have been consumed by the fire that follows." + +Jack's eyes began to glitter. + +"Just so, Tom! But I notice that you used the plural pronoun when you +spoke. Then you do not go on this mission alone?" + +"No, that's right. I have been given permission to pick out my one +companion, for there will be two of us aboard the plane to-night." + +Jack tried to keep calm, but it was indeed difficult, and his voice +faltered more or less as he hurriedly went on to say: + +"Have you already made your selection?" + +"Yes," the other assured him in his tantalizing way. "I wanted to know +whether the captain approved of my choice; which I am glad to say turned +out to be the case." + +Jack gulped something down, and then blurted out: + +"Did you mention my name at all, Tom?" + +"Yours was the only one I had in mind; and Jack, rest easy, you're going +along with me to-night to glimpse the lights of Metz!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +OFF ON A DARING MISSION + + +The two air service boys fell to talking earnestly concerning what they +should take with them, and how to study a map which their captain had +promised to put in Tom's hands immediately. + +This was not of the ordinary kind, but so definitely marked for just +such an emergency that even a novice could probably find his way to +Metz, granting that he possessed the necessary qualifications of an air +pilot. + +Presently a messenger came with a package for Tom. This proved to be the +chart from the commander of the air squadron. Tom was to make as good a +copy as was in his power, for the original was too valuable to risk +losing. + +Jack understood that there were several reasons for having Tom do this. +In the first place his work on the chart would familiarize the young +aviator with its every detail, and fix things firmly in his mind. Then +again, if they were lost, and never returned, the priceless chart for +night voyaging over the enemy's lines would be at least safe. + +Daring men had gone forth on similar desperate errands before then, and +had never been heard from again. It is the fortune of war. Those who +indulge in enterprises that border on the sensational must always expect +to sup with deadly peril. + +When the evening meal was announced the two chums were already deep in +the work. Of course not a whisper of their intended mission was breathed +at the table. No one dreamed of their contemplated trip. The customary +chatter and good-natured badinage flowed during the whole supper-time. +While some of the American aviators had received wounds in recent +engagements there had been no chair vacant for some little time now; and +hence no gloom rested on the escadrille. From the table the boys again +went to their room. + +"How far is Metz from Verdun?" asked Jack, as they labored to complete +their preparations for departure. + +"Not over forty miles, I should say, as the crow flies, Jack. I've never +been over the route, but it can be measured on this copy of the map." + +"And that's the direct line we expect to cover, of course?" + +"We'll head due east." + +"And as it'll be densely dark when we start I guess we needn't mount to +ten thousand feet to pass over the enemy lines, eh, Tom?" + +"There'll really be little need," came the reply, showing that the pilot +had already figured all this out. "At the same time we ought to keep far +enough out of range to avoid being struck by stray shrapnel." + +"Will they bombard us, do you think?" demanded Jack. + +"Oh, that's to be expected," said Tom indifferently. "You see the men +who man the anti-aircraft guns are constantly on the alert. They're +bound to hear the whirr of our propeller as we pass over, no matter how +high we soar. The searchlight will spot us out, and then they'll do +their best to make things uncomfortable for the pair of us. But the +chances are ten thousand to one against our being hit." + +"You said our course would be due east, didn't you?" + +"I'll change that assertion a bit, Jack; we start east after we're well +across the front, and away from the dazzling searchlight business. In +the beginning we'll point the nose of our big machine toward the north." + +"So as to deceive the watchers, of course," remarked Jack. + +"That's what the game is." + +Jack's eyes sparkled. He was always proud of his chum's clever reasoning +powers, and believed Tom could hold his own with any one with regard to +mapping out a promising plan. + +Their preparations completed, the two air service boys lay down to +secure a little rest. As they were not to start until some time after +midnight, Tom believed they should secure a few hours of sleep. The moon +was a late one, and would not rise, even with a midnight start, until +they were well back of the enemy lines. + +An alarm-clock aroused them at the appointed time. Tom immediately +shoved the noisy thing under his blankets before it could wake up the +entire house, and set people wondering what was happening that any one +should want to be aroused at such an unseemly hour. + +It was terribly black outside. Jack pressed his nose against the window +and took a look, even while hurriedly finishing his dressing. Tom had +taken the precaution to put a fresh battery in his little hand electric +torch, which he believed would prove to be worth its weight in gold. + +Arriving at their destination, the boys quickly found their two-seater +aircraft awaiting their coming. Quite a crowd stood around, and made +guesses concerning the possible reason for the captain's order that this +plane should be made ready for a journey, with enough supplies of +gasolene and oil aboard to cover any ordinary emergency. + +Tom took no chances. He believed the attendants had faithfully carried +out all directions, but to make doubly sure he looked over things +himself. It was his life and Jack's that were at stake, and not those of +the attendants; so he persisted in testing this and that thing until he +felt certain everything was as it should be. + +"Is it time we started, Tom?" asked his companion, when this procedure +had resulted satisfactorily. + +"We'll wait just ten minutes more," he was told. "I've figured +everything down to a fraction, and expect to proceed by clock-work. We +want to be well over the line before the moon peeps up. After that we +can loaf a bit, and let the old lady get a little way above the horizon. +That's so we may have the benefit of her light when we want to land." + +The minutes passed slowly. Meanwhile the crowd increased, every man who +chanced to be abroad at that hour of the night gathering to see the two +Americans start on their mysterious errand. All sorts of guesses were +indulged in, many of them of the wildest character. Jack hearing some of +this talk, which he half understood, was convulsed in silent laughter +over the remarkable ideas that seemed to possess the minds of those +French mechanicians and hostlers. + +Finally Tom stood up. + +"It's time!" he said simply, and Jack understood without any further +explanation. He at once proceeded to climb into his seat and complete +his simple preparations for the work in hand, being already fully +dressed in his fur-lined garments, and with his warm hood and goggles in +place. + +A minute afterwards Tom called out the word that started the propellers +whirling. The motor took up the refrain, and hummed merrily, as though +glad to be busy again. Then they were pushed along for a start, +gathering momentum so quickly that the mechanicians dropped back to +watch the dark object vanish almost wholly from their sight along the +level field. + +Both boys noticed the great difference between this two-seater and their +own active little Nieuports. How clumsy this machine was, and how slow +to answer to the call of the pilot! Yet it would be far better for their +purpose than two of the small aircraft, since it allowed them to be +together. + +The few lights of the aviation field near Bar-le-Duc had faded almost +entirely out of sight by the time Tom turned to the north and headed for +Verdun. True, he might have pointed the nose of the airplane directly +east, and saved considerable distance, but there were good reasons for +not doing this. + +To cross the German lines further south would surely convince the +Teutons that the aviators were heading for the vicinity of Metz, which +was just what Tom did not wish to have happen. Then again, his chart +covered only the direct line between Verdun and the fortified city of +Lorraine that forty-odd years back had been French territory, before the +Germans seized it as spoils after the war that made France a republic +for the third time. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE MOONLIGHT FLIGHT + + +The time for talking had passed. With the motor working noisily, and the +twin propellers churning the air, they could hardly have heard the +discharge of one of the 'Big Berthas', as the Allies were wont to call +the monster Krupp guns, and so called them because a woman whose maiden +name had been Bertha Krupp, owned a big interest in the works where they +were manufactured. + +All was dark around and below them. Above the stars shone, and gave a +small amount of cold, cheery light. Tom had made a study of the heavens, +and was able to steer by means of the stars. The aviator is often as +much dependent on compass and heavenly bodies to shape his course as the +sailor hundreds of miles away from land. + +Tom was in no especial hurry. He had carefully thought out his plans, +and meant to pass over Verdun at just a certain time. Then would come +the two lines of hostile trenches, and the ordeal of searchlights and +shrapnel. Once that was done with, they had really little further to +fear. + +The minutes slipped away. Under ordinary conditions they were accustomed +to making that thirty miles in just about half that number of minutes, +thanks to the ability of the speedy Nieuports to cover distance. It +would be twice that now before they would find themselves at the front. + +Already they could see various signs to tell them they were drawing +near. Rockets used as signals of various kinds ascended at intervals, +and burst. Others of the star variety, and which discharged glowing +white electric balls that lighted the earth below, could also be seen. +One side or the other apparently had some reason for desiring to +scrutinize a special sector of terrain in No-Man's-Land, the disputed +region lying between the hostile trenches. + +Jack used his eyes to advantage. These things had not yet grown stale +with him, for he still found himself filled with awe and wonder when +gazing down from a lofty height at the world shrouded in darkness below. + +There within a comparatively short distance, that might not be over +twenty miles, a round million of soldiers were gathered, armed with +numberless engines of destruction of the most ponderous nature +imaginable. It was enough to give any one a genuine thrill, and Jack +felt such a sensation creeping over him. + +The crucial time had now come. They were passing over the line of the +French trenches. Jack knew this from various signs, and also that in +another minute they might expect to be spotted by some of the enemy +searchlights. These would be unmasked, and trained on the heavens in the +effort to locate the cause of that well known clattering noise above. + +This speedily came about. First one long shaft of dazzling light rushed +back and forth; then others joined in the hunt, until presently they +focussed on the progressing two-seater pushing north. + +Then began the bombardment. Numerous anti-aircraft guns were poking +their noses upward in anticipation of just such a call. Their crews +commenced to shower the shrapnel around and below the bird of passage, +whose mission, whatever it might prove to be, could mean only evil to +the Teuton cause. + +All this racket was lost upon the two so far above the earth. They heard +nothing of the bleat of the firing guns. Even the bursting of shrapnel +went unheeded, save at a time when a shell exploded close by, and was +faintly heard. + +Tom was wisely taking but little chance. He maintained an altitude that +prevented most of the shrapnel from coming anywhere near the plane. + +They crossed the enemy front, and sped on. The bombardment diminished in +fury as they left the first and second line trenches behind them. It was +continued to some extent from an elevation further back, but as Tom knew +of this formation, and had crept up still higher, no accident happened +to them. + +At last the air service boys were fully launched on their night voyage +through the upper currents. Tom waited until he considered that it was +really safe to change their course. He did not want to betray his +movements in case some daring Boche pilot started up in a swift Fokker +machine to pursue them. + +Once he shut off the engines and volplaned down a thousand feet or more. +This was done because it was intensely cold up where they were; and the +reasons that had kept them at such a high altitude existed no longer. +Then again Tom wished to listen to discover if there was another +aircraft near them; and this could be done only when his motor was +silent. + +"No pursuit, Jack!" he managed to call to his chum before they once more +straightened out, and again allowed the motor to send forth its loud +hum. + +Jack had no chance to make any sort of reply. It did not matter, for he, +too, had eagerly listened, and had failed to catch any telltale sound. + +Immediately Tom shaped a new course. No longer were they heading toward +the north by east, but directly east. There some forty miles, more or +less, away, lay the city of Metz, the object of their mission. + +After moving along in this fashion for a short time Tom drove his +machine more slowly. He was watching for the rising of the old moon +ahead, where the horizon was already lighted with her near approach. + +How strange she looked peering above the edge of the world as though +curious to see all that was going on in this troubled hemisphere. Jack +thought he had never witnessed a more peculiar spectacle. But at least +this fragment of a moon would be likely to afford them the necessary +illumination required when they attempted to land in a field that +neither of them had ever seen before, and only knew through information +imparted by means of their chart, and its accompanying notes. + +Some other pilot had doubtless been over this same route on previous +occasions; yes, and even landed in that identical field. He had made the +chart; and the accompanying memoranda consisted of his personal +experiences. + +Already the moon had dispelled some of the cheerless gloom round about +them. It was still cold up in that upper strata of rarefied air; but +their fur-lined garments kept them from suffering. Besides this, they +were young and vigorous, and their blood was warm, and they were excited +with their mission and able to ignore any physical discomfort that might +come to them. + +Jack continued to stare ahead as time passed. He was looking for some +sign of the city towards which they were flying. Tom, on his part, often +took note of his compass, then flashed a glance up at the stars, and +finally sought to discover some landmark far down below that was marked +upon the chart. + +He had the utmost confidence in his own judgment, and believed he would +bring up at the identical place which was their goal. + +Tom now volplaned again, wishing to draw nearer to the earth. It was +while thus dropping, with engine muffled, that his ears caught a sound +calculated to give him an uneasy feeling. + +This was undoubtedly the whirr of a propeller beating the air in furious +fashion. It also came from behind. Jack, too, had caught the sound, and +was thrilled with sudden apprehension of impending trouble. + +They were undoubtedly being pursued, and by a much faster plane than +their own. This would mean that presently they would be overtaken and +fired upon. It was not in the nature of Tom Raymond to allow such a +thing to occur and be kept from doing his share of the fighting. + +When Tom swung around to face the rear, and actually started to run +toward the oncoming foe, Jack knew what was expected of him. He must man +the gun, and prove how well he had learned his lesson when at school at +Pau and at Casso. + +No longer could they expect to be guided by sounds. Their own motor +thundered so loudly that every other sound was deadened. They must +depend on eyesight alone to tell them when they were nearing the +oncoming Fokker craft. Perhaps the first indication they would have of +its presence would be the flash of its quick-firing gun, spattering +bullets around them like hail. + +So Jack strained his vision to the limit. He was eager to discover the +enemy before they themselves were seen. Much might depend on who fired +first, in a duel of this kind. + +Suddenly the gun began to bark after its own peculiar way. Jack believed +he had glimpsed something moving, and was sending forth a storm of lead +in the hope of a lucky hit that would crumple the other machine up and +put an end to that peril. + +Tom held the course. He knew that every second was carrying the rival +airplanes nearer together--knew that possibly they were so headed that +if they continued to rush forward they might smash in a frightful +collision that would send both down thousands of feet to the earth. + +It was a time for careful calculations and prompt action. Tom gripped +the controls and was ready either to swerve or to dip as occasion +demanded. Meanwhile, Jack was doing his best to riddle the advancing +Boche machine and its pilot. + +There was no longer any difficulty in seeing just where the Fokker was, +for a constant flashing as her gun rattled betrayed its position +exactly. The flying lead was now whistling all about the two air service +boys but they did not know how close they sailed to death. + +Then Tom swung smartly to the right. He dared not keep on longer in his +course lest he collide with the German craft. Just about the same +instant he realized that the Fokker was diving. There was something +queer about that manoeuvre. Tom had never known a French or an American +nor yet a British airman to adopt such a clumsy way of plunging so as to +avoid punishment. + +Circling around he started back on a little lower level, looking for the +enemy. In making his latest volplane Tom had listened intently, hoping +to ascertain whether the motor of the enemy craft still throbbed +somewhere close by; but he heard not a sound to tell the story. + +Just then, suspicious of the truth, he glanced down, and was just in +time to see a little flash of flame arise from the distant surface of +the earth. Then the awful truth broke upon both boys. They realized that +the German pilot had lost control of his machine, which had turned over +and over in its drop, finally crashing to the ground, and being +instantly enveloped in flames! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +LANDING CLOSE TO METZ + + +Tom had his hands full in trying to get back to his course again. +Naturally, in the excitement attending the duel in midair he could not +pay attention to where he was going. It was easy enough to shape his +line of flight by the aid of the stars and his compass, but he had also +to catch certain landmarks below, that would serve to guide him. + +Fortune favored him in that he quickly sighted the lights of a town; and +this gave him the bearings he sought. His mind freed from further +anxiety concerning this matter, he pushed on once more. + +When presently he became aware of the presence of more lights Jack gave +Tom the signal agreed on between them to mark such a circumstance. Then +the pilot again commenced to drop to lower levels by a series of easy +volplanes. + +Like a huge bird the airplane swept along, now close to earth. Had one +of the peasants who lived in that region chanced to be aroused by the +rattle of the propeller and thrust his head out of his cottage door, he +must have gazed in awe to see the vast shadowy form come between him and +the starry heavens, with the light of the moon silvering its extended +wings. + +One trip failed to show them just what they wanted, and so Tom, knowing +that the field must be somewhere in that immediate neighborhood, +immediately swung around and started in again. + +The second search failed to bring success. Jack began to experience a +sensation akin to dismay. Was their work doomed to meet with no result +and would they find themselves compelled to start back to Verdun without +having accomplished the important errand on which they had been +dispatched? + +It was not Tom Raymond's way to feel discouraged because things did not +always go as he wished from the start. He believed in the old motto, "If +at first you don't succeed, try, try again." And he would circle around +that vicinity for a full hour if only in the end he might find that for +which he searched. + +Three times however, was the limit. Then Tom felt certain he had "struck +pay dirt"; and that the opening lying below was the identical field to +which he had been directed. + +After that it resolved itself into a simple landing by moonlight. There +were no ready mechanicians waiting to lend a hand; and everything must +be done by the pilot and his assistant. But then, all war aviators must +be able to make ordinary repairs if necessary, and do other duties that +usually they allow the mechanics to perform. + +Tom brought the heavy machine to the earth softly. It was fine work he +did, considering the fact that it was unfamiliar ground he was striking +and the moonlight was far from strong. + +They jolted along a short distance, and then came to a full stop. Jack +was the first to spring out. His first thought was of the strangeness of +being on German soil, far back of the fighting lines, and within a few +miles of Metz, a city of prime importance. + +Hardly had they landed when the air service boys found themselves +listening to sounds that seemed significant. Plainly came reports of +firearms and of loud shouting, as of excited men. + +"What do you think that row means, Tom?" asked Jack, as they stood +listening with quickened hearts. + +"It's hard to say," the other replied. "They may be having a riot of +some kind over in the city. But I'm afraid it is more apt to have +something to do with our presence here." + +"Do you mean they've seen our dropping down and that there may be +soldiers on the way here to see what we're up to?" asked Jack. + +"That may turn out to be the truth of it. But we mustn't lose any more +time. What we want now is that paper. Jack, remember that we arranged it +so you'd stay with the plane, while I hurried off to get it." + +"All right, Tom; only I wish you'd let me go along. Then if anything +happened we'd be together, anyhow." + +"It's better for you to stay here. I'll be gone only a few minutes if +everything turns out O.K." + +Tom turned and ran across the field. Jack stared after him until he lost +track of the runner in the misty moonlight. Then he occupied himself in +listening to that clamor and wondering whether it was really getting +closer, or if his fears only made him think so. + +There was certainly a big noise. Men continued to shout, and guns were +being discharged, but not so frequently as before. Perhaps this latter +was done by nervous guardians of the Lorraine city, who on first hearing +the racket took it for granted that it meant an airplane attack, and +were therefore starting in to bombard the skies, discovering hostile +fliers in every lurking fleecy cloud. + +Yes, Jack was positive now that those who shouted to one another must be +coming out of the city, and heading for the big field where Tom had +dropped down. + +"Like as not," Jack told himself, "some wisebody has discovered that +airplanes have been using this ground for alighting. When they had word +that an enemy machine was heading this way they just naturally concluded +it might drop down here. I guess our little fight up aloft was heard and +understood by some one on guard. I hope Tom will soon get back here, +that's what!" + +Tom had been gone several minutes, and Jack tried to pierce the misty +light beyond in the endeavor to discover some sign of his returning. His +uneasiness increased, and with reason, for the noise was drawing +perilously near. + +Jack tried to figure out what his plan of campaign should be in case a +motley mob of citizens and soldiers suddenly appeared in view, carrying +lanterns, and perhaps blazing torches. + +True, he had his automatic pistol with him, but what would that puny +weapon avail when pitted against a score or two of enemies; many of them +armed soldiers of the Kaiser, who would ruthlessly fill him with lead at +the first show of resistance on his part? + +Would it be better policy for him to slip away and conceal himself in +case they did arrive before Tom returned? + +But had not Tom explicitly told him to stay on guard over the airplane +until he came back? Jack drew in a fresh breath. He threw back his +shoulders aggressively and his mind was made up. He would stick it out, +no matter at what cost. If the Boches wanted that plane they would have +to fight for it, that was all. + +He had his pistol out now, and was fondling it as a child would a pet +toy. So far Jack had fired the weapon only at targets, but he had the +reputation of being a good shot. He believed he could make every bullet +it contained tell. + +Then what about the mitrailleuse aboard the plane? Was it not possible +to train it on the advancing host, and give them such a hot reception +that they would break and race madly for shelter? + +He knew the gun was fixed to shoot straight ahead. This was the custom +with all those who went up in airplanes. To attempt to fire any other +way would imperil the stability of the plane, and in many cases bring +about sudden disaster. + +Jack fumbled for the fastenings of the airplane mitrailleuse, it being +his intention to swing the gun free, so that he could turn its muzzle in +any quarter desired. But it had been too well secured in place for such +a quick delivery, and presently he gave the idea up as a bad one. + +No Tom yet! Things certainly were taking on a dark hue, and it looked as +though desperate trouble might be in store for the two chums. Jack +almost believed he could see dancing lights coming along what might be a +road. He looked again, and no longer had any doubt on that score. + +"Well, a fellow can die only once, and after all what does it matter +whether he meets his end by falling ten thousand feet from the clouds or +in trying to hold off an angry mob of Teuton soldiers and citizens of +Metz who are in sympathy with the methods of the Kaiser?" Jack's +reflections served to give him courage. + +There was the leading one of the mob, starting across the dimly lighted +field! Jack set his jaws hard, and determined that he would wait until +the other had come close up. Ammunition was much too precious to be +wasted without results following. + +He was soon glad he had made such a sensible resolution, for as the +runner drew closer something familiar about his figure and methods of +leaping told Jack it was none other than Tom. + +"Get aboard in a hurry, after you've given the propellers a swing!" +cried Tom, almost breathless himself after such a sharp run. "I've got +what I wanted." + +He was already in his place with his hand on the control. + +"Tell me when, Tom!" sang out Jack. + +"Cut loose!" ordered the pilot. + +The propellers spun, and the motors commenced their furious throbbing. +Jack swung aboard, and at once the plane started to roll along the +field, even as men appeared, bursting into view on one side, and +shouting harshly as they realized how close they had come to catching +those they sought. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MORE TROUBLE FOR THE CHUMS + + +It had been a close call for the two air service boys. Had they been +delayed just a minute or two longer escape might have been impossible. +And to have been caught with the spy's paper of information in their +possession might have proved a very serious matter. + +Some of the mob, that had come from Metz itself, were German soldiers. +They carried guns with which they opened a hot fire on the departing +plane. + +Again the lucky star of Tom and Jack seemed to be in the ascendant, for +they did not receive even a scratch. Later they found reason to believe +that a number of the leaden missiles had come very close to their +persons; for the marks upon the body of the plane itself, as well as the +tiny holes in the stout linen covering of the wings, told where bullets +had passed. Possibly, though, these had come from the rapid-fire gun +handled by the Boche airman. + +The plane had left the ground and started to mount when this shooting +occurred, so that the marksmen had at least had a fair target at which +to fire. But as the departing airplane was speeding away from them the +rapidly increasing distance may have disconcerted the Germans. At any +rate they failed to bag their game. + +The boys were now mounting upwards again, filled with joy over their +recent escape. Jack felt sure that Tom had the precious paper; for he +well knew the other would never have returned so quickly had not success +rewarded his search. + +They were soon heading directly for their distant base. Tom could now +give his aerial steed the rein, and get all the speed possible out of +the cumbersome two-seater. There was no longer any necessity for +"loafing on the job," to allow a tardy moon to come in sight, as had +been the case before. Home, and at top speed, was the slogan now. + +But, alas! it was not long before Tom realized that something was wrong +with the plane. He found it increasingly difficult to manage the engine, +and the machine began to give erratic jumps that alarmed Jack. + +Had it been possible to make himself heard above the clatter of the +motor and the propeller, Jack would have been much inclined to shout +out, and ask his more experienced comrade what had happened. + +Still he could give a shrewd guess. One of the bullets fired by the +Teuton soldiers must have struck some part of the motor, and done enough +damage to make its workings exceedingly erratic. If such were the case, +would it be wise for them to try to push on at this high altitude, where +a sudden collapse would mean death for both of the occupants of the +disabled plane? + +Tom soon shut the motor off, and tilted the machine for a volplane down +several thousand feet to a new level. + +Jack held his breath. This was partly because the wind rushed at him in +a vicious fashion while they were plunging downward, and also on account +of a new fear that clutched his heart. + +How about the wings of the airplane standing the strain when Tom +suddenly brought that volplane to a stop and tried to sail on an even +keel again? Would they hold out? Or had some defect occurred in them +which could also be charged to the spattering bullets fired by the Metz +mob? + +Then Jack breathed easier again. + +The thing had been accomplished, and they were once more speeding +onward, as Tom touched the controls that started the motor working. All +then was well, as far as they had gone. Apparently they could by +successive stages descend close to the treetops, and skim along until +some favorable open space showed, into which a skillful pilot would find +it possible to drop lightly and land. + +A second volplane further added to Jack's peace of mind. They were now +halfway down, and all seemed well. The earth loomed up below, although +as yet it took on only a vague, misty effect, due to the weak moonlight. + +Jack busied himself in trying to make things out, as for the third time +the nose of the heavy observation Caudron was suddenly pointed downward, +and they took the next "header." + +This time Tom dropped a greater distance. When once more the loud hum of +motor and propellers was heard they had almost reached the treetops. +Jack gave one gulp, in fear lest his pilot could not make things work as +he intended, and that they must crash to the earth while descending at +such frightful speed. + +Now everything was all right. They could not be more than a thousand +feet above the floor of the valley they were following in their homeward +route. If anything happened surely Tom would find some way of making a +landing, even if a clumsy one that would put their machine out of the +running and leave them stranded on enemy soil. + +They continued to move along slowly, both looking eagerly to discover +signs that would invite a possible landing. It looked as though they +were in the country; at least they did not discover any signs of lights +to indicate the presence of houses near by. + +Soon a landing proved feasible, as they came to just the kind of open +plot the air service boys yearned to discover. To make absolutely +certain before committing himself, Tom circled the ground twice, and +even dropped lower and lower while so doing, all the while straining his +vision to the utmost. + +Then the thing was done. + +That was far from a pleasant landing. It shook them up considerably; but +Jack was of the opinion that no damage resulted to the airplane, which +after all was just then the main consideration. + +Both of them leaped to the ground, after which Tom secured his electric +hand-torch which he had found useful so many times while on the outward +trip and he wished to consult the compass or the register of the +barograph. + +"I guess there's some sort of a house near by," said Jack, "because a +rooster crowed over yonder. Yes, I can see what looks like the line of a +road, too. I suppose it runs the entire length of this valley." + +While Jack was saying this softly the pilot had started to take an +inventory of the motor. His now practiced eye ran along this and that +part, each of which was so essential to the smooth running of the +engine. Tom too had already formed a pretty clear idea as to where he +was likely to find the damage, and hence was able in a short time to +give a satisfied grunt. + +"Located the trouble, have you, Tom?" queried the other. + +"Yes. It's right where I expected to find it. A bullet has made a dent +that interferes with the free action of the part. Besides, I think that +spark plug has become fouled with oil, and will have to be changed to +get the best results." + +"How lucky you brought another with you! Lots of fellows wouldn't have +bothered about such a little thing." + +"I had my suspicions about that when we started," explained the other, +"even though the mechanician assured me it was perfectly clean. I know +different now, and will certainly give him a piece of my mind when we +get back." + +"Then you expect to get home safely, do you?" asked Jack, in a relieved +tone, that proved how anxious he had been growing since troubles had so +consecutively alighted on them. + +"Surely," chuckled the other, with his usual confidence in voice and +manner, "a thing like this isn't going to stop our plans. Here in this +retired spot nobody's apt to bother us while we make our repairs. You +can hold this torch, Jack, and shove the light squarely on the work." + +Tom worked for some time. He tapped as gently as possible when knocking +out the dent made by the bullet, and he gradually removed the cause of +the trouble. He was just finishing with the spark-plug when the +confidence of the air service boys received a sudden jolt. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE LONE HOUSE BY THE ROADSIDE + + +"Listen, Tom!" hissed Jack. + +The other had just sighed with relief on completing the work of +replacing the spark-plug that had become fouled with oil. + +"I, too, heard it plainly, Jack!" he breathed. + +"Was it someone screaming or sobbing?" asked the other breathlessly. + +"Sounded like it to me." + +"And either a woman or a girl, at that!" hazarded his chum in +bewilderment. + +"It might have been a boy," suggested Tom. "There it is again." + +Both of them listened. Peculiar sensations crept over them as they stood +and thus strained their ears to catch any further sounds. Sobbing at any +time is enough to arouse the feelings of a sensitive nature; but heard +in the dead of night, and under the conditions that surrounded the two +young aviators, made it all the more thrilling. + +Jack in particular was touched to the heart. + +"Say, that's a queer thing, Tom!" he muttered. "Why should anybody be +crying or screaming like that away off here, and at this time of night?" + +"Oh, there are many who are weeping in these dark days," said Tom +gravely. "The men in myriads of families will never come home again. +Perhaps a mother, or it may be a sister, has just had word that son, +father, or brother has been shot down in battle." + +Jack shuddered. Why should his thoughts instantly fly to the Boche pilot +whom they had met and fought and conquered while on the way to Metz on +their present perilous mission? It had been a fair fight, and a case of +their lives or his. Nevertheless Jack shuddered as he remembered how the +other had gone down after that last exchange of gunfire. + +"Tom, notice that it comes from almost the identical direction where I +told you I heard the crowing of a rooster a while ago," he hastened to +say, more to rid his mind of those ghastly thoughts than anything else. + +What a strange fatality if this should be the home of the unfortunate +Teuton pilot of that Fokker machine, and the one who mourned was his +mother or a young sister, or perhaps his wife! + +"That means there's a house not far away, possibly an estate of some +kind," mused Tom, as though turning over some sudden project in his +mind. + +Jack guessed what his chum was thinking about. + +"Tom," he said softly, when for the third time they caught the +heart-rending, half stifled sobs coming on the still night air. + +"What do you want now, Jack?" + +"I was just wondering whether you'd agree to something," continued the +other, in a persuasive tone. "We're not in any _great_ hurry, are +we?" + +"Well, no, perhaps not, Jack; though I'd like to deliver the paper into +the hands of our commander as soon as possible. It is probably of the +utmost importance, you know." + +"I can't help thinking how I'd feel, Tom, if my mother or sister were in +some great trouble, and fellows who might be in a position to hold out a +helping hand considered their own personal safety first." + +When Jack said this his voice was husky. Apparently the incident +appealed strongly to his emotions. Jack had always been unusually +thoughtful in regard to women of whatever age or degree, and would go +far out of his way to do one a favor; so it was not strange that he +should feel as he did at this time. + +Tom was in a mood to be easily persuaded. The plaintive sobs, telling of +woe that clutched some one's heart-strings, stirred a responsive chord +within him. He, too, remembered those at home. Jack had put a clincher +on his argument when he asked what their opinion of a man would be who +turned aside and went his own way after hearing a woman or a child +crying bitterly. + +"All right, then, Jack; perhaps we can spare the time to take a turn +around here, and see if we can be of any help," he announced, greatly to +the satisfaction of his chum. + +"Perhaps some one has been hurt and needs assistance," suggested Jack. +"It isn't going to delay us much, and may be of great help to them. Come +on--let's be on the move." + +Tom was not quite so precipitate as his companion. Caution had a part in +his make-up. + +"Don't try to rush things, Jack," he said. "I must take a last look over +my work here, you know." + +"But you said everything was completed, Tom!" persisted the other. + +"So it is, but I ought to make doubly sure before we leave the plane," +Tom added, as he took the electric hand-torch from his companion and +began systematically to look over the engine at which he had been +working, carefully examining every detail. + +Jack said nothing further. He understood what his chum meant when he +declared it important that they should know absolutely the motor was in +prime condition for immediate service. Something might occur to +necessitate a hurried departure from the vicinity; a detachment of the +enemy forces might appear, or other perils hover over their heads that +might be laughed at only if they could take to the air without +detention. + +Tom was not long in doing as he desired. Meanwhile Jack could hear an +occasional sob from the same quarter as before, and the sounds continued +to exercise a peculiar influence over him which he could not have +explained had he been asked. + +"I'm ready now, Jack!". + +"Glad to hear it," muttered the other, half under his breath; not that +he meant to infer Tom had been unduly long, but because his feelings +were wrought up to a high pitch that caused him to quiver all over. + +Tom evidently guessed this, judging from his next remark. + +"Cool down, Jack," he said, laying a hand on his companion's arm. "This +will never do, you know. Getting excited is the worst thing an air pilot +can do. It'll prove fatal to all your hopes, unless you manage to +control your feelings better." + +"I guess you're right, Tom." + +"I don't think there's any chance the plane will be discovered here in +the open field, even if there is a road so close by," mused the pilot, +after they had gone perhaps as far as twenty-five yards. + +"Not in a thousand years," asserted Jack confidently, turning to look +back as he spoke. "Why, even now I can't discover a sign of the wings, +or anything else in the misty moonlight, it's so deceptive. Only that +lone tree standing close to where we dropped tells me the location of +our plane." + +"Yes, I marked that, too," asserted Tom quietly. "I thought we ought to +have some sort of landmark to guide us if we should be in a hurry coming +back. And the tree, standing up fairly high, can be seen ten times +better than anything close to the earth." + +"Here's the road, Tom." + +"So it is, and an important one in the bargain, judging from its +condition," remarked the other, softly. + +"It runs the length of the valley, of course," added Jack. "I shouldn't +be surprised if it went all the way from Metz to the Verdun front. If +that's the case it must have considerable travel, even if nothing has +chanced to come along since we landed." + +"I can see signs to tell that we are close to some sort of country +estate, or it may only be a Lorraine farm." + +"I can glimpse lights through the trees, and chances are they come from +windows in the house beyond." + +"I see them too," affirmed Tom. + +"But say, isn't it pretty late for a farmhouse to be lighted up like +that?" + +"Depend on it, there's some good reason for all that illumination," Jack +was told. "And perhaps we'd better drop this talking so much, now we're +getting close to the place. No telling what we'll find there. For all we +know this may be some one's headquarters, though pretty far back of the +line for that sort of thing. But I think it'll turn out to be something +more than ordinary." + +It did. + +Jack began to weave all manner of fantastic explanations to account for +the illumination of the house alongside the road to Metz. + +He felt he would not be very much astonished to discover a line of +military cars standing at the gate, and find that an important council +of war was being conducted within the building. + +Then he remembered the crying and sobbing. Somehow, that did not seem to +fit in with his other imaginings. The touch of Tom's hand on his arm +made Jack give a violent start. + +"Here's a high fence, you notice," Tom whispered. "Seeing that makes me +believe it's going to turn out to be a country estate, and not just a +farm. We ought to find a gate somewhere further along." + +"That crying has stopped, Tom." + +"For the time being, yes," admitted the other. "Perhaps she's only gone +away from the open window. I was in hopes it would keep on, so we could +be guided straight." + +Two minutes later, after walking alongside the high fence for some +distance, they discovered the entrance to the place. Tom flashed his +light on the ground. + +"Been considerable going in and coming out of vehicles, generally +automobiles," he announced. + +"And private cars are almost taboo in all Germany these dark days, they +tell us," mentioned Jack sagely. "That makes it look as if some sort of +military business might be transacted in this isolated place. Gee! I +tell you it's getting my curiosity whetted to a fine point, all this +mystery. But we're going in, of course, Tom?" + +"Some way or other, Jack. If the entrance is closed and locked we can +climb over the fence, all right. But no need of worrying about that, +because I already see the gates are ajar. Come on." + +So they slipped into the enclosed grounds, actuated by an impulse, +wholly unconscious of what might be awaiting them. They had been drawn +into the adventure simply on account of a praiseworthy desire to be of +service to some unknown one who seemed to be in trouble. And neither of +the boys even vaguely suspected as yet what strange happenings would +confront them before many minutes passed by. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A NEST OF SPIES + + +Neither of the air service boys had any doubts now with regard to the +character of the grounds they were invading at dead of night. It must be +a private estate. Once it may have been kept up through a lavish +expenditure of money, but of late years things had evidently been +allowed to grow more or less wild. + +Tom was following what appeared to be the drive. It was not difficult to +do so, because of the moonlight that sifted down through the bare +branches of the neighboring ornamental trees, now destitute of foliage. + +The house was presently discovered. Just as Tom anticipated, it was a +rather large building, that might even be called a mansion, or chateau. +It lay half buried amidst a prodigious growth of trees and bushes. + +Jack fancied there was a sort of haunted air about the place, something +uncanny, as he told himself. And then those sobs or screams could not be +forgotten. + +"Let's go around first, and see what lies in the rear," whispered Tom. + +He had an object in view when he said this. Having noted carefully their +route in coming from the open field where they had left their big plane, +Tom knew that the window from whence the sobbing had come must be either +at the back of the house, or on the eastern side. + +He was heading in that quarter now, and looking for signs of a light in +some upper window. This he discovered speedily, and pointed it out to +his companion. + +"Whoever was crying, Jack, must be up there," he said, close to the +other's ear so as to insure safety. + +"But how can we find out?" queried Jack. "If you say the word I'm +willing to climb up, and learn what's wrong." + +"Not yet. We must take a turn around, and pick up more knowledge of this +place, as well as the people who live in the house." + +"Then why not creep up and look in at that lower window?" suggested +Jack, pointing as he spoke. "I've seen a shadow passing back and forth, +as if some person were walking up and down like a caged tiger. It's a +man, too, Tom, because I could easily make out his figure, a tall man to +boot." + +Tom led the way, with Jack at his heels. They managed to crawl through +the bushes that cluttered the ground close to the wall of the stone +building, and were at length in a position to raise themselves from +their knees and peep under the drawn shade. + +Jack was the first to look. Almost instantly he drew back with a low +ejaculation of wonder. Tom, spurred on by this fact, also raised his +head until his eyes were on a level with the small strip of open space +just below the shade. He too had a thrill at what he saw. + +"I feel as if I must be dreaming!" whispered Jack huskily. "Tell me, is +that man in there really Carl Potzfeldt, the good-for-nothing guardian +of little Bessie Gleason?" + +"It's no other than our old acquaintance of the Atlantic liner," +admitted Tom, though he himself had some difficulty in believing the +startling fact. + +This man, whom they felt sure was a German spy, had last been seen +descending the gangway from the steamer at an English port, with Bessie +Gleason, his pretty little ward, held by the hand, as though he feared +she might try to run away from him. + +Many times had Jack tried to picture the conditions under which he might +run across Carl Potzfeldt again; but no matter what line of flight his +imagination took he certainly had never dreamed of such a thing as this. +Here in the heart of Lorraine, many miles back of the German front, on a +moonlight night, and in a lonely country house, he once more beheld the +object of his former detestation. + +He clutched his chum by the arm almost fiercely. + +"Well, that settles it, Tom!" he muttered savagely. + +"Settles what?" whispered the other, for the window was closed, and +there did not seem to be any chance of their low-voiced exchange of +opinions being overheard. + +"I don't leave here until I've seen _her_. For if he's at this +place it stands to reason Bessie must be here also. Tom, that was Bessie +we heard sobbing, I just know it now." + +Tom had already jumped to the same conclusion. Nevertheless he did not +mean to let it interfere with his customary caution. Nothing was to be +gained through reckless and hurried action. They must go slowly and +carefully. This house by the roadside on the way to Metz he concluded +might be a nest of spies, perhaps the headquarters of a vast network of +plotters. + +"Hark! There's a car coming along the road and stopping at the gates +here!" he told his chum, as he drew Jack down beside him. "We must be +more careful how we look in lighted windows. If any one chanced to be +abroad in the grounds we'd be seen, and perhaps fired on." + +They crept from the vicinity of the window. Tom led the way toward the +front of the house, as if he had an object in view. The car was now +coming in along the crooked drive. They could see its one light, for +economy in the use of all means for illumination was a cardinal feature +of the German military orders in those days of scarcity. + +The car stopped in front of the house, and a man jumped out. Tom saw +that he wore a uniform of some sort, and judged that he might be a +captain, at least. There was a second figure on the front seat, also in +the dark-green garb of a soldier, but a private possibly. + +The two young Americans crouched amidst the dense bushes and listened. +So many thrilling things were happening in rapid succession that their +pulses beat with unwonted speed. + +Before this the sound of the approaching car must have reached the ears +of the man they had seen pacing the floor in the spacious room that +looked like a library. There were many books in cases and on shelves, +while pictures and boars' heads decorated the walls. + +Potzfeldt opened the door just as the officer alighted, and there was an +exchange of stiff military salutations. Tom discovered that his guess +was a true one, for the man of the house addressed the other as +"Captain." + +It was too bad that they spoke in German as they stood by the open door. +Jack for once bitterly regretted the fact that he had never taken up the +study of that language when at school, as he might have done easily +enough. It would have paid him handsomely just then, he believed. + +The two men talked rapidly. Apparently the officer was asking questions, +and demanding something, for in another minute Carl Potzfeldt took an +object out of a bill book and handed it to the other. As near as the +watchers could make out this object was a slip of paper, very small, but +handled as though it might be exceedingly precious. + +Jack had a sudden recollection of a correspondingly minute slip of paper +which he and Tom had found hidden in that little receptacle attached to +the leg of the homing pigeon the latter had shot. + +More talk followed between the two men. Presently the man turned and +hastened inside again. He had left the door standing open, however, with +the German officer waiting as if for something he had come after besides +the scrap of paper. + +Jack knew now that the man in uniform was from the headquarters of the +Crown Prince. That accounted for the numerous marks of car tires which +Tom had discovered on the drive. This lonely house by the roadside on +the way to Metz was a nest of spies. Perhaps Carl Potzfeldt might be the +chief, through whom negotiations were conducted and lesser agents sent +forth. + +Jack had got no further in his deduction when he saw the tall man +returning. He carried a bundle that was wrapped in a cloth, and depended +from his hand by means of a heavy cord, or some sort of handle. + +This he set down on the landing, while he passed further words with the +captain; and now it was Potzfeldt who asked the questions, as though he +wished to learn how things were going at the front. + +Between queries and guttural replies the hidden air service boys heard a +series of sounds that gave them sudden light. Jack's hand pressed on +Tom's arm, as though in this manner he wished to call the attention of +the other to the noise. + +Many times both of them had listened to similar sounds while watching +some pigeon on the barn roof dare a rival to combat, or when wooing his +mate. And as they could easily trace this to the covered package which +Carl Potzfeldt had just brought out of the house, the meaning was +obvious. + +Of course there were pigeons in that cage, homing pigeons at that, like +the one Tom had shot! Doubtless had that one escaped its tragic fate the +message it carried would have been delivered to the owner of this lonely +house, in turn to be handed over to one of the messengers from German +headquarters. + +And now the German captain, stooping over, took possession of the cage +containing at least two of the trained birds. They would be carried to +some point from which, on another night, a daring Boche airman would +attempt to take them far back of the French front, to hand over to the +agent who was in communication with the master spy, Carl Potzfeldt. + +It was all very simple. Nevertheless it was also amazing to realize how +by what might be called a freak of fate the air service boys had been +enabled to discover these facts. But for the accident to the motor they +would not have dreamed of making a landing short of the aviation field +at Bar-le-Duc. Then, had they not caught that woeful sound of loud +sobbing, the idea of looking around would never have occurred to them. + +The officer was now starting back to his car, which would carry him +post-haste to German headquarters, where the fresh message in a cipher +code from beyond the French lines might be translated, and the valuable +information it possibly contained be taken advantage of. + +Presently the military chauffeur started to swing around a curve that +would allow them to leave the grounds by the same gates through which +they had entered. The car's course could be followed by the strong ray +its one light threw ahead; and the boys were able to tell when it +reached the road again. + +As they expected it returned the same way it had come, probably heading +for the headquarters of the Crown Prince. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +JACK CLIMBS A WALL + + +"What luck we're in to be here, Tom!" murmured Jack. + +Carl Potzfeldt had again entered the house and closed the door; and the +air service boys could no longer hear the car speeding along the road. +Jack was quivering all over with excitement. The events that had just +come to their attention filled him with a sensation of wonder +approaching awe. + +"It certainly is strange how we've stumbled on this nest of spies," +admitted Tom. + +"And the paper he gave the captain--it must have been a message in +cipher that an incoming pigeon brought from back of our lines, eh, Tom?" + +"I guess it was, Jack. We could see it was only a small scrap of paper, +thin paper at that; but both of them handled it as if it were pretty +valuable." + +Jack was chuckling, such a queer proceeding that Tom could not help +noticing it, and commenting on it. + +"What's struck you as funny now?" he asked, puzzled to account for this +sudden freak on the part of his companion. + +"I was wondering," explained Jack, "whether that mightn't be the +doctored message we believed our commander meant to send through some +time or other with one of the pigeons we got that day we went hunting." + +"That's possible," Tom agreed, also amused at the thought. "But then, +whether it is or not, it means nothing to us, you understand. We are +here, and must decide on our movements. If that was a bogus message, and +will coax the Germans to make an attack at a certain place where a trap +has been laid, that's their lookout." + +"Somewhere about here must be the pigeon loft where those homing birds +have been bred," suggested Jack, following up a train of thought. + +"Yes, it may be on the flat roof of the chateau, or in the barn at the +rear," Tom admitted. "One thing is certain, they know only this place as +home; and wherever they're set free their first instinct is to strike a +bee-line for here. Some people are so foolish as to fancy homers can be +sent anywhere; but that's silly. It's only home that they're able to +head straight toward, even if hundreds of miles away." + +"Oh Tom! how about Bessie?" inquired Jack eagerly. + +His chum considered, while he rubbed his chin with thumb and finger in a +thoughtful way he had when a little puzzled. + +"It might be done in a pinch," he finally muttered. + +"What, Tom?" + +"She's such a little mite that her weight wouldn't amount to much, if +only she had the nerve to do it, Jack." + +"Do you mean that you'd be willing to carry Bessie off with us? To help +her escape from her guardian? I'm sure he must be treating her badly, or +else she wouldn't be sobbing her poor little heart out, as we heard +her." + +"That would have to depend a whole lot on Bessie." + +"As far as that goes I know she's a gritty little person," Jack +instantly remarked. "Many times she said to me she wished she were a boy +so that she might also learn to fly and fight for France against the +detested Kaiser. Why, she even told me she had gone up with an aviator +who exhibited down at a Florida resort, one having a hydro-airplane in +which he took people up. And Bessie declared she didn't have the least +fear." + +"That sounds good to me, Jack." + +"Then let's get busy, and try to let her know we're here," continued +Jack. + +"First of all, we'll get under the open window where she must have been +standing at the time we heard her crying. I think I saw a movement up +there while the two men were conversing on the porch. Perhaps Bessie was +listening to what they said." + +Tom's words gave his chum a new thought. + +"Oh, it would certainly be just like Bessie to do it! She seemed to be +full of clever ideas." + +Tom, being mystified by such words, he naturally sought further +information. + +"What would she do?" he demanded. + +"Send me that mysterious message by the little hot-air balloon," Jack +announced with a vein of pride in his voice, feeling delighted over +having solved the puzzle that had baffled him for so long. + +"It hardly seems probable," Tom answered softly. "At the same time it +isn't altogether impossible." + +"How far are we from the French front, do you think, Tom?" pursued his +comrade, determined to sift the whole thing out. + +"Twenty miles or so, I should imagine." + +"That isn't very far. Once I caught just such a little balloon in a tree +in our yard that had a tag on it, telling that it had been set free in a +village that lay _seventy_ miles off. The wind had carried it along +furiously, so that it covered all that distance before losing buoyancy, +and coming down in the heavy night air." + +"Yes, I know of other circumstances where such balloons have traveled +long distances before falling. Then again, Jack, this valley extends +pretty much all the way to the Verdun front, and the current of air +would carry a balloon along directly toward our home patch." + +"Oh, Bessie sent it, believe me!" asserted Jack again, more confidently +than ever. "And she'll tell us so too, when she gets the chance." + +Thus whispering the air service boys arrived at that side of the house +where the lighted window on the second floor seemed to indicate that the +object of their present concern could be found. + +Tom examined the building as well as the limited amount of light +allowed. He could easily see that any agile young fellow, himself or +Jack for instance, might scale the wall, making use of some projections, +and a cement flower trellis as well, in carrying out the project. + +"We might throw pebbles up, and bring her to the window," he suggested, +though pretty confident at the time Jack would find fault with such an +arrangement. + +"That wouldn't help her get down here to us, Tom," protested the other. +"And that's what we're planning, you remember; for you said she could +accompany us if she felt equal to it. I must go up myself and help +Bessie get down. There's nothing else to do, Tom." + +It looked very much as though Jack was right. Tom admitted this to +himself; at the same time he wished there were some other way by means +of which the same end could be gained, or that he could undertake the +thing, instead of his comrade. + +But to this Jack would never agree. Bessie was his own particular +friend; and they had been most "chummy" while aboard the Atlantic liner +crossing the submarine infested ocean. Then again that warning had been +addressed to him, and not to both, showing that the writer had only been +concerned about the danger he, Jack, was running, should his plane be +tampered with by some emissary of Carl Potzfeldt. + +"All right then; you go, Jack! But be careful about your footing. If you +fell it'd be a bad thing in many ways, for even if you escaped a broken +neck or a fractured leg you'd arouse the house, and all sorts of trouble +would drop down on us in a hurry." + +"Don't worry about me, Tom. I'll show you I'm as nimble as any monkey. +Besides, that isn't much of a climb. Why, I could nearly do it with one +arm tied fast." + +"Go to it!" Tom told him, settling back to watch the performance and +give whispered advice if it seemed necessary. + +Jack waited no longer. He was wild to find himself once more face to +face with the pretty young girl in whom he had taken such an interest. +Her recent sobs and cries still haunted his heart, and he felt certain +she must be in great sorrow over something. + +He commenced climbing. While his boast about being equal to any monkey +that ever lived among the treetops may have been a bit of an +exaggeration, all the same Jack was a very good athlete, and especially +with regard to feats on the parallel bars or the ladders in a gymnasium. + +He made his way nimbly upward, with Tom's eyes following every movement. +It seemed an easy task for the climber. Just what he would discover when +he had gained the open window was another question. + +The light still remained, for which both boys felt glad. It afforded +Jack a goal which he was striving to gain; and it told Tom further down +that the inmate of the upper room was awake and still moving about, +though her sobs had ceased. + +Once Tom fancied he heard something stirring back of the house. He hoped +it might not prove to be a servant attached to the Potzfeldt place or an +attendant who had charge of the pigeon loft. + +Jack was almost up now. He had only to cover another yard of space when +he could look into the room of the lighted window. That was where fresh +peril must lie, because his figure would be outlined in silhouette, and +any one moving about the grounds might discover that uninvited guests +had arrived. + +Tom wished he had told his chum to insist that the light be immediately +extinguished, if, as they believed, it proved to be Bessie who occupied +that room. He hoped his chum would think of it without being told. + +There! At last Jack had arrived, and without accident! Now he was +cautiously thrusting his head up a little, to peer within. + +Tom held his breath. So much depended on what would follow Jack's +betrayal of his presence. + +"Tell her to put out the light, first of all, Jack!" Tom gently called +out, using both hands as a megaphone to carry the sounds. + +It seemed that he must have been heard, and his directions understood, +for immediately there was another movement above, after which the +illumination ceased, as though Bessie had blown out the lamp. + +Tom breathed easier, though he still continued to look, and wonder how +his chum was going to get the girl safely down from her elevated +apartment. Jack was not so fertile in expedients as his chum, and many +times depended on Tom to suggest ways and means. + +While Tom was still waiting, and hoping for the best, he heard his +comrade whisper down to him as he hung suspended, clutching the sill of +the open window. + +"After all, you'll have to come up too, Tom," he was saying feverishly. +"There are complications that'll need your judgment, knots to untangle +that are beyond me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +IN THE OLD LORRAINE CHATEAU + + +What Jack said in his cautious fashion puzzled Tom. For the life of him +he could not understand what had arisen, calling for any unusual display +of generalship. Surely Jack should have been equal to the task of +getting Bessie down from the window, even if he had to make use of +knotted bed-clothes in lieu of a rope. + +Still he had asked Tom to come up, and there was nothing to do but grant +his request. "Complications," Jack said, had arisen. That was a +suggestive word, and to Tom's mind seemed to hint at further mystery. + +Accordingly he proceeded to imitate the example of his comrade. Jack had +shown the way, and all his chum had to do was to follow. As Tom was also +an all-around athlete, accustomed to much climbing from small boyhood, +after nuts and birds' nests and all such things as take lads into tall +trees, he found but little trouble in making the ascent. + +When he drew himself alongside Jack, the other gave a sigh of relief. + +"Whee! I'm glad you've come, I tell you, Tom," he said. "It was getting +too big a job for me to tackle." + +"What's happened, Jack?" asked the late arrival on the stone ledge under +the window of the upper room. + +"First, here's Bessie, Tom," Jack went on. "She wants to shake hands +with you. Since we parted, when the steamer was docked, the poor girl +has been having all sorts of trouble; and she's glad as can be to see us +both again; aren't you, Bessie?" + +Tom, feeling a small, trembling hand groping for his, immediately +grasped it, and gave a squeeze that must have carried conviction to the +heart of the girl. + +"Oh, I'm shivering like everything!" she murmured, adding quickly: "But +not with fear. It's because my prayers have been answered, and help has +come at last, when everything looked so awfully dark--and I'm so very, +very hungry." + +"Hungry!" repeated Tom, starting, it seemed such a very strange word for +the girl to use, even though they were in Germany, where all food he +knew must be getting exceedingly scarce. + +"Yes, what do you think, that rotten bounder of a spy is half starving +the poor girl! He ought to be tarred and feathered, that's what!" +growled the indignant Jack. + +"Not so loud," warned Tom. "Some one may hear you, Jack. But tell me +what you've learned." + +"Why, first of all, Tom, it was Bessie who wrote that warning message I +had, and attached it to that little balloon, hoping the favorable breeze +would carry it over the front to the French lines. So that mystery is +explained. Then, Tom, there are _two_ we've got to take out of this +place, instead of just one, as we thought." + +"I don't get you!" Tom ejaculated. "What do you mean by two?" + +"It's a story in itself, I guess," whispered Jack. "I don't wholly +understand it myself. But it seems that Bessie's mother didn't drown +after all when the _Lusitania_ went down, as Potzfeldt reported she +did." + +"You surprise me, Jack! How could that be?" demanded the other youth, +thrilled by the startling information. + +"Oh, that slick rascal managed it somehow," came the soft if indignant +reply. "We'll learn more about it later on. He was picked up by a +fishing boat. The lady was temporarily out of her mind, so he gave it +out later that she had gone down. How he ever got her over here in +Germany beats me. But he managed to do it it seems. And she's been kept +a prisoner in this old chateau of his ever since!" + +"But what was his object?" asked the amazed Tom. + +"It had a heap to do with finances," Jack told him. "While he held a +paper that gave him charge over her daughter over in America, and a part +of the big Gleason fortune also, there were valuable papers he had been +unable to get his greedy hands on. She absolutely refused to tell him +where they were hidden. As a last resort what did the wretch do but go +all the way back to America." + +"You mean to fetch his ward across with him, Jack?" + +"Yes, just to use Bessie as a lever to compel her mother to give up +those valuable papers. I always said, you remember, Tom, that man was +hugging some secret to his heart. And so he was." + +"He's been treating Bessie badly then, half starving her, I think you +said?" continued Tom. + +"Just what he has, poor girl," growled his chum, savagely. "It's an +awful thing to be hungry! I don't see how any one can stand it. But he +hasn't broken the spirit of either of them yet, though Bessie's getting +so weak she finds herself crying every now and then, just as we heard +her. And it was that which brought us over to find out what it meant. +But Tom, tell her we mean to stand by, and see that both her mother and +herself are taken to a place of safety." + +This Tom readily did, though as yet he could hardly understand just how +their promise could be fulfilled. One they might manage to take aloft +with them, by crowding, but the Caudron was not capable of seating four; +nor would it be safe to carry a couple of inexperienced passengers along +with themselves. + +"But we're losing valuable time," he observed. "The sooner we get in +touch with Mrs. Gleason the better. There's a whole lot to be done +before we can say we're on the safe side of the fence." + +"Then first of all we'd better climb inside the room, hadn't we?" +suggested Jack. + +In answer Tom proceeded to get one leg over the sill, and then pass his +entire body across. Jack quickly followed. In the semi-darkness, for the +moon gave a dim light, they clustered there, and continued to map out +their immediate plans in whispers that could not have been heard a dozen +feet distant. + +It appeared that Bessie knew where her mother was confined, though both +doors were fastened on the outside to prevent their having +communication. But the girl had found a way. Night after night she was +accustomed to slipping from her window, when everything was quiet below +and the lights all out, making her way along that narrow coping, or +ledge, and tapping softly at the window of her mother's room. + +They would remain together until toward morning, when the girl made it a +practice to return by the same perilous route. + +On this particular night it had seemed as though the lights below would +never go out. Carl Potzfeldt, the master spy, expecting important news +and a messenger from the headquarters of the Crown Prince, had been +waiting up until long after midnight in order to fullfil the important +duties entrusted to him. + +Jack suggested that he creep along that coping and inform the lady of +the golden chance for escape that had arrived. But as she would hardly +be able to return by the same way, it seemed as though some other scheme +must be considered. + +Bessie herself had a brilliant thought bordering on an inspiration. + +"Listen, and I will tell you," she said at this juncture. "All the time +I have been here my one thought has been of escape. I dreamed nothing +else save getting my poor mother away from the clutches of that coward +who had hypnotized her in the past, and made her believe he was a good +man as well as her cousin from Alsace-Lorraine. And I know of a way it +can be done." + +"Tell us your plan, please," begged Jack; though he would be sorry to +learn that the honor of releasing Bessie's imprisoned mother was not to +fall to his share in the undertaking. + +"There is another window. It opens upon a hallway; and I can get through +it, because I've tried it more than once. But the proper time hadn't +come, for how were we to flee from this awful country? Wait for me here, +both of you. I shall be able to open her barred door, and then my own. +And it is better that I carry her the good news than some one who would +be a stranger to my mother, however much I have told her about you." + +Tom saw that her plan was the best, after all. He himself had been a +little afraid that if Jack came tapping at the window of Mrs. Gleason's +room she might take the alarm, thinking it but another twist to the +odious schemes of Potzfeldt, and perhaps shrieking out in terror, which +would cause an alarm, and ruin everything. + +Bessie climbed nimbly out of the window, showing how accustomed she was +to such athletic exercises. Jack held on to her to the last, and his +whispers were all of an entreating character, as he begged her to be +very careful, and not slip in her excitement. + +Now she was gone, and the two air service boys, left by themselves in +that room of the old Lorraine chateau, counted the seconds and the +minutes until they should hear a gentle signal at the door, to signify +that Bessie and her mother were there, about to enter. + +Jack walked softly up and down, like a velvet-footed tiger in its cage. +He was so worked up by the excitement of the occasion that Tom did not +have the heart to ask him to stop his movements, though he certainly +would have done so had not the other been keeping on his tiptoes all the +while. + +What a remarkable turn their venture into the country back of the +enemy's lines had taken! And what astounding discoveries they had made +in the bargain! + +Jack was getting more and more impatient. Several times did he pause at +the door, to lay his ear close to the heavy panel, and listen. He +wondered what could be keeping Bessie. Surely she had had ample time to +open the door of her mother's room and explain everything to the lady. +In his excitement he pictured all sorts of fresh trouble as having +befallen the girl. What if by accident she had run across the master +German spy in the corridor? But then, in such a case, Bessie surely +would have screamed in order to warn her two friends that they were in +danger of being discovered, should Potzfeldt and some of his assistants +burst into the room. + +Of course Jack had magnified things wonderfully. Less than half the time +had elapsed than he thought had passed when there came a soft scratching +on the door to notify them Bessie was there. They next heard a slight +creaking sound, and then the soft closing of the door. + +"Bessie, is it you?" asked the eager Jack, softly. + +A reply in the affirmative followed. + +"And here is mother with me," added the girl, a note of joy in her +voice, even though she spoke in a whisper. + +So they came together. In the semi-darkness the boys could not see what +Bessie's mother looked like. They did note, however, that she was small +of stature; and this fact pleased Tom very much indeed. For already he +had figured out just how the rescue must be carried out, since there +seemed to be no other way. + +His plans would entail some sacrifice on Jack's part, and also more or +less exposure to peril; but then Tom knew his chum too well to imagine +he would hesitate even a moment when called upon to take this additional +burden on his shoulders. + +Both of them squeezed the trembling hand of the woman, and as best they +were able assured her that they meant to carry both Bessie and herself +to a place of safety, provided they were courageous enough to trust +themselves to the care of two air pilots. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +FACING MORE DIFFICULTIES + + +"As for me," spoke up Bessie, immediately, just as Jack felt positive +she would, "I'd like nothing better. I've been up once in a +hydro-airplane, and would have gone many times if mother had allowed +me." + +The lady did not seem to anticipate having a very delightful time of it, +for Tom felt her shudder; but she was courageous, and evidently ready to +attempt any hazard in order to gain her freedom. + +"If only there is some way to fasten me securely," she told them, "I am +willing to do anything you say, my brave boys. So make your plans +without regard to my feelings in the matter." + +Jack about this time evidently began to scent something with regard to +Tom's intuitions; at least his word implied a growing skepticism +concerning their ability to find room for two passengers aboard a plane +intended only for a pilot and an observer, or a gunner. + +"Of course one could squeeze in alongside me, Tom," he mentioned +hesitatingly; "but do you think it's wise to have anybody with you? +Mightn't it interfere with the working of the controls, and add to the +danger?" + +"It certainly would, Jack; and that's why I'm forced to call on you to +make a sacrifice." + +"Go on and say what's on your mind, then," demanded Jack. "No matter +what it's going to be, you'll find me ready and willing for anything." + +"You'll have to wait for the second trip," Tom announced. + +"All right, just as you say, Tom. When will that be, later on to-night?" + +"If it's possible to get back, yes," said the other. + +"But if you can't make it, then to-morrow night, Tom?" + +Jack was not overcome with fear, even though the prospect did appear +anything but cheerful. Bessie listened to this low talk, and gave +evidence of growing anxiety. + +"But why should this be necessary?" she put in at that juncture. "I can +stay behind just as well as not. Then perhaps another night later on you +could come again, and take me with you to the French lines, and safety." + +Jack sniffed in disdain. + +"Well, I guess not, Bessie!" he told her, almost sternly. "I'd just like +to see myself sailing away, and leaving you here to stand the racket. +No, both of you are going to accompany Tom. I can find a hiding place +somewhere around; and besides, no one will suspect that an American +flier is hanging out here. There's only one thing I hate like everything +to think of." + +"And I can guess what that is," Tom said, quickly. "You dread to +contemplate a long eatless day before you. That's the worst punishment +anyone could hand out to you, Jack." + +"As far as that goes," interrupted Bessie; "I can tell Jack where the +pantry window lies. As the catch is broken you can easily climb in +through it later on to-night, and lay in a supply of food. There is +always something there. Before that bad man shut me up he tried to +starve me, and I stole food myself. Then he guessed what was happening, +for he fastened my door, and only allowed me to walk in the grounds in +company with a woman he has for a housekeeper." + +Thereupon Bessie gave Jack minute directions how to find the window +leading into the storeroom. Thus armed the young aviator felt that he +ought to be able to stand it, in case his comrade found it impracticable +to return on the same night. + +"Since all that is fixed," remarked Tom, "it strikes me we had better +get out of this place quickly. Can you lead us down by way of the +stairs, Bessie?" + +"Oh, yes; for I know every foot of the way," she told him without +hesitation. "You see, I expected that some time we would have to slip +away by stealth; and so I made myself familiar with everything, even to +the fastenings of the great front door, with its chain and catch." + +"Then we're in great luck," Jack observed, while Tom on his part went on +to ask further. + +"All seems dark outside now, Bessie; would that indicate your jailer has +gone to his bed? And do you happen to know where his apartment is? That +might mean a whole lot to us, you understand." + +"I don't believe he ever does really go to bed," she replied. "Once I +heard him complain that there were so many times during the night that +messengers came from headquarters with demands, or after information +expected from over the lines, that he had to secure his sleep while +fully dressed, and by throwing himself down on a Turkish lounge he has +in his room." + +"Well, so long as his sleep is sound it's little we care how or when he +gets it," announced Jack, flippantly. "And when you give the word, Tom, +we'll all be ready to follow Bessie down the stairs." + +Tom was even opening his mouth to say there was really nothing to detain +them, if Bessie and her mother had secured what trifles they wished to +take away, but after all he did not speak the words that were on his +lips. + +Through the open window they suddenly heard the sound of heavy, guttural +voices. They seemed to come from the road near the entrance gates. + +Tom stepped over to the window and looked out. What he saw gave him an +unpleasant feeling. There were lights already on the crooked driveway, +and a number of men seemed to be advancing in a group. + +Jack at his elbow was also staring, and grinding his teeth with anger. + +"Hang the luck, I say!" he gritted. "That fresh bunch of Boche officers +is bound to knock our plans silly. They'll stir things up again, and we +can't get away. Then perhaps some one will discover the doors of the two +rooms are unfastened, and that'll start a hornet's nest about our ears." + +"Get down, and keep hidden, Jack," urged his companion. "They have +lights with them, and might see us as they come along. There's a +general, at least, in the lot, that big stout man in the center, and I +imagine those other officers belong to his staff." + +"But what are they walking for?" whispered Jack, incredulously. "German +officers in the High Command don't often tramp along the roads like +that, do they?" + +"They may have broken down in their car; and learning they were close to +this house have come on here to wait till repairs are made. Lots of them +know Potzfeldt, I suppose, and one of these men may have been here +before on business. The worst of it all is we'll have to give up our +scheme of going down by way of the stairs." + +They crouched down and watched as best they could, while the half-dozen +men in the gray-green uniforms of German officers, and with many +decorations on the breast of the martial-looking commander, approached +the chateau's front door. + +Already lights had sprung up on the lower floor. Undoubtedly Potzfeldt +had heard his unexpected guests coming, and was bestirring himself to +welcome them, though inwardly raving over having his rest so frequently +disturbed. + +He met them at the door, and there ensued more or less talking, all of +it in the choicest of German. Again Jack felt sorry that his education +was so incomplete that he could only guess at what most of it meant. + +Still, Tom could pick up a little of what was said. There was certainly +mention made of an unfortunate accident to a car, that would necessitate +a delay of some hours for repairs, possibly until morning. The general +did not altogether fancy sitting in the car for hours in the cool night +air. Especially was this the case after he had learned that there was a +house half a mile or so further on where food and drink could be +obtained in plenty, if only they chose to walk that far. + +All of the newcomers had by now stalked inside the house, and the coast +seemed to be clear, so far as those above could see. But down below +there was much hurrying to and fro, which would indicate that Potzfeldt +must have aroused his retainers, and they were running up and down from +wine-cellar to dining-room, bearing acceptable refreshments for the +unbidden guests. + +"Say, I wonder if that old stout chap could be Hindenburg himself?" Jack +whispered in his chum's ear. "I noticed that Mr. Potzfeldt seemed mighty +obsequious, as if he felt highly honored at having such a noble visitor, +and nothing could be too good to set before him." + +"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd hit the nail on the head when +you said that, Jack," the other told him. "He was a big, burly man, with +a mighty important air about him; and he wore a mustache such as we've +always seen in pictures of Hindenburg. But no matter, it doesn't concern +us at all, if we can find a way to get down from here." + +"Only," said Jack, whimsically, "I do hope if they've got their German +appetites along, they don't clean out that pantry before I get my +look-in, that's all. Twenty-four hours without a single bite would be +the limit for me. I don't think I'd survive the ordeal. Now what, Tom?" + +Tom was looking out again. + +"That's lucky," Jack heard him mutter. + +"Of course it is. But tell me what you're referring to, Tom." + +"Some clouds have come along. One is right now covering the face of the +moon, you notice. Well, if we are forced to lower Bessie and her mother +from the window by means of a rope made from knotted bed-sheets, we +stand a chance to avoid being discovered at work by any one who might +happen to be abroad just then." + +Jack chuckled as though pleased. + +"Sure, that's the game, Tom! I knew you'd be equal to getting up some +sort of clever scheme. And I'll start in right away making that rope. We +want to be certain it's strong enough to bear their weight, that's all." + +"I'll help you at the job," Tom told him, for he too wished to be +positive about the twisted parts of the sheets, before trusting the girl +and her mother to their care. + +Fortunately they found that Carl Potzfeldt had some of the airs of a +millionaire about him. The sheets were of stout linen, instead of the +customary cotton to which the American boys were accustomed. When these +were cut first with a sharp pocket-knife, and then torn into long strips +about a foot or so in width, they could be twisted and knotted until the +result was a novel rope of at least twenty feet in length. + +Neither Bessie nor her mother said a single word. They seemed more than +willing to be thus lowered to the ground. Such a novel experience might +not be delightful, but it amounted to very little when compared with +what they had suffered at the hands of their rude and cruel captor. + +Soon the odd rope was ready for use. + +"Let me be the first to go down," Bessie then said to Tom, in an +authoritative voice. + +As he had been about to propose the same thing he made not the least +objection, but proceeded to secure one end of the strange rope around +her body just below the arms, Bessie herself assisting in the operation. + +Before attempting the task, Tom stood at the window listening for some +little time. He wished to make sure that none of the German officers had +remained outside. Tom also meant to satisfy himself that there was no +lurking form among the bushes on that side of the chateau, since the +light streaming from the lower windows dissipated some of the advantages +gained by the temporary clouding of the moon. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +LEFT BEHIND IN THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY + + +Tom appeared finally to be satisfied, for he turned around to Bessie. + +"Now if you're ready we'll lower you safely," he told her. + +The girl showed considerable nimbleness in climbing over the +window-sill. Jack insisted in having a hand in dropping her slowly down. +It was not far, and in a few breaths the girl had reached the solid, +ground. She understood what was expected of her, and immediately cast +off the rude rope, so it might be drawn up and made to serve once more. + +Mrs. Gleason showed just as much bravery as her daughter, and was also +lowered without trouble. + +"You go down next, Tom," whispered Jack. "Then I'll draw it up, and can +join you easily enough without the help of the rope. A white thing like +this dangling here would be sure to attract attention, if any one came +around the corner of the house, and might cost us dearly in the end." + +Tom understood. He preferred being the last to stay, but since Jack had +taken that upon himself, and was moreover adept at scaling walls, it was +folly to dispute his right. + +So down Tom went. He had hardly landed when the sheet-rope was swiftly +drawn up, and vanished within the room. After that Jack was seen making +his way down over the same route he had taken while ascending. + +Soon they were all together again, and their queer exit from the room +seemed not to have been discovered, for which they felt very thankful +indeed. + +Tom led the way into the friendly bushes close by. It was his intention +to skirt the carriage-drive, as it might contain elements of danger for +them. Once they had passed out on the main road to Metz, it would not +take them long to reach the field where the big Caudron airplane lay +like an exhausted and enormous bat, awaiting their coming to spring into +activity. + +In passing along they were enabled to catch a glimpse of the interior of +the dining-room where Carl Potzfeldt was entertaining his distinguished +visitor to the best of his ability in those times when scarcity ruled. + +Tom managed to get a better look at the general. He was more than ever +convinced that the big man with the strong features and all these +decorations on his uniform, was in fact Hindenburg, the head of the +whole German army, whose opinion carried even more weight with the +people just then than that of Kaiser Wilhelm. + +It would be something worth while to be able to say they had been within +a dozen feet of the famous commander, the Iron Man of Germany. Tom +vaguely wished he had some means of capturing the general then and +there, and carrying him over the lines to the French headquarters. That +would indeed be a feat well worth praise from General Petain; but of +course it was utterly impossible. + +They gained the gate, and there Tom insisted on looking carefully around +so as to make doubly certain that no sentinel had been left on duty +while General Hindenburg remained within the house. + +When this fact was made clear he led the way forth. The little party of +four almost ran along the road, so eager were they to place as much +ground as possible between themselves and the seat of danger. + +There was always a chance that the flight of Bessie and her mother might +be discovered by some one connected with the household, and communicated +to Potzfeldt. He, of course, would exhaust every means in trying to +overtake the fugitives. + +But Tom chuckled while telling himself that they must needs have +extraordinary and fleet steeds who could successfully pursue those who +had trusted their safety to his care and that of the big Caudron +airplane. + +Jack hardly knew where the field lay, having become "rattled," as he +called it, from the adventures at the chateau. So after all it was +fortunate that Tom had taken his bearings as well as he had. He knew +just when to leave the road, and start across the open space. Then the +lone tree began to loom up, for the moon had once more thrust her face +from behind the enveloping cloud. + +"It's all right, Bessie," said Jack reassuringly. "Our plane lies close +to the foot of that tree ahead there. If all goes well you'll be on your +way before many minutes have passed." + +"Thanks to you, Jack," murmured the girl admiringly. + +"Shucks! that isn't a circumstance to what I'd be willing to do for you +and your mother!" Jack boldly told her. + +"But all the same it is very brave of you, Jack, and I can never forget +your kindness to us," she insisted. "I hope and pray that nothing +terrible will happen to you while we're gone, and that I'll soon see you +again." + +"I hope so too, Bessie," he chuckled, as if amused. "As to anything +happening to me, I guess I know how to hide all right. The worst that +can knock me is getting a little mite hungry, you know. If that big +German general and his staff leave a bite in the pantry I'm going after +it, believe me! Then I'll find a hole, and crawl in, somewhere close by +here, so I can watch for Tom's return." + +Apparently Jack had mapped his whole programme out; and it seemed that +an adequate supply of provisions occupied the most prominent place in +them. + +They were now at the spot where the Caudron had been left. Tom's mind +was eased of the secret fears he had entertained when he saw the machine +was still where they had left it. So far as he could tell no one had +been near to meddle with it. + +First of all Bessie and her mother must be fastened securely to the seat +where Jack had sat on the trip to Metz. Tom, like a wise general, had +provided himself with plenty of the strips of linen from the torn +sheets. This he utilized in tying the passengers, so that there would +not be the slightest chance of their falling out. + +Even if Mrs. Gleason should faint through terror on finding herself a +mile up in the air, she could not fall out of the machine. But Tom +entertained high hopes that both of his passengers were going to display +extraordinary courage, and give him no cause at all for anxiety. + +Jack tried to assist in the operation, but his hands were trembling so +with the excitement that Tom pushed him away. + +"Leave the job to me, Jack," he told the other. "Too many cooks spoil +the broth, you know. I'll make everything secure, depend on it." + +"Of course I know you will, Tom," the other hastened to assure him. +"Perhaps it is better only one handled the business. And Bessie--" + +"Yes, Jack," said the girl, slipping a hand out toward him, which Jack +took in his, and pressed reassuringly. + +"Don't bother your head for a single minute about me, mind. I'll be all +right, and perhaps able to join you again this very night. It's a great +lark for me, and I wouldn't miss it for a heap. But oh, if only we could +kidnap that big commander, and carry him over to have an interview with +General Petain, how proud I'd be!" + +Tom smiled on realizing that the same idea had occurred to Jack that had +flashed through his own mind. + +"Here, take my automatic, Jack," Tom said. "You may find occasion to use +it before I come back." + +The other complied, and apparently he felt more confidence, once he knew +he had in his possession the means for defending himself should any +ordinary danger threaten. Tom was loath to depart, once he had +everything arranged. The truth of the matter was he hated to leave his +chum in the enemy country; it seemed as though he were deserting him. + +So he "fiddled" around, testing this wire guy, and using his electric +hand torch to give him light, so he could once more run his eye over the +motor on which he had been working. + +"Come, Tom, it's no use hanging around here a minute longer," Jack had +finally to tell him. "Get aboard and I'll spin your wheel for you and +give you a boost for a start. Then I'll drop out of sight, because some +of them may run this way when they hear the clatter and guess the +cause." + +Tom climbed to his seat and settled himself according to his customary +thorough manner. He tried the controls, and was not satisfied until he +had tested everything within reach. + +"Say when, Tom!" Jack remarked, having finally left Bessie's side and +gone to the propellers of the big plane. + +Tom drew in a long breath. He knew he had a risky venture ahead, taking +those two inexperienced passengers over the hostile lines, possibly +amidst showers of exploding shrapnel shells. But it was not this that +weighed so heavily on his spirits. He felt almost like a criminal at +leaving Jack behind. + +"All right; let her go!" he announced grimly. + +There came a sudden whirring sound. Then the loud hum of the motors +chimed in, and the big Caudron machine started off. + +"Good-bye, Tom! Good-bye, Bessie!" Jack was heard saying, although the +noise of the plane almost drowned his voice. + +Faster they went now, as the machine gained momentum. Tom paid strict +attention to his business of pilot. At just the proper time he must +elevate the forward rudder which would cause the plane to leave the +ground and start upward at a sharp angle. + +Jack stood gazing after the object that was quickly growing more and +more indistinct in the dim moonlight, gazing with a strange heaviness in +the region of his heart. He had to shut his teeth firmly together to +conquer the momentary weakness that threatened to overpower him. But his +resolution remained master of the field. + +"If only he gets them safely across," Jack muttered to himself, when he +could no longer see the airplane, though its noisy working came plainly +to his ears, "it'll be all right. But they've heard the racket over at +the house, too, I guess, because men are shouting, and I can see lights +flashing this way and that." + +When he discovered that men with lanterns were actually looking around +as if to learn where the departing airplane could have been resting, and +what it all meant, Jack concluded it was time to conceal himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +TROUBLOUS TIMES FOR JACK + + +The men bearing the lanterns came closer, Jack saw, as he himself +scurried amidst the bushes seeking a hiding-place. + +"Guess that Potzfeldt must know that planes can drop down on his big +open field," the youth muttered to himself. Then as a new idea flashed +through his brain he continued: "Whee! I warrant you now that ours +wasn't the first airplane to land there. Sometimes maybe the spy he +wants to send back of the French lines gets aboard right here, with his +little cage of homers." + +Presently loud exclamations told that the men had discovered the marks +of the arriving and departing Caudron machine. Jack could hear them +exchanging remarks about it, in German of course. Then he saw one of the +trio start back toward the house. He was half running, as though much +excited. Jack jumped to a conclusion. + +"Say," he said to himself, in a whisper, as though even the sound of his +own voice might be company for him, "now that must have been Carl +Potzfeldt himself. What's he making for the house with a hop, skip and +jump for? Perhaps one of his sharp-eyed men has told him there are marks +of small shoes around; and old Carl got a sudden suspicion something +tremendous has happened." + +The master-spy came back again. He was now accompanied by two others, +and Jack saw by their uniforms that they were members of the general's +staff. + +All were talking earnestly, Potzfeldt, Jack imagined, telling them some +story concerning Bessie and her mother, in which he figured as a noble +man, trying to save Mrs. Gleason from the wiles of some American fortune +hunter, into whose hands he now feared she and her daughter had fallen. + +"My! but he's wild!" chuckled the hidden observer. "He realizes that the +two American boys have been too much for his scheming after all. Guess +he must have had a suspicion all along we'd break up his game. That'd +account for his plotting with the other spy to have our planes meddled +with, so we'd meet with some terrible accident that would remove us from +his path." + +Jack was really enjoying himself. It did him good to hear Potzfeldt +raging around, and spluttering as though his rage half choked him. + +What Bessie had said concerning the cruel treatment she had received at +the hands of her mother's relative had fired Jack's blood. He detested a +man who in order to accumulate money could treat a helpless woman and +girl as Potzfeldt had those who were in his power. + +"I'd just like," he was telling himself as he listened, "to be one of +three fellows who had that villain in their power, with a nice big +kettle of hot tar handy, ditto three feather pillows. Oh, wouldn't we +make him a queer bird, though! The extinct dodo'd have nothing on him, +believe me! But it's fine to hear him raging around like that. I only +wish Bessie could listen." + +After a time Potzfeldt and his men went away. They knew they could do +nothing, as the big enemy plane had long since departed, and must by +then be many miles on the return journey to the French lines. + +An hour went by and all seemed quiet in the region of the big house by +the side of the road. Jack had not forgotten the promise made to +himself. It might mean additional danger, to be sure; but when he +thought of a long day ahead, in all probability, with an empty stomach +constantly reproaching him, he felt equal to the task. + +He had no trouble in finding the entrance to the grounds. Everything +seemed quiet, as though the general and his staff were endeavoring to +get a little sleep before resuming their journey to the fighting front. + +Jack was soon under the window that had been described to him by Bessie. +It gave light to the pantry during the daytime. Also he had been +assured, the catch that secured it was broken, so that if he were bold +enough he could easily gain entrance and take his pick of what the +housekeeper had stored there. + +Such a nimble chap as Jack had no difficulty whatever in making an +entrance. Finding himself within the big closet, he listened, and, +hearing no sound, struck a match. + +By the light thus afforded he could see what lay within his reach. Trust +one with an empty stomach for knowing what he wants under such +conditions. Jack immediately commenced to gather together a supply of +food of various kinds, such as could be eaten without need for a fire. + +Quantity rather than quality seemed to rule his actions. At any rate, +when he gathered his spoils together he had quite enough to last an +ordinary man several days. + +"Well," he told himself, when lifting the bundle he had made. "I may be +marooned around here a long time, and never get another chance at this +supply station. I believe in striking while the iron's hot. Now to get +it outside without raising a crowd." + +It was indeed a lucky thing that there was no watch-dog at the Potzfeldt +place. Undoubtedly this was because of the many visitors coming and +going at all times, who might be bothered by a savage beast. + +Jack managed to get back safely to the nest where he had hidden at the +time of the excitement, when Potzfeldt and his men were in the field. He +gave a sigh of relief after it was all over. + +Soon the young aviator settled down to try to get some sleep, as some +time still remained before dawn would break. He meant to be early astir. +There was danger in the air, as he might be discovered unless he +arranged for a better hiding place than the covert of bushes where he +now lay. + +Whether his sleep was worth while, or rendered uneasy by dreams, Jack +never told. He was awake though, when the sun peeped above the horizon, +and began to bestir himself. Presently people would be moving about. +Some of the men might even come out to the open field again, to look at +the telltale marks. And if they chanced to suspect that one of the crew +of the Caudron had been left behind, a hasty search was apt to reveal +his presence. + +Accordingly Jack commenced to retire deeper into the wood, and managed +by great care to cover his tracks fairly well in so doing. Finally he +found a place that seemed to him about as good as anything he might +expect to run across; and so he crawled into the bushes again. + +Then he had a most pleasing task to start upon, which was nothing more +nor less than that of appeasing his appetite, never more voracious, he +fancied, than just then. Without a twinge of conscience regarding the +fact that it was stolen food he disposed of, Jack commenced his morning +meal. + +"I'm only enjoying some of the good stuff that scoundrel deprived Bessie +of," he told himself, with a grin of contentment, after he had eaten +until he could not take another bite. "Besides, everything is fair in +war-times. When you're raiding through the enemy's country it's supposed +you'll live on the spoils around you. Well, I'm going to live, and Carl +Potzfeldt is my enemy, all right. He's proved that in a dozen different +ways." + +That idea set him to thinking about Bessie again, how she had taken such +a queer way to try to warn him, after overhearing her guardian plotting +with one of his men the injury to one or both of the young Americans. + +"Now I wonder," Jack mused, as he lay in perfect peace with the world, +for he had eaten his fill, "how he knew we had joined the Lafayette +Escadrille. But then those German spies learn a lot of things, and he +may have been keeping tabs on Tom and me right along. Deep down in his +heart he suspected we'd bother him, and so he wanted to get us before we +had a chance to strike. Well, the shoe is on the other foot, it seems." + +The morning advanced. Fortunately it proved to be a fair day for so +early in April. Had a storm arisen Jack might have found it hard to find +shelter. As it was, all he had to do was to lie under the bushes and +doze from time to time. + +Whenever he got to thinking of Tom a queer feeling came over him. It +made him uneasy, though he could not explain why that should be so; and +from time to time he took himself to task for being worried. + +"Of course Tom got back safe and sound," he would muse. "He's too clever +a pilot to make a bad job of such a business. And yet, if he doesn't +come to-night I'll be terribly anxious. Oh, forget all that! will you, +Jack Parmly? Think of something pleasant now. For instance, that it's +nearly high noon, and most folks lunch then." + +He had just calmed down again, when he had a sudden chill. Men were +working in a field about three hundred yards away, for he could hear +them calling to one another in German. + +Suddenly there came a series of snappy barks. Jack looking around was +horrified to discover a small dog. It was a dachschund, long of body, +and with crooked, bandy legs. It was standing before the hidden boy and +evidently bent on telling everybody by his barks that some suspicious +person was hiding in the bushes. + +It was a crisis that made Jack's blood run cold! + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +BACK TO SAFETY--CONCLUSION + + +Jack hardly knew what to do. He made threatening gestures at the dog, +but they, of course, only added to the trouble, for the animal renewed +his barking more briskly than ever. + +Then Jack had an inspiration, such as sometimes comes when all seems +lost. If the dog continued his barking, sooner or later one of the men +working in the field not far off would have his curiosity aroused, and +come to ascertain what sort of wild animal the dog had treed. + +Jack unfastened his package of food. Since stern tactics had no effect +he meant to try to make friends with the dachschund. Dogs are always +more or less hungry, he argued; and this must be especially true at that +time in every part of Germany, Alsace-Lorraine not excepted, since the +pinch of two-and-a-half years of war had made terrible inroads on all +kinds of food. + +Jack commenced to eat. The dog kept on barking, though not quite so +savagely now. The smell of the food had reached him, and he would +occasionally give a little imploring whine between his barks. + +So Jack spoke to him in a soft, wheedling tone. Then he held up a scrap +of meat, and caught the eager attention of the little beast; after which +he tossed it to him. It vanished like a flash. The dog even wagged his +tail, as if to let the man know his animosity was quickly giving way to +interest. Surely any one who had all that food along with him could not +be a suspicious personage. + +The next scrap fell a little short, and the dog advanced to get it. So +by degrees Jack tempted him, until in the end he was patting the squatty +animal on the back, and still feeding him. They were now the best of +friends. Kindness had accomplished what all the threatening gestures, +supplemented with many sticks hurled at the beast, could never have +brought about. + +Jack believed he had saved himself from discovery. He could easily +understand what hardships must have awaited him had he ever fallen into +the hands of Carl Potzfeldt. + +The afternoon went by very tediously. The dog came and went, staying for +short periods with Jack. The vast store of food was a magnet that held +the little beast fast. It had doubtless been a long time since he had +had his full. + +By degrees the day waned, and evening came along. + +Jack never saw the sun set with less regret than he did on that +occasion. Still he knew that long hours must pass before the moon would +peep in view above the eastern horizon. + +As he sat, he allowed his thoughts to roam backward. Once more in +imagination he could see his friends who were on the other side of the +ocean. Then for a change he would take another "snack," as he called it, +for lack of anything else to occupy his attention. + +Several times also he dozed, but always arousing with a start at some +sound, under the impression that it might be Tom who had come, and, not +finding him, gone away again. + +Finally he began to believe it must surely be past midnight; and the +late moon would presently be making an appearance. On looking closely +toward the east he became aware that the heavens were betraying such a +fact, for a distinct silvery glow was beginning to appear, low down. + +Then came a streak of light. It was the moon. Slowly she mounted higher, +as if more or less ashamed of the dilapidated appearance of her usually +smiling face. + +Jack had earlier in the night changed his place of lodging. He again +occupied his former quarters close to the spot where he and Tom had +landed when they wished to overhaul the motor that was acting so badly. + +The minutes dragged. + +Then once more Jack bent his head, and put a hand up to his ear to +listen. He laughed to himself with glee. + +"That's Tom coming!" he muttered joyously. "I knew Tom wouldn't fail me. +All the same I'll be mighty glad when I'm aboard the plane and on the +air route to Bar-le-Duc and my own cot." + +Louder grew the sounds. There could not be the slightest doubt about it +now, Jack decided. A plane was coming at top speed, and keeping not a +great distance above the treetops of the little valley in which the +house of Carl Potzfeldt and the road to Metz lay. + +Louder grew the insistent drumming. Jack wondered whether some of those +at the chateau might not also hear the racket, and, guessing what it +would mean, hasten out to the field in time to give Tom and himself a +volley of shots. + +Now the plane was coming, like a great condor of the Andes about to +alight on a mountain peak. Jack gauged full well where it would land. He +ran with all his might to be close to the spot. The less time wasted in +getting him aboard the better for their safety, he believed, remembering +what cause Carl Potzfeldt now had for being suspicious when a plane +visited his meadow. + +Then the big Caudron ran along the ground and came to a full stop. + +"Jack!" + +"Yes, Tom, I'm here, and mighty glad to see you!" cried the lad who had +counted the minutes until his brain seemed to reel with the strain. + +"Get aboard in a hurry, Jack. We've no time to waste here." + +"I know that even better than you do," returned the other. + +There was indeed need of haste. The air service boys could hear voices +from where the chateau was located. Someone had heard the humming of the +oncoming airplane. It was Potzfeldt himself, and now he and two of his +men came hurrying out on the field, all armed with pistols. + +Jack only waited to give the propellers a whirl, and then, as the motor +took up its work, he made a leap for his seat. Oh, how good it seemed to +be once more in that airplane! + +"Stop! Stop!" roared a guttural voice in German. "Stop, or we fire!" + +Now the airplane was moving along the ground, bumping and rocking +considerably. But Tom knew how to manage, and presently the plane +commenced to soar slowly upward. + +Loud and angry voices announced the fact that Carl Potzfeldt had arrived +close enough to get a view of the rising plane in the misty light of the +moon. + +"Stop! I command you! Stop!" roared the German. And then came the crack! +crack! crack! of firearms. + +The air service boys, because of the noise of the motor, did not hear +the discharge of the pistols, but suddenly Jack heard the spatter of a +bullet as it struck the machine close beside him. Then he ducked and +made a motion to Tom to let his chum know that they were under fire. + +But the machine was gaining headway rapidly, and presently they were so +high that those below could no longer reach them. Up and up they went +until they were thousands of feet above the valley that had been the +scene of this remarkable adventure. + +Tom headed back along the course he had just come. It was now easy to +pick up one landmark after another, and in due course of time they +passed over the lines once more. Of course, the sound of the plane's +propellers was heard by the Germans, and some shrapnel was sent after +them; but as Tom was careful to keep high in the air, this did not reach +them, and soon they were out of the danger belt. + +Fifteen minutes later they made a landing, this time on the well +remembered aviation field of Bar-le-Duc. Here there were attendants on +hand ready to care for the machines. + +"Glad to see you got back," said one of the attendants, grinning. He +knew that Tom had gone off on the second trip to bring Jack. + +The two air service boys found a car to take them to the villa. The long +ride through the night air had made both of them very sleepy, and yet +neither felt just then like retiring. + +"It's a lucky thing, Tom," said Jack, between yawns, "that I had this +fur-lined pilot's coat along with me. Only for that I'd have been mighty +cold out there in the open last night, with no chance for a fire." + +"Well, it's all past now, Jack. Tell me what happened to you during my +absence." + +Jack, was nothing loath, and as quickly as possible gave his chum the +particulars of how he had gone into hiding and almost been betrayed by +the dog. + +Tom had already told Jack about what had become of Mrs. Gleason and +Bessie. They had been taken to a house some miles back of the lines, and +were to be made comfortable there for the night. + +"And early in the morning they are to start for Paris," Tom said with +satisfaction. "I managed through our captain to get them passage aboard +a train that is to take some wounded back to the base hospitals. Mrs. +Gleason says she means to stay in Paris and help all she can as a Red +Cross nurse, for she has had some experience in nursing." + +"That's fine!" was Jack's comment. And then for the time being he became +somewhat silent. + +Tom could easily understand that his chum was cherishing a hope that +some time or other when they were taking a vacation from their arduous +duties while flying for France, the pair of them might visit the French +metropolis, and if so they would certainly try to see Bessie and her +mother again. + +"And I've got more news to tell," remarked Tom, when the pair were about +to turn in for their much-needed sleep. "You'll remember about that +message we found in the capsule on the leg of the homing pigeon. Well, +one of the other pigeons we found was used to send a false message to +the Germans, telling them that a certain part of the French line was +very weak. A short while later the Germans made a furious attack on that +part of the line, and, believe me, they caught it for fair--the plucky +French soldiers, aided by the artillery, literally wiped up the ground +with them." + +"That's great news!" cried Jack. "Then it paid to bring down that +pigeon, didn't it?" + +"It sure did, Jack!" + +Two days later came a most important announcement, especially to the +American airmen. + +"Things are coming our way at last," the valiant commander announced, as +they crowded about him. "The papers this morning say that Uncle Sam has +at last got his back up. Any day may now bring the glorious news from +across the Atlantic, telling that the United States has taken the steps +that will put her in this World War against the Central Powers. Then it +will be all over but the shouting." + +"That's right!" cried Jack. + +"You just leave it to Uncle Sam to do it!" added Tom. + +Many more adventures were in store for the young aviators, and what some +of them were will be related in the next volume of this series, to be +entitled "Air Service Boys Over the Rhine; Or, Fighting Above the +Clouds." + +And here for the present let us leave the air service boys and say +good-bye. + +THE END + + + + +THE DICK HAMILTON SERIES + +BY HOWARD R. GARIS + +A NEW LINE OF CLEVER TALES FOR BOYS + +DICK HAMILTON'S FORTUNE + or The Stirring: Doings of a Millionaire's Son + +Dick, the son of a millionaire, has a fortune left to him by his +mother. But before he can touch the bulk of this money it is stipulated +in his mother's will that he must do certain things, in order to prove +that he is worthy of possessing such a fortune. The doings of Dick and +his chums make the liveliest kind of reading. + +DICK HAMILTON'S CADET DAYS + or The Handicap of a Millionaire's Son + +The hero, a very rich young man, is sent to a military academy to make +his way without the use of money. A fine picture of life at an +up-to-date military academy is given, with target shooting, broad-sword +exercise, trick riding, sham battles, and all. Dick proves himself a +hero in the best sense of the word. + +DICK HAMILTON'S STEAM YACHT + or A Young Millionaire and the Kidnappers + +A series of adventures while yachting in which our hero's wealth plays +a part. Dick is marooned on an island, recovers his yacht and foils the +kidnappers. The wrong young man is spirited away, Dick gives chase and +there is a surprising rescue at sea. + +DICK HAMILTON'S AIRSHIP + or A Young Millionaire in the Clouds + +This new book is just brimming over with hair-raising adventures of +Dick Hamilton in his new airship. + +DICK HAMILTON'S TOURING CAR + or A Young Millionaire's Race for Fortune + +A series of thrilling adventures. Dick and his friends see the country +in a huge touring car. Their exciting trip across the country, how they +saved a young man's fortune and other exciting incidents are very +cleverly told. + +DICK HAMILTON'S FOOTBALL TEAM + or A Young Millionaire on the Gridiron + +A thrilling story of how Dick made a real football team for his +school--the team that was laughed at by other military schools until +Dick took charge. + + + + +THE BOY-SCOUTS BANNER SERIES + +By GEORGE A. WARREN + +Author of the "Revolutionary Series" + +The Boy Scouts movement has swept over our country like wildfire, and +is endorsed by our greatest men and leading educators. No author is +better qualified to write such a series as this than Professor Warren, +who has watched the movement closely since its inception in England +some years ago. + +THE BANNER BOY SCOUTS + or The Struggle for Leadership + +This initial volume tells how the news of the scout movement reached +the boys and how they determined to act on it. They organized the Fox +Patrol, and some rivals organized another patrol. More patrols were +formed in neighboring towns and a prize was put up for the patrol +scoring the most points in a many-sided contest. + +THE BANNER BOY SCOUTS ON A TOUR + or The Mystery of Rattlesnake Mountain + +This story begins with a mystery that is most unusual. There is a good +deal of fun and adventure, camping, fishing, and swimming, and the +young heroes more than once prove their worth. + +THE BANNER BOY SCOUTS AFLOAT + or The Secret of Cedar Island + +Here is another tale of life in the open, of jolly times on river and +lake and around the camp fire, told by one who has camped out for many +years. + + +THE BANNER BOY SCOUTS SNOWBOUND + or A Tour on Skates and Iceboats + +The boys take a trip into the mountains, where they are caught in a big +snowstorm and are snowbound. A series of stirring adventures which will +hold the interest of every reader. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Air Service Boys Over The Enemy's Lines, by +Charles Amory Beach + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AIR SERVICE BOYS OVER ENEMY LINES *** + +***** This file should be named 31312.txt or 31312.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/3/1/31312/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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