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diff --git a/43683-0.txt b/43683-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..67014e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/43683-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7313 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43683 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 43683-h.htm or 43683-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43683/43683-h/43683-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43683/43683-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/ouryoungaeroplan00port + + + + + +[Illustration: THE FIGHT IN THE AIR. _Page 42._ + +_Our Young Aeroplane Scouts In Germany._] + + +OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN GERMANY + +Or + +Winning the Iron Cross + +by + +HORACE PORTER + +Author of +"Our Young Aeroplane Scouts In France and Belgium." +"Our Young Aeroplane Scouts In Turkey." +"Our Young Aeroplane Scouts In Russia." + + + + + + + +[Illustration: A. L. BURT COMPANY] + +NEW YORK + +Copyright, 1915 +By A. L. Burt Company + +OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN GERMANY + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. SAVED BY QUICK WIT 3 + II. A STIRRING HOLIDAY 13 + III. A THRILLING MOMENT 23 + IV. THE STOLEN PAPERS 34 + V. WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT 45 + VI. A FLYING VICTORY 56 + VII. THE RAIN OF BOMBS 67 + VIII. ALONG THE BATTLE LINE 78 + IX. THE LUMINOUS KITE 90 + X. THE CARRIER PIGEONS 101 + XI. UNDER THE RED ROOF 112 + XII. THROUGH FIRE AND FOG 123 + XIII. CAPTURED BY COSSACKS 135 + XIV. A WONDERFUL RESCUE 146 + XV. DUEL TO THE DEATH 157 + XVI. DRAWN FROM THE DEPTHS 168 + XVII. A MIGHTY STONE ROLLER 179 + XVIII. TRAILS THAT CROSSED 190 + XIX. RABBIT'S FOOT FOR LUCK 200 + XX. WINNING OF THE IRON CROSS 210 + XXI. HELD IN WARSAW 219 + XXII. AN HOUR TOO SOON 229 + XXIII. A LEAP FOR LIBERTY 238 + XXIV. AGAIN THEY WON OUT 248 + + + +OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN GERMANY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SAVED BY QUICK WIT. + + +"HOLD on there, I want a word with you!" + +Billy Barry and Henri Trouville, the Boy Aviators, were in the act of +climbing into a superb military biplane on the great parade ground at +Hamburg when thus hailed by a mild looking man in citizen's attire, +with face half-hidden by a slouch hat and a pair of huge, horn-rimmed +spectacles. + +There was a note of authority in that voice, gently tuned as it was, +and behind those spectacles were a pair of eyes as keen as gimlet +points. + +The speaker was none other than Roque, the noted secret agent--"Herr +Roque," if you please, fitting into his masquerade as a merchant having +contract business with the authorities of the canvas city of aëroplane +hangars. + +"Come over to quarters for a few moments, young sirs, won't you?" + +The polite manner of request was for the benefit of the bystanders, who +had been awaiting the flying exhibit, but the slight gesture that went +with the words indicated a command to Billy and Henri. + +They knew Roque! + +Heinrich Hume, aviation lieutenant, who usually had a good deal to say +on those grounds, made no more protest than a clam at this interruption +of a special aëroplane test. He simply waved two other aviators on +duty into the machine, as Billy and Henri marched meekly away with the +imitation merchant. + +While many of the spectators marveled at the apparent breach of +discipline, the lieutenant was content to let them wonder. At least, he +offered no explanation. + +Billy and Henri did a lot of thinking as they crossed the parade +ground--there must be something brewing, or Roque would not have been +so impatient as to invade the parade ground at the time he did. + +Roque conducted the boys into Lieutenant Hume's private office at +headquarters, closed and locked the door behind them. + +Removing his spectacles, and throwing his slouch hat among the maps +that littered a big table in the center of the room, the secret agent +at the same time changed his form of address--the oily manner was +succeeded by abrupt and stern speech, which showed the real man of +brain and unlimited authority. + +The secret agent had seated himself, without invitation to the boys +to do likewise. They stood, facing the real Roque they knew by former +experience. + +"Where is Ardelle?" + +Roque put the question like a pistol shot, and fiercely eyed the +youngsters before him. + +The point-blank query failed to reach the mark intended. + +Billy looked at Henri and Henri looked at Billy, and then they both +looked at Roque with never even a quiver of an eyelash. They had not +comprehended what was behind the dreaded agent's snapshot at their +nerves. The truth of the matter was, they did not know anybody by the +name of "Ardelle." + +So Billy, with a bold front, remarked: "You can't prove it by us, sir. +Mr. Ardelle is not in our list of friends." + +"None of that!" + +Roque pointed a menacing finger at the astonished pair of youngsters. + +"I have it beyond doubt that Ardelle was on these very grounds a day or +two ago, and by the word of a man who could not be mistaken. Fool that +he was not to be sure at the time, and only the garb of a sailor to +mislead him." + +Then it jointly dawned upon the minds of Billy and Henri that Anglin, +the smiling secretary of the eminent director of affairs at Calais, +and later in the rôle of a bubbling sailor here in faraway Hamburg, +must be the Ardelle about whom Roque was talking. + +They realized, too, that through their boyish delight in lending aid +and a helping hand to one they had known in intimate association with +that best of friends in France, they had unconsciously maneuvered +themselves into a dangerous game, a slip in which meant a dance with +death. + +A tissue message from this very suspect that Roque was so eager to +apprehend even then burned against the breast of Henri, a little wad of +paper that now represented the price of the world to a pair of bright +boys. + +Condemned of mixing in the battle of wits between the grim Roque and +his strongest wily rival from over the sea, and it were better that the +young aviators had tumbled from their aëroplane during the last high +flight. + +But those who traveled in spirit with Billy Barry, the boy from Bangor, +Maine, U. S. A., and his plucky teammate, Henri Trouville, in France +and Belgium, can assure that it is no easy task to catch this pair +napping. + +The courage tempered by that first and continuous baptism of fire was +good steel for any emergency. + +Roque owned to himself that his quickfire had failed to get results. +His informant, himself just returning from a secret mission on hostile +soil, had noted the movements of the sailor suspect on the aviation +exhibit day, and also the attitude of Henri at the moment when the +message was passed. But of the message itself, the reporting agent +could have no knowledge. He was not near enough to detect a trick so +deftly done. + +Roque and Ardelle had measured brains many a time and often, but +heretofore at long range, and the former had never seen the latter in +person. Had such been the case, the French agent's invasion of the +empire would have ended at Bremen, when these two masters of craft had +both been guests at the same time of the same café. + +Roque's unerring judgment had convinced him after the first question +that the boys had no knowledge of the name Ardelle. Their first +profession of ignorance was too real to be mere acting. The boys took +care that the light that came to them as Roque proceeded did not shine +in the direction of the lynx-eyed questioner. + +The rigid lines in the face of the secret agent relaxed. These boys, +after all, had once served him a good turn, with a skill, courage and +fidelity far beyond the ordinary, and, perhaps, he was not sorry that +he had apparently found them guiltless. + +"Now, young sirs," said Roque, resuming the manner of the merchant, "I +have another little journey in store for you. I don't know for certain +that it will prove as exciting as the last jaunt we took together, when +you located a shipload of guns for me, but maybe so, maybe so. + +"After we have made our excuses to the lieutenant," he continued, "we +will go over to my humble home in the city, where I have some new +clothes for you. I do not think you are warlike enough to want to +travel in any sort of uniform, especially with a simple tradesman like +myself." + +It was on the tip of Billy's tongue to ask Roque why he kept up that +sort of talk with those who knew him without his mask, and when there +was no purpose to be served, but Billy concluded that he had better let +well enough alone. + +A roomy carryall was in waiting at the further end of the parade +ground, toward which the merry old merchant led his young friends, with +a hand under the elbows of both. It was pardonable for the aviation +lieutenant to grin when the trio were passing, after making their +excuses. + +It had not, however, occurred to Henri to smile a response. He was just +then indulging in a cold perspiration, caused by a leaping thought that +Roque might personally supervise their change of garments, and in that +curious way of his light upon the tissue billet pinned on the inside of +his (Henri's) shirt-front. + +Because they had not fully understood the meaning of the dimly dashed +message, Billy had suggested that they keep it for another sitting. The +paper wad had not then turned into a torpedo. + +Roque's house might have belonged to a retired gardener rather than +to the man with the iron grip who claimed it as home. The dooryard +blazed with red flowers, and the well-kept lawn was lined by earth beds +spangled with blooms in colors beyond count. + +"Welcome, young sirs." + +Roque waved the way into a wide hall, at the end of which yawned a +great fireplace. Bowing before them the boys saw the tallest man they +had ever met outside of a sideshow, a very giant, who wore a long gray +coat, with a good day's output for a button factory in front. + +"This is my man of business, young sirs--Paul Zorn." + +The "young sirs" instantly formed the opinion that Zorn would have no +trouble in cracking a cocoanut between the row of glittering teeth he +displayed when Roque so introduced him. + +"We are going to put our young friends into store clothes, Paul. I hope +you will be able to properly fit them, and it will also be my care that +you do." + +"Confound the man," thought Henri, "he has never since he called me +out of the machine shifted his eye long enough for me to get a hand on +that tissue, and now he's going to act as my valet. He's just full of +suspicion." + +Billy, also, had been figuring some in his mind just what would break +loose if Roque should find the sailor's note in Henri's possession. +All of the powers of argument this side of the North Sea would then +avail nothing in the matter of convincing Roque that he had not been +double-crossed. + +The only crumb of comfort that Billy felt he could hope for if the drop +fell was that Roque would quit his comedy acting behind the scenes +for the once--but that was scant comfort, surely, under this cloud of +anxiety. + +The boys soon knew what Roque had meant by "store clothes," for +it was a regular storehouse of the styles of all nations that the +makeup magician maintained in the second floor back of his Hamburg +home--uniforms galore, the garb of the fighting man in the Old World +war, known under the folds of Britain's Union Jack, the Tricolor of +France, the black double-headed eagle of Russia, the sable Cross of the +German Empire; the attire of the dandy civilian, the sedate tradesman, +the student, the clerk, the livery of house and carriage service, and, +indeed, what not? + +"A nice little collection, young sirs," observed Roque, which remark +again prompted the giant Zorn to display his mouthful of shining +molars. + +"How do you think Paul would look in this outfit?" + +Roque indicated on the display rack a regulation English uniform of +olive drab, with puttees, and a cap of the traditional French arms +shape, but of khaki color. + +Even if the boys had been in the mood to say that Zorn would look like +the Eiffel tower in any sort of uniform, Roque gave them no time to +break in upon his humor. + +"Nothing like keeping up-to-date, young sirs, in my business. It was +only a few weeks ago that this new style French soldier first appeared +in Havre. And here we can make his mate in a minute or two." + +This cat and mouse play was wearing on Billy and Henri. Free of +anxiety, they might have enjoyed digging into the maze of disguises as +they would the pages of a popular detective story, but they had a play +of their own to make, and no chance yet to make it. + +"Now, Paul, how will we fix up these young flyers for a bit of ground +work? Something plain, yet neat, I think, will do for the sons of +Doctor Blitz--I am Blitz to-morrow, I believe, Paul?" + +Zorn simply showed his teeth. He was not expected to answer. + +"Now, my bird boys, get out of those uniforms and I'll make a pair of +likely students out of you. Do you prefer Heidelberg, the School of +Arts, or the Conservatory? No matter, though, it is just a shift for a +short journey, and I guess I can make you up to pass muster." + +All the time Roque was chatting principally for the amusement of +himself and Paul, his hands were busy sorting a pile of clothing and he +was ready to start a couple of young Blitzes into society in the most +finished style--from glazed cap to shiny shoes. + +It was just at this moment that Billy was seized suddenly with a fit of +laughter, and his high glee was directed at Henri. + +"Won't you set 'em going in that layout!" he howled. + +With that he made a jump for his chum, as if to hurry the process +of transformation. The playful effort commenced at the throat and +scattered a few buttons. Henri resisted the attack, and for a second or +two held Billy in close arm lock--time enough for the assailant to get +a pin-jab in the thumb, and a wad of tissue paper in the clench of four +fingers! + +Roque viewed the antics with a frown of impatience, but the assistant +of grenadier size roared his approval of the fun. + +Henri was brisk enough then in taking off the old for the new, and by +the time Billy commanded attention there was no occasion for worry. + +Billy had swallowed the tissue! + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +A STIRRING HOLIDAY. + + +TO be rudely routed out of a snug nest in a feather bed at 3 o'clock +in the morning--a morning with a real chill in it--is not a desirable +experience for the average house-bred boy, and even such seasoned +campaigners as Billy Barry and Henri Trouville were inclined to grumble +when the giant Zorn yanked the covers from their downy couch and +gruffly ordered them to get up and dress, and to make haste about it. + +By the pale gleam of a couple of candles, and the slight warmth from a +newly kindled fire in a white china stove, the "Blitz boys" made their +toilets of the interesting characters they were to assume. + +"What time is it anyway?" yawned Henri. + +"I guess I'm not good enough in higher mathematics to figure it out for +you," growled Billy, as he tussled with leather shoestrings that tied, +he said, "seven ways for Sunday." + +The voice of "Dr. Blitz" sounded at the foot of the stairway, in the +lower regions of the house. There was no "young sirs" about it. The +"good merchant of Hamburg" was on vacation. + +"Crawl lively there, you snails," were the words that ascended. + +"Wonder what tip he is working on now?" whispered Billy. + +"You will never know until you get to it." Henri had before been +impressed with the fact that Roque was not in the habit of springing +until he got on the board. + +"Good morning, Dr. Blitz," was Billy's cheery greeting to the man who +was making hasty breakfast at a table drawn up before a crackling fire +in a big brick cavern. He could not have testified from side view that +it was Roque, so he took a chance on "Blitz." + +Along with a gulp of coffee the imposing person addressed shot a remark +in German over his shoulder, which Henri afterward explained to Billy +was very near to profanity. + +The boys edged into chairs at the table, but missed a round of muffins +through staring at the "doctor." + +The merchant masquerade was wholly outclassed by this new display of +the make-up art. + +Billy wanted to say "ring the night bell," but sheer admiration kept +him silent. + +Whether it was the combined effects of the steaming coffee, hot +muffins, and a big black cigar that followed, or the silent tribute in +the eyes of his young guests, it was, nevertheless, a speedily noted +fact that Roque was thawing into more gracious manner. + +"I suppose you know that it is only a few hours now until Christmas, +and we must find some special way to observe it." + +Billy and Henri could not get the straight line on Roque's remark, but +later realized that the holiday was of the like they had never before +passed. + +With a cutting wind from off the icy flow of the mighty river Elbe in +their faces, the boys followed their leader to the docks, where they +boarded a small craft, evidently built for speed, which had steam up +and manned for instant start. + +The captain was the same who commanded the deck when the boys had +accompanied Roque on a previous exciting excursion. This official, +standing at attention, stiff as a ramrod, gave no visible mark of +recognition as the passengers boarded the boat, but Billy could have +sworn that he saw something like a twinkle in the captain's right eye +when they passed the gangplank. + +"No use asking where we are bound for," lamented Henri. + +"Not a bit of use," agreed Billy. + +They were out of earshot of Roque, whose tall form, in rusty black, was +outlined in the dawnlight near the wheel of the churning steamer. + +The first intimation of what was to be their next landing place came in +the word "Cuxhaven," passed by one sailor to another. The talk was in +rapid German, but Henri caught the drift of the conversation without +difficulty. + +"By George," he whispered to his chum, "Cuxhaven is the place mentioned +in Anglin's message." + +"You mean Ardelle's message," corrected Billy. + +"That's right," chuckled Henri. "I forgot that Anglin had become the +big noise. Yes, it's the very place," he continued, "and it's a great +naval base." + +"It's a safe bet that Roque never hits a trail that isn't warm. Take +it from me," and Billy was in great earnest when he said it, "there is +going to be something doing." + +Billy's prediction chanced, in this instance, to be more accurate than +are some of the forecasts made by professionals. + +It was in a dense fog that Christmas eve when the little steamer ceased +chugging in the wide mouth of the Elbe, and the harbor lights burned +blue. The captain condemned the weather in no uncertain terms, but +Roque seemingly had no care for aught but his thoughts, as he leaned +against the rail, with moody gaze fixed upon the anchored ships and the +dim lines of the city beyond. + +As he had shaped, not long ago, the famous raid of the German fleet +upon English seaports, Roque did not underestimate the ability of his +great rival, Ardelle, to open the way for a counter attack. Ardelle was +known by the secret service to be on this very soil--and, surely, for +some big purpose. Minnows were not sent to stir up a pool of this size. + +"But they'll find no sleepy towns to blow up here," said Roque to +himself. + +He was all for precaution, however, and his intuition was nothing short +of marvelous. + +When "Dr. Blitz" and his "sons" went ashore it was the foggiest kind of +a Christmas morning. + +A stalwart marine attempted to put the doctor through the question +paces, but the real Roque whispered a fierce something into the ear of +the would-be questioner that set the latter back-tracking in a jiffy. + +It was a curious and remarkable fact, but true, that an hour after the +eminent secret agent and his young charges had landed in Cuxhaven, +Billy's prediction, "that wherever Roque is there's something doing," +was verified. Every submarine cable connecting the fortresses of this +coast sounded alarm, particularly high-keyed the frantic signal from +Helgoland, the fortress island, thirty-nine miles away. + +Roque dropped his doctor character like a hot potato when he learned +the import of the flashes. He tossed his traveling case of surgical +instruments into the first open doorway he passed, and the boys were +compelled to run to keep up with his long stride. + +Bombs were falling from aloft, exploding among the shipping behind +them, while in front one of the projectiles crashed upon a huge gas +tank. + +"The nerve of the devil mapped this out!" + +The bitter emphasis of Roque indicated that he laid the blame of this +unexpected invasion upon one head--that of Ardelle. + +In the meantime, the fog-ridden atmosphere was riven by blazes of +powder from the shore guns, trained upward, and the air squadron, +Zeppelins and naval seaplanes, were leaping skyward to meet their kind +in aërial battle. + +Roque charged madly into the air station, dragging the boys after him. + +A seaplane was balanced on the polished ways for the sweeping plunge. + +"In the name of the Emperor!" he shouted, shouldering aside the men +holding the poised craft. The same fierce whisper in the ear of the +aviation lieutenant had effect identical with that upon the marine at +the docks. + +"Get to your places, you moonfaces"--this stern command hurled at the +boys. Henri bounced into the motor section, Billy settled behind the +rudder wheel, and Roque swung himself into the bow seat. + +The long hull was launched with the snap of training, and with motors +humming left the water without a wrench from its skimming start. + +The Boy Aviators, certified masters of the air, were at their trade. + +They had need of all their skill and daring that day! + +"Set your course northwest," loudly ordered Roque. "Hit for Helgoland +like a bolt." + +"Look out that you don't hit something on the way!" shouted Henri from +the rear. + +The last warning was timely, if Billy had need of warning at all. There +was peril in the foggy stretches. + +The upper regions were literally lined with aircraft. No less than +seven naval seaplanes had traveled in advance of the British warship +invasion of the German bay. Having dropped all the bombs they could +through the mist, they were in full return flight to the convoying +vessels. Zeppelins and hostile seaplanes zigzagged on their trail, and +other dirigibles and fighting craft menaced their retreat still further +on. + +Billy guided the seaplane he was driving to the higher strata in order +to escape mix-up with the contending airships, but on the thirtieth +mile recorded, Roque, who had constantly demanded distance figures, +ordered a lower flight, and, the fog clearing, the flyers could plainly +see on the waves far below the floating warcraft of the invaders--light +cruisers, destroyers and submarines. The Germans were combating this +array with aircraft and submarines, but so great was Roque's impatience +to reach the fortified island that the motors were put by Henri to the +limit of speed, and so that part of the conflict is not in the record +of the Aëroplane Scouts. + +Just off Helgoland, though, the boys had the shock of noting the +crumpling of one of the British seaplanes and the end of a brave airman. + +"There's no escape when death stalks you up here," sighed Billy. + +"Ware away, boy," called Roque, when the seaplane hovered over +Helgoland, "wait until they see the color of the bottom of the machine +or we will look like a sieve before we light." + +Billy "wared away," and with motors at half speed, the seaplane circled +over the supposed most impregnable stronghold in the world, awaiting +some signal of recognition from the fortress. + +It was finally given, and Roque directed immediate descent. + +On the ground once more, Billy and Henri relapsed into their dutiful +service as "sons" and rear guards of the renowned "Dr. Blitz." The +glazed caps had gone the way of the winds, but, as Billy put it, "we +are still dressed up to beat the band." + +The boys noticed that, barring a few skilled workmen and engineers, +they were the only civilians in the streets that evening. They did not +count Roque, for he might turn out to be a general, if occasion served. + +The latter had a busy hour with the garrison officers, while the boys +had an idle one, with about as much activity as is allowed a hobbled +horse. It was evident that "Dr. Blitz" held this island as a holy of +holies, secret even to his "sons." + +"It beats me," observed Billy, edging away as far as possible from the +guard stationed to keep them out of mischief, "how those Britishers +ever got by this place." + +"The bigger question," asserted Henri, "is, if they got by, how in the +world did they ever get back?" + +"That's what Roque is evidently trying to find out," intimated Billy. + +The boys, while puzzling over the problem of "get by and get back," +were looking at the huge fortress so tremendously fortified and noting +everywhere an uninterrupted view of the sea. + +They also surmised that an alert garrison was ever carefully watching +the waters, day after day, night after night, hour after hour, in order +not to be surprised by the powerful enemy. + +"I guess the fog helped some," was the conclusion finally advanced by +Billy. + +"And Ardelle somewhere behind the curtain," suggested Henri. + +"Oh, go 'way, man; Roque has given you the Ardelle fever." + +Billy just then caught sight of Roque bearing down upon them under full +stride. + +"Speak of the dickens," he exclaimed, "here he comes now." + +The shadows of evening continued to gather, and here and there on the +island lights showed like glowworms. Roque shook hands with his officer +companions. He evidently contemplated leaving in the same impetuous way +that he came, but evidently not by the seaplane route. + +A little steam launch tugged at its holding rope, in readiness to dash +away into the misty deep. Two men muffled to the throat waited the +order. Roque, with never a word to the boys, directed them by gestures +to get aboard, quickly following. The launch cut through the now pitchy +darkness of the Helgoland waters. With the island lights no longer +visible, there could only be seen the lantern in front of the little +boat, and it was a dangerous speed to be making, when the helmsman had +scant view of hardly a yard ahead. + +But the man at the wheel was in familiar element, to him, and the +scudding vessel never came to drift movement until a glimmering signal +guided to the landing place, the name of which would have meant nothing +to the boys if they had had the care to inquire. + +This was Christmas night in the Bight of Helgoland. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A THRILLING MOMENT. + + +UNDER oak rafters, festooned with dried herbs, and toasting their feet +at the cheery blaze of an open, roaring fire, the boys regained the +Christmas spirit that had been sorely subdued in the previous dismal +hour in the wave-tossed launch. + +The house that had thrown open a hospitable door at the bidding of +Roque overlooked the bay, and its solid walls had resisted the storms +of a half-century. Mine host, Spitznagle, had he been dressed for the +part, would have come very near to the Santa Claus idea, and even as he +was, some of the idea hung about him in a radiant circle. + +He could not, though, have possibly trimmed a tree in manner more +satisfactory than he decorated the big, square table in the center of +the wooden-walled dining-room, within easy distance of that first-class +fire. Sizzling sausages, small mountains of crullers, fragrant coffee, +mulled cider, and such like in quality and quantity, indicated a royal +spread. + +Roque, who had been prowling around somewhere outside for a time, +suddenly preceded a gust of sleety wind into the cozy interior. + +The Christmas spirit had apparently conjured up a bit of a kindly +spell for him, as the iron man fitted into the scene with far less +friction than the boys had anticipated, considering the mood of this +driving force during the trying day. + +"Snug haven, this, eh?" jovially queried the late arrival, as he spread +a pair of sinewy hands over the inviting fire. "You're spoiling these +youngsters, Spitz," was Roque's side remark to the blooming boniface, +at the moment stirring some savory stew in a glistening copper pot. +Mine Host waved a three-foot spoon in mock protest against the playful +accusation. + +"Nothing like that at all, my dear man," he declared in big bass tone. +"I will not spoil but will cure these children of their hunger." + +"Draw up, my hearties," urged Roque, setting example by dragging an oak +bench alongside of the bountifully laden table. Billy and Henri jumped +at the bidding. + +"Where are the men that brought us over?" asked Billy, presuming upon +the fact that Roque was in one of the rare periods out of his shell. + +"Back, I hope, where they came from," briefly replied Roque. "Those +fellows are hardy stock," he added, "and can see in the dark. Don't +worry about them." + +"Cuxhaven is some aircraft place, isn't it?" Henri put this wedge in +the conversation. + +"Perhaps it is," acknowledged the secret agent, "and" (grimly) "it may +soon return the upper-story visit just paid with a cloudful of warcraft +that will start a general hunt for cover." + +"Had you ridden often in airships before to-day, Mr. Roque?" inquired +Billy. + +Spitznagle muffled a chuckle by a slight fit of coughing when he heard +the question, and muttered something to himself like "donner vetter!" + +Roque turned a quick eye upon the fat offender, and then gave Billy a +smiling look-over before he made response. + +"I confess, young man, that I have enjoyed some lofty travel before I +met you, but I am willing to admit that I could not teach you and that +partner of yours many new tricks in flying the heavier than air kind of +machines." + +"How about the Zeppelins?" cried Spitznagle, who could no longer +suppress a desire to show his knowledge of Roque's prowess as an airman. + +"Hold your peace, Arnold," advised the secret agent, shaking his finger +at the eager champion, "my business compels me to learn a little of +everything, and it's all in a day's work, anyway." + +The boys were satisfied that Roque's renown had not all of it been won +on the ground. Spitznagle would have made a good witness to that effect +if he had been permitted to speak. + +While the tall clock in the turn of the winding staircase leading to +the upper floor of the old house was whanging the twelve strokes of +midnight, Roque and Spitznagle pledged the fatherland with uplifted +goblets, and Billy and Henri offered a silent toast to the assured soft +beds upstairs. + +When the early morning brought no disturbance of their inclination for +a little longer time to press the pillows, the boys sleepily guessed +that Roque, for once, was not in a hurry to dash into new territory. +As the sun kept climbing, and still no summons from below, curiosity +overruled napping, and the young aviators decided to investigate the +cause of this unusual consideration of their comfort. + +Halfway down the stairway their ears convinced them that the place +was not deserted, for a spirited conversation in the language of the +country was in progress, accompanied by a clatter of dishes, and the +ever present cooking odor of sausage assailed their noses. + +Besides Spitznagle, shrouded to the rib-line with his flowing apron, +were three very short men and an extremely long one. The latter proved +to be no other than the giant Zorn. Roque was nowhere to be seen. + +The heavy host noisily hailed the late comers: + +"Good morning, sleepyheads, and all this fine food waiting for you, +too." + +Zorn gave his best wide-mouthed grin, and then went on talking, in +lower tones, however, to his short companions. + +Billy and Henri made a substantial breakfast, and in doing so, hardly +felt the need of the constant urging of the boss cook. + +They could not imagine what had become of Roque, and as nobody +volunteered to tell them, they concluded not to ask any questions. + +The boys observed that one of the short men, with a large head wholly +out of proportion with his stocky body, commanded much deference from +the rest of the party. + +Henri learned from the drift of the conversation that this determined +looking individual was Capt. Groat of Friedrichshaven, the great center +of Zeppelin factories, and while the captain was not in uniform he had +the manner of rank. + +Billy was quietly advised by his chum what the talk was about, and +wagered that the two strangers were airmen. + +"When these fellows commence to flock together on this coast," he +asserted, "you can figure on what Roque meant when he fixed a comeback +to get even for that flying raid yesterday on Cuxhaven." + +The boys had withdrawn to the fireplace, and had an opportunity to +exchange comments and conclusions between themselves. + +"I'd like to take a whirl myself in one of those Zeppelins," was the +wish expressed by Henri. + +"Our flying education has been sadly neglected in that respect," +admitted Billy, "but, you know, these dirigibles are among the things +made only in Germany, and we're just over, so to speak." + +As the morning wore away, Zorn made some remark to Capt. Groat that had +attracted the latter's attention to the boys lounging at the fireplace. +The captain arose from the table and approached Billy and Henri with +outstretched hand. + +"You speak the German?" With the question he bestowed a strenuous grip +upon each of the boys. + +Henri nodded, and Billy confessed by blank look that he did not know +the language. + +"It is easy, the English," politely assured the captain, "and we will +talk it together." + +Billy brightened at this. He was not fond of hearing through an +interpreter. + +"I hear you are the great aviators, and for so young it is wonderful." + +"Thank you, sir," was Henri's modest acknowledgment. + +"It is with the Zeppelin I navigate," advised the captain. "You know it +not?" + +"Not much," put in Billy, "though we once dangled on the anchor of one, +and another time I fell with a monoplane right across the back of one +of your dirigibles." + +"Yes," remarked Henri, "and if it hadn't been for that, there wouldn't +have been any Billy alive to tell about it." + +The captain showed a disposition to continue his talk during the +afternoon with the boys, but a new arrival of evident importance +interrupted. This addition to the party was a much older man than the +rest, wore a military cloak, and his long, gray mustache curled at the +ends in close touch with his ears. As he stood at the end of the big +table, now cleared of its cloth, and rested a hand, enveloped in a +gauntlet, upon the shining surface, everybody in the room saluted. Over +the shoulder of this distinguished guest the boys saw the face of Roque. + +As if by signal, further increased by the hasty entrance of three +additional numbers, the attending company ranged by equal division on +each side of the table, and all followed the directing movement of the +man at the head of the board in seating themselves. + +Billy and Henri were the only bystanders, for though Spitznagle had not +ventured to flop down upon a bench at the table, he perched himself on +a high stool, completely blocking the door leading into the pantry. + +One of the short men who had first appeared with Capt. Groat produced +a capacious wallet, and laid out in orderly array a number of neatly +folded papers which had been contained in the leather. + +"This is the navigator detailed to determine air currents, sir," +explained Roque to the chief figure, at whose right elbow the secret +agent was stationed. + +The man in the cloak fixed his gaze on the expert with the notes. The +latter accepted this as permission to speak, and read in precise manner +the results of close observation during a recent aërial expedition of +Zeppelins, escorted by armed German biplanes, in the vicinity of Dover +straits. + +Henri's quick ear and thorough knowledge of the Teuton tongue put him +in line of complete understanding of the report, and that it seemed +preliminary to a proposed general raid of aircraft on territory with +which he was well acquainted. + +Billy's only satisfaction was in watching his chum's change of +expression as the news sifted through the latter's mind. He could see +that there was "something doing." + +So intently interested was the gathering at the table in the reading, +that the very existence of the youthful outsiders seemed to be +forgotten. + +"Good; excellent!" commented the chief. + +"It's a game with double trumps." Roque held the affair at Cuxhaven as +a choking memory. + +"There'll be quite a fall of hot shot, I promise you, if we get started +right." This was the prediction of Captain Groat. + +His lieutenants from Friedrichshaven nodded their approval. + +In anticipation of a telling counterstroke by their air squadron, the +plan makers at the table puffed up clouds of smoke from pipes and +cigars, freely distributed by the happy Spitznagle when the lengthy +discussion officially ended. In the added hours, when stone mugs were +passing among the thirsty, night had fallen outside, and the benches +were turned to the glowing fire. + +While Spitznagle was touching the tips of numerous candles with the +tiny flame from a paper spiral, the empty mugs were being removed by an +oddly dressed fellow, who shuffled around in carpet slippers like he +was tormented with a thousand pangs of rheumatism. + +The boys had boosted themselves to good lookout points on the wide +window ledges, behind the lively circle around the fire. + +The leather wallet and the survey notes of the expert air traveler lay +separate and apart on the table, just as they had when the reading +concluded. + +Billy was idly watching the halting action of the queer servitor, when, +to the great astonishment of the watcher, the apparent cripple, with +rapid hand movement, under cover of the wiping cloth he carried, deftly +lifted and concealed the papers somewhere in the scarecrow garments he +wore. + +It was a tense moment. The word that would have turned things upside +down in that room trembled on Billy's lips. But one of those remarkable +instances of mental telegraphy checked the utterance. The man who +had stolen the papers felt that his action had been detected from an +unexpected quarter, and his eyes lifted to the very point of danger. +There was an appeal in the look--and something else, a flash of +recognition that compelled a response. They were the smiling eyes of +Anglin--or, as Roque would have it, Ardelle. + +Billy, tongued-tied, saw the bent figure slowly shuffle toward the +kitchen. He inwardly trembled at the thought of the stocky airman +suddenly turning from the fireplace to seek his precious reports. He +added another little shake in advance of the turmoil that was bound +to be raised, anyhow, no matter how soon or how late the loss should +be discovered. But the consolation of delayed discovery would be that +Anglin had a chance to save his neck. + +"What's the matter with you, pal?" Henri had just noticed that Billy +was off color and wide-eyed as a trapped rabbit. + +Billy, for caution, laid a finger on his lips. "I've seen a ghost," he +whispered. + +With a glance of apprehension at the group circling the fireplace, +Billy leaned against the shoulder of his chum and with underbreath +speed told of the presence of Anglin and the taking of the papers. + +Henri was thrilled by the exciting story poured into his ear, and +immediately took on his share of anxiety as to the outcome of Anglin's +daring action. + +Bursts of laughter resounded at the fireplace. The company was then +applauding some humorous tale volunteered by Zorn, who had risen like +a tower to impress the point of his story. + +"Gee," murmured Billy, "will they never quit?" + +"Don't fret," advised Henri, "the blow will fall in due time." + +It did fall a few minutes later. + +The main mover of the meeting was saying: "Gentlemen, it is nearing a +new day, and there is great achievement before us. We go to prepare for +it." + +Benches were pushed back to clear the way, and this scraping sound +had hardly ceased when the short airman, who had made the interesting +report, hurried to the table for his valuable records. + +The boys leaned forward in breathless suspense. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE STOLEN PAPERS. + + +"MY papers! The report! Has anybody seen them?" + +The owner of the wallet shook it vigorously over the table, to +assure himself that he had not replaced the records there, and then +quickstepped the whole length and around the board, lowering his head +again and again beneath the polished surface to see if the documents he +was excitedly seeking could have possibly fallen on the floor. + +"What's that?" cried Roque, starting forward. "You've lost the papers, +you say?" + +"I didn't lose them," almost shouted the airman, "they were left on the +table, and if they're gone, they've been stolen." + +"Hey, my friend," remonstrated Spitznagle, "we have no thieves in this +house, and no enemies to the cause." + +"This is no time to bandy words," roared Roque, "shut and bar the +doors"--this last command directed at Zorn. The giant jumped at the +bidding and sent the bolts rattling into their sockets. + +The savage energy of Roque ruled all to silence. Even the power under +the cloak refrained from advising. + +The secret agent dismissed suspicion as to the active participants in +the conference, and as to the loyalty of Spitznagle he had not the +slightest doubt. The trial horses must needs be two pale-faced boys +backed up against a window-sill. + +Roque, with his hands deep in his pockets, a habit he had when stalking +a suspect, walked around the foot of the table and stood directly in +front of the pair, fixing on them that gimlet gaze he used to terrorize. + +Billy and Henri, when at bay, were the most keenly alive; their nerve +always served them most in the supreme test. + +They faced their inquisitor without an outward tremor; their previous +anxiety was known only to themselves, and now admirably concealed. + +Roque realized that he had no fluttering birds in his hands, and also +was aware that a search of their persons was only required to acquit +or convict these youngsters of the actual theft. He knew that they had +not left the room, though why he had not long ago sent them upstairs to +bed was a slip of mind he could not account for. But it had occurred +to Roque that the boys had been in a position to see the table all +the time since the company adjourned to the fire, and whatever had +happened in regard to the papers they, if not the light-fingered chaps +themselves, must have witnessed the perpetration of the steal. So he +changed his tactics. + +"Now, boys," he began with insinuating address, "there is a very ugly +situation here, and as I have always heretofore found you dependable, +cannot I now depend upon you to help me clear this up?" + +Henri shook his head, in denial for both. "Search us," he said. + +Roque, whose remarkable judgment of human nature has before been noted, +felt in an instant that the suggested search would develop nothing. + +"Who took the papers then?" he fiercely demanded. + +"We were not on guard duty." Billy was inclined to resent this +bullying, and showed it by his answer. + +"Strip them," urged the short airman, who thought he, as the loser, +ought to have a word in the controversy. + +Roque waved the man away, and then abruptly moved to where Spitznagle +was sitting, a picture of despair. + +"Who was in the house to-night besides those now present?" was the +question fired at Mine Host. + +"Nobody but Conrad," assured Spitznagle. + +"Who the devil is Conrad?" Roque fairly jumped at this information. + +"Why, a poor crippled fellow, as queer in the head as he was in the +legs, that I had helping in the kitchen. He lost his job as cook on the +coast line steamer _Druid_ on account of rheumatism, and they sent him +up here to me." + +"'They sent him up,' did 'they?' And now when did 'they' send him up?" + +"About a week ago. But what's all this about Conrad you're asking, +Roque? I'll have him in, and you can judge if he is worth a moment's +notice in this kind of affair." Spitznagle started for the kitchen +door, Roque at his heels. + +"Conrad, Conrad," called Spitznagle. + +"Conrad" had flown, leaving nothing behind him but his rheumatism and a +dingy apron. + +"Yell till you're hoarse, you fathead," raged Roque, "and the cows will +come home from nowhere before you get an answer." + +While Spitznagle was staring into vacancy, Roque stormed back into the +dining-room and announced: + +"We've been the dupes of that spy Ardelle. Nobody but he could have +gotten away with a venture like this. But" (gritting his teeth), "I'll +beat him yet. I say, Vollmer" (turning to the aërial recorder now +minus his records), "you have the whole thing in mind and we'll strike +while the iron is hot. We may outride the warning, for he can't get it +flashed from this coast." + +The man in the cloak came to the front on this proposition. "The word +is 'immediate,'" he proclaimed. + +A speedy departure was in order, and Roque crooked a finger at the +young aviators, bidding them follow. + +"You are going to be mighty useful, my flying friends," he said, "and +you'd better be." There was grim emphasis in these last words. + +At noon the next day the boys were again tramping around after Roque +in Cuxhaven. The character of "Dr. Blitz" was no longer in the play. +Roque was trimly set up as an aviation lieutenant, and it was really +wonderful how easily he merged into each part he assumed. "Students" no +longer, Billy and Henri were happy in resuming their flying clothes. + +"Best becomes our style of beauty," as Billy would have it. + +There seemed to be some unforeseen reason for delay, as the aërial +expedition did not start forthwith, as intended. Indeed, it did not +start from Cuxhaven at all. It might have been that Ardelle's theft of +the guide records had put a spoke in the German wheel, but as to that +the boys could only hazard a guess. + +It was on the twentieth day after the adventure in the house of +Spitznagle that the young aviators again had the opportunity of +operating a seaplane with Roque as directing passenger, and the +uninterrupted flight brought them to the island of Amesland, for +though Cuxhaven was counted as the airship base, it evidently was the +intent to project the return attack on the English coast from the +out-to-sea point before named. + +What an array of the warcraft of the "upper deep"--the great +dirigibles, seaplanes, destroyer, artillery spotter and scout +aëroplanes. The boys were in their element. Even Roque had a smile for +their enthusiasm. It was not the war spirit that animated Billy and +Henri--they reveled in the show as airmen delighted with the life. + +In this camp were none but the suicidally brave type of fighters, +and it was only that kind fit to essay the trackless line of three +hundred miles over the sea. From what the boys, or, rather one of them, +Henri, could learn from the camp talk, a pair of the latest Zeppelin +dirigibles were to participate, but the main movers of this attack +were evidently to be airships of the small, non-rigid Parseval build, +for bomb work. The truth of the matter was, the young aviators, at +the order of Roque, were so taken up with the tuning of a seaplane +just before the fleet went aloft that they could not have listed the +starters with any degree of accuracy. + +They only knew positively that they were going aloft, and their own +machine would require their individual attention. About 8:30 that night +the glare of a powerful searchlight from one of the German airships +directed its rays over the heart of the English city of Yarmouth. Two +bombs dropped almost simultaneously. + +The boys saw the city below suddenly plunged into darkness. Five more +bombs were hurled from the sky. The fleet then swiftly moved northeast, +and more bombs crashed into the town of Kings Lynn. Roque had assumed +no active part as a leader in the deadly maneuvers--his was a thinking +assignment. It was midnight when the fleet turned eastward and fled +back across the North Sea. + +"It might have been London," muttered the secret agent, "if the game +could have been played without a break." + +Preparations to repel just such an invasion had been made in the great +city. + +Ardelle must have gotten his warning across, but the coast towns failed +to heed it. + +The Roque machine kept its speed when the balance of the fleet checked +flight at Amesland. The secret agent was bound for Cuxhaven, doubtless +to plan another tiger spring at the foe. He was all for air campaigning +these days. + +"You will witness the sight of your lives, you young cyclones, before +last night's mist of the North Sea dries in your hair." + +This significant remark on Cuxhaven docks set the boys in the highest +state of expectancy. It was seldom that Roque billed anything ahead of +time, and surely something extraordinary must be in the wind. + +Three days later, from a dizzy height, they witnessed a sky battle +without parallel in military annals, and which dimmed the memory of any +of their previous remarkable experiences in the war zone. + +The French coast town of Dunkirk, to which the boys had on a happy day +gone by been delivered by submarine and taken away in a seaplane, was +the ground center of this spectacular conquest of the air--the first of +its kind in the history of the world. + +Twenty hours earlier a fleet of British seaplanes had bombarded the +Belgian port of Zeebrugge, held by the Germans, news of which had soon +after reached the mystery man, Roque, by way of one of the innumerable +channels of communication with which he kept himself constantly in +touch. + +The German bird craft suddenly appeared over Dunkirk like a flock of +gigantic sea gulls. + +Explosive missiles fell as fiery hail upon the town. The tocsin sounded +in the high tower of Dunkirk church, and the blue and white flag of the +town was run up. + +The roar of the fort guns, firing shrapnel, was heard, and all around +the German fliers white puffs were bursting, as the pilots guided their +machines in low-swooping spirals. + +In compliance with the snappy commands of Roque, Billy circled the +seaplane to every point of observation vantage, while the secret agent +viewed the action of the armored Aviatik biplanes, dashing here and +there with the sun glinting on their steel sides. + +"Look there!" shouted Henri, rising and clutching a stay to preserve +his balance. The air was clear, and the scene was open even to the +naked eye. + +Billy, at the wheel, risked a glance sideways. + +A squadron of British aviators, encamped on the outskirts of Dunkirk, +had taken the air to engage the raiders. + +One speedy biplane darted straight toward the German craft. Henri saw +the aviator clutch the levers of his machine in one hand and with the +other unsling a rifle, beginning fire at a German birdman below him. + +A half dozen armored aëroplanes of the raiding force swarmed in upon +the daring Briton. His machine was peppered with lead, and it was +apparent that the man had been wounded as he dipped toward the earth to +evade the encircling Germans. + +Other English aviators swept into the whirling combat, and to the +rescue of their wounded leader. The raiders turned toward the north, +now being shrapnelled by anti-aircraft guns stationed along the coast. + +Roque pointed upwards, signalling for rapid ascent, and at six +thousand feet the seaplane, with tremendous burst of speed, soon +overhauled and outdistanced the slower warcraft, making a wide detour +over the sea, thus avoiding the volleys of rifle shots from the Allies' +infantry near Nieuport. + +Roque, looking at his watch, turned to Billy, just behind him, +remarking: + +"That much in fifty minutes is not often recorded--of these things they +shall sing on the Rhine." + +In Bremen the boys paid grateful tribute to rest after the strain and +stress to which they had been put by their relentless taskmaster. + +"I feel," said Billy, "like the hump between my shoulders is going to +be permanent, and I couldn't keep my elbows down to save my soul." + +"If I could only get the whirr out of my ears, I'd be satisfied," was +Henri's complaint. + +It was not long, however, before the boys found relief from the kinks +in their backs, and were ready and eager for the next move in their +adventurous careers. + +Just around the corner from their hotel was the very café where they +had the thrill of seeing Anglin's face in the mirror while they were +dining there with Roque. + +"Wouldn't it be funny if Anglin were to bob up again while we are here?" + +"I think, Billy, that it would be a tragedy if Roque had any inkling of +it." + +"Don't you hold the thought for a moment, Henri, that you could catch +the Calais weasel asleep. Oh, I say, there's a concert on downstairs," +quickly concluded Billy, as the notes of violin and piano were wafted +above. "Let's hunt the music." + +A high tenor voice was merging into the accompaniment when the boys +reached the floor below, and they saw that the singer was one of the +curly-lock type, and in evening attire. + +What of the eyes, though, that gleamed upon the Aëroplane Scouts as +they stood in the doorway--the artistic make-up could fool them, but +there was no mistaking the smiling orbs under the blackened eyebrows. + +Fox tracks were mixing again! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT. + + +THE vocal efforts of this new favorite had called forth round after +round of applause, for good music never went amiss in Teuton territory. + +Among the vigorous hand-clappers the boys noted a well-groomed man, +apparently about forty, wearing an affable manner and the best clothes +that the continent can produce. + +Henri nudged Billy. "Size up Roque, won't you, please, and isn't he a +dandy?" + +Billy was first inclined to doubt the identity of their taskmaster, who +a couple of hours ago was a far cry from being in the glass of fashion. +Never before had the boys seen him in that sort of rig. + +"You're dead right, Henri, it is the old scout. He's a corker, sure!" + +This note of admiration had scarcely sounded when Roque was joined by a +slender, wiry individual, also set up as a swell, with a shock of sandy +hair, and sporting a monocle. + +The fellow with the quizzing glass had apparently moved to get a better +view of the singer, as well as to get in touch with the secret agent. + +"Wonder if that's the man who spotted Anglin on the parade ground at +Hamburg?" + +"Don't let your imagination run away with you, Henri," advised Billy, +who in speaking was careful not to indicate that his attitude was +anything but careless. + +The sandy-haired man was taking the same precaution, but Henri, nursing +the idea that would not down, was more and more impressed with the +belief that the elegant figure was seeking the measure and not the +music of the warbler at the other end of the room. + +If the singer had sized up the situation, it had not affected his +rendering a bit of light opera that was just then exciting an encore. +There was nothing at all the matter with his German or with his voice. + +Nobody apparently was more delighted than Roque, and he appeared to be +expressing his opinion to the wiry listener beside him. + +The latter bowed politely and then sauntered toward the revolving door +leading into the lounging section of the hotel, fingering a cigar as he +proceeded. + +Henri edged around nearer to the piano, the player of which was +completing the program with a national air, the melody of many voices +aiding the performance. + +Billy had hardly realized the desertion of his chum when he saw that +Roque had changed his position, and was standing nearest the door +leading to the street. The secret agent shifted something from his hip +to the sidepocket of his coat, and Billy caught the glitter of that +something in the swift movement. The boy guessed then that there was +trouble brewing. + +In the meantime, Henri, in an innocent sort of way, pushed still closer +to the pianist, who was hitting the high notes in fine style. + +As he passed within a foot of the singer, now idly posing, with an +elbow on the piano top, he, without turning his head, joined in the +triumphant chorus, but changed two words at the climax, and "beat it" +reached Anglin's ear. + +The French sleuth never moved a muscle, and it was as if the warning +had been passed to a man stone deaf. + +Anyone posted, however, would have known that within an arm's length of +Anglin was a wall switch which controlled the electric lights by which +the room was so brilliantly illuminated. + +Billy had just had the experience of being rather rudely thrust aside +by a couple of burly troopers, who seemed inspired to get as quickly as +possible into the very center of the select circle. + +"Get him!" + +As this command rang out the astonished pleasure seekers started a +panic, as if an alarm of fire had sounded. There was a rush for every +doorway, but every way of departure was blocked by stalwart guardsmen. + +Billy was not among those who tried to break through the doors--he was +dodging among the charging force sent in by the loud orders to "get +him." + +Click! The room was suddenly shrouded in darkness, penetrated a little +distance only by the lights beyond the entrance of the lounging room +section. + +The pursuing force, working from several directions, ran into one +another's arms. The pianist, familiar with the place, leaped for the +electric switch, and turned on the flood of light. + +Everybody was present but the singer! + +Henri had a perch on the keyboard of the piano, which he had sought to +save a mad tramping on his feet. + +"Set you to catch a weasel," sneered Roque, as the sandy-haired man +stood staring at the shattered casement of the tall window overlooking +an inner court of the hotel. + +"He can't get clear away," retorted the sandy one. + +"Stop him then," challenged Roque. "Don't stand there like a stoughton +bottle." + +The pursuers scoured the building from bottom to top, and every street +and alley roundabout, but it was a case of looking for a needle in a +haystack. + +Roque was in a black mood. Once more baffled by his cunning chief +adversary, the only one he acknowledged in his own class, and on his +own stamping ground--it was a bitter dose for the master craftsman. + +Did he remember how he himself had spread a web over Britain, woven so +finely that even Scotland Yard could not see it? Yet he rebelled at the +like cut of a diamond. + +"Stir your stumps," was his peremptory address to the boys, and they +trotted to catch his long stride out of the hotel. + +The sidewalks on both sides of the street were crowded with curious +onlookers, attracted by the reported doings inside. + +Roque bucked the line like a football star, and Billy and Henri +followed in the cleared space without special exertion. + +"He doesn't care whom he pushes," observed Billy, as he listened to +angry protests along the line of travel. + +Both of the boys were eager to talk over the latest disappearing act of +that wonderful Anglin, but not so anxious as to take chances with Roque +in earshot. + +The secret agent turned into a silent side street, and stopped before a +heavily grated door in the gloomy front of a solid stone building that +was a skyscraper in height. Reaching through the grating, he evidently +opened way of communication with the interior, for in a moment or two a +glimmer of light splintered through the barred entrance, the ponderous +lock creaked, and the door swung back on its massive hinges. A skull +cap and a gray beard showed behind the lamp shining in the doorway. +Roque pushed the boys ahead of him, and their closing in was marked by +a clang behind them. + +They followed their guide through a long corridor and into a modern +high-power elevator, that shot noiselessly upwards. It was a circular +room into which they stepped, the very tip of a tower, and a wireless +telegraph apparatus was there in operation. + +"How is it working?" promptly questioned Roque of an operator who was +off his turn, and relieved of his headgear. + +The man jumped to his feet, all attention, and replied: "There's been +hardly a break for an hour, sir." + +Here was one of the hidden intelligence stations that accounted in +part for Roque's ability to get searching and quick information. That +he should initiate the boys into his particular secret service methods +indicated a determination that they should never get away from him. + +As Billy said to Henri at a chance moment, "He thinks we are booked +for a life job as his air chauffeurs." + +They were not aware as yet that in the extensive grounds, housed at the +water's edge, was the seaplane in which they had recently traveled so +far, and in addition a big biplane and two monoplanes were in hangars +ready for service. Also the most speedy of steam launches rested at the +private wharf. + +Roque was a recognized genius, like every cog in the German wheel, +absolutely thorough in his methods, and the means placed at his +disposal were practically limitless. + +Billy and Henri had climbed into the steep embrasure of a tower window +and were enjoying the magnificent view spread out before them. + +"How about my imagination now?" Henri was recalling exciting incidents +in the hotel. "Didn't I get the figure of the sandy man as a spotter?" + +"I think you did," admitted Billy. "But," he continued, "I didn't take +much stock in the idea until I saw the revolver in Roque's hand. Then I +knew that the fat was in the fire." + +"I gave Anglin the cue to beat it, and I did the trick by breaking into +that Rhine song," exclaimed Henri. "Yet he never made a move until the +yell of 'get him,' and I thought the jig was up, sure. He's the coolest +hand in the business, that fellow." + +"Some of these days, maybe, he'll fall a little short in one of those +getaways, and that will mean a tumble into six feet of earth." + +"Not he," stoutly maintained Henri, "he's the regular man with a +charmed life. Say, I can't help laughing even now when I think of +Spitznagle calling 'Conrad,' and the expression on Roque's face." + +Billy gave Henri a kick on the foot. Roque was approaching with a sheaf +of telegraph messages in his hand. + +"What are you boys jabbering about? I want you to go down to the wharf +with Albert and get the seaplane in trim. I'll join you in half an +hour." + +Albert, a strapping youth, with the breezy way of a sailor, guided the +boys across the grounds to the hangar, and watched with interest the +making ready of the airship. + +"That's not my kind of a boat," he briskly stated, "but I'll be bound +if this kind of craft didn't give us submarine workers a Christmas +surprise. Ever travel in a submarine?" + +"We had a ride in one that we will never forget," replied Henri, as he +applied the oil can to the big motors. + +Billy, busy with the steering gear, was not expected to answer, as he +did not understand the question. + +"It is all a question of ups and downs, anyhow," went on Albert, "bombs +from above and torpedoes from below." + +This trade discussion ended with the arrival of Roque, who had severed +himself from style and was again in aviation attire. + +"Now, my carrier pigeons, you are in for a homing flight, that is, +Hamburg; and it may be some time before you again get a breath of this +port." + +With this assurance the seaplane was launched and took the airline for +Hamburg, leaving Albert to his own devices. + +The travelers soon had sight of Zorn's ever-ready grin at the home of +"the well-known tradesman." + +"We've been through a lot since we were last hauled out of these +feathers," remarked Billy, as he bounced into the bed pillows that +night. + +Happily, "coming events do not cast shadows" for sound sleepers. + +Roque had departed for the city before the boys charged into the +breakfast room. + +"He has gone to the store," announced Zorn, who uncovered his teeth an +extra inch, in compliment to his own humor. + +"Let's go over to see Lieutenant Hume," proposed Billy, after breakfast. + +"Just the ticket," agreed Henri, "I'm crazy to get a peep at the old +flying quarters again." + +But Zorn objected to any move that Roque had not ordered. + +The boys had to be satisfied with the prospect, for to run against +Zorn would be akin to tackling a mountain. + +When Roque returned, sure enough, he was again playing the +merchant--horn, spectacles, and all. + +"Ah, young sirs, kindly waiting for the weary worker?" + +"Same old blarney," muttered Billy. + +Zorn chuckled as he relieved the "merchant" of his hat and overcoat. + +"Some time ago I believe I told you that here you were only balancing +on the edge of the great empire, and there might be an opportunity for +you to see much more of the country. The opportunity is at hand. I have +been called by trade interests further afield, and as I cannot consent +to a separation, you will continue as my companions." + +In his hour of relaxation, Roque really enjoyed this sort of word play, +and he eyed the boys to see if they appreciated the fact that all of +the best actors were not on the stage. + +He was sure of Zorn's sincere appreciation. This man had seen the chief +in many parts. + +Henri accepted the cue, and, with a profound bow, and a hand on his +heart, replied in kind: + +"My dear Herr Roque, we would grieve if you left us behind." + +"What of you?" Roque turned to Billy. + +"Oh, anything goes with me." The boy from Bangor always hit straight +from the bat. + +The last evening of many in Hamburg was a very pleasant one to the +boys. Roque's intimate knowledge of London and Paris was displayed +in entertaining way, with no reference to his own exploits as the +cleverest conspirator that ever invaded court and palace. He expressed +regret that he had never seen America, and induced Billy to tell about +Boston and Bangor. + +It may also be recorded that with this evening the boys unconsciously +said good-by to the character of the Hamburg merchant. They went far +with the many-sided man, but never again saw him in the rôle imposed by +this big city on the Elbe. + +When the boys retired they left master and man--Roque and +Zorn--conversing before the fire. With the coming of the morning, the +journey to the unknown began, and the Aëroplane Scouts had no idea of +its purpose or their assignment in the new sphere of action. + +That it would, however, include further conquest of the air they might +have guessed. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A FLYING VICTORY. + + +IT was a great day for the boys when they set foot in imperial Berlin, +with its palaces, art galleries, museums, parliament building, +monuments, magnificent parks, and over all its martial spirit. + +Roque, by which name, it might be mentioned, he was not known in this +heart of the empire, soon demonstrated to his charges that he was the +man higher up by his manner of getting about, and the high cost of +living had no worries for him. + +"Who'd have thought that we would be hitched up to a ten-time winner +like this?" Billy was content for the time being to be allied with +power. + +Among the many who answered the summons of Roque in the intelligence +bureau, the young aviators were most interested in a score of blond, +blue-eyed, well-set-up Saxons, renowned as Zeppelin navigators, who +were destined to guide the "terrors of the air" in furtherance of +another raiding plan taking form in the fertile brain of the eminent +promoter of trouble for the enemy. + +While the boys had faith only in the heavier-than-air machines, they +conceded that the risk taken by the Zeppelin crews entitled the latter +to brush elbows with the crack flyers of the other kind of bird craft. +It was also true that when a Zeppelin got anywhere it was a tremendous +factor in war. And it was no question but that the Fatherland had gone +Zeppelin mad. + +Woe betide the hostile airmen who dropped the bomb on the Zeppelin +works at Friedrichshaven if Roque had the means of catching them. It +was only another score that he had marked up against Ardelle, whom +the master agent of the empire charged with planning this destructive +performance. + +"Roque said he was going to show us where these gas cruisers grow," +Henri advised Billy one evening, getting this news while his chum was +engaged in an argument with a Zeppelin worker. + +"Something I've been wanting to see," exclaimed Billy. "I owe something +to a Zeppelin, even if it is like a balloon." + +This last was a sort of side swipe at the man who had been on the other +side of the argument. + +"There is one thing sure, these dirigibles can't camp out." This was +Billy's first remark in Friedrichshaven. + +He was peering into a big steel-framed shed with a glass roof which +housed one of these grim engines of the air--a great cylinder flanked +by platforms. This newest of the huge airships was about the length of +a first-class battleship, and the opinion of the young aviator that it +could not drop anywhere and everywhere like the aëroplanes he drove was +not a prejudiced one. + +When Henri had a look at the powerful motors he was impressed with +their capacity to drink up petrol at a most appalling rate. + +"What's her top speed?" he asked one of the big fellows who had +traveled over from Berlin with them. + +"Forty-five miles in the calm," was the reply. + +"Gee!" exclaimed Billy. "We could get a seaplane home for breakfast +while they were waiting supper on you!" + +"Yet," claimed the Zeppelin expert, "it's the car they're all afraid +of." + +"It certainly does look like a scaremark," admitted Henri, who +remembered a certain evening on the Belgian coast, when he was one of +the company aboard a stranded hydroplane dragged ashore by the swinging +anchor of a Zeppelin, which loomed overhead like a cloud, and buzzed +like a million bees. + +A gang of at least a hundred men swarmed about the shed when the order +issued for a trial trip of the new super-Zeppelin, a sample of the +fleet in course of building, and Roque carefully noted every detail of +equipment. + +The gas chambers were fed with pure hydrogen, no common coal gas, +and many thousand cubic meters were in the flow of this one envelope +filling. + +"Guess they'd have to carry a hydrogen factory around with this outfit +to keep it going," observed Billy, as he noted the elaborate process. + +"Not that bad," advised the man at his elbow, "this gas can be +transported from the factory in cylinders under pressure." + +"Just think of it," put in Henri, "I heard them say just now that it +took thirty gallons of petrol an hour to buzz these motors." + +"Biggest thing I know in the air business. I wish Captain Johnson could +see an expense bill like this. He'd have a fit." Billy would, indeed, +have counted it a red-letter occasion if his old friend, and the boss +airman of Dover, were really at hand to take in this show. + +To go aloft in an airship about which they were not thoroughly posted +was a brand-new experience for the boys, but they were not in the least +degree like the proverbial cat in a strange garret. It was easy riding, +and none of the guns pointed their way. Billy carried a memorandum of +a British military biplane, with a record of 10,000 miles, which Henri +and himself had once patched up, that had been hit by 250 rifle bullets +and sixty fragments of shells. He wondered if the immense craft in +which they were sailing could have floated with, proportionately, about +ten times that amount of lead poured into her. But Billy, of course, +did not then know much about Zeppelins. + +Roque, however, was eminently well satisfied, particularly with the +improved method of distributing explosives where they would do the most +harm. The airship had a special armored compartment for bombs near the +propellers and a big gun mounted in front to destroy aëroplanes. "Get a +fleet of these over the English channel," he proclaimed, "and somebody +would think that hell had been moved upstairs!" + +"I'll say this much," announced Billy, "I'd take an ocean voyage for my +health if I knew when they were coming." + +"But if the fighting crowd over there had the date and the hour, I'll +promise you that the reception your fleet would receive would be warm +enough to boil an egg." This was Henri's prediction. + +"We never advertise," grimly remarked Roque. + +When the Zeppelin had completed her trial trip and had again been +housed by the small army of workmen, Roque informed the boys that he +was going to give them the chance on the morrow to show their mettle in +a biplane test, which was to decide the relative merits as to the speed +of two special designs. + +"I am going to put you up to jockey the machine that I favor," he said, +"and, mind you, the aviators that will drive against you are among the +finest in our flying corps. I always pick my men by personally knowing +what they can do in any line of action. They seldom fail me, and it is +with you to make good." + +"We're going some, Herr Roque, when we come up to your standard," +replied Henri. + +"See that you are 'going some' at the finish of the race to-morrow," +laughed Roque. + +"It will be because something breaks if we don't hit the high mark," +assured Billy. + +"Go over and size up your winged steed," directed Roque, pointing +to a hangar across the field. "Show them No. 3"--this to one of the +attendants. + +"This is no mosquito," announced Billy, after a view of the fine lines +of "No. 3." + +"Speed there, I tell you, old boy," was Henri's comment as he walked +around the rigging, "and carrying armor, too." + +In an hour the boys had fully comprehended all the new features of this +up-to-the-minute machine. They had been builders themselves and knew a +good stroke of the business when they saw it. + +Returning across the field, Billy and Henri were introduced to the +rival aviators by Roque. The German airmen were a jolly pair, and +showed by the professional courtesy they exhibited to the two of their +kind that the coming contest was wholly a friendly one, and the results +to be of value to the flying corps. + +"No. 2 is a little older than your machine," was the greeting of one of +the Teuton experts, "but it can hold its own." + +Roque, speaking for his champions, gaily disposed of this claim: + +"Keep your eyes open to-morrow, Fritz, or you will get lost somewhere +in the rear." + +"No fear, sir; there are no cobwebs on No. 2." + +"What are they talking about, Buddy?" asked Billy. + +"They just think they are going to beat us, that's all," interpreted +Henri. + +A bright clear morning presented itself for the aërial race, and Lake +Constance lay like a broad mirror under the sunlight. The course was +set due north and straightaway for twenty miles, and the turn fixed at +a high point called Round Top, upon which, Roque informed the boys, a +tall flagstaff had been mounted. + +There were no preliminary trials, for both machines had been carefully +groomed, and each was as fit as a fiddle. + +With the aviators up the biplanes scudded down the field for the rise, +and got away upon almost equal terms, the German drivers slightly in +the lead, through better acquaintance with the lay of the ground. They +trailed a yellow streamer, while the boys floated a band of black. + +The ascent reached 2,000 feet, when the machines darted north like +arrows. Roque and a group of officers about him followed the speeders +through field glasses. + +"They would run a swallow to death," remarked the secret agent to the +aviation lieutenant at his side. + +The aëroplanes had dwindled in the vision to mere specks, and there was +no telling which was in the fore. + +"Ah, they are headed back!" cried Roque. "Now for the show-down." + +The glasses revealed the specks moving twin-like, and such was the +terrific onrush that the crowd surging in the field soon caught a view +of the contestants in growing size. + +One enthusiast shouted: "Fritz will shut them out!" + +But the glasses did not uphold the prediction. The machine with the +black streamer was evidently using the reserve power that had been +claimed for the newer make, and Henri was getting the best out of it. +Yet the first-born craft was being handled in a masterly manner, had +plenty of go to spare, and five miles still rolled between the speeders +and the finish flag. + +Now four, and the machines were bow and bow; now three, and the yellow +band flapped a few feet behind the black; now two, now within the mile, +and the whirring of the motors audible to the nerve-strained watchers +below--then the close finish--and the white-faced pilot crowned victor +was Billy Barry of Bangor, U. S. A.! + +When the aëroplanes made landing, Roque pushed through the crowd and +favored the Aëroplane Scouts with a forcible slap between the shoulders. + +The victors were quick enough to extend hands to the vanquished. + +"My friend," cried Billy, giving Fritz a warm grip, "it was only fifty +feet, and it was the new motors that did it." + +Then the crowd cheered, while the efficiency committee agreed with +Roque that "No. 3" was the machine to be many times duplicated. + +"That was something over a mile a minute coming back, I guess," figured +Billy. + +"The fastest heavy craft I ever sailed in," was Henri's expressed +belief. + +"I think you youngsters could make a living here if I were to bounce +you," said Roque, who had been talking to some of the factory chiefs. +"But you are hooked to my train for a while yet. And that reminds me +that the mentioned train starts in the direction of Austria in the next +two hours. Vienna is not a slow place, you will find." + +As Roque was likely to jump anywhere at the drop of a hat, the boys in +his company had long since lost the emotion of surprise. + +Perpetual motion had become a habit with them. + +In the Austrian capital the travelers encountered many invalids from +the front, men who limped a little, had an arm in a sling, or a +bandaged head. The Viennese on the surface did not seem to be greatly +impressed by the tragedy of the war--evidently becoming used to it--yet +the determination to fight to the finish, while not as grim as in +Berlin, was there, nevertheless. + +Another thing that impressed the boys was that here foreign terms were +still much in evidence--French and English. In Berlin it was different. + +As Billy said, "we're in a better mixing town." He and Henri were +told that quite a number of medical and art students from America had +decided that Vienna was safe enough for them, but Roque kept his airmen +close under his wing, and they had no opportunity to pass even the time +of day with any of the U. S. A. crowd. + +They had no present desire, however, to attempt a bolt from Roque and +did not believe, anyway, that their detention was just then seriously +affecting their health. + +"Time enough to run," was Billy's philosophy, "when his nobs begins to +kick in our ribs." + +They were seeing plenty to keep them interested, the arrival of +sleeping-car trains bringing the wounded to the capital, the movement +of troops bound for the Polish or Galician front, the daily sights of +the Ring and the Kartnerstrasse. + +Roque, as usual, was up to his eyes in war business, ever behind the +scenes but ever moving, for there is close military coöperation between +Germany and Austria-Hungary. All interests related to the war have been +pooled--one empire gives to the other what can be spared. The king-pin +of secret agents from Berlin served a purpose wherever he went. + +He sat in no open councils, but privately conducted many of his own, +was constantly receiving and dispatching messages, and the devices he +originated to aid his disguised subordinates burrowing for information +in hostile territory were too numerous for detail. These latter +operations were not accompanied by band music, for officially this live +wire had no identity. + +"If that man took a pot shot at the ocean you would never know in what +direction he was aiming unless you happened to see the splash." Billy +was not far from being right in the summing up of Roque's methods. + +Within the next hour the boys "happened to see the splash." + +A uniformed messenger handed Roque a telegram. The secret agent hastily +read it, and sprang to his feet, his eyes aglow with triumphant +satisfaction. + +"I've got Mr. Ardelle in a stone box at last!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE RAIN OF BOMBS. + + +THE boys in silence watched the secret agent as he further displayed +his gratification over the news conveyed in the telegram by snapping +his fingers and slapping his knees, completing the performance by +vigorous puffing of a big black cigar, of which brand he always carried +a plentiful supply. + +Billy and Henri were just aching to learn more about the reported +capture of Anglin (Ardelle), just where the "stone box" that held him +was located, and how the "smiling sleuth" had happened to run into a +net that he could not break through. + +But they were well aware that it would not be a bit of use to seek +the eagerly desired information in advance of Roque's disposition to +give it, and they did not dare openly to show personal interest in the +matter. + +It was not until the master plotter had burned his cigar to inch +measure that he thought to address the lads, fixing expectant gaze upon +him. + +"They jugged the fox in Alsace, on the way to his home den, and filled +up, I suppose, with some choice morsels to regale the enemy." + +"Maybe it's another case of 'now you see him and now you don't.'" It +was Henri who plucked up courage to say this. + +"Not this time," insisted Roque. "He is tightly in the toils, and never +a chance to show his cunning. His course is run." + +It soon became evident that the speaker proposed to be "in at the +death," as fox chasers call the finish. + +In less than two hours Vienna, the city gay and unafraid, was behind +the three travelers, and their next goal the imperial territory of +Alsace-Lorraine. + +Into Lower-Alsace, on the last leg of the journey, Roque and the boys +took to horse, with cavalry escort. They were again on real fighting +ground. + +Henri picked out of a conversation between Roque and the captain of +the troop the words "Homberg castle," later that a group of important +German officers resided there, and still later that within those walls +Anglin was a prisoner. + +Billy was immediately posted by his chum as to the situation. + +Upon arrival at the castle, Roque, in that mysterious but effective way +of his, established his footing as a privileged guest, and his first +move was to pass the guard at the door of the strong-room, where his +chief rival in the art peculiar was confined. + +The boys without reprimand were close at the heels of the German agent. + +Anglin was sitting on a bench, under the checkered light of a high, +barred window. While his face showed harsh lines of great strain, the +inevitable smile was in his eyes. He arose instantly from the bench, +and bowed gracefully to the foe who confronted him. + +"Monsieur, you are welcome." This to Roque. Upon the boys he bestowed +not the slightest recognition. + +Roque, not to be outgeneraled as a diplomat, inclined his head in +return. + +"I came a long way to visit you, sir," he politely stated, "and would +have regretted had you felt otherwise than you have intimated." + +This fencing with buttons on the foils was soon succeeded by the sharp +points unprotected. + +"Ardelle, the longer the breath is in you the more you can tell; is the +breath worth the telling?" + +"You speak in riddles, Monsieur," quietly replied the prisoner. + +"Do you deny that you are Ardelle?" demanded Roque. + +"Am I now on trial?" was the counter-question. + +Roque extended a menacing finger. "Have a care, man!" he thundered. + +The prisoner calmly ignored the growing wrath of his arch-enemy, +shrugged his shoulders, and with a wave of the hand indicated that +continued argument was useless. + +"You will have until to-morrow morning to decide whether you will +accept me as an advocate or an accuser." + +The Frenchman turned wearily toward the window, and with his hands +folded behind him stood watching through the bars the little gray +cloudlets pushing their way through the blue expanse of the sky. It +might be that this view would not concern him after the morrow. He was +thus engaged when Roque stamped his way out of the room. Henri would +have paused in the hope of one look from Anglin but the latter seemed +wholly unconscious of the presence of the lads. + +Under the steely exterior of Roque, the milk of human kindness had not +wholly curdled, for he sadly said, half to himself and half to his boy +companions: + +"He must expect no more than I could expect; when we fail we fail +alone, and so alone must we suffer." + +It was about two o'clock in the morning of the day when Anglin, or +Ardelle, was expected to read his fate in the eyes of those assembled +as a military tribunal. The identity of the prisoner was, no doubt, +fully established, for the boys had noted the presence in the assembly +hall earlier in the night of the sandy-topped man who had started the +hue and cry in the Bremen hotel, where the French sleuth was posing as +a public singer. + +Billy and Henri were tossing in uneasy slumber. The only sounds inside +the castle were occasional snores from adjoining apartments and from +the outside the whinnying and stamping of the cavalry horses. + +Suddenly the quiet was shattered as if by a thunderbolt. The boys +literally tumbled out of bed, gasping from the shock. A blinding flash +at the windows and another crash. + +Soul-shaking cries of "fire!" resounded throughout the building, and +through the halls swept volumes of smoke. + +The celebrated ancient furniture in the castle, it having been the +summer residence of French nobility, was fine food for flames, and the +red destroyer soon raged in conflagration. + +Crash after crash, and with each concussion myriad sparks shot through +great holes in the castle roof. + +Bombs were being dropped from aloft. + +The boys hastened with other occupants of the upper floors to the broad +staircase in front of the structure. There they paused, elbowed against +the wall by those pressing from the rear. There was no wild confusion +or panic behind them, however, such as might have ensued under the same +terrifying circumstances with other than trained soldiers involved. +When Billy and Henri took to the wall at the head of the staircase +it was a voluntary act on their part. The same thought with both had +impelled the pause: + +Had Anglin been released from the fiery vortex or still restrained by +iron bolts and bars? + +The room in which the captive was held faced a gallery running at right +angles from the main stairway. + +Pulling their jackets up and over their heads, the boys plunged through +the wall of smoke on mission of rescue--a mission without result, for +the door of the place of confinement was wide open, and no one was +there. + +The rescuing party of two then turned their intent upon themselves, +and none too quickly, for they had hardly won safety when the castle +enclosure was wholly enveloped by consuming flame. + +Farm buildings adjoining were also ablaze, and the wide highway +stretching away to the east showed whitely in the glare. + +In the red canopy overhead winged shadows whirred and whirled, dipped +and leaped. + +Billy and Henri proceeded down the road to escape the growing heat and +rolling smoke. When the roaring of the fire had somewhat lessened in +their hearing, they detected a familiar hum, just ahead and closing +down beyond the border of the rising mist of the morning. + +As aviators, the boys were instantly aware that an aëroplane was +working near and the proof was immediately furnished by the appearance +of the aircraft itself, swooping into the circle of illumination, +skimming close to the surface of the highway. + +The lads sprang forward to greet the aërial visitor, and as they did so +a tall figure, hatless and coatless, leaped from the cover of a ditch +nearby, ran like a deer alongside the skimming biplane, and vaulted +into the frame behind the daring navigator. + +As the machine took the uplift, Billy and Henri were so close, and the +fire-flow so vivid, that they plainly saw the faces of both the saver +and the saved. + +The man who had jumped into the machine was Anglin; the aviator was +Gilbert Le Fane, the noted airman of Rouen, whom our boys had once +followed in flight from Havre to Paris. + +From the fire zone there was coming a hurrying body of men, and rifles +began to spit lead at the swiftly rising aircraft. Too late, though, +to reach the height attained by the biplane. A shrill yell of defiance +floated back on the breeze of the morning, and deep and heavy were the +expressions of baffled rage by those grouped in the road below. + +Roque and the sandy-haired assistant could be heard above all the rest. + +The boys were again in the rôle of innocent bystanders. + +When the sun later replaced the flames in lighting up the sky, not a +trace of the French airmen could be sighted, save the marks of their +raid--the blackened ruin of the castle and smouldering remains of the +adjoining buildings. + +Investigation instituted by Roque related solely to the escape of the +prisoner. To put a quietus on his rival had drawn him from afar, and +here again the elusive Frenchman had been jerked out of his clutches, +this time into the very sky. + +With the fall of the first bomb the single night guard over the captive +had drawn the bolts that he might be ready to quit his post upon first +order with the Frenchman in close custody. The second bomb so stunned +the guard that he knew no more until regaining consciousness in the +rear courtyard outside. He could only account for his presence there +by the belief that the man over whom he had held watch had picked him +up and carried him out of danger. There was a back way that could be +traveled, smoke hidden, without observation. + +"But how about the aëroplanes dipping just at the right time and place +to carry him off?" + +This was the point that especially puzzled Roque. + +A farmer boy, listening, open-mouthed, to the questioning, offered a +solution. + +"You see, Monsieur," he bashfully explained, "it was a ghostly noise +that was making between the big noises, like the wind blowing through +the neck of a bottle stuck in a knot hole. I heard it in the road, a +long way." + +It occurred to the boys that this distress signal must have been given +before they got away from the roar of the fire, or while they were +probing the smoke in the gallery to reach Anglin. + +"They were flying mighty close down and could probably hear a howl +like that, if they were listening for it and knew what it meant." This +opinion was advanced by Billy. + +"I don't much believe they could hear a call from the ground, unless it +came from the business end of a gun." Henri was the doubter. + +"It is no use to argue," said Roque. "The fact remains that the air +fellow had his bearings, and he got the lead from somewhere. I am not +giving him credit for being a mind reader." + +"That reminds me, Mr. Roque," remarked Billy, "that we might test this +bearing business by a little air trip somewhere and soon." + +"I have just such a thing in thought," grimly advised Roque, "and I +will warrant that you will hear a few ground sounds before the quitting +minute. We are going to take a down look at Belfort." + +Now Belfort is a French fortress, where the soldiers in red and blue +had been finding security every time they were rolled back from the +plains of upper Alsace. + +A tremendous amount of gunpowder had been burned on the flat ground +in front of this stronghold, and our boys were in for a smell of +it--something that would recall perilous travel with Colonel Bainbridge +and Sergeant Scott in previous campaigns. + +A wire to Friedrichshaven had started on the way the makes of biplanes +that Billy called "Roque's best bet" since the day of the famous race +over Lake Constance. + +"Business will soon be looking up," joked Henri, when he heard of the +order for the shipment of "No. 3's." + +The presence of Ardelle in this region, extreme southwestern +Germany, had raised suspicion in the mind of Roque that some special +demonstration was brewing, and the lurid performance of the French +airmen in blowing the roof from over his head served to further elevate +the confirmed idea that trouble and the French agent always traveled +together. + +Roque was not here to mix in the actual military operations--that was +not his business, but he was ever open-eyed on the trail of the boss +gamester on the other side. He had expected this time to put his rival +on the safe side of the ground, but spades did not prove to be trumps. + +Somewhere in the gap of Belfort, as the valley south of the Vosges +mountains is popularly known, Ardelle was, no doubt, preparing for +another comeback, and Roque was scheming to meet him halfway. + +There was no chance to get under the guns of the frowning fortress +beyond the frontier, so the only way to size up the situation was to go +over them. + +Here was where flying experts jumped to the front. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ALONG THE BATTLE LINE. + + +WITH the arrival of the biplanes from the factory, the Boy Aviators +were kept busy with brief test flights over valley and plain, awaiting +the convenience of Roque for the wider sweep he was planning. It +developed that the boys were expected to navigate separately on this +occasion, Billy to pilot Roque himself, and Henri to be accompanied +by one Renos, who had been awarded a service badge of honor for his +work as an aërial observer in giving first warning of the advance of a +French division against Burnhaupt, which saved the day for the Germans. + +"The seaplane is the rig for weight carrying," exclaimed Roque, in +accounting for this assignment, "but these machines, as you know, are +solely in the speed class, and it is many chances to one that we will +be compelled to tax every ounce of power before we get through. So we +have no use for deadwood." + +Renos, who was to sit behind Henri, was the silent man of the +expedition, as far as talking was concerned, but when it came to be +up and doing he could be counted on to the limit. He was a human +route-box of the Sundgau, the fighting territory, and very much at home +in a flying machine. When the two machines one morning flew over the +German frontier, in compliance with the "ready" order of Roque, Renos' +knees were crossed by a wicked-looking rifle, and of the party he was +the only one armed. + +Billy, observing this war-like figure, asked Roque if he expected to +get into close quarters on this trip. + +"Not unless some of the bomb-throwing crowd that scarred the landscape +the other night should cross our path," replied the secret agent. + +As Renos was the qualified guide, the biplane bearing him went to the +front, and Henri received overshoulder directions as to the course to +be maintained. + +The apparent reason why the German expert did not pilot the craft +himself was that he wanted a loose hand in case of emergency, and a +free eye for the panorama below. He was satisfied, too, that one as +good as the best was doing the steering. + +Henri was instructed to keep a respectful distance from the near +mountain peaks, where the French had mounted artillery, for one round +from these guns, close enough, would have ended the flight and the +flyers there and then. + +But Roque and Renos kept constant vigil with glasses, and Billy +wondered that the pair did not get a crick in the neck with all the +head-turning they did. + +A sharp order advised the pilots to send the biplanes farther aloft, +and circle. The French fortress of Belfort could be seen directly +underneath. + +The aviators well knew that an explosion close to an aëroplane is often +sufficient, through the force of the air concussion alone, to bring +it down, and they knew they could not chance a close shot from the +long-range guns in the fort. + +Though the machines now evoluted at greater height, the powerful +glasses enabled the observers to plainly distinguish the movements +below. + +It was quickly manifested that the garrison lookout had become aware of +the aërial visitation, and that they did not approve of the color of +the hovering aircraft. + +A couple of smokeballs ascended and burst in the center of a cloudrack +far to the right of the machine. Renos broke his record for silence +with a shrill cackle. + +"Save your powder, you numbskulls," he shouted for his own satisfaction. + +Roque seemed oblivious of the gunplay below. As the biplane described +great circles over the fort, he kept his glasses steadily aimed at a +point in the enclosure over which the flag was floating. + +The men who emerged from the officers' quarters all wore the French +uniform. + +Roque had evidently cleared up a disturbing point in his mind as he +muttered something about a "fool story," and "I might have known there +was nothing to it." + +Having satisfied himself that it was still an independent little war at +this remote point from the main field of operations, and that he had +been misled by some advices previously received, the chief observer +passed the word to his pilot to back-track, at the same time giving +signal to the companion biplane. + +As the machines swung around for the return flight, and drew closer +together, Renos gave a megaphone yell through a hollow formed by his +hands: + +"Speed for your lives, they're on the wing!" + +Above the gentle slopes on the west, leading to the summit of the +mountain ranges, aircraft had arisen, looking, at a distance, like +black dragonflies. + +At the same moment, the invading biplanes also had a reminder to hurry +from the fortress they were leaving behind. + +A shell burst seemingly quite close to the machine Henri was driving, +and the craft dipped far to one side. + +Billy's heart beat up to his throat when he saw the break in the +flight. + +But his was an exulting cry when the momentarily stricken flyer +righted, and bored ahead. + +"Glory be!" hoarsely rejoiced the boy from Bangor, when his chum again +drew to the upper level. + +Seventy miles an hour was the clip of the fleeing biplanes, and no less +speedy the onrush of the aircraft from the slopes. + +"Steady, and a little to the right," Renos instructed Henri. + +The observer was resting the rifle barrel on the rigging, awaiting a +broadside target. + +Sping! One of the attacking aviators was first with his rifle, and the +bullet nicked the armored side of the German craft. Sput! Henri heard +an angry exclamation behind him, and shifted an eye long enough to see +that Renos was nursing a bloody wrist on his knee. + +"How hard are you hit?" was the anxious question of the young pilot. + +"Nothing to kill," replied the observer, as he used his uninjured +fingers and his teeth in knotting a handkerchief above the wound so as +to compress the severed artery. + +With the utmost calm he then deliberately used his left hand in rifle +aiming, and sent a bullet into the nearest hostile machine. + +Whether the shot crippled the pilot of the leading pursuer, or whether +it was the menace of the heavy howitzers on the German frontier, which +was now of short approach--the French flyers suddenly ceased to be +aggressive, and with a parting salute of rifle practice, turned back +toward their mountain station, while the German machines dashed across +the line of safety. + +Upon landing Billy indulged in a sort of war dance around his chum. + +"Thought you were gone that time, sure, Buddy," he cried, "and it was +simply great the way you pulled out of the hole." + +"I guess I was stunned for a minute, as though somebody had hit me with +a hammer," explained Henri, "but when I found the controls were still +working, it was a bracer, I tell you. And if there isn't a cool head" +(nodding toward Renos, who was inspecting his wounded wrist) "I never +saw one. He stretched his arms over me ready to take hold if I failed +to rally, and did it as a matter of course. Not a tremble about him, +either." + +"What do you think of the No. 3's now, boys?" queried Roque, when he +had dispatched Renos in search of a surgeon. + +"They're dandies, all right," promptly agreed the happy pilots. + +"They will do to hunt trouble with, anyhow," laughed the secret agent, +who was immensely pleased with the flying achievements of the day. + +Roque, pluming himself with the idea that, though he did not hold +Ardelle when he had that artful dodger under his thumb, he had at +least chased his rival out of the empire; and, having also eased his +mind as to the report of a new element in the Alsace campaign, he was +impatient in his preparation for departure. Master of detail though he +was, the big moves only appealed to him. + +A great battle was raging at Soissons, on the Aisne river, in France, +and Roque had in mind an aërial journey north, and quick flight across +the border to the scene of the fierce artillery duel, following the +line of march of the mighty force under General von Kluck. + +The crippled Renos was replaced in the observer's perch by an aviator +known as Schneider, a very daredevil, and who was at first inclined +to doubt that the boy with whom he was paired had sufficient skill +and courage to pilot a military biplane in an active war zone. Henri +very quickly convinced the doubter that he was very much older than he +looked when it came to the fine points of aëroplaning, and, too, that +when there was an emergency demand for "sand" the youngster had plenty +to spare. Schneider had additional assurance of capacity when he was +advised that both of the lads carried Roque's indorsement of efficiency. + +It was a bitter struggle that the Aëroplane Scouts were to witness at +Soissons, and six days of it had already passed. The earth was still +dropping on many graves of the German fallen, and yet, sprawling in +attitudes along the heights, in the deep-cut gorges of the plateau, +and across the flat valley bed were French infantrymen in their +far-to-be-seen red-and-blue uniforms, swarthy-faced Turcos, colonials, +Alpine riflemen, and bearded territorials. + +At staff headquarters, in the first officer that passed near them the +boys recognized a familiar figure, no other than Colonel Muller, whom +they had first met in far-away Texas, U. S. A., on the day of the +record flight, and again in the hangar camp at Hamburg. + +Billy impulsively stepped forward. "How do you do, Colonel?" + +The officer instantly turned in his stride to inspect the speaker. +"Hello, Boy Aviator," was his hearty greeting. "How under the sun did +you ever get here?" + +"Same old way," said Billy, "the airline, of course." + +"And here's the other one," the colonel reaching for Henri's shoulder. + +"By the way," continued the big soldier, "this must be a field day for +flyers. Here, Hume, come and see what the wind brought in." + +The officer addressed moved at quickstep in response to this +invitation. It was the aviation lieutenant from Hamburg. He grinned +from ear to ear when he laid eyes on his former charges. + +"Can't lose you if I try," he exclaimed. "Have you enlisted with us?" + +"No," laughed Billy, "we're still driving cars for the good merchant +from your town," with the backward point of the thumb at Roque, who was +engaged in close confab with a group of staff members near by. + +"Did you blow in with Schneider, too?" asked the lieutenant. "I just +want to say that you will bore a hole in a stone wall sometime if you +train with that fellow. Nature didn't give him red hair without reason." + +"Now that you are here," broke in the colonel, "you must not be allowed +to get out of practice. I expect that one of you will have to give me a +ride along the front before long. I have lost three horses this week." + +"We'll do our best to oblige you, colonel," volunteered Billy. + +It was no merry jest, that ride Billy gave the colonel! + +At the time, the French retained a foothold north of the river at only +one point--St. Paul--where the bridge from Soissons crosses, and this +by a perilous margin, since the bridgehead was completely commanded by +German artillery on the heights. + +The battlefield entire covered a front of about seven miles, the center +and eastern flank a high, level plateau rising steeply a couple of +hundred feet from the valley of the Aisne. On the western side a deep +valley ran northward, bounded on either side by turnpikes. An airman +taking the big curve of the river would not be considered a good risk +for a well-regulated insurance company. + +But it could be done--and Billy Barry furnished the proof. + +When the next day broke a bloody conflict was raging between the two +turnpikes, the French infantry attack on German trenches preceded by a +terrible artillery bombardment, a storm of shell and shrapnel. + +Colonel Muller beckoned Billy to his side. They stood together on the +heights from which the French had been expelled only the day before. + +"My boy," was the brisk address of the officer, making a field-glass +survey of the smoke-crowned landscape, "I am going down the line, and I +am to do the distance in an aëroplane. Is it you or Schneider who will +do the driving?" + +"You gave me the first call yesterday," reminded Billy. + +"That was my intent, and it still holds. I was only seeking to learn if +you were of the same mind since that powder mill let loose down there." + +"I well know the odor of it," stoutly maintained Billy, "and it doesn't +weaken my knees." + +The young aviator, accepting the matter as settled, hastened toward +staff headquarters. "Mr. Roque," he excitedly called, "Colonel Muller +wants to try one of the No. 3's this morning, and I'm to pilot." + +The secret agent lifted his eyebrows as though surprised, but he really +was not. The arrangement had already been made. + +"Say, Buddy, this is rough that we can't both go; and suppose something +should happen to you?" Henri had just realized that something was up, +in which his chum was vitally concerned. + +"Don't you worry, pard," consoled Billy, "it is only a little spin of a +few miles, and we'll be back in no time." + +"Wish it was me," sighed Schneider, for this firebrand guessed that it +would be a red-hot journey. + +As the biplane swept into the breeze current, trending to the river, +which then was running brimful, and in many places overflowing its +banks between the two armies, Colonel Muller advised Billy to keep the +machine climbing for the time being, as a terrific fusillade was in +progress in the distance of the next two miles, the shells hurtling +through the air like lighted express trains. In the three steep-sided +ravines that deeply notched the plateau on the east French troopers +swarmed like bees, and at this cover the big German guns were blindly +banging. + +"We can't see much, Colonel, at two thousand feet," complained Billy. + +"You would see nothing at all if we ran into one of those fragments of +shells," coolly suggested the officer, "but never mind, you will do +some diving in a few minutes." + +Billy got the signal to dip at the juncture of the turnpikes, and to +hold a level and lower course along the line of battle, marked here by +infantry fighting between the seemingly crawling columns far below. + +"Down!" + +The colonel's order was peremptory, and Billy forthwith volplaned +toward the earth. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE LUMINOUS KITE. + + +THE biplane had hardly scudded its length on the turnpike, when the +colonel leaped from the machine, his sudden appearance greeted by +salvos, both of cheers and an extra round of rifle discharge. + +Billy sat like a statue in the machine, facing a reserve force of grim, +gray-garbed veterans standing at attention. + +The front rank soldiers eyed the boy curiously, no doubt wondering that +one of his years should be serving in the capacity of a full-fledged +military aviator on a mission so supremely perilous. + +Billy could not understand what Colonel Muller was saying to the +commanding officer of this regiment, but he could see the effects +rippling through the serried lines, a stiffening of attitude, a closer +grip of rifle stock and squaring of shoulders. + +The column, solid and compact, the German practice of close formation, +moved with clockwork precision down the field to back the general +charge against the living wall that barred the way. + +"Charge! Charge!" The cry from a thousand throats. + +The forces mixed in a struggling, swaying mass, with indescribable +noises, the clashing of steel and the squealing of horses, for cavalry +had joined the fray. + +Billy jumped out of the machine into the dusty road, the sole spectator +there of the conflict that raged but a half mile distant. + +Colonel Muller had taken to horse and was riding furiously to rally +incoming reinforcements for the gray column. + +A rattle cut into the sound ruck--the machine guns of the Germans had +turned loose, and men were mowed down like ripened corn. + +But fainter now in Billy's ears grew the roar of violent contention, +alternate advance and retreat serving to shift the tide of battle +further northward, and finally stemmed by the final demonstration of +the day at Soissons bridge. + +Barring the occasional wild gallop of a riderless horse down the road, +the young aviator saw no signs of life about him, and he was too far +away to hear the groans of the wounded on the sodden field now enfolded +by the gathering gloom of evening. + +"I wonder if the colonel has forgotten that his carriage is waiting," +thought Billy, trying a bit of mental cheer to relieve the strain of +his trying position. + +The colonel, however, had not lost his memory along with his hat, for +even then a foam-flecked horse was bringing him back to the driver of +his aërial chariot. Mud-bespattered from head to foot, he sent a hearty +hail ahead of the pounding hoofs of his weary mount. + +"Ahoy, my stranded mariner: is supper ready?" + +That reminded Billy of a decided vacancy under his belt, but the glad +sight of the colonel was the best tonic for a drooping spirit. + +"We will wheel this airship out of the way for a spell and have a bite +to eat in the trenches." + +Concealing the biplane behind a clump of bushes the colonel gave Billy +a hand-up, and the horse cantered away with its double burden in the +direction of the slopes. + +It was about 7:30 when the colonel and Billy climbed over the slippery +slopes to the line of reserve trenches, lowered themselves into one of +these holes in the ground, and it was evident that the occupants knew +how to convert a ditch into a home. + +This trench had a head cover formed of cross-beams, overlaid with +branches and earth--a sure protection against shrapnel. There was a +long bench of telegraph poles, little cupboards for cartridges and kit, +and ramps for reclining chairs or couches, and drains to carry off the +rain. + +"Come into our parlor, colonel," invited one of the soldiers, leading +the way into a subterranean chamber, which was warmed by a fire in an +old perforated petroleum tin. + +"It is wonderful what ingenuity and labor can accomplish out of the +most unpromising material," observed the colonel. + +"Made in Germany, colonel," laughed one of the veterans, "no matter +where you put them." + +From the business end of the trench a hot meal was speedily produced +for the visitors, adding another touch of surprise for Billy. + +"Well, my lad, we must report to the general," announced the colonel, +who had politely denied the petition of the trench veterans that he try +one of their couches for the night. + +"You don't mind an air trip in the dark, do you?" inquired the colonel. + +"Not a bit," assured Billy, "I've made many a one." + +It was quite pitch black when the colonel and Billy rode back across +the plain, but the horse was sure-footed, and the way was fitfully +lighted by the occasional upshoot of rockets that left a long green +stream of stars, revealing the now silent battlefield and its dreadful +record of uncounted dead. + +While Billy flourished an electric torch in giving the biplane a +careful look over, the colonel bestowed a playful slap on the flank of +the faithful horse, which sent the animal trotting up the road. + +"He knows his number and troop as well as I do, and will go as +straight as a die to the feed trough," asserted the colonel. + +"Are you ready, boy?" + +"Trim as a ship, colonel." + +With a flare on the compass, rising high, Billy held the nose of the +biplane in the direction of the heights that centered headquarters. + +Small red sparks glowed in the trenches below, and the upper darkness +was ever and anon split by signal rockets and leaping flames of light +from countless campfires. + +Billy, with the aid of the small searchlight in the bow of the +biplane, found safe landing, also insuring a sight of the colors to +the sentries, who might otherwise be tempted to take a pot shot at the +winged, midnight visitor. + +Henri was the first to hear the whirr of the incoming aircraft, for +which he had for hours held an open ear. + +"Here you are at last!" he exclaimed, making an open-arm break for his +flying partner. "You haven't lost an eye, or a leg, or anything, have +you?" he anxiously inquired. + +"Sound as an Uncle Sam dollar, old boy," assured Billy. "But you just +bet I'm sleepy." + +"I believe even Roque was uneasy about you," said Henri, as he insisted +on giving Billy's blanket a snug tug. + +That the secret agent proposed to reserve the services of the young +aviators to himself thereafter and during their stay in this locality +was made manifest when he told them the next day to make ready for a +quick departure in the biplanes. As usual, he furnished no advance +particulars. + +It appeared that Schneider was also to figure in the expedition in a +capacity indicated by his employment of oiling and polishing a service +rifle of the 16-shot brand, and the display of a pair of long-barreled +revolvers stuck in his belt. + +"He looks like an arsenal on parade," commented Billy when the +red-haired flyer, in war-like array, passed on the way to conference +with Roque. + +"There is no peaceful intent about that get-up," admitted Henri. "And +let me make another prediction," he continued, still proud of his last +previous success as a prophet, "this isn't going to be any pink tea or +garden party to which we're going." + +"What a head you have," said Billy, beaming with mock admiration. + +There was a decided lull in the fighting this day--the ninth since the +continuous combat had been commenced, as the soldiers of the two armies +were apparently resting on their arms. Some fresh planning, no doubt, +was in progress. + +The boys wandered around the camp, restlessly anticipating the expected +summons from Roque. The latter, however, had not picked daylight in +which to operate, for it was long past nightfall when Schneider sought +and advised the boys that the starting time had arrived. + +The moon was working full time when the biplanes set their course, +following the turnpike toward La Fere. + +Above a farm, which had practically been razed, and on the edge of a +ruined district, both Roque and Schneider signaled the pilots to lower +the flight, and the biplanes circled groundward, landing near a row +of stunted willow trees. They showed no lights, and with the motors +silenced lay hidden behind a huge pile of debris, close to a wrecked +dwelling, so close that the full moon shining through the shattered +roof gave the aviators a dim vision of hopeless confusion, cooking pots +and children's toys, broken clocks and tables, knives, forks and books +strewn on the floor, beds and everything awry. + +Billy and Henri had as yet no inkling of the purpose of this mysterious +proceeding in which they were engaged. Their companions did not seem to +be in a hurry, either, to enlighten them. Roque and Schneider appeared +intent in upward gaze, perhaps hoping that the moon and a dense bank of +clouds forming near would soon come together. As a matter of fact, a +total eclipse of the great orb above did follow, with the effect of the +sudden blowing out of the one lamp in an otherwise dark room. + +Curious to relate, it was not long until the moon was replaced in the +now black canopy by a small but quite silvery brilliant imitation of +the big illuminant. + +The diamond-shaped light in the lowering sky flashed this way and that, +as if responding to the manipulation of an aërial cable. + +Roque was not puzzling about the appearance of the dancing light; it +was the message that it conveyed which baffled him, sent, as it were, +from within the German lines, and, maybe, of vital concern--aid and +comfort to the enemy. + +Sentries on the heights had reported night after night of this queer, +intermittent flashing in this very place, and when Roque heard of it, +he instantly comprehended the meaning. + +Some spy within the lines was using a luminous kite to signal +information of value to the foe. + +This is what had brought the secret agent, an adept in the same kind of +game, flying through the night to scotch the play and the player. + +Roque and Schneider skirted the ruins, and stumbled over the plowed +ground with all the haste that such rough going permitted. The boys, +free of any order to stay where they were, cautiously brought the rear. +They were mighty curious to see what was going to happen. + +Schneider had taken the electric torch from under the pilot's seat in +one of the biplanes, and it had occurred to Billy to follow suit. +This precaution served to save the party an ugly tumble or two into +forbidding ditches. + +The still-hunters had just emerged into a road with a wonderful avenue +of trees. The kite telegrapher's hidden nest was near at hand. The +position of the kite itself indicated that. + +A streak of moonlight breaking through a cloud-rift revealed Roque and +Schneider kneeling in the road, and there was a glint of a leveled +rifle barrel. + +The boys backed up against a tree, expecting momentarily to hear the +whip-like crack of the gun. But instead came the bark of a dog--one +shrill yelp, then silence again. + +The luminous kite, unleashed, followed the moon into the clouds. Roque +and Schneider dashed forward, but for nothing else than to use the +electric torch in locating a half-loaf of bread, some cheese crumbs and +a ball of cord. + +The sentry dog had saved its master! + +"Nothing to be gained in chasing that fox to-night," growled Roque. +"He's deep in the brush before this." + +"I'd like to have got a pop at the dog, at least," complained +Schneider, patting the stock of his rifle. + +The boys having no desire to be the victims of any mistake of identity, +marched forward, Billy waving the electric torch, and calling to Roque: + +"It's us." + +The passwords were unnecessary, for Roque knew all the time the boys +were trailing him, but was restrained from objecting by fear of some +word reaching the ear of the man they were stalking. + +"You gadabouts," he admonished, "you should have been guarding the +biplanes instead of prowling around in the dark like this." + +The tone of the reprimand, however, was not one of great severity. The +boys had disobeyed no order, for none had been given. + +"As soon as day breaks," said Roque, as they plodded wearily down the +road, "we will continue the hunt in the machines, though I doubt very +much whether it will amount to more than a waste of time." + +"If I see a man with a dog underneath us, just bring me within rifle +shot, young man, and I will show you something fancy in the way of +gunning." + +Henri, whom Schneider was addressing, mentally resolved that he would +be in no haste to perform as suggested. + +Conditions, however, were reversed long before this test could be made. +Indeed, the reversal, with the dawn, was at hand. The hunters were the +hunted. + +The thud of iron-shod hoofs, the clank of sabers--a troop of cavalry +charging through the wooded avenue--four madly racing footmen in the +furrowed field. + +Full two hundred yards between them and the biplanes! + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE CARRIER PIGEONS. + + +Billy and Henri, with much less weight to carry than their stalwart +fellow fugitives, and much spryer as sprinters, easily led in the race +to the flying machines. + +Schneider stopped more than once in his tracks to fire from the hip at +the pursuing cavalrymen, but he failed to score a hit until the leader +of the troopers had almost ridden him down. One of the long-barreled +revolvers emptied the saddle of the rearing charger. Schneider had +thrown his rifle away at the last moment, finding his pistol more +effective in close quarters. + +By this time, the boys, assisted by Roque, who was doing some shooting +himself, until all of the cartridges in the revolvers he carried were +exploded, had pushed and dragged the biplanes into the road, and ready +for the getaway. + +Schneider, with a yell, hurled the empty revolvers in the direction of +the next comer, then bounded across the first ditch in his way, jammed +a shoulder against the now humming machine in which Henri was seated, +to give it starting impetus, and at the same instant leaped within the +machine. + +Both machines were off in a jiffy, and when the cavalrymen in force +galloped to the spot, their carbines fell short of range. That they had +been chasing airmen was something of a surprise for if they had not +been so sure of a capture, the troopers would probably have pumped lead +much earlier in the chase. + +"Guess he didn't get his man for keeps," remarked Billy to Roque, as a +side turn of the aircraft enabled him to look down on the field, where +a dismounted rider was getting a helping hand up from a comrade. + +"Schneider gave him something to remember, anyhow," grimly replied +Roque. + +In the other machine the red-topped and red-tempered aviator in the +observer's seat was deeply deploring, in no uncertain terms, the loss +of a crack-a-jack rifle and two up-to-date revolvers, borrowed for the +occasion. + +"Hume may toss earth when I tell him his pet irons are gone, but it was +a shindy for quick action, and no saving grace." + +Schneider evidently intended to tell the aviation lieutenant about the +fight before he mentioned the missing weapons. + +The next flight planned by Roque was one of long distance--starting +twenty-four hours later, and leaving France. + +"Good-bye, my young friends, and good luck to you; if you ever see +Colonel McCready again tell him 'here's looking at him.'" + +These were the parting words of Colonel Muller, accompanied by a warm +hand-grip. + +When the flying party finally reached Strassburg, the big German city +of the Alsace-Lorraine region, it was a glad day of halting. + +They had floated in over a country literally shot to pieces by the +concentrated fire of the French and German guns--that is, in French +Lorraine--and in the distance viewed the great fortress of Metz. To the +aviators it appeared as though the land hereabouts had been devastated +by a gigantic earthquake, which had shaken down all the towns and +villages into a mass of shapeless, smoke-blackened ruins. + +The boys wondered that they did not see more soldiers in the open, and +Henri expressed this wonder to his companion in the biplane. + +"Oh, but the woods are full of them," assured Schneider, pointing to +the small columns of smoke rising here and there from the snow-clad +forests. + +True it was that these same woods contained thousands and thousands +of armed warriors, ever on the lookout, who were gazing across the +frontier at the other woods, which concealed countless thousands of +soldiers of the Kaiser. + +In Strassburg, Roque was again in touch with the invisible strands of +the far-spreading web he maintained. Among his first advices was the +most disturbing one that Ardelle had returned and had been making some +ten-strikes within the borders of the empire. + +The boys shrewdly guessed that something of the sort had happened from +the renewal of the German agent's habit of charging almost every sort +of disaster to the secret work of his French rival. + +Roque realized, as one of the profession, what an important factor is +the under-cover man who works within the enemy's lines in the service +of his country. And with a keen blade like Ardelle, big things were +possible, as past performances indicated. + +But even Henri, as a self-claimed prophet, had no idea that the man +he knew as Anglin would bob up in Strassburg, though the city was as +likely a point as any in the war zone for secret service activity. + +When Billy jokingly asked his chum if he had any predictions to fit +this occasion, Henri admitted that his second-sight "was off the job." + +It soon developed that the secret service experts of both sides were +matching wits in this quarter. Reported in Roque's calendar of the +week was the giving away by one of his workers in hostile territory of +a French attack on the Germans during a fog, with the result that the +intended surprise resulted in a rout, and the assailing force mowed +down almost to a man. The mute testimony was in a low-lying valley out +in the Lorraine field--700 graves in a space 200 yards wide and about +50 broad. + +Then a counter-move, wherein the French had advices from some source +unknown of the coming flight of a Zeppelin out of the Black Forest, +and three French aëroplanes were ready to charge at the big dirigible, +which, after a continuous exchange of fire lasting forty minutes, made +narrow escape to the north, just when the lighter craft had succeeded +in getting above it for a finishing stroke. + +As it came about, and in a queer way, too, the boys were the first to +blunder upon a cunning ruse being resorted to by a smooth worker in +getting away information under the very nose of the astute Roque. + +Billy and Henri, indulging their liking for high places, and having +a little leisure to look around, found a favorite perch in one of +the famous towers of Strassburg. They were interested, as airmen, in +watching the daily flying exhibit of the pigeons 'round about. + +"Have you noticed, Henri, the streak of feathers every once in a +while that don't stop to associate with this housekeeping bunch? I've +seen two of these birds already this morning; they act just like an +aëroplane, circle about, and then break away like a bullet. There's one +now. Look!" + +Henri followed the aim of Billy's finger, and, sure enough, a +long-tailed flyer was cutting the air like greased lightning in a +straight line west, without the slightest notice of the many of its +kind pluming themselves on neighboring towers and housetops. + +"They make long visits," commented Billy; "I've watched, but never see +any of these air hustlers come back." + +"That's funny," observed Henri, "let's borrow a glass this afternoon +and find out, if we can, where they start from. Why, this is good +sport; we'll be wearing badges next as pigeon detectives." + +The boys had small notion then that they were butting into a real +business proposition, but one that did not advertise! + +They were just curious to find out from where came the busy birds that +would not take time to visit with their brothers and sisters. + +The most that the tower observers could discover, even with the field +glasses, borrowed without leave from Roque's traveling outfit, was +that the next bird comer took its bearings over a red-roofed building, +rising out of a circle of tall trees, a full mile to the east. + +Had it so happened that Roque was in a social mood, and the boys making +him a confidant of their bird study diversion, there would, without +doubt, have been no delay in striking at the heart of the problem--and +everything else under that red roof. + +Carrier pigeons were not beneath the notice of the big man with the +delicate touch! + +But Roque was not inclined at the time to indulge in fireside fancies. +He was hooked up to a procession of events that needed constant +attention, and as it was all ground work for the present, he had no use +for aviators. + +So he missed the first bang at the very musser-up of his plans whom he +was, day and night, seeking to locate. + +"We'll amble out that way to-morrow and learn how to break pigeons of +the loafing habit." + +Billy had once had a loft full of pouters in Bangor, that, he claimed, +ate their breakfast in bed! + +"We'll shake Schneider and start early." + +Schneider had been detailed by Roque to keep an eye on the boys, but +Henri felt sure that this firebrand would not be interested in pigeons, +save in a potpie, so he suggested the "shaking" process. + +Trained in the sense of location by their aviation experience, the +boys proceeded without difficulty to the sparsely settled neighborhood +of the red-roof, which they found to be in the center of a neglected +garden, overgrown with weeds. + +"Don't see any pigeon loft yet?" + +Having been a fancier himself, Billy knew how the birds were housed. + +"You might also say that you don't see any pigeons," added Henri. +"We've surely run by the station." + +"Not on a little excursion like this," maintained Billy. "This is no +ghost story." + +With the words he led the way up the long gravel walk extending from +the rusty iron gate to the front of the house. + +"What will we tell them?" he asked, reaching for the brass knocker on +the dingy door of the dwelling. + +"How will it do to say we are from the gas office?" + +"A fool answer fits a fool's errand," agreed Billy as he gave the +knocker a sounding rap. + +The pounding awakened no sign of life. + +"Come on, Billy," urged Henri, "let's go. It's all a crazy move, +anyhow, and it was just because we were idle that we ever thought of +it." + +"I'm going to try the back door," insisted Billy, "and then we'll quit." + +There they got a response, probably after an advance inspection. +The door was partly opened by a bent, palsy-shaken old man, who in +quavering, high-pitched voice inquired their business. The question was +in French, and Henri responded: + +"We just came out to look at your pigeons, and"--the age fell from the +figure in the doorway in the twinkling of an eye, two long arms shot +out, and in steely grip the astonished visitors were jerked inside, the +door closing with a slam behind them. + +"What's the matter with you?" gasped Billy, whose collar had been given +a tight twist by quick-grasping, sinewy fingers. + +Another violent wrench of the neck-joint was the rude form of answer. +Billy's fighting blood took fire, and he launched a kick at his +tormentor which sent the latter spinning, doubled-up, clear across the +entrance hall. + +The jarred one, recovering his breath, leaped like a panther at the +Bangor boy, but Henri gave him the tripping foot, and he measured his +length on the dusty floor. + +The boys were making a break for the door, when a new figure blocked +the way, suddenly emerging from a room nearby--a resolute fellow, with +a cold, gray stare, backing up a steadily leveled revolver. + +"Been stirring up the monkeys, have you, Fred?" + +The fallen man raised himself on his elbow and made the air blue for a +moment with his wrathful expressions. + +"I'll fix you, you whelps," glaring at the sturdy youngsters who had +bested him. + +"Stow the threats, Fred," advised the cool-head, who had restored the +pistol to his hip-pocket when he sized up the invaders as unarmed. + +"What the devil brought you here?" + +The newcomer put a snap in the question, but with no change of icy eye. + +"What devil sent them here, you'd better ask?" + +This suggestion from the battered Fred, who had again regained his feet. + +"That will all come out under pressure," intimated the cool one. "As +long as you chose to honor us with a visit," he added with quiet irony, +"we must get properly acquainted. Show the young gentlemen into the +parlor, Fred." + +Billy would have started a debate there and then had he not been, as +usual, stumped by the French language, which he only understood by fits +and starts. He knew for sure, though, that he was in Queer Street, with +this sudden shift from the regulation German talk he had been hearing +since landing in the empire. It was up to Henri to set matters straight. + +Henri, however, had come to the conclusion that the pigeon story was +not popular here, considering its effect on the man who had first met +them at the door. So he wore a thinking cap on the way to the "parlor." + +This apartment was the only one that had a living look, all the others, +noted in the passing, cheerless and empty. It was a "sky parlor," +being reached by narrow stairway, only a garret between it and the +roof. + +An old table, rickety chairs, portable cots and a rusty oil stove were +in evidence. There was a wide fireplace with no fire in it. It occurred +to Henri that the present occupants of the house did not approve of +smoking chimneys. + +To get a line on what might be expected, he mildly inquired, with a +pale smile: + +"Now that we are here, for what are we here?" + +He was certain that he himself could not win a prize with the correct +answer. + +The cold-eyed man could not restrain a short laugh in his throat. + +"You are the fellow on the witness stand," he said, "but we must wait +for the prosecuting attorney to help us along." + +In the waiting time the boys could hear through an open trap-door above +them the fluttering and cooing of a score or more slate-colored doves, +and it had just dawned upon Billy that there was some particular use +for the sheets of oiled tissue and skeins of pack-thread that littered +the table. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +UNDER THE RED ROOF. + + +THERE were no additions to the party in the "sky parlor" until after +candlelight. The man called Fred was half-asleep on one of the cots, +when suddenly aroused by repeated knocking below. He made stealthy +descent, listened at the entrance for a moment, and apparently +satisfied with the signal conveyed in the rapping outside, cautiously +unbarred and opened the door. The person admitted did not come empty +handed, for when he stepped from the stair-landing into the upper room +he, and likewise Fred, were carrying market-baskets of goodly size. + +"Hello, Gervais," was the hearty greeting he gave to the cool one, +the latter engaged, with a well-thumbed deck of cards, in a game of +solitaire. + +"Hello yourself," returned the gamester, dropping the cards, and coming +forward to relieve the newcomer of the market basket. + +Billy and Henri were seated in the shadow, beyond the range of the +candle rays, and at the time escaped notice. Both had started, however, +at the first sound of the new voice. + +From a side view the make-up was that of a typical huckster of these +parts, fur cap, with ear lappets, corduroy greatcoat and cowhide boots. +Between cap and collar bunched a heavy growth of iron-gray whiskers. + +The boys did not realize that their instinctive move, occasioned by a +certain tone in the voice, had not been amiss until the speaker had +turned full face. + +Even the luxuriant whiskers could not wholly hide the Anglin smile! + +Much to the astonishment of Gervais and Fred, and infinitely more to +the surprise of the imitation huckster, the boys at a single bound +jointly invaded the circle of light and grasped the elbows of their +one-time Calais acquaintance. + +"What sort of a hold-up is this?" cried Anglin, in startled +recognition; "is it raining harumscarum aviators in Strassburg? By the +great horn spoon, it's enough to make me believe I've got 'em to see +you under this roof." + +"I'll bet you knew that we blew in with Roque," proposed Billy, "for +you have a way of seeing seven ways for Sunday." + +"You win, laddy-buck, on the first statement, but I'm still up a stump +on the proposition of how you got into this house." + +"We were loafing," put in Henri, "started out on a pigeon hunt and got +the drag when we mentioned it at your back door." + +"Pigeon hunt?" Anglin wore a puzzled look. + +Henri made quick explanation of the whole affair. + +"Ha! I see," exclaimed Anglin. "By the way, you did not happen to +mention your tower observations to anyone else, did you?" + +This last query had a dead-earnest ring, with a rising note of anxiety. + +"Not on your life," assured Henri; "in the first place, the big chief +had no time to bother with us; we had no inducement to talk to anybody +else, and, all in all, who'd have cared about the bird business, +anyhow?" + +"Well, it seems there was one fellow who did." + +Billy indicated Fred, who was unpacking the baskets. + +"There are others," laughed Anglin, much relieved by the boys' +statement. Fur cap, wig and false whiskers were tossed onto the +mantelpiece, and the huckster was no more. + +The baskets had produced a plentiful supply of ham, cold chicken, +and the like, and not one of the party could be charged with lack of +appetite. + +In the glow of good-fellowship, Fred told Billy he was sorry that he +had given him so rough a reception. + +"Honors are easy, old top," was Billy's jovial acceptance of the +apology, "and I am glad now that we did not break any of your ribs when +we banged you around." + +"Say, Mr. Anglin, I am afraid, after all, that we may bring down +trouble on your head. I just know that Roque will be in a great stew +when he finds we are gone and will fairly comb the town to locate us." + +The idea had begun to trouble Henri to the extent of spoiling the +pleasure of this reunion and indoor picnic. + +"I have thought of this," admitted Anglin, "but the danger of discovery +is ever the same, and I don't believe this will either hurry or lessen +it. Besides, we are prepared, or, rather, had the way prepared for us, +to make a run on the slightest warning." + +This restored to Henri happier thoughts, though he still held belief +that Anglin might have been safer if Roque had no special inducement to +immediately lead a searching party throughout the city. + +That is just what happened, and it proved not an overly-difficult task +for the keen tracker to trace the boys to at least the vicinity of the +place where they were hidden. + +The men under the red roof were soon made aware of the lurking danger +by the tooting of an automobile horn in the avenue bordering the +grounds north of the house. + +It was a telegraph code set in shrill notes, and it was apparent that +Gervais, in alert listening attitude, had comprehended the message, +even as the motor-car sounded the final blast in its swift passage out +of sight and hearing. + +The cool one, in most deliberate way, drawled the words: "Look out." + +As effective as if a whole dictionary had been pumped through the +window by Anglin's scouts. + +The chief calmly resumed the disguise of wig and whiskers, while Fred +blew out half-a-dozen candles with little waste of breath. With one +tallow dip still alight, and shaded by hand, the doorman then mounted +the ladder leading to the garret, thereby causing up there great +commotion in the pigeon roost. + +When Fred reappeared at the foot of the ladder, it could be dimly seen, +he wore a broad grin and a wreath of cobwebs. + +"When that flock arrives, empty-footed, old Winkelman will swear like a +pirate." + +Fred had turned every carrier bird but one loose in the night. The +exception was fluttering in his hand, blinking its beady eyes at the +glimmer of the lone candle. + +Anglin had seated himself at the table and was writing a few words on a +scrap of parchment, completing which he deftly attached the tiny roll +to the pink leg of the feathered envoy. + +Fred lifted the window a few inches and released the bird. + +With the utmost care every bit of paper, every inch of thread was +picked up and stowed away in the pockets of the three men preparing to +vacate. + +Billy and Henri were busily figuring in their minds just how they were +going to come out of the scrape, when the creak of a shutter, under +prying force, was heard on the lower floor. + +"They're here at last," muttered Gervais, dropping a hand to his hip, +on the revolver side. + +Anglin laid a finger on his lips, enjoining silence, and tiptoed down +the stairway, the others following in shadowy procession. + +On the first floor the leader paused. The attempt to force the firmly +hooked shutter had ceased, and no new form of attack was for the moment +in evidence. Anglin had removed his cowhide boots, and, with velvet +tread, then advanced the entire length of the long hall, motioning +those behind him to remain where they were. + +He was back again in less than five minutes, and whispered: + +"The house, I believe, is completely surrounded. They are waiting for +daylight, I suppose, to cinch some sure thing, the nature of which they +are not quite certain. If Roque is along and thought I was inside, axes +would have been working before this." + +"They will find a lot here at daylight," chuckled Fred--"a lot of dust." + +The party silently made their way through a side passage to what +appeared to have been intended as the dining and cooking domain. +Gervais had assumed the duties of guide, and he showed thorough +acquaintance with the premises by first producing a dark lantern from +a cupboard, and then moving directly to the black mouth of a steeply +inclined flight of stone steps descending far below the level. + +The spacious cellar was divided into sections by partitions of solid +brick. But it was at the center of the foundation wall on the west +where Gervais halted. + +"Give me a leg up." + +Fred gave his comrade the required lift, and Gervais secured a +hand-grip on a big drain pipe that curved into the wall. He gave the +pipe a strong-arm-twist, and the bull's-eye shine of the lantern +revealed an aperture in the masonry, into which the climber squirmed. + +Hardly had his feet disappeared, when he had turned about with his head +out of the hole in the wall and a hand down to help the next comer to +scale the space between the floor and the dislocated pipe. + +Billy was given the hoist and crawled over the prostrate Gervais into +the narrow passage above; Henri quickly followed, then Anglin, and +finally Fred, who lent aid in pulling the pipe back to its moorings. + +"'Snug as a bug in a rug,'" quoted Billy, who was really enjoying +this method of getting out of a tight place, even though getting into +another. + +However, the rounded and cemented passage did not squeeze enough to be +uncomfortable, and there was steady draught of fresh air coming from +somewhere further ahead. + +"The good man from whom you leased this property six months ago hardly +counted this as one of the improvements you agreed to make," remarked +Anglin as they started to wriggle through the drain. + +Gervais laughed. "I didn't do anything to the pipe but what had to be +done, and 'a stitch in time saves nine.'" + +"It is likely to save three that I know of," grunted Fred. + +"You can always count on Gervais to think for the future." + +The man so complimented by his chief said nothing, saving his energy +for the vigorous use of hands and knees necessary to make progress in +the smooth channel. + +The journey on all fours ended at a heavy grating, through which faint +daylight was peeping. Through the barred opening the outlook was into a +deep ravine, with a small stream coursing at the bottom, and a dense +growth of small timber and bushes rising to the level on all sides. + +Directly opposite the entrance of the drain, in a small clearing on +the high ground across the gully, the broad windows of a stone cottage +reflected the glare of the slowly rising sun. + +"There is nothing else to do, my friends, but to lay low until brother +Roque completes the scouring of this section. We are well on the way +but not yet out of the woods, as the saying is." + +This was the view of the chief, and his views were seldom questioned. + +It was a rather gloomy prospect, this crouching wait in quarters so +confined, but the secret service men counted nothing a hardship, and +the boys had to possess themselves in patience. + +The capacious pockets of the huckster's greatcoat, with which Anglin +had not parted, despite its weight, in the long crawl, contained a +supply of food, taken from the baskets before starting. + +From the avenue that lay between the ravine and the grounds about the +house which they had recently quitted, the cramped company in the drain +could hear the rumble of traffic, and once they heard voices in close +proximity to their hiding place. + +"Giving them something to puzzle about, eh, Gervais?" + +"Rather a fuddle for them, chief," agreed the cool one, "and the best +of it all, they don't know whom they're after, unless it be these +youngsters." + +"Oh, I propose that the boys shall be found in due time, but the +balance of us will keep dodging to the best of our ability." + +"Some ability, too, believe me, boss," was Billy's contribution. + +"Well, I believe we can hold our own," complacently observed Fred. + +With the wearing of the long day, the prospect of liberation eased the +trial of the later hours. As night fell apace, the first greeting to it +was the glow of a lamp in one of the windows of the stone cottage. + +Gervais moved close to the grating, and fixed intent gaze upon this +illumination. In the course of a half-hour his vigilance was rewarded +by a sight that he evidently anticipated. Somebody was repeatedly +crossing and recrossing the patch of light, now and then deliberately +standing in front of the lamp. That "somebody" was making dots and +dashes as plain as day to the trained vision of the receiving expert. + +"The coast is clear," he announced. + +A little pressure and the bars were down. + +Out into the night crept the weary five, with the luxurious experience +of once more standing erect and having a good stretch. + +Having replaced the grating in the drain entrance to a nicety, Gervais +led the way down the steep slope of the ravine to the creek, which +Billy and Henri attempted to drink dry, so great was their thirst. + +"Now is a time when the best of friends must part," said Anglin. "I +have been thinking it over, and the suggestion is that you, my young +friends, must be relieved of any suspicion of willingly associating +with suspicious characters. Gervais, Fred and I have our mission +clearly mapped, the cause we serve is supreme, and the safeguarding I +propose is of mutual benefit. With you boys here we can have no open +acquaintance, and of us, as we are, you must claim no memory. To be +brief, you have been detained by rough characters at the other end of +town, and you will be there discovered at the roadside in the morning +bound and gagged and stripped of all your possessions." + +"I am afraid we are mighty poor picking," joked Billy, "but it is all +right to give us the truss up, as we brought this shake-up to your +door." + +"That is neither here nor there now," consoled Anglin; "we must mend +the situation as best we can." + +And so it came about, at a point remote from the red roof, a passing +policeman picked up two much hunted boys who were decidedly the worse +for wear. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THROUGH FIRE AND FOG. + + +"YOU'RE a pretty pair, I must say." + +True it was, the boys were not fixed for any dress parade when they +first faced Roque, immediately after their delivery to the secret +agent by the police authorities. The crawl through the drain pipe and +the additional effort to give them the appearance of real victims of +violent treatment, had served to convert the usually natty and trim +youngsters into a couple of quite disreputable looking characters. + +It is quite likely that Roque would there and then have put the +returned wanderers through the "third degree" of questioning had it +not been for a fortunate and welcome interruption in the shape of a +messenger, who could not be denied, and who, it proved, brought tidings +that wholly changed the line of thought of the stern chief. + +"Take these chimney-sweeps to the tub and the clothesline," he gruffly +ordered, and Schneider, half concealing a broad grin, accepted the +service with celerity. + +"You ought to have heard the boss when he found that you had not +reported at quarters last night," said the red-topped aviator, when the +trio were out of Roque's hearing. "He took the wind out of my sails, I +tell you, and I am not considered slow in the cussing business." + +"Where were you, anyhow?" + +"In the hands of brigands, of course," gravely advised Billy, with a +wink at Henri. + +Schneider was so possessed with the prospect of some new and exciting +move by Roque, indicated by the manner of the chief upon receipt of +the message a few minutes before, that he did not burden the boys by +forcing evasive explanations of their mysterious absence. + +"If Roque had half a suspicion that we had been in company with his pet +enemy, the prince of slyboots," confided Henri, when the chums were +alone, "our joint name would be Dennis." + +"Gee! If that fellow hadn't bumped in just at the right time, I think +we both could have claimed the title of Ananias!" + +Billy was a poor hand as a dodger of truth, and much relieved to escape +the witness stand in this instance. + +The kind of danger with which the boys best loved to toy was again +speedily coming to them--the peril of aëroplaning. + +Schneider brought the order to report forthwith at the aërodrome. + +At the aërodrome an immense Zeppelin airship, as long as an ocean +liner, had just been inflated. Roque was engaged in conversation +with the captain of the great dirigible when Schneider and his young +companions reached the grounds. The pilot of the huge craft and his +assistants had already taken their places in the front gondola, the +foremost end of which had been screened for their protection, and +it was evident that sailing time was near. When the master mariner +had exchanged a parting word with the secret agent he entered his +room in the central cabin of the Zeppelin, which was in telephonic +communication with the front and rear gondolas and other parts of the +ship. In the meantime, Schneider had instructed the boys to give the +No. 3's an inspection to see if the attendant helpers had properly +prepared the machines for a long journey. + +The young aviators then surmised that they were to travel as convoys of +the monarch of the air, which even then was majestically rising. + +Roque hastened to the machine in which Billy was already seated and +waved a signal to the waiting Henri in the other biplane, containing +also the redoubtable Schneider. + +The swift flyers easily overcame the slight lead of the big ship, +though it was making 40 knots, and took up the guiding positions. The +flight was directly away from Lorraine and historic Strassburg. + +"I wonder if our huckster friend is in the crowd back there?" was a +mental question with Billy. + +It was many a day before the young air pilot had a chance to again meet +Anglin. + +When this journey ended it was in territory remote from that of any +former experience of the Aëroplane Scouts--a new battle landscape. +It had snowed, and the drab, brown plain of Poland had turned to +glistening white. The biplanes floated in a tarnished silver sky, +which, pressing down, seemed hardly higher than a gray ceiling. The +aviators landed on the clay bank of the winding yellow river, the +Bzura, within 400 paces of the German trenches. Gun answered gun across +the golden stream, shell on shell spattered into the soft earth, and +rifles rattled unceasingly. + +Schneider sniffed the powder smoke like a seasoned warhorse. "It's the +life!" he exclaimed. + +"And the death," added Roque. + +He knew that men lay bleeding and broken on the banks of this yellow +streak in the white picture. + +"You're just right, boss," murmured Billy, nodding his hooded head, +"the war map looks all red to me." + +Roque, as usual, wherever he went or wherever he was, seemed to carry +an Aladdin magic carpet on which to sail, for in the next flight of the +biplanes a few miles distant he found a bright spot in this winter +scene of rack and ruin--a clean, white lodgekeeper's kitchen, where a +canary sang, and where the aërial wayfarers rested and were fed. + +"I'll show you even better," he said, "when we break into Warsaw." + +The chief also had a particular crow to pick with the defenders of +the Polish capital. One of his men, for some time operating with the +Russians, had been detected, and the end of a story of brilliant secret +service achievement was marked by a little mound of earth in a Warsaw +stable yard. + +But for the present there were busy days ahead for the aviators in +reconnoitering the Russian lines. + +Most of the aërial work here was over a plain, flat as a floor. Black +dots here and there marked isolated houses, and the Kalish road was +bordered by a line of leafless trees with smooth trunks, which reminded +the young pilots of a rank of grenadiers. + +"What's that bunch over there?" queried Billy, nodding toward a group +of horsemen, shrouded in long caftans, wearing lambskin caps shaped +like a cornucopia, and bearing lances. + +"They are Cossacks," replied Roque, from the observer's perch, "the +strange fighters who never surrender." + +Billy had later an opportunity for closer view of these reckless riders +in the service of the Czar. + +The flyers could see that the road below was this day crowded with the +carts of refugees, trailing in endless procession, on the top of each +vehicle the members of the family, the average one man to five women. +The boys noted that there were not so many children here as they had +seen among the homeless wanderers in Belgium. The same problem was +here, however--what are they going to do? + +"There they go again," cried Henri, referring to renewed outbreak +from the long gray noses sticking out over the top of a brown gun +emplacement--belching cones of death, and shooting red flare into the +gray-white atmosphere. Then another noise out of the winter-worn copse +of trees--pop, pop, pop, the notes of rifle fire, all raising a queer +mist over the plain. With all this racketing no soldier could be seen +at the point of fire. + +If trouble was contagious, the biplane Henri was driving suddenly +caught some of it; something went wrong with the motors, and it was +a case of get down quick in the long slide, in which performance the +young pilot excelled. He landed safely enough, but without choice of +place. + +The machine was stranded in Sochaezev, a city of the dead. Pale faces +were still peering from some of the doors and windows, though almost +every roof had been battered in, leaving only the stringers, reminding +one of skeletons. + +Billy had instantly volplaned in pursuit of the disabled biplane of his +partner, and the two experts, assisted by Schneider, were speedily at +the work of repair. + +Roque impatiently moved about among the ruins, acting as a sentinel, +and occasionally turning to the laboring aviators with muttered +insistence for haste. + +"Hist!" + +With the chief's sibilant warning the boys softly laid down the tools +and motor parts they were handling, and stood at attention. Schneider +drew a revolver from his belt. + +Roque, in crouching attitude, held an ear close to the frozen earth +surface, and the others took example. + +"There's a cavalry troop headed this way," hoarsely whispered +Schneider. The pounding of many hoofs, growing louder and louder, was a +sound apparent to each listener. + +Then as a new diversion, out in the open field to the right of the +road, down which the horsemen were galloping, rang out the rapid blows +of pikes and spades on the ice-covered soil. + +"They're throwing up kneeling trenches." + +Schneider had a true ear for war moves. + +The grating noise of the closing of a gun breech preceded a tense +moment. + +By the shifting of sound it was impressed upon the listeners that the +oncoming cavalry had left the road and had swung into the plain on the +left. + +"We'll be between two fires in a minute or so." + +This from Roque, as he rejoined his companions standing by the +aëroplanes. + +"Give us a precious ten minutes and we need not care," volunteered +Henri, who had discovered the defect in the machinery which had brought +them down. + +"Get at it, then," urged Roque. + +The boys did "get at it" so vigorously that they raised a perspiration, +despite the frigid air. + +"It's all right now," triumphantly announced Billy, hastily repacking +the tools. + +That they had been spared the time required to meet the emergency was +due to the fact that the cavalrymen had diverted their course so as to +make a sudden frontal charge on the artillerymen from the cover of the +ruins. + +"Now for a move backward," ordered Roque in low tone; "even though +the gunners to the right may wear the gray we would have no show for +recognition if we bounced up like a flock of partridges." + +So the aviation party cautiously wheeled the biplanes in the deserted +street as far as they could from the supposed line of the coming clash. + +None too soon were they out of range, for with savage yells the +Cossacks rode full-tilt from cover at the German guns and gunners in +the shallow trenches. + +Amidst the roar of desperate conflict the biplanes whizzed away like +great arrows. + +"Some speedy tinkering we did in that ghost town, Mr. Roque?" + +"Nothing slow," assented Roque, leaning forward to give Billy a pat on +the back. + +"Where away now?" asked the pilot. + +"Back to the lodge for the night," directed the chief. + +No such comfort for the boys in the next flight. + +They were booked for a journey to Przemysl, the vast underground +fortress of Galicia, about which the Russian right end was then +snapping like the tip of a whip around a sapling, and later surrounded +on all sides by the Muscovite forces. + +While viewing the first back-wash of the Austrian forces from the high +tide of Russian invasion, the aviators had hurtled through a maelstrom +of noise. The yells and shoutings of wagon drivers, the rattling of +thousands of wheels over stony roads, the clatter of horses' feet made +an indescribable tumult, and to this were added the sounds of infantry +fighting. + +Roque had reliable advices during one of the stops in the flight that +the fortress defenders were still holding their own, and no Russian +charge had as yet crossed the barbed wire mazes that circled the city. + +Never since the memorable race at Friedrichshaven had the No. 3 type +of biplane attained such velocity as in the finish of this forced run +to the Galician stronghold, the final dash over the black-plowed farms +through a wet fog and under fire of a Russian battery posted in the +hills. + +"I feel like I had been hauled through the lower regions by a +nightmare," complained Billy, as he later sat with Roque, Schneider and +his chum in the Steiber Coffee house. + +"I will say," confessed Schneider, "that I never hit the wind so hard +before in my flying experience. My eyes must look like two burned holes +in a blanket." + +"I might say, Schneider," remarked Roque, "that if it had not been for +that timely fog you would have hit the ground harder than you ever did +before. Those gunners on the hill could not have missed us if given +fair sight." + +"It has just occurred to me that they came pretty close, anyhow." + +"They sure did, Buddy," laughed Billy, following this assertion by his +chum. "I almost collided with a shell that sounded like a dozen factory +whistles. By the way, Mr. Roque," he continued, "it looks like you were +tied up here for some time to come. I don't see any way out of it." + +"Do not lose any sleep over that problem, young man; if we got in we +can get out. You ought to know by this time that there is always a +hole in the air that cannot be blocked." + +"You bet he's right," exclaimed Schneider, slapping his knee for +emphasis. + +"Hustle for bed, all of you, and stay there until you are called." + +With this the chief faced the fire and lighted one of his big, black +cigars. He had some thinking to do. + +The boys were awakened the next morning by gunfire. + +"Oh, lawsy," sleepily murmured Billy, "is there another battle started +already?" + +Schneider at the first report had gone on his bare feet to the nearest +window. + +"Nix, fellows," he cried, after short observation, "they're not +shooting at men this time, it's wild geese they're popping at." + +The besieged garrison was adding to its store of eatables by bringing +down wildfowl, which flew in abundance over the town. + +"Let me in on that." + +Henri owned the idea that he was something of a full hand as a Nimrod. + +A voice in the doorway: "You will be 'let in' on bigger game than that." + +Roque smiled at the youthful enthusiast, and added: + +"There is a man's size job for a half-sized man waiting until you shake +the sleep out of your system." + +"Get up, you snowbirds, and sing for your salt." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +CAPTURED BY COSSACKS. + + +"COLONEL, permit me to present a likely pair of air travelers who are +never satisfied with the ground space they occupy." + +Billy and Henri tipped their caps to six-feet-three of superb manhood, +in Austrian uniform of dark blue. + +Roque made the introduction, and the boys felt quite sure that this +ceremony only completed advance notice of the character of service they +were capable of rendering. + +The officer, measuring the young aviators with a keen gray eye, nodded +approbation. + +"They will admirably fit in the carrying service," he remarked +to Roque; "they are jockey weight, which is a good point for the +assignment." + +Billy assumed from the manner, if not the language used, that Henri and +himself had successfully passed inspection. + +It appeared that airmen here were persons of some importance, as +affording the only connecting link with the outside world. + +Almost every day, the boys were advised, an aëroplane went to +Galician headquarters, on the outward flight carrying only letters +and postcards, but on the return trip bringing tinned meats and hand +grenades for the soldiers. + +The big biplane piloted by Billy and Henri dwarfed anything else in the +way of air machines shown in the fortress. + +Other aviators, viewing the No. 3's, cheerfully conceded that they were +certainly built to be winners. + +These experts, however, as usual with their kind just getting +acquainted with our boys, were inclined to be doubtful of the capacity +of the youngsters to rank with themselves as drivers of aircraft. + +It was up to time--a little time--to convince them of their error of +judgment. + +The crack driver of the Przemysl air squadron, Stanislaws, which name +Billy promptly shortened to "Stanny," was the earliest convert to the +new belief when he went as observer with the boy from Bangor on the +latter's first foraging detail. + +Lack of knowledge of the country prevented the chums from working +together at this period. + +"He will show me the way, but just hazard a little guess that I'll have +a little show of my own on the way." + +Billy buzzed this in the ear of the grinning Schneider, when the order +to get away was received. + +Henri, with the comfort that his turn was coming, stoutly backed the +belief that his partner intended to exceed the speed limit as a lesson +to the doubters. + +"'Stanny' will have a new kink in his whiskers before he gets back," +was the expression, to be exact, used by Henri on this evening. + +The great bird machine, soaring like an albatross in the northern sky, +soon vanished from the view of the watchers in the fortifications. + +"He's six horses and a wagon with a dog under it," Stanislaws earnestly +advised the officers at army headquarters, pointing at Billy, who was +reducing heat in the propeller by liberal use of the oil can. + +"Stanny" had already made good with the American boy, not so much by +his frank expression of admiration for the youngster's handling of +the military biplane as for the reason that the Austrian talked plain +United States when they were alone. Billy was dead-set against the +trial of eternally groping for the meaning of foreign phrases. + +"Do you know why we aviators are running a freight line just now?" +queried this new friend. + +Billy acknowledged that he had not the least idea on that subject. +"Why?" + +"Filimonoff." + +"Who in the dickens is Filimonoff?" + +"He is the greatest of all Cossacks," explained the senior airman, +"and the very devil on two sticks. Near Przemysl, not long ago, he +held up one of our convoys and captured 200 wagons of grain and coal. +He strikes where least expected, plays the peasant to perfection and +secretly gets a lot of information that does not belong to him. It +would be worth a lot to a fellow who dulled the spurs of this cock of +the walk." + +"Ah hum," thought Billy, "I can pretty near guess now what brought +Roque to this neck of the woods." + +So long was the enforced wait at headquarters this day that it was not +until after nightfall that the biplane set out on its return voyage to +the fortress. + +A strong air current from the north, with a decided snap to it, +forced the aviators out of fixed course, but despite the biting blast +Stanislaws was yet able to advise the pilot as to the general direction +to be pursued. + +They saw ahead of them a red glow and the uplift of a spreading +fountain of sparks. It was a house burning to the ground, probably +fired by a Russian shell. + +The blaze revealed a familiar landmark to the biplane observer. "Keep +her nose to the left," he advised the pilot. + +Billy, who figured the speed fully 70 miles to the hour, had the +machine under perfect control, and it instantly responded to every +shift of the steering lever. With the ordered slight turn it was +scarce ten minutes before the biplane hovered over the vast, shadowy +mass of the fortress below. The powerful propeller stopped, and the +winged racer stood still against the black dome of the midnight sky. +Now the forward plane dipped as the throbbing of the motor again was +heard, and the bird machine plunged down at an angle of 45 degrees, +settling in the plaza within the silvery ring formed by its own +searchlight. + +"The work of an artist," proclaimed Stanislaws to the aviators in the +night watch. + +"Carrying some weight, too," added the soldier who superintended the +removal of the cargo. + +Billy had a bedtime story for Henri about Filimonoff. + +It having been determined to regularly use both biplanes in the +carrying service, the detail at last put the boys together in the same +machine, with Stanislaws and Schneider manning the other. + +"None of your self-made adventures," Roque admonished, when he had +informed Billy and Henri of the arrangement. + +The young aviators were, in duty bound, compelled to mumble some sort +of assurance that they would stick closely to the task set for them. + +That they failed to keep the agreement proved, strange to say, the +fault of Schneider, the very man charged to keep an eye on them. + +It was the third aërial expedition of the week, and following the same +route, without mishap, had no longer the charm of novelty to Billy and +Henri, and, it may be stated, the easy sailing had begun, also, to +pall on the high-strung warrior with the sorrel hair, now sitting as +observer behind the Austrian pilot. + +At army headquarters, Stanislaws was giving his entire time and +attention to checking up the needs of the garrison, and figuring +closely on the capacity of the biplanes to carry all that he deemed +absolutely necessary to take back to the fortress on this particular +return journey. + +The balance of the crew--the trio who were getting weary of the +uneventful freight business--had nothing special to do but wait. + +"No use of sitting still and twiddling our thumbs; I don't see any harm +in looking around a bit." + +Schneider's suggestion appealed to his companions, and they had no +trouble in securing the loan of a pony each from the large number of +these hardy specimens of horseflesh browsing around the camp. + +They were advised by a good-natured member of the commissary department +not to venture too far beyond the line of patrols, and Stanislaws gave +them to understand that he expected to be ready to start within the +next three hours. + +"We'll be here on time all right, Stanny," called Billy, clucking his +pony into a smart canter, following the lead of his similarly mounted +friends. + +The one who was left behind had no reckoning then that he need not have +hurried in his packing. + +The roads traversed by the riders were deep in slush and mud because of +a thaw, but the fresh ponies reveled in the going, and it was not long +before a tempting range of harder ground extended the gallop further +afield. + +"Say, boys," suddenly remarked Schneider, rising in the stirrups for a +survey of their whereabouts, "I think we have gone about far enough, +and must take the back-track immediately." + +"Wait a moment," urged Henri, "there's a man waving to us over there." + +Schneider, looking in the direction indicated by the boy at his side, +saw it was a peasant who was making the friendly motions to attract +their attention. + +"What's the word, my friend?" + +The peasant spread out his hands in gesture of cordial yet humble +greeting. "My house is near" (pointing eastward over the plain). "It is +yours." + +"The sun is yet high, let's go over and see the house of his nobs," +gayly proposed Billy. + +The native shrugged his shoulders, and wore a puzzled look at the words +in a tongue evidently foreign to him. + +Henri supplied the information in German, it being the language in +which the invitation had been extended to them. + +"I think he could understand even better if we were talking Russ, but +still, as he made a fair stagger in German, we will have to let it go +at that. We can see him home, as he says it is near, and then strike +out for headquarters." + +Prodding his shaggy steed with his heavy boot-heels, the stranger +showed the path to his guests, the party speedily reaching a small but +solidly built farmhouse on the bank of a small river. + +Schneider, with soldierly precaution, transferred the heavy service +revolver he carried in his belt to a convenient pocket under the cape +of his overcoat. + +Perhaps the husky fighter felt it was not much of an exhibit of courage +to set a gun at hand when he found that no other human than this old +farmer with a crook in his back seemed to inhabit the premises. + +"I was as dry as a fish," asserted Billy, eagerly accepting a drink of +cold water from a stone mug proffered by their host. There were other +thirsty ones in the party, for the mug was emptied several times in the +passing. + +Just about that time Schneider lost all interest in water. Happening to +glance out of a window facing to the north, his eye caught a sunflash +on a lance-head, and now and again other sparkling tips. + +The revolver he now appreciated was in the right place. + +But of what avail, after all, was one pistol against a band of reckless +and wily Cossacks, if such were under those nine-foot lances? + +Billy and Henri were unarmed. + +The peasant was up with a jump when Schneider proclaimed his discovery +of impending peril. + +"Hide! Hide!" + +With the words of alarm he tugged at an iron ring in the center of the +heavily-planked floor. + +It was considerable of a lift, this weighty trap-door, but the old man +developed a surprising degree of activity and strength, and quickly +presented the way to a cellar by means of a ladder, the length of which +indicated considerable depth. + +"Not for me," strenuously objected Schneider; "they will never catch us +like rats in a trap." + +"Quick! Quick!" pleaded the peasant. + +Billy, at the window, excitedly announced: + +"They're the real thing; I can tell by their caps and caftans. The +Cossacks are here!" + +Schneider was as cool as a cucumber--that was the way the near prospect +of a death struggle always affected him. He was hot-headed only when +given the smaller provocations. + +"Bar that door!" + +The boys hastened to obey that crisp command. + +The old peasant attempted to leave the house before the entrance +barrier was secured and fastened. + +"Halt!" + +An unwavering line of steel barrel, and the menace of the voice behind +it, checked stockstill this attempt to escape. + +Fully a dozen of the rough riders of the north had dismounted in the +farm enclosure, and advanced upon the house, some with lances and +others carrying curved swords without guards. + +"Get away from the windows," hissed Schneider, himself backing against +the wall. "You too," savagely addressing the peasant, who in the past +few moments continued to show remarkable recovery from the infirmity of +bent shoulders and halting step. The man nervously fingered the folds +of his rusty green tunic as he obeyed the fiercely given command, and +as he stood nearest to Billy the latter was inclined to keep at least +the corner of his eye peeled on the suspect. It was well for Schneider +that the boy was watchful, for when the supposed farmer stealthily +lowered his hand it grasped the bone haft of a dagger. + +The Cossacks outside vigorously pounded the door with lance butt and +sword hilt, and receiving no response to their peremptory summons, set +powerful shoulders to work. But they could not budge or even shake the +solid barrier. + +Then at the window appeared a bearded face of ferocious type, +surmounted by high-crowned lambskin cap. + +Schneider slowly raised his revolver. + +The transformed peasant, noting the action, crouched like a panther for +a spring, which he made the same instant. But the murderous intent was +baffled and the leap fell short. + +Billy Barry's foot was purposely in the way, and the would-be dagger +wielder hit the floor with a crash. Startled by the tumble, Schneider's +trigger-finger caused the waste of one revolver shot, and spoiled +further attempt to deceive by silence. + +In the moment of excitement no thought had been given by the defenders +to the rear of the house, and before Schneider could even turn on his +heel, a half-dozen lance points threatened him, front and back. + +The fallen peasant was on his feet in a flash, and it was a mighty ugly +look that he fixed on Billy. + +"You will go to the cellar now, because I say it, and will come out +again if I will it." + +The sign of leadership was on the man, for none of the strange soldiery +about him ventured to speak even a word in his presence. + +Schneider, disarmed and no longer resisting, was hustled into the dark +hole in the floor, and the boys were forcibly assisted in the same +gloomy descent. + +The heavy trap was closed with a bang, and sealed by the crossing of a +clanking chain. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A WONDERFUL RESCUE. + + +"BLAMED if I oughtn't to be treated for the simples." + +Schneider was, indeed, a dejected figure at the foot of the long ladder +in this inky well, the only point of light being a porthole sort of +window, set high in one of the four stone walls. + +"We're all of the same name as chumps," echoed Billy. + +The situation certainly had serious aspect to the prisoners. While they +had considerable confidence in the trailing ability of Roque, here was +a case with about every chance in the world against successful tracing. + +An isolated farmhouse, far from the beaten track, not even in present +line of military operations, and confinement practically in a granite +tomb, from which no wail of distress could possibly be heard outside. + +What fate the Cossacks had fixed for them was merely a matter of +dreadful surmise. + +"Slow starvation," was Henri's unhappy guess. + +"Penned up in this den until we go mad," was the blood-chilling view of +Schneider. + +"Say, you fellows give me the creeps." + +Billy wanted his troubles one at a time. + +The next one was all too near. + +While feeling his way around the rocky walls, Schneider settled in his +tracks as though he had been shot. + +"Don't you hear water splashing?" For confirmation he stared blankly at +the boys who had not as yet strayed away from the ladder. + +"Are you starting your madhouse already?" demanded Billy. + +"But there is water running near," insisted Schneider. "Come over here, +if you don't believe it." + +As if to humor their friend, the boys joined him. + +Sure enough, the lapping sound was plainly audible at this point. + +Further ahead in the dim recesses of the cellar the sound was of +dripping, a steady patter like rain. + +"Maybe they have pulled a sluice between here and the river," suggested +Henri. + +"The fiends," muttered Schneider. + +"Gee!" exclaimed Billy, starting back from a forward step or two, "the +floor is filling!" + +Stealing along, inch by inch, the water spread throughout the cellar. + +The prisoners retreated to the foot of the ladder and sought perches on +the rungs. In case of full flood they could stave off drowning for a +time by climbing higher. It was the only way. + +"It's a pretty tight place we're in, old man, but not for the first +time, and, mind you, we have always pulled out somehow." + +Billy was ever ready to pass a cheering word to his chum when cheering +words were most needed. + +Schneider's nerve was again in the ascendant, he having sufficiently +abused his lack of horse sense in being so easily led into such a trap. + +"If I had hold of a good steel pike for a bit of an hour, there is +nothing like a few planks that would keep us down here." + +"Yes, or a couple of axes, or a stick of dynamite, or an electric +torch, and so forth," bantered Billy. + +While Schneider and Billy were word sparring to keep up their spirits, +Henri noticed that the water on the cellar floor had pooled in the +sunken spots, indicating that the pressure from without, for the time +being, had largely subsided. + +"No need for life belts yet," he cried, "the river isn't going to come +through." + +"And, thanks to that blessed streak of light," Billy pointing to the +bull's-eye window, "we're able to see that you are right. So much for a +starter." + +"We'll beat you yet." + +Schneider shook his fist at some invisible foe on the other side of the +ceiling. + +When, however, the first flush of encouragement at the fading of the +flood had dimmed, it seemed a small matter about which to rejoice. +The situation appeared as hopeless as before to the imprisoned +aviators. With the coming of night the one diamond in the sable setting +vanished--no ray of light to slightly relieve a condition now of +absolute blindness. + +"Oh, for one more glorious chance to meet those dastards in the open," +groaned Schneider, who again was overwhelmed with keen regret that he +had surrendered at all in the first place. But then he had no idea of +such a dungeon as this, and, too, he had feared to provoke instant +death for his young comrades. + +In the coming dismal hours the troubled trio, deserting their ladder +perches, stretched their aching bones upon the slimy floor, and passed +the night in uneasy slumber. + +Henri was the first to awaken, and as a morning exercise essayed to +reach the little window by working hand and toe as a means of scaling +the rough surface of the wall. As he clung for a fleeting moment to +a protruding stone his chief discovery through the aperture was that +outside it was raining in torrents. + +Perhaps not much satisfaction in return for sadly torn fingernails and +considerable waste of already waning energy, yet it was some assurance +that they were not intended victims of a drowning plot of man's +conception. + +"It's not the river that is feeding this drip," announced the climber +to his companions in misery, "it's raining like fury and the water +coming in here is the gutter fall through these rocks." + +"A bally lot of moisture," growled Schneider, splashing ankle-deep +across the cellar to inspect a swinging shelf which had just caught his +eye. + +He reached up, and presently turned, holding at arm's length a mouldy +sailcloth bag. + +"Hidden treasure," whooped Billy. "Bring it nearer the light, +Schneider." + +The treasure proved to be meal of some sort in a fair state of +preservation. A tasting test demonstrated that here was something that +would at least dull the gnawing pains of hunger, when mixed with water, +of which latter there was more than a plenty. + +"We might make a fire out of the shelf," suggested Henri, "and turn +this stuff into hot cakes. I've got a few matches in my pocket." + +"I see a picture of the fire you could make down here," exclaimed +Billy. "But what's the matter with trying it out on the trap door? Burn +our way out." + +The speaker had taken on an air of excitement at the prospect. + +Alas! The matches in Henri's possession had been carried on his +sleeping side, the side all night in contact with the slimy floor. +There was not a strike in one of them. + +Schneider, inveterate smoker that he was, remembered that his pipe, +tobacco and match-case were all in the pocket of his great coat, of +which the Cossacks had divested him after capture. + +So in silence the unfortunate three mouthed the soaked meal, bitterly +disappointed that they could not realize upon Billy's brilliant idea. + +From bad to worse, they did realize, and soon, upon a much less +desirable development. The rain had no stop this time to reduce the +water flow into the cellar. In restoring the meal sack to the shelf for +safekeeping, Schneider's long boots were wetted to the knees, and there +was nothing to do but mount the ladder, and stay there. + +To save a fall when napping, the prisoners lengthened their belts and +buckled themselves each to a rung above the one upon which he sat. + +"While you were wishing awhile ago, Schneider, why didn't you wish for +a boat?" + +"You'd joke on the way to the scaffold, young man," said the subdued +firebrand, fixing a reproachful look on Billy. + +"Never say die," retorted the irrepressible youth. + +Another wearing night, and in Schneider's next trip for the meal bag +his hip boots were none too long in the matter of preventing his taking +on a cargo of water. + +But this third day of desperate contemplation was destined to be +marked by an incident which resulted in the lifting of the weight +of gloom--and the herald of light and liberation from an apparently +hopeless imprisonment was four-footed. + +A few lines now in backward trend, to tell about the ambulance dogs, +as many as a thousand, renowned for their excellent service for the +Germans in both the eastern and western theaters of war. Each of +the sanitary companies has attached to it four of these dogs, the +German shepherd breed, marvelously trained and fitted for work on +the battlefield, commanding everywhere eloquent tribute for their +remarkable performances in finding the wounded and their acute scent on +any trail. + +Stanislaws had long completed his packing of the biplanes, and many a +time and oft had impatiently paced Commissary Square, as many times +going to the military road upon which he had last seen his aviation +comrades riding joyously away. "'Stanny' was in a stew," as Billy would +have put it, and he was not averse to letting anyone about him know it. + +When night came word was passed from patrol to patrol, and back again, +and no definite report of the missing aviators. + +An observer was secured from among the young officers in the camp, and +Stanislaws himself piloted one of the biplanes on the return journey to +the fortress. + +Roque was immediately advised of the mysterious disappearance of his +three followers, and promptly indulged in some very emphatic comments +not appropriate for parlor use. + +"You must fly again in an hour," he raged, "and I'll be with you." + +Stanislaws, though weary and nerve-strained through the exertions of +the long flight just concluded and by the weight of anxiety, would not +listen to the offer of brother aviators to relieve him of the added +exertion of repeating such a journey without rest. + +"I'm going back with him," he stoutly maintained--and he did. + +At headquarters Roque took advantage of the first glimpse of daylight +to institute work of inquiry, in which practice he was conceded to +be without equal. But to no avail. The furthest outpost had seen the +riders pass, and, fully satisfied with their credentials, had paid no +further attention to their movements. + +Somewhere out on the boundless plain, alive or dead, were the three so +earnestly and expertly sought for. + +"It's a hard nut to crack," Roque stated to a group of officers, "but +I have opened just such hulls before, and I am not ready yet to plead +inefficiency." + +"Perhaps they have fallen into the hands of the enemy," said one of the +officers. + +"I can hardly believe that an old campaigner like Schneider would run +into the lines of the foe with his eyes open. If suddenly attacked by +lurking prowlers, I'll warrant we'll find some sign, for I know the man +too well to believe he would be taken without a struggle and somebody +biting the dust." + +Roque had evidently not figured on Schneider's present handicap in the +shape of the boys, forcing discretion ahead of valor. + +Then the winning thought flashed into the mind of the secret agent--put +the ambulance dogs on the trail! + +The reminder was the approach of one of the sanitary officers. The +latter, when he was told of the situation, at first presented a +doubtful front. + +"The heavy rains out there," said he, indicating the plain by a +sweeping movement, "have drowned the scent, even if we had a good lead +from this point; but," he concluded, noting the disappointment in the +face of Roque, "I do not mind making a try for it. Here, Blitz." + +The splendid animal bounded to the side of his master, lifting +expressive eyes, and indulging in a series of short barks, showing +readiness to serve in the best dog language. + +Hasten, dog, there is sore need for aid in a dark place of yonder sea +of mud! + +Schneider, Billy and Henri had not ventured from the ladder since the +early move after the meal-bag, which the first named had decided to +keep within reach, and save further wading to the shelf. The flood on +the floor showed no sign of receding--indeed, the trio had twice been +compelled within the hour to climb a little higher to escape the splash +at their feet. + +Schneider, anything for diversion, pounded on the trapdoor until his +knuckles were a bleeding mass, shouting until he was hoarse. + +"What's the use?" he dully questioned, settling again into an attitude +of sullen indifference. + +The boys set up a duet, but with discord so apparent, even to +themselves, that they quit the singing attempt as a matter of +self-defense. + +This noise had hardly ceased, when Schneider poked his head around the +ladder support on the side of the light, with a hand hollowed behind +his ear. + +"Jumping jingo; listen!" + +They all heard at once the snuffing of a dog, and with the sight of its +black head stuck into the bull's-eye window, Billy dropped into the +flood, breast deep, and struck out for the wall, up which he swarmed, +regardless of scrape or strain. + +He had seen the ambulance dogs in camp, and knew of the breed and +their doings. Holding onto the narrow ledge like grim death with one +hand, he used the other and his teeth in tearing out the scarlet lining +from his cap, which he twisted around the dog's collar band. Blitz--for +Blitz it was--whined his receipt for the red token, backed from the +aperture, and padded away like the wind. + +Two hours later the trap was lifted, and the exhausted survivors of +this desperate adventure were hauled into daylight, joyfully greeted +by a goodly company, including Roque. Stanislaws, sanitary officers, +pioneers, and last, but not least, Blitz, tugging at the line by which +he led the rescue party to the scene of his original discovery. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +DUEL TO THE DEATH. + + +SCHNEIDER was a very walking furnace, with his burning desire to meet +again, on equal footing, any individual of the Cossack band that had +thrust him, lamblike, into the stone tomb under the farmhouse, and, +particularly, the fake peasant for whose wiles he had so foolishly +fallen. + +"Give us a biplane hunt for that gang," he importuned Roque, "or I will +never get the red out of my eyes. Filimonoff himself might have been in +the crowd, for all I know, and you ought to be doing some tall bidding +for his headdress. It was just like one of his tricks." + +The firebrand felt that he had hit the mark with the last part of his +heated argument. Roque would have counted full reward for the chase in +the bagging alone of the wily chieftain of the strange horsemen. + +He turned to Stanislaws, remarking: "You men for awhile will have to +resume the use of your own machines in the carrying service. I have +concluded to give Schneider a chance to retrieve his blunder and return +a lesson that will stick into savage hides." + +"We won't stand in the way for a minute," quickly and earnestly +stated the Austrian flyer, "and more power to you, sir. What's +more," he added, "we can spare an aëroplane or two, and I know +several full-blooded lads who would be mighty willing to join such an +excursion." + +"Meaning that you are one of the volunteers," rejoined Roque. "How +about it, Schneider?" + +"It is hitting the nail on the head," heartily approved the brick-top +warrior, "Stanislaws, Breckens, Bishoff, and Mendell--there's two crews +that would help some." + +"What's the matter with us?" + +The Aëroplane Scouts had edged into the circle. The idea of a biplane +hunt especially appealed to them. + +"Sure you're going," proclaimed Schneider, glancing first at Roque for +sign of assent, which was given by a nod. + +Four military biplanes twelve hours hence lay in readiness to start +for the Cossack roundup. The Austrians in the party carried a supply +of bombs for emergency work, but the most elaborately armed of all was +Schneider, in the rôle of chief challenger. He bristled with revolvers, +a shoulder-hung carbine and a heavy cavalry saber. + +"If you should have a fall, old fellow," laughed Stanislaws, "it would +sound like a barrel of tinware rolling down a mountain." + +"Never you mind," said the one-man arsenal, "I have a job of making +sieves on hand." + +The plan was to hover for a time in the vicinity of the farm where +Schneider and the boys had been held up, or, rather, down, and if no +sight of the Cossack company, to reconnoiter still further north. + +The flyers were given a great send-off by the soldiers at headquarters. + +"Just like a balloon ascension at a county fair," observed Billy, as he +took his place as pilot in front of Roque. + +"Something new here, I see," Henri calling the attention of his +aviation companion Schneider, to the fact that Stanislaws had provided +telephone helmets for each of the crews, whereby pilot and observer +could communicate with one another without yelling their heads off, +receivers over the ears and a transmitter close to the mouth. + +"This will save my voice for singing," jollied Henri. + +Schneider, remembering the vocal effort in the cellar, came back with +the expression of hope that the telephone invention would not serve to +that extent. + +"Oh, but you are a jealous cuss," declared the boy, as he guided the +machine upward, in compliance with the signal given to all by Roque. + +"We have all the advantage this time,"'phoned Billy to Roque, when the +flight was well under way; "if the outfit below is too heavy for us we +can stay out of reach; if we feel that we can lick them, a dive will +settle the question--our choice both ways." + +For the first few miles all the creeping figures below were of the +friendly forces, but with the onrush of the aëroplanes all traces of +the camp were obliterated and only a trackless waste presented itself +to the view of the lofty travelers. + +Directly, Schneider reported to his pilot that the farm enclosure was +just ahead, with its yellow ribbon border, which the river wound around +it. + +The observers on the four biplanes gave the premises a thorough looking +over with their glasses, but had no announcement to make of any human +movement below. + +Separating the machines, each distant from the other several hundred +yards, the pilots guided northward, at reduced speed, and within a few +hundred feet from the ground. + +Some twenty miles forward, the little fleet encountered a snowstorm, +and the earth was already covered with a dazzling white carpet. + +A range of hills forced a higher flying altitude, and in an atmosphere +growing decidedly chilly. The aviators were quickly compelled to close +their coats at the throat, and to huddle down in the protecting folds +of their service blankets. + +On a high level, Roque instructed Billy to make a stop, so that the +long sitting airmen might work the cramp out of their joints by a +brisk runabout. The snow had little depth on the wind-swept plateau, +and landing could be made with smooth certainty. + +A spot of blackened surface showed bare through the powdery snow +covering, indicating a recent campfire there. + +"Trot out the coffee pot," Henri called to Schneider, "here are the +makings of a blaze." + +The recent heavy rains had filled with water the rocky basins near at +hand, and the thin skim of ice now forming thereover was easily broken. + +The Austrians elected tea as their special inspiration on the occasion, +and the rival fumes soon ascended from the spouts of coffee and teapots. + +As the sky above was now clearing, from the elevation the aviators +could see the brown and white summits of other hills, divided by valley +cuttings, as far as the eye could reach. + +Schneider was just about to light his beloved briar pipe, when all of +a sudden he dropped the ember he was lifting to the bowl, and pointed +toward the high ground edging the opposite side of an intervening gulch +to the right of their bivouac. + +A solitary horseman had ridden into view, and both rider and steed +posed, statue-like, on the verge of the steeply descending slope. + +Roque like a flash covered the smouldering fire with a blanket, +checking tell-tale spirals of smoke. + +Fixing a glass on the equestrian, Stanislaws uttered the one +word--"Cossack." + +"He's our meat," snapped Schneider. + +"It's your first go this time," reluctantly conceded Stanislaws, who +was himself aching to draw first blood. + +Schneider, taking general consent for granted, gave Henri a nod +sidewise, and both moved as quickly as they could on all fours to their +biplane. While the boy was getting the motors in play, the fighting +observer shifted his carbine from shoulder to knee. + +The buzzing of the aëroplane had evidently caught the ear of the wild +cavalryman across the gulch, for the horse was rearing, lifted by an +unexpected wrench of the bit. + +Nothing, however, on four legs or two, would have a ghost of a chance +to outdistance a racing aëroplane. + +Spur as he would, the horseman was overhauled in the space of three +minutes. + +The aëroplane, skimming the earth, mixed its scattering of snow +particles with those raised by the pounding hoofs of the wildly +galloping horse. + +So close together were pursuer and pursued, that the Cossack's first +lance thrust came within a hairline of reaching the ribs of Schneider, +leaning forward in preparation to make a flying leap from the aircraft +when it should lessen speed sufficiently to enable him to keep his +feet when alighting on the stony soil. + +Why the observer did not immediately use carbine or revolver in return +for the lance attack, queerly impressed the young pilot ahead, who, +naturally, would expect such action on the part of his armed companion, +gravely menaced by a wicked weapon too lengthy to be successfully +resisted by counter strokes of a saber. + +Henri's second thought was that Schneider had been touched in a vital +spot by the steel point, and that he, too, would next get into the deal +of death. To send the machine aloft was a third thought, following +in a flash, but the execution of this purpose was as quickly delayed +by a motion indicating a lift of weight behind. Schneider had jumped +from the biplane, now wheeling the ground, and within two lengths of a +precipice, hitherto unobserved. + +The Cossack, on the very brink of this dizzy declivity, had jerked his +horse to its haunches, at the same moment when Henri checked further +movement of the biplane by a skillful side turn. + +"It's you and me for it now," roared Schneider, "and the devil take the +quitter!" + +Turning in his saddle, the Cossack, desperately at bay, accepted the +challenge with ferocious alacrity, backing the fiery animal he bestrode +and taking to foot with drawn sword. + +Henri saw that it was the same man who in the guise of a peasant had +played them such a scurvy trick--the same, but yet seeming hardly +possible, viewing this upstanding, powerful specimen of a hardy, +unconquerable race. + +Schneider, never forgetting a face, had known the impersonator at the +first glance, which added to the incentive of wiping out the score +created by the Cossack company at the farmhouse down on the plain. + +Noting that his adversary was armed only with sword and dagger, having +blunted his lance against the armored side of the biplane, the aviation +firebrand discarded his carbine and pistol, tossing them one by one +onto the snow carpet. He had the notion of settling this affair in a +manner that would completely retrieve certain prestige of which he +conceived himself to be the loser. + +In the meantime, the balance of the aviation party swooped down upon +this level, and leaving their biplanes, advanced to the scene of the +impending duel. + +"Keep back, all of you," shouted Schneider, the bloodlust gleaming +from his eyes; "it is one to one here, and though he put twenty to one +against me, I will give him his chance, and take mine." + +"Better humor him," suggested Stanislaws in an aside to Roque, "he will +never rest easy if he does not get rid of the black mark he has rubbed +on his own nose." + +"He may get a red mark or two in this combat," grimly observed Roque, +"but let them fight it out. Schneider ought to be able to take care of +himself." + +Billy and Henri followed with fascinated gaze the movements of their +champion, who, though he sized up almost half a head shorter than his +extremely tall antagonist, was all wire and a swordsman without equal +in the estimation of the Heidelberg student body. + +The duelists indulged in no time-saving tactics. Schneider rushed his +man from the outset, but every rapid lunge of his heavy saber found +clashing counter from the curved and guardless steel in the practiced +hand of the wily Cossack. + +Forward and back, ever fiercely fencing, the sworn foes panted defiance +at one another, and each with blasting words renewed efforts to strike +a death blow. + +"Oh!" Billy had seen blood dripping from Schneider's left sleeve, and +leaving a tiny trail of carmine splotches in the trampled snow. In +agony of apprehension, the boy again fairly shouted: "Don't let him +down you, Schneider; look out for the next!" + +Roque gave the excited lad a muttered order to hold his tongue. + +"Ha!" This from Stanislaws. A scarlet seam crossed the forehead of the +Cossack, and he wavered for a second, as if partially blinded. Only +for a second, though, did his sword arm hesitate. Schneider received +another wound, this time close to the throat. + +"He's done for," tremulously whispered Henri, wondering why the soldier +onlookers did not interfere, and eager to make a saving move himself. + +Then, as though a whole row of wine glasses had been riven by a knife +stroke, the Cossack's blade, cleft near the haft by a biting downward +cut of the saber, fell tinkling at his feet. + +This was the last flare of Schneider's waning strength, of which, +however, the Cossack was apparently unaware. He did not wait to meet an +expected heart thrust from the victor. + +With a piercing yell, he turned, waved the sword stump about his head, +and leaped far out into the void before him. + +Schneider, on hand and knee, game, but all in, as the saying is, +mournfully shook his head, and faintly murmured: "He would have had +another chance to finish." + +Stanislaws, something of a surgeon, stanched the blood welling from +the wounds of his comrade, applied bandages, and soon had the fallen +fighter on his feet. + +The Cossack's mount had disappeared, a fact first noticed by the acute +Roque. "Mark you," he predicted, "that riderless horse will be sure to +stir up a wasps' nest, and somebody here will get stung if we attempt +to hold this position. Schneider's punctures are enough for one day." + +Roque's prediction was a sure shot, for he had hardly ceased speaking +when a score or more of horsemen charged from the cover of a rocky +defile and bore down in force upon the aviation party. + +"To your places!" thundered Roque. + +The pilots of the several aëroplanes were already making ready for +hurried flight, and Henri, in addition, had assisted the wounded and +weakened Schneider to his seat in their machine. + +Breckens, Bishoff and Mendell emptied their carbines and revolvers in +the direction of the oncoming lancers, clearing a saddle or two, and +swung into the rigging of the waiting biplanes just in time to permit a +clean getaway. + +Right over the brink of the precipice the start was made--it had to +be the quickest way--and a thousand feet of ascent gained without an +upturn. + +Circling about on high the soldier-observers scattered the horsemen on +the plateau with a shower of bombs. + +Schneider had had his innings, and returned in full measure all that +was owing. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +DRAWN FROM THE DEPTHS. + + +"WELL, Mr. Roque, if you did not get Filimonoff this trip, you struck +mighty close to him, for I'll warrant the man whom Schneider vanquished +was a leader in the Cossack horde." + +"And something of a fighter, you might add, Stanislaws," rejoined the +secret agent. "But there's another day, and the kingpin and I may yet +lock horns." + +The aviation party was again at Galician headquarters, and the +interesting invalid, Schneider, was already declaring that he was as +good as ever. + +Roque had a grouch, chafing because of the delay of the Austrian forces +in getting through to the relief of Przemysl. + +"Just think what might be done if we had enough flying machines, +Zeppelins and aëroplanes, to bring over an army corps every week or +so." This idea expressed by the ever-enthusiastic Stanislaws. + +"You are not talking airship now, Stanny; it's an air castle you have +in mind." + +This pleasantry on the part of Billy turned the laugh on the Austrian +aviator, in which he joined himself. + +"There's one thing sure," finally declared Roque, "I know of at least +two airships that are soon to sail over the heads of the Russians who +are now blocking the way to the fortress." + +"I just knew he would be pushing something across before long," said +Henri to his chum. + +"From the way he looked at us when he spoke, it's safe to believe that +we will be somewhere behind the push." + +Billy had a hunch that his job was secure whenever Roque had work above +ground. + +Schneider had heard enough to set him at the task of cleaning and +polishing his personal stock of firearms. + +The four biplanes returned that very night to the besieged fortress, +from which two of the machines were destined to leave in short order on +a most important and perilous journey. + +Our boys had instructions to give the aircraft a thorough going over, +fill the petrol tanks to utmost capacity, and carry all the condensed +foodstuff possible. + +"Maybe he is figuring on a chance of a lay-up in the mountains," +suggested Stanislaws, detailed to assist the younger aviators in the +work of preparation. + +"'Maybe' is a good word to use in connection with the moves of the +chief, for you can't prove anything by us." + +The present was all that counted with the busy lads, hustling to +complete their immediate assignment. + +"Ready and waiting," they soon announced to the chief, who simply +nodded approval, and went on with the work in which he was +engaged--studying and making field maps. + +Henri put in the spare time afforded with continuous instruction of +his chum in the German language, Billy having already acquired, by +hard knocks, talking knowledge of French. They were thus occupied one +morning, when Schneider appeared, in war-like array, with brief order. + +"Buckle up." + +Roque found everything in shipshape for the getaway, and smiled at the +impatience of Schneider, who had been stamping around the hangars since +the first glimpse of daylight. + +While the young pilots were drawing to the elbows their fleece-lined +gauntlets, the secret agent was earnestly assuring the commander of +the garrison of his belief that the way would very soon open for the +long-expected relieving force. + +"I think I can advise them to good effect if we get through in safety," +he said, mounting his perch in the biplane, and giving Billy the word +to go. + +As the biplanes shot through space, only Roque, the directing power, +had knowledge of their destination, though Schneider inferred that the +finish would be somewhere in the thick of battle. + +This inference was not far amiss, for when the aircraft finally +slackened speed, and stood still against the blue vault of heaven, +still as the condor floating above his native mountains, the aviators +looked down upon a thick forest of bayonets, shown on all sides by the +square formation of the Austrian forces, then endeavoring to pierce the +Russian front near Lupkow and thus relieve Przemysl. + +"We are in the Carpathians," Schneider advised his flying mate. + +The fighting in these mountains had then been continuous and intense +for weeks, the two armies contending desperately for the ridges, +the possession of which would give advantage to the holders. Every +concession of a few yards of the rocky slopes had exacted heavy toll of +lives. + +Behind the Austrian lines at Lupkow the aviators made landing, +descending through a sea of smoke, and amid deafening roar of furious +conflict. + +Roque had hasty conference with the commanding officers, and outlined +conditions at the great underground fortress, to save which this day's +engagement had been planned. + +Schneider and the boys had received orders from their chief to stand by +the aëroplanes, and on no account to leave their posts. + +"He evidently does not believe there is much of a show of smashing the +Russian barrier to-day," observed the firebrand, who little relished +the infliction of standing still in the rear while so much powder was +being burned in front. + +It was soon apparent, the way the tide of battle was turning, that the +rear of the Austrian position would not be such a lonesome place after +all. Retreat had begun, and immediately Roque emerged from the ruck. + +"This isn't our day," was the news he brought; "get under way or you +will get under foot." + +It was a stirring scene that spread under the rising biplanes, the +massed formation attacks of the Austrians hurled back again and again +by the sheer weight of the Russians, pouring men forward in seemingly +unending numbers. + +"They're thicker than flies in Egypt," growled Schneider, when his +soldierly eye perceived that the Austrians could no longer stand the +pressure of the numbers arrayed against them, and that the day was lost. + +The aviators decided to adopt the manner of the eagle and nest high +that night. They found a level on a mountain peak not very far removed +from the clouds. + +"You could cut the stillness up here with a knife," asserted Billy, and +his companions agreed that there was a decided difference between the +shell-rent territory from which they had just flown and the awesome +silence of this sublime height. + +"It might also be mentioned that the cold on this top could be sawed +into chunks," put in Henri, taking the precaution of covering the motor +tanks with blankets. + +Schneider volunteered to skirmish for some material with which to +establish a campfire, while the boys busied themselves in opening some +of the tins enclosing the food supply. + +Roque found consolation in keeping alight a long black cigar. + +Presently he concluded to follow in the footsteps of the wood hunter, +and hasten the prospect of a cheery blaze by the time night should fall. + +With the passing of an hour or more, and no sign of the fuel seekers, +Billy and Henri developed an uneasy streak, rendered more acute by the +drear surroundings and the oppressive lack of all sound. + +"We had better do some scouting; I'll go daffy with this waiting +business." + +"I'm with you, Billy," joined in Henri, "anything but sitting 'round +here doing nothing." + +The boys lost no time in picking their way through the rocks in the +direction taken by their absent companions. + +"Let's give them a shout," suggested Billy, himself acting first on the +suggestion. + +No answer to the shouters, when they paused at intervals, hoping for +the welcome response. + +Stumbling along, careless now of bumps and bruises, the lads so often +raised their voices to high pitch that they were hoarse from the effort. + +Rounding a huge boulder that blocked their path, Billy, who was +in the lead, suddenly started back with a cry of alarm, and Henri +instinctively threw his arms about the waist of his chum. + +Lucky move, this, for the Bangor boy was in the closest kind of way +connected with a mass of crumbling earth that swept with a slight +rumble into the darksome depths of Uzsok pass. + +Henri's strong pull landed both boys on their backs--but on the safe +side of the boulder. + +"Narrow shave that, old boy," murmured Billy, raising himself on his +elbow, and reaching for the hand of his chum, "and it's to you that I +owe----" + +"No more of that," interrupted Henri, "it's only a rare occasion when +you were not doing something for me. I think we can account now for +the disappearance of Roque and Schneider. It completely unnerves me, +though, to believe that our companions are lost in this abyss." + +Billy was on his feet in an instant, alert and resourceful. + +"There's a way of finding out whether or not they are down there, and +we will never quit searching as long as there's a speck of hope." + +Gingerly skirting the boulder, he found solid ground on the higher +side, to the right of the treacherous spot on which he had so narrowly +escaped a long fall. + +Stretched out full length at the verge of the steep descent, Billy +peered into the depths, giving vent to several ear-splitting whoops in +rapid succession. + +A faint halloo finally came back from the dim recesses of the pass. + +"Glory be!" cried the strenuous hailer, "there is somebody below--and +that somebody is alive!" Through the hollow of his hands Billy shouted +words of encouragement to the unseen owner of the voice answering from +the bush-grown wall of the chasm. + +"It's a clear drop of twenty feet, and smooth as a billiard ball before +the growth begins and the rocks shelve out," Billy advised his chum, +the latter to the rear and maintaining a firm grip on the ankles of the +venturesome prober of the pass mystery. + +"Oh, for an hour more of daylight," lamented Billy, as dusk began to +envelop the lonely mountain. "Gee! Why didn't I think of it before?" +Imbued with his new idea, he quickly swung around, bounced to his feet, +hauled Henri up by the wrists, and triumphantly demanded: + +"What's the matter with flying around there in the machine?" + +"But it's getting too dark now to see anything in that hole," objected +Henri. + +"Where's your wits, Buddy? What do we carry searchlights for?" + +"I sure am a woodenpate," admitted Henri, using a fist to tap his +forehead; "let's go to the biplane as fast as our legs will carry us." + +The boys raced like mad for camp. + +With every light available from both machines set in one of the +biplanes, fore and aft, the young aviators sailed through the shadows, +got their bearings from the big rock and fearlessly swooped into the +lower strata. + +The glittering gondola of the air trailed a line of illumination along +the rugged face of the chasm wall, but in the first passing, Henri, as +observed, gave no signal of discovery. + +The insistent hum of the motors prevented the hearing of any hail that +might be given from without, and as effectually drowned any call from +within the machine. + +"Another round, Billy boy," shouted Henri, "a little lower down." + +The next circle and come-back brought results, attested by a gleeful +hurrah from the observer. + +"There's a man on the ledge over there--there's two, by jingo! Round +again, pard. Steady now!" + +The aëroplane was dangerously near the ledge, a little above it. +Henri was standing, one hand gripping a stay for balance, and in the +other grasping a ball of whipcord. With a sharp turn the pilot nosed +away, the tail lights of the machine gleamed full for an instant upon +the dark figures silhouetted on the rock face, and in that precious, +fleeting instant, with a round arm swing, Henri sent the cord ball, +unwinding as it dropped, straight down upon the ledge. + +"Up!" sang out the maker of the successful throw, and as the biplane +made almost perpendicular ascent, it tugged, kite like, at a long line +of cord, paid out by one of the men left behind on the rocky shelf. + +Once out of the canyon, the pilot checked his flight at the first +level, and both boys, under the glare of the searchlight, speedily +spliced and knotted two coils of fine-fibered rope, part of the flying +equipment. + +Henri, leaning over the edge, drew the cord connection taut, indicating +to the holders below that all was ready at the top. The boy felt sure +that Roque would understand--for it was Roque he had seen in the circle +of light when the ball was thrown. + +Sure enough, the cord was drawn downward, and the rope followed the +cord, with, happily, plenty to spare for the making of a safe and +secure anchorage. + +"Roque is something of a sailor, as we know, and he'll come up all +right, with a good purchase for his feet against the wall. As for +Schneider, the three of us can hoist him, if necessary." + +Billy's advance arrangement went somewhat awry, for it was Schneider's +red top showing first in the light over the brink, and Roque was the +one hauled, almost a dead weight, to solid ground and safety at the end +of the swaying rope, looped under his armpits. + +The secret agent's right hand rested in an improvised handkerchief +sling, and his face was set in the pallor of pain. + +But how strangely gentle had grown the piercing fixity of those +hard-speaking eyes when turned upon the rescuers who had dared so much +in a feat wonderful to record in aviation annals. + +"You might have waited until daylight," he chided, his voice freighted +with emotion, "and with less risk to yourselves." + +"And the morning found a couple of maniacs cavorting around this +wilderness. No, sir, the rest cure wouldn't have been the right +prescription for us. Eh, Henri?" + +"He's as right as a trivet, Mr. Roque; we took the proper tonic," +assured Henri. + +"A man's size swallow for all that," was Schneider's amen. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A MIGHTY STONE ROLLER. + + +CAREFUL examination revealed that Roque's injury was not of broken +bones, but a severe sprain, due to the twisting suspension from the +bush which had checked his fall. Schneider had gone down feet foremost, +breaking through the growth until he struck the ledge. + +"I didn't expect Mr. Roque so soon," he said, with a face-wide grin, +"but I knew him by his legs, and gave him an open-arm reception." + +"Until Schneider reached for me," related the secret agent, "I thought +there was nothing underneath but the bottom of nowhere. It was +certainly a curious accident, all in all, the two of us tumbling as we +did, stopping in the very same place, and both of us alive to tell it." + +"There was mighty near a good third on your peculiar track," interposed +Henri, "for Billy had set his heels for that very slide which you two +took." + +"If it had not been for Henri," asserted Billy, "there is no telling +how deep I would have gone." + +"And if it had not been for both of you, there was hardly more to look +for than a miserable end for Schneider and me. We could have proceeded +neither up nor down, for there was nothing to put hand or toe into for +many rods either way." + +Roque did not propose that the boys should lose any of their dues for +gallant achievement by other belief than that two lives had actually +depended upon their prowess. + +When Schneider intimated that he thought it was time for another +attempt to find material for a fire, there were two young rebels +emphatically against the proposition. + +"We'll move where there is wood in sight," was the joint declaration. + +Roque agreed that a change of base was desirable, and a flight from the +mountain top was in immediate order. + +As the machines descended and followed a lower course, ghastly +reminders of the struggle that had recently taken place in and +along the pass were easily discernible from the lookout seat of the +biplanes--the melting snow on the slopes revealing many bodies of +Austrians and Russians. + +In a clearing at the edge of a considerable forest the aëroplanes again +settled, the observers being first convinced that there was no military +occupation, especially hostile, of the wooded tract. + +"This beats the mountain roost a mile and a half," declared Billy, the +leader in hopping out of the aircraft. + +In a big hole in the ground, dug by the impact of a cannon ball, +Schneider started a brush fire, and in a few minutes was passing hot +coffee around. + +"I must say," observed Roque, between bites at a sandwich of corned +beef and hardtack, "that I don't seem to be getting anywhere on this +trip except into pitfalls. All this is sheer waste of time. I had hoped +to see a relief march to Przemysl begun within a day, but here we are +tied in a knot, and not a step forward." + +"Well," consoled Schneider, "you gave them the route that could be won +with the least difficulty." + +"But what's the good of that when the opening wedge couldn't be +driven?" impatiently queried Roque. + +Schneider scratched his head. He had no answer. + +"There is one thing sure," exclaimed the secret agent, "and that is, I +must be on the move, for this isn't the only fish scorching in the pan." + +Billy just then edged into the conversation. He had made an alarming +discovery. The petrol supply in the biplane tanks was at low mark. The +aviators had expected to replenish long before this, and the disaster +at Lupkow had spoiled their last chance. + +"Oil nearly out, sir," were the words that brought Roque to his feet +like a jumping-jack. + +"The devil you say!" + +Here was a quandary that completely upset the chief. + +"We ought to have filled day before yesterday," explained Billy, "but +you know why we didn't." + +"The only thing to do that I see," advanced Henri, "is to add the +supply of one machine to that of the other, and two of us hunt for the +new camp of the Austrians." + +"They could fix us all right," assured Schneider, "for there is quite a +number of aëroplanes with the force which was driven back." + +"It was my intent to get in touch once more with this corps, but it was +not my intent to divide this party in the going. It cannot be helped, +though, and it may take but a few hours at most. You are sure" (turning +to Billy) "that you cannot raise enough power for both motors to go the +distance?" + +"I fear, sir, that both machines would be stranded in less than an +hour; and, with all this uncertainty as to how far we would have +to go, there is no telling into what kind of place and under what +circumstances we would be compelled to drop. There would be much less +odds against the one-machine plan." + +"It's up to you to prove it," challenged Roque, "for you and I are +going to make the trial." + +The transfer of the petrol accomplished, Schneider and Henri were left +in sole possession of the camp in the woods, after a last strained +look at the departing biplane, a little blot on the sky, finally +dissolving in the mist of the mountain top. + +"Let's knock about a bit," said Schneider, suiting action to the words +by starting up the nearest slope, where the gloomy pines were farther +apart than in the dense growth below. + +"Ah! Here's where the Russians must have gotten a severe jolt. See +here, my young friend"--Schneider pointing at a scattered ground array +of discarded rifles, knapsacks, sheepskin coats, and many caisson +shells in baskets. "Not so very long ago, either, for you will notice +that all this is on the top of the snow and not under it. You can +safely wager that here, and at this season, it is not very long between +snows." + +Here and there were other objects, stiff and stark, that sent a shudder +up Henri's spine. + +Picking their way still higher to the apex of the ridge, the man and +boy had view of a land depression, bowl shaped, almost cleared of snow +by exposure to the sun, being free of shade or shadow. + +Something on the far side of the bowl, catching a golden ray from +above, glittered like a big diamond. Henri called Schneider's attention +to the flashing point. + +"Worth a walk across," conceded the soldier-aviator, moving that way. +Henri, interest aroused, made it a point to outpace his companion. + +Drawing nearer, the investigators saw, in half-sitting posture, back +against a blanket roll, a soldier--in dark-blue uniform, Austrian +infantry--marked by emblems of rank, including a sparkling decoration +on the breast. + +A silver flask lay close by, alongside of sword and belt. + +Schneider dropped to his knees, seized one of the nerveless hands +of the officer, and fingered the pulse of the lifted wrist. The old +campaigner had noted that the blood curdle in a tunic fold was yet +unfrozen. + +"Hand me that flask." + +Henri quickly complied with his comrade's request, first unscrewing the +metal top. Schneider tenderly moved the head of the officer to his own +shoulder and poured the contents of the flask through the livid lips. + +"He lives!" cried Schneider. + +The evidence was a faint flutter of the eyelids, a twitching of fingers +and labored breathing. + +Henri unrolled the blanket that served as a backrest, made a pillow of +the wounded soldier's knapsack, and Schneider shifted his burden to +this new resting place. + +It was not long until the vigorous first aid rendered by the aviators +found a more marked response--the heretofore unconscious officer looked +up at the anxious faces of the workers, and perceptibly smiled through +the beard that concealed his mouth. + +He had comprehended that he did not owe a Russian for the help that had +come to him in this extremity. + +Schneider addressed him in the familiar tongue of the Fatherland, and +Henri also added a word of sympathy and encouragement in the same +tongue, at the time bending his head in the hope of a word in reply. + +That word was spoken, and others in faltering train. + +"He says his name is Schwimmer, Johann Schwimmer--captain." + +"A captain without a regiment," was Schneider's sad comment, his eyes +bending further afield, where corpses in blue, in heaps and singly, +marked the path of deadly artillery practice. + +"It does look as if we are caring for the only survivor," said Henri, +realizing that Schneider's mournful observation was founded upon fact. + +That Captain Schwimmer understood what was passing between his rescuers +was manifest, for stoic though he was, he covered his eyes with a +trembling hand and his breast heaved convulsively. + +At the moment there was a startling diversion--the whip-like crack of +rifles from the opposite edge of the bowl, at the very point where the +aviators had stood when first attracted by the shining point on the +captain's tunic. + +Spat, spat--bullets boring the earth close to the right, left, and at +the very feet of the trio on the ridge. + +Schneider, again a firebrand without sentiment, coolly unslung the +carbine from his shoulder, and put a shot across that evidently +counted, for it raised a death-yell. + +Without further ado, the soldier-airman plumped down on the ground, +with his back to the sufferer on the blanket, and hoisted upon his +broad shoulders the sorely wounded soldier, who faintly protested, and +urged Schneider not to so hamper himself. + +But you might as well argue with the wind; the sorrel-top warrior was +up and away, making little of his load, Henri sprinting at his heels. + +The firing company of Russians, either stragglers from the rear of +a corps or scouts in advance of one, had evidently no intention of +permitting the escape of several prospective prisoners, and they took +up the chase as eagerly as the sporting pursuers of a deer, whooping +and shooting as they bounded in a body across the separating hollow. + +But for the good start made, Schneider could not have possibly, +extra-weighted as he was, maintained speed enough to have gained even +the base of the mountain for which he was heading. As it resulted, the +carrier and the carried had hardly reached the first level, some fifty +feet up, when the Muscovite marksmen were in close target range, and +a leaden pellet among the many flattening against the rocks clipped +the visor of Henri's cap as he cast a last look at the oncoming crowd +before climbing like a squirrel into the rocky shelter above. + +Schneider had placed Captain Schwimmer out of any possible line of fire +from below, and was doing some return shooting on his own account. +Unluckily for this style of defense, all of the surplus ammunition was +in the locker of the biplane back in the woods, and the few rounds in +the aviator's pockets were soon exhausted. + +Henri knew that such was the situation by the fervid remarks of his +companion. + +But such was the angle of the aviators' perch that there could be no +attack except from the front, and even that was a climbing approach. + +It occurred to Henri, considering the lay of the land, that lead was +not the only effective substance with which to repel boarders. + +The ground was loaded with natural ammunition--loose rocks and rocks, +thousands of them, from fist size up to a ton. + +"Hey, old scout," hailed the boy, "give them a dose of dornicks." + +Schneider took the hint with a burst of approbation. + +"Two heads are better than one," he facetiously declared, hauling off +his greatcoat for greater freedom as a heaver. + +A dozen or more of the pursuing party were working up the acute +elevation when the first huge stone thundered down the incline. The +boulder made as clean a sweep as a well-placed ball in a bunch of +ninepins. + +"A ten-strike!" whooped Schneider. "Set 'em up again in the other +alley!" + +The Russians back-tracked for a time, finding a better range to fire +at the defenders on the mountainside, and such was the fusillade that +Schneider and Henri were compelled to stay in cover to save their skins. + +"They can't work that game, though, to support a scaling force," said +Schneider, "for the same fire would catch the scalers. If they come any +nearer we can fix them, all right. But what a mercy it is that they +haven't a field gun with them." + +"As it is, we can't stave them off very long," added Henri. "When it +gets dark the stone-rolling game won't work." + +"Let me tell you, young man, when that hour comes, all they'll find +here will be an empty nest." + +The veteran had a moving plan up his sleeve, and the chief reason he +had for making this stand was to give the injured captain a little more +time to mend. + +A scalp wound was what had laid the officer low, and since recovering +consciousness he had rallied remarkably. In the soldier's knapsack, +which Henri had thoughtfully carried, notwithstanding the hasty +leave-taking, was three days' rations, and the invalid had also been +strengthened by the food his new friends prevailed upon him to swallow. + +During the day Schneider several times checked an effort of their foes +to reach the height by starting a little avalanche of rocks at the +critical moment. + +In the periods of enforced peace, he cast an eye about for a likely way +for quick retreat. + +The way presented itself in the shape of a fallen pine that bridged +a narrow pass, deeply dividing this isolated level from the mountain +chain that widely extended back of the occupied position, and rose in +serried crags to the very skyline. + +It was a nerve-testing prospect, alluring alone to a professional rope +walker. + +"We'll tackle it in short order," resolutely declared Schneider, after +final survey. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +TRAILS THAT CROSSED. + + +WHEN the biplane bearing Chief Roque and Billy Barry cleared the +mountain top, the pilot and observer had a fixed understanding that +every Russian camp was to be given a wide berth, for with fuel tanks +going dry it would have been the top of folly to invite a long chase +from the Muscovite airmen. And then, too, it was no part of a safe and +sane program to risk an enforced descent in hostile domain. + +"Keep her nose southward," commanded Roque, "and we may find the +Austrian lines before we have lost our power. It's a desperate chance, +of course, but there is nothing else to be done." + +A precious hour was consumed in fruitless flight, with never a cheering +sign of the friendly forces sought by the anxious aviators. + +"It has just dawned upon me that our army has again entrenched in the +mountains, for we could not possibly have come so far in the open +without a single sight that would encourage further search in this +direction." + +Roque trained his glasses to the east, where the snow-capped peaks of +the Carpathians were showing in the dim distance. + +"It's a good forty miles in that turn," figured Billy, "and whether we +can make it or not with an inch or two of petrol is a close guess." + +"Make a try for it, and count on the wind to help." + +The mind of the chief was set on this last throw. + +One satisfaction to Billy in this change of course was the definite +objective--hit or miss, they were no longer wandering. + +Within a mile of the first slope the pilot knew that the jig was up +with the motors. Over his shoulder, he called to the observer: + +"This is no Zeppelin with a gas range, and it's the turf for us now." + +The motors clanked and ceased to hum. The aëroplane took the downshoot +and skated to a standstill on the slippery soil. + +"Stranded but not wrecked." + +Roque accepted the inevitable with fairly good grace for him. + +"What's the next move?" + +Billy was curious to know what the chief had in stock for the emergency. + +The boy was not immediately enlightened, for Roque evidently proposed +to reach speech through meditation. The secret agent with his long +coat-tail dusted the powdery snow from a flat stone and calmly took +his ease behind the glowing tip of a long cigar. + +"He must have wireless communication with a tobacco shop," thought +Billy, "for he never fails to find one of those black rolls when he +reaches for it." + +The young pilot, muffled in a blanket, stuck to his seat in the +biplane. It was his fortune, however, to see the first rift in their +clouded luck. + +The color scheme of the mountain side, brown, white and gray, added in +the passing minute some new and stirring effects. On a higher slope +were arrayed a number of men wearing crest helmets, blue jackets and +red trousers. + +"Say, boss," drawled Billy, when he caught sight of these gorgeous +figures, "there's a circus band coming down the mountains." + +Roque looked up. "Austrian dragoons!" he exclaimed. "We've rung the +bell this time!" + +Whether or not the dragoons heard Roque's exultant remarks, they were, +nevertheless, gazing at and pointing to the spot where the stranded +aviators were joyfully anticipating discovery. Willing to aid it, +indeed, upstanding and waving welcome. + +The soldiers came in haste to size up the strangely arrived visitors, +and the leader recognized Roque as an oft-seen mixer in official +circles. In calling him by name, however, the name was not "Roque." + +The secret agent promptly explained the situation, and received hearty +assurance that he could have enough petrol to carry him back to +Berlin, if he wanted that much. + +"We have fifteen air cruisers with us," stated the dragoon spokesman. +"By the way, who is your pilot? You must have plucked him young." + +Billy, notwithstanding Henri's patient instruction, was a little short +yet in the Teuton tongue, but he had picked out of the conversation +at this stage enough to put him wise to the fact that he was in the +limelight. + +"A bud as to years, I'll admit, my dear lieutenant, but in genius, +skill and daring a full flower; one of the master craftsmen of the +flying profession, and I left a companion piece on the other side of +the mountain." + +Threading Roque's eloquent tribute no doubt was the memory of that most +recent rescue performance of the Boy Aviators in the black pass of +Uzsok. + +The boy from Bangor felt like the bashful member of a graduating class +when the dragoons committed friendly assault by slapping him between +the shoulders. + +"Roten will steal you," laughingly predicted one of them. Billy later +discovered that Roten was the chief aviator at army headquarters. + +It was decided by Roque that Billy and himself should rejoin Henri and +Schneider at once, the reunited party returning together to this camp, +and remaining until the development of new plans of the secret agent. + +Roten suggested that as it was the intent of the aviation corps to +inaugurate a reconnoitering expedition the following day, it would be +of mutual pleasure and benefit to combine in the trip. Further, he +advised Roque of a much more direct route over the mountains than the +roundabout way uncertainly taken by the secret agent in coming. + +"Consent"--this ready acceptance by Roque. + +The army air scouts who were to participate in the expedition numbered +eight, and the No. 3 piloted by Billy would measure speed with four of +the swiftest biplanes in this branch of the service. + +To the east of the Uzsok pass the Russians had constructed an elaborate +network of cement and earthwork trenches, and to make any headway +against the vigorous Muscovite defense at this point the Austrian +troops would encounter a particularly difficult task. + +It was up to the Austrian aviation corps to determine the true strength +of the position, and to weigh the chances of an assault with the +present artillery equipment in support. + +So it happened that the little fleet was going in just the right +direction to enable Roque to reunite his own party, at the same time +affording him the opportunity to see for himself what was going on. + +Roten had been fully advised of the exact location in the pass of the +forest tract where Schneider and Henri were supposed to be watching for +the return of their companions. + +"We will find it without fail," he confidently declared, "and taking +the nearest way there." + +A blinding snowstorm, beginning in the night, served to hold the +aviators in shelter for another day. At the first sign of clearing +weather, however, Roten decided to fly, though he explained that many +landmarks would be lost sight of under the drifts, markings recorded +during a previous journey. + +"Follow the compass, old man." + +This remark, ventured by one of the lieutenants, the chief airman +ignored with a sniff. + +"Pass the word to pull out," he snapped. + +Five biplanes were off at the signal, and winging their way in perfect +alignment. As far as vision extended billows upon billows of snow +capped the mountaintops and billows and billows of it smothered the +defiles. The observers shaded their eyes as best they could with their +hoods from the trying color effect, heightened by the reflection of the +sun, and many times the pilots made hasty swipes with coat cuffs to dry +wet cheeks. + +Roten changed the course more than once during the first hour out, +indicating that he was missing here and there some familiar formation +that would aid the keeping of undeviating progress. + +"We ought to get to the jumping-off place pretty soon at fifty miles an +hour." + +Billy felt that he had to say something to break the sailing monotony. + +If Roque had an opinion he kept it to himself. + +There was one thing sure, the flight had carried the aviators beyond +the path of the recent blizzard, for brown and gray were again showing +above the white in the checkered landscape. + +That Roten was planning an intermission was apparent by the circling +action of his machine over a plateau of broad expanse, probably an +intermediate station with which he was acquainted. + +His initiative set the balance of the flock on the down grade, and the +pilots rejoiced over the immediate prospect of a thaw-out. + +The chief aviator wore a satisfied smile on his bewhiskered +countenance. "The Carpathians were never built to down me," he briskly +proclaimed; "we'll go to the mark now like a bullet through cheese as +soon as the steering boys get the cricks out of their backs." + +"Come to think of it," volunteered Billy, "it is a tolerably nifty +morning to hold a still curve for a hundred and twenty minutes at a +stretch." + +Roten, who understood American, grinned appreciatively at this +recognition of his welfare action in behalf of the pilots. + +"Right over there, Mr. Roque," he continued, indicating a summit a +quarter of a mile distant, "is a rise exactly on a line west from where +you started the other day to hunt for petrol--some twenty miles or +thereabouts." + +"You ought to have a medal for accuracy, my friend," genially +complimented Roque, "and I apologize for holding the suspicion at least +once to-day that the snow had thrown you out of balance." + +"Can't blame you much, sir; I was mizzled a bit by too much white +shroud back there. But here comes Ansel with the oil stove and the +coffee pot, and we will have a brew that will reach all the cold spots +under the vest." + +"You must have been born for this kind of business," piped Billy, +viewing the food display on a blanket laid like a tablecloth and the +steaming coffee pot topping the little camp stove. + +"I have had some experience in living in and out of an aëroplane," +modestly admitted Roten, "yet I have seen days when I wished that I +hadn't been born for this profession; hungry days, never-resting days, +ever-perilous days. A sailor may be saved from shipwreck, a soldier has +a fighting chance on the ground, but when an aëroplane goes too far +wrong, just save the pieces, that's all." + +"Right you are, sir," earnestly declared Billy; "but get it in the +blood once and there's no quitting." + +"By the way, speaking of military aviation, and the cold we have +endured to-day, it is no more a question of climate in that sort of +work. Why, Russia is away up in the hundreds in the number of its +aircraft." + +"I expect that is true, Mr. Roque; I know I have met a few from over +there myself," grimly conceded Roten. + +"Perhaps some that you will never meet again," suggested the secret +agent. + +"Perhaps," said the veteran airman, reputed to have been mixed up in as +many air duels as there were weeks in the year. + +Billy, chumming it with Ansel, Roten's pilot, had challenged the new +friend for a footrace, which led the runners to the edge of the plateau +on the north. + +Looking across the intervening defile, their attention was attracted by +a movement on the opposite slope, the first sign of life below observed +since they took flight from the Austrian camp early that morning. + +"There is something doing over there," panted Billy, not yet recovered +from the exertion of beating his companion a foot or two in their speed +contest. + +"I can't tell what it is, though," replied Ansel in broken English. + +"It might be a bear," surmised Billy. + +"More than one bear, then," claimed the Austrian, "for I just saw two +of the kind between the bushes." + +"Your eyes are the better," conceded the boy; "there are two, one with +a big hump on its back. I wish we could get over there." + +Ansel shook his head. "You can't cross there on foot. Too deep." + +"We can chase back and get the glasses anyhow." + +Billy was already on the way for the means of satisfying his curiosity. + +When the boy had secured the glasses and was hastening by the group +around the little stove, Roque hailed him. + +"What are you up to now?" + +"Just going to take a pike at some mountain freak on the other side of +the gully." + +"Wait a minute, young man; I'll come and see what you have started." +Roque carried a big bump of curiosity under his cap. + +In the meantime, Ansel had told Roten about the slope climbers, +whatever they were, and the aviation leader concluded that any sort of +investigation on this trip required his presence. + +The whole company, then, trailed after Billy across the plateau, with a +general view of deciding in force the value of the alleged discovery. + +From the lookout point a battery of glasses were soon trained upon the +slope designated by Billy and Ansel. + +Roten hit the moving mark first this time. + +"I'll be blest," he ejaculated, behind the steady aim of the binocle, +"if it isn't one big man carrying another on his shoulders, and a +shorter fellow bringing up the rear!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +RABBIT'S FOOT FOR LUCK. + + +FOR an hour the Russians in front of the rocky rise, where Schneider +and Henri stood sentinel over the prostrate Austrian officer, had +maintained an ominous silence. + +Not a shot had been fired in the mentioned time, and no opportunity had +been afforded the champion stone roller to make another ten-strike in +repulsing attack. + +"You can put it in your pipe and smoke it that this brooding over there +means no good to us." + +While Henri was not addicted to the pipe, he accepted the figure of +speech, and fully agreed with his companion that the calm had sinister +portent. + +"The minute is about ripe," he volunteered, "for us to make ourselves +scarce." + +That Schneider was in accord with the proposition had evidence in +the action of removing his boots. To cross a cavity that lowered two +hundred feet or more on the unstable and untried support of a fallen +pine warranted every precaution. There could be no crawling for the +venturesome bricktop. He had human freight to carry on his back. + +"Sorry to disturb you, captain," he apologized to the invalid soldier, +"but it has to be done." + +Henri, keeping watch at the front, sounded a note of alarm: + +"Quick! I see what they're doing--it's a spread, and a three-cornered +charge--they've stolen to the bushes right and left, and the firing +gang in the middle is prepared to pot us if we show head or hand!" + +Schneider bent to the task of lifting Schwimmer, the latter groaning at +the movement. + +Henri, balanced by Schneider's boots thonged over one shoulder and the +knapsack swinging from the other, made a dash for the slender bridge. +He had determined to first essay the perilous passage, and test the +solidity required to bear the fourfold weight that would follow. + +A single misstep, and for the error maker there yawned a pit of death, +a mangling on jagged rocks lashed by the ice-laden rush of a brawling +mountain stream. + +But, sure-footed as the native chamois, with never a falter nor a +backward look, the boy made the crossing, backed against the mound of +upturned earth in which the roots of the fallen pine were imbedded, +and fixed apprehensive eyes upon the burdened Schneider bravely and +steadily advancing over the shaking bridge. Once the boy fancied +that, with the earth clods tumbling from the mound behind, the whole +structure was about to give, and he instinctively reached out for what +would have been a vain endeavor to prevent the threatened disaster. + +A moment later, with mingled sighs of exertion and relief, the man and +boy clasped hands--on solid ground once more. The wounded officer had +not realized other than that he suffered by the necessary lifting of +his nerve-racked body. + +Hardly a second, though, for the silent congratulation. On the level +the defenders had just quitted in such thrilling manner swarmed Russian +pursuers, seeking with fierce activity those who had conducted baffling +resistance for several hours. + +"Hear them yell," said Henri in suppressed tone. + +"It's a sound better for the distance." + +As Schneider made this comment he set shoulder against the +root-threaded mound that anchored the fallen pine. With cracking of +straining sinew the powerful pusher put every ounce of his wonderful +strength into the effort of dislodgment. Thrice he failed, and then, +with a tearing, grinding give, the mass loosened; another heave, and, +as the perspiring giant threw himself backward, just escaping the void, +the great trunk left its moorings and crashed with a tremendous shower +of soil and stone into the abyss. + +Schneider in a jiffy, and breathing like a porpoise, dragged on his +boots, again picked up the feebly remonstrating captain, and led Henri +a merry chase around a rocky bend into the bush-grown level tabled +between this and the next mountainous range. + +Finally halting, and now beyond hearing of the whoops of the +discomfited Russians, apprised of the escape of their prey by the +crashing fall of the old pine, Schneider indulged in a cheer on his own +account. + +"Tough sledding, my boy, but a clean pair of heels to the gentlemen +with the sheepskin overcoats. I don't know what's coming next, yet we +can count on a 'next' coming." + +Henri had to put in a sad word, owing to the depletion of the food +store--the knapsack contained less than two days' rations for one man. + +The eyes of the two aviators met in meaning glance--meaning that the +remaining food should all be reserved for the ailing soldier, now +sleeping quietly in his blanket roll. + +Many a time in the hours of weary tramping did the aviators tighten +their belts, but without a single utterance of complaint or bemoaning +of sad fate. To the gnawings of hunger happily were not added the +torments of thirst. Snow and ice served that desire. + +The rations were sparingly fed to the invalid, who, unsuspicious +of the sacrifice of his slowly starving companions, appeared to be +gaining a measure of strength. He expressed sorrow that he must so +burden Schneider in the march, noting that the latter had begun to +occasionally stumble and stagger under the load. + +"Don't you bother a bit, captain," as often assured the valiant +aviator, "we will run into a friendly camp before long, and you will be +in fighting trim before the moon changes again." + +On the quiet to Henri, however, the big fellow confided that rest hours +must lengthen if he had to fare much farther as a carrier. + +He had discovered that in one of his revolvers there were still two +cartridges that had not been exploded, and this find was due to the +intention of throwing away these weapons as useless and cumbersome and +a lucky farewell inspection of the long-possessed arms. + +Schneider was a famous shot, with these same pistols had won several +trophies, and, too, in war service had with them seldom failed to stop +an antagonist lusting for his own life. + +"Two bullets and three human lives at stake," he mused, weighing the +revolver in his right hand, and aiming it at some imaginary living +target. Several times during the day both Henri and himself had noted +hare tracks in the snow, and Schneider even talked in a hopeful way of +rigging up some sort of trap in the night. While the boy was inclined +to be doubtful as to their possible success as trappers, under the +circumstances, he did not spoil sport, in the mind of his companion, by +adverse argument. + +Now there was something tangible in the anticipation that Schneider +might stalk and shoot a rabbit, and so hearten the weakened wayfarers +to renew the battle for existence. They were beginning to lag with +every additional mile traversed. + +"Here is a good place to rest," announced Henri, whose sharp eyes had +marked the mouth of a cave among the bushes covering the sides of the +ridge, along which line the footsore travelers had been continuously +plodding for an hour or more. + +"We can't stop too quick to suit me," said Schneider, easing his living +burden to the ground. + +The cave was shallow, but ample in dimensions for the three invaders, +clean and dry, and containing a quantity of dried moss. + +Comfortably placing the invalid, Schneider dropped like a log in his +tracks. He was completely exhausted, and knew no more of discomfort or +the waking world until roused by Henri vigorously tugging at his coat +sleeve. "There's game in sight," excitedly whispered the boy, "bring +your revolver; crawl, and don't make any noise!" + +The suddenly awakened sleeper rubbed his eyes, and, comprehending what +was wanted, instantly produced the trusty shooting iron, and as quickly +crawled to the mouth of the cave. Henri pointed a trembling hand to +the little clearing a few yards below them. + +Several hares, pure white, were hopping about, scratching and burrowing +in the brown loam, there free of snow. + +Schneider had for a second an attack of nerves, similar to that fever +in the amateur Nimrod when first blundering upon the wallow of a buck +deer. + +Henri gave the shaking marksman a poke in the ribs. + +"Shoot, old scout, or give me the gun!" + +By the poke and the hissed demand, Schneider was himself again. + +He drew bead on the nearest hare, and with the puff of smoke from +the revolver muzzle the little animal made a frantic leap, ending +in a complete somersault and an inert heap of fur. Another whiplike +crack--and over went a second rabbit, stopped on the first jump to +cover. + +"Another cartridge or two and I would have potted the lot," boasted +Schneider, "but even a pair of them is a mighty big draw for us." + +Henri missed these remarks, for he was Johnny-on-the-spot to retrieve +the game. + +The pistol practice had startled Captain Schwimmer from a doze, and he +was under impression that his friends were fighting off another attack +by the Russians. The captain had begun to take notice of and interest +in what was going on about him. + +Raising himself on his elbows, he saw the result of the shooting match +in the pair of plump bunnies swinging across Henri's shoulder when the +boy capered into the cave. + +It occurred to the captain to inspect the knapsack upon which his head +had been pillowed. "Is this all the food in the camp?" he questioned, +handling the few scraps in the sack. + +Henri nodded in the affirmative, taken unawares by the quick query. + +"And I have been eating my fill regularly on this march, have I not?" + +"I hope you have not been hungry, captain," evaded Henri, realizing +that the officer was putting two and two together. + +"I see it all now," exclaimed the invalid, "you two have starved +yourselves that I might live." + +"Shucks, captain, don't put it that way: the rations were yours in the +first place, and, besides, look at the glorious feast we're all going +to have." + +Henri's attempt to lightly pass the soldier's revolt against the +self-denial practiced by Schneider and himself resulted only in the +invalid turning face downward on the nearly empty knapsack, his emotion +shown by convulsive movement between the shoulders. + +Schneider, wise unto himself, had kept out of the discussion, and had +practically contributed to the settlement of the hunger question by +neatly skinning and cleaning the hare meat. + +A hasty fire of dried moss and twigs and Schneider's big knife utilized +as a spit raised a savory odor in the cave, and the picking of one set +of bones that evening helped a lot to revive courage and hope. The +captain, "by the doctor's orders," was compelled to accept his share. + +The other hare made the breakfast for the third day out. Schneider +alleged that he had a hunch that this rabbit business had turned the +scale of luck, and to insure the belief he carefully pocketed the left +hind foot of one of the animals. + +During the morning the pedestrians, rested and fed, moved in fine style +for the first few miles, Schneider stoutly holding to the efficacy of a +rabbit's foot as a luck producer. + +At the foot of the summit finally cutting off the level over which the +party had been so long traveling, it was in order to do some climbing. + +"It will give us a chance to look around," cheerfully observed Henri, +"and which chance isn't coming to us down here." + +Halfway up the height the boy was again heard from. He insisted that he +had seen a flock of eagles in the western sky. + +"Eagles your foot," bantered Schneider; "whoever saw a flock of eagles?" + +"Wild geese, then," insisted Henri. + +"How many did you see?" quizzed Schneider. + +"Five or six, maybe." + +"Guess again," laughed the big fellow; "geese would be lonesome if that +was all in a flight." + +"Have it any way you please; I suppose you will be claiming next that I +am suffering with liver spots." + +Henri was a bit nettled that Schneider did not take seriously his sky +story. + +About twenty minutes later, Henri called another halt. "Now, old +scout," he cried triumphantly, "just look up for yourself and say what +you would call 'em." + +Schneider, shading his eyes under a hand, scanned the blue expanse +above. "By the great hornspoon," he almost shouted, "I believe they're +aëroplanes!" + +Henri was more than willing to be convinced that such was the fact. + +"What do you think about it, captain?" + +Schwimmer had from the first joined in the sky-gazing contest. + +"I think our friend Schneider has solved the problem. I never saw a +real bird with exactly that motion." + +The blots on the sky were increasing in size. + +"It's a sure thing," hurrahed Henri, "and they're circling for a +landing!" + +"Perhaps they're Russians," mildly suggested the captain. + +"Not while I'm carrying this rabbit's foot," firmly asserted Schneider. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +WINNING OF THE IRON CROSS. + + +THE aviators in the party of Roten were all for sailing, post-haste, +to the slope where the mysterious climbers had been sighted, and very +shortly the little fleet was in the air, headed that way. + +Flying low, the observers kept a sharp lookout for the near appearance +of the man with the burden and the "shorter fellow." + +Roque caught the first glimpse, and called to his pilot to risk a look +for himself. Billy had only a side glance, as the machine rounded the +summit, but that was enough for him. + +"It's Henri and Schneider, or their ghosts!" he shouted. + +Roque fixed his glasses for the close view. + +"As sure as shooting it is, but how in the world did they get here?" + +Billy had no ear for this--he was for landing right there, even with +a chance of plowing through the bushes. However, reason ruled, and he +steered for a clearing, into which the biplane promptly plumped. + +Hardly waiting until the machine had run its length, the boy was out +and speeding to greet his chum. + +It was a regular collision, the manner in which the youngsters came +together. + +"Glory be!" This was Billy's high-pitched note. + +"Here's to you, Buddy, bully old boy!" Henri cried. + +The "bully old boy" then made a dash for Schneider and worked the +latter's brawny arm up and down like a pump handle. + +Roque repeated the last-named performance with both the recovered +members of his crew. + +In the meantime the Austrians were saluting Captain Schwimmer, well +known to them as a gallant officer in a famous command. + +"But for them, gentlemen," gravely stated the captain, nodding toward +Schneider and Henri, "I had been in my last fight. Through danger, +cold and hunger have they brought me, and neither needs a patent of +nobility--nature took care of that." + +Roque had only to listen to the happy reunion chatter of the boys to +get the side of the story he wanted to hear. + +"It seems," he commented, "that Billy and I were not in the same class +this time with these trouble hunters." + +"Do you suppose that there is anything left of our biplane?" + +Henri had taken on the air of a sea captain who had lost his ship. + +"That is an important question," said Roque, "There is only one fit +mate to that craft in this part of the country." + +Fortunately for the preservation of good feeling, Roten did not hear +this latter statement. + +It was necessary to detail two corporal aviators to take the wounded +captain back to army headquarters, where he could have the skilled +surgical attention that would hasten his recovery. + +As the invalid was lifted into the machine that was to do ambulance +service, he gave a hand each to Henri and Schneider. + +"From my heart I thank you both," were his last words in profoundly +earnest farewell. + +Henri traveled as a passenger with Billy and Roque in the brief journey +to the forest station in the pass where it was hoped to find intact the +stranded biplane. + +Schneider, who had been given a lift by Roten in the trip, was in high +glee when it developed that the No. 3, behind its screen of bushes, had +sustained no damage. + +"See that?" The big fellow held aloft the rabbit's foot. "There's no +jinx that can beat it." + +Roque was delighted to learn, as the aërial expedition proceeded, that +one of his cherished desires had matured--a large German contingent +had arrived to support the determined effort of the Austrian forces to +relieve the Przemysl fortress. + +He had made up his mind that it was well worth the risk to carry back +the new word of hope to the hemmed in garrison, and Roten was informed +of his purpose. + +"I regret that you must quit us, Mr. Roque," said the aviation chief, +"but it's the big thing you are going to do, and I certainly wish the +best for your undertaking. Let me advise, however, that not a screw +should be loose when you make that dash. You can't fall in that country +now without bumping a Russian." + +"I'll back my boys to make the riffle," confidently asserted Roque. + +"They'll need the keen eye every inch of the way," persisted Roten. + +"We came out safely, and I guess we can repeat," declared the secret +agent. + +"Well, good-bye, sir, and look out for the big guns at Malkovista; the +Russians are there now, and it's only three miles from Przemysl." + +"We've come into our own again." Billy and Henri were standing +together, viewing with satisfaction the graceful lines of the No. 3's, +every part adjusted to a nicety. Both boys were well aware that they +were to run a through express. + +Schneider had been supplied by a brother aviator with a new outfit of +firearms, and, as usual, was spoiling for an uproar. + +"Going, going, gone." His imitation of an auctioneer was excellent, and +with this send-off the biplanes bolted for Przemysl. + +The pilots themselves knew the route this time, and they sent the +biplanes over the course at sixty miles an hour. + +Three times they were over the fire of long-range guns, but too high +for harm. + +Settling in the fortress enclosure, their initial greeting came from +Stanislaws. + +"Here's a cure for sore eyes." + +This delighted individual capered around the welcome incomers like a +dancing master. + +The garrison received with acclaim the news that Roque conveyed. + +They had been advised in a general way by wireless from the nearest +Austrian point of the upcoming of the German reinforcements, and this +confirmation in person and in detail added to the enthusiasm created by +the first report. + +"Now, boys," said Roque to his pilots, the next evening, "I am seeking +a sight of the gray lines again, and there's another hard flight in +store for you. So get a good night's rest. We start at daybreak." + +Facing a bitter, biting wind, the aviators left Przemysl at dawn, and +when they, numbed but undaunted, finally reached the far-away German +lines it was a battle front that they crossed. There the atmosphere +was being warmed by gunpowder flashes, and below was burning petrol, +thawing out the ground that the troops might dig themselves in. + +Before the entrenchments, in wide range, combined forces of Austrians +and Germans were locked in a life and death struggle with Russian +contenders for the possession of Warsaw--a bloody repetition in one +spot of the never ending conflict. + +Though completing a continuous flight of seven hours, the aviators were +there offered no temptation to alight. Hovering over the banks of the +Bzura they saw a German cavalry detachment all but totally destroyed +by the exploding of a Russian mine, and in turn the big guns of the +Germans cut wide swathes in the Muscovite ranks. + +Schneider cheered or groaned as the tide of battle swept forward and +back, when victory favored or defeat menaced his comrades in the fray. +The firebrand, in every quivering fiber, madly craved the chance to +brave the shot and shell on the blackened battlefield. + +He saw a German color bearer go down in the press of a hand-to-hand +conflict, and as the mass was dissolved by artillery fire, that +one still figure, among the many scattered in the open, presented +irresistible appeal to the soldier-aviator. + +"Land me, boy--have you the red blood to do it? Have you the courage, +lad? You have, I know. Do it, lad--do it now!" + +With his incoherent address, the big observer spasmodically clutched +the shoulders of the young pilot. + +Carried away by the vehement pleading of the man behind him, Henri set +the planes for a straight fall. + +Schneider bounded from the skimming machine, made it the work of a few +seconds to reach the flag, which the dead man had wrapped around his +body, and as quickly returned. + +The powerful motors drove the biplane up and across the field, with +the colors trailing over the shoulders of the observer, who, in his +excitement, sang a mighty war song. + +This deed of daring, directly in view of the trenches, and under the +very eye of the German commander and staff, raised a tremendous cheer. + +Of all this Schneider seemed oblivious. His was a blind patriotism. + +Roque wore a look of mild reproach when he encountered Henri behind the +lines that night, but he could not resist the prompting of forgiving +admiration when Schneider stood before him in attitude of apology. + +"Had no orders, of course, boss, but something stuck to my crazybone, +and everything went." + +"You will have something stuck on the breast of your coat, or I am very +much mistaken," said Roque, extending his hand, which Schneider grasped +with fervor. + +That "something" was to be the Iron Cross, the famous decoration for +valorous service, and the most coveted distinction in the German +empire, a badge of courage woven into its military history. + +"Were this boy a soldier of and for the Fatherland," solemnly continued +Roque, "the royal gift might well be bestowed upon him." + +Schneider threw an arm around the shoulders of the young aviator. "Of +nothing else is he lacking to claim the honor," feelingly maintained +the big fellow, and his eyes were moist as he spoke. + +Henri shook his head. Then with a roguish glance at his chum, he said: + +"The only medal I am hankering after is the one Billy and I are +expecting for making the first aëroplane flight across the Atlantic." + +"Have the 'made in Germany' mark on your machine and I believe you can +establish the record," laughed Roque. + +"Not on your life," exclaimed Billy. "We are going to build the +crossing craft ourselves." + +The No. 3's were lying idle behind the lines. Roque had ceased +overground work for the time being, and like a mole was engaged in some +undermining scheme, of which the boys had no inkling. + +Resorting to his remarkable aptitude as a lightning change artist, +and also applying the magic touch to Schneider, the pair of them were +scarcely recognizable to even the lads with whom they had been so long +and so closely associated. + +The secret agent and his trusty lieutenant were masquerading as natives +of Russian Poland, and it may be told that their desperate mission was +to enter Warsaw, where the slightest indiscretion or betrayal would put +them in graves alongside of that daring spy of Roque's who failed to +conceal his identity. + +It was the midnight hour when Billy was awakened by a man enveloped +from neck to foot in a grayish-brown overcoat, from under the head cape +of which came the voice of Roque: + +"Take this" (slipping a fold of coarse paper into the hand of the +drowsy lad), "and if you do not hear from me after three days, read +what is written, and follow the instructions to the letter. Not a look +at the message, remember, for three days; to be exact, the morning of +the fourth day. You hear me?" Billy sleepily nodded his head. + +Out on the turbid tide of the yellow river beyond the German trenches +two shrouded figures silently launched a flatboat and drifted away in +the darkness. + +"What's doing?" This was Henri's morning question, preceding a swallow +of coffee. + +"If I knew what was in here I could probably tell you a whole lot that +I don't know at present." + +Billy displayed the closely folded packet containing Roque's +instructions. + +When Henri was advised of the conditions imposed he accepted the trust +as a matter of course. + +It had never been a habit of the boys to break faith. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +HELD IN WARSAW. + + +THE din of battle had long since ceased to be an inspiration of terror +with the Boy Aviators. They were case-hardened by continual contact +with the war game, and too careless, perhaps, of flying lead. + +Reclining in the trenches, they indulged in all sorts of surmises as to +the whereabouts of Roque and Schneider, wagered back and forth, one way +and the other, on the proposition of whether the chief would appear in +person within the allotted time or put it up to them to interpret the +message in Billy's pocket. + +With the passing of two days, the hours in the next one seemed to move +on leaden wings. + +"I don't even know in what direction to look for his coming," +complained Henri. "If he is coming," he corrected himself. + +"No use getting in a stew about it," advised Billy, concealing the fact +that he himself was nearing the boiling point as the last few hours of +waiting wore away. + +The morning of the fourth day, and no sign or sight of the absentees. + +Billy and Henri sat in council, and the former opened the paper that +had haunted his dreams during the previous restless night. + + "If alive, we are in Warsaw." + +"I guessed that once." Billy lifted his eyes from the paper. + +"Go on," impatiently urged Henri. + + "Of either fact you may learn by following instructions. + You are to bring both biplanes, early morning, and circle + over the city. In the south section you will note tall + column with figure on top in center of square. Back of same + is elevation on which rise two towers. Watch these. If + one flag shows, hold over high road running west; if two + flags, sail north and land at lodge house where canary sang + for us. There wait. If highroad route (one flag), see red + scarf signal for drop. When you read and commit these lines + destroy." + +"What a system that old fox controls," observed the reader. "Killing +one of his men didn't close the show in Warsaw. Do you get all this, +pard?" + +"I think I do," asserted Henri, "but let me go over it again to be +sure." + +Both boys having Roque's communication pat in their minds, Billy tossed +it into the flames of the nearest campfire. + +The aviation lieutenant serving with the division gave them free reign +and all possible assistance in preparing for their flight. He asked no +questions. + +Crossing the river, the young aviators ascended to great altitude, +hardly visible to any casual ground view, and taking lower levels +gradually over the city. Each with an eye on the compass, the pilots +mentally rehearsed their instructions. + +Operating in unison, though a hundred yards or more apart, they checked +speed when sighting the burnished tower tops showing above all other +structures on the south line, first identified by the tall column and +its surmounting statue in the square. + +The aërial maneuvering continued for a seeming quarter of an hour, and +while the sun rays splintered on the glistening turrets over which they +were keeping vigil, no other manifestation appeared. + +Through this long exposure to the danger of attracting unwelcome +attention, the boys were momentarily expecting some aëroplane +demonstration from the Russian military camps showing to the east. + +On the highroad, finally, the aviators saw two horsemen galloping their +mounts towards the hill, and then lost to view between the twin bases +of the towers. + +A flag swung out from one of the tiny windows under the gilded domes. + +One flag: + +The signal to hold over the road, which stretched whitely for a mile or +more and merged into the fertile fields without the city. + +The red scarf next. Would it call the suspended biplanes in swift swoop +to the earth? + +Skilled hands gripped the levers in readiness to instantly respond to +the signal. + +A cart with two muffled figures in it rumbled leisurely down the road. +There was no urging of the sorry steed straining at its belled collar. + +The biplanes perceptibly lowered, though it was merely guess work on +the part of the aviators. The movement of the cart might have been just +one of ordinary traffic, the occupants just plain, everyday peasants. + +Suddenly the hovering airmen got a signal, but not the expected flash +of scarlet. One of the carters, a big fellow, rose from his seat and +frantically waved his arms, and the boys were then so near that they +could plainly see that he varied the queer performance by pointing +skyward with the long whip he was holding. + +So intent had been the aviators in trailing the cart that they had +neglected for a time to look elsewhere about them. + +The gestures of apparent warning that they were witnessing returned +their wits to normal, and what they had from the first low flight +feared was about to be realized. Barely a half mile away, and buzzing +toward them, were three aëroplanes, which, unnoticed by the otherwise +engaged lads, had risen from the Russian camp. + +Billy and Henri, now wholly confident that the antics that had awakened +them to the impending peril were those of no other than Schneider, gave +that good friend a parting salute of cap waving and turned about at +full speed to lead a stern chase over and beyond the city--far beyond, +it proved. + +The pursuing biplanes, of the largest type, carried a crew of three men +each, and that they had tremendous motor power was evidenced by their +catapult coming. + +But, light-weighted, the No. 3's were not to be easily overhauled. It +must have been a contrary spirit that induced Billy and Henri to do +other than head across the river to the German camp. + +They were in their element, however, and it was the kind of exploiting +that most appealed to them. Keeping out of range of the guns of their +armed pursuers was the first care, and no other care had the lads how +long the chase continued. + +They would even hold, as a bait to keep the fun going. That grave +consequences might follow capture was not at all an issue. The boys had +no thought of aught else than that they were jockeying in an aëroplane +race. + +How far afield they had driven they did not realize until with waning +day they had outdistanced their pursuers. + +They were compelled to land in strange territory, for they feared +to take the chance of exhausting the supply of petrol carried by +the aëroplanes, and, besides, the continued strain on the aviators +themselves was beginning to tell. + +"Oh, for a 'lodge in some vast wilderness,'" spouted Billy in actor +style. He had a very pleasant memory of that lodgekeeper's kitchen, in +which they, cold and hungry, had been warmed and fed. "I'd like mighty +well," he added, "to hear that canary twitter right now." + +"Barring all that," remarked Henri, "we might be in a worse fix, +considering that we have something to eat with us and a good pair of +blankets for a bed." + +"I am not particularly impressed with these surroundings, though," +argued Billy, "a swamp on one side, a bunch of stunted willows on the +other, and a regular no man's land front and back." + +"Oh, quit your kicking, Buddy, and let's make the best of it." + +Henri started for the willows, in the hope of finding enough dry +material to make a fire. + +He succeeded in coaxing a small blaze out of a little pile of twigs. + +Dead tired, the boys rolled into their blankets and slept like logs. +But they had a rude awakening, particularly in the case of Billy. + +As he lay snoring, a flash more vivid than lightning dragged him out +of dreamland, and his hands flew to his eyes to protect them from +the blinding glare. A searchlight was playing full on his face. He +heard the clatter of horses' hoofs, and before he could see what was +happening, a hand was on his shoulder and a revolver was pressed +against his breast. + +Henri, startled into sitting posture, looked dazedly upon the +proceedings. + +A Russian cavalryman, dismounted, was behind the revolver, and the +searchlight was directed from a wagon. + +A stalwart figure in gold and brown, an officer in the service of the +Czar, moved briskly into the circle of light to inspect the prisoners. + +Stroking his tawny mustache, he concluded brief comment with a short +laugh. Translated, what he said was: + +"You have caught a pair of lambs, Peter." + +The soldier addressed as Peter hastily restored the revolver to his +belt. + +Another soldier just then discovered the biplanes, and the officer +deemed this find of great importance. He tried the French language on +the boys in starting a series of blunt questions. + +"Who and what are you?" he demanded. + +"Aviators by profession, foreigners by birth, and prisoners because we +couldn't help ourselves." + +The officer smiled at Henri's smart answer. + +"I suppose you came to this spot in those machines?" + +"Yes, sir," replied Henri, less snappy in tone. + +"We will hear more from you when we get to Warsaw," advised the Russian. + +"Shades of Tom Walker," thought Henri, "'out of the frying pan into the +fire.'" + +"Peter and I will go along with you by the air route," proposed the +officer; "I like the looks of those machines. We need them. Now, Peter, +you must not let your pilot run away with you." + +Peter grinned and tapped the butt of his revolver. + +Captain Neva, for such was the Russian officer's title and name, was +a rather advanced amateur in knowledge of aircraft, and he shrewdly +estimated the value of the prizes that had come to his hand on this +night's march. The subaltern, Peter, had also some flying experience, +though he preferred a good horse under him rather than a board, and +he, too, noted the fine points of the No. 3's. + +"A pretty present for the general, my captain," he rejoiced, "and all +ready for delivery." + +The boys were given a substantial breakfast, and Henri learned that +they were about 150 miles north of Warsaw. As this was figured on +straight line measurement, the aviators realized that in the excitement +of yesterday's racing they must have left the direct course many times, +for considering the time they were in the air and the speed maintained, +150 miles was not a great distance. + +From one of the many wagons, loaded with ammunition and military +supplies of all sorts, was produced a fresh supply of petrol for the +biplanes. + +"You see, we have quite a number of these flying machines up in +Warsaw," explained Captain Neva to Henri, "and we are carrying plenty +of this stuff to feed them." + +In a few minutes the biplanes were off for Warsaw, Henri and the +captain in one machine, Billy and Peter in the other. + +Three hours later the boys walked behind the captain into army +headquarters, and soon into the presence of a man of most distinguished +bearing, in full field uniform of a Russian general. Though gold lace +sparkled on his shoulders and his cuffs, the striking note of his +attire was the orange and black ribbon of the Cross of St. George that +appeared along the buttoned edge of his field coat. + +Captain Neva presented the compliments of his colonel, told of the +near approach of the supply wagons and convoying troops, and mentioned +the handsome addition to the aërial fleet so luckily and peculiarly +acquired. The captain's brief relation of the latter incident, a little +break in the pall of war, seemed to interest the general, for he +glanced at the lads, standing at respectful attention nearby. + +"What is your name?" he asked, speaking in French, and looking directly +at Henri. + +The boy politely bowed and named himself. + +"I would conclude from the sound that I have spoken in a tongue within +your complete understanding. And the other?" + +Henri registered Billy, name and nation. + +The boy from Bangor flushed with gratification when the general, in +excellent American, called him forward. + +"You're a long way from home, young man." + +Billy admitted the fact, and added, "I have been wishing many times of +late, sir, that the distance could be reduced three-fourths and I had +already traveled the other fourth." + +With the incoming of the staff members, reporting from the front, the +general consigned the boys for the present to the custody of Captain +Neva. + +"They've wasted no time," observed Billy, pointing to the familiar +lines of the No. 3's, glistening with new color. + +That a couple of Polish carters should happen to be gaping at the +aviation show was not an unusual occurrence or usually worthy of notice. + +But there are carters and carters, and some seeming carters are not +carters at all! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +AN HOUR TOO SOON. + + +WITH incoming of the troops convoying the supply train, Captain Neva +rejoined his company, and Billy and Henri were promptly adopted by +the aviation corps, most of whom spoke both French and English, and +all very much inclined to express their admiration of the aëroplane +knowledge displayed by the youngsters. + +The boys were right on the job, so to speak, when it came to +reassembling the parts of new aircraft received by wagon shipment, and +so grew in the confidence of the aviation lieutenants that they were +quite often permitted to make flying tests of the various machines with +only themselves in charge. + +If the young airmen enjoyed this concession without watching on the +part of the lieutenants, there was no such inattention on the part of +a couple of frequenters of a city tavern not far removed from the +aviation camp. + +Work was evidently slack with this pair of citizens, for hardly a day +passed that they did not spend several hours at a tavern table located +near a bow-window, which afforded an excellent view of the parade +ground and aviation quarters. + +One of these constant spectators was remarkable for his size and the +vivid hue of his hair, the other for the reason that he paid absolutely +no heed to the other patrons of the place, though all appeared to be of +his kind, both in manner and attire. + +On a particular afternoon, the strangely silent one was deeply engaged +with a stump of a pencil in the labor, no doubt, of casting up his +accounts on a piece of dirty brown paper, in which had been wrapped his +lunch of black bread and sausage. + +The puckered lines over his nose indicated thought labor, but the +furtively keen glance he occasionally gave to outside movement +contradicted the impression that he was of slow order of mind. + +The chief actors in the mentioned "outside movement" at the time were +two trimly set up lads in new suits of service green, one pulling and +the other pushing an armored biplane into its hangar. + +"This machine," said the puller, "ran like an ice-wagon to-day but +maybe use will smooth her out." + +"It's all in the motors," confidently asserted the pusher, "and I'll +have the kinks out of them in a day or two." + +The man at the table across the way had completed his task, shoved the +paper and pencil into his pocket, and was placidly puffing a huge cigar. + +His red-topped companion stamped into the room, returning from some +excursion in the city, but the smoker did not pass a word of greeting, +though the other idlers filled in with noisy welcome. + +It was not until the room had been vacated by all but themselves that +the curiously assorted pair put their heads together. + +"Ricker showed you where the ammunition was stored?" + +The red-topped nodded. + +"You arranged for the plans with Westrich?" + +Again the nod of assent, but this time with softly spoken supplement: + +"All good, but there is no chance of us getting to the river now. It's +lined with a wall of steel, and even a rat could not pass, day or +night, without a triple stamp of authority on its back. And let me tell +you, if we light the match for that explosion without an outlet, all +the information we will carry will be to the next world." + +"If we cannot get through the wall of steel you mention there might be +a way of going over it." + +The speaker gave a meaning glance out of the window at the aviation +camp. A biplane was just rising for test flight, and it was manned by +two experts easily identified by the conspiring couple in the tavern. + +"Oh, ho, I see," mused the brick-top, "you expect to use those boys in +the matter of pulling us out." + +"Why not? Have they ever failed us in extremity? Is the peril greater +than when they dived into the canyon that our lease on life might be +lengthened; did they fail to respond to my summons to do this very work +of rescue, delayed through no fault on their part?" + +This subject had served to draw the clam out of his shell, and he found +relief in relaxing temporarily his studied pose of stolid indifference. + +"How are we going to get at them?" asked the willing listener to the +rapid-fire praise of the young heroes. + +The crafty secret agent (it was Roque, of course) had not been +wool-gathering during the silent hour of his sitting at the table. + +He had devised several ways of apprising the boys that he needed their +services and acquainting them with a working plan that would enable +them all to sail out of Warsaw in safety. + +Something was going to happen when he willed it that would make the +outward passage a memorable one, and success or complete failure of the +project was in the close balance of a few more hours. + +In real truth, however, Roque did not so greatly weigh his personal +welfare as against the service he could render by doing damage to the +foe from without as well as from within. + +Ready for his call were papers of supreme import, and to lose which at +the hands of a searching party would be a calamity the secret agent +dreaded even to anticipate. + +By the air route he had determined to leave, if by any hook or crook +Schneider and himself could get hold of an aëroplane. + +Billy and Henri had been aloft for several hours, enjoying a bird's-eye +view of the really magnificent city, for the possession of which +carnage held sway for hundreds of miles. + +"Some town this," Billy remarked as he stepped from the machine, +completing the sightseeing tour; "after the war I'd like to start a +branch factory here." + +"Oh, go 'way," laughed Henri, "it would take a derrick to haul you out +of Boston or Bangor, once you set foot again in those burgs." + +"You forget, old top," suggested Billy, "that we have already on tap a +comeback aëroplane trip across the Atlantic. I'm no quitter." + +From a coal-laden wagon the contents was being shot into a chute +running into the cellar of one of the big houses taken over for +officers' occupancy. + +One of the grimy heavers, at sight of the boys, came forward to meet +them, wiping his hands on the leather apron he wore, removed his fur +cap, and took therefrom a scrap of smutty brown paper and tendered it +to Billy. + +"Guess he wants you to sign a receipt," said Henri, looking over his +chum's shoulder. + +Billy's glance at the paper set him staring at the man who presented it. + +The latter never raised his eyes--he was using them sidewise upon a +group of soldiers standing in front of the mess hall. + +The boys saw in the scrawl these words: "Orders for No. 3's, Two +Towers, St. Michael road, eight sharp, Thursday evening." + +Without a word, Billy returned the paper to the heaver. The officer of +the day was approaching. He signed the delivery receipt, but the paper +had queerly changed color in the handling. + +As the lads slowly walked toward aviation headquarters their minds were +all in a whirl. Prisoners they were and prisoners they had been, yet in +both instances it had been but the semblance of captivity. While they +were held, the rein had been a loose one. + +Just back of them the ties of long association, immediately in front +of them a trust imposed, a generous parole, when they had gone to the +limit in giving the best of themselves, in the one capacity they could +serve, to the former rule. + +Thursday evening at eight, and this was Tuesday evening at six. Long +enough, indeed, for the boys to torment themselves with the reflection +that if they did not appear at the appointed hour Roque and Schneider +would curse their perfidy, and if they did betray the confidence of the +aviation chief in this camp he would pay the penalty. + +"It will be no trick at all to take the biplanes for an evening spin; +we have done it before without question." + +"That's the trouble, Henri", lamented Billy, "it's too easy. If we +had to steal the machines, risk our lives before the guns of the +sentries, and all that sort of thing, it wouldn't seem such a trial of +conscience. But they take us on trust, and without question." + +"Yet, here's Roque and Schneider in the lurch, and looking to us for +aid. With them we have met about all that is coming to a fellow in this +war zone, except death, and pretty near that; we have eaten and slept +and starved together." + +"There you are again, Henri, and it's 'twixt the devil and the deep +blue sea!' any way you put it." + +Thursday morning, and as clear as a bell. The Boy Aviators looked +red-eyed on the smile of nature. Their cots had squeaked protest all +through the night against the tossing of the uneasy nappers. + +At noon they had about made up their minds to keep the appointment at +Two Towers, and seeking to strengthen this resolution they avoided in +every way they could meetings with the aviation chief. + +Along about three in the afternoon the wavering youngsters had arranged +a compromise, this to be positive. They would deliver the No. 3's to +their former owner for choice, and so enable their old friends to get +safely away. As for themselves, they proposed to return to camp and +"take their medicine"--their dose and the portion that the aviation +chief would otherwise be likely to get. + +But fate shuffled it another way. + +The workday was in the closing minutes. The remaining city thousands +who were not in military service were swelling the stream of homegoers +in the busy streets. + +The driver of a coal wagon, which had drawn up before an imposing +structure devoted to the storage of army supplies, and supposed to +contain an immense supply of ammunition, suddenly conceived the notion +that he was doing overtime duty. At least such was his manner when one +of the Big Ben clocks overhead ding-donged the hour of six. Perhaps, +too, the movement of gathering up reins and whip had its measure of +prompting in the appearance of the driver's mate from some underground +space in the big building. + +At any rate, the old nags dragging the heavy vehicle were given the +full benefit, and without warning, of a long and knotted whip-lash, +and covered several city blocks at a lively gait before they realized +that they were traveling out of their class. + +The heaver who had emerged from the building in response to the clock +summons showed tremor of the hands when he lifted them to draw the cape +of his greatcoat closer about his throat. + +"It's set for eight," he hoarsely whispered; "I turned the key when I +heard the strokes outside." + +Strangely enough, the wagon kept a course directly to a residence +section at once fashionable and quiet, and hardly the possible location +of a coal yard or the home, either, of a humble employee thereof. + +One of the men in the wagon, the fellow with the hoarse whisper, left +the vehicle in a square marked by a tall column with a statue on +top, while the driver continued the urging of his horses up the ever +ascending street. + +Gaining the level above, the horses were given their own heads, which +meant a snail's pace. Close at hand were two towers of considerable +height. + +While the horses plodded on the highroad stretching to the west, +pressure on their bits was lacking. The wagon was empty. + +Two figures appeared on the terrace back of the twin towers, these +terraces rising in tiers from the bank of the fast-flowing river below. + +"You left Ricker in the square?" This question put by the man who +evidently had just returned from a mission that did not include a ride +in a coal wagon. + +"He left me, rather," replied the late driver, with a touch of grim +humor. + +The first speaker held a watch in his hand, consulting it frequently, +holding it closer and closer to his eyes as the light faded before the +advance of night's shadows. + +"Seven o'clock," he announced. "Another hour." + +This was the last notation of time by the watch holder. + +There was an explosion that, notwithstanding the distance, seemed to +shake the everlasting hills to their very foundations. + +The men on the terrace stared aghast, each at the other. + +"The die is cast," cried the one with the commanding voice, "and an +hour too soon!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +A LEAP FOR LIBERTY. + + +THE Boy Aviators had just left the mess hall, and were proceeding to +the hangars where the No. 3's were housed, fully intending to carry +out their compromise plan of giving Roque and Schneider the means to +escape, and return themselves as hostages for the honor of the aviation +chief. + +Shortly before seven o'clock on this eventful evening, Billy and Henri +had the biplanes in order for the arranged visit to St. Michael road, +and the delivery of one or both of the machines to their former owner, +supposedly in waiting in the shadow of the two towers. + +"It is really a relief that the time is drawing nigh for us to get off +the rack. I believe we are doing the square thing, but sure we have had +few easy moments during these last forty-eight hours." + +Billy heaved a sigh when reviewing this disturbing experience. + +Henri turned just then to salute the aviation chief. The boy's greeting +had none of the cheery note usually there. He did not know how it would +be several hours hence. + +"Looks like a chance for you boys on the next dispatch trip to +Petrograd," advised the chief; "we can illy spare more than two at a +time of our regular air scouts, and here's a deal by which we have two +extra machines and a pair of pilots thrown in." + +With their minds clear and no cloud like the one looming ahead, the +prospect of biplaning to the wonder city of Russia would have set the +boys on the top floor of enthusiasm. + +As it was, they could only say that they would welcome the work if it +should be assigned to them. + +The aviation chief had hardly taken a dozen steps in his continuing +round of inspection when there was a shakeup that might have come by a +combination of volcano and earthquake. + +"Geeminy!" gasped Billy, clapping his hands to his ears, "somebody must +have fired a ton of powder!" + +A roll of drums preceded the hasty assembling of several regiments in +this division, and a squadron of cavalry jingled madly down the street. + +"That was a whopper, all right," exclaimed Henri, righting himself +after his first little stagger from the shock, "but big noises ought +not to queer us, pard. Get in and get away." + +Following his chum's example, Billy was close behind the former in +upward flight. + +They could see that the streets below held literally surging masses of +humanity, all trending in the same direction. + +The aviators speedily gained an idea of what had happened. That which +only the other day they had observed as a solid front of granite and +iron on a building covering practically a whole city square had fallen +in ruins, completely blockading the broad avenue it had faced. + +About the square a cordon had been drawn, and it could be seen, even +through the dusk, that troops were spreading fan-shape from this point +throughout the entire northern section, while the police darted right +and left and everywhere. + +The select neighborhood of St. Michael road had not been omitted from +the general round-up, the boys found, when they approached the site of +the two towers. + +It seemed that the abandoned team and wagon had been found somewhere +along the highroad, and as suspicion was now acute, the discovery set +the fine-comb going along every terrace and police poking in every +likely hiding-place. + +There had been instant acceptance of the theory that the storehouse and +magazine had been deliberately blown up by the cunning contrivance of a +spy or spies within the city. + +Every stranger must give an account of himself, and even some +individuals here and there who were not newcomers. + +Billy and Henri could see no opening where two full length military +biplanes could alight without notice, and not a morsel of encouragement +to try for negotiation on the quiet with the disguised secret agent who +had summoned them. + +But the aviators hung about, not knowing what else to do for the +present, thinking that Roque would make a showing of some sort, as he +usually did in tight places. + +Flying lower and lower, the two biplanes were sweeping within earshot +of the terraced heights along the river front, and though now of dim +vision, searching parties could be seen flashing lights up and down the +ground tiers. + +There was a hullabaloo breaking out on the lowest terrace, immediately +overhanging the river--a shot--another and another--like a bunch of +firecrackers, so fast did they follow! + +A stentorian note of defiance, a rush, two shapes springing out into +space, a great splash in the icy waters below! + +If the morning revealed a single trace of the daring fugitives dead +or alive, no word of it reached the aviation camp, to which the young +airmen had returned, conscious that of this mission they were acquitted. + +"Do you know, I can't help believing that they got across?" + +Henri had a thought, perhaps, of the rabbit's foot that Schneider +carried. + +The boys had many under-the-breath discussions as to the possible +connection of Roque with the explosion that had destroyed the war +depot. They had no reckoning that in the little shop of a silversmith, +not far removed from the very column and statue that had twice served +them as a guide-post, the whole story might have been told by a wily +confederate posing as a peaceful artisan. This same man could also have +confessed to the first error of his expert career in the handling of a +time-clock. + +With plots and counterplots, however, the young aviators had no time or +inclination to meddle. They would rather work in the open. + +"I wonder if that lieutenant meant what he said about giving us a peek +at Petrograd?" + +Billy put the question to his chum as they contemplated with +satisfaction a particularly neat job of aëroplane repair they had just +completed. + +"Don't see why he should say it if he did not mean it," replied Henri. +"Next time he comes this way there would be no harm in reminding him of +what he said." + +It so happened that the aviation chief at the very moment was headed +for the hangars. He was accompanied by two officers of apparent high +rank, who gave the various types of aircraft close and critical +inspection. + +When the No. 3's came to their notice, one of the officers, a grizzled +veteran, with a livid scar showing from temple to chin, halted with a +pointed word of commendation. + +"There's speed, balance and strength for you. Where were they built?" + +The aviation chief explained. + +"Ah, I see," said the officer, "the paint only is ours. Well, I think +we need look no further. Get them ready for immediate use. Where are +the pilots for this assignment?" + +A call was passed for Billy and Henri. + +When they faced the official visitors, both of the latter turned a +stare full of question marks at the aviation chief. + +"Are these the sons of our pilots to be?" + +The senior colonel meant to be a bit sarcastic. + +"No; but if the fathers really were as remarkably skilled in the high +art of aëroplaning as 'the sons' you see here, I would request the +general to let me go after them without delay." + +The airman was very much in earnest in his firm but respectful effort +to correct the impression of his superiors in command that he had been +guilty of some error of judgment. + +Henri unconsciously contributed another entering wedge when he gave +his name to the younger of the colonels, who had taken a hand in +the examination of the youthful candidates proposed by the aviation +lieutenant for special aëroplane service. + +"Trouville!" exclaimed the officer; "are you of the house founded by +the first François and the motto 'Sans Peur'?" (Without Fear.) + +"That's in my family record, sir," admitted Henri, who could not +imagine what on earth his ancestry had to do with his ability to run an +aëroplane. + +"Then you will find an open door in Petrograd," proclaimed the colonel, +"that of my father, who in his day of travel was often a guest at the +Château Trouville, when your grandfather lived and they were kindred +spirits in the world of art." + +"Château Trouville and its art treasures are no more," sadly recalled +Henri. + +"My father will mourn with you there," assured the colonel. + +Another assurance came from the aviation chief when the officers +had returned to army headquarters to assist in the preparation of +dispatches that were to go forward by aëroplane within the hour. Said +the lieutenant: + +"It is settled, my flying friends, that you are to go on this journey, +which is imperative, owing to the investment of railroad connections. +The observers behind you will point out the route, and easy to +follow, as the river is ever in sight. As to the rest, you need no +instructions." + +"We are ready to start at the drop of a hat, sir," declared Billy. The +boys had tuned the No. 3's to the point of perfection. + +The observers and dispatch bearers, Marovitch and Salisky, honor men in +the service, soon appeared, hooded and enveloped in furs. + +The first named handed Henri a card. "From Colonel Malinkoff," he said. +The boy saw that it contained the words "He is a Trouville," signed +"Alexander," and directing to a certain street and number in Petrograd. +Henri carefully pocketed the valuable reference. + +In the early afternoon the young aviators had their first view of the +capital city of the Russians, at the mouth of the Neva, and they made +landing upon a massive granite quay on the south bank of the big river. + +As the boys walked with the special messengers to Admiralty Place, +they marveled at the colossal proportions of the public buildings, and +looking up and down one magnificent avenue, five or six miles in length +and 130 feet wide, Billy squeezed the elbow of his comrade, with the +awed comment: "There's all outdoors in that street." + +"That's the Nevskoi Prospekt," advised Marovitch. + +"The very name on the colonel's card," cried Henri, "Malinkoff palace, +too." + +"Know it very well," put in Salisky, "a twenty-minute ride, and you are +there." + +When the dispatches were delivered the boys were not present, but +there was no lack of interest for them outside. Standing near the +copper-inlaid doors through which the messengers had passed were a +number of Cossacks, dressed in scarlet, gold-braided caftans, white +waistcoats and blue trousers. + +"That's a fancy looking bunch," whispered Billy; "I guess they are +something extra. And--say, Buddy, if my eyes don't deceive me that +fellow in the middle, the one with the bushiest beard, is no other +than the boss of the crowd who shoved us in the cellar over in Galicia!" + +"Cracky, what a pair of eyes you've got, old scout, and sure it's the +very same, though he doesn't look as rusty as he did then." + +Henri seemed to be fascinated by the discovery, and watched like a hawk +every movement of the old enemy in the new garb. + +About that time the Cossack happened to cast a glance in the direction +of the spot where the boys were stationed, and two pairs of eyes met +in a single flash. In the fierce orbs, and under the beetling eyebrows +of the knight of the mountains and deserts, the flash plainly conveyed +a puzzled expression. Henri lowered his look. This risk of recognition +was more than he intended his bid to bring. + +Turning away, the boy sought to show his indifference of the now +strained situation. He managed to get an aside to Billy, in effect: + +"I'm afraid I've put my foot in it now." + +With the reappearance of Marovitch and Salisky, Henri, in subdued tone, +requested information regarding their brilliantly attired neighbors. + +"Why," responded Marovitch, "they are of the personal escort of the +Czar." + +"Good-night," thought Henri, "it's a fix we are into, and less than two +hours in the town." + +"How far did you say it was to the Malinkoff palace?" he suddenly +asked. + +"Oh, about two miles up the Prospekt," said Salisky. + +"Hail one of those carryalls, please," requested the aviator, pointing +to the nearest stand of vehicles for hire. + +The Cossack had followed them, and was slowly descending the marble +steps just quitted by the boys and their companions. He was evidently +still debating with himself. + +The driver of the chartered vehicle cracked his whip and carried his +passengers up the street as fast as his heavy horses could gallop. + +With a speed ordinance he had no acquaintance. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +AGAIN THEY WON OUT. + + +DRAWING up with a flourish in front of a most pretentious example of +old-time architecture, the fur shrouded jehu reached for his fare, +which matter was adjusted by Salisky, who had orders from his colonel +to see the boys through from start to finish. + +At the onyx-studded entrance of the palace the party was halted by +a gorgeous flunky, who immediately unbent at a word from the useful +Salisky. + +"The colonel must belong up in the pictures here," suggested Billy, +duly impressed by the surroundings. + +"He is a great noble as well as a great soldier," reverently remarked +Marovitch. + +"Well," chuckled Billy, "I'm going to keep on my shoes, even though I +walk on velvet." + +Salisky gave the lad a side glance of disapproval of this levity, of +which the young aviator took not the slightest notice. + +But Billy warmed to the gracious presence revealed by cordial greeting +in the spacious drawing-room. + +The card from Colonel Malinkoff had preceded the visitors. + +With Marovitch and Salisky in the background, the boys were ushered +forward to meet a real, live duke, but, withal, a kindly gentleman +without a mark or an affectation of exalted rank. + +"Which, may I ask, is the Trouville, the grandson of my old friend?" + +Henri bowed acceptance of the honor. With fine and delicate courtesy +Billy was made to feel that he was not counted a crowd by being the +third participant in a cozy chat. + +The duke delighted in his memories of the close alliance he had +maintained with the house of Trouville, and received with extreme +regret the information that the old château had been razed by the +engines of war. + +"I well remember the underground passages, the walled ways, the secret +panels, and the like of the ancient place." + +Henri nudged his chum, and then briefly narrated how the fortune of +the Trouvilles had been saved through the use of these same concealed +avenues and by the plan of the same two boys now sitting in this +drawing-room. + +The old noble listened intently to the story, told without +embellishment or boast, and at the point where Henri referred to the +delivery of the treasure to his mother the duke clapped his hands in +applause. + +"Salisky," he called to the special messenger, "I desire to keep +these young gentlemen as long as possible. Is there an emergency that +commands their return?" + +"Your grace," stated Salisky, "it grieves me to say that it is most +important that they serve as pilots in our journey back to the front. +Even now dispatches are being prepared, and we must be on the wing at +sunrise to-morrow." + +"Ah, the same duty that holds my son in its grip, the call of country, +and which by my infirmity of years I may not answer. Not your country, +my boy, but your trust, nevertheless. But this is not your last visit +by many, I sincerely hope. A Trouville, a Trouville," he muttered, +"without fear." + +"Oh, another thought, you have not broken bread with me." The duke +struck a bell on the table at his side. + +The gorgeous flunky led the way to the smaller of the dining-rooms, the +other would have held a regiment, and if the food was plain, on the war +basis of all alike, there was a bountiful service of it. + +From the dining-room windows the Prospekt could be seen, and Henri +saw something besides the Prospekt--several horsemen in parti-colored +uniforms pacing their mounts slowly up and down in front of the palace. + +He telegraphed with a wink to his chum, who was seated with his back +to the windows. Billy took the tip, and managed to get an overshoulder +look on his own account. + +The interest of the boys as to affairs inside instantly began to flag. +True, they were under powerful protection for the time being, but there +was a later time coming. + +The Cossack must have struck the lost chord in his memory. There had +since the encounter in the Galician farmhouse been a life added to the +claim of the red rider--the duelist that Schneider had forced over the +cliff. + +Henri had a game to play--playing for time. Appeal to their host, for +various reasons, did not impress the boy as a desirable proceeding. + +"There is no need of our going back to Admiralty Place right away, is +there, Salisky? We don't sail until morning and we haven't even seen +the paintings here." + +"The paintings"--here was a master stroke. The duke was touched at a +point nearest his heart. + +"You must have at least a passing look," he insisted. + +Salisky uneasily shook his head. "We have orders to be within call from +and after six o'clock, and, sir, it is already very near that hour." + +"Now, I will tell you what to do, Salisky; you and your comrade here +take my car, report yourselves, and if it then be necessary for my +young friends to join you, return here for them. It is only the matter +of a very few minutes, either way." + +Protesting under his breath, Salisky and his companion heard the +summons for the duke's automobile, and were whirled away in that swift +conveyance. + +They could not understand the action of a company of imperial Cossacks +in ranging alongside of the machine, and only withdrawing when the +indignant chauffeur sent the machine forward with a vicious plunge. + +An hour passed, and no word from the departed special messengers. + +The boys walked with the duke through his magnificent gallery, but it +is doubtful if they had any high appreciation of the treat. In every +picture they saw a Cossack wrapped in a rainbow. + +Finally, observing their inattention, and attributing it to anxiety +on their part at the committing of a breach of discipline, the duke +instituted inquiry as to the whereabouts of his chauffeur, intending to +forward the boys at once to Admiralty Place. Neither driver nor machine +could be found on the premises. + +Billy felt that it was his turn to get into the figuring. + +"It is such a fine evening, sir, and a straight way, that, if it is all +the same to you, Henri and I would like the exercise of walking back to +headquarters." + +Henri could not fathom the scheme that his chum was nursing, but he +made no objection to the proposition. + +The duke did not accompany the boys further than the door of the art +gallery, stating, with a grim smile, that he had always with him a +reminder of his fighting days in the shape of a "game leg." He gave +them both a kindly farewell and exacted a mutual promise of a longer +visit next time. + +Behind the broad back of the flunky the lads proceeded as far as the +drawing-room, when Billy "happened to think" that he had left his +gloves in the dining-hall. There he looked for his missing gloves--out +of the window! + +In the glow of the high-lights on the broad avenue were revealed the +gold-braided cavalrymen of the earlier hours, still patiently pacing +their horses up and down in front of the palace. + +"Tell his nobs to see if the automobile has arrived," softly urged +Billy. + +Henri sent the flunky ahead to investigate. He guessed now, and +correctly, that his chum did not intend that they should leave by the +front door. + +Like ghosts they flitted through the dimly lighted corridors of the +palace, into the unknown backstairs regions, hoping to find an easy +outlet at the rear. + +An open window coming handy, the boys essayed a jump therefrom, landing +on all fours in the walk leading to the tradesman's gate. Darting out +into a side street, the fugitives relapsed into a brisk walk, fearing +to here excite suspicion by undue haste. + +Alone in a great and strange city, as ignorant of locality as of the +language spoken by the average inhabitant, Billy and Henri, as the +former would have put it, "were up against it, good and strong." + +Yet they won out, and meeting the wildly searching special messengers +in the gray dawn, without ado climbed into the pilots' places of the +waiting biplanes and sent the powerful machines in whirring flight +toward the distant towers of Warsaw. + +To follow them beyond this fixed destination is to turn the leaves of +the next record, under the title of "Our Young Aëroplane Scouts in +Russia; or, Lost on the Frozen Steppes." + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +The original text did not include a table of contents. One was created +by the transcriber. + +Inconsistent hyphenation was retained. + +Page 179, "though" changed to "thought" (I thought there was) + +Page 239, "supposedlv" changed to "supposedly" (supposedly in waiting +in) + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43683 *** |